chemist (Baron) Carl Auer von Welsbach he created the Deutsche
Gaslühlichtgesellschaft-Aktiengesellschaft, ‘DGA’ or the ‘German Gaslight
Company’, forerunner of the Auergesellschaft, (the ‘Auer’). Koppel was not a
scientist, but he recognised a good business opportunity when he saw it. In
1885 von Welsbach had received a patent for the ‘gas mantle’, a significant
technological development at the time. Using a mixture of the oxides of
magnesium, lanthanum and yttrium which he called ‘Actinophor’, he
impregnated a network of guncotton which was then heated. As the cotton
burnt away it left a fragile residue which glowed brightly with a green tinted
light. These mantles were not commercially successful and the company he
formed to sell them failed in 1889, but in 1890 a new improved mantle using
thorium and cerium oxides proved far more robust and its use spread rapidly
throughout Europe. von Welsbach’s success attracted Koppel and he took a
controlling interest in the business they subsequently founded together
(Plate 9.1).
With Koppel’s financial support, von Welsbach became more adventurous.
He began work on more robust metal filament mantles, first with platinum
and then with osmium. Both these metals were scarce and expensive but such
was the importance of the technology of gas lighting at the time that he
developed a method that created a paste of osmium oxide powder, rubber and
sugar which when squeezed through a nozzle and ‘fired’, left a fine wire of
osmium. This wire was originally meant to form the basis of a new gas
mantle, but across Europe and the western world electrical power was being
introduced and this technology competed with gas to provide lighting for
domestic, commercial and public use. The history of the development of
electrical power is fascinating. It parallels that of many other areas of technological discovery in the 19th century. Eccentric and rich inventors, spectacular accidents, battles over patents, the rapid decline and growth of
companies, many now household names. By 1900 over 25 million electric
‘light bulbs’ had been sold by the Edison Electric Light Co. in the USA, and
by 1907 the Brooklyn Edison Company showed off the all-electric-house of
the future, with clocks, sewing machines, phonographs, fans, electric heating
rings, domestic heating, burglar alarms, and doorbells. Penetrating many
aspects of life as it did, von Welsbach therefore turned his attention to ways of
using the osmium wire in electric lighting.
9 The Auergesellschaft, Berlin
189
Gaslühlichtgesellschaft-Aktiengesellschaft, ‘DGA’ or the ‘German Gaslight
Company’, forerunner of the Auergesellschaft, (the ‘Auer’). Koppel was not a
scientist, but he recognised a good business opportunity when he saw it. In
1885 von Welsbach had received a patent for the ‘gas mantle’, a significant
technological development at the time. Using a mixture of the oxides of
magnesium, lanthanum and yttrium which he called ‘Actinophor’, he
impregnated a network of guncotton which was then heated. As the cotton
burnt away it left a fragile residue which glowed brightly with a green tinted
light. These mantles were not commercially successful and the company he
formed to sell them failed in 1889, but in 1890 a new improved mantle using
thorium and cerium oxides proved far more robust and its use spread rapidly
throughout Europe. von Welsbach’s success attracted Koppel and he took a
controlling interest in the business they subsequently founded together
(Plate 9.1).
With Koppel’s financial support, von Welsbach became more adventurous.
He began work on more robust metal filament mantles, first with platinum
and then with osmium. Both these metals were scarce and expensive but such
was the importance of the technology of gas lighting at the time that he
developed a method that created a paste of osmium oxide powder, rubber and
sugar which when squeezed through a nozzle and ‘fired’, left a fine wire of
osmium. This wire was originally meant to form the basis of a new gas
mantle, but across Europe and the western world electrical power was being
introduced and this technology competed with gas to provide lighting for
domestic, commercial and public use. The history of the development of
electrical power is fascinating. It parallels that of many other areas of technological discovery in the 19th century. Eccentric and rich inventors, spectacular accidents, battles over patents, the rapid decline and growth of
companies, many now household names. By 1900 over 25 million electric
‘light bulbs’ had been sold by the Edison Electric Light Co. in the USA, and
by 1907 the Brooklyn Edison Company showed off the all-electric-house of
the future, with clocks, sewing machines, phonographs, fans, electric heating
rings, domestic heating, burglar alarms, and doorbells. Penetrating many
aspects of life as it did, von Welsbach therefore turned his attention to ways of
using the osmium wire in electric lighting.
9 The Auergesellschaft, Berlin
189