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The 
History OF 
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BOUT one hundred years ago, Michael Thonet conceived the idea that by 
bending a piece of tenacious wood, using as a medium for so doing, a steaming 
process, he could produce a far more durable piece of furniture than any that 
had theretofore existed. 
The wood that Michael Thonet chose for his first experiments was the long grained 
Czecho-Slovakian Beech—the wood which, after one hundred years of forestry and 
laboratory experiment, has proven superior to all others—superior to every other type 
of Beech and every known hard wood that the world offers! No other wood known to 
forestry possesses the peculiar long grain, bending quality and tremendous strength of 
the Czecho-Slovakian Beech. 
Michael Thonet's first experiments were conducted in the city of Vienna, the Capital of 
the former Empire of Austria-Hungary. This city later became the merchandising 
center of the great bentwood industry which had been created by Michael Thonet. It 
is on this account, bentwood chairs were and are commonly called “Vienna chairs'’ in 
this country. 
Out of this idea of Michael Thonet has grown an industry that today Controls its own 
timber tracts, covering an area of 350,000 acres of beech forest. The manufacturing is 
done in twenty different factories and the distribution is made through thirty-seven 
branch houses, located in the principal cities throughout the world, giving employment 
to over twenty thousand people. 
Entire villages in Czecho-Slovakia, where our principal factories are located, are in- 
habited exclusively by employees of this concern or those who are dependent upon 
these employees. 
It is not an uncommon sight to see a grandfather and his grandson working side by side 
at some process of manufacture. Many benevolent fnstitutions are maintained wholly 
or in part by the concern to insure the happiness of the employees and their families. 
NEARLY 
A 
CENTURY 
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