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r
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58 Vorrichtung zum Ausziehen geschmolzenen Glases zu Röhrchen und Stäben, 1896; Josef
Riedel/Polaun, Privilegium Nr. 46/2423. - Österreichisches Patentamt, Wien
58 Device for drawing molten glass into tubes and rods, 1896; Josef Riedel/Polaun, privilege no.
46/2423. - Austrian Patent Office, Vienna
A “string of gold-topaz composition beads” was listed at the astonishingly high price of 7 fl.
Particularly in the last third of the 19th Century, a drop in prices came about, due to the
introduction of certain tools, multiple molds, machines and finishing processes in the
Gablonz area. For blown beads these were the metal molds, for the drawn beads they were
the machines that broke off the beads (“Sprengmaschinen ’):
“The introduction of the machines for breaking off the beads, a single one of which is capable of
replacing several hundred people, has increased bead production enormously and this in turn has
exerted an enormous effect on the entire Situation. Articles which were hard to buyat a price of5 fl.
in 1886, are easily had today for 80 kr. Cut glass beads made today are more beautiful and more
uniform than 10 years ago; back then 10 bundles (1 bündle = 1000 beads, sic! recte: 1200 beads!)
cost 80 kr. to 1 fl., today the same amount costs 8-9 kr. ... Towards the end of the 70s molds were
inventedby one producer which could make 10-12 beads ata time instead ofjust the one bead.
This was kept secret for a white, butsoon became noticeable in a 10-15 % downwardpressure on
prices... Before the invention of these molds, one bead no.O, silvered, cost 60-80 kr. per
100 dozen, today the same costs 20-22 kr. Repeated attempts to fix minimal prices or wages had
no success whate ver, since as soon as one single bead blowerbroke such an agreement, it led to a
downward push in prices and wages along the entire line” (Gablonz 1896, pp. 79-81).
The prices for Bohemian imitation (simili) stones were also subjected to fluctuations: “The
prices for finertypes, which hadclimbed from 5 fl. 50 kr. toßfl. 50 kr., gradually began to drop
and towards the end of the year 1896 stoodat6fl. to6. fl25 kr. again”(Gablonz 1896, p. 83).
According to Winter, at the end of the 50s and beginning of the 60s a bündle of blown beads
(blown freehand or in molds) brought a price of one gülden per bündle (1200 pieces). After
the invention of a mold that made it possible to blow a whole row of beads at once, prices
sank. By the end of the 80s, 40 to 45 kreuzer per bündle was reached. Since prices sank
further, however, and caused strikes as a result, the price for the 0-bead was set at 28 kr.
per 100 dozen. Since this agreement was soon violated, a new strike was called in 1894/95
107