the original “breaking.” Around the turn-of-the-century these “breaking” (in the sense of
“chopping”) machines were put to use in a number of Companies, as we know from Winter:
"... the Hübner factory ...in the last room the size ofa small chamber, there were three breaking
machines, each operated by a woman. Whereas the old machines broke one bead ata time off a
rod, here 40 to 50 rods alt at once go through a comb, behind which the guillotine awaits them; it
rattles up and down in a hurry, 70 to 75 times a minute! And exactly as offen, a knife beheads the
40 to 50 rods. The usual hourly capacity of the machine amounts to 225,000 pieces, the highest
hourly rate of a hand-breaker oniy 3,428 pieces. The machine accompiishes 50 to 60 kilograms
in ten hours, the hand-breaker makes 1 kilogram in 14 hours ... today there are five breaking ma
chines at Hübner in Gistei, three at Juppe in Labau, 25 at Breit in Wiesenthal which was con-
sidered the main offensive at the time and 38 to 40 at Riedl in Polaun. All of 42 of these 73 ma
chines are currently in Operation ...” (Winter 1900, pp. 91,92).
Surprisingly, the breaking and pinching machines registered for Privileges in Austria have
practically not been mentioned at all in the specialized literature. In the year 1877, Adolf
Schindler, “graduate engineer” from Vienna, registered a “glass bead breaking machine”
with a fly-wheel kept in motion by foot (ill. 82, p. 138). Using an adjustable device and a cog
wheel, the length could be set as desired. Schindler calls the following an innovation:
1. ) the fact that a worker does not cut only one rod as betöre, but 30-40 at a time, that is, that
much larger quantities can be processed in the same time and with the same labor.
2. ) the fact that the glass beads all necessarily turn out the same size, white this was not, even
could not be, the case using previous manual methods. ”
Bead breaking machines using the Venetian System were introduced into Bohemia towards
the end of the 1880s. According to Dressier, Josef Riedel junior, brought a glass chopping
machine back to Polaun with him from a trip to Venice. Italian families were engaged to set
up glass production. In 1888, Riedel built a glass bead factory in Przichowitz, which had a
daily capacity of 10,000 kilograms (Dressier n.d., pp. 1,2). In 1888 Ludwig Breit also set up
a breaking machine, with the help of his foreman, Wilhelm Kaulfuss, who had gathered
experience in Venetian glass factories. With time, Riedel managed to operate no fewer than
16 machines of this kind (Dressier n.d., p. 2; Parkert 1925, p. 146).
In his memoires, Ludwig Breit talks about the breaking works:
“As far as I can remember, there were 11-12 breaking machines Standing there, which were sup-
plied by the Rudolf Feix Company in Bad Schlag. The rods were led through rubber cylinders
across a toothed bottom knife and with a quick downward motion from an upper knife were
broken (chopped) off. The bottom knives were made of Steel and to suit the particular width of the
glass; they were grooved so that every stroke of the upper knife hit the rod at 3 different places.
We got the upper knives betöre the two wars from a Company in Sheffield in England; they were
made entirely of Steel and had to be sharpened frequently...” (Breit 1987-90, p. 68).
It seems worth mentioning that Kaulfuss received a privilege in 1892 for a “machine for
making glass beads” (ills. 85, 86, pp. 140, 141), which cut the glass rods by means of a
knife that moved up and down. Whereas Schindler’s machine was really still one that broke
beads in the strict sense, the privilege registered on May 8,1888, by Jeitele’s Son, Gablonz,
was more of a cutting machine. It consisted of two main parts, a pinching and a feeding
device (ill. 84, p. 139). Three circular, concentrically placed cutting wheels are pressed
against the glass rods and “pinch” the glass rods lying in the center of the device into the
desired length. In 1890 Riedel erected a new rounding works in Przichowitz with 8 rounding
furnaces. By 1901, 15furnaces were already in Operation. With the help of the master
“Gürtler” Kittel, Riedel constructed a threading machine. By 1902, 128 women were
working in three shifts at 16 machines (Dressier n.d., p. 3).
In an 8-hour working day, one worker finished 40-60 kilograms of glass at one machine, but
was able to operate two machines simultaneously (= a total of 120 kilograms per work-day).
A worker breaking the beads by hand was only able to produce 1 1 A kilograms of beads a
day. On January 29,1890, there was a glass bead workers uprising in which machines and
bead Stocks worth more than 40,000 K were destroyed (Parkert 1925, p. 146). Dressier,
Hrdy, Winter and Tayenthal are chroniclers of this uprising (see p. 476).
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