Friedrich Gottlob Keller

Friedrich Gottlob Keller ( * June 27, 1816 in Hainichen, † September 8, 1895 in cribs ) was a German inventor. He developed in the 19th century, the still common method of making paper by wood pulp. Thus, he created the basis for large-scale industrial production of cheap paper.

Life and work

Friedrich Gottlob Keller was born the son of a master weaver. Right from childhood he was interested the art and mechanics. However, the resulting career aspirations of a mechanic from his parents could not be financed, so that he graduated from a Weber- and -leaf binders teaching. In 1839 he acquired in Hainichen the rights of a master weaver.

Keller was considered a restless spirit, hobbyists and inventors who found no satisfaction in his original profession. It concerned itself rather with improvement or innovation proposals for technical and mechanical processes. Narrated are projects in which he dealt among other things with the telegraph, improvements in agricultural implements and a water raising apparatus.

With its main invention, the wood pulp paper, he took up one of the most pressing industrial problems of his time. The hitherto conventional method for making paper from textile rags ( rags ) met due to lack of rags around 1700 to its limits. Especially in the first half of the 19th century but rose paper demand. Paper was needed for the aspiring newspaper industry, for packaging, cardboard, paperboard and many more purposes in large quantities.

In Keller's handwritten notes, which he led in the form of a booklet idea, found 1841/42 " to manufacture paper from wood fibers, which are produced by Friction" the idea (municipality mangers, p 34). In the implementation of this idea he remembered wasp nests which consist of eingespeichelten wood fiber materials. The end of 1843 succeeded the basement of a mixture of finely milled wood and rags papermaking.

For industrial evaluation of his invention Keller acquired two years later a paper mill in Kühnhaide at Marienberg in the Erzgebirge. His attempts to beat out his invention capital, but failed due to the lack of commercial skills and insufficient equity. In addition, part of the mill was during a flood destroyed so that the indebted Keller was forced in 1846 his patent for making paper the manufacturer Heinrich Voelters ( 1817-1887 ) from Heidenheim leave to which then together with Johann Matthäus Voith (1803 - 1874), the Keller groundwood process evolved.

1853 moved to the basement by cribs and operated a machine shop. In the following period, the inventor was concerned with the development of forestry measuring tools and the manufacture of Moulding and planing machines. His debts he could not degrade it. It was not until a 1892 successful call to the public allowed from collections paying a monthly pension. The call resulted also that the merits Kellers moved more into the public eye, so that he was still honored and awarded in old age. The exhibition layout ' technical monument Neumannmühle ' in Kirnitzschtal at Bad Schandau remember him as the inventor of wood pulp.

Friedrich Gottlob Keller died in cribs. This is also his last resting place.

Merit

Keller's merit lay in the introduction of the wood fiber in paper production. This expansion of the resource base enabled the large-scale industrial and cheap paper. Thus, the foundation was laid for the development of the printing industry and the modern newspaper business. The first newspaper, which was printed on Keller's new paper, now called the Frankenberger Circular from 1845. It is erroneously called the first newspaper in the world. Basement can thus be attributed to a substantial proportion of the general knowledge and information dissemination. He has in ensuring that paper has taken its way into the broad people's everyday lives in its many forms of use.

He is a museum in honor of his former home in cribs, Friedrich Gottlob Keller-Straße 76, furnished. His birthplace Hainichen (Saxony ) nor named him an honorary citizen in his lifetime and later erected a monument. The Academic Paper Engineers Association at TU Dresden eV gives the Friedrich Gottlob Keller Medal for outstanding scientific, technological and industrial achievements in the field of paper engineering.

Archive

• The Keller Collection Hainichen (see Collections, Special Collections, FG Keller) in the Gellért Museum Hainichen.
• Book and Writing Museum of the German National Library in Leipzig.