Read Ebook: The Lead Pencil Manufactory of A. W. Faber at Stein near Nürnberg Bavaria An Historical Sketch by Faber Castell Firm

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 115 lines and 15955 words, and 3 pages

Nor was the consumer any more favorably situated.

The article became the object of extensive commercial speculation and had often to travel a very long way before it reached the hands of the consuming public, nor was the repute of a good name any guarantee to the consumer of the excellence of the article, for in order to keep the manufacturers in complete dependance, the merchants would not allow them to mark their better products with their names, but prescribed them foreign names and unmeaning signs, such as: Harps, Stars etc.

The progress of the French however soon forced the merchants to press the N?rnberg manufacturers to advance, so as not to be left behind by competition. After the introduction of the new composition the N?rnberg manufactories soon found themselves favorably circumstanced and yielded satisfactory profits both to the merchants and the manufacturers.

But this was not to last. In the first ten years of this century competition increased steadily and enormously so that demand by no means kept pace with supply, and the vital question forced itself upon the manufacturers, whether they were in a position to produce the article either better or cheaper?

This difficult problem was however solved in a manner unfavorable to the manufacture, and with that revolution commences the decay of the same which now began to make itself felt.

The manufacture had, as before observed, become dependant upon the trade of N?rnberg, which however no longer occupied its former high position, for, although a considerable trade with foreign lands still existed, it was to a great extent nominal. The enlargement and correction of ideas by foreign travel and personal acquaintance with the grand advancement in foreign industry, were wanting and thus no beneficial adjustment of the N?rnberg manufacture could be brought about. Manufacture became the shuttlecock of commercial speculation, which could not even so much as claim the credit of having successfully met the increased requirements of the age or put a stop to powerful competition or an overworked system of trade more calculated for the future.

The trade of N?rnberg at that time lay in the fetters of the guild system, the relic of an earlier golden time, which, aiming at the isolation of industry, which was thereby given into its hands, was the ban that opposed its progress for a length of time, alluring it to act contrary to the interests of native industry and therefore contrary to its own interests.

How much did this system leave of the ancient splendor and well earnt renown of the City of N?rnberg?--A minimum kept and retained solely and alone by the self denial, frugality and industry of the inhabitants. The ingenious, serviceable articles had disappeared, giving place to goods, whose only recommendation consisted in their being unprecedentedly cheap. The endeavour to manufacture without the least regard to quality or serviceability as long as cheapness was attained had become a rooted evil increasing as it descended in all its fulness from father to son. The honorable distinction of the title "Nuernberg, good" soon became changed into the lasting and contemptuous one of "N?rnberg goods" and in the business world people even went so far as to say that nothing good could possibly be produced at N?rnberg.

These circumstances, which are to be laid to the account not only of individuals but likewise of a domineering system and the spirit of a time not so very far distant even now, attest that real industrial activity must go hand in hand with mercantile spirit in order to maintain itself in the world free from the influences above pointed out and enter the lists with competition. It is only emancipated industry that can congratulate itself on real progress and improve the article only by having an eye to the requirements of the consumer.

Many improvements had been attempted and several adopted; much valuable experience had been gained, many processes in the manufacture had been perfected and a number of intelligent workmen drawn together; spite of all this however the mercantile relations above described operated most perniciously upon the manufactory.

The mode of manufacture induced by the enslavement of industry on the part of trade more especially destroyed that conscientious strictness, which must form the foundation of a solid industry. Things went so far that articles were sent forth into the world, possessing the outward appearance of pencils, the wood being just tipped with lead at each end as though it was properly filled, whereas in fact you only had a useless stick of wood before you.

Such swindling impositions, sent forth by the N?rnberg manufactories into foreign countries, were well calculated to bring about a complete collapse and it is difficult to regain confidence once deceived or esteem once forfeited. But it must not be supposed that the interests of the N?rnberg pencil manufacture were not solid. The unscrupulous transactions on part of some establishments as a matter of course damaged the reputation of those which carried on their business in an industrious and conscientious manner and the renown of the whole trade was thus placed in jeopardy.

This gentleman had, down to his nineteenth year, endeavoured as far as possible to perfect his commercial education in Nuernberg in the most fundamental and general manner and, from his earliest youth, especially devoted himself to the study of everything at all bearing upon his father's manufactory. Even at that time he directed his attention not merely to his father's affairs, but also to the developement of a business so sadly crippled and underwent many privations in order as much is possible to satisfy the manifold claims laid upon him by the aim which was always present to his imagination.

When nineteen years of age he went to Paris in order to increase his stock of knowledge. There, in that capital of the World a greater range of vision was opened to him and he beheld the operation of that restless spirit of enterprise, which so mightily stirs the heart of the country. For the first time the youth was brought face to face with the enormous business carried on both with France and foreign lands and of which Paris is the centre. He surveyed the fruits of a free, active industry, the great highroads, upon which commerce flows from the mother country to distant lands, the realisation of a colossal traffic, which allows no article to escape its observation and flows in an ever moving wave between purchasers and consumers. Then his thoughts were carried back to his distant native land with its industry so cramped and fettered as to be altogether estranged from the great markets of the world and the possibility flashed across his mind, that matters might be rendered very different at home and native industry not only reconquer its honour and the renown of its pristine good name, but that it might also be led forth from its narrow prison and enabled to compete with the vigour and intelligence of the markets of the world and that it would thus ensure obtaining an honourable position.

At that time industrial life was in full activity at Paris, scarcely six years having elapsed since the revolution of July and Louis Philippe being firmly established on the constitutional citizen-throne.

Thus great hopes filled the breast of the young man and impelled him to follow up the ideas and plans of life he had adopted with all his energy.

After a sojourn of three years in Paris there fell upon him suddenly and unexpectedly, on the midst of his labours, the news of the death of his father and after first performing a previously contemplated journey to London, in order to enrich his store of knowledge and experience, he returned to his native land in August 1839.

Now was the time to carry out and realise all the ideas he had imbibed. The condition of his father's manufactory was, as before stated, extremely unsatisfactory. Scarcely twenty workmen were employed and the annual business done amounted only to about 12000 florins. If that glorious future, which the young man had assigned to the manufactory in his imagination at Paris was to become a fact, it would involve carrying on a conflict with all the old perverted notions, to break with the cumbersome progress of former times and upon the ruins of the N?rnberg trade, which beheld itself excluded from the world's market, to lay the foundations of a new commerce, which alone would be able to reconquer for the venerable commercial city of N?rnberg her ancient renown.

He was the man, who brought, in the first place certainly only the pencil manufacture, but therewith also native industry in general, into direct contact with the ideas of foreign countries.

Sure and gradual progress was however indispensable. The new proprietor adopted the device of:

"Truth, Respectability, Industry"

as the fundamental principle of his dealings, being firmly convinced, that no human undertaking, which aspires to a future and lasting success, can possibly exist, if it in any respect be based upon untruth, or at variance with that, which passes for right and respectable among men in general or, which ignores the duty of unwearying activity and energetic industry. These principles seemed to him all the more indispensable for his manufactory as he, by his position, rendered himself to a certain extent responsible for the weal and woe of so many souls.

The two brothers of the new proprietor had been destined by their father for other modes of occupation, there being at that time no prospect of the pencil manufacture maintaining them.

The pencils were then only manufactured in proportionally few and cheap sorts, but the new proprietor of the manufactory was soon induced to introduce finer sorts at proportionate prices.

While still at Paris he had endeavoured in every way by letters to his father to conduce towards the elevation of the manufactory and the improvement of the quality of the articles manufactured, but it was when he began to put his hands to the work himself that he first aimed at any material success.

These improved manufactures and especially his new so called Polygrade Pencils, which have met with the greatest renown especially among artists, were all marked with the name of the firm and, as they by reason of their increased price, the unavoidable consequence of improved quality, met with but little countenance among the N?rnberg merchants, the manufacturer travelled with them himself through Germany, Russia, Austria, Belgium, Holland, France, England, Italy and Switzerland and opened up business connexions with all the chief cities of Europe, which, with the continued improvements in his manufactures, soon found him a satisfactory custom and an ever increasing demand, important enough to raise itself above the narrow sphere of local interests.

In the interior of the manufactory two great improvements were undertaken, as nearly every year called for some new addition. In these new erections care was taken to construct them as roomy and light as possible, thus taking into consideration the health of the workmen and the fact that work is much better performed in sunny spacious rooms, than in gloomy dark vaults in which the air cannot be renewed, and that the pleasure and zest with which it is performed redounds to the benefit of the manufactory itself.

The countless departments of business, in which pencils are used, by degrees rendered an extensive and systematic classification necessary from the long easel-pencil to the smallest pocketbook-pencil.

The manufacture had, in consequence of its extensive foreign connexions, already become considerably improved and extended and the varying tastes, even the varying customs of the nations which used them, had to be taken into consideration. The manufacturer never ceased to study all wants, to subject his manufactures constantly to new trials, to avail himself of fresh experiences in order to surpass with his products all similar articles if possible.

With the year 1849 a new era in the activity of the manufactory commenced. Ever since that year the products of the manufactory had met with recognition and custom in America and with the continued increase of the population it was to be assumed that the sale of the same would also constantly increase in importance, especially as the manufacture of leadpencils had not as yet taken firm root there and it therefore became a question of obtaining a generally acknowledged product of European manufacture, the excellence of which had been proved by the experience of years and its honest manufacture.

As in the American commercial metropolis, so also in Paris a house was founded, not merely to manage the important trade with France and the neighbouring countries, but also to minister to the fine tastes and elegant requirements of the French, which are of so much advantage to any product intrinsically excellent.

While thus the external relations of the manufactory continued steadily to extend themselves, its internal developement likewise advanced step by step.

On the very spot, where once the little house stood, the extensive factory premises are now erected on either side of the Rednitz, the water power of which river proving too insufficient and fluctuating, steam had to be called into requisition and a large engine erected.

As already stated, almost each year demanded an addition to the premises and considerable enlargements and alterations rendered necessary partly by the constantly increasing business and partly by sanatory or ornamental considerations, so that the very character of the locality underwent considerable change.

The proprietor, while endeavouring in every way to advance all the ends of the manufactory in the most perfect manner, has not omitted to bear in mind at the same time the moral and material welfare of his workmen, whom he has accustomed himself to recognise as men and his fellow creatures.

In their interest there were in the first place factory rules drawn up, which regulated the duties and rights of the individual in the most precise manner and especially took cognisance of the moral conduct of the workman. They also gave the most diligent workmen and such as were more advanced in years, opportunities of increasing their income by ensuring them an increase of pay under certain conditions.

There is likewise a special fund for sickness.

A library has also been founded by the master of the manufactory, accessible both to the workman and his family and well used by them, at the same time too an infant school was started for the children of the work people. He likewise originated and supported with his own means the erection of a new schoolhouse, and embraced every opportunity of advancing the education therein.

The social life of the workmen was also taken into consideration and the taste for more elevating amusements, invigorating alike to soul and body, encouraged. Of an evening they would meet in two singing societies to indulge in the good German song, or on Sundays they would amuse themselves with the crossbow in the free, fresh air of God's Nature in the neighbouring forest, or again on festive occasions they would all meet together like one large united family for a sociable convivial repast.

Finally, care was also taken that the workman should mix with the world outside the factory, for which purpose a number of them were sent by the master of the factory to the Industrial Exhibition at Munich in order that they might themselves see the fruit of their labour publicly exposed to view and honorably mentioned, and at the same time obtain a glimpse of other branches of industry.

Further, in order to provide new dwellings for the workmen a large building was erected, of pleasing external proportions, and other buildings were converted into workmen's dwellings. The houses themselves contain separate apartments, which afford the families at a low rent a much pleasanter abode than could be obtained in most of the houses in the towns. Nor is there any constraint; the houses are open to any body and the domestic regulations introduced in the interests of the community are of that nature, that they are cheerfully complied with by everyone. Thus there reigns in these premises a spirit of order and contentment, which alone can make life agreeable.

The formerly neglected little village has assumed quite a different appearance since then. From afar the slender gothic steeple of the church may be seen rearing its pinnacle proudly aloft, while the smoke of the surrounding shafts tell of busy industry and labour. The former picture of want has given place to a certain degree of wealth and the little garden of the humble house been converted into two large parks.

Proceedings were likewise taken against a Pencilmanufacturer at Fulda, who had manufactured and circulated upwards of seven thousand dozen leadpencils with the false stamp "A. W. Faber". The Criminal Court of the Electorate of Hesse in a decision dated 2^ September 1856, condemned the defendant, on account of fraud, to a pecuniary fine of 50 Thalers and further to four weeks imprisonment, a decision, which the supreme Court of Appeal at Cassel absolutely confirmed. Similar events took place in other countries with like results.

As the proprietor of the factory has hitherto proceeded against many persons at home and abroad who had attempted to manufacture and sell pencils in imitation of those of his firm he will further use all his efforts to suppress every deception foisted upon the public.

In the meanwhile the manufactory assiduously endeavoured to attain to perfection in its products. As the stock of blacklead began to disappear in the mines of Cumberland, it succeeded, by its perfected manipulation of the material, in producing so many grades of hardness and supplying such an extensive variety of pencil, that no demand could present itself without meeting with satisfaction among the great choice of manufactures.

The miners brought the blacklead to the surface in large blocks and the material thus obtained proclaimed at once, by its external purity and a beautiful silvery lustre, its excellent value and composition. The transport was attended with immense difficulties. The blocks of blacklead, carefully packed in wooden cases, had to traverse enormous tracts of country, across which not the least vestige of a road is to be found, upon the backs of reindeer to reach the nearest seaport, whence they were shipped to Europe, while other consignments of the blacklead were forwarded to the manufactory exclusively by land.

The manufactory, thus in possession of so extensive a store of blacklead, the excellence of which both theory and practice place on a level with the Borrowdale lead, has produced pencils made with the Siberian lead ever since the year 1856. It was now no longer a question of attaining to the standard of the Cumberland pencils but rather of surpassing it.

The new material was worked partly in a natural state so as to enable connoisseurs to convince themselves of its excellent quality and partly artificially manufactured, which yielded as a result such a degree of evenness, purity and unchanging hardness as had never before been obtained, not even in the best Cumberland pencils. After the exertions of six years the manufactory is just now intending to enter the World's market with its new productions.

Before we conclude our sketch we must stop to contemplate a bright spot in the internal history of the factory and remember the day on which it celebrated the completion of the hundredth year of its existence with a festival, to which the joyful feelings of a happy and contented population and the not less hearty than general participation therein from far and near, lent a peculiar solemnity.

The 16^ September 1861 was the day fixed for the occasion, chiefly with the view of rendering the festival all the more impressive by a special celebration of divine service in the new church of the village, which had only been consecrated a fortnight before. Preparations of the most varied character occupied both the masters of the factory and their families for some time previously, in order to render this auspicious and happy event a thoroughly joyous festival for their workpeople and all that participated therein, and the remembrance of it no less pleasing than indelible.

Similar feelings however also actuated the workpeople, who exerted themselves with all their power to add to the splendor of the festival, and manifest their good feelings and gratitude in a touching and unexpected manner.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet