Brothers Settmacher – Viennese Gentlemen

In my last Viennese portrait I talked at the end a bit about charming Viennese gentlemen. Today I want to look more deeply into this topic with a portrait of the protectors of women all over the world – the brothers Settmacher. They produced thimbles in the 14th district (Penzing) to protect women in all continents and some men too.

Franz Josefs Land – Vienna’s Coldest District

Once you have seen currents of people floating into the Städtische Bad Gänsehäufel* (Municipal Lido Gänsehäufel) at the Alte Donau (Old Danube) in summer you may not believe that this used to be the “coldest” part of Vienna in former times. The reason? Nature and patriotic innkeepers.

From 1882 to 1917 natural ice was extracted from the Old Danube. The ice was the only cooling substance for restaurants and butchers. So called ice choppers extracted the ice out of the frozen Danube and rafted it to ice cellars and ice caverns. What a job!

Wilhelm Beetz – To satisfy Viennese needs

That nightmare: You need to go to the toilet urgently. Searching, running, asking – nothing helps. Nowhere a toilette. Depending on your personality the dream may continue in different fatal ways. What if a man or a women would appear, covered in a wide coat that covers a wooden bucket too. The bucket to sit on – the coat to cover you. Would you dare to end your problem for just two kreutzers?

These Buttenmänner and Buttenweiber (wooden bucket men, wooden bucket women) did exist really in Vienna at the beginning 19th century and this already meant some hygienic improvement. Because the situation in Vienna was upsetting: “heavy-weight air”, “harmful evaporations”, “like in fog”, a higher mortality rate than in Paris and London.

Viennese Prams – Time Travel of Men from 1860 to 2007

“When is a man a man? ” The Wien Museum (Museum of Vienna) adds another answer to the already existing many answers on this question.

The new exhibition „Baby an Bord – Mit dem Kinderwagen durch das 20. Jahrhundert“ (Baby on Board – With the Pram through the 20th Century) shows prams and tells pram history with Viennese history. Fascinating pieces are to be seen. Among others the two wheeled Bugholz-Kinderfahrstuhl (bowed wooden children driving chair) (1905). A mixture of Thonet and a wheelchair. But perhaps handy as due to two additional small wheels one can easily climb side walks.

In the 1860 years the serial production of prams starts in Austria. A pram man is a pram inventor, pram producer at that times:
Protected with privileges by the emperor English prototypes are being improved in their stability and their spring system (1862). Cradle prams developed (1877). A „pram with an automated swaying movement“ invented (1900). A folding pram (1927) and a „stairs climbing transportation cart and especially pram“ (1956) patented.

Josef Madersperger – Sewing Machine

Do inventions make their creators happy?

Josef Madersperger a tailor from Kufstein arrives in Vienna in 1780. Here he invents the sewing machine in 1814. In 1815 he obtains an „Austrian Privilege“ for that machine. Franz II. introduced the Privilege Acts in Austria. They should protect inventions of „useful machines“. Privileges were the predecessors of patents. But protection was only the first step to commercial success as Madersperger had to see. He lacked the money to produce his machine and could not maintain the Privilege. He died impoverished in Vienna in 1850 buried at the cemetry St. Marx not far from Mozart. The Viennese tailor guild raised the cross on his grave.

Many inventors later the sewing machine made one of them happy. And besides the improved technology marketing skills were crucial for the success.