Abstract
In 1856 Dr C.G. Clemm, the former technical director of a chemical plant in Heilbronn, Germany, came to Vienna with the intention of initiating production of sulfuric acid, soda, Glauber’s salt and bleaching salt in Austria. He persuaded several Austrian aristocrats, financiers and manufacturers of standing and reputation to invest money in the promotion of a public limited company, the share-capital of which was to amount to five million florins. The exemption from import duty on salt was a precondition for the success of this enterprise. The site of the plant was to be at Aussig on the Elbe in former Bohemia, now known as Usti na Laben, in the Czech Republic. This was quite a good location: there were coalmines near the town and the river Elbe was canalised. At first, the Ministry of Finance refused to grant the exemption from import duty on salt, but when the founders of the company turned with their request to the Austrian Emperor, the exemption was finally granted.
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References
Die Chemische Fabrik Aussig a. d. Elbe., Memorandum, published on the occasion of the visit of Emperor Francis Joseph I. Aussig 1901.
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Collection of chemicals produced at the Aussig plant.
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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Oberhummer, K. (1997). The Leading Chemical Company in the Habsburg Empire. In: Fleischhacker, W., Schönfeld, T. (eds) Pioneering Ideas for the Physical and Chemical Sciences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0268-9_33
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0268-9_33
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