Cecil Lightfood, head of Linde Air
Products (USA). |
In order to build up the oxygen infrastructure in other countries, the Linde Company established joint ventures with local partners in the main consumer countries. In addition, the Internationale Sauerstoffgesellschaft (ISG) in Berlin would supply all production equipment for the worldwide distribution of oxygen technology. |
Although foreign companies established under their own direction (in such countries as France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Austria, Hungary and the United States) quickly found success, ISG never quite made it out of the starting gates. After five years, the Linde Company took over ISG altogether and integrated it into the company.
Its cooperation with its French competitor Air Liquide contributed to Linde’s success in other countries. Linde’s partial subsidiary British Oxygen Works, which supplied England and Scotland as well as the British Empire, served as the third member of the confederation.
After also selling its patent rights for oxygen and nitrogen production in China and Japan, the Linde process had conquered 19 countries, and the Linde Company had holdings in 13 companies.
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A look inside the Linde Air Products plant in Buffalo (1910) - the first
oxygen plant in the US. |
An especially exciting chapter to this story took place in the United States of America, which at that time represented a potential oxygen market of unlimited possibilities (see chapter " Milestones "). Linde Air Products, founded in January 1907, developed so dynamically under American dominance that by the First World War it had surpassed its German parent company in size.