A look inside the Linde Air Products plant
in Buffalo (1910) - the first oxygen plant
in the US. |
Carl von Linde had systematically promoted the internationalization of his business even before the founding of the "Gesellschaft für Linde’s Eismaschinen" with the sale of patent rights and the founding of subsidiary and partner companies. In the giant market of the faraway United States of America, he had sold the patent rights to his refrigeration and ice machines to German-American Friedrich (Fred) Wolf in Chicago in 1879. |
But before he could market his air liquefaction plants in the United States, von Linde needed to have the American patents. This became a lengthy hurdle race, since American engineer Charles Tripler already held a patent for an air liquefaction plant and for years prevented the granting of a patent to von Linde.
In 1900, electrical engineer Charles Brush joined in the dispute and offered to fight for the patent rights for Carl von Linde in exchange for a 33 percent share in the rights. He was finally successful in this fight in 1903. When the rectification patents were also disputed in the US in 1906, Carl von Linde decided to found his own company in the States. To do this, he needed American partners and immediately thought of the familiar Fred Wolf, Charles Brush and Adolphus Bush, the country’s biggest brewer (Budweiser Beer). |
Cecil Lightfood, head of Linde Air Products (USA). |
He asked Cecil Lightfoot, the son of T. B. Lightfoot, who had headed Linde British Refrigeration Corp. in England for over 20 years, to make the preparations for founding the company. Although the younger Lightfoot found a suitable site for building an air separation plant in Buffalo, he was unable to reach an agreement with the potential investors. And so on December 15, 1906, Carl von Linde himself traveled to the US and went to Buffalo with Lightfoot to purchase the land and to sign the order for building the oxygen factory. |
However, von Linde had to do without his first choices of partners Bush and Wolf. In his negotiations, Charles Brush in Cleveland managed to found an Americandominated company. Still, Carl von Linde insisted upon bringing on Hugo Reisinger (son-in-law of Adolphus Bush and German Consul General in New York) as a partner and Cecil Lightfoot as a member of management. All of this finally ended in the founding of Linde Air Products.
Lightfoot successfully handled the building of the factory, which opened on Thanksgiving Day, November 1907 with 16 employees -it was the first oxygen production plant in the United States. Linde Air Products sold not only oxygen but also acetylene and welding equipment. By the outbreak of World War One, the US company had built a dozen factories and supplied the most important industrial regions in the US.
Since the founding of the American company, the Linde Company’s share of Linde Air Products continued to fall as a result of several capital increases. When it became apparent in 1916 that the US would enter World War One, the German company presumably divested itself of its shares.
After the war, the comparative sizes of the parent company and subsidiary had finally switched: While the US company had a share capital of 15 million dollars, it would have needed only about 200,000 dollars to purchase the German parent company.
In 1917 Union Carbide and Carbon Corp. took over Linde Air Products, but continued to operate under the old company name. The German Linde AG thus lost its rights to the name Linde in the United States. It was not until effective January 1, 1999 that the North American group companies were once again permitted to use the name "Linde." The Linde Group now once again owns the global rights to the "Linde" name and trademark. |