Brief history on Johannes Rauschenbach

Today I got from an anonymous IWC collector from Schaffhausen a short article published in German language, published 27 January in the "Schaffhauser Nachrichten". The author is Hans Ulrich Wipf.
In short, some highlights from the article.
This year is the 200th birthday celebration of Johannes Rauschenbach (1815-1881).
He was the man who bought and saved IWC after 2 times bankruptcy during the first decade of IWC's existance. He can be seen as the man who made IWC a flourishing watch company.
From origin, J.Rauschenbach was the owner of large factory where machines were built, predominantly for agriculture.
In the winter of 1857/58 the water level in the river Rhine was so low that mills and work shops, dependant from the water flow, could not be run for 2 months. Two side canals were present in the Rhine to direct the waterflow towards the mills and other machines. However, it was calculated that 7/8 of the water was flowing by, unused. The idea came up to build a dam from one bank to the other. It was Rauschenbach ( not Heinrich Moser) who wrote to the city council that such dam should have lock doors, wich could be opened in case of extreme high water. This to prevent that the city would flood. Rauschenbach convinced the city that an expert engineer was appointed to see whether the plans of Rauschenbach could be executed. The engineer, David Heinrich Ziegler had hardly anything to add to the Rauschenbach plan. In 1860, the city council approved the plan, but unfortunately the execution was too costly.
Only than came Heinrich Moser foreward, the richest man in town.
He called the idea of Rauschenbach : "the egg of Columbus", but the dam should be built as a slightly bent arch, to achieve a better flow.
Moser funded the project and a committee of 3 men was established. Rauschenbach was one of them. The machines, iron constructions and transmission wheels were made in his factory.
When Jones arrived in 1868, he could use the facilities of the "Moser" dam,which was in fact for the main part the "Rauschenbach" dam. Moser also owned a watch factory but that was located in Le Locle, the Jura valley. So, when Rauschenbach took over IWC, the energy for the machine made watch parts was generated from a water driven force that he had initiated, developed and executed for a great part.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Very interesting, Ad. Thank you!

Thank you, Adrian. Very interesting read indeed.

Thank you for the translation Adrian.
A very interesting article in relation to IWC history.

Alan Myers

Thank you Adrian - very interesting!

Nice weekend
/Anders

Thank you for providing us the with the translation of this interesting article, Adrian.

As usual, Adrian, you add to the knowledge of we less knowledgeable Forum participants. Thanks.

Thanks for the effort, Adrian.

Those history hints are always helpful for me.

Regards

Heiko

Great bit of history. Thanks.

Nelson

Thanks for sharing Adrian. This is an aspect I did not know about - and indeed most books we read on this history (The dam and the power works)give one the impression it was Moser idea and development.

Interesting to know that he was The money man here.

Adrain, thank you very much for this piece of the picture. Last January when we toured the Moser house they gave the impression that the dam was Moser's idea.

Regards,
Kevin.

History is always fascinating - thanks Adrian!

Fascinating, thank you for sharing this piece of historical information.

Hi Adrian

Thanks for sharing the historical information. Very interesting. Do you have a link or a copy of the original article?

Cheers Chris

Please look in your email box.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc)

Adrian, thanks for sharing. Interesting article.

Thanks Adrian.
It's always fascinating to know more of the historical details.

Terry