Andre Grusenmeyer

Andre Grusenmeyer mechanic and inventor, was born the November 24th 1840 with Uhlwiller, in the the Low-Rhine, and he died the November 30th 1905 with Haguenau.

Biography

The invention of the machine at the beginning of the 19th century will generate a new type of craftsman, the mechanic. Uhlwiller will become famous in the surroundings because of child of the village which will be mechanic and inventor, André Grusenmeyer. This last was born in Uhlwiller the 24-11-1840 like wire from Antoine Grusenmeyer and Catherine Krauss. We do not know anything of his training; as young mechanic it opened close to the church his workshop where it occupied to twenty workmen, which was equivalent for this time to a small factory. In this workshop it was not satisfied to manufacture or repair agricultural machinery. Thus one allots to him the invention of the Batteuse (Dreschmaschine), of the horse-gear, the plow-ridge-plow and other machines. Such a threshing-machine still to little be seen with the museum of the bread of Uhlwiller. Unfortunately Grusenmeyer did not make patent its first inventions and it is only very late that it was let convince to make this step. According to a newspaper it would have deposited 21 patents for saws and other agricultural machinery. We of him two Brevet S recorded with the Office of the patents in Munich:

One, the 5.02.1878, relates to a device which makes it possible the Batteuse to eject the not crushed straw; until now, known as the text of the patent, the Batteuses of use return a straw completely crushed so that it is inapt for many uses and that it has only one the third of the value of that delivered by the machine of Grusenmeyer.
the other patent the 6.02.1889, envisages a new device which makes it possible the Batteuse to carry out the perfect separation of the grain, the straw and dirtinesses, without this device requiring a complicated or large-sized construction. These two patented inventions largely contributed to the improvement of the machine Batteuse.
Finally a third deposited in Paris.

The invention of the threshing-machine posed the problem of the driving force; the engine existed already, but the explosion or steam engine was still rare and the electrical motor was impossible owing to lack of electrical communication. Remained then like driving force only the human muscle and the animal feature. In my childhood I still could see in exercise a threshing-machine activated by hands of man; on the side of the machine a large crank was fixed, which was turned by two men. The use of the force of animal feature was done by the means of the horse-gear; under a hangar behind the barn a carousel, activated by two horses was installed which turned in round; the rotary movement thus acquired was transmitted by gears and crankshaft to the threshing-machine installed in the surface of the barn. According to many testimonys the invention of the horse-gear is due to André Grusenmeyer. Today still, in certain lost hangars of Uhlwiller, parts of horse-gears invented and built by him are.

Like often at temperaments of this kind, it missed in Grusenmeyer the direction of the rigorous organization and financial management, so that after years its company was burdened with debts and was sold with the biddings. Grusenmeyer left Uhlwiller with its family to be established in Haguenau, where it acquired a small workshop again; it continued there its inventions, which it carried out more itself, because from now on it worked for the company " Kuhn" agricultural machinery; , Saverne, with which it sold its patents for little money, as ensured to me his/her small children installed Strasbourg-Neudorf. It is in 1867 qu ' it settled in Haguenau with all its family. With the money that its inventions reported to him, it could buy an old mill with oil located near a railway network (currently workshop of the municipality of Haguenau). In this time the businesses went well and it sold its agricultural machinery in all France. Inopportunely, a little before 1900, whereas it had gone to see customers in Alsace, a fire declared and burned all agricultural machinery which were then in stock in this factory. As it was often the case at the time the company was not assured. Following this catastrophe, they left and settled with the workshop which made begun again by his/her Joseph son. Until our days the memory of the Grusenmeyer inventor was accurately preserved at Uhlwiller and in the surrounding villages.
These wire Andre and Joseph Grusenmeyer also deposited patents.

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