Complex sentence: Prior to leaving Europe Wilhelm was a coppersmith involved in construction of distillation plants and after some fifteen years of building stills for wineries, set up his own business "Nitschke & Co." at 109 Hindley Street, producing grape spirit.
Split into simpler sentences: Prior to leaving Europe Wilhelm was a coppersmith involved in construction of distillation plants. After some fifteen years of building stills for wineries, set up his own business "Nitschke & Co." at 109 Hindley Street, producing grape spirit.