page_title: Johann Sigmund Schuckert
section_title: Middle years
hierarchical_section_title: Johann Sigmund Schuckert / Biography / Middle years
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Schloss Linderhof
context_page_description: Johann Sigmund Schuckert was an electrical engineer and the founder of Schuckert & Co. He was a pioneer of industrialization in Nuremberg and for the electrical industry a pioneer of international status.
context_section_description: In 1873 Sigmund Schuckert rented a small workshop in Nuremberg's "Schwabenmühle" quarter in Nuremberg, specialising initially in the repair of American Singer sewing machines, then a new technology of which hardly anyone else had experience.  The recent move by Siemens into dynamo-generators production inspired him to greater ambition, however.  In 1874 he negotiated for the rights to manufacture dynamos using the same principals as the Siemens ones, and from 1875 he was successfully producing and selling his own generators.
  In 1876 he received a state subsidy of 50,000 Marks from the king for his generator production, and in 1878 he won the contract to install electric lighting in the kings stunning new Linderhof Palace.   Schuckert's machines were less costly and more efficient than the alternatives proposed by rivals.   Resulting success in the marketplace, supported by the high-profile Linderhof contract, increased pressure to grow the business.
  Schuckert & Co. needed more space, and in 1879 a new factory building was opened in the Schloßäckerstraße.    Schuckert was now becoming a major entrepreneur in his own right, being supported increasingly by advice from the businessman Alexander Wacker who would himself become the Commercial Director of Schuckert's business (and who subsequently created his own business, becoming a leading figure in the region's industrial community).  The larger premises made possible a big increase in production of arc lights, the quality of which would receive widespread recognition at the Paris World Fair in 1889.   The size of the factory and of the market demand for its products meant that conventional (traditional) craft based production techniques were replaced by a more industrial approach.  In 1885 Alexander Wacker took a share in the business.  Well qualified engineers and commercial managers were recruited in order to support further expansion of the business.
caption: Linderhof Palace
exif: {}