HUEBMER

AUSTRIA (see also List of Individuals)

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11.4.1755 Gosau/A - 20.3.1833 Nasswald/A

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Georg Huebmer and his brother Johann entered in 1776 the K.K. service of mines in Eisenerz, where they were noted for spectacular solutions in mining and engineering questions. In 1783 Georg Huebmer presented an installation for wood transportation in Nasswald-Hirschwang, and was appointed washing master of the local Duke in 1805. The latter asked Huebmer to cut a forest of 3,000 ha in Lower Austria and wash it to the capital. Huebmer thus designed a 450 m long tunnel to connect the Rivers Mürz and Preinbach, thereby adding water to the first river with a simple kettle pump. A year later, a large amount of burning wood could already be washed towards the capital.

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Until the 19th century, wood was the main energy supplier both to humans and to industry. However, wood in larger quantities could only be transported in rivers or in specially designed wood wash canals. The Huebmer brothers succeeded in the complicated design and management of such an energy transportation and brought richness and work to the nearby mining area, and also burning material to the capital, whose woods had by then been completely cut. The wood from the cutting area to the capital first moved along the short washing canal, and then continued on the Wien-Neustädter-Kanal opened in 1803, over a total traveling distance of 120 km. In addition to hydraulic engineering, Huebmer also designed the access roads for the cutting areas, the various roll roads for trunk transportation to the wash canal as also all hydraulic facilities required for the maintenance of wood transportation. In the 1850s, his installation ruined because of railroads and river navigation based on the invention of the steam machine, and thus the start of industrialization in Austria.

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_{Anonymous (1978). Georg Huebmer - Der ungekrönte König von Nasswald. Waldund Holzarbeit 304: 195-197; 305: 11.14; 306: 29-31; 307: 44-46; 308: 62-64.}

_{Gabriel, B. (1983). Die Holzbringungsanlagen am Preintaler Gscheidl - Vergessene Meisterleistungen alpenländischer Ingenieurbaukunst. Österreichische Ingenieurund Architekten-Zeitung ÖIAZ 128(10): 378-382. P}

_{Hauska, L. (1932). Bedeutende Holzbringungsanlagen des 12. bis 19. Jahrhunderts in Österreich. Blätter für Geschichte der Technik 1: 138-145. P}

_{Janetschek, O. (1972). Der Raxkönig. Kremayr&Scheriau: Wien. P}

_{Kilian, H. (1977). Georg Huebmer und seine Werke im Spiegel der Zeit. Zentralblatt für das gesamte Forstwesen 94(14): 195-224.}