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There is not a great deal of Pittler literature easily available unfortunately. The book " 100 years Pittler 1889-1989 A piece of machine tool history" is of considerable interest although the majority of the book deals with the latter years . It is however a fascinating read and details von Pittlers early years of experimenting & inventing all sorts of wildly diverse objects.
Photo's include the factories and workshops, staff at their benches etc. von Pittler was seemingly a good employer and paid his workers above the going rate, he also gave them proper rest breaks of one hour lunch and a 15 minute break mid morning & afternoon, he also arranged works outings and gave all his employees a Christmas bonus..
The hardback book & it's sleeve
100 years Pittler 1889-1989
Demonstration of the Pittler B2 lathe 1976
The caption for the photo on the left reads:- 80 years after it's construction this turning machine was shown at the 1976 Birmingham machine tool exhibition in full working order
But all is not lost! During the war years 1940 & 1941 a series of 14 articles appeared in the MODEL ENGINEER magazine. Written by Mr George Gentry they are very detailed and some cover three or 4 pages. Some examples are shown below. I have copied all of these as PDF's. Please enquire
One of the many articles written by George Gentry, July 11th 1940
A page from Pittlers 1899 catalogue showing a B2 fitted with a ball turning slide rest. The equipment on the floor was included with every lathe
- The front cover of the Pittler catalogue for 1899
The incredible diversity of this machine is shown in this diagram of the variations possible with just the basic lathe as supplied.
Above: Scans from an early 20th century catalogue from around 1905 when George Adams had taken over the business.
A short history:-
1889, von Pittler buys a vacant 4 storey building complete with steam engine and line shafting.
11th July. 1889, Machinenfabrik "Invention" W. von Pittler formed in Gohlis and work begins in the above building.
1891, Messrs Lotz Abbot & Co , 66 Queen Street, Cannon Street, London EC, appointed sole UK selling agents,
1893, von Pittler forms "The Pittler Company" at 155 Farringdon Street on 1 January 1893, keeping Lotz Abbot & Co as agents. Mr George Adams is appointed assistant manager.
1894, Mr George Adams is appointed manager of The Pittler Company and moves to new premises at 144 High Holborn, London, also a branch at 4 & 5 Loveday Street, Birmingham.
1895, the Pittler company goes public where von Pittler emerges with a share capital of 1.2 million gold Marks, the name changes to "Leipziger Wekzeugmaschinenfabrik Atkiengesellschaft vorm W.von Pittler".
1899, the company moves to a purpose built factory at Wahren, then a village 5 kilometres from Leipzig. taking 500 works employees, 50 staff and 10 apprentices. Parts of the building still stand today.
1902, W.von Pittler resigns from the company he had put his heart and soul into and subsequently founded a pump factory in Berlin-Reinickendorf, he also invents and patents a fluid transmission which made all shafts and gears superfluous and installs it in a Mercedes, This “hydromobile” caused a sensation at the 1906 Berlin International Motor Show. von Pittler had registered an incredible 200+ patents over the course of time.
1905?, George Adams continues to sell Pittler lathes but forms his own company and badges the lathes as "GEORGE ADAMS, THE PITTLER COMPANY", Lathes issued with this plate have a number of small differences to the original output from the German factories. Where Adams had his lathes actually made is still a mystery, were they just imported from Germany and re-badged? George Adams was a general tool dealer and right up to the 1930's he offered a vast array of tools including normal types of lathes badged as "GEORGE ADAMS" but once again there is no evidence of him actually running a production factory under his own name.
1908, Arthur Drummond of the Drummond Bros was a customer of Pittler and goes on to produce a low cost round bed lathe which soon contributes to the loss of sales for the expensive Pittler lathes. The Drummond had a number of features directly copied directly from the Pittler, the patents for the Universal Metal Working Machine had by this time expired.
1909, von Pittler settles in London and keeps in contact with G. Adams,
1910, von Pittler dies in London, actually in the office of George Adams, on September 22nd at the age of just 56.
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On the right is the front cover of a Pittler catalogue dated 1901, this somewhat contradicts the accepted date of 1905 for when George Adams formed "THE PITTLER COMPANY" as it clearly states he is the proprietor and therefore the owner. The oddity here is that von Pittler had not yet resigned from the company as that occurred in 1902
Above: The end of an era, the closing down sale following the death of George Adams c. 1930
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