1850 - 1898
Copenhagen and Hamburg
In 1850, Ole Christian Green went to Copenhagen, where he rented
an apartment and some rooms in a warehouse at Maximilian Zinn in
Quæsthusgade 38-39 . Zinn
had previously operated an asphalt plant on the island of Amager
, which partially burned the year before.
Green bought the buildings for 4,500 rigsdaler of paper grocer
Wilhelm Wanscher , who in the meantime had bought them from Zinn
and simultaneously entered into a lease agreement with Green and
the military who owned land along with a number of farm men in
the village of Sundbyvester .
A site of approx.
44,100 kvadratalen (21,000
square yards) .
On the 14th of
October 1850 Green sought and obtained
license to build his match stick factory in one of the remaining
buildings .
Since the plant was completed in the summer of 1851 he started
the production and already before the year was ended, there were
50 children and five wives , which produced 80 million sticks .
In July 1853 Green decided to buy all the land and when he
did not need it all to his factory , he kept only a small part ,
parceled out and sold the rest.
That
same year, his manager C. A.
Müller
developed
a so-called indrulle- og oprettemaskine (collect- and
correction machine) a machine which, together with another of
his inventions, a grader , would mechanize a large part of the
production.
Green failed to obtain a patent on the machines as the drawings
for it was not found adequate , but Green had already installed
them and got them running in his factory , almost 11 years
before Alexander Lagermann invented the automatic stick
machines.
Green continued not only to mechanise its factory, in order at
once to increase production while avoiding children and wives to
have to endure the bad work environment that was in these
operations , but he also experimented with making matches
without the dangerous yellow
phosphorus.
In 1866 he applied for 5-year monopoly on such sticks, but
without managing to achieve this.
In 1868 it finally succeeded for Green by developing some
austrian test results and found a phosphorous-ignition mass.
Green tried again a patent for his new invention , and this time
succeeded in obtaining the patent.
Subsequently, they also were patented in Sweden, the UK and
North America.
On 3
July 1869 Green sold his factory to the partnership of
Godthaab which on the 31st of
December 1871 established "Actie Tændstikfabriken Godthaab" (the
Limited Match Factory Godthaab) , whose purpose was to
manufacture and sell all kinds of matches, especially those by
O. Chr Green invented , phosphorus-free matches.
At the same time Green sold his patent to the public
limited company , however, so that this still remained a
production secret , the recipe was kept in two identical copies
in a bank vault in the Private Bank in Copenhagen respective
Norddeutche Bank in Hamburg.
The latter , as the principal owners of the limited liability
company was German by Ole Christian Green's younger brother ,
Rasmus Brorson in the lead.
Rasmus Brorsons
company RB Green & Co. in
Hamburg was accounted for total exports limited liability
company, while the plant on Amager was responsible for
production and sales in Denmark .
As a director O.C.
Green was elected and with
his son August Green to production manager, while the second of
the sons , Sophus Wilhelm was elected to the bookkeeper.
At the same time Kjøbenhavns Actie Tændstikfabrik
(Copenhagen Match Factory Limited) was created, which was
responsible for sales to RB
Green &
Co., which exported
to several of the South American countries , various countries
in Africa and Greenland , Iceland, Manila and Hong Kong.
The domestic sales were made through the wholesalers Menck & Co.
, who was also one of the Danish shareholders in the company.
Greens invention won the bronze medal in Stockholm in 1866 ,
silver medal in Nakskov in 1868 , silver medal in Altona in 1869
, silver cross in London in 1870 and bronze medal in Copenhagen
in 1872.
Kjøbenhavns Actie Tændstikfabrik continues right up to the time,
where Gosch & Co. buys Godthaab in 1898 , after which Gosch
create a company with a very similar name Kjøbenhavns Aktie
Tændstikfabrik ( a c was replaced by a k) , which continued
sales to RB
Green & Co. until the termination of the agreement in 1900.
As the new matchstick law was introduced in 1875 , it was not
Green's patented phosphor-free matches that could go on, but
instead the Swedish so-called safety matches .
One reason for this may be found in the Polytechnic College
believes that the Greens matches were hygroscopic and therefore
not always turned on safe in wet weather , in contrast to the
Swedish .
Without insinuating bias, it seems strange that Green also had a
very large exports to include
South America's humid
climate.
Green continued to improve safety and health conditions at the
plant:
in
1875 there was installed central heating in the factory instead
of stoves , decreasing machine with associated loose boxes of
matches were abolished , water supply and fire hydrants were
placed so strategically that all facilities could be sprayed
from 3 different wells , smoking was banned and held
night watchman.
Thus, the factory at the time avoiding any type of fire .
Green was always at the forefront of developments, including
installs he tired advise department and associated increase in
steam power , in order to become independent of the rising
prices of tired advise from prison in Malmo .
And in 1880 he established a thaw house where the frozen wood
could thaw not to damage saws .
In 1882, Green had to go away for a cure for the sake of his
health and in his absence August Green was appointed director ,
while the company's incumbent auditor , Emil Ortwed (RB Green's
son ) and Sophus Wilhelm Green are commercial directors.
Ole Christian
Green died on the 11th of
July 1883 and the Articles of Association was amended to form a
board of directors consisting of 2 persons from Copenhagen and 1
from Hamburg .
The first members
were C. A. Leth and O.C.
Green's third son , Theodor Green from Copenhagen and RB
Greens
partner A. Soermann from Hamburg .
In 1896 Private Bank President Axel Heide approached to
Godthaab that HE
Gosch & Co. was interested in buying the company and after a
series of negotiations this ended in May 1898 where a purchase
proposal could be accepted by both parties, then August Green 6
August to announce the company's termination of the commercial
register .
Instead, a large company was established with the little
colloquial name " HE Gosch & Co's Tændstikfabrikker og Actie
Tændstikfabrikken Godthaab " .
In Hamburg, RB
Green
& Co. continued,
now known as RB
Green & Soermann to produce inks and varnishes until they were
taken over by the German company BÜFA in 1897.