Johann Jakob Staub (1803–88)

Staub was born at Horgen on Lake Zurich to a family of linen weavers. When he was 21 he went to Lyon, the centre of the French silk trade, to train as a weaver using the relatively new Jacquard looms that enabled complex patterns to be woven easily with the aid of punched cards. He returned to Horgen after a year and set up five looms at his father’s workshop, introducing the Jacquard technique for the first time to Switzerland. He wove patterned waistcoats and bedspreads in silk, cotton and wool. In 1827 he married Regula Abegg, whose father owned a textile bleaching, dyeing and finishing works.

With additional investment from his wife’s brother Hans, he set up a factory of 28 looms across the lake at Obermeilen in 1830 under the name Abegg & Straub. They also set up a workshop for building looms and developed a machine for punching the cards that controlled the Jacquard patterns. A Zurich silk merchant invested in 1835 to enable them to open an even bigger factory of 130 Jacquard looms further down the lake at Burghalden. This was the largest Jacquard-weaving factory in Switzerland. Straub’s business experimented with new techniques but it struggled to compete with the Lyon weavers, especially due to the absence of auxiliary trades and economies of scale. Nevertheless, he encouraged Kaspar Honegger to to develop fully mechanised silk weaving at Rüti.

Staub was of particular significance for establishing in 1855 a charitable institution at Horgen to teach the techniques of silk weaving for the first time in Switzerland. Students took a three-year course. The school continued until 1864 and set a model for the creation of a public silk-weaving school at Zurich.