textile-dyeing workshop at Norrköping. At the age of 18 he began a three-year study tour to see textile industries in Sweden, Germany, Austria and other countries. For a time he managed a dyehouse in Bielitz in

industrial development. He founded or supported an extraordinary number of enterprises in diverse industries across four decades through his leadership of the investment bank Privatbanken. Tietgen was born [...] newly created Privatbanken. Within a few years, Tietgen was leading initiatives to invest in Danish industries. The bank held shares in many of the companies and Tietgen frequently held shares himself and took [...] efficiencies and create virtual monopolies. He did this in the sugar, chicory-coffee and spirits industries among others. In 1869, he joined with other bankers internationally to create the Banque de Paris

Smidaich was one of the leading entrepreneurs in the Habsburg Empire with interests in several major industries as well as in finance. His father was the geologist Johann Baptist Čžjžek (1806-55), who compiled

went on to design several sawmills and develop machines for the textiles, printing and boot-making industries among others. Nevertheless, he was imprisoned for debts and was released only after political

properties were nationalised. He emigrated to the United States, where he turned to the new plastics industries, founding the firm Minigrip to make plastic-bag zips. He died in New York in 1957.

became the predominant material used in construction. The invention transformed the iron and steel industries world-wide. Göransson was the first manufacturer to demonstrate the successful application of the

Novartis AG. Sandoz was born in Basel when the dye and bleach industries there were evolving rapidly alongside the Swiss textile industries. His father was a cloth merchant. At the age of 19 he took an [...] Basel in Switzerland is one of the world’s centres of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Edouard Sandoz created one of the leading companies in the sector in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

and coal, had good supplies of water and could draw capital from the steelmaking and shipbuilding industries. However, Urgoiti’s factory was among those struggling to adapt and he toured Europe examining

The ability to bleach products was increasingly important during the Industrial Revolution as industries such as cotton manufacturing and papermaking grew rapidly. In traditional bleaching, materials were [...] Charles Tennant, made it far easier to transport and use. It became a pillar of the new chemical industries. Charles Tennant was born into a farming family in Ayrshire, south-west Scotland. As a boy he was

mills for the woollen and flax industries were built, notably by Wendisch in 1827 and Gayers in 1835. However, tariffs between Poland and Russia caused the industries to decline. When tariffs were removed [...] Karl (or Karol) Scheibler learned about the mechanised textile industries in several parts of Europe and took his knowledge to Łodz in Poland. The factory he built there in 1855 was one of the biggest

it. Initially, the biproducts were discarded but other uses were found for them as the chemical industries developed. However, the Leblanc process was a cause of severe atmospheric pollution. In the late

company was one of the biggest textile businesses in Europe. Liebieg also diversified into other industries. He bought an abandoned glassworks in Bihar (now Romania) in 1852 and took expert glassworkers

works at Kinneil, about 10 km east of Carron, though he could raise enough capital to develop the industries as intended. At the same time, he went into partnership with the young inventor James Watt and

Mint and devised machinery for flour mills, textile factories, breweries and other steam-powered industries. In 1810 he built a new factory at Southwark, London, for his mechanical projects. He began supplying

facilities and later, as a businessman at St Petersburg, he advanced Russia’s iron, steel and transport industries. Putilov came from a noble family near Novgorod in western Russia. He trained at the Sea Cadet

Knut retired in 1911. Markus was involved with the development of important Swedish and Norwegian industries. In 1898 he bought the Swedish license for the Diesel engine and founded Diesels Motorer at Stockholm [...] engines. With the Norwegian Sam Eyde he founded Elkem (Det Norske Aktieselskap for Elektrokemisk Industri) and the Norsk hydroelectric company, which made Nitrogen fertiliser at Notodden. He also founded

Gutiérrez de Cabiedes was one of the business people responsible for the growth of the iron and steel industries in the Basque Country. He had diverse commercial interests in banking, mining and railways but

Ybarra Gutiérrez de Cabiedes was one of the people responsible for the growth of the iron and steel industries in the Basque Country. He had diverse commercial interests in banking, mining and railways but

known for his work with steel, Bessemer was a professional inventor with 129 patents across many industries. He came from a Huguenot family of printers in the south-east of England. His father, Anthony Bessemer

and provided gas lighting for Seville in Spain. He undertook the construction of the Palais de l'industrie for the international exhibition in Paris of 1855, for which he was awarded the legion d’honneur