In 1876, the school dropout and trained mechanic Max Hans Robert Kohl founded a workshop for precision mechanics. The company soon grew, and two years later Kohl was already employing nineteen people. He specialized in producing systems and devices for technical and scientific purposes, and supplied laboratories and universities worldwide with his large range of up to 4,000 different products. Dayton Miller, chair of the physics department at Case Western Reserve University, was one of his many clients. The success of the fast-growing company led to several relocations within Chemnitz. In 1898, it moved to an 8,000 m2 space at Adorferstrasse 20, where it stayed until Kohl’s death in 1908. The company then became a joint-stock corporation, Max Kohl AG, and continued production until its almost complete destruction during World War II. Most of its machines were transported to the Soviet Union and, in 1949, it was absorbed into the East German state-owned enterprise (Volkseigener Betrieb, VEB) Buchungsmaschinenwerk Karl-Marx-Stadt, later VEB Polytechnik.

Today, instruments produced by Max Kohl AG can be found in many collections of antique physics instruments all over the world.

Sources:

Mohammad, Jasmin. „Kohl, Max Hans Robert.“ Sächsische Biografie, edited by Institut für Sächsische Geschichte und Volkskunde e.V. [online version]
Short history of the Max Kohl AG at the „Sammlung Kusdas – historische Messtechnik”

Compiled by HE | Picture: CC-BY | Hannes Grobe, Wikimedia