The Austrian lift-hammer – its probable Walloon origin
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
Abstract
In 1937, Pirchegger suggested that great, or ‘Welsh’, hammers, were introduced from the 1420s onwards at forges in the mountains which separate Austria from Styria. Since then most historians have followed him in seeing northern Italy as their source. But the first known forge designated ‘Welsh’ was built around 1460 in the parish of Weyer in the Enns Valley of Austria. Smaller Brescian, or north Italian hammers, did not appear in Austria until the 1590s, some 130 years later; this occurred close to the Carinthian border with Italy,
a country regarded as ‘Welsh’ by German speakers. However, rather than being of Italian origin, it is suggested here that the 15th-century hammers were Walloon in origin; that the ‘grand marteau’, or drome-beam hammer (first mentioned in 1395 in the Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse of Namur) was introduced into Austria during the 1420s, to support the manufacture of weapons for Duke Albert V of Austria. He needed them to help his patron and father-in-law, Emperor Sigismund of the House of Luxembourg, in his war against the Hussites.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Awty B G 2007, ‘The development and dissemination of the Walloon method of ironworking’, Technology and Culture 48, 783–803.
Baraldi E 2001, ‘Ordigni e parole dei maestri da forno bresciani e bergameschi: Lessico della siderurgia indiretta in Italia fra XII e XVII secolo’ in Ph. Braunstein (ed), La sidérurgie alpine en Italie (XIIe-XVIIe siècle) (Rome), 163–213.
Beck L 1891–1903, Geschichte des Eisens in technischer und kulturgeschichtlicher Beziehung, 5 vols. (Braunschweig).
Belhoste J-F et al 1991, La métallurgie normande XIIe-XVIIe siècles: La révolution du haut fourneau (Caen).
Belhoste J-F 2001 ‘Mutations techniques et filières marchandes dans la sidérurgie alpine entre le XIIIe et le XVIe siècle’ in Ph. Braunstein (ed), La sidérurgie alpine en Italie (XIIe-XVIIe siècle) (Rome), 516–616.
Bittner L 1901, ‘Das Eisenwesen in Innerberg-Eisenerz’, Archiv für österreichische Geschichte 89, 451–646.
Braunstein P 1996, ‘The forest, the iron and the water — perspectives on the development of European economies in the end of the Middle Ages’ in G Magnusson (ed), The Importance of Ironmaking: Technical Innovation and Social Change: Papers presented at the Norberg Conference on May 8–13th, 1995 (Stockholm), vol 2, 159–62.
Dinklage K 1974, ‘Technischer Fortschritt und wirtschaftlicher Aufschwung des Kärntner Eisenwesens namentlich in der frühen Neuzeit’ in H. Kellenbenz (ed), Schwerpunkte der Eisengewinnung und der Eisenverarbeitung in Europa, 1500–1650 (Köln), 309–337.
Fudge T A 2002, The Crusade against Hussites in Bohemia, 1418–1437 (Aldershot).
Egg E 1961, Der Tiroler Geschützguss, 1499–1600 (Innsbruck).
Hoffmann A 1952, Wirtchaftsgeschichte des Landes Oberösterreich, 2 vols. (Salzburg).
Horikoshi K 1992, L’industrie du fer dans la Lorraine pré-moderne, Doctoral thesis in history (Université de Nancy II).
Jähns M 1889, Geschichte der Kriegswissenschaften, Band 1 (München).
Knau H L et al 2001, ‘Iron works and water power: the development of mechanical hammer works in the ‘Südergebrige’, Acta Metallurgica Slovaca, special issue, 127–43.
Neu P 1989, Eisenindustrie in der Eifel; Aufstieg, Blüte und Niedergang (Köln).
Pirchegger H 1937, Das Steirische Eisenwesen bis 1564; Mit einem Überblick über das Kärntner Eisenwesen (Graz).
Schuster W F 1969, Das alte Metall- und Eisenschmelzen; Technologie und Zusammenhänge (Düsseldorf).
Sprandel R 1968, Das Eisengewerbe im Mittelalter (Stuttgart).
Tittmann W 2005, ‘The guns of Archbishop Baldwin of Trier 1331/32 and the guns in the Milemete manuscripts of 1326/27; Some critical comments’, Journal of the Ordnance Society 17, 5–22.
Tremel H 1974, ‘Das Eisenwesen in der Steiermark und in Tirol, 1500–1650’ in H. Kellenbenz (ed), Schwerpunkte der Eisengewinnung und der Eisenverarbeitung in Europa, 1500–1650 (Köln), 285–308.
Tunner P 1858, Die Stabeisen- und Stahlbereitung in Frischherden, 2 vols. (Freiberg).
