Diebold & Fahlmer, Strasbourg.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, a modest community of scientific instrument makers had established itself in Strasbourg. In the Strasbourg Almanach of 1781, the Italian optician and physicist Adorne is listed as a dealer in scientific instruments, the majority of which he procured from Paris and England. By 1783, the number of scientific instrument makers in Strasbourg had reached six. Indeed, on 28 March 1798, the Danish legation councillor C.U.D. von Eggers wrote from Rastatt to Prof. Münter in Copenhagen that in Strasbourg "a renowned establishment for the production of surgical, mathematical and physical instruments" had been established [11]. In the 1783 Almanach, Diebold and Fahlmer are listed separately, but in 1792 they are listed together as a company. The considerable breadth of their product range indicates that by this point they had also become dealers in scientific instruments [3].

Johann Jacob Christian Fahlmer (Instrumentenmacher) was born on 27 February 1749 in Mannheim, Baden, Germany. Fahlmer took up residence in Strasbourg around 1770 and married Anna Catharina Burg (1736-1808) on 17 July 1774. They had three children together. He passed away on 8 July 1793 in Strasbourg.

Jean Diebold, engineer and instrument maker, was born in 1742 and died on 31 March 1831 in Strasbourg. On 29 November 1779, he married Dorothée Elisabeth Goering (1754-1830), with whom he had five children. His son, who assumed the same name and whose activities are described as ingenieur-mécanicien de l'académie et de l'école d'artillerie de Strasbourg, was born in Strasbourg in 1783 and died there on 24 August 1839. No evidence exists to suggest that he ever entered into matrimony. Following his demise in 1839, the workshop was continued by his pupil Charles Schneegans [4] (1816-1909), as evidenced by the newspaper clipping and trade card in the margin on the left.

A brass katoptrische Zirkel (reflecting dividers) signed Fahlmer à Strasbourg. Late 18th century. 18cm in length. The katoptrische Zirkel was invented by Christoph Caspar Höschel (1744-1820), son-in-law of G. F. Brander in Augsburg. [Höschel; Nachricht von dem katoptrischen Zirkel, 1783, E-rara]. In the mid 1800s Stanley constructed a similar device, "Stanleys Optical Compasses" [Mechanics Magazine, 8 March, 1867, p.146-147]. Less well known is the Dutch Spiegelpasser (reflecting dividers) invented by Antoine Lipkens, first described by Gisius Nanning [Handleiding tot de Werkdadige Meetkunst, Vol. 2, 1829, p. 200-204].

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REFERENCES

[1] Almanach de Strasbourg pour l'année 1781, p.104. [GoogleBooks]; François Xavier Adorne (1744-1830).

[2] Teutsches Künstlerlexikon Vol. 2, 1789, p.412 [MDZ]

[3] Allgemeine Anzeiger der Deutschen 1791: p.270-271, 287, 302-303. [Google Books]

[4] Johann Jacob Christian Fahlmer, von Mannheim, Instrumentenmacher. [Gustav C. Knod; Die alten Matrikeln der Universität Strassburg 1621 bis 1793, p.226. Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf].

Genealogical records have a Johann Jacob Christian Falmer christened in Mannheim, Baden, Germany 27-02-1749, married Anna Catharina Burg 11-07-1774 in Strasbourg, died 1793 in Strasbourg [FamilySearch].

[5] Notice sur les collections dont se compose le Musée de l'artillerie, Bachelier, Paris 1845, p.233, 236, 237 [Google Books] 

[6] Jean Frédéric Hermann; Notices historiques, statistiques et littéraires, sur la ville de Strasbourg, Levrault Strasbourg 1819, Tomb Second, p. 359-360 [Google Books].

[7] Nouvelle description de Strasbourg: Lagier Strasbourg 1844, p.30 [Google Books] 

[8] Magasin place Gutenberg 56, Ateliers C. Schneegans,... ingénieur-mécanicien, opticien de l'Académie de Strasbourg [Numistral BNU Strasbourg] 

[9] Le Courrier du Bas Rhin 20-05-1851 [Gallica]

[10] The Esser listed here and in the Almanach of 1783 is almost certainly Philipp Esser, the older brother of Louis Esser, whom in the early 1800s would become the father of the drawing instrument industry in Aarau, Switzerland. 

[11] Der erste Instrumentenmacher von Aarau, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Number 1197, 29 July 1942 Edition 02 [e-newspaperarchives.ch]. The main manufacturer of surgical instruments in Strasbourg was Lichtenberger, whose record of deliveries to hospitals is over 600 instruments. [Opinion de Jean-François Ehrmann, 1798; Google Books]. Engels, Lang, Fahlmer, Artaria, Renard, Esser, and Diebold are listed as makers of mathematical instrument; Bogner and Lichtenberger as makers of surgical instruments [6].

[12] Diebold (Jean), ingénieur-mécanicien de l’académie, instrumens de mathématique, de physique et d’optique etc., rue des petites boucheries. Manuel du commerce, de l'industrie, des sciences, des arts et des métiers de la ville de Strasbourg, 1824. [Gallica]

[13] François Xavier Adorne (14 January 1744, Filetto, Italy; 23 September 1830, Dijon), Italian name Francesco Adorno? He took to the air in a Montgolfière-style hot air balloon in Strasbourg in 1784, crashed 4 minutes later and lived to tell the tale. In 1793 Adorne acquired the Château de Turquestein from Charles Juste de Beauvau, 2nd Prince of Craon [Hagenauer Zeitung 01.11.1879]. There is a further mention of Adorne as a retailer of scientific instruments in an advertisement he placed in the Le Courrier du Bas-Rhin of 24 March 1807 [Numistral BNU Strasbourg].

[14] Charles Schneegans (1816-1909). Fourth son of Valentin Schneegans (15/06/1787-29/11/1849) and Élisabeth Cuntz (31/08/1788-28/11/1839) born on 17/11/1816 in Strasbourg and baptised on 19/11/1816. After studying engineering in Strasbourg, he came to the attention of Nicolas Coechlin (04/07/1781-15/07/1852) and in 1838 was appointed secretary in the commission of inquiry into the project for a railway from Strasbourg to Mulhouse and Basel, attending all the meetings and drafting the minutes. Schneegans was an apprentice to Jean Diebold Jr. and took over the business after Diebold's death in 1839. In 1841 he was member of the Strasbourg City Council Committee for the proposed railway line from Paris to Strasbourg. This experience and his desire to discover new horizons led him to emigrate to the United States in 1851, where he contributed to the construction of railway lines, particularly to Washington and Philadelphia (15,000 kilometres of lines were built between 1850 and 1860, notably by Cornelius Vanderbilt (05/1794-1877)). There he met an Englishwoman, Emily Bäring (1821 Vevey- 03/03/1883 Nancy), daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Georges Bäring (23/09/1781-04/10/1854) and Harriet Rochfort d'Oyly (1777-1833), who lived in Shirley, one of Southampton's western residential districts. He married her on 05/07/1851 at Saint Mary's Church 245 Old Marylebone Road in London. They had 4 children, the first 2 born in Washington DC and the other 2 in Strasbourg: Charles (29/06/1852-), Émilie (22/03/1855-14/03/1931), Georges (24/10/1859-29/09/1886) and Diane (25/04/1861-19/08/1861). In 1855 he returned to Europe with Emily and her children and settled at 6 rue des Veaux in Strasbourg. During the Franco-Prussian of 1870, the family still lived at 6 rue des Veaux in the same house as his younger sister Adélaïde and had to hide in the cellar of the house. Charles was imprisoned for some time in Rastatt because he shared a name with Charles Auguste Schneegans (08/02/1835-02/03/1898), a cousin from the older branch of the family, who had taken refuge in Bern and had written a pamphlet, but was eventually released thanks to the intervention of the British Consul. The family then moved to Nancy, 41 place de la Carrière, behind Place Stanislas, where Emily Bäring died aged 62 on 03/03/1883. She was buried in the Préville cemetery in Nancy (plot no. 1702); this plot was taken over by the city in 1997 and the grave no longer exists. Widowed, he moved to Nogent-sur-Marne where his son Georges lived, but the latter died in 1886 during a business trip to Reunion Island. He moved to 39 Faubourg de Besançon in Montbéliard, where Benjamin Alexandre Favre lived, his son-in-law Paul Alexandre Favre having married his daughter Emy. He died aged 93 on 04/12/1909 in Montbéliard and is buried in the Montbéliard cemetery (plot taken over by the town in 2013).

Biography courtesy of Jacques Favre at Geneanet.