Adolf Bleichert & Co. was a famous German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

 firm.

It was founded in 1874 by Adolf Bleichert and began to build bicable aerial tramways

Aerial tramway

An aerial tramway , cable car , ropeway or aerial tram is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion...

for mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 in the Ruhr

Ruhr

The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...

. With important patents, and dozens of working systems in Europe, Bleichert
dominated the industry.

He licensed the Trenton Iron Works in New Jersey to build his designs in America. Bleichert went on to build hundreds of aerial tramways around the world: from Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 to Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

. Bleichert also built hundreds of aerial tramways for both the Imperial German Army

German Army (German Empire)

The German Army was the name given the combined land forces of the German Empire, also known as the National Army , Imperial Army or Imperial German Army. The term "Deutsches Heer" is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the German Bundeswehr...

 and the Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

.

One 1905 aerial tramway in Chilecito

Chilecito

Chilecito is a city in the Argentine province of La Rioja, and head of the department of Chilecito.-Overview:It's located in the valley formed by the Sierras de Velazco to the east, and the Sierras de Famatina to the west. The city was founded in 1715 by Spanish colonizers...

 Argentina is considered a masterpiece. Bleichert built systems in Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 too.

Bleichert diversified into passenger cable cars such as the Predigtstuhl Aerial Tramway

Predigtstuhl Aerial Tramway

The Predigtstuhl Cable Car has been in operation since 1928 and is the oldest large-cabin cable car in world.-History and construction:The tramway began operations on 1 July 1928, after only a year's construction. The production of the wires was assigned to the Westphalian Wire Industry...

 in the Alps

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

, coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 cutting machinery and electric cars. Further examples of passenger cable cars built by Bleichert include
Tyrolean Zugspitze Cable Car, Krossobanen

Krossobanen

Krossobanen is an aerial tramway in Rjukan, Norway, and was the first of its kind in Northern Europe. It was built in 1928 by Bleichert as a gift from Norsk Hydro to the people of Rjukan , offering them a view of the sun which is obscured by the surrounding mountains during the winter months from...

 in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, Table Mountain Aerial Cableway

Table Mountain Aerial Cableway

The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway is a cableway to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. It is one of Cape Town's most popular tourist attractions with approximately 800,000 people a year using the cableway. On the 29 December 2004 the cableway passed its 16 millionth visitor.The...

 in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Burgberg Cable Car in Germany, Aeri de Montserrat

Aeri de Montserrat

The Aeri de Montserrat is an aerial cable car which provides one of the means of access to the Montserrat mountain and abbey. It can be found near the city of Barcelona, Catalonia....

 in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and the Port Vell Aerial Tramway

Port Vell Aerial Tramway

Port Vell Aerial Tramway is an aerial tramway in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, crossing Port Vell, Barcelona's old harbour and connecting Montjuïc with Barceloneta.- Description :...

 crossing the port of Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

  from Torre Sant Sebastia

Torre Sant Sebastia

Torre Sant Sebastià is a 78 metre tall lattice tower in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is the terminal of the Port Vell Aerial Tramway of Barcelona, which runs over Torre Jaume I to Montjuïc. Torre Sant Sebastia was opened in 1931.- External links :...

 via Torre Jaume I

Torre Jaume I

Torre Jaume I is a 107 metre high steel truss tower in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, which was built in 1931 by Carlos Boigas. The tower is the second-tallest aerial lift pylon in the world, and is a part of the Port Vell Aerial Tramway from Torre Sant Sebastia to Montjuïc. Torre Jaume I also has...

 to Montjuïc

Montjuïc

Montjuïc is a hill located in Barcelona, Catalonia.-Etymology:Montjuïc is translated as 'Jew Hill' in medieval Catalan, or is perhaps related to the Latin phrase Mons Jovicus . The name is found in several locations in the Catalan Countries: the Catalan cities of Girona and Barcelona both have a...

.

The Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 firm went bankrupt in 1932, but was continued as Bleichert Transportanlagen GmbH (Bleichert Conveyors). It was re-formulated in the 1950s to make industrial conveying systems.

External links

• Peter von Bleichert, Adolf Bleichert's Wire Ropeways in Wire Rope News & Sling Technology, June 2005