Heinrich Voelter was a German inventor and paper manufacturer.

Heinrich Voelter grew up in Heidenheim and attended elementary school there, where he was taught by his grandfather. At age 14, he began an apprenticeship

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

 at a Heidenheim weaver

Weaving

Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...

 shop. In addition, he learned from his father, who operated a local paper mill

Paper mill

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...

, the art of paper production. After the apprenticeship Voelter went to Bautzen

Bautzen

Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2008, its population is 41,161...

 to continue and complete his studies of paper manufacturing. While in Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, he met Friedrich Gottlob Keller

Friedrich Gottlob Keller

Friedrich Gottlob Keller was a German machinist and inventor, who invented the wood pulp process for the use in papermaking. He is widely known for his wood-cut machine . Unlike Charles Fenerty, F.G...

 (1816–1895), from whom he took over an 1846 patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 for manufacturing paper from wood fiber mash. He further developed the method such that mass production of paper from wood became possible - until then, paper had been produced from rags. He returned to his hometown after his father's death in 1848, where he benefited from the help of Johan Matthäus Voith (1803–1874), who in 1852 constructed two grindstones for the Voelter paper mill.

Voelter and Voith sold grindstones to paper manufacturers in the whole world, including the Kübler und Niethammer paper factory in Kriebstein

Kriebstein

Kriebstein is a municipality in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany....

 in Saxony. After the Voelter paper mill burnt down in 1864, paper production in Heidenheim ceased for good (paper had been manufactured there since 1530). The Voith AG

Voith

The Voith GmbH, which is headquartered in Germany, is a family-run corporation in the mechanical engineering sector with worldwide operations....

, formed by J. M. Voith, still develops and produces paper machines for international customers.

Heinrich Voelter served in the Parliament in Stuttgart from 1856 to 1861.

External links

• http://www.voith.com.br/index_d.php (Voith AG site, including company history)