Technical Supervisory Association 1866
When the name "TÜV" is mentioned, many people think of their car and when "the TÜV is due" again. However, the first German inspection association was founded in 1866 to inspect steam boilers, 19 years before Carl Benz invented the car in Mannheim in 1885.
At the beginning of the 18th century, steam engines began to replace traditional energy sources such as water wheels and windmills in England, initially in the mining and textile industries. When James Watt succeeded in increasing their efficiency, steam engines were also able to power ships and locomotives. From 1878, Heinrich Lanz in Mannheim manufactures the first locomobiles as "economical operating power".
In a steam engine, water is converted into steam in a closed boiler. The steam, which is under high pressure, flows into a cylinder and drives a piston. Its linear back and forth movement is converted into a rotary movement via a crank, which can be used to drive machines. As a result, heat energy is converted into mechanical work. With the help of these first "heat engines", it was possible to produce industrial goods quickly and in large numbers. The steam engine thus paved the way for industrialization.
However, the operation of steam boilers harbored many dangers. The highly pressurized boilers often lead to explosions with fatalities and injuries as well as extensive damage to property. Lack of training, inadequate maintenance, design faults, excessive pressure or lack of water are among the most common causes of steam boiler explosions. A contemporary report warns every boiler operator to always bear in mind that he
"has taken into his service a mighty demon in the form of steam, which willingly does all his work as long as he is tamed, but which is constantly striving to suddenly break its iron bonds and hurl death and destruction around him".
A serious accident also occurs in Mannheim: on January 28, 1865, a steam boiler explodes in the brewery "Zum Großen Mayerhof" in E 4.12 opposite today's town hall. The "Mannheimer Journal" reports: " Doors burst open, windows rattled, so that some thought they felt the beginnings of an earthquake".
The boiler attendant was killed in the explosion and four men were seriously injured. The cause of the accident was a crack in the hull of the steam boiler. The resulting lack of water caused the pressure to rise and led to the explosion. This could have been prevented if the defect had been discovered in time. However, in contrast to Prussia, where steam boilers have had to be approved since 1831 and regular inspections have been carried out by officials since 1856, there are no inspections in the more liberal Baden.
However, as increasing industrialization led to more and more steam boilers being operated, the risk of further accidents grew. For this reason, both the government of the Grand Duchy of Baden and the steam boiler operators themselves supported the establishment of an inspection association to ensure greater safety.
On January 6, 1866, 22 Baden entrepreneurs finally came together in Mannheim, the largest industrial center in the state, and founded the "Gesellschaft zur Ueberwachung und Versicherung von Dampfkesseln mit dem Sitz in Mannheim" in the Harmonie-Gesellschaft building in D 2.6 (3), the former Achenbach'schen Kaffeehaus. The first chairman is the manufacturer Carl Selbach. The shareholders undertake to inspect the steam boilers regularly. This is intended to ensure greater safety and help prevent future accidents such as those at the "Zum Großen Mayerhof" brewery, thus also helping to allay people's fears of technical progress. The company's articles of association initially provide not only for regular inspections, but also for insuring the systems.
Initially, however, there was little interest in membership. It was not until 1868, when a decree from the Baden Ministry of Trade called on all steam boiler operators to join, that the number of members increased. The association is now able to employ its first test engineer. It is the 29-year-old engineer Carl Isambert. Born on October 2, 1839 in Mariahütte in the Saarland as the son of steelworks director Paul Isambert, Carl attended grammar school in Trier and later the Provinzial-Gewerbeschule. He then studied mechanical engineering at Karlsruhe Polytechnic from 1858 to 1861 and worked as an engineer at the Hörder Bergwerks- und Hütten-Verein until 1868.
On October 13, 1868, Carl Isambert began his work as the first full-time expert of a technical inspection association in Germany. Just a few days later, he undertook his first inspection tour of the Grand Duchy of Baden. (6) He discovered a whole series of dangerous defects in many of the steam boilers he inspected, particularly design faults, defects in fittings such as wedged safety valves, but also faults in the operation of the systems. The owners and their staff often do not know how to operate the steam boilers efficiently and safely. (7) This is why he not only inspects the systems, but also provides information on the necessary safety measures.
This educational work quickly bore fruit. Already on his second inspection trip, Isambert had significantly fewer complaints, and a year later he was able to report at the general meeting of the monitoring association that there was no longer an acute risk of explosion in any of the boilers inspected. He reports on his inspections
"Almost everywhere I went, people recognized the usefulness of our institution, some boiler owners even awaited me with impatience, like a sick person awaits a doctor, and I am convinced that this system of voluntary monitoring will expand greatly."
And he was right. The number of boiler explosions fell so quickly and impressively that further supervisory associations were soon founded: in Hamburg and Magdeburg, as well as the "Bayerische Dampfkessel-Revisions-Verein" in Munich in April 1870. Bavarian breweries were also working with steam at the time.
Isambert reported on these successes at the general meeting of the Association of German Engineers (VDI) in Kassel in 1871. In 1873, Hanover follows Mannheim's example. In the same year, the German Association of Steam Boiler Monitoring Associations was founded.
Carl Isambert not only writes his annual reports for the association, but also publishes his experience and knowledge, which he continues to deepen through continuous training abroad. In this way, he helped to ensure that more and more monitoring associations were able to start their beneficial work.
Within ten years, the number of monitoring associations in Germany grew to twenty. And 15 years after its foundation in Mannheim, there are technical monitoring associations almost everywhere in Germany. However, there were still no uniform and binding standards for the safety and testing of steam boilers, and the experts themselves decided what proper functioning looked like. It was not until the summer of 1881 that binding principles for material testing were agreed. Three years later, there were also guidelines for the calculation of boiler bodies so that accident risks could be avoided during the construction of steam boilers.
Carl Isambert worked at the Überwachungsverein until the end of his life and was awarded the Baden Knight's Cross First Class for his services. He dies after a short, serious illness on November 7, 1899 in Mannheim and is buried in the main cemetery.
But the TÜV success story continues. Around 1900, the states in the German Empire, which were actually responsible for public order and safety, began to withdraw from direct supervision and transfer their sovereign inspection tasks to the steam boiler inspection associations and their engineers, who were specially trained for various technical challenges. This saved them costs, and the companies were able to keep state authority away from their operations.
At the turn of the century, when systems could be operated electrically, the TÜV's tasks soon included the testing of electrical systems, such as the inspection of electrical elevators or mountain railroads.
With the introduction of assembly line production, the initially small number of cars grows rapidly. In September 1906, the Grand Duchy of Baden therefore ordered an inspection of automobiles: "If a motor vehicle is to be put into operation, the owner must submit a written notification to the district office of his place of residence. [...] The notification must be accompanied by the report of an officially recognized expert." This task is assigned to the "Gesellschaft zur Überwachung und Versicherung von Dampfkesseln zu Mannheim". In order to be able to meet these requirements, the monitoring association has twelve boiler engineers trained as motor vehicle experts at Benz & Cie. and sets up its own "Department for the Inspection of Vehicles and their Drivers" in 1910.
However, the regular presentation of motor vehicles for a general inspection is not made mandatory until the Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (StVZO) come into force in 1938. In the same year, the Dampfkessel-Überwachungsverein is renamed the "Technischer Überwachungsverein (TÜV)". It is given the task of regularly checking the roadworthiness of all registered vehicles. But many people ignored this. Even when the general inspection of motor vehicles became mandatory every two years in 1951, not all owners of the 716,000 vehicles registered at the time accepted the invitation to the TÜV appointment. This did not change until 1961, when there were already 4.2 million cars, with the introduction of an inspection sticker affixed to the rear license plate, indicating the month and year of the next main inspection. If the sticker expires, a fine is due and vehicle owners now have to arrange the inspection date themselves.
Over the years, increasing technical progress has led to an ever broader range of tasks. For example, the TÜV monitors the safety of so-called "flying structures", i.e. fairground rides, and inspects escalators, ski bindings, power line components, wind turbines and many other technical installations.
The aim is always to minimize the risks associated with technology, protect people and the environment and thus ensure confidence in technology. Testing organizations that were added later, such as Dekra or the Gesellschaft für Technische Überwachung, are also committed to this goal as competent, independent and neutral experts.
The former Dampfkessel-Überwachungsverein has become a globally active service provider in the field of technical safety with more than 24,000 employees at over 1000 locations.
Every year, TÜV Süd commemorates its first test engineer with the Carl Isambert Prize for Safety Engineering and Environmental Protection. A stele in front of square D 2.6 in Mannheim, where the 22 entrepreneurs from Baden once gathered in the Harmonie-Gesellschaft building, commemorates the founding of TÜV - as does a plaque on the Kurpfälzer Mile of Innovation.
