Rudolph Ackermann
Encyclopedia
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
, publisher and businessman.
Biography
He was born at SchneebergSchneeberg, Saxony
Schneeberg is a town in Saxony’s district of Erzgebirgskreis. It has roughly 16,400 inhabitants and belongs to the Town League of Silberberg . It lies 4 km west of Aue, and southeast of Zwickau.- Location :...
, 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....
, where he attended the Latin school. His wish to study at the university was made impossible by lack of financial means, and he therefore became a saddler
Saddler
Saddler is both a skilled trade and a surname. As a trade, it refers to the occupation of making saddles.Saddler may refer to* Osmund Saddler* Sandy SaddlerAlso* Saddler, reporting name for the R-16 missile...
like his father.
He was a saddler and coach-builder in different German cities, then moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where in 1795 he established a print-shop and drawing-school in The Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
. Ackermann set up a lithographic
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
press and begun a trade in copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
lithographs. He later began to manufacture colours and thick carton paper for landscape and miniature painters.
In 1809 he applied his press to the illustration of his Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions, which appeared monthly until 1829, when forty volumes had appeared. Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson was an English artist and caricaturist.- Biography :Rowlandson was born in Old Jewry, in the City of London. He was the son of a tradesman or city merchant. On leaving school he became a student at the Royal Academy...
and other distinguished artists were regular contributors. Ackermann's Repository documented the changing classicising fashions in dress and furniture of the Regency. He also introduced the fashion of the once popular Literary Annuals, beginning in 1823 with Forget-me-not; and he published many illustrated volumes of topography
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
and travel, The Microcosm of London (3 vols., 1808-1811), Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
(2 vols., 1812), The Rhine (1820), The World in Miniature (43 vols., 1821-1826), etc.
Ackermann was an enterprising man; he 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....
ed in 1801 a method for rendering paper and cloth waterproof and erected a factory in Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
to make it. He was one of the first to illuminate his own premises with gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...
. Indeed the introduction of lighting by gas owed much to him. After the Battle of Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
, Ackermann collected nearly a quarter of a million pounds sterling for the German casualties. He also patented the Ackermann steering geometry
Ackermann steering geometry
Ackermann steering geometry is a geometric arrangement of linkages in the steering of a car or other vehicle designed to solve the problem of wheels on the inside and outside of a turn needing to trace out circles of different radius...
.
See also
- Thomas RowlandsonThomas RowlandsonThomas Rowlandson was an English artist and caricaturist.- Biography :Rowlandson was born in Old Jewry, in the City of London. He was the son of a tradesman or city merchant. On leaving school he became a student at the Royal Academy...
- Microcosm of London
- Poetical Magazine
- Isaac CruikshankIsaac CruikshankIsaac Cruikshank , Scottish painter and caricaturist, was born in Edinburgh. His sons Isaac Robert Cruikshank and George Cruikshank also became artists, and the latter in particular achieved fame as an illustrator and caricaturist. Cruikshank is known for his social and political satire.His...
- George Moutard WoodwardGeorge Moutard WoodwardGeorge Moutard Woodward was an English amateur caricaturist and humor writer. He was a friend and drinking companion of Thomas Rowlandson.-Biography:Woodward was born in Stanton Hall in Derbyshire, England the son of William Woodward in 1760....
External links
- Forget Me Not: A Hypertextual Archive of Ackermann's 19th-Century Literary Annual reproduces elements from the 1823-1830 volumes of the earliest British-published literary annual, Forget Me Not, published by Rudolf Ackermann between 1823 and 1847. Hyperlinks allow the volumes to be examined by author, engraver, etc., and include references to other works submitted to similar 19th century literary journals.