Breslauer Wassermesserfabrik & Breslauer Metallgießerei
🏭 Breslauer Wassermesser‑Fabrik
🏛️ Identity & Corporate Profile
The “Breslau Water‑Meter Factory” was located at Breslau, German Empire (now Wrocław, Poland).
It was a private industrial workshop / small factory operating from approximately 1885 to 1914, manufacturing water meters.
This company did manufacture complete water meters, unlike Breslauer Metallgießerei, which only made castings.
🧭 Company History
c.1885–1895 — Formation - Founded during rapid municipal water‑supply expansion in Silesia.
- Initially produced simple piston meters and brass fittings
1895–1905 — Growth - Listed in regional industrial directories.
- Began producing rotary domestic meters
- Supplied meters to Breslau municipal waterworks and nearby towns.
1905–1914 — Peak activity
- Produced improved registers
- Manufactured meters with interchangeable parts
- Operated as a recognised local meter maker
Post‑1914 — Disappearance
- Likely dissolved during WWI
- No successor company recorded
- Archives lost during WWII destruction of Breslau
⚙️ Product Range
Domestic Piston Water Meters with reciprocating piston, brass body, glass register window, multi‑dial totaliser, suited for domestic billing applications.
Rotary vane meters with stable accuracy at medium flow also common in German domestic installations.
Early Register Mechanisms had enamelled steel plates, nickel‑plated gearing, anti‑tamper screws with serial‑number plates.
🗂️ Archival Footprint
✔ Listed in Breslau industrial directories (late 19th century)
✔ Appears in regional water‑supply procurement lists
✔ Known from surviving meter examples in Germany & Poland
✔ Referenced in Silesian municipal engineering notes
🏭 Breslauer Metallgießerei, Breslau, German Empire.
Breslauer Metallgießerei (Breslau Metal Foundry) was located at Breslau, Silesia, German Empire (now Wrocław, Poland).
They were a Metal founding and machinery company, making utility equipment, water meters and castings, valves and fittings.
During the late nineteenth century Breslauer Metallgießerei became one of the notable industrial engineering concerns of Breslau. The foundry was merged into the larger enterprise:
Maschinenfabriken vorm. Gebr. Guttsmann und Breslauer Metallgießerei Actien-Gesellschaft
and formed in 1896 through the consolidation of the Gebrüder Guttsmann machinery works and the Breslauer Metallgießerei founded by H. Wolff & Schreiber.
🔧 The combined company manufactured a broad range of engineering products including:
- Water meters
- Brewery machinery
- Metal castings
- Valves and pipe fittings
- Refrigeration machines
- Steam equipment
- Industrial machinery.
The historical record specifically lists "Wassermessern" (water meters) among its principal manufactured products.
The original Breslauer Metallgießerei appears to have been operated as:
Breslauer Metallgießerei Commanditgesellschaft H. Wolff & Schreiber before its incorporation into the larger Guttsmann group in 1896. This identifies the founder/owner of Breslauer Metallgießerei, explains why H. Wolff appears on early meters, clarifies why later meters lose his name, confirms the foundry’s absorption into Guttsmann and provides the first documented corporate lineage for the foundry.
Unfortunately, surviving readily accessible sources provide very limited biographical information on H. Wolff and Schreiber, and this Museum has not found sufficient evidence to produce a reliable founder biography. What can be stated confidently is that their Breslau foundry was valuable enough to be acquired as part of the formation of one of Silesia's larger engineering enterprises. Further, there is a surviving water meter bearing Wolff's name residing in a private collection in Germany. Pictured below is a water meter with Wolff logo in honor of one of the founders. (Pictures courtesy of the Decker collection). H. Wolff — Deutsches Reichspatent Water‑Meter Maker
The marking “D.R.P.” on the meter stands for Deutsches Reichspatent — meaning the design was patented under the German Imperial Patent system, confirming it was a German‑made instrument.
Water Meter Manufacturing - There is direct archival evidence connecting the company to water-meter production.
Municipal Contracts
The City of Mainz archive contains records relating to:
"Awarding the supply of water meters to the Breslauer Metallgießerei in 1893 and 1895."
This demonstrates that the company was supplying water authorities well before the turn of the century.
Patent Activity
A United States patent from 1899 for a water meter was assigned to:
Maschinenfabriken vormals Gebr. Guttsmann & Breslauer Metallgießerei Aktien-Gesellschaft.
This shows the company was not merely casting components but was actively involved in water-meter engineering and design.
Priority 1898-06-24 • Filed 1898-06-24 • Granted 1899-08-08 • Published 1899-08-08
No. 630,44l. Patented Aug. 8, I899. Y 0. BECKMANN. WATER METER. (Application flled'l'une 94, 1898.) UNIT D STATES PATENT OFFICE. OSl/VALD BECKMANN, OF BRESLAU, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO THE MAS- OHINENFABRIKEN, VORMALS GEBRTL TDER GUTTSMANN &' BRESLAUER, METALLGIESSEREI ACTIEN-GESELLSCHAFT, OF SAME …
Suspected transition to Hydrometer
The most important event in the firm's metering history occurred in 1912.
The water-meter and foundry division of Maschinenfabriken vorm. Gebr. Guttsmann & Breslauer Metallgießerei was separated and reorganized into:
- Hydrometer Breslauer Wassermesser-Fabrik A.G. - Yet there are contradictions here as Hydrometer was originally born from Neptun Co.
According to contemporary company records, the new enterprise inherited:
- Metal-foundry operations
- Water-meter production
- Meter patents
- Associated utility fittings and armatures.
Its stated corporate purpose was:
"Manufacture of water meters and metal fittings and armatures."
This confirms that the water-meter business had become large enough to warrant an independent company.
🔧 Product Line
Before 1912, Breslauer Metallgießerei and the associated Guttsmann enterprise manufactured:
- Utility Products
- Water meters
- Water-meter fittings
- Utility armatures
- Metal valves
- Flow-control equipment.
- Industrial Products
- Steam machinery
- Brewery equipment
- Cooling machinery
- Cast-metal products
- Industrial engineering equipment.
After 1912 the Hydrometer company continued the specialization in:
- Domestic water meters
- Municipal water meters
- Industrial meters
- Meter accessories
- Meter testing equipment.
Historical Importance
Breslauer Metallgießerei belongs to the first generation of continental European water-meter manufacturers that emerged as German cities introduced universal metering of water consumption during the late nineteenth century.
The company's significance rests on three factors:
- Early water-meter production for German municipalities.
- Development of patented metering technology.
- Creation of Hydrometer Breslauer Wassermesser-Fabrik, which became one of Germany's best-known twentieth-century water-meter manufacturers (Note: Disputed claim).
In many respects, Breslauer Metallgießerei can be viewed as one of the industrial ancestors of the later Hydrometer meter brand, a name still recognized in European metering history.
🏛️ Summary
Breslauer Metallgießerei was a Silesian engineering and metal-founding enterprise based in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). Incorporated into Maschinenfabriken vorm. Gebr. Guttsmann und Breslauer Metallgießerei A.G. in 1896, the company manufactured industrial machinery, metal castings and municipal utility equipment, including water meters. Archival records document supplies of water meters to German municipalities during the 1890s, while patent records confirm active development of metering technology. In 1912 its water-meter division was reorganized as Hydrometer Breslauer Wassermesser-Fabrik A.G., a specialist manufacturer that became one of Germany's important meter producers. Breslauer Metallgießerei therefore occupies a key place in the evolution of German water-meter engineering and urban utility infrastructure. ⭐ The real, proven relationships
1. Breslauer Metallgießerei KG (H. Wolff & Schreiber)
→ absorbed into Guttsmann in 1896
→ continued as a foundry division
→ supplied castings to Hydrometer and Wassermesser‑Fabrik
2. Breslauer Wassermesser‑Fabrik A.G.
→ independent manufacturer
→ purchased castings from Metallgießerei
→ sold castings to Hydrometer
→ ceased operations around WWI
→ no successor
3. Hydrometer A.G. Breslau (ex-Neptun Co.)
→ independent manufacturer
→ purchased castings from both Breslau companies
→ later moved to Mannheim
→ became Diehl Metering
→ no proven corporate link to Guttsmann or Wassermesser‑Fabrik Note: Historical Water Meter pictures courtesy of < 19_willy_93 > , there you will find possibly the largest collection of historic German origin water meters anywhere in the world.
