🏭 Carl Jaeger & Co., Leipzig Germany

Carl Jaeger & Co. was a mechanical engineering manufacturer specializing in:

- High‑pressure centrifugal pumps

- Turbine pumps

- Industrial blowers and air‑moving equipment - Pump installations for factories, municipal works, and industrial plants - Domestic single‑jet meters, small commercial meters

Founder & Company Origins

Founder: Carl Friedrich Jaeger

Born: 1898, Hannover

Profession: Precision machinist & instrument maker

Apprenticeship: Hannoverische Metallwerke (industrial brass machining)

Specialisation: small‑batch domestic metering and precision brass casting

Founded: Carl Jaeger Wasserzählerfabrik, c.1932

Location: Lower Saxony region (likely Hannover or Hildesheim) 🧭 Timeline

1893 — Company founded by Carl Jaeger

1897 — Exhibited pumps at Leipzig Industrial Exhibition

1898 — Factory opened at Klingenstraße

1910 — Full relocation to Plagwitz

1920 — Death of founder Carl Herman Jaeger 1932 — Carl Jaeger Wasserzählerfabrik (Likely Water Meter Manufacturer)

1945–1952 — Occupation → Soviet administration → nationalisation

1952 — Became VEB Pumpen- und Gebläsewerk Leipzig (under East German nationalization).

1990 — Privatised after reunification

1999 — Acquired by Kühnle, Kopp & Kausch AG

2006 — Became Siemens Turbomachinery Equipment GmbH

🧩 Archival records include:

- Technical drawings of Jaeger turbine pumps - Correspondence about pump installation and operation

- Integration into state‑owned pump works after WWII

- Hydraulics & Flow Infrastructure - Municipal water‑supply procurement records

- Industrial water‑handling systems

- Early 20th‑century engineering catalogues

🔗 Wartime Substitution Relationship (1939–1945)

During 1939–1945, German municipal utilities faced:

severe brass/bronze rationing, redirection of major meter manufacturers to military production, shortages of domestic meters,

urgent need for replacements in bomb‑damaged cities and forced decentralization of “utility equipment” production. Pump factories and machine works were sometimes ordered to produce:

water meter bodies, bronze castings, meter chambers, repair parts therefore this is the only scenario where Jaeger could have produced meter components.

🟥 Evidence based facts A Water Utility Dept. Technical Officer individual in Germany has a large collection of Historic German Water Meters who has a water meter branded with the Jaeger Co logo, it is an extremely rare item of historical value of 3/4" size with an inbuilt casted dirt box filter. Carl Jaeger & Co. produced small batch water meters likely from 1932 until 1945, under municipal instruction or wartime necessity. Note: Above picture courtesy of < 19_willy_93 > Instagram, there you will find the largest collection of historic German origin water meters anywhere in the world.

The HWM.Museum has yet to acquire a Jaeger water meter for its collection, which would be a very rare find.