Date(s): 2010. Photos by Aymar. 1 - 23 of 23 Total. 621 Visits.
1 Kuchen the highway exit
2 Kuchen the industrial park (le polygone commercial), first impression
3 Staub village parking lot tori
4 Staub village
The philanthropic entrepreneur in person. The old facade of the accounting office now fronts a parking lot.
5 Staub village
Lidl parking lot. In the backdrop, the Staub company headquarters and family residence.
6 Staub village
Fog shrouded storage house cum loading docks.
7 Staub village
Walled up door with judas hole. The janitor regularly makes the rounds and checks for squatters. Who wants inmates. - By hearsay: a conversion into apartment buildings is in the works. Historic heritage preservation by recycling. Cross subsidizing will be required.
8 Staub village no mill without a keep
9 Staub village Oratory space for hire. The raindrops won't mind. - The rickety looking platform is shored up with three H bars.
10 Staub village No New Harmony without a meditation room. Ample time for everything. (There was even a small pharmacy. Whatever looks good on the drawing board.)
11 Staub village
Transmisson wheel (one of four, terminals included). The total distance from the turbine building to the factory was 467 meter. (You probably were not supposed to hitch a ride.) In operation until 1923. Total output, about 160 HP. - The only natural advantage of the location was the cheap water power. The cotton was imported from Overseas.
12 Staub village
Limestone pillar of the transmission tower with fairy cave. (The Toys-R-us version comes with a facing glass plate.)
13 Staub village
The various buildings did come with state cabin names. This was the 'Swiss house'. (There was one building [long house?] for bachelors and one for masters). Mrs Staub toured the premises each summer and awarded a prize for the best kept flower garden.
14 Staub village Cast iron lamp post - originally most likely a gas light.
15 Staub village the central community building and wash house from 1868.
16 Staub village the unavoidable bandstand
17 Staub village The shut down waterworks in front of the communal wash house cum sauna and jacuzzi (the pool was 4 by 6 meter).
18 Staub village
Better than subway station chandeliers, the chime topped bell tower of the communal building. Done in Moorish style. (The original buildings of the zoological garden /conservatory in Stuttgart were done in the same style.)
There was no shortage of high ranking endorsement. King Karl (Charles) decorated Staub with a distinguished service medal (the actual name was Knight's Cross of the Friederich's Order). Napoleon III, not to be outdone, buttonholed Staub in the railway station of Geislingen and awarded a Légion d'honneur medal. Anything could happen in the Jules Verne era. The project also won a 10.000 thaler grand prix (Paris Exposition of 1867). Courted from both sides, those were the days. The grinding did come later.
19 Staub village
Baden-Baden fountain with work force lodgings. One plaque mentions a 16 hour working day.
20 Staub village, the eponymous inn This timeline (lifeline) should be read in traditional Han character fashion. From top to bottom. Sum up: things always end with RE/MAX.
21 Staub village
On top of the industrial grade mill race (presently truncated by a parking lot). Final drop, about 20 feet. - Side motive, the golden age of well fitting denims. Not sure about the hand held device. Nokia - i-phone something. The subtended angle is too small.
The mill burnt down in 1876 (lots of airborne lint?). The water did freeze inside the firefighting hoses. Not sure about suitable countermeasures. My bullet point list (sort of): Electrical blankets - as hose wrapping (if you can do it with leggings), plenty of antifreeze (would recommend high vol alcohol - okay: by the salt shaker thou shalt recognize them), a grid of sunken hydrants to reduce hose length, a more powerful pump (it must be assumed that the water in the mill race was still running, the factory would have otherwise been shut down.) As a last resort: you could have inconvenienced the patrons of your Jacuzzi (see above) and siphoned off some of the tepid bath water. If you can do it with other things.
22 Kuchen
Customer parking, standard lay-out. The licence tag initials (GP) stands for Göppingen. The surplus sale, my original reason for visiting Kuchen, with apologies to Arnold Staub, was hosted in a second Lidl building. Link: Some impressions from a Lidl surplus sales. Complete with some remarks concerning overactive cops. Forewarned is forearmed. >A Lidl Surplus Sales Adventure
