In June 1879 Professor Doctor Carl von Linde founded the Gesellschaft für Linde’s Eismaschinen Aktiengesellschaft to develop further his work in developing mechanical refrigeration systems for the brewing and food industries. Von Linde had produced the first practical refrigeration machine in 1877, and his product found a ready market in the many breweries of Europe. It subsequently diversified into the commercial production of ice, construction of cold storage facilities for abattoirs and other food processing plants and many other areas of refrigeration technology. Early licensees of Linde’s patents included Maschinenfabrik Augsburg and the Swiss company Gebrüder Sulzer. By its fifty-year anniversary, the company had struck a balance – by the end of 1929 it had sold 6,599 large refrigeration machines, with 2,057 to breweries, 1,865 for food refrigeration, 727 to ice factories, as well as fourteen to mines for sinking shafts in the frozen subsoil and three for cooling furs, to name just a few. Sales were made in countries and regions ranging from Argentina and Central America to China, Japan and Russia.
Following success in this market, he moved on to developing lower temperature systems resulting in 1895 in a patent covering the liquefaction of air. Out of this work his company developed equipment for the separation of air and other gases. In addition to plants air separation, in 1906 Linde engineers started working with other on processes to separate the constituents of water gas. This work developed into capabilities in the manufacture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which were further key feedstocks for the emerging chemicals industry. Following the disruptions of the Great War, the firm resumed its march of technical progress, developing equipment to extract pure oxygen and pure nitrogen from the atmosphere – to the great benefit of industry and in particular aviation.
In addition to his interests in refrigeration, Carl von Linde had also partnered with Hugo Güldner and others in 1904 to form the Güldner Motoren GmbH in Aschaffenburg. Linde took full ownership of the company in 1929, and from this origin developed a business manufacturing first engines and tractors, and from the 1930s onwards, a range of mechanical handling equipment such as fork lift trucks.