Linde History of a Technology Corporation, 1879-2004

In 1877, university professor Carl von Linde obtained a patent for his refrigerator from the Imperial Patent Office--a patent for something that was not merely an invention, but the result of serious research in the basic laws of physics. Linde went on to found the Linde Company, one of the biggest German Gas and Engineering companies which became one of the models for science based industries. Today, the Linde Group, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, is a global technology company dedicated to gas and engineering, material handling and refrigeration. This book examines the history of this company in the context of the history of technology in industry.

Hans-Liuder Dienel is Acting Director of the Center for Technology and Society of the Berlin University of Technology, and Director of the Nexus Institute for Cooperation Management and Interdisciplinary Research, Berlin.

List of Illustrations * List of Tables * Acknowledgements * Preface * Linde as a Producer of Refrigeration Equipment * Linde Enters in Liquefaction and Separation of Gases * Linde During National Socialism, 1933-1945 * Linde During the Great Economic Boom, 1945-1966 * The 1970s: From Engineering to Management-Driven Business * Normal Operations for the First Time: From Reorganization to the AGA-purchase, 1984-1999 * Linde in the Twenty-first Century * Appendix