This exhibition was a major opportunity for selling British goods in Europe, as well as for meeting potential new trading partners. You can see from the German advert above that Bettmann had a display at Stand No 23 at the Leipzig Trade Fair. You can see the Wm Andrews Triumph badged tricycles in the Bettmann & Co Dutch advert, below. Unfortunately, with a competitive sewing machine market, and the bicycle an expensive luxury item rather than a necessity, business did not materialise as fast as he wished. In December 1885, he returned to the unfilled position of foreign traveller for the White Sewing Machine Company while still operating his own company. I assume Bettmann chose to resell Biesolt & Locke machines in his new company because they had no agents in Great Britain and he managed to get a good deal with the company. The larger sewing machine companies would have had a good back-up service, but presumably paid less commission on sales and already had representation in different locations. The company went out of business in 1914, after a factory fire, and Seidel & Naumann used the Biesolt & Locke name until around 1925. They introduced a new model, the Afrana, in the 1890s, which was subsequently used for the company name too. Bettmann & Co.īiesolt & Locke was a small German company, founded by Maximilian Biesolt Reinhold and Hermann Locke in Meissen in 1869. George Sawyer, his manager at White Sewing Machine Co, invested in the new company, and became chairman. His first company name was S. So he decided to start his own business, as the British agent for the German company Biesolt & Locke, buying their sewing machines in Germany for resale in Britain, as well as selling British bicycles at home and abroad. He already had good language skills and contacts in Germany. Since working for the White Sewing Machine Co, Bettmann had gained experience of commercial travelling. The very interesting report below, outlining his travels in Europe and the state of the sewing machine trade in various locations, is from 1887. So, six months after Bettmann started with White Sewing Machine Company, he was laid off.īettmann returned to work for White Sewing Machine Co in December 1885, after his own company had been established. There was a sharp drop in demand during 1885. There had been a serious economic depression in America, and the sewing machine market, dominated by Singer, was increasingly competitive. Schulte was engaged as a foreign traveller at £3 per week by a firm dealing in chinaware and pottery. In 1884 Bettmann and Schulte both changed jobs, Bettmann starting work for White Sewing Machine Co, whose European office was at 19 Queen Victoria St. Siegfried didn’t mention what job Mauritz had obtained but only that for the first two or three months he was earning slightly more than himself, working for Kelly & Co and using his translation skills to compile foreign directories for its publications. With Siegfried’s encouragement both started job hunting and both were offered jobs after two weeks of letter applications to advertisers in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ newspaper. Mauritz had already been in London for three or four weeks but had not looked for a job. On his very first evening in these lodgings he met ‘young, handsome, fair’ Mauritz Johann Schulte who originally hailed from Hanover, but had travelled to London to try his luck after living seven years in Holland. Initially staying at the Station Hotel, Holborn Viaduct, he soon moved to cheaper accommodation in Church Road, Islington. Siegfried Bettmann arrived in England from Nuremberg in 1883, aged 20. In 1888 Schulte worked at Wm Andrews for several months to gain experience of Wm Andrews bicycles. The first ‘Triumph’ bicycles, marketed the following year, were rebadged machines purchased from William Andrews, and it is believed that Triumph bought the remaining inventory of Andrews company in 1902. Mauritz Johann Schulte became Bettmann’s partner in 1887. The first company was started by Siegfried Bettmann in 1886, with funding provided by the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co.
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