AS Franz Krull (; ) was a metal works and engineering company in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

, Estonia. It was founded by the German industrialist Franz Krull in 1865 in

Narva Narva is a municipality and city in Estonia. It is located in the Ida-Viru County, at the Extreme points of Estonia, eastern extreme point of Estonia, on the west bank of the Narva (river), Narva river which forms the Estonia–Russia border, E ...

, and in 1875 it was moved to Tallinn. The company manufactured various products, including

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s, equipment for

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

s and the

oil shale industry The oil shale industry is an industry of mining and processing of oil shale—a fine-grained sedimentary rock, containing significant amounts of kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds), from which liquid hydrocarbons can be manufa ...

, and

agricultural machinery Agricultural machinery relates to the machine (mechanical), mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are list of agricultural machinery, many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractor ...

. During the

Soviet occupation During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into three differe ...

the company was nationalized, and it became one of the largest contractors for the Soviet gas industry.

History

The company was founded on 25 April 1865, when the German

brazier A brazier () is a container used to burn charcoal or other solid fuel for cooking, heating or rituals. It often takes the form of a metal box or bowl with feet, but in some places it is made of terracotta. Its elevation helps circulate air, feed ...

Franz Joachim Heinrich Krull rented a coppersmith workshop from the city of Narva, which had belonged to the late Friedrich Ludwig Büll. The main product of the newly established company became

distillation apparatus A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been use ...

es. In 1870 it introduced a type of distillation apparatus which had higher efficiency and quality than other models of that time, and this equipment sold so well that Krull was able to buy the workshop outright.

In 1875, Franz Krull sold the workshop in Narva and moved the industry to Tallinn. In 1895, his sons Franz Krull II and Gerhard Krull took over the management of the company. In 1899, the industry moved to the

Kalamaja Kalamaja (Estonian for ''Fish House''; ) is a subdistrict of the district of Põhja-Tallinn (Northern Tallinn) in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It is located just northwest of the historical town centre, on the coast of the Tallinn Bay. Kala ...

district in Tallinn. The company also produced boilers, e.g. for the Tallinn Power Plant and locomotives, cisterns and tanks, filters and pumps, transmissions and gears, equipment for

lumber mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimens ...

s and copper smithies, and various cast iron products. Production of the distillery equipment decreased but continued to be a part of the production portfolio. Before

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

AS Franz Krull received a number of contracts from the Russian military sector, particularly from three shipyards in Tallinn which were established in 1912–1913. As a result, the company had 400 employees in 1913. The company also started to manufacture high-capacity refrigeration and ice-making equipment. When World War I started, Gerhard Krull was in Germany and could not return to Estonia. As a German national, he was afraid the company would be confiscated. To avoid this, the ownership was transferred to his brother-in-law, who immediately sold the company to the Azov–Don Commercial Bank and fled with money. Franz Krull II continued as a director of the company until his death in 1917. During the war, the company manufactured water desalination systems for cruisers, cooling systems and boilers for cargo ships, and various machines and equipment for fortresses. In the beginning of the

independence of Estonia The Estonian Declaration of Independence, formally titled the Manifesto to the Peoples of Estonia (), is the founding document which established the independent democratic Republic of Estonia in 1918. Issued during a period of intense political ...

, AS Franz Krull was taken over by German financiers. Later it was listed at the Tallinn stock exchange. The company manufactured mainly cast iron consumer goods. In 1927, it started to manufacture equipment for the oil shale industry. Between 1927 and 1938, it manufactured four tunnel ovens for the oil shale company Eesti Kiviõli. Holmberg (2008), p. 104 In 1938, the

Glen Davis Shale Oil Works The Glen Davis Shale Oil Works was a shale oil extraction plant, in the Capertee Valley, at Glen Davis, New South Wales, Australia, which operated from 1940 until 1952. It was the last oil shale in Australia, oil-shale operation in Australia, unt ...

in Australia planned to order two tunnel ovens from AS Franz Krull; however, due to time and budget constraints the deal was not finalized. Holmberg (2008), p. 76 In 1931, AS Franz Krull manufactured its first steam locomotive. The company continued to manufacture refrigeration equipment, which in addition to the Estonian market was exported to Lithuania, and occasionally also to India, Iran, the United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria. The company produced also road construction machinery, peat industry machinery, agricultural machinery, and boilers. After the start of the Soviet occupation, the company was nationalized and renamed Punane Krull (meaning Red Krull). After the start of World War II, equipment and employees were transferred to Russia to avoid capture by German forces. During the

German occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

the metal works continued in Tallinn under German administration. After restoration of Soviet rule in Estonia, the company was renamed Plant No. 9 of the Main Department of Synthetic Liquid Fuel and Gas () in 1945. The plant specialized in the production of equipment for the oil shale and natural gas industry, as well as lifting equipment. In 1949, it was renamed Tallinn Machinery Plant (). The plant production included large-scale ventilators,

centrifugal pump Centrifugal pumps are used to transport fluids by the Energy transformation, conversion of rotational kinetic energy to the hydrodynamic energy of the fluid flow. The rotational energy typically comes from an engine or electric motor. They are ...

s, high-power steam boilers, conveyors, and elevators. Its

drilling rig A drilling rig is an integrated system that Drilling, drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to ...

s were used in the Soviet Union, as well as in Albania, Romania, China and several Arab countries. In 1955, the plant was placed under the USSR Oil and Gas Industry Construction Ministry, which focused on the manufacture of construction machinery. In 1963, the plant started manufacturing air-cooled

heat exchanger A heat exchanger is a system used to transfer heat between a source and a working fluid. Heat exchangers are used in both cooling and heating processes. The fluids may be separated by a solid wall to prevent mixing or they may be in direct contac ...

s. In 1971, the plant was renamed after the communist politician

Johannes Lauristin Johannes Lauristin (pseudonym: Juhan Madarik; 29 October 1899 – 28 August 1941) was an Estonian communist politician, activist, writer and statesman who served as the first Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Estonian Soviet So ...

. After Estonia regained independence, the plant was privatized in 1993. As of 2018, it is named OÜ Tallinna Masinatehas, and its main product is heat exchangers.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Franz Krull Engineering companies of Estonia Technology companies of Estonia manufacturing companies based in Tallinn 1865 establishments in Estonia Manufacturing companies established in 1865 Manufacturing companies of the Soviet Union Companies nationalised by the Soviet Union