Linde Engineering North America History

In 1870, young Professor Carl von Linde published his theories on refrigeration.

Carl von Linde invented his refrigeration machine in 1875, and formed his own company four years later.

The success led to the 1879 launch of the Linde Corporation to produce ice machines.

Carl von Linde's 1895 invention for producing liquid air led to the growth of the TVT München division of process plant engineering and construction.

During 1903, the company built the first production plant for purified oxygen and successfully produced pure nitrogen.

Established in 1904, AGA had for much of its history been a diversified company.

The first diesel engines were built at the Güldner works in 1907; by this time, Linde controlled the majority of company stock.

Linde also built the first double-column rectifier, which allowed pure oxygen and nitrogen to be produced in the same apparatus without using any extra energy; this breakthrough occurred in 1912.

The plant in Aschaffenburg was totally destroyed during an Allied air raid in World War II, but the works were fully functional once again by 1950.

A new era for the company began in 1955 with the production of the Hydrocar, a platform truck with hydrostatic transmission.

The divisional breakdown of the company did not formally occur until 1972, but those operations traditionally followed separate paths of development.

Linde purchased a Hamburg-based company in 1973.

Its materials handling business received a boost through the purchase of Lansing in Great Britain, in 1989.

According to an April 2002 Chemical Week article, Linde ranked fourth among major worldwide industrial gas producers, tied with Air Products and Chemicals, and behind Air Liquide, BOC, and Praxair.