Christian Ferdinand Oechsle (December 26, 1774 – March 17, 1852) was a German mechanical workshop owner, goldsmith and inventor.Gesellschaft für Geschichte des Weines e.V.: Persönlichkeiten der Weinkultur: Oechsle, Christian Ferdinand (1774-1852)
He is most noted for developing a method for measuring the

must weight Must weight is a measure of the amount of sugar in grape juice (must) and, hence, indicates the amount of ethanol, alcohol that could be produced if it is all fermentation (wine), fermented to alcohol, rather than left as residual sugar.

winemaking Winemaking or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. The science of wine and ...

. The

Oechsle scale The Oechsle scale is a hydrometer scale measuring the density of grape must, which is an indication of grape ripeness and sugar content used in wine-making. It is named for Ferdinand Oechsle (1774–1852) and it is widely used in the German, Swiss ...

, named after him and divided into degrees Oechsle (°Oe), is still used for official classification of

German wine German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Ancient Rome, Roman era. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the state of Rhine ...

Swiss wine Swiss wine is produced from nearly of vineyards, and the wines are mainly produced in the west and in the south of Switzerland, in the cantons of Geneva, Neuchâtel, Ticino, Valais and Vaud. White grape varieties are grown on 43% of the count ...

and

Luxembourg wine Luxembourg wine is primarily produced in the southeastern part of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, with vineyards overlooking the river Moselle. Along this river, which for 42 km makes up part of the border between Luxembourg and Germany, wine ...

Biography

Oechsle was born in Buhlbach at

Baiersbronn Baiersbronn is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality and a village in the district of Freudenstadt (district), Freudenstadt in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated in the Black Forest on the Murg (Northern Black Forest), Mu ...

in the northern part of the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

area, the son of Israel Oechsle, a master glass blower, and Christina Juditha Lieb. As a boy, he went to school there. Towards the end of the 1780s he was apprenticed to a

goldsmith A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), pl ...

and

jeweler A bench jeweler is an artisan who uses a combination of skills to make and repair jewelry. Some of the more common skills that a bench jeweler might employ include antique restoration, silversmith, Goldsmith, stone setting, engraving, fabrica ...

Öhringen Öhringen (East Franconian: ''Ähringe'') is the largest town in Hohenlohe (district) in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany, near Heilbronn. Öhringen is on the railline to Schwäbisch Hall and Crailsheim. With a population o ...

(

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

), followed by some itinerant years. In 1800 he became a master

cabinet maker A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves and/or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (s ...

at a jewellery factory in Pforzheim. In 1810 he founded a mechanical workshop in Pforzheim and among other things manufactured precision

beam balance A scale or balance is a device used to measure weight or mass. These are also known as mass scales, weight scales, mass balances, and weight balances. The traditional scale consists of two plates or bowls suspended at equal distances from a ...

s and physical and hydrostatic equipment for

laboratories A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...

and universities, as well as musical instruments. In 1820 the

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden (german: Großherzogtum Baden) was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918. It came into existence in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden and subs ...

appointed him official gold inspector. In 1829 he developed a safe

oxyhydrogen Oxyhydrogen is a mixture of hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) gases. This gaseous mixture is used for torches to process refractory materials and was the first gaseous mixture used for welding. Theoretically, a ratio of 2:1 hydrogen:oxygen is enough ...

equipment for

soldering Soldering (; ) is a process in which two or more items are joined by melting and putting a filler metal (solder) into the joint, the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal. Unlike welding, soldering does not involv ...

, and was at this time also operating a

liquor Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard ...

distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

. Oechsle died in

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the nickname "Goldstadt" ("Golden City") ...

, aged 77.

The must balance

In the 1820s Oechsle produced the first single copies of the must balance (

hydrometer A hydrometer or lactometer is an instrument used for measuring density or relative density of liquids based on the concept of buoyancy. They are typically calibrated and graduated with one or more scales such as specific gravity. A hydrometer ...

) with a scale in degrees. He realised that if it would be possible to measure the sugar content of the must, it should be possible to better predict the development of the resulting wine. From the 1830s, Oechsle must balances were mass-produced. Oechsle did actually not invent the must balance as such; different versions by different manufacturers had existed beginning more than 250 years previous. What he did do was to introduce a practically useful scale on the balance, and to put the balance into mass production. Oechsle's hydrometers were made out of metal, typically

nickel silver Nickel silver, Maillechort, German silver, Argentan, new silver, nickel brass, albata, alpacca, is a copper alloy with nickel and often zinc. The usual formulation is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc. Nickel silver does not contain the eleme ...

; the hollow body of the float was typically gilt.Dieter Oechsle: Original Oechsle-Mostwaage
, accessed on June 23, 2009 When Oechsle started mass-producing his hydrometers, sweet wines from very ripe grapes were established as the top echelon of German wines since a few decades. This development followed the accidental discovery of the first

Spätlese Spätlese (literal meaning: "late harvest"; plural form is ''Spätlesen'') is a German wine term for a wine from fully ripe grapes, the lightest of the late harvest wines. Spätlese is a riper category than Kabinett in the '' Prädikatswein'' cat ...

wine in 1775, and the introduction of the

Auslese ''Auslese'' (literal meaning: "selected harvest"; plural form is ''Auslesen'') is a German language wine term for a late harvest wine and is a riper category than Spätlese in the '' Prädikatswein'' category of the Austrian and German wine class ...

designation in 1787. It was therefore attractive to winemakers to be able to easily measure and classify the sugar content of the grape musts.

Personal life

Oechsle married Karoline Wilhelmine Friederike Gmelin (born February 18, 1778) on December 8, 1803 and they had five children.

Publications

* ''Über den Gebrauch der Most- und Weinwaage'' ("On the use of must and wine balances"), 1836 * ''Praktische Anleitung zum Berechnen der Goldlegierung ...'' ("Practical manual for calculating gold alloys..."), 1844 * ''Kleines Handbuch für Goldarbeiter'' ("Small handbook for goldworkers"), 1860

References

External links

Image of an original Oechsle must balance
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oechsle, Ferdinand People from Freudenstadt (district) 19th-century German inventors German goldsmiths 1774 births 1852 deaths