Wichterle & Kovářík, Prostějov

Wichterle & Kovářík, Prostějov

Prostějov-based machine company Wichterle & Kovářík had formed by the union of two initially separate company. The first to start making agricultural machinery in a small workshop in the yard of a gas plant whose co-owner he was, was František Wichterle in 1878. In 1880, Wichterle became the sole owner of the company, from whose name thus disappeared the co-owner, Mr Procházka. In 1882, Wichterle started to build a factory and a year later also a foundry. In 1888, he bought the factory of Zaoral & Co., later known as První českomoravská rolnická továrna na hospodářské stroje se slévárnou v Prostějově, J. Běhal aj. Kužela [The First Czech-Moravian Farmers’ Factory for Farming Machinery with a Foundry in Prostějov, J. Běhl, and others, Kužela], which had gone bankrupt.

Wichterle kept expanding the united factories and in 1884, his company was registered in the business registry as První prostějovská továrna na hospodářské stroje a motory, slévárna na kov a železo František Wichterle [The First Prostějov Factory for Farming Machinery and Engines, Metal and Iron Foundry František Wichterle]. In 1890, František Wichterle had built a new foundry. After his death, the factory was managed by his sons Lambert and Karel. In 1900, they bought a wood mill in the neighbourhood and towards the end of the First World War also the M. & T. Ries match factory, which they repurposed to make a firefighter station and employee accommodation. The company had business representation in numerous European countries, especially in the Balkans and in Russia.  

In 1894, engineer J. Kovářík, whose parents made their living with the slowly but certainly disappearing weaving trade, had opened in the vicinity of Wichterle’s factory a workshop to make ploughs and other agricultural machines. Two years later, his older brother František returned to his native Prostějov from the Viennese university with a diploma in machine engineering. He became a co-owner of the company, which came to be known as F. & J. Kovářík, machine factory and foundry Prostějov.  

Both companies produced similar things, that is, mainly different kinds of threshers, winnowing blowers, shellers, sorters, windlasses, etc. On top of this, Wichterle was also making made steam boilers and locomotives. In 1903, both companies added stable gasoline engines to their product range and several years later also engines driven by generator gas. In 1908, Wichterle started making four-stroke diesel engines intended to power transmissions in smaller factories.

In order to be able to compete with Wichterle, the Kovářík brothers transformed their company into a joint stock venture, which brought them strong capital backing of the Prague-based Živnobanka. In the following year, they bought a neighbouring brick factory, and in its place constructed a boiler room; in 1912, they acquired some more land and built also a carpentry workshop and an assembly hall.

During the First World War, supplies of materials for non-military production were limited and both companies had to accept commissions for the army, which forced them into mutual collaboration. This became the first step to a union of the two companies, which was initiated by František Kovářík and took place on 22 December 1918. This led to the creation of the largest Czechoslovak producer of agricultural machinery, which took the name Prostějovské továrny na stroje Wichterle a Kovářík, a spol. [Prostějov Machine Factories Wichterle and Kovářík & Co.; hence Wikov]. Already in the following year, the new company had streamlined its production range and initiated a process of partial specialisation of production activities of the two factories. Wichterle thus continued to make combustion engines and some threshers, while Kovářík focused on making steam locomotives and other farming machinery.

Postwar economic crisis forced the company to look for a new product range. As a result, they started to make powered ploughs with 50hp (this programme stopped in mid-1920) but also electric motors, pumps, equipment for gravel pits, and in 1924 also Wikow automobiles, which were made until 1933, when the Great Depression forced the end of this enterprise.  

In 1927, Wichterle and Kovářík company took part in a competition for the best farm tractor announced by the Czechoslovak Ministry of Agriculture, and two years later one could already meet Wikov 32 tractors in the fields. Initially, they made only one 32hp model in two modifications: one for industry, the other for agriculture. Later, Wikov included in its product range also a Wikov 22 tractor intended for mid-sized farms. The new Wikov 22-25 (which was again made in both industrial and farming version) already had a diesel engine; in the 1930s, these engines were also fitted into Wikov 32 (later known as Wikov 35). Tractors were made in Prostějov in this range until the cessation of production in 1941.  

The company experienced some problems in 1930, when the assembly hall for smaller machines burned down, but much more severe was the impact of the Great Depression, which forced Wikov to let go of one-half of its employees. Even under these conditions, Wichterle and Kovářík continued to make both farming and universal tractors. The decisive blow came with the decrease of demand for farming machinery in 1937. In response, the factory replaced in its product range the large types by smaller machines, but the outbreak of the war led to a further limitation of production and consequently also a reduction of product range. Wichterle and Kovářík newly also made TEMPO freewheels for bicycles. In 1939, there came the rationing of production; as a result, the production of agricultural machinery was gradually limited and replaced by war production.

After the end of the war, the factory returned to its agricultural production range and introduced some new types of various machines, especially threshers. In 1948, it was nationalised and transformed into Agrostroj Prostějov, which continued in the production of the original product range of Wichterle and Kovářík Company. After 1989, the company was first transformed into a state-owned company and in 1992 into a joint-stock company. In 1996, it entered into a limited partnership with Wikov-Slavia, but this partnership fell apart just two years later. The original production programme is currently continued mainly by two of the newly formed companies, namely Wisconsin Engineering, which makes mowers, and Agroservis Šálek, a producer of small articulated tractors.  

Thresher

Stationary threshers are agricultural machines whose purpose is to separate the wheat from the chaff, stems, and weeds. Originally, they had the form of separate stable machines; currently, they are usually integrated into combined wheat harvesters. The oldest way of separating wheat from undesirable surrounding parts was by threshing cut corn by grain flail. In the Czech Lands, this traditional way was used until mid-nineteenth century. It was a highly laborious process, demanding both in terms of time and physical effort. That is why numerous persons tried to invent a threshing machine.

An important step came with the construction of a threshing apparatus that separated the seed using a rapidly rotating drum fitted with slats or nails. These threshers were simple, light, and more effective than any earlier type. They were usually built to be driven by horse wheel. From the 1830s, simple hand threshers also came into production. In the first half of the 1840s, one can see the emergence of mill wheel threshers, and in the 1850s, large farms started introducing steam-powered threshers. Stationary threshers were powered by transmission delivered by mobile steam engines, combustion engines, electric motors, and last but not least, they were also connected to tractors.