Johann Zacherl
| Johann Zacherl | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1814 Munich, Germany |
| Died | June 30, 1888 Vienna, Austria |
| Occupation | inventor, businessman |
| Known for | Zacherlin (insecticide) |
Johann Zacherl (1814 – 30 June 1888) was an Austrian inventor, industrialist and manufacturer. Johann Zacherl made a fortune in the late 19th century by selling dried flower heads of Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium as an insecticide.
Johann Zacherl was born in Munich (Germany) in 1814 and died in Vienna (Austria) in 1888. After finishing his studies, he left Munich to visit successively Vienna, St Petersburg and Odessa down to Tiflis in the Caucasus. There, he discovered that local villagers used a natural insecticide, Pyrethrum, against vermin and began to develop its trade with Austria in 1842. This powder received different names: Lowizachek in Armenia, Bug Flower, Powder of Persia and Persian insect powder.
After a longer stay in Tiflis, he established in Vienna his company in 1855, the Mottenfraß-Versicherungsunternehmung Johann Zacherl, in the 19th district and started to sell the famous insect repellent Zacherlin. With the help of his skillful son Johann Evangelist Zacherl, he developed the Pyrethrum product line around the insecticide powder.
Zacherl developed an all-natural effective moth protection product made from Pyrethrum blossoms. He agreed with the chiefs of the villages to collect the flowers and to ship them to Tiflis. Zacherl then ground the dried Pyrethrum blossoms down to powder, filled bags with the powder and inserted these for transport to Europe in sheep leathers. He kept importing dried flower heads of Chrysanthenum Cinerariifolum and Chrysanthenum Coccineum directly from Tifflis, Georgia until 1870, when he started its production locally. His insecticidal powder was called Zacherlin. Other products were developed such as a carpet-cleaning machine "distributing over the cleansed carpet the insecticide to guard it against the attack of moth" in 1882, a Pyrethrum Soap and a tincture for destroying insects.
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