Karol Scheibler

Karl Wilhelm Scheibler
Karl Wilhelm Scheibler
Born	(1820-09-01)1 September 1820 Monschau, Prussia
Died	13 April 1881(1881-04-13) (aged 60) Łódź, Congress Poland
Nationality	German, Polish
Occupation	Industrialist, textile magnate

Karl Wilhelm Scheibler (Polish: Karol Scheibler, 1 September 1820 – 13 April 1881) was a German-born Polish industrialist, businessman and textile manufacturer.

Scheibler was born in Montjoie (today Monschau) in the Prussian Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg into a family of textile fabricants. He attended school in Monschau and Krefeld and received a practical education at his uncle's Worsted factory at Verviers (Belgium). In 1839, he worked for Société anonyme John Cockerill, a well known producer of machinery construction at that time.

Because of the riots of the Spring of Nations in 1848 Scheibler decided to leave Germany and moved to Ozorkow in Congress Poland, where his uncle, Friedrich Schlösser, had operated a textile factory since 1816. After Schlösser's death he became its commercial director. Scheibler married Anna née Werner, a niece of Schlösser, on 16 September 1854. In 1852, Scheibler and his partner Julius Schwartz bought a plot at Łódź and started to build a machinery factory. In October 1854, Schwartz sold his share to Scheibler for 10,000 Ruble, making him the sole-owner of the factory.

In 1855, Scheibler founded a spinning mill with 34 frames and a steam engine of 40 horsepower. In 1857, Scheibler employed 180 labourers and earned a turnover of 305.100 Ruble in 1860. Scheibler made large profits after cotton prices in Europe increased because of the American Civil War and sold his stock at triple the price, he became known as the "King of the Cotton and Linen Empires of Łódź". In 1870, 1,911 employees worked in his factory, which was the third largest (9.3 percent) cotton producer of Poland.