Albert Fauck (1848–1919) – constructor, innovator, drilling expert
Emigrant
Albert Fauck was born in 1848 in Słupsk as a subject of the Prussian king; he died in 1919 in Marcinkowice near Nowy Sącz, where he was buried. For unknown reasons, he decided to emigrate to the United States, where he studied and practised in coal and ore mines. An interesting fact about the life of young Albert was the participation in the American Civil War, which broke up in North America in 1861. Unfortunately, we know neither how his service proceeded, nor even which side he fought for. All we know is that after he had sustained injuries, he took up again work in oil well drilling in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The company in Klęczany
Exhaustion from war, or perhaps premonition about the future success in business, brought him back to Europe – or more precisely, to Klęczany. In 1863 – when in Pennsylvania, two armies were clashing in Gettysburg, in the Kingdom of Poland, the January uprising took place, – Albert Fauck established a petroleum company in Klęczany and began an intensive search for oil.
Oil drilling master
This engineer quickly gained the reputation of an outstanding specialist in the field of drilling. He also tried to improve the methods and machines used in the extraction of the “black gold”. It was he who came up with the Pennsylvanian cable drilling method and improved Fabian’s shears. In 1872, he also replaced manual impact drilling with steam engines, which significantly accelerated the development of the oil industry in Galicia. His devices allowed for drilling deeper and deeper shafts – in 1898, in Krościenko, using a device called Rapid, he went down to the depth of 636 meters, and at the beginning of the 20th century in Boryslav, a device of his construction, called Ekspress, crossed the magic barrier of 1000 meters.
He shared his experience using the then emerging petroleum mining science as a medium. He participated in many conventions and conferences of Polish oil engineers and technicians. He published works in the field of oil well drilling technology – over 50 of his articles were printed in domestic and foreign technical magazines. He was also involved in similar projects internationally, for example, he was appointed as an honorary member of the Association of Drilling Engineers and Technicians. In 1900, together with Professor Roman Załoziecki, he represented Galicia at the First Petroleum Congress in Paris.
A guest of honour
Fauck is certainly one of the luminaries of the Polish oil industry. It was also thanks to his work that such a dynamic development of oil production in Galicia was possible. A German by birth, a Pole by choice – he developed a bond with his new homeland: Galicia. In 1891 he bought a manor house in Marcinkowice, near Nowy Sącz. In his home, he hosted the Marshal Józef Piłsudski himself during the battle of legionnaires with the Russians at the end of 1914 …
Inspirations:
- Albert Fauck, parafiamarcinkowice.pl
- wiedeński projekt techniczny (patent?) Alberta Faucka i Eduarda Hasenörla (Viennese technical project (patent?) by Albert Fauck and Eduard Hasenörl)
- Tiefbohrung, de.wikipedia.org
- Pabis Tadeusz, Inżynier Albert Fauck (1842–1919) (Niemiec). Specjalista wiertniczy, twórca nowych metod wiertniczych (Engineer Albert Fauck (1842–1919) (German nationality). Drilling specialist, creator of new drilling methods), in: ibid, Śladami gorlickich naftowców (Trails of Gorlice oilmen), Libusza–Tuchów 2006 and libuszamuzeum.iap.pl (Regionalna Fundacja Upowszechniania Historii Przemysłu Naftowego w Regionie Gorlicko-Bieckim) [access: 11.09.2015].
Source of the photo: Muzeum Przemysłu Naftowego i Etnografii w Libuszy (Museum of the Petroleum Industry and Ethnography in Libusza) (archive of Anna and Tadeusz Pabis)