The invention of the hose is particularly closely linked to the historical development of the fire service. At that time, the use of fire buckets was still common. The first historical references to a hose date back as far as 1558. In Augsburg, sewn and riveted hoses were used for the first time to extinguish flames. It was the Dutchman Jan van der Heyde who made a significant contribution to the invention of the hose as we know it today. By using sailcloth laid out in strips and then sewn together, the hose quickly became widely used.
Although the weaver Johann Christoph Beck invented the first flat, tubular hose in 1700 by using swellable hemp, he was unable to achieve a breakthrough with this innovation. This was because the hoses produced were leaky due to uneven weaving – a deal-breaker for a functional hose. In order to bring his invention to market after all, Beck attempted to compact the hoses by immersing them in an oil bath. Although the plan worked in principle, the oil caused the fibres of the hoses to lose their ability to swell.
Building on Beck’s advances, Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar succeeded in manufacturing hoses that could be woven seamlessly and thus remained watertight. Of course, at that time they were still woven by hand. Inspired by canvas hoses, leather hoses were soon being produced as well. In 1809, a court coppersmith from Jena attracted attention with his riveted leather hoses.
Although these leather hoses remained in use by the Berlin Fire Brigade until around 1870, the precursor to the hose as we know it today was invented as early as 1836. H. F. Benzinger, a court chimney sweep from Hanover, introduced the so-called ‘rubberising’ of hoses. This made the hoses independent of the fibres’ tendency to swell. To compact the hose, it was first turned inside out after weaving and then coated with rubber in several layers. In 1865, the first rubberised hose was officially presented and, in the years that followed, replaced the leather hoses that had been in use until then.
In 2019, Vibraplast AG sells more than 6,000 SKUs of technical hoses and hose systems through its online shop, such as: highly abrasion-resistant polyurethane hoses made from Pre-PUR®, extraction and conveying hoses made from PVC, TPE, PE, EVA, silicone, etc., high-temperature hoses up to 1,100°C, electrically conductive and antistatic hoses, connectors and accessories, as well as customised solutions. Vibraplast hose products are used, for example, as extraction and conveying hoses and for the transport of bulk materials in the food and pharmaceutical industries, in agriculture, in mobile and stationary extraction systems, on machinery in the wood and plastics industries, on municipal vehicles, as cable protection hose systems in the electrical engineering sector, and as energy-saving and long-lasting diaphragm aerators in sewage treatment plants.
