 The industrial age did not reach Bönnigheim until 1 November 1854, when Alois Amann (1824 – 1892) and Immanuel Böhringer (1822 – 1906) established a firm for the production of twisted and dyed silk yarns in a house which had previously been a private school for boys.By 1 December of the same year, two winding machines and a cleaning machine were in operation, as well as a twisting-machine.The firm’s modest production together with some purchased yarn was dyed at the Rau dyeing works in Berg before being taken to Bönnigheim where it was wound onto a bobbin and finished by twelve women.