BataStory.net

1905-1910

After his return from nearly a one-year long stay in the U.S., Tomas Bata introduces numerous innovations. It has been noted at that time that no one else did import from America such wealth as he did : not in dollars, but in experience. He even brought the plans for his new factory building, which he had got free from an American entrepreneur. Therefore he buys more land and builds new premises (80 × 20 m, with two floors) accommodating up to 500 workers, with plenty of light and space.

Prague’s National Theater announces the gala premiere of Alois Jirasek’s “Lantern”. Austrian cars began to use for the first time identification plates with numbers. Volcano Vesuvius erupts in Neapol (Italy).

The new building has first just 250 employees, while in its concept we can already figure the next overtones of the modern Zlin. Bata, however, fights with personal problems. Shortly after the completion of the new building his father dies suddenly while the disease of his brother Antonín begins to aggravate. Tomas establishes a two-shift operation and a separate sales department. He builds a quite new engine room with steam power machine of 100 horse power.

p(svet). Canada ceased to be a British colony and the last British soldiers left its Pacific coast. The U.S. Congress decided to build the Panama Canal.

Convinced of the benefits of trade unions, which he had seen in America, Tomas Bata himself proposes to the social democrats to set up trade unions at his factories. But soon it becomes clear that the trade union bosses care more for their own political interests than for the workers’. And when they organize a strike for wage increases, Tomas – after fruitless negotiations – simply dismisses the strikers. And thus he says farewell to the unions at Bata companies forever.

On the other hand, a residential area is being built for workers. It is made of houses for commuters at affordable prices, with the participation of employees to the profits. A second building process of a new type of house is quickly completed and marks a new method of planning. Workshops reconstruction is necessary because of mistakes by others. Each has its own daily and weekly accounting of benefits of this growth.

The situation gets worse in the Balkans and between Austro-Hungarians and Serbs, it ends up with a customs war. The first non-itinerant cinema is open in the Czech lands, and is operated by Mr Ponrepo – a name that will survive him.

In spite of medical treatment, Tomas’s favorite brother, Antonin, dies on the Adriatic coast. Fron then on, Tomas is the only director of the company. Losing his brother is a hard blow, and he thinks about death. Witnesses of this is the so-called ‚moral wil‘ of these years (written on notepaper headed Hotel Buecker in London) aimed at any who will be responsible for managing the company after him.

A civil servant working in patents whose name is still rather unknown, Albert Einstein, organizes a conference on quantic light. Social democrats buy, for party purposes, the Kinsky palace, renamed ‚People’s palace‘, later changed into ‚People’s house‘.

Whereas a majority of shoe factories in Austria experience unemployment around 1908 – 1909, the Bata production rises to 3400 pairs a day. At the wedding of one of his collaborators, Tomas sketches at the back of a wedding picture the plans for another extension of the company. It should have 3000 potential workers. It will later reach that figure. The yearly balance for 1911 ends with 19,630 (Austrian) crowns. It exceeded 2 millions in the year 1912.

A meteorite falls and explodes in Siberia. In Věstonice, a local worker finds a 30,000 year-old stone statuette, later called the Venus of Věstonice. Henry Ford puts on the market his most succesful model : Ford ‚T‘.

Tomas Bata buys himself the first car and the company Laurin & Klement joins with it a chauffeur. Tomas will soon get his own : an apprentice of 15, Jan Hoza, was supposed to prepare the car for a ride, but starts the engine and drives into the court with no perission. He’s punished by the boss, but Tomas cancels the sanction and appoints him as his chauffeur.

In Britain circulates the first double-decker. The French pilot Louis Blériot crosses the Channel in his motorized plane – a world première.