Jakub Kryštof Rad

Jakub Kryštof Rad and Juliana Radová

Jakub Kryštof Rad, born March 25, 1799 in Rheinfelden (present day Switzerland), died October 13, 1871 in Vienna (present day Austria), was a Swiss-born physician and industrial manager of Czech-descent. Sometimes appearing as the Anglicised, Jacob Christoph, Rad, among many other professional activities, was a director of a sugar factory in Datschitz in Moravia in 1843, and invented the process and associated machinery for cutting large block sugar into manageable uniform pieces (and so is credited with "invention" of the sugar cubes).

Professional life

Invention of the sugar-cutting process

The idea to produce sugar in cube form came from his wife, who cut herself while paring down the standard large, commercial sugar loaf into smaller parts for use in the home. Rad had become involved with management of a sugar factory in 1840 (in Datschitz, present day Dačice, in Moravia, a part of the Habsburg empire). He began work on a machine for transforming sugar into cube form, leading to a five-year patent for the cube press he invented, granted on January 23, 1843.

Personal life

Rad was father of 16 children. He died in 1871 in Vienna.

Further reading

• Late 18th century Swedish sugar chest (display) referencing Rad's invention, at Deutches Technikmuseum.
• (German) M. Habacher: "Rad Jakob Christof". In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Vol. 8, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-7001-0187-2, p. 366 f. (Direct links to "p. 366", "p. 367"), see also [1], accessed 7 July 2015.
• (German) Archived February 12, 2005 at the Wayback Machine
• (German) DZDF/Museum Dačice: Würfelzucker
• (German) Archiv Reinhard Lämmel
• (German) Würfelzucker
• http://www.wissenschaftskalender.at/text/index.aspx?D=1310