Anton Ullrich

Johannes Anton Ullrich (1826–1895) was a German industrialist, inventor, and co-founder of the Gebrüder Ullrich factories in the Rhineland-Palatinate. Together with his brother Franz Ullrich, Anton Ullrich developed the spring-loaded joint lock for folding rulers, which made it possible to measure horizontally and vertically with folding yardsticks without them collapsing. In 1886, the invention was successfully registered for a patent under the title “Innovation in folding rulers with spring locking.” At the Paris World’s Fair in 1889, the invention achieved enormous success.

Anton Ullrich’s business was continuously expanded, so that in 1887 another enamel plant was established in Schifferstadt, among other places.

In remembrance of the Ullrich brothers, a folding ruler was erected as a work of art at one of the traffic roundabouts in Maikammer.