The intuition of Michael Thonet took the moves from the observation that fresh wood is more flexible than dry wood : Starting from this consideration, Thonet and some of his contemporaries tested the bending of the wood sheets packets, dipped in boiling glue and then dried into rigid forms.

This solution, however, did not guarantee the strength of the product, because of the precarious nature of the adhesive. To overcome this problem, Thonet tried to work only on the physical properties of the wood, by excluding all the glue from his procedures, in order to recover a considerable flexibility of the material – even after aging – by increasing the smoothness between the fibers by placing them in highly humid environment.

In 1842, Michael Thonet patented the process that made him famous throughout the world: the wood strips (beech, by far the favorite for its long, regular and knotless fiber) are turned, placed in an autoclave to absorb moisture, bent by force and fixed in metal forms, and finally dried; the finishing of the pieces was followed by the assembly of the “Vienna straw”, another element that became characteristic for the company.

A real industrial process that went hand in hand with the progressive elimination of ornaments and joints, in favour of a rigorous line and careful attention to the simplification of the joining elements.