# Winkler-Koch Engineering Winkler-Koch Engineering was the Wichita-based engineering firm co-founded by [[Fred C. Koch]], built around a thermal-cracking process for converting heavy oil into gasoline that Koch helped develop in the late 1920s. Sued for patent infringement by the major oil companies and effectively frozen out of the U.S. market, the firm took its technology abroad — building fifteen oil-cracking plants for Stalin's Soviet Union (1929–1932) and, through [[William Rhodes Davis]], engineering the main processing unit of the [[Eurotank]] refinery in Hamburg for Nazi Germany (1934–1935). The business Koch returned home with became the foundation of what is now [[Koch Industries]]. > [!note] Stub > Minimum-viable page created to support links from [[William Rhodes Davis]] and [[Eurotank]]. Expand with founding details, the Universal Oil Products patent litigation, and the firm's evolution into Koch Industries. ## See Also - [[Fred C. Koch]] - [[William Rhodes Davis]] - [[Eurotank]] - [[Koch Industries]]