And the man behind the brand is...
George Westinghouse
In the first 70 years of railroading there were 955 patents for brakes. Trains length and engine speed were both dependent on reliable brakes. The patent that finally produced the ideal train brake belonged to a 23-year old inventor named George Westinghouse.
Westinghouse patented a rotary steam engine at the age of 19 and spent three years developing a compressed air brake that vastly improved the safety of train travel. Faster trains pulling larger loads translated into bigger profits for the railroad barons. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company began generating enormous revenue.
Between the years 1880 and 1890 Westinghouse received 134 patents, almost one very 27 days. He took out 20 additional patents to improve his railroad brake. He turned his attention to railroad yards and formed the Union Switch & Signal Company to supply the first electrically controlled railroad signals.
Next Westinghouse pioneered the delivery of electricity over great distances. Thomas Edison had harnessed electricity but he was able to transmit his direct current only two miles. In 1885 The Westinghouse Electric Company introduced alternating current which sent electricity over long distances through intermittent transformers.
Edison and Westinghouse locked in the "Battle of the Currents." Westinghouse had by far the superior product; Edison's only advantage was safety since he operated at lower voltages. Victory for Westinghouse was sealed when he won the bid to provide electricity for the Columbian Exposition in 1893. Ultimately 95% of all electricity customers would use alternating current.
But it was a hollow victory. Edison, operating with J.P. Morgan, gained the ability to produce both currents and Westinghouse needed to pay steep litigation fees. The two men agreed on co-patents and Westinghouse Electric fell behind and never recovered in its battle with Edison's General Electric. Westinghouse would never be closer than a distant second to GE in electrical consumer appliances. Westinghouse Electric went into bankruptcy for a brief period and Westinghouse retired in 1911.
But Westinghouse's other companies, including the air brake, were still pumping out profits. Westinghouse was one of the largest employers in the world with 50,000 people on his payrolls. He was a leader in worker-relations and originated half-Saturday holidays back in 1871.
Showing posts with label Conglomerate Brands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conglomerate Brands. Show all posts
February 8, 2007
Tandy
And the man behind the brand is...
Charles Tandy
During World War II Charles Tandy was stationed in Hawaii. He noticed that huge amounts of leathercraft were being used in base hospital and recreation centers. He wrote a letter home to his father who was in the leather business selling sole leather and other shoe repair supplies suggesting this might be a good market for leather.
Charles Tandy returned home in 1950 and opened two retail stores devoted exclusively to leathercraft., one in El Paso and the other in San Antonio. He realized a 100% return on his investment with the help of mail order sales - an 8-page catalog to inquiries from a 2-inch ad in Popular Science.
Dave Tandy and his pal Norton Hinckley had formed the Hinckley-Tandy Leather Company back in the 1920s to supply shoe dealers in Fort Worth, Texas. Now Hinckley was not impressed one bit with this leathercraft. The men worked out an agreement where they would split the partnership and Hinckley would retain the shoe business and leave the leather purse and moccasin kits to the Tandys.
They targeted the school, hospital and armed forces markets. Leathercraft was the principal recreation during the nuclear submarine US Triton's round-the-world underwater-sea voyage. Supported by direct mail the company expanded to 150 stores through the 1950s.
In 1960 Charles Tandy became president of the Tandy Corporation. They expanded into other do-it-yourself hobbies, opening the Tandy Mart in Fort Worth in 1961. The Tandy mart features 28 hobby-related shops.
The organization acquired similar businesses: a tannery, a saddle-making firm and then bought Cost Plus (now Pier I imports). In 1963 Tandy took over a chain of nine failing Boston electronics stores specializing in selling equipment to ham radio hobbyists. They applied principles of selling leathercraft to electronics and when Dave Tandy died in 1966 at the age of 67 Radio Shack was the fastest growing chain in America.
Charles Tandy
During World War II Charles Tandy was stationed in Hawaii. He noticed that huge amounts of leathercraft were being used in base hospital and recreation centers. He wrote a letter home to his father who was in the leather business selling sole leather and other shoe repair supplies suggesting this might be a good market for leather.
Charles Tandy returned home in 1950 and opened two retail stores devoted exclusively to leathercraft., one in El Paso and the other in San Antonio. He realized a 100% return on his investment with the help of mail order sales - an 8-page catalog to inquiries from a 2-inch ad in Popular Science.
Dave Tandy and his pal Norton Hinckley had formed the Hinckley-Tandy Leather Company back in the 1920s to supply shoe dealers in Fort Worth, Texas. Now Hinckley was not impressed one bit with this leathercraft. The men worked out an agreement where they would split the partnership and Hinckley would retain the shoe business and leave the leather purse and moccasin kits to the Tandys.
They targeted the school, hospital and armed forces markets. Leathercraft was the principal recreation during the nuclear submarine US Triton's round-the-world underwater-sea voyage. Supported by direct mail the company expanded to 150 stores through the 1950s.
In 1960 Charles Tandy became president of the Tandy Corporation. They expanded into other do-it-yourself hobbies, opening the Tandy Mart in Fort Worth in 1961. The Tandy mart features 28 hobby-related shops.
The organization acquired similar businesses: a tannery, a saddle-making firm and then bought Cost Plus (now Pier I imports). In 1963 Tandy took over a chain of nine failing Boston electronics stores specializing in selling equipment to ham radio hobbyists. They applied principles of selling leathercraft to electronics and when Dave Tandy died in 1966 at the age of 67 Radio Shack was the fastest growing chain in America.
RJ Reynolds
And the man behind the brand is...
Richard Reynolds
Richard Joshua Reynolds grew up in a tobacco family. His father grew tobacco and sold it in plugs from his Rock Spring Plantation in southwestern Virginia. Richard was nearsighted and read so slowly his family at first didn't think he was bright. He was schooled in Baltimore and returned to manage the family factory.
Reynolds became convinced his future in tobacco lay elsewhere. He left and settled in Winston, North Carolina in 1874 at the age of 24. Winston was a dusty town of 1400 but it did have two things to recommend it: it was in the center of the new flue-cured leaf country that made the best chewing tobacco and a newly built railroad line split the town.
Reynolds bought a tiny spec of land by the railroad tracks and built a two-story factory that couldn't hold a tennis court. He lived on the second floor of "The Little Red Factory" and turned out 150,000 pounds of tobacco the first year in the plant down below.
In 1890 the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was incorporated. Reynolds, a 6'2" bachelor with intense dark hair and eyes, was a leading citizen of Winston. He built roads, helped establish a bank and served as a city official. He had planned to retire when he made $100,000.
Now he set out to build what he called "THE tobacco factory of the South." Reynolds was already a constant innovator in the tobacco industry. He used saccharin to sweeten the leaf (although he called it "a naturally sweet leaf grown in Winston"), aged his leaf before manufacture rather than in the plug and invested heavily in an aggressive sales force and new promotion techniques. Reynolds distributed advertising calendars with pretty girls - and his tobacco products.
By 1900 Reynolds had 25% of the nation's plug market but was looking for a new product. He blended a tobacco using Kentucky burley and packaged it in 5¢ cloths and 2-ounce tins. RJ Reynolds' nephew Richard named the new tobacco after the Prince of Wales since Americans held English royalty in high esteem. Prince Albert became wildly popular. Production in the first four years increased from 250,000 pounds to 14,000,000 pounds.
Reynolds began national advertising in 1910 touting Prince Albert as the "Nation's Joy Smoke." Sales of pipes tripled. Reynolds now made up his mind to blend a packaged cigarette the public also could not resist. In those days most cigarette smokers rolled their own and Reynolds was not going to leave anything to chance in his product launch.
He introduced four brands simultaneously to test public reaction. All names were chosen to combine simplicity and pictorial possibilities: Reyno, Red Kamel, Osman, and Camel. The first Camel picture showed a pathetic one-humped beast with a drooping neck. Was it even a camel?
Reynolds executives weren't sure. They went to a circus and lined up two camels to be photographed, a one-humped dromedary and a two-humped animal. Old Joe, the dromedary was most uncooperative. The trainer smacked him on the snout and Old Joe raised his tail, threw back his ears, and closed his eyes as the photographer snapped his shot. Old Joe became the most famous camel in the world.
The impact of Camel was astounding. Quickly 1/2 of all cigarettes smoked in the United States were Camels. RJ Reynolds died in 1918 at the age of 68 as his plants were turning out 18 billion Camels a year.
Richard Reynolds
Richard Joshua Reynolds grew up in a tobacco family. His father grew tobacco and sold it in plugs from his Rock Spring Plantation in southwestern Virginia. Richard was nearsighted and read so slowly his family at first didn't think he was bright. He was schooled in Baltimore and returned to manage the family factory.
Reynolds became convinced his future in tobacco lay elsewhere. He left and settled in Winston, North Carolina in 1874 at the age of 24. Winston was a dusty town of 1400 but it did have two things to recommend it: it was in the center of the new flue-cured leaf country that made the best chewing tobacco and a newly built railroad line split the town.
Reynolds bought a tiny spec of land by the railroad tracks and built a two-story factory that couldn't hold a tennis court. He lived on the second floor of "The Little Red Factory" and turned out 150,000 pounds of tobacco the first year in the plant down below.
In 1890 the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was incorporated. Reynolds, a 6'2" bachelor with intense dark hair and eyes, was a leading citizen of Winston. He built roads, helped establish a bank and served as a city official. He had planned to retire when he made $100,000.
Now he set out to build what he called "THE tobacco factory of the South." Reynolds was already a constant innovator in the tobacco industry. He used saccharin to sweeten the leaf (although he called it "a naturally sweet leaf grown in Winston"), aged his leaf before manufacture rather than in the plug and invested heavily in an aggressive sales force and new promotion techniques. Reynolds distributed advertising calendars with pretty girls - and his tobacco products.
By 1900 Reynolds had 25% of the nation's plug market but was looking for a new product. He blended a tobacco using Kentucky burley and packaged it in 5¢ cloths and 2-ounce tins. RJ Reynolds' nephew Richard named the new tobacco after the Prince of Wales since Americans held English royalty in high esteem. Prince Albert became wildly popular. Production in the first four years increased from 250,000 pounds to 14,000,000 pounds.
Reynolds began national advertising in 1910 touting Prince Albert as the "Nation's Joy Smoke." Sales of pipes tripled. Reynolds now made up his mind to blend a packaged cigarette the public also could not resist. In those days most cigarette smokers rolled their own and Reynolds was not going to leave anything to chance in his product launch.
He introduced four brands simultaneously to test public reaction. All names were chosen to combine simplicity and pictorial possibilities: Reyno, Red Kamel, Osman, and Camel. The first Camel picture showed a pathetic one-humped beast with a drooping neck. Was it even a camel?
Reynolds executives weren't sure. They went to a circus and lined up two camels to be photographed, a one-humped dromedary and a two-humped animal. Old Joe, the dromedary was most uncooperative. The trainer smacked him on the snout and Old Joe raised his tail, threw back his ears, and closed his eyes as the photographer snapped his shot. Old Joe became the most famous camel in the world.
The impact of Camel was astounding. Quickly 1/2 of all cigarettes smoked in the United States were Camels. RJ Reynolds died in 1918 at the age of 68 as his plants were turning out 18 billion Camels a year.
Procter & Gamble
And the men behind the brand are...
William Procter and James Gamble
1834 was a particularly joyful year for the Norris family of Cincinnati. Young Elizabeth Ann married a young soapmaker named James Gamble who was just ending an eight-year apprenticeship and opening his own shop. Sister Olivia also wed that year to a widowed, 31-year old Englishman, a candlemaker by trade.
His name was William Procter.
Both Procter and Gamble had settled in Cincinnati under distressed circumstances. Gamble was the son of an Irish minister who came to America in 1819 to join countrymen in Illinois. On the boat trip down the Ohio River 16-year old James became violently ill sending the family to shore in Cincinnati.
The Gambles found a prosperous community making beer, building ships and, above all else, trafficking in hog. They decided to stay and make their way in “Porkopolis.”
Several years later a woolen goods shop opened in London. The new business attracted attention not just from customers. When William Procter returned to his store the next morning his entire inventory of merchandise was stolen. Stunned and not knowing how he was going to repay his $8000 debt Procter headed to America with his wife to start over.
His destination was a town he had heard about on the “Falls of Ohio.” As their flatboat approached Cincinnati Martha Procter was stricken with cholera. Procter hurried to shore but his wife was dead within days. Totally dispirited Procter traveled no further. He saw little hope of ever repaying his debts and opened a small candle shop, a skill he had learned in his youth.
In 1837 the new brothers-in-law were in parallel businesses; both were buying animal fats from the great hog butchering centers of Cincinnati. Inevitably the two men joined forces to form the Procter & Gamble Manufactory. It was a natural partnership - Procter managed the office and sales and Gamble directed operations in the factory. In busier times they wouldn’t see each other until Saturday night when business notes could be compared.
At the time 18 other local firms in Cincinnati were making soap and candles. Procter & Gamble gained a reputation for fair dealing - “Suppliers of fats and oils could take a signed order from Procter & Gamble and pass it along in lieu of cash,” reported one newsman - and by the Civil War the business was the largest in town.
Shrewdly the partners planned for hostilities by buying rosin by the boatload at $1 a barrel. When war broke out and rosin prices leapt to $15 a barrel Washington authorities visited the Procter & Gamble plant. Impressed with the operation the partners were rewarded with an order to supply all Union encampments with soap and candles.
A thousand cases of supplies a day rolled out of the factory.
Each was stamped with a distinctive half moon and a cluster of stars stamped on the top to identify its contents for the many illiterate dockworkers and quartermasters. Procter & Gamble crates served as chairs and tables in Army camps and when troops scattered across the country after the war they knew the name and symbol of the Cincinnati soapmaker.
As sales spread across the nation the founders left more and more business decisions to their sons. Both William Proctor and James Gamble remained involved, however, into their eighties. In 1879 a worker accidentally left a stirring machine on too long and the soap bars became laced with air bubbles. The airy soap that floated on top of the murky bath water became so popular all Procter & Gamble soap formulas were changed. Ivory soap became the linchpin the next generation of Procters and Gambles would build upon.
William Procter and James Gamble
1834 was a particularly joyful year for the Norris family of Cincinnati. Young Elizabeth Ann married a young soapmaker named James Gamble who was just ending an eight-year apprenticeship and opening his own shop. Sister Olivia also wed that year to a widowed, 31-year old Englishman, a candlemaker by trade.
His name was William Procter.
Both Procter and Gamble had settled in Cincinnati under distressed circumstances. Gamble was the son of an Irish minister who came to America in 1819 to join countrymen in Illinois. On the boat trip down the Ohio River 16-year old James became violently ill sending the family to shore in Cincinnati.
The Gambles found a prosperous community making beer, building ships and, above all else, trafficking in hog. They decided to stay and make their way in “Porkopolis.”
Several years later a woolen goods shop opened in London. The new business attracted attention not just from customers. When William Procter returned to his store the next morning his entire inventory of merchandise was stolen. Stunned and not knowing how he was going to repay his $8000 debt Procter headed to America with his wife to start over.
His destination was a town he had heard about on the “Falls of Ohio.” As their flatboat approached Cincinnati Martha Procter was stricken with cholera. Procter hurried to shore but his wife was dead within days. Totally dispirited Procter traveled no further. He saw little hope of ever repaying his debts and opened a small candle shop, a skill he had learned in his youth.
In 1837 the new brothers-in-law were in parallel businesses; both were buying animal fats from the great hog butchering centers of Cincinnati. Inevitably the two men joined forces to form the Procter & Gamble Manufactory. It was a natural partnership - Procter managed the office and sales and Gamble directed operations in the factory. In busier times they wouldn’t see each other until Saturday night when business notes could be compared.
At the time 18 other local firms in Cincinnati were making soap and candles. Procter & Gamble gained a reputation for fair dealing - “Suppliers of fats and oils could take a signed order from Procter & Gamble and pass it along in lieu of cash,” reported one newsman - and by the Civil War the business was the largest in town.
Shrewdly the partners planned for hostilities by buying rosin by the boatload at $1 a barrel. When war broke out and rosin prices leapt to $15 a barrel Washington authorities visited the Procter & Gamble plant. Impressed with the operation the partners were rewarded with an order to supply all Union encampments with soap and candles.
A thousand cases of supplies a day rolled out of the factory.
Each was stamped with a distinctive half moon and a cluster of stars stamped on the top to identify its contents for the many illiterate dockworkers and quartermasters. Procter & Gamble crates served as chairs and tables in Army camps and when troops scattered across the country after the war they knew the name and symbol of the Cincinnati soapmaker.
As sales spread across the nation the founders left more and more business decisions to their sons. Both William Proctor and James Gamble remained involved, however, into their eighties. In 1879 a worker accidentally left a stirring machine on too long and the soap bars became laced with air bubbles. The airy soap that floated on top of the murky bath water became so popular all Procter & Gamble soap formulas were changed. Ivory soap became the linchpin the next generation of Procters and Gambles would build upon.
Monsanto
And the woman behind the brand is...
Olga Monsanto
John Francis Queeny was tall and lean with a sandy moustache. The oldest of six children in an Irish family, Queeny was 41 years old in 1900. He was hard-working but otherwise undistinguished. His career began as a $3-a-week messenger boy in 1871 in a Chicago drug firm. He worked steadily in the drug trade in New Orleans, New York and now St. Louis. It was a career that hardly foretold the years ahead.
While in New York in 1897 Queeny had married Olga Monsanto, the vivacious daughter of a Spanish father and a German mother. In 1901 with no thought of making a new career for himself Queeny founded Monsanto, named for his wife, to make extra money for his growing family.
Two years earlier his first spare-time venture, a factory to grind flowers of sulphur, burned to the ground on its first day of operation taking his $6000 life savings with it. Queeny returned home to a party that night given by his wife and said nothing to spoil the event.
Now he was taking another shot with $1500 and saccharin, a substance 500 times sweeter than sugar. It had been discovered, derived from coal tar, back in 1879 at Johns Hopkins but wasn't being exploited in America. Queeny's firm, Meyer Brothers of Germany was selling it, but no one was making it in this country, although it was easily produced. Queeny saw opportunities for saccharin in soft drinks and candy.
Queeny didn't think it would look right for a Meyer Brothers agent to set up business in his own name so he named his new company for his wife. He was an expert at selling drugs but had no idea how to make them and he risked his fortunes on an unknown foreigner. Dr. Louis Veillon from Switzerland paid off the gamble. He was 26 years old and tireless. A chemical plant was built in 45 days.
Queeny had hoped the giant German chemical trust would ignore so small a competitor, churning out only a single drug. He was wrong. They dropped the price of saccharin from $4.50 a pound to less than a dollar. Queeny sold his horse and buggy and mortgaged his life insurance to stay in business. By working constantly in 1903 he cut losses from $1502.04 to $70.63. Instead of a part-time job Queeny now had two full-time jobs.
Now the government attacked the purity of saccharin and losses climbed to $2058.05 in 1904. Under siege by the German chemical industry and the United States government, Queeny scored his greatest achievement. He persuaded friends and associates to invest $15,000 more in his business. He made his first profit in 1905.
Queeny quit his sales job with Meyer in 1907 and added an artificial vanilla to his line. The lean years ended in 1914 with the shut-down of German commerce in World War I. Queeny and Veillon had been forced to work constantly to keep the business going for over a decade. Now they had to work even harder to keep up with orders. Veillon was forced to retire in 1926 from nervous exhaustion saying, "I did not have a day off from 1914 to 1919. I think it was those years that broke me." Earnings soared over $1,000,000.
Queeny bought the illusion of prosperity forever and overborrowed and overexpanded. After the war the influx of German goods again brought Monsanto to the brink of financial disaster. Queeny sold stock, lost majority control and sent the company public in 1927 to relieve debts.
By this time incurable cancer was forming in Queeny's mouth. He lived until 1933, having saved his company when it was small and when it was big and turning over a growing chemical conglomerate for his sons.
Olga Monsanto
John Francis Queeny was tall and lean with a sandy moustache. The oldest of six children in an Irish family, Queeny was 41 years old in 1900. He was hard-working but otherwise undistinguished. His career began as a $3-a-week messenger boy in 1871 in a Chicago drug firm. He worked steadily in the drug trade in New Orleans, New York and now St. Louis. It was a career that hardly foretold the years ahead.
While in New York in 1897 Queeny had married Olga Monsanto, the vivacious daughter of a Spanish father and a German mother. In 1901 with no thought of making a new career for himself Queeny founded Monsanto, named for his wife, to make extra money for his growing family.
Two years earlier his first spare-time venture, a factory to grind flowers of sulphur, burned to the ground on its first day of operation taking his $6000 life savings with it. Queeny returned home to a party that night given by his wife and said nothing to spoil the event.
Now he was taking another shot with $1500 and saccharin, a substance 500 times sweeter than sugar. It had been discovered, derived from coal tar, back in 1879 at Johns Hopkins but wasn't being exploited in America. Queeny's firm, Meyer Brothers of Germany was selling it, but no one was making it in this country, although it was easily produced. Queeny saw opportunities for saccharin in soft drinks and candy.
Queeny didn't think it would look right for a Meyer Brothers agent to set up business in his own name so he named his new company for his wife. He was an expert at selling drugs but had no idea how to make them and he risked his fortunes on an unknown foreigner. Dr. Louis Veillon from Switzerland paid off the gamble. He was 26 years old and tireless. A chemical plant was built in 45 days.
Queeny had hoped the giant German chemical trust would ignore so small a competitor, churning out only a single drug. He was wrong. They dropped the price of saccharin from $4.50 a pound to less than a dollar. Queeny sold his horse and buggy and mortgaged his life insurance to stay in business. By working constantly in 1903 he cut losses from $1502.04 to $70.63. Instead of a part-time job Queeny now had two full-time jobs.
Now the government attacked the purity of saccharin and losses climbed to $2058.05 in 1904. Under siege by the German chemical industry and the United States government, Queeny scored his greatest achievement. He persuaded friends and associates to invest $15,000 more in his business. He made his first profit in 1905.
Queeny quit his sales job with Meyer in 1907 and added an artificial vanilla to his line. The lean years ended in 1914 with the shut-down of German commerce in World War I. Queeny and Veillon had been forced to work constantly to keep the business going for over a decade. Now they had to work even harder to keep up with orders. Veillon was forced to retire in 1926 from nervous exhaustion saying, "I did not have a day off from 1914 to 1919. I think it was those years that broke me." Earnings soared over $1,000,000.
Queeny bought the illusion of prosperity forever and overborrowed and overexpanded. After the war the influx of German goods again brought Monsanto to the brink of financial disaster. Queeny sold stock, lost majority control and sent the company public in 1927 to relieve debts.
By this time incurable cancer was forming in Queeny's mouth. He lived until 1933, having saved his company when it was small and when it was big and turning over a growing chemical conglomerate for his sons.
W.R. Grace
And the man behind the brand is...
William Grace
William Russell Grace was born in 1832 and ran away from his struggling Irish family farm at 13 to work on sailing ships. He came to Peru with a colony of Irish farmers to escape the potato famine. Discouragement, homesickness, and malaria tore the band asunder but Grace remained. At 19 he found work as a ship chandler in Callao, Peru and by 1860 he established a prosperous merchant trade in South America. He loved Peru and made Spanish his language.
Grace's health failed and he left the business to his brother as he drifted around Ireland and elsewhere before settling in New York in 1865, forming WR Grace & Company to handle the family's Peruvian business. He established the Grace shipping lines with the familiar green smokestacks.
Grace became a personal adviser to the Peru government. Largely through Grace's effort a Peruvian army and navy were established. Then he sold ships and arms for war with Chile in 1879. The war left Peru $25,000,000 in debt with unhappy bondholders. Grace agreed to take over the entire national debt of the struggling nation.
In return Grace was awarded unprecedented concessions: valuable silver mines, the entire guano output of Peru, and five million acres of land containing valuable oil and minerals. To ship it all he held the lease on two railroads for 66 years and the right to build a third and hold it in perpetuity.
In exploiting these concessions Grace did much to build up the country of Peru. To his critics, however, he was the "Pirate of Peru." His interests in shipping, sugar mills, lumber and banking extended across the Americas.
Grace built his empire completely out of the public eye. But while commuting one day on the "Sewanhaka" across Long Island Sound a boiler exploded. An old veteran of nautical crises Grace took command and organized an orderly escape, saving scores of lives. He was famous the next day and drafted as a strong businessman to fight notorious Tammany Hall. In 1880 Grace became the first Roman Catholic mayor of New York City.
William Grace
William Russell Grace was born in 1832 and ran away from his struggling Irish family farm at 13 to work on sailing ships. He came to Peru with a colony of Irish farmers to escape the potato famine. Discouragement, homesickness, and malaria tore the band asunder but Grace remained. At 19 he found work as a ship chandler in Callao, Peru and by 1860 he established a prosperous merchant trade in South America. He loved Peru and made Spanish his language.
Grace's health failed and he left the business to his brother as he drifted around Ireland and elsewhere before settling in New York in 1865, forming WR Grace & Company to handle the family's Peruvian business. He established the Grace shipping lines with the familiar green smokestacks.
Grace became a personal adviser to the Peru government. Largely through Grace's effort a Peruvian army and navy were established. Then he sold ships and arms for war with Chile in 1879. The war left Peru $25,000,000 in debt with unhappy bondholders. Grace agreed to take over the entire national debt of the struggling nation.
In return Grace was awarded unprecedented concessions: valuable silver mines, the entire guano output of Peru, and five million acres of land containing valuable oil and minerals. To ship it all he held the lease on two railroads for 66 years and the right to build a third and hold it in perpetuity.
In exploiting these concessions Grace did much to build up the country of Peru. To his critics, however, he was the "Pirate of Peru." His interests in shipping, sugar mills, lumber and banking extended across the Americas.
Grace built his empire completely out of the public eye. But while commuting one day on the "Sewanhaka" across Long Island Sound a boiler exploded. An old veteran of nautical crises Grace took command and organized an orderly escape, saving scores of lives. He was famous the next day and drafted as a strong businessman to fight notorious Tammany Hall. In 1880 Grace became the first Roman Catholic mayor of New York City.
Du Pont
And the man behind the brand is...
Eleuthere Irenee du Pont
On a wet, blustery day in the winter of 1801 a French immigrant was invited on a hunting trip in the wooded, rolling hills south of Philadelphia. Time and again Eleuthere Irenee du Pont leveled his shotgun only to have the gun misfire.
The dampness of the air was ruining his gunpowder.
Eleuthere Irenee du Pont took little game that day but returned home with something more important: a business idea. The du Pont family, headed by his father and brother, had arrived in New Jersey a year earlier with intentions of being land speculators. Eleuthere Irenee, then 31 years old, listed his occupation on his passport as "botanist" and planned to work the land and do seed exchanges with other naturalists back in Europe.
But since their arrival the du Ponts had not prospered. Now Eleuthere Irenee saw an opportunity in gunpowder. He had studied with Antoinne Lavoisier, the French government’s chemist in charge of manufacturing gunpowder. Du Pont returned to France to bring back the technology necessary to launch his own black powder enterprise.
Du Pont rode up and down the east coast searching for a suitable location for his new mills. Eventually he returned to the site of his hunting trip several months earlier. The Brandywine River in northern Delaware was in a region central to the existing states. The Brandywine flowed swiftly generating abundant water power. The surrounding hills were blanketed with virgin timber which du Pont would use to make charcoal, one of the three ingredients needed to make black powder. And du Pont, who always struggled with the English language, drew comfort from a large French population in Wilmington at the time.
From the beginning a constant lack of operating capital precipitated one crisis after another for E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. President Thomas Jefferson, a family friend from his diplomatic days in France, supplied du Pont with encouragement and an occasional government order.
Du Pont's black powder immediately gained acceptance as a superior gunpowder and blasting powder for clearing stumps, digging canals and building roads. During the War of 1812 the United States Government became a regular customer and for a time the company grew into the young nation's largest industrial firm. But after the war there was excess capacity and highly leveraged idle mills.
Du Pont was a dour, responsible man who shouldered the burden of the family debts. Twice a week he dutifully made the 30-mile trip to Philadelphia to meet the obligations of his bank notes. Finally in 1834 du Pont paid off the last of his notes. He left the bank, walked around the corner and fell dead in the street.
Du Pont's sons built on the debt-free company their father had left them. Throughout the 19th century the company grew into America’s largest supplier of black gunpowder and dynamite. By 1905 the DuPont controlled 75% of the U.S. powder market.
After World War I DuPont moved swiftly to the forefront of new chemical applications and black powder, the product that forged the du Pont dynasty, took on a lesser role. The Brandywine Mills were dismantled in 1920. And while black powder is still an important industrial and military explosive the last of the DuPont black powder business was sold in 1972.
Eleuthere Irenee du Pont
On a wet, blustery day in the winter of 1801 a French immigrant was invited on a hunting trip in the wooded, rolling hills south of Philadelphia. Time and again Eleuthere Irenee du Pont leveled his shotgun only to have the gun misfire.
The dampness of the air was ruining his gunpowder.
Eleuthere Irenee du Pont took little game that day but returned home with something more important: a business idea. The du Pont family, headed by his father and brother, had arrived in New Jersey a year earlier with intentions of being land speculators. Eleuthere Irenee, then 31 years old, listed his occupation on his passport as "botanist" and planned to work the land and do seed exchanges with other naturalists back in Europe.
But since their arrival the du Ponts had not prospered. Now Eleuthere Irenee saw an opportunity in gunpowder. He had studied with Antoinne Lavoisier, the French government’s chemist in charge of manufacturing gunpowder. Du Pont returned to France to bring back the technology necessary to launch his own black powder enterprise.
Du Pont rode up and down the east coast searching for a suitable location for his new mills. Eventually he returned to the site of his hunting trip several months earlier. The Brandywine River in northern Delaware was in a region central to the existing states. The Brandywine flowed swiftly generating abundant water power. The surrounding hills were blanketed with virgin timber which du Pont would use to make charcoal, one of the three ingredients needed to make black powder. And du Pont, who always struggled with the English language, drew comfort from a large French population in Wilmington at the time.
From the beginning a constant lack of operating capital precipitated one crisis after another for E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. President Thomas Jefferson, a family friend from his diplomatic days in France, supplied du Pont with encouragement and an occasional government order.
Du Pont's black powder immediately gained acceptance as a superior gunpowder and blasting powder for clearing stumps, digging canals and building roads. During the War of 1812 the United States Government became a regular customer and for a time the company grew into the young nation's largest industrial firm. But after the war there was excess capacity and highly leveraged idle mills.
Du Pont was a dour, responsible man who shouldered the burden of the family debts. Twice a week he dutifully made the 30-mile trip to Philadelphia to meet the obligations of his bank notes. Finally in 1834 du Pont paid off the last of his notes. He left the bank, walked around the corner and fell dead in the street.
Du Pont's sons built on the debt-free company their father had left them. Throughout the 19th century the company grew into America’s largest supplier of black gunpowder and dynamite. By 1905 the DuPont controlled 75% of the U.S. powder market.
After World War I DuPont moved swiftly to the forefront of new chemical applications and black powder, the product that forged the du Pont dynasty, took on a lesser role. The Brandywine Mills were dismantled in 1920. And while black powder is still an important industrial and military explosive the last of the DuPont black powder business was sold in 1972.
Dow
And the man behind the brand is...
Herbert Dow
“Crazy Dow” they called him. The 24-year old newcomer to Midland in 1890 was trying to tap into the vast prehistoric saltwater sea lurking beneath Michigan. But it wasn’t salt he was after like everyone else. Herbert Henry Dow was determined to distill bromides used in photography and medicine from the brine.
Even if some townsfolk could appreciate the value of chemicals they were used to evaporating to get salt, no one could comprehend Dow’s methods. He planned to separate bromides from the brine with electric current - at a time when electricity was so foreign that President Harrison refused to touch the newly installed light switched in the White House for fear of electrocution.
Dow, a chemistry teacher at Case Institute, interested three Cleveland businessmen in his venture to extract bromide from brine. Dow first tried in Ohio but was unable to get by his inherent pumping problems. As the Canton Chemical Company was going under Dow was already laying plans to start again in Midland where the bromine-rich brine lay near the surface.
Using his patents as lure Dow attracted new investors to form the Midland Chemical Company in 1892. Dow was put in charge of setting up the plant but the money men quickly tried to ease him out. Relieved of his responsibility at the plant he had built Dow worked on removing chlorine from the waste leftover after the bromine was successfully removed from the brine.
Dow’s new process produced bleach but he couldn’t interest Midland Chemical in its mass production. Back to Cleveland he went for backing - this time to the academic community. The Dow Chemical Company was created on May 18, 1897. Dow perfected his process in Navarre, Ohio and again prepared to return to Midland. He leased the land next to Midland Chemical and bought their waste brine.
Dow envisioned the time when he could produce nine tons of bleach a day.
But he was constantly thwarted by small explosions in the laboratory. Dow and his men worked around the clock in shifts looking for a solution until the problem was solved and production indeed jumped to nine tons daily. Dow then finished his plans to buy out his former partners in Midland Chemical and merge the company with Dow Chemical in 1900.
Herbert Dow had forged the new American chemical industry and now set out to export his products and break the German and British stranglehold on the world market. The foreign suppliers immediately slashed their bleach prices in half, driving all American bleachmakers out of business - except Dow. Dow continued producing bleach at a loss plunging deeper into debt as he fought for market share.
By 1909 the tide was turning and the Europeans began to withdraw from American markets. After the bromide war a real war finished the German chemical industry in the United States. The German naval blockade forced American industry to rely on American chemical producers. After the war Congress protected the chemical industry with high tariffs so the country need never rely on foreign manufacturers again.
By 1920 Dow Chemical sales soared over $4 million a year. The stock price climbed to $500 a share before the market crashed. “Crazy Dow” was now “Doctor Dow” around Midland. From the strange experiments he conducted in a shed on the edge of town he now employed 1600 people in town. Dow hired landscape architects to spruce up the town. When he died in 1930 at the age of 64 the company he started by extracting bromide from brine now had a roster of 500 products.
Herbert Dow
“Crazy Dow” they called him. The 24-year old newcomer to Midland in 1890 was trying to tap into the vast prehistoric saltwater sea lurking beneath Michigan. But it wasn’t salt he was after like everyone else. Herbert Henry Dow was determined to distill bromides used in photography and medicine from the brine.
Even if some townsfolk could appreciate the value of chemicals they were used to evaporating to get salt, no one could comprehend Dow’s methods. He planned to separate bromides from the brine with electric current - at a time when electricity was so foreign that President Harrison refused to touch the newly installed light switched in the White House for fear of electrocution.
Dow, a chemistry teacher at Case Institute, interested three Cleveland businessmen in his venture to extract bromide from brine. Dow first tried in Ohio but was unable to get by his inherent pumping problems. As the Canton Chemical Company was going under Dow was already laying plans to start again in Midland where the bromine-rich brine lay near the surface.
Using his patents as lure Dow attracted new investors to form the Midland Chemical Company in 1892. Dow was put in charge of setting up the plant but the money men quickly tried to ease him out. Relieved of his responsibility at the plant he had built Dow worked on removing chlorine from the waste leftover after the bromine was successfully removed from the brine.
Dow’s new process produced bleach but he couldn’t interest Midland Chemical in its mass production. Back to Cleveland he went for backing - this time to the academic community. The Dow Chemical Company was created on May 18, 1897. Dow perfected his process in Navarre, Ohio and again prepared to return to Midland. He leased the land next to Midland Chemical and bought their waste brine.
Dow envisioned the time when he could produce nine tons of bleach a day.
But he was constantly thwarted by small explosions in the laboratory. Dow and his men worked around the clock in shifts looking for a solution until the problem was solved and production indeed jumped to nine tons daily. Dow then finished his plans to buy out his former partners in Midland Chemical and merge the company with Dow Chemical in 1900.
Herbert Dow had forged the new American chemical industry and now set out to export his products and break the German and British stranglehold on the world market. The foreign suppliers immediately slashed their bleach prices in half, driving all American bleachmakers out of business - except Dow. Dow continued producing bleach at a loss plunging deeper into debt as he fought for market share.
By 1909 the tide was turning and the Europeans began to withdraw from American markets. After the bromide war a real war finished the German chemical industry in the United States. The German naval blockade forced American industry to rely on American chemical producers. After the war Congress protected the chemical industry with high tariffs so the country need never rely on foreign manufacturers again.
By 1920 Dow Chemical sales soared over $4 million a year. The stock price climbed to $500 a share before the market crashed. “Crazy Dow” was now “Doctor Dow” around Midland. From the strange experiments he conducted in a shed on the edge of town he now employed 1600 people in town. Dow hired landscape architects to spruce up the town. When he died in 1930 at the age of 64 the company he started by extracting bromide from brine now had a roster of 500 products.
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