USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 43
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This construction, while obviously more practical than the first, was decidedly faulty, and soon followed its predecessor, never arriving at the stage of marketability. His next attempt brought ont the double-acting piston pattern patented August 27, 1889, No. 409,851. This was practical from the start, and with modifications and later improvements formed a basis for the immense business interests represented by Battle Creek pump makers today. From the peculiar construction of the Marsh piston-and the fact that it was made in the form of an extended spool, the space between the heads being constantly under live steam pressure much difficulty was experienced in providing the heads with a suitable packing that would be perfectly tight under all conditions, and to meet this emergency the improved process of making piston rings which was patented by Foster M. Metcalf September 3, 1889, No. 410,426, was developed, and is now universally used by all pump and engine builders. Its adoption was vital to the success of Marsh pumps, and proved the needed link to prevent another impending failure.
The original Marsh pumps were made and intended for but small and comparatively short stroke machines, and as the business grew and
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demands for larger pumps increased, a new design was brought out by Metcalf and patented December 16, 1890, No. 442,905, and all Marsh pumps except the few small sizes have been made under this patent.
The most important subsequent patent taken out by Battle Creek in- ventors and mechanics in the pump line are as follows : No. 452,312, May 12, 1891, by Foster M. Metcalf; deflecting valve for directing the exhaust steam used to run the pump into the water being pumped whereby it is condensed and returned to the boiler from which it came in the form of heat.
No. 469,230, February 9, 1892, by Frank A. Burnham ; improvement in deflecting valves, for the same purpose as last.
1890
COMPA
AMERICAN STEAM PUMP COMPANY
No. 468,448, February 9, 1892, by Elon A. Marsh; improvement in water valves.
No. 649,739, May 15, 1900, by Foster M. Metcalf; improvement in steam valve mechanism.
No. 713,661, November 18, 1902, by Foster M. Metcalf; improvement in air compressor valves.
No. 750,331, January 26, 1904, by Rollin D. Ackley ; improvement in steam valve mechanism.
No. 431,045, July 1, 1890, by Richard L. Frost ; steam actuated valve.
No. 598,949, February 15, 1898, by Ila N. Moore; steam engine for pumps.
No. 641,132, January 9, 1900, by Ila N. Moore ; slide valve.
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No. 492,188, February 21, 1893, by Frank A. Burnham; steam valve mechanism.
No. 561,682, June 9, 1896, by Ila N. Moore; steam engine valve.
No. 533,789, February 5, 1895, by Richard L. Frost; valve for steam pumping engines.
No. 497,470, May 16, 1893, by Richard L. Frost ; steam actuated valve. No. 519,857, May 15, 1894, by Frank A. Burnham; direct acting steam pump.
No. 544,476, August 13, 1895, by Frank A. Burnham; steam engine valve mechanism.
No. 421,355, February 11, 1890, by Richard L. Frost; steam engine valve.
No. 814,793, March 13, 1906, by Foster M. Metcalf; steam pumping engine.
No. 846,041, March 5, 1907, by Foster M. Metcalf; steam valve mechanism.
The two latter mentioned are the patents under which the new American line of steam pumps and pumping engines are made by the American Steam Pump Company.
No. 454,753, June 23, 1891; Ila N. Moore, steam pump.
The above named gentlemen were all mechanics who were originally employed by the Battle Creek Machinery Company, and from their inventions have evolved the business of the American Steam Pump Com- pany, the Union Steam Pump Company and the Advance Pump and Compressor Company. The three concerns are reputed to make more steam pumps annually than are made in any other city in the world.
AMERICAN STEAM PUMP COMPANY
The Battle Creek Machinery Company was the pioneer in the steam pump industry in Battle Creek, and its successor, the American Steam Pump Company, has developed the business from a small beginning. This company has manufactured and sold in twenty-two years 115,000 steam and power pumps and compressors. It has agencies in all parts of this country and many foreign countries. The business has gradually grown until now the factory site occupies the most of two city blocks. The company employs 250 mechanics and with its office force and travel- ing men gives employment to about 300 men. The present officers are Edward C. Hinman, president and treasurer; Leopold Werstein, vice- president; Richard R. Hicks, secretary, who, with William H. Mason and John W. Bailey, form the board of directors.
ADVANCE PUMP AND COMPRESSOR COMPANY
In August, 1902, the Advance Pump and Compressor Company was incorporated with forty-seven stockholders representing a capital stock of $150,000 which had been contributed by residents of Battle Creek for this new industry. The original directors of the company were : Charles T. Allen, Ila N. Moore, Homer A. Latta, John Heyser, Harry E. Burt and
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Lewis B. Anderson, and it was the purpose of the company to manufac- ture duplex steam pumps and air compressors with the addition of such other pumping machinery as might be found desirable from time to time.
The factory of the company is located upon the corner of Flint and Division streets, the company having acquired a large section of land from the J. M. Ward estate and erected a two-story brick building with wing attached thereto for power plant.
The business started in a modest way and has continued to improve its output yearly since organization. Its products have been exported to a large number of countries throughout the world and its pumping machinery may be found in some of the largest and best known institu- tions in our country. The special characteristics of fuel and power economy for operation have made it possible for this company to build up its business in the short period of ten years; necessitating forty factory employes and an organization that is known wherever pumping ma- chinery is used.
The management of the company is in the hands of John Heyser, president ; I. N. Moore, vice-president ; Lewis B. Anderson, secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Anderson is the active manager of the institution and has been with the company since its inception.
Recently a large shipment of Advance pumps was made for use on the Panama canal, while many are to be found in Government service and with municipalities throughout the United States for water works service, boiler feeding and other duties. The Advance plant is located on the Michigan Central railroad, on Division street-almost in the heart of the city.
DUPLEX PRINTING PRESS COMPANY
Contributed
One of the industries which for the past quarter of a century has done much to spread the name of Battle Creek through the sending of products to all portions of the world, and yet of which little is known locally, is the Duplex Printing Press Company. Because of the nature of its product there is little occasion for the average person of Battle Creek or its vicinity to visit the works or to know much of what is done there. The fact is that the company's plant is one of the largest in the world in the printing press line, and machines built there are in use throughout all the civilized world, wherever newspapers of any considerable daily circulation exist. Not only is it one of the largest plants, but it is also, if not the best-equipped, at least one of the best-equipped in the world. The company operates its own extensive foundries for both iron and brass, being thus in a position to entirely control the quality of material, rejecting anything that is not up to standard. They also have a large forge room, in which all of their work of that sort is done, none of it being let out by contract to other parties, who might or might not take an interest in the quality of material and grade of work. Even the screws
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and bolts, nuts, etc., used in the Duplex press are all made in the factory at Battle Creek. The equipment is complete in every detail.
The product of the Duplex Printing Press Company's shops is entirely newspaper printing presses. They make no presses of smaller type. Their lines comprise machines adapted for daily papers of any circula- tion from 1,000 upward to the largest in the world, and their trade has been so large, and their machines in the hands of users so uniformly successful in operation, that the name Duplex has come to be the standard of printing press excellence in the American newspaper world. In addi- tion to the large domestic trade the Duplex Printing Press Company does an extensive foreign business, having agencies in almost every coun- try of the globe, and its products being manufactured and handled in the European market under license by two of the largest concerns in the world, Linotype & Machinery, Limited, of London, England, and the Marinoni Company, of Paris, France, at whose works in Manchester, England, and in Paris, respectively, Duplex machines are being built for this large field.
The principal names connected with the company are all well known in Battle Creek affairs. Mr. I. L. Stone has always been the moving spirit in the company having started its organization and been its presi- dent throughout its history. Associated with him as officers and directors are Mr. W. W. Collier, vice-president ; Mr. E. C. Nichols, Prof. F. R. Mechem, directors; Mr. F. W. Dunning, secretary, and Mr. Chas. G. Mechem, treasurer.
The Duplex Printing Press Company was organized in Battle Creek in December of 1884, their chief possession being an idea-a patent-to which the organizers pinned their faith. The idea, crude in its develop- ment at the time of organization, was that of a flat-bed printing press capable of high speed, in fact, double the speed then considered the limit, this speed to be obtained by utilizing both strokes of a reciprocating mechanism as printing strokes, instead of printing on one stroke, and "going back empty."
For six years elaborate experiments were carried on and machines built and rebuilt in the development of the ideas and inventions of the company, for the production at a reasonable cost of a comparatively sim- ple machine embodying the devices, a large amount of money being invested in this way before any commercial use of the company's product was at all possible. But mechanical skill and perseverance in the end produced the desired press-a machine capable of printing from a web of continuously-running paper at a speed of 4,000 complete and folded newspapers per hour, and without the use of any expensive stereotyping methods and machinery. The successful flat-bed web perfecting press, the Duplex, was then offered to the newspaper world and proved by the instant demand that it met all the claims that had been made for it.
With the introduction of this Duplex stationary flat-bed perfecting newspaper press, in 1890, a unique and exceedingly important advance was made in the printing world. It was one of those instances, notable in the history of mechanical arts, in which an urgent and universal need, constantly becoming more and more pressing, was met by the invention of the means of supplying it-long sought in vain.
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Previous to 1890 there was in existence no printing machine capable of meeting the requirements of publishers of daily newspapers with circu- lations ranging from, say, 1,200 to 10,000, or under certain conditions of publication, to 15,000 and weeklies with circulations up to 100,000. The hand-fed presses were too slow-the rotary presses, involving the stereo- typing process, too costly and too cumbersome and expensive in operation.
The Duplex press, no more expensive in operation than an ordinary flat-bed cylinder press, with all the advantages of a flat-bed type printing press, but with a speed of 5,000 to 6,000 perfected papers per hour, of four, six, eight, ten or twelve pages beautifully printed and folded to half-page or quarter-page size, exactly met the demand of these papers. That this is so is proved by the fact that since its introduction the demand has been constantly beyond the supply. It is universally recognized as the only press now available adapted to the economical production of daily papers whose circulation is such as to require more speed than that of a hand-fed machine, and yet not so large as to require more than 6,000 per hour. The Duplex has achieved its present wide reputation solely upon its merits. Its makers have not spent any time proclaiming its excellences to the world. They have been very busy building the machines, realizing that these in hundreds of newspaper offices would best tell the story.
A little over two years after the introduction of the Duplex press to the market, was held the World's Fair at Chicago, in which exposition the Duplex, already becoming well known among newspaper publishers, was exhibited, and where it received first award.
The history of the company since has fulfilled the augury of this early recognition of the supremacy of its machinery. The years have been marked by steady growth and increase of plant and output, until at this writing the factory is one of the largest printing press factories in the world, and the only one devoted exclusively to the manufacture of newspaper machinery. From a small beginning the industry has grown until its main buildings cover practically an entire block of the city, other buildings and lands occupying two more, with magnificent railroad facilities, the private side track totaling a quarter of a mile in length. This growth and development was not, however, all smooth sailing. No sooner was the Duplex press established as a success and recognized as the only type of machine for the newspaper offices whose needs it was designed to meet than imitators sprang up, whose infringe- ments of the basic patents owned by the Duplex Printing Press Company had to be disposed of by protracted and expensive legal proceedings under the United States patent laws, which in their various forms dragged on for many years, all being eventually decided in favor of the Duplex Printing Press Company, which found itself then, by virtue of the merit of the machine it was building and the decision of the courts' sustaining the patent rights, practically in sole possession of the large press market afforded by the moderate-sized daily newspapers.
Additions to the plant followed with great frequency, the capacity of the factory being doubled time and again by additional buildings and equipment. The Duplex press became the standard for the small city
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daily throughout the United States and also filled a large demand in Europe and the Orient, presses being shipped even in the early years to England, Sweden, Germany and other European countries, and also to South Africa, Australia, Japan, etc. Everywhere their success was marked.
The development of this field opened naturally to the Duplex Printing Press Company the field of the larger daily papers. As the users of the Duplex flat-bed machine found their business rapidly increasing, largely due to the economies and facilities furnished by the use of the Duplex, their natural inclination was to turn to the Duplex Printing Press Com- pany again for a machine to fit their larger needs. As a result of this demand the Duplex Printing Press Company in 1904 turned its attention to the development of rotary, or stereotype, machines of improved pat- tern,-machines to be as great an advance in the rotary press field as the Duplex flat-bed had been in the flat-bed field.
But it must not be supposed that this was the first move of the Duplex Printing Press Company along these lines. As much as ten or twelve years before this date the far-seeing members of the company had realized that there would inevitably come a call for a Duplex rotary press, and at that early date the superintendent and designer, Mr. H. F. Bechman, was thinking of the problem and planning machines with which to meet the demand when it should be found sufficient to warrant going ahead with the work. Therefore, when in 1904 it was decided that the time had come to reach forward into the field of larger machines, there was no hesitation or groping in the dark for an idea. The press to be built. was already planned in its general principles, and it was only necessary to develop and perfect the details of construction. One of the old erecting rooms, outgrown by the flat-bed business and used more or less for storage, was cleared out and soon again became a center of activity, the experi- mental room in which the new Duplex rotary was developed and built. The first machine was put forward in the factory just as fast as drawings and patterns could be made, and before many weeks had passed the press, an entirely novel arrangement of printing mechanisms, resulting in great economy of space and simplification of gearing and frame work, with the natural result of extreme solidity and compactness, was ready for demon- stration and exhibition to the public.
The new Duplex rotary press attracted wide attention throughout the country. Many publishers and mechanical superintendents of press- rooms in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit and numerous other places visited Battle Creek to inspect this machine, and their opinion as to its merits was unanimous. Without exception they agreed that it was the most remarkable advance in printing presses that had been made for many years. The press first built was a 32-page stereotype machine, commonly called a quadruple press, but it fully illustrated the possi- bilities of larger machines built on the same plan, with all of the advan- tages obtained thereby.
It is interesting to note that the exhibition of this press resulted very promptly in sales in the large cities. In fact, the first press sold of this type was sold to the Journal of Commerce, of New York City. Similar
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machines were early placed in Minneapolis, Milwaukee and other cities.
The facts connected with the shipment and erection of the press for the Journal of Commerce sufficiently demonstrate the marvelous sim- plicity of the press. This machine, the very first to be sold or erected, left Battle Creek via Grand Trunk railroad at 5:30 a. m., Friday, June 22, 1906. It reached New York, 828 miles distant, on Monday, June 25. It was transferred to the pressroom of the Journal of Commerce, 32 Broadway, and erection was begun Tuesday, June 26. At midnight of Sunday, July 1, the press was ready for the forms, but at that time not a wheel had been turned nor paper put into the machine. At 1:00 o'clock a. m. Monday, the plates were put on and the regular edition of the Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin was run off with- out a hitch. In ten days from the time this 32-page rotary press left Battle Creek, Michigan, it had printed a complete edition of the Jour- nal of Commerce in New York City.
It should be borne in mind that the Duplex Company had but three of their men in New York to do this work, that these men had never erected (nor had any one else in any pressroom) a similar machine be- fore, and that these erectors were not the builders of the machine, only one of them being a machinist who had worked upon it. Had the press not been far and away simpler and easier to erect and operate than the ordinary style of machine, the above record, which had never before been approached, would have been impossible.
It was apparent at once to all connected with the Duplex Company that there would be a demand for this machine fully equal to that enjoyed by the flat-bed department, and even greater. Additional facilities were immediately required, and furnished by the erection of another large machine shop to be used exclusively for the rotary press department.
In connection with the development of this new type of press the Duplex Printing Press Company designed and built a full line of stereo- typing machinery of a quality in complete accord with that of the press it was to accompany.
But the Duplex Printing Press Company, having entered the rotary press field and not being in a rut through long building of certain types of machines, was not satisfied that this machine that they had just built, and which was admittedly a great advance, could not be still further improved upon. By changes of design, rearrangement of parts, and im- proved designs, the Duplex rotary had reduced by about fifty per cent the space required for the operation of large-sized presses, but it still continned to use two plates to each page to be printed. Obviously this was a wasteful proceeding. The simple machine should be one which operated with one plate for a page, but builders and printing press experts who had been studying the problem for many years in various factories declared that such a machine was an impossibility. This did not deter the Duplex Printing Press Company and Mr. Bechman from attacking the problem, and attacking it so successfully that within three years from their first entry into the rotary field the Duplex Printing Press Company announced to newspaper publishers that the problem was solved and a press was on the market which required no more than one plate to be made per page to be printed.
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This invention was so novel, and the claims made for it were so revolutionary and exceedingly important that the announcement was received with more or less incredulity, but the reputation which the Duplex Printing Press Company had so thoroughly established in the years gone by for progress and the practical application of new ideas in the production of improved machines, gave credit to the claims The invention which characterized this machine is the use of eylindrical or tubular, plates, instead of the old style semi-cylindrical used on all other stereotype presses. The advantage obtained by this invention is that a Duplex tubular-plate machine carrying exactly the same number of plates as any other style machine and running at the same speed will give just double the product.
The Duplex tubular was not long in demonstrating the validity of the claims made for it, and it attracted more attention and interested investi- gation, because of its novelty, than had the other style of rotary press. Although at this writing a comparatively novel machine, the tubular press is recognized and acknowledged by the leading press experts of the world to be the type of machine bound to dominate the whole rotary press field.
In brief, the history of the Duplex Printing Press Company has been marked by development of distinet and notable advances in printing press construction in every field which the company has entered. Each product has been more than an improvement. They have been radieal changes, involving new and in many respects revolutionary features. Also the Duplex Printing Press Company was the first printing press concern to develop and build a complete line covering the whole field of newspaper perfecting presses. Other companies had individually covered different portions of the field. When the Duplex Printing Press Company added to its line the rotary machines it assumed a unique position among press builders and attained a preeminence which it has maintained by the perfection of workmanship and design.
BATTLE CREEK PREPARED FOOD INDUSTRY
Contributed
Through the millions of dollars spent in this country and abroad in advertising food products, Battle Creek has come to be known as the home of the breakfast food. This is the true conclusion for the city produces and markets a greater amount of prepared food annually than any other city in the world. The food industry is the city's chief revenue producer and furnishes employment to more men and women than any other line of manufacturing in the city, although Battle Creek is one of the principal manufacturing points of the state and produces a varied line of goods ineluding printing presses, stoves, steam pumps, threshing machines and the like.
The number of concerns actively engaged in the manufacture and sale of prepared foods in Battle Creek has narrowed down to a few out of the many which have been started.
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Records show that fifty-four companies have been organized in Cal- houn county for the manufacture of cereal food and drinks, representing a capitalization of more than $28,000,000.
Nearly forty-five years ago a band of men "who believed in altruism and human progress purchased a small two-story farmhouse in a fine grove at the edge of Battle Creek and opened a water cure under the name of the Health Reform Institute." Ten years later it was turned over to the Seventh Day Adventists church and by people of that faith operated as a sanitarium. This sanitarium alienated from the faith of the Adventists is now operated under the name of The Battle Creek Sanitarium and incidental to its operation various experiments were made to perfect healthful food. Later the idea of a cereal substitute for coffee was given attention and resorting to the processes used by the soldiers in the Civil war, a beverage made of bran and molasses was evolved. No attempt was made, however, until many years later by the Sanitarium authorities to market these various food products. They merely made use of the products as an aid to the system of dietetics which has been used with splendid effect at that institution. On January 1, 1895, C. W. Post started the manufacture of a cereal coffee which he called "Postum."
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