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Title: |
1917 Article - American Tool Works Company |
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The Cincinnatian, Vol. 4, No. 20, May 14, 1917. Pp. 9-10. |
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10/20/2015 3:46:01 PM |
The American Tool Works Company which is now just on the point of moving into their magnificent new works at Pearl and Eggleston avenue directly opposite the Pennsylvania Depot began business under the present name in 1898 succeeding Lodge Davis & Co. and Davis & Egan, a history of which concerns is described else where in this publication The first officers of the new com pany were Charles Davis President and B. B Quillen now of the Cincinnati Planer Company Vice President Shortly afterward Charles Davis sold his stock to the well known capitalist Franklin Alter in conjunction with A. B. Voorheis and L. E. Voorheis other stockholders at the time being T. P. Egan, Robert Laidlaw and Thomas McDougall.
Under the new regime, the officers were Franklin Alter, President; J. V. Lewis, Vice President and General Manager (employed); Henry Leurs, Secretary Treasurer.
At this time Robert S. Alter, son of Franklin Alter, after due preparation came into the business beginning as an office boy.
Eventually J. V. Lewis retired and was succeeded by L. E. Voorheis as Vice President and General Manager.
Franklin Alter then secured control of two thirds of the company's stock by purchasing the holdings of Laidlaw, Egan and McDougall with the result that the organization of the company was changed, the officers being Franklin Alter, President; J.B. Doan, Vice President and General Manager and Henry Leurs Secretary Treasurer. Mr Doan had formerly started his machine tool career with Lodge & Davis as an office boy and came into the American Tool Works Company from his own business in Chicago which he was then operating under the name of J.B. Doan & Co., dealers in machine tools.
After four years of service, Franklin Alter took in his son Robert as one of the stockholders who then assumed the office of Secretary and Publicity Manager advancing to this position after having had experience in other practical departments both in the shop and office. In 1911, Mr Robert S. Alter took charge of the Foreign Trade Department and still gives his special attention to that branch of the business having traveled extensively in foreign countries on many occasions. Mr Alter is at the present time President of the Foreign Trade Association of the Chamber of Commerce.
The day before Christmas, 1915, was celebrated in the shop by a goodwill meeting between men and officers. Speeches were made by the officers and the men from the shop the latter presenting two beautiful loving cups to Mr J. .B Doan and to A. .E Robinson, Superintendent. Mr Franklin Alter was presented with a huge bouquet of American Beauty roses by th men and made a good fellowship speech which will ever be remembered. The next day-Christmas-Mr Alter met with an accident at home which resulted fatally the following February.
The remaining officers moved up the line, J.B. Doan becoming President and General Manager; Robert S. Alter, Vice President and Foreign Manager and Henry Leurs remaining Secretary Treasurer, which organization is in effect today. Mr Doan, as indicated above, has been a machine tool man from his early experience in business and also enjoys the honor of being President of the National Machine Tool Builders Association and is now serving his second term as such. Mr Robert Alter has always, from his boyhood days, been associated with mechanical and electrical ap paratus starting in at the age of 10 with his own shop at home where he built all sorts of electrical and mechanical apparatus of an experimental nature. Eventually he began preparations to become a surgeon but his father objected and caused him to divert his attention to mechanical and electrical studies in which he specialized. Mr Alter's brother, L. W. Scott Alter of Purdue University has been connected with the company for the last two years in the capacity of production expert.
One of the principal changes inaugurated by the American Tool Works Company on its inception was the development of a high grade line of tools including lathes planers shapers and radial drills all of a higher quality than those built by their predecessors, the officers contending that quality would win in the end and therefore devoted their entire energy in improving the line of machine tools, which they had "inherited". One of the first changes was the bringing out of quick change gear lathes and a few years later they claim to have put on the market the first all geared head lathes. The business grew continuously year by year until at the present time they are operating about 1,200 men. It was general comment during some of the hard times that the American Tool Works Company always seemed to be busy For this reason, which gave encouragement to the officers, every effort was made to start the building of the new works which were badly needed for many years. But it was only in the fall of 1915 that Mr Franklin Alter gave his consent and signed the first contract for material to go into the new shop. Every one regrets that he did not live to see even the first evidence of the present magnificent structure. The American Tool Works Company have always been promoters of the co-operative idea among competitors and have done much to create and cement friendships among manufacturers in lines similar to theirs.
Even before the war, the great success the company developed in home markets was due to the untiring efforts of J. B. Doan and the development of the foreign trade, which before the outbreak of the war, reached almost half of the total business, was due to the personal efforts of Mr. Robert Alter and the sales organizations, which he developed in foreign countries.
The company regrets that the new works will not be in full operation at the time of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the National Machine Tool Builders Association conventions, but they herewith extend a most cordial Invitation to visitors to this convention to not only see the new works but to view the old and see how badly modern premises were required.
Features of the new shop are that it is centralized in respect to the labor market and to shipping terminals and only a ten minute ride or walk from the hotel district.
A five story building of reinforced concrete construction, absolutely fireproof, provides a floor area of 240,000 square feet. The first glimpse of this building impresses one with its substantiality and fitness for a manufacturing plant. Eight hundred and fifty nine 20 inch diameter concrete piles of the simplex type totaling a length of 33,980 feet or nearly 6½ miles support this edifice. Each pile is designed to support 50 tons. In some instances they had to be driven to a depth of 55 feet to secure the proper setting the average depth however being 35 feet.
The fact that 750 tons of steel, 18,000 barrels of cement, 12,000 cubic yards of stone and 6,000 cubic yards of sand were consumed in the construction of this plant will convey a fair idea of the immensity of the undertaking. |
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American Tool Works Co., Factory View
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