In 1883 Alonzo Pawling and Mauritz Weis established a tool-making and pattern-making shop in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Tool and Pattern Works (or the Milwaukee Tool and Pattern Shop). Pawling had earlier worked with Henry Harnischfeger, who had worked at Whitehill Sewing Machine Co. and found him to be a skilled machinist with good business sense, and in 1884 Pawling convinced Harnischfeger to join him. Harnischfeger bought out Weis and the firm of Pawling & Harnischfeger was born. In these early years they made an eclectic range of products, including wood-carving machines, brick machines, knitting machines, brewery machines. They also made the "Poppet Valve Governor" for steam engines. It seems that neither the carving machines nor the governor remained in their product line for more than a few years.
In 1887 Pawling & Harnischfeger rebuilt a damaged overhead bridge crane at Edward P. Allis & Co., using a redesign of the crane mechanism created by E. P. Allis employee A. J. Shaw. Shaw's ingenious design considerably simplified and modernized the mechanisms by using individual motor drives for each of the three movements of the traveling crane, replacing the earlier rope-drive mechanisms. A second crane at E. P. Allis was rebuilt using the new design, and then a third crane at a different company was built. Afterwards a new company, the Shaw Electric Crane Co., was formed by Messrs. Shaw, Pawling, and Harnischfeger to manufacture this new crane design. It is unclear what the relationship was between the Shaw and P&H companies: A. J. Shaw's designs were also manufactured by the Pawling & Harnischfeger company, which marked their entry into the overhead traveling crane market which for decades was their mainstay business. By the mid-1920s Shaw Electric Crane Co. had been acquired by Manning, Maxwell & Moore, Inc.
By 1892 Pawling & Harnischfeger began making large horizontal boring machines and drilling machines. The Panic of 1893—which lasted until 1897—led P&H to further diversify their business, expanding into earthmoving machinery and acquiring the motors and controls division of the Gibb Electric Co., after that firm had been acquired by Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. giving P&H control over a key component of their cranes. P&H would manufacture electric motors and generators, specializing in larger sizes.
 |
| Horizontal boring mill, from article in October 1921 Machinery |
In 1910 Pawling retired and Harnischfeger bought his interest in the business; Pawling died in 1914. In 1924 P&H became the Harnischfeger Corp., and expansion and diversification continued to include a broad line of construction and mining machinery. Henry Harnischfeger died in 1930 and corporate control passed to his son, Walter Harnischfeger. Within a few years, diesel engines were added to the company's products. The earthmoving and mining machinery products remained the company mainstay and at some point their engine products were phased out along with their metalworking machinery. In 1994 Harnischfeger Industries, Inc. acquired Joy Mining Machinery. In 2012 P&H Mining Equipment and Joy Mining Machinery merged to become Joy Global. In 2017 Komatsu America Corp. acquired Joy Global.
Information Sources