Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation

Industry manufacturing
Fate sold off part by part
Founded 1917
Defunct 1956
Headquarters Grand Rapids, Michigan
Key people
 George R. Meyercord, James R. Fitzpatrick, Emory W. Stoner
Products plywood
Number of employees
 appx 1,000

Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation (1917–1956) was a conglomerate of many Michigan-based companies. It was located on Broadway Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They manufactured haskelite plywood for a wide variety of applications and vehicles of one type or another. Their office headquarters were in Chicago, Illinois.

Background

Haskell aeroplane body patent
Main article: Haskelite

Henry L. Haskell devised a way to make waterproof glue in 1913 from dried cow blood. With the use of this animal derivative turned into an adhesive he put together cross-grained thin veneer layers of wood and developed a product referred to as a flat sheet "panel" that is now referred to as plywood ("plies" of wood). The plywood was named after himself and known as haskelite. In 1915 he innovated a method to mold this plywood into three dimensional shapes using heat, hydraulic pressure and his patented waterproof glue.[1]

This plywood was first manufactured at the Haskell Manufacturing Company in 1916 in Ludington, Michigan. It was used for various things including airplanes and flying boats. Sea sleds and the pontoons of hydro-airplanes were made of haskelite. The "panels" came in sizes up to seven and a half feet wide by fifty feet long. The thickness varied by the number of layers requested. The main offices of the company were in Chicago.[1]

Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation was formed in the later part of 1917 as a spin-off from the Haskell Manufacturing Company in Ludington.[2] Its main purpose was to fulfill World War I needs for mass production of the new plywood material invented by Haskell. The Ludington factory was producing less than 10,000 square feet (930 m2) of plywood per day, while the new Grand Rapids factory, with 1,000 men, was designed to produce up to 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of plywood per day. During World War I Haskell manufactured airplane bodies for the American, British, and French armies.[3] There were over 5,000,000 square feet (460,000 m2) of haskelite plywood produced by 1918 for military airplanes.[4]

Plywood airplane fuselage construction

This new corporation came about by the forming of a temporary trust company, the Factory Construction Company of Grand Rapids. It raised the necessary money to build the new Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation factory building by selling stocks and bonds.[2][5] The plant building was located on 107 acres of land near the Fuller Station. This was a railway passenger depot served by the Grand Trunk Western Railway, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway, Pere Marquette Railway and local street-line railway.[6]

The new Grand Rapids factory was twice the size of the original factory in Ludington. It was located at 1850–1950 Broadway Ave in the northwest corner of the city.[7] The title to the property itself stayed temporarily in the trust company. It made a 10 year lease to Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation and they paid a rent of 8% net profits. At the end of the lease Haskelite Corporation bought the property and retired the trust company.[8]

Spirit of St. Louis

The original Haskelite plywood was used in commercial buildings, houses, ship construction and airplane bodies before 1920. By 1922 there were over seventy car manufacturers that were using Haskelite in one form or another.[9] The plywood material that built most of the Spirit of St. Louis—Charles Lindbergh's plane that made a 3,600-mile (5,800 km) non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927—was made at Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.[10][11] The plywood components for the British fighter bomber de Havilland Mosquito plane came from Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation.[11]

The new Haskelite factory was a one story building of nearly 105,000 square feet (9,800 m2)—522 by 201 feet (159 by 61 m). It was started in construction in the early part of January in 1918. The Michigan winter caused the ground to be frozen, but work commenced anyway because of the urgent wartime need. New roads were made to the construction site for the teams of horses that supplied the material. There were as many as 75 teams of horses coming and going to the site daily. The building was ready and occupied by April, a record time for any building constructed in Grand Rapids.[7]

Specialty plywood

Haskelite panel, 636 by 88 inches (1,620 by 220 cm) is largest plywood panel ever made in the world

The largest plywood panels ever made were manufactured by the Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation of Grand Rapids. They were built for a United States Navy boat designed to go over 50 miles per hour. The panels were made of veneer layered material with mahogany on the faces and a Spanish cedar center core. The thicknesses of the plywood panels were from 3⁄16 to 3⁄8 inch (4.8 to 9.5 mm). They ranged in area from 30 square feet to over 388 square feet (36.0 m2). The largest size was 88 by 636 inches (2,200 by 16,200 mm) long.[12]

There were different styles and types of the plywood being engineered and developed for specific niches after 1930. Some of these were for boat hulls, doors units, household refrigerators, street cars, and freight trailers. Among the dozens of new plywood materials were the brand names of KarVarT, Plymetl, Plymold, and Phemaloid.[13]

Plymetl

Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation made a plywood consisting of additional layers of metal sheet plating (steel, aluminum, copper) and were branded Plymetl (plywood + metal).[14] Plymetl plywood was used where a strong lightweight material was needed that had a high resistance to impact.[15] It was used in the making of clothes vaults and storage facilities. It was also used in ships, yachts, aircraft and vehicles, especially luxury automobiles.[3] During World War II plywood from the Grand Rapids factory was a major contributor to the war efforts in the construction of military vehicles, combat ships, fighter airplanes, and tanks.[16]

Plymold

Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation was involved with the development of a plastic veneer plywood they labeled Plymold.[17] It was known also as duramold plywood by the Fairchild Engine and Aircraft Corporation.[18][19] These veneer wood pieces were impregnated with phenolic resin synthetics for extra strength.[20] They could be shaped into three dimensions which was advantages for airplane and ship parts.[21] Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation added 21,000 square feet (2,000 m2) floor space to their existing building in Grand Rapids in 1942. The main purpose for this was the need for special shaped plywood pieces for World War II military airplane body parts and ship interior parts. The plymold material was also used in railway cars, buses, automobiles, and boats.[22]

Phemaloid

Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation made a plywood with a phenol formaldehyde resin called Phemaloid.[23] It was a fire-resistant plywood that was made electrically. It had high resistance to moisture, was of high tensile strength, and had fungi destroying properties.[24][25][26] Airplane parts were among the many uses for this specialized plywood.[27] It was also used in the railroad industry in railway cars.[28]

Hasko trays

Hasko mystic tray

Haskelite also manufactured a variety of serving trays with flower, animal, and cartoon themes. Walter F. Gibian, department supervisor of Haskelite's Specialty Division, implemented this scheme. His motive was to make economical serving trays for the general public through mass production. Up to this time they were used only as a luxury item. He accomplished this through this scheme of images on the trays and sales exceeded expectations.[16]

The next products Haskelite manufactured were in the toy market under the brand name "Hasko." These consisted of "fortune telling" mystic trays and mystic boards that were so called "talking boards" of your future. These included models of the Mystic Tray, Mystic Egyptian style Board, and the Hasko Mystic Board with different zodiac borders. "Hasko" was one of the prolific producers of these mystic "talking boards" in the world. The Hasko Mystic Trays were introduced in 1942 and the Hasko Mystic Boards in 1944. Sales exceeded four million of these mystic items by 1945.[16]

Demise

The No. 2 plant of Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation at 701 Ann Street in northwest part of Grand Rapids was sold off to an industrial buyer in 1949.[29] The company agreed to sell all their other assets of the Grand Rapids Corporation to Evans Products Company of Plymouth, Michigan, at the end of 1956.[30]

References

  1. 1 2 Factory Management 1918, p. 1036.
  2. 1 2 Automotive Industries 1918, p. 154.
  3. 1 2 "Haskelite Plant Highly Efficient". Detroit Free Press. Detroit, Michigan. October 31, 1920 – via Newspapers.com .
  4. ↑ Hardwood Record 1920, p. 36.
  5. ↑ "Business Men to Build for Haskelite Company". Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. December 17, 1917.
  6. ↑ Grand Rapids Progress 1918, p. 14.
  7. 1 2 "Haskelite Factory Completed". The Grand Rapids Press (p. 3). Grand Rapids, Michigan. April 9, 1918.
  8. ↑ "Big Plant goes up in jig time". Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. March 9, 1918.
  9. ↑ Automotive Industries 1922, p. 63.
  10. ↑ "Haskelite Used on Lindbergh's Plane", Grand Rapids Spectator, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Grand Rapids Association of Commerce, XVI (11): 11, June 18, 1927, "Made in Grand Rapids" is the tag on the material forming the important structural part of the "Spirit of St. Louis," the airplane which Col. Charles Augustus Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris. The backbone of this monoplane, which made the 3,600-mile non-stop voyage across the Atlantic, was formed from haskelite plywood, made at the large plant of the Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation, 1850–1950 Broadway Avenue, NW. In the Lindbergh plane the cabin, wing ribs, wing beams, leading edges and practically all parts of the ship in which plywood was used were of haskelite.
  11. 1 2 Beld 2012, p. 110.
  12. ↑ Edwards 1918, p. 2.
  13. ↑ Hardwood Record 1920, p. 30.
  14. ↑ Marine Engineering 1922, p. 31.
  15. ↑ Fitzpatrick, James (January 19, 1929). "Plywood in Aircraft Construction". Aviation. 26: 166–167.
  16. 1 2 3 "Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation". Hasko. Museum of Talking Boards. 2015. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
  17. ↑ MotorBoating 1942, p. 102.
  18. ↑ Flying Magazine 1941, p. 62.
  19. ↑ "New Plastic Material Solves Plane Problem". Daily Capital Journal. Salem, Oregon. January 21, 1939 – via Newspapers.com .
  20. ↑ "New Plastic Plane would give United States formidable Fleet". The Daily Courier. Connellsville, Pennsylvania. January 21, 1939 – via Newspapers.com .
  21. ↑ ""Plastic" planes formed by Dies Held Answer to U.S. Needs". Albany Democrat-Herald. Albany, Oregon. January 21, 1939 – via Newspapers.com .
  22. ↑ "Big Addition To Haskelite". Grand Rapids Press (p. 1). Grand Rapids, Michigan. May 9, 1942.
  23. ↑ Automotive Industries 1932, p. 254.
  24. ↑ Booklet About Phemaloid, Aero-Digest, 1932, p. 69, retrieved May 29, 2016
  25. ↑ Cornwall 1932, p. 59.
  26. ↑ Fitzpatrick 1933, p. 208.
  27. ↑ Galison 2013, p. 263.
  28. ↑ Railway Signaling 1945, p. 695.
  29. ↑ "Haskelite Co. To Sell Unit / Will Dispose of Plant". Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. April 2, 1949.
  30. ↑ "Evans Company Adds to Plant Holdings". Corvallis Gazzette-Times. Corvallis, Oregon. December 28, 1956 – via Newspapers.com .

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.