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227:, forced out Butcher, whose adherence to the idea of steelmaking as an obscure art of secret recipes did not serve him well when his recipes did not turn out right and he was unable to analyze why. With Butcher gone, Sellers renamed his erstwhile-namesake steel works the Midvale Steel Works. Kanigel states that the name reflected the fact that Midvale was roughly equidistant from the
160:), and the flagship Nicetown plant was, in the management's own words, "never a 'tonnage' plant". That is, unlike larger steelmakers, they did not measure their success in terms of the sheer tonnage they could manage to produce per year. Midvale's niche in the steel industry was defined early on by a scientific approach to
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steelworks), but between them. In 1872, Sellers brought in a Yale-trained chemist with a talent for organization named
Charles Augustus Brinley, who used applied science to straighten out the steelmaking formulas and processes, along the way analyzing and salvaging the scrap that had accumulated during Butcher's tenure.
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rivers; however, if accurate, this etymology was fanciful, because a look at a map of
Philadelphia shows that the plant, at Wissahickon and Roberts Avenues, was actually much closer to the Schuylkill. Perhaps the emphasis was that it was not directly on either river (as might usually be expected of a
370:, but huge financial interests still have plenty of power over big industry (railroads, oil, steel, etc.). A new company buys practically all the stock of the old company; with the ownership change also come management changes, and acquisitions of steel companies at
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Besides the railroad industry, one of the most important client industries for
Midvale became armaments. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, among many American steel companies, Bethlehem Steel and Midvale Steel especially, became the
188:) and cast-steel forgings, with a plan to make eventually a promising new product: steel rails, which would be far superior to older iron ones. At about this time in nearby Bethlehem, the predecessor company of
168:. Even after the rest of the industry caught up in terms of that transition, Midvale continued for decades to maintain a niche for itself in the area of the market defined by high quality,
223:, which would in time replace the crucibles. The company's early years were rocky. Eventually, a principal investor, the quiet but immensely influential American engineer and businessman
180:
The company began in 1867 as the
William Butcher Steel Works. The products that founders William Butcher, Jr. (a son of the founder of W. & S. Butcher Steel Works, a scion of the
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278:. Charles E. Brinley, president of Baldwin Locomotive Works during the World War II era, appears to have been the son of Charles A. Brinley, Midvale's metallurgical leader.
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Brinley hired
Russell Davenport, a fellow Yale chemist, to be his assistant. Brinley, Davenport, and Sellers led Midvale to a period of prosperity. By the
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in 1876, they "were making
Midvale into a company as congenial to a scientific approach to industrial problems as could be found anywhere in America".
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steel industry) and Philip Syng
Justice (an American manufacturer) planned to produce were cast-steel locomotive tires (that is, in British spelling,
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domestic alternatives to buying from Krupp.) An influential product of theirs since the 1910s and constantly improved through the 1930s was the
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operator, to gang boss, to engineer, to chief engineer of the works. During this time he developed the core of his philosophy of
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for steelmaking. Nicetown's proximity to one of the principal locomotive-building plants of the western hemisphere, the
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1956: Heppenstall Steel
Company of Pittsburgh merges with Midvale Company to become Midvale-Heppenstall Company
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that moved by river, canal, and rail from northeast
Pennsylvania passed by Nicetown on its way to
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was also getting into the steel rail business. The
Nicetown site was chosen because plenty of the
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Heppenstall-Midvale AG of Switzerland continues to incorporate the Heppenstall and Midvale names
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The Franklin Institute and the Making of Industrial America: Guide to the Microfiche Collection
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1872: Sellers forces Butcher out, hires Brinley, starts Midvale's tradition of applied science
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259:
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258:, which later became enormously influential (and often controversial) throughout the field of
554:"Okun Resource - Table of Metallurgical Properties of Naval Armor and Construction Materials"
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262:. Other notable people who worked for Midvale Steel or in close cooperation with it include
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projectiles for warships. Their innovation attempts at armor-making were less successful.
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of the Americas. (In fact, they built their armament businesses largely on offering the
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during the transitional era when steelmaking gradually transformed from black art to
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660:, Bethesda, MD, USA: CIS Academic Editions, Congressional Information Service, Inc
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1923: Bethlehem Steel Company acquires all of Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company
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the flagship Nicetown plant, which will be run by the new "Midvale Company"
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Midvale was never a particularly large company (relative to giants such as
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bus depot and maintenance facility built on former site of Nicetown plant
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66:-making corporations whose flagship plant was the Midvale Steel Works in
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The Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Midvale Company. Midvale 1867–1942
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The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency
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141:). Midvale also helped pioneer the steel formulas used in the early
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1880: Reorganized under new name, but same management
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Defunct manufacturing companies based in Pennsylvania
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Historic films of Midvale Steel in Philadelphia, 1919
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Midvale produced high-quality steels (including many
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325:1867: Butcher and Justice found the steelworks (
16:Steel-making corporation located in Pennsylvania
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723:Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1976
708:Manufacturing companies based in Philadelphia
718:Manufacturing companies established in 1867
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70:. The mill operated from 1867 until 1976.
698:Ironworks and steel mills in Pennsylvania
137:for use in chemical plants (for example,
250:rose through the ranks at Midvale, from
77:rose through the ranks at Midvale, from
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673:Heppenstall-Midvale AG—official website
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733:1976 disestablishments in Pennsylvania
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55:Midvale Steel Works Aerial View, 1879
693:Steel companies of the United States
212:), was another benefit of the site.
68:Nicetown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
728:1867 establishments in Pennsylvania
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651:Morris, Stephanie A., ed. (1987),
359:Midvale Steel and Ordnance Company
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404:Midvale-Heppenstall Company
322:William Butcher Steel Works
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210:Spring Garden neighborhood
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418:Nicetown plant is closed
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612:Kanigel, Robert (1997),
248:Frederick Winslow Taylor
206:Baldwin Locomotive Works
170:research and development
75:Frederick Winslow Taylor
738:History of Philadelphia
215:Midvale began with the
327:History detailed below
260:industrial engineering
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348:Midvale Steel Company
295:capped armor-piercing
256:scientific management
241:Centennial Exposition
83:scientific management
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37:40.01389°N 75.16583°W
585:Midvale Company 1942
485:Midvale Company 1942
451:Heppenstall-Midvale
362:1915: The heyday of
139:petroleum refineries
62:was a succession of
337:Midvale Steel Works
311:Formal company name
292:Midvale Unbreakable
288:U.S. War Department
268:James Buchanan Eads
221:open-hearth process
143:automotive industry
42:40.01389; -75.16583
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182:Sheffield, England
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645:: Midvale Company
627:978-0-670-86402-7
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558:. Retrieved
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95:alloy steels
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597:Morris 1987
376:Coatesville
264:Henry Gantt
40: /
687:Categories
620:, Viking,
560:2022-08-20
556:. NavWeaps
470:References
434:circa 2000
308:Year range
229:Schuylkill
162:metallurgy
158:U.S. Steel
97:) and the
28:75°09′57″W
25:40°00′50″N
574:- see MNC
463:Sources:
401:1956–1976
386:1923–1956
380:Eddystone
372:Johnstown
356:1915–1923
345:1880–1915
334:1872–1880
319:1867–1872
154:Bethlehem
107:machining
301:Timeline
233:Delaware
150:Carnegie
89:Overview
606:Sources
448:present
366:may be
176:History
119:coastal
103:forging
99:casting
624:
437:
426:
415:
394:except
378:, and
364:trusts
314:Notes
284:Krupps
274:, and
156:, and
133:; and
121:, and
105:, and
658:(PDF)
441:SEPTA
423:1980s
186:tyres
123:field
115:naval
79:lathe
64:steel
622:ISBN
412:1976
368:over
231:and
125:);
689::
641:,
504:^
477:^
453:AG
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329:)
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129:;
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113:(
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