Reading Rolling Mills Co.

Allgemeines

NameReading Rolling Mills Co.
OrtssitzReading (Pennsylvania)
StraßeNinth Street
Art des UnternehmensWalzwerk
AnmerkungenLage: Ninth Street und Kutztown Rd. Herstellung von Stahlträgern. Gegründet durch "Cofrode & Saylor" (s.d.) in Philadelphia. Betriebsleiter (1889/91): Wm. Brazier. Vmtl. kein Bezug zu "Reading Bolt und Nut Works, J. H. Sternbergh & Son"
Quellenangaben[Hexamer General Surveys, Plates 2313+2314+2449-2450 (1889+1891)] [Philadelphia and popular Philadelphians (1891) 153]




Unternehmensgeschichte

Zeit Ereignis
1867 Gebaut
1889 Gründung durch Joseph H. Cofrode und Francis H. Saylor (Brückenbauanstalt in Philadelphia)
1890 Bau der Gebäude für die Kaltsäge und die Winkelschere
1890 Vergrößert




Produkte

Produkt ab Bem. bis Bem. Kommentar
Stahlträger 1889 [Hexamer] 1891 [Hexamer]  




Maschinelle Ausstattung

Zeit Objekt Anz. Betriebsteil Hersteller Kennwert Wert [...] Beschreibung Verwendung
1889 Dampfkessel 6   unbekannt          
1889 Dampfmaschinen 6   unbekannt          
1891 Dampfmaschinen 8   unbekannt          




Personal

Zeit gesamt Arbeiter Angest. Lehrl. männl. weibl. Kommentar
1889 350           350-400 Arbeiter
1891 400           400 - 500 Arbeiter (bei vollem Betrieb)




Firmen-Änderungen, Zusammenschüsse, Teilungen, Beteiligungen


Zeit = 1: Zeitpunkt unbekannt

Zeit Bezug Abfolge andere Firma Kommentar
1889 Nebenwerk zuvor Cofrode & Saylor Inc.  




Allgemeines

ZEIT1891
THEMABeschreibung
TEXTThe Reading Rolling Mill Company whose works are located in the northern part of the City of Reading, were established in 1889, by Joseph H. Cofrode and Francis H. Saylor. Today they constitute the largest firm engaged in the manufacture and erection of bridges in the State. Their reputation extends throughout the country and the superior quality of their works has acknowledgment everywhere. The works are under the immediate control of its officers who are all practically conversant with every detail of the business. Francis H. Saylor is the President, Joseph H. Cofrode Vice-President, P. R. Foley Secretary and Treasurer, George M. Evans Auditor. These men are not only of experience but full of enterprise and have the best business capacity. It has been their aim to have the mill under their immediate control, which would lie especially adapted for rolling of high grade steel or iron required in their particular works and where the best quality and prompt delivery could be depended upon. They therefore secured a property of forty acres in the City of Reading upon which buildings have been erected in every way adapted to their purposes and equipped with the most improved machinery. There are now nearly 800 employed in the works; there have been constant changes and improvements so that at this date the company looks back almost with astonishment at the processes it used on March 12, 1890, when it succeeded in making a finished bar of iron. All the modern machinery, appliances and labor saving devices are so systematically arranged that unusual facilities are afforded for handling heavy products from one department to the other through the mill, and for weighing, inspecting and marking the finished articles and loading them on cars for shipment. Every completed piece of work is as perfect as skilled labor and improved mechanical contrivance can make it. When the Reading Rolling Mill first took possession of its present property it was used as a Rail Mill for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company; while the machinery was in perfect condition, it was totally unfitted for the manufacture of structural shapes which are made a specialty by the Reading Rolling Mill Company. Great and expensive changes were at once necessary. The single puddling furnaces were changed to doubles, draught was put in instead of blast and a new puddling mill was added, increasing the total capacity of the puddling department from 24 to 75 gross tons per day. The daily output of the works is upward of 100 tons of finished material so that the company is in a position to furnish promptly shapes of almost any size in either steel or iron suitable for bridges as structural work and of a quality unexcelled. There are distinct buildings for the machine and blacksmith shops 90 by 60 in dimensions. Work goes on in all departments day and night. Iu the main building there are revolving saws for cutting, etc. The company makes shipments of structural shapes for iron buildings and bridges in different parts of the country. They furnished the iron for the terminal of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad at Harrisburg, the iron work for the Court House and Post Office at Chattanooga, Tenn., and for various other large structures. Without the aid of the great machinery employed by this company, its work would be wholl}- impossible and whenever a new device for the manufacture of iron is invented the firm are quick to adopt it if at all feasible to their plant. In the various operations of the mill 150 tons of hard and soft coal are consumed per day. Its full capacity is about 1200 tons of finished iron per week and if a great railroad bridge was wanted in a hurry the company would take the order and fill it within so few
days that the time would be almost incredible. In the matter of sizes and styles the mill turns out structural iron angles and beams both of iron and steel, 15-inch beams up to 275 pounds per yard, 5-inch channels up to 225 pounds per yard, all sizes of round and square bars and all sizes of angles in length up to 125 feet. The company not only shape the iron but they make the tools that make it. The Directors of the Company are Joseph H. Cofrode, Francis H. Saylor, and Wm. Nelson West. The selling of all finished materials has been placed in the hands of Messrs. J. F. Bailey & Sons of this city. Capt. Bailey, the senior member of the firm has been identified with the iron business for the past twenty-five years - and is well known to every prominent user of iron iu the country. Having had in earlier years a long and practical experience in the working of iron and the treatment required to attain certain results, which was supplemented later by an intimate knowledge of the uses. He is recognized as an important factor of the trade and consulted for advice, when knotty questions relative to iron or steel manufacturing arise. These qualities will be readily appreciated by buyers of iron, so much depending on the receipt of material suitable to their branch of the business.
QUELLE[Philadelphia and popular Philadelphians (1891) 153]