Western Electric Company of America

Allgemeines

FirmennameWestern Electric Company of America
OrtssitzChicago (Ill.)
OrtsteilHawthorne
Art des Unternehmenselektrotechnische Fabrik
AnmerkungenAnfangs vmtl. unter den Namen der Gründer, Elisha Gray and Enos M. Barton; bis 1870 in Cleveland (Ohio), später als "Western Electric Manufacturing Company"; nach engerer Beziehung zur "American Bell Telephone Company" Firmierung
als "Western Electric Co." (keine genauen Jahre bekannt). Um 1904 mit drei Werken: Zwei Häuserblöcke, begrenzt von Clinton, Van Buren, Jefferson und Harrison streets; Polk Street (am West-Ufer des Chicago River); in Hawthorne (8 km westlich vom Zentrum, um 1904 fertiggestellt). Vmtl. letzteres: 110 acres (445.071 qm), davon bebaut 25 acres (101.171 qm). Mit Gießerei (400 x 176 ft.), Maschinenfabrik (860 x 150 ft.), Kabelfabrik und Gummiwerk, Imprägnieranlage, Kraftzentrale mit zwei Schornsteinen (H= 250 ft.) mit Kesselhaus (20.700 sq ft. mit vier Batterien zu je vier Kesseln (H: Aultman & Taylor, Heizfläche: 5.080 sq ft., p= 150 psi, Kettenrost), Kohlelager (unter Wasser) für 5.000 und 10.000 tons. Vier Dampfmaschinen mit je 300, 500, 1000 und 1200 kW.
Quellenangaben[Engineer, 28.12.1906, S. 645] [Am. Inst Elect. Eng.: Chicago electrical handbook (1904) 127]




Unternehmensgeschichte

Zeit Ereignis
1869 Elisha Gray und Enos M. Barton richten in Cleveland, Ohio, eine kleine Werkstatt zur Herstellung von Melde- und Telegraphenanlagen ein, die Keimzelle für die Gesellschaft.
1870 Die Werkstatt von Gray und Barton zieht von Cleveland (Ohio) nach Chicago, wo sie eine Werkstatt im Stadtzentrum in der La Salle Street einrichten
1871 Umzug von der La Salle Street in die State Street. - Die Werkstatt entgeht dem Great Fire, zieht aber beim Wiederaufbau der Stadt in die Kinzie Street nahe der State Street und beginnt die Herstellung von Telefonapparaten. Sie wird Tochtergesellschaft der "Western Union Telegraph Company".
1883 Die Werkstatt in der Kinzie Street wird für die Gesellschaft ungeeignet, und ein neues Gebäude wird in der South Clinton Street errichtet.
1903 Baubeginn der Hawthorne Works




Produkte

Produkt ab Bem. bis Bem. Kommentar
elektrische Maschinen 1906 [Engineer, 28.12.1906, S. 645] 1906 [Engineer, 28.12.1906, S. 645]  
Kabel 1906 [Engineer, 28.12.1906, S. 645] 1906 [Engineer, 28.12.1906, S. 645]  




Betriebene Dampfmaschinen

Bezeichnung Bauzeit Hersteller
Dampfmaschine   Rice & Sargent Engine Company
Dampfmaschine   Cream City Iron Works, Filer, Stowell & Co.
Dampfmaschine   unbekannt
Dampfmaschine   unbekannt




Allgemeines

ZEIT1904
THEMAAllgemeines
TEXTThe observer of large and powerful machinery marvels at the manufacturing establishment which is able to turn out such apparatus in the ordinary course of its business. The observer of the small telephone instrument or of the inter-cornmunicating exchange equipment marvels perhaps at the engineering and the delicacy of the mechanism, but seldom realizes the present magnitude of establishments manufacturing such comparatively small devices. And yet a consideration of the development of the telephone for commercial use and the present enormous extent of the telephone systems of this and foreign countries, where standardization of equipment is so important an element, points at once to the necessity for concentration of this work in the hands of large manufacturers. In 1869, in a little shop on the top floor of what is now an old and dilapidated building in Cleveland, Ohio, Elisha Gray and Enos M. Barton set up a small instrument shop and this became the seed from which has grown the Western Electric Company. The firm of Gray and Barton, manufacturers of annunciators, telegraph instruments, and handling a small electrical repair business, moved the following year to Chicago and established themselves in an unpretentious shop in the
center of town on La Salle street, performing the same line of work that they had done in Cleveland. Moving to State street the following year, they escaped the big Chicago fire of 1871, but when the city was rebuilt, they set up again on Kinzie street near State street. In this shop they began the manufacture of telephone instruments for commercial operation, as well as extending their telegraph instrument manufacture, and becoming affiliated with the Western Union Telegraph Company, incorporated themselves under the name of the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. Later, when a closer relationship developed with the American Bell Telephone Company, then in its infancy, the company again reorganized under the name of Western Electric Company, of which Mr. Barton of the original firm of
Gray and Barton is now President. While most of the large electrical manufacturers have established their works in small country towns or suburban places, it naturally followed that the Western Electric Company, from its start a city concern, should have its growth in the city, and when in 1883 the Kinzie street shop of the Company became inadequate, a new building was erected on South Clinton street. It is a notable fact, as showing the possible success of city factories, that to-day with twenty-two establishments in various parts of the world, and with eight of those establishments manufacturing, all are located in large commercial centers. Since its very beginning, the growth of the Company has kept step with the development and popular usefulness of the telephone; in addition to its telephone business, it has successfully taken up the manufacture of power and lighting apparatus, and has also carried on a jobbing business in electrical supplies, which is to-day the largest in America. It is to the telephone business, however, that the magnitude of the Company is to be attributed. As sole manufacturer for the American Bell Telephone Company's interests, its shops have always been filled with telephone work. A glance at the American Telephone and Telegraph Company statement of operations for April, 1904, indicates something of the demands made
upon the manufacturing company supplying the entire equipment. The total number of outstanding instruments on that date was over 4.000.000, an increase of approximately one quarter of a million over the previous year, while five years before the system had 1.125.000 instruments outstanding and ten years before less than 600,000, an increase in five years amounting to nearly 300 per cent and in ten years to nearly 600 per cent. This evident success of the American Bell system can be attributed in a degree to the superiority of workmanship in the Western Electric factories, a superiority which has been achieved and is maintained largely by the extensive inspection methods employed. The influence of the factory inspector is felt everywhere. The workman realizes that his product will be rejected if not up to standard; the foreman is continually reminded that he must maintain the high quality of his output. The factories are literally policed by inspectors who stand for the superiority of the product and the rights of customers. To guarantee the quality of the apparatus, the inspection begins with the receipt of the raw material, every particular class of material being tested under specifications issued in advance from the engineering departments, and each lot of material receiving the approval of the chief inspector before it becomes a part of the general stock. All machines on which raw material is to be worked are set up by expert machinists, and sample products are gauged and inspected by the department inspector before the work is actually begun. The inspector exercises such a supervision over the work as may be needed to guard against faults and he may order the complete output held for his final approval if that seems desirable or necessary. When manufactured parts are finished by any department, the foreman turns them into the combination Counting and Inspection Department, which keeps a card record of special instructions for each kind of piece made. Under this inspection, the pieces are counted, sorted and all that are perfect arc credited to the foreman and turned into the piece parts stockroom. In the assembling of parts, the various operations are followed by the necessary tests and accurate gauges are used in
making adjustments; when the apparatus is completed, it is delivered to the Department of Final Inspection,
where each piece is inspected, gauged, tested and in some cases specially adjusted. This final inspection is supposed to be as critical as is practicable to apply to the thousands of pieces of apparatus turned out daily, and
on the approval of this inspection, apparatus is placed in stock. As a further check to insure care in manufacture, as well as to test the reliability and durability of the output, an Engineering Inspection Department is maintained.
This department, provided with complete files of drawings and specifications and accurate testing devices, as well as with a knowledge of the requirements and use of the apparatus, inspects complete installations, investigates complaints, and studies, both in the laboratory and in the systems of customers, the effect of wear and of service conditions. The engineering inspection puts a check on the entire series of routine inspections. It watches the lists of apparatus approved by the Department of Final Inspection, and continually draws from stock various types of apparatus supposedly ready for shipment to customers. The inspection of this stock material is of the most searching character; tests, gauges and wearing processes are devised to show failure, unreliability or inefficiency in service. Each type of apparatus is taken apart or worn out for the purpose of developing any possible weakness, inconvenience or inaccessibility of parts, or concealed faults. Any unsatisfactory workmanship is noted and in case of discovery of actual defects, the entire supply may be ordered back into the shop for repairs and re-inspection. This high efficiency in the inspection work is one of the secrets of success in manufacturing which has carried the Western Electric product into all the markets of the world. But it is not the purpose to dwell upon the telephone
apparatus or the telephone installations of the Western Electric Company, nor to tell of its output of power and
lighting apparatus which is scattered throughout the states, nor to point to the acknowledged efficiency of that portion of the business covering the distribution of supplies. The development of electrical engineering and
the growth of the demands made upon manufacturers have been so rapid that few have found the time to devote to the perfection of factories; on this account the perfected factories of the Western Electric Company are of special interest. In erecting the buildings, it has always been the policy of the Western Electric Company to use the best material and construction. At the time the first buildings were erected on South Clinton street in 1883, the interior
construction was with cast-iron columns and iron girders, steel beams not being made at that time. Wooden joists
were used, with double floors of pine and maple. As additions were made to the buildings, the construction was improved, and the next step was the use of mill construction. Then came the use of flitch beams, these beams resting on iron girders and being composed of channel irons with small joists between, to serve as a nailing for the floors. In 1896, when further buildings were erected, fireproof construction was used throughout, and when metallic window frames and wire-glass came into vogue, this construction was adopted, and in some cases, in order to reduce the fire risk, all of the woodwork used in sections devoted to office use was rendered fire-proof by a patented process. All of the buildings recently erected have been of the highest class of fireproof construction, all elevators and stairways being enclosed within brick walls, sprinkler systems installed throughout and every precaution taken against loss of life by numerous fire escapes and fireproof bridges connecting buildings. There are at present three separate works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. One of these occupies nearly all of the two blocks bounded by Clinton, Van Buren, Jefferson and Harrison streets; another located at Polk street on the west bank of the Chicago river, and at third, the erection of which is now about complete, at Hawthorne, five miles west of the center of Chicago.
Within the past five years the Western Electric Company has rebuilt its plants at London, Antwerp and Berlin, and is at present increasing its facilities for foreign manufacture. In American cities it has added steadily to the number of its selling and warehouse buildings, and aside from the construction work now in process at Chicago, is just finishing a new plant at Philadelphia. Over 67 acres of floor space are now occupied by Western Electric houses.
QUELLE[Am. Inst Elect. Eng.: Chicago electrical handbook (1904) 127+142]


ZEIT1904
THEMAClinton Street Works
TEXTThe Clinton street works, which represents a gradual growth on property acquired from time to time as more space was needed, and which represents an assembly of buildings rather than a carefully designed and united whole, consists of twenty-four separate structures, nearly all of which are of solid fireproof construction and connected by bridges and subways. There are 915.037 square feet or more than twenty-one acres of floor space available for manufacturing and office use; in this plant alone, are employed between four thousand and five thousand men and women. The electrical equipment consists of seven generating units of Western Electric manufacture, with a capacity of over 2,500 kilowatts for factory use. There are about 325 telephone stations, which, in combination with the thoroughly modern telephone exchange, connect all buildings and departments. On the eighth floor of one group of these buildings are arranged the offices, many of them rich in their appointments and all designed for economy in the routine of office work. One of the most interesting features of the Clinton street plant is its system for fire protection. At the pumping station, which is amply protected against falling buildings, there are two 1.500-gallon pumps, discharging under a pressure of 100 pounds into eleven street hydrants, and into nineteen 6-inch standpipes, which extend from basement to roof at each principal stairway and which have fifty feet of 2,5-inch hose at each floor with 2,5-inch connections at the roof; liquid fire extinguishers, sand buckets and water pails are well distributed over the entire plant. The private fire alarm system consists of 136 boxes, a box being located upon each floor at each stairway and connecting directly with the Fire Department headquarters, where is located the switchboard arranged both to register all fire alarm calls and give notice of the action of the sprinkler system at any particular section of the plant. For protection at night there are 111 watch service boxes, so distributed through the factory that a registration is made by watchmen every two minutes from 5:30 P. M. to 7:30 A. M. The entire factory is equipped with automatic sprinklers, receiving water direct from headers supplied from pumps and from high pressure and gravity tanks located upon the roofs of the different buildings. The fire station is a two-story brick building, similar in design to the standard fire engine house. Upon the second floor are beds for a
captain and nine men, with abundant lavatory and locker facilities. A pole connects with the floor below. The fire house equipment consists of two hose carts, each carrying 500 feet of hose, extra nozzles, ladders, pike poles, axes, tarpaulins and all connections for a 2,5 and 3,5- inch hose. The day force of the Fire Department consists
of one chief, two assistants and sixteen men, all of the latter being employed in a department adjacent to the
fire station. The night force consists of the chief, one assistant and sixteen men, these men comprising the
force of night watchmen, eight of whom are patrolling the factory while the other eight are stationed in the
fire house. The fire brigade is given each week a practice drill, and in case no fire alarm is turned in, a false
alarm is given at least once a week for a practice run. A systematic course of instruction as to the proper use
of apparatus in case of fire is given periodically to a large number of employees, some being selected from each
department for this purpose.
QUELLE[Am. Inst Elect. Eng.: Chicago electrical handbook (1904) 132]


ZEIT1904
THEMAPolk Street Plant
TEXTThe Polk street plant, which at present is devoted to the manufacture of lead-covered telephone cables and to warehouse purposes, covers 220,000 square feet of ground and has railroad and c'ock facilities. This is the most complete cable factory in the West, but as all the work carried on there is about to be transferred to Hawthorne, where superior facilities have been provided, and the vacant space devoted to storage of material, the construction and description of buildings will not be given.
QUELLE[Am. Inst Elect. Eng.: Chicago electrical handbook (1904) 134]


ZEIT1904
THEMAHawthorne Works
TEXTEarly in the year 1903 the Company commenced the erection of a new plant now known as "Hawthorne Works," on property acquired in the southwest portion of the city, bounded by 22d street on the north, South 48th avenue on the west, the "Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway" and 26th street on the south, and 44th court on the east, the area being about 125 acres and divided nearly in the center, north and south, by the Belt Railway. To this point will be moved first the large machinery business of the Company which is at present located at the Clinton street plant, second, the cable work now done at Polk street, and in addition a factory has been made ready for the manufacture of
insulating material. Occupancy will commence some time in October or November of this year. The buildings erected consist of foundry, machine shop, blacksmith shop, pattern shop, pattern storage, office building, gas plant, water tower, pump house and power plant - all west of the Belt Railway, and a group of one-story buildings for the manufacture of telephone and power lead-covered cable, insulating material and wood working, on the east side of the Belt Railway. Provision has been made for future expansion in all lines of work, the present construction work being carried out under a general plan providing for some fifty buildings. There are ample railway facilities, including connections with the Belt Line, Chicago, Burlington it Quincy, Chicago Terminal Transfer and Illinois Central railroads. A general system of underground tunnels in connection with subways under the Belt Railway permits of the
easy transfer of material and distribution of pipe, cable and intercommunicating equipment from one part of
the plant to another. Water for general use is raised by means of compressed air from deep wells. A large excavation has been made to retain this water in reserve. The foundry, the first building in the group, is located on 48th avenue. It is of standard steel construction, about 400 feet long and 175 feet wide, and is divided into three sections. The center section has a span of about 72 feet and is devoted to the manufacture of heavy castings. The west side is for light work, and the east contains sand bins, a charging floor, core ovens and pro-
vision for flask making and pattern storage. Coke is delivered direct from the cars into a brick enclosure which is outside of the east wall, and all material is carried to the charging floor upon an elevator in suitable cars
provided for that purpose. The cupola capacity is thirty tons per hour. Blast is provided from positive pressure blowers, direct connected to motors mounted upon the same bed plate. The foundry equipment consists of two 4-motor 30-ton cranes, one 15-ton crane, a complete system of industrial tracks for distribution of material, friction-driven tumbling mills with dust exhaust, crucible furnaces for brass, and air furnaces for semi-steel. Heat and ventilation are cared for by the general hot-blast system. Toilet rooms containing shower baths are provided for the use of the foundrymen. The machine shop, directly east of the north end of the foundry, is of the standard one-story steel construction type, about 825 feet long and 150 feet wide. The center span of 75 feet and the north span of 50 feet are designed for the use of traveling cranes, while the south section of 25 feet has an intermediate floor or gallery for light work, and on this side are three two-story wings, 50 feet by 60 feet, in which are located toilet rooms, elevators and heating apparatus. These wings are so designed that they may with ease be connected with a second machine shop, a duplicate of the one now erected, which may at fome time be put up parallel to and south of the present shop. An abundance of light is furnished from skylights in the tile roof and from windows in the south and end walls. The general illumination is from arc lights, while incandescent lamps are used for bench work. Blast apparatus supplies heat to the upper parts of the building and direct radiation is given from coils upon the walls under the windows. Broad-gauged tracks cross both east and west ends of the building, on which
castings may be brought from the foundry, an industrial railway for lighter work connecting with pattern shop, pattern storage building, foundry and blacksmith shop. All heavy machines used in this shop are direct connected
to individual motors, and speed control is obtained electrically by means of the Western Electric three-wire system. At the west end of the building there is a cast-iron testing floor 120 feet long, and at the east end a similar floor for testing generators and motors. The shipping platform is at the rear railway track, east of this testing floor. The blacksmith shop, separated from the machine shop at the north only by a system of railway tracks, is 200
feet long and 76 feet wide and is 18 feet high to the lower chord of the roof truss. The building is of brick, with
a roof of Ludowicic tile, having a monitor extending the full length of building, containing swinging windows and
a wire-glass top. Oil is used for fuel with which to heat the furnaces. A complete exhaust system provides ample ventilation, and heat is obtained by direct radiation from coils upon the walls. The toilet rooms contain shower baths for the use of the men. The office, pattern shop and pattern storage buildings are located on 48th avenue just north of the foundry and are of standard fireproof office building construction, about fifty feet wide, and are so designed as to be available for general manufacture when it becomes necessary to make a change at that point in order to provide for future expansion. The office building contains rooms for draughting and blueprinting and for the accommodation of the shop clerical departments. All machines in the pattern shop are driven by motors directly
applied. The gas plant, consisting of one building and one holder, is north of the machine shop just east of the
pattern shop. This plant furnishes 450,000 cubic feet of uncarbureted water gas in a day of ten hours, the apparatus consisting of two generators, two washers, a scrubber, purifier and oxide conveyor, blowers, motors and the necessary pipe connections. Provision has been made, not only for future growth, but also for changing to the manufacture of carbureted water gas, should it become necessary at some future time. The gas produced is used to furnish heat only. The water tower is of ornamental design of brick, about 50 feet square and 175 feet high to the top of the Ludowici tile roof. Steel tanks are placed at different levels in this tower, to contain water for fire protection and for shop service. The fire station and pumping plant, providing a high pressure system for fire protec
tion, are located in a brick building south of and connected with this tower. The power plant is adjacent to and directly north of the east end of the machine shop, the boiler house being in the north portion. Provision has been made for two brick chimneys, each with a flue 12 feet in diameter, 250 feet high from the ground, although but one of these chimneys, connecting with eight boilers, has as yet been erected. Each chimney is designed to take care of 4.000 horse-power of horizontal water tube boilers equipped with chain grate stokers. The center line of the boiler
room runs east and west between the two chimneys. Coal is delivered to the power house direct from cars into steel bunkers above, at the center of the building, and is fed through chutes to the grates below, the ashes being collected in a pit in the basement and carried away in cars designed for that purpose, so that from the time the coal leaves the mines until it leaves the plant as ashes, it is never handled except by machinery. The boilers are designed to receive super-heaters and carry steam at 150 pounds pressure. A broad-gauged track enters the east end of the engine room and delivers material under a 20-ton, 4-motor traveling crane. The power equipment, a part of which only is now in place, consists of two horizontal engines of 500 and 750 horse-power and two vertical engines of 1,500 horse-power each, all direct connected to Western Electric 250-volt direct-current generators, the current
being controlled from a switchboard consisting of eighteen 30-inch panels located in the gallery on the north wall
of the engine room. Centrifugal pumps deliver water from the reservoir to three surface condensers. Cooling
towers are to be installed at the water reservoir. Small lighting units, air compressors and other auxiliary
apparatus, together with the condensers, are located in a room below and between the engine room and the machine shop. Compensator sets are placed in buildings of the plant wherever it is necessary to obtain speed regulation by means of the three-wire system. For the yard lighting, alternating current is used in connection with Western Electric series enclosed arc lamps. Exhaust steam from the power plant is used for the general heating system.
The cable plant, just east of the Belt Railway, contains approximately 182.000 square feet of floor space, the buildings being of one-story, brick and steel construction with tile roofs and north exposed skylights. All material is received at the east end of the plant near 45th avenue, where a track enters the building, and the manufacturing is worked west to the shipping platform near the Belt Railway. The equipment consists of paper insulating machines, wire twisting machines, stranders, drying ovens, furnaces, lead presses, high pressure pumps and reeling machines. The pressure delivered by the lead presses in the cylinders is in some instances as high as 20 tons per square inch.
Practically all machines are driven by direct connected motors and are worked on the three-wire, variable speed
system. Special provision is made for the convenience of women employees, who constitute a large percentage of the working force of the Cable Department. Toilet rooms, wash rooms, lockers, a modern hospital 33 feet by 22 feet, a dining-room 87 feet by 49 feet and a completely equipped kitchen 40 feet by 16 feet are operated in connection with the cable plant. The insulating material shop lies between the cable plant and the wood-working shop, the latter being a small building about 100 feet square. The wood-working machinery, complete in its detail, is all driven by
direct connected motors. Such rough wood-working only as the manufacture of cable reels and packing
boxes is to be performed in this plant, the finer work being confined as yet to the Clinton street works. The land
south of this group of buildings and east of the Belt Line is now used for the storage of lumber. The structural detail of the "Hawthorne Works" represents the highest and most advanced state of the art, and it is expected that, when the plant is placed in full operation, it will in its electrical and mechanical equipment be one of the most complete in America.
QUELLE[Am. Inst Elect. Eng.: Chicago electrical handbook (1904) 134]