- Joshua Hendy Iron Works
Infobox Company
name = Joshua Hendy Iron Works
type = Defunct (1947)
genre =
foundation = 1856
founder = Joshua Hendy
location_city =Sunnyvale, California
location_country = USA
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industry =Engineering &Manufacturing
products = Mining equipment, marine engines etc.
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num_employees = 60 (1940); 11,500 (1945)
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intl =The Joshua Hendy Iron Works was an American
engineering company that existed from the 1850s to the late 1940s. It was at one time a world leader in mining technology and its equipment was used to build thePanama Canal amongst other major projects. The company went on to service many different markets during the course of its existence, but is perhaps best remembered today for its contribution to the Americanshipbuilding industry duringWorld War Two .Beginnings
The company took its name from its founder Joshua Hendy. Born in
Cornwall, England in 1822, Hendy at the age of thirteen migrated together with his older brother toSouth Carolina in theUnited States , where he grew to adulthood. Joshua eventually married and set himself up as a blacksmith inHouston, Texas , but with the death of his wife and young family fromyellow fever , he sailed roundCape Horn toSan Francisco in 1849 to seek his fortune in theCalifornia Gold Rush .Hendy established himself in his new location by building California's first
redwood lumber mill , the Benicia Sawmill (the region where he built the sawmill is now known as theHendy Woods State Park in his honor). In 1856, he established the Joshua Hendy Iron Works in San Francisco to supply equipment to Gold Rush placer miners. The Hendy plant soon began to supply equipment of all kinds to themining industry .Mining industry leader
By the 1890s, the Joshua Hendy Iron Works had become a technology leader in the mining industry, supplying equipment to mining companies all over the world including ore carts, ore crushers, stamp and
ball mill s and other equipment to countries as far away asRussia , theDutch East Indies , thePhilippines ,China andJapan .Many of the engineering innovations developed by Hendy became mining industry standards, still employed as late as at least the 1970s, such as the hydraulic giant monitor, the hurdy gurdy, the tangential water wheel, the Hendy ore concentrator, the Challenge ore feeder, and the Hendy hydraulic gravel elevator. Hendy giant hydraulic crushers were used to dig the
Panama Canal .After Joshua Hendy died in 1891, management of the company was taken over by his nephews Samuel and John. In 1906 a fire devastated the original San Francisco factory, and the company was re-established in
Sunnyvale, California after the local government there enticed the company with an offer of free land.World War One
.
Between the wars
In the early 1920s, Hendy's hydraulic mining equipment was used in the regrading of Seattle, described as perhaps the largest such alteration of urban terrain in history. [Peterson, Lorin & Davenport, Noah C. (1950), "Living in Seattle", Seattle Public Schools, page 44.]
With the onset of the
Great Depression however, and hampered by indifferent management, the Hendy Iron Works - like many other heavy equipment manufacturers of the era - fell on hard times. The company adapted by finding new markets, for example by contracting for the building of giant gates and valves for the hydroelectric schemes of the Hoover, Boulder andGrand Coulee dam s. During this period it also produced equipment as diverse as crawlertractor s,freight car wheel pullers, parts forinternal combustion engine s and standards forstreet lamp s. Some of the ornate street lamps built by the company can still be seen in San Francisco's Chinatown district today.World War Two
By the late 1930s the company was in financial difficulties and had shrunk to a shadow of its former self, employing only 60 workers. [ [http://www.rosietheriveter.org/home/shipyard3history.pdf Richmond Shipyard Number 3] - Historic American Engineering Record, page 107.] The company was in the process of being taken over by the
Bank of California in 1940 when businessman Charles E. Moore, with the financial support of theSix Companies , took a controlling interest. Moore soon managed to contract with theUS Navy for the building of some torpedo tube mounts, and shortly thereafter he secured a contract for the building of twelve triple expansion marine steam engines.By 1942, with the US government's wartime
Emergency Shipbuilding Program getting underway, it became clear that a large number of new marine engines would be needed to power the new ships. Since there was a shortfall in capacity to produce modernsteam turbine s, it was realized that most of the newLiberty ship s would have to be fitted with older and slower reciprocating steam engines instead. Admiral Vickery contacted Moore to ask if he could double the original order of 12 engines, to which Moore is reported to have responded that it would be as easy to tool up for a hundred as for a dozen. The company was then contracted to build 118 triple expansion steam engines for the Liberty ships.As the war progressed and the emergency shipbuilding program continued to expand, so the orders for new engines also grew. Moore responded by streamlining production at the Joshua Hendy plant. He introduced more advanced
assembly line techniques, standardizing on more production parts and enabling less skilled workers to accomplish tasks formerly carried out by skilledmachinist s. By 1943, the company had reduced the time required to manufacture a marine steam engine from 4,500 hours to 1,800 hours. The number of workers employed by the company also grew dramatically, reaching a peak of 11,500 during the war.By the end of the war, the Joshua Hendy Iron Works had supplied the engines for 754 of America's 2,751 Liberty ships, or about 28% of the total - more than that of any other plant in the country. [HAER, page 109.] In addition, the company in the late stages of the war produced 53 steam turbines andreduction gear s for the more modernVictory ship s. The company also supplied other military equipment during the war, such as turbine generators andantiaircraft gun turret s.Postwar developments
In 1947, the Joshua Hendy Iron Works was sold to the Westinghouse Corporation. In the postwar period, the plant continued to produce military equipment including
missile launching and control systems fornuclear powered submarine s, and antiaircraft guns. It also producedpressure hull s for undersea vehicles,nuclear power plant equipment, convert|216000|hpwind tunnel compressor s, large diameterradio telescope s,diesel engines and electrical equipment.In 1996, Westinghouse sold the plant to
Northrop Grumman , which renamed it Northrop Grumman Marine Systems. [ [http://www.geocities.com/alkol6/ Iron Man Museum] .]Footnotes
References
* [http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5580.pdf Joshua Hendy Iron Works] - informational brochure produced by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
* [http://www.rosietheriveter.org/home/shipyard3history.pdf Richmond Shipyard Number 3] - Historic American Engineering Record.
* [http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/Departments/Library/Marion+Hendy+Rust.htm The Hendy Iron Works] - memoir of Marion Hendy Rust, Sunnyvale Public Library.
* [http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/Departments/Library/Wallace+Erichsen.htm Working at the Joshua Hendy Iron Works] - employee memoir from the Sunnyvale Public Library.External links
* [http://booksgeology.com/mining_history_illustrations.htm Illustrations of a Joshua Hendy stamp mill, early 1900s] - MS Book and Mineral Company website.
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