Edward Gowen Budd (December 28, 1870 – November 30, 1946) was an American inventor and businessman.

Early life

Edward Gowen Budd was born in

Smyrna, Delaware Smyrna is a town in Kent and New Castle counties in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is part of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the Census Bureau, as of 2010, the population of the town is 10,023. The international j ...

, on December 28, 1870. He studied engineering in Philadelphia in 1888. He took correspondence courses and studied at the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

Career

Early career

He worked as an apprentice in a machine shop. In 1899, he moved to Philadelphia to finish his apprenticeship with the Bement Machine Company. He then took his knowledge of pressed steel to the railroad industry. He worked with the

Pullman Company The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century d ...

on a contract for

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

, building the first all-steel

car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

. From 1900 to 1902, he worked for the American Pulley Company as a shop superintendent. He then worked for

Hale & Kilburn The Hale & Kilburn company of Philadelphia was a furniture manufacturing company founded by Warren Hale and Cheney Kilburn. The Hale & Kilburn company's primary business was the production of railroad car seats for the greatly expanding America ...

, designing railroad car seats and interior trim. He resigned in 1912 after the firm showed lack of enthusiasm in moving into the automobile body business.

Budd Company

In 1912 he founded the

Budd Company The Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars, airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense products ...

, which initially specialized in the manufacture of pressed-steel chassis frames for

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

s. His company was soon supplying an all-steel sedan body to auto manufacturers. Following discussions between them which began in 1913 Budd's first big supporters were the

Dodge brothers Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid ...

, who purchased 70,000 all-steel open touring bodies in 1916. They were soon followed by an all-steel Dodge sedan. The brothers had not believed such a thing possible but they were persuaded to allow Budd to go ahead with the design, die-making and press-installation needed for actual production to begin. Other US manufacturers soon followed Dodge's lead. Closed bodies outsold open bodies from 1923 on. To hold all this steel together, Budd also pioneered the use of

arc welding Arc welding is a welding process that is used to join metal to metal by using electricity to create enough heat to melt metal, and the melted metals, when cool, result in a binding of the metals. It is a type of welding that uses a welding powe ...

in automobile manufacturing.

Stainless steel

During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

in the 1930s, Budd pioneered the fabrication of

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...

and helped create the ''

Pioneer Zephyr The ''Pioneer Zephyr'' is a diesel-powered trainset built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), commonly known as the Burlington Route. The trainset was the second internal combustion-powered streamli ...

'', a streamlined train for the

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...

. Budd stainless steel railway cars were very successful for many years. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Budd was also the original maker of the

Bazooka Bazooka () is the common name for a Man-portable anti-tank systems, man-portable recoilless Anti-tank warfare, anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army, especially during World War II. Also referred to as the ...

projectile and the

rifle grenade A rifle grenade is a grenade that uses a rifle-based launcher to permit a longer effective range than would be possible if the grenade were thrown by hand. The practice of projecting grenades with rifle-mounted launchers was first widely used du ...

. He and his company were also instrumental in the development of the radial disk brake and the automatic wheel line.

Personal life

Budd married Mary Wright in May 1899. He had two sons, Edward G. Budd Jr. and Archibald W. Budd, and three daughters.

Death

Budd died on November 30, 1946 at his home in Philadelphia. He is buried at

West Laurel Hill Cemetery West Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1869, is 200 acres in size and contains the burials of many notable people. It is affiliated with Laurel Hill Cemetery in neighboring Ph ...

Legacy

Budd's ''

'' was the first of many streamlined

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...

s. The original trainset is on permanent display at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. In 1985, 40 years after his death, Edward G. Budd, the "father of the stainless-steel streamliner", was inducted into

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States pe ...

Automotive Hall of Fame The Automotive Hall of Fame is an American museum. It was founded in 1939 and has over 800 worldwide honorees. It is part of the MotorCities National Heritage Area. the Automotive Hall of Fame includes persons who have contributed greatly to au ...

. In 2015, 70 years after his death, Edward G Budd was inducted into

Galesburg, Illinois Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States. The city is northwest of Peoria. At the 2010 census, its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal city of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistical ...

's National Railroad Hall of Fame. He also received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers's Medal.

References

* PBS Online / WGBH (2000) ''Edward G. Budd''. * President and Fellows of Harvard College (2004), ''20th Century Great American Business Leaders: Edward G. Budd''. * * ''Steel in our lives''. Retrieved January 19, 2005 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Budd, Edward G. 1870 births 1946 deaths People from Smyrna, Delaware American automotive pioneers American people in rail transportation American mechanical engineers Businesspeople from Delaware Burials at West Laurel Hill Cemetery ASME Medal recipients