![HenryHarnischfeger](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/HenryHarnischfeger.jpg)
Henry Harnischfeger (July 10, 1855 – November 15, 1930) was a pioneer in the
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, mining industry.
Early life and career
Harnischfeger was born in
Salmünster, Kreis Schlüchtern,
Hesse-Nassau
The Province of Hesse-Nassau () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1868 to 1918, then a province of the Free State of Prussia until 1944.
Hesse-Nassau was created as a consequence of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 by combining the p ...
, on July 10, 1855. He left his homeland in 1872 and came to the United States. He arrived in the U.S. on April 9th, and was employed by Singer Sewing Machine Company, which is now known as the
Singer Corporation
Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Ma ...
. He worked there for 9 years, and then came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He then worked for the White Hill Sewing Machine Company where he managed castings patternmaking and gear machining operations within the Whitehill factory with Alonzo Pawling. They formed a machine and pattern shop on December 1, 1884. to manufacture, assemble and service components and equipment needed by other, larger manufacturing firms in the region.
Pawling and Harnischfeger
In 1883 Pawling opened up Milwaukee Tool and Pattern Shop with Mauritz Weiss. The partnership dissolved after one year, and Harnischfeger took over Weiss' interests. Their customers included industrial knitting machine manufacturers, brick makers, grain drying equipment manufacturers and beer brewers.
They Manufactured valves for Bruno V. Nordberg. Bruno left Allis and rented the loft space above Pawling and Harnischfeger.
Christopher W. LeValley also came to the shop for custom work. He went on to found the
Chain Belt Company
Chain Belt Company was an agricultural equipment manufacturer in the US. It produced chain belts specifically to replace leather-based belts, which were used inside engine-powered agricultural equipment at the time.
History
The company was esta ...
Frederick Pabst
Johann Gottlieb Friedrich "Frederick" Pabst (March 28, 1836 – January 1, 1904) was a German-American brewer for whom the Pabst Brewing Company was named.
Biography
Early life
Pabst was born on March 28, 1836, in the village of Nikolausrieth, ...
, who at that the time owned Best Brewing Company with Emil Schandein, gave them brewery equipment orders.
In 1887, Pawling and Harnischfeger helped rebuild and upgrade an overhead bridge crane within the foundry operations of the Edward P. Allis Manufacturing Company, owned by
Edward P. Allis
Edward Phelps Allis (May 12, 1824April 1, 1889) was an American businessman who founded the Edward P. Allis Company, a manufacturer of milling and mining equipment, steam engines, and other large-scale capital equipment. He was a notable ideologue ...
, that collapsed following an attempt to move a load beyond its rated lifting capacity. The rebuilt crane featured a simplified system of motors and gearboxes to drive the bridge, trolley and hoist functions on the lifting machine, replacing a complex system of ropes and pulleys that failed on the earlier version. Soon after, Pawling and Harnischfeger began building their own line of
overhead cranes
An overhead crane, commonly called a bridge crane, is a type of crane found in industrial environments. An overhead crane consists of two parallel rails seated on longitudinal I-beams attached to opposite steel columns by means of brackets. ...
for manufacturing and
warehouse
A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...
operations.
The
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the pres ...
caused demand to fall for the cranes designed and built by Pawling and Harnischfeger who by that time were being referred to as “P&H”. The partners expanded their product line to include earthmoving machines in order to increase the ability of their business to withstand the next economic downturn. In 1893 P&H acquired the motors and controls manufacturing assets of the Gibb Electric Company following the acquisition of Gibb by
Westinghouse Electric
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
Manufacturing Company, as Pawling and Harnischfeger wanted control over the application of motors applied to their crane line.
Harnischfeger Corporation
The Pawling & Harnischfeger business had become known as
Harnischfeger Corporation
Joy Global Inc. was a company that manufactured and serviced heavy equipment used in the extraction and haulage of coal and minerals in both underground and surface mining. The company had manufacturing facilities in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Tex ...
following the death of Alonzo Pawling in 1911. By the mid-1920s, the firm had become a large and growing supplier of crawler-mounted shovels and cranes applied to
construction
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...
and mining operations – all bearing the familiar “P&H” trademark that had become synonymous with exceptional quality and service value established by Pawling & Harnischfeger. Over the ensuing decades, P&H-trademark shovels and cranes would grow in size, capacity and drives and controls technology. The firm expanded its product line with the onset of 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 ...
, adding
welding
Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Welding is distinct from lower ...
machinery,
diesel engines
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-calle ...
and prefabricated homes to its P&H line of shovels and cranes.
Death
Henry died unexpectedly from heart failure November 15, 1930 at 75 years old. The active management of Harnischfeger Company then went to his son, Walter Harnischfeger.
The Harnischfeger Mansion, which was built in 1905, is still standing at North 35th St. and West Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee.
References
{{Joy Global
1855 births
1930 deaths
American miners