William J. Keep (also William John Keep) (June 3, 1842September 30, 1918) was an American mechanical engineer who worked with molten metals in foundries. He mixed aluminum and other elements with iron to come up with new alloys with different characteristics that were used for stoves and heaters. He was known as a consulting engineer to the
Michigan Stove Company
Michigan Stove Company was originally an enterprise started by Jeremiah Dwyer and his brother in the mid nineteenth century. Their career background training was in the foundry business. They started a Detroit, Michigan company that eventually de ...
that was founded by
Jeremiah Dwyer.
Early life
Keep was born in
Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, 31 miles southwest of Cleveland. Oberlin is the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students.
The town is the birthplace of the ...
on June 3, 1842. He was son of Theodore John Keep and his wife Mary Ann Thompson. Keep was a
genealogist and he traced his
paternal line from his earliest American ancestor who came from England, John Keep. John settled at
Longmeadow, Massachusetts
Longmeadow is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, in the United States. The population was 15,853 at the 2020 census.
History
Longmeadow was first settled in 1644, and officially incorporated October 17, 1783. The town was originally farm ...
in 1660.
His wife was Sarah Leonard. John and Sarah had a son, Ensign Samuel. His wife was Sarah Colton and they had one child, Samuel. Samuel's wife was Sabrina Cooley and they had one child, John. He and his wife Lydia Hale, were the grandparents of William John Keep.
Keep went to the Oberlin public schools when he grew up. After graduating from high school he first attended
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
for the freshman and sophomore years. He later attended
Union College
Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...
in
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
. There he graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1865. Keep's natural ability was as a mechanic and before entering Union College to learn mechanical engineering he became a machinist at Globe Iron Works in Cleveland.
American Civil War
Keep was a first corporal in the Oberlin company of
the Squirrel Hunters under martial law of Union General
Lew Wallace. He was in charge of forces to repel an invasion into southern Ohio led by Confederate General
Edmund Kirby Smith
General Edmund Kirby Smith (May 16, 1824March 28, 1893) was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department (comprising Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, western Louisiana, Arizona Territory and the Indi ...
in September 1862.
Mid life
Keep in 1865 became a foreman at Hubbell & Brothers Stove Works in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
and was there from 1865 to 1868. In 1868 he became superintendent of the stove manufacturing plant of Fuller Warren & Co in
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...
. Keep was there for nearly eight years. Keep gave lectures on the steam engine to the senior class at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...
during the time he lived at Troy from 1872 to 1877. In 1875 he started manufacturing stoves himself and did that until 1884.
Keep in 1884 moved to
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
, Michigan. There he became the general superintendent of Michigan Stove Company. He was in this capacity until 1910 when he was promoted to consulting engineer for the company. He continued in this capacity until his death. During the time he worked for the company he caused a major improvement in the way they constructed stoves. Keep in 1872 patented the base burning stove. It had two rows of mica windows, one above the top of the fire-pot and one below. He patented in 1887 the baseburner with a reflector above the fire. That became standard for the stove industry.
![Keep's Test 1893](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Keep%27s_Test_1893.jpg)
Keep innovated a new process of making malleable iron castings using a secret mix of iron ore, aluminum and other elements. Michigan Stove Company used his patented mixes to make their stoves. Keep received many patents during his thirty-five years with the company. He was deeply interested in metallurgical research and wrote articles for the
American Institute of Mining Engineers for nearly a decade starting in 1888. He also wrote articles for the
ASME starting in 1894 and did that for the rest of his life.
Keep in 1885 figured out the relationship between shrinkage and chemical composition of cast iron in a testing process. He did this through an assessment that was referred to as "Keep's Test." This later was named "Mechanical Analysis" and became the worldwide industrial measure instead of chemical analysis. Keep devised this analysis as a result of thousands of tests, which he described in detail in his 1893 pamphlet he wrote titled ''Keep's test for cast iron.'' The pamphlet chronicled his tests and outlined the influence of aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, and manganese on cast iron. This was also reported in his paper "Keep's Cooling Curves" that showed shrinkage and strength impact to cast iron mixes of various formulas of these elements. Keep devised and invented many testing machines and methods that were used in the foundry industry.
World's Largest Stove
![World's Largest Stove](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/World%27s_Largest_Stove.jpg)
As the Michigan Stove Company factory superintendent, Keep designed the
World's Largest Stove
The World's Largest Stove (also called The Michigan Stove and Mammoth Garland) was an oversized replica of a kitchen stove that was made for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair as a representation of Michigan Stove Company and its products. After th ...
for the
1893 Chicago's World Fair.
The vice president of the company
George Harrison Barbour
George Harrison Barbour (June 26, 1843 – March 28, 1934) was an American businessman, industrialist, financier, and manufacturer of stoves in Detroit, Michigan. He received his initial exposure to the business world while still a young boy at ...
came up with the idea of making a giant stove and had woodcarvers construct and carve the mammoth 15 ton replica according to Keep's designs.
Memberships and affiliations
Keep was a Republican. He belonged to the following.
*
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
*
International Association for Testing and Materials
*
American Institute of Mining Engineers
*
Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain
*
New England Society of New York
*
Rensselaer Society of Engineers
The Rensselaer Society of Engineers (RSE) is a social fraternity founded in 1866 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Originally named The Pi Eta Scientific Society, the organization was incorporated in 1873 in the state of New York. A ...
*
ASME for Mechanical Engineers
*
Sons of the American Revolution
*
Franklin Institute of Philadelphia
Franklin may refer to:
People
* Franklin (given name)
* Franklin (surname)
* Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class
Places Australia
* Franklin, Tasmania, a township
* Division of Franklin, federal electoral di ...
*
Engineering Society of Detroit
The Engineering Society of Detroit (also known as ESD) is a regional engineering association, headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, serving engineers and related technical professionals in Southeast Michigan. The Society was founded in 1895 by a ...
*
American Foundry Society
Personal
Keep was married to Sarah Frances Henderson in Oberlin on May 22, 1866. They had two children that lived to adulthood. Helen Elizabeth (b. 12/10/1868) who was a Michigan state chairwoman and member
National League for Women's Service
The National League for Women's Service (NLWS) was a United States civilian volunteer organisation formed in January 1917 to provide stateside war services such as feeding, caring for and transporting soldiers, veterans and war workers and was de ...
. Henry (b.7/19/1873) who worked in the engineering field. During World War I he was a lieutenant colonel in charge of construction in France serving as assistant to the chief engineer of the
American Expeditionary Forces.
Keep died in a street accident in Detroit on September 30, 1918, aged 76. He was knocked to the pavement in an accident by either a street car or automobile.
He died a few hours later.
Works
* Cast Iron – A Record of Original Research (1902)
* History of Our English Ancestors (1915)
* A History of Stove Inventions (1915)
* History of Heating Apparatus (1916)
* Early American Cooking Stoves (1931)
Footnotes
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Keep, William J
Businesspeople from Detroit
1842 births
1918 deaths
People from Oberlin, Ohio
People of Ohio in the American Civil War
Oberlin College alumni
Union College (New York) alumni
Road incident deaths in Michigan
American mechanical engineers
19th-century American businesspeople