Henry Robinson Towne
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Henry Robinson Towne (August 24, 1844 – October 15, 1924) was an American mechanical engineer and businessman, known as an early systematizer of management. He donated over 2 million dollars to philanthropy at his death, in 1924.


Biography

Towne was born in Philadelphia in 1844 to John Henry and Maria (Tevis) T. Towne. He attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1861 to 1862, where he was a member of
St. Anthony Hall St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on , the Calendar of saints, feast day of Anthony the Great, Saint Anthony the Great. The frater ...
, but did not complete a degree. The university later awarded him an honorary master's degree.


Early career

Following his year of college, Towne found work as a draftsman at the Port Richmond
Iron Works An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomeri ...
, which was owned by I. P. Morris, Towne & Co. In 1863, Towne was put in charge of repair work for the union gunboat '' Massachusetts''. During 1864-1866, Towne was placed in charge of erecting engines in
monitors Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...
for the United States Navy. After the war, Towne went to Paris and studied physics at the Sorbonne. When he returned, he found employment with the firm of William Sellers & Co., in Philadelphia.


Yale Lock Manufacturing

In the summer of 1868, Henry R. Towne was introduced to
Linus Yale Jr. Linus Yale Jr. (April 4, 1821 – December 25, 1868) was an American mechanical engineer, manufacturer, and co-founder with Henry R. Towne of the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company, which became the premier manufacturer of locks in the Unite ...
by a mutual friend. Towne was, by this time, looking for a new business opportunity and had become impressed about the possibilities of Yale's new "cylinder" lock. In October 1868, the two men formed the
Yale Lock Manufacturing Company Yale is one of the world's oldest lock manufacturers, owned by its parent company, Assa Abloy. Over its extensive history, Yale has received patents for dozens of its products, and the company has distributed its products to more than 120 coun ...
, to be located in
Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...
. Towne provided new capital and management of the firm, and Yale the invention.Henry R. Towne, ''Locks and builders hardware, a hand book for architects'' (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1904), 68-69. (for abstract, se
Stamford Historical Society
Yale died later in 1868, and Towne reorganized the company as Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co. Towne stepped down as chairman in 1915. Within this time-frame he developed the Towne-Halsey plan. According to F.W. Taylor and mentioned in his book
Scientific Management Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...
"it consists in recording the quickest time in which a job has been done, and fixing this as a standard. If the workman succeeds in doing the job in a shorter time, he is still paid his same wages per hour for the time he works on the job, and in addition is given a premium for having worked faster, consisting of from one-quarter to one-half the difference between the wages earned and the wages originally paid when the job was done in standard time."


Later years

Towne was one of the first engineers to see management as a new social role for engineers and that the development of management techniques was important for the development of the engineering profession. He laid out his ideas about the management role for the engineer in his "The Engineer as Economist." He was elected President of the ASME in 1888, and his presidential address continued to address how to improve shop and worker efficiency (see "Gain-Sharing"). Towne and Link-Belt president
James Mapes Dodge James Mapes Dodge (Manhattan, June 30, 1852 – Germantown, Philadelphia, December 4, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, industrialist and president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the year 1903–04. He is kno ...
were responsible for maneuvering Frederick Winslow Taylor to the Presidency of the ASME in 1906 (Noble, ABD, 269-270).


Death

Henry R. Towne died in New York City on October 15, 1924. His wife Cora E. White, whom he had married in 1868, died in 1917. In his
will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...
, Towne bequeathed over two million dollars to the establishment of the Museums of the Peaceful Arts in Manhattan.


Selected publications

* Towne, Henry Robinson. ''Locks and Builders Hardware: A Hand Book for Architects.'' J. Wiley & Sons, 1904. * Towne, Henry R. "Foreword to Shop Management." Frederick Taylor, ''Scientific Management:'' 5-6. 1911. Articles, a selection: * Towne, Henry R.
A Drawing Office System
" ''Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers'' 5 (1884): 193-205. * Towne, Henry R.
Engineer as an Economist
" ''Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers'' 7 (1886), 425ff. * Towne, Henry R.
Gain-Sharing
" ''Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers'' 10 (1889), 600ff. * Towne, Henry R. "President's Address, 1889." ''Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers'' 11 (1889): 50-71. * Towne, Henry R. "Industrial engineering." Ingeniería Industrial), discurso pronunciado en la Universidad de Purdue el 24 (1905). * Towne, Henry Robinson. "Axioms Concerning Manufacturing Costs." ''Trans. A SM E'' 34 (1912). * Towne, Henry R.
The General Principles of Organization Applied to an Individual Manufacturing Establishment
" ''Transactions'', Efficiency Society Incorporated. v.1 1912, p. 77-83


Patents

* 1897
US patents 575016
- Frictional controlling device for screw hoist. * 1898
US patents 29786
- design for a key


References


External links


Biographical Sketch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Towne, Henry R. 1844 births 1924 deaths American business theorists American mechanical engineers Presidents of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers University of Pennsylvania alumni People from Philadelphia