James Mapes Dodge (

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, June 30, 1852 –

Germantown, Philadelphia Germantown ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Deitscheschteddel'') is an area in Northwest Philadelphia. Founded by German, Quaker, and Mennonite families in 1683 as an independent borough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854. The area, which is ...

, 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 known as president of the Link-Belt Company, and as pioneer of applying scientific management methods.

Life and work

Dodge was the son of William Dodge, member of the New York bar, and

Mary Mapes Dodge Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge (January 26, 1831 – August 21, 1905) was an American children's author and editor, best known for her novel ''Hans Brinker''. She was the recognized leader in juvenile literature for almost a third of the nineteenth ...

, a children's writer and editor of ''St Nicholas Magazine.'' He grew up in Manhattan, attended the

Newark Academy Newark Academy is a coeducational private day school located in Livingston, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in sixth through twelfth grades. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Coll ...

, and obtained degrees from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, and

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

James Mapes Dodge
''The Iron Age,'' Vol. 96, 1995, p. 1368 Portrait of Mrs

After an apprenticeship at the shipbuilding company John Roach & Sons, in 1876, he started a mining machine manufacturing company with E.T. Copeland in New York. When this didn't work out and the company dissolved, he worked another six years in manufacturing companies in Chicago and Indianapolis. In 1884 he founded Burr & Dodge in Philadelphia, that in 1906 merged with the Link-Belt Engineering company into the Link-Belt Company with Dodge as president, later de Link-Belt Construction Equipment company. In his lifetime Dodge was a productive inventor, and was granted over 200 patents concerning link-belts, moving stair, toys, etc. In 1903–04 Dodge was president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1906 he and Henry R. Towne were responsible for maneuvering

Frederick Winslow Taylor Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consultants. In 1909, Taylor summed up ...

to the Presidency of the ASME in 1906. The

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

plant of the Link-Belt Company is known for its significant labor efficiency improvements, due to the introduction of scientific management applications. According to Leon P. Alford especially Dodge's personal involvement and personality made this happen. He had offered the workers special arrangements and incentives to accept Taylor's changes, which won him much respect and trust from the workers..

Publications

* James Mapes Dodge, "The money value of technical training," in: ''Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,'' 25 (1903): 40–48 * James Mapes Dodge, G. Schlesinger,
Industrielle Betriebsführung
'' 1913 * James M. Dodge, President Link-Belt Engineering Co., "History of the Link-Belt Industry," ''Industrial World: Devoted to the Metal. Electrical. Mining & Allied Industries'' 78 (26, June 28, 1906):753. ;Patents, a selectionFor more patents, see
here
' *
US D6203 S, Design for a toy-boat
'' 1872 *
US 37499 Drive chain
'' 1880-81 *
US 239739 Hinge Joint &c.
'' 1881 *
US 954941 Sprocket-wheel
'' 1909-1910 ;Publications about James Mapes Dodge * Charles Piez,
Personal reminiscences of James Mapes Dodge
', 1916 * George P. Torrence. ''James Mapes Dodge: Mechanical Engineer, Inventor, Pioneer in Industry.'' 2010

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodge, James Mapes 1852 births 1915 deaths American mechanical engineers People from Ulster County, New York Cornell University alumni 19th-century American engineers 20th-century American engineers Engineers from New York (state) Newark Academy alumni People from Manhattan Rutgers University alumni