The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was a government corporation administered by the United States Federal Government between 1932 and 1957 that provided financial support to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgage associations, and other businesses. Its purpose was to boost the country's confidence and help banks resume daily functions after the start of the Great Depression. The RFC became more prominent under the New Deal and continued to operate through World War II. It was disbanded in 1957, when the US Federal Government concluded that it no longer needed to stimulate lending.
Avro Canada was a Canadian aircraft manufacturing company. It was founded in 1945 as an aircraft plant and within 13 years became the third-largest company in Canada, one of the largest 100 companies in the world, and directly employing over 50,000. Avro Canada was best known for the CF-105 Arrow, but through growth and acquisition, it rapidly became a major, integrated company that had diverse holdings.
The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Until its closure in 2003, it was one of the world's largest steel-producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its success and productivity, the company was a symbol of American manufacturing leadership in the world, and its decline and ultimate liquidation in the late 20th century is similarly cited as an example of America's diminished manufacturing leadership. From its founding in 1857 through its 2003 dissolution, Bethlehem Steel's headquarters and primary steel mill manufacturing facilities were based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States.
Paccar Inc. is an American company primarily focused on the design and manufacturing of large commercial trucks through its subsidiaries DAF, Kenworth and Peterbilt sold across markets worldwide. The company is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, in the Seattle metropolitan area, and was founded in 1971 as the successor to the Pacific Car and Foundry Company, from which it draws its name. The company traces its predecessors to the Seattle Car Manufacturing Company formed in 1905. In addition to its principal business, the company also has a parts division, a financial services segment, and manufactures and markets industrial winches. The company's stock is a component of the Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 stock market indices.
Lustron houses are prefabricated enameled steel houses developed in the post-World War II era United States in response to the shortage of homes for returning G.I.s by Chicago industrialist and inventor Carl Strandlund. Considered low-maintenance and extremely durable, they were expected to attract modern families who might not have the time or interest in repairing and painting conventional wood and plaster houses. Lustron production ceased in 1950 due to the company's inability to pay back the startup loans it had received from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Over 2,000 homes were constructed during the Lustron's brief production period, and many remain in use today. Several have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Carl Strandlund was a Swedish-born American inventor and entrepreneur.
The Wayne Corporation was an American manufacturer of buses and other vehicles under the "Wayne" marque. The corporate headquarters were in Richmond, Indiana, in Wayne County, Indiana. During the middle 20th century, Wayne served as a leading producer of school buses in North America.
ACF Industries, originally the American Car and Foundry Company, is an American manufacturer of railroad rolling stock. One of its subsidiaries was once (1925–54) a manufacturer of motor coaches and trolley coaches under the brand names of (first) ACF and (later) ACF-Brill. Today, the company is known as ACF Industries LLC and is based in St. Charles, Missouri. It is owned by investor Carl Icahn.
The company formerly known as the United States Rubber Company, now Uniroyal, is an American manufacturer of tires and other synthetic rubber-related products, as well as variety of items for military use, such as ammunition, explosives, chemical weapons and operations and maintenance activities (O&MA) at the government-owned contractor-operated facilities. It was founded in Naugatuck, Connecticut, in 1892. It was one of the original 12 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and became Uniroyal, Inc., as part of creating a unified brand for its products and subsidiaries in 1961.
The EMD Model 40 was a two-axle diesel-electric switcher locomotive built by Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC), and its corporate successor, General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (EMD) between August 1940 and April 1943. Nicknamed "critters", eleven examples of this locomotive were built. Powered by twin General Motors Detroit Diesel 6-71 diesel engines, which produce a combined 300 horsepower (224 kW), its drivetrain is unusual because the two diesel engines are used to drive the electric DC generator from both sides, one with clockwise rotation and the other with counter-clockwise rotation.
"Arsenal of Democracy" was the central phrase used by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a radio broadcast on the threat to national security, delivered on December 29, 1940—nearly a year before the United States entered the Second World War (1939–1945). Roosevelt promised to help the United Kingdom fight Nazi Germany by selling them military supplies while the United States stayed out of the actual fighting. The president announced that intent a year before the Attack on Pearl Harbor, at a time when Germany had occupied much of Europe and threatened Britain.
The Fairfax Industrial District is a manufacturing area of Kansas City, Kansas, on the Goose Island river bend of the Missouri River. The US 69 Missouri River Bridge provides access to the district from Missouri's Platte County and Riverside community. The district's General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant is a current facility in the district which has remnants of the runways used by the defunct Fairfax Municipal Airport and Fairfax Air Force Base.
The Sangamon Ordnance Plant was a United States Army ammunition manufacturing facility constructed and operated during World War II. It was located west of Illiopolis in Sangamon County, Illinois encompassing 20,000 acres (80 km2). It began as two separate plants, the Sangamon and the Oak Ordnance Plants, separated by Illinois Route 36 and operated by Remington Rand and Johnson & Johnson respectively. Prior to the end of World War II, the facility was consolidated into the Sangamon Ordnance Plant, operated by Remington Rand.
The Dodge Chicago Aircraft Engine Plant was a World War II defense plant that built the majority of the B-29 bomber aircraft engines used in World War II.
The War Assets Administration (WAA) was created to dispose of United States government-owned surplus material and property from World War II. The WAA was established in the Office for Emergency Management, effective March 25, 1946, by Executive Order 9689, January 31, 1946. It was headed by Robert McGowan Littlejohn.
The Joint Systems Manufacturing Center, also known as the Lima Army Tank Plant (LATP) is a tank plant located in Lima, Ohio. It is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility currently operated by General Dynamics Land Systems. Workers at the plant are represented by UAW Local 2075.
Camille Edouard Dreyfus was a Swiss chemist. He and his brother Henri Dreyfus invented Celanese, an acetate yarn. He founded The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation in honour of his brother.
Buna Werke Schkopau were a chemical company specialising in the production of polymer materials such as plastics and artificial rubber. The name BUNA is derived from the technology of polymerising butadiene with sodium as a catalyst.
The 63rd Army Air Forces Contract Pilot School is located at the Douglas Municipal Airport in Coffee County, Georgia. During World War II, it was part of the Civilian Pilot Training Act of 1939, to train civilian pilots to serve as contract labor in an auxiliary capacity for the military. The program lasted until 1944, during which 250,000 men and women had been certified as pilots by the contract schools. At the Douglas facility, 9,000 pilots had been certified between its opening in 1941 and its closing in 1944. The buildings that remain intact were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 2013.
James A. Rafferty, Vice President, Officers' Committee member, Director, and member of the executive committee of Union Carbide, was an important figure in the petrochemical industry. Rafferty guided Union Carbide's effort in developing the new industry of synthetic aliphatic chemicals and was instrumental in the development of the liquid oxygen industry. Rafferty directed Union Carbide's collaboration with the United States government for the Manhattan Project and with the War Production Board for the synthetic rubber program during World War II.
