Geiser Manufacturing Company was an early manufacturing company in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. Geiser Manufacturing was incorporated in 1869 by Peter and Daniel Geiser. [1] The company built grain separators, threshers, plows, and steam traction engines. The company's brand name was Peerless. The main building was 334 ft long and 3 stories in height, and had a 34 ft cupola. In January 1891 its total monthly payroll amounted to over 10,000 US dollars ($239500 in 2010 dollars) and employed 162 people. [2]
In 1899 the company expanded outside Waynesboro and bought the Crowell industrial park in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, and began producing its Geiser's first gasoline engines there. Up to this point, all its products had been steam-powered. [3]
In March 1912, Geiser's Waynesboro plant was hit by a strike involving over a thousand employees after "a new superintendent had new ideas concerning the manner in which the place should be run." Other plants were not affected by the dispute. [4]
In 1912 Geiser Manufacturing was purchased by the Emerson-Brantingham Company of Rockford, Illinois, which had gone so far in August 1912 as to issue over 22 million dollars ($490 million in 2010 dollars) in stock in order to raise the capital to purchase the company along with Reeves & Co of Columbus, Indiana and Gas Traction Company of Minneapolis. [5] In 1936 Geiser became bankrupt and was forced to sell everything.[ citation needed ] On August 21, 1940 while removing equipment, a fire leveled the plant which was thought to have been started by a welders torch. It had been said the glow of the fire could be seen from almost forty miles away. Currently, only the main office building stands, and the main property is now occupied by a funeral home, parking lot, NAPA Auto Parts Store, Bowersox Memorial Stone's and church as well as a post office, .
Waynesboro is a borough in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, on the southern border of the state. Waynesboro is in the Cumberland Valley between Hagerstown, Maryland, and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. It is part of Chambersburg, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is 2 miles north of the Mason–Dixon line and close to Camp David and the Raven Rock Mountain Complex.
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the firm was originally a coachbuilder, manufacturing wagons, buggies, carriages and harnesses.
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels.
The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1956. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades the world's largest producer of steam locomotives, but struggled to compete as demand switched to diesel locomotives. Baldwin produced the last of its 70,000-plus locomotives in 1956 and went out of business in 1972.
The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, had been making munitions, armaments and aeroplanes.
A stationary engine is an engine whose framework does not move. They are used to drive immobile equipment, such as pumps, generators, mills or factory machinery, or cable cars. The term usually refers to large immobile reciprocating engines, principally stationary steam engines and, to some extent, stationary internal combustion engines. Other large immobile power sources, such as steam turbines, gas turbines, and large electric motors, are categorized separately.
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Richmond Power Station was a coal fired power station which operated on the banks of the Yarra River in Richmond, Victoria, Australia from its construction in 1891 until its closure in 1976. It was one of the first alternating current (AC) electricity generation plants in the state. It has since been converted into office space and is the headquarters of international fashion brand Country Road and advertising agency CHE Proximity. The area in which it is located is now called Cremorne.
The Case Corporation was a manufacturer of construction equipment and agricultural equipment. Founded, in 1842, by Jerome Increase Case as the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company, it operated under that name for most of a century. For another 66 years it was the J. I. Case Company, and was often called simply Case. In the late 19th century, Case was one of America's largest builders of steam engines, producing self-propelled portable engines, traction engines and steam tractors. It was a major producer of threshing machines and other harvesting equipment. The company also produced various machinery for the U.S. military. In the 20th century, Case was among the ten largest builders of farm tractors for many years. In the 1950s its construction equipment line became its primary focus, with agricultural business second.
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The Avery Company, founded by Robert Hanneman Avery, was an American farm tractor manufacturer famed for its undermounted engine which resembled a railroad engine more than a conventional farm steam engine. Avery founded the farm implement business after the Civil War. His company built a large line of products, including steam engines, beginning in 1891. The company started with a return flue design and later adapted the undermount style, including a bulldog design on the smokebox door. Their design was well received by farmers in central Illinois. They expanded their market nationwide and overseas until the 1920s, when they failed to innovate and the company faltered. They manufactured trucks for a period of time, and then automobiles. until they finally succumbed to an agricultural crisis and the Depression.
Daniel Best was an American adventurer, inventor, and entrepreneur known for pioneering agriculture machinery and heavy machinery.
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General Electric Specialty Control Plant is a 115 acres (47 ha) historic factory complex located at Waynesboro, Virginia. The complex includes three contributing buildings, one contributing site, and two contributing structures. The historic buildings and structures are a 340,000-square-foot main plant building, the original water tower, water tank, a group of evolved and interconnected construction sheds built from 1953 to the present, and an airplane hangar. The property, a former airport, was acquired by General Electric in 1953. The Waynesboro plant was one of some 120 individual operating departments created as part of a decentralization effort by the General Electric Corporation. The Specialty Control Plant was responsible for the development of breakthrough technologies in areas ranging from America's military efforts to space travel to computer technology. The facility was sold to GENICOM on October 21, 1983.
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