It has been suggested that Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since October 2022. |
Industry | Manufacturing |
---|---|
Founded | 1916 |
Defunct | 1956 |
Fate | Sold off part by part |
Headquarters | Ludington, Michigan |
Products | plywood |
Revenue | $5,000,000 in 1922 [1] |
The Haskell Manufacturing Company was a manufacturing company located at 801 N. Rowe Street, in a building about a mile north of downtown Ludington, Michigan. Their main product was haskelite, a plywood made from a waterproof glue developed by Henry L. Haskell in the early 1900s. The plywood was veneer wood panels of different thicknesses and was used to make novelty items, furniture, and paneling for construction. The thinner plywood was molded into shapes for body parts of airplanes and transportation vehicles. It was manufactured with different styles and types to fit particular needs.
The company made airplane body parts for military aircraft used in World War I. The manufacturing firm had several subsidiary companies, factories, and offices that were related and supported them. The company was eventually sold off in parts in the mid-20th century. The building where the company was located in Ludington has since been converted to affordable housing.
Henry L. Haskell devised a way to make waterproof glue in 1913 from a derivative of dried cow blood. He used this adhesive to put together cross-grained thin veneer layers of wood to create a product referred to as a flat sheet "panel" – now known as plywood ("plies" of wood). The plywood was named Haskelite after himself. In 1915, he innovated a method to mold this plywood into three-dimensional shapes using heat, hydraulic pressure and his patented waterproof glue. [3]
Haskell created the Haskell Manufacturing Company in 1916 in Ludington, Michigan. [4] The Haskelite plywood was first manufactured there. [5] The thinner three-layered plywood pieces could be molded into any shape desired. It was used for various vehicles including airplanes and flying boats. The plywood constructed canoes, boats, trucks, buses, automobiles, and airplanes. [6] The first plane made with moldable plywood was constructed with Haskelite. [6] It was the Curtiss two-place fighter Whistling Bill. [7] Sea sleds and hydro-airplane pontoons were made of haskelite. The "panels" came in dimensions up to 7.5 by 50 feet (2.3 by 15.2 m) in length. The thickness varied by the number of layers requested. Other uses for the plywood were door panels, roofing, flooring, portable houses, bread boxes, grain chutes, drain boards, toboggans, barrels, shipping containers, refrigerators, and canoes. [3]
Haskell in 1917 sold his controlling interest to Bonbright and Company, a group of investment bankers from Detroit and New York City. The company then employed one hundred and eighty men and made ten thousand square feet of plywood per day. [8] They changed the main focus of the company at the beginning of World War I to build military airplane body parts. [9] The Ludington-based plant erected a million dollar expansion to its facilities and increased its employment considerably. [10]
The company in 1918 opened its second plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This factory was called the Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation. Its main purpose was to supply plywood for the United States and its allies for the construction of military vehicles and aircraft. This factory was twice as large as the original Ludington plant. It employed a thousand men and produced one hundred thousand square feet of plywood per day. [8] Between the two factories, there were millions of feet of plywood produced during World War I. The manufacturing plant in Ludington was part of the larger Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation that was headquartered in Chicago. [1]
After the war military aircraft were no longer needed and so this use was discontinued and other uses were found for the plywood. One item the firm built was wooden boats because of the waterproof characteristics of the plywood. Its main product was the Haskell canoe, which was molded from one piece of 3/16th's inch plywood. [11]
In the Grand Rapids factory, "Plymetl" was made as one of several specialty plywood products. It was a wooden plywood faced on one side or both with metal (steel or aluminum). One use for this metal-plywood material was for climate controlled facilities (i.e. fur storage, food storage). [12] Another use was for public restroom facilities. [13] One more type of plywood that the company made was "Phemoloid". This finished plywood planking was used in houses, commercial facilities, railroad cars, trucks, airplanes, and luxury automobiles. [14]
The Grand Rapids factory plant made a deal in 1939 with Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation and the industrialist Howard Hughes to manufacture low-priced airplanes. The manufacturing companies used a special process of heat and pressure to fuse together wood fibers and synthetic resins to make a plywood product for the construction of planes. It was the state-of-the-art in making airplanes and more economical than the currently used method of plane construction. The Haskell company and Fairchild had already developed techniques of molding fuselages and aircraft wings to put together airplanes. [15]
Haskell Manufacturing Company had many subsidiaries. One was Marquette Veneer, which made birch Haskelite doors; another company associated was Gillett Log, a Wisconsin company subsidiary that produced the birch wood for door panels. [16] Due to competition the spin-off plant of Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation in Grand Rapids was sold to an industrial buyer in 1949. [17] The Haskell Company agreed to sell its other assets to Evans Products Company of Plymouth, Michigan at the end of 1956. [18]
Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards which include medium-density fibreboard (MDF), oriented strand board (OSB) and particle board (chipboard).
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Particle board, also known as chipboard or low-density fiberboard, is an engineered wood product manufactured from wood chips and a synthetic resin or other suitable binder, which is pressed and extruded. Particle board is often confused with oriented strand board, a different type of fiberboard that uses machined wood flakes and offers more strength.
Laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is an engineered wood product that uses multiple layers of thin wood assembled with adhesives. It is typically used for headers, beams, rimboard, and edge-forming material. LVL offers several advantages over typical milled lumber: Made in a factory under controlled specifications, it is stronger, straighter, and more uniform. Due to its composite nature, it is much less likely than conventional lumber to warp, twist, bow, or shrink. LVL is a type of structural composite lumber, comparable to glued laminated timber (glulam) but with a higher allowable stress.
The Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman are furnishings made of molded plywood and leather, designed by Charles and Ray Eames for the Herman Miller furniture company. They are officially titled Eames Lounge (670) and Ottoman (671) and were released in 1956 after years of development by designers. It was the first chair that the Eameses designed for a high-end market. Examples of these furnishings are part of the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.
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The Curtiss-Wright C-76 Caravan was an American all-wood military transport aircraft. The C-76 was intended as a substitute standard aircraft in the event of expected wartime shortages of light alloys. However, both prototype and production aircraft failed several critical flight and static tests, and after U.S. aluminum production proved sufficient for wartime defense requirements, orders for the C-76 were cancelled and production terminated.
Columbia Forest Products is the largest manufacturer of hardwood veneer and hardwood plywood in the United States. Founded in 1957, it is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina. It specializes in decorative, interior veneers and plywood panels that are used in high-end cabinetry, fine furniture, architectural millwork and commercial fixtures. The company distributes its products primarily through a network of wholesale distributors, mass merchandisers and OEMs. Since 1976, the company has been completely employee-owned and currently has 10 manufacturing facilities throughout the U.S. and Canada. At the end of 2006, Columbia converted all of its standard hardwood plywood production to produce formaldehyde-free panels called PureBond. In 2007 Columbia added PureBond formaldehyde-free particleboard to its product range.
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Haskell is a purely functional programming language.
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Haskelite is the brand name of a plywood, once made by the Michigan-based Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation. It was made from waterproof glue developed by Henry L. Haskell. The moldable plywood was originally called Ser-O-Ply. It was used in the construction of various vehicles including military tanks, boats, airplanes, buses, trucks, and automobiles. The plywood was manufactured with different characteristics depending on particular needs and then given a brand name.
Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation (1917–1956) was a conglomerate of Michigan–based companies. It was located on Broadway Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They manufactured haskelite plywood for a wide variety of applications and vehicles. Their office headquarters were located in Chicago, Illinois. The Grand Rapids corporation was a spin-off from the Haskell Manufacturing Company in Ludington, Michigan. It was a factory twice the capacity at over 100,000 square feet and designed to make up to ten times as much plywood per day as the Ludington facilities. The plywood at the beginning was needed for World War I military airplane body parts. The plywood later was used in houses, buildings, automobiles and ship construction. Different styles and types of plywood were made for particular niches including for the construction of the Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindberg's plane.
Carrom Company was a manufacturer of games and furniture, headquartered in Ludington, Michigan. It started as Ludington Novelty Company in the 19th century. Its main product was the game of carroms. The company first started as the Ludington Novelty company at the end of the nineteenth century making novelty items. One of these was the game of carroms as a family game. The first carrom game boards were made by hand one by one and sold first before another was made. The game was sold in the US by the tens-of-thousands starting at the end of the 19th century. The parlor game became popular worldwide. Various local businessmen were involved with the company in its financing and management. Additional products were added to the original game of carroms as time went on, usually as associated furniture. The original company sold out to a larger firm in 1951 and the Ludington branch, which continued making the carroms game, became a small part of the larger firm.
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The 1911 Grand Rapids furniture workers' strike was a general strike performed by furniture workers in Grand Rapids, which was then a national leader of furniture production.
The Haskelite Building, also known as the Haskell Manufacturing Company Building, is a former factory building located at 801 N. Rowe Street, Ludington, Mason County, Michigan. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 10, 2022. In 2022, the building was refurbished into residential apartments, known as the Lofts on Rowe.
Whistling Bill, the first plane made with this material, was a Curtiss biplane built in 1918.
The first airplane of molded plywood was the "Whistling Bill," a two-place fighter, built in 1918 by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, Garden City, Long Island, N.Y. The fuselage was made of four 3/32nd-inch longitudinal sheets of Haskelite, three-ply birch plywood, steamed and formed to contour in a concrete die.