Meanwhile, during the years that the Colonel was engaged in the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the John A. Roebling's Sons Company was assuming greater and greater proportions as an industry, under the guidance of the Colonel's two younger brothers, Ferdinand and Charles Gustavus. The latter graduated from engineering school in 1871 and immediately became associated with the engineering and production ends of the business.
Ferdinand and Charles formed an almost
ideal combination; Ferdinand's interests, as stated previously,
centered upon the sales and financial aspects of the business,
and it was he who explored new markets, suggested new or changed
products, and built most soundly the whole business structure.
Charles, on the other hand, had an unusual genius for the development
of products, of machinery, for the erection of plant buildings,
and for the establishment of plant organization.
Charles G. Roebling
Ferdinand W. Roebling
An important step in the expansion of
the Roebling business was taken in 1870 when one of the Colonel's
pet ideas was accomplished, and a "store"--"with
coils where people can come and have lengths of rope cut off to
their wishes"--was opened in New York. With this as a start
and under the careful and competent guidance of F. W. Roebling
during its early growth, the Roebling organization today includes,
in addition to the main office at Trenton, branch offices and
warehouses in principal cities from coast to coast.
New conditions in the field of industry brought new problems to thc Roeblings, and these in turn offered new opportunities for the expansion of the business. Shortly after Morse invented the telegraph in 1844, telegraph wire was in great demand. As previously mentioned, meeting the needs of this field and of the lightning rod field brought the Roeblings into their first contact with the manufacture of electrical wires as such.
In the beginning, the additional load placed upon plant facilities by this new electrical market was absorbed without making extensions. However, by the early '70's the electrification of industry had created such a terrific demand for copper wire, that everyone with wire drawing facilities and experience was called upon to meet it.
The principal insulation for the copper wire was a single or double cotton braid; consequently a minimum of simple machinery was required. It was not long, however, before the Roebling Company found it necessary to set up separate facilities for the production of electrical wires and cables. As the uses of electricity became more varied, so did the product which carried it. Insulations included: first cotton; then paper; then rubber; then silk and enamel and varnished cambric and all the many others.
To enter this field and produce a complete
line of electrical wires and cables was a task which called upon
the best talents of both Ferdinand W. and Charles G. Roebling.
It meant a thorough conviction on the part of F. W. that the markets
were sound and that a reasonable profit could be had. Much more,
for C. G., it meant setting up a new plant and, starting almost
from scratch, learning an entire new business. That both did their
jobs well is witnessed by Roebling's current business in the electrical
wires and cables field.
Still another new venture upon which the Roeblings embarked during the '70's was the manufacture of Woven Wire Fabrics. The story behind their entrance into this business is bizarre, as it is told by Colonel Washington A. Roebling in his memoirs. Early in the '70's a machine for sheaving wheat in the field was invented. It used a fine wire to bind the sheaf, and Roebling was asked to produce the wire. For a couple of years the business boomed, and Roebling greatly increased its production capacity for fine steel wires. But suddenly the business stopped. It was discovered that, in milling the wheat, small pieces of the wire which had been broken off were ground up into the flour.
"Not only were people killed, but the fine wire business as well," was the Colonel's laconic comment.
Consequently it was necessary to find
a new outlet for fine wires. F. W. seized the opportunity to urge
the company's entrance into the Woven Wire Fabrics field, a proposition
which he had made before and which had never been acted upon.
This time, however, the proposal was adopted, and in 1878 the
New Jersey Wire Cloth Company was incorporated. A complete factory
was staffed and equipped and very quickly a full range of sizes
and meshes was in production. The New Jersey Wire Cloth Company
operated as a separate corporation until 1931, when it became
part of the parent organization.
Meanwhile the problem of consuming the complete capacity of the wire drawing facilities for larger sizes had arisen. At first the company went into the wire nail business; but lack of profit due to competitive conditions made it inadvisable for Roebling to attempt to remain a factor in this field. At about the same time, numerous inquiries were being received for "flat wire." The name "Roebling" carried the connotation "wire" and people were assuming that all types were available.
Thus rolling equipment was installed and the large sizes of wire were flattened to be sold to the grillwork, hardware manufacturing and other markets. By the close of the last century, however, it became apparent that this new business, instead of remaining an offshoot, was going to become one of the principal divisions of the company, along with Rope, Electrical Wires, Bare Wire, and Woven Wire Fabrics.
With his usual thoroughness, Charles
G. Roebling set about equipping the company to take its place
among the leaders in this business. Machinery and experienced
men were secured and one of the finest cold-rolled strip specialty
plants in the world established. Ferdinand W. Roebling explored
the markets and established sales policies, and it was not long
before the new venture had justified the confidence and effort
which the two men had accorded it.
A Typical Roebling Electrical Advertisement
Appearing In The Telephone And Telegraph Journal--1883
A 100th Anniversary Roebling Advertisement
To The Electrical Field--1941
About the turn of the century the John A. Roebling's Sons Company had grown to such proportions that extensive additional facilities were needed. After many considerations, a site was selected on the Delaware River, twelve miles south of Trenton. There a Steel Mill, a Blooming Mill, Rod Mills, Wire Mills, Cleaning Houses, Annealing and Tempering Shops and a Woven Wire Fabrics Factory were erected. Beside the plant a complete town for the workers, with a hospital, schools, shops, banks, and theatres was built to house a population of some 4,000. It was begun in 1904 and operations began in 1906.
Roebling, N. J., was conceived and executed by Charles G. Roebling and it stands today as a very real and living monument to his engineering genius. There the steel for Roebling products is made and processed into wire for the Rope Shops in Trenton: there steel bars are rolled for the Flat Shops in Trenton; and there copper is rolled into bars and drawn into wire (in a more recently added Copper Mill) for the Electrical Wires and Cables plant in Trenton.
An Aerial View Of Roebling, New Jersey,
Showing The Village And The Plants
Deaths of F. W. and C. G. Roebling
These two men, Ferdinand W. and Charles
G. Roebling, whose combined determination and complementary geniuses
brought to such full fruition the visions of their father, died
within a short time of each other, Ferdinand on March 16, 1917,
and Charles on October 5, 1918. It is unnecessary to state here
that the loss of one of the country's finest salesmen and of the
nation's foremost mechanical engineer w as a severe one to the
company.
Fortunately, however, Karl G. Roebling, eldest son of Ferdinand W., and his brother, Ferdinand William Jr., were already active in the business and were prepared to carry on the illustrious tradition that was theirs. Karl's untimely death in 1921 brought Colonel Washington A. Roebling out of retirement to assume, in his eighty-fourth year, the presidency of the company. The fact that throughout the years he had remained in constant contact with developments in the business and was thoroughly familiar with the great organization that had grown up, served him well when he was called upon to resume the reins. When he died in 1926, in his eighty-ninth year, he was succeeded in the presidency by Ferdinand W. Jr., who remained in that position until his death in 1936.
In 1936 William A. Anderson, General
Manager of the company and a first cousin of F. W. Jr., assumed
the additional duties of the presidency. He fulfilled both of
these functions until March 1940, when Charles G. Williams was
appointed Executive VicePresident and General Manager, thereby
allowing Mr. Anderson to devote himself entirely to the duties
of the presidency.
Ferdinand W Roebling, Jr. (above)
Karl G. Roebling (below)
