no. 152 - hieronymus mueller...

JULY, 1949 EMPLOYEES' EDITION No. 152

MUELLERRECORD

July, 1949 No. 152

SENE J. KUHN, Editor

Published in the Interests ofEmployees of the

MUELLER Co.PLUMBING, WATER AND QAS PRODUCTS

FACTORIESDECATUR, ILL. LOS ANGELES, CALIF.SARNIA, ONT. C H A T T A N O O G A . TENN.

BRANCHESNEW YORK CITY SAN FRANCISCO

TRADE MARK

MUELLERReg. U. S. Pat. Off.

The Open House

JUDGING FROM THE many commentsmade by both the families of em-

ployees and employees themselves, theFamily Day Open House on June 16 wasa great success. Foremen, guides andemployees did an excellent job of ex-plaining the various operations in theirdepartments to the visitors in a friendly,hospitable manner that drew many com-mendations. The Open House required alot of work from a lot of people in theorganization, but it was an enjoyabletask.

The Open House was successful froma safety angle, too. The only casualtyreported, outside a few tired feet, was aminor floor burn suffered by one of theyoungsters at the gymnasium.

We hope that those who visited theplants during this Family Day will re-turn and that those who were unable toattend this year will be our guests atthe next open house.

• • •This Month's Cover

A T THE RISK of being accused ofJL\. showing partiality to the tool roomwe are running another photo made inthe department as the cover for thismonth's issue of the Mueller Record.

James O. Fair, class A toolmaker, isthe model for this month's cover. Thelast employees' edition showed BillKuntz, another class A toolmaker.

Fair is using a Bridgeport milling ma-chine to make a 1-inch copper servicecorporation stop coupling drill, whichwill be used on a machine in department8. Fair started work with Mueller Co.on January 30, 1936, as a laborer. Hewas transferred to department 9 as aninventory man and later became a ma-chine operator in the department. Hewas transferred to the tool room to learnhis trade on April 16, 1941.

H A P H A Z A R DLET'S SEE-OH,HERE IT IS-«PERSONS SUFFERING

FROM SHOCK...IWOUUPN TTOUCH HIM

WITH ATEN FOOT

ANYHOW,THAT<STHEBRIGHTESTHE'S EVERLOOKEP.'

\ THERE'SVITAMINSIN JUICE-.

HES IOAPEP/

I THINK HESHOULPACAU.EP ANLECTWCM!

NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL

M U E L L E R R E C O R D

Mike fright was the least of Howard Gragg's worries as Bill Mason, WSOY announcer, askshim about operations in department 8 during the Family Day Open House. M. H. Stuckwish,technical director, is at right. The recording was then broadcast over station WSOY.

Family Day Open HouseEvent draws 600 visitors for tours through all de-partments of Mueller Co.'s two Decatur factories.

A PPROXIMATELY 600 persons, mem-/ V bers of families of Mueller Co. em-ployees, attended the Family Day OpenHouse at both Decatur plants June 16.

The visitors were taken on toursthroughout the factory, starting at thecore room, the foundry, the machiningdivisions, and then to the gymnasium,where refreshments of ice cream, cakeand soft drinks were served.

By scheduling the Open House duringregular working hours, guests had anopportunity to visit members of theirfamilies at their jobs and to see thecomplete production set-up at the twoplants. A display of completed productswas shown in the gymnasium, where theguests registered and the groups formedup for the tours. At the completion ofthe tours the visitors were served re-freshments in the gym.

Guides for the tours were Lawrence

Roe, Harold Linton, Bob Hutchins, Wal-lace Gould, John J. Smith, EverettDickey, Charles Moore, Bob Rhodes,Marshall Hobbs, Fred Tratzik, Joe Fleck-enstein, Ted Masterson, Jack Rubicam,Merlin Scott, Paul Ammann, R a 1 p hWyne, Heck Whittington, Myers Harri-son, George Baker, Lynn Edwards, Her-man Jackson, Charles Girard, DeanGrant, Barney Morrison, Jack Chepanand Merlin Coates. Harley Himstead ar-ranged the tours.

One of the highlights of the OpenHouse was the half-hour broadcast of arecorded interview with employees andtheir families over WSOY at 8:30 o'clockthat night. Bill Mason, WSOY announ-cer, conducted the interviews in variousdepartments of the plants. Those whowere heard on the broadcast were:

Jack Bain, core room; Ollie Fort-(Continued on page 9)

J U L Y I 949

V ISITORS TO THE MuellerCo. plants were inclined to

agree with David V. Felts, edi-torial writer and columnist forThe Decatur Herald, who com-mented, "There are more art-ists in a foundry than in theart schools." On the toursthrough the plants they sawthe many specialized opera-tions that go into the manu-facture of Mueller products andthe many skills and trades thatare employed. The tours beganat the gymnasium, thence tothe core room and foundry, andon through the machining di-visions. Shown at the registration desk at the gymnasium are Mrs.

J. W. Simpson, Mrs. J. C. Cussins, Mr. Cussins, Mrs. HugfhL. Baker, and. Jackie Jackson. Jacqueline DeVore,

personnel office, is at the right.

Harley Himstead briefs one of the groups in thegymnasium, where the tours began, before it sets

out to see the plant.

Second ThoughtsBy David V. Felts

OF THIS—Oh Yes—AND THAT: Hippety-Hop to the Mueller company plant on FamilyDay where, as a professional brother of theeditor of The Record, we toured the corebuilding, the foundry and various machineshops. As we watched the women mouldcores from sand and arrange them neatlyand deftly on trays for processing, we won-dered if they employ the same facility, andmaybe the same patterns, in making fancycookies. When, as little girls, they mademud pies they did not realize that somedaythey would be paid for similar «ndeavor.

The foundry processes were intriguing butwe marvelled most at the clean air in thebuilding, where furnaces roared and moltenmetal poured from mobile buckets. We werecareful to keep hands in pockets. We useonly two fingers to make a living, but wetake no chance on losing the wrong eight.There are days when this column reads asif it had been picked out with two thumbs.

There are more artists in a foundry thanin the art schools in these days of impres-sionism and modernistic pish-tosh. The art-isan who wiped lead at a corner work benchheld our admiration. He also operated amachine which performed a similar opera-tion, but there is more artistry in the old-fashioned process and some plumbers preferthe old, wiped connection.

A most enjoyable and instructive tour.Now we shall get together some sand, apound or so of metal scrap and a few tools,build a fire and make a faucet, or, as astarter, a simple corporation stop.

tions buse to '

John J. Smith, rig-lit, is shown with the members ofone of the groups as they left the gymnasium to tour

the main plant.


Helen O ' D e l l isshowing v i s i to r show cores are madeby hand for thebrass foundry. Theguide is H e r m a n

Jackson.

J a c k C h e p a n sgroup gets an ex-planation of howcastings are madein the brass foun-

Howard Gragg ex-plains the functionof a finish reamer,which is b e i n goperated by BobOberline in Depart-

ment 8.

Mrs. Darrel Hart-wig and Mrs. Le-land Hartwig getsome first hand in-f o r m a t i o n on awelding fitting fromEd Hartwig. Law-rence Hoe is at the

right.

J ULY I 949

R a l p h A d a m sa m a z e d visitorswith his dexterityin handling" moltenlead as he showedhow jo in t s were

wiped "by hand.

And for v a r i e t y ,Adams also illus-t r a t ed how thesame jot can bedone by machine.

Dan Truett showsa. group how cop-per tubing- is bentto close tolerancesfor meter risers.

Visitors to the mainoffice watch LucilleTurner handle callsat the switchboard*


Don Bateman showshis wife and daugh-ter-in-law, Mrs. Isa-bel Bateman, left,how a milling1 ma-chine is operated.Paul Ammann is

the escort.

In the heat treatd e p a r t m e n t thisgroup watched acut - off saw eatthrough a piece of

steel "bar stock.

T h i s g r o u p i swatching1 Boy Walloperate a stampingmachine in the heattreat department.

H o w a r d Baldispoints out the giantair compressor inthe p o w e r p l an twhich furnishes airfor many operations

in the plant.

J U L Y I 949

Myrle Carter, headcoremaker at PlantNo. 2, drew an ap-preciative audienceas he deftly madecores for iron cast-

ings.

watching the cu-pola being' tappedin the iron foundrywas one of thehighlights for vis-itors at Plant No.2. Ernie Wittke is

the ladleman.

These visitors arecatching a- close-upview of molds "be-ing poured in the

iron foundry.

Albert G. Webber,Jr., Muel le r Co.president, explainsthe fine points of aMueller fire hydrantto two Associationof Commerce visit-'ors, Ed Huntley and

John O'Neil.


A r c h i e S e f t o n isshowing" completedproducts to Mrs.Claude Cox, Mrs. AlL i n d a m o o d andHenry Bashor, aretired Mueller Co.

employee.

Paul Parsons andBob S e f t o n areshown serving1 icecream, cake andsoft drinks to agroup of visitorswho lust have com-pleted a tour of

the plant.

Supervised en ter -tainment was pro-vided for the smallfry who had to beleft b e h i n d forsafety reasons whiletheir parents toured

the plant.

(Continued from page 3)Schneider and Al Lindamood, patternshop; Frank Kushmer, brass foundry,and Mrs. Floyd Walton, whose husbandis a machine molder in the foundry;Howard Gragg, department 8; M. H.Stratman, department 300; Frank Muel-ler, chief products engineer; Albert G.Webber, Jr., president of Mueller Co.;Jerome Edwards, retired Mueller Co.employee, his daughter, Mrs. CharlesMurray, whose husband is employed atPlant No. 2, and his daughter-in-law,Mrs. Wilbur Edwards, whose husband is

J ULY • 1 9 4 9

in machine repair; and Milo Wright, El-wood Potts and Russell Armstrong,Plant No. 2.

In commenting on the event, Mr. Web-ber said, "The fine response to our OpenHouse invitation by families of Muellerpeople and the efforts of the committeewhich arranged and handled the programmade it a complete success. The com-pany appreciates this, reciprocates themany friendly sentiments expressed byour guests, and thanks every member ofthe Mueller organization who had a partin it."

lohn Kerrigan is shown operating a gas fired tilt-type furnace at the Mueller, Ltd, plant,Sarnia. The foundry has six furnaces, which have capacities from 750 to 1,200 pounds.

Thousands of Brass Fittings Forged by GasMueller, Limited, uses natural fuel in manufacturingprocesses for foundry, forging, and heat treatment.Reprinted from The Gas Line

rpHE QUICK, clean flame of gas isJ- widely used as the most efficient fuel

for industrial processing, and nowhereis this more clearly demonstrated thanin the busy factory of Mueller, Limited,Sarnia.

A leading manufacturer of brass prod-ucts, Mueller uses gas in a variety ofways to produce high grade fittings forwater and gas services. A complete lineof plumbing brass for household use isincluded in the thousands of productsweighing from a few ounces to 25 poundseach.

The making of cores from speciallyprepared silicate sand is the first steptowards the manufacture of brass cast-ing. After moulding, cores are dried ina drawer-type gas-fired Coleman oven at550 degrees. The cores are then trans-ferred to the moulding shop, where cast-ings are made. Here brass is melted at2,200 degrees in six furnaces holdingfrom 750 to 1,200 pounds each. Fromthese furnaces the molten brass ispoured into a ladle preheated with aspecial nozzle-type gas burner. The ladle

then fills row on row of forms for alltypes of brass fittings.

Mueller, Limited, also manufacturebrass forgings. Here brass rods are cutinto slugs of suitable size. These areheated in furnaces 11 feet long, gas-fired to 1,350 degrees. The red-hot slugsare placed on presses where the properdies punch them into the desired shape.Several fuels were tried here before afinal decision was made, showing gas tobe the most efficient.

Further use of gas is made in heat-treating of tools. The company has alarge volume of tools, drills and taps,screw plugs and caulking irons, all ofwhich require a uniform heat for properhardening. Steel used for these tools isheated in a gas furnace at a tempera-ture of about 3,800 degrees.

In addition to these uses, Mueller,Limited, is equipped with a 160 horse-power natural gas engine driving a 75horsepower generator for auxiliarylighting. So in addition to making manymanufacturing processes possible, gas,the all-purpose fuel, is standing readyin case of an emergency.

10 M U E L L E R R E C O R D

W. L. (Bill) Jett, who retired April 30after completing 45 years of service withMueller Co., visited friends at the mainoffice and plant recently. The veteranWest Coast salesman and Mrs. Jett aremaking a year's tour of the country.

-X- -X- -*

Carl G. Chepan, former Mueller Co.employee and a brother of Jack Chepan,experimental shop, died at South Gate,California, June 11. Interment was atInglewood Park cemetery, South Gate.

-X- -X- -X-

Bonnie Dennis, billing department,daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Perry Dennisof Oreana, and Hal Craig, son of Mrs.Lena Craig, were married June 25 atBloomington.

*• -X- -X-

The 4-X Club, composed of Mueller Co.foremen and executives, is sponsoring abaseball outing to St. Louis to take inthe Cardinal-Giants game on August 6.The trip will be made by chartered bus.

O. C. Keil, Mueller Co. secretary, wasrecently elected president of the Decaturboard of education for the fifth consecu-tive year. Mr. Keil has been a memberof the board for the past 15 years.

* * #B. J. Marty, who retired in October,

1945, after 52 years' service with MuellerCo., died at his home here June 15. Mr.Marty was first employed by HieronymusMueller, company founder, when the fac-tory was located on East Main Street,and at one time he was night superin-tendent of the plant after it had beenmoved to its present site. Burial was atCalvary cemetery. Among the pallbear-ers were M. H. Stratman, department300; Lawrence Kramer, department 9;and Howard Gragg and Frank Williams,department 8.

-X- -X- -X-

The body of Pfc. Russell T. Short, aformer Mueller Co. employee at Chat-tanooga and Decatur, was returned to

LAlva L. Morrison, sand hopper attendant, retired May 27 after more than 32 years' servicewith Mueller Co. Fellow employees in the brass foundry look on as Leroy Stout, bench molder,presents some parting gifts on their behalf and Shirl Tish, foreman, hands him his last regularpay check. The foundrymen also decorated Morrison's car as a sendoff for his retirement.

J U L Y 9 4 9 I!

Gloria Jean Tolladay, daughter of Mrs. Eliz-abeth Tolladay, switchboard operator, wasgraduated from Millikin University this spring.

Decatur for burial at Graceland ceme-tery July 2. Private Short was killed inaction in the Ruhr valley in Germany onMarch 5, 1945. He was a toolmaker atthe Decatur plant at the time he enteredmilitary service.

Janet Hawkins, daughter of O. J. Hawkins,purchasing agent, received her B.S. degreein education from the University of Illinois.

Members of the committee in chargeof arrangements for the Family DayOpen House June 16 were Loyle Davis,Melvin Chaney, Paul Parsons, ArchieSefton, Earl Lowe, Elmer Miller, MiloWright and Gene Kuhn.

Barbara Lee Jarman, daughter of Mrs.Lillian Jarman of the New York office,

jf was graduatedf r o m Rich-mond Hill highschool June 29.Miss Jarmanmade an envi-able scholasticrecord while inh i g h school,and received alife member-ship in theSenior Arista.

sSj As council rep-resentative of her local Hi-Y club shewas elected to attend the National Hi-YCongress at Miami University, Oxford,Ohio. She was employed by the Ameri-can Telephone and Telegraph CompanyJuly 5.

Joseph L. Syfert, watchman, retiredJune 10. Joe had been a Mueller Co. em-ployee for more than eight and one-halfyears.

* * *-

The maintenance department workedfull blast during the recent vacationshutdown, since much of the work couldnot be done with the plant in operation.Included in the work were complete paintjobs for the ground key department andfactory manager's office, the repair andcleaning of the plant's exhaust system,the installation of a new lubrication sys-tem for the brass foundry's sand han-dling equipment, and the changing ofelectrical and power circuits in the build-ings east of College street. At Plant No.2 new charging scales and transport wereinstalled and a new electrical system forthe paint room was completed. Ten ex-tra painters helped with the work.


William Baker, Correspondent

VACATION REPORTWe have an early vacation report on

conditions around the Mammoth Lakearea in the high Sierras. It's cold. Thisvaluable bit of information was broughtback by Hank Thompson and Bill Cos-man, who with their wives, Dolores andBetty, have just returned. The boysclaim they had to drive down to thenearest store and buy long underwear.Winter underwear in July; it would seemthat someone ran into a super salesman.

Another fellow employee, Beth Noble,also will leave for Europe soon. Beth isgoing via the Queen Mary, sailing July28. She plans to visit England, Holland,Luxemburg, Austria, Germany, Italy,Switzerland, France and Belgium. As ifthis were not enough, Beth will stop at

Washington, D. C., and Boston on herway home. So, bon voyage, Beth, anddon't mind if our dampened eyes aresnapping with the green fire of envy.

CONGRATULATIONS

To Carl and the new Mrs. Arvidson,who were married in Las Vegas, Nevada,June 20. Carl and his bride, the formerDorothy E. Osbourne, will reside at 528Peach Street in Compton, and will wel-come their friends.

To Cy and Joan Wolfe on the birth oftheir son, Rick, at the Culver City hos-pital. The youngster weighed 7 pounds,11 ounces, and all is well with the family,according to Cy.

Marcella Lykins, Correspondent

After our long Fourth of July week-end, with the weather the hottest wehave had this year, we are back at work.Many employees have chosen this timeto go on vacations: Mildred McAllister,in Jacksonville, Florida; Leslie Higdonand Bernia Fischer, in Miami, Florida;Coy Jones in Selina, Kansas; Dan Ham-ill in the mountains of North Carolina;and many others who vacationed athome or whose destinations are un-known. Mary O'Kelley returned to workafter a vacation in Gatlinburg with awonderful tan.

• • •Our congratulations are extended to

Ben Long of the Assembly Departmentand Evelyn Haney in their recent mar-riage.

• • •We wish to extend our sincere sym-

pathy to Julius Bullock of the Tool Roomin the recent death of his father.

• • •Our baseball team, the Mueller "Iron

Men," finished the first half of the

league tied for third place with DixieMercerizing team. We feel that this is avery good showing since this is the firstyear for some time we have had a teamand the first year for the boys to playtogether, while all other teams in theleague have had entries for the past sev-eral years. We're still pulling for theteam, and wish you better luck for thesecond half, boys.

Delores DeShawas one of theChattanooga grad-uates this spring.Delores was gradu-ated from HardieJunior high school.She is the daughterof Carl DeSha ofthe f o u n d r y de-p a r t m e n t of Co-1 u m b i a n IronWorks.

We're glad to welcome Peggy Trotterto the Sales Department.

J U L Y 9 4 9 13

To Mr. and Mrs. James E. Johnson,Jr., a son, James Stephen, was born May8. It's mighty hard to tell who is proud-est, Jimmy or Grandaddy Johnson. BothJimmy and his father are employed inthe assembly department.

• • •On May 15, the marriage of Bernice

Runyan, of our Sales Department, andHarold L. Compton was solemnized atthe home of the officiant, the Rev.George McClure, on Lakeview Drive.The girls of the office honored the bridewith a shower on May 19 at the home ofEvelyn Wilbanks.

• • •Don Andrews and Coy Jones of our

Foundry Department recently attendeda series of meetings sponsored by theAmerican Foundrymen's Association andconcerned all phases of foundry work.The information gathered at these meet-ings will eventually be used in compilingtextbooks in teaching young foundry-men.

H. P. Llewellyn, brother of Henry Llewellyn,foundry, was graduated from the U. S. NavalAcademy, Annapolis, Maryland, on June 3.

Of TMIMtELtSBS

TEAM

KSMSSSSEAFHIIATIO THUOUOM mi ±ili* l̂̂ . 10WUNO A»SOCIATION

IN ReCOONmoN 'OR THI TIAM HAVING WON THI CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE

LdCSOUf. , BOWUNG LEAOUI

mum muse

This award was recently presented to the Mueller bowling team for winning the champion-ship of Lookout Bowling League. Team members were Wayne Walker, Bernia Fischer, MarionEckman. capt., Vance Riddle, Leslie Higdon and. Ben Long. Walker took high individual honors.


Ottfanfove, Correspondent

Our congratulations to:Mr. and Mrs. R. Basil Thompson, on

the birth of a son, Robert Basil, on June7. Basil is employed in department 1.

•X- * *

Our sincere sympathy is extended to:Sam Round, department 7, and John

Round, department 3, in the recent pass-ing of their sister, Mrs. Clifford David-son. Les Crooks, foreman in department6, is also a brother-in-law.

Clyde Smith, time study department,in the death of his mother, Mrs. FredSmith.

•X- -X- -X-

Henry Hardy, department 9, has re-turned to his work following a briefillness.

Jean Hoover, invoicing department,

Peggy Milne, daughter of John Milne, sec-retary of Mueller, Limited, and manager ofthe utility sales division, was graduated fromthe school of nursing, Toronto, Western hos-pital May 31. Commencement exercises wereheld in Convocation Hall. Toronto University.

has returned to work following a slightoperation on her foot.

Archie Guthrie, department 7, is backto work, after having been hospitalizedand confined to his home for the pastthree months.

Wedding bells will ring for MarianRiley, sales statistic department, on July14, and for Kay Mullen, department 1,on July 23.

William F. Marshall retired recentlyafter approximately 32 years of service

with Mueller,Limited.

Bill wa3 bornin Sarnia in1884 and re-ceived his edu-cation here. Heresides at 184Durand street,having l i v e dthere with hisparents duringthe majority ofhis life. Hisfirst job with

the company was in June, 1917, as aplumber's helper. Since that time, hehas served the company in various po-sitions in the maintenance department,being an all around maintenance manand an expert pipefitter.

All his fellow employees wished himan enjoyable retirement. Jacob Vollmer,foreman of department 10, presented himwith a magnesium veranda chair and asterling silver cigarette lighter on theirbehalf.

Bill's plans are not complete at pres-ent, but he has promised to make gooduse of the chair during the summermonths. His major hobby is attendingthe horse races in the immediate vicinity.We almost forgot to mention that Billis a bachelor with an affable manner.

J ULY I 949 15

John Milne and George W. Parkerattended the Canadian Gas Convention,at Bigwin, June 16 to 20.

•X- * >r

J. J. Conway and D. W. Westcott, rep-resentatives for Mueller, Limited, inWestern Canada, spent a few days inthe office recently.

The main topic in the office these daysis the vacation period. No doubt agoodly number of fish stories will beforthcoming as a result of same. Theplant and office of Mueller, Limited, willclose for the summer vacation periodfrom Monday, July 25, to Friday, Aug-ust 5, inclusive.

DENNIS TILLEY, FIRST AID MAN

THE EFFORTS of Dennis (Doc) Til-ley, first aid attendant at Mueller,

Limited, are largely responsible forkeeping a clean bill of health at theCanadian plant.

Doc was born at Clevedon, SomersetCounty, England, and came to Can-ada with his parents shortly afterWorld War I. He started with Mueller,Ltd., on September 13, 1926, andworked in the assembling, rod andtubing and brass finishing depart-ments. He became interested in therudiments of first aid about 16 yearsago, and faithfully attended classesheld at the Sarnia hospital and theRed Cross building, getting a consid-erable amount of practical experiencewith the local branch of the St. John'sAmbulance Corps. Then, when Muel-ler, Ltd., undertook munitions con-tracts, Doc's time became more and

more taken up with first aid work. Heis now employed full time in first aid,working in conjunction with the per-sonnel department.

Doc has a full appreciation of theconsequences of accidents, for he wasan accomplished musician before anaccident claimed the tips of the fingersof his left hand. He holds severalmedals, which were won at WesternOntario Music Festivals while he wasplaying violin and saxophone withlocal orchestras.

He recently passed an examinationfor the Canadian Red Cross first aidinstructors' certificate, and he alsohas been awarded the U. S. Bureau ofMines certificate and the St. John'sAmbulance silver medallion.

Doc and his wife have one son,James Frederick, who is eight yearsold.

16 M U E L L E R R E C O R D

no. 152 - hieronymus mueller...

Documents