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 William H. Warrington (1846-1922), the major investor and manager of Vulcan Iron Works until his death, at which time the direction passed to his brother James.
The Vulcan #1 hammer at the North Bell Avenue facility. |
The success of the Vulcan product line led to the rapid expansion of the company. In 1891 the capitalisation of the company was expanded from $50,000 to $200,000, and again it was expanded to $230,000 in 1897. In the same year the company began its relocation from the Clinton Avenue facility to a new one at 327 North Bell Avenue (it was called Irving Avenue at the time.) This remained Vulcan's office and factory until its relocation to Chattanooga, TN in 1960.
Shown below is the facility, both from the railroad yard it abuts and the street. The lower photo was taken in 1952, the same year as the centennial celebration.
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| Below, an inside view of the plant. Some of the machinery continued to do service until Cari directed the liquidation at auction of virtually all of Vulcan's plant machinery in 1998.
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Sparks fly at the Vulcan foundry. Vulcan, of course, started as a foundry and continued a foundry operation as part of its business until the late 1940's, after which time it purchased all of its castings from other sources. The continuing increase in size requirements for Vulcan hammers--along with the general difficulties in operating a foundry--made outsourcing castings a necessary, if seldom a pleasant, business. | ||
| One way to tighten ram keys: below, North Bell personnel use a Vulcan DGH-100 hammer to tighten the ram keys for another Vulcan hammer, in this case a Vulcan 140C differential acting air/steam hammer. Keeping tapered keys tight is essential to the proper operation of a Vulcan hammer. The offshore contractor McDermott resorted to this expedient in their large operation in Morgan City in the 1960's and 1970's.
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