Wildcat Mines Of The Mother Lode - Ore Cars Mine Cars And Mining Equipment
Joshua Hendy got here to the United States from Scotland in 1836. As a young man he realized the machinist’s commerce within the East and in 1851, at the age of 33, he traveled to California, most likely hoping for riches in the gold fields. He found work as a mechanic in the newly constructed boiler outlets of San Francisco and steel tubing realized there was more of a future in the machinery enterprise than in prospecting for gold.
After a 12 months Joshua had saved sufficient money for a small enterprise venture, and in 1852 he built a sawmill at Salt Point on the coast above Fort Ross. In the early days of sawmilling in California the mills were very small labor intensive operations, often consisting of a small steam engine and a carriage with a reciprocating flat bladed noticed not a lot larger that a 2 man hand saw. The mills could not cut a lot in a day, but lumber was scarce so income have been high. Over time Joshua built and offered a number of mills, and seeing that there was a demand for milling machinery, finally determined he could make extra money building the sawmill machinery moderately than slicing timber. Thus, in 1855 he began the Joshua Hendy Machine Works at 49-51 Fremont St. For those who have almost any concerns regarding where and how you can work with tool steel pipe (simply click the following article), you are able to call us at our web-site. in San Francisco.
Hendy’s unique machine works started then, by strictly constructing the elements for small sawmills, but Joshua was always wanting for methods to increase his enterprise. By the 1860’s he was repairing milling and mining tools and built a foundry to forged component components for various kinds of machinery, slightly than having to purchase substitute components from "back East". Because the onerous rock mines of California were booming, most of his repair work was achieved on mining tools, particularly the stamp mills used for crushing ore.
Joshua quickly learned that many of the damage carried out to stamp mills occurred when the operator fed both an excessive amount of ore into the hopper, which jammed the mill, or fed too little, which allowed the stamp heads to hit the mortar base with out a cushion of ore, thus breaking the heads. Unfortunately, most mill staff of the day were either inexperienced or drunkards-only a few males needed to spend their day shoveling ore into a dirty, deafening, monster of a machine.
Solving this problem led to Joshua Hendy’s best accomplishment: In 1874 he invented, patented and started producing the Challenge Automatic Ore Feeder for stamp mills. This feeder, which ran off the main shaft of the mill automatically opened and closed the hopper to feed a continuous and consistent amount of ore to the stamp heads, thus maximizing manufacturing and minimizing harm. Everyone was blissful-the mine house owners and steel pipe the employees-and now Joshua Hendy had a supply of income to turn his business into one of California’s main manufacturers. From 1880 to 1885 Joshua patented a number of enhancements and bought out many different patents: He soon managed the ore feeder market. The Joshua Hendy Machine Works constructed feeders beneath it’s personal identify, and built the feeders for almost all different mill manufacturers.
In 1882 Joshua included the business along with his nephew Samuel J. Hendy as one of many officers. Joshua’s title was now supervisor, with Samuel as President of the agency. Samuel became energetic in expanding the enterprise and in the course of the 1880’s the company constructed ore concentrators, elevators, crushers, and hydraulic monitors. By 1888 Samuel's brother John turned plant superintendent, and the Machine Works was building stamp mills, crushers, ore vehicles, seamless steel tube hoists, buckets, skips, steam engines, pumps and plenty of different types of mining tools used all around the West. They had been additionally agents for all forms of mining tools constructed by different considerations, and shipped mills and tools all around the world, particularly to Australia and South America.
On October 19, 1891 Joshua Hendy died on the age of 74. Samuel Hendy took over the business, and expanded production in casting, forging and riveting iron. The Machine Works continued to broaden its manufacturing, producing ever bigger and more fashionable mining equipment.
In 1906 main changes occurred. Samuel died within the spring of that 12 months, so his brother John took over the day to day working of the business. When the great San Francisco earthquake and fire hit in April, every little thing in the manufacturing space of town was destroyed. The Iron Works had already outgrown its facilities on Fremont St, so John decided that since he had to rebuild from scratch, he would keep the offices there, but moved the company’s manufacturing to a big tract of land south of San Francisco at Murphy’s Station near Sunnyvale, the place he could broaden the plant even more. It is most certainly that right now the identify of the enterprise was modified to the Joshua Hendy Iron Works. In Sunnyvale, the business had room to develop, and continued on strongly via the years, even in the course of the depression of the 1930’s.
When WWII hit, and the mines had been shut down by government decree, the Iron Works constructed ship parts and ship engines for the battle effort. After the battle, the mining industry was lastly beginning to wane, so the Iron Works continued by constructing marine engines. In 1956 the Joshua Hendy Iron Works was bought to Westinghouse Corp., who continued to make use of it for a manufacturing plant, and nonetheless has a facility there in Sunnyvale to today.
The Joshua Hendy Iron Works was a major contributor to the development of the California mining business, and for over one hundred years equipped equipment to the mines of the West, both giant and small. Its legacy will be seen in museums and back yards all over California: Fascinating outdated ore automobiles, ore crushers, stamp mills, and all kinds of "old mining junk" are collected by individuals interested within the historical past of the Old West.
