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Finding Aid

Surface Combustion Inc. Records

MSS-296

Size: Approx. 0.63

Provenance: This collection was donated by Ernest Weaver along with other Toledo area company records.

Access: Open

Collection Summary: This collection consists of records, photographs, advertisements, technical paperwork and other related materials from Surface Combustion Inc.

Subject(s): Business and Commerce

Related Collections: Midland-Ross Company records MSS-195

Processing Note: Connected to MSS-195

Copyright: The literary rights to this collection are assumed to rest with the person(s) responsible for the production of the particular items within the collection, or with their heirs or assigns.  Researchers bear full legal responsibility for the acquisition to publish from any part of said collection per Title 17, United States Code.  The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections may reserve the right to intervene as intermediary at its own discretion.

Completed by: Katrina N. Beckloff

Historical/Biographical Sketch

The Surface Combustion Company was founded in Bronx, New York in 1915. The company was a merger of two similar patents for the technology of Surface Combustion. This technology was then used in numerous products including automobiles and airplanes. In 1924, the Surface Combustion Co. opened in Toledo, Ohio.
                            In the year 1959, Midland Ross Co. bought the Surface Combustion Company of Toledo Ohio for $23 million. Surface Combustion became a division of Midland-Ross, containing nearly three hundred hourly workers in the year 1980. The entire company of Midland-Ross including Surface Combustion, was bought by Forstmann Little & Company in 1986. By the year 1988 many of the divisions within Midland-Ross had been sold including Surface Combustion. Surface Combustion Co. expanded in 1993 and again in 2014. The company celebrated its 100th birthday on Friday, June 26th, 2015. On this day, the mayor of Waterville Ohio declared it “surface Combustion Day”.

Scope and Content Note

This collection is not divided into series. Each folder contains a different portion of the Surface Combustion Inc. Records. The collection is not a complete record of the company’s history, although it provides insight into its work from 1948-1990.

The first folder contains advertisement booklets dating from 1964 and 1971. The second folder contains drawings such as blueprints from the year 1989 and standards drawings from 1966. The third folder contains photographs, mainly taken of the company’s equipment.

The fourth folder contains a proposal for the company from 1981. The fifth and sixth folders contain specifications. The fifth folder’s specification dates to 1948, while the sixth folder’s specification dates to 1963.

The seventh and eighth folders contains technical paperwork. The seventh folder’s paperwork spans the years 1958-1990 and is a variety of different topics. The eighth folder’s paperwork is a large 1968 packet for the company. The ninth folder contains a company workbook from the year 1989.

Folder List