A. Toledo, Ohio in 1911, A Backdrop
The story of Acklin Stamping, and really the story of Toledo's metal working industry, begins in 1911. The world was a radically
different place in those days. Brand Whitlock, as Toledo's mayor, led a rapidly growing city of 170,000 people. Both, the city and
the nation were on the cusp of incredible technological change. In 1911, horses still dominated transportation and the speed limit
was a mere 8 miles per hour. However this was all about to change in the next several years with the arrival of affordable
automobiles, brought to the market by a number of companies including Toledo's own Willys-Overland Motor Company.
Throughout the city there was an overriding sense of optimism and hope for the future. The fundamental ways people did things were
changing rapidly as a result of technological innovations ranging from the airplane to the skyscraper. However, the realities of
industrial life were hard for working class men and women. The organization of major unions for unskilled workers had yet to take
any effective steps towards improving worker safety or working conditions. A large number of immigrants were arriving in Toledo
from around the world, primarily from Ireland and Eastern Europe.
The world was becoming a busy, noisy place. Industry was quickly making Toledo one of the most prominent and important cities in the
Midwest. The Libbey Glass Company's arrival in Toledo from Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1888 had given Toledo a solid lead in the
glass industry. Toledo was a prime location for industry because of its proximity to natural resources and key midwestern markets
like Chicago and Detroit. With the arrival of the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company (founded in 1898) and the Owens Bottle Machine
Company (founded 1903), it soon became the center of the American glass industry. These companies revolutionized the glass
industry by utilizing assembly line style techniques of mass production.
Henry Ford, working outside of Detroit, pioneered techniques of mass production in the manufacturing of the automobile. This quickly
emerging industry sixty miles north became increasingly important to Toledo at the turn of the century. Already a leader in the
production of bicycles, Toledo firms utilized many of the same parts in the production of automobiles. The Lozier-Pope Company
introduced its first steam-powered automible -- "The Toledo" in 1900, but it was relatively lacking in both speed and power. The
Pope Company's 1903 model, the "Pope-Toledo" was a more durable and popular automobile. Selling for about $3,000 (more than many
people's annual salary), it was truly a luxury vehicle. In 1907, the Pope Company went bankrupt and remained in arrears for two
years until it was purchased by John Willys in 1909. Willys paid off the debt and reorganized the company, forming the
Willys-Overland Company, a firm that would later introduce the Jeep and the Wagoneer to the world.
Anassembly line was used by Henry Ford in order to mass-produce perfectly identical automobiles in his Detroit plants. This was a
tremendous innovation, one that allowed Ford to produce automobiles at vastly cheaper prices than his competitor. The assembly
line technique was quickly copied and utilized in production facilities around the world.
Each vehicle produced on an assembly line was made up of thousands of pieces of steel, each precisely shaped, which were then
assembled in factories. These pieces of metal were created at metal stamping plants, and as the automobile industry began to grow,
so did the metal stamping industry. The metal stamping industry essentially involves shaping sheets of metal into the precise
shapes required by a wide variety of industries. Steel, an alloy of iron and carbon, is rolled into flat sheets at a mill and then
shipped to a metal stamping plant. That sheet of metal is placed into the bed of a press and a large, carefully shaped object
called a die, is then pushed under extremely high pressure onto the steel, forming it in some way. In order to create a finished
and usable result from a sheet of raw steel, several different operations are performed on increasingly more precise presses.
There were two methods in which a company could fill its demands for these stamped metal parts-- either through the creation of an
in-house department which would supply the company's entire needs, or through out-sourcing the parts to various "jobbing"
concerns. In the Toledo area, three metal stamping companies arose in 1911 alone to meet the growing need, with many more
following shortly thereafter.
Itis not surprising then, that in early 1911, when Grafton Acklin, nearing his 60th birthday, looked to the future, he decided to
retire as President of the Toledo Machine and Tool company and open, with three of his sons, the Acklin Stamping Company. But in
order to understand Grafton Acklin's vision it is important to understand the man himself, and his career which led up to the
formation of this company.
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Willys-Overland
The Spitzer Building, Madison and Huron, c. 1900.
Advertisement for the Pope Motor Company, 1905.
Press manufactured by the Toledo Machine and Tool Company, c. 1911
Grafton Acklin, founder, c. 1898.
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