25 Top Historical Events in Alliance – Alliance Ware
#5. Alliance Ware Revolutionizes Bathtubs and Sinks
In 1934, Alliance Porcelain Products Company was newly organized by Clarence J. (CJ) Rodman, who purchased 33 of the 35 acres of the Buckeye Jack property, including all the buildings except the original bolt factory building. The basis for this company grew out of Dr. Rodman’s Steel Sanitary Company, a research company that operated between 1927 and 1932 in the malleable foundry building on the property; Steel Sanitary Company did research and development of the first successful steel bathtub in the country. Alliance Porcelain Products would be renamed Alliance Ware in 1944. The original bolt factory building would become the home of the Appliance Manufacturing Company, which would build washing machines until the 1950s.
About 1927, there was an engineering research project involving Alliance Machine Co. and a large plumbing company to bond porcelain on steel bathtubs and sinks. Three companies, including Alliance Ware were exclusively licensed to produce the new bath tubs, but the other 2 companies did not exercise their right, so Alliance Ware became the only active licensee. So Alliance Ware was not the first producer of pressed steel bath tubs, but it was the first producer “to stay in successful operation.” It was a well-designed product, which customers widely accepted. By 1951, Alliance Ware was the fastest growing company in Alliance, with about 450 people employed at the plant.
The Alliance chapter of the Red Cross established a Canteen Committee to provide meals for the troops during World War I and again during World War II. In November 1918, a room at the Pennsylvania Depot was secured for the operation.
During the lifetime of Thomas R. Morgan, Sr., many notable milestones in the history of the company occurred, among them, the first Overhead Travelling Crane ever built in the United States in 1878; the first Electric Overhead Travelling Crane built in the world, 1881; the first Electric Overhead Cranes ever installed in a steel mill, thirteen 10-ton capacity cranes for the Homestead Steel Works 1893; a 25-ton double trolley overhead crane exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, for which the Morgan Engineering Company was awarded a special Diploma of Achievement. Also during this period the long association between the company and the United States Ordnance Department was begun, the most noteworthy achievement being the construction of the Gordon 10 in. Disappearing Gun Carriage in 1894. This immense gun mount designed for coast defense weighed more than three hundred tons, and at the time was the largest gun mount ever built in the United States. During the Spanish-American War, many additional gun carriages were built, and a company of Pennsylvania National Guard was assigned by the War Department to guard the plant.
O-57 in production at the Taylorcraft hangar. The airplanes would be used by the Army Air Corps as a liaison airplane with ground forces. The “O” was the Army’s term for “observation type”. An order for 21 of the model DC-65 Tandem airplanes was received in November 1941 which forced the factory into round-the-clock production. They were identifiable by their olive drab paint and the blue circle with white star and red dot in the center of the star. During World War II, women were called into action as factory workers taking on roles traditionally held only by men. Taylorcraft created a welding school to meet their added demands for aircraft for the war effort. More than a dozen women at a time could be trained.
ou the top 25 events that shaped the history of Alliance.