Trumbull Steel was an American finished steel and tinplate manufacturer based in Warren, Ohio, in the United States. Founded in 1912, it opened its first steel plant on July 23, 1913. The company rapidly expanded its plant over the next decade, and acquired Liberty Steel in 1919. An attempt to float $20 million in bonds in 1925 exposed financial mismanagement and embezzlement by the company's president. Investor Cyrus Eaton from Cleveland, Ohio, took advantage of the collapse in stock price to seize control of the company. Trumbull Steel became profitable again. Eaton merged Trumbull Steel with Republic Steel on November 25, 1927, ending Trumbull's corporate existence.
Founding
Trumbull Steel was incorporated in the U.S. state of Ohio on April 25, 1912. The incorporators were Jonathan Warner, Daniel W. Kerr, W.T. Hardesty, William H.B. Ward, and John T. Harrington.; The moving force and founder of the company was Jonathan Warner. Since the 1830s, the Warner family had operated blast furnaces, sheet mills, and tinplate works in Ohio's Mahoning Valley. Warner became the superintendent of Russia Sheet Mills in Niles, Ohio, in 1891. After James Summers, founded of Struthers Iron & Steel in Struthers, Ohio, died in 1898, Warner bought into the firm and oversaw construction of three new sheet mill stands in 1899. Struthers Iron & Steel became part of American Sheet Steel Co. in February 1900 as part of a massive industry-wide consolidation. Warner became a manager in the new company. American Sheet Steel merged with the American Tin Plate Company in November 1903 to become American Sheet & Tin Plate Co., and Warner became assistant to the senior vice president of the new firm as well as head of its operating department. He resigned in March 1904,
In April 1906, Warner, W.T. Hardesty, and William H.B. Ward bought the Empire Iron & Steel Co. of Niles, Ohio. Hardesty was one of the nation's foremost experts in the design and operation of steel-making facilities, and had erected the first tinplate mill in the United States at Niles, Ohio, in 1892.; He had been a district manager for American Sheet & Tin Plate before becoming superintendent of Empire Iron. Warner, who provided most of the capital for the acquisition of Empire, then sold the company to Garry Iron & Steel of Cleveland, Ohio, in May 1910.
Warner re-entered the steel industry by providing the seed capital for Trumbull Steel. To raise additional money, he sold stock in the company to his personal friends. The firm was initially capitalized at $1 million ().
Trumbull Steel acquired a site on the Mahoning River at Warren, Ohio, for its new mill. The company was named for Trumbull County, in which the city of Warren was located. The site (Index, Plate 12 (1915)) was adjacent to both the Erie Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Initially, the new company said in May 1912 that it intended to erect a tinplate plant consisting of six hot-rolled sheet stands, capable of making -wide sheets. The plant would have a capacity of a year and employ 400 to 500 people. By the end of July, it had added another six cold-rolling stands and three more hot rolling stands.
Trumbull Steel increased its capitalization to $1.25 million () in August 1912, a clear sign that it intended to build a larger plant than announced.
Initial construction focused on a sheet mill building wide and long, a tin mill and long, a boiler house, a warehouse, and an office building. Construction of the facility was hindered by delays in the delivery of structural steel for the buildings and by heavy flooding in the Mahoning River valley in April 1913.
Plant as built
Trumbull Steel's plant opened with test manufacturing runs on July 23, 1913,; on a site. Four sheet stands were running and 1,000 men at work. Another eight sheet stands were ready for completion within two weeks.
At the east end of the rolling mill was a sheet bar storage area capable of holding .
The main sheet finishing building was long and wide and consisted of three aisles, each of which had one or more overhead cranes to move material. The south aisle was wide and contained six hot-rolling stands. Against the south side of the building was a lean-to which enclosed 18 furnaces for heating steel. The middle aisle was wide and contained the shearing department, where hot-rolled steel was cut to length and squared (if not intended to be coiled). There were five and six shears. The north aisle contained 13 cold-rolling stands, three tandem hot-cold stands, and the annealing and pickling departments. The pickling department contained tanks with strong sulfuric acid, diluted hydrochloric acid, and water (for rinsing away acid). The cooling beds were also located in this area. A lean-to against the north side of the building enclosed the eight annealing furnaces. The stands could handle coils of steel up to in diameter, whereas most stands at the time could handle only coils. Sheets made at the plant ranged from 12 to 30 gauge, and came in an assortment of lengths and widths.
Parallel to and north of the main building was the long, wide tin mill. It had six stands for hot-rolling sheet, six hot-rolling stands for black sheet, 13 stands for cold-rolling, and its own crane. The tin mill could manufacture tin plate, high-grade steel plate terne, charcoal iron terne, long strip terne, charcoal tin, fire door plate, and furnace pipe. The roofing department of the tin mill had a corrugating machine, crimping machine, curving machine, two die-work hammers, and a painting machine. There was even a machine which attached locks to shingles. The roofing department could make formed roofing products such as corrugated roofing and siding, roll and capped roofing, plain and self-capping roll roofing, plain and corrugated ridge roll, metal ceiling, metal shingles, metal tile, roofing gutters, and narrow conductor pipe.
A galvanizing and tinning plant long and wide ran parallel to and north of the tin house. It contained three galvanizing pots and 20 tinning pots. The north side of this structure was for storage and shipping, while the galvanizing and tinning departments occupied the south side. The galvanizing department had its own crane and was separated from the tinning area by a steel partition to prevent galvanization fumes from interfering with the tinning process.
The plant's annual capacity was a year. The company-owned rail yard adjacent to the plant had the capacity to handle 50 flatbed or box cars and had its own Davenport Locomotive Works-built switching engine to move them around. Tracks ran from the west end of the main building to the tin house, and from the east end to the galvanizing house. These tracks were depressed in the earth so that the beds of the rail cars were level with the mill floor to afford easy roll-on/roll-off of material.
A Gothic Revival-style brick office building was to the west of the plant.
The total cost of the plant was $2 million (). Trumbull Steel lacked the cash to pay for the plant, so it issued $250,000 () in bonds through local banks.
Pre-war expansion: 1913 to 1917 Even before the plant opened, Trumbull Steel built a extension to its tin house and a extension to its galvanizing department to accommodate two new galvanizing vats, new cooling beds, and new pickling vats.
In November 1913, it added two new cold-rolling stands and built a ninth annealing furnace.
Doubling capacity and first capitalization increase Less than six months after its first plant opened, Trumbull Steel added a 50 percent increase in its production capacity by installing six 36-inch cold-rolling tin mills, four 25-inch cold-rolling sheet mills, and two convertible cold-rolling mills (which could roll sheet or tin). A new long, wide building was erected to accommodate the expansion.
The doubling of sheet stands practically constituted an entire new factory. The changes increased annual capacity to , and doubled the workforce to 2,000 men. All the new equipment was installed and operating by the end of January 1915.
To pay for the expansion, Trumbull Steel formally increased its capitalization to $2.5 million ().;
Second capitalization increase In July 1915, Trumbull Steel's board of directors asked stockholders to raise the company's capitalization to $4 million () through the issuance of $1.5 million in stock,; $750,000 of which would be preferred stock and $750,000 common stock. The company had already spent $500,000 () to purchase of new land, lengthen the bar shed to from , extend the main mill building by , add a second bar shed, extend its coal trestle by , add a addition to the annealing department, add a addition to its galvanizing department, add to its shearing department.
Stockholders approved the stock issuance on August 7.; ;
Filling the new space were eight new hot-rolling mills. This gave Trumbull Steel a new capacity of a year, making it the largest steel sheet-rolling plant in the Mahoning Valley and one of the largest producers of sheet steel in the nation. The additions led employment at the mill to rise by 400 workers to 2,100. Trumbull Steel was also the first steel plant in the United States to use a new interchangeable hot/cold mill.
The company then acquired an additional of land to accommodate future expansion.
Third capitalization increase In January 1916, the officers of Trumbull Steel asked stockholders to approve yet another increase in capitalization, this time increasing the amount of stock by $6 million ().; ; The increase was made up of $3,759,000 in common stock common and $2,250,000 in preferred. Stockholders approved the increase on February 23.; ;
Trumbull Steel said it planned to spend $3 million () to add 16 cold-rolling sheet stands, a addition to its cold rolling mill building, a new office building, and as many as 10 open-hearth furnaces so it could make its own steel ingots and billets.; As Trumbull Steel was already one of the largest sheet and tin concerns apart from U.S. Steel, this would dramatically increase its annual output. To accommodate the company's increased manufactures, the Pennsylvania Railroad began adding another track to its line between Warren and Ashtabula, Ohio, and between Warren and Pittsburgh, and the Mahoning Valley Railway extended its line to the plant.
Fourth capitalization increase In October 1916, Trumbull Steel's board of directors asked stockholders to approve another stock expansion, issuing another $2.5 million in common () and $1.25 million in preferred () A quarter of a million dollars would be used to retire all of its outstanding bonds.
Apparently, the $6 million raised eight months earlier was not enough to build the open-hearth furnaces, because Trumbull Steel pledged to use $3 million () of the new funds to immediately erect five of the planned 10 open-hearth furnaces. It also announced it would build a mill capable of producing wide blooms and bars. With these improvements, Trumbull Steel would be able to make chrome, manganese, and nickel steel.
Larger expansion than planned The company began construction on five open-hearth furnaces and four soaking pits in late November 1916, with an anticipated opening in the fall of 1917.
Without informing stockholders or the public, Trumbull Steel began work on a much larger expansion than previously announced. The company purchased more land, giving it a total of , and began construction on a new cold rolling mill. The cold-rolling mill was due for completion in April 1917, and cost about $250,000 (). Its six stands made thin sheet steel for the automobile and furniture industry, and provided 500 new jobs.; It was the very first rolling mill in the nation whose stands were electrically, rather than steam, driven.