Louis Upton
Williams, a hardware merchant in South Bend, Indiana, who wanted to organize a company to manufacture home washers.
He took the hand washer patent to his uncle, Emory Upton, a mechanic in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and asked him to motorize it to be powered by electricity.
He set up a shop in Benton Harbor where, with the help of his brother Frederick, he built the electric washers while commuting to his job at Commonwealth Edison in Chicago, approximately 100 miles away.
Federal agreed, and the master mechanic, Gustav B. Keil, who later came to work for Upton, solved the problem by using steel rather than cast iron in the gears.
Bassford agreed to supply $5000 on the condition that Louis work for the company full-time, quitting his job at Commonwealth Edison.
[9][10] While it is true that the early 1900s was a time of numerous electricity-driven home inventions, Upton's customers, the women who washed the clothes, did not immediately embrace the electric washer.
It was a hand washer with a motor added, and power transmitted to the washing mechanism by means of a belt drive and cast iron gears.
The local newspaper summarized: “The company did not flourish as well as was expected, for there was but a meager demand for those hazardous contraptions, electric washing machines, and many women of the era felt that if wash tubs were good enough for grandma, they were good enough for them.”[11] On October 1, 1912, in order to run the company leaner, the board decided to lower executive salaries.
The American Tool Works, located across the street from the Upton Machine Company, had run into financial difficulties after a fire destroyed their factory on October 29, 1909.
[18] Things finally turned around for the washing machine business when in April 1916, Louis got a meeting at the Sears, Roebuck and Company, which at that point had sold only hand washers, mistrusting the electric contrivances.
The business relationship with Sears planted a seed for its growth to the top of laundry manufacturers in the United States.
The body of the manufacturer was found on the kitchen floor by one of the members of the family and the open gas jet gave the conclusive evidence as to the cause of his death.
Sears agreed to cancel the loan in exchange for shares of stock in the Upton Machine Co., a transaction that built a strong tie between the two companies.
[24] On February 20, 1928, the Upton Machine Co. announced a large contract to start mass production of light metal toys for the F.W.
To make room for the expansion in the toy manufacturing industry it sold its air rifle business to the All Metal Products Company of Detroit, Michigan.
[28][29] The Upton Machine Company, now a division of Nineteen Hundred Co. doubles their output in 1929, greatly expanding their St. Joseph, Michigan plant size to support a new product line, known as the Kenmore in 1930.
In November 1933, due to differences in business philosophies, particularly around the company's relationship with Sears, Behan announced his resignation as president.
In 1936, the company began exporting with Sears International to new important markets opening up for the Kenmore machines, primarily England, Sweden and the Canal Zone.
Government figures for 1941 confirmed the Nineteen Hundred Corporation was the largest producer of washing machines in the United States, and therefore the world.
The firm turned out 3,000 units a month and received the highest inspection rating the army and navy could bestow.
In 1944, the Nineteen Hundred corporation received the coveted Army-Navy "E" award for its outstanding defense production in World War II.
On August 27, 1945 exactly one week after V-J Day, every man who wanted to return to Nineteen Hundred had been called back to work, announcing its new automatic washers, the Kenmore and Whirlpool.
Sears, Chamber of Commerce and others take out full-page ads thanking the company for its service to the civic and economic life of the community.
[45] Whirlpool Corporation is still recognized today as one of the "World's Most Admired Company" being placed on Fortune Magazine's distinguished list for the ninth consecutive year in 2019.
He held the post of Trustee for the federal government's Committee for Economic Development and was a director of the National Association of Manufacturers.
[48] On Jun 9, 1954, Kalamazoo College, where Upton had been a member of the Board of Trustees, dedicated a new science building to the late mogul.
The Herald-Press stated “It was an inspiring tribute from a community to a man whose character was great enough to outlive him.”[51] By all accounts[citation needed], Louis Upton was a leader who cared about the quality of life of his employees.
He founded and was president of the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan, which featured speeches by national leaders in business and politics.
As the founder and head of the Whirlpool Corporation, he directed the progress and development of the country's largest washing machine plant.
[62] Another newspaper editorial stated: He knew the bitterness of disappointed hopes as well as the satisfaction of accomplishment, and every setback so enriched his character that obstacles became stepping stones to success.
