Hooven, Owens, Rentschler Co.
(HOR) was formed in 1882,
according to a 100th anniversary booklet, General Machinery
Corporation, Hamilton, Ohio, 1845-1945. "In 1876, as the result of a
most severe business depression, Owens, Lane & Dyer went into
the hands of a receiver, Clark Lane," the book said.
"Owens, Ebert & Dyer -- later Owens, Lane & Dyer --
made nearly everything in metal -- from waffle irons to papermaking
machinery, stationary steam engines, road traction engines, horse
and steam driven threshing machines, sawmills, etc.," said the GMC
history. "In 1882 this firm was reorganized by the original George
A. Rentschler and his associates, J. C. Hooven, Henry C. Sohn,
George H. Helvey and James E. Campbell (who later was governor of
Ohio) and became the Hooven, Owens, Rentschler Co." "In 1883 the
first of a long line of Corliss steam engines rolled out of the door
-- and the number totaled over 700 by the turn of the century," the
GMC history continued. "The present shop with its very high bays was
completed in 1902." "In 1928 the present George Adam Rentschler
merged the Hooven, Owens, Rentschler Co. -- of which he was the
present -- and the Niles Tool Works into the General Machinery
Corp.," the booklet said. "Job E. Owens, born in 1819 in
Morganshire, Wales, arrived at Columbus, Ohio, in 1824 and came to
Hamilton in 1845 -- the end of a long depression and the beginning
of 10 years of prosperity. Hamilton was planning to build a new jail
and Owens bid on the iron and steel portions of the building and was
awarded the contract in February 1846. The site chosen by Owens for
his plant was adjacent to, but west of the hydraulic," according to
the GMC history. "George A. Rentschler, a young man of about 30
years of age, had come to Hamilton -- after having served his trade
in the foundry business in Newark, N. J. -- by way of Indianapolis
and Cincinnati, where he had been superintendent of foundry
operations considered large for those times. He had come to Hamilton
determined to go into business for himself, and had established his
own foundry business. . . . Together with his partner in the foundry
business, Henry C. Sohn, they brought about them J. C. Hooven, an
outstanding young commercial man, and George H. Helvey. "Hooven had
been marketing his own Monarch Portable Engine and Monarch Thresher
by subcontracting the work. His boilers were built in one shop, his
engines in another, and his thresher parts were farmed out. "George
H. Helvey who had, as a young boy, served his apprenticeship as a
machinist in Hamilton. To gain experience, he became a journeyman
machinist working in various parts of the country. Finally his
travels brought him back to Hamilton about 1873. He was ambitious
and worked in the shops by day and studied at nights, and soon
George Helvey had developed into an outstanding mechanical
engineer," said the GMC history.
The 1891 book, The Centennial of the City of Hamilton, Ohio,
identified Hooven, Owens, Rentschler Co. as the Hamilton Corliss
Engine Works. It said "in November 1882 it was decided to enter upon
the manufacture of the highest class of stationary steam engines
known to the trade, and the engine of the Corliss type was adopted
as being far ahead of anything in this line yet devised in steam
engineering. The first engine, with a cylinder 18 inches in diameter
and 42-inch stroke, was started early in 1883 and produced results
as to economy of fuel and close regulation of speed which were up to
the highest standard. The business of building these engines was
then, and has been since, continuously pushed with the utmost vigor
with such success as to crowd out of the shop every other line of
manufacture. Nothing has since been built in the shop but these high
class Corliss engines, and not only this but the shop has been many
times enlarged and its facilities greatly increased in every way,
and for years the shop has run 24 hours per day. The extent of the
business may be judged from the fact that 750 of these magnificent
engines have been constructed, varying in size from single cylinder
35 horsepower engines having cylinders 10 by 24 inches, to massive
2,000 horsepower engines having compound cylinders and running as
condensing engines. These engines will be found installed in all of
the important power centers of the country, running factories and
mills and furnishing the motive power for cable railways, and
electric railways, and electric light stations."
George Henry Corliss (1817-1888), a mechanical engineer working
in Providence, R. I., improved the steam engine and patented the
fuel efficient Corliss steam engine in 1849. (See General Machinery
Corp., Niles Tool Works, Rentschler House and Walden Ponds for
additional details.)
