The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-04-16

offices would be surprised to learn few things about Joseph II. Hoadley Here are a few things of which it remains in bliss ful ignorance:
 Some of His Achievements.
 That he has risen from the position of an apprentice In machine shop to a millionaire several times over.
 That he is the iventor Of more meehan- ] ical appliances than any other man in America with the possible exception of l Thomas A. Edison.
 l That he was one of the greatest con- tractors In America before he had reached i the age of 23.
 That he was the head of one of the greatest engine works in America before : he was 26 years old.
 | That he constructed the first commer- cial automobile built in America.
 That he has the distinction of having built the largest engines in the world,
 which is now in the power house of the Boston Elevated Railroad
 That in the plants founded by him and the policy of which he dictates he has more men running machines than any other one man in the world.
 That he Is the greatest Nun maker in America with the exception of the United States government, and the Americap l and BfltlSn MdLuIacturlHB CoIlpdHS conr trolled by the international Power conf pany, of which he is president, makes all the ordinance for the United States army and navy up 10 guns finch calibre. That he has perfected an engine which such men as Edwin S. Cramp and Herre- shoff, the yacht builder, say will revolu- tionize motor power on sea and land.
 This rapid fire summary should be sufficient to show that MT. Hoadley Is | cnapnlator than motor and that he is entitled to his place in the first rank of the upbuilders of American industry.
 Was Born in California.
 Joseph H. Hoadley is Californian by birth and barely turned forty years of age. From boyhood he has been inter- ested in machinery. At the age of fifteen !, he went to work as machinists ap- prentice in what is known as the Union Iron Works of San Francisco. After a few months work in the shop the boy went to China and Japan. shipping as an oiler on the steamship City of TolIio. h spite of his youth his mechanical genius was soon manifested and when he cape back to San Francisco on that saiae voyage he held the position of second engineer. E. His apprenticeship in the machine shop completed, he soon showed his capacity for big things. Although ne Was less than nineteen years old ne undertook the task of installing a complete plant for mining machinery, which some of the biggest contractors in the west had turned down for fear that r could not be successfully filled Young lioaGiev attempted 1t and in a few months he turned over the completed nlant which from the very start worked as f it had been in operation for years.
 The next ten years of his life were about as crowded as those of any active American can be. Contracts piled upon contracts He installed aiming ma chinery in practically every mining state of the west and even extended his oper- ations to Alaska and Australia. tie built power houses for street railways all along the Pacific coast and for big facto- | ries from San Francisco to Portland, Me | He came eastward and built the great | l0, ,o00- horsepower plant of the Chicago city railway for Charles T. Yerkes. He built the plant of tke Steel and Wire