Evening star., 1942-07-19

Electric boasts an unparalleled range OF
war products At one extreme are search
lights of 100000 candlepower, which stab
513 miles through the night, 100000
volt X-ray machines. used in the steel
industry as inspectors of castings, and
giant urbo-electric generators for drv-
ing the Navys battleships and cruisers
and the Maritime Commissions high
grade cargo ships. On the other hand,
the company works delicately with the
electron. that infinitesimal constituent
of an atom, in the application of fire.
quency modulation and television to
combat uses.
Competence and Energy.
Mr.. Wilson is big man, some inches
above feet tall with more than 200
pounds of muscle. The skull is we'll
shaped and imposing. The massive
frame bulges with animal health. Such
lineaments, while far from universal are
frequent in the top management group.
They often denote two of its outstanding
aualities-supreme competence and dy-
manic energy.
Another manufacturing chieftain who
came up the hard way is Ernest Tener
Weir, who left public school at Is for
the inevitable job of Office boy Starting
en- a shoestring in 1905, he gradually
built up a self-contained empire in the
National Steel Corp. of Pittsburgh, of
which he is president 1t is complete
from coal and ore mines to blast furnaces
and rolling mills. On the march forward
he built the first continuous hot-strip
mill and the model industrial city of
Weirton, w. Va.
To-Day his plants are in war production
992 per cent One contribution has
teen conversion of rolling mills from
sheets to plate, and another is the de-
velopment of hard-carbon steels, made
in open-hearth furnaces, to offset def
ciencies of alloy metals and electric
furnaces.
At the age of Ct, with silvergray hair,
he looks much younger, so ruddy in his
countenance and so erect and vigorous
is his carriage. He is an enthusiastic
golfer, but has not yet relaxed from
lifelong custom of hard work. Among
scores of hard-bitten executives, ernest
T. Weir stands pre-eminent in the
writer's memory for toughness and ingot-
like strength.
In addition to Mr.. Geier, the cor
respondents met two notables at the
head Of businesses which were inherited,
but which seemed little the worse for
that fact They were Harvey S. Fire
stone. jr., president of Dayton's Firestone
Tire & Rubber Co., and Edgar M. Queeny
of st. Louis, 44-year-old president of
the Monsanto Chemical Co.
Tirestone had just placed in operation
the first plant in the Governments pro-
gram of synthetic Buna-S tire rubber,
which the company-the only one in the
United States to do SO prior to Pearl
Harbor-had been making for several
years in a pilot plant of its own. In
addition it Is turning out antiaircraft
guns, mounts and carriages; pontoons,
rubber boats. barrage balloons and self
sealing gasoline tanks and bulletproot
oil lines; wings for transport planes,
oxygen cylinders for high-altitude fight,
cases and parachute and pilot seats.
100 Different Chemicals.
The Mcnsanto Chemical Co. was
founded by John Francis Queeny Ed
gar NJ Queeny took over control after
his fathers death, and has pushed the
enterprise into front rank in the war
program. It has in operation l8 plants,
of them abroad, and there are 4
others under construction. The COM
pany manufactures 100 different chemi-
Gals. of which 80 are vital to production
| of munitions and military gases.
Among leading shipbuilders are two
! graduates of the Naval Academy at
| Annapolis. Lawrence Y. Spear. presi-
dent of the Electric Boat Co. at Groton
! Conn, has been it's technical head for
36 years, and has probably built more
submarines than any man in the world
He has supervised the construction OF
no less than 1876 submersibles, and his
plant, the biggest of the kind in the
United States, is turning out f1eet-type
craft at rate of one a month, with q
working force of about $4,000 in three
eight-hour shifts.
Born So years ago. the son of JUS
tice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Mr.
Spear has witnessed and been a part
of modern naval evolution Second In
his class, he was graduated from An
napolis in 1886, and his first ship had
sails. wooden hull and smooth bore
cannon. The Electric Boat Co. was
founded in 1899 to take over the Holland
Torpedo Boat Co., builder of the first
successful submarine Having resigned
from the Navy, Mr.. Spear joined Elec-
trio Boat in 1902, after he had super.
vised the construction of such historic
vessels as the cruiser Olympia and bat
tleship Oregon.
The largest private shipyard in the
world, the Newport News Shipbuildint
g. Drydock Co. has had as president
since 1888 Homer L. Ferguson, who was
graduated from the Naval Academy ir
1892 and continued his engineering
studies at Glasgow University. Hi.
company specializes in capital Navy
vessels, including battleships, cruiser!
and airplane carriers.
Two executives deserve note because
they had the nerve and foresight early
in 1910 to make the hard decision
of scuttling peace schedules and con-
verting their plants at private expense tc
war production.
Converted Plants Before War.
One is Col Edward A. Deeds, a farm