JOHN FRITZ

Heller, History of Northampton County, 1920.

JOHN FRITZ, distinguished mechanical and metallurgical was born August 21, 1922, in Londonderry, Chester County, Pennsylvania. His father, George Fritz, a native of Hesse Cassel, was brought to this country by his parents in 1802, with three brothers and a sister, to whom were subsequently added three daughters born in America. The family settled in Pennsylvania. George Fritz married the native-born daughter of a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian immigrant in 1787. and they had four girls and three boys, of whom John was the first. He was named after his grandfather, the foreign form, John Fritztius, being Americanized into John Fritz.

The "Autobiography of John Fritz," published in 1922, bears unconscious testimony to the effect of this environment upon innate genius. His father, a millwright and mechanic, could not be content with farming, but repeatedly followed the call of the trade which he loved better; - and the sons, inheriting his talent and his predilection, after dutifully following the pplough in their youth, abandoned it for mechanical engineering, in which, educating themselves without the aid of technical schooling, they all achieved high position. It should be added that both his ancestry and his early life endowed John Fritz with splendid health and strength. Finally, we cannot omit to mention (what John Fritz was wont, on all occasions, to emphasize) the moral influence of his God-fearing father mid mother upon his whole life.

Like other American boys, he had tile benefit of some schooling; but his own epigrammatic summary, "Five days in the week, for three mouths in the year, is too short a time for the study of Bennett's Arithmetic," tells the whole story. In 1838, at the age of sixteen, he became an apprentice in the trades of blacksmith and machinist--the latter comprising repairs of agricultural and manufacturing machinery, including the simple blast furnaces of the day. At the end of this apprenticeship he returned to work for a time on the paternal farm, with his mind made up to engage somehow in the manufacture of iron, %with special relation to its use on railroads. In 1884 he made an entrance upon this career by employment in a rolling-mill at Norristown, then in process of erection. He was put in charge of all the machinery, and discovered weak spots in design and construction which he afterward remedied either by his own inventions or by those which he adopted and introduced. After a while, he seized the opportunity to master thoroughly the thing nearest to him, outside of his immediate task. This happened to be the puddling-furnace. John Fritz worked through a long day at his job as superintendent and repairer of machinery, and then spent the evening in the exhausting work of a common puddler, studying, while he rabbled or drew the glowing charge, the apparatus and the process.

Having learned what was to be learned in that particular business, he accepted in 1849 with the sympathetic approval of Moore & Hooven, his employers at Norristown, a position in a new rail-mill and blast-furnace at Safe Harbor. The salary was smaller ($650 a year instead of $1,000); but he wanted to learn all about blast-furnace practice and the manufacture of rails. His strenuous and successful work at Safe Harbor was cut short after a few months by all attack of fever and ague. During this interval he made a trip to Lake Superior, and saw the great Cleveland and Jackson iron-ore deposits in the Marquette district. After his return he tried in vain to interest Pennsylvania capitalists in Lake Superior iron mines, as a source of supply even for Pennsylvania. He was told that he might as well dream of bringing iron ore from Kamchatka as from Marquette; to which lie replied that within ten years (this was in 18S2) iron-ore from Lake Superior would be sold in Philadelphia. One-half the Jackson mine could have been bought then for $25,000.

He was engaged in 1852 to superintend the rebuilding of the Kunzie blast-furnace on the Schuylkill about twelve miles from Philadelphia. This involved the new method of manufacturing pig-iron with anthracite instead of charcoal or coke as fuel, a scheme which had just been proved practical by David Thomas and William Firmstone in the Lehigh Valley. Mr. Fritz, though not the designer of the new furnace, was called upon to remedy defects, and managed to the satisfaction of the proprietors without losing the friendship of the engineer, whose opinion he had contradicted. In 1853 Mr. Fritz joined his brother George and others in building at Catasauqua a foundry and machine-shop to supply blast-furnaces and rolling mills. In the following year he was invited, through David Reeves, to go to the Cambria Iron Works, Johnstown, as general superintendent. This was the turning point of his career. His preparation for it had occupied sixteen years, during which he had mastered every part of the manufacture of iron into commercial forms, while he had also learned the higher art of commanding the enthusiastic loyalty of workmen, and the highest art of all, perhaps -- that of securing the confidence of employers. He met successively the problems of technical authority and responsibility, temporary repair and reform of an old plant, improvement in quality of product, and the procurement of means for new and needed construction. When these problems had been so far solved that the mill was running well and making some money, the property was attached under judgments upon former claims. Fritz persuaded all parties to allow the work to go on, and he was the only man upon whom all parties could agree as an agent to protect he rights of all. Under his management operations went on under the shadow of impending bankruptcy until a reorganization was decided upon. The capital was subscribed, and operations were resumed. He determined to put into the works a three-high roll-train, in accordance with his prophetic vision of earlier years; and this plan was opposed by many of the stockholders, who were supported by the opinions of leading iron-masters annd the declarations of the laboring "heaters” and "rollers," and it was by sheer force of personal character that he secured authority for the execution of his plan. He introduced the three-high rolls into the Cambria company's mill, laying thereby the foundation not only of unexampled prosperity but also of an improvement which was rapidly adopted through this country and the world, and has been justly called the last great step of progress in iron manufacture preceding the Bessemer process.

But this triumph was followed by further trials. The day after the success of the three-high rolls had been demonstrated in the Cambria mill, the mill itself was destroyed by fire. Fortunately the demonstration had been conclusive. Inside of thirty days, Mr. Fritz had the mill running again, though without a roof to cover it; and it was one of tile proudest recollections of his after-life that he subsequently erected a building 1,000 feet long by 100 feet wide, with trussed and slated roof - the finest rolling-mill building at that time in the United States--without interrupting the running of the mill which it covered, and without injury to a single person. In the progressive reconstruction of the Cambria Works, Fritz introduced many improvements which he had conceived in previous years - improvements in puddling furnaces, gearing, boilers, etc.

After six years with the Cambria Iron Company, Mr. Fritz accepted in July, 1860, the position of general superintendent and chief engineer of the Bethlehem Iron Company. The works of this company, designed and erected by Mr. Fritz, were so far completed by September, 1863, as to begin the rolling of rails made from the product of its own blast and puddling furnaces. The first of his improvements was the introduction of high-pressure blast in the iron blast-furnace. His horizontal blowing engines were much criticized at the time, but they have run continuously, day and night, for more than thirty years, blowing from 10 to 12 lbs. pressure, and frequently more. He was so well satisfied with the result of his innovations in blast furnace practice that he designed a larger furnace with an engine that would supply 20 to 30 lb. blast, but the directors of the company were too conservative to authorize this experiment.

During the Civil War the government needed a rolling-mill somewhere in the South in which twisted rails could be rolled, It was probably the advice of Abram S. Hewitt which led to the selection of Mr. Fritz as one who could procure the necessary machinery and secure the erection of the mill with tile least possible delay. He was surprised in March, 1864, by his appointment to this place with almost unlimited powers, the War Department declaring that "any arrangements" he might make would be "fully carried out" by the government. Mr. Fritz immediately prepared the plans mid secured the necessary machinery for the mill, which was built at Chattanooga Tennessee, and of which his brother William was made superintendent. William Fritz had been employed at Cambria and at Bethlehem until 1861, when he enlisted in the Union army, and in 1864 he was on furlough, recovering from a serious wound. He ran the Chattanooga mill successfully until the end of the year.

During nearly thirty years of work with the Bethlehem Iron Company Mr. Fritz, supported by the faith and courage which he inspired in other men, made that enterprise one of the most famous in the world. The interdiction of open-hearth furnaces and of the Thomas basic process; the progressive improvements of strength, simplicity and automatic handling in the rolling mills; the adoption of the Whitworh forging press; the manufacture of armor plate; the erection of a 125-ton steam-hammer; and innumerable other improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel, owe their present perfection in large degree to him. The stamp of has mind may in found on almost every detail of construction and operation throughout a wide range of processes and products.

1n 1892, at the age of seventy, he retired from the responsible and arduous work at Bethlehem. For nearly twenty years longer he lived to enjoy the fame and friendship which he had amply earned. Indeed, he had received world-wide recognition before his retirement, and that event elicited numerous public expressions of the pre-existing fact. The American Institute of Mining Engineers elected him president in 1894, and he made the following contributions to the "Transactions": "Remarks on the Fracture of Steel Rails," 1875; “Remarks on the Bessemer Process," 1890, "Early Days of the Iron Manufacture" (Presidential Address), 1894; "Remarks on Rail Sections,"1899. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers made him an honorary member in 1892, and president in 1895; the American Society of Civil Engineers conferred honorary membership upon him in 1899; the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain made him all honorary member in 1893, and a perpetual honorary vice-president in 1909; and the recently organized American Iron and Steel Institute elected him an honorary member in 1910. Meanwhile, he had received the bronze medal of the United States Centennial Exposition in 1876; In 1893 the Bessemer gold medal of the Iron and Steel Institute; in 1903 the John Fritz medal, the fund for which was established by subscription, to honor his eightieth birthday, by awarding it gold medal annually "for notable scientific or industrial achievement, the first medal being bestowed enthusiastically upon John Fritz himself; in 1904 the bronze medal of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, in connection with which he served as honorary expert on cast iron and steel; and in 1910 the Elliott Cresson gold Medal of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, “for distinguished leading and directive work in the advancement of the iron and steel industries”. And he received honoris causa the following academic degrees: M.A., Columbia University. 1895; D.S., University of Pennsylvania, 1906; D.E. Stevens 1nstitue of Technology, 1907; and D. S. Temple University, 1910

But these official distinctions could not tell fully the story of love and praise which pressed for the utterance which it found oil two memorable occasions -- celebrations of his seventieth and eightieth birthday anniversaries, in which hundreds of his friends and professional colleagues participated. The first took place at Bethlehem in 1892, and the second at New York in 1902. On the latter occasion, as has been said above, he received the first "John Fritz Medal." 'The conferment of honorary degrees by institutions of learning upon this self-educated workingman was a recognition not merely of his professional achievements, but also of his wise and generous aid to the cause of technical education, some account, of which may fitly close this story of his life.

Lehigh University was founded in 1866 by a Pennsylvanian, Asa Packer, who knew and appreciated the great qualities of John Fritz, and who named him as one of the original board of trustees. For a wholly self- educated, self-cultured man, he was remarkably broad in his conceptions of education. While not wealthy in the modern sense of the term, Mr. Fritz, who, though generous, was thrifty, enjoyed a comfortable competence in his old age; and one day in 1909 he astonished President Drinker by saying: “In my will have left Lehigh University a certain sum of money to be expended in your discretion. I now intend to revoke that and instead of leaving money for you to spend after I am1 gone, I'm going to have the fun of spending it with you and Charley Taylor (Mr. Taylor being co-trustee of Lehigh with Mr. Fritz, and an old and valued friend -- a former partner of Andrew Carnegie). I have long watched the career of a number of Lehigh graduates, and I have been impressed by the value of the training they have received at Lehigh. But you need an up-to-date laboratory, and I intend to build one for you."

Mr. Fritz acted its his own architect, designed the building (substantially on the lines of the large shop he had built at the Bethlehem Steel Works), and selected, purchased and installed the superb testing equipment. At his death it was found that, after making generous, provisions for his near relatives and for bequests to the Free Libraries of the Bethlehems, to St. Luke's, Hospital at South Bethlehem, to Temple College at Philadelphia, to the Methodist Hospital in Philadelphia, to the American University at Washington, and to other charitable purposes, he had bequeathed his residuary estate, about $150,000, to Lehigh University, as an endowment fund for the maintenance and operation of his laboratory.

Mr. Fritz retained much of his mental vigor and activity up to the autumn of 1911. He took frequent trips alone to Philadelphia and New York, and attended many gatherings of his old engineering friends and associates. In the spring of 1911 he decided, at the urgent solicitation of friends, to put into shape the notes of incidents in his life, which he had been making for years. This was done largely on the insistence of friends during the summer of 1911 in Bethlehem. The penciled notes, in his own handwriting on yellow slips, were arranged chronologically by his nephew, George A. Chandler, who as an engineer had had a close lifelong association with Mr. Fritz; then Dr. Drinker, who was admitted to participation in the task, procured it competent stenographer, and they, with Mr. N. M. Emery, another friend, spent day after day during the summer vacation season on the task. This literary work finished, the laboratory built, his affairs in good order, Mr. Fritz began to fail. He suffered from recurring attacks of bronchitis, and finally an abscess formed on his chest. The abscess was opened by his physician, Dr. John H. Wilson, in February, 1912. In March 1912 his medical attendants expressed the opinion that unless he would submit to a drastic operation for the removal of puss on his chest, blood poisoning would set on and death must soon follow; and Dr. Drinker was appealed to by the family to exert his personal influence as a friend to persuade Mr. Fritz to submit to the operation. In this he was successful, and the operation was performed April 15, 1912. By Dr. William I. Estes, Mr. Fritz’s old and intimate friend, with Dr. Edward Martin of Philadelphia, as consulting surgeon, and Dr. John H. Wilson as physician. The operation was highly successful in averting the immediate threatened danger. Mr. Fritz wished to live, and his life was prolonged until Feb. 13, 1913, when he quietly passed away without apparent pain. His funeral at Bethlehem, February 17, was attended by a large concourse of his friends, and he lies at rest at the beautiful Nisky Hill Cemetery of his home town, beside his only daughter, who died in childhood, and his beloved wife. So lived and died a great man – strong, wise brave, invincible; a good man – simple generous, tender and true; a loving husband, a loyal friend, a public-spirited citizen, a real philanthropist, giving “himself with his gift”. To us who miss and mourn him now the man shines even more illustrious than the famous engineer.

Mr. Fritz married Ellen W. Maxwell, born in White Marsh, June 8, 1833, died at Bethlehem, January 29, 1908. Their only child, Gertrude, born in 1853, died in 1860.

(Condensed from narrative by Rossiter W. Raymond, New York City, New York and Henry Sturgis Drinker, South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)

The following is an excerpt from John Fritz’s autobiography (p. 90). This is the only reference to his stay in Catasauqua where he met and became a friend of Hopkin Thomas. The foundry that his party erected was the Catasauqua Manufacturing Co. which later became The Union Foundry and Machine Company.

I now returned to Norristown for the third time, but not with the intention of remaining there. A party was planning to build a nail mill and wanted me to build it for them and take the superintendency of it. My intention was to do some work that Mr. Hooven wanted done and get the mill in good order, then take hold of the nail-mill project. As business was dull at that time, however, the project was deferred for a year.

In company with my brother George and two brothers-in-law, Mr. B. F. Stroud and Mr. Isaac E. Chandler, who were then living in Catasauqua, we built a machine shop and foundry there, with the view of doing work for blast furnaces and rolling mills. But before we got fairly started, the party that had intended building the nail mill abandoned the project altogether on account of the dullness in the iron business. It so happened that Mr. David Reeves, whom I had been with at the Safe Harbor Iron Works and the Kunzie Furnace, had become interested in the Cambria Iron Works, at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and wanted me to go there as General Superintendent. He asked me to meet him at his office in Philadelphia, which I did, and it was arranged that I should go to Johnstown as soon as I could get away. My stay in Catasauqua was not only brief, but somewhat unprofitable. I made some good friends, however, whom I esteem most highly at the present time.

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