Document DVbRewgO1QR7O5LKO99RXv1N
The founders of industrial nursing got the jump on the founders
>f Brake Shoe t>y fourteen years. In 1858, a nurse by the name of Miss
iary Moulder (Her name would have made
ideal for Brake Shoe.) was
ployed by coal mines In Drifton, Pa., to visit the homes of employees
md to promote\their general health and welfare. Seven years later, the
Vermont Marble j Company employed a nurse for home visiting. She must have
lad a tremendous amount of energy and capacity for work, because it was
said of her that she also taught school and "delivered babies in the com
munity. n In 1897, John Wanamaker Company of New T0rk employed a nurse to
/isit their sick employees. It is very interesting to note that in all
:hree of these [early instances the nurse was employed for service in the
lome rather than in the mine or the plant. I will refer again to this
joint a littlejlater.
In 1902, The American Brake Shoe & Foundry Company came into jeing as the result of the consolidation of four companies which were independently engaged in the manufacture of brake shoes. Of these four original plant^, two are still today part of the Brake Shoe family; iahwah. New Jersey, and Amsco, Chicago Heights, Illinois.
In 1909, what appears to have been an Important advancement in industrial nursing took place. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Instituted a Visiting Nurse Service for its policy holders? and, almost ioncurrently, tihe Visiting Nurse Association introduced nursing service in .ndustrial plants.
Brakej Shoe, a year later, in 1910, acquired the American Manganese Steel Company; land, in 1913, the Southern Wheel Company was added.
Meanwhile, In 1911, the various state legislatures began to uiact Workmen'Sj Compensation laws. This, of course, made it important
'or industry toj put into effect programs for the treatment of occupational .njuries. A still more important In^etus came along in 1914 in the form >f World War I. As to be expected, demands on Industry for production md a vital need for conserving manpower resulted in a marked advancement n industrial nursing. For example, in 1914, prior to the United States' >ntry to the war, records show that .only "60 firms in this country had .ndustrial nursing service. By 1918, this had Increased to 871 firms maploying 1,213! graduate nurses. Incidentally, it was during that period, .918'to be exact, that Brake Shoe's first nurse (a practical nurse, I might i.dd) was employed. She was with us until 1935. However, our real nursing program did notjcommence until 1941.
The period of World War I was for Brake Shoe one of great pro duction activity; and our program of expansion through acquisition of ther companies and other products was at a standstill until 1920 when
'G purchased the Ajax Forge Company; and the forge end of the business
ecame what Is how our American Forge Division, In 1922, the trackwork usiness of the!Ajax Forge Company was combined with Bamapo Iron Works o form what is .now our Bamapo Ajax Division.
Also in 1922, the first Industrial section was formed in the
ational Organization of Public Health Nursing (now the. National League
or Nursing). When, In 1926, this organization first prepared a Manual
f Public Health Nursing, standards, guides, and procedures for the
nclusion of industrial nursing in public health nursing agencies were
ncluded.
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66 SPNY 000196