Document Mqw85D1gZ25L3Ky418N8ydkM

THE GLIDDEN COMPANY From the very beginning of its existence. The Glidden Company has been char acterized by foresight. "When Francis H. Glidden, in 1870, began manufacturing varnish in a small plant in Cleveland, Ohio, he must have had plans for future expansion and growth. But even he, in hiB wildest dreams, could not have foreseen the day when the Company bearing his name would become one of the world's largest manufacturers of paint products, as well as a major producer of food products, soya bean products and pigments. The first years of the Company's existence were typical of other small business enterprises. An expanding market led Mr. Glidden into forming a partnership with William Joy, and the firm became known as The Glidden and Joy Varnish Company. Several years later, in 1883, to be exact, the three sons of Mr. Glidden were brought into the business, and the firm became known as The Glidden Varnish Company. That name was retained until 1917, when Mr. Adrian D. Joyce headed a syndicate which purchased The Glidden Varnish Company, in its entirety. Less than three years later the new organization sprang into national prom inence through the consolidation of sixteen paint and varnish companies under the name of The Glidden Company, Included in the new consolidation were plants and marketing facilities in Canada, California, Texas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Louisiana. It was this consolidation that first led the Compary into the wide diversifi cation of products for which Glidden is known. In addition to the original line of paints and varnishes, the Company now branched out as a manufacturer of arsenical poisons, insecticides, dry colors, chemicals and linseed oil. Mr. Joyce and his associates realized from the outset that certain essential raw materials could be manufactured far more cheaply than they could be purchased, and that control of these raw materials would give greater strength and independence to the Company. They saw that this would give them plants and equipment which could in turn be utilized to make other products and would tend to broaden the scope of their market. It was this policy that led Glidden into such seemingly unrelated fields as paints, foods and chemicals. let, surprisingly, each step led logically to the next onej each product to its successor. The story of Glidden and linseed oil graphically illustrates the policy of Mr. Joyce and his associates, and will explain the connection between such unrelated articles as paint products and food products. Linseed oil is an important raw material in the manufacture of paint and varnish. In the consolidation of December 31, 1919, The Glidden Compary acquired a linseed oil plant located in St* Louis. The flaxseed, from which the oil is made, came up the Mississippi by barge. But the crushing season lasted only six months, and the plant was idle for the rest of the year. The question arose: "How keep the factory and machinery busy for the entire twelve months?" The answer came from the islands of the southern Pacific Ocean in the fora of copra, the dried meat of the cocoanut. This could be crushed into a vegetable oil with the same machinery used in estracting linseed oil from flaxseed. Experi mentation showed that this vegetable oil could be further refined and made edible -- and the paint company had entered the food business. GLD32137 4 -THE GLIDDEN COMPANY 2 To carry out the refining process, the Company bought an abandoned brewery with all of its equipment, and the eocoanut oil became margarine, hard butter, biscuit coatings and kindred products which were widely sold to bakeries. Margarine plants were then purchased in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio and on the Pacific Coast for the purpose of supplying western and central states. The eastern territory was still unprovided for, so the plant and facilities of E. R. Durkee and Company, at Elmhurst, L. I. were next acquired. This company long a Glidden customer in a limited way, had just completed a modern $1,1400,000 plant which was being used to only a quarter of its capacity. Again Glidden stepped into the market, and this time came out with The Dunha m Company, and its old and well established national trade in shred eocoanut and other packaged goods. The whole food business was then consolidated under the name of Durkee's Famous Foods, Inc., thus perpetuating the Durkee brand name. At this point foods and paint and chemicals meshed together. Having wide grocery outlets, Glidden began manufacturing powdered blueing, Paris green and other insecticides which were marketed with the edible products. As an outgrowth of Glidden interest in vegetable oil processing and food manufacture, attention was drawn to the soya bean as a source of food oils and oils for use in paint. After a thorough investigation of the possibilities. The Glidden Company, in 193U, constructed a plant in Chicago to extract soya bean oil. In a short time, in addition to oil, this plant was producing soya bean flour, soya bean proteins used in the manufacture of plastics, paper coatings, water thinned paint, and lecithin, important in the paint, wood preserving, rubber, candy, baking and margarine industries. The Glidden soya bean processing plant is the largest of its kind in the country. This, briefly, is the story of the transition from paint to food. The story from paint to chemicals, pigments and lead is another and more complex chapter. As has been pointed out, linseed oil is important in the manufeature of paints. Pigments are equally important] and in order to control its pigments, Glidden pur chased a chemical plant. This gave the Company its first contact with the printing business, for colored pigments are also used in inks. White lead came with the purchase of The Euston Lead Company, at Scranton, Pennsylvania, and red lead with the purchase of The Metals Refining Company, Hammond, Indiana. These purchases started another seemingly endless chain of new products. One of the by-products of red lead manufacture is litharge, a lead oxide used extensively by rubber manufacturers, varnish makers and others. Two other by products, type metal and babbit, took the Company again into the print shop and to the automobile manufacturer. Battery metal joined other Glidden products, sug gested by the large number of worn-out battery plates which came to the plant with other lead scrap. In the scrap was found cooper wire, tin and zinc. The copper was recovered and turned into copper powder. The tin was utilized, and the zinc also found its way into powder and metal. This experience with metals led to the purchase of zinc and lead mines in California. Transportation was needed to carry the mio pt -aIs to a main line railroad, so the Sacramento Valley and Eastern Railroad was bought, and Mr. Joyce became a railroad president. GL032138 THE GLIDDEN COMPANY 3 In addition to zinc and lead the mines produced small quantities of gold and silver. Smelters were built to recover these precious metals. The: zinc became zinc oxide, used in paint and rubber. The crude lead residues went: to lead plants. Some of the zinc found its way into lithopone, another important pigment. Since barium was required to make this product, Glidden next bought barytes properties in California, and started to produce barium sulphide and bleached barium. And so the story goes, with new uses and new products constantly flowing from the numerous Glidden research laboratories. The diversified development of the Company has naturally brought: about a realignment of Glidden business. Paint and varnish production now comprises 33$ of the total volume; food products 3156; chemicals and pigments 16$;land soya products 20$. With general headquarters in Cleveland, the Company today operates paint factories in Cleveland, Reading, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, Sm Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Toronto; food factories in Elmhurst, Berkeley, Chicago, Louisville, and Norwalk; a soya plant in Chicago; pigment factoriesJin Collinsville, Oakland, Baltimore, Scranton and St* Helena; a feed mill in Indianapolis and Pascagoula; naval stores plants in Jacksonville and Valdosta; and warehouses and paint stores in principal cities from coast to coast. : In all of its numerous branches, manufacturing plants and distribution points one outstanding characteristic is found among the members of the Glidden organi zation. Everywhere exists full and eager cooperation to help make The Glidden Company constantly and consistently greater. Men who have worked with the Compary or its subsidiaries for many years-- the Pioneers -- and newer men who have but recently become acquainted with the traditions of the Company-- alloare pulling together. GLD32139