History of the Frick Company

I;

A HISTORY OF

WAYNESBORO, PENNSYLVANIA

CELEBRATING A CENTURY
OF ENGINEERING SERVICE

The Story of Frick

Refrigerating, Air Conditioning,

Farm and Sawmill Machinery

Copyright 1952 by

FRICK COMPANY

WAYNESBORO

PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A.

The largest Frick refrigera-
ting machine ever built,
compared with a compres-
sor of similar capacity as
made today. For a descrip-
tion of the giant machine,
see page 19-

The Cumberland, once known as The Great Valley, is the connecting link between the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
and the Lebanon Valley of Pennsylvania. All told, this chain presents one of the largest, most fertile, and most beautiful
valleys in the world. Settled originally by thrifty people, the area now maintains an unusually excellent balance between
agriculture and industry.

The view opposite, except for extensive forests long since converted to man's use, is much the same as that which greeted
the boy George Frick in 1835, when his family came over the Blue Ridge to occupy their new home, four miles north of
Waynesboro.

The Waynesboro area
had been settled in the
1740's by John Wal-
lace: the stone kitchen
of his home still stands.
The town was laid out
in 1797 by his son.

Fort Stover is the only
one in Pennsylvania
surviving from the
French and Indian
Wars of 1754-63. De-
scendents of the Stovers
are with Frick Com-
pany.

John Bourns, first
cousin of the famous
Robert Burns, built
this log schoolhouse
at Wallacetown be-
fore the Revolution.
In good repair today.

Snow Hill Church
and Cloisters, found-
ed by Peter Lehman
in 1800, outlived the
parent group at
Ephrata, Penna. Serv-
ices are now held
monthly, on Satur-
days.

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"Th 1S little book is given you with our compliments and best wishes. You will find it both interesting and
instructive and well worth carrying to your home, where you can examine its pages at your leisure.

"It will cause you inconvenience if you mislay it, because sooner or later you will want to refer to its illustrations
to see just what you require in the way ol" machinery, to lighten and cheapen the labor of your productions.

"And when you find what you want, send to us or any one of our Branch Houses for prices, or further
information and it will be promptly furnished.

Yours very truly,

FRICK & CO."

—Quoted from a Frick catalogue of 1884. Some of the early bulletins, dating back into the 1870's, are of special
interest. They were illustrated with handmade wood cuts, a number of which are here reproduced. The catalog of
1885 included useful information similar to that in an almanac, as well as 24 sheets of blank paper!

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The farm equipment used in the 1820's, as represented by the
cradle and the flail, had progressed but little in thousands of

years.

The Introductory Period

1826 to 1852

When George Frick was born, in 1826, wheat was
still cut with cradles and threshed with flails, stage-
coaches had no competition from railroads, and a
thousand dollars would buy a healthy slave.

Swinging a cradle, and sustained with country ham
and whiskey, a man could cut about two acres of wheat
a day. With a flail he could knock out eight bushels
of grain in ten hours. The average farm had available
one or two horses per man.

An engineering genius, George Frick undertook to
ease the labor of men and animals with power ma-
chinery. He became a pioneer builder of four essential
kinds of equipment: steam engines, grain
threshers, sawmills, and refrigerating systems.
His portable and traction engines were
among the first in this country, and were fol-
lowed by Corliss steam engines in sizes up
to 3000 horsepower. Beginning with the hand-
cranked "fanning mills" of the 1840's, he
started successive improvements which led to
the wonderful steel threshing machines and
peanut pickers of today. Frick sawmills, intro-
duced in 1875, are now built in quantities up
to a thousand or more a year Frick refrigerat-
ing, air conditioning, ice making and quick-
freezing systems have set the standard of de-
pendability since 1882.

Natural ice — the first refrigerating medium — was cut
extensively throughout the last century. The mild
winter of 1890 stimulated artificial ice making.

.

The Town of Frick, in the
Valley of that name in
Switzerland, was founded in
Roman times. Henry Frick,
eighth - generation ancestor
of George Frick, was born
in 1621. His grandson
Jacob came to America in
1720.

The early threshing machines combined a "groundhog"
toothed cylinder with a sifting belt and a fan for win-
nowing the grain, all mounted on a wagon frame.

NEW
Machine Shop $? Iron Foundery.

YTl/'OULD inform their friends and the pub-
lie general^ that they have opened a new
Machine shop, about one forth of a mile west of
liidgville, Washington county, Md , and are pre-
pared to manufacture Steam Engines from two np
to twenty Horsepowers, with Boilers furnished on
reasonable terms, forcing and lightning pumps oT
the most approved patterns; turning laths, slide
rests , virlical drills, and other machinery made to
order All kinds of Repairing done, such as re-
pairing old steam engines, boilers and other ma-
chinery at the shortest notice. All kinds of turn-
ing and boring done, puch as mill ppindles, shax-
ting and all kinds of fitting up done on favorable
terms. Casting of every description made to ordar
at their Foundery Cook Stoves, ten-plate stoves,
Stonecoal Stoves, and also patterns for all kinds of
castings made at the shortest notice.

£^AI1 orders to be sent to Waynesboro 1 , Frank-
lin county, Pa., or to Ringgold, VVashingion coun-
ty, Md. October 7 — ly.

Hagerstoivn 'News," Ch'g. "Whijj" and "Val.
lev Spirit" please copy 1 y. and send accounts to this
office.

This advertisement appeared in the Waynesboro
"Village Record" in 1852. Other newspaper adver-
tisements were inserted by George Frick as early as
1849.

Thus George Fnck's work has had a direct influence on
the betterment of farming, manufacturing, and lumbering
his products are essential to the great food industries, nearly
every other phase of civilized life has been benefited to
some extent. He could hardly have chosen four fields of
endeavor with more far-reaching usefulness.

George Frick heard the guns at the battles of Anhetam
and Gettysburg, saw the pony express superseded by the
trans-continental railroad, supplied machines which helped
open the Great West, and ushered in the era of refrigera-
tion. When he died in 1892, Frick equipment was in use
from Coast to Coast. The history of the Company he
founded thus parallels the story of America.

George was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on
the 500-acre farm purchased in 1733 by his great-great-
grandfather from the Penns. George's grandfather, Abra-
ham Frick, was a Captain in the Revolution.

The Frick homestead at Quincy, Penna., was later occupied by an-
cestors of the leading executives of three other important industries:
the Landis Tool Co., Landis Machine Co., and the Good Lumber Co.

4 4 >

Invoices of the 1840's show that "horsepowers," with sweeps and gears,
were among the first machines made by George Frick. These continued
to be sold until the 189()'s. The largest used 12 horses.

A sawmill of this "up-and-down" type, driven by water
power, was operated by Abraham Frick about 1 1 5 years
ago. Boards cut by this method were split off the log
near the end; they can still be identified in some old
barns.

When George was nine years old his own father,
also named Abraham, left the home of his Swiss ances-
tors in Lancaster County and moved to the Cumber-
land Valley. Near his new homestead at Quincy,
Penna., Abraham had a sawmill, of the old up-and-
down type, driven by a water wheel. This George
helped to operate. Another wheel pumped water from
a well to the house and barn — an innovation in those
days.

At seventeen George was apprenticed to Martin
Kendig, a millwright living at Ringgold, Md., a few
miles south of Waynesboro. In 1848 George hrmself
began manufacturing gram cleaners and horsepowers
in a weaving mill at Quincy. There, two years later,
he constructed his first steam engine; this was mounted
on a wooden frame and delivered two horsepower.

In December of 1849 George had married Fredenca
Oppenlander. That same year he started the advertis-
ing program which is still continued. In 1851 or '52 he
built a shop on a farm near Ringgold, and in 1853
established Frick Company. The development of the
Company is described by decades in the pages which
follow.

This was the era of the clipper ship, the Mexican War, and
the California gold rush. In 1831 Michael Faraday discovered
the principle of the electric generator, and the next year
Samuel F. B. Morse perfected the telegraph. In 1834 a patent
for a reaper was granted to Cyrus H. McCormick, and Jacob
Perkins patented the compression refrigerating system illus-
trated above. In the later '30's Samuel Colt invented the re-
volver, John Deere introduced the steel plow, and Charles
Goodyear vulcanized rubber.

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Before there were any banks in the area, and even before his Company had been started, George Frick was
cashing "checks" of this kind for his customers. Many of his early business papers have been preserved.

4 5 %

George Frick's shop and home near Ringgold, Md.
His parents and a brother continued to live here
after George moved to Waynesboro. The residence
and shop still stand.

This old steam engine was built by George Frick about 1856. With a cylinder
of 6-in. bore and 13-in. stroke, it was rated at 10 horsepower, and ran at
speeds of 75 to 90 r.p.m. The engine was first used in Mr. Frick's shop at
Ringgold, being later moved to Quincy, where is was operated until 1886
by a Mr. Metcalf; he stated that it outlasted two boilers. It is now in the
Ford Museum at Dearborn, Mich.

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This store bill indicates the use of the old Spanish coin (legal until
1858) called a "bit," two of which made a quarter. A 6{4 cent
piece was locally known as a "fippenny bit"; farther south as a
"picayune." Another invoice shows a total of S2.53V4-

This decade witnessed the debates between Lincoln
and Douglas, John Brown's raid, the opening of the
Civil War, and the Battle of Antietam, near Waynes-
boro.

Scientific developments of the '50's included the
publication of Darwin's "Theory of Evolution," the
opening of Drake's oil well at Titusville, Penna.,
the introduction of the Bessemer steel process, and the
first rifled gun barrels.

To relieve fever patients in Florida, Dr. John Gorrie in 1850 de-
veloped a cold-air ice-making machine. Later in the 50's Prof. A.
C. Twining of Connecticut and John Harrison of Australia patented
machines using sulphuric ether as the refrigerant. Ice boxes now
began to appear in homes, natural ice being generally available.

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The original Frick shop in Waynesboro stood on Broad Street between Main and Second, Lon S before the Engineering De-

and was first occupied in 1861. It was sold to the Geiser Company in 1879 and three years partment was established, George

later burned down. Frick drew designs on the floor,

or on a bench, to guide his men.

1853 to 1862

A hundred years ago, small industries were often
centered along the streams, where water power was
available. In the Cumberland Valley these industries
included flour and grist mills, tanneries, distilleries,
woolen and paper mills, furnaces, forges, marble yards,
and sawmills. But as the forests were cut down, the
water ran off more rapidly and its power became less
dependable.

To meet these conditions George Frick built steam
engines. Among his early customers were Welty's mill
(still standing near Waynesboro), and the tanneries
at Quincy and Thurmont.

Among the Frick apprentices trained at Ringgold
were John S. Spangler, George W. Eyler, Jacob Stouffer,
and Frank Ledy. All of them later held responsible
positions with the Company. Some lived at George
Frick's home, and helped run his farm.

After adding threshers to his line, George Frick
rented a larger shop along the main road, about a mile

FARM ERS !

HERE IS WHAT YOU MEED TO THRESH YOUR GRAIN.

north of Ringgold. Outgrowing this, he built a two-
story shop measuring 100 by 50 feet, at Waynesboro.
He moved into this before the outbreak of the Civil
War. At the corner of Broad and Second Streets, ad-
joining his shop, he built a large house in which his
family and apprentices lived.

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Geisers' Patent Self-Eegulating Grain Separator, Cleaner & Bagger.

For full particulars and Circulars of Machine, address

GEORGE PRICK, Manufacturer,

Waynesboro', Franklin County, Pa.

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From 1857 to 1865 George Frick built threshers on the patents
of Peter Geiser. This model used eight men and eight horses to
thresh 35 bushels per hour.

WHuuJ^-.

A remarkable letter, referring to the paper money issued by
state banks. The man at Williamsport, Maryland, influenced
by the War scare, was afraid of Pennsylvania bills.

This photograph, among the earliest ever
taken of Frick machinery, shows a port-
able "farm engine" of the first model,
belted to a small thresher. The rig was
exhibited in the Waynesboro Center
Square in the 1860's.

feick & CO.. PROPS.

GEO. FEICZ, SUPT.

WAYNESBORO '

STMM-EIM MB BOILER W0BKS

ESTABLISHED 1853.

STATIONARY AND PORTABLE

STEAM«EN GUMEt, 1IULMS,
Portable Saw Mills,

and all other Machinery made to order.

The above cut represents our Horizontal
Engine with Improved Side ' Bed. This de-
sign makes it strong, neaf and durable and
upon which we have made some valuable
improvements, especially upon the working
parts making them durable and 'economi-
cal. , .

We build Horizontal Engines -with bo^
beds of different sizes and designs and up-
on the most improved plan.

We also make Upright Engines of differ-
ent sizes and styles, and where economy it
space is an object, they have some advan-
tage over the Horrizoutal, al3o in the wear
ofthe Cylinder,which is always equal in an
Upright Engine.

A special point of advantage in these En-
gines is our (A. 0. Friek'sl recently iui'iinl-
ed and patent self-adjusting BALANCED
S LIDE VALVE, suited to all riteam Engines
and Locomotives. It leaves the Engines as
simple in operation as those ofthe ordina-
ry plain slide valve class. We direct spec J
ial attention to this superior valve, and in-
vite correspondence.

We give special attention to Portable
Engines and Saw Mills ; also Agricultural
Engines for threshing grain and. for farm
purposes generally. Also

STEAM BOILERS,

of all sizes. Further information may be
obtained from the manufacturers,
Fi;iCK& COMPANY,

Waynesboro', franklin Co., Pa.
may 8-tf

An advertisement of Frick steam
engines which appeared in the
Waynesboro newspaper in the early
'Seventies.

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought in 1863; within two years, the
names of Lincoln and of Lee had become immortal.

The trans- Atlantjt cable was laid in 1866. In 69 the Westinghouse
air brake was introduced, the trans-continental railroad was completed,
and the Suez Canal was opened. Over-expansion of the railroads con-
tributed to the Panic of 1873.

In 1863 four Carre ammonia-absorption refrigerating machines, made in France, were
smuggled past the Union blockade and installed in the South. Using distilled water,
clear ice was made with these machines for the first time.

WAYNESBORO' FOUNDRY AND ilAOMINI SHOP*

^^a—^^3-

<?) GEORGE FRICK,

1Y, Waynesboro', Franklin Co. Pcnn'a. '

J Manufacturer of

Stationary and Portable

STEAM ENGINES,;

c/[ Mill (,< Oiirin.fr, &c, of all descriptions.

k.

ShaftiDg Pulleys, &c.
Geiser's Patent Self-regulating

■{\\ GRAIN SEPARATOR,

cV Wit

ith the latest improvements and Tri- *
"cyf L ple (Icar llorse-l'owers. ^

(J) All kinds of Machioeiy made to order. I

^ap^towfl', fa.

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IRON AND BRASS FOUNDER.

This bill-head shows the machinery offered by George Frick in the 1860's. Note the various old-style type faces used by the printer.

1863 to 1872

The plant had hardly been moved across the Mason-Dixon
Line when the Civil War broke out. Waynesboro lay midway
between the crucial battles of Antietam and Gettysburg: the
area was subjected to many raids. A letter to George Frick
dated 1862 says a Confederate column of cavalry ten miles
long was at Fayetteville, Penna., less than a dozen miles away.

During the Gettysburg campaign the Confederates occupied
Waynesboro and took all the leather belting from the Frick
shop, which was closed for a month.

After the War a new plant was erected across the street,
under which a long power shaft extended. Mr. Frick's daughter
Elizabeth was killed when accidentally caught by this shaft.

The Geiser Mfg. Co. occupied the previous Frick shops in
1869, and grew into one of Waynesboro's largest industries*
From it sprang the Landis Tool Co. and the Landis Machine
Co., these now enjoy an international trade in precision grind-
ing and threading tools.

In 1870 Mr. Frick formed a partnership with his second
cousin, Christian Frick Bowman, but the latter died of typhoid
fever in 72. That year and the next marked the lowest ebb in
the Frick fortunes the entire family contracted the disease and
the eldest son, Frank, also died of it.

The "Brick Shops" were built across the street from the first Frick plant
in Waynesboro, and were occupied from 1869 to 1881. They included
a foundry, boiler shop, smith shop, forge shop, pattern dept., machine
shop, etc.

Form No. 64.

This Eeoeipt, properly filled up by the Shipper, must ao-
company the Freight.

PENNSYLVANIA RAIL ROAD COMPANY'S

FREIGHT

IHSTATION.

Corner of Thirteenth and Market Streets.

49* NOTICE. Persons desiring Information respecting
Goods snipped by this Company, to be forwarded to points
beyond Pittsburg, will please address ill© Consignee at
Pittsburg, instead of Shippers at Philadelphia.

When goods for more than on* mark are comprised in ono Dray-load, sepa-
rate receipts must be sent for each.

Goodt intended to go through by Rail Road, beyond Pittsburg, rauirt be dearly
and plainly marked on the packages, "Through by Rail Road.''

Through and Local Freight will not be received after 6 o'clock P. M.

Local Freight must have the name of the Station at which it is to b* delivered
plainly marked on the packages, and on this receipt.

DRAY ENTRANCES.
Through Freight, 13th & Market Sts.
Local Freight, 15th & Market Sts.

VE^, Philadelphia. /ZW '&

1867

the following articles, contents -and condition unknown, to
be carried and delivered upon the terms and according to
the agreement as specified on the bach of this receipt.

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Old bills of lading show that, even after the railroads
spanned the continent, goods moving west were un-
loaded at Pittsburgh and placed on steamboats unless
clearly marked "Through by Rail Road."

This portable engine, No. 325, was shipped in 1877 to Madison County,

Va., where it drove a sawmill in the open until 1903; J. C. Clore and Son

then placed it in their chair factory at Madison Courthouse. Here it served until 1949. After 72 years of use, the boiler and engine

are still in running condition, and have been returned to Waynesboro: see photo above. This was the first type of engine to carry

the "Eclipse" trade mark.

The Cumberland Valley Rail Road reached Waynesboro in
1878. The trains were hauled by the "Pioneer" locomotive,
built at Boston in 1851 and now in the Franklin Institute,
Philadelphia.

LOOKOUT

FORTHE ROAD LOCOMOTIVE:
THE ECLIPSE TRACTION ENGINE IS FURNISHED WITH~~
LINK MOTION AND STEERING APPARATUS.
WHEN HORSES ARE NOT DES1RED.CAN BE
RUN &F0RWARD OR BACKWAH

The Bell telephone was demonstrated at the Centennial
Exposiljon in Philadelphia. In 1876 Otto also designed the
gas engine; the next year Edison invented the phonograph,
and shortly afterward perfected the incandescent lamp.

In the 1870's numerous European designs of refriger-
ating machinery were transplanted to America, including
the Linde ammonia compressor from Germany, the Pictet
sulphur dioxide machine from Switzerland, cold-air ma-
chines from England, and absorption machines from France.

IFRICK S CO.WAYNESBORO.cXV? PA^^^Ie 1 !^* 4 ' 1

The first Frick traction engine, as shown by this
old woodcut, had a chain drive but was steered by
horses. It was built in the late 1870's.

Frick and Company began making their own sawmills in the middle 1870's.
Early mills had a cast-iron "husk," or frame for the main mechanism, then also
called a "cab." A rack ran the carriage back and forth. Picture from the
"Scientific American."

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In 1882 Frick and Company entered the refrigerating ma-
chinery field by building an ammonia compressor cylinder
which was mounted on the frame of a vertical steam engine
in Baltimore, and was driven with a horizontal engine.

The new Frick Shops, on West Main Street in Waynesboro, as
they appeared in 1881 A reservoir was on the top of the hill
at left, a stable was next, then the office.

1873 to 1882

This was a period of momentous changes. A partner-
ship of thirteen men, including A. O. Frick, raised
$34,000 to see the enterprise through the panic of 1873
and keep the industry in Waynesboro. By 1879 the
capitalization of Frick and Company had increased to
$125,000 and by 1884 to $900,000, which was a big
sum in those days.

In the mid-Seventies the Company began building its
own portable sawmills. The Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia, the engineering event of 1876, gave the
highest award in its class to a Frick farm engine, which
carried the "Eclipse" trademark for the first time. In
1880 a Frick engine triumphed over 25 others from
America, England, and Europe at the great exhibition
in Melbourne, Australia. Meanwhile, the Frick steam
traction engine was being developed.

In 1879 a house magazine called the "Eclipse Era"
was introduced. Its successor, "The Frick System", will
soon celebrate its Silver Anniversary.

The railroads having finally reached Waynesboro,
the Frick works were moved in 1881 to a fine new plant
adjoining the tracks. This was so ahead of its time and
so extensive, that the "Scientific American" soon printed
a feature article about it.

But still more far-reaching was the beginning, made
in 1882, of the Company's work with refrigerating
machinery.

This veteran engine, with a bore of 11-in. and stroke of 16-in., was originally
mounted on a portable boiler. Bought by the Toms Brook (Va.) Lime and
Stone Co. in 1881, it survived a fire in 1942 and was in use 70 years. A
Frick 10 by 12 engine built in 1897 operated a stone pulverizer and con-
veyors at the same quarry until 1951.

Thomas Camp (right) at the wheel of a Frick traction
engine near Covington, Georgia, in 1881 The follow-
ing year 43 Frick engines were shipped in one day to
Mr. Camp. He was still selling Frick machinery in the
South in the late 1920's.

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In 1883 the "Scientific American" published this drawing of Frick and
Company's main machine shop, along with a complete article describ-
ing the new plant, which was the marvel of its time.

In 1885 the first electric street cars in America were
used in Baltimore; motor cars were introduced in
Europe; and the first submarines were built.

Smokeless powder was developed in France in 1886.
In '87 Daimler built a successful automobile, in '89
Edison invented motion pictures. Meanwhile, Louis
Pasteur was proving that germs cause disease.

Part of the Office Force in 1888

Rine-

Sfatid li-ll to rigbt—$>. H. Brown, shipping clerk; Ezra Fnck, secretary S. H
hart president- D. B. Mentzer, accounting department; T. J. Kennedy, collection
department- William MiddlekaufT, purchasing agent; Edgar Penny superintendent.
Standing— 1. H. Deardortf, sales manager, farm machinery; I-rcd A. Phelps dra ts-
man S R. Frantz, salesman; O. L. Grove, collection department; J. H Raby,
attorney ot collection department; M Cunningham, clerk, W. Harbaugh, draftsman;
J. B. Lowry, bookkeeper; John Emmert. salesman; G. Waynant, clerk.

In the third model of the traction engine a
train of gears replaced the chain drive. The
engine was later turned around, placing the
shaft above the driving wheels.

"This is the identical engine, the 'Daniel
Boone' — competitors will never forget the
name — that was shown throughout the circuit
of state and principal county fairs, and took
thirty-nine first premiums in one year (1885).
"The reason it did not take more is because
it could not be shown in more than one place
at the same time. Such a stir and shaking of
dry bones all along the line in the Traction
Engine business was never seen before or
since."

— From the Frick Catalog of 188S.

12}*

An early traction engine hauling seven portable engines and a thresher of the old "separator" type through Waynesboro's Center
Square. Total load was 15 tons: the power of the engine amazed teamsters. Note the town pump, at which Gen. Robert E. Lee
is said to have watered his horse in 1863: this photograph was made 20 years later.

1883 to 1892

This decade saw the steam traction engine open a
great new era in power farming, despite the depression
which began in 1884. The "vibrating" thresher was
being offered as well as the older "separator" type: the
engine could now both haul the thresher and operate it.

In 1885 the partnership was dissolved and Frick
Company was chartered as a corporation. Three years
later George Frick retired; for 43 years he had been
active, building the foundations of the industrial great-
ness both of his firm and of Waynesboro. His life's
work is exemplified by his motto: "Be sure you are
right, then do it quickly!"

Edgar Penney had come to Waynesboro in 1883

to design a line of Corliss steam engines which would
supplement the Frick stationary, portable, and traction
engines. Frick Corliss engines were built in sizes up
to 3000 horsepower. High-speed automatic engines
were also developed. Frick equipment began to be used
in many industries, including electric power plants,
paper mills, steel mills, etc., in addition to its work on
farms an* in the forests.

Hundreds of thousands of posters, lithographed in full colors
and picturing Frick sawmills, cotton gins, portable engines
and other products, were distributed in the '80's and '90's. This
scene, showing the vibrating type thresher with traction
engine, has the lyrical qualities of a print by Currier and Ives.

i 13 h

Showing methods of filling and
harvesting cans in an ice plant
of the 1880's.

Right: This Frick Corliss engine, with a bore of
22 inches and a 4-foot stroke, was built in 1891
and is still in daily operation at the Penn-Rillton
Co., Irwin, Penna. Speed is 74 to 80 r.p.m. The
belt wheel is 16 ft. in diameter: engine delivers
450 horsepower. A Frick Corliss engine built in
1888 is still in use at Weldon, N. C.

The plate plants were the first to use raw water, under air agitation, to produce
clear ice successfully: view shows 100-ton Frick plant in New Orleans in 1888,
the first of its size in America.

Upper right: This machine, built in 1887,
survived a fire, and had operated 43 years
when a second fire destroyed the Hagers-
town (Md.) Ice Co. The Insurance company
paid 40 per cent of machine's original value.

Left: 121/2 " by 19" by 28" compressor built
in 1886 and in service at Gipps Brewery,
Peoria, 111., until 1946 — three-score years.

Right: I3V2" by 28" compressor, driven by
20" Corliss engine, installed in 1891 for the
Rock Island (later Harrold) Ice Co. at Fort
Worth, Texas. In operation 60 years.

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The first complete Frick refrigerating machine, built
in 1883, had two ammonia cylinders of 12-in. dia.
by 18-in. stroke, with a steam cylinder between them.
It ran at 50 to 55 r.p.m., and developed 25 tons of
refrigeration. As shown at left, the order can still be
seen on Frick Company's books.

1883 to 1892

The success of the first two ammonia compressors
having stimulated a demand, Edgar Penney and A. O.
Frick in the mid-Eighties developed a line of large re-
frigerating machines. These were driven by the new
Frick Corliss engines, which combined remarkable de-
pendability with steam economy and flexibility to meet
changing loads. The design included such basic fea-
tures as twin vertical cylinders, giving balanced opera-
tion; single-acting pistons, for efficiency of compression
safety cylinder heads, held down by springs instead of
bolts, eliminating wasteful clearance; accessibility; and
perfection of details.

By 1886 four of the machines were running; eight
more were shipped the next year, including a 20-in. by
36-in. compressor delivering 150 tons of refrigeration.
These early Frick machines not only set the standard for
the entire refrigeration industry for the next 30 years,
but most of their design features are m use today.

Many of the compressors built in the Eighties and
Nineties were m operation 40 years; others served 50
years; some 60!

Breweries and packing houses vied with ice-making
plants in adapting the pioneer machines to their needs.
Today, large cities would starve without the protection
given to food supplies by re-
frigeration.

Abram S. Kauffman started with
Frick & Company in 1884, and was
employed as a machinist 50 years.
His son was also a machinist here
from 1892 to 1925. His grandson,
Harry G. Kauffman, Jr., started in
1929 and is today a product de-
signer. Many other families have
worked at the Company for several
generations.

Ammonia suction trap, liquid receiver, and oil separator as produced in the early
days, before acetylene or electric welding became available.

4 15 h

20-ton machine with Frick Corliss
engine at work in an ice plant in
Mexico City, about 1891.

This experimental plow, with one of the first "power take-
offs," was supposed to move the shares in a loop while the
tractor pulled the rig forward. Abe Lincoln is said to have
proposed a similar plow.

This sawmill team included plenty of men, five oxen, a con-
veyor with wooden rollers, and a traction engine.

Frick engines were certainly effective, though not always as strong as indicated here.

In 1895 Diesel perfected his engine,
and Marconi invented the wireless.
R.F.D. mail service was begun the next
year. Dirigible balloons were first flown
by Santos Dumont and Zeppelin in 1898,
the year of the Spanish-American War.
In 1901 Queen Victoria died, and Walter
Reed discovered how to stop yellow fe-
ver his work made it possible for the
Panama Canal to be built, a few years
later, under Theodore Roosevelt

Frick equipment won first awards at
hundreds of fairs, expositions, and
field trials, including many of inter-
national importance, and is still
widely exhibited.

"i u trick Works at the
The stable was still

he Century.
<fice.

i 16 >

A. O. FRICK
1852-1934

As young men A. O. Frick and Ezra Frick, sons of the Founder,
took turns in rising at 3:30 a.m. to feed the horses, fire the
boilers, and have the teams hitched by 6 o'clock for the daily
trip to the railroad. Both men served long apprenticeships in
the shop and office. A. O. Frick served as president of the
Company from 1904 to 1924: his brother from 1924 to 1942.

EZRA FRICK

1856-1942

1893 to 1902

The opening of the Great West began in the 1780's, when
the first settlers' wagons crossed the Alleghenies. Thanks to
the invention of the steel plow and Colt's revolver, the waves
of newcomers lived to raise more grain than they could con-
sume.

The reaper stimulated the demand for threshers, and they
in turn for engines. To meet this need, some three dozen manu-
facturers, of whom Frick Company was a pioneer, built thou-
sands of portable and traction engines.

Another big step was the advent of the "steam plow. ' Huge
traction engines, the largest ever built, equipped with double
cylinders and oversized wheels, dragged gangs of plows over
the prairies one outfit might turn twenty acres per day.

Threshers and sawmills were likewise enlarged and improved,
and accessories, such as self-feeders, windstackers, and top rigs,
were developed to make them more efficient.

The signature of the Founder
of the Company.

Engine arranged with flanged wheels for a logging
railway, using wooden tracks.

Threshing wheat with a Frick rig in 1895. Note ■ number
of peop ! .as*. tabled for the event.

Heavy traction engine demonstrating its plowing
ability in "new-ground." These big rigs were usually
worked by two men.

4 1 7 >

Two large
compressors,
with Corliss
engines,
assembled in
the "high
shop" at
Waynesboro
in the
mid-Nineties.

This ammonia compressor ran at the Marshall (Missouri)
Ice Co. from 1896 to 1949 (53
years), then was replaced by two 7"
by 7" Frick enclosed machines.

View in the main Frick machine shop, about 1895. This was before the development of
individual electric drive for machine tools.

First Frick machine with direct-
connected electric motor. Built in
the early 1900's, this was a fore-
runner of the synchronous-motor-
driven compressor of today. The
motor shown used direct current.

A two-ton machine of the open
type, seven feet high and weighing
4300 pounds, as built about 1900.

Probably the first group lift plant in America, installed at St. Louis in
1897. Thirteen cans were handled at a time; crane was electrically
operated.

in

This 17" by 36" machine, placed in
La Tropical Brewery in Havana in
1892, was one of three driven by
powerful water wheels, with steam
engines in reserve. That belt was five
feet wide. Beer from the establish-
ment refreshed American soldiers in
the War of 1898.

Gigantic compressor which ran for 35 years,
and two other Frick machines with 36" stroke
which operated nearly 50 years, at the Armour
plant in Kansas City.

1893 to 1902

In 1894 the East St. Louis Ice and Cold Storage plant,
the largest of its kind, installed a 125-ton Frick plate
ice making system and two compressors of 36-in. stroke,
driven by compound-condensing engines. A third
engine of the same type drove the auxiliaries through
a big jackshaft.

Two years later Frick Company built for Armour
and Co. the largest refrigerating machine in the world.
This 30-foot giant had a bore of 27 inches and a stroke
of 48, and with its tandem-compound engine measured
50 feet long.

Its high-pressure steam cylinder had a diameter of 26
inches; its low-pressure cylinder, 50; the stroke of the
engine was also four feet.

The big unit was operated day and night, continuous-
ly, for 35 years, and was in reserve service another
5 years. Its rated capacity at 60 r.p.m. was 350 tons.
(One ton of refrigeration is the cooling effect obtained
by melting a ton of ice every 24 hours.) The speed
could be increased to 70.

In developing new lines of machines, the tendency is

to begin with large units having slow-moving parts.

History shows this to have been the case with tractors,

combines, Diesel engines, ammonia compressors, and

other equipment.

After the heavy models have shown what can be

done, a demand arises for smaller sizes, with lighter

parts running at higher speeds.

Frick Company in this decade anticipated the needs

of hotels, restaurants, hospitals, and various industrial

plants, for refrigerating systems of moderate capacity.

As steam power was not always
available, other types of drive were
introduced. These adaptable ma-
chines paved the way for the wide
acceptance enjoyed by mechanical re-
frigeration a generation later.

350-ton
compressor
shown in
service above.

This entire train of 15 cars (not counting the caboose) was required for shipping the world's largest refrigerating machine to Kansas City,

in 1896. The special train made the trip in 60 hours.

19

Moving a 30-ton house half a mile with a Frick traction
engine. These machines crushed stone, built roads,
pumped water, operated mills, and did many other
kinds of belt and drawbar work.

A threshing outfit posing for its picture on a road in Maryland. Horses
hauled water for the engine from streams along the way.

The great news of this decade was the development of
the airplane, first flown by the Wrights in 1903. In 1905
Albert Einstein published his Special Theory of Rela-
tivity. By 1906 battleships of the dreadnought type had
appeared in England; in '07 De Forest invented the
vacuum tube; in '09 Peary discovered the North Pole,
and Henry Ford standardized the Model T' The "Ti-
tanic' was lost in 1912.

Four-horsepower engine built about 40 years ago for driving the
smallest size of Frick thresher. Shipped to Tennessee; now owned
by W. W. Willock of Syosset, N. Y.

A Frick traction engine, at work on the prairies, compared with an ox team and plow as used in the mid-1800's.

Oxen did well to turn half an acre in a day.

4 20 >

M IIP!
"biiii.st* Machiiierj

'\til\(S

Vi» I!

\mtn> ,

nu'Mmw\m, h ?», p nil .

Advertisement in the "Southern
Lumberman" magazine in 1907.

Traction engine (one of two) used for heavy hauling in Honduras, early in the century.
While these engines are now becoming collectors' items, some are still in service.

1903 to 1912

Frick Company's advertisements, having been started
in the newspapers throughout the Cumberland Valley
in the late 1840's, have now been appearing more than
a century.

The Scientific American carried a Frick advertise-
ment as early as 1872, the American Agriculturist in
1875, the Brewers Journal in 1890, Ice and Refrigera-
tion in 1891, Southern Power and Industry in 1906,
Southern Lumberman in 1907, Refrigeration, and the
Southern Lumber Journal, in 1908, the American Ex
porter in 1913, Refrigerating Engineering in 1914, La
Hacienda in 1917, and the Pennsylvania Farmer in 1918.

The Frick trademark is still to be seen in nearly all
these publications, as well as in half a hundred other

trade journals, and in national weeklies such as Time,
Newsweek, and Business Week. In addition, Frick
equipment is kept before the public by means of ex-
hibits, calendars, radio, direct mail, catalogs, engineer-
ing articles, and various forms of educational work.

The cumulative effect of this long-continued adver-
tising, decade after decade, is an important factor in
the recognition now enjoyed by Frick equipment
throughout the world.

Frick sawmills early earned a
reputation for fast, accurate
cutting and long life, plus the
ability to show consistent
profits. That rear teamster is
putting on a show of his own.
Note sleds for hauling logs,
and spark arrestor on the stack
of the engine.

4 211**

Sheet of clear ice made by the plate system. Single pieces measured up to 16
feet long and a foot thick: they might weigh TVi tons. Two such sheets were
frozen on opposite sides of a compartment of the tank. In the early days they
were cut into blocks by steam-driven saws.

Typical large distilled-water system installed for the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Ice
Co. Note air hoist, water forecooler, and niters.

j m|

...jl

.flsissifisss

%W?

W^Sl

^51

— 5^

■■'" '

v

Ice tank with accumulator and set of dehy-
drators for drying air in the medium-pressure
system.

Ice made with the medium-pressure air system,
using a tube in the corner of the can.

Prehistoric mammoths are still edible after being
frozen in the ice of glaciers and swamps in Siberia
for tens of thousands of years.

•^ - r- -

Average-sized ice tank, using the patented F-P system and Frick group
lift. Electric Ice M ..ufacturing Co., Richmond, Va.

*! 22 >

One of the first Frick air conditioning systems was
installed in 1910 in this plant making caramel candy
in Lancaster, Penna., where it served satisfactorily
over 25 years.

Frick horizontal long-stroke compressors were introduced in 1911. These
15" by 30" duplex machines, complete with Frick steam engines, were
installed at the Southern Ice Co., Charleston, S. C, in 1917 and 1920,
and are still in operation.

1903 to 1912

The "plate" plants made ice in huge sheets, weighing
several tons, which required about a week to freeze.
Air was bubbled through the water to agitate it and
make the ice clear the sheets were frozen from only
one side.

In the distilled-water system, the steam exhausted by
the engine driving the compressor was condensed and
purified, then frozen in the ice cans. No agitation was
needed to make distilled water into clear ice.

When electric power superseded steam, ice plants
turned again to air agitation. The early raw-water

Two-camel-power,
two-stage truck
delivering ice
(packed in
straw) in India.

systems used low pressure air, introduced through drop
pipes in the center of the can. Cooling and drying ap-
paratus was used to dehydrate the air and prevent its
freezing in the tubes.

The next step was to place the tube in the corner of
the can and to raise the air pressure enough to force a
passage through the ice as it froze. This developed
into the medium-pressure air system, which was widely
used until 1923, when the Frick-Pendulum (F-P) air
system came into the field.

This made the clearest ice from city water, using low-
pressure air without dehydrators. Within a few years
a thousand installations of the F-P system had been
made.

Ice made from city water by the F-P low-pressure
air system is the last word in quality. Frick-
Pendulum tubes, brought out in 1923, revolution-
ized the ice industry.

This one man, working one shift, made 42 tons of ice every day
for four years at the "Merchants" plant of the Polar Ice and Fuel
Co., Indianapolis. The semi-automatic system, introduced in 1945,
results in remarkable economies.

23

Tractor de Vapor Frick

Fuersa motriz segura para todas las apHcaciones

dura <l«r i/umino-, desman If , ttasi .pont- ilr difelos, t*if!

Moiov de mamii>rio ntral C*iWt ■ i i*i ■ i ■'■• <-■■■<■■■
ynontaOii-. I in:nj] -'him (Ii:]:-;n I era y t*4 - :

Min.bos puntcs ftt«*t«is (Is centa:- i}»* li.il>ran ..!>• Il..mii( la airii
cifln tie lbs MriitieulortM gwaetH"*!

LOS TRACTORES FRICK PRODUCEN
GRANDES UTILIDADE5 EN LA VENTA

Direcc(6tt Teteffrafii'.a KKICK Wajnpplioro, Pa.

Mgqxims fit' V.ipof (ie TraceiSfi Pwtitiks >■ Kii-i.-. I iliterag

Trillaitor.u. &,««pjrs*teK*

Se neeeiitan agentes de responsabilidad.

FRICK CO., Waynesboro, Pa., E. U. A.

Cl.v«. »« U», ABC 4*. r 5*. edlcione*. Liebtr y W. U. Eit»bl*cid« 1SS3

This advertisement appeared in the Spanish edition of the
"American Exporter" magazine in 1913.

AH farm machinery was pushed hard to provide food for our
Armed Forces and Allies, during the First World War. Frick
equipment did its part to win victory.

Below: Preparing to ship a traction engine and a String of
threshets. with a portable engine and a water wagon, from the
Frick Factory about 1915.

The First World War stopped the progress of
mankind in its tracks in this decade, although dra-
matic improvements were made in airplanes. In 1919
Alcock and Brown flew the Atlantic.

The War took sixty-nine Frick men to the Colors.
Machine guns replaced cavalry — and chivalry — In
battles.

This was the era of Woodrow Wilson. As a boy
he shook hands with Robert E. Lee; as a man he
tried to put Lee's high principles of honor into inter-
national relations.

Left: The "Rough and Tumble Engineers" overcame every dif-
ficulty in getting their machines from place to place. This acci-
dent at a bridge in Kentucky in 1906 did not injure the engine
or its operator. Everybody in the neighborhood got into the
photograph.

<2A>

Trainload of Frick gas tractors, bound for Nebraska, in the early 1920's.

1913 to 1922

The steam traction engine reached the peak of its
perfection and usefulness about 1915. Burning either
wood, coal, or straw, and rugged enough to travel over
country roads, these engines were depended upon for
all kinds of work. They laid the foundations upon
which gas tractors later achieved their wide acceptance.

Portable steam boilers and engines continued to be
built for sawmill and industrial work into the 1930's,
and are still in occasional demand for export. The
Cornish type boiler, with a firebox in which long slabs
could be burned, became a favorite.

Heavy portable gas engines and a few gas tractors
had made their appearance at the turn of the century.
Within twenty years, the gas tractor became thoroughly
practical

Right after World War I, Frick Company developed
a gas tractor that w r as as good or better than others of its
time. Some of these machines were still running in the
1940's.

Above: a big sawmill instal-
lation on the shore of a lake
in France, during World
War I.

Left: Traction engine furnish-
ing both power and steam
to an Army Laundry Unit,
somewhere in France, 1917-
1918.

25

Enclosed ammonia compressor of size 5" by
5". built in 1915; in service at Spath's
market, Portland, Ore., over 25 years.

^^ 1

W&WwIM

^•BB

Three of the five Frick vertical medium-speed compressors at the world's largest
ice cream plant — Breyer's, in Philadelphia. These machines were a transition
between the open type and the fully enclosed designs. Installed 1922-1925, and
still in operation.

Left: Electric butt weld-
ing eliminated many
screwed and flanged
joints in cooling coils.
End pressure, applied
to the white-hot metal,
thickens the walls at
the joint, making the
weld stronger than the
pipe itself.

Right: Hundreds of
these small enclosed
compressors, driven by
Frick steam engines,
furnished dependable
refrigeration aboard
ships in World War I.

This group of Foremen, Leading Men and Department Heads was photographed at a picnic in July, 1920.

Front Row— Lee Wolfinger, Bill Arnold, Andy Grosh, Robert Hess, George Arnold, George Pilkington, Leslie Eberly, Jim Hamilton, Wilson Pilkington
J. A. Martin, Wayne Kriner, Win, C. Zinkand, Paul Devor, A. A. Detwiler, M. E. Gordon. Second Row — Tony Marmaza, Jim Leedy, Richard Betts,
N. O. T. Known Win. Bardenhour, Fred Shisler, Arthur Foreman, John W Brewer, Gardy Miller, Bill Diehl, Grayson Snurr, Cleveland Johnson, Luther
Kemper, Alfred Gillis, John Heckman, J. L. McCIeary, Pete Noll. Third Row — John Emmert, Tom Cook, Edward Finney, Roy Goree, R. L. Morganthal,
E. H. Oderman, R. G. Breidenthal, Merle Schultz, Danl. F Good, Dave Keagy, Will Harbaugh, D. N. Benedict, Clyde Strite, Mart Overman, H. H.
Esbenshade, S. F. Workman, Altred McCarty. Fourth Row — J. C. McCIeary, Kearney Bonn, Merle Brown, N. M. Small, AI. Lonacre, Ezra Frick, Jake
Seitz, George Kolb, Jim Baer, George Duffield, Amos Carver, John Lacump, Sam Yaukey, John Rossman, Harry Peiffer. Elmer Perviance, John Wallace,
W. A. Shetron, F. H. Fritsch, Chauncey Blubaugh, Earl Frick. Last Row — Harvey Thompson, John McCIeary, Kenneth Werdebaugh, Andy Hess, Merle
McFerren, W. R. Snively, Harry Geeseman, Harry Fisher, Roy KaufTman. Ray Florence, S. S. Snively, John Rowe, Alfred Davis, Victor Good. At Sign —
Billy Hawman, Harry Funk.

< 26 >

Carbon-dioxide compressors (note square cylinder blocks) with
tandem-compound steam engines, installed aboard ship in World
War I. Such vessels had large refrigerated holds, cooled by exten-
sive piping systems.

When Frick Company introduced frozen fish in the Orient, in
1919, Sales-engineer L. H. Jenks had to eat the first thawed
sample in the raw state, to prove that it was wholesome. Jenks
selected a small specimen. Within a few years, plants freezing
a hundred tons daily were in operation.

1913 to 1922

As the open-type ammonia compressor was made in
smaller and smaller sizes, the A-frames which supported
the cylinders were finally combined into one piece.
From this arrangement the enclosed compressor was
later developed.

First built in 1915, the new machines were available
in a range of sizes in time to serve the pressing demands
of camps, food and powder plants, hospitals and ships
in World War I.

The enclosed design retained the safety cylinder
heads, the one-way gas travel, and the balanced vertical
operation that were features of the large slow-speed

machines. The enclosed-type machine, with its auto-
matic lubrication, operated safely without constant
watching. Its perfection opened the way for the systems
with automatic control, which appeared in 1922-23.
These made possible, in turn, the household electric
refrigerator.

Meanwhile, great improvements were being made in
cooling coils, which were kept flooded with liquid am-
monia to increase the heat transfer. Ammonia is a
highly efficient refrigerant: it delivers the greatest cool-
ing effect per dollar invested, and is still preferred on
industrial work and many commercial installations.

I'

A battery of four big steam-driven compressors was installed at
the Boston Fish Pier in 1915, and is still in service, along with
three machines of later types. Frick equipment also refrigerates
various fish freezers at Gloucester, Portland, Rockland, New Bed-
ford, and on Cape Cod, as well as many in the Gulf States and
on the Pacific Coast.

This 7" by 7"
enclosed
machine, in-
stalled in a
dairy in
Wilmington,
Delaware, in
1916, was
rebuilt 32
years later
and started
on another
long period
of service.

< 27

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fit

Compressing 10" blocks of dry ice with the "snow machines" developed by
Frick Company in 1929- The solid carbon dioxide is at a temperature nearly
110 degrees below zero F.

9

JL ♦ st<

m m m ^ »«

^ ill » ti 1 S ( >

H # ffl 4> m m ~
51 ro « ® « wj

This advertisement featuring Frick ice-making
equipment was published in local newspapers
by the Distributor at Bangkok, Siam.

This period started with prosperity under
President Coolidge and ended with the de-
pression. Talking movies were brought out
in 1926 in 1927 Lindbergh flew alone from
New York to Paris. Trans-Atlantic tele-
phone service was begun at the same time;
r * irs later the Graf Zeppelin circum-
he globe. In 1931 Picard pene-
. stratosphere in a balloon.

Right: The old Frick foundry, as it appeared
in 1882, and the new. Visitors from Europe
are often amazed to find the Company making
all its own patterns and castings.

<2S>

Above: "Cornish" type boilers had a long fire-box inside;
doors at both ends permitted burning full-length slabs.

Right: The steel thresher became really practical when
welding replaced bolts; this Frick machine, photographed
in the 20's, would now have pneumatic tires.

1923 to 1932

The line of Frick farm machinery was extended dur-
ing this decade to include many new items, among the
first being tractors, combines, spreaders, balers, and
implements. Silo fillers, pick-up cutters, and forage
harvesters were added next, along with feed mills and
land rollers.

Later such machines as husker-shredders, dehydrators,
light tractors, special plows, and combines put in their
appearance. The Frick portable baler was introduced;
automatic balers and self-propelled combines have since
been made available to an active market.

These and later additions, including peanut pickers,
have provided Frick customers with one of the best
rounded lines of power farming and sawmill machinery
ever offered.

In the 1920's Frick Company erected a great new
foundry, together with new pattern and wood shops
of the most modern type, and set up departments for
tool making, automatic lathe work, crank-shafts, con
necting-rods, etc.

Thresher with baler having automatic feeder for handling the
straw.

Frick sawmill,

with 30-hp.

portable gas

engine, cutting

pine logs

near Zeigler,

Georgia.

i 29 >

ice

W e . » ice
C V^>ee*»

T»« e

c' e '

*tf*

m e
V.ocV
vt ee- ,\^* e

e» et

ee* 6

ct« al

Lt«

**•»;'«»*-

^f**

^V***

i»8 ?">>«*

When this decade opened, the
usual range of refrigerating tem-
peratures was between zero and
45 deg. F. Air conditioning and
low-temperature work soon wid-
ened this range tremendously, as
indicated by this "thermometer."

Air conditioned printing-press room of Edward Stern and Co., Philadelphia,
equipped in 1932. Chas. S. Leopold, consulting engineer.

The 118-ft. tuna fisher "Southern Cross,"
though reported lost with all hands, survived
a terrific hurricane and landed a $13,000 cargo
after a 2000-mile trip, thanks to the Frick sys-
tem which preserved the ice in her holds.

Sharp and Dohme, makers of

pharmaceuticals at Philadelphia,

use Frick ammonia refrigeration

for conditioning air, freezing ice,

condensing alcohol, cooling drinking water,

hardening waxes, making insulin, storing

serums, and research work. This installation,

made in 1931, has four compressors under

automatic control.

People in the Picture on Opposite Page.

Front Row, Left to Right — W. H Aubrey, T. L. Parish, R. T. Snively, J. A. Martin,
L. I. Stemm, C. O. Voigt, M. W Garland, R. Van Sisk, A. H. Baer. Second Row—
J. G. Miller, S. F. Workman, C. V. Grant, F. L. Sadler, H. E. Moore, A. O. Frick,
D. B. Snively, D. N. Benedict, Ezra Frick, A. H. Hutchison, O. C. Arc-ns, R. H, Tait,
Sr. G. A. Wagner. First Row, Standing — Jesse Barker, P. A. Smith, L. H. Jenks, Jr.,
J. A. Mikesell, J. T. Murphy, W. O. Kline, M. B. Weinberg, F H. Fritsch, Henry J.
Mollenberg, A. D. Elsberry, L. Z. Wolfinger. A. N. Chandler, L. H. Maxwell. Second
Row, Standing — Terry Mitchell, J. S. Small W. F. Losch, James Henderson, H. B.
Pennington, Theo. Heutteman, G. H. Palmer, C. C. Smith, Jules Bernd, A. T. Feaster.
Last Row, Standing — J. V. Turner, A. S. Workman, F. J. Easton, C. L. Whitaker,
Tom Carroway, T. C. McKee, W. W. Morgan, W. R. Snively, H. B. Drillott, R. Hendry,
D. M. Wertz, L. N. Udell, A. E. Edwards, N. M. Small. Rear Row, In Archway-
's.. H. Tait, Jr., R. H. Oiler, J. L. McCleary, A. B. Hoppe, W B. Campbell.

< 30 >

■* '■'•' l,; ' : '>>? +

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m

Seventeen tons of air conditioning for
the Coffee Shops were included in the
complete Frick refrigerating system
installed in the Thomas Jefferson
Hotel at Birmingham in 1929.

The Celanese Corp. of America uses over 10,000 tons of refrigeration in its great
plant near Cumberland, Md. The Frick horizontal Type J compressors in the
background, driven by 500-hp. motors, have been in service nearly 25 years. Each
pair of vertical 4-cylinder machines has a motor of 1250 hp. (One new compressor
not shown.) Air conditioning load of 4000 tons is carried in summer with as little
as 0.70 hp. per ton!

1923 to 1932

When this decade opened, 2ero degrees Fahrenheit
was called a "freezer" temperature, and represented the
lower limit of general refrigeration practice; 45 degrees
marked about the upper limit.

Quick-freezing systems and low-temperature indus-
trial processes now began to extend the refrigeration
range downward, while air conditioning and special
work pushed it upward. About the same time auto-
matic controls became practical.

As a result, the usefulness of refrigerating equipment
increased enormously. Charles F. Kettering of General
Motors predicted that the progress of civilization, hav-
ing previously depended on the use of heat, would in

the future be measured by the intelligent application of
cold.

Frick Company built some of the first successful
large-scale machinery in America for making dry ice;
installed low-temperature test equipment at the Bureau
of Standards in Washington, perfected the float- valve
control system; and continued its pioneering work in air
conditioning. The heavy slow-speed horizontal com-
pressors were superseded by the Type J machines, which
were adapted to direct synchronous-motor drive. Ver-
tical enclosed-type carbon-dioxide machines were devel-
oped, but after a few years were replaced by the new
Freon-12 compressors.

Home Office Executives, Branch Managers, and Distributors handling Frick refrigerating equipment appear in this photograph

taken at Waynesboro in July, 1924. (See names on page 30.)

<n>

This typical air conditioning system for industrial purposes, built in the early
1930's, used Frick ammonia refrigeration with excellent results.

Cold brine in these pipes froze a silt wall
170 ft. long and 43 ft. deep, to stop a dan-
gerous mud slide when Grand Coulee Dam
was built.

■"

This decade witnessed the National Recovery Act (NRA),
the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Mussolini's attack on
Ethiopia, the rise of Hitler in Germany, and the outbreak of
World War II. On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japs attacked Pearl
Harbor and the U.S. entered the fight.

"Heavy hydrogen' was isolated at Columbia University in
1933, and sulfanilamide was introduced in '35. In 1940 the
possibility of splitting the atom was demonstrated.

The Royal Hawaiian, at Waikiki Beach, known to thousands
of travelers and Service men as "the world's most beautiful
hotel," uses Frick refrigeration for food service, making ice,
air conditioning, etc.

Model of a dual-pressure ice plant, in which the water and liquid
ammonia are precooled at high suction pressure, with about
10 per cent extra efficiency.

These improved cooling coils, called type VW from
their shape, are welded into standard sizes: they offer
many advantages, including short gas travel, ample air
circulation, automatic defrosting when desired, prompt
shipment from stock, etc.

32

Frick steel peanut pickers, introduced in 1938, are still going
strong. Cleaner, faster, and more durable, they enjoy a natural
preference.

"No name in American agri-
cultural implements stands higher
or has survived longer than that

of Frick."

F. Hal Higgins in the
Pennsylvania Farmer, Jan. 13, 1940

One of the finest tributes ever paid to Frick Company is this state-
ment by a well known historical writer, published in the Penn-
sylvania Farmer magazine in words that would do justice to
Winston Churchill.

1933 to 1942

The first peanut picker was invented years ago by
a colored man; he stretched chicken wire over the open
end of a barrel, lowered the nuts through the meshes,
and jerked away the vines. The same principal has
been used ever since.

Frick Engineers now undertook to build a welded
steel peanut picker that would be an improvement over
the current wooden machines. The new design included
a powerful dust exhaust fan; a large slow-moving cylin-
der with spring teeth, permanently sealed bearings of
roller, ball or rubber construction, an adjustable air
cleaner; and rubber tires. Combined with high capacity

and long life, these advantages soon made Frick pickers
the favorite.

Frick threshers were meanwhile being applied very
successfully in the rice fields. They have enjoyed a
world-wide market for rice threshing, as well as for
handling wheat, oats, barley, clover, lespedeza, and
other seeds, to this day.

Auxiliaries such as wedge-sawing machines and steel
trimmers now further increased the profits to be made
with Frick sawmills.

By this time pneumatic tires had been applied to many
kinds of farm machinery, greatly increasing both effi-
ciency and durability.

In the 1930's Frick steel threshers were adapted to handling rice, and are now used for this purpose throughout the globe
This machine is at work in the flat Louisiana rice fields: note large sacks of grain.

<33>

Of the Frick unit air conditioners introduced in 1938, practi-
cally all are still in operation. Now built in several sizes.

Booster compressor, intercooler, and
second-stage machine for producing low
temperatures with economy. This system
was developed by Frick engineers against
bitter opposition, but is now universally
accepted.

The Philtower and Philcade Buildings
in Tulsa were air conditioned with 1000
tons of Frick ammonia refrigeration in
1939. Operating costs are extremely low.

Quick-freezing tunnel, 120 ft. long, hardening 180 pint pack-
ages of ice cream a minute; temperature, 50 to 55 deg. F. below
zero. Hershey Creamery Co., Harrisburg, Penna.

Approximately half the artificial ice skating rinks on the
Continent, including this one at Hershey, Penna., have
Frick equipment. We furnish rinks with or without cement
floors.

Two of the eight Frick ammonia compressors producing 4900
tons of refrigeration for air conditioning a Midwest war plant.
The compressors are driven in pairs by steam engines of
1200 hp.

<f 34|*

Six-story cold storage building, refrigerating machine room with ice-making system, and poultry packing plant near Broadway, Va.
This big COMMUNITY REFRIGERATION CENTER, which includes a quick-freezing tunnel, lockers, fruit storages, etc., is typical
of many throughout the country supplying similar varied services. Frick Company fostered the development of these CENTERS
and is proud of their rapid growth and usefulness.

1933 to 1942

After beer came back, many breweries were modern-
ized, and die trend to improve their facilities spread to
various other industries, including the ice business. The
remarkable savings thus made continue to serve as
proof of what modern engineering can accomplish. A
large ice and cold storage plant in Nashville reduced its
costs by $20,000 a year.

The first I -man, 1 -shift ice plant was built at New-
port, Penna., in 1934. The line of Frick Freon-12 com-
pressors and accessory equipment was now developed,
as was the booster system for maintaining low tempera-
tures with economy. This last was a boon to the quick-
frozen foods industry, as were the new Freon machines
to air conditioning. Frick low-pressure refrigerating
units and heavier machines have since been purchased
by the tens of thousands. Frick unit air conditioners, in-
troduced in 1938, continue to be favorites wherever de-
pendability is a factor.

During this era the ice-skating rinks also came into
their own. Half of all those erected on this Continent
included Frick equipment. They made possible the big
ice shows, which are said to have eclipsed all the regu-
lar stage theatres in tickets sold annually.

During the first year of World War
frigerating machines and sawmills
were considered unnecessary to the
defense effort, and the Frick Shops
were filled with work on other military
and naval equipment. The succeeding
years witnessed a race to make up for
the time lost!

Automatic refrigerating systems operate
most dependably when equipped with
Frick electric control valves.

Pratt and Whitney, famous builders of aircraft engines and preci-
sion tools, use Frick air conditioning for holding temperatures
within one degree F., the year 'round, in two test rooms at West
Hartford, Conn. — said to be the most accurately controlled spaces
of their size in existence. Cooled with Frick ammonia refrigeration.

The "outstanding building of the decade" was
that of the Bankers Life Co. at Des Moines.
Costing $1,500,000, it included advanced methods
of traffic control, space saving, communication,
fire protection, and air conditioning. Three large
Frick compressors, handling Freon-12, furnished
630 tons of refrigeration — and are of course still
doing it.

35 >

Jack Dempsey's Restaurant, opposite Madison Square Gar-
den in New York City, was air conditioned with Frick
equipment in 1935. Frick refrigeration was installed for
food service and for cooling a display window.

One of the first homes to be equipped with "reversed
refrigeration," for heating in winter and cooling in sum-
mer, was this country place near Alexandria, Va. (1935).
Heat-pump systems are now widely used for industrial
process work as well as for air conditioning.

The great air conditioned storage of the California Walnut
Growers' Assoc, at Vernon, measures 600 by 175 by 22 ft.
high. The immense space is held between 36 and 40 deg. F.
by two Frick 9 by 9 ammonia compressors, installed in 1936.
A relative humidity of 65 per cent is maintained.

The water in the swimming pool at Tarboro, N. C, scene of many
championship meets, is held at correct temperatures with a Frick
ammonia system.

World War II dominated the first half of this period,
which also saw radar, penicillin, television, atom bombs,
supersonic flight, and 2 "30-mile rockets introduced. Frick
equipment played an even more essentia] part in winning
this global conflict than it had in World War I.

Several trawlers of the "Forty-Fathom" Fleet carry % more
fish and Vs less ice because equipped with Frick refrigera-
tion. Huge quantities of ice are used in the fishing industry:
the Commonwealth Ice and Cold Storage Co., at Boston,
produces over 500 tons daily with Frick machinery.

i 36>

This sawmill, kept humming by a pair of engines, cut as much
lumber as two mills, operated by separate crews, had formerly
done.

The peanut combine, introduced in recent years, saves labor in
areas where the nuts can be harvested in windrows.

1943 to 1952

During the manpower shortage of the Second World
War, it was discovered that portable sawmills could
practically double their output if driven by engines of
twice the power formerly used. The demand for Frick
sawmills increased so rapidly that a large new shop,
devoted entirely to making this equipment, was built at
Waynesboro soon after the War ended. This turns out
more than a thousand Frick portable sawmills in a typi-
cal year.

More and more engines were meanwhile being ap-
plied rr, farm machinery in general, making the equip-
ment more independent of the tractor. While this
trend continued, the usefulness of tractors was being
extended through the application of hydraulic power,
electric starting and lighting equipment, more durable
construction, and greater comfort for the driver.

The Frick peanut combine, into which was built 15
years' experience with peanut pickers, was tested in 1951
and placed in production in 1952. The No. 1 sawmill,
largest in the Frick line, was improved to permit
handling the heaviest logs with ease. Another develop-
ment was a better machine for sawing wooden wedges.

Names of the Men in the Picture Below:
Front Row, Left to Right — Norman Hawbaker, Luther Hawbaker,
W. C. Browning, G. J. Rupert, G J. Longerbeam, D. N. Benedict,
F. O. Rebok, S. M. Oberholtzer, R. F. Mack, H. C. J. Bechtold, J. H.
Stoner, C. E. Lokey, Harold Armstrong, R. S. Murphy, R. H. Fitz,
H. B. McDonald, S. V. Anderson, James North, F. H. Fredenburg.
Second Row — L. Stottlemyer, E. Stottlemyer, John Parmer, R. S.
Kauffman, T. J. Dunn, Jr.. O. D. Good, F. B. Arnold, Hamilton
Linthicum, Max Brandt, C. H. Bowden, L. P. Bash, W. R. Mowry
E. S. Warfield, W. S. Hartzell, S. M. Staller, R. H. Sample, W. R.
Armstrong. G. N. Round, G. J. Toth, K E. Day, Jr., W. W. Burpee,
W. R. Nixon, E. R. Kauffman. Third Row— W. R. Roth, R. C.
Woodcock, K. H. Nyberg, E. A. Price, F. D. Markley, Walter Hunt,
C. E. Newhard, Harry Moat, A. J. Funk, A. E. Roschli, W G.
Weagly, W. L. Fibben, W. H. Aubrey, A. R. Wolfe, M G. Toms,
A. S. Gonder, G. E. Hess, R. M. Rinehart, W. L. Brown, W. T.
Young, G. F. Musgrove, D. Ruckman, W P. Berkey, R. McCarty,
H. B. MacDonald, J. H. Kehrer, A. Strausbaugh.

«u;u."""""T

g^PPfl

Frick Executives, Branch Managers, Salesmen, Suppliers, and Dealers at the
Pennsylvania Farm Show, Harrisburg, in January, 1952.

< 37 >

The All-weather Laboratory of the U.S. Army at Fort
Belvoir, Va., was the first of many large test chambers fur-
nished to Bendix Radio, Lycoming Motors, RCA Victor,
the U.S. Air Force, and others.

Cold storages can now preserve the full weight and freshness
of foods by maintaining high humidity, even with temperatures
of 32 degrees, thanks to a patented Frick system.

Large amounts of Frick refrigeration are used for various purposes
at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., plant of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Frick-freezing tunnels handle ANY and ALL foods with
dependability and dispatch. They can be arranged with
conveyors or push trucks, or both, as shown in this cut-
away drawing.

fl v^ Cold Gai to ftmmonia Compressor

S J

From- r ' I ,J|| I —1 1 1 'I "

Same Refrigerating Machine Heats Juite am
Condenses Water Vapor Driven Oli

Thirteen Frick compressors, totaling 3180 horsepower, evaporate orange juice with hot ammonia gas, condense the moisture, then
quick-freeze and store the product at the Lake Wales plant of the Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative. Diagram at left shows heat-
pump cycle used. Several other large plants for concentrating citrus juices are similarly Frick-equipped.

Six of eight Frick 17 S A" by 12" booster compressors, each with
four cylinders, at Seabrook Farms, Bridgeton, N. J. — world's
largest quick-freezing plant.

The time required for forming "cold" synthetic rubber in the
3750-gallon reactors has been cut in half by a cooling system
recently perfected by Frick Engineers.

1943 to 1952

The activities of the Company in the last ten years
have been stupendous. More than 430 complete ice
plants were furnished to the Army, and several
thousand refrigerating systems were supplied to the
Navy, during the War. Pioneer work of tremendous
importance was done on test laboratories, which were
supplied with push-button controls to maintain any
temperature, humidity, air motion and air pressure de-
sired.

In succeeding years the Company played a leading
part throughout the nation in building quick-freezing
systems for the frozen food industry; developed the
high-humidity type of cold storage, which prevents de-

structive drying-out of fruits and vegetables, improved
the one-man ice plant to include capacities of 100 tons
a day; made some gigantic installations of refrigerating
machines as heat pumps; extended the line of Frick
"ECLIPSE" compressors to include a 9-cylinder ma-
chine, also adapting these multi-cylinder compressors
to booster service, and continued serving an ever-
widening list of overseas customers.

Improvements of the greatest value to the country
have recently been made in cooling the reactors in which
"cold" synthetic rubber is formed; the capacity of these
reactors has been doubled!

The Brisbane plant of the Queensland (Australia) Meat Indus-
try Board, handling over 1,000,000 animals a year, increased its
freezer output 26 per cent with three large booster compressors
— typical of the important work being done overseas with
Frick equipment.

Two 9-cylinder "ECLIPSE" compressors form one of six systems
which air condition a big industrial plant in Cincinnati.

39

Visitors are always welcome at
the Frick Plant, which covers
30 acres in Waynesboro, Penna.

The 125 apartments in Washington's Lencshire House are air
conditioned with Frick "ECLIPSE" compressors.

Frick equipment serves the $21,000,000 Shamrock at Hous-
ton, among other prominent hotels throughout the world.

Temperatures down te> 100 degrees below zero are held in this test room of
Goodyear Aircraft, at Akron, Ohio. Booster compressors used in the 3-stage
system are of the 9-cyi. "ECLIPSE" type shown at left — photographed in an ice
cream plant in Detroit.

40 >

Below: This high-humidity storage
keeps fruits and vegetables in the
freshest condition, without loss of
weight, by a patented Frick System.

The American Stores, Penn Fruit,
Ralph's, Weingartens, Bettendorf's, and
many other leading markets use Frick
refrigeration and air conditioning.

Frick Company Today

In surveying the firm's present position, and looking
toward its future, based on the hundred years of progress
just reviewed, certain fundamental factors invite attention:

The major work of Frick Company is still concerned
with the great food industries, including farming, process-
ing, storing, transporting, and retailing. As the population
increases (it has doubled in the last half century) this
market is always expanding.

At the same time the Company has far-reaching activi-
ties in air conditioning, chemical work, general manufac-
turing, lumbering, export, and many other fields. In fact,
there is hardly a business today which is not affected,
directly or indirectly, by the use of Frick equipment!

The Company offers a combination of services — engi-
neering, sales, manufacturing, and installation — of the
highest order. Its world-wide organization has weathered
all manner of wars and depressions its unequalled expe-
rience saves customers from costly experiments, and is
available in solving your particular problems.

Frick engineering services, from layouts to test runs, are
complete. Below is Detroit Dam, in Oregon, where the water,
cement, sand, and even the rock used in making concrete are
all precooled to below 50 deg. F.

Chemical plants make innumerable products with the aid of
Frick equipment. The Mississippi Chemical Co., at Yazoo City,
produces ammonia for agricultural purposes.

41

Bfii^MM»r«MMfii

Plants making candy, chewing gum, paper, medicines, machinery, rayon, and
hundreds of other products find Frick refrigeration and air conditioning vital aids.

The dairy industries
use vast amounts of
refrigeration, often at
low temperatures.

Unit air conditioners meet the needs
of restaurants, clubs, hotels, stores,
offices, factories, etc.

Millions of tons of ice are
used annually in refrigera-
tors, display cases, railroad
cars, trucks, fishing boats,
etc.

Right: A cylinder liner,
shrunk with dry ice, is
fitted into a high-pressure
cylinder in the Frick
shops.

Hospitals use Frick
equipment for air con-
ditioning, food service,
making ice, holding se-
rums, quick freezing,
cooling drinking water,
etc. Below is the U.S.
Naval Hospital at Be-
thesda, Md.

Frick valves have high-angle
seats, among other advan-
tages, and handle many high-
pressure liquids and gases.

<A2>

The Baxter Laboratories, at Morton Grove, 111.,
make essential blood transfusion sets and intrave-
nous solutions with the aid of Frick air conditioning.

The fabulous Broadmoor Hotel, at Colorado Springs, has used Frick
equipment for 35 years — for cooling refrigerators, making ice, quick-
freezing foods, and operating a year 'round ice skating rink, in the
building at upper left.

Frick Company's customers include hundreds of
thousands of the most successful farmers and business
concerns in existence. Its products are indispensable to
these owners in earning steady profits. The slogan that
"The users of Frick equipment make money," gives the
key to the firm's continued growth.

These factors, added up, mean that Frick Company
meets a tremendous variety of needs. As was proved
in the World Wars, the Company manufactures or can
furnish practically anything required in the way of re-
frigerating, air conditioning, ice making, and quick-
freezing equipment, as well as power farming and saw-
mill machinery.

Its many friendships, its reputation for dependability,
and its excellent facilities thus combine to make the
Company's opportunities for usefulness, today and to-
morrow, almost unlimited. Your inquiry will be wel-
comed, and will be given careful attention.

This 6-ft. Frick-freezing tunnel at Lancaster, Penna.,
has both a conveyor belt and rows of push trucks,
handles ANY and ALL foods.

The "President" liners are among the many classes of ships — battle-
wagons, destroyers, yachts, tugs, tankers, freighters, fishermen, sub-
marines, and dredges — that like the dependability of Frick equipment.

Adequate refrigeration and air conditioning are as neces-
sary in first-class restaurants as linen and silver. Frick
Freon and ammonia systems meet all requirements.

43

Waynesboro has excellent highway and airline connections; transcontinental
busses serve the town; main-line trains stop at Harrisburg and Martinsburg.

WAYNE S^^-'YrcEW VOHK

Branch Offices and Sales Representatives handling Frick refrigerating and air con-
ditioning machinery are in principal cities throughout the country. Distributors
for medium-sized and smaller equipment are in scores of surrounding centers.

Frick Sawmill at work.

Frick Steel Peanut Picker

< 44 }*-

Frick Farm Machinery Branches pro-
vide warehouse and service facilities
at the points shown on this map.
They are assisted by numerous dealers.

NEW ORL 1 """" ' '

NEW ORLEANS. LOUISIANA

Map of the Eastern United Florida
States, showing plane con-
nections to Hagerstown
Airport, 10 miles by car
from Waynesboro.

AAA — All-American Airways,
which have three or more
flights daily, connecting all
points with Hagerstown.

Flying time to Hagerstown, Md.

From
Montreal
Buffalo .
Boston
New York .
Philadelphia
Washington
Norfolk .
Miami

Tampa

New Orleans

Hours Minutes

4

25

3

25

3

35

2

25

1

50

35

2

25

4

25

4

10

5

20

Standard Freon Unit

< 45 >

Large 4-Cylinder Compressor

Accessible-Hermetic Unit

^-

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks are extended to the many friends who have assisted in preparing
this history. Generous cooperation was given by Elmer Ritzman, Enola,
Penna., and G. A. Frick, editor of the Frick Magazine, as well as by the pub-
lishers of other journals in various fields. Reference was made frequently to the
historical writings of J. H. Stoner. Valuable pictures of early farm scenes
were supplied by Bert S. Gittins of Milwaukee, acting for the Farm Equip-
ment Institute of Chicago. Drawings of early refrigerating systems were
furnished by the National Association of Ice Industries, at Washington.
The photograph of the Cumberland Valley was supplied by Geo. F. John-
son, Pennsylvania Agricultural Extension Service, State College, Penna.
Other illustrations were made available by the U.S. Navy, The American
Ice Co., the Weber Showcase and Fixture Co., and by many Frick distribu-
tors, suppliers, and customers.

Printed in U.S.A. by the Kyle Printing Co.

< 46 h