Henry R. Towne
{{short description|American mechanical engineer and businessman (1844–1924)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Henry R. Towne
| image = Henry Robinson Towne.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Henry Robinson Towne
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1844|8|24}}
| birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1924|10|15|1844|8|24}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = Mechanical engineer
| years_active =
| known_for = Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co.
| notable_works =
| signature = Signature of Henry Robinson Towne.png
}}
File:Residence of Henry R. Towne, Yale Lock Company, 1890 restored.jpg
Henry Robinson Towne (August 24, 1844 – October 15, 1924) was an American mechanical engineer and businessman, known as an early systematizer of management.JoAnne Yates (1993) Control Through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management. p 12Noble, David F. America by Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977. He donated several millions to philanthropy at his death, in 1924.{{cite journal|url= https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.60.1558.428|title=University and Educational Notes|year=1924|volume=60|author=Science.org|journal=Science |issue=1558 |pages=428–429 |doi=10.1126/science.60.1558.428 |pmid=17770459 |bibcode=1924Sci....60..428. }}
Biography
Towne was born in Philadelphia in 1844 to John Henry and Maria (Tevis) T. Towne.{{cite book|last1=Wildman|first1=Edwin|title=Famous Leaders of Industry|date=1920|publication-date=2005|publisher=Cosimo|isbn=9781596050808|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WvSpqsNHPLEC&q=%22Henry+R.+Towne%22&pg=PA345|access-date=28 January 2016}} He attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1861 to 1862, where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall,{{cite book |title=Catalogue of the Members of the Fraternity of Delta Psi |author=Fraternity of Delta Psi |year=1889 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_gNxBAAAAIAAJ }} but did not complete a degree. The university later awarded him an honorary master's degree.
=Early career=
Following his year of college, Towne found work as a draftsman at the Port Richmond Iron Works, which was owned by I. P. Morris, Towne & Co. In 1863, Towne was put in charge of repair work for the union gunboat Massachusetts. During 1864-1866, Towne was placed in charge of erecting engines in monitors for the United States Navy. After the war, Towne went to Paris and studied physics at the Sorbonne. When he returned, he found employment with the firm of William Sellers & Co., in Philadelphia.
=Yale Lock Manufacturing=
File:Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co, 1897.jpg. "[https://archive.org/stream/factoryindustria12newy#page/394/mode/2up Six examples of successful shop management]." Engineering Magazine 12. 1897]]
In the summer of 1868, Henry R. Towne was introduced to Linus Yale Jr. by a mutual friend. Towne was, by this time, looking for a new business opportunity and had become impressed about the possibilities of Yale's new "cylinder" lock. In October 1868, the two men formed the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company, to be located in Stamford, Connecticut. Towne provided new capital and management of the firm, and Yale the invention.Henry R. Towne, Locks and builders hardware, a hand book for architects (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1904), 68-69. (for abstract, see [http://www.cslib.org/stamford/b_t.htm Stamford Historical Society]) Yale died later in 1868, and Towne reorganized the company as Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co. with Linus's son, John B. Yale, as treasurer.
By 1892, he was recorded as a millionaire in the American Millionaires list book.{{cite web|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wJFOAQAAMAAJ&q=yale+henry+r.+towne&pg=PA61|title=American Millionaires: The Tribune's List of Persons Reputed to Worth a Million Or More. Lines of Business in which the Fortunes Were Made|year=1892|page=10|author=Tribune Associationn}} He stepped down as chairman of the company in 1915. Board members of the company included ex President of Studebaker, Albert Russel Erskine, Congressman Schuyler Merritt, and others.[https://books.google.com/books?id=meY5AQAAMAAJ&dq=%22milton+H.+Yale%22+yale+park&pg=PA855 Polk's (Trow's) New York Copartnership and Corporation Directory], Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, Volume 57, 1909, p. 220
Within this time-frame he developed the Towne-Halsey plan. According to F.W. Taylor and mentioned in his book Scientific Management "it consists in recording the quickest time in which a job has been done, and fixing this as a standard.
If the workman succeeds in doing the job in a shorter time, he is still paid his same wages per hour for the time he works on the job, and in addition is given a premium for having worked faster, consisting of from one-quarter to one-half the difference between the wages earned and the wages originally paid when the job was done in standard time."{{cite book|last1=Taylor|first1=Frederick Winslow|title=Scientific Management|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134466238}}
File:Litchfield, CT - St. Michaels interior 13 (9371917019).jpg
=Later years=
Towne was one of the first engineers to see management as a new social role for engineers and that the development of management techniques was important for the development of the engineering profession. He laid out his ideas about the management role for the engineer in his "The Engineer as Economist." He was elected President of the ASME in 1888, and his presidential address continued to address how to improve shop and worker efficiency (see "Gain-Sharing").
Towne and Link-Belt president James Mapes Dodge were responsible for maneuvering Frederick Winslow Taylor to the Presidency of the ASME in 1906 (Noble, ABD, 269-270). Taylor was the author of The Principles of Scientific Management.
=Death=
Henry R. Towne died in New York City on October 15, 1924.{{cite book|last1=Wolman|first1=Paul|title=Most Favored Nation: The Republican Revisionists and U.S. Tariff Policy, 1897-1912|date=2000|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=9780807866382|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkXqCQAAQBAJ&q=%22Henry+R.+Towne%22+%2B+death&pg=PA285|access-date=28 January 2016}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/57319352/henry-r-towne-dies-in-new-york/ |title=Henry R. Towne Dies in New York |newspaper=Hartford Courant |location=New York |page=14 |date=1924-10-16 |access-date=2020-08-14 |via=Newspapers.com}} His wife Cora E. White, whom he had married in 1868, died in 1917. His estates was valued at several millions and the bulk of it was given to museums of peaceful arts, or industrial museums, for the citizens of New York.{{cite journal|url= https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.60.1558.428|title=University and Educational Notes|year=1924|volume=60|author=Science.org|journal=Science |issue=1558 |pages=428–429 |doi=10.1126/science.60.1558.428 |pmid=17770459 |bibcode=1924Sci....60..428. }}
In his will, Towne bequeathed $1,000,000 for the establishment of the Museums of the Peaceful Arts in Manhattan, $2,500,000 for the, "creation of a technical museum" that became the New York Museum of Science and Industry, $50,000 for education programs, the same amount to an Engineering Fund, $10,000 to the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, the same amount to New York University, and many others.{{cite news |date=February 16, 1936 |title=Science: The Evolution of the Scientific Museum |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |url=https://nyti.ms/3VbIUST|access-date=March 10, 2024}}{{cite news|title=Science: Peaceful Arts|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,721842,00.html|access-date=28 January 2016|publisher=Time|date=12 April 1926}}{{cite journal|url= https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.60.1558.428|title=University and Educational Notes|year=1924|volume=60|author=Science.org|journal=Science |issue=1558 |pages=428–429 |doi=10.1126/science.60.1558.428 |pmid=17770459 |bibcode=1924Sci....60..428. }}
Selected publications
- Towne, Henry Robinson. Locks and Builders Hardware: A Hand Book for Architects. J. Wiley & Sons, 1904.
- Towne, Henry R. "Foreword to Shop Management." Frederick Taylor, Scientific Management: 5-6. 1911.
Articles, a selection:
- Towne, Henry R. "[https://archive.org/stream/transactionsame03engigoog#page/n230/mode/2up A Drawing Office System]." Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 5 (1884): 193-205.
- Towne, Henry R. "[https://archive.org/stream/transactionsof07amer#page/428/mode/2up Engineer as an Economist]," Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 7 (1886), 425ff.
- Towne, Henry R. "[https://archive.org/stream/transactionsof10amer#page/600/mode/2up Gain-Sharing]," Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 10 (1889), 600ff.
- Towne, Henry R. "President's Address, 1889." Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 11 (1889): 50-71.
- Towne, Henry R. "Industrial engineering." Ingeniería Industrial), discurso pronunciado en la Universidad de Purdue el 24 (1905).
- Towne, Henry Robinson. "Axioms Concerning Manufacturing Costs." Trans. A SM E 34 (1912).
- Towne, Henry R. "[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924007304557;view=2up;seq=90 The General Principles of Organization Applied to an Individual Manufacturing Establishment]," Transactions, Efficiency Society Incorporated. v.1 1912, p. 77-83
Patents
- 1897. [https://patents.google.com/patent/US575016 US patents 575016] - Frictional controlling device for screw hoist.
- 1898. [https://patents.google.com/patent/USD29786 US patents 29786] - design for a key
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
- [https://archive.org/stream/cyclopaediaofame08wilsuoft#page/74/mode/2up Biographical Sketch]
{{Presidents of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:American business theorists
Category:American mechanical engineers
Category:Presidents of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni