The Ingersoll-Rand Company supplied the majority of the drills used on the canal works. This same firm supplied 300 tripod drills of three and one-quarter-inch piston diameter to the French Company. For the Commission the firm supplied 184 drills of three and five-eighth-inch piston diameter. Of this number twenty-five were of the tappet valve type, the remainder of the air thrown valve type, or the auxiliary vale form. Fifty drills, tripod mounted, of four and one-half-inch piston diameter, twenty-five of each being of the air thrown and tappet valve form, were also furnished.
**************
The pneumatic equipment furnished the Isthmian Canal
Commission by the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company, consisted of air compressors, rock
drills, air drills for drilling, reaming and wood boring, pneumatic hammers for riveting,
chipping, caulking, sheet riveters, rivet busters, compression riveters and hoists.
**********
Sullivan Machinery Company furnished rock drills and
a number of churn drills. They also furnished large quantities of drill steel for
use on the canal. One order of drill steel was shipped from the Chicago works of the
company, comprising seven freight car loads in bulk. They supplied hand feed hammer
drills, stone channeling machines. They also supplied much of the equipment for the
diamond drilling in testing the location of the canal and the locks and dams.
********
The record for the number of a particular make of
drill on the Panama Canal work belongs to the Star Drilling Machine Company of Akron,
Ohio. This company furnished 214 drilling machines for blast hole and other work on
the canal, and these figured importantly in the rapid and economical removal of the vast
tonnages of rock and earth with which the canal engineers were confronted.
********
Other types of rock drills used on the canal in large numbers were the improved drills
both of steam and air power, manufactured by the Wood Drill works of Paterson, NJ.
This company also furnished its heavy type bronze hose couplings in great numbers.
*******
Between January, 1905, and June, 1912, the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company, Wilmington, Delaware, supplied the following enormous quantities of material for use in constructing the Isthmian Canal: 33,000,000 pounds dynamite, 3,570,000 electric fuses (electric blasting caps) 2,800,000 blasting caps, 4,200,000 feet fuse, 20,000 pounds leading and connecting wire, and 230 blasting machines..
*********
Wire Rope (the Roebling Company had over 50 different contracts) Used on cableways
for controlling the movements of buckets and for cables along which the buckets ran in the
transportation of materials across wide spans. Used on unloader plows, dragging them
through flat cars piled high with earth and rock, the ploughs clearing the cars as the
ropes puled them along. Great steam shovels and dipper dredges which cleared the way
for the canal were also equipped with Roebling wire rope. Also used on the towing
locomotives.
********
The importance of wire rope as a factor in the construction of the canal is evidenced by
the fact that nearly all the great firms in the United States manufacturing this product
contributed large quantities to the canal work, much of it being the specialized product
of some particular firm.
The Hazard Manufacturing Company, Broderick & Bascom Rope Co., also supplied wire
rope.
Columbian Rope Company of Auburn NY -- manila rope
***********
Dredging and Excavating Machinery
You can read about Bucyrus on the website
Thew Automatic Shovel Company of Lorain, Ohio
supplied 30 two-ton steam shovels.
Dredges -- the "Corozal" was built by William Simons & Co. of Renfrew,
Scotland
******
Disposal of Material from Excavation
Lidgerwood Company -- supplied trains of flat cars, with steel aprons bridging the spaces between the cars, a plow to sweep the load from the cars, a steel cable reaching the length of the train, and the "Rapid Unloader," a powerful winding engine to draw the plow through the train. A long train can be unloaded in five minutes. The unloader is placed on a flat car coupled to the locomotive , and takes steam from the locomotive boiler. Also supplied the cableways spanning the Gatun Locks.
Pressed Steel Car Company of Pittsburgh also supplied flat cars
*******
Hydraulic Dredges
Morris Machine Works of Baldwinsvile NY supplied a number of pumps -- one of them being of
capacity enough to deliver 300 cubic yards of material per hour, through 1,000 feet of
pipe line, while another delivered about 400 cubic yards through a pipe line 4,000 feet in
length. Also supplied centrifugal pumps.
*******
Sand Pumps -- Nye Steam Pump and Machinery Company, Chicago. Pump is a small compact
machine designed especially for mining, railroad, draining, irrigation, cofferdam and well
sinking work. The pump creates a very high vacuum, thus being able to lift water to
great height.
******
The earth fills and embankments of the canal were rolled in layers with Buffalo Pitts
special embankment rollers, manufactured by the Buffalo Steam Roller Company.
********
Locomotive Cranes -- Brown Hoisting Machinery Company, Cleveland Ohio, designer and maker
of patent automatic hoisting and conveying appliances. Also supplied A Brownhoist
fast plant unloader and a 5-ton cantilever crane.
*********
Boilers, all different types -- Babcock and Wilcox Company, D'Olier Engineering Company,
E. Keeler Company, Robb Mumford Boiler Company,
*****
Chemicals for boilers -- Bird-Archer Company, NY
*********
High Speed Steam Engines -- Ball Engine Company, Erie PA, Buckeye Engine Co.
*********
Pipe -- black and galvanized wrought steel and iron pipe -- Youngstown Company
********
Stone Crushers -- Allis-Chalmers Company
*********
Collapsible steel forms used to shape the locks' culverts and other conduits -- Blaw Steel
Construction Co. Pittsburgh, PA
**********
VERY IMPORTANT! Cement
Supplied by Alpha Portland Cement Company -- canal construction used 5,000,000 cubic yards
of concrete, which cost $30,000,000
**********
Cement mixers ( all sizes) --Austin Improved Cube Mixer and T.L. Smith Company
********
Steel Bars (reinforcement) -- Corrugated Bar Company
*********
Misc:
Hill friction clutches -- Hill Clutch Company
Conveying machinery at rock crushing plant -- Stephens-Adamson Manufacturing Company
Concrete dumping buckets (Steel and iron) G. L. Stuebner Iron Works of Long Island City,
NY
Hercules steel bumping posts -- Railway Traction and Supply Co. of Chicago
********
Material for lock gates -- Wheeling Mold and Foundry Company, Wheeling, W.Va. Total
contracts to this company amounted to 19,000 tons, comprised in iron and steel castings
for the locks and gates and 334 machines for operating the gates and valves; conductor
rails for supplying current to the electric locomotives that tow vessels; 40,000 pounds of
manganese bronze; rolled nickel pins, bearing-[plates; a pumping system covering 350,000
pounds of piping, valves, etc.
*****
Machinery to operate Spillway gates at Gatun and Miraflores lake -- Steacy-Schmidt
Manufacturing Company
***********
The great castings which were used as slides or seals, and gate guides for the gates on
the canal were furnished by the Excelsior Tool and Machine Company of East St. Louis, Ill.
These castings filled twenty-four freight cars, and weighed a total of 1,200,000
pounds.
*******
Valves used to control the inlet and outlet of water in the locks at Gatun, Miraflores,
and Pedro Miguel were furnished by the Rosedale Foundry and Machine Company of Pittsburgh
*******
The boiler and superheated pop safety valves and gauges for the Gatun dam power-plant were
supplied under a sub-contract by the American Steam Gauge and Valve Manufacturing Company,
of Boston. Also supplied numerous other valves and gauges.
*************
Operating mechanisms for the collapsible hand rails and the guard valves on the locks were
furnished by Earle Gear & Machine Company of Philadelphia
**********
Gauges for registering the depth of the water in the locks supplied by Mosaic Tile Company
of Zanesville, Ohio. Also supplied the vitrified floor and glazed tiling used in the
Gatun hydroelectric station; the Gatun, Miraflores, and Pedro Miguel control house, and
the tiling for the baths and lavatories of the Tivoli. Also furnished the tiling
used in the floors and walls of the administration.
**********
Large part of the manganese steel castings for use on the canal work was furnished under
contract by the Edgar Allen American Manganese Steel Company of Chicago and New Castle,
Del. Castings used as repair parts for steam shovels, such as dipper teeth with
renewable points, dipper lips, latches, latch keepers, dipper-shaft pinions, racks, dredge
tumblers, link pins, bushings, screen sections and car wheels.
**********
Another large firm Detroit Steel Casting Company supplied steel castings for dredges,
machines, railroad equipment, and dump cars.
*******
The firm of Frank Samuel supplied a large tonnage of pig iron and alloys.
********
Other items:
Gauge glasses, pulley, steam gauges, cement, gauge glass washers, gaskets, pliers, cotters
and planer knives. -- H.A. Rogers Company
*********
Budy Company of Chicago -- made extensive shipments under their contracts covering
articles used in railroad building: hand cars, push cars, pressed steel wheels,
track jacks, track bits, drills, switch stands, replacers, rail benders, gauges, levels,
and automobile engines. More than a thousand cars and over three thousand switch
stands went toward filling contracts that reached a total of $125,000.
************
The successful completion of the canal work depended, to a great extent, on the continuous
working of the construction machinery, such as steam engines, cars, steam shovels,
concrete mixers, conveyors, etc. The heavy and continuous service required of the
canal equipment caused breakdowns of mechanical parts, thus causing delays and expense and
interfering with the continuance of the work. To avoid these delays the commission
installed a large machine shop near the base of the work, where duplicate could be made or
repairs quickly accomplished. The machine shop covered a wide range of work.
It was largely equipped by the Niles-Bement-Pond Company of NYC. This company
occupies a foremost place among machine tool manufacturers and crane building. This
company furnished several machines designed especially for such service. The heavy
engine drivers were turned on the Niles driving wheel lathes; car wheels up to forty-two
inches were turned on Pond car wheel lathes; Bement axle lathes turned and trued the
axles; the wheels were pressed on the axle by Niles hydrostatic wheel presses of 200 and
300 ton capacity.
Boring, drilling, turning, and planing machines were
furnished for the ordinary machine shop operations. To handle large and heavy repair
parts and castings through the shop, the Niles-Bement-Pond Company installed several
electric traveling cranes.
In equipping the machine shop, the American Tool Works Company of Cincinnati
furnished lathes, planers, shapers, and radial drills.
******
The Oliver Iron & Steel Company of Pittsburgh supplied to the commission about
13,000,000 pounds of such small articles of iron and steel as bolts, rivets, nuts,
washers, picks, mattocks and claw bars. These articles were used in every branch of
the construction.
*******
During the months of May, June, August, October, November, and December, 1912, the
Pittsburgh Steel Company of Pittsburgh, Pa shipped 349 tons of wire nails, and in May also
ten tons, or fifty-five miles, of steel wire. All of this material was used in the
construction of the canal.
***
Chain iron, special bar iron, iron roofing sheets, Carter special and Catger stay bolt
iron were supplied the canal workers by the Carter Iron Co. of Pittsburgh.
*****
J.B. Kendall Company near Washington DC supplied thousands of tons of steel bars for
concrete reinforcement, several thousand tons of steel bars, plates, channels and beams,
railroad spikes, wire nails, and rivets, mostly manufactured by the Jones and Laughlin
Steel Co. of Pittsburgh. The Kendall Co. also furnished a large number of twist
drills for use in canal construction. These drills were manufactured by the
Cleveland Twist Drill Company, of Cleveland, Ohio
********
Corrugated copper gaskets supplied by the Akron Metallic Gasket Company of Akron, Ohio,
were used in large numbers for making joints on steam lines carrying from 100 to 200
pounds pressure, on tugs and dredges in the service of the Atlantic division, and also in
the power plant at the dry dock shops on the canal.
*********
Belting was manufactured by Charles A. Schieren Company of NY. One canal official
stated, "if it were not for the belts what would the machinery amount to? These
belts were the very sinews of our shops. They simply had to do their work without
regard to heat or dampness, oil, or dryness. A breakdown in these shops on account
of poor belts would have meant a stoppage of the shovels and locomotives, a lack of repair
parts and castings, and a shut-down of canal work itself."
********
Automatic couplers and parts, and miscellaneous castings for the equipment for new railway
cars for work on the canal, and for maintenance and repair of rolling stock were furnished
by National Malleable Castings Co. of Cleveland, Ohio. They furnished 6,000
couplers.
*****
Screw spikes tie plates for railroad ties were manufactured by the Spencer Otis Co. of
Chicago.
*******
The Pennsylvania Steel Co. of Steelton,Pa shipped steel castings for the racks for the
electric locomotives which tow vessels through the locks. These castings were made
in 9,261 sections, weighing approximately 717 pounds each. These castings had to be
exceedingly accurate.
************
The S.G. Taylor Chain Company, of Chicago supplied
steam shovel hoisting chains for the canal.
*****
Bolts, nuts, rivets, screws, upset rods, and forgings were supplied for the canal work in
large quantities by the Pittsburgh Screw and Bolt Co of Pittsburgh.
******
Track bolts, frogs, and staybolt iron, machine bolts, drift bolts, fish plates, knuckle
pins, and other equipment were supplied by the Pittsburgh Forge and Iron Company.
******
Automatically operated valves of latest design for the protection of boilers and their
steam lines were supplied in large quantities by the Golden-Anderson Valve Specialty
Company, of Pittsburgh Pa. Another company supplying valves of various kinds was the
Roe-Stephens Manufacturing Co. of Detriot.
The E.F. Keating Co. of NY supplied machines for threading pipe, wrought iron pipe,
malleable iron fittings, screwed and flanged fittings, plumbing supplies, and steel and
iron parts of infinite variety.
*********
The O.F. Jordan Co., of Chicago furnished iron and steel material, in the form of
spreaders, unloading plows, cast steel, and manganese crossing.
*******
Wrought iron washers for binding bolts were supplied by Henry A. Hitner's Sons Co.
******
Steel and copper hose for steam, air, water, and oil transmission was supplied for the
canal by the Pennsylvania Flexible Metallic tubing Company of Philadelphia. Included
tubing, steel sectional hose, brass conduit hose, and copper hose of various sized.
*****
Boston Belting Company of Boston furnished dredging sleeves; "Imperial" stitched
rubber belting; brass wire insertion sheet packing; and 5,000 feet of special cotton
jacket fire hose, coupled with heavy expansion ring couplings, Chicago fire hose thread.
******
Large quantities of rubber sheet packing for flanged joints, and flax packing for pumps
was furnished by Home Rubber Company of Trenton, NY. Also supplied a large quantity
of rubber hose.
Another firm which supplied great quantities of
rubber in the form of water, steam, air suction, and fire hose, and dredging sleeves and
belting was the Boston Woven Hose & Rubber Company.
********
Other firms supplying hose for various uses were Manhattan Rubber Manufacturing Company of
Passaic, NY, Voorhees Rubber Company of Jersey City NJ, The Republic Rubber Company of
Youngstown, Ohio.
********
Crane Company of Chicago supplied a large quantity of standard and extra heavy flanged
fittings, screwed fittings, and standard and extra heavy iron and brass gate valves.
Supplied many thousand brass globe and angle valves. Besides these this
company supplied bath tubs, more than 1,000 enameled lavatories, and several hundred
enameled sinks and sanitary combinations.
******
Fairbanks, Mose & Co. of Chicago supplied among other things -- hand and push cars
(over 300), gasoline motor cars, and velocipedes. Water tanks to supply water to the
locomotives, standpipes for delivering the water from the tanks to the locomotive tenders,
large number of steampumps for delivering water from source of supply were used for
generating steam for various steam engines and pumps; a large number of feed pumps, of
various sizes and capacities.
*********
Over 21,000 short handle shovels were furnished by Fairbanks, Morse & Co.
*******
One of the firms which supplied the greatest variety of general equipment for the canal
was T.S. Banks and Company, of NY. The firm filled 258 contracts, calling for 147
kinds of equipment and merchandise.: Equipment varied from a number of dredger
bucketed in digging to a bewildering variety of tools, implements, harness, wagons, wheels
and other supplies even down to needles.
********
All types of surveying equipment supplied by Buff & Buff Manufacturing Co of Jamaica
Plain, Boston.
******
Hohmann & Maurer Manufacturing Co. Rochester, NY made numerous shipments of its
scientific and engineering instruments.
Thermometers (gas, superheated, steam, feed water, flue gas, and refrigeration
thermometers) aneroid barometers, vacuum gauges.
*******
F. Weber & Co. of Philadelphia supplied artists' materials and draughtsmen's and
engineers' supplies. -- non-deteriorating waterproof India inks, water colors,
drawing instruments, , blue and brown print papers, and other office supplies, and
engineers' and mining surveying instruments.
*****
Almost all the blue prints prepared for the canal were made on paper supplied by Williams,
Brown & Earle, Inc. of Philadelphia. Also supplied the two washing and drying
machines and the two blue-printing machines that were sent to the Isthmus.
*********
The firm of Ernst Leitz, of NYC supplied microscopes and laboratory material for use in
medical diagnosis and the examination of the water supple.
*********
Texas Co of Houston (up to June 1913) supplied 824,000 gallons of various kinds of
lubricating oils, and 448,000 pounds of greases, and lesser shipments of kerosene and
gasoline.
******
Crew-Levick Com of Philadelphia -- motor oils.
*******
W.N. Best of NY supplied oil burners, oil furnaces, and fire brick for relining.
*****
Lubricating oils -- Whitmore Manufacturing Co. of Cleveland, Ohio
********
Tropical rains in torrents and moist salt air spelled rust, corrosion, and verdigris on
everything metallic in the Canal Zone unless carefully protected. That protection
was afforded by oil, the product of the Tree-In-One Oil Company of NY. It was used
on guns, revolvers, sewing machines, typewriters, ice-cream freezers, bolts, locks,
clocks, -- everything made of metal,indoors or out.
*********
Oiling devices supplied by William W. Nugent & Co of Chicago and Detroit Lubricating
Co. of Detroit.
The Keystone Lubricator Co. of Philadelphia furnished large quantities of lubricants
*********
Coal -- more than half a million tons annually -- went to Pocahontas Fuel Co. of NYC
********
Standard Oil Company (1908-1914) delivered 2,400,000 gallons of kerosene and 700,000
gallons of gasoline.
*********
American Gasaccumulator Co. installed along the line of the canal fifty-seven acetylene
light buoys, eighteen front and rear range lights, and a small number of beacons
*********
R.E. Dietz Company of NYC furnished lanterns
******
Macbeth-Evans Col of NY and Pittsburgh supplied large quantities of lantern globes,
lenses, and railroad headlight chimneys.
*******
Automatic fire alarm and telegraph system -- Gamewell Fire Alarm Telegraph Co. of NYC
********
Watchman's time detector (or Morse magneto watchman's clock) -- American Watchman Time
Detector Company, NY
*****
Steel office and filing devices used in the offices of the Canal Commission -- Art Metal
Construction of Jamestown, NY> Also supplied steel dining room tables,
sideboards, chiffoniers, dressers, and other furniture
******
Automatic time stamps -- Automatic Time Stamp Company, Boston
********
Rubber insulated lead-covered cable, varnished cloth, insulated lead-covered cable,magnet
wire, fixture wire, weatherproof wire, and cable terminals -- Standard Underground Cable
Co. of Pittsburgh
******
Morden Frog and Crossing Works of Chicago sent numerous shipments of its railway
appliances -- split switches, rigid frogs, switch stands, guard rail braces, derails,
compromise angle bars, et.
*****
Automatic machine for performing adzing and boring operations simultaneously -- Greenlee
Bros. & Co. Chicago
******
Wood screws -- American Screw Company, Providence RI
******
Printing presses
changeable rubber type and holders -- TS Buck Manufacturing Co. of NYC
Remington -- typewriters (650)
Underwood also supplied typewriters.
Elliott-Fisher Co. of Harrisburg supplied adding machines
********
Bulk of stationery of various descriptions supplied by Tower Manufacturing and Novelty
Company NY -- hardly a steamer left NY for Panama without carrying a consignment of
stationery and misc. office supplies.
Interlaken Mills, Providence RI -- book cloth for binding
********
J.H. Bunnell & Co. -- telegraph, telephone, railway, and electric lightning supplies
******
Portable houses -- Ducker Company, NY
Hollow tile brick -- National Fire Proofing Company
David Lupton's Sons -- hollow metal windows for government buildings
Thomas E. Coale Lumber Co. over 4,000,000 feet of lumber and piling
******
Camp cots -- Gold Metal Camp Furniture Manufacturing Company of Racine Wisconsin.
40,000 cots
********
rolling shutter doors -- Jas. G. Wilson Co.
*******
Marine equipment
tug boats -- Moran Towing and Transportation
Marine engines -- Buffalo Gasoline Motor Company
Floating hoists -- Neumeyer & Dimond, NY
********
Cameras -- Kodak
*******
Recreational supplies -- A.G. Spalding & Co.
Fireworks -- Pain Fireworks Display Company
Cigars-- Theobald & Oppenheimer Com, Philadelphia
Cigarettes -- Philip Morris & Company, Ltd. NYC
*********
Coupon books -- Allison Copon Co. of Indianapolis furnished 5,000,000 books for commissary
use in denominations ranging from $2.50 to $15.00.
National Cash Register Co of Dayton, Ohio -- 61 cash registers
Safes -- York Safe Y Lock Co.
Sewing machines -- New Home Sewing Machine Co. -- 1,500
*******
Wire cloth (screen) -- Wickwire Bros.
Insecticide pumps -- F.E. Myers and Bro. of Ashland Ohio
Phinotas Chemical Company of NY -- Phinotas Oil (a destroyer of mosquito pests)
Disinfectent -- Chloro-Naptholeum, West Disinfecting Company, NY
Garbage furnaces -- Morse-Boulger Destructor Company
Colgate Company -- soaps and toilet articles
Steel bins and shelving -- Berger Manufacturing Company, Canton Ohio
Refrigerating machinery of all sizes -- Ice and Cold Machine Company, St. Louis
Insulation for cold storage plants -- Armstrong Cork Company of Pittsburgh
Hutchinson Bros. of Baltimore -- supplied furnaces,
ranges, and hotel kitchen apparatus.
Cooking equipment -- S.B. Sexton Stove and Manufacturing Company of Baltimore
Silverware -- the Gorham Company, Providence RI
Three to seven train cars of meat were shipped weekly to the commissary department by the Sulzberger Company of Chicago. -- hindquarters and straight carcasses of best corn-fed native steers; hams and bacon, all different kinds of sausages; barreled pork, and pure lard and compound.
Cudahy Pacing Company of Chicago supplied large quantities of caned meats, beef extract, and barreled beef.
All other types of food
Shoes
Clothing
hats
dresses
socks
hosiery
and all other types of household furnishings.