Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company that existed from 1823 until 1958. Founded in 1823 as a manufacturer of weighing scales, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinders, radios, farm tractors, feed mills, locomotives, and industrial supplies. It was purchased by the Penn-Texas conglomerate in 1958.

There are three separate corporate entities that could be considered successors to the company, none of which is a complete and direct descendant of the original company. All claim the heritage of Fairbanks Morse and Company:

  • Fairbanks Scales is a privately owned company in Kansas City, Missouri, that manufactures scales
  • Fairbanks Morse Defense, a subsidiary company of Arcline Investment Management, is a company based in Beloit, Wisconsin, that manufactures and services engines
  • Fairbanks Nijhuis is a part of Pentair Water in Kansas City, Kansas, and manufactures pumps

Founding and early history

thumb|right|Fairbanks-Morse windmill

Fairbanks Morse and Company began in 1823 when inventor Thaddeus Fairbanks opened an ironworks in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, to manufacture two of his patented inventions: a cast iron plow and a heating stove. In 1829 he started a hemp dressing business for which he built the machinery. Though unsuccessful in fabricating for fiber factories, another of Morse's inventions, the platform scale, formed the basis for the later company. It was patented in June 1832, and a generation later, with his brother Erastus Fairbanks, the E. & T. Fairbanks & Company was selling thousands of scales, first in the United States, later in Europe, South America, and Imperial China. Fairbanks scales won 63 medals over the years in international competition.

In Wisconsin, former missionary Leonard Wheeler designed a durable windmill for pumping water, the Eclipse windmill. Wheeler set up shop in Beloit just after the Civil War. Soon half a million windmills dotted the landscape throughout the West and as far away as Australia. At about the same time, a Fairbanks & Company employee, Charles Hosmer Morse, opened a Fairbanks office in Chicago, from which he expanded the company's territory of operation and widened its product line. As part of this expansion, Morse brought Wheeler and his Eclipse Windmill pumps into business with the Fairbanks company. Morse later became a partner in the Fairbanks Company and by the end of the nineteenth century, it was known as Fairbanks Morse & Company and was headquartered in Chicago. Canadian and American cities had branch dealerships, with Fairbanks first coming to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1876 and later opening a factory there.

Market expansion

thumb|right|Fairbanks Morse Type T gas engine

In the late nineteenth century, business expanded in the Western United States, as did the company's catalog. It grew to include typewriters, hand trucks, railway velocipedes, pumps, tractors, and a variety of warehouse and bulk shipping tools. The company became an industrial supplier distributing complete "turn-key" systems: tools, plumbing, gauges, gaskets, parts, valves, and pipe. Its 1910 catalog contained over 800 pages.

The Fairbanks Morse Company began producing oil and naptha engines in the 1890s with the purchase of the Charter line of engines (the first commercially available gas engine). They had the idea that an engine could be used as backup power for when one of their Eclipse windmills wasn't getting wind. The Fairbanks Morse gas engine became a success with farmers. Electricity generation and oilfield work also used these engines. Small lighting plants built by the company were also popular. Fairbanks Morse power plants evolved by burning kerosene in 1893, coal gas in 1905, then to semi-diesel engines in 1913 and to full diesel engines in 1924. The Model N was popular in stationary industrial applications.

In 1934, Fairbanks-Morse entered the radio business by acquiring the Audiola Radio Co. After a 1939 factory fire FM decided to exit the radio business. Fairbanks-Morse radios are well known for their colorfulness. The company also had brief forays into building automobiles, tractors, corn shellers, hammermills, cranes, televisions, and refrigerators, but output was small in these fields.

After the expiration of Rudolf Diesel's American license in 1912, Fairbanks Morse (FM) entered the large engine business. The company's larger Model Y semi-diesel became a standard workhorse, and sugar, rice, timber, and mine mills used the engine. The model Y was available in sizes from one through six cylinders, or 10 to . The Y-VA engine was the first high-compression, cold-start, full diesel developed by Fairbanks Morse without the acquisition of any foreign patent. This machine was developed in Beloit and introduced in 1924. The company expanded its line to the marine CO engine (Many 100 H.P. CO marine engines were used in the Philippine Islands to power ferry boats) as well as the mill model E, a modernized Y diesel. From this, Fairbanks-Morse became a major engine manufacturer and developed plants for railway and marine applications. The development of the diesel locomotive, tug, and ship in the 1930s fostered the expansion of the company.

"Z" Engine Line

Fairbanks-Morse renamed their headless Model to "Z" in July 1914, according to engine historian C.H. Wendel. On all "Z" engines the gasoline tank is located in the base. In 1917, they expanded the line to include more sizes. In 1918, they stopped making headless models and adapted the 1.5 H.P. to have a head, and larger H.P. engines could now run on Kerosene. In 1928 The "Z" style "D" was introduced, and was entirely enclosed. The Z was made in incremental sizes of 3, 6, 12, 15 and up to . Over a half million units were produced in the following 30 years. In the early 1980s the line was sold off to Bell. The model Z found favor with farmers, and is a collectable today.

thumb|Advertisement for 1916 "Z" engine

Marine diesel engines

thumb|right|Fairbanks-Morse [[opposed piston diesel engines on the WWII submarine (on display in San Francisco).]]

During World War I, a large order of 60 30 H.P. CO marine engines were installed in British decoy fishing ships to lure German submarines within range of their 6" naval guns. In 1939 Fairbanks-Morse developed a marine engine using an unusual opposed piston (OP) design, similar in arrangement to a series of German Junkers aircraft diesels. The most common variant for submarines through the 1990s was the 38D 8-1/8 engine, ranging from 4 to 12 cylinders. This engine was delivered to the U.S. Navy in large numbers, often for use in fleet submarines, which used 9- or 10-cylinder versions as main engines in World War II. When the innovative but faulty EMD 16-338 "pancake" engines of the proved unworkable, they were replaced with World War II-style Fairbanks-Morse engines, and these remained standard on US diesel-powered submarines through the early 1960s. These and other Fairbanks-Morse OP engines were also used as backup power on US nuclear submarines through the of the 1990s. Fairbanks-Morse ranked 60th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. The US Navy has had Fairbanks-Morse diesels in operation on its submarines almost continuously since 1938. They remain in service on -, Seawolf-, and nuclear submarines of the US Navy. In addition to OP engines (used in the USCGC Hamilton class), Fairbanks-Morse license builds Pielstick (used in the s and s), Alco (used in ), and M.A.N. design engines.

Other World War II era models are the 875 hp 5-cylinder Model 37E16 installed in some T1 tankers.

Railroad locomotives

thumb|left|Canadian Locomotive Company "[[FM H-24-66|Train Master", 1953]]

thumb|Fairbanks, Morse & Company draisine (1912)

Shortly after it won its first U.S. Navy contract, the company introduced its bore by stroke opposed piston diesel to the rail industry, installing the engine in various self-propelled railcars. This engine proved unreliable, and was superseded by a larger 5-cylinder bore by stroke engine that produced 800 hp and was installed in the OP800 railcars in 1939. In 1947, F-M reorganized its locomotive division, hiring new managers and building a dedicated factory the following year. In late 1949, the company's new cab units, named the Consolidated Line, were introduced to replace the Erie-builts in its catalog. It also proved unpopular. In 1956, the Santa Fe ordered three specialized units, based on the H12-44, for terminal switching in Chicago's Dearborn Station: the H12-44TS ("TS" for "Terminal Switcher"). They remained in service until the early 1970s.

In 1958, F-M built its last locomotive for the American market, followed in 1963 by its final delivery to a Mexican customer. The opposed-piston (OP) diesel engine once made by Fairbanks-Morse is still (August 2019) manufactured. Also, Fairbanks-Morse still (November 2021) manufactures large four-stroke diesel engines such as the FM 48/60 CR series, which ranges from 7,200 to 19,200 kWm in output.

  • Fairbanks Scales has dropped the Morse from the name as most scales made by FM had.
  • Fairbanks Nijhuis makes pumps.

See also

  • List of Fairbanks-Morse locomotives
  • Fairbanks Morse 38 8-1/8 diesel engine
  • Fairbanks Morse Defense

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Fairbanks Morse website