Louis Cassius Upton (October 10, 1886 – October 9, 1952) was an American entrepreneur best known for co-founding the Whirlpool Corporation (originally known as Upton Machine Company) with his uncle Emory Upton and investor Lowell Bassford in 1911.
Early life Louis Cassius Upton was born in Fredonia, New York on October 10, 1886, and was the first of four children of Carrie Upton (née Blogett) and Cassius Marcelus Upton. His father, Cassius was a lawyer by training who founded a publishing business in the late 1890s. Louis had one younger brother, Frederick, and three younger sisters. In 1903, when Louis was 17 and a junior in high school, his father was killed in a streetcar accident in Chicago. Louis got a job selling insurance to help support the family at the same time that he was completing high school.
Business career Louis Upton graduated in 1908 from Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Early career Upon graduation, Upton attempted to sell insurance to W.S. Klein, the secretary-treasurer of the Commonwealth Edison company. Although Klein did not buy insurance, he was impressed by Upton and offered him a job, which Upton accepted. At Edison, Upton was introduced to the fast-developing field of electricity, and he became obsessed with the idea of making an electric washing machine. In 1908, Upton was approached by E.C. Williams, a hardware merchant in South Bend, Indiana, who wanted to organize a company to manufacture home washers. Williams planned to open a factory in South Bend, and asked Upton to handle the sales department. Williams needed capital, and Upton offered the $500 he had saved. When the firm almost immediately went bankrupt. The owner, E.C. Williams, felt responsible for Louis' loss and told him he could take a patent of his choosing as compensation for his loss. Upton chose a patent on a hand-powered washing machine. He believed the washer could someday have an electric motor attached to it.
Fabrication of the electric washer
Upton was not deterred by the E.C. Williams Manufacturing Co. failure. He took the hand washer patent to his uncle, Emory Upton, a mechanic in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and asked him to motorize it to be powered by electricity. He also returned to his job at Commonwealth Edison. This was not to be the first electric washing machine. Although the first electric washing machine is credited to A.J. Fisher in 1907, there were patents filed for such machines before Fisher's application. Eventually, Emory Upton built a transmission that worked. Louis Upton took the electric washer to Federal Electric Company, a company affiliated with Commonwealth Edison, and talked them into ordering 100 washers to be sold on the retail market for $85 each. He set up a shop in Benton Harbor where, with the help of his brother Frederick, he built the electric washers while commuting to his job at Commonwealth Edison in Chicago, approximately 100 miles away. It was said that Louis painted the washers by hand, and Frederick crated them and took them by horse-drawn cart to the shipping point. Louis and Frederick Upton delivered the 100 washing machines. However, a major problem arose: with daily use, the gears of every washer broke down. Federal Electric's president, John F. Gilchrist, summoned the 25-year-old Upton to his office and demanded the money back saying, “Your product is a failure and money must be refunded to purchasers”. Upton replied that he would refund the money but did not have it at the time. He went on to explain that he had already spoken to Federal's master mechanic about a fix, and, with some time, could solve the problem. Federal agreed, and the master mechanic, Gustav B. Keil, who later came to work for Upton, solved the problem by using steel rather than cast iron in the gears. Describing the new gears, he told Upton, "They're O.K. I've used everything on them but an axe”. In the end, Federal Electric agreed with Keil and Upton emerged from disgrace with an order of 200 washers – but with new gears.
Upton Machine Company Louis Upton got the 200 washers turned out as he promised, but the costs proved to be excessive. This time he was really broke, but production was on the way up – producing 10 machines a day. He looked around for a financial backer, and he found one in a LaGrange friend and banker, Lowell C. Bassford. Bassford agreed to supply $5000 on the condition that Louis work for the company full-time, quitting his job at Commonwealth Edison. Thus was formed the Upton Machine Company on November 11, 1911, by Louis Upton, his uncle Emory Upton and Lowell Bassford. Louis took on the role as president, while Emory was Secretary and Treasurer. Louis’ brother Frederick joined the company a few months later in 1912 as office manager. The company soon moved to a small building in the Edgewater area of St. Joseph, Michigan. In the beginning, Louis paid himself a salary of $10 a week while Fred received $8. Emory Upton was the high salaried man at $30 a week. Bassford had received 500 shares of stock in return for his capital, while Emory received 1,265 shares and Louis 1,000 shares in the new company.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
