The onset of World War II increased demand for Stellite alloys precision casting for aircraft engine components. Stellite was an extremely hard, heat-and-corrosion-resistant tooling metal developed and patented by Elwood Haynes. Beginning in 1941, Howard County mobilized for World War II. Kingston Products, Haynes Stellite and GM were some of the local businesses heavily involved in war production.
Howard County Historical Society, "Footprints," February 2013, Volume 2, Issue 1.
Virginia attended Ball State for one year, 1941-42, but wanted to save up money for school and decided to work at Stellite the following year. The three shifts, which the workers alternated every couple of weeks, were 7 am - 3 pm; 3 pm - 11 pm; and 11 pm - 7 am. Her department produced wax moulds for aircraft superchargers, a top-secret war project.
Photo credit: Indiana Historical Society, HAYNES_IMAGE_007
Photo credit: Popular Science, June 1941, "He Harnessed a Tornado"
Haynes Stellite was located in the SW part of Kokomo and Virginia took turns driving to the factory with her neighbor, Elsie Teel. Elsie's boyfriend at the time, Evert Donaldson, had been drafted and gave her his car to drive. Virginia drove the family car, a 1937 Chevy 2-door, when she worked the 2nd or 3rd shift. Jeanette Mohr (Lockhart) was her shift supervisor. Theresa Busby also worked at Stellite, but in a different department. Mom Oakley's, described as a local "greasy spoon," was a favorite place to hangout and dance for young women factory workers and the boys from nearby Bunker Hill Naval Base. They would flock there either after 2nd shift or before the third shift.
Photo credit: Indiana Historical Society, 1944, "Women making turbine blades for military planes," 1944_Stellite_S85P
The following excerpt is from "The History of Haynes International, Inc." by Charlie Sponaugle. Published in Metals Technology: Solidifying our Region's Wealth for a Third Century, Pittsburgh Engineer, Winter 2005, in an editorial comment by Ronald E. Ashburn, Executive Director for Iron and Steel Technology.
The History of Haynes International, Inc., excerpt
The company weathered the depression years selling its hard-facing alloys in industrial and agricultural applications and the new
Hastelloy alloys in the growing
chemical process industry. During
this time new melting technology
was moved to Kokomo from Union
Carbide’s facility in Niagara Falls,
NY. It was about 1940 that the first
wrought versions of the Hastelloy
alloys were being developed and
rolled at Ingersoll Steel and Disc
Company in New Castle, Indiana.
The 1940s were the beginning
of a new era for the company. The
second world war would alter the
company’s future much as the first
world war had done. One of the
growing applications for Stellite
was investment cast turbine blades
(or buckets). These blades were
used in the superchargers for military piston engines on a number of
planes. Over 25 million buckets
were produced for the war effort.
Haynes Stellite alloys 21 and 31,
both cobalt-based, were used in this
application about 1941. Haynes
Stellite was the premier investment
casting house in the US at this time
and supplied about 70% of the turbine buckets used.
Another application using both
the Stellite alloys and the new
Hastelloy alloys was search light
reflectors for the US Navy. These
metallic reflectors were shatter-
proof and maintained a high luster
even in saltwater environments.
These reflectors were made from
plate rolled by outside conversion
sources using billet melted in
Kokomo. Another factor in the
growth of the company during the
1940s was the large amount of
Hastelloy alloy used by the Manhattan Project and the Chemical
Warfare Service.
Production during the war years
was at an all time high, with employment reaching over 2,000 during the second world war and 3,000
by the end of the Korean war.
A major milestone occurred in
the late 1940s with the establishment of the wrought alloy plant in
Kokomo. Prior to this, wrought products were finished by outside
rolling mills. The new wrought alloy plant was situated on about 100
acres of land south of the main plant
location. This new facility included
rolling equipment for the production of plate and sheet products.
New high temperature wrought
alloys were also being added.
MULTIMET® (a nickel-cobalt-
chromium-molybdenum-tungsten
alloy) appeared in 1949 and in 1950
the cobalt alloy L-605 (now called
Haynes alloy 25) was first manufactured. These alloys found increasing usage in aircraft superchargers
and in the newly invented jet engine.
