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Sunday, January 31, 2016

Back home again in Indiana!

Touby Cousins Reunion #4
POTATO CREEK STATE PARK, INDIANA

In September 2015, we gathered back home again in Indiana.  Phil and Karon hosted us the first night at their place where we were treated to a huge spread in Phil's "Garage Mahal."  We toured the sights in South Bend, including the Studebaker Museum and Notre Dame.  Back at the park, we had a nice campfire, made s'mores and sat under the stars.


Gene and Marcia drove from Oklahoma to join us in Greentown for a great visit with Mother!  We toured Coan Engineering and the Touby Homestead.

Haynes Stellite 1942-43

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.