Here are five cool things from the MSOE exhibition you might be surprised to learn were made in Milwaukee
From steam shovels that helped dig the Panama Canal to the first successful outboard motor to electricity-generating turbines embedded in Hoover Dam, Milwaukee has a rich history of engineering mastery and mechanical expertise — skills that helped turn the city into an industrial powerhouse by the early 20th century. The Grohmann Museum at the Milwaukee School of Engineering is celebrating that heritage in "The Magnificent Machines of Milwaukee." Here are five cool things featured in the exhibition:
The Merkel motorcycle
When the first motor bike built by Bill Harley and the Davidson brothers was struggling to make it up hills in 1903, the machines made by Joseph Merkel were zipping down Milwaukee’s streets. Merkel motorcycles (like the rare example on exhibit) were only manufactured until 1917, but their more advanced design prompted the eventual founders of Harley-Davidson to try harder.
Briggs & Stratton's Motor Wheel
The dense web of relationships among such firms as E.P. Allis, Pawling & Harnischfeger, Nordberg Manufacturing and the Chain Belt Company — which together would create tens of thousands of jobs — touched off an explosion of innovation in Milwaukee in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Briggs & Stratton benefited from the cross-fertilization, too. Its entry into the small-engine business, which would come to define the company, evolved after it acquired the manufacturing rights to the “motor wheel” from A.O Smith and began making a simple open automobile called the Flyer. The Grohmann exhibition features one of the machines.
The most powerful hammer forge
Sixty years ago, the Ladish Co. in Cudahy finished building its Number 85 Hammer, a multi-story, monster forge that pounds chunks of incandescent steel into shape between a pair of rams weighing 375,000 pounds each. Described as the world's largest and most powerful hammer forge, Number 85 is still in operation at the plant, now owned by Allegheny Technologies Inc. Obviously the hammer forge isn’t on exhibit, but Michael Schultz’s photograph catching the blazing machine in mid-stroke as it towers over two workers is on display, and it's a piece of art.
Deep-sea diving helmets
The exhibit for Desco Corp. shows off the work of one of Milwaukee’s more improbable manufacturers, in this case a maker of deep-sea diving helmets that the firm still hammers out in its Historic Third Ward shop.
Festivus poles for the world
While hardly an engineering innovation, Festivus was a pretty good comedy idea. Originally cooked up for the “Seinfeld” show, Festivus “for the rest of us” is a holiday marked by feats of strength, airing of grievances and gatherings around a simple aluminum pole, like the one on exhibit. Included strictly for fun, it comes from R & B Wagner Inc., a Milwaukee metalworking firm that, among many other things, is the self-proclaimed world’s largest maker of Festivus poles.
Contact Rick Romell at (414) 224-2130 or rick.romell@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RickRomell.