Background

Edward Gowen Budd was born on December 28, 1870 in Smyrna, Delaware, the youngest of four children and second son of Henry George and Caroline (Kettell) Budd. His father was descended from William Budd, a Quaker who left England in the late seventeenth century and settled in New Jersey; his mother was the daughter of a New England clergyman.

Education

Edward Budd attended public school in Smyrna, where his father was justice of the peace, and completed high school in 1887. Meanwhile, he furthered his education in engineering through evening classes and correspondence courses at the University of Pennsylvania and the Franklin Institute.

Career

After working briefly as a machinist's apprentice at the Taylor Iron Works in Smyrna, Edward Budd moved to Philadelphia, at that time one of the principal metalworking centers in the country. For the rest of his life Philadelphia was the setting for his business career. He began as a machinist's apprentice in the shops of Bement, Miles and Company, and was subsequently named drafting office foreman of the hydraulic press design group.

In 1899 Budd became factory manager of the American Pulley Company. His role in the design and fabrication of an innovative sheetmetal pulley gave him an insight into the capabilities of press- and die-formed light-gauge sheet-metal stampings as an alternative to forgings and castings. One of the first Americans to grasp the superior structural characteristics of such stampings, Budd drew from this experience the impetus for his later pioneer contributions as a manufacturer of transportation equipment.

In 1902 he became general manager of the Hale and Kilburn Company, a leading maker of railroad car seats and interior trimmings for Pullman and other firms. The all-steel passenger car was then being developed to replace wooden coaches. Instead of castings and forgings, Budd introduced pressed steel parts joined by oxyacetylene welding.

During this time he obtained from France the first autogenous gas-welding equipment ever used in the United States. Under Budd's supervision, Hale and Kilburn in 1909 manufactured welded pressed steel panels for automobile bodies used by the Hupp Motor Car Company.

About this time the spread of integrated manufacture among Pullman and other makers resulted in declining demand for railway car components. Looking to the emergent motorcar industry to take up the slack, Budd submitted to the business managers of Hale and Kilburn a proposal for constructing all-steel automobile bodies on a commercial basis. When the proposal was rejected, Budd resigned in 1912 and, with the help of two outside investors, organized the Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company, with himself as president.

The initial capitalization of $100, 000 was increased to $500, 000 within the first year, but the company from the start was short of capital; its rented shop in northeast Philadelphia was so small that a large stamping press had to be housed outdoors under a rented circus tent. Underfinancing continued to be a recurring problem for Budd over the next twenty-five years or more, chiefly because of large capital expenditures and sharp fluctuations in the business cycle.

With an expert staff, Budd organized his company as a producer of sheet-metal stampings, but before long the firm added a line of steel truck and auto bodies. He initially met indifference both from automobile manufacturers, hobbled by conservatism and inertia, and from body makers, most of whom had started as carriage makers and were content to produce bodies made primarily of wood.

But in 1912 General Motors ordered welded all-steel touring-car bodies for the Oakland Motor Company, and three years later Budd also became exclusive supplier of touring-car and roadster bodies for the newly formed Dodge firm. Dodge soon became Budd's largest customer, and its orders enabled him to move into expanded quarters. Other new customers included Willys-Overland, Studebaker, Cadillac, and Franklin. During World War I, Budd made a variety of military equipment, including army truck bodies, mobile field kitchens, helmets, shells, and bombs.

He returned to automobile work after the Armistice and added an all-steel sedan body to his line. In the early 1920's, when other companies were still using wood, Budd conducted experiments that resulted in large one-piece steel components, such as floors, roof panels, and inside and outside door panels with integral window frames.

This "monopiece" construction, which by shifting most of the stress to the outer surface ensured greater strength and rigidity, came in time to be generally adopted by the automobile industry. Budd held patent rights on his steel body, but waived them in the American market in the belief that customer goodwill and a large backlog of orders were preferable to royalties and the likelihood of patent litigation.

This left the field open to larger competitors, notably the Fisher, Briggs, and Murray companies. Budd, however, promoted sales of his all-steel body with an imaginative campaign of stunts to dramatize its superiority. The acquisition of new accounts, among them Ford and Chrysler, encouraged him to open a body division in Detroit in 1925. In 1916 Budd had established a separate Budd Wheel Corporation (reincorporated in 1921 as the Budd Wheel Company), and this, too, he transferred to Detroit in 1925.

The company, which in 1919 had begun to manufacture the tapered steel disk wheel under a license agreement with the Michelin Company of France, became a leading supplier for makers of trucks, buses, and passenger cars, and later diversified its production to include the artillery type of steel disk wheel made from a single stamping. The Great Depression of the 1930's, with its severe contraction of auto output, led Budd into his next pioneering venture, the fabrication of stainless steel.

The effectiveness of the process was demonstrated in 1931 when Budd built the first stainless steel airplane. Three years later he constructed a stainless steel railroad streamliner, the Pioneer Zephyr, which was put into service by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. Although the automotive industry remained the major source of income for the Budd company, the building of streamliners contributed materially to a restoration of the firm's profitability in the late 1930's.

By December 1941 the Budd concern had sold nearly 500 lightweight railroad passenger cars. During World War II the Budd facilities were once again fully converted to the production of war equipment.

Budd died of a coronary occlusion at his home in Germantown, Pennsylvania, a month before his seventy-sixth birthday, and was buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia.

Achievements

• One of Edward Budd's professional achievements took place in 1916 with the establishment of a separate Budd Wheel Corporation (reincorporated in 1921 as the Budd Wheel Company). Later on he also established the Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company and the Budd Wheel Company that were merged into the Budd Company in 1946. He also had a solid reputation among his workers and was able to prevented successfully the United Automobile Workers from organizing his plant in a crucial dispute with the National Labor Board in 1933-1934. Budd's company is famous for building the first stainless steel airplane. Three years later he constructed a stainless steel railroad streamliner, the Pioneer Zephyr, which was put into service by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. His lightweight railroad passenger cars that he produced were of a great demand and also during World War II his company was the original maker of the bazooka (antitank) projectile and the rifle grenade, and turned out millions of fragmentation bombs and shells. His honors included the John Scott Medal, awarded in 1932 for his work on stainless steel as a structural material, and, in 1944, the medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for "outstanding engineering achievements. " In 1985, 40 years after his death, Edward G. Budd, the "father of the stainless-steel streamliner", was inducted into Dearborn, Michigan's Automotive Hall of Fame.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Florida Story: Budd Analysis of Changes in Transportation, Volume Two

    (This is soft cover publication with spiral spine titled T...)

  • Edward G. Budd: Father Of The Streamliners And The Budd Company

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Welding Manual the Shotweld System

    (In very good condition. Pages are clean and unmarked and ...)

  • ORIGINAL PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER 404,959 FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BOATS, PONTOONS, AEROPLANES, AND OTHER STREAMLINE BODIES. (PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A.).
  • ORIGINAL PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER 408,165 FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO FLYING BOATS. (PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A.).
  • Edward G. Budd, 1870-1946,: "Father of the Streamliners," and the Budd Company (Newcomen Address)
  • ORIGINAL PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER 590510 FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO AIRCRAFT (PENNSYLVANIA).

Religion

In his religious affiliation Budd was a Methodist.

Personality

Tall and erect, with penetrating blue eyes, Budd was a man of driving energy whose impact upon the organization was primarily that of a catalyst. He was formal and courtly in manner, and his social views befitted an economic individualist and self-made man.

Connections

On May 16, 1899, he married Mary Louisa Wright of Philadelphia. They had five children: Edward Gowen, Archibald Wright, Mary, Katharine, and Francenia Allibone.

Mother:

Caroline (Kettell) Budd

Wife:

Mary Louisa Wright

Daughter:

Katharine Budd

Daughter:

Francenia Allibone Budd

Daughter:

Mary Budd

colleague:

Earl J. W. Ragsdal

Colonel Budd's chief engineer, Colonel Earl J. W. Ragsdale, devised the "Shotweld" method of controlled-resistance welding, which made it possible to join stainless steel without impairing its structural strength.

Son:

Edward Gowen Budd

Son:

Archibald Wright Budd

father:

Henry George Budd

References

• Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company, Petitioner, v. National Labor Relations Board. U.S. Supreme Court Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings
• Edward G Budd Mfg Co v. C R Wilson Body Co U.S. Supreme Court Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings
• Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company, Petitioner, v. National Labor Relations Board. U.S. Supreme Court Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings