Fred Harris Daniels was an American engineer, metallurgist, inventor, first a chief engineer and then a director of the American Steel & Wire Company.
Background
Fred Harris Daniels was born on June 16, 1853 in Hanover Center, New Hampshire, United States. He was one of the five children of William Pomeroy and H. Ann (Stark) Daniels. He was a lineal descendant of Robert Daniel who came from England in 1636 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, United States, and of Thomas Harris who accompanied Roger Williams to America from Bristol, England. When he was a year old his parents moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, where he lived for the rest of his life.
Education
At the age of twenty, immediately after receiving the degree of Master of Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, he entered the employ of the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company at Worcester, makers of steel rod and wire products, where he continued for a little over a year.
Upon the opening of the college term of 1874, he entered Lafayette College at Easton, Pennsylvania, United States, as an assistant in chemistry, and also took a special course in chemistry under the head of the department, Dr. Thomas M. Drown.
Career
Employed for a summer at the close of the school term by the Glendon Iron Works at Easton, completing the plans of their blast furnaces, he then returned to Worcester to resume his connection with the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company as mechanical engineer and chemist.
His greatest pleasure was derived from experimental work in the laboratory, and as early as 1878, when but twenty-five years of age, he had made some remarkable inventions relating principally to the manufacture of steel rods and wire.
These earlier inventions were patented jointly with Charles H. Morgan who was his senior by twenty-one years and an engineer of wide reputation.
In Daniels, however, Morgan found a worthy associate, and for years worked with him on rolling-mill problems.
As his special abilities in iron and steel working developed, Daniels was sent several times to Europe in the interests of his company for the particular purpose of studying methods, especially in Sweden.
Between 1880 and 1909, upwards of one hundred patents were granted to him, all relating to the manufacture of steel rods and wire. Twenty-five of these were of the greatest economic importance.
During this period, too, Daniels advanced through the position of chief engineer and when but thirty-six years of age was made general superintendent and chief engineer of all of the company’s properties. Ten years later (1899), when the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company was purchased by the American Steel & Wire Company, he was made chief engineer of the thirty-two wire plants which came into the ownership of that corporation, and in 1902 he became a director of the company.
Finally, when the American Steel & Wire Company became the property of the United States Steel Corporation, he was appointed chairman of the board of engineers of the latter, and for the last six years of his life he served as president of the Worcester plants of the American Steel & Wire Company.
Achievements
Daniels served as chairman of the board of engineers, and a president of the Worcester plants of the American Steel & Wire Company.
His inventions greatly improved the quality of the finished product, tremendously increased the speed of production, and materially lowered the cost of production of the finished rods.
The Paris Exposition of 1900 awarded him the Grand Prize and gold medal for his meritorious achievements in the development of the steel rod and wore industry.
Daniels was an honored member of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers: the American Society for Testing Materials, and the British Iron and Steel Institute.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
“No one has done more than he to perfect wire drawing in all its phases. ” (William Garrett)
Interests
Daniels was an ardent sportsman, particularly in the hunting of big game, and a prominent clubman.
Sport & Clubs
Hunting of big game.
Connections
On May 17, 1883 Daniels married Sarah Lydia White, of Worcester, Massachusetts.
