ironmaster mechanical engineer
was born on a small farm in Londonderry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of seven children of George and Mary (Meharg) Fritz.
His father, born in Germany, emigrated to the United States in 1802 with his parents. His mother was a native of Chester County and was of Scotch-Irish stock.
Since the father was a millwright and machinist, as well as a farmer, the three sons went naturally into similar work.
John attended school between intervals of helping on the farm.
At sixteen, John went to Parkesburg, in the same county, as an apprentice in blacksmithing and country machine work. At twenty-two, he succeeded in obtaining a job as a mechanic in the Norristown iron works of Moore & Hooven.
Indefatigable, after the twelve-hour working day, he spent his evenings watching the rolls in the mill or learning iron-puddling. He was soon made night superintendent and a little later was practically in charge of the rolling mill. So anxious was he to learn other phases of the iron business that in 1849, he left this hard-won position, paying $1, 000 a year, to take one at $650 at Safe Harbor where Reeves, Abbott & Company were building a rail-mill and blast-furnace.
In 1851, when a prolonged attack of fever and ague made work impossible, an opportunity arose for him to visit iron mines near Marquette, Michigan. Upon his return, he was unable to interest capitalists in mines so far from the eastern centers, although a half share in the Jackson mine could have been bought for $25, 000.
After further rest and a little uncertainty, he superintended the rebuilding of the Kunzie blast-furnace on the Schuylkill near Philadelphia; this plant used the new anthracite fuel instead of charcoal or coke. In 1853, he and his brother George, with others, built a foundry and a machine-shop at Catasauqua to furnish supplies for the blast-furnaces and rolling-mills.
A turning point in his career came in 1854, when he went to Johnstown, Pa. , as general superintendent of the Cambria iron works. This company was in an unsatisfactory condition, both financially and mechanically, but Fritz determined to make it the “greatest rail-plant in the world. ”
Against bankruptcy, hidebound opposition to his improvements, and the destruction of the mill by fire, he labored to build an efficient plant. He introduced three-high rolls in the face of a hostile attitude of the staff, and he avoided the use of gears whenever possible because of early exasperating difficulties with repairs.
The machinery which he designed, although said to have been unduly heavy, was almost incapable of breakdown. Until 1860, he toiled without a vacation and then, tired of opposition, he resigned to become general superintendent and chief engineer for the Bethlehem Iron Company, which gave him cordial support.
By 1863, the plant was turning out rails for use in the Civil War. In the blast-furnaces he startled conservative iron-masters by using a blast pressure as high as twelve pounds per square inch, for which he designed special blowers. In 1892, at the age of seventy, Fritz retired from active work.
During the Civil War, the government had shown its confidence by asking him to design a rolling-mill at Chattanooga, Tennessee, in which rails damaged by the Confederates could be rerolled; his brother William was made superintendent of this plant.
In 1894, Fritz was president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and in 1895-96 was president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Fritz was subsequently the chief engineer and superintendent of the Cambria Iron Works, at Johnstown, which works he remodeled and built. Fritz became one of a notable group, including his brother George, Robert W. Hunt, William R. Jones, and Alexander L. Holley, who applied the famous Bessemer process for making steel to American practice - the basis of a revolution in the industry. Other outstanding improvements tried out in the Bethlehem plant were open-hearth furnaces, the Thomas basic process, the Whitworth forging-press, enormous steam-hammers, and automatic devices of many varieties. The plant attracted world-wide attention for its processes of turning out rails and armor-plate by quick, simplified methods; it was a pioneer in making armor-plate in America. The government again honored him in 1897 when it selected him to make plans and estimates for a proposed government armor-plate works. The John Fritz gold medal was established in 1902, on Fritz’s eightieth birthday, by friends and associates in the engineering profession. At that time a dinner was given him at the Waldorf- Astoria hotel in New York, and he was made the first recipient of the medal. In 1893, he received the Bessemer gold medal of the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain, and in 1910, he received the Elliott Cresson medal of the Franklin Institute.
Although a self-educated man, Fritz was a member of the board of control of Lehigh University from its inception.
In appearance, Fritz showed his hard-working, unassuming nature in his strongly marked face.
Fritz's autobiography, compiled at the request of friends, was written in direct, modest style from a point of view perhaps too close to the work which engrossed him, but it made available a remarkable record in American industry.
On September 11, 1851, Fritz was married to Ellen W. Maxwell, who died January 29, 1908.
