William Metcalf

Background

William Metcalf was born on September 3, 1838, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father, Orlando Metcalf, was an attorney whose ancestor came from England in 1637; his mother was Mary Mehitabel (Knap) Metcalf.

Education

After attending the public schools of Pittsburgh, William went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York, graduating in 1858.

Career

Metcalf's first position was that of assistant engineer and draftsman at the Fort Pitt Foundry in his native city. Within a year he had become general superintendent of the company, a post he held until 1865. Following the war, he entered the firm of his uncle, Charles Knap, which leased and operated the Fort Pitt foundry until late in 1867, when the firm became the Knap Fort Pitt Foundry Company. Then he became associated with Miller, Barr, & Parkin (after 1869 Miller, Metcalf, & Parkin), owners of the Crescent Steel Works, which was incorporated in 1889 as the Crescent Steel Company. As managing director of this organization he specialized in fine crucible steels, but after the company was taken over by the Crucible Steel Company of America in 1895 he left to become director of the Braeburn Steel Company (1897), a position he held at the time of his death. He was president of the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1880, and of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 1881; vice-president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1882-84; and president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 1893. He was also the author of a book, Steel: A Manual for Steel Users, which appeared in 1896 and served as a textbook in several technical schools.

Achievements

• Although not yet thirty years of age, Metcalf produced the largest castings and the heaviest machinery then known in the United States, and, perhaps, in the world. His foundry supplied more than three thousand heavy guns and projectiles for the United States during the Civil War. Two of the guns, the largest in the world, were of the twenty-inch variety and weighed eighty tons each. Not only were his deliveries prompt (in one instance General Grant received guns ordered only forty days before) but the quality was of the finest. His modest boast, many years later, was that "not one gun of Fort Pitt make was ever reported as failing in service". Metcalf was not only a manufacturer of steel one "of the generation of great steel-makers who made Pittsburg the Sheffield of America" he was "one of the first practical experts to emphasize the importance of mechanical treatment and heat-treatment, as compared with chemical composition, and also the different effects of different kinds of tests of strength".

Religion

At the time of his death, Metcalf had been the senior warden of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh, for thirty-five years.

Personality

Metcalf was one of the most unassuming of men and it is for this reason, perhaps, that his name is not a household word. Greatness in his field came to him in spite of himself. He combined business ability with a love of research and knowledge but he found time for the manifestation of the character outside of his chosen field as well. He remained young in spirit in spite of age and was in the front ranks of those who welcomed change in a basic industry.

Connections

Metcalf was married on December 1, 1864, to Christiana, daughter of Aram Fries of Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania. They were the parents of three sons and three daughters.

Father:

Orlando Metcalf

Mother:

Mary Mehitabel (Knap) Metcalf

Wife:

Christiana Fries Metcalf