George Walther Sr. (August 13, 1876 – April 10, 1961) was an American inventor, engineer, businessman, civic leader and the holder of over 100 patents for truck wheels, brake drums, fifth wheels, and landing gear/legs for the trucking industry. He was the founder of the Dayton Steel Foundry.
Walther developed the first practical cast steel wheel for solid rubber tires. This was a basic but critical contribution to the evolution of the early trucking industry and the U.S. Army trucks in World War I.
Walther followed the design of the cast steel wheel for solid rubber tires with the design of a cast steel wheel for pneumatic tires and then the design of an improved brake drum. When semi-trailer semi trailer trucks were developed, he designed improved versions of the fifth wheel and landing legs for semi-trailer trucks. Walther's engineering skills resulted in patents for many developments of truck wheels, brake drums, fifth wheels, and landing legs that have helped to expand the role of trucks in the transportation industry.
Early life in Germany
George Walther was born on August 13, 1876, in the industrial German city of Steinbach-Michelstadt, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, in the German Empire. The two cities, separated only by a railroad, were small: Michelstadt was the larger, with 1,500 people, and Steinbach, home of the Walthers, had 700 residents.
The son of Heinrich and Elizabeth Walther, Walther was number 5 of 7 children. The Walther boys, according to the custom of the day, started their apprentice training early. Walther was fascinated with foundry work. He started to work in an iron foundry helping fashion solid iron wheels for mine cars.
Toward the close of the 19th century in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, German Empire, two teenagers, Walther and his brother Jacob, one an apprentice molder and the other an apprentice pattern maker, dreamed of opportunity in the country across the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1892 the two youths took their dreams to their father. Many other German fathers were hearing the same requests "We want to go to America." Their father considered the request carefully and then decided that the two boys could go to America to live with his brother Jacob in Dayton, Ohio. Their father borrowed the money to pay for their passage, signing a personal note as security.
Coming to America
Walther was 16 years old when he and his brother, 17, arrived in Dayton, Ohio, in 1892 to live with their uncle. Their early training as apprentice molders and pattern makers in the German foundry that made wheels for mine cars helped them find jobs. Within six months they sent their father the passage money he had borrowed to allow them to come to America.
During the day Walther worked as an apprentice iron molder at the Dayton shop of McHose and Lyon Company, manufacturers of building columns and ornamental iron. His brother found a job with Barney and Smith, manufacturers of railroad cars. After work Walther attended the Y.M.C.A. night school. Later he enrolled in the International Correspondence School, a home mail course.
After being in the United States for the required five continuous years, Walther became a U.S. citizen on October 17, 1899.
It was not all work and no play for Walther. He somehow found the time for active participation in sports. He became interested in the sport of the day: bicycling. He was an active bicyclist and won a number of prizes in bicycle racing. In 1897 Walther was the Ohio State 5-mile Champion and in 1899 won the title of Ohio State 1-mile Champion with a winning time of 2 minutes 32 3/5 seconds. On the same day Walther and C.G. Wagner won the 5-mile Tandem race. Dayton Steel Foundry, "Tribute to George Walther, Sr." 1961, p.3
Ten years after he had left for America, in 1902, Walther returned to Germany to further his education. He enrolled in the Technical School of Michelstadt and spent a year of intensive study. Ronald, Bruce W & Virginia, "Dayton: The Gem City", Continental Heritage Press, 1981, p.186. After a year at the Technical School of Michelstadt over, Walther boarded a ship to America and returned to Dayton in 1903.
Walther created his own foundry self-study or coop program to study the foundry business by getting jobs at foundry to foundry throughout the Midwest. Walther's private "co-oping" took him into iron and steel foundries in Cincinnati, Hamilton, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. He watched, asked questions and listened to old foundry men ... he was learning the foundry business.
Walther became convinced there were business opportunities in the steel foundry business. He knew there were only two steel foundries in Ohio and none in the Dayton area, where his brother was working. So Walther returned to Dayton with a plan to create the Dayton Steel Foundry Company.
Dayton Steel Foundry
In 1905 Walther and his brother along with two others, Geo. Martin and Mr. Graham, formed a partnership, with a thousand dollars each. Walther's share was one acre of land that he purchased on South Broadway.
The Dayton Steel Foundry was built on land that was previously a corn field at the intersection of Miami Chapel Road and South Broadway Street in Dayton, Ohio. The foundry initially consisted of a tiny, ten by eight foot shanty for an office and a small building for a foundry opened for work in the spring of 1905.
The foundry initially used a crucible steel melting process. Scrap steel metal was melted in crucibles in oil furnaces. The furnace was lined with fire brick and had a steel cover which was removed for a melter to take a crucible with molten steel from the furnace. The melter was protected by an asbestos suit and gloves as he had to stand right over the intense heat to carefully grab the crucibles with tongs without breaking them. With several employees the two brothers handled the melting and molding. Many a night Walther slept in a hammock in the foundry because he couldn't leave the work.
Convinced that the infant automobile industry had a good future, Walther and his brother concentrated on small steel castings for passenger cars, many of which were manufactured in Indianapolis and a few in Dayton.
After a few years, the two partners, Martin and Graham, who had more assets than Walther and his brother, felt their other assets might be endangered as partners in Dayton Steel Foundry and were interested in withdrawing from the partnership. Walther then borrowed money to buy their two interests. In 1909 the Dayton Steel Foundry was incorporated by Walther and his brother with $500,000 common stock and $250,000 preferred stock.
Walther and his brother were continuously looking to improve the foundry operations. In 1911 the Dayton Steel Foundry installed a 2-ton converter and changed from crucible steel melting to making steel by the converter process. While the Dayton Steel Foundry made steel castings by the converter process, Walther and his brother monitored new developments on electric furnaces.
Dayton Steel Foundry installed its first electric furnace to make steel melted by electricity in 1916. The electric furnace was one of the first in the entire country. As demand for Dayton Steel Truck Wheels increased, a second electric furnace was installed in 1918 and a third in 1922.
Self-starter housing casting
Walther had both personal and business relationships with other Dayton business leaders of his era. Among these was Charles Kettering.
Kettering was an American inventor and the founder of Delco (Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company). Among Kettering's most famous inventions was the automotive self-starter.
The last step in creating the self-starter was to create the housing to enclose the electrical system, or self-starter. The self-starter housing had to be strong to not crack from bumps in roads. Kettering contacted a new local company, the Dayton Steel Foundry. Walther was able to quickly create a mold to create a housing casting to enclose the self-starter. Smith, William E & Ophia D, "History of Southwestern Ohio, the Miami Valleys, Volume 3", Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1964, p.341.
Kettering explained to Walther that until Delco actually had an order for the self-starter, he did not have any money to pay for the initial self-starter housing casting. Kettering offered to give Walther shares of his new company, Delco, instead of money. Walther replied that he could wait. Kettering received an order from Cadillac for the Delco self-starter and Dayton Steel Foundry manufactured thousands of self-starter housing castings. Downs, Winfield Scott Downs, "Encyclopedia of American Biography: New Series Volume 39", American Historical Society, 1969, p.46.
Dayton steel wheel patent
The Dayton Steel Foundry Company focused on steel castings for the automobile industry. Sales began to climb and soon Walther was spending most of his time traveling around the country selling castings for passenger cars.
Around 1910 Walther heard talk about a new vehicle in the automotive industry - trucks. Walther listened more and more to discussions about trucks, especially at White Motor Company and Packard Motor Company. Walther reasoned, if Dayton Steel Foundry could manufacture castings for automobiles, the trucks should offer more opportunities for steel casting sales.
Initially wooden-spoke wheels were being used on passenger cars and these were used on the first trucks. The wheels were not satisfactory, but they were the only wheels available. Walther heard that the White Motor Company was looking at a cast steel wheel that had been made in Belgium. Walther was able to see the Belgium steel wheel at the White Motor Company. A look at the wheel and Walther's engineering knowledge convinced him that this wheel would break if it were jarred. Walther discussed it over with his brother, telling him that he was certain that he could design and build a wheel that would not break.
Existing wheels with either 6 or 8 wooden or solid steel spokes would break from either the weight of the cargo or from jarring from bumps in uneven roads. Walther designed a wheel with an odd number of spokes, either 5 or 7, that would better distribute the weight of the cargo across the truck wheels and axles.
They decided to test Walther's design, and two years later, in 1912, the Dayton Steel Foundry produced a cast steel cruciform spoke-type wheel that used solid rubber tires for the White Motor Company. The Dayton Steel Wheel featured an odd number of spokes that were hollow steel with sweeping curves where the spoke joined the rim.
This opened new horizons for the Dayton Steel Foundry to an entirely new industry – trucks.
The wooden spoke wheel was on its way out. A patent was granted for the first practical cast steel wheel for solid rubber tires to Walther and the Dayton Steel Foundry on December 13, 1913. Automobile Truck Wheel Patent #USD45097
This first patent marked the beginning of more than 100 trucking industry patents that were to be granted to Walther and the Dayton Steel Foundry.
World War I – U.S. Army Liberty trucks
One of the first big customers for the Dayton Steel Wheel was the U.S. Army. By the time the forecast of World War I started to rumble in Europe, faster and better modes of travel became a major challenge in Europe and this country. In August 1914, the different war boards of the Allies in Europe sent an urgent request to the U. S. for heavy-duty trucks. A huge increase in the number of trucks was needed for logistics support in a war against Germany. Trucks were needed to carry supplies; food, medical supplies, and ammunition.