History of Electric Induction Heating

This Chapter

Induction Heating
  1. Early work to Salesman
  2. Salesman to entrepreneur
  3. Vacuum furnaces
  4. Henry Rowan, Mars Rocket
  5. Cheston, Cragmet, IRS
  6. Visit Russia, Meet Vera
  7. Around the world, Meet the president
  8. Kramatorsk
  9. Consarc
  10. Consarc UK
  11. Carbon contract
  12. Russians in Scotland
  13. The Embargo is Coming
  14. Embargo and Aftermath
  15. BEPA
  16. After BEPA
  17. Fiber Materials Appeal
  18. Consarc Officials Deny Wrongdoing in Sales to Soviets
  19. Memos from Henry Rowan to Metcalf
  20. Rowland motor patent 1868
  21. Rowland reviews the bids for Niagara Falls power station
  22. Metcalf's father's poem, and Metcalf genealogy
  23. The Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
  24. Problems of Russia's Policy With Respect to China and Japan
  25. History of Ajax Magnethermic
  26. The most important event for Inductotherm
  27. Fright Flight
  28. Black art of carbon production
  29. Polaris Missile
  30. Nuclear Airplane
  31. Nuclear Engine
  32. Molten metal eats through and explodes
  33. Cannon Muskegon Corporation
  34. Metcalf at General Motors Research from April 1955 to Oct 1955
  35. Metcalf pouring superalloy at GE from Oct 1955 to June 1956
  36. Metcalf at Waimet (later Howmet) from June 1956 to July 1957
  37. Black art of carbon production
  38. Project to test NASA hot hydrogen engine
  39. Special Metals Number 9
  40. Metcalf joins Inductotherm group
  41. Device to load materials into a furnace for melting
  42. Bank reneged on a commitment to finance a job in Russia
  43. Inductotherm private airport
  44. NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) and all I know about carbon
  45. NERVA Engine Control Rods
  46. same as 383-Nuke.html
  47. Development of Polaris missle
  48. Ajax NASA
  49. Production of carbon fabrics and threads made from rayon
  50. George Houghton, Aerojet Inspector gives Metcalf Rocket history
  51. Rayon to carbon to graphite
  52. Metcalf buys the control division of the Pelton Water Wheel Company
  53. Rowan's account of firing Consarc President
  54. Kama Purchasing Commission, Ukraine
  55. Role of chromium in vacuum melters
  56. ASEA wins contract for isopress
  57. Induction heating to re-refile tank cannon
  58. Hoover-Ugine Company
  59. Letter to Henry Rowan at Inductotherm
  60. John Mortimer in Rancocas
  61. Consarc Board of Directors Meeting
  62. Consarc Board of Directors Meeting
  63. Hillbilly
  64. How to produce Calcarb
  65. Newsday, late 1987
  66. Embargo Regulations
  67. Seizure of Goods
  68. Minutes of Dept of Trade, London
  69. Minutes of ECGD Meeting
  70. Rowan Interview
  71. Bombshell looks like dud
  72. Letter to Hank Rowan
  73. Consarc Board Meeting
  74. Minutes of DTI Meeting, London
  75. Stansted Fluid Power
  76. Minutes of DTI Meeting, 3 Oct 85
  77. Letter to IHI Master Metals

Induction Heating

By James Farol Metcalf

John Mortimer in Rancocas

From Rowan's book:

John Mortimer had proven himself at Inductotherm Australia, where Jess had put him in charge as he left for England. With John at the helm, the young organization mushroomed into a substantial force in the Southeast Asian economy with sales growing to the $5,000,000 level in John's fourth year, and with profits before taxes approaching $500,000. Their technical accomplishments, too, were impressive which the construction of the biggest vertical channel of its day, a 30-metric-Ton melt system in Sydney, as well as the most powerful coreless induction furnace system our group had built, a 4,400 kW system for Ferrovorm in South Africa.

Having built Inductotherm Australia to a position of dominance, though, John wanted to expand his horizons and his expertise further and, in the summer of 1976, he returned to college in the dual capacity of student and lecturer at the Caulfield Institute. Now, three and a half years later, here was the opportunity to rejoin the parent furnace company as chief engineer. It was an offer--and a challenge--he couldn't resist.

That didn't mean that working in Rancocas didn't require certain adjustments. In Australia, John once noted, silence to an idea meant rejection. In the States, it meant acceptance. How was he ever going to run a company in a country with such strange ways?

If there was much to learn about running a company that was an order of magnitude bigger than the one he'd managed in Australia, what better mentor in the field of management and leadership could he have than Roy Ruble. As Chief Engineer, though, John was, by virtue of expertise and nature, nothing less than dynamic. After I'd finally relinquished the engineering responsibility (if I ever really did), our succession of chief engineers--Richard "Doc" Antuzzi, Jack Harrington, Joe McNulty, and Andy Hammerschmidt--had struggled to perform their duties conscientiously, but the job was more complex than any of them had foreseen; or perhaps I was just too demanding.

With John's arrival in Rancocas, the role of engineering again became a driving force. Our new Chief Engineer had an instinctive grasp of the interplay between theory and practice; which, as Professor Dawes used to preach back at MIT, is the essence of engineering. He was capable of the kind of conceptual thinking that would earn him a dozen patents in the induction melting field; at the same time, he recognized the role of detail, like the need for precision in drawings. Our R&D was charged with a new vitality, while our manufacturing processes became more efficient and economical.