 For his
first general manager of works Westinghouse chose H. S. Loud, and
for the works superintendent W. C. Mitchell, both Americans who had
gained a reputation by laying down a large steel pipe works at Mariupol
in South Russia. Loud, who had also been with the Illinois Steel Company,
was in his middle thirties, a man of massive build and well liked
in the works: he lived at Wavertree, near Liverpool, and drove from
Urmston station in a pony trap. His private secretary, J. Morris,
had a remarkable record of service with successive general managers—from
1903 to 1946. Mitchell came to the works in a gig with a cockaded
footman, and he would show visitors his opinion of Manchester weather
by pointing towards a tower on the hills to the north: if they could
see the tower it was going to rain, and if they couldn't, then it
was raining.
Loud,
Mitchell, and C. W. Parkes were three inseparables. Parkes was in
charge of outside erection work—the last stage and a vital
one in the manufacture of heavy electrical and mechanical plant;
he was formerly with the 'agency' Company and was once a pupil of
Edison. A. W. Clarke, who has been superintendent of erection department
since 1920, was then mainly concerned with the testing of turbines,
which was done at night or weekends when steam was available.
Labour
was engaged by an employment and claims agent, an office first held
by an American, Samuel Groves; by 1905 he had handed over to A.
Walmsley, for long the superintendent of labour. Transport of materials
and finished goods was handled by a traffic agent, J. Miller; as
an Englishman in the midst of Americans, he upheld his country's
dignity by coming to work in a frock coat and silk hat—an
example followed by none.
The
first purchasing agent was W. D. Crumpton and the first storekeeper
H. G.Ridgway, both Americans from Pittsburgh. When Ridgway left
in 1907 the departments were merged under Crumpton, long remembered
as a fiery but kindly individual who kept a bowler hat on the back
of his head even at his desk.
Early
chief engineers were C. Regenbogen in the engine department, and
M. A. MacLaren (of the 'agency' Company) in the electrical engineering
department, which was responsible for electrical design from arc
lamps to alternators. In 1904, however, Regenbogen returned to Germany,
his work being taken over by W. J. A. London, a turbine engineer
from Parsons',
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