Brunswick Refrigerating Co
IT was long after the first introduction of artificial refrigeration before it began to be adopted for use at sea. The development of the art of refrigeration through improvement in design and workmanship has, however, demonstrated that the refrigerating machine is without question an essential for use in merchant service.
Among the progressive enterprises engaged in the manufacture and installation of refrigerating and ice-making machinery the Brunswick Refrigerating Company, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, is noted as a leader in the introduction of these machines and devices for steamship use. The business was first established as a private firm in 1902 by W. J. Francke, T. G. Phinney, J. W. Johnson, and R. W. Johnson, and was incorporated on January 3, 1906, under its present style of the Brunswick Refrigerating Company. In February, 1911, Sydney B. Carpender was made vice-president, general manager, and sole managing director. In February, 1918, the Frelinghuysen interests, with whom the control of the company was divided, were purchased by the Johnson interests, the management remaining the same, with James W. Johnson, president; Sydney B. Carpender, vice-president; G. H. Wheeler, treasurer; and Charles A. Schenck, secretary and assistant treasurer.
The principal specialties of production of this company are marine refrigerating machinery, ice- making machinery, water-cooling apparatus, ammonia fittings and supplies, pipe-bending work, and ammonia pipe coils. The first entry of the original firm into the marine field was in 1901, before the present firm was formally organized, when they equipped the steamship "American," of the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, with a one-ton BRUNSWICK refrigerating machine. For some years the company's efforts were directed toward the perfecting of a small refrigerating machine which would be suited in every way to marine requirements. A number of installations were made, improvements being constantly added as experiment, research, and experience suggested them, and the old apparatus being replaced by improved designs, at the company's expense, until by 1908 the BRUNSWICK apparatus had reached
a stage of an approximately perfect machine.
From 1907 to 1913 a substantial number of vessels were equipped with refrigerating machines of various types, and by the time of the outbreak of the European war there were nearly two hundred vessels—most of them in the American coastwise trade—in which BRUNSWICK refrigerating machines were installed.
During the next two years the development of the industry was very rapid, several hundred additional ships being equipped with machines of this make. The great shipbuilding program of the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, in 1917 and 1918, has required the full capacity of the Brunswick factory, and at this present day the number of BRUNSWICK- equipped vessels is closely approaching the two thousand mark.
The selection of the BRUNSWICK machine as a part of the standard equipment for all the vessels being built by the great Hog Island yard of the American International Shipbuilding Corporation, the greatest shipyard in the world, is attributed to Government recognition of the superior value of the little BRUNSWICK machine, which made its first voyage aboard a ship in 1901. The extent of the field covered and the further popularity attained by the apparatus is strongly confirmed by the selection of the BRUNSWICK machine by the Skinner and Eddy Corporation of Seattle, by ordering more than one hun-dred of them for the ships which they are building in their yard for the Emergency Fleet.
In 1913 an important phase of the company's business had its inception when the six great new freighters of the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company were equipped each with three 15-ton refrigerating machines for the transportation of citrous fruits from California to the Atlantic Coast. This apparatus has been used since the outbreak of the European war for the carrying of frozen meats.
Because of the demand for refrigerating equipment for the larger cold storage space aboard ship the Brunswick Refrigerating Company has secured the sole rights in the United States for the sale and manufacture of the Hall carbonic refrigerating machine. These machines, which have so long held first place in the larger marine fields, are now being built here by the Brunswick Refrigerating Company for Navy use and for the larger requirements. Such as cargo and passenger service, or for any special reasons where C02 is required. The BRUNSWICK ammonia machines will continue to be manufactured, as in the past, for ship stores and the smaller passenger installations.
All of the various steps in the remarkable progress of this industry represent the development of an ideal in connection with the fullest idaptation of the art and science of ammonia re- :r:geration to marine needs and uses. This has come from a combination of able business management, with the technical knowledge and professional experience of skillful refrigerating en-gineers. Neither pains nor expense were spared in the work of bringing BRUNSWICK machines up to the point where they have attained the highest possible status of efficiency, economy, and adaptability to the requirements of marine work in the cooling of perishable goods, whether ship supplies or cargo.
The main office and works of the company are located at New Brunswick, New Jersey, thirty- two miles from New York, where the plant contains every machine and appliance requisite for the efficient and expeditious prosecution of the manufacturing operations. There is a New York branch office in the Hudson Terminal Building at 30 Church Street, and agencies have been established in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and London, England.
The president of the company, James W. Johnson, is also president of the nationally well-known firm of Johnson and Johnson, manufacturing chemists. He was one of the founders of the Brunswick Refrigerating Company and has been identified with it during its entire career.
Sydney Bleecker Carpender, vice-president, general manager, and sole managing director of the company, is a native of New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he was born November 24, 1884. Lie was educated in Cornell University and was graduated there from the Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering, in the class of 1907, with the degree of Mechanical Engineer. By both pater-nal and maternal ancestry he is of pre-Revolution American descent.
After leaving college he began his business career with the Brunswick Refrigerating Company in January, 1908; became its sales manager in February, 1910, and vice-president and general manager in February, 1911.
He is now (1919) president of the New Brunswick Board of Trade; is a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers American Society of Mechanical Engineers American Society of Refrigerating Engineers (director) American Association of Refrigeration; National Marine League (life member) Refrigerating Machinery Manufacturers' Association, and the Joint Commission on Re-frigeration. He is also a member of the Engineers' Club, the Machinery Club, Cornell University Club of New York, Union Club of New Brunswick, New Jersey, the Delta Phi Fraternity, and the Sons of the Revolution.
Charles A. Schenck, secretary and assistant treasurer, has been with the Brunswick Refrigerating Company since its incorporation in 1906, and was formerly director and assistant manager of the National Water Tube Boiler Company.
G. H. Wheeler, treasurer, is a refrigerating engineer, who has been with the company since 1909, having been sales manager since 1913.
The assistant manager, William O. Whitney,, is a refrigerating engineer and a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been with the company since 1909, and has been assistant manager since 1917.
Under this able management and with the close cooperation of these officers, all of whom are experts in their various departments and devote their energies to the constant development of the business, the Brunswick Refrigerating Company has reached international prominence in the development of refrigerating facilities for marine use.
