Industry: Detroit Car Spring Works, Springwells, MI

The Detroit Steel Car Spring Works was an early industrial works, located at Michigan and Indian Avenue in Springwells township in the 1870's. This was near the Michigan Car company, which was located north of the Michigan Central main line, and west of the Detroit & Bay City railroad branch.

Notes

Image Info: Top, a drawing from the Detroit Steel & Spring Works in the late 1880's. [WikiC]. 2nd, the works was located on both sides of the Detroit & Bay City railroad (Michigan Central Bay City branch) south of Michigan Avenue in 1884. [SBM]

Time Line

1880. March. The Steel Car Spring works are being enlarged by an addition. The works will now occupy all the vacant land at the corner of Michigan and Indian avenues, and C.B. Hubbard will move his office to a site on the opposite side of the avenue. [DFP-1880-0321] Site improvements will double the capacity of the works in the manufacture of springs. The foundation of a new furnace, to contain two retorts, is now being laid. [DFP-18880-0328]

1880. September. The Detroit Car Spring Works, at the corner of Michigan and Dix avenues, are being enlarged by a brick addition 45x105 feet in size. The proprietors will add the manufacture of elliptical car springs. DFP-1880-0919]. Editors note: Dix avenue may have extended east through what later would become the MC stockyards to Clark Street, and near Grand Junction at this time, per news articles.

1880. November. The Detroit Car Spring Works are now fully equipped with machinery for the manufacture of elliptical car springs. The steel bars are unloaded from (railroad) cars at one door of the works. They then pass through huge shears and are cut into sizes; these are passed through machines for rolling and pointing, and then they go into furnaces where they are prepared for the last operation. A visitor can see the bar of steel at one end and follow it successively until he sees it in the make up of a car-spring which is submitted to hydraulic pressure to test its perfection. The works now nearly cover an acre of ground. [DFP-1880-1128]

1881. Charlie Sontag, employed at the car works, was pierced in the left side by a red hot bar of steel which was being tossed over to a pile by a man at a furnace. The point of the bar passed through his coat and short and caused a serious burn of the flesh. It was purely an accident for which nobody in particular could be blamed. [DFP-1881-0130]

1881. May. A gang of young roughs, laid off during the week at the Car Spring works, congregated on Saturday at the corner of Michigan and Indian avenues and insulted people passing by. Police supervision is needed on the avenue west of the city limits. [DFP-1881-0508] Editors note: In Springwells township.

1881. November. The spring works are to be enlarged and the manufacture of steel bars added. At the present the steel bars used in the manufacture of car springs are imported from Eastern cities. The new buildings to be erected will be quite extensive in area, as additional land is being purchased. [DFP-1881-1113] Workmen began to tear down the sheds in the rear of the works to make room for the buildings for the new rolling mills to be added. The main building will be 80x190 feet with a boiler room 30x100 feet to hold twelve boilers. A chimney 140 feet high will be built. [DFP-1881-1117]

1882. An engine weighing thirteen tons was recently trucked from the Buhl Iron Works to the Detroit Car Spring Company's Works. Only four horses were used for the transfer. [DFP-1882-0328]

1884. A new bui9lding has been added to the spring works. Rolled steel bars will be turned out in this building. Three steam hammers of different sizes have been set up for forging steel, and four heating furnaces have been added. One crucible furnace of 30 pot capacity for converting wrought iron into steel is being constructed. The heating will be done by gas, which the company will manufacture. A high grade of tool steel will be manufactured. [DFP-1884-0309]

1884. March. The works have put in place and working order a "plant" for the manufacture of carriage, wagon and truck springs, and steel axles. The capacity of the new branch of industry is 25-tons per day. [DFP]

1887. Portions of the western part of Detroit are flooded. At the Michigan Car shops and the Steel Spring works the water drove over a thousand men from work Tuesday. The furnaces are being put out in the latter establishment. [PHTH-1887-0210]

1887. The Detroit Steel and Spring Works and the B. Stroh Brewing Company have recently adopted oil as fuel for generating the power necessary in their business, a measure which, at the present price of oil, reduces the cost of steam and of operating furnaces very nearly to that incurred where natural gas is used. No sooner was this done, however, than the Detroit Board of Fire Underwriters notified the two firms of an increase in premium rates. [DFP-1887-0819]

1888. June. The alarm from box 175 at 9 o'clock yesterday morning called the fire department to the Spring works, corner of Michigan and Hubbard avenues. Captain McGraw of Truck 4 says the room caught from sparks from the chimney. The blaze was extinguished without loss. [DFP-1888-0623]

1895. July. Two men were seriously, probably fatally injured by the bursting of a large grindstone at the Detroit Steel & Spring Company's works, corner Michigan and Hubbard, about 8 o'clock yesterday morning. The injured men were still unconscious at Grace and Harper hospitals where they were taken.

One man was at work on the stone when the burst occurred. The other was engaged in moving a steel press through the shop and was near the stone when it burst. It had been six feet diameter originally, but had been ground down to about four feet by long usage. The bursting separated the stone into four large pieces. One went through the room, landing on the Detroit & Bay City tracks which pass the shop. The manager noted that grindstone explosions which are not infrequent, always occur without a warning. [DFP-1895-0713]

1900. February 26. The rolling mills of the steel and spring works were a heap of smoldering ruins after a fierce fire last night. The alarm was turned in by a police officer at the nearet alarm box 366. The fire department had a quick response and a second alarm soon followed. A firefighter from Truck No. 4 was killed when a 150 foot steel smoke stack came crashing down upon him. [DFP-1900-0226]

A Harper hospital ambulance running to the scene collided at 14th avenue and Ash street with a swiftly-running electric car. The ambulance was smashed to pieces and its occupants, driver Frank Bertheaur and Dr. J.T. McKittrick were badly bruised and shocked. [TTN-1900-0228]

1900. August 20. For the second time in less than six months, the Detroit Steel & Spring works was visited by a serious fire. The main portion of the plant was destroyed and last night the foundry, which has been doing the work since the other building was destroyed, was burned. Several members of Engine Co. No. 14 were sitting in front of the engine house near Scotten and Michigan avenues when they noticed what seemed to be a lantern in the northwest corner of the building. Suddenly the little flame shot up and enveloped the entire northwest portion of the structure, which is 70x200 feet. The firemen turned in the alarm and ran to the spot. [DFP-1900-0820] Loss was estimated at $100,000. [YEX-1900-0824]

1902. February 6. Announcement was made of preparations for the formation of a combination of railroad spring manufacture ring concerns, including the Detroit Steel & Spring Works. Formal announcement was made yesterday, the company to be called the Railway Steel Spring Company, organized under the laws of New Jersey with a capital of $20 million. Besides the Detroit concern, the companies are The A. French Spring Co., the National Spring Co., the Pickering Spring Co., Ltd., the Charles Scott Spring Co. of Philadelphia and the railway spring department of the Crucible Steel Co. of America. Truman H. Newberry, who is president of the Detroit Steel & Spring company is now in New York, presumably on business connected with the formation of the new trust. DeWitt Loomis, vice president and genereal manager of the company could not be found last evening. It is not likely that the formation of the combine will have any effect on the running of the Detroit works. [DFP-1902-0206]

1903. The plant is now known in newspapers as the Railway Steel & Spring Works.

1905. Residents object to the city giving the works 16 feet of road on Hubbard avenue for a new side track to be put in for the new factory now being erected. They must be satisfied with 12 feet. [DFP-1905-0627]

1906. June. There is an able-bodied rumor that the American Locomotive Co. is about to acquire the Railway Steel Spring Co., of which the old Detroit Steel & Spring works is a branch. No verification of this rumor could be obtained last night. [DFP-1906-0605]

1906. John Milkey was literally boiled alive at the Railway Steel Spring works this morning. He stood over a pit holding the condensation from the engine exhaust and slipped in. [PHTH-1906-0907]