Bendix . .Yesterday, I Oaay, Ana I Omorrow
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Bendix . .Yesterday, I oaay, ana I omorrow Field Engineering Corporation As you read through these pages which describe our past as well as our present activities, it is appropriate to glance towards the future as depicted by Mr. A. P. Fontaine at the shareholders meeting on February 29, 1968: "Surely the pace of change and the character of the variables that confront us demand of management a high order of judgement. But more than that, they demand a systematic approach to building for growth that is grounded in a clear statement of goals and buttressed by realistic plans for achievement. I feel confident that our objectives are clearly spelled out and understood at each level of management. It remains for us to apply our energies to the fulfillment of the plans we have set for ourselves. " On page 12 of this brochure you will find the Bendix Corporate Objectives. They set our course. The challenge for the future is ours to fulfill. Vice President ofroperations Bendix Field Engineering Corporation This history has been abstracted from North America on December 8, 1966. Portions of Mr. Fontaine's talk relative the text of a speech given by Mr. A. P. This Newcomen address was delivered to the Baltimore Divisions and Bendix Fontaine, Chairman of the Board and at the "1966 Michigan Dinner" of the Field Engineering were amplified locally Chief Executive Officer, The Bendix society held at Detroit, Michigan when to provide more historical detail con- Corporation, to the Newcomen Society of Mr. Fontaine was the guest of honor. cerning those organizations. In many ways, The Bendix Corporation At the age of 16, chafing under the The search led him, in 1913, to a today is typical of what might be called strict discipline of his father, who was bicycle show in Chicago, where he a "new breed" of companies. There is a Methodist minister, Vincent Bendix encountered John Ferguson, general a modest but growing number of firms ran away from his home in Moline, manager of the Eclipse Machine Com- like ours whose operations seem to defy Illinois. A mechanically minded young- pany. The bicycle coaster brake, which classification into one or another of the ster, he headed for New York City, rigid industrial categories. Typical of where he worked as an elevator operator, this new breed, Bendix is large, highly amessenger ina lawyer's office, and a diversified, scientifically and techni- handyman in garages. Ultimately, he cally oriented, and - fortunately - grow- gravitated to the automobile field and, ing. You might say, to paraphrase before he was 25, he associated himself Gilbert and Sullivan, "we are the very with Glenn Curtiss in the manufacture model of a modern major company. " and sale of motorcycles. But more about that later. It was a few years later t3at he formed The history of our company follows an automobile company and assembled the patterns typical of many modern cor- and sold a few vehicles under the name porations. The early years are largely of Bendix. Although his idea was good, the story of a single man - in our case, his timing was unfortunate. That was Vincent Bendix - who took a bright idea 1907, a yearthat saw the introduction of and, with a combination of innate busi- 94 new automobile makes, including cars ness aptitude, hard work, and good luck, with such imaginative names as the forged that idea into the beginning of our Black Crow, Bugmobile, Single Center, company. and the Steel Swallow. In the face of such competition, young Mr. Bendix' car didn't have a chance. However, the events surrounding the birth of The Bendix Corporation were not particularly auspicious. Politicians Vincent Bendix' venture into the auto are fond of citing humble beginnings; if industry wasn't a complete flop, however. there is special merit in having grown This exposure to the automobile business was Eclipse Machine's principal product, from low degree to international stature, did interest the young man in the problem used a triple thread screw of the kind that merit for The Bendix Corporation of starting automobile engines. He was Mr. Bendix needed. Little time was can certainly be claimed. While there convinced that only the perfection of wasted in negotiations, and the license is no log cabin in our background, there mechanical starting would ensure com- agreement to produce starter drives was certainly is no silver spoon either. plete public acceptance of the motor car signed with Eclipse Machine the follow- by eliminating the hazards and incon- ing year. The first Bendix starter drive venience of handcranking. was installed on Chevroletts ItBaby Grand" touring car in 1914, and 5,500 The story of The Bendix Corporation drives were produced that year. By begins in a Chicago hotel room in 1914 Develops Starter Drive 1919, production had soared to 1.5 with the signing of an agreement between million, and soon nearly every vehicle a 33-year-old inventor and officials of produced in the United States was equip a struggling bicycle brake manufacturing It is true that the first electric starting ped with the Bendix Drive. Vincent firm. Under the agreement, Vincent motor had been introduced on the 1911 Bendix had been launched into the auto Bendix gave an exclusive license to the Cadillac, but a dependable mechanical industry. Eclipse Machine Company in Elmira, link between the starting motor and the New York , to manufacture his invention, carts engine was still lacking. Bendix which he described as "a transmission had developed a transmission device device for the starting of explosive mo- that would provide such a link, but he Hoping to duplicate his success with tors. " This device was marketed under found that a vital part, a triple thread the starter drive, Bendix spent the next the slogan tfthemechanical hand that screw, was almost impossible to pro- few years searching for other potential cranks your car" and is known to auto- duce except by hand in a machine shop. products, but success was slight. Then, motive history as the Bendix starter Inspired by his visions of the tremendous in 1923, he became acquainted with drive. This agreement proved to be the market potential of the starter drive, Henri Perrot, an outstanding French first big breakthrough for Vincent Bendix Bendix begain searching for a manufac- engineer noted for his design of a taxi- in the young but growing automotive in- turer capable of producing a triple cab with a short wheelbase and a tight dustry. Up to this point, his career had thread screw economically and in large turning radius, which made it ideal for not been notably rewarding. volume. use on narrow European streets. At the time he and Bendix met, Perrot This arrangement with Perrot was the about 25 percent of the available market was investigating two areas of automo- first of many business associations for brakes, and profits at Eclipse Ma- tive brake equipment which badly needed Mr. Bendix had with individuals and chine were $2.5 million, due principally improvement. With very few exceptions, companies in France. His contributions to the sales of starter drives. the cars and trucks of the day were to French industry were recognized in equipped with simple, but somewhat 1963 when he was named to the exclusive less than adequate, band brakes, and Legion of Honor by the French Govern- With his automotive operations in those only on the rear wheels. Perrot ment. Interestingly enough, one of the reasonably robust health, Vincent Bendix had designed a linkage system which first of these associations arose from now turned his attention to the growing would permit front wheel brakes. This the fact that a French firm was infring- field of aviation. He had observed the invention he had licensed to the General ing on the Bendix starter drive patents. fantastic growth in the production of Motors Corporation for manufacture What started as a "cease and desist" engine starters, generators, and other under his patents. His second develop order ended as a license agreement. electrical devices for aircraft at an ment was an internal expanding shoe Eclipse Machine subsidiary, and he was brake which, in the long run, proved to impressed. Even though he was person- ally uneasy about the prospects of flying- be a much more important product than To finance the new brake business, and probably never flew more than half the linkage system. The Bendix Corporation offered its stock a dozen times in his life Vincent Ben- for public sale for the first time in 1924. - dix was convinced of the tremendous With the $800,000 raised bv the sale of 40,000 shares, Bendix bought an old potential of the aircraft industry. He Vincent Bendix was not only perceptive saw that Lindberghts flight to Paris factory in South Bend, Indiana, and in recognizing engineering advancements, would capture the imagination of pro- started manufacturing automobile brake he was a persuasive salesman as well, spective investors as no other event in and he used both talents in the negotia- systems for such early customers as Marmon, Locomobile, Packard, Hupp, transgoration history ever had. In an tions with Perrot which followed. As a effort to borrow some of that glamor, result, the Bendix Engineering Works and Durant. The next few years might have been drawn directly from a text- he changed the name of his business to was established with the exclusive license the Bendix Aviation Corporation in 1929 to the Perrot shoe brake patents. In book example of the law of supply and demand. The auto industry needed bet- when eight percent of his company's addition, Perrot assigned to Bendix his sales were in aviation products.