From Elektro to Empire
This article explores the rapid and somewhat torturous evolution from the D.C Hughes & Co. Elektro steam engine to to the very successful Metal Ware Empire B-30 and B-31 engines. We also learn a bit about the man behind these incredible machines, and others who contributed along the way.
Introduction
In 1908, a relatively young Chicago engineer by the name of Davydd C. Hughes started a company which, among other things, would ultimately produce a toy electric steam engine of his own design. His first engine, named the Elektro, went into production in the later part of 1919, or early 1920. While it can't be proven that this was the first commercial electric steam engine made in the US, it's likely the first one produced in volume and designed from the ground up to be electric. Hughes would later design two new engines to replace the Elektro, which would eventually become the successful Empire B-30 horizontal, and B-31 upright/vertical steam engines manufactured by the Metal Ware Corporation.
While our story begins with the Elektro, the electrification of toys began much earlier with motors and solenoids. For example, this 1905 patent describes a solenoid driven motor which used batteries as a power source. This motor is "designed to take the place of steam-propelled toy engines, being much safer to handle and more cleanly". Before electricity was distributed to homes it wouldn't have been practical to power a steam engine from a battery as the energy requirements of a boiler would have been too great. The same was true for toy ovens. With the expansion of the electrical grid, a market for toy transformers would develop in the mid 1910s to replace batteries as a power source for toys (e.g. trains). One relevant manufacturer of toy transformers was the Empire Transformer Company.
The path from D.C. Hughes & Co. to Metal Ware Corporation was filled with twists and turns involving no less than six different companies in a span of four years. This period of time, set in the first half of the "Roaring 20s", was a time of great optimism and economic growth. Following the end of WW1 people in the 1920s experienced a great deal of modernization through radio, moving pictures, phonographs, automobiles, and electric lights and appliances. Here, we'll explore, not only the progression of companies and how they were formed, but also we'll meet some of the people involved.
Electrifying America
The story of Elektro and Empire steam engines, and many other electrified toys, begins with the electrification of the United States. More specifically it begins in Chicago on May 1, 1893, when President Grover Cleveland pressed a telegraph key which then caused a steam engine turning generators in Machinery Hall to light nearly 100,000 light bulbs. Nobody had seen anything like this before. By the end of the six-month Chicago World's Fair, 27 million people had witnessed the power of electricity, not only through lighting, but also through the demonstration of other devices such as the first electric kettle made by the Carpenter Electric Company of Chicago; Nikola Tesla's AC motors; and Edison's appliances and graphophones/phonographs.
The picture below was taken inside of "Electricity Hall." The Westinghouse/Tesla booth is in the foreground followed by the General Electric booth, the light-covered Edison Electric Tower, and another Westinghouse Electric exhibit. The sign on the right overhangs a demonstration of "Clothing Cut By Electricity". On the far wall is a depiction of Columbus and the date 1492, this wold's fair being officially known as the World's Columbian Exposition. Outside, a statue of Benjamin Franklin towered over the main entrance to the building.
In 1920 only about one-third of U.S. homes had electricity. By 1930 this would double to two-thirds. Just as we've seen with microprocessors and computers, the internet, machine learning and AI, and other technology revolutions, this rapid expansion of new technology created tremendous opportunity for innovation. With the electrification of America, the opportunity was in the creation of novel electrical devices and appliances. Success would come to those people and companies who could not only invent new devices, but also raise capital, efficiently manufacture, and profitably market and sell those inventions.
Davydd C. G. Hughes
Davydd Charles Gwyllym Hughes was born in Wales in June 1880. He would have celebrated his 13th birthday while the Chicago World's Fair was open. Having emigrated to Chicago a year earlier, it's certainly possible that he would have attended, and with a young and creative mind, would no-doubt have been heavily influenced by the experience. It's also reasonable to assume that Davydd had a toy steam engine as a boy, or at least wanted one. The Weeden #1 would first appear in Youth's Companion magazine in 1884. and the Weeden #3 would be introduced when Davydd was 14. Buckman engines were also popular at the time.
Hughes was an inventor with a total of 26 patents to his name. His first patent application was filed in 1910 when he was 30 years old. This patent was assigned to the Rogers Addresser Company of Chicago, his likely employer at the time. The first signs of entrepreneurship come in a 1913 patent application for a wheel-driven generator, for motorcycles, which maintained constant output using a governor controlled slipping clutch. US patent 1,146,939 was assigned to the Hughes & Wessling Company when issued in 1915. The Hughes & Wessling Co. was incorporated in 1913 ; Hughes and H.N. Wessling having been in a partnership for about five years prior to incorporation.
In the Feb 6, 1913 issue of Motorcycle Illustrated we learn that Mr. Wessling is an avid motorcyclist with more than 100,000 miles traveled, and that "President DC Hughes is a mechanical and electrical engineer and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers." In 1915 D.C. Hughes & Co. is listed as the successor to the Hughes & Wessling Company.
The first Davydd Hughes patent not assigned to a company was US patent 1,185,673 for an "Electrically Heated Utensil." Hughes applied for this patent in 1915, This patent is important to our story as it gives us insight into the first boiler designs Hughes developed. This "utensil", is actually a percolator, or coffee pot. In the 1916 Electrical Record, D.C. Hughes & Co is listed as a manufacturer of stoves, percolators and toasters.
He would also patent an electric iron in 1917, before applying for a steam-toy patent in 1919.
When D.C. Hughes & Co is merged into Elektro Mfg, Davydd's path diverges briefly from the company he founded with the formation of Raven Toy Works, perhaps as its founder, before converging again at the Empire Transformer Co. From there he becomes a production manager at Harvey Electric. When Harvey was bought out by Metal Ware, it was announced that Davydd would also be a production manager at Metal Ware in Wisconsin.
It's not clear if Davydd Hughes ever went to work for Metal Ware, or if he did, for how long. Davydd moved to Beloit, Wisconsin were he went to work, possibly as chief engineer, for the Gardner Machine Co, a producer of grinding equipment. Sometime around 1933 Hughes moved to Dowagiac, Michigan where he would spend his final years.
Davydd C. Hughes would have his last toy patent issued in 1927 (1,589,649), this time for a toy range, with the patent assigned to Harvey Electric Company. However, this patent was applied for on Sept. 28, 1922, before Metal Ware acquired the Empire product line from Harvey Electric. No Davydd Hughes patents were applied for listing Metal Ware as assignee. His last patent would be filed in 1931 and assigned to the Gardner Machine Co.
All of the Metal Ware patents related to toy engines were filed by Joseph Koenig, cofounder of Metal Ware, or by his son Remus.
The Elektro Steam Engine
The first glimpse of what would become the D.C. Hughes Elektro steam engine was this new-product announcement in the July 1919 issue of the trade journal Electrical Record. The Elektro name doesn't appear in the announcement.
The announcement indicates that the engine runs on both alternating-current and direct-current. This statement reflects the reality that AC systems (Westinghouse), and DC systems (Edison/GE), were both in existence at the time. The Hollywood version of the battle between Westinghouse and Edison can be watched in the 2017 movie The Current War.
The engine came with a lamp-socket adapter, or Edison base, or screw. The first homes to have electricity installed often had lights on the ceiling or wall, but no electrical outlets. The standard two-prong outlet had only been designed a few years before this ad.
One can almost imagine the arguments over including a smoke stack. The engineering type would say it's an electric engine, it doesn't need a smoke stack! Besides, it will cost more to manufacture, and the stack will probably just get lost. Then the marketing person would say, it's a steam engine, people won't buy a steam engine that doesn't look like a steam engine! Then the sales manager would say "I can sell 100 more per month if it comes with a stack".
The engine that reached production was not identical to that depicted in the new-product announcement. The base was larger and contained a built-in depression to keep the steam condensate off of Mom's tables and floors, and, more importantly, away from the engine's electrical connections. The engine did include a smoke stack, had a counter-balanced flywheel, and the whistle was on the steam pipe. The engine shipped in a wood box and sold for $12. Click on the engine for more pictures.
Elektro engines were relatively expensive. In a 1926 Montgomery Wards catalog, a Weeden electric table frame engine was priced at $6.98, while the same engine with an alcohol burner was $3.98. Of course the Elektro engines were more powerful and of much higher quality.
Hughes did attempt to reduce the manufacturing cost by changing to a stamped-steel base and die-cast flywheel and connecting rod. See Elektro SS237.
Ernest W. J. Hughes
Ernest William Jones was born in 1885. Tragically, his mother died in childbirth. Ernest was raised by his aunt Hetty Hughes, who was Davydd's mother.
Davydd's younger cousin, now brother Ernest, became president of D.C. Hughes & Co. some time before January of 1918. This short article, written by Ernest when he was only 25 years old , well explains some of the motivations for new educational electric toys. The article is worth a read.
In the picture we can see the Elecktro engine— with a smokestack — powering a toy shop full of power tools. In 1920, steam still provided much, if not most of the industrial motive force. A powerful steam engine like the Elektro would be required to power a toy shop of this size; and the imagination of a budding young engineer.
Not much is known about Ernest, except that he was all over the map in terms of his business interests. Although likely, it's not clear if he transitioned from being a VP and Sales Manager at Elektro Mfg to Empire/Harvey/Metalware, or in what role(s). In 1924, after Metal Ware acquired the Empire product line, Ernest went into pianos and mortgage bonds. Given his title, it's reasonable to assume Ernest was largely responsible for raising capital and taking care of the financial and sales side of the D.C. Hughes & Co. business while Davydd focused on product development and manufacturing.
The Competition
D. C. Hughes & Co. was not the only Chicago company with an electric steam engine. The Chicago Ferrule & Nut Company announced a new electric vertical engine in February 1920. Unlike the Elektro which was designed from the ground up to have an efficient electric boiler, this engine was adapted from an alcohol-burning engine. The cord coming out of the stack and the Edison-base plug clearly show that the engine was intended to be powered by an overhead light socket. This engine towered over the Elektro in this October 1920 Electrical Record ad. The folks at the newly-formed Elektro Manufacturing Co. would not have been amused. More on Elektro Mfg. later.
After the Chicago Ferrule & Nut Co. the next evidence of early competition can be found in the Fall,1922 Montgomery Wards catalog. This engine, for which the manufacturer is not listed, and for which the artwork may be mirrored left-to-right, is most likely a German engine, possibly a Doll et Cie. This engine would not reappear in the 1923 catalog. Though difficult to tell from the drawing, the end of the cord that attaches to the engine appears to be a male plug. This would be extremely hazardous, especially as this engine was designed for 110V as evidenced by the other end of the cord being connected to a lamp socket.
A similarly dangerous plug system can be found on this Doll et Cie vertical (SS263), which is actually tagged as a Bing from New York.
It would be six years before Weeden entered the electric steam engine market, possibly in response to Metal Ware's success. In December 1925, William Ritchie filed for a patent issued as 1,735,057. The patent drawings suggest that this is for the Weeden #647 (SS339) which is an electrified version of the Weeden #14 (SS002). Both are advertised in the 1926 Montgomery Wards Catalog. Before this, Weeden did manufacture toy electric motors which also served as generators for their traditional steam engines.
The D. C. Hughes Patent
On May 1, 1919, three months before the Elektro new product announcement, Hughes filed a patent for a steam engine with a vertical boiler. US Patent 1,366,883 was granted to Davydd Hughes on Jan. 25, 1921. The patent was notably not assigned to D.C. Hughes & Co, which meant that the patent rights belonged to Davydd and not his company. In addition to the vertical boiler described in the patent, the patent also shows a vertical cylinder and integral steam pipe, which suggest that the engine, which would ultimately become the Empire B-31, was already envisioned in 1919. The Elektro engine has a horizontal cylinder.
In the patent preamble we read:
My invention relates to improvements in toys, and especially to toy engines of that type operated by steam.
One of the objects of any present invention is to provide a steam-operated toy engine which can be economically constructed and which shall be of few parts and which shall be safe in operation. One of the objections to the present type of toy engine is the danger from fire. In the present commercial type of toy steam engine, the boiler is heated by means of alcohol, benzin, or like burners, which in the hands of children become fire hazards.
This last statement regarding danger from fire is quite true, and safety would be one of the major selling points, not only for electric steam engines. but also for the electric toy ranges that would eventually displace toy cast-iron stoves that burned wood, or coal.
Reading the four patent claims, it's clear that the patent is not for an electric steam engine, but for a vertical steam engine boiler with an efficient design for the heating element. In Hughes' design, the bottom of the boiler contains an inverted cup. This design greatly increases the surface area in contact with the water inside of the boiler and would have been much more efficient (i.e. powerful) than simply replacing an alcohol burner with an electric heating element held near the bottom of a standard boiler design.
A horizontal boiler can't be easily modified in the same manor, but it doesn't need to be; the heating area under a horizontal boiler is naturally much larger than that of a vertical.
The idea of an electric toy steam engine predates Hughes' patent application by at least six months. One example of prior art is this article appearing in the November 1918 issue of Popular Science Monthly. It provides instructions for converting an alcohol-burner engine to electric heating.
The Empire Transformer Company
About the same time Davydd incorporated the Hughes & Wessling company, Frank D. Pearne and Irwin J Mendels incorporate the Empire Transformer Company, previously known as the Empire Electric Company. Their first Empire Electric product, a 15,000V spark coil for wireless spark-gap transmitters, would be followed by a doorbell transformer and a toaster. The doorbell transformer and toaster are both shown in late 1912 ads.
Both of these men were very technical. Pearne is likely the same Frank D. Pearne who, at a young age, invented and patented a printing telegraph that would eventually become the teletype machine. Mendels, went on to found National Transformer Manufacturing. Both Pearne and Mendels would become widely known for their work in radio technology. Pearne as technical editor of Radio Age magazine, and Mendels as president of Radio Products Corporation.
What does Empire Transformer have to do with D.C. Hughes & Co.? Both companies were involved with electricity and domestic appliances. Empire also built a transformer for powering toys. Dexter Fairbank, who would become the president of the Elektro Mfg Company, was a prominent Chicago resident and likely the capitalist behind the merger of Empire and Hughes.
Elektro Mfg. Co.
By October of 1920, D.C. Hughes & Co. and Empire Transformer Co. had formed a joint venture, or merged into a new company. The Elektro Mfg Co. is described in this ad as the successor to both D.C. Hughes and the Empire Transformer companies. The toy transformer and the $5 toaster stove came from the Empire Transformer Co. The $6 toaster, toy oven, iron, and steam engine came from D.C. Hughes & Co.
Note that the Elektro engine was listed as a model 'B.' Perhaps this refers to the later version with the die-cast flywheel and stamped steel base. While most Elektro engines have the D.C. Hughes & Co. tag, some Elektro engines will be shipped with an Elektro Mfg. tag.
We learn a little about the structure of Elektro Mfg. from this press release. Dexter Fairbank was described as the president of this company which, confusingly, was formed in 1912. Ernest Hughes and William Sickinger were listed as vice presidents. The Ravenswood Ave address, 4642-4464 was the same 4642 address given for D.C. Hughes & Co.
Ernest Hughes was scheduled to demonstrate the Elektro branded toy products at the New York Imperial Toy Fair in February 1921, only four months after Elektro Mfg. was formed.
The ad to the right shows an Electro Mfg. branded stove and a D.C. Hughes branded engine. Note that the price increase for the engine didn't stick. For a sense of scale, the picture below shows what they look like when placed next to each other.
By October 1920, Elektro Mfg had been formed, Ernest was preparing to travel to New York, and things were about to become complicated. This diagram should help in understanding the path from D.C. Hughes and company to Metal Ware Corp.
Raven Toy Works
Whatever was going on between D.C Hughes & Co. and the Empire Transformer Co., and possibly between Davydd and Ernest, must have hit a rough patch as four months after the Elektro Mfg. Co. was formed Davydd placed an ad for a new company call Raven Toy Works, and also issued a patent warning. This ad appears only a few weeks before brother Ernest, now a VP at Elektro Mfg, would be demonstrating Elektro products at the New York Imperial Toy Fair.
With advance notice that his patent would be issued on Jan 25, 1921, Davydd Hughes immediately set out to intimidate buyers and sellers of steam toys by publishing this "Buyer's Notice of Patents Pending" in the January issue of the trade-journal Toys and Novelties. Recall, the patent was in Davydd's name. Was this warning aimed at Elektro Mfg.? You be the judge.
Buyers Notice of Patents Pending: The public is hereby notified that my Toy Engine application Serial No 293,944 for Letters Patent of the United States has been allowed and the patent will issue on January 25 1921. The electrically heated Toy Engine above referred to will be manufactured and sold by the RAVEN ΤΟΥ WORKS only. Any other manufacturers offering my engine for sale are directly infringing my patent device You are warned that the sale or use of my engine manufactured and sold by others will be an infringement of my rights I desire to do an honest business that does not require litigation and I sincerely trust that the buyers of electrically heated Steam Engines will respect my rights therein. If electrically heated Steam Engines are offered to you ask to be shown a copy of the United States patent covering the device offered. If they cannot do this they are not only offering something for sale to which they have no right but they are trying to get you in the same position as they are. DC Hughes.
This ad also announced the two new engines — a horizontal and a vertical. These were scheduled to ship in six months, which would be aggressive if tooling and production plans were not already in progress, or if some production had not already occurred before the merger. So, while the original Elektro product line transferred to the new Elektro Mfg. Co., Davydd Hughes appeared to have had other plans for his new engines.
The New Engines
In March 1921, two months after the patent was issued and Raven Toy Works was announced, we get our first glimpse of the two new engines, the No. 1 Horizontal , and the No. 2 Vertical, or Upright. These would be shown at the upcoming April Chicago Toy Fair by none other than D.C. Hughes himself. Clearly these are the engines that would ultimately become the Empire B-30 and B-31. Davydd Hughes actually specified the horsepower rating for these engines, with the horizontal boiler producing slightly more power (1/20th HP) than the upright (1/24 HP). These early engines had solid flywheels. Spokes would appear later, after the engines were acquired by Metal Ware.
Missing from this ad is the June ship date given two months prior. In its place was a statement that the engines can be "demonstrated on your counter." Also missing is any mention of toy ranges.
In the ad a patent number was shown for the vertical and a patent pending notice for the horizontal. While the earlier Buyers Notice of Patents Pending implied that Hughes had patented the electric toy steam engines, this ad suggests he now knew, or admitted, the patent was much more limited in scope.
There's no evidence that a patent was ever issued for a horizontal boiler. In truth it didn't matter. Beyond scaring off competitors and impressing consumers, a patent has no value until challenged and upheld in a court of law. Also, the Patent Pending statement has no legal value. It's a marketing tool — one that can backfire if it alerts a competitor to challenge the application before it's allowed.
Empire Transformer Co. — Take Two
As a company, Elektro Mfg was short-lived. This January 1922 announcement in Toys and Novelties adds clarity to a similar announcement posted in the December 1921 issue of Electrical Merchandising. The new Raven engines can now be exclusively manufactured and sold by the Empire Transformer Co. In other words, licensed from Davydd. At this time both the Elektro Mfg. and the Raven Toy Works companies appear to have gone away.
What's interesting about this press release is the distinction made between Elektro merchandise, and the steam engines belonging to D.C. Hughes — the person. There's no mention of Raven Toy Works. That the engines comes in both a vertical and horizontal version clearly indicates that the rights are for the new Raven engines.
Mr. William Sickinger entered our story as a VP of Elektro Mfg. Pictured here, he is listed as a VP of Empire Transformer Co. One year later, in the February 1923 issue of Electrical Merchandising, William Sickinger would be referred to as the VP of Harvey Electric. Co. of Chicago. We'll meet him again selling Empire Toys for Metal Ware in 1924 and 1925. In 1926 Sickinger leaves Metal Ware to work as a sales manager for the Compressed Wood Corp. of Chicago.
The First Empire Branded Toys
Finally, more than a year after declaring Elektro Manufacturing the successor to both D.C. Hughes & Co and Empire Transformer Co., and less than a year after the ad for the Raven No. 1 and No. 2. engines, this January 1922 ad appeared with the Empire branding and model designations that will carry on to Metal Ware — B-31 for the vertical, and B-30 for the horizontal. Notice that the engine artwork was identical to the artwork used in the Raven Toy Works ad. The Elektro Stove was now designated as Empire Model B-26.
While it's not clear that any Raven-branded engines were ever sold, or that demonstration models survived, there are Empire engines with the Empire Transformer Company label. See engine SS296. One possible scenario is that the Raven engines were never shipped to customers, and that any prototype, demo, and early-production engines were simply rebranded when folded back into Empire Transformer Co.
Empire Diamond Logo Inspiration?
In the January 1921 Raven ad above we find this buyers guarantee section, replicated below, which contains a mark with the letter M inside of a diamond. This guarantee relates to the Albert L. Marsh patented heating wire, Chromel, or Nichrome as it's now known. What's interesting is in the next Raven ad, only two months later, the mark is now the letter M inside of a square. The Marsh patent would be expiring in February 1923, so efforts were already underway to deal with the onslaught of wire producers who would soon no longer required a license to produce the heating wire. These marks may represent early attempts at a trademark by Marsh's company, Hoskins Manufacturing.
In the June 1922 issue of Electrical Merchandising, Hoskins Manufacturing ran an ad using this mark to indicated licensed Chromel. This mark can be found on the tag of the Elektro Mfg branded Elektro engine below.
Harvey Electric Co
Even before the dust could settle on the Empire Transformer Co. acquisition of the Elektro product line and the two new Hughes engines, the Empire Transformer company itself merged with two other companies into a new company called The Harvey Electric Company. Empire Transformer became a division of Harvey.
Harold B. Harvey was the president of Marquette Electric, a company whose business related to electric motor and repair. He was an electrical engineer, and a graduate of MIT.
While the press releases above don't mention steam toys, these two engines both sport Harvey Electric Co. labels SS297 (Horiz.) and SS320 (Vert.). Interestingly, they are both tagged as B31 engines. Production error? Perhaps, but SS297 is not the only Harvey horizontal in existence with what appears to be a B31 vertical tag. It's also interesting that the patent date for the Hughes patent is shown instead of the patent number. This would have made it slightly more difficult for competitors to find the patent and discover its limitations.
Metal Ware Corp.
Metal Ware was incorporated in August 1920 by Joseph Koenig and William H Ellis II as the successor to Two Rivers Plating. Koenig is of interest because patent applications for new steam engines filed after Metal Ware acquired Harvey Electric all bear Joseph Koenig's name, or that of his son Remus.
In a press release published on April 5th, 1923, Metal Ware announced that it had taken over the Empire electrical product lines from Harvey Electric. This, only one year after Harvey Electric acquired Empire Transformer. We also learned D.C. Hughes was working as a production manager for Harvey Electric, and that he was transferring to Wisconsin to supervise the department. From a different press release his new role is described as production manager of the electrical appliances department.
At the February 1924 New York Imperial Toy Fair, Mr. Sickinger, now working for Metal Ware, was showing the Empire toys. It's probably safe to assume that the Empire toys were branded Metal Ware by January of 1924.
This ad doesn't mention Harvey, so it's possible that products continued to be marketed by the Empire Transformer Company (a division of Harvey). This is supported by a December 1923 ad in Playthings showing the toy range, but no steam engines.
By June of 1924, if not before, Metal Ware was advertising the B-30 and B-31 engines using the same artwork first appearing in the Raven Toy Works ad.
Any B-30 or B-31 engine with a Metal Ware tag was likely produced after 1923.
In February 1925, Mr Sickinger once again returned to the New York Imperial Toy Fair to sell Metal Ware engines, including two new engines, the B-35 Turbine and the B-38 Hot Air Engine.
How much D.C. Hughes contributed to the new designs is not known. The patents for these new engines were filed by Joseph Koenig. As described earlier, Koenig confounded Metal Ware in 1920. In 1925 Koenig was 67 years old, about 20 years older than Davydd Hughes.
By October of 1926, as shown in this Boys Life ad, Metal Ware was then producing five different engines. New models added since 1924 include the B-35 turbine (SS338), the twin cylinder B-42 (SS252), and the B-38 hot air engine.
It's also worth noting the solid flywheel on the B-30 was replaced by a flywheel with spokes, so any Empire engine with a spoked wheel likely was produced after 1925. The Empire tag in the drawing also looked to be of a newer design with room to stamp the voltage, wattage and catalog number.
Metal Ware was investing heavily in the product line, and in 1926 they had begun to expand their advertising. It must have been exciting times, at least until the 1929 stock market crash.
As an aside, the B-40 retail display shown at the top of the ad was a stroke of genius. A toy electric steam engine can only run so long before someone has to stop it to add water. This rotating display is powered by a B-40 version of the new B-38 hot air engine, which requires much less attention by the sales staff. This display would have been much more exciting than a rotating display of steam toys powered by an electric motor. The display was given to retailers with their first order.
Timeline Review
Incredibly, it took less than four years from the introduction of the Electro engine in 1919-1920 to the Empire brand finally coming to rest in Metal Ware by April of 1923. Metal Ware would continue to produce steam toys into the 1960's and is still in existence.
- 1912-1913 Empire Transformer is incorporated
- 1913-1915: D.C. Hughes & Company is formed
- May 1915: Marquette Electric Engineering Company is formed. Harold B. Harvey, President
- May 1919: Davydd Hughes files steam engine patent
- June 1919: First steam engine is announced, drawing is similar to the Elektro
- January 1920: Sickinger article shows the Elektro powering a workshop
- October 1920: Elektro Mfg ad showing Elektro engine
- November 1920 Elektro Mfg is listed as the successor to D.C. Hughes & Co. and Empire Transformer Co.
- January 1921: The steam-engine patent is granted to Hughes
- January 1921: Raven Toy Works is announced with a Buyers Notice of Patents Pending from Hughes
- March 1921: The Raven No1 (B-30) and No2 (B-31) engines are shown in an ad and will be demonstrated by Hughes at the April Chicago Toy Fair
- December 1921: Empire Transformer Co. VP William Sickinger announced it acquired the manufacturing and sale rights to Elektro appliances and the two new D.C. Hughes steam engines.
- January 1922: Empire Transformer announced the B-30 and B-31 engines
- September 1921: Marquette Electric Company is split off from Marquette Electric Engineering Company
- April 1922 Harvey has been formed through the merger of Empire Transformer, Marquette Electric, and American Forge and Manufacturing Companies.
- May 1922: Empire Transformer now appears to be a division of Harvey Electric Co.
- April 1923: Metal Ware acquired the electrical appliance line of Harvey Electric.
- April 1923: D.C. Hughes who'd become a production manager at Harvey, was transferred to Wisconsin to be a production manager of electrical appliances for Metal Ware.
- June 1924: Metal Ware was advertising the B-30 and B-31 Empire engines
Davydd C. G. Hughes (June 29, 1880- December 4th 1938) was the founder of D.C. Hughes & Co. and the inventor of the Elektro, B-30 and B-31 engines.
Ernest W. J. Hughes ( March 26, 1885 - August 13, 1963) was president of D.C. Hughes & Co and then VP of Elektro Mfg. Co.
Joseph Koenig (April 21, 1858 – November 15, 1929) was a cofounder of Metal Ware and the named inventor on several patents including the B-35, B-38 and B-33 toy engines.
Loose Ends
These next two engines belong in the story, but where?
This first engine was made by D.C Hughes & Co, but may never have reached regular production. It's a very rare two-cylinder engine, and it's never mentioned or displayed in any of the Hughes announcements or advertisements. The only possible hint was in the 1920 Elektro Mfg ad which described the Elektro as a ("single-cylinder "B"). Why mention single cylinder? Had they plans for a dual cylinder?
Parts such as the machined flywheel, and boiler match those of earlier engines, but the red color is new. In the first ad for the Raven Toy Works engines, the engines are described as being painted in red enamel.
This second engine looks exactly like a Metal Ware Empire B-35 Turbine. It's a Quality Brand made by the Great Northern Manufacturing Co. of Chicago. There also exist early B-30 and B-31's that are similarly branded.
Fortunately this is not another company involved in the journey from D.C. Hughes & Co. to Metal Ware Corp. This is most likely a rebranded engine produced by Metal Ware. Rebranding was, and is, a way to rapidly expand market penetration through alternate sales channels.
In the case of Quality Brand, the trademark application lists Dec 1, 1924 as the first use of the brand. This is less than a year after Metal Ware acquired the Empire toy line, and just in time for Christmas.
Contact
If you have any comments, corrections, or additional info for this article. Please feel free to contact me at:
Also, if you have an Electro and would be willing to send me the serial number and a bit of info on the engine (e.g. early/late model, color, number of cylinders) I'd be happy to record it so that we might figure out how many of these engines were built and how many might still exist.
Lastly, thanks to Google Web Search and Google Books for digitizing the publications from which several of the ads and press releases in this article were obtained, and for making those publications searchable. Thanks also to archive.org for making several publications available and searchable.