Ogden Iron Works (1916-1991)

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Ogden Iron Works (1916-1991)

(Located at 2265 Lincoln Avenue, Ogden)

(Reorganized from the Western Foundry and Machine Co. in 1916.)

(Read more about the Western Foundry & Machine Co.)

The reorganization of the Silver Brothers Iron & Foundry Works as the Salt Lake Iron & Steel Co. in November 1915 was due to debt and other losses. One of the grandsons of the original William J. Silver, James Watson Silver, although named as general manager of the new company, left in May 1916 and moved to Ogden and founded the Ogden Iron Works, which manufactured machinery for the sugar beet and mining industries.

As the company grew, the range of products grew with it. The post-war boom of the 1950s brought significant growth, including a wide range of steel fabrication work, along with the continuing foundry work in casting iron, steel, brass and bronze. In 1957 the Ogden Iron Works expanded its footprint in Ogden, buying the adjacent Bamberger railroad's freight yard and freight depot. The added property allowed Ogden Iron Works to add a new 300x70 building that included a steel distribution center, and to significantly grow the size and type of fabrication work it could handle.

During the 1920s, the Ogden Iron Works company expanded heavily into sugar beet equipment, eventually dominating the market for sugar beet cutters and piling machinery until the company ceased operations in 1991.

Ogden Iron Works Beet Pilers

In the 1920s (with the first commercially successful portable model built around 1925), Ogden Iron Works developed what became known as the Silver Portable Beet Piler. Credit for the Silver beet piler is usually given to James W. Silver, president and founder of Ogden Iron Works, and Harold F. Silver, chief engineer at Ogden Iron Works, who was 21 at the time.) who went on to become a prolific American inventor and later founded Silver Engineering Works in Denver. J. G. Stone, secretary, purchasing agent and engineer for Ogden Iron Works, authored technical studies on beet piler mechanics for the American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists.

Before the introduction of the portable piler, handling harvested sugar beets was a labor-intensive bottleneck. Farmers had to manually shovel beets out of wagons and trucks, or drive onto elevated timber high-line dumping trestles to unload directly into railcars.

The Ogden Beet Piler transformed the harvest in several ways:

  • Wagons at first, then trucks could quickly drive onto a platform, tilt or dump directly into a hopper, and be back in the fields within minutes.
  • As beets moved through the piler, rotary screens, roll screens, or dirt legs separated loose soil, rocks, and leaves before the beets reached the storage pile. Removing dirt reduced shipping costs and helped prevent rot within static storage piles.
  • A long, swinging, incline boom conveyor allowed workers to create massive, uniform storage piles (or load into railcars directly) with minimal bruising to the beets.
  • Built on heavy wheels or on tracks, the entire machine could be moved directly to rural railroad sidings, central receiving stations, or factory grounds.

Each beet piler had its own receiving platform and hopper. Trucks drove onto a hydraulic or mechanical ramp and dumped beets directly into the receiving hopper. A conveyor belt then carried the beets upward across a series of screen rollers to strip away dirt and debris. Cleaned beets traveled up a long, adjustable boom conveyor that swung side-to-side, distributing beets smoothly onto storage piles or into open-top hopper railcars.

The Ogden Iron Works beet piler design established the basic operational template for sugar beet piling equipment across North America throughout the mid-20th century.

Harold Silver relocated to Denver in 1934 to organize Silver-Roberts Iron Works (later Silver Engineering Works), building upon the piling and sugar-diffuser technologies first pioneered in Ogden.

September 1, 1916
The Ogden Iron Works company has filed its articles of incorporation. It will take over the new expanded works of the Western Foundry & Machine company at 2257 Lincoln Avenue. (Ogden Examiner, September 1, 1916)

December 15, 1916
"Ogden, Utah — Announcement was made today the directors of the Ogden Iron Works that R. H. Hodge, a former resident of Salt Lake, had been engaged in superintendent of the new plant which the company is building at Lincoln Avenue and Twenty-third street. Joseph Snowcroft is president and George J. Silver, who was in charge of the plant for the Western Foundry & Machine company, will be the consulting engineer. James W. Silver is general manager of the new company. Approximately $100,000 is being spent in remobilizing and enlarging the old plant of the Western Foundry & Machine company. The new buildings have progressed to a point where they are ready for the steel superstructure are arriving daily. The plant will be equipped especially for the turning out of sugar factory machinery, and officers of the company assert that orders already received will keep the plant busy for several months." (Salt Lake Tribune, December 15, 1916)

December 31, 1916
"One of the important industrial moves of the year was the taking over of the plant of the Western Foundry & Machine company by the Ogden Iron Works company and the expenditure of more than $100,000 in enlarging the institution. The site of the original plant at Lincoln avenue and Twenty-third street was doubled in size to accommodate the larger structures, now virtually completed. Under the plans that have been completed by Leslie S. Hodgson, Ogden architect, the buildings alone will represent an expenditure of $25,000, while the machinery and other equipment will bring the total cost to more than $100,000. The enlarged foundry and machine shops are to be especially equipped for the turning out of sugar factory equipment. The stockholders of the company are nearly all local capitalists and much of the equipment for the two new factories to be erected by the Amalgamated Sugar company in 1917 will be turned out at the local machine plant." (Salt Lake Tribune, December 31, 1916)

January 14, 1917
Summary from the Ogden Examiner, January 14, 1917.

February 12, 1917
"Construction work has been started on the new buildings for the Ogden Iron Works, formerly known as the Western Foundry & Machine company. The plant and its equipment will represent an investment of approximately $100,000 when completed and the company will be able to build most of the machinery needed in new sugar factories and other plants." (Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 12, 1917)

1920s
James Silver, manager of Ogden Iron Works, developed "This beet piling machine was the first practical and successful unit of its kind used anywhere and had a revolutionary effect upon the entire beet sugar industry. prior to its inception and manufacture it was necessary for farmers to unload their beets by laborious methods of shoveling from their beet wagons and trucks or having them dumped over high line dumping stations for loading into railroad cars and shipment to the sugar factories. With the advent of the Silver Portable Beet Piler, all of this hard labor in delivering sugar beets was eliminated as the beet wagon bodies or trucks were dumped by power into a receiving hopper, the beets elevated to a screen unit, the trash and dirt removed, and the beets piled on storage grounds into piles ranging in depth from 20 to 24 feet and in width from 100 to 140 feet." (Ogden Standard Examiner, August 21, 1951)

(In the early 1950s, promotional material and Ogden area newspapers began reporting that James W. Silver and Ogden Iron Works, had since the early 1920s been instrumental in the conception and development of what became known as the Silver Portable Beet Piler. Research has found this to be a bit of an exaggeration since the earliest patents date to 1925 for an endless conveyor, to 1926 for a beet dump, to 1927 for an improvement of the endless conveyor, and to 1930 for a debris and leaf catcher. After 1931, and after he had left Ogden, it was Harold F. Silver that was active in such development, which continued after 1934 with his move to Denver and, together with the president of Great Western Sugar, the organization of the Silver-Roberts Iron Works, later renamed Silver Engineering company, specifically to continue the development and manufacture of the Silver beet piler. The machines subsequently built by the Ogden Iron Works were likely built under license from the Denver organization. Harold Silver was awarded three patents in 1940, 1941 and 1947 that made incremental improvements to the design. After World War II, Harold Silver began development of a continuous coal mining machine that he patented in February 1948, assigned to and manufactured by the Joy Manufacturing company, and first demonstrated in December 1948 at the Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal company's coal mine in Finleyville, Pennsylvania. The Joy continuous miner, as initially developed by Harold Silver, was later recognized as one of the most significant inventions of the entire mining industry.)

"In the early 1920s he developed for the beet sugar industry what has been known throughout the years as the Silver Portable Beet Piler. This beet piling machine was the first practical and successful unit of its kind used anywhere and had a revolutionary effect upon the entire beet sugar industry." (Ogden Standard-Examiner, August 21, 1951; February 24, 1952)

January 30, 1938
"Every new beet sugar factory built in the United States during the past three or four years has been equipped with Ogden beet slicers. Many of the old plants have discarded such equipment, formerly built in France, and put in beet slicing machines manufactured in Ogden." (Ogden Standard-Examiner, January 30, 1938)

February 5, 1939
Ogden Iron Works "is noted for the manufacturing of several outstanding products among which might be mentioned the Silver portable sugar beet pilers. One of these large beet piling machines is located at the factory of the Amalgamated Sugar company west of the city and during the past two seasons has handled record tonnages of sugar beets. This machine on one day received, elevated, screened, and piled in excess of 3,000 tons of sugar beets in a period of 12 hours. Visualized in another way, if this tonnage of beets had been loaded into railroad cars they would have made a train approximately 70 to 75 cars in length extending in the neighborhood of of a mile along the railroad track. The company also manufactures what is known as the Ogden sugar beet slicer which is recognized by those who have used it as the most efficient beet slicer known to the sugar beet industry." (Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 5, 1939)

October 28, 1954
From the Ogden Standard-Examiner, October 28, 1954.

The pioneer builder of successful portable sugar beet piles has just completed a new rig that can handle up to 250 tons of beets in a single hour. Built by the Ogden Iron Works, the large piece of machinery is now on its way to Woodland, Calif. After it was partially dismantled, it required three railroad flat cars to carry the mass of steel.

Nothing in Utah compares in size with the new machine, which unloads, elevates, screens and piles in one operation. It will make a pile 140 feet wide, 23 feet high and as long as the piling field will permit. It required about 90 days to put the order through the plant and 90,000 pounds of steel went into the structure.

Officials said its hopper is 26 feet long, which is much larger than those used in Utah. The reason for this is that most trucks in California are equipped to carry between 10 and 14 tons with beds up to 26 feet in length. The average truck here in Utah will haul about six tons of sugar beets.

The machine can be moved under its own power and is hydraulically steered for easy maneuvering.

The Ogden Iron Works is credited with pioneering the successful portable loaders, and when it built the first machine in 1925, this revolutionized the receiving of sugar beets by the various companies. It did away with a great deal of back-breaking work. The progress in the pilers since 1925 is a significant as progress in the automobile industry.

This past year, the local concern has built a new piler which handles end-dump trucks only, for a sugar company in Crookston, Minn. This was said to be the first all-end-dump machine built.

The iron firm has also been one of the leaders in the manufacturing of stationary dumps, which loads the beets into railroad cars. They have been shipped as far away as Michigan and Canada.

February 2, 1957
Ogden Iron Works purchased the Bamberger freight depot in Ogden, and the two acres of land it rested on. The property included a 200-foot frontage on Lincoln Avenue between 23rd and 24th streets, and extended 445 feet into the center of the block. Ogden Iron Works was to take possession of the property on May 1, 1957. (Ogden Standard Examiner, February 2, 1957)

April 5, 1957
Ogden Iron Works had just finished a barrel 40 feet by 8 feet in diameter, lined with linoleum, for the Fun House at the Lagoon amusement park in Farmington, Utah. The barrel was split in the middle so that one half turned in one direction and the other turned in the opposite direction. The new steel barrel replaced an original wooden barrel of similar dimensions. (Ogden Standard-Examiner, April 5, 1957)

November 22, 1959
Ogden Iron Works was finishing a new steel distribution center, 300 feet by 72 feet, and 40 feet high, on the site of the former Bamberger freight yards, on Lincoln between 23rd and 24th streets. It was to be completed by March 1960. (Ogden Standard-Examiner, November 22, 1959)

July 7, 1963
"A giant machine produced in an Ogden industrial plant will be playing a significant role in the harvest of Michigan's sugar beet crop this year. The machine is a 50-ton beet piler that left the Ogden Iron Works plant Saturday aboard two railroad cars for Bay City, Mich. It is the first of six similar "giants" scheduled to be produced at the Ogden factory this year for shipment to sugar beet growing areas throughout the U.S. The machines require about one month to fabricate and assemble. Some require three rail cars for shipment. They are used to remove sugar beets from trucks, clean them for accurate weighing and stack the beets in piles as much as 144 feet wide and 24 feet high. The machine that left Ogden Saturday is the modern day version of the first beet piler developed 25 years ago by James W. Silver, president of the Ogden Iron Works. Mr. Silver reports his firm has produced from five to 10 of the machines a year during the past quarter century. Three have been shipped so far this year with three more on the drawing boards." (Ogden Standard-Examiner, July 7, 1963)

James Watson Silver died on Tuesday January 12, 1965, at age 83.

By 1970, his sons James Moyle Silver and Joseph Moyle Silver were running Ogden Iron Works company. (Ogden Standard Examiner, April 26, 1970)

April 4, 1971
"The Ogden Iron Works Co. was founded in 1916 by the late James W. Silver, one of the early leaders in Utah's steel and iron industry. It markets products throughout the United States and Canada. Products manufactured for the sugar industry include Silver beet pilers and loading stations, Carver-Ogden beet sample washer and drier, Ogden beet slicers, juice heaters, lime-rock skip hoists. Products manufactured for the mining industry by the Ogden Iron Works Co. are mine cars, mine cages, ore buckets, automatic dumping cage skips and shaft sinking crossheads. A new product manufactured by the company is a car crusher for scrap disposal. The Ogden Iron Works Co. also fabricates steel for school buildings, churches and industrial buildings. James M. Silver, president and treasurer, said the company is contemplating expansion to take care of increased sales anticipated and is looking for a favorable year. Joseph M. Silver, vice president and general manager, has recently patented several innovations for the sugar industry in the U.S. and some foreign countries." (Ogden Standard-Examiner, April 4, 1971)

February 22, 1981
Ogden Iron Works was contracted to repair, modify and refurbish the shields and miner walkways for a long-wall coal mining machines removed from the Mid-Continent coal mine at Carbondale, Colorado. (Salt Lake Tribune, February 1981)

June 11-12, 1991
The assets and property of the Ogden Iron Works were sold at public "bankruptcy" auction.

James W. Silver (1881-1965)

(19 January 1881 – 12 January 1965; KWC4-VKF)

Half brother to Harold F. Silver (same father, different polygamy mothers)

Harold F. Silver (1901-1984)

(15 March 1901 – 13 September 1984; KWCY-BH3)

Half brother to James W. Silver (same father, different polygamy mothers)

"From 1922 until 1931, he was chief engineer for Ogden Iron Works Company, Ogden, Utah. In 1931, he became a consulting engineer in Salt Lake. He joined the Silver-Roberts Iron Works in 1934. In 1940 he purchased all the capital stock of the company, changed its name and became president. The company manufactures sugar machinery." (Deseret News, April 25, 1947)

(Harold F. Silver moved to Denver with his wife and two children in February 1934. - Salt Lake Tribune, February 11, 1934)

March 26, 1940
From the Ogden Standard-Examiner, March 26, 1940.

Denver, March 26 (AP) — Harold F. Silver, formerly of Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah, today became sole owner of the Silver-Roberts Iron Works of Denver, manufacturer of beet sugar and mining machinery. The name of the firm will be changed to Silver Engineering Works, Inc.

Silver became sole owner by purchasing interests held by Frederick H. Roberts, a director of the Great Western Sugar company, and his son, Carl.

Silver came to Denver from Utah six years ago to develop, with Roberts, his patents on sugar handling machinery.

December 16, 1948
Joy Continuous Miner - "Pittsburgh, Dec. 16 (UP) — The builders of a new mechanical miner, which can dig up to two tons of coal a minute, claimed today that their machine will revolutionize the coal industry. The 25-foot-long machine, which slightly resembles an army tank, is the only one now used successfully by commercial mining companies. The first public demonstration of the machine was given yesterday at the modernized Mathies mine of Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Co., Finleyville, Pa. Developed and produced by Joy Manufacturing Co., world’s largest maker of mining equipment, the mechanical miner steps up the speed of mining by replacing with one continuous operation the conventional separate steps of cutting, drilling, blasting, and loading. The device has proven successful so far in bituminous mines, but the company said it promises to be just as effective in hard coal mining. The business end of the 25-foot-long machine is a ripper bar of carbide pits, acting like picks, which tear the coal from the face and discharged it into a conveyor belt to be carried to hopper or shuttle cars. The machine was invented and built by Harold F. Silver, head of the Silver Engineering Co., of Denver, Colo." (Provo Daily Herald, December 16, 1948)

Harold Silver had been living in Salt Lake City with his father and mother, then at age 16, he moved to Ogden to work with his brother James Silver in the Ogden Iron Works. He learned well in the shops and foundries of the Ogden Iron Works, then left to attend the University of Utah, then New York University, and gained quite a bit of engineering knowledge. He returned to Ogden and returned to work with his brother, and soon began experimenting with various designs. Harold left Ogden in 1931 and returned to Salt Lake City, then he moved to Denver and established his business there. (Ogden Standard Examiner, December 19, 1948)

From the Salt Lake Tribune, July 2, 1950.

Harold Silver attended public schools in Salt Lake City and at the age of 9 went to work in his father's shop during summer vacations. He took a course in mechanical drafting at Columbia university in New York and attended the University of Utah for three years, while continuing to work as a draftsman for Ogden Iron Works Co.

Designed Beet Piler - His first prominent step in the field of invention was in 1931 when he moved back to Salt Lake City as a consulting engineer and designed a beet piler for the sugar beet industry. Fred Roberts, Denver capitalist, became interested in the machine and persuaded Silver to join him in a company to produce the piler and related products. The Silver-Roberts Iron Works, Inc., was organized in Denver in 1934, with Silver as vice president and general manager. It started business with 12 employees.

Biographical Notes About Harold F. Silver, from Deseret News, September 14, 1984, and Rocky Mountain News, September 14, 1984.

A son of Joseph A. and Elizabeth Farnes Silver, he was born in Salt Lake City on March 15, 1901. He attended Riverside Elementary School and graduated from Latter-Day Saints High School. He studied at Columbia University in New York City and then took pre-law courses at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Silver began his career as a 9-year-old in his father's machine shop in Salt Lake City. His half brother James W. Silver left the Silver Brothers business in Salt Lake City in 1916 and organized the Ogden Iron Works in Ogden. In 1922, Harold at the age of 21, became chief engineer of the Ogden Iron Works. Over the course of his career, he invented a number of groundbreaking devices, including: a non-flammable dry-cleaning process; sugar beet piling equipment; the first commercially successful continuous diffuser for sugar beets; the first modern continuous cane sugar diffuser; a continuous coal-mining machine; the continuous centrifugal cone press; and a coal drier. Time-Life Books later named him one of the 250 greatest inventors in history for his continuous-coal-mining machine invention.

After developing the sugar beet piling machinery, Mr. Silver moved his family to Denver in 1934. There, he founded the Silver-Roberts Iron Works with $5,000 and a partner, Fred Roberts, a noted Colorado industrialist. In 1940, he bought out his partner and changed the company’s name to Silver Engineering Works. From that start, he made a fortune, and in 1958, set up a $750,000 plant in Salt Lake City. Later, he also formed Silver Steel Co., a steel and aluminum distribution network throughout the Mountain West, with a warehouse distribution center in Salt Lake City.

Silver sold both Silver Engineering Works and Silver Steel Co. in 1965 to American Factors Ltd. (Amfac) of Hawaii.

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