Vulcan Iron Works: The Company

Vulcan had a long and interesting history. Some of that is documented below:

Vulcan: The First 100 Years
- A history in words and photos of Vulcan’s first century of existence
- Vulcan Iron Works Centennial Celebration
Vulcan: The Offshore Experience
- A comprehensive view of Vulcan and its offshore hammers
Product Bulletins: a list of the literature Vulcan put out to explain the products and the company, and an excellent overview of the products that Vulcan made.
Engineering at Vulcan, a tour of Vulcan’s engineering output, from ink and linen drawings to CAD and finite element analysis
Experimental and “Vapourware” Products
- Internal Pile Hammer IPH-16, Vulcan’s attempt to revolutionise steam hammers offshore.
- Single-Compound Hammer, an air/steam hammer even simpler than the original.
- Construction Assistance Vehicle (CAV,) an underwater craft built for the U.S. Navy.
- “The Last Hammers:” a sampling of some of the air/steam and vibratory hammers Vulcan Iron Works designed but did not produce in its last years.
- Special Products Division: the source of many of Vulcan’s “one of a kind” products
- Concrete Pile Cutter: an interesting Russian concept
- Russian Diesel Hammers: another interesting Russian concept
- Sea Water Hammer: the daring concept that was Vulcan’s last patent
Corporate Matters: Vulcan dealt with a variety of corporate and financial matters that were unusual for an organisation of its size. Some of these were as follows:
- Letters of Credit, essential for its international business activities
- Caldwell Steam Snow Plough, which ended up putting Vulcan into the case law of replevin
- The “Turkey Grievance,” an example of the procedures for resolving conflicts in organised labour relations
Vulcan Patents — a century and more of technological history
Vulcan Serial Numbers — wonder how old that Vulcan hammer of yours is?
Nilens — Vulcan’s licensee in Europe, and the producer of its first marketable line of diesel hammers
Conmaco: the Kansas City based equipment distributor turned competitor who, in the end, helped to propagate the Vulcan style hammer.
Design and Performance of an Electro-Pneumatic Pile Hammer for Laboratory Applications.–when academics find out that equipment design isn’t as easy as it looks. Vulcan assisted with this research.