Many of the documents we feature at vulcanhammer.info have a Gulf of Mexico chart at the top. That reflects the importance of the Gulf Coast region in general and the offshore oil industry in particular, for which we feature Vulcan: The Offshore Experience. We are saddened to note that perhaps the central figure in that … Continue reading Herman Hasenkampf: A Tribute
Real time, text communications are not the invention of email. In the 1960's and 1970's, long distance was expensive and fax very slow. Vulcan needed an alternate method to communicate in real time for the following reasons: The two offices needed written communications on production schedules and preparation of quotations. For example, the factory was … Continue reading A Few Words About the Telex
By the early 1970's, the lack of capacity for the machining and assembly of the offshore product line was evident. Unfortunately, the cyclic nature of the business did not make expansion of the facility an obvious choice. Nevertheless, in 1978 the management decided to expand the facility to enable the company to produce its entire … Continue reading Chattanooga Plant Expansion
The West Palm Beach fabricating facility was opened in 1967; it was about two blocks from the office. (Communications between the two could be interesting, as described here.) As was the case with the office, it was built by Wiggs and Maale Construction. (Click here for a vignette of the plant's opening and one of … Continue reading Vulcan’s Special Products Division: the West Palm Beach Fabricating Facility
Vulcan relocated its executive offices to West Palm Beach, Florida, in June 1964. To begin with they rented space at 4303 Broadway Avenue in West Palm Beach. Two years later, in late June 1966, Vulcan opened its own office at 2725 N. Australian Avenue, West Palm Beach. The architect who designed the office was Robert … Continue reading Vulcan Florida Executive Office
By the late 1950's it became evident that the Chicago facility was no longer adequate for Vulcan's expanding business, both in terms of volume and size of equipment. In addition, both the plant, its location and the company's labour situation built into the company's financial picture costs which were increasingly difficult to bear. At the … Continue reading Vulcan’s Chattanooga Factory
Southern Louisiana was a major market for Vulcan from the 1890's onward; virtually everything had to be supported on driven piles. The first offshore (or marsh) platforms were driven with the same hammers that installed piles for bridges and buildings. As the water deepened, and the platforms grew, the hammers grew too. Starting with hammers … Continue reading Vulcan the Offshore Experience: Early Offshore Hammers
Offshore oil was first explored and produced at Baku in the then Russian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. About the same time the discovery of onshore oil in Texas and Louisiana induced enormous changes in the economy of that region, making it not only a centre of oil production but also a … Continue reading Vulcan the Offshore Experience: Installation of Conventional Platforms
Readers of the series Vulcan: The Offshore Experience may recall that Vulcan Iron Works' years offshore were described as “the experience of a lifetime.” If there is one experience that stands out as making it that way, it was without a doubt Vulcan's sale of two large offshore pile hammers to the entity that is … Continue reading A Fistful of Yuan: Vulcan in China, 1981-3
The letter of credit was one of the key factors why Vulcan, a small company, could conduct international business with the reasonable expectation of getting paid. Vulcan required virtually all of its customers outside of the US (even ones with a long-term relationship) to pay via the letter of credit. This was insurance of performance … Continue reading A Fistful of Yuan: Anatomy of a Letter of Credit
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