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
Vulcan’s entry into the China market, achievement though it was, did not receive the follow up that one might expect. Towards the end of 1983, there was a flurry of parts sales. In early 1984, Angelica Ferguson, who had ably facilitated both of Vulcan's hammer contracts, left Amtech, as her husband had a new posting … Continue reading A Fistful of Yuan 10: Epilogue
There was still one more trip to be made for the first hammer, and Jesse Perry’s trip report is where we pick up, after he arrives in Tokyo: (Again our Offshore Tips will be very helpful in visualising some of the mechanical aspects of the system.) FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1983 Took 9:00 a.m. flight from … Continue reading A Fistful of Yuan 9: The Last Field Service Trip
24 January 1983, we received a telex from Showa Leasing asking for a quote on a 560 hammer, as they were wanting to propose leasing this hammer to their client, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC.) Realising immediately that the end user was our customer, we forwarded this to Amtech with an outline of … Continue reading A Fistful of Yuan 8: For a Few Yuan More…
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