Holbrook Fitz-John Porter 1858-1933 Biography

HOLBROOK FITZ-JOHN PORTER
The following has been summarized from an article by Fred W. Taylor in the May 1906 issue of Cassier’s magazine with quoted excerpts from that article. Additional excepts are quoted from Preliminary report of the Factory Investigating Commission, 1912

BORN: 1858, New York City
FATHER: General Fitz John Porter, born 1822, Portsmouth, N.H., died 1901, Morristown, N.J
MOTHER: Harriet Pierson Cook (married 1857)
EDUCATION: St. Paul’s School, at Concord, N. H. and graduated from Lehigh University as Mechanical Engineer
in 1878
MEMBERSHIPS: American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Iron and Steel Institute, American Institute of Social Service, Institute of Political and Social Science, the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, and the Engineers’ Club, of New York City.

CAREER:
Delamater Iron Works, New York City – Four Years
“he spent four years successively in the pattern shop, the foundry, the machine shop, and the draughting room, and this shop experience, in close touch with the workingmen, gave him a knowledge of their feelings and viewpoint which has proved of great value to him throughout his engineering career. The sympathy which he at that time acquired for the actual mechanics who do the work in our shops doubtless had a great influence in causing him, at this later date, to become the champion of the system of management which he now advocates, in which consideration and kindness are shown to employees, and in which, as a consequence, the workmen reciprocate by working more faithfully and permanently than they would for one less solicitous of their welfare.”

Cooper, Hewitt & Co., Trenton, N. J., Assistant Engineer in the rolling mills

Columbia University, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds

Cary & Moen New York City, in the spring of 1890, Engineer and Superintendent of the spring and
wire mill, “he introduced a modern accounting system into these works, which enabled them to know accurately and quickly the cost of their product.”
World’s Columbian Exhibition at Chicago, Assistant Mechanical Engineer and Assistant Chief
Consulting and Contracting Engineer, Chicago, “he installed several street railway and electric
lighting plants.”
Bethlehem Iron Company [merged into the United States Shipbuilding Company in 1902], Representative, Western Region, “Mr. Porter was a pioneer in educating the Western manufacturers and steamship owners away from the use of the older type of wrought iron forgings and into an understanding of the value of high-grade steel forgings.”

“Mr. Porter possesses uncommon ability as a lecturer. He has the happy faculty of presenting his subject in a most entertaining and convincing way to his audience, and his numerous lectures upon the uses of high-class steel, delivered not only before technical societies, but also before many of the classes in Western universities, are still remembered as most interesting and instructive. He was convincing in his arguments
for the use of hollow-forged steel engine shafts in power plants, pumping stations, street railway plants, etc., and such shafts are now used in many of the largest installations in existence. He was a pioneer in
introducing nickel-steel forgings for steam railway service, and while in the employ of the Bethlehem Steel
Company was called upon repeatedly to lecture before engineering schools and scientific societies upon that then new metal.”

Westinghouse, Pittsburg, 1902, Manager of the American branch of the publishing department and promoted to second Vice-President of the Nernst Lamp Company. “he acted as general manager of the affairs of this company. Through his ability as an organizer, within six months after he took charge the details of the lamp
had been so far perfected that its standing in the electric lighting field was changed to its present high rank
among the electric illuminants. His success with this company was the result of the effective introduction
of his ideas regarding the hearty co-operation between employer and employee, and when he finally left it not only were the results of his services to the management most gratifying, but his loss was personally deplored by the whole force of employees [mainly women].”

Management Consultant, New York City
“The practical experience which he obtained there in the introduction of his system of management led him to become a firm believer in the commercial value of the interested service of employees, and accordingly he opened an office in New York City for consulting practice, aiming to install modern methods of organization and management. His own success and personal experience in this field have led him to lean toward industrial betterment, and he is prepared to demonstrate that enlightened treatment of the employees which involves developing their abilities and increasing their loyalty pays, not only because it is morally right, but
because it yields a large return in dollars and cents. In addition to this work, Mr. Porter has an extended practice as consulting engineer in various lines of organization, for which, as this brief sketch has shown, his career thus far has splendidly equipped him.”

Factory Investigating Commission
[Preliminary report of the Factory Investigating Commission, 1912]
“The Commission selected as its advisory expert on the fire problem, Mr. H. F. J. Porter, a mechanical engineer of the City of New York, who had made a study of fire problems, had written many articles on the subject and was known to be conversant with the situation. Under his supervision, inspections were made of numerous manufacturing establishments with reference to the fire hazard. For the inspection work and fees of the advisory experts, tho sum of $5,500 was expended by the Commission. Both Mr. Porter and Dr. Price agreed to give their own services for practically nominal sums, and both devoted themselves zealously to the work of the Commission.”

“I [H.F.J. Porter] have been engaged in work in the factory buildings of New York and other cities for many years, and at the time of the Asch building fire had been employed by the Fifth Avenue Association to solve certain problems in which the loft buildings in its section were involved. It was in connection with my efforts after the above-mentioned disaster, to institute fire drills in these loft buildings in order to facilitate the escape of their occupants in case of fire, that I discovered that it was impossible to develop a fire drill that would empty such buildings under emergency conditions, and that this was due, not to incapacity on my part, nor to weakness in the fire drill per se, but to inherent defects in the design of the buildings, due to the failure of architects and builders generally to realize that the capacity of a stairway is limited, and that a multi-storied building, intended to be occupied by large numbers of people on each floor, must be supplied with special means of meeting the exigencies of a rapid egress from it.”

[1913 – 1933 – Holbrook Fitz-John Porter’s work is unknown but several publications are attributed to him, indicating that he continued to write until at least 1922]

sources: http://archive.org/stream/cassiersmagazi301906newy#page/95/mode/1up http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/mss/eadxmlmss/eadpdfmss/2005/ms005015.pdf http://archive.org/stream/preliminaryrepor01newyiala#page/11/mode/thumb