Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -

Sale 2708 - Lot 174

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY.) Crosby Field. Diary of an inventor/executive with Brillo Manufacturing Company, gearing up for war production. [28], 384 manuscript diary pages. 4to, original gilt cloth, backstrip worn; minimal wear to contents; author's signature and modern collector's inked stamp on front page. Brooklyn, NY and elsewhere, 1 January to 31 December 1941
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Additional Details

Crosby Field (1889-1972) attended New York University, and then graduate school at Cornell and Union College, before becoming the vice president of the Brillo Manufacturing Company from 1923 to 1945. He held 140 patents, and invented the continuous wire method for producing the company's main product, steel wool. In this diary, kept as the nation geared up for war, Field explores various ways that Brillo could participate in military production. The company struggles to maintain a profit while fulfilling orders for British and later American governments, as he discusses supplies, equipment, payments, payroll, patents, squabbles with employees, occasional details of his personal life, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the secretive development of camouflage and incendiary bombs for the American military. A few representative entries:

10 January: "Dr. Ralph McKee . . . wanted advice on how to get the Gov't interested in 3 of his projects: (a) Method of concentrating spent acid to oleum so as to save freight to and from . . . plant, (b) Method of refining & reclaiming low grade T.N.T., (c) Use of new solvents."

On a 14 January visit to the Cambria Iron Company of Johnstown, PA, "to my surprise they are . . . using the following which I introduced into the s[teel] w[ool] industry in 1923-1925: (a) Dance Roll control of Motors . . . . (b) Air Blast for cooling wire . . . . (c) Water cooled dies."

26 February: "Spent about 6 hrs at drafting board on layout angular compressor for oblate spheroid soap pad, but didn't get the right idea till about 11pm!"

14 March: describes meeting with an American chemist, "Dr. Adolph A. Prissin [Prussin], who has an incendiary bomb in which s[teel] w[ool] might be used. Needs money also. Promised to send him some s.w."

On 24 March he describes how Brillo president Milton Loeb "tried to push me into attitude of giving technical OK on bombs, which I declined to do. I told him I was expert in many branches of eng[ineering]; & would give recommendations therein, but I was not on incendiary bombs." The next day he elaborated that "s w makes a hotter flame & one which is harder to blow out. . . . Prussin would give us our entry to chem. warfare at Edgewood" at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

On 25 April he moved into camouflage experiments: "3 helpers painting & making about 10 ft x 6 ft green camouflage. First we painted the chicken wire by dipping. . . . Then we dipped 4 rolls of s w, & then binding wire."

Field also kept abreast of national war news. On 27 May, "heard Pres. F.D. Roosevelt state this country's policy in what amounted to virtually a declaration of war against Hitler." On 7 December, "Japan unexpectedly & . . . while her diplomats were discussing peace with Sec'y of State, bombed Hawaii & later Philippines & then several of our Pacific Islands. . . . As we were finishing dinner . . . the Japs were bombing Pearl Harbor; so to radio for a very exciting afternoon & evening."

The war news translated quickly into business. On 10 December, "Navy is ordering ½ Mill[ion] lin[ear] y[ar]ds 6 f[ee]t wide No 6 Brillo s[teel] w[ool] to be . . . painted by Armstrong. Get ready, formal order will follow." Three days later, "Loeb in my office, talking wildly, much excited over possibility of camouflage interfering [with] our profit--which it will." On 14 December, "Capt. Arnold definitely advises only flat ribbon camouflage. . . . Army has no money now, but Navy must cover its bases quickly."

A great insight into military production, from the perspective of an inventor and executive for one of the nation's best-known consumer brands.

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