Max M. Suppes (1856-1916)
1916 Obituary [1]
MAX M. SUPPES died on March 27, 1916, at Elyria, Ohio, U.S.A., after an illness of six weeks. He was born in Johnstown, Pa., in 1856, and attended the public schools there for a period of ten years. He was associated with Mr. Robert W. Hunt at the Rensselaer Steelworks, Troy, New York, in the capacity of master mechanic, where he had a great deal to do with the designing of the first automatic rail-mill for rolling T-rails.
Returning to Johnstown, he became associated in 1888 with the late Mr. Tom L. Johnson and Mr. A. J. Moxham of the Johnson Steel Rail Co. as master mechanic, and later as manager of the rolling-mill department, in which position he played an important part in the development of the rolling of girder rails.
In 1894 he was appointed general manager of the Lorain Steel Co., at Lorain, Ohio, and had charge of the designing and building of the new plant. The Lorain Steel Co. was later taken over by the Federal Steel Co., and in 1901 became part of the United States Steel Corporation, the plant being transferred to the National Tube Co. The blast-furnaces and ore-receiving docks were built under Mr. Suppes' direction, and various time and labour saving devices designed by him were incorporated at both the furnaces and steel plants.
He was a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute, and became a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1896.