William Garrett (c1844-1903)
1903 Obituary [1]
WILLIAM GARRETT died at Mount Clemens, Michigan, on July 15, 1903, at the age of fifty-nine years. His rolling mill career began in the works of Scotland. He started in the mill at eleven years of age, and at sixteen was operating a guide mill.
Going to the United States in 1878, he obtained work with the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, and was connected with its mills for the following five years.
It was in 1882 that he brought out the first type of the Garrett mill. This was the first rod mill in which a 4-inch billet was rolled into a No. 5 rod without reheating. Previous to this time it was the practice to use a 11-inch or 2-inch billet. His process also involved the rolling of an ingot to a 4-inch billet, replacing the practice of reducing the ingot to a bloom, which was reheated before conversion into billets. The saving involved in these improvements was at that time about 28s. a ton. As indicating the vitality of this invention, it is stated that about 80 per cent. of the rods rolled in the United States at the present time are the product of the Garrett mills.
Mr. Garrett went to Pittsburg in 1883, and in that year built the rod mill in the Oliver Wire Company's South Side plant. Returning to Cleveland in 1886, he built a rod mill for the American Wire Company.
Afterwards he was connected with the Joliet Steel Company, at Joliet, Illinois, building there a rod mill, which later became one of the Illinois Steel Company's properties, and is now owned by the American Wire Company.
He removed to Cleveland in 1897, and established the Garrett-Cromwell Engineering Company. He had written much on rolling-mill practice for technical journals, and had contributed several papers to engineering societies. He was a member of the leading engineering societies in the United States.
He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1898, and in 1901 read before the Institute a paper comparing American and British rolling-mill practice.