TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1953
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PAGE THREE
-U
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:
University, City Expand Together
City
Attracts
Varied Industry
* *
Several Manufacturers
Sell on World Markets
By ARLENE BELL
A side of Ann Arbor which Uni-
versity students seldom see is the
industrial activity going on in and
around the town.
There are some 64 industrial
concerns, large and small, making
everything from ice cream and
ball bearings to traffic lights and
cameras. They do their business,
for the most part, in Michigan
and out-states, but many have
foreign markets also.
* * *
A FEW of the businesses with
national reputations had their
origin in Ann Arbor, with the
University playing a part in some
instances.
One of these is the King-
Seeley Corporation. In 1919
Prof. Horace King, a hydraulics
expert in the engineering col-
lege, conducted an experiment
in one of his classes demon-
stating the factors in the rise
and fall of liquids in a curved
tube.
He began wondering if the prin-
ciple might haveaspractical ap-
plication in industry. At this
time, there was the problem in
the infant automotive industry of
how to tell when a car's gas tank
If was empty.
Usually, one had to insert a
stick in the gas tank to gauge the
amount. Prof. King conceived the
idea of using a curved tube to in-
dicate the gas level in the tank.
He told his friend, Halstead
Seeley of the plan, and the two
of them went into business in a
second story room on Maynard
St. making fuel gauge indica-
tors.
Now the company makes not
only fuel gauges, but speedometers
and governors for some of the
major automotive companes. At
the Ypsilanti plant, power and
wood-working tools are made, and
motors are produced at another
branch in Menominee.
During World War II, the com-
Local Labor
Force Studied
Because of the prominance of
the University in town life, Ann
Arbor has more professional people
than any other catagory in the
labor force.
Clerical and sales people come
next in numbers and are followed
by workers in service industries,
semi-skilled, skilled and then un-
skilled. The above groups make
up more than a third of the work-
ers in the county.
Employment in the county is
not affected by the Detroit situa-
tion, and has remained rather
static for the past two years. Some
seasonal unemployment exists but
in general there are job openings
in most fields, with the greatest
demand for stenographers and
typists.
Most of the county's 50,000
workers come from within its
boundaries although the Kaiser-
Frazer plant at Willow Run draws
a considerable number from out-
side the county.
pany made proximity fuses for
atomic weapons under a govern-
ment contract.
. * *
ANOTHER Ann Arbor industry
for which the University can
claim partial credit is the Micro-
metrical Manufacturing Co.
In 1932, Ernest J. Abbott, who
received his doctorate in physics
at the University and was em-
ployed in its research depart-
ment, decided to set out on his
own.
He started a research organiza-
tion which grew into the present
company.
The company no longer does
research, but manufactures in-
struments for measuring the sur-
face roughness of steel. The in-
struments are used wherever metal
machining is done. Now, with
world-wide markets, the business
still operates from its Ann Arbor
headquarters.
* * *
ONE OF THE largest manufac-
turing firms in the city is Argus
Cameras Inc., which employs more
than 1300 persons. It was found-
ed in 1931 by a group of Ann Ar-
bor businessmen to manufacture
radios, and was the first grm to
design and develop an AC-DC
table model radio.
Radio sales are almost entire-
ly seasonal, however, and in
1936 the company began the
manufacture of cameras for the
slack season. At that time, can-
did cameras were just beginning
to catch the nation's fancy, but
now the company is the largest
manufacturer of 35mm cameras
in the world.
Three Banks
Hold Student,
Town Funds
Three banks handle Ann Arbor's
financial dealings and provide
services for numerous students as
well.
The city's major financial pic-
ture is completed by one brokerage
house, Watling, Lercen and Co.
and the Ann Arbor Trust Co.,
which is one of the 50 strictly
trust institutions in the entire
country.
*
*
A SECTION OF THE HOOVER BALL BEARING PLANT.
Detroit Decentralization
Af fecsAnn A rbor A rea
WITH ASSETS of $44 million,
the Ann Arbor Bank, organized in
1936, is the city's largest commer-
cial bank. It founded a campus
branch on S. University three
years ago and serves many other
students through its State St. of-
fice.
Second in the field is the 60-
year-old State Savings bank
with assets of 32 million dollars,
and many student accounts.
Now building a new $270,000
home for their business, the Fed-
eral Savings and Loan Association
is continuing its expansion which
has quadrupled assets since 1941
to the 18 million dollar figure they
stand at today.
The bank concentrates mainly
on savings accounts and mort-
gages.
A BRANCH of a Detroit firm,
Watling-Lerchen is located in the
Ann Arbor Trust Bldg.. and does
much business for townspeople.
The Ann Arbor Trust Co., cur-
rently in its twenty-seventh year
of business, has as33-member
staff handling $20,000,000 in
personal trust accounts and $28,-
000 in corporate accounts.
It also serves as trustee and
manager of Trust "A" Fund which
is valued at approximately $3,500,-
000 and has 700 individual inves-
tors.
The company provides a frater-
nity management service which is
used by more than 201 campus
fraternities and sororities.
(Continued from Page 1)
Ann Arbor's Athens Opera
House, chief city amusement cen-
ter, began a steady decline with
the opening of University Hall's
spacious auditorium in 1873 and
continued with the introduction
of the Choral Union and especially
the May Festivals in 1894.
* * *
IN SPITE OF conflicts, the edi-
tor of the Ann Arbor Argus in
1863 was prompted to write: "The
University has done and is doing
much for Ann Arbor and Ann Ar-
bor can afford to do -liberally for
the University . . . We reap its
local benefits."
That year, citizens donated
$10,000 for a new Medical Bldg.
and subscribed the same amount
the next year for the Observa-
tory.
After the turn of the century,
the University came to be realized
as both a commercial and cultural
asset to a generally non-industrial
town located in the center of Mi-
chigan's growing automobile pro-
ducing area.
Historian Noah W. Cheever
saw the town as "an exceedingly
liberal and democratic commun-
ity. Most citizens are devoted
largely to making money, but
Ann Arbor is devoted mainly to
making worthy and successful
men and women."
And in 1913, the Chamber of
Commerce offered the other side.
"(Ann Arbor has) a steady, sub-
stantial business which not only
provides for the needs of such a
community but takes advantage
of the stimulus afforded by pre-
sence of the student body."
Glaciers Fix
Area Geology
Ann Arbor's rolling, glaciated
topography is a geologist's dream.
Formed as the last great ice
sheet-the Wisconsin Glacier-re-
ceded from the continent, the
landscape abounds with eskers,
moraines and other glacial depos-
its.
Frequently when excavating for
a new building, engineers come on
a new geological find, as the time
when a steamshovel uncovered an
interesting deltaic formation.
But the predominantly gravel
glacial soil must be watched care-
fully when erecting buildings, for
in the past sinking has developed
and caused huge losses.
longer relies on the city for on-
the-spot donations, relations be-
tween Main St. and State St. are
no less close today than in the
past.
A two-year-old University
Relations Committee smooths
out mutual traffic and land
jurisdiction problems, the most
recent example being city an-
nexation of North Campus ter-
ritory and University agree-
the site.
According to Mayor William E.
Brown, Jr., .present relations are
"gpod" and University faculty
members contribute substantially
to the running of local government
affairs.
"A quiet spot in touch with the
world' may no longer apply to what
is now a semi-industrialized city,
but the theory that the University
provides cultural advantages along
with a non-industrial basis for
income-is still strong.
ANGELL ANNEX--Symbolic of the new University development
is the Angell Hall addition from which students are hurrying
back and forth at class change.
THOUGH THE University not ments to build a fire station of
By BECKY CONRAD
"Ann Arbor is in the path of the
decentralization of industry out of
Detroit," according to Robert
Gage, manager of the Ann Arbor
Chamber of Commerce.
Due to the subcontracting of
automotive parts, employment in
the city's 89 manufacturing and
processing industries has jumped
The company no longer makes from 4,100 to 7,100 since 1950.
radios, but concentrates on the .*
still camera and equipment field. ALTHOUGH the University, of
Lately, however, it has been en- course, has no effect on the local
gaged in making optical instru- manufacturing scene it does have
ments for directing gunfire on a profound effect on local retail-
inc Thi qAA lpnio An Arhn
Army weapons.
One such instrument is used on
a 75mm anti-aircraft artillery gun
named the "skysweeper." The
parts Argus makes for this elec-
tronically controlled gun are two
direct fire telescopes and a sight-
ing telescope fo rthe radar screen.
These are but a few of the ex-
amples which show that Ann Ar-
bor is not only a university town,
but a thriving industrial commun-
ity, serving the nation.
* * *
BEGUN IN 1916 as a company
which made balls for roller skates,
electric motors and wheels, the
Hoover Ball and Bearing Co. is
another world famous firm with
its home in Ann Arbor.
A decade after its founding
it added the manufacturing of
bearings to its production list
and now has announced sales
in the seven million dollar range.
Only four years old, but already
involved in markets all over the
world is the Economy Baler Co.,
which started production in town.
Specializing in the manufacture
of baling machines for cloth, paper
and waste materials the company
has a three million dollar annual
volumne on its products, which
weigh up to 25 tons apiece.
ing.t ne u eaang AnnArbor
retail businesses, depend to a large
extent on campus trade.
During the summer school
break from August 15 to Sep-
tember 15, many retailers, such
as dry cleaning establishments,
bookstores, and restaurants in
the S. University-State St. area
close up shop for remodeling or
vacations.
The mass student exodus from
Ann Arbor has a snowball effect
because the loss of vacationing
businessmen and their families
slows down the Main St. retail
patronage.
City Budget Set
At $1,775,000
With a budget of $1,771,555, Ann
Arbor operates dozens of special
services for the city's residents.
Besides providing more than
$500,000 worth of protective police,
fire and health services, the city
expends $400,000 on public works,
$150,000 on park department acti-
vities and $500,000 in special pro-
jects.
The remainder of the budget
funds goes for administrative dnd
miscellaneous expenses.
Retail sales in the highly com-
petitive Ann Arbor market last
year hit between 75 and 80 million
dollars, Gage commented, a rapid
increase from the 20 to 30 mil-
lion dollar gross before the war.
Sales in local retail businesses
vary from $5,000 to two million
dollars yearly.
SMALLER manufacturing and
service industries include the pro-
duction of machine tools, food,
novelties and other specialized pro-
ducts and public utilities.
Seven of the 89 local firms
process food, five are laundries,
seven printing and publishing
houses and three public utilities.
Forty-one companies are involv-
ed in the production of machines,
instruments and other prevision
parts.
One of the chief factors for Ann
Arbor's emphasis on precision
manufacturing is the primarily
German background of its citi-
zens, lending itself to toolmaking
and other types of metal crafts-
manship.
The remaining 27 Ann Arbor
industries are scattered over a
wide variety of manufacturing
interests.
"As to the future, Ann Arbor,
with its location near centers of
education is the ideal spot for
research industries," Gage said.
"Chamber of Commerce industrial
development activities will con-
centrate on the research phase of
industry."
I r
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we have been serving
STUDENTS FACULTY
SINCE
186
HALLER'S )eteleP4
Near Hill Auditorium on North University
as seen in
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PLAIN TOP OR PLEATED MODELS
$ 150 .
Jackets f rown $15 to $7s
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Washtenaw County, with its larger cities of Ann
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communities, is indeed a favored spot in which to live.
It is famous for its fertile farm lands, its institutions of
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