Guide to the Calgon Corporation Records 1919-1997

Repository
Heinz History Center
Title
Calgon Corporation Records
Creator
Calgon Corporation.
Collection Number
MSS 693
Extent
16 linear feet (17 boxes)
Date
1919-1997
Abstract
The Hagan Corporation was established in 1918 Pittsburgh, Pa., and manufactured automatic controls to regulate the supply of fuel and air to boiler furnaces in industrial facilities and ships. Calgon, a chemical which prevents calcium build-up and the formation of insoluble lime soap, was developed by Hagan in 1926. The Hagan Corporation became a residential, commercial, and industrial water conditioning provider and adopted the Calgon title in 1963. The Calgon Corporation Records are comprised of 16 boxes containing a variety of materials documenting the history of the company, product information and advertisements, employee training manuals and technical guides, 35mm slides of products and equipment, and photographs and negatives of company functions and facilities.
Language
The material in this collection is in English.
Author
The guide to this collection was written by Alex J. Toner.
Sponsor
This collection has been made accessible as part of an NHPRC-funded Basic Processing grant.
Publisher
Heinz History Center
Address
1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org

History

In 1918 John M. Hopwood and Thomas A. Peebles founded the Hagan Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pa., which initially designed and sold automatic controls to regulate the supply of fuel and air to boiler furnaces in industrial facilities and ships. The Hagan Corporation began a series of experiments in 1922 at the Pittsburgh Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines in an attempt to establish a chemical to prevent the formation of scale in boiler tubes. Over the course of four years Dr. Ralph E. Hall developed Calgon, a chemical which prevents calcium build-up and the formation of insoluble lime soap. Calgon soon became the foundation for the Hagan Corporations residential, commercial, and industrial types of water conditioning solutions.

Between 1920 and 1959 the Hagan Corporation acquired several smaller chemical companies and laboratories, expanding their product line and opening new facilities throughout United States and internationally. In 1957 the Hagan Corporation changed its name to Hagan Chemicals and Controls, Inc., with the Calgon Company and Hall Laboratories becoming independent divisions. In 1963 the controls division and the Hagan name were sold to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and Calgon Corporation became the firm's new name.

The Calgon Corporation acquired Pittsburgh Activated Carbon Company (one of Pittsburgh Coke and Chemical Company's subsidiaries in 1965 and took over the manufacture of granular activated carbon for the removal of impurities from liquids. Through a merger in 1968, Calgon Corporation became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck and Co., Inc. After a buyout of the activated carbon business and its assets in 1985, Calgon Carbon Corporation was formed. Calgon Carbon Corporation remains a publicly-traded member of the New York Stock Exchange and deals globally in water management, paper chemicals, surface treatments, and specialty chemicals.

Scope and Content Notes

The Calgon Corporation Records document the history of the company, products, and equipment, and include: compiled histories of the company; newsletters and publications; product information and advertisements; equipment descriptions; employee training manuals and technical guides; photographs and correspondence focused on Calgon engineer Charles E. Kaufman; 35mm slides of products and equipment; and photographs and negatives of company functions and facilities. The Calgon Corporation Records consist of 17 boxes and are separated into six series.

I. Corporate History, box 1 (1919-1980s)

Box one contains materials that chronicle the history of the Hagan, and subsequently, the Calgon Corporation. There are notes and research materials compiled by William W. Hopwood and G.A. Binkly and used in drafting a history of the Hagan Corporation in 1949. Numerous materials from a 1957 time capsule that was opened in 1982 are included, such as letters, corporation newsletters, and photographs. Administrative papers document the 1925 patent obtaining process for fuel combustion regulators. Summary descriptions cover the initial 1964 company listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

II. Publications, boxes 2-3 (1930s-1970s)

Boxes two and three contain internal and external Hagan and Calgon Corporation publications. Several different newsletters are included, such as Bridging the Gap from 1943 through 1945 centered on Hagan employees serving abroad; bound runs of Sales High Spots , a confidential bulletin for sales personnel within the Hagan Corporation from 1934 through 1957, and bound editions of The Calgonizer , Calgon's employee newsletter, from 1934 through 1939. Additionally, six volumes contain proceedings from the company's annual sales conference (1955-1961). There are bound annual company reports (1952-1966) as well, primarily in box three.

III. Products and Equipment, boxes 4-10 (1930s-1960s)

Boxes four through ten contain Hagan and Calgon product information from the 1930s through the 1960s. Some of the product literature and bulletins were written by Anthony Pizzuto, then manager of advertising, literature and visual communications. These materials vary from public product advertisements, data books on detergents and solvents, equipment description sheets, chemical bulletins, and folded boxes of Calgon products. Box six, in addition to containing the before-mentioned materials, also contains descriptive product and equipment materials in German, Italian, and French languages. Box nine contains papers and descriptions of a nationwide presentation made to top management of industrial companies and utilities in 1966 titled, "The Challenging Problems of Water," created by Robert Newcomer.

IV. Media, boxes 11-14 (1940s-1990s)

The collection includes over 1500 photographic negatives as well as 2000 35mm slides in boxes eleven through fourteen. Box eleven contains photographs and slides, as well as a cassette tape with audio from an employee's retirement, and a CD with a recording of William W. Hopwood's retirement speech. Box twelve contains numerous 35mm technical slides. Box thirteen contains photographic negatives of people and equipment, and also contains six vinyl records of Hagan Corporation employees' recordings of Christmas songs. Box fourteen contains black and white photocopied pages of sheets of technical slides. Most of the mid-twentieth century photographs depict company picnics, award ceremonies, ground-breaking ceremonies, conferences, facilities, and equipment. It appears a series of technical slides were used for training purposes.

V. Technical Manuals, boxes 15-16 (1940s-1980s)

Boxes fifteen and sixteen contain technical and control manuals. Among them are three created for the United States Navy focused on combustion control and automatic re-circulating. Additionally, Calgon Corporation training coordinator Anthony Pizzuto designed, developed, and implemented a career training process to develop skills of sales engineers. Box sixteen includes five Self-Study Technical Training Manuals created in the late 1980s as a part of a new technical training process for career development of Calgon sales engineers.

VI. Charles E. Kaufman, box 17 (1930s-1960s)

Box seventeen contains paper materials and photographs focused on Charles E. Kaufman. Kaufman worked for Calgon for 34 years, and served as director of purchasing, director of research for Hall Laboratories, and also managed the chemical department. There are photographs, award letters, and correspondence.

Additionally there are two oversized items associated with this collection: two photographs from the Hagan Corporation's second annual sales conference in 1955, and a book of presentation charts from Robert Newcomer's "The Challenging Problems of Water" product campaign.

Arrangement

  1. I. Corporate History, box 1
  2. II. Publications, boxes 2-3
  3. III. Products and Equipment, boxes 4-10
  4. IV. Media, boxes 11-14
  5. V. Technical Materials, boxes 15-16
  6. VI. Charles E. Kaufman, box 17

Conditions Governing Access

None

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift from Calgon Corporation in 1997.

Archives accession # 2007.0167, 1997.0235, 2011.0121.

Preferred Citation

Calgon Corporation Records, 1919-1997, MSS 0693, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center

Processing Information

Preliminary processing by Alex J. Toner on 01/05/12. A preliminary inventory was created by a HSWP volunteer in 1997.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.

Related Materials

Hopwood Family Collection, 1940-1990, MSS 0697, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center.

Separated Materials

The library holds Hagan News Volumes 1-9 1950-1960, Calgon News Volumes 12-23 1961-1972, as well as Hagan, Calgon, and Merck company annual reports from the 1950s and 1960s.

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • Hagan Chemicals and Controls, Inc.
    • Calgon Corporation.
    • Calgon Carbon Corporation.

    Geographic Names

    • Pittsburgh (Pa.)

    Other Subjects

    • Water-Purification.
    • Water-Softening.

Container List