Trussed Concrete Steel Company


The Trussed Concrete Steel Company was a company founded by Julius Kahn, an engineer and inventor. The company manufactured prefabricated products for reinforced concrete beams and steel forms for building reinforced concrete floors and walls. Kahn invented and patented a unique new technology reinforcement system of construction called the Kahn System that was stronger, more economical, and lighter than the existing old school technology used up to that point to construct buildings. The old method was to use plain straight smooth steel beams or loose rods or stirrups in concrete beams and floors. Kahn's new technology improved system used 45 degree tab flanges or "wings" permanently attached on steel beams that distributed the tension stress for overall improvement in strength of reinforced concrete.

History

Kahn founded in 1903 the Trussed Concrete Steel Company in a small Detroit building with a dozen employees for manufacturing the specially designed steel products for reinforcement in concrete beams and walls. Kahn became its first president. The company had its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. The main manufacturing factory for the steel products was located in Youngstown, Ohio, after being in Detroit at first from 1903–1906. In 1906 a one-acre industrial site was developed in Youngstown at a cost of a million dollars. The new steel factory officially opened its doors for business in May 1907 with 100 employees. The Youngstown factory was developed because of its easy access to raw materials needed for steel production. The headquarters for Trussed Concrete Steel Company was located in Detroit at the northeast corner of Lafayette Boulevard and Wayne Street, in a new eight-story skyscraper built by Albert Kahn Associates in 1907. The building was the first office building in Detroit built from concrete and was later known as the Owen Building. The Packard automobile factory plant building number 10, originally designed in 1903–05, was the first time an automobile factory was constructed in the United States using reinforced concrete.

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The full company name of "Trussed Concrete Steel Company" was difficult for the public so it was shortened to "Truscon". However, it did not officially change its name to Truscon Steel Company until 1918. Truscon produced their steel building materials including high ribbed steel forms for floors, ceilings, and walls. Kahn's new technology became a standard throughout the building industry. The company products had been used in over 15,000 structures worldwide by 1914. The factory developed derivatives from the initial Kahn Bar parent that the company was based on and manufactured these new steel reinforcement products from 1907 through 1914 for concrete construction of industrial buildings. The company expanded their product lines again in 1915 to include prefabricated buildings in kit form ready for assembly on site. It made products under the brand names of Hy-Rib, Rib Lath, Kahn Bars, Rib Bars, Rib Metal, and United Steel Sash.
Kahn's system of reinforced concrete beams allowed for long span open floor room space, larger than could be provided using wood construction. This allowed solid-slab construction where shearing stresses could be maintained better. Large walls with few supports meant generous-sized windows could be installed on exterior walls to provide better natural sunlight and ventilation. This led to the design in factories known as the "Kahn Daylight System." The company had a wide selection of steel products for reinforcement and prefabricated them to customer needs and specifications. Some products were collapsible column reinforcements, steel joists, and standardized steel forms. The company had several divisions. One division was Truscon Laboratories, based in Detroit. A 1924 maintenance book from Truscon gave instructions on how to maintain a large industrial building and illustrated their "graduate engineers" as white-coated scientists.
Kahn, with his brother Albert, capitalizing on the compatible relationship between steel and concrete, exported their prefabricated products to European and Asian markets. Their products became the dominant prefabricated reinforcements exported to foreign markets between World War I and World War II, competing against French and Chinese products. The company had agent representatives in Central America, South America, Europe and Asia. The earliest British examples of the use of the Kahn system of reinforced concrete to build factories was in 1913 for the Arrol-Johnson Motor Company and the Albion Motor Car Company. The company developed a manufacturing factory about 1915 in Japan to manufacture its products for the Asian market. It eventually sold its interest to Mitsui Company in 1933.
The company capitalized on its proprietary system for 20 years from 1903 and had much success in getting most of the market share worldwide. The Kahn Bar patent expired and others then developed non-proprietary systems of reinforced concrete. By 1930 the Kahn System of reinforced concrete became obsolete compared to more modern techniques of reinforcement that were more economical to manufacture. In 1937 the company was bought out by Republic Steel and Julius Kahn was vice-president of this new entity.

Publicity

It was discovered after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake most buildings were destroyed either by the earthquake or the aftermath fire, except those built with the Kahn System by the Trussed Concrete Steel Company. The engineering services of the company was specified in many cases upon rebuilding commercial buildings in San Francisco. The company received additional unintentional beneficial publicity when earthquakes occurred in Calabria in 1905, Messina in 1907, Jamaica in 1907, and the 1911 Philippines Mount Taal volcano eruption.

Truscon steel products

According to a 1910 specification booklet published by Trussed Concrete Steel Company, the following were some products the company manufactured and sold.