Shedd Electric & Mfg. Co./Weyant/Sittmann & Pitt Fan Motor At The Pan American Expo. 1901

[Steve Rockwell]

Shedd Post 2.rtfd.zip

 

        That zip was a failed experiment...

 

 

        The Company was busy in 1902…

    Overseas sales necessitated international patents…

 

 

        5 Jun 1903 Adelaide Advertiser

 

and bills had to be paid to them, as well as by them…

 

 

     New incorporation in NJ 1904 with the directors cited in previous post, official departure from NYC 1907, although a sales agency remained active..

 

     The company made all manner of electrical gear beyond fans… cut-outs, motors, vacuums, dynamos among them

 

 

     At the risk of being repetitive, this clip strongly suggests that Shedd was out of the Company by the time of publication…..

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Steve Rockwell

[Russ Huber]

Shedd deflector and alternating and direct current portable desk fans 1911.

Edited January 19, 2022 by Russ Huber

[Russ Huber]

Shedd deflector offered 1912. Shedd portable alternating and direct current desk fans no longer offered.

[Russ Huber]

The Shedd tanks may not date earlier than 09.

 

1906 Shedd Electric Tank Motor Fan - antiquefanparts

[Russ Huber]

I would bet my life when Shedd made the deal with Westinghouse with his vane patent which hit the market in 09, getting tank fan motors rebadged Shedd wholesale to add to the Shedd fan motor line was part of the deal.  

Edited January 19, 2022 by Russ Huber

[Russ Huber]

The Shedd mechanical (concentric) gear oscillator with little doubt has ties with the Jandus/Dayton shared oscillator, and the fact the Shedd vane is mounted on a Dayton wind driven oscillator introduced same year as Westinghouse introduced theirs from Shedd....09.  Shedd scratches Dayton's back(wind driven oscillator), Dayton scratches Shedd's back( the Jandus patented concentric gear oscillator mechanism).

 

 

Edited January 19, 2022 by Russ Huber

[Russ Huber]

Probably on the market in limited numbers 09-11.

[Steve Rockwell]

     I really like seeing the mechanical oscillator, something about which I knew nothing.....

 

     Shedd Comfort Details

[Russ Huber]

1 hour ago, Steve Rockwell said:

     I really like seeing the mechanical oscillator, something about which I knew nothing.....

 

     Shedd Comfort Details

Waite's oscillation patent is something I have never witnessed to have come to life. The enclosed planetary gear set, or whatever you call it seen on the back of Jandus/Dayton 8" residence models for oscillation were short lived of but a few years of manufacturer.  My impression is the Shedd mechanical oscillation example manufacture may have been of but one year just prior to Shedd discontinuing fan manufacture in what APPEARS to be 12 season.

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by Russ Huber

[Russ Huber]

THOMAS ROMER WEYANT, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO STANDARD FAN COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

Weyant filed his first oscillating device in Oct. of 1900 direct or Mesne.  The Standard Fan Company remains a mystery as his first attempt to manufacture and implement his patent. Sittmann & Pitt were hired in May of 01 and terminated by Oct. 01 as they would not contract with Weyant.  Shedd it appears and other NY wallets connected with Weyant sometime in 01 to get the ball rolling. 

BTW... "The Standard" R&M was in Ohio, not NY.

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Russ Huber

[Steve Rockwell]

 

Thomas Romer Weyant… the man of initial consequence in the story since it was oscillating fans that put Shedd on the map, and Weyant was the guy… He grew up in the Hudson River valley in NY state, the family moved to Nebraska near Lincoln by 1880. In 1882 young Weyant and his brother are listed in the small town of Avoca as, respectively, blacksmith and wagonmaker.

He falls out of my sight until ten years later , residing in NYC working as a clerk, and I believe somewhere it was mentioned shipping clerk… this would be an important distinction since so much of his effort went into devices to ease such a clerk’s tasks…

He appears to have been a methodist minister-in-training roughly ’96- to-’98, and exactly how time-consuming this was I couldn’t guess (not enough so to prevent him starting a family… seemingly, the first of two).

 

At any rate, he is mechanically inclined, and living somewhere in the NYC area- logically Brooklyn, but not yet proven- when he teams up with two individuals, forming the Standard Fan Co. listed 14 Jun 1901…

     Mr. B.J. Conroy I initially treated merely as a man with a bit of money to invest (worked at a department store and rose to superintendent about that period of time around 1901),

and I viewed Henry Wilhelm as the primary collaborator,

since he not only had an electric goods company, but at that early juncture a brass foundry as well.

 

   I can’t tell much of a story about what this fan company did, however. It issued stock, and news of it was listed in the local (Brooklyn Eagle) paper.

Blakeslee was Weyant's attorney...

 

   There is one beautiful excerpt which intimates a richer story.

It’s most significant for providing the office address on Fulton St., part of a building where Mr. Conroy worked in his day job, at Abraham & Straus, which turns out to be BIG operation,

and suggests a possible(?) affiliation i.e. Standard Fans sold by A & S, a company which shared owners with their friendly rival Macy’s, and eventually melded into a large association of such outlets. (The building is now Macy’s, Fulton St. Brooklyn).

   Why don’t we know more about this Standard Fan Company? It could have been Conroy was only business, and Wilhelm manufacturing at his 4th St. address or Frost St., but where are the fans themselves and where are advertisements?

 

Edited January 22, 2022 by Steve Rockwell

[Russ Huber]

I had a feeling you would have an ace up your sleeve. You put the Standard on the map, you get an A+. Those oscillating devices with on the market fan motors bolted in them on display at the Pan American exhibit in 01 must have been manufactured by the disgruntled Sittmann and Pitt. They were on the Weyant patent project from May to Oct. of 01. The Pan American exhibit was shut down on Nov. 1st.

[Jim Kovar]

[Russ Huber]

2 hours ago, Jim Kovar said:

Dick Swiveller - Wikipedia

[Russ Huber]

Not much of a fan manufacturer at 2.5K in 01 compared to Shedd/Weyant and the gang as a manufacturer in 04.

 

 

Edited January 22, 2022 by Russ Huber

[Steve Rockwell]

     When one looks at the patent record of the inventive individuals in this story, it’s noteworthy that Weyant’s patents, excepting the first oscillating fan patent (which was updated in some fashion as the international patents were applied for— haven’t finished looking into that) were for mechanical devices involved in weighing and shipping a variety of goods.

     It seems to me that his attention during the era in question was perhaps mainly on those developments, time permitting. He clearly is in the Shedd enterprise in its earliest days, but it’s interesting to see where he was doing so. In 1902 Shedd was already producing in Roselle NJ and Weyant was general manager

and interestingly, Weyant was listed independently as a motor manufacturer, office in the same building as Shedd (presumably but not definitely the same office)

 

 

     While he was messing with Standard Fan Co. of Brooklyn, he was pursuing, becoming involved with and then running the United States Automatic Weighing Machine Co. The associates are Henry Schutte and Frederick Ranken

     There’s a coincidence of location I can’t explain in the following listing, because I know absolutely nothing about the Oscillating Fan Co., but that’s another name to factor into fan history, particularly because of its eponymous focus on oscillation… and whether it possibly involves Weyant (or, not very likely, Shedd)…

 

 

        Trow’s NYC directory for 1906 lists Weyant thusly:

You’ll observe Weyant’s attorney Blaikslee in the listing…

 

       “Steel & Iron” in Jan 1907 lists:

 

As of 1908, things stand:

   He shifts operations to Buffalo NY, where he resides for several years, and seems to take up real estate as a side-line…

 

   When he returned to Brooklyn, likely around 1914-1915, and through the rest of his life he was involved with the real estate business, though periodic listings have him as a machinist, perhaps sort of a fallback (1920 census has him working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard)…

   Also, in the early 1920’s radio program guides printed in newspapers have Weyant giving periodic, seemingly regular talks (these are the days of radio’s infancy) always real estate appears to be his main focus,

and he has a clear affiliation with a sizable real estate firm…

   And it seems the electric fans are long forgotten……..

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by Steve Rockwell

[Jim Kovar]

On 1/22/2022 at 9:56 AM, Russ Huber said:

Dick Swiveller - Wikipedia

[Russ Huber]

Is Harry Morrill Shedd simply a man and his name in a NY sales office until 07 selling Weyant's patented fans. He probably shared a piece of the pie along with other wallets.  WHO WAS BEHIND THE FACTORY IN NJ TO MAKE THE FANS? I bet Weyant cut some kind of a business deal with the wallets on his patents and moved on.

 

 

 

 

[Russ Huber]

St. Louis World's Fair 1904. Shedd Electric & mfg. Co. oscillating fan motors were on display there for a bronze medal.  🙂

 

The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair: Photos - The Atlantic

Edited January 24, 2022 by Russ Huber

[Steve Rockwell]

        Before resuming Shedd, here are two clippings dealing with Weyant's personal life. And maybe a third, just to indicate that he left a bit of a confusing trail... This third one shows that he had two families, the first one seemingly unacknowledged after separation.....?.....

 

17 Sep 1891 NY World

 

 

 

 

 

 

        By my reckoning, Weyant was still alive and working at the time of this clipping.....

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by Steve Rockwell

[Russ Huber]

I don't know where you dig those Weyant articles up, but Loren would be a kid in a candy store with those goodies. 🙂

Being you have the Standard Fan Company establish date on the map, and Shedd 01 establish date, that is a BIG plus.  With Shedd and wallets on the map Sept 14th of 01 Weyant may of had time to have the oscillating devices made through the Shedd organization in time for display at the Pan American Expo. prior to its closing date of Nov. 1st of 01.  Based on Weyant's rants posted in your articles above, I wouldn't be surprised if Weyant and Sittmann & Pitt didn't get into a fist fight before he terminated their services in Oct. 1st of 01.

In order for Shedd and gang to meet all those overseas fan orders starting in 02, something big with expansion I would think would have had to happen at the plant in NJ 01-02. 

Shedd and wallets went from 5K capital in 01 to 250K in 04. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Russ Huber

[Steve Rockwell]

[Steve Rockwell]

     Weyant Footnote:

        Thomas R. Weyant's brother Henry was active with him in the packaging/weighing business, moved to Buffalo when Tom did, then returned to greater NYC (Yonkers) where he continued a while longer with packaging/weighing machinery, and filing two patents for such.

   Part of the family remained midwest, part returned east.....

[Steve Rockwell]

        I just had the chance last night to read the Dec 2021 "Fan Collector" issue with Geoff Dunaway's remembrance of early Ozark Regional meets, which included (see p. 32) Harry Shedd's grandson being in attendance one year, a real grace note (and a really fine article, a pleasure to peruse and match faces to names, and learn how the barn came to be)...

   I'm reviewing the cast of characters and the changes which seemingly took place in the development of this company... and it's nearly bewildering to sort businessmen and investors and inventors... One example would be H. Richmond Palmer, who has to be one Horatio Richmond Palmer, composer of religious music, author and organizer of large concerts, who(m?) one should conclude fits the investor category; Symes was mentioned in an older thread, son of a Denver lawyer and congressman and himself later a Colorado judge, a fresh graduate of Yale and Columbia Law at the time of Shedd development; others involved in various businesses in the NYC area...

 

 

 

 

 

 

     It's not clear to me whether there weren't parallel, allied businesses in 1911, one focusing on fan's exclusively with the other covering all general electrical production mentioned earlier in this thread..... 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Steve Rockwell

[Russ Huber]

1 hour ago, Steve Rockwell said:

       

   I'm reviewing the cast of characters and the changes which seemingly took place in the development of this company... and it's nearly bewildering to sort businessmen and investors and inventors

 

 It's not clear to me whether there weren't parallel, allied businesses in 1911, one focusing on fan's exclusively with the other covering all general electrical production mentioned earlier in this thread..... 

 

 

I feel one could be fairly confident the Shedd business remained one entity.  I am with you trying to make sense of all involved and who was doing what and when and where. 🙂

The Shedd&Wallets/Weyant thing appears to have  made its biggest splash it appears 02-04. The shame is if there is one,

my bet one of the early Weyant patent Shedd oscillators are sitting in a shack overseas somewhere. The Shedd mechanical oscillator appears to fall into the 09-11 time frame of the Jandus Bernard Stowe patent oscillating mechanism. My bet would be a one season run 10-11.