biography
| name: |
Budd, Edward G(owen)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1870–1946)
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| biography:
| Industrialist, born in Smyrna, Delaware, USA. He apprenticed as a machinist and by 1902 was general manager at the Hale and Killern Co (Philadelphia), a manufacturer of car seats and other parts for railroads, where he introduced pressed steel with oxyacetylene-welded joints. He formed the Edward G Budd Manufacturing Co (1912) to produce all-steel auto bodies as opposed to the usual steel and part wood combination, and his design soon became the standard. In World War 1 his factory produced military equipment, and in 1925 he opened the Budd Wheel Co in Detroit to make steel disc wheels for automobiles. He continued to experiment with stainless steel, building the first stainless steel aeroplane (1931) and also built stainless steel railroad cars called Buddliners, selling 500 by 1941. During World War 2 he again retooled for military equipment and in 1946 consolidated his companies into the Budd Co. In 1944 he was awarded the medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. |
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