Henry Timken (August 16, 1831 in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

– March 16, 1909 in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

) was an inventor and businessman who founded the Timken Roller Bearing Company, later called the

Timken Company The Timken Company is a global manufacturer of bearings and power transmission products. Timken operates from 42 countries. Company history In 1898, Henry Timken obtained a patent for an improved tapered roller bearing, and in 1899 incorpo ...

. His family migrated to the United States when he was 7 years old. He began his business career in the

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

region. His inventions of an improved carriage spring and an improved

roller bearing In mechanical engineering, a rolling-element bearing, also known as a rolling bearing,ISO 15 is a bearing which carries a load by placing rolling elements (such as balls, cylinders, or cones) between two concentric, grooved rings called race ...

brought him the money needed to create a company dedicated to the latter.

Biography

Henry Timken was born in

, now in

, and emigrated to the United States with his family when he was seven years old. The Timkens settled in

Sedalia, Missouri Sedalia is a city located approximately south of the Missouri River and, as the county seat of Pettis County, Missouri, Pettis County, Missouri, United States, it is the principal city of the Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 ...

; Henry left the family farm to apprentice under carriage-builder Caspar Schurmeier. Timken opened his own carriage-building company in

in 1855, and introduced several improvements to the carriages his firm produced, including his patented "Timken buggy spring", which made him a fortune. He patented an improved

tapered roller bearing Tapered roller bearings are rolling element bearings that can support axial forces (i.e., they are good thrust bearings) as well as radial forces. Description The inner and outer ring raceways are segments of cones and the rollers are taper ...

in 1898. A year later, he established the '' Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company'' which grew rapidly as the product was in great demand by cars, trucks, and tractors. By 1923, 90% of the country's production of bearings came from Timken. His slogan "''Wherever wheels and shafts turn''", describes the widespread use for bearings—trains, conveyors, elevators, aircraft engines, even space shuttle landing wheels. He first retired in 1887 and settled in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, but regretted retiring in 1891 and went back to St Louis. He later returned to San Diego for a second retirement before dying there in 1909. His last residence still stands, and is known as Timken House. The nearby Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park bears his family's name, as it was established with his fortune.

Honors

Timken was inducted into the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a US patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operate ...

on September 19, 1998. Henry Timken was one of six inducted into the hall of fame at ceremonies held at the E J Thomas Hall in Akron, Ohio. William Robert Timken Jr., Timken's great-grandson, the retired chairman and chief executive officer of The Timken Company and later United States Ambassador to Germany, received the award on behalf of his great-grandfather.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Timken, Henry 1831 births 1909 deaths Businesspeople from St. Louis Emigrants from the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen Immigrants to the United States People from Canton, Ohio 19th-century American businesspeople