Pillsbury Chemical And Oil
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Pillsbury Oil and Chemical is now a defunct
manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...
of industrial
lubricants A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces ...
and
coolant A coolant is a substance, typically liquid, that is used to reduce or regulate the temperature of a system. An ideal coolant has high thermal capacity, low viscosity, is low-cost, non-toxic, chemically inert and neither causes nor promotes corr ...
s. The company was located at 139 Summit Street in Southwest
Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
, south of the Mexican Village, between Fort Street and Jefferson Avenue, and near the Detroit Marine Terminal. Shortly after being acquired by Novamax, Inc., in 1992, the site had been used solely for subcontracted manufacturing, under the name of Tolling Specialties, Inc., of ex-Pillsbury’s main brand product lines which by then were marketed from Novamax, Inc. Livonia facility. According to one of the ex-employees, Pillsbury Oil and Chemical started when
Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...
set George Pillsbury up in business to make a heavy duty drawing/stamping compound (Drawco P-10, the flagship of the company's famed Drawco product line) for his
River Rouge Plant The Ford River Rouge complex (commonly known as the Rouge complex, River Rouge, or The Rouge) is a Ford Motor Company automobile factory complex located in Dearborn, Michigan, along the River Rouge, upstream from its confluence with the Detr ...
. According to another account, George Pillsbury was a relative of the Pillsbury's of cake and pastry fame. Summit Street was not its original location, and it originally housed a
copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
and/or
brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...
smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...
operation. Imbedded in the
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...
floor A floor is the bottom surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from wikt:hovel, simple dirt in a cave to many layered surfaces made with modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal or any other material that can support the ex ...
of the shipping room of the Summit Street plant building there was a small medallion that was similar to a geological
survey marker Survey markers, also called survey marks, survey monuments, or geodetic marks, are objects placed to mark key survey points on the Earth's surface. They are used in geodetic and land surveying. A '' benchmark'' is a type of survey marker th ...
that had that company's name on it. Roy Hergenroether, a PC&O veteran and a prime example of
German-American German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...
-work ethic, who died in the late 80s, worked for George Pillsbury in the early days and used to mention an earlier street name that can no longer be remembered. Drawco P-10 was the only product they made for a while, a few
drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...
s at a time, all day long. Eventually the product line expanded to other drawing compounds, to some oils as well as to
cutting fluid Cutting fluid is a type of coolant and lubricant designed specifically for metalworking processes, such as machining and stamping. There are various kinds of cutting fluids, which include oils, oil-water emulsions, pastes, gels, aerosols (mists ...
s and
coolant A coolant is a substance, typically liquid, that is used to reduce or regulate the temperature of a system. An ideal coolant has high thermal capacity, low viscosity, is low-cost, non-toxic, chemically inert and neither causes nor promotes corr ...
s. Bob Rauth bought the 139 Summit operation in 1979. According to one account, the place was "a mad house and a hell hole". Bob, Harris Vahle and Bill Burr came from Stuart Oil and worked hard to make a go of it. The PC&O's profits were about $750,000 when Bob Rauth bought it and they turned into about $10 million in ten years. It was starting to slip before he sold it to Novamax around 1991 or 1992 and the operations were moved to
Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...
, joining the already established Novamax coatings plant. Henkel AG bought Novamax in 1995 or 1996 along with the Circlene, Drawco and Pure Tek brand names. According to yet another account, by the beginning of 1979 Rauth and his accomplices had already been in control of Pillsbury Chemical and Oil for at least a year. Before taking over they had stolen the very profitable technology, including product formulas, of both Stuart Oil Co. and Bruce Products Co. They then simply added these powerful resources to the Pillsbury product line. By one estimate, this illegal activity caused a tenfold increase in the number of products sold by the Pillsbury Co., and improved overall product quality as well. And through 1979, product formulas continued to trickle in from a clandestine source within Stuart Oil Co. This technology theft would have been the main factor responsible for any claimed increase in Pillsbury company profits thru the ‘80's. Given the pre-1980 Pillsbury environment with the management personnel present at the time, it is hard to imagine that it could ever become characterized as a place of vibrant business and positive working atmosphere. Of course, the one shining light through all this was the pillar of integrity, Roy Hergenroether. Pillsbury Oil and Chemicals of 1980s could be characterized as a place of vibrant business and positive working atmosphere; the company’s ex-employees remember fondly the tradition of lunch-time or Friday night outings for
pizza Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...
, subs and other foods available in the nearby Italian and Mexican establishments of Springwells Village and Mexicantown.Several photos of life and work at the Summit Street and Livonia locations
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Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pillsbury Chemical And Oil Manufacturing companies based in Detroit Defunct manufacturing companies based in Michigan History of Detroit Chemical companies of the United States Defunct chemical companies