Acme Steel, Chicago Coke Plant
Before there was 80/20 extruded aluminum, slotted angle iron was the ‘Erector Set’ for adults, for society. Only God knows how many structures, or parts thereof, were constructed using some form of angle iron. It’s rigidity and strength, combined with flexibility of use due to the array of holes drilled in it, make mounting and […]
The content of this post was provided by friend Jack K. of South Bend Indiana. He scanned this article from part of his massive library of AIST/AISE yearbooks. He has many duplicates which he has offered me and I hope to acquire those soon. Thanks Jack! ACME Steel might be called the company that grew […]
The Acme credit union – still in operation today – predates the 1964 Acme/Interlake merger. Even though no business has functioned under the name ‘Acme’ on Perry Ave for decades, the name remains for (today) employees of Cleveland Cliffs. Time to time a few relics pop up on eBay or elsewhere – I have archived […]
I have written on this topic before, it is often cited as one of the contributing factors to the downfall of the company. A gamble that just didn’t pay off in the end (though ironically, the caster still functions today). Steve Bennett’s speech ‘selling’ the idea to investors is an impassioned plea from a man […]
Recently I have learned of the joy of census records. As of 2024, 1940 and 1950 are currently available to the public for free. In 2030, 1970 will become available as well. Records prior to 1940 are also available, but you’d have to pay. But this is fine, because 1940/1950 are a sweet spot for […]
I have been on the AIST mailing list for some time, I recently glanced at an email advertising their annual directory. This got me thinking – it would be pretty interesting to get a hold of an older directory and see what info could be had regarding Acme/Interlake. So off to eBay I went. I […]
One of the more odd items I have found on ebay. This is for a letter press, which would ink these blocks, then push a piece of paper into them. To be clear, these are individual blocks and it is unlikely that they were ever printed together like this. I bought them just as an […]
How did you come to work at Acme? I worked at Acme from 1990 until it closed. I had worked at USS in Gary in Labor Relations/HR for 15 years before coming to Acme. Jerry Shope, Richard Stefan and Joe Dula recruited me from USS. Working at Acme were some of the best years of […]
Searching through Cook County records is non stop fun if you are inclined to do some madness. You can check it out here. One of the big problems is that the entity names vary, or at least vary how they were recorded. This is illustrated by the heading at the top of the page. And […]