NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Gustavus Swift

Gustavus Franklin Swift (June 24, 1839 – March 29, 1903) founded a meat packing empire in the Midwest during the late nineteenth century, which he presided over until his death. He is credited with the development of the first practical ice-cooled railroad car which allowed his company to ship dressed meats to all parts of the country and even abroad, which ushered in the "era of cheap beef." Swift pioneered the use of animal by-products for the manufacture of everything from soap, glue, fertilizer, various types of sundries, even medical products. Gustavus Swift, circa 1900. ... June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining. ... 1839 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Sagamore is a census-designated place and village located in the town of Bourne in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. ... March 29 is the 88th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (89th in Leap years). ... 1903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasnt had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. ... Lake Forest is a city located in Lake County, Illinois. ... June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining. ... 1839 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... March 29 is the 88th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (89th in Leap years). ... 1903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasnt had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. ... Midwest States (United States of America, ND to OH) The Midwest is a common name for a region of the United States of America. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... A railroad car (or, more briefly, car), also known as an item of rolling stock in British parlance, is a vehicle on a railroad or railway that is not a locomotive - one that provides another purpose than purely haulage, although some types of car are powered. ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Bilateria Acoelomorpha Orthonectida Rhombozoa ?Myxozoa Superphylum Deuterostomia Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ...

Swift generously donated large sums of money to such institutions as the University of Chicago, Methodist Episcopal Church, and Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He established the Northwestern University "School of Oratory" in memory of his daughter, Annie May Swift, who passed away while attending the school. The University of Chicago is a private co-educational university located in Chicago, Illinois. ... The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784. ... YMCAs in the United States and Canada use this logo. ... Alternate meaning: YMCA (song) The YMCA (or Young Mens Christian Association) is an ecumenical Christian organization seeking to provide support for young people and their activities. ... The Arch, the main entrance to Northwesterns Evanston campus Northwestern University is a highly-selective private university situated in Evanston, Illinois, on a 240 acre (970,000 m²) campus along the shores of Lake Michigan. ...

When he died in 1903 his company was valued at between $25 million and $35 million and had a workforce that was more than 21,000 strong, and "The House of Swift" slaughtered as many as two million cattle, four million hogs, and two million sheep a year. Three years after his death the value of the company's capital stock topped $50 million. 1903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasnt had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. ...

Contents

1 The early years

2 Chicago and the birth of the Meat Packing Industry

2.1 The advent of the refrigerator car
2.2 Expansion of an empire
2.3 "…everything but the squeal…"
2.4 Vertical integration

The early years

Swift was second of three boys born to William Swift and Sally Crowell, descendents of British settlers who came to New England in the seventeenth century. The family (which included Gustavus’ brothers Noble and Edwin) lived and worked on a farm located in the Cape Cod town of West Sandwich, Massachusetts (present-day Sagamore), where they raised and slaughtered cattle, sheep, and hogs. The word British has several different uses. ... Modern New England, the six northeastern-most states of the United States, indicated by red The New England region of the United States is located in the northeastern corner of the country. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Cape Cod Cape Cod (1033 km²) is an arm-shaped peninsula forming the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. ... State nickname: Bay State Other U.S. States Capital Boston Largest city Boston Governor Mitt Romney Official languages English Area 27,360 km² (44th) - Land 20,317 km² - Water 7,043 km² (25. ... A sagamore is the head of a Native American tribe. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... This article is about the animal, sheep; for other meanings of Sheep, see Sheep (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758 The domestic pig is usually given the scientific name Sus scrofa, though some authors call it , reserving for the wild boar. ...

A map of Barnstable County, Massachusetts dated 1890.

As a boy Swift took little interest in his studies and consequently left the nearby country school after attending only eight years. During that period he was employed in a number of odd jobs, finally landing full-time work in older brother Noble's butcher shop at the age of fourteen. Two years later, in 1855, he opened his own cattle and pork butchering business with the help of small loans from his family. Swift would purchase livestock at the market in Brighton and drive them to Eastham, a ten-day journey. Swift, a shrewd businessman, purportedly followed the somewhat common practice of denying his herds water during the last miles of the trip in order that they would consume vast quantities of liquid once they reached their final destination, effectively boosting the animals' weights. Map of Barnstable County, MA dated 1890. ... Map of Barnstable County, MA dated 1890. ... Barnstable County is a county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. ... 1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Hormel Pork Loin Filets This article is on the meat. ... Sheep are commonly bred as livestock. ... Location within the British Isles. ... Eastham is a small town, located in the Wirral area of Merseyside, England. ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Bilateria Acoelomorpha Orthonectida Rhombozoa ?Myxozoa Superphylum Deuterostomia Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ...

Swift married Miss Annie Maria Higgins of North Eastham in 1861. Over the years Annie would give birth to a total of eleven children, nine of whom reached adulthood. In 1862 Swift and his new bride opened a small butcher shop and slaughterhouse. Seven years later Gustavus and Annie moved the clan to Brighton (near Boston), where in 1872 Swift became partners in a new venture, Hathaway and Swift. Swift and partner James A. Hathaway (a renowned Boston meat dealer) initially relocated the company to Albany, then almost immediately thereafter to Buffalo. North Eastham is a census-designated place and village located in the town of Eastham in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. ... 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1862 - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Workers and cattle in a slaughterhouse. ... Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ... 1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Albany is the capital of the state of New York in the United States of America. ... A buffalo is one of several species of bovine. ...

An astute cattle buyer, Swift followed the market steadily westward. On his recommendation Hathaway and Swift moved once more in 1875, this time to join the influx of meat packers setting up shop amidst Chicago's sprawling Union Stock Yards. Swift would establish himself as one of the dominant figures of "The Yards," and his distinctive delivery wagons would become familiar fixtures on Chicago's streets. In 1878 his partnership with Hathaway dissolved and Swift Bros. and Company was formed in partnership with younger brother Edwin. The company became a driving force in the Chicago meat packing industry and was incorporated in 1885 as Swift & Co. with $300,000 in capital stock and Gustavus Swift as president. It is from this position that Swift led the way in revolutionizing how meat was processed, delivered, and sold. 1875 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co. ... 1878 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The meat packing industry is an industry that handles the slaughtering, processing and distribution of animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. ... 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Chicago and the birth of the Meat Packing Industry

Men in suits and overcoats inspect Hereford yearlings.

Following the end of the American Civil War, Chicago emerged as a major rail center, making it an ideal point for the distribution of livestock raised on the Great Plains to Eastern markets. Getting the animals to market required herds to be driven distances of up to twelve hundred miles to railheads in Kansas City, whereupon they were loaded into specialized stock cars and transported live ("on-the-hoof") to regional processing centers. Denver Union Stockyards [sic]. Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library. ... Denver Union Stockyards [sic]. Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library. ... (This article is about Hereford in England. ... The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the United States – forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union – and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their secession. ... Rail can mean: Rail tracks Rail transport For the group of birds called rails, see Rallidae For the Mayfair Games board games, see Crayon Rails For rail in electronics, see . ... This page deals with mathematical distributions. ... The Great Plains states. ... A Railhead is a terminus of a railway line that interfaces with another tranport mode, for example shipping. ... Kansas City generally refers to the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, including: Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Kansas Other Kansas City areas include: Kansas City, Oregon Kansas City, Tennessee In computing, the term Kansas City standard refers to a standard for storage of data on audio cassettes. ... This article is about the sport of stock car racing. ... For other article subjects named transport see transport (disambiguation). ... Typically, processing describes the act of taking something through an established and usually routine set of procedures to convert it from one form to another, as a manufacturing procedure (processing milk into cheese) or administrative procedure (processing paperwork to grant a mortgage loan). ...

Driving cattle across the plains also led to tremendous weight loss, and a number of animals were typically lost along the way. Upon arrival at the local processing facility, livestock were either slaughtered by wholesalers and delivered fresh to nearby butcher shops for retail sale, smoked, or packed for shipment in barrels of salt. Slaughter may refer to: result of slaughtering, see slaughterhouse a music group Slaughter Jimmy Ray Slaughter awaiting execution in Oklahoma amidst brain fingerprinting controversy This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Certain costly inefficiencies were inherent in the process of transporting live animals by rail, particularly due to the fact that some sixty percent of the animal's mass is composed of inedible matter. Many animals weakened by the "long drive" died in transit, further increasing the per-unit shipping cost. Swift's ultimate solution to these problems was to devise a method to ship dressed meats from his packing plant in Chicago to the East.

The advent of the refrigerator car

A number of attempts were made during the mid-1800's to ship agricultural products via rail car. As early as 1842 the Western Railroad of Massachusetts was reported in the June 15th edition of the Boston Traveler to be experimenting with innovative freight car designs capable of carrying all types of perishable goods without spoilage. The first known refrigerated boxcar or "reefer" entered service on the Northern Railroad of New York (which later became part of the Rutland Railroad) in June of 1851. This "icebox on wheels" was a limited success in that it was only able to function in cold weather. --66. ... Farming, ploughing rice paddy, in food, feed, fiber and other desired products by cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Boston and Albany Railroad (AAR reporting mark BA) was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York. ... June 15 is the 166th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (167th in leap years), with 199 days remaining. ... A railroad car (or, more briefly, car), also known as an item of rolling stock in British parlance, is a vehicle on a railroad or railway that is not a locomotive - one that provides another purpose than purely haulage, although some types of car are powered. ... A refrigerator car of the Armour company, c. ... A Reefer is: another term for a Spliff, a cigarette made with cannabis a refrigerated ship - see Reefer (ship) a refrigerated railroad wagon - see Reefer (railroad) a marine aquarist who maintains corals, sea anemones and other invertebrates of the coral reefs, with or without fishes a type of warm jacket... The Rutland Railroad was a small railroad in the north-eastern United States, primarily in the state of Vermont but extending into the state of New York. ... June is the sixth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four with the length of 30 days. ... Events January 23 - The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning. ...

An early refrigerator car design, circa 1870.

The first consignment of dressed beef to ever leave the Chicago stockyards did so in 1857 and was carried in ordinary boxcars retrofitted with bins filled with ice. Placing the meat directly against ice the resulted in discoloration and affected the taste, however, and therefore proved to be impractical. During the same period Swift experimented by utilizing a string of ten boxcars that ran with their doors removed to move cut meat, and made a few test shipments to New York during the winter months over the Grand Trunk Railroad (GTR), a concept that proved to be too limiting in its scope. Early refrigerator car design, circa 1870. ... Early refrigerator car design, circa 1870. ... Categories: Stub | Freight equipment ... 1870 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1857 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... You may be looking for Bockscar, the B-29 that dropped a nuclear weapon on Nagasaki, Japan during World War II. A boxcar (the American term; the British call this kind of car a goods van) is a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to hold freight. ... State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th) - Land 122,409 km² - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... Grand Trunk Railway logo or herald The Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) was a historic railway system headquartered in Montreal, Quebec which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. ...

Detroit's William Davis patented a refrigerator car that employed metal racks to suspend the carcasses above a frozen ice-salt mixture. He sold the design in 1868 to George Hammond, a Chicago meat packer who built a set of cars to transport his products to Boston. The loads had the unfortunate tendency of swinging to one side when the car entered a curve at high speed, and the use of the units was discontinued after several derailments. Finally, in 1878, Swift hired engineer Andrew Chase to design a ventilated car that was well-insulated and positioned the ice in a compartment at the top of the car, allowing the chilled air to flow naturally downward. This article refers to the largest city of Michigan. ... Categories: Stub | Freight equipment ... 1868 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1878 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

A builder's photo of one of the first refrigerator cars to come out of the Detroit plant of American Car & Foundry, built in 1899 for the Swift Refrigerator Line.

The meat was packed tightly at the bottom of the car to keep the center of gravity low and to prevent the cargo from shifting position. Chase's design proved to be a practical solution to providing temperature-controlled carriage of dressed meats, and allowed Swift & Company to ship their products all over America, and even internationally, and in doing so radically altered the meat business. One of the first cars out of the Detroit plant of American Car & Foundry (formerly Peninsular Car Company). ... One of the first cars out of the Detroit plant of American Car & Foundry (formerly Peninsular Car Company). ... Categories: Stub | Freight equipment ... This article refers to the largest city of Michigan. ... American Car and Foundry (often abbreviated as ACF) is a manufacturer of railroad rolling stock. ... 1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... In physics, the center of gravity (CoG) of an object is the average location of its weight. ... The word America has several meanings: Geographical and political The United States of America. ...

Swift's attempts to sell this design to the major railroads were unanimously rebuffed as the companies feared they would jeopardize their considerable investments in stock cars and animal pens if refrigerated meat transport gained wide acceptance. In response, Swift financed the initial production run on his own, then contracted with the GTR (a railroad that derived little income from transporting live cattle) to haul them into Michigan and then eastward through Canada when the American roads refused his business. In railroad terminology, a stock car is one that is designed for carrying livestock. ... State nickname: Wolverine State or Great Lakes State Other U.S. States Capital Lansing Largest city Detroit Governor Jennifer Granholm Official languages English Area 250,941 km² (11th) - Land 147,255 km² - Water 103,687 km² (41. ... Canada is a sovereign state in northern North America, the northern-most country in the world, and the second largest in total area. ... American, when used as an adjective, can mean of the United States of America or of or relating to the Americas; when used as a noun, United States citizen, residing in the Americas, or less frequently American English. Immigrants to the United States are usually called first-generation Americans, regardless...

In 1880 the Peninsular Car Company (subsequently purchased by ACF) delivered to Swift the first of these units, and the Swift Refrigerator Line (SRL) was born. Within a year the Line’s roster had risen to nearly 200 units, and Swift was transporting an average of 3,000 carcasses a week to Boston. Competing firms such as Armour and Company quickly followed suit. By 1920 the SRL owned and operated 7,000 of the ice-cooled rail cars. The General American Transportation Corporation would assume ownership of the line in 1930. 1880 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... ACF is a TLA that may refer to: Academic Competition Federation [1] ACF Components & Fasteners, Inc. ... Philip Danforth Armour (1832-1901) was born in Stockbridge, New York, of Scotch-Irish descent. ... 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

Expansion of an empire

Swift’s initial efforts to ship dressed beef from Chicago to the East Coast met with resistance from local meat retailers who questioned the safety of meat that had been slaughtered and dressed weeks earlier, and then transported hundreds of miles. In 1886 the ‘’’National Butchers' Protective Association’’’ was formed for the purpose of organizing boycotts against Swift's products. A massive advertising campaign helped overcome public skepticism (a public that soon preferred the low-cost, high-quality Swift meats), a trend that almost certainly forced some butcher shops out of business. To achieve market penetration, Swift established "peddler car routes" to convey dressed meat in smaller amounts to out-of-the-way towns and villages. 1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) Events January 18 _ Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ...

A Swift refrigerator car has reached the end-of-the-line at East Orange, New Jersey. The car has been repainted and was photographed in mid- or late-1937, after the use of "billboard" advertising on freight cars had been banned by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and such cars could no longer be accepted for interchange between roads.

So sharply did Swift cut costs and so vastly did he increase production that his firm was able to market meat not only throughout the US but in Honolulu, Tokyo, Osaka, Manila, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Great Britain as well. Download high resolution version (1341x1017, 236 KB)A Swift reefer at East Orange, NJ, late 1930s. ... Download high resolution version (1341x1017, 236 KB)A Swift reefer at East Orange, NJ, late 1930s. ... A refrigerator car of the Armour company, c. ... East Orange is a city located in Essex County, New Jersey. ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... A railroad car (or, more briefly, car), also known as an item of rolling stock in British parlance, is a vehicle on a railroad or railway that is not a locomotive - one that provides another purpose than purely haulage, although some types of car are powered. ... The United States Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, signed into law by President Grover Cleveland, created the Interstate Commerce Commission. ... An interchange is a location where two things meet, usually perform some kind of exchange, and possibly go on their ways again. ... US,Us or us may stand for the United States of America us, the oblique case form of the English language pronoun we. ... Honolulu as seen from the International Space Station Honolulu is the largest city and the capital of the U.S. state of Hawai‘i. ... Tokyo (東京; Tōkyō listen, literally eastern capital), is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu in Japan. ... Osaka Castle, Ōsaka-jō Umeda district of Osaka Location in Japan Osaka City listen? (大阪市; Ōsaka-shi) is the third-largest city in Japan, with a population of 2. ... For other meanings of the word, see Manila (disambiguation). ... National motto: Majulah Singapura (English: Onward, Singapore) National anthem: Majulah Singapura Capital Singapore1 Largest city Singapore1 Official languages English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Tamil Government President Prime minister Westminster system (de jure) Dominant-party system (de facto) Sellapan Rama Nathan Lee Hsien Loong Independence - From Malaysia August 9, 1965 Area - Total... Shanghai (Chinese: 上海; pinyin: ; Shanghainese IPA: ) is Chinas largest city and is situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta. ... Hong Kong (香港; Cantonese IPA: ; Jyutping: hoeng1 gong2; Yale: heūng góng; pinyin: Xiānggǎng; Wade-Giles: Hsiang-kang) is one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Great Britain - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...

Over the next few years, Swift concentrated his efforts on creating a nationwide distribution and marketing organization. Expanding production facilities and the increasing availability of refrigerated rail service necessitated the construction of cold storage warehouses, both at the slaughterhouses and at the end-of-line distribution points. Ice blocks, most of them cut from the surface of the Great Lakes, kept the meat lockers cool during the summer months. Between 1888 and 1892 Swift & Co. constructed packing plants in the following cities: The Great Lakes from space The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes on or near the United States-Canadian border. ... 1888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... 1892 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Sioux City, Iowa;
Kansas City, Missouri;
St. Joseph;
St. Louis, Missouri;
St. Paul, Missouri;
South Omaha, Nebraska;
Fort Worth, Texas; and
South San Francisco, California (which Swift helped found, and name).

In order to protect his supply lines Swift organized the stockyards to facilitate the purchase large numbers of animals on a "regular and orderly basis." In 1902 Swift joined with fellow meat packers J. Ogden Armour and Edward Morris, along with the investment banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb, and Company, to create the National Packing Company for the purpose of fixing prices, dividing up markets, and suppressing union efforts to organize industry workers. The group became known the "Meat Trust" and the "Big Four" of the meat packing industry, and had developed such a monopoly that the US Supreme Court ordered the venture to disband in 1905. Sioux City is a city located in Western Iowa. ... Kansas City is a city in Clay, Cass, Jackson, and Platte counties in Missouri. ... Saint Joseph (also known as St. ... The Gateway Arch, shown here behind the Old Courthouse, is the most recognizable part of the St. ... St. ... Mayor Mike Fahey County Douglas County, Nebraska Area - Total - Water 1,290. ... Fort Worth is the sixth-largest city in the state of Texas, located about 30 miles west of Dallas on the West Fork Trinity River and forming part of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. ... South San Francisco is a city located in San Mateo County, California. ... Events January-April January 28 - The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... 1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

"…everything but the squeal…"

This interior view of a slaughterhouse shows men working with pork carcasses and viscera sometime between 1910 and 1930.

In response to public outcries to reduce the amount of pollutants generated by his packing plants, Swift sought innovative ways to utilize previously discarded portions of the animals his company butchered. This practice led to the wide scale commercial production of such diverse products as oleomargarine, soap, glue, fertilizer, hairbrushes, buttons, knife handles, and pharmaceutical preparations such as pepsin and insulin. Low-grade meats were canned in products like pork and beans. Packing plant interior. ... Packing plant interior. ... Workers and cattle in a slaughterhouse. ... Hormel Pork Loin Filets This article is on the meat. ... A carcass is a dead body, whether road kill or the Thanksgiving turkey in the refrigerator on the Friday. ... In mammalian anatomy, the viscera are the internal organs of the body, in particular the stomach and intestines. ... 1910 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Margarine is a generic term used to indicate any of a wide range of butter substitutes. ... This article is about a common cleaning mixture. ... Historically, glue only refers to protein colloids prepared from animal tissues, such as hide glue, bone glue, or fish glue. ... Fertilizers are chemicals given to plants with the intention of promoting growth; they are usually applied either via the soil or by foliar spraying. ... Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmacon is drug, and logos is science) is the study of how chemical substances interfere with living systems. ... Pepsin is a protease, a digestive enzyme that degrades food proteins in the stomach; the other important digestive enzymes are trypsin and chymotrypsin. ... The structure of insulin Red: carbon; green: oxygen; blue: nitrogen; pink: sulfur. ...

The absence of federal inspection led to abuses. Sausages might incorporate rat droppings, dead rodents, or sawdust, and meat that had spoiled or meat mixed with waste materials was sometimes packed and sold. Swift once bragged that his slaughterhouses had become so sophisticated that they used "…everything but the squeal..." Transgressions such as these were first documented in Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle, the release of which shocked the nation and led to the passing of the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906. This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Upton Beall Sinclair (September 20, 1878 - November 25, 1968) wrote in many genres, often advocating Socialist views, and achieved considerable popularity in the early twentieth century. ... The Jungle (1906) is the most famous novel by prolific U.S. author Upton Sinclair. ... The United States Meat Inspection Act of 1906 authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to order meat inspections and condemn any found unfit for human consumption. ... 1906 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Vertical integration

The meat packing plants of Chicago were among the first to utilize "assembly-line" (or in this case, "disassembly") production techniques. Henry Ford states in his autobiography My Life and Work that it was a visit to a Chicago slaughterhouse which opened his eyes to the virtues of employing a moving conveyor system and fixed work stations in industrial applications. These practices symbolize the concept of "rationalized organization of work" to this day. This article is about the founder of the Ford Motor Company; for articles on other people named Henry Ford, see Henry Ford (disambiguation). ...

A view of the Swift Brands South Chicago meat packing plant, circa 1917. All but one of the refrigerator cars in the photo bear the markings of the Swift Refrigerator Line.

Swift adapted the methods of the industrial revolution to meat packing operations, which resulted in huge efficiencies by allowing his plants to produce at a massive scale. The work was divided into a myriad of specific sub-tasks, which were carried out under the direction of supervisory personnel. Download high resolution version (3021x2418, 2234 KB)Swift Brands South Chicago IL meat packing plant circa 1917. ... Download high resolution version (3021x2418, 2234 KB)Swift Brands South Chicago IL meat packing plant circa 1917. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Categories: Stub | Freight equipment ...

Swift & Co. was broken down organizationally into various divisions, each one responsible for conducting a different aspect of the business of "bringing meat from the ranch to the consumer." By developing a vertically-integrated company, Swift was able to control the sale of his meats from the slaughterhouse to the local butcher shop. In microeconomics and strategic management, vertical integration is a theory describing a style of ownership and control. ...

Swift devoted a great deal of time toward indoctrinating employees and teaching them the company’s methods and policies. He also motivated his employees to focus on the company's profit goals by adhering to a strict policy of promotion from within.

The innovations that Swift championed not only revolutionized the meat packing industry, but also served a vital role in establishing the modern American business system, with an emphasis on mass production, functional specialization, managerial expertise, national distribution networks, and adaptation to technological innovation.

References

American National Business Hall of Fame (2002), ‘’Gustavus Franklin Swift.’’ (http://www.anbhf.org/laureates/gfswift.html/) Retrieved March 28, 2005.
Boyle, Elizabeth, Ph.D. and Rodolfo Estrada (1994), Development of the U.S. Meat Industry . (http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/meatscience/column/industry.htm/) Kansas State University Department of Animal Sciences and Industry. Retrieved March 28, 2005.
Buenker, John D. (2000), Swift, Gustavus Franklin. (http://www.anb.org/articles/10/10-01613.html/) American National Biography Online. Retrieved March 25, 2005.
Chandler, Alfred D. (1959), Integration and Diversification as Business Strategies--An Historical Analysis. (http://www.h-net.org/~business/bhcweb/publications/BEHprint/v019/p0065-p0073.pdf/) (PDF). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved March 25, 2005.
Encyclopaedia Britannica (2005), Swift, Gustavus Franklin. (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9070647/) Encyclopaedia Britannica Premium Service. Retrieved March 25, 2005.
Hessen, Robert. (1993), Capitalism. (http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Capitalism.html/) The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Retrieved March 25, 2005.
Kutner, Jon Jr., Swift and Company. (http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/SS/dis2.html/) The Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved March 25, 2005.
Swift & Company (1920), The Meat Packing Industry in America. Swift & Company, Chicago, IL.
White, John W. (1986). The Great Yellow Fleet. Golden West Books, San Marino, CA. ISBN 0870950916.

2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (88th in Leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (88th in Leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format developed by Adobe Systems for representing documents in a manner that is independent of the original application software, hardware, and operating system used to create those documents. ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003) Events Media:January January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

American National Business Hall of Fame (http://www.anbhf.org/laureates/gfswift.html)
City of South San Francisco web site (http://www.ci.ssf.ca.us/about/history.asp)
Swift & Company corporate web site (http://www.swiftpremium.com/about_us/index.php?nav=about/)

Preceded by
self

Presidents of Swift & Company
1885 – 1903

Succeeded by:
Louis F. Swift (son)

Categories: 1839 births | 1903 deaths | Business leaders | Businesspeople | Chicagoans | Chicago history | Important people in rail transport 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasnt had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. ...

Results from FactBites:

The cases of Daniel McCallum and Gustavus Swift (991 words)
	Swift was a wholesale butcher in New England who moved west to Chicago in the 1870s.
	Swift was determined to bring order and efficiency to the process by controlling each step from ranch to retail store.
	Swift had a marketing division, a meat-packing division, a purchasing or stockyards division, a shipping division, a sales division, and an advertising division.

Illinois Business Hall of Fame, IBHF (865 words)
	Gustavus Franklin Swift was born on June 24, 1839, in Sagamore, Massachusetts.
	Swift also recognized that if he slaughtered cattle in Chicago and then shipped them; he would save on freight and feeding charges.
	Swift walked right into the meeting and stated, "You gentlemen think you might be better off by bringing financial pressure to bear on us.

More results at FactBites »

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