NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Swift and Company

Gustavus Franklin Swift (June 24, 1839–March 29, 1903) founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest during the late nineteenth century, over which he presided 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 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. ... 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 Subregnum 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, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He established Northwestern University's "School of Oratory" in memory of his daughter, Annie May Swift, who died 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. ... YMCAs in the United States and Canada use this logo. ... The Arch, the main entrance to Northwesterns Evanston campus Northwestern University is a private university which has its main campus in Evanston, Illinois, on a 240-acre (970,000 mÂ²) campus along the shore 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. "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. ...

1 The early years
2 Chicago and the birth of the meat-packing industry
3 References & external links
4 Further reading
5 See also

The early years

Swift was the second of three boys born to William Swift and Sally Crowell, descendants of British settlers who went to New England in the 17th century. The family (which included Gustavus’ brothers Noble and Edwin) lived and worked on a farm in the Cape Cod town of West Sandwich, Massachusetts (present-day Sagamore), where they raised and slaughtered cattle, sheep, and hogs. While the states marked in red show the core of New England, the regions cultural influence may cover a greater or lesser area than shown. ... (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 and the Massachusetts and Rhode Island coastline Cape Cod and Cape Cod Bay from space, April 1997. ... State nickname: Bay State Other U.S. States Capital Boston Largest city Boston Governor Mitt Romney (R) Official languages English Area 27,360 kmÂ² (44th) - Land 20,317 kmÂ² - Water 7,043 kmÂ² (25. ... A sagamore is the head of a Native American tribe. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Rainbow arching over a paddock of cattle Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... Binomial name Ovis aries Linnaeus, 1758 A sheep is any of several woolly ruminant quadrupeds, but most commonly the Domestic Sheep (Ovis aries), which probably descends from the wild moufflon of south-central and south-west Asia. ... HOG or hog can mean:- A pig, originally a castrated male pig. ...

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 only eight years. During that period he was employed in a number of odd jobs, finally finding full-time work in his elder 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 purchased livestock at the market in Brighton and drove them to Eastham, a ten-day journey. A shrewd businessman, he purportedly followed the somewhat common practice of denying his herds water during the last miles of the trip so that they would drink large quantities of liquid once they reached their final destination, effectively boosting their 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 meat. ... Sheep are commonly bred as livestock. ... Brighton on the southern Sussex coast is one of the largest and most famous seaside resorts in England. ... Eastham is a small town, located in the Wirral area of Merseyside, England. ...

Swift married Annie Maria Higgins of North Eastham in 1861. Over the years Annie gave 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 family to Brighton (near Boston), where in 1872 Swift became partner 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 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 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). ... New York State Capitol Building, completed in 1899 at a cost of $25 million was the most expensive government building of its time. ... 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 in Chicago's sprawling Union Stock Yards. Swift established himself as one of the dominant figures of "The Yards", and his distinctive delivery wagons became 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 railway 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. ... Location within the British Isles Hereford (Welsh: Henffordd (pronounced Henfuth)) is a historic city in the west of England, close to the border with Wales and on the River Wye. ... The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the United States â€“ forces coming mostly from the 23 northern states of the Union â€“ and the newly-formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of 11 southern states that had declared their secession. ... 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. ... 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-1800s to ship agricultural products via rail car. As early as 1842 the Western Railroad of Massachusetts was reported in the June 15 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 1851. This icebox on wheels was a limited success in that it was only able to function in cold weather. Events and Trends Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815). ... 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. ... 1851 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

An early refrigerator car design, circa 1870. Hatches in the roof provided access to the ice tanks at each end of the car.

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 resulted in discoloration and affected the taste, however, and therefore proved to be impractical. During the same period Swift experimented by moving cut meat using a string of ten boxcars which ran with their doors removed, and made a few test shipments to New York during the winter months over the Grand Trunk Railroad (GTR). The method proved too limited to be practical. Early refrigerator car design, circa 1870. ... Early refrigerator car design, circa 1870. ... 1870 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1857 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 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 (R) Official languages None (English is de facto) Area 141,205 kmÂ² (27th) - Land 122,409 kmÂ² - Water 18,795 kmÂ² (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 micture of ice and salt. 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). ...

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. 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 the United States, and even internationally, and in doing so radically altered the meat business. In physics, the center of gravity (CoG) of an object is the average location of its weight. ...

Swift's attempts to sell this design to the major railroads were unanimously rebuffed as the companies feared that 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 – when the American roads refused his business – he contracted with the GTR (a railroad that derived little income from transporting live cattle) to haul them into Michigan and then eastward through Canada. 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 (D) Official languages English Area 250,941 kmÂ² (11th) - Land 147,255 kmÂ² - Water 103,687 kmÂ² (41. ...

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 created. 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. ...

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.

Live cattle and dressed beef deliveries to New York (tons): 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). ... 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). ... The word ton or tonne is derived from the Old English tunne, and ultimately from the Old French tonne, and referred originally to a large cask with a capacity of 252 wine gallons, which holds approximately 2100 pounds of water. ...

	(Stock Cars)	(Refrigerator Cars)
Year	Live Cattle	Dressed Beef
1882	366,487	2,633
1883	392,095	16,365
1884	328,220	34,956
1885	337,820	53,344
1886	280,184	69,769

The subject cars travelled on the Erie, Lackawanna, New York Central, and Pennsylvania railroads. 1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1883 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1884 is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar). ... 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 9 - The United States of America is 40,000 days old. ... The Erie Railroad (AAR reporting mark ERIE) was a railroad that operated in New York State, connecting New York City with Lake Erie and several cities in upstate New York, including Binghamton, Buffalo and Dunkirk. ... The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company (DL&W or Lackawanna) (AAR reporting mark DLW) was a railroad connecting Pennsylvanias Lackawanna Valley, rich in anthracite coal, to New York City, Buffalo and Oswego, New York. ... 1918 map The New York Central Railroad (AAR reporting mark NYC), known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the North-Eastern United States. ... 1911 map The Pennsylvania Railroad (AAR reporting mark PRR) was an American railroad existing 1846â€“1968, after which it merged into Penn Central Transportation. ...

Source: Railway Review, January 29, 1887, p. 62. January 29 is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1887 is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ...

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 to overcome the skepticism of a public who soon came to prefer the low-cost, high-quality Swift meats, a trend that almost certainly forced some butcher's 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 9 - The United States of America is 40,000 days old. ...

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 U.S., but also in Honolulu, Tokyo, Osaka, Manila, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Great Britain. 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. ... Honolulu as seen from the International Space Station Honolulu is the largest city and the capital of the U.S. state of Hawai‘i. ... The modern skyline of Tokyo is highly decentralized. ... 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. ... Manila (Filipino: Maynila) is the capital city of the Philippines. ... Shanghai (Chinese: ä¸Šæµ·; pinyin: ; Shanghainese IPA: ), situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta, is Chinas largest city. ...

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
Saint Joseph, Missouri
Saint Louis, Missouri
South Saint Paul, Minnesota
South Omaha, Nebraska
Fort Worth, Texas
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 of 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 developed such a monopoly that the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the venture to disband in 1905. Sioux City is a city located in Western Iowa. ... City nickname: City of Fountains, Heart of the Nation Location in the state of Missouri Country State County United States Missouri Cass/Clay/Jackson/Platte Mayor Kay Barnes Area â€“Land â€“Water 318 sq. ... Saint Joseph (also known as St. ... The Gateway Arch, shown here behind the Old Courthouse, is the most recognizable part of the St. ... State capitol building in Saint Paul Saint Paul is the capital and second-largest city of the state of Minnesota in the United States. ... Location in Nebraska Founded -Incorporated 1854 1857 County Douglas County Mayor Michael Fahey Area - Total - Water 1290. ... Downtown Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located about 30 miles west of Dallas on the West Fork of the Trinity River. ... South San Francisco is a city located in San Mateo County, California. ... 1902 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Seal of the Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court in the United States of America. ... 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 use 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 meat. ... A carcass is a dead body, whether road kill or the Thanksgiving turkey in the refrigerator on the Friday. ... In anatomy, the viscera are the internal organs of an animal, in particular the internal organs of the head, thorax and abdomen. ... 1910 in topic: Arts Architecture- Art- Film- Literature- Music- Television Science and technology Aviation- Rail transport- Radio- Science Other topics Australia- Canada- Ireland- South Africa- Sport Births- Deaths Lists of leaders: State leaders - Religious leaders 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. ... SOAP is a standard for exchanging XML-based messages over a computer network, normally using HTTP. SOAP forms the foundation layer of the web services stack, providing a basic messaging framework that more abstract layers can build on. ... Historically, glue only refers to protein colloids prepared from animal tissues, such as hide glue, bone glue, or fish glue. ... Fertilizers or fertilisers are compounds given to plants with the intention of promoting growth; they are usually applied either via the soil, for uptake by plant roots, or by foliar spraying, for uptake through leaves. ... 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 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 publication 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) was a prolific (90 books) American author who wrote in many genres, often advocating Socialist views, and achieved considerable popularity in the first half of the 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-line) 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. Time Magazine, January 14, 1935 Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 â€“ April 7, 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and is credited with contributing to the creation of a middle class in American society. ...

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, colloquially known as the Second City and the Windy City, is the third-largest city in population in the United States and the largest inland city in the country. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian 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, the term vertical integration describes a style of ownership and control. ...

Swift devoted a great deal of time to 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 played 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 & external links

Gustavus Franklin Swift — American National Business Hall of Fame (2002)
Boyle, Elizabeth and Rodolfo Estrada (1994) "Development of the U.S. Meat Industry" — Kansas State University Department of Animal Sciences and Industry
Buenker, John D. (2000) "Swift, Gustavus Franklin" — American National Biography Online
Chandler, Alfred D. (1959), Integration and Diversification as Business Strategies — An Historical Analysis (PDF) — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Hessen, Robert (1993) "Capitalism" — The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics
Kutner, Jon Jr "Swift and Company" — The Handbook of Texas Online
Swift & Company (1920) The Meat Packing Industry in America. Swift & Company, Chicago, Illinois
White, Jr., John H. (1993). The American Railroad Freight Car. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. ISBN 0801852366
White, John W. (1986) The Great Yellow Fleet. Golden West Books, San Marino, California. ISBN 0870950916
City of South San Francisco web site
Swift & Company corporate web site

2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday 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. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian 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. ... 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). ... 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. ...

Contents

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