Talk:Allis-Chalmers

Minor edits, 2005
added some minor edits.

kansas abbrv. is ks, not ka.

np, though. :)

24.124.89.21 02:15, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

More edits, 2006
The name West Allis derives from Edward P. Allis,[6] whose Edward P. Allis Company was a large Milwaukee-area manufacturing firm in the late 19th century. In 1901, the Allis company became Allis-Chalmers, and in 1902 built a large new manufacturing plant west of its existing plant. The locale in which the new plant was constructed was at the time called North Greenfield, and prior to the 1880s had been called Honey Creek. With the building of the western Allis plant, the area was incorporated as the Village of West Allis, and it became the City of West Allis in 1906.[7] With the presence of Allis-Chalmers, the largest manufacturer in the area, West Allis became the largest suburb of Milwaukee in the early 20th century.[8] After that, West Allis grew quickly. Between 1910 and 1930, its population grew fivefold.[9] After 1965, the Allis-Chalmers company's fortunes had turned. By 1985, Allis-Chalmers's global workforce had shrunk to 13,000 from its peak of 31,000.[10] Since then, West Allis has had some success attracting other employers, such as Quad Graphics.[11]Made some edits myself. Have a few more I'm working on, later. Vegetaman 13:00, 15 August 2006

Tiny fraction, feeble, 2006
Tractors are a tiny fraction of the Allis-Chalmers story. With all due respect to the tractor buffs, this is pretty feeble at best. [unsigned]

Geographic Nomenclature
The Allis Chalmers conglomerate, named for the two founders, had major manufacturing facilities in a western suburb of Milwaukee, known for some time as West Allis. I'll let others fill in the details, but it's probably of encyclopedic importance to tie the city name to a founder of this company.

Elsewhere in wikipedia (under 'West Allis'): """""""The name West Allis derives from Edward P. Allis,[6] whose Edward P. Allis Company was a large Milwaukee-area manufacturing firm in the late 19th century. In 1901, the Allis company became Allis-Chalmers, and in 1902 built a large new manufacturing plant west of its existing plant. The locale in which the new plant was constructed was at the time called North Greenfield, and prior to the 1880s had been called Honey Creek. With the building of the western Allis plant, the area was incorporated as the Village of West Allis, and it became the City of West Allis in 1906.[7] With the presence of Allis-Chalmers, the largest manufacturer in the area, West Allis became the largest suburb of Milwaukee in the early 20th century.[8] After that, West Allis grew quickly. Between 1910 and 1930, its population grew fivefold.[9] After 1965, the Allis-Chalmers company's fortunes had turned. By 1985, Allis-Chalmers's global workforce had shrunk to 13,000 from its peak of 31,000.[10] Since then, West Allis has had some success attracting other employers, such as Quad Graphics.[11]""""""""Homebuilding (talk) 19:24, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Fuel cell tractor edits, 2006
I added a bulletin noting the Hydrogen fuel cell tractor Allis-Chalmers made in 1959. I cut and paste it directly from the Wiki on fuel cells. I think it is important that it is mentioned here. All deference to the person above, please add the history you know about Allis Chalmers to the wiki. I came here because I wanted to know more. Used to work in there plant in West Allis, but at that time it was owned by Siemens Bzhayes 01:31, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Underdeveloped, 2010
What about the Construction Machinery Division? Or the fuel cell kits used as a promo for the fuel cell group? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.179.234.242 (talk) 14:24, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Still underdeveloped, 2010
[Quoted from above:]

"Tractors are a tiny fraction of the Allis-Chalmers story"? "Feeble at best"?

With all due respect to the previous post I would like to say that without Allis Chalmers being involved in the agriculture equipment business then the "Allis Chalmers Story" would probably have ended back in the 1920's or 1930's. It was a big gamble for A-C to get involved in the production of tractors back in 1914. It took a long time for Allis to grow into a major power in the tractor business, but if not for the eventual success of the ag division then it is doubtful that A-C would have survived the Great Depression intact. I'll put it this way....if you ask 100 people who KNOW about Allis Chlamers, why they know about it, then I would bet that at least 80 to 85% of those people would say they know about Allis Chalmers because of the Persian Orange farm equipment that they see around the world still in service today. Sure the industrial equipment was well known.....Sure the power and energy stuff was great......It is true that many of the other things Allis Chalmers did was awesome, but if not for the backbone of the Ag Equipment Division then it is doubtful that the other projects would have had a chance to begin, because it was the sale of millions of farm tractors that kept the company in operation until 1985. -AllCrop90 VA


 * I agree that "tiny fraction" was a big exaggeration by that commenter. Not the whole story, true, but certainly at least half of it nonetheless. AC led the way in ag equipment in various respects (e.g., pneumatic tires in 1930s/40s, combine design 1930s through 1960s), and AC's position in the ag equipment industry in the 1930s to 1960s kind of reminds me of Chrysler's position in the automotive industry during the same era: not the biggest player, but possibly the one with the best engineering efforts. But that comment above was made over 4 years ago (in 2006), and keep in mind that Wikipedia even in 2006 was a lot skimpier than it is now. Maybe this article was pretty feeble at the time the comment was made. Even now it'd be cool if it were even better. But it ain't bad for free. And we all know what the answer is when someone bitches about lack of WP content development: "This is done by volunteers. No one's stoppin you from fillin in the gaps yourself, pal." Cheers, — ¾-10 02:49, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Golf carts
Did Allis-Chalmers build a whole series of golf carts or was it only a single prototype? --87.144.120.216 (talk) 17:45, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Expansion with refs, February 2013
I just did a large expansion of the article, with refs. It is no longer a stub with more gaps than coverage. But there is still plenty of potential for more expansion and more refs, though. It is easier to cover the details of the farm and construction lines than it is to cover those of the mill, mine, powerplant, and other industrial lines. But at least all lines are now introduced in the article. — ¾-10 22:10, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

Deerfield plant
Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but I'm having difficulty figuring where to post it asan FYI for real editor(s):

I'm not interested in editing/adding anything to this wiki myself, because I only have a vague idea of the dates. (I believe it was 1961-1963, but that's a guess. It was a long time ago ;) I have to comment on the lack of mention of the Allis-Chalmers plant in Deerfield, Illinois. (If I'm blind, please forgive my shortcomings. And I think I have the flu right now, so don't touch your monitor until you've debugged it. ;)) I know it was there because I worked at the plant in the early 60s. We assembled front-end loaders, and some time during the last year I was there they started making articulated FE loaders. I was kind of a jack-of-all-trades, pulling repair orders from the warehouse, driving the stake-bed truck to and from said warehouse, building crates for shipping large parts like axle assemblies, packing those assemblies for shipment, and near the end of my stint I was in charge of the parts yard where the big stuff was stored until a customer needed something.

A funny story: It got darn cold in the winter, and one day the temp was -23 degrees for a HIGH. Loaders were assembled to the point where the could be driven to the yard and parked until retrieved to fill an order. The drill in cold weather (they were 24-volt systems) was to bring a warm, fully charged battery out to the rig, install it, and then crank. If it didn't start the next step was to shoot starter fluid (basically ether) into the air cleaner while cranking. One unit was being exceptionally recalcitrant, and they kept spraying ether into the intake. (I was in my shack in the parts yard while this was going on - had an oil heater in there, so it was cozy.) Anyhow, all of a sudden there was this tremendous BANG. The crankcase cover/oil pan/whatever had blown clean off the block. I didn't follow up, but I imagine those two guys had a pretty bad day after that. Oh, and it probably wasn't funny to them. :D — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dscharfenorth (talk • contribs) 02:16, 10 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Ha ha! Poor guys. Thanks for the story. As you pointed out, Deerfield was missing from the "Former sites" section. I added it there. The article now mentions Deerfield in that spot and in the timeline (ctrl-f "Deerfield" to see them). Cheers, — ¾-10 00:06, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Allis-Chalmers LaPorte Branch Strike in 1938 or 1939
My grandfather worked at Allis-Chalmers from the time they opened in LaPorte, Indiana until he retired. I found some pictures he took of the strike and the march, and some horsing around. I don't see any mention of this, would anyone be interested in looking into this? I think my grandmother later put the dates on the back and apparently she couldn't remember which year. I would be happy to share the pics. Starrcrossed (talk) 02:59, 10 July 2022 (UTC)