Wendell Whip, the Father of the Modern Lathe

INVENTORS OF LATHE

Henry Maudslay was a British inventor who invented the first metal lathe in 1797. Industrial Revolution.

Wendell Whip, the Father of the Modern Lathe

In 1909 lathe design had not changed much in the past 20 to 30 years. Overhead shafts belted to the lathe’s headstock had most displaced human power. There were some first attempts at mulity-geared headstock, but these were nosy and left tooth impulse marks on the workpiece. The first quick change gearboxes to allow easier change of feeds or threads, were entering usage. For the most part, a lathe built in 1899 or 1889 look very much like those being made in 1909.

In 1908 a small lathe manufacturing company was moved back to Sidney, Ohio, and renamed The Monarch Machine Company which opened for business Oct. 4 1909. Sidney at that time was a quiet town of some 12,000, located in western Ohio long the Great Miami River. Sidney was progressive for the times by actively recruiting companies to move to the small town. One of these companies was the Sebastian-May company of Cincinnati and Hamilton, Ohio, which made among other industrial tools, lathes. Sebastian-May moved into their new factory in July of 1890. Sebastian would sell out to Sidney native A. P Wagner, in 1892, and move back to Cincinnati and start a new company bearing his name. In 1898, the now A. P. Wagner Co. moved to Detroit, MI. In 1905 the Sidney Machine Works would open in the old Sebastian-May factor. Sidney Machine started manufacturing wood working machinery, but would eventual make metal working lathes, and change their name to Sidney Machine Tool Co.

The man that connected all these companies was I. H. Thedieck. Thedieck, and German immigrant, made his fortune in retailing. He was also the driving force in Sidney’s commercial club whose aim was to bring new companies to Sidney, which in turn would bring more workers to the town and thus more opportunity for sales at his store. Thedieck loan money to Wagner, who was married to Thediek’s cousin, and in 1908 called in the loan. This provided the origins for Monarch, when Thedieck moved the machinery and engineering drawings back to Sidney. (See Shelby county historical group web site for more of Monarch’s history http://www.shelbycountyhistory.org/).

The lathes Monarch first built traces their design back to Sebastian-May, which by 1909 were indistinguishable from any other lathe. Monarch would struggle in its early years with a constant changing general managers, with the longest being A. C. Getz, who was also the president of Sidney Machine. Thedieck finally realized he was over his head with manufacturing, and he needed someone he could trust that also had a manufacturing background. This man would be his son-in-law, Wendell Whipp.

Whipp was working for John Patterson at the National Cash Register (NCR) in Dayton, Ohio. In the early 1900’s, NCR was the prime training grounds for managers. Many future company presidents had their start at NCR. In 1912, Whipp agreed to join Monarch as plant manager. Once in Sidney, Whipp found Monarch was drowning in red ink. He capitalized on Monarch’s lathes one outstanding feature, they were cheap. He worked to make the manufacturing as efficient as possible, while he also pushed to open doors to sell more lathes. His biggest obstacle was the low quality of the Monarchs. They were the cheap junk machines of their day, that people bought because they could not afford anything else. Whipp quickly realized for Monarch to succeed, the quality of the design had to improve as well as adding feature to start distinguishing the Monarch from other lathes.

Whipp would lead Monarch in a long series of lathe improvements starting with a quick change gearbox in 1912. This quick change gearbox proved to be a good improvement, but unfortunately it infringed on patents held by Flanther Lathe Co., of Naushua, N.H. On learning of the infringement, Flanther was on the first train bound for Sidney. Once at Monarch, Whipp and his engineers so impressed Flanther that he agreed to license his patent at a greatly reduced rate. Undeterred, Monarch continued to improve their lathe design, at the same time introducing more models. By 1918 Monarch had a complete line of lathes from 10” swing to 30” swing, but more importantly, the changes in design, materials, and quality resulted in a lathe that would make parts others lathes could not.

One of the most important features of the modern lathe was the invention of the Clutch-Actuating Device for Lathes, patented by Whipp (Patent #159700) in1924. This would be Monarch’s first of many patents, and one that resulted in a quantum leap in lathe control. This feature was soon copied by all major lathe builders in order for them to stay competitive with Monarch. Adding this feature to the helical gear headstock developed in 1923, pushed Monarch to front of the lathe builders. Whipp would be award a patent for this headstock in 1928. In 1929 Monarch adopted flange type spindle nose, and by 1935 Monarch would help develop the Camlock spindle nose. In the early 1930’s Monarch would be the first lathe builder to adopt anti-friction bearings in all rotating shafts, automatic lubrication to all wear surfaces, Timken roller bearings in the headstock, and in 1936 flame hardening of lathe beds was invented. This gave Monarch the first truly modern lathe, all under the direction of Wendell Whipp. All these features have changed little since.

An example of the results of these improvements was the change in spindle speed. Top speed in 1925 was around 300 rpm, five years later Monarch demonstrated a 16” lathe with top speed of 4,400 rpms (a world record at the time). From 1924 to 1936 Monarch received over 20 patents related to lathe development. Whipp even insisted that the paint of the lathe had to reflect the quality of Monarch’s lathes when in 1926 Monarch adopted the use of auto lacquer for the finish of their lathes. Lead by Whipp, Monarch led the industry in lathe development, not only for tool room and engine lathes, but also for production lathes and automatic lathe controls. Monarch was the first lathe manufacturer to introduce tracer controls, in 1930. In the span of 20 years Whipp transformed Monarch lathe’s from being cheap throw-a-ways to the industry standard, and he did so by keeping them affordable. Nearly all the features manual lathe users take for granted today, traces their roots back to The Monarch in the 1920’s and 30’s.

Whipp drown in a boating accident in 1957. At the time he was retired as president, but was still chairman of the boards. He lived long enough to see his company demonstrate the first NC control lathe in 1955, and the introduction of Monarch super lathes that would be produced for the next 40 years. He also left a legacy of managers that faithfully kept The Monarch the leading lathe manufacturer for the next 40 years.

For his contribution to making the modern lathe, Wendell E. Whipp should be included in the Machine Tool Hall of Fame