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rom grist mills to precision screeners and computer-controlled analyzers - a century and a half of innovative response to customer needs. In 2004, as we celebrate our 160th year, ROTEX is now the oldest manufacturer of capital goods in the Cincinnati community.
Our history began in 1837. A 44 year old pattern maker named Isaac Straub was working for a company along the waterfront, when he had an idea for a much improved grist mill, better than any he saw being made at the time.
Isaac Straub worked on his idea part-time, and then applied for and received a patent on his invention of a new grist mill. Straub called his invention The Queen of the South. In 1844, he started the Straub Mill Company to make his mills – this was the beginning of ROTEX. Straub located his plant in a large facility along the waterfront. He soon added other grist mills to the line, as well as other mill supply items. He made bolting machines, or reels as they were called, to sift flour.
Straub’s mills used the best buhrstones available – French buhrstones from the river Seine in France. Straub sent patterns for stones to France, the stones were cut and shipped to Cincinnati. The stones were so heavy sailing ships laid them along the keel as ballast during the ocean voyage.
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A Queen of the South mill |
uring the 1840’s and 50’s, a number of other local companies also made grist mills and mill supply items. Many of them, including Straub, manufactured steam engines to power the line shafts that ran the mill equipment. They also used their manufacturing capacity to make hardware and cast items for steamboats constructed in Cincinnati.
Competition was fierce during the 20 years after Straub founded his company. One chief competitor was a local firm named Burrows. Apparently, Straub’s Queen of the South mill was superior to Burrows’ and Straub was confident enough to take out an ad challenging Burrows. The advertisement read “…you can draw a few hundred dollars as stakes to put up. Come Boys – Don’t be cowardly…” The advertisement also shows a list of distributors and agents, which illustrates the geographic area covered by his sales. Straub mills were sold all along the Ohio River and down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
In 1863, Robert Simpson moved to Cincinnati from Davenport, Iowa to become the first general agent in this area for the Mutual Benefit Insurance Company of Newark, New Jersey. After a year, he started investing in some local ventures. He talked to Isaac Straub, now age 70, to see if he would be interested in selling his grist mill business. Isaac Straub said he would sell his business if he could stay on in some capacity. He also wanted his son, Henry Straub, to continue to have some role. The deal was consummated, and Robert Simpson purchased the Straub Mill Company.
Robert Simpson hired a man named Gault to run the company, renamed the company Simpson & Gault, and the company flourished. Isaac Straub continued with the company, saying “I am old in years as well as experience, but the old mechanical fire still burns.” Then, at age 73, Straub invented and patented yet another improvement to the Queen of the South mills, saying, “I am persuaded the old Queen of the South will stand peerless at the head of grinding mills, and fear no rival.”
Simpson & Gault reached its zenith in sales and reputation in the 1870’s. Over 4,000 Queen of the South mills had been sold by that time. Corrugated steel rolls, introduced from Austria, were rapidly becoming the state of the art method for grinding grains into flour. In addition to grist mills, old line companies now made anything and everything they could to utilize their capacity and survive.
Gault, the man Robert Simpson had hired, did not respond to the new challenge, and left the company. Isaac Straub died in 1875, just eight days after his 81st birthday. A new technology for grinding grains would soon end the era of grist mill production.
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Robert Simpson, first of four generations of Simpson management, and the Queen of the South |
obert Simpson's son, Orville, assumed control of the company at age 25. Orville Simpson changed the name to Straub Machinery Company to again take advantage of Straub’s excellent reputation in buhrstone mills. The company managed enough business to continue through the turn of the century.
In 1906, Orville Simpson’s son, Lowe, joined the company at age 19. He immediately evidenced his mechanical genius by designing and building roll mill corrugators, which were used by the company for the service business of re-dressing the huge corrugated steel rolls for flour millers.
In 1910, the company moved to a new plant it had designed and built on Knowlton Street – our present location. That same year, the company name was changed to The Orville Simpson Company. The original plant was built 12 feet off grade, so that spring floods would pass underneath. There was even an elevated walkway at the back so employees could walk to high ground during floods. Most of the employees were German. Just before lunch, the youngest man would take a long pole with pails on it up to Charlie Behlor’s saloon – Charlie would fill each employee’s pail with beer and the pole with the beer pails would be brought back in time for lunch. Talk about benefits!
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An original ROTEX Screener (front) and a Queen of the South (rear). |
n 1912, a flour miller in Chillicothe, Ohio wanted a device to clean up his flour after grinding. As a favor to the miller, Lowe Simpson designed and patented a new sifter, which was state of the art at the time. The flour miller was thrilled and other millers soon ordered sifters of the same design. One year later, Lowe Simpson had ROTEX stenciled on a sifter going to a miller in Kentucky.
The last Queen of the South mill was shipped in 1918 – 74 years after its introduction. The new ROTEX Screener would save the company as the old grist mills, like horse-drawn buggies, faded from the American scene.
Through the following decades, the ROTEX Screener design was improved and the model line expanded. In 1925, a patented counterbalanced drive was invented permitting higher production while maintaining screening accuracy. 1935 saw the introduction of "bouncing ball" automatic screen cleaning, bringing a new level efficiency to screening. In 1939, Lowe Simpson became President of the company. ROTEX Screeners were now used in over 1,200 leading processors, and installed in countries around the world.
At age 70, after 51 years of service, Lowe Simpson retired in 1957. His son, Jeremy, followed as President when he was 25. Lowe Simpson left a legacy of numerous patents on screening machines, as well as many other devices as diverse as the mechanical linkage that raises hydrofoil crafts out of the water to a four-cycle in-line marine gas engine. Of most importance to ROTEX was Lowe Simpson’s favor to a flour miller in Chillicothe, Ohio, 82 years ago, when he designed the first ROTEX.
owe Simpson died in 1968 at the age of 82. He had been up late the night before working on an improvement to a new patented screening device. He could easily echo Isaac Straub’s words 100 years earlier, "I may be old, but the mechanical fire still burns." Lowe Simpson’s sifter design is still our principal product, although this is rapidly changing today.
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A screening technician works in the ROTEX Laboratory to help determine the appropriate machine size, optimum screen openings and machine settings. |
In 1974, the company name was changed to ROTEX – a name familiar to our customers. Also, a name that would launch a new and exciting era for the company.
In 1988, after 31 years as President, Jeremy Simpson became Chairman and Alex Young was elected President – the first non-Simpson President in 124 years. From the early sixties until this day, we have assembled a team of people in our plant and office who are second to none.
In 1995, Bill Lower succeeded Alex Young as President. Alex Young continued to serve as Chairman until his retirement in 1997 after 36 years of service. Bill Lower oversaw the globalization of Rotex Inc. culminating with the purchase, in 2001, of our longtime European Licensee, Locker Industries.
In 2001 ROTEX continued to expand with the purchase of European Licensee, Locker Industries and Thomas Locker, which were respectively founded in the United Kingdom in 1879 and Belgium in 1959. The European headquarters and manufacturing facilities are in Warrington, UK and sales offices are in Wavre, Belgium, Warrington, and Grenoble, France.
In 2002, Bill Herkamp was elected to succeed Bill Lower as President and was named CEO in 2004. Today ROTEX Global continues its tradition of innovation into the 21st century. Combining modern facilities and state-of-the-art techniques to assure continuing adherence to quality and reliability.
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Combining modern facilities and state-of-the-art techniques to assure continuing adherence to quality and reliability. |
