 The world's largest Refrigerating Machine built by De La Vergne for Anheuser-Busch in 1892. Vergne Engine Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York to enable the com- pany to do erecting work in Texas. An extract from the certificate of incorporation reads as follows: "The purposes for which said corporation is to be formed are to manufacture, build, con- |
struct, repair, equip, purchase or otherwise acquire, deal in, hold, own, mortgage, sell, im- port and export any and all kinds of machinery and plants, and any and all kinds of implements, machines, tools, castings, furnishings, and any and all kinds of materials for use or which may be used in manufacturing, building, erecting, and using any of the foregoing." Because the financial control was possessed by German subjects, in 1917 the property was seized by the Alien Property Custodian of the United States. In 1918 the business was purchased by the William Cramp & Sons Ship and Engine Building Company. Still pioneering, Cramp Ship operated the De La Vergne plant for the United States Navy Department and built 200 Lawrence 9-cylinder radial aircraft motors for the government. Subse- quently, the Wright Brothers adopted this design, which became their standard for the airplane built by them. facturing plant had always been located in the Bronx, New York City. At that time R. Hoe & Company bought the land and buildings and all De La Vergne operations moved into the Phila- delphia shops of the I. P. Morris, a Cramp sub- sidiary and at present a subsidiary of the Baldwin- Southwark Corporation. The Baldwin Locomotive Works, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Bald- win-Southwark Corporation, acquired the De La first and only "De La Vergne Hunting Trap." |
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