Henry Timken

Notable people · Business · Inventor

Henry Timken

St. Louis carriage maker who, with his nephew Reginald Heinzelman, patented a tapered roller bearing in 1898 and founded the Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company, which moved to Canton in 1901 and has been one of Stark County's largest employers since.

Born August 16, 1831, Tarmstedt, Kingdom of Hanover (now Lower Saxony, Germany)
Died March 16, 1909, Los Angeles or San Diego, California (sources differ)

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: August 16, 1831, Tarmstedt, Kingdom of Hanover (now Lower Saxony, Germany) source
Died: March 16, 1909, Los Angeles or San Diego, California (sources differ) source
Buried: Greenwood Memorial Park, San Diego (Magnolia Place, Lot 1, Grave 10) source
Also known as: Heinrich Timken, H. Timken
Known as: Business, Inventor
Organizations: Timken Company

Life story

Heinrich Timken was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1831. His family emigrated when he was seven and settled in Missouri, where he apprenticed with a carriage builder.

He opened his own carriage shop in St. Louis in 1855 and patented a carriage spring. In 1898 he patented an improved tapered roller bearing, and in 1899 the Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company was set up.

He retired to San Diego in 1887, came back to St. Louis business in 1891, then returned to San Diego. He died there in 1909 and is buried at Greenwood Memorial Park.

The Ohio part belongs to his sons: they moved the bearing company to Canton in 1901. The company grew into the dominant U.S. bearing maker. He entered the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1998.

Ohio ties

Canton (1901-1909)
president of the Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company after he and his sons moved it from St. Louis to Canton in 1901 Stark County · source
Canton (1901-present)
home of the company he founded, one of Canton's largest employers for nearly a century; TimkenSteel is still headquartered there Stark County · source
Jackson Township (North Canton) (to present)
headquarters of the Timken Company Stark County · source

Timeline

1831 Born on 16 August in Tarmstedt, in the Kingdom of Hanover. source
1838 His family sailed from Bremerhaven and reached New Orleans on 12 November, then went up the Mississippi to St. Louis and in July 1839 settled near Sedalia, Missouri. source
1847 Left the family farm at 16 for St. Louis, where he apprenticed to carriage maker Caspar Schurmeier. source
1855 Opened his own carriage-building company in St. Louis. source
1861 Served through the Civil War, three years of it as a captain in the Missouri Militia. source
1877 Patented the Timken cross spring for carriages after nearly ten years of work, and built a large factory on St. Charles Street in St. Louis. source
1881 Received a further patent for a vehicle spring on 29 March, one of several carriage patents of the period. source
1887 Retired at 56 to San Diego and invested in real estate; he returned to the business in 1892. source
1892 Spent about six months in Europe with his son H. H. Timken studying anti-friction bearings. source
1895 Incorporated the Timken Carriage Company and was elected president of the Carriage Builders' National Association. source
1898 He and his nephew Reginald Heinzelman of St. Louis received U.S. Patents 606,635 and 606,636 on 28 June for roller bearings with conical rollers, assigned half to his sons William R. and Henry H. Timken. source
1899 The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company was incorporated in St. Louis on 15 December with $100,000 in paid-in capital; Henry was president. source
1901 Timken and his two sons moved the company to Canton, Ohio, for its nearness to the automobile and steel centers of Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. source
1909 Died on 16 March; his son H. H. Timken stayed in Canton to run the bearing company, and W. R. Timken founded the Timken-Detroit Axle Company in Detroit. source
1917 The company began making its own steel and tubing in Canton. source
1923 Timken produced about 90 percent of the bearings made in the United States. source
1998 Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame on 19 September at a ceremony at E. J. Thomas Hall in Akron. source
2014 The Timken Company and TimkenSteel split on 30 June; the bearing company moved to Jackson Township and TimkenSteel stayed in Canton. source

What Henry is known for

Patented a tapered roller bearing (June 28, 1898, with R. Heinzelman, per a search summary)
Timken company moved to Canton, Ohio, December 2, 1901 (by his sons)
Tapered roller bearing patent, 1898
Timken buggy spring

Stories

A carriage maker's spring

Timken learned carriage building in St. Louis as an apprentice to Caspar Schurmeier and started his own shop around 1855. After a fire destroyed it in 1864, he rebuilt it on modern factory lines. He spent nearly ten years developing a cross spring for carriages, patented it in 1877, built a large factory on St. Charles Street, and from 1883 advertised regularly in Harper's Weekly. The spring made his fortune, though the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled the patent lacked enough novelty. He tried to retire to San Diego in 1887 but came back in 1892, and his New Timken Side Spring won an award at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Source

A bearing for wheels that turn

The bearing that Henry Timken and his nephew Reginald Heinzelman patented on 28 June 1898 put conical rollers between a conical sleeve fixed on the axle and a conical box fixed in the wheel hub. Because the rollers and races were tapered, the bearing could carry the sideways thrust of a vehicle turning as well as its weight. Annular ribs on the sleeve ran in matching grooves in the rollers to keep them from twisting or sliding out, and an adjusting nut moved the rollers in or out evenly to take up wear. Half the rights were assigned to Timken's sons William R. and Henry H. Timken, who would run the company built on it.

Source

Why Canton

The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company began in December 1899 in the St. Louis carriage works, with Henry as president and his sons running it. By 1901 the automobile was overtaking the carriage, and the automobile industry was the largest buyer of anti-friction bearings. Timken and his sons chose Canton, Ohio, for its position between the steel and automobile centers of Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Detroit, and moved the company there that year. Henry never ran the company himself; in 1909 his son H. H. Timken stayed in Canton to direct it while W. R. Timken went to Detroit to found the Timken-Detroit Axle Company.

Source

Inventions and firsts

All Ohio inventions and firsts

Tapered roller bearing (1898-1901)

Honors and things named for them

National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1998 (Sept. 19)
Timken Museum of Art, Balboa Park, San Diego, carries the family name

Named for Henry Timken

The Timken Company (headquarters) (Jackson Township (North Canton), Stark County) source
TimkenSteel Corporation (Canton, Stark County) source
Timken Museum of Art, Balboa Park (established with his fortune) (San Diego, California) source

Family

great-grandson: William R. Timken Jr.

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments.

Timken Company works, Canton (company moved here from St. Louis in 1901) (unknown)
Canton Stark County · source
Henry Timken grave, Greenwood Memorial Park (Magnolia Place, Lot 1, Grave 10)
San Diego, California source
Timken House, his last residence (unknown)
San Diego, California source

Ohio places

Where Henry Timken was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Worked: Canton, Stark County ZIP 44702 · Canton · Stark County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Henry Timken, and what the record shows.

Often said Henry Timken alone invented the tapered roller bearing.

The record Both of the 1898 bearing patents, 606,635 and 606,636, name Henry Timken and his nephew Reginald Heinzelman of St. Louis as joint inventors, with half the rights assigned to his sons William R. and Henry H. Timken. The National Inventors Hall of Fame describes the design as the work of Timken, his two sons and a nephew. source

Often said Timken founded his bearing company in Canton.

The record The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company was incorporated in St. Louis on 15 December 1899 and moved to Canton only in 1901. source

Often said Henry Timken was born in the city of Bremen.

The record The German Historical Institute's Immigrant Entrepreneurship biography gives his birthplace as Tarmstedt, a village in the Kingdom of Hanover; his great-grandson's biography describes Tarmstedt as near Bremen, and the family sailed from Bremerhaven. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

U.S. Patent 606,635, Roller-Bearing for Vehicles (Henry Timken and Reginald Heinzelman) 1898, Google Patents
U.S. Patent 606,636, Roller bearing (Henry Timken and Reginald Heinzelman) 1898, Google Patents
Patent drawing, H. Timken: Vehicle Spring (NARA 350267091), sheet 1 1881, National Archives (RG 241)
Christina Lubinski, 'Henry Timken', Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies (German Historical Institute) 2011, German Historical Institute

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company ad for rear axles and artillery wheels, January, 1905
Public domain
Benz Vis-à-vis car imported from Mannheim by Oscar Mueller and entered in the Chicago Times-Herald car races o...
Public domain
Henry Timken, United States industrialist.
Public domain
Patent drawing, H. Timken: Vehicle Spring, 29 March 1881
Public domain
British Timken, Birmingham, advertisement (1922)
Public domain
Advertisement announcing British Timken at Olympia, Stand No 302 (1919)
Public domain
Advertisement announcing British Timken at Olympia, Stand No 345 (1922)
Public domain
No known restrictions
Persistent URL: digital.lib.miamioh.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/pos... Subject: Industrial facilities; M...
No known restrictions
Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company advertisement, 1919
Public domain
Logo of Timken Company
Public domain
Timken_Museum_of_Art
CC0