Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 178

Charles H. Morgan, and others, almost went out of existence near the turn of the century. Gross proceeds of the plant in 1896, the year the Trustees authorized disposal of the elevator business, were $109,000. The financial statement two years later showed a gross income from sales of only $20,800. There was no substantial increase in the volume of business from then until 1903.

Whether the accelerating growth of the elevator business would eventually have made the Shop the dominating department of the institution, as many feared, will always be an historical conjecture. It is certain, however, that even though net income from this department was not large, Washburn Shop activities and products were making the Institute known in many parts of the world. The shop committee, in its 1896 report, stated that commercial transactions for the first twenty-seven years had totalled nearly a million dollars. The gain of more than $6,000 a year for the previous six years, exclusive of income on endowment, clearly demonstrated to them that a school shop could be made self-supporting. Like many another enterprise, however, this one could not survive the clash of personalities that was a constant factor in its operations.

The elevator business, which had produced $75,000 gross in 1895-96 was quietly disposed of by the shop committee to the Worcester Plunger Elevator Co., consisting of Mr. Higgins, Professor Alden, and others, for about $21,000. Actual payments on this account were less than $19,000, for in 1898, $2,300 was written off. Elevators were manufactured by this company for a number of years thereafter. The business was then sold to a national elevator company, at what profit on the investment has never been disclosed.

During Dr. Mendenhall's term death removed from the Board of Trustees two of its valued members. judge P. Emory Aldrich, president of the Corporation, died March 14, 1895; Hon. William W. Rice, representative of the State

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999