Hanson Van-Winkle Munning (H-VW-M) memories & memorabilia

A. Dear John,

I lived in Matawan in 1998-99, and was hired into the electroplating business by Walter Pike into M&T Chemicals, Rahway, NJ. Walt still lived in Matawan at that time (1979).

I noticed that the HVWM building still stands across from the train station in Matawan. Do you know who owns the building?

If you would like to donate the right to post said newsletters/photos, we could put a newsletter or photo up here at finishing.com.

A. Not many people know that the owner of Technic, Mr. Alfred Weisberg has a museum in Cranston, Rhode Island and two of the centerpieces are working models of HVWM return type machines. The story I heard is that Mr. Weisberg pulled the models out of the junk pile when HVWM closed up shop and emptied the building. I am certain that the museum would have a place for the memorabilia alongside the models.

I worked for H-VW-M (M&T Chemicals Equipment Division) in Matawan from 1967 to 1973 and remember at least the one model. I think they called it 'The Munning Machine'. Above each tank it had large trapezoidal loop tracks that the rack followed to lift it out of a tank, over the wall, and down into the next tank. I know that there were still a couple of those ancient machines in operation in the early seventies, but I never saw a real one, only the model.

I took a quick look through some old journals, and by 1948 the 'modern' H-VW-M return-type machine was already firmly established, making the Munning machine obsolete.

"I know that there were still a couple of those ancient machines in operation in the early seventies, but I never saw a real one, only the model. I took a quick look through some old journals, and by 1948 the 'modern' H-VW-M return-type machine was already firmly established, making the Munning machine obsolete."
A. I worked for the NCR Corp 1968-74. You may be interested that the Dayton factory, up until the mid 70s, was still running a half dozen of the old Munning machines, still with DC power from motor/generator sets from ?late? 1920s. The old timers pronounced them superior to rectifiers. And I believe it. They'd had only a change of brushes and bearings once a decade.

A. Hi, Sharon. I worked there from 1967 to 1973 or so, but by 1967 it was already the H-VW-M Division of M&T Chemical Co., an American Can Co. subsidiary rather than an independent company. It was located on Church Street, a block south of Broad Street. As a native, you might remember the enclosed bridge across Church Street, which joined the two halves of the factory, but probably had an "M&T Chemicals" sign or something else rather than H-VW-M.

Checking Google Earth, It looks like some of the buildings on the East Side are still standing, although converted to some other use. The buildings on the west side area gone -- that area looks like it was all simply razed and left to founder. I heard a rumor years ago that there was a toxic waste cleanup there and that's pretty much what the west side of the street looks like: like they ripped and dug and left it :-)

Hanson-Van Winkle-Munning was a manufacturer of electroplating equipment. At electroplating conventions in the old days, complete working plating machines were actually set up, and they would anodize or electroplate charms and keyring stuff on site at the show and give them out to the visitors; doubtless that's what you have. Times changed such that chemical operations like that can no longer be set up in convention centers. I joined the industry in the nick of time, and was able to attend the last covention with such working machines, at Detroit's Cobo Hall in 1967 :-)

Regards,

A. Hi Dan. H-VW-M made equipment and supplies for plating and metal finishing. I don't know why they would make any kinds of bricks. Does it sound possible that this "brick" could be a dried out bar of buffing compound? That sounds like something that they probably made, and it might resemble a lightweight brick after all the volatiles evaporated over the years.

I doubt that it's worth anything to anybody, but some day it will be really old, and then who knows :-)

Regards,

A. To Dan (from 2013) and Ted (from finishing.com)
Those 'bricks' are definitely polishing compound bars. I recently located a few dozen bars wrapped in newspaper from 1946! These are white bars and red bars with a logo marked 'Since 1820' Matawan, NJ and Anderson, Indiana.

My company was founded by my Dad in 1925 and he used these bars on a J.G. Blount buffing machine to polish metal fountain pen parts. They make great paper weights... and have some interesting history behind them!

A. Hi Susan. H-VW-M was a metal finishing company and I doubt that they ever made bricks or pottery making machines. Could this be a piece of buffing equipment rather than pottery equipment perhaps?

Regards,

A. Hello, Jean. Sorry, not familiar with it. A.K. Graham was the first editor of the "Electroplating Engineering Handbook", but I only have a later edition edited by Larry Durney.

In googling, though, I saw a tribute to a Harold Francis Burt-Gerrans, second son of Prof. Burt-Gerrans at http://sunderland1944.tripod.com/id19.html. I'm guessing he was your uncle?

Regards,

A. Hi Edna. Before my time, I'm afraid :-(

But New Brunswick Plating Co. maintains a library with all the journals ("Plating", "Metal Finishing", etc.) from the beginning of the industry. It's possible that their names appeared in industry news.

Regards,

A. Hi. Another item of H-VW-M / M&T Chemicals memorabilia we should probably mention is the "Plating poems" of J.M.Hosdowich

Luck & Regards,

Q. Is some of your grandfather's stuff still working?

     
Still plating in Greenville SC -- just did a PM on rectifier.

A. Thanks Tony. The Buehler Corporation bought H-VW-M (the Equipment Division of M&T Chemicals) from M&T and closed the Matawan plant and moved the business to Indiana in 1974. So this rectifier is post-1973 but probably not by much :-)

Luck & Regards,

A. Hi Caroline. I've watched Henry Lewis Gates' "Finding Your Roots" on PBS a couple of times and found it fascinating; and my sister and one of my cousins did Ancestry.com, and spoke highly of it -- but that's the limit of my experience with such things :-)

For myself, I started work for H-VW-M Division of M&T Chemicals (then a subsidiary of American Can Co., now a part of Atotech) in the summer of 1967 and stayed there 6 years until the H-VW-M division was sold to Buehler Corporation in Indiana and the Matawan location closed down.

In my time there I never met or heard of any of the descendants of Hanson, VanWinkle, or Munning. But we had buildings on both sides of Church St. in Matawan (between Main St. and Broad St.) connected by one of those over-the-street enclosed walking bridges. When this discussion started in 1999 the buildings on one side still existed but GoogleEarth shows no remnants at all anymore. I don't know of any plating industry related museums besides the reference by Claude Noiseux to Alfred Weisberg (deceased 2013) and Cranston RI, which has now apparently become a part of the Providence Jewelry Museum (see https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20170420/museum-works-to-restore-some-of-providences-glory-as-fashion-jewelry-capital-of-world). There should be info and maybe a model of the Weston dynamo built by H-VW-M somewhere, but sorry I don't know where. Unfortunately NJ is not very deep into preservation.

If you send your mailing address to mooney@finishing.com I'll send you a couple of industry magazines from about 1950 where you can see their ads. But if you truly want to do research related to H-VW-M, the plating industry, and your great grandfather, you could spend some time at New Brunswick Plating [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] which has the largest plating library in the world, including all the journals (magazines) and conference proceedings going back even to the early days when your great grandpa was active. We'd be happy to put your e-mail address on your posting if you want other H-VW-M progeny to contact you (but maybe get a special gmail e-mail address because spam might be a problem if publicly posted). Good luck.

Luck & Regards,