Henry Timken - Biography

Inventor, born in Bremen, Germany. He went to the USA as a child and, disliking life on a Missouri farm, learned the wagonmaker's trade, and by 1855 had established his own carriage-making business in St Louis. Most of his patents were for carriage improvements, including the Timken spring that made his fortune. He also invented and gave his name to a tapered roller bearing. He continued in the carriage business until 1897, when he retired to California.

He founded the Timken Company in 1899, which is located in Canton, Ohio. Timken was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame on September 19, 1998.

William Robert Timken, Jr., Timken's great-grandson, the retired chairman and chief executive officer of The Timken Co, and who is the current United States Ambassador to Germany, received the award on behalf of his great-grandfather. "Tim" Timken ushered his family's bearings and steel maker from old-school management into manufacturing's modern era.

Biography

Henry Timken created a tapered roller bearing in 1898. By 1923, 90% of the country's production came from Timken.

Emigrating to America as a child with his family, he left the family's Missouri farm to enter the wagon-making business. He opened his own company in St. Louis in 1855, and introduced several improvements to the carriages his firm produced, including his patented "Timken spring", which made him a fortune. Other patents included the Timken roller bearing.