From Bricks to Pumps and Beyond
The year was 1892, and Chicago builders needed a vast supply of construction material to fuel the city’s rapid expansion. A smart young businessman named James B. Tuthill recognized a good business opportunity when he saw one, so he purchased a local clay quarry and a kiln and began supplying Chicago common bricks to local construction firms.
An entrepreneur at heart, Tuthill searched for an efficient way to lift the clay from the quarry floor and deliver the company’s bricks to construction sites. In the early 1920’s, his inquiries turned up a new transportation idea—a steam-powered truck engine. Needless to say, the design proved unworkable, but Tuthill salvaged the engine’s only practical feature: a small, internal gear pump which injected fuel oil directly into the truck boiler.
Tuthill refined the pump design and marketed it to companies that produced oil-fired boilers for use in residential and industrial heating. The Tuthill internal gear pump was well accepted, proved itself successful and thus became the foundation for today’s Tuthill Corporation.
To better concentrate on managing the growing pump business, Tuthill Pump Company was established in 1927. Pumps that trace their design directly back to the original 1920’s model are still produced in quantity today by the Tuthill Pump Division and can be found in every corner of the globe.
The following years brought consistent, conservative but solid growth. Tuthill continued to manufacture the internal gear pump and added several other products to its line. During World War II, the firm manufactured products for the war effort, then returned to normal production at war’s end.
Management of the firm passed in 1955 to Jim Tuthill, under whose leadership the firm began a program of expansion, made possible by sound management and steady growth in its basic markets. The firm’s acquisition program was inaugurated in 1961 with the purchase of Mechanical Products Company, which was merged with the company’s pump operations. Other acquisitions soon followed, and the present structure of Tuthill Corporation was formalized in 1966.
