Parker Rust Proofing (Detroit, Michigan)

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Organized in 1915 by Clark W. Parker for the manufacture of rust proofing steel under the Richards and Coslett patents for which he had purchased the American rights, the Parker-Rust Proof Co. of Detroit, was best known for a process called "parkerizing." Parkerizing (also called phosphating and phosphatizing) is a method of protecting a steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear through the application of an electrochemical conversion coating. Parkerizing is commonly used on firearms as a more effective alternative to bluing, which is another electrochemical conversion coating that was developed earlier.

Starting with a workforce of two or three men at Woodward Avenue and Garfield, it had moved to a new factory on Conant Road by 1916. The Milwaukee Street plant was built in 1919 and the Conant Road factory was sold.