Jervis B Webb (Detroit, Michigan)

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Jervis B Webb

Jervis B. Webb Company was founded in 1919 in Detroit, Michigan, by Jervis Bennett Webb, a young mechanical engineer. While working for the Johns-Manville Company in the Pennsylvania coal fields, Webb had modified a forged chain used in anthracite mining operations for use as a conveyor of industrial equipment. Realizing the potential of this chain for the assembly line production that was beginning to reshape American industry in the early 20th century, Webb set out to reduce the 30 pounds per foot weight of the chain and to adapt it for assembly line use. The resulting rivetless, forged chain, dubbed the "Keystone" chain because of its Pennsylvania origins, could go from slack to taut quickly without breaking yet could be taken apart and assembled by hand, making it more versatile than a traditional riveted chain.

It was the automobile industry that led the way in the development of the assembly line method of production and it was to this industry that Webb turned to try to sell his new invention. Although Ford had been using a line process to construct his Model T since 1908, in these early plants men had manually pulled the automobile chassis along the assembly line with a rope while assembly workers had added the necessary parts. Powered by a motor, Webb's Keystone chain, installed on the floor, was attached to four wheeled carts that carried the chassis along the line. In 1920 Webb received his first order for the new conveyor system from the Studebaker Automobile Company. Although the mechanized system increased the speed and efficiency of manufacture, the permanently installed, floor-laid chain impeded movement through the plant and made it difficult to get maximum usage out of the available floor space. Intent on selling his system to the larger automakers like Ford, Webb hit upon the idea of taking the chain off of the floor and mounting it overhead. This would free up valuable floor space, allow greater access to the automobile, and provide more freedom of movement for workers. Webb sold the first version of his overhead conveyor to the Fisher Body Company in Detroit in 1921.

Although Ford expressed interest in Webb's idea, the $14 per foot price tag for installation of the system was prohibitive. Convinced of the value of the overhead conveyor, Webb devised a system of I-beams to carry the Keystone chain. The chain, powered by a caterpillar drive, would pull the automobile chassis along the line by means of simple trolleys which themselves hung on the I-beams by roller skate wheels. The simplicity of this design and its use of readily available, inexpensive hardware reduced the price of the system to $3 per foot, making it economical for use in larger plants. In 1922, Henry Ford agreed to install the new conveyor system in his Walkerville, Ontario, Canada engine and transmission manufacturing plant. Following the success of this trial installation, Ford signed a contract with the Jervis B. Webb Company to supply 30 miles of overhead conveyors to be installed in Ford plants across the United States and Canada. This purchase transformed the company from a small innovative engineering firm to a major manufacturer of material handling systems.

In order to accommodate the demands of the Ford order, Webb purchased land on Alpine Avenue in Detroit where he built a large manufacturing complex. By the end of the decade the Jervis B. Webb Company had established itself as a major force in the growing field of mass production technology. Webb became the holder of a number of patents that were crucial to the development of the material handling industry, including the trolley system for the overhead power conveyor, the caterpillar drive motor for continuous conveyors

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