Henry Timken Quotes
102 Henry Timken Quotes
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One of the first things my father impressed on me in those early days, was that the man who could devise something which would reduce friction fundamentally would achieve something of real value to the world. Neither the ball bearings nor the straight roller bearings seemed to solve the problem completely, although they were of enormous help. What we were searching for was something which would reduce the tremendous wear which came because of their incapacity for thrust loads or adjustment for that wear. It was a comparatively simple matter to provide for the carrying of the radial load, which is up and down and which consists of the weight of the object and its load; the difficulty lay in providing for the impact of the end thrust, which consists of a load or shock coming from the side or the end. This is the force you feel when you are thrown to one side of an automobile when you are rounding a curve.
Henry Timken
Wherever there is resistance to motion we not only have serious mechanical strain but waste effort, whether the power is produced by human strength, by that of the horse, or by artificial means, and the producer pays not only for the wear and tear on his equipment but also for fatigue and lost effort.
Henry Timken
This covers not merely maintenance and actual loss of power, but also includes increased overhead and a lowered efficiency of man or machine.
Henry Timken
Matters of this sort were not so closely studied in the early days because quantity production was almost a thing unknown, but even then we knew that to be successful a bearing must not only aid the flow of motion, but that it must offer longer life, freedom from trouble, and less frequent lubrication than anything yet devised. Power and maintenance are two of the big costs of operation, and the greater the resistance the more power necessary to operate.
Henry Timken
One of the great questions of modern times is the increase of individual efficiency. Not only greater unit production as applied to individuals, but to the utilization of each mechanical unit to its maximum capacity. For instance many of the big plants run their expensive machinery for twenty-four hours to lessen interest charges against the equipment.
Henry Timken
In the most efficiently run of our big plants men are being relieved of all unnecessary physical labor in order that they may conserve their strength and energy and direct it toward increased output. The high cost of pushage has always been an important factor in keeping up costs. Anything which will lower it contributes materially to industrial progress.
Henry Timken
To be successful you must be independent. If you want to lead in any line you must bring to it independence of thought, unfailing industry, aggression, and indomitable purpose. If you have an idea which you think is right, push it to a finish. Don’t let anyone else influence you against it. If we all thought the same way there would be no progress. But above all don’t set your name to anything you will ever have cause to be ashamed of.
Henry Timken
If there was any one thing which fixed it in my mind that we must continue to make our product better and better it was the thought that it carried the family name.
Henry Timken
It did not take me long to find out that a desire to do anything is not worth the flip of a coin if it is not backed up by iron effort.
Henry Timken
One thing which I learned later by experience was that no man can honestly and effectually run two or three kinds of businesses which are not allied. To be proficient you must study your own business from the ground up, and you cannot do it when your mind is split up with a variety of interests. Men often get too thinly spread on the map and then blow up. A business must be strongly entrenched to stand adversity and the strain of bad weather, and its leader must keep his mind continually centered on his own particular line. In my opinion you can always do your work better by sticking to one job.
Henry Timken
Although I set aside law for production. I have never regretted my legal training. It has helped me in every phase of my business. Without prejudice I can honestly say that I think a legal education is of value to every man who intends to enter large business. It teaches him to think straight, to plan wisely, to see the adverse side, and realize the obstacles he is going to meet. It makes him quick on the trigger, for he is trained to aggressive action, and it teaches him to look out for pitfalls.
Henry Timken
I am much in favor of young blood in a business. We need young men to bring us new ideas and we should encourage them to try them out and give them a chance to make good. That is progress. But I believe in giving them a little opposition so that they will have a chance to show their initiative. The man who has to fight to maintain his ideas is the strong comer in the business game.
Henry Timken
Young men should train themselves to be more aggressive and more independent in thought. What we need in the business world is the quick wit to think our way out of a difficult situation, the independence of mind to see a new track, the courage to make a quick decision even if it does not coincide with the general opinion, and the backbone to put it over when we know we are right.
Henry Timken
One of the earliest things my father taught us was to look into the future and try to foresee events. As a growing boy I learned some very important lessons from his clear-sighted vision, for he had a remarkable sense of foresight along mechanical lines. From the first introduction of the automobile he predicted its success. Not only did he see it as a popular form of transportation, but he also sensed its unlimited possibilities for haulage. And he bent all his efforts toward devising a bearing which would be his contribution to that phase of progress.
Henry Timken
Our first experiments were with the cup-and-cone ball bearings and annular ball bearings. At that time alloy steels were comparatively undeveloped and the bearings did not stand up well under the tests. We worked along to get better alloys and then turned our attention to the tapered roller bearings which we tried out first on carriages and then on trucks. At that time my brother and I had taken over the active management of my father’s wholesale carriage business in St. Louis, and when we found out how well the bearings were working out on our carriages and trucks, we began to think that the bearing business offered better possibilities than the manufacture of carriages; in other words, that the ‘tail was beginning to wag the dog.’ Therefore, we decided to get out of carriage manufacture and start making bearings.
Henry Timken
[On focusing solely on the ball bearing business.] It was a vital decision and we had plenty of reason later on to wonder whether we were right, but we stuck to or idea that there was a great future for anything which would reduce friction. We have always kept as our vision, ‘Less friction and longer life.’
Henry Timken
Like all other pioneers we had plenty of discouragements, but the worst difficulty we had was to obtain good steel. We soon found that the goal was fine steel, and how to get it was a serious problem. At that time each manufacturer was developing his own; there was no standard and no special effort to attain a standard.
Henry Timken
One of the most important problems in manufacturing bearings is that they shall be uniform. Any one can make a good thing once; the point is to keep it up to grade. Uniformity in mass production day in and day out means quality. To obtain this uniformity we found it advisable to make our own electric steel billets and tubing. We soon found that is made it possible to manufacture exactly the right analysis steel at a much lower cost than we could buy it from the outside – this of course meant a saving in bearing cost to our customers.
Henry Timken
A serious early trouble which developed was our inability to make the axles and bearings in St. Louis because of inadequate facilities. It was decided to move nearer to the steel market, and Canton, Ohio, was selected as a logical place where we could be nearer both to raw material and to our market, and where we would have room for expansion.
Henry Timken
All this sounds very easy, but we just about sweated our souls out down at the plant. We almost went broke several times, but we kept our credit good and were able to borrow money as we needed it. When we started in here at Canton, we did not have more than thirty or forty men. My brother looked after the sales and I followed up production. A good part of my time was spent working out and testing steel.
Henry Timken
Whenever I could get away from the plant I was out looking for business. We did not expect it to come to us. We visualized a big future for ourselves at the hands of the automobile manufacturers, and we were hot on the trail of every new inventor of a car. I used to spend days in Detroit and other cities hunting around back alleys and visiting the little machine shops to locate someone who was designing a car, so that we could persuade him to equip it with Timken axles. When we got hold of him we did not let up until we had persuaded him that the future success of his car lay in his adoption of our particular equipment. We worked with most of the big car manufacturers while they were still experimenting in their little machine shops. Olds, Winton, Packard, Haynes, Apperson – all were early customers of ours long before they were dignified by the name of manufacturers. We could get to a man who was building a few cars and often would find him experimenting with foreign ball bearing equipment. Then it was up to us to convince him that we could give him something of far greater bearing capacity and to persuade him to try it out for himself.
Henry Timken
I am just a parts maker. Don’t rank me with the manufacturers.
Henry Timken
We do not play politics here. This is an anti-friction organization.
Henry Timken
[In the early days in 1860] I got the gold fever, sold out my business and went to Pike’s Peak, Colorado but found gold scarce and returned to St. Louis and started in the carriage business again.
Henry Timken
[In December 1881 on his factory.] Have just put in a 40 horse power engine and boiler as those formerly used proved entirely too small to meet the increasing demand for my gears and bodies.
Henry Timken
[In 1887 at age 56 retiring and moving to San Diego where he focused on real estate investing and travel.] There I built a fine residence, and concluded to take life easy for the balance of my days. [However] Found that an active mind cannot be contented without being occupied. [He returned after five years to St. Louis and the carriage business.] [Henry (H. H.) Timken his son was twenty-four in 1892 and Henry senior kept working until 1899 when he retired again.]
Henry Timken
[On Henry Timken and Henry H Timken traveling together in Europe for six months and] Studied in considerable detail the progress being made by foreign inventors toward anti-friction bearings.
Henry Timken
[On their goal to develop a bearing.] Superior to anything on the market.
Henry Timken
[Henry H Timken on his father Henry Timken was a man acknowledged the responsibilities of wealth and] Manfully and properly… carried them out.
Henry Timken
[In 1934 when Henry H Timken and his brother and sisters created the Timken Foundation their philanthropic efforts should be focused first and foremost on Canton Ohio.] Where the real foundation of the Timken fortune was made.
Henry Timken
[In 1917 Henry H Timken to his brother W. R. Timken] Take it from me, you will get more out of life by being in the game than being on the sidelines.
Henry Timken
[In December 1902 on having to return to their father for financial support when the automotive market had not developed as fast as they had wanted it to when they had set the company’s future course betting on the potential for growth in the automotive market over the carriage market.] We’re pretty blue around here and fearfully hard up. The vehicle axle end of the business does not improve… it looks like people won’t pay the price. I believe we can work up a very large trade in that line, for ball bearings do not stand up. But it takes a lot of stock to do a considerable business in the automobile line, and that means money.
Henry Timken
[In December 1902 on having to return to their father for financial support.] It’s up to you, to decide whether you want to put the money in, and if you say yes we have got to have some of it soon.
Henry Timken
[In December 1902 on having to return to their father for financial support] Straining every nerve to make this business go. From my experience on the road seeing the automobile trade, I am sure that we can get enough of that business alone to make the business a success… I still have every faith that ultimately we’ll make big money out of the axle. We’ll hang on like grim death and never say die. We’ve got grit, if we haven’t got sense of cents.
Henry Timken
[In 1908 on the short series of Timken Bearings] The use of the short series bearings is an advantage, as it means you can use smaller hubs, smaller gear box, etc. [They are] superior in every way to the old type.
Henry Timken
[In 1910 when the Canton plant was manufacturing 4,000 bearings a day, about 1.2 million per year with the company still struggling to keep up with orders. (It had produced 100,000 in 1902 it’s first full year of operation.)] The only trouble here now is to make the bearings in sufficient quantities. We are adding machinery constantly.
Henry Timken
[On outside consultants for information systems.] I would have no efficiency experts in the Canton factory. Because I know so much more about the conduct of this business than any efficiency man in existence… I can evolve a better system than any expert can.
Henry Timken
[On a system for monitoring the daily output of the factory] It seems clear to me, that the one essential in a manufacturing business… is to get the maximum output from each machine. That is the bull’s-eye to be aimed at.
Henry Timken
[On the target for a properly set up reporting system.] To know on practically one or two sheets of paper. [Exactly what the plant was doing.]
Henry Timken
[On the only way to attract and secure the loyalty of capable employees was to] Pay more wages than other factories in similar lines.
Henry Timken
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