EXPENDABLE
MILLIS –
THE FATHER OF DUCTILE IRON
By Stephen K.
Millis
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
It was with great pleasure that I accepted Lyle Jenkin's
invitation to speak to you on behalf of my Dad, here at
the Keith D. Millis Symposium celebrating the 50th
anniversary of Ductile iron and the 40th anniversary of
the Ductile Iron Society.
I wonder how many of you know what the "D"
stands for in Keith D. Millis? I used to tell Dad that
his parents were prophetic and the it stood for Ductile
Iron! Actually it stands for Dwight but I always thought
that he should have had it changed.
That aside, when I hung up with Lyle, I tried to
formulate some type of outline for a memorial or tribute
to Dad, that would be of general interest to the wide
range of backgrounds of the many attendees here today, My
problem is that in the sixties, I followed the advice in
the movie, the graduate, and I went into plastics.
Specifically, plastic packaging. Since I suspect that
almost everyone here has a background based in metals,
you can safely assume that I won't be boring you with any
of the technical aspects of Ductile Iron. One look at the
agenda tells me that there will be plenty of that
available for those who want it.
So, what's left to talk about? Well, within the last
three months I became a first time grandfather and I was
thinking about what I might tell my granddaughter about
her great grandfather
What was he like?
What was important to him?
What did I remember about my childhood with him?
And finally, what was so great about this invention of
his?
I think I would start by telling her that her
great-grandfather was loved and respected by most
everyone with whom he came in contact. This gift was
apparent even in his youth. In some files at the house I
found copies of some correspondence written in 1932 when
her great-grandfather was 17 and working In the Albany
Savings Bank, Mr. Frederick Townscend was writing to the
Director of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to solicit
admissions information on behalf of my Dad. He wrote
" the reason I asked for this information is because
we have in the bank here a high school graduate who is
anxious to go to RPI but cannot afford the tuition. He is
an attractive, promising boy and I hope that later on he
will be able to accomplish this ambition of his". In
a subsequent letter, he states, "" I have known
the boy since February 1931 and he seems to be worthy of
a college education. He attends strictly to business and
strikes me as too serious, if anything, for I have never
seen him fooling about as boys often do or in fact, doing
anything but what he is expected to do." So, you can
see the die was already cast. His personality and work
ethic were already firmly established. And they were to
become the standard by which he conducted his life.
Dad ultimately got into RPI and graduated in 1939 with
his master's degree. He then joined the International
Nickel Company in mid 1939. Interestingly enough, in
going through some of the files at his house, I found a
few of the Inco compensation records (now W-2's) for the
years 1939, 1949,194"1 and 1942 (the year I was
born). He grossed $900, $1800, $21 00 and $2500
respectively. I think my trip down here cost that much!
His good friend, Bob Savage summed it up accurately when
he said, "As is sometimes true of outstanding
inventors, Keith never became rich from his
discovery."
In fact, I recall in later years, kidding him about being
a poor negotiator because if he had just negotiated a
lousy $1.00/lb. or even settled for $1 .00/ton on all
Ductile Iron production, we could have been having our
conversation over cocktails on a veranda over looking the
ocean on some tropical island, that he owned! He always
laughed at that because the financial rewards never
really mattered to him.
He once revealed that he never even got the one dollar
from lnco that was given to employees for patents.
Therefore, if there is anyone from here today from Inco
who wants to pay up, please see me after lunch.
I only saw Dad upset on a few occasions. Generally he was
pretty cool. But I do remember a few. Three were business
related and the other involved me.
Apparently early on in the development of Ductile Iron,
there was a story circulating that the invention of
Ductile Iron was "by accident". That is to say
that Dad inadvertently dropped some magnesium into some
molten iron and out came Ductile Iron. The second
occasion was the patent infringement trial with Ford.
This patent infringement hearing and trial occurred in
the mid-fifties. This was also about the time that I
began hearing the phrase: "expendable Millis".
But it was not until after Dad's death in 1992 when I was
reading through the 5 volumes of the transcript of the
court case held in the U.S. District Court of New York in
early 1956 between the International Nickel Company and
the Ford Motor Company and Caswell Motor Company that the
true meaning of "expendable Millis" came to
light. Inco was suing Ford for "willful and
deliberate infringement my manufacture, use and sale of
Ductile Iron crankshafts." Caswell Motor was a Ford
dealer in NYC and was accused of having infringed by
using and selling Ford cars equipped with Ductile Iron
crankshafts.
In a few minutes, I will be quoting from the exact
testimony at the trial because, I think it may give those
of you who are unaware of the details surrounding the
invention and some interesting commentary on Ductile Iron
and its initial development. It should also put to rest
the "accidental discovery issue". But back to
"expendable Millis"
Early in the trial, during the direct questioning of Dad,
it came out that one of the last things told to him by
one of his professors, a Dr. Scott MacKay, was that
"he would forever be listening to experienced people
telling him of their experiences and telling him what he
should do according to their experiences, but he said
'don't pay any attention to them, find out for yourself.
This led to the following line of questioning by the Inco
lawyer.
Q.
There came a time
did there, when you were working in the Inco lab at
Bayonne, New Jersey, when it was decided that you should
attempt to introduce magnesium into cast iron?
A.
(By Millis) - Yes
Q.
Up to that time,
what had your information been as to the possibility of
doing so?
A.
The information
that I received from people who had, for various reasons,
tried to add magnesium to iron, and also from references
in the literature, was that magnesium had very little if
any solubility in iron, and that when magnesium was added
to iron, it was a very hazardous operation. The reaction
was very violent and the probability was that the molten
iron would b spread all over the area from the reaction.
Q.
What were the
circumstances under which this decision was made that you
should attempt to introduce magnesium into cast iron?
A.
Well, the task of
finding a substitute for chromium in Ni-Hard was assigned
to me, and about the first thing that I did was search
the literature, looking for elements which would form
carbides chemically, or which would promote carbides in
iron. There were some of these known at the time. I made
a list of the ones, which I found would do either one of
these jobs, and we discussed - my superiors and 1,
discussed which one we should add.
Q.
Who were these
superiors with whom you discussed this matter?
A.
Mr. Pilling and
Mr. Gagnebin
Now I want to break into this testimony to take you
forward to testimony given by one of the aforementioned
superiors, a Mr. Norman Pilling. Mr. Pilling was asked by
the Inco lawyer if he recalled any work that was done in
the Inco laboratory in the early 1940's which was
concerned with an effort to find a substitute for
chromium in an alloy Inco made called Ni-Hard. He
responded that "in the spring of 1942, Mr. Millis,
who had been conducting this work on the development of a
non-strategic substitute for chromium in Ni-Hard, had
also written what we called a patent suggestion, covering
the invention which he (Millis) thought he had made in
that respect, which had come to me for perusal and to
take action upon. As I read that patent suggestion, and
its related report, I was very much interested with its
facts. When Millis had prepared his program, which as he
described it before in this hearing, had involved making
experimental melts of nickel irons containing a variety
of elements which he thought might have interest as
carbide stabilizers. When I saw that list and found on it
magnesium, I was first disposed to tell him to scratch it
off and forget it. But perhaps a little charitable
thought occurred; it seemed to me, well, we all have to
learn, sometimes the hard way, and let him go ahead and
do it. He did.... At this point the Master, Simon Rifkind
interrupted and said to Pilling, "he was
expendable?" and Pilling responded, "he was
expendable and I was not." Voila! The origin of the
term "expendable Millis" and my subsequent
understanding of Dad's oft-referred-to pseudonym.
Now, I would like to return to that portion of the
testimony that in Dad's words, describes the
circumstances surrounding the birth of Ductile Iron. You
will recall that Dad presented a proposal to his
superiors and he was now ready to implement his plan. The
testimony picks up with the following question from the
Inco Lawyer:
Q.
Would you describe
for the court the actual first addition of magnesium,
which you make to cast iron?
A. In view of all the
warnings I had from various people, I was a little bit
leery of the operation, but went ahead with it anyway,
and rather than add pure magnesium, I decided that the
best thing to do was to use it in a diluted form, rather
like taking castor oil with orange juice. I hunted around
the laboratory and finally found a supply of
copper-magnesium alloy, 80% copper and 20% magnesium,
which had been prepared by the people in the non-ferrous
section for deoxidizing copper base melts of alloys. The
magnesium additions were made along with various elements
from a master heat. It was split a number of different
ways, and these attains were all made, In view of the
reactivity aspects, I took precautions not to be injured
by the possible reaction.
Q.
Did you put on a
suit of armor for the occasion?
A.
Well, frankly yes.
Q.
What were the
precautions?
A.
I rounded up from
various sources, all kinds of protection. I had an
asbestos jacket, which was probably 1/2 inch thick and
which weighed anywhere from 25 to 50 pounds. An asbestos
apron which went to my ankles, leggings and a welder's
helmet with a hood to go over my head. I wasn't taking
any chances.
Q.
How about your
hands?
A.
I had gloves on.
Actually when I made the addition, being a little leery
of what might happen, I cleared everybody away from the
area, put the addition alloy in a scoop and approached as
close as I could to the ladle with my hand, with my body
being back away from the ladle. I slid the magnesium
alloy into the ladle and the backed away.
Q.
What happened?
A.
Not much. There
was a magnesium flare and a few pellets of hot iron fell
on the floor, just around the base of the ladle.
Q.
On what scale was
this done? That is to say, how much iron was involved?
A.
There was about 20
pounds of metal in the ladle.
Q.
As time passed,
Mr. Millis, did you continue to wear that asbestos armor
that you described when you had occasion to put magnesium
into molten iron?
A.
No. As with
anything eventually I got rather contemptuous of it, and
unless we were going to higher magnesium alloys for
experimental purposes to determine the best alloys for
the addition, I took no unusual precautions. I lost
clumps of hair several times, and after that, when I was
testing a new alloy, I made sure that I had my hair
covered, at least.
So that was it! No fanfare, no explosions, just a man, in
the words of his college professor, "finding out for
himself. This persistence resulted in the birth of
Ductile Iron, a new and separate material, different from
gray and malleable iron and from cast steel. And as you
heard, certainly not an accidental dropping of magnesium
into molten iron.
By the way, just for the record, the decision rendered in
February 1958 ruled in favor of Inco. I asked Dad how
much Inco was awarded, but he said that he never asked or
wanted to know, because whatever it was, it was not
enough!
So, while the trial, the accidental discovery myth and
the label "expendable Millis" were upsetting
events in his professional life, I managed to take center
stage in creating stress in his personal life.
In 1957, Dad bought a brand new Buick convertible. It was
white with a red interior. While it was a beautiful car,
it had no pep! Buick was selling its new Dynaflow
transmission, touting its smooth, quiet acceleration.
Unfortunately, for a teenage boy, smooth and quiet were
not in! High torque, squealing tires, laying a strip of
rubber, that was in! But with that Buick, even when you
tromped on the accelerator, all you got was increased
engine noise and slow smooth acceleration. In spite of
that, it didn't take me long to figure out that if you
put the car in park, put the accelerator to the floor,
waited until the RPM's got near the red line, and then
yanked the gear shift into drive, you could, if you were
lucky and the road conditions were right, get the tires
to spin and lay a nice patch of rubber! I guess I overdid
this too many times for on this one occasion, there was
this loud crash when 1, yanked it from park to drive.
This was followed by a grinding and clunking sound, and
that was followed by dead silence as the car stalled and
rolled to a stop. I finally got it going again, but much
to my surprise, the only gear that worked was reverse. I
knew that I was in deep trouble. I figured that I was
about to become the new "expendable Millis". I
think that I tried to explain later to Dad, that the car
suddenly stopped and as I was pulling away from the curb.
I just didn't know what happened. I am sure that he
didn't believe me, but we took the car back to the dealer
and about a week later, Dad came into my room carrying a
canvas bag. He dumped it out to reveal lots and lots of
little pieces of broken metal parts. These were the
remains of the Buick's shattered Dynaflow transmission. I
think I told him that the metal must have been brittle or
somehow stressed and it obviously wasn't Ductile Iron! He
failed to see the humor, or buy my story and I was
grounded for two weeks and couldn't use the car for a
month. In hindsight, I must have sounded pretty pathetic
telling the great metallurgist and Father of Ductile Iron
that there must have been something wrong with the metal.
Something tells me that my granddaughter would have liked
this story best of all.
As I wrap up my time here, I would like to share with you
some of the contents of a birthday card I received from
Dad in August 1991.( My 49th) The significance of this
for me was that Dad, while he was the kindest and warmest
man I ever knew, he was not good at expressing his
feelings. You sort of knew where you stood by his actions
rather that by his comments. Typically, over the years,
his greeting cards were just signed, "Love,
Dad," and with any luck included a check! You can
imagine my surprise when I found a few written paragraphs
on what turned out to be the last birthday card he ever
gave me. The message was as follows-.
"Dear Stephen,
I don't believe that I have ever written a message on
you birthday card before. But this year, I wanted to
tell you how very proud of you I am for the
tremendous success you have made of your new venture
in such a short time. Congratulations! It has
afforded me the opportunity to become reacquainted
with you and to understand why I love you so
much."
As you can imagine, that card is very important to me.
And while I am very happy with my life and career, my
accomplishments pale when compared to his. When you
consider the fact that since its inception 50 years ago,
over 88 million tons of Ductile Iron have been produced
in the U.S. alone. Using today's average price/ton
($1174) that works out to be over $103 billion dollars!
Worldwide, the figure is in excess of 200 millions tons
produced or a staggering $235 billion dollars. (See why I
wanted that $1.00/ton deal I mentioned earlier!!!!) These
figures, which originated from Ken Kirgin, were passed
along to me by "Modern Casting's" Mike
Lessiter. Mike, in his note to me, correctly pointed out
that while the U.S. and global tonnage figures are
impressive, they really only scratch the surface when you
think about the wealth that Ductile Iron has meant to the
end users, to the suppliers who sell the materials and
equipment, to the foundries and all the way down to the
nation's municipalities, families and employees who have
benefited from the promise of this wonderful new
material. I suppose that we all here today, in one way or
another fall into the category of Ductile Iron
beneficiaries. I know that I do.
When we lose a loved one, we all have regrets that we
didn't do or tell him or her something before it was too
late. My regret is that I never told Dad how proud I was
of him. Not only for what his invention has done for
mankind, but for what he did for me and the man I am
today. I can only hope that he is here in spirit and that
he has finally gotten my message.... and that he now
knows the rest of the story about the Buick's
transmission! Thank you for allowing me to share in this
historic tribute to my Dad, Keith Ductile Iron Millis.
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