GENERAL DRY BATTERIES

GENERAL DRY BATTERIES. From 1936 through 1958 dry-cell batteries were manufactured in Dubuque at General Dry Batteries. In producing dry cells for fifty-eight private labels including Sears, Zenith, and Firestone, the plant daily consumed an estimated 120,000 pounds of raw material and produced one million pounds of batteries weekly. Thousands of people were eventually employed at the company as turnover annually was nearly 100 percent. (1)

Photo courtesy: Telegraph Herald

The announcement that the company would be coming to Dubuque from its home in Cleveland was made on April 23, 1937. DUBUQUE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE officials stated that the acquisition gave the city the largest industrial plant acquired in more than twenty-five years and the largest industrial plant to be opened within three or four years in the Middle West. The new firm would be known as the Upper Mississippi Valley plant of the company and would be the only one of its kind in the world with a complete zinc rolling mill. The company would manufacture a complete line of dry batteries including practically all batteries used for improving hearing. (2)

The company with headquarters in Cleveland had branch offices in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Francisco and Portland. It opened with own mines in Puerto Rico and had a subsidiary plant in Toronto, Canada. It manufactured all its own machinery. Plans announced in April, 1937 indicated that the company planned to ship between 500 and 1,000 cars of finished product out of Dubuque annually. (3)

Owned by the Deibel family, General Dry Batteries opened at 3200 Jackson Street, now the site of FLEXSTEEL INDUSTRIES, INC. In December, 1937 C. P. Deibel, president of the company announced that the firm would move additional operations to Dubuque shortly after January 1, 1938, considerably more men would be employed after that date, and that a number of the larger customers would be invited to Dubuque sometime during the same month. (4) In 1937 workers received 36 cents per hour. Wages rose to 37.5 cents hourly in 1942. (5)

1944 advertisement. Photo courtesy: Telegraph Herald

The firm faced a significant problem in November, 1941. While national defense needs made it difficult to obtain copper wire, steel supplies and brass, the lack of ZINC created the potential of a shutdown within two weeks. Employees and employers worked together to design a program to establish a priority for the local business. Workers began circulating five hundred petitions throughout the city. Endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce, the petitions asked that zinc be provided so that the manufacture of batteries could be continued. Chosen to take the petitions to Washington, D. C. and plead the case for the workers/company were David Sigman, representing Battery Workers Federal Union, Local No. 22,516 and William Datisman, representing General Dry Batteries. The coordinated effort between labor and management was believed to be one of the first of its kind in the United States. (6)

General Dry Batteries reached its peak employment with 1,100 women and 500 men during WORLD WAR II. Women began work by sweeping. This continued until one by one they were chosen for other work. Men, for example, were often given work with machines while women were assigned to assembly jobs. With the start of war, the company went on three shifts--twenty-four hours a day--with employees being encouraged to work seven days. INTERSTATE POWER COMPANY operated special bus lines for the employees and those who lived beyond the bus lines received extra ration stamps for gasoline. Women who did the same work as men found themselves earning less for the same work. When the war ended, however, many of the women remained in the workforce proving themselves to employers who relied on their abilities. (7)

Steady demand for batteries led the federal government to force Mallory Co. to license General Dry Batteries with its mercury-cell process. With the end of the war, Mallory purchased the Dubuque company to regain its monopoly. Because Iowa would not allow Mallory to vent deadly mercury vapor into the air and because the company wanted to consolidate its production process, the Dubuque factory was closed in 1958. The company moved back to Cleveland. (8)

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Source:

1. Fryxell, David. "Remembering War Years at the Factory," Telegraph Herald, June 20, 1985, p. 2. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HRhRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QtoMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6270,2153609&dq=war+effort+world+war+i+dubuque&hl=en

2. "Cleveland Firm Largest to Come to Dubuque in 25 Years," Telegraph-Herald, April 23, 1937, p. 1

3. Ibid.

4. "General Dry Batteries, Inc. to Expand Dubuque Factory," Telegraph-Herald, December 24, 1937, p. 1

5. Fryxell

6. "Battery Firm Must Get Zinc," Telegraph Herald, November 9, 1941, p. 43

7. Fryxell

8. Ibid.