The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
An industrial landmark
Federal Screw Works employed hundreds in heyday
By Kathy Clark, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: November 29, 2007
Federal Screw Works (FSW) has been part of Chelsea's industrial fabric for more than 90 years.
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The company built seven factories that for decades played an important role in the manufacturing economy of Chelsea and Southeast Michigan.
FSW enjoyed the reputation of being one of the nation's largest screw machine facilities.
Connecting rod fasteners, bolts, hex nuts and knobs were its primary products from its beginning in 1913.
Approximately 95 percent of its products were used in the automotive industry and made according to the specifications of the customer, including lug nuts for Ford Model A wheels.
The Chelsea branch of FSW started as Chelsea Screw Works, founded by Malcolm J. Dunkel in 1913, which was located in an early Glazier factory building (later Longworth Plating) on Jackson Street.
Dunkel, Conrad Lehman and Pauline Girbach were the first company officers. Ten employees running about 10 screw machines made up the labor force.
Dunkel first worked for Grant & Wood Manufacturing in Chelsea, then became a salesman and demonstrator for Davenport automatic screw machines.
He was considered a mechanical genius and invented and built many complicated screw machines once used in the Chelsea plant.
In 1917, because of need for more space to house the growing industry, a new 4,000 square foot building was constructed on part of the present site for two principal considerations: electric power and transportation.
The Detroit, Jackson & Chicago interurban line (also known as Detroit United Railroad or D.U.R.), which served as the rail carrier for the company's products, was connected to Chelsea on Aug. 22, 1901.
A Consumers Power substation, a source of the trains' electric power, was across the street from FSW.
Interurban service through Chelsea was discontinued in 1927, and the electric railroad was out of business by 1929.
In 1919 a wing was added to the building that included an "Industrial Victorian"-style office visible today on South Main Street.
By 1925 the plant was expanded westward to Congdon Street, which included a new "Art Deco" office building. After this addition, the plant reached a total of 30,000 square feet.
During the late 1920s, FSW employed 100 men operating 150 machines. A 40,000-gallon water tank and tower built at that time served the plant's sprinkler system.
The boiler stack erected in 1925 was the tallest in this area, but it was torn down in 1946 after new oil-burning boilers were installed.
In 1928 the Chelsea Screw Company merged with Federal Screw Works. The stock market crash and Great Depression left its mark on the company and Dunkel. He had bought into FSW with mostly stock, and was personally devastated. However the Chelsea branch of FSW remained in operation.
Beginning in 1933, William A. Thomas managed the company. During World War II, the Chelsea division of FSW mushroomed into every vacant factory building in town.
Products including artillery shells and weapons parts were manufactured in the Clocktower building, the adjacent Welfare building, Chelsea Grinding Company and the Hoover Ball Bearing Plant on Hayes Street. Even the old peat factory was used during the war but was later abandoned.
For its effort to produce defense materiel, FSW and its more than 650 Chelsea employees received production awards and citations from the Ordnance Departments of both the Army and Navy, and the Navy "E" production quality award was twice bestowed on the Chelsea plant.
All this recognition was gratifying to the company, its investors and workers.
In postwar years the company vastly expanded its sales force.
In order to fully utilize the trained personnel and highly integrated facilities, the company set out to solidify its reputation as a producer of close-tolerance, fine-finish and hard-to-make metal components.
After the war, some 35,000 square feet of floor space was added to the Chelsea operation to make a total of 85,000 square feet by 1959.
Most of the older equipment was replaced by the most modern available in 1959, when it employed 250 men and women.
By 1997 the Chelsea plant employed 22 salaried and 119 hourly employees.
At the peak of production, Federal Screw Works averaged 100 to 200 employees in each of its seven plants.
As the automotive industry declined, the Chelsea plant was no longer profitable and closed in 2005.
The property was purchased in late September by Magellan Properties of Ann Arbor to be redeveloped for commercial use.
A display of photographs and artifacts of Federal Screw Works can be viewed at the Chelsea Historical Museum, 312 N. Main St.
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