History of I.B. Steam Trap

I like to think I've led a pretty interesting life, but my story can't hold a candle to the tale of Armstrong.

It all started with a potbellied stove.

Okay, that statement requires a little explanation. You just never know where a great idea will come from. For the Armstrong family THE great idea was first presented on the surface of a potbellied stove.

In the early 1900s Adam and James Armstrong moved their start-up manufacturing concern from Chicago to Three Rivers, Michigan. Once there, they began producing mechanical potato diggers, a pursuit closely tied to the potato crop season. Adam, always eager for new ways to use the company resources, kept busy in the off-season by visiting customers and fellow business owners, keeping his eyes and ears open for fresh opportunities. In those days, the practical equivalent of today's office water cooler was a potbellied stove that usually sat in the middle of a factory's main warehouse. Not only did the stove's warmth draw employees and guests to the center of the room, it was also the hub of conversation and incubator of new ideas. Often, when a particularly interesting or complicated idea would come up, the finer points would be illustrated in chalk on the smooth black surface of the potbellied stove.

One fateful day, Adam was chatting with Otto Arner, a machinist and former Armstrong employee. Otto had been working on a new steam trap design that would address the problem of air-binding in float and bucket traps used in industrial steam systems. Of course, his description was brought to life with the help of the potbellied "chalkboard."

Now, Adam had had no experience with steam traps or their application, but the simplicity and logic of the idea intrigued him. He quickly studied everything he could about steam trap history and design. The more he learned, the better Otto's idea sounded. Joining forces with Arner and another associate, the Armstrong Company set about producing a new kind of steam trap, and the first inverted bucket trap was introduced to the market in 1911.

Well, you can imagine the rest. Today Armstrong International is a multinational corporation that provides steam systems products, engineering analysis and installation services to customers all over the world.

And, as I believe I mentioned before, it all started with a potbellied stove.