Is there indepth info about AC's last days ?
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Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
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URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=39102
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Topic: Is there indepth info about AC's last days ?
Posted By: Rfdeere
Subject: Is there indepth info about AC's last days ?
Date Posted: 17 Oct 2011 at 4:49pm
I have Norm Swinford's book and Walter Peterson's An Industrial Heritage books and they have some info about the last years but nothing indepth (Peterson's book details through 1977). Is there any volume out there that details the ending days of this great company indepth ?
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Randy Freshour,Member Indiana AC Partners,
http://www.rumelyallis.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.rumelyallis.com
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Replies:
Posted By: DougG
Date Posted: 17 Oct 2011 at 5:29pm
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I dont know of any , I would be very interested too ; i always buy stuff on Ebay such as Annual Reports etc ; the last one i got is from 83 and they talk about what is draining the company and where all the money is going - suprisingly they really degrade the AG DIVISION , even after the money it made till the recession ; the company lost $500 million in 3 years - how bout that for management ; ALLIS CHALMERS management were going to move the headquarters to Kentucky to the American Air Filter business , to get away from Union and to get cheap labor -In other magazines i have AC always paid well over the industry average , but as the business compition got stiffer that came to bite them bad ; And they were no where close to utilizing the WEST ALLIS Plant so it was,nt going to be a big deal to close it ; thats just some bit of info i have and some off of the net ; it was a very sad ending to a real Americn Industrial giant
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Posted By: AllisChalmers37
Date Posted: 17 Oct 2011 at 6:06pm
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AC thought about moving their headquarters to Kentucky???? Huh, that would be awesome maybe then there would be some more of them around here. Oh well, I guess one can dream.
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Posted By: DougG
Date Posted: 17 Oct 2011 at 6:28pm
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That was the plan and all the talk , but look where Agco put there headquarters - Georgia - There is a thing on the net called an AC Timeline from 68- 99 , I think - It is interesting , but also shows the cold hard facts of the decisions made - the AG DIVISION was valued at $245 million - sold for $105 million , wtf !!!
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Posted By: Rfdeere
Date Posted: 18 Oct 2011 at 4:36pm
Bump.
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Randy Freshour,Member Indiana AC Partners,
http://www.rumelyallis.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.rumelyallis.com
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Posted By: Bret (OH)
Date Posted: 19 Oct 2011 at 6:13am
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Heres a link to the Timeline DougG mentioned. It's a bit long but a very very good read.
http://webspace.webring.com/people/nj/jpessek/Page7.html - http://webspace.webring.com/people/nj/jpessek/Page7.html
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Posted By: Brian Ahart
Date Posted: 19 Oct 2011 at 7:40pm
Besides Swinford and Peterson, the best sources of information (that I've found) on the end times are annual reports from the period and newspaper articles. I have found a wealth of information on Google's online newspaper archives. Take a look at the links below (search on the keywords "allis", "deutz", etc).
Milwaukee Journal:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=jvrRlaHg2sAC - http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=jvrRlaHg2sAC
Milwaukee Sentinel:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=wZJMF1LD7PcC - http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=wZJMF1LD7PcC
There is alot of interesting information for the A-C history buff. One article from 12/84 talks about unconfirmed talks with MF. Another from 8/85 says that better days are ahead at A-C. The articles from the early days of D-A are also revealing.
I have some annual reports filed away from 1985-90 that William Vaitl sent me back in the mid-'90s, along with a letter on classic A-C stationary. I didn't know at the time that he was one of the last of the "old timers" still at the company (what was left of it).
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A-C Weight ID reference and other goodies at http://www.brianahart.net" rel="nofollow - brianahart.net
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Posted By: Rfdeere
Date Posted: 19 Oct 2011 at 9:06pm
How do you search just one paper, Brian ?
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Randy Freshour,Member Indiana AC Partners,
http://www.rumelyallis.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.rumelyallis.com
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Posted By: big al
Date Posted: 19 Oct 2011 at 10:14pm
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the article shows hds was still running in 1999,does it still exsist?
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Posted By: DougG
Date Posted: 20 Oct 2011 at 1:12am
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Hds was the repair business in Houston, i think - it was bought out by Oilquip, then that turned into ALLIS CHALMERS ENERGY then mergers began and now Seawell owns ACE - which in turn the new company is Archer
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Posted By: DougG
Date Posted: 20 Oct 2011 at 1:14am
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Didnt Allis actually build some tractors for Massey - had everything ready to go public - but at the last minute all was canceled ?
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Posted By: Brian Ahart
Date Posted: 27 Oct 2011 at 8:49pm
Randy, start your search here, then you can drill down within the individual issues:
http://www.jsonline.com/historicarchive/search/ - http://www.jsonline.com/historicarchive/search/
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A-C Weight ID reference and other goodies at http://www.brianahart.net" rel="nofollow - brianahart.net
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