Era of Reconstruction 1865-1885
In the same year that the nation was plunged into gloom by the tragic death of Lincoln, and clouded with doubt by the huge problems or reconstruction after the Civil War, two brothers started a new business - E. F. Houghton and Dr. Charles Houghton began experimenting with petroleum just six years after oil was discovered in western Pennsylvania.
The battle for business in a wounded nation was just beginning. Great things were to come, but they laid on a thorny path of peaks and valleys on which only the fittest survived.
When A. E. Carpenter invested in and joined the company in 1870, petroleum lubricants were just beginning to be recognized as having possibilities, Cosmoline, a forerunner of the present "Vaseline," was Houghton's first product, followed closely by "Cosmic Counter Corrodent," a rust preventive.
The Franklin Institute recognized Houghton's research on petroleum oils by presenting a medal to us in 1874. Again, at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, Houghton was honored for its petroleum research. We were on our way!
The ravages of rust constituted Houghton's primary battle. We know that in 1882 General Greely on his North Pole Expedition used our rust preventives with success. Experience proved that Houghton had something that industry increasingly needed.
During the "roaring eighties" commercial alloy steels, first produced in the early seventies, inspired unending research by metallurgists?alchemy changed to science?variable, non-uniform products formerly used for hardening steel were abandoned as controllable carburizers became available. Houghton's name became synonymous with process in metalworking.
Industrial Gardens Grow 1885-1900
Seeds sowed in the previous decade began to sprout into healthy, lusty plants in this period. America went mechanical - electric railways, experiments with horseless carriages, the Chicago World's Fair that astounded industry and the citizenry in general, the great Paris Exposition - all were outstanding symbols of business progress.
The first gasoline auto, a Duryea, was built in 1892. One year later, the first back-seat driver was discovered. Five years later the Wintons sold the first autos. Horses and drivers with weak hearts wondered what the world was coming to.
E. F. Houghton & Co. had not grown phenomenally during these closing years of the 19th century. It kept its head above water during several business slumps, and refused offers of merger. Its pharmaceutical business was slowly but surely taking second place to industrial markets. The company had moved from its starting place four blocks from Independence Hall, up to Kensington in north Philadelphia as it expanded and needed more space.
The automotive industry began to cast its shadow. In 1898, the Haynes car was first to use nickel steel for axles. The first repair shop for automobiles was started in New York in 1900, sounding the death knell of the village blacksmith.
Electric cabs rolled along in the metropolis so long as their batteries lasted. And Houghton, with a few bruises, made it to and entered into the new century with a broad line of products and a promise of greater things to come.
