The Hytrol Story

1 T O M L O B E R G The story of Hytrol can only begin with Tom Loberg. In all actuality, he is Hytrol personified. There would never have been a Hytrol if there had never been a Tom Loberg. It was Sunday, July 1, 1917. American soldiers were being sent to assist in the “Great War” in France against the German invasion. Fred Toney of the Cincinnati Reds pitches complete game victories in both ends of a doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The state of Connecticut introduces a statute on this date which called for all motorized trucks registered in the state to be fitted with rear view mirrors. With great fanfare, the mirror for the Hooker 100-inch telescope arrives on Mount Wilson in California. The Boston Draft Riots were taking place with large numbers of people protesting the prospect of being conscripted to fight in the war. And in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Henry Olaus Loberg and his wife, Hilda Halvorson Loberg were celebrating the birth of a son, Henry Thomas Loberg. Henry Olaus Loberg came to the United States at the tender age of 12 when his family moved from Norway to Milwaukee. Hilda Loberg was born in Milwaukee, but her brothers had been born in Norway. So little Henry Thomas was of full Norwegian blood. When Thomas was two, the family moved from Milwaukee to West Allis. The two cities were actually side by side with only a street separating them. Tom grew up there in the south district. One of his earliest memories was taking the streetcar to the end of the line and passing the enormous Allis-Chalmers plant where his father worked as a draftsman. Allis-Chalmers’ history as a manufacturer extends to the 1840’s in Milwaukee. The Allis-Chalmers Company as Tom and his father knew it, came about through the merger of the Edward P. Allis Company, famous for its high strength iron castings and steam pumps, Fraser & Chalmers Company, an important maker of rock crushing equipment, Gates Iron Works, another maker of rock crushing equipment, and Dickson Manufacturing Company, a builder of steam boilers and tanks. The newly formed company would be called the “Allis-Chalmers Company” taking its name from two of the major