Mack Remembrance – Alfred Fellows Masury

Died on this day, April 4, 1933

Alfred Fellows Masury was the legendary Mack Trucks chief engineer and vice president so much responsible for the company’s early successes including AC, AK and AP model “Bulldog” medium and heavy trucks, high-speed B series trucks (BB, BC, BF, BG, BJ, BL, BM, BQ and BX), militarized AB and AC model trucks, AC model fire apparatus, AB and AL model passenger buses and “light rail” rail cars.

Alfred F. Masury’s contributions to Mack Trucks cannot be overemphasized. For decades after his death, the soul of Mack Trucks, the core values of the company’s moral foundation, embodied Alfred F. Masury’s passion for nothing less than engineering excellence in commercial truck design. Alfred set the tone for thousands of Mack Truck employees after him. Never a hint of arrogance, such demeanor was never the Mack way, but rather always driven from within to design, build and support the world’s best name in trucks. Alfred F. Masury’s Mack Trucks said it straight - “Performance Counts”.

In every sense, the work of Alfred F. Masury led to Mack Trucks becoming “The Greatest Name in Trucks, and the iconic American phrase “Built like a Mack truck.” He was instrumental in creating the very fabric of Mack Trucks, which embodied the spirit that personifies our great country.

Alfred’s tragic and premature death in 1933 at the age of 50 deprived the company of an inventive genius. Under his direction, the Mack truck represented the peak of technical excellence.

The engineering advances made at Mack Trucks under the direction of Chief Engineer Alfred Masury, supported by Consulting Engineer Edward R. Hewitt and the sharpest engineering staff in the business, were nothing less than astonishing.

(On March 22, 1922, the parent company’s name was changed from the International Motor Company to Mack Trucks, Incorporated, to more closely identify the company’s corporate name with its Mack-branded products, and avoid any possible confusion with competitor International Harvester. However, the manufacturing subsidiary continued under the International Motor Company name until 1936, when it was renamed the Mack Manufacturing Corporation)

Alfred was born on September 2, 1882 to Charles H. Masury and Evelyn Fellows Masury in Danvers (Essex County), Massachusetts. He received a degree in mechanical engineering from Brown University in 1904.

During the late 1800s, the Masury household in Danvers at 48 Elm Street was frequently visited by famous guests including William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and Presidents Taft and Coolidge.

Alfred worked for General Electric at their Lynn, Massachusetts plant as a junior engineer between 1904 and 1906.

He then joined Corwin Manufacturing Company (the successor to the Vaughan Machine Company) in Peabody, Massachusetts which, in addition to designing and producing machinery for the leather, printing and textile industries, had also built some early automobiles.

In July 1907, the Hewitt Motor Truck Company was formed with Alfred as one of the incorporators.

The International Motor Company (the holding company of Mack Brothers Motor Car Company) purchased Hewitt in 1912 (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/34219-mack-trucks-the-facilities/). The acquisition included Hewitt’s large truck plant located at West End Avenue and 64th Street in Manhattan, New York City.

After the facility was enlarged to 200,000 square feet in 1913 (with a garage capacity of 350 trucks) to serve as a factory service center, Alfred became the manager of service operations.

In 1914, Alfred succeeded AB-designer Edward R. Hewitt as chief engineer of the International Motor Company.

Between 1914 and the early 1930s prior to his death, when both the corporate headquarters and research and development center of Mack Trucks were located within the massive former Hewitt complex, it was here that Alfred turned the trucking world on end with his revolutionary, cutting edge designs.

Over the span of his career, Alfred assigned 115 patents to Mack Trucks (International Motor Company), in addition to hundreds of others that he co-invented with fellow engineers. Between 1919 and 1927, 270 patents were assigned relating to every aspect of truck design and manufacture. The company under Masury also developed specialized processes and machinery for heat treatment, case hardening, gear grinding and burnishing.

One of the many famous achievements of the Masury-led research and development department of the International Motor Company was elaborate experimentation in the early 1920s to measure the effects on tires and suspension systems of both pneumatic and solid-tired trucks when run at speed off an inclined ramp. The project originated from Masury’s desire to investigate the attributes of the recently introduced Belflex composition rubber spring shackle. Five Mack trucks ranging in capacity from 1-1/2 to 5 tons were driven at speeds of 15 to 18 miles per hour up a 1-1/2 foot tall ramp, during which time the effects on the tires and suspension systems were recorded utilizing an advanced new “Novograph” motion picture camera capable of taking pictures at a rate of 144 frames per second. Given the ability to review the video test results in slow motion, the Masury team developed and patented the Mack Rubber Shock Insulator in 1921.The technology was first utilized on the AB, a cushion connection between the spring ends and chassis. Mack’s use of live rubber cushioning technology extended over the 1921-1927 period to engine, transmission radiator steering gear and cab mounting.

As pneumatic tires for medium and heavy trucks at this time was still under development, the fitment of Mack’s Rubber Shock Insulator technology to solid tire trucks greatly prolonged component life by damping harmful shock and vibrations.

The potential of Mack’s Rubber Shock Insulator technology was so great that the International Motor Company formed the Rubber Shock Insulator Company in January 1922. Thru licensing agreements, Mack’s Rubber Shock Insulator technology was used by Chrysler, Peerless and Yellow Cab (Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company).

Always thinking outside the traditional box, Alfred Masury and colleague Emil C. Fink jointly patented a shock-insulated railroad track design, an advanced rail fastening system for attaching rails to railroad ties (http://www.freepatentsonline.com/1619028.pdf).

In 1932, while in the hospital recovering from surgery, Alfred hand-carved the first model of the iconic Bulldog hood ornament from a bar of soap (later in wood).

He was an elected associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Alfred was a commissioned Lieutenant Colonel (U.S. Army Reserve) in the Ordnance Department and Chairman of the Ordnance Advisory Committee.

Alfred Fellows Masury met an untimely death at the age of 50, a tragedy for family and Mack Trucks. A strong proponent of the commercial use of rigid airships, he was among 73 crew and passengers out of 76 who perished when the airship USS Akron (ZRS-4) crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the New Jersey coast during a severe storm. Alfred had been aboard at the invitation of Rear Admiral William Moffett. It was the deadliest airship accident up to that time.

Out of both wisdom and respect, let those today not forget the people of Mack Trucks’ past who allowed them to have their good fortune in the present.

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“As one day follows another, the Mack organization becomes more impressed with the great loss we have suffered individually and collectively through the untimely death of Alfred Masury. Seldom in the engineering profession do we encounter an individual with traits and abilities as distinctive in character as this man possessed and demonstrated to us on every occasion. His interests were wide, and to each he gave careful thought and study. The results will be felt, we believe, for many years to come. All in our organization feel keenly the loss of a close personal friend, and we are grateful for this opportunity of expressing our appreciation of all that he has done for us and the industry.”

Alfred J. Brosseau

President, Mack Trucks Inc.

“There is no question that much of the success of the engineering problems of the Mack Truck Company has been due to Mr. Masury’s work. He was universally liked by all his associates and was extremely popular with the whole automobile trade and all our customers.”

Edward R. Hewitt

Former chief engineer and consultant, International Motor Company

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Constructed by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation joint venture of Springfield, Ohio, the USS Akron was a massive flying aircraft carrier with an internal hanger designed to carry up to five Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk fighters.

On the evening of April 3, 1933, the USS Akron (ZRS-4) cast off from the mooring mast to operate along the coast of New England, assisting in the calibration of radio direction finder stations. Rear Admiral Moffett was on board along with his aide, Commander Henry Barton Cecil, Commander Fred T. Berry, the commanding officer of NAS Lakehurst, and Lieutenant Colonel Alfred F. Masury, U.S. Army Reserve, a guest of the admiral, the vice-president of Mack Trucks, and a strong proponent of the potential civilian uses of rigid airships.

The Akron soon encountered severe weather, which did not improve as the airship passed over Barnegat Light, New Jersey. At 10:00pm, wind gusts of terrific force struck its massive airframe. The airship was being flown into an area of lower barometric pressure than at take-off, which caused the actual altitude flown to be lower than that indicated in the control gondola.

Around 12:30am on April 4, the Akron was caught by an updraft, followed almost immediately by a downdraft. Commander McCord, the captain, ordered full speed ahead and ballast dropped. The executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Herbert V. Wiley, handled the ballast and emptied the bow emergency ballast. Coupled with the elevator man holding the nose up, this caused the nose to rise and the tail to rotate down. The descent of the Akron was only temporarily halted, whereupon downdrafts forced the airship down farther. Wiley activated the 18 "howlers" of the ship's telephone system, a signal to landing stations. At this point, the Akron was nose up, between 12 degrees and 25 degrees.

The engineering officer called out "800 feet" (240 m), which was followed by a gust of intense violence. The steersman reported no response to his wheel as the lower rudder cables had been torn away. While the control gondola was still hundreds of feet high, the lower fin of Akron had struck the water and was torn off.

The Akron broke up rapidly and sank in the stormy Atlantic. The crew of the nearby German merchant ship Phoebus saw lights descending toward the ocean at about 12:23 a.m. and altered course to investigate, with her captain believing that he was witnessing an airplane crash. At 12:55am, the unconscious Commander Wiley was pulled from the water along with three other men: Chief Radioman Robert W. Copeland, Boatswain's Mate Second Class Richard E. Deal, and Aviation Metalsmith Second Class Moody E. Erwin. Despite artificial respiration, Copeland never regained consciousness, and he died aboard the Phoebus.

Although the German sailors spotted four or five other men in the water, they did realize their ship had chanced upon the crash of the Akron until Lt. Commander Wiley regained consciousness 30 minutes after being rescued. The crew of the Phoebus combed the ocean for over five hours in a fruitless search for more survivors. The Navy blimp J-3, sent out to join the search, also crashed, with the loss of two men.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Tucker, the first American vessel on the scene, arrived at 6:00am, taking the airship's survivors and the body of Copeland on board. Among the other ships combing the area for survivors were the heavy cruiser Portland, destroyer Cole, Coast Guard cutter Mojave and Coast Guard destroyers McDougal and Hunt, as well as two Coast Guard aircraft. The fishing vessel Grace F from Gloucester, Massachusetts also assisted in the search, using her seining gear in an effort to recover bodies.

Most casualties had been caused by drowning and hypothermia, since the crew had not been issued life jackets, and there had not been time to deploy the single life raft. The accident left 73 dead, and only three survivors.

Tragically, aviation was to abruptly and prematurely rob Mack Trucks once again of core talent in 1969. (http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/31112-bulldog-airlines/?hl=%2Bbulldog+%2Bairlines)

Related reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Akron_%28ZRS-4%29

http://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/17660117/El-USS-Akron-por-dentro-y-un-poco-de-su-historia.html

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The Mack family once again remembers legendary chief engineer and vice president, Alfred Fellows Masury.