H. K. Porter Co., Inc

H. K. Porter Company, Inc. was a diversified Pittsburgh manufacturer that became a maker of asbestos textiles after taking over the Thermoid Company, through which Southern Asbestos Company of Charlotte, North Carolina, became a Porter subsidiary. Through its Thermoid Division it made asbestos cloth, yarn, tape, felt, rope and friction materials, and for several years it owned the Pacific Asbestos mine at Copperopolis, California. It was a defendant in many asbestos lawsuits and filed for bankruptcy in 1991.

Draft. The history on this page was written from the documents in our library and has not yet been reviewed by a person.

History

According to the 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, the business began as H. K. Porter Co. in 1866.³⁵ The book says it was incorporated in Pennsylvania on January 12, 1939, and that on June 11, 1939, H. K. Porter Co., Inc. was incorporated as successor in a reorganization of H. K. Porter Co.³⁵

In 1944 Asbestos described H. K. Porter Co., Inc., of Pittsburgh as a maker of equipment for the process industries, with divisions that included the Quimby Pump Co.⁹ A 1960 profile in the magazine said Thomas Mellon Evans had become Porter's president twenty years earlier and had led a long period of corporate growth.¹ Porter reported net sales of about $279 million for 1965.¹⁰

The documents disagree on when Porter took over Thermoid. The magazine's review of 1959 lists the merger of Thermoid Company and H. K. Porter among that year's events.¹¹ Its June 1960 profile dates the merger of Thermoid into Porter to 1958.¹ A 1971 history in the same magazine says Porter purchased Thermoid in 1955.¹² The 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases agrees with the 1960 profile: it says Porter bought 48½ percent of Thermoid in 1958 and merged with it later that year, and that Porter's Quaker Rubber Division and Thermoid were combined to form the Thermoid Division.³⁵ By January 1959 the magazine was already printing greetings from the vice president of "H. K. Porter Company, Inc., Thermoid Division."¹³

On December 1, 1959, Southern Asbestos Company, which was being liquidated, conveyed its business and property to H. K. Porter, and Porter agreed to take on all of its debts and liabilities (Motley 1000 no. 896).² Porter later bought Tallman-McCluskey Fabrics Co. of St. Louis under a January 29, 1969 agreement, and again took over all of the company's property and liabilities (Motley 1000 no. 897).¹⁴ In 1965 the magazine reported that Porter had acquired substantially all the stock of the Russell Manufacturing Company of Middletown, Connecticut, a textile maker.¹⁵ According to the 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, Porter acquired Russell in December 1964 and merged with it in 1965, and Russell's plant chiefly made glass fabric.³⁵ A 1968 article says the textile plant at Davidson, North Carolina, once Carolina Asbestos Company's, was later sold to Porter.¹⁶ In 1969 the magazine reported that the Thermoid Division made asbestos textiles at plants in Bennettsville, South Carolina; Charlotte and Davidson, North Carolina; and St. Louis, Missouri.³ According to the 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, Porter shut its Davidson Works and St. Louis Works, which mainly made asbestos products, in 1970, and in 1971 moved most of its asbestos-products manufacturing to the Charlotte and Bennettsville works.^35,36 The book lists Southern Textile Co. among Porter's subsidiaries.³⁶ In the data sheet The Travelers Insurance Company compiled for a 1980 asbestos seminar from defendants' interrogatory answers, Porter listed its plants as Bennettsville, Charlotte, Davidson and St. Louis for the whole period from 1958 to 1974, without the 1970 closings the Sourcebook describes.³⁷ The sheet names Porter's fiber suppliers from 1958 to 1974 as Bell Asbestos Mines, Cassiar, Asbestos Corporation, Lake Asbestos of Quebec, Johns-Manville Sales Corporation, Rhodesian and General, and North American Asbestos Corporation, and gives the reason for discontinuing its products as "NOT PROFITABLE."³⁷

Porter also had operations abroad. The magazine reported in 1965 that Porter was building an automotive friction materials plant near Sydney, Australia, and that the Friction Materials Division of its Netherlands company had installed new equipment for treating asbestos yarn for clutch facings.^17,18

Asbestos products

A 1969 Porter advertisement in Asbestos offered Thermoid asbestos textiles: cloth, carded fiber, roving, yarn, cord, thread, wick, rope and tubing, in grades from Commercial through AAAA.¹⁹ In 1970 the magazine reported a new coating for the division's aluminum-coated asbestos cloth, used mainly in safety clothing, welding blankets and welding knee pads.²⁰

A product booklet that the Travelers Insurance Company prepared for an asbestos seminar lists many Porter textiles. It gives Flamegard and Therm-a-gard as made from 1958, Portersite from 1964 and Porterlag from 1967, all to 1974.^4,21,22,23 It gives Therm-a-gard and Cleangard as 65 to 95 percent asbestos, the fiber as chrysotile in Therm-a-gard and as amosite in Portersite.^21,22,24 The trademark file gives first use of Therm-a-gard in August 1967, of Cleangard in February 1972, and of Weldgard in January 1975.^21,24,25 In 1975 Asbestos carried Southern Asbestos Company's statement that its Gardian textiles, treated by its Cleangard process, helped users comply with OSHA regulations and required no health hazard label.²⁴ By 1980 the magazine reported the Cleangard treatment was offered on both asbestos and non-asbestos textiles.²⁴

The 1980 Travelers data sheet, compiled from defendants' interrogatory answers, gives different years for some of these products. It dates Therm-a-gard only from 1972 to 1974 and Portersite from 1967 to 1970, and lists a Portersite G, which it says contained fibrous glass, from 1965 to 1974; it agrees on Flamegard from 1958 and Porterlag from 1967, both to 1974.³⁷ It says all the products contained 65 to 95 percent chrysotile except Portersite, which contained amosite, and Portersite G.³⁷

The Copperopolis mine

The U.S. Bureau of Mines yearbook says Porter acquired Pacific Asbestos Corporation, then California's largest producer, during 1968.⁶ According to the 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, Porter acquired 76 percent of Pacific Asbestos's common stock and all of its secured debt in December 1968.³⁵ Asbestos reported in July 1969 that Pacific Asbestos had begun operating as a Porter subsidiary, running an open-pit mine and mill at Copperopolis that produced chrysotile fiber in grades 4 through 7.²⁶ The sources differ on when the mine closed: the yearbook for 1974 says it closed at year's end, while Asbestos reported in 1975 that Porter had closed the mine and plant permanently in April 1974.⁶ The Sourcebook gives only the year, saying Porter discontinued Pacific Asbestos's mining in 1974.³⁶ The 1980 Travelers data sheet says Porter "Did not operate mine," but owned an interest in one from late 1968 to April 1974; the magazine's 1969 report describes Pacific Asbestos running the mine and mill as a Porter subsidiary.^37,26 A group of American and German investors bought the mine and mill from Porter, with the sale final on October 24, 1975.⁶ In December 1974 Porter's president, J. S. Morrow, wrote to J. C. Stephenson of Union Carbide offering a mine and mill described in an enclosed brochure; the brochure is not in the exhibit (UC-3657).²⁷

What the documents show

Porter's people were active in the Asbestos Textile Institute. In 1959 J. T. Griffis of Southern Asbestos Co., described as a Porter subsidiary, presided over the institute's general meeting as its president.²⁸ He sat on its board of governors into the 1960s.²⁹

In 1961 Jerry L. Mitchell, manager of the Thermoid Division's asbestos textile works at Charlotte, published "Health progress in an asbestos textile works" in the Archives of Environmental Health.^30,31 According to our library's summary of the article, he compared North Carolina State Board of Health dust counts taken at the plant in January 1936, which ranged from 45 to 210 million particles per cubic foot, with counts of 0.3 to 4.6 million taken in July 1960.³¹ The summary says he described the 1936 counts as extremes, few of them within the 5 million threshold of the time, and wrote that the company's own records from the 1930s were not available.³¹

In the 1980 Travelers data sheet, Porter gave 1968 as its first knowledge of the hazards, citing the deposition of a Thermoid Division witness, and 1972 as the year of its first warning label.³⁷ That date is seven years after the Charlotte works manager's 1961 article on dust at that plant. The sheet lists Porter as a member of ATI, presumably the Asbestos Textile Institute, from 1958 to 1974.³⁸ It says Porter admitted sales to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard and to the U.S. Government (listed as DSA, GSA, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard); the shipyard sales it lists, from 1971 to 1973, total $7,395 of asbestos and glass lagging cloth and asbestos Soundgard.^37,38

Lawsuits and bankruptcy

Porter was named in asbestos suits across the country, from Virginia shipyard cases in Saunders v. H. K. Porter Co. (1986) to Manzi v. H. K. Porter Co. (1991) in Pennsylvania, where the appeals court upheld a defense verdict for Porter.^7,32,33 In Feldman v. Owens-Illinois (1992), the Brooklyn Navy Yard cases, the federal appeals court in New York referred to settlement talks with Porter "prior to H.K. Porter's bankruptcy filing" and upheld the trial court's ruling that one group of plaintiffs had not settled with Porter.⁸ H. K. Porter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991. Our list of asbestos trusts does not include a Porter trust.³⁴

References

1. Asbestos, June 1960, p. 16
2. Southern Asbestos Company General Conveyance and Assumption of Liabilities to H. K. Porter (1959), Motley 1000 no. 896
3. Asbestos, June 1969, p. 12
4. Flamegard (H. K. Porter), product page
5. Asbestos, August 1964, p. 24
6. Copperopolis mine, Calaveras County, California
7. H. K. Porter Co., Inc., company page
8. Feldman v. Owens-Illinois (In re Brooklyn Navy Yard Asbestos Litigation) (2d Cir. 1992)
9. Asbestos, October 1944, p. 41
10. Asbestos, April 1966, p. 21
11. Asbestos, December 1959, p. 6
12. Asbestos, May 1971, p. 10
13. Asbestos, January 1959, p. 9
14. H. K. Porter's Acquisition of Tallman-McCluskey Fabrics Company (1969), Motley 1000 no. 897
15. Asbestos, April 1965, p. 19
16. Davidson, North Carolina plant
17. Sydney, Australia plant (H. K. Porter)
18. Asbestos, November 1965, p. 24
19. Asbestos, August 1969, p. 49
20. Asbestos, June 1970, p. 20
21. Therm-a-gard (H. K. Porter), product page
22. Portersite (H. K. Porter), product page
23. Porterlag (H. K. Porter), product page
24. Cleangard (H. K. Porter), product page
25. Weldgard (H. K. Porter), product page
26. Asbestos, July 1969, p. 34
27. UC-3657: J. S. Morrow (H. K. Porter Company) to J. C. Stephenson offering a mine and mill for acquisition (1974)
28. Asbestos, October 1959, p. 12
29. Asbestos, February 1964, p. 3
30. Asbestos, October 1961, p. 26
31. Health progress in an asbestos textile works (1961)
32. Saunders v. H. K. Porter Co. (E.D. Va. 1986)
33. Manzi v. H. K. Porter Co. (Pa. Super. Ct. 1991)
34. Asbestos trusts A–Z
35. Barbara J. Peters and George A. Peters, Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: Medical, Legal, and Engineering Aspects, vol. 2 (New York: Garland Law Publishing, 1986), p. 166.
36. Barbara J. Peters and George A. Peters, Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases: Medical, Legal, and Engineering Aspects, vol. 2 (New York: Garland Law Publishing, 1986), p. 167.
37. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): H.K. Porter Product Information, p. 2
38. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): H.K. Porter Product Information, p. 3

Asbestos products

29 products our documents name H. K. Porter Co., Inc as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

Plants

Plants where asbestos products were made that the documents say H. K. Porter Co., Inc ran.

• H. K. Porter Company (Porter-Australia) plant at Sydney (30 miles west), New South Wales
• Kubar Manufacturing Company and later owners plant at Davidson, North Carolina

Mines

Asbestos mines the documents name H. K. Porter Co., Inc as running or owning.

• Copperopolis property, California

Court cases

32 court decisions in our case-law library name H. K. Porter Co., Inc as a defendant, newest first.

• Nelson v. Keene Corp. (1996)
• Baumgart v. Keene Bldg. Products Corp. (1995)
• Busfield v. AC & S., Inc. (1994)
• Coates v. AC and S, Inc. (1994)
• Feldman v. Owens-Illinois (In re Brooklyn Navy Yard Asbestos Litigation, 1992)
• Manzi v. HK Porter Co. (1991)
• Hoffman v. Allied Corp. (1990)
• Bushless v. GAF Corp. (1990)
• Puppe By Puppe v. AC and S., Inc. (1990)
• Kraciun v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (1990)
• District of Columbia v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation (1989)
• Kaiser v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (1989)
• Pecorino v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1988)
• Whatley v. Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (1988)
• Eckenrod v. GAF Corp. (1988)
• Case v. Fibreboard Corp. (1987)
• Marshall v. Celotex Corp. (1987)
• Saunders v. HK Porter Co., Inc. (1986)
• Silver v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1986)
• Seckular v. Celotex (1986)
• Costello v. Unarco Industries, Inc. (1986)
• Knauer v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1986)
• Jackson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1986)
• Celotex Corp. v. Copeland (1985)
• Lowe v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1985)
• Meehan v. Celotex Corp. (1985)
• Jackson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1985)
• Costello v. Unarco Industries, Inc. (1984)
• Jackson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1984)
• Froud v. Celotex Corp. (1983)
• Staiano v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1982)
• Froud v. Celotex Corporation (1982)

In our library

4 documents in our library name H. K. Porter Co., Inc, by collection.

In the Union Carbide documents

H. K. Porter Co., Inc is named in 14 Union Carbide documents dated 1972 to 2001 (1 as the source, 14 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. 13 of them are published in our collection.

• M. M. Swetonic (AIA/NA) to Member Companies on the June 22 Meeting about the OSHA Asbestos Standards (1972) UC-5186 (mentioned)
• W. N. Johnson Transmittal to F. H. Larrison and E. A. Piersall of AIA/NA Memos on FDA and Bureau of Mines Asbestos Actions (1972) UC-4282 (mentioned)
• Users of Asbestos Fibers: Directory of Manufacturers by Product Category (1973) UC-935 (mentioned)
• Users of Asbestos Fibres: Directory of Companies by Product Category (1973) UC-2648 (mentioned)
• G. J. Weihs, Chrysotile Asbestos, Group 7 (Shorts): Market Analysis and Forecasts (1974) Union Carbide 278 (mentioned)
• G. J. Weihs, Chrysotile Asbestos (Group 7, Shorts) Market Analysis, Union Carbide Marketing Services Department (1974) UC-209 (mentioned)
• G. J. Weihs, Chrysotile Asbestos, Group 7 (Shorts): Market Analysis, with Morgan Guaranty Transmittal Letter to W. C. Thurber (1974) UC-1509 (mentioned)
• G. J. Weihs, Chrysotile Asbestos (Group 7, Shorts) Market Analysis for Union Carbide Marketing Services (1974) UC-4630 (mentioned)
• G. J. Weihs, Chrysotile Asbestos Markets and Forecasts for Group 7, with W. C. Thurber Cover Note and Related Memos (1974) UC-944 (mentioned)
• J. S. Morrow (H. K. Porter Company) to J. C. Stephenson offering a mine and mill for acquisition (1974) UC-3657 (source, mentioned)
• Defendants' Exhibit List with General Exhibit List in Villarreal v. GAF Corporation Holdings, Inc., et al., Cameron County, Texas (2001) UC-2009 (mentioned)
• AIA/NA Member Companies, Environmental Control Sub-Committee and Counsel Roster UC-3877 (mentioned)
• Union Carbide's Responses to Plaintiffs' Set No. 46 Interrogatories on Asbestos Exports and Imports at the Ports of Stockton and Sacramento (undated) UC-5327 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for H. K. Porter Co., Inc, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: H. K. Porter Company, Inc · H.K. Porter Company, Inc · H. K. Porter Company · H.K. Porter, Inc · H. K. Porter Co. Inc · H. K. Porter Company, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · H.K. Porter Co. Inc · H. K. Porter · H. K. Porter Company, Incorporated.

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names H. K. Porter Co., Inc, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.