Baldwin-Hill

Baldwin-Hill Company was a Trenton, New Jersey, maker of mineral wool insulation and insulating cements, including No. 1 Insulating Cement and Mono-Block, some of which contained asbestos. In 1959 it merged with Ehret Magnesia Manufacturing Company to form Baldwin-Ehret-Hill, Inc., which also made Thermalite magnesia and Thermasil calcium silicate insulation and spray insulations containing asbestos. Keene Corporation later reported Baldwin-Hill and Baldwin-Ehret-Hill as predecessors of its subsidiary, and Keene answered for Baldwin-Hill products in court before Keene itself went bankrupt.

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 a 1960 profile in the trade magazine Asbestos, William H. Hill, a Cornell-trained mechanical engineer who had twice worked at Johns-Manville's Manville plant, returned to Trenton in 1934 and organized the Baldwin-Hill Company, serving as its president for twenty-five years.³ Two other Asbestos items, the 1959 merger notice and a September 1960 announcement, say instead that Baldwin-Hill was founded in 1935.⁴⁷ The 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases says Baldwin-Hill began making mineral wool insulation that contained asbestos in 1935.²⁸ Edward R. Stevens joined Baldwin-Hill as vice president for sales in 1937.⁷ A December 1941 list that Johns-Manville's Vandiver Brown sent to the company's auditors records J-M's felted mineral wool licenses as terminated on January 7, 1941, and names Baldwin Hill Co. among the licensees.⁸

In 1946 Asbestos gave Baldwin-Hill's addresses as 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, and 600 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago; by 1947 it was writing from 500 Breunig Avenue, Trenton.¹⁹ Several patents were assigned to the company, including a 1950 patent for a corrosion-resisting mineral wool insulating cement and a 1953 patent for a resin-bonded mineral fiber insulating sheet, both by Frederick H. Hollenberg, Jr.¹⁰¹¹ Barry Castleman cites both patents in his chapter on alternatives to asbestos insulation.¹²

In 1956 Asbestos reported that Baldwin-Hill, "manufacturers of heat and cold insulation," planned to merge its subsidiary Western Rock Wool Corp. into the parent, as a step toward taking direct ownership of its three subsidiaries: Western Rock Wool, George W. Elliott Enterprises and Therminsul Corp.¹³ In 1959 Baldwin-Hill was a charter member of the National Insulation Manufacturers Association (NIMA), the insulation makers' trade group.¹⁴

In July 1959 Alvin M. Ehret, Jr., and William H. Hill announced a proposed merger of Ehret Magnesia, founded in 1897, and Baldwin-Hill. The new company, Baldwin-Ehret-Hill, Inc., was to have main offices at 500 Breunig Avenue in Trenton, five plants, and annual sales of about $14,000,000.⁴ The 1960 profile lists its plants as Trenton; Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Huntington, Indiana; and Temple, Texas.³ In September 1960 Stevens became president and Ehret chairman, succeeding Hill, who turned to the company's foreign operations.⁷ A Johns-Manville internal memo of September 19, 1980, summarizing Keene's interrogatory answers for J-M's litigation attorneys, also dates the merger to 1959, and says Keene Building Products Corporation became Baldwin-Ehret-Hill's successor in 1970.²⁹

The company grew by buying others. In late 1963 it acquired Standard Asbestos Manufacturing Company of Chicago, a maker of low-pressure insulations.¹⁵ In early 1964 it acquired the insulation contracting divisions of Mundet Cork Corporation, with facilities and staff in ten locations; Stevens said company-owned contract units "from coast to coast" would let it serve industrial customers nationwide.¹⁶ The 1980 J-M memo says Baldwin-Ehret-Hill bought the inventory of Keasbey & Mattison in 1963, and bought Mundet's machinery and contracting operation from Crown Cork & Seal, which had apparently bought Mundet before February 1964; it counts the network of contract units bought from Mundet in 1964 as 12, where Asbestos reported ten locations.^29,16 In 1965 it opened a branch in Kenilworth, New Jersey, which Asbestos said brought its contract and sub-branch locations to 15.¹⁷

According to the 1986 Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases, Keene Corporation bought 98 percent of Baldwin-Ehret-Hill in 1968.²⁸ The book says Baldwin-Ehret-Hill was later renamed Keene Insulation Products Corporation, and that this company stopped making asbestos-containing products in 1972; Keene's 1990 report to the EPA uses a different name for the successor, Keene Building Products Corporation.²⁸² The book also reports that Keene offered a $10,000 reward for proof that Baldwin-Hill and Baldwin-Ehret-Hill were insured from 1935 to 1952, because it appeared unable to find evidence of liability insurance for those years.²⁸ The 1980 J-M memo, like Asbestos, dates the merger that formed Baldwin-Ehret-Hill to 1959, after the years the book names.^29,4

Asbestos products

The 1946 Asbestos notice described B-H No. 1 Insulating Cement as a plastic insulation of the company's black rock wool "combined with high-grade long-fibre asbestos" and a colloidal clay, for use up to 1800°F.¹ Armstrong's 1951 insulation handbook describes Baldwin-Hill's Power House Cement as a hydraulic-setting mineral wool cement used as both a finishing and an insulating cement.¹⁸ Union Carbide's 1956 insulation specifications for its South Charleston, West Virginia, plant named Baldwin-Hill "Powerhouse" as an approved hydraulic-setting insulating cement, and its 1968 thermal insulation manual named Baldwin-Ehret-Hill Powerhouse; Union Carbide purchase cards record orders for Baldwin Hill "Superpowerhouse" cement from 1956 to 1966.¹⁹²⁰²¹

Keene Corporation's 1990 report to the EPA gives the company's own account of asbestos content.² It says:

• No. 1 Plus Cement and No. 1 Cement (1938–1971, by Baldwin-Hill, Baldwin-Ehret-Hill and Keene Building Products) contained 7.5% chrysotile asbestos, which was removed in 1971.²
• Mono-Block (1941–1968) contained 0.95% amosite asbestos, removed in 1968.²
• A military formulation of Super Powerhouse Cement (1957–1971) contained 5% chrysotile and was sold only for U.S. military installations; the commercial formulation, the report says, was made without asbestos.²
• Thermasil calcium silicate (1956–1972, from Ehret through Keene Building Products) contained about 10% amosite until February 1969, reduced afterward and removed in November 1972.²
• Thermalite 85% magnesia (1904–1964, by Ehret and Baldwin-Ehret-Hill) contained 10 to 15% asbestos fiber, mainly amosite, by "the best information" Keene had.²
• The Pyrospray spray insulations (1963 to the early 1970s) contained 15 to 32% asbestos, and Mono-Spray (1963–1970) about 13% chrysotile.²

Keene gave the company's overall years of manufacture as 1904 through about 1972, a span that begins with Ehret's products rather than Baldwin-Hill's.²

The 1980 J-M memo, filed in the Keene section of the binder The Travelers Insurance Company compiled for a 1980 asbestos seminar, gives Keene's discovery account of the Baldwin-Hill lines. It says Number One Plus Cement was made at Trenton from 1938 until asbestos was removed on February 15, 1971, and Mono-Block at Kalamazoo, Michigan, from 1940 to 1968, believed to hold about 2 to 5 percent chrysotile.³⁰ The Travelers data sheet in the same section says Mono-Block was made at Trenton and later at Kalamazoo, with 3 percent chrysotile, while Keene's 1990 report gives its fiber as 0.95% amosite.^34,2 The memo says Super Powerhouse succeeded a Powerhouse Cement of the early 1940s, was reformulated around 1960 with 5 percent chrysotile, and was made to government specifications for military projects.^30,31 Before 1959 the cements and Mono-Block bore a "BH" logo, and products made from 1959 to 1970 carried "B.E.H."³¹ The memo also says a licensing agreement with Grunzweig and Hartmann concerning Mono-Block ran from the late 1950s until 1970.³²

What the documents show

The trade association. Baldwin-Ehret-Hill's representatives sat in NIMA's meetings. Alvin M. Ehret, Jr., attended the January 13, 1960, board meeting at which J. B. Jobe of Johns-Manville reported for a special committee on a safety program. On health, the minutes record the group's feeling "that the industry could benefit from such a program," and say the subject would be studied further.²² M. M. Wilson and L. T. Choate of Baldwin-Ehret-Hill attended the April 14, 1964, board meeting at which it was reported that Johns-Manville was printing a caution about asbestos dust on the cartons and crates of its asbestos products (calcium silicate, magnesia, asbestos cements).²³ The minutes do not record what Baldwin-Ehret-Hill did in response. The 1980 J-M memo says that in 1967 Baldwin-Ehret-Hill took part with NIMA in publishing recommended health and safety practices for handling thermal insulation containing asbestos.³³

Early lawsuits. Court papers from 1961–62 in a Louisiana death suit brought by an insulator's widow name Baldwin-Ehret-Hill among the insulation makers charged with negligence.²⁴ A California workers' compensation death claim brought in 1966 by another insulation worker's widow was captioned against Baldwin-Ehret-Hill and others; it was settled in 1969.²⁵ In 1989 Baldwin-Hill was among the defendants in an Illinois case, Bank of Alton v. A. P. Green Refractories.²⁶

Keene and the chrysotile defense. In Blancha v. Raymark Industries (1992), a Navy machinist's estate sued over exposure at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, and by trial Keene Corporation was the only defendant left, answering for the products of its predecessor Baldwin-Hill.⁵ Keene's one witness testified that chrysotile asbestos does not cause mesothelioma; no witness testified what kind of asbestos Baldwin-Hill's products contained. The jury found that Keene's products were defective for lack of adequate warnings, but that they were not a substantial contributing factor in the death, and so found for Keene. The Third Circuit reinstated that verdict, holding that Keene did not have to prove what its products contained before offering that testimony; one judge dissented.⁵

Bankruptcy

A 1994 decision of the bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York shows Keene Corporation in bankruptcy, with about sixty people holding judgments against it that were still on appeal when it filed.⁶ Our list of asbestos trusts has no entry for Keene or Baldwin-Hill.²⁷

References

1. Asbestos, March 1946, p. 40
2. Asbestos; Publication of Identifying Information (EPA, Federal Register, February 13, 1990), pp. 11–12 (Keene Corporation)
3. Asbestos, October 1960, p. 18 (Profile: William H. Hill)
4. Asbestos, July 1959, p. 14
5. Blancha v. Raymark Industries (3d Cir. 1992)
6. In re Keene Corp. (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 1994)
7. Asbestos, September 1960, p. 18
8. Vandiver Brown to Lybrand, Ross Bros. & Montgomery on Pending Claims for the 1941 Audit (1941), p. 3
9. Asbestos, November 1947, p. 48
10. Thermal insulating cement (US Patent 2,509,599, 1950)
11. Insulating material (US Patent 2,633,433, 1953)
12. Reading Castleman, Chapter 6
13. Asbestos, March 1956, p. 56
14. Asbestos, February 1959, p. 8
15. Asbestos, November 1963, p. 17
16. Asbestos, March 1964, p. 8
17. Asbestos, July 1965, p. 13
18. Armstrong's Industrial Insulations (1951), p. 73
19. UC-2365: Thermal Insulation Specifications for the South Charleston Plant (1956), p. 10
20. UC-2010: Union Carbide Thermal Insulation Manual, Volume I (Specifications) (1968), p. 59
21. UC-3086: Purchase Requisition and Commodity Cards for Baldwin Hill "Superpowerhouse" Mineral Wool Insulating Cement (1956–1959); UC-3087: Purchase Requisition Cards for Baldwin Hill 'Superpowerhouse' (1964–1966)
22. National Insulation Manufacturers Association Board Minutes on a Safety Program (January 1960), pp. 1–2
23. National Insulation Manufacturers Association Board Minutes on J-M's Caution Statement (1964), pp. 1, 4
24. Faciane v. Travelers Insurance Company, Petitions and Eagle-Picher's Exception (1961–1962), p. 14
25. California workers' compensation death claim against Baldwin Ehret-Hill and others (1966–1969), ACL Doc 23994
26. North American Refractories Company's Supplemental Rule 220 Compliance in Bank of Alton v. A. P. Green Refractories (1989), p. 3
27. Asbestos trusts A–Z
28. 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.
29. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Keene Corporation Product Information, p. 2 (Johns-Manville memo, September 19, 1980)
30. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Keene Corporation Product Information, p. 3 (Johns-Manville memo)
31. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Keene Corporation Product Information, p. 4 (Johns-Manville memo)
32. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Keene Corporation Product Information, p. 5 (Johns-Manville memo)
33. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Keene Corporation Product Information, p. 6 (Johns-Manville memo)
34. Travelers Asbestos Seminar Booklet (1980): Keene Corporation Product Information, p. 8

Asbestos products

2 products our documents name Baldwin-Hill as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• No. 1 Insulating Cement (Baldwin-Hill)
• No. 6 High Temperature Cement (Baldwin-Hill)

Court cases

1 court decision in our case-law library name Baldwin-Hill as a defendant.

• Blancha v. Raymark Industries (1992)

In the Union Carbide documents

Baldwin-Hill is named in 2 Union Carbide documents dated 1957 to 1961 (2 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• Specifications for Thermal Insulation, South Charleston Plant, Works Engineering Department, Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Company (1957) UC-2366 (mentioned)
• Union Carbide Chemicals Company, Design and Construction Department: Thermal Insulation Specifications Manual issued to R. P. Little (1961) UC-4905 (mentioned)

Where this comes from

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