Philip Danforth Armour

rdf:langString Philip Danforth Armour

rdf:langString Philip Danforth Armour

rdf:langString Philip Danforth Armour

rdf:langString Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

rdf:langString Stockbridge, New York, U.S.

rdf:langString Signature of Philip Danforth Armour .png

rdf:langString Creator

rdf:langString Philip Danforth Armour Jr.

rdf:langString Malvina Bell Ogden

rdf:langString President of Armour and Company

rdf:langString Philip Danforth Armour Sr. (16 May 1832 – 6 January 1901) was an American meatpacking industrialist who founded the Chicago-based firm of Armour & Company. Born on an upstate New York farm, he made $8,000 in the California gold rush, 1852–56. He opened a wholesale soap business in Cincinnati, then moved it to Milwaukee. He made millions selling meat to the United States Army during the Civil War. In 1875, he moved his base to Chicago. Armour's innovations including bringing live hogs to the metropolis for slaughter, inventing an assembly line system for the dis-assembly of hogs, canning the product, economy of scale and efficiency in detail. He systematically utilized waste products, boasting that he made use of "everything but the squeal". The introduction of refrigerated rail cars opened a national market for him and competitors such as Gustavus Swift. Armour expanded into banking and speculation on the futures market for pork and wheat by 1900, his plants employed 15,000 workers; his own wealth was in the range of $50 million. The urgent Army need for meat during the Spanish–American War of 1898 led to highly publicized complaints about "embalmed beef." Armour retired from business in 1899, and devoted himself to philanthropy in the Chicago area, including low-cost housing for industrial workers, and the major institution of higher education, the Armour Institute of Technology (now part of Illinois Institute of Technology).