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The following pages are an overview of where and how Lubriko came to be. We would like to thank Frank Iacovone and Kenneth Kunz for compiling this information.
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Originally founded by William Hagenbaugh (1891-1976) of Los Angeles in 1909 that started the business by blending oils at night and selling them during the day. At that time, he called the company The Pennsylvania Oil Company due to his preference to using only Pennsylvania stock oils.
In 1919, Hagenbaugh learned that a Philadelphia based company involved in the production of commercial greases and oils was for sale. The company, known as the Commercial Lubricating Company, was an “old-line” company that was founded by James Person in 1891. Hagenbaugh purchased the company circa 1920 and retained the employment of Edward Higgins and Milton Zimmerman, men who would play major roles in the development of Master Lubricants Company.
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(Left to Right) Mr. William L. Hagenbaugh, President; Mr. Milton N. Patterson, Vice-President, and: Mr. G.S. Harper, Office Assistant.
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As one of the first suppliers of brick greases, the company was given its trade name, The Lubricating Brick Company that eventually led to the acronym of LUBRIKO, which today is a registered trademark. Around 1921 the company name officially changed to Master Lubricants Company (although some records indicate the name change may have occurred even earlier). At this time the company owned a refinery in Compton, California and a stocking warehouse with blending capabilities in Los Angeles. As oil blending was a sole manufacturing activity at the Compton plant, the manufacturing operation located in Philadelphia regularly shipped grease in 300,000 to 400,000 pound quantities to the West Coast facility via the Panama Canal.
Initial sales and marketing strategies were made by Higgins and Zimmerman as they established a nationwide network of distributors and stocking stores. They had sought a group of outlets that marketed products that would compliment a line of greases and decided on bearing distributors. They then began a program of expansion that resulted in having a distributor in every major city in the United States and Canada. Pat Patterson was hired in 1927 to organize the West Coast. Years later in 1940, Milton Zimmerman Jr. came onboard to work the Midwest. The first major inroad came when Higgins secured the Cleveland Ball Bearing Co. to handle the LUBRIKO line. Cleveland Ball later became Bearings Inc. and today is known as Applied Industrial Technologies and remains a strong distributor of LUBRIKO Products with nearly 400 branch locations across the United States.
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With the establishment of a chain of distributors, Master Lubricants began a growth curve that was quickly making it one of the premier grease companies of the day in North America. The brick greases remained a major factor in this growth. During this period, railroad companies throughout the United States and Canada determined that one specific product, LUBRIKO M1 grease was the best lubricant to use in the journal boxes on the train cars. This, obviously, increased the scope of Master Lubricants as a lubricant supplier. When the United States entered World War II in 1941 business boomed as the railroads were a major transportation mode for moving materials and personnel.
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