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Home > Collections > Special Collections > Manuscripts > The Donald J. Angus Papers

The Donald J. Angus Papers

Kelvin Smith Library: Special Collections Research Center


(1903 - 1966)

Biography | Scope and Content | Boxlist

Quantity: 3.78 linear feet

Restrictions: The Special Collections Research Center is open to any interested researcher upon presentation of a valid CASE ID or other valid official identification card. The Center is open to other researchers by appointment only.

Acquisition: This collection was given to the Case Archive of Contemporary Science and Technology by Case Professor John C. Angus, nephew of Donald J. Angus, in June 1967. A few additional materials were loaned from Mr. Arthur J. Weber (Indianapolis) to be microfilmed for the collection. In July, 2011 former Esterline Angus Company employee, William E. Calbert, donated five notebooks kept by by Donald J. Angus between 1935 and 1956.  They contain electrical test results and instrumentation information recorded by Angus for several projects.  Angus gave the notebooks to Calbert in the early 1960's.

Biography: Donald J. Angus (1887-1966)

Angus was a self-made engineer-inventor. Although he never completed high school, he did attend, as an occasional student, engineering classes of his choice at the University of Wisconsin and Michigan State University. One of his early major projects was design and installation of hydraulic plant and distributing system for the district at Williams, Lawrence County, Ind. (1909-1912). The entire Bedford Stone District of Indiana, one of the largest industrial eletrifications in the United States, was managed by Angus for some time after the completion of the project. He became progressively expert on electrical measuring and recording devices, and was selected during World War I to design a totalizing meter for the Mississippi River Company plant at Keokuk, Iowa. During his lifetime he was granted 47 patents on electrical and mechanical devices. He joined John W. Esterline in 1910 to create The Esterline-Angus Company.

Scope and Content 

The collection consists of papers relating to the engineering activity of Donald J. Angus, a founding partner of the Esterline-Angus Company which document the development of that company and the 47 patents granted to Angus between 1919-1938. Most correspondence relates to the early years of the company from 1914-1918. It has been established that the firm's later correspondence was destroyed when the firm was sold in 1960. The fiscal records and reports are fairly complete, covering the years 1915-1962. The collection is divided into the following nine series: 

Series 1: Working Papers  1914-1934
Series 2: Reports  1915-1925
Series 3: Central Station Files  1911-1914
Series 4: Fragmented Files  1935-1966
Series 5: Patents Granted to Donald J. Angus 1919-1938
Series 6: Fiscal Records Esterline Angus Company  1915-1962
Series 7: Artifacts  1903-1914
Series 8: Glass Slides  circa 1914

Series 9: Microfilm 

 1904-1943
 
Boxlist

Series 1: Working Papers

Box Folder

Folder Title
1 1

Crown Cork and Seal Co., Baltimore, Md. 1915-1917. Design and building of oven car including magnets.
1 2

Crown Cork and Seal Co., Baltimore, Md. 1915-1917. Design of magnet crown elevator.
1 3

Crown Cork and Seal Co., Baltimore, Md. 1915-1917. Eddy-current crown device and magnetic crown elevator.
1 4

Crown Cork and Seal Co., Baltimore, Md. 1915-1917. General correspondence.
1 5

Mississippi River Power Company, Keokuk, Iowa. 1916-1917. Correspondence; also included is the contract between the Esterline Angus Company and the Mississippi River Co., and Donald J. Angus' address before the Indianapolis-Lafayette Section of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, March 16, 1917: The largest meter for the largest plant in the world.
1 6

Mississippi River Power Company, Keokuk, Iowa. 1916-1917. Blueprints, charts, on manual.
1 7

Mississippi River Power Company, Keokuk, Iowa. Photographs.
1 8

Invention of the Spring Engine Starter. 1915-1917. Correspondence and first patent, 1916.
1 9

Invention of the Spring Engine Starter. 1915-1917. Correspondence regarding patent application, 1917.
1 10

Invention of the Spring Engine Starter. 1915-1917. Correspondence regarding second patent, 1915-1917.
1 11

Invention of the Spring Engine Starter. 1915-1916. Photographs.
1 12

A history of the six volt automobile starting system assembled by J.W. Esterline and D.J. Angus.
2 1

Electric Lighting at Indiana State Fair Grounds, Indianapolis, Ind. 1914-1915. Correspondence, report, notes, and clippings.
2 2

Lyons Atlas Co., Indianapolis, Ind. 1918. Graphs and some papers regarding engineering work in connection with testing the dynamometer generator.
2 3

Russian Engineer's visit. 1916. Correspondence.
2 4

MacDougall Co., Indianapolis, Ind. 1916-1917. Design of a new plant for the company at Frankfort, Ind.
2 5

Engineering a New Line of Graphic Meters. 1916-1918. Correspondence.
2 6

Electric Service Supplies Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 1915-1918. Inventions and improvements relating to electric regulators; locomotive headlight turbogenerators. Correspondence.
2 7

Dickinson Tire and Machine, Co., New York, NY, 1915-1916. Engineering of the expanding form for cord tires. Correspondence.
2 8

Howell Electric Motors Co., Howell, Mich. 1916. Miscellaneous engineering consulting.
2 9

Prest-O-Lite Storage Battery Plant, Indianapolis, Ind. Ca.1916. Photographs and an article showing the various stages of electrical installation in the plant.
2 10

Esterline Angus Company Relocation. 1916-1917. Correspondence.
2 11

Esterline Angus Company Relocation. 1916-1917. Correspondence.
2 12

Miscellaneous correspondence. 1915-1917.
2 13

D.J. Angus' Navy file. 1934. Several letters relating to Angus' appointment in the Naval Reserve.
Series 2: Reports
3 1

Reports on Concrete made under pressure for the Hydrostone Company, Chicago, Ill., 1/1/1917
3 2

Report on Sand and Gravel tests for the Hydrostone Company, Chicago, Ill., 11/28/1916.
3 3

Report on concrete sewer pipe, 3/1917. Client unknown.
3 4

Report on test on Westinghouse 110-volt fan motor for the National Manufacturing Co., Indianapolis, Ind., 6/5/1917.
3 5

Report on electrical method of annealing chain rivets for the Diamond Chain and Manufacturing Co., Indianapolis, Ind., 1/12/1917.
3 6

Report on meter test for the Interstate Public Service Co., Indianapolis, Ind., 1/3/1918.
3 7

List of work orders received between 1915 and 1917 by Esterline and Angus.
3 8

Laboratory notes of Donald J. Angus for the years 1917-1925. One bound volume, relates to company reports.
Series 3: Central Station Files
4 1

22000 volt system
4 2

Equipment
4 3

Transmission lines general
4 4

Summaries of data on operation
4 5

Photographs
4 6

Newspaper clippings
4 7

Blueprints showing details of construction of the Bedford-Bloomington Transmission line. (stored flat at the end of the collection)
Series 4: Fragmented Files
4 8

Charts, speeches, written accounts of experiments, mainly fragments of once existent (?) files. Includes the Seal of the Esterline Angus Company, obituaries for Donald J. Angus, some catalogs and materials from the Esterline Angus Company
5 1

Three notebooks of Donald J. Angus containing electrical test results and instrumentation information. circa 1935-1944
5 2 Two notebooks of Donald J. Angus containing electrical test results and instrumentation information. circa 1946-1956
Series 5: Patents Grantd to Donald J. Angus
5 1
  • 1,303229 5/13/1919 Carburetors assigned to Esterline Angus Company
  • 1,318126 10/7/1919 Power-factor meters
  • 1,342081 6/1/1920 Volt-ampere meters
  • 1,342082 6/1/1920 Volt-ampere meters
  • 1,354530 10/5/1920 Means for treating crowns. Assigned to Crown and Seal Co., Baltimore, Md.
  • 1,365032 10/19/1920 Brake mechanism for vehicles. Assigned to Carl G. Fisher and James Allison.
  • 1,357922 11/2/1920 Vaporizers. Assigned to Esterline Angus Company
  • 1,370179 3/1/1921 Movable elements for meters
  • 1,373477 4/5/1921 Gas generators. Assigned to Esterline Angus Company
5 2
  • 1,376752 5/3/1921 Engine-starters. Assigned to Tidewater Equipment Corp., Portland, Maine.
  • 1,388178 8/23/1921 Engine-starters. Assigned to Tidewater Equipment Corp., Portland, Maine.
  • 1,394528 10/25/1921 Electric meter construction
  • 1,406963 2/21/1922 Apparatus for moving articles of magnetic material. Assigned to Crown Cork and Seal Co., Baltimore, Md.
  • 1,415505 5/9/1922 Current Transformers
  • 1,425229 8/8/1922 Movable elements for meters
  • 1,506552 8/26/1924 Resistance meter
  • 1,539928 6/2/1925 Reactances
5 3
  • 1,545078 7/7/1925 Recording meters
  • 1,599268 7/9/1926 Meters
  • 1,601840 10/5/1926 Shunts
  • 1,647332 11/1/1927 Vector-sum Volt-ampere meter. Assigned to Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co.
  • 1,798394 3/31/1931 Tachometer generators
  • 1,808334 6/2/1931 Volt-ampere meters
  • 1,880008 9/27/1932 Graphic meters
  • 1,907096 5/2/1933 Recording meters
  • 1,948092 2/20/1934 Methods for apparatus for producing governed motion at a distance
  • 2,134391 10/25/1938 Reroll drive mechanism for graphic meters
Series 6: Fiscal Records Esterline Angus Company
6 1

Esterline Angus Company trial balance sheets 1915
6 2

Esterline Angus Company payroll/timesheets February 1-5, 1916
6 3

Report on the reorganization of the Esterline Angus Company 1916 and report on the Esterline Angus Company 1917
6 4

Esterline Angus Company Engineers 1916-1917
6 5

Esterline Angus Company trial balance sheets 1916-1918
6 6

Esterline Angus Company reports: relation of cost to total business 1917; report on Esterline Angus Company 1918, 1919, 1920
  7

Esterline Angus Company report on the instrumental deptartment. 1920
6 8

Esterline Angus Company in liquidation realization and liquidation account. 1920
6 9

Esterline Angus Company income and profit loss and loss statements for nine months. 1922; for twelve months. 1922
6  

Not in Folders: Reports on the Esterline Angus Company 1921-1931
7  

Not in Folders: Reports on the Esterline Angus Company 1932-1936; 1938-1958
7 1

Esterline Angus Company fiscal comparative summary 1937-1951
7 2

Esterline Angus Company policy statement. 12/17/1962
Series 7: Artifacts
8   Crown bottle caps
Cork samples
Steel music wire test pieces
One notebook of Donald J. Angus for the Kodak Correspondence School of Photography. circa 1903
Series 8: Glass Slides
9  

Bedford Power Company. Lantern slides 1-29. undated
Series 9: Microfilm
10  

Microfilm (1 reel)

Catalogs of the Esterline Angus Company and its predecessors, Central Laboratory Supply and the Esterline Company. 1904-1930
Unpublished history of the Esterline Angus Company by Arthur J. Weber. circa 1943
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