Franklin Olin
Founder
Olin Corporation
Laureate 2006
Franklin Walter Olin was born in 1860 in a primitive lumber camp in Woodford, Vermont, where his father was a builder of waterwheels, mills and dams. He had little formal schooling beyond age 13, but after reading an article about the rising technology of the day—steam power—he decided to become an engineer. To prepare for college, he studied on his own and earned money as a school teacher and farm machinery repairman. Franklin Olin went on to study civil engineering at Cornell University. While studying, he also indulged in his second passion, baseball. As captain of the baseball team, Franklin showed his ingenuity by introducing the first indoor batting cage in college baseball. The extra batting practice earned Cornell multiple conference championships. Franklin also played major league baseball during the summers to earn money for his studies. After graduating from Cornell in 1886 he designed textile mill machinery. Olin went on building gunpowder mills on contract for five years when he decided to go into business for himself. The industry was highly profitable, but also highly risky, due to the possibility of accidental explosions. The innovative Olin devised changes in the manufacturing process that considerably improved safety. It all began in East Alton, Illinois with the Equitable Powder Manufacturing Company. Dedicated to the pursuit of quality and innovation, Olin invented a loading machine that turned out complete rounds of shotgun shells twice as fast as any other. During World Wars I and II, Olin became the largest small arms ammunition maker in U.S. military history producing over 14 billion rounds. Franklin, the owner and busy executive, would often throw on coveralls and work in his factory himself to solve manufacturing problems affecting the quality of his products. Olin also manufactured paper, chemicals and other products, and after the war consolidated all of his companies into Olin Industries.
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