The Balbachs

 

EDWARD BALBACH Jr. 1838 ~ 1910

BALBACH, Edward, Jr.,

Metallurgist, Inventor,

  Edward Balbach, late of Newark, New Jersey, died at the Hotel Savoy, New York

City, where he had resided for some time, on December 30, 1910, in the

seventy-second year of his age. His death was felt as a loss, not merely by the

community of which he was a distinguished member, but by the smelting and

refining trades the country over, which his efforts had been instrumental in

developing and bringing up to their present state of perfection.

  Edward Balbach, Sr., was the pioneer of the smelting business in the United

States. Carlsruhe, Baden, Germany, was the city where Mr. Balbach was born June

4, 1839, and where his family had dwelt for many years previously. His father,

Edward Balbach, Sr., was a man of very enterprising nature who came to this

country during the Revolutionary troubles in 1848 in Germany, bringing with him

his son, at that time a lad eight years of age. Mr. Balbach, Sr., was a chemist

of large technical learning and considerable practical experience, and had been

engaged in the smelting and refining of metals in his native city of Carlsruhe

during his young manhood. It was his intention upon coming to the United States

to establish himself in the same business, a project which he carried out with

great success. The city of Newark, New Jersey, was the scene of his operations,

and in the year 1851 he built a plant there (this was the first smelter built in

the United States) and began the business which has since, under the able

management of himself and son, grown to such enormous proportions. It was at

first confined to refining work, such materials as jewelers' sweepings and other

waste products forming the basis of the operations, but it was not a great while

before other kinds of work were done and smelting became an important element in

the business.

  During this time the son, the Edward Balbach of this sketch, was growing up to

manhood and gaining an excellent education, especially in the subject of

chemistry, for which he had an unusual natural talent. His practical knowledge

was gained in working in his father's plant, where he came in contact with all

the details of the manufacturing process, and was soon an experienced worker in

the craft. In the year 1864, when he was twenty-five years of age, Mr. Balbach,

who had already given a great deal of theoretical study to the subject, devised

a new means of separating the precious metals, silver and gold, from what are

known as silver-lead ores, such large quantities of which are found in Nevada.

The treatment of these ores up to that time had been an extremely costly one,

and not at all adequate in the removal of the metals, so that Mr. Balbach's new

process was a great boom to the smelter and refiner, and has practically

revolutionized the trade both in the United States and in Europe, where it has

universally been adopted. It is thus described in "The Engineering Mining

Journal," a scientific journal devoted to mining interests which, although

somewhat technical, is not too much so to prevent the average reader from

gaining a clear idea of it. Says "The Journal:"

  The practice was to soften the lead first in a reverberatory furnace, followed

by a liquating furnace, then desilverized by the addition of zinc in a kettle;

separate the gold-silver-zinc-lead alloy by liquation in a special furnace;

refine the desilverized lead by heating in a reverberatory furnace, drawing it

off into a market kettle and moulding in one hundred pound pigs; distilling the

gold-silver-zinc-lead alloy in a tilting retort, invented by A. Faber du Faur,

condensing about fifty per cent, of the zinc for further use, and obtaining from

the retort a rich gold-silver-lead bullion, which was cupelled. The important

modification was the distilling of the zinc crust.

  This has become generally known as the Balbach resilvering delivering process

and, as has been said, has modified the trade throughout the world. In the same

year, 1864, the elder Mr. Balbach took his son into partnership with him, the

firm becoming known from that time forward as Edward Balbach & Son. The great

shipments of silver-lead products from Nevada were at that time almost

exclusively divided between the Balbach works in Newark and the Selby plant in

San Francisco, and for many years these two concerns did practically the whole

work of this kind in the country, so that large amounts of the refined metals

were imported from Europe. This condition, of course, was favorable to the

growth of the domestic business, and under the capable direction of the two

Messrs. Balbach, the concern grew rapidly in size until at the present time it

employs between seven and eight hundred men in its plants. The main plant at

Doremus avenue and Newark Bay, Newark, known as the Newark Bay plant, covers

about four acres of ground, and it is here that the great gold and silver

refining operations are carried on. The Balbach re-silvering process is not by

any means the extent of Mr. Balbach's contribution to the art of refining

metals. He was the inventor of many devices now generally used in smelting, such

as retorting and tilting furnaces, and the employment of water jackets, and many

others equally important. In 1881 Mr. Balbach erected the first commercial plant

in the United States for the refining of copper by electrolysis, and thus laid

the foundation of one of the gigantic industries of the country, one in which it

outranks any other in the world. This plant is situated at Passaic and Ferguson

streets.

  The old home of the Balbach family was at No. 111 Passaic avenue, then a

delightful neighborhood, which has, however, been spoiled since that time for

residential purposes by the gradual contamination of the Passaic river from the

multitude of mills upon its banks, extending all the way from Newark itself up

to Paterson, and even beyond. In the year 1884 this old home was the scene of a

noteworthy reception given to Grover Cleveland, who had just at that time

received the Democratic nomination for President. Mr. Balbach, who was always a

strong supporter of Mr. Cleveland, was also his personal friend, and this

friendship grew and ripened after this event, and was only brought to an end by

Mr. Cleveland's death in 1908. Mr. Balbach, Sr., died in 1889, and sometime

afterwards the younger man turned the old home into offices for the company, and

purchased a beautiful property near Bernardsville, New Jersey, which has since

heen developed into a splendid estate. It was here that he lived during the

summer months for many years, spending the winters partly in New York City and

partly in Florida.

  Apropos of Mr. Balbach's relations to the general smelting and refining

industries in the United States, the paper already quoted from remarks that: "He

may be considered as a born chemist and metallurgist, and was never slow to

profit by new inventions, adapting and applying them with success to the needs

of the works in connection with the improvements already noted as the results of

his own studies and genius. At the same time he always remained the practical

smelting man, who had studied and learned the business from the bottom up, with

a tireless energy and zeal, setting a constant and good example to the younger

generation by presence at his post both early and late."

  Mr. Balbach was active in the community outside of his purely private business

interests, and always took a keen interest in its public affairs. His political

affiliations have already been commented upon, but there is much more to be said

concerning his relations with the Democratic party葉hat his allegiance was in no

other way a prejudiced one, and that he was perfectly capable of exercising an

absolutely independent judgment in every question that arose. The truth of this

is admirably illustrated by his action in 1896, when the Democratic party was

split over the question of free silver. Mr. Balbach refused to support Mr.

Bryan, and it is claimed that he voted for McKinley upon that occasion. He

afterwards returned to the Democratic ranks, however, when the money issue had

been dropped. He rather shrank from public office than courted it, and was only

once persuaded to accept any important nomination, and that was in 1894, when

George C. Ludlow ran for the Governorship of New Jersey. Mr. Balbach was the

candidate for Congressman from his Congressional district, but was defeated with

the rest of the ticket in a strongly Republican year. He was appointed to a

constitutional commission in New Jersey, and aided in making some much needed

changes and reforms in the existing state of the law. He served twice as a

Presidential elector. He was a member of the Newark Board of Trade and of the

Newark Automobile Club. In his religious belief he was an Episcopalian,.and for

many years attended Trinity Church in Newark.

  The position occupied in the life of Newark by Mr. Balbach is not to be

conveyed by a mere categorical description of his achievements. His personality,

his charities, his general attitude in life, all contributed to it, and the

great number of devoted friends that he possessed bears witness to its

character. His philanthropies were large but very quietly carried on, and few

indeed were they who knew of them other than the two parties to them揺e who

gave, and he who received. In no other way was this more creditably known than

in his dealings with the great number of employees who worked in his mills, a

relation which resulted in a very rare feeling of friendship and confidence

between them. He kept a personal supervision over the men, and if one was

injured or became ill, he saw that he was well cared for until able to be about

once more. On this point the "Journal," which we have already quoted remarks:

"What endeared him to his business associates and friends was his kind and

cheerful disposition, combined with a straightforward character marked by a

modest and unassuming manner, notwithstanding that he possessed force and the

faculty to carry through his ideas to a successful end. He recognized in those

around him every worthy effort in the direction of self-improvement, and strove

to assist every honest endeavor."

  Mr. Balbach was united in marriage with Miss Julia Anna Nenninger, of Newark,

a daughter of Peter Franz Nenninger, a native of Germany, who came to Newark

about 1848. For many years Mrs. Balbach was a conspicuous figure in the Newark

social world, and was well known as one of the most charming of hostesses. She

was, however, a victim of ill health, and for some time lived in seclusion. It

was in some measure due to this fact that the family eventually made their home

at Iiernardsville, where Mrs. Balbach anticipated living much in the open air.

Indeed it was she who laid out and superintended the arrangement of the grounds

of the estate, without the assistance of a landscape gardener, with what succes

is well known in the community. A daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Balbach, who

is now the wife of Edward Randolph, of New York, the president and treasurer of

the great smelting company. Mrs. Balbach and her daughter both survive Mr.

Balbach.