 
Ribbons of Steel
John Butler Tytus, Jr. born in Middletown, Ohio,
and in 1904, began work at the American Rolling Mill, or Armco. While working
there, he developed a method of continuously rolling sheets of steel called "the
continuous hot strip mill." His
process made possible the fast and cheap production of
high-quality steel sheets. Those continuous ribbons of steel proved essential for
the manufacture of automobiles, airplanes, appliances, and thousands of other
products. The continuous hot strip mill was economical,
allowed for mass production, and is often
considered one of the ten greatest
inventions of modern times. Tytus’s rolling mill went into operation in
1926. The growth of ARMCO helped spur the growth of Middletown, where from 1900
to 1930, the population grew from 9,215 to 29,992.
 ARMCO
was acquired by
AK Steel in 1999. At
the time, Armco Inc. was a leading domestic producer of specialty flat-rolled
stainless and electrical steels with primary plants in Butler, PA and Coshocton,
Mansfield, and Zanesville, OH. Armco also produced snowplows and other ice
control products, and standard pipe and tubular products. AK Steel is
headquartered in Middletown, Ohio.
Did You Know?
- Robert Carnahan, an inventor with the
company,
developed the first rust-resistant steel in 1907.
- A. P. Steckel,
of Youngstown, invented a process for the continuous cold-strip rolling of
steel. It produced high-quality steel with great efficiency and was adopted
throughout the world.
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