Joseph Wharton - Nickel Manufacture

Nickel Manufacture

Hoping to profit from the use of nickel in coins, Wharton in 1863 sold his interest in zinc and started the manufacture of nickel at Camden, New Jersey, taking over a nickel mine and refining works at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. The Camden plant was located on the east side of 10th Street, adjacent to Cooper Creek, and had several large brick buildings and smokestacks. Wharton renamed the Camden plant the American Nickel Works, and his office there became his center of operations. However, the use of nickel in coinage was temporarily halted, and soon the Camden plant burned. Wharton rebuilt it in 1868 and made excellent profits from producing nickel because it became favored for coinage. Wharton won wide acclaim for his malleable nickel, the first in the world, and also for nickel magnets, and received the Gold Medal at the Paris Exposition of 1878. His factory produced the only nickel in the US and a significant fraction of the world supply. Eventually the surface deposits at the Gap mine were depleted and Wharton was obliged to purchase nickel ore from a mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. This experience was a challenge to Wharton, who learned about market economics and protection when foreign nickel manufacturers opposed his nickel purchasing and manufacture efforts. Wharton by then had learned the value of meeting personally with his managers and regularly inspecting the mines and manufacturing plants with them. He was successful because he worked hard to increase efficiency and profitability of the businesses he acquired, and energetically pursued markets for his products. Wharton made a robust profit from his nickel business over its 40 year duration, but by 1900 its outlook was fading due to foreign competition. Wharton and a group of other United States and Canadian nickel enterprises formed the International Nickel Company (Inco) in 1902. He sold his American Nickel Works in Camden and the Gap mine for a share in the new company, and was named one of the dozen board members. By this time the profitability of his business empire did not depend on the manufacture of nickel because he had already diversified into other profitable businesses.