Lithography in the Pacific War - The Harris-Seybold-Potter LTE Offset Press in Action

Harris-Seybold-Potter in World War Two
Harris - Cleveland, OH; Seybold - Dayton, OH; Potter - Derby, CT
1895-1926 - Harris Automatic Press Company
1926-1946 - Harris-Seybold-Potter
1946-1957 - Harris-Seybold
1957-1974 - Harris Intertype
1974-2019 - Harris Corporation
2019-Present - L3Harris

This page updated 1-13-2022.

An American Auto Industry in World War Two Special Edition

During World War Two there were several top secret American weapons projects.  The most well-known is the Manhattan Project, which produced the atomic bomb.  The story of this former secret project has been well documented since the end of the war.  Another top secret project, at least until mid-war when it was reduced to confidential, was the Norden Bombsight.  It was reduced to confidential once it was known that the bombsight had fallen into the possession of German military authorities from American bombers shot down over Europe.  After World War Two the Norden bombsight was totally de-classified and sold as military surplus.  Many of them can be found in museums today.

 NCR built the bombe computers in Dayton, OH, which were used to de-code the German Enigma messages.  This project continued its top secret classification for many years after World War Two due to the technology in the bombes that could be used to de-code top secret messages from post-war hostile nations.  Persons that worked on the project or operated the bombes were sworn to secrecy.  It wasn't until the several decades later that the project was declassified.  The only surviving bombe is on public display at the National Cryptologic Museum in Annapolis Junction, Maryland.

However, there was another top secret project that was developed and produced two miles away from the NCR top secret project in Dayton, OH.  This was the BEA/K-1 bomb computer and bombsight.  The development and production of this top secret device was at the Seybold plant of Harris-Seybold-Potter at 819 West Washington Street.  The BEA/K-1 computer and bombsight remained in production and as a top secret project after World War Two.  It was not until 1970 when Harris-Seybold donated two early models of the BEA/K1 to the National Museum of the United States Air Force that this project became public.

That being said, there is virtually no known history of the BEA/K1 in wartime use.  Unlike the Norden bombsight it was meant to replace, there is no literature on it nor any BEA/K1s on display in museums.  It is still unknown and by virtue of this, still secret.  

The National Museum of the United States Air Force has two BEA/K1 bombsight computers in its possession.  The BEA/K1 was an extremely complicated electro-mechanical computer.  Photo courtesy of the National Museum of the United States Air Force. 

Most likely, the Seybold facility was chosen by the Army Air Force Material Command at nearby Wright Field for two reasons.  Firstly, Seybold had demonstrated an ability to take on diverse and difficult projects and produce them in a timely manner.  Secondly, the close proximity to Wright Field facilitated communication on the project.  Personal communication on a project of this complexity allowed for faster development and manufacture.  Not only did the Seybold plant do the development and prototype work, but it then received a production contract for 250 units.

Photo courtesy of the National Museum of the United States Air Force. 

The Company
  All Alfred and Charles Harris wanted to do in 1890 was to be able to obtain advertising flyers faster for their jewelry business in Niles, OH.  Therefore, they developed an automatic feed mechanism for printing presses that was ten time faster than manual feed systems of the era.  In 1895 they formed the Harris Automatic Press Company in Niles, OH.  The first factory was in two rooms of the same house in which President McKinley had been born in 1843.  Today, Alfred and Charles Harris would not recognize the company nor the company's products that still bear their name, L3Harris of Melbourne, FL.  The company exited the printing press business in 1983 and is now a premier electronics and defense company.  Nor would the brothers have recognized the BEA/K1 bomb computer that the company developed during World War Two.  However, they would recognize the printing press shown below.  This has direct lineage back to their products from 1895.  But Alfred and Charles would approve of the changes.  Just as they were innovators and changed with the times, so did the company that still bears their name.

The War Effort

This Harris Cleveland, OH plant-built LTE press is located in the enclosed body of a 2-1/2-ton 6x6 military truck.  This was a mobile printing press that could keep up with advancing Army units.  Local operating area maps were important to the Army soldiers.  Harris presses printed the needed maps at the location they were needed for timely distribution to the troops.  This was just one of many applications that the Harris LTE presses performed.  There was also a need for reports and orders to be printed and distributed.  Another possible use for the Harris LTE presses was the printing of the "Yank" newspaper which kept soldiers informed of what was happening outside the soldiers' foxholes.  Image from the September 1943 Harris Victory Review from the collection of Rich Foley.

In January 2021 I received an email from Richard Foley of Dayton, OH.  In his original and later emails, he provided information on the company for which he once worked, Harris-Seybold.  This was a company that prior to and after World War Two primarily manufactured printing presses and paper cutting machines.  I had never heard of Harris-Seybold until Rich's initial email and had not thought about how a printing press company could contribute to the winning of World War Two.  Over the next few months, I learned how much Harris-Seybold contributed to the war effort and the diversity of its products and customers during that era.  Mr. Foley also informed me that as an employee of the Seybold plant in Dayton, OH, he had been able to save information from the company pertaining to World War Two.  He also informed me that he had donated this information to the local historical museum, Dayton History at Carillon Historical Park.  This resulted in several trips for Mr. Foley and me to explore the historical archives of Dayton History.

Without Mr. Foley's presence of mind to save historical documents and artifacts from Harris-Seybold, this page would have been very difficult, if not impossible to do at all.  Mr. Foley has been instrumental in making this page a reality.

One of the artifacts Mr. Foley saved was this original Army-Navy "E" flag that the Seybold plant in Dayton, OH won on December 12, 1944.  He donated this to Dayton History to be preserved for posterity.  I have come across several cases like this, where an employee is tasked with cleaning out old documents and artifacts to be trashed, and the employee instead saves the flag.  Seybold won a second award on or about May 25, 1945.  From the collections of Dayton History.

The Harris Cleveland, OH plant also won the Army-Navy "E" two times.  This photo is from December 11, 1944, when it won the flag for the first time.  It won its second award on May 25, 1945.  Photo courtesy of Rich Foley.

The Harris plant also received this plaque to honor its winning of the Army-Navy "E" award.  Photo courtesy of Rich Foley.

Author's Note:  During the World War Two era, the name of the company was Harris-Seybold-Potter.  However, for all intents and purposes the company was really Harris-Seybold.  The post-war booklet, "Harris-Seybold, Its War Record," published by Harris-Seybold, makes no mention of the Derby, CT Potter operation.  I was not able to find any other historical documentation that identified what products Potter built for the war effort.  Therefore, this page is really a Harris-Seybold page.  However, because the company was still called Harris-Seybold-Potter during World War Two, I will use that nomenclature when referring to the company.

Harris-Seybold-Potter World War Two Products:  The information presented in this section shows the diversity of products Harris-Seybold-Potter produced to help win World War Two.  Normally, this depth of information is not available.  Harris-Seybold-Potter is a great example of this product diversity that has been lost from many other companies. 

Companies Harris-Seybold had sub-contracts with:

Akron Standard Mold, Allen Bradley Company, Allen Tool & Mfg. Company, Babcock Wilson Company, Bell Industries, Bell Sound System, Bendix Corporation, Briggs Manufacturing Company, Broat Pattern & Casting Company, Cincinnati Gear Company, Cort Engineering and Manufacturing Company, Crucible Steel Company, Cutler Hammer, Inc., Dayton Aircraft, Inc., Dayton Rubber Company, Diamond Machine Company, Eclipse Pioneer Division of Bendix Corporation, Emerson Electric Company, Fafair Bearings, Inc, Fawick Airflex Company, Federal Gear Company, General Aluminum Company, Goodyear Aircraft Corporation, Hoffman Sheet Metal Company, Hooper Transmission Company, Joseph T. Ryerson & Sons, Kin-E-matic Machine Company, Lear, Inc., Leece-Neville Company, New Departure Division of General Motors, Option Laboratories, P.R. Mallory Company, Piqua Engineering, R.C. Allen Company Strong, Carlisle & Hammond, Reynolds Metal Company, Rocket Machine Company, Scientiae, Struthers Wells Company, Veeder-Root Company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

Harris-Seybold Machine Tools:  The reason that Harris-Seybold-Potter was able to make a variety of products for many different customers during World War Two was that the manufacture of printing presses required well equipped tool rooms.  So, when the war came, the Harris plant in Cleveland and the Seybold plant in Dayton were able to manufacture a variety of products.

Both the Cleveland and Dayton factories also had their own gray metal cast iron foundries and pattern shops.  This allowed both locations to make the castings and then do the final machining at one location. 

Product Photos:

The Cleveland plant built 750 LTE 20x22 single color offset printing presses for the Army Corps of Engineers during World War Two.  From the collections of Dayton History. 

This shows the reverse side of the LTE.  Photo courtesy of Richard Foley added 1-8-2022.

This is the USS Slater on the Hudson River in Albany, NY.  This is the most well restored World War Two warship on display in the United States.  Author's photo.

This is the number one three-inch gun on the USS Slater.  Part of the geared elevating arc is visible under the weapon's recoil mechanism.  The fuze setter is on the opposite side of the weapon.  Author's photo.

 A fuze setter for the three-inch shell is On the left side of the weapon.  Author's photo.

Harris-Seybold made 4,250 of the three-inch fuze setters for the U.S. Navy during World War Two.  With that many made, this could very well be a Harris-Seybold unit.  The fuze setter is an assembly of castings with internal parts.  Both the Cleveland and Dayton plants had the capability to make the patterns, cast the parts, and then machine them to final tolerances and assemble them.  Author's photo.

 The dial pointer could designate the range of the projectile before exploding to the nearest two hundred feet.  Author's photo.

The fuze setter was used when the weapon was used as an anti-aircraft gun.  The distance to target was estimated and the fuze was set for that amount of distance.  This information was furnished to the gun crew from the sailors operating the range finders.  Author's photo. 

Harris-Seybold-Potter had four contracts from the U.S. Navy totaling 2,800 elevating arcs.  The elevating arc on the three-inch gun was attached to a large casting by four bolts that encased the barrel and recoil mechanism.  Author's photo.

This three-inch gun on LST 393 in Muskegon, MI reveals the Harris-Seybold-Potter-built elevating arc underneath the barrel of the weapon.  Author's photo. 

  The elevating arc for the three-inch gun consisted of several castings and a stamped part assembled together.  This photo gives a good view of the rear of the elevating arc and how it connects to the rear of the weapon.  Author's photo.

This three-inch dual purpose gun is on display at the American Legion in Shelburne, IN and shows the front of the elevating arc.  Author's photo. 

This view of the elevating arc shows the gears cut into two castings and the markings on the stamped part.  The entire elevating arc consists of at least four castings.  Both the Cleveland and Dayton plants had the ability to cut the gears for this device.  Author's photo. 

This five-inch, 38 caliber gun is on display at the USS Alabama in Mobile, AL.  Both ends of the elevating arc on the weapon can be seen.  This is a much larger unit than the ones utilized for the smaller three-inch gun.  The U.S. Navy had larger guns that had elevating arcs up to sixteen inches, which would have been extremely large units.  These may have been beyond Harris-Seybold-Potter's capability to produce.  Author's photo.

This  five-inch, 38 caliber gun can be seen at the USS Sullivans at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park in Buffalo, NY.  This is the more familiar form of a five-inch naval gun from World War Two.  Author's photo.

The U.S. Navy was a big customer of Harris-Seybold-Potter during World War Two.  The company produced 201 wet mounts for the five-inch deck guns on U.S. Navy submarines.  These mounts were required to function properly after being immersed in salt water for long periods of time. 

Harris-Seybold-Potter built control units for both the U.S. Navy's Pelican and Bat guided glide bombs.  The Pelican program was terminated while still in the testing phase.  However, the ASM-N-2 Bat did go into production and was used in very limited combat late in the war.  Between April and July 1945, 33 Bats were launched at targets.  Four were hits, one of which severely damaged the bow of a Japanese escort ship.  The ASM-N-2 Bat carried a 1,000 pound warhead and had a range of fifteen miles.  It was guided to its target by a radar seeker in its nose. 

As the Bat approached the target, the radar seeker in the nose of the weapon sent correction signals to the Harris-Seybold-Potter-built control unit.  While the use of guided bombs was in its infancy during World War Two, it was high-tech for the era.  Harris-Seybold-Potter was a part of this high tech revolution.  From the collections of Dayton History. 


In 1943 Harris-Seybold-Potter built one TBF turret mock-up.  Company records indicate only this one was built.  However, this letter implies that this was the first of several.  Production of the actual turret had been in production since before Pearl Harbor.  In 1943 the General Motors Eastern Aircraft Division was producing the license-built TBM in volume and Emerson Electric was building the turrets.  It is unknown why a mock-up was needed when the actual turrets were in production.  Image from the September 1943 Harris Victory Review from the collection of Rich Foley.

This and the next three photos show an actual TBM turret.  It is unknown how much detail and functionality the mock-up contained.  Its purpose is unknown.  Author's photo from the New England Air Museum.

Author's photo from the New England Air Museum.

Author's photo from the New England Air Museum.

Author's photo from the New England Air Museum.

This un-restored TBM turret at the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton, OH shows that the framework of the turret was formed steel pipe.  Author's photo

This Fisher Body-built M10 Wolverine is armed with a three-inch main gun.  The Harris Cleveland plant built 1,000 recoil mechanisms for this weapon.  The M10 was the main self-propelled anti-tank gun used by the U.S. Army during World War Two.  It began its combat service in North Africa and served in Sicily, Italy, northeast Europe, and the Philippines.  There were a total of 6,406 M10 and M10A1s built during World War Two.  Author's photo. 

Harris-Seybold-Potter built 792 tank controls for the Pressed Steel Company of Chicago, IL which built the M4, M4A1, and M4A2 Sherman medium tank.  The two long levers are the steering brakes.  The driver pulled back on the one for the direction he wished to steer the tank.  This applied the brakes to the drive mechanism for that side of the tank.  To slow down or stop, both levers were pulled to the rear.  This was not easy work for the driver.  I have seen videos of restored Sherman tanks showing the driver pulling back on the brakes.  Many times, they used both arms to pull one of them back and turn the tank.  Good upper arm and shoulder strength in a driver was a big plus.

The tank control shown here also includes the gas clutch pedals.  It was a true control assembly.  From the collections of Dayton History.

Here are the two upper ends and hand grips on the steering brakes in an M4A2 Sherman tank at the Canada War Museum.  Author's photo.

The 792 tank controls built by Harris-Seybold-Potter could have gone into any of several of the Sherman tanks built by Pressed Steel.  This Pressed Steel-built small hatch M4A1(75) is serial number 192, built in July 1942.  It is USA number 3014948.  It is the oldest Pressed Steel M4A1(75) known to exist and is owned by the Virginia Military Museum of Military Vehicles.  The tank controls could have been used in a tank like this.  Author's photo.

This M4E9(75) was built by Pressed Steel and is on display at the USS Alabama in Mobile, AL.  This was the welded version of the Sherman.  Harris-Seybold-Potter-built tank controls were in tanks that were used in all the campaigns and many important battles.  Author's photo.

Harris-Seybold-Potter built 100 recoil mechanisms for the 57mm anti-tank gun.  Author's photo.

Harris-Seybold-Potter machined several of the small parts used in the Allison V-1710 aircraft engine.  The engine was used in the both the P-40 and P-38 fighters of World War Two.  Author's photo. 

Morrison Stitchers developed by the Dayton Seybold plant were not shown in any of the contracts in Table 1.  In the background, workers can be seen assembling these machines.  Aviation companies used these to replace rivets in many applications.  The Morrison Stitcher was a faster and more efficient way to fasten two parts together.  Photo courtesy of Rich Foley.

Two Seybold workers in the Dayton plant are using Morrison stitchers to fasten different components together.  Photo courtesy of Rich Foley.

The Plants:   

This artist's water color rendering shows the factory's red brick construction.  It shows how large the Seybold plant was.  Photo courtesy of Rich Foley. 

This beautiful water color rendering of the Dayton plant is looking northwest with Washington Street at the bottom of the picture.  This plant had its beginnings in 1893 as the Seybold Machine Company. This image added 1-13-2022 is courtesy of Richard Foley.

This is the former Dayton Seybold plant at 819 West Washington Street looking east.  The plant was razed and today the Ponitz Career Technology Center occupies the property.   This plant employed between 600-1,500 workers, depending on the work load.  The plant had a cast iron foundry with pattern making capabilities.  Its primary products were for the book binding industry to include guillotine paper cutters, stitchers, and trimmers.  Photo courtesy of Rich Foley. 

Photo courtesy of Rich Foley. 

 
This is an artist's rendering of the Cleveland plant of Harris-Seybold-Potter.  It specialized in offset printing presses and employed between 600-1,500 workers.  From the collections of Dayton History.