Alloys and Automobiles: The Life of Elwood Haynes

Originally published in 1979 and out of print for many years, Alloys and Automobiles: The Life of Elwood Haynes,the 2002 edition is now available. The author is Ralph D. Gray, Professor Emeritus of History, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (Indiana).

The book is an interesting read that will hold your attention from beginning to end. It profiles the life of one of Kokomo’s outstanding citizens, Elwood Haynes (1857-1925), and, in so doing, gives the reader an insight into the exciting new industries that he helped create at the turn of the century that, in time, influenced the economic future of Kokomo, Indiana, as well as the nation.

Best known as a pioneer in the automotive industry, building Indiana’s first, and the nation’s second, gasoline-powered automobile in 1894, Haynes also designed and supervised the laying of the first long-distance natural gas pipeline in the world during the Indiana gas boom of the 1880s and 1890s, developing methods of transporting natural gas that are still in use today. Primarily a metallurgist, his first love, he invented both Stellite, an enormously hard tool metal, and other alloys, most importantly, stainless steel, now commonly used daily throughout the world.

Gray has captured the personality of Haynes, his life and times in an engaging yet well-documented work that would be welcomed in home libraries or research facilities.