As the world celebrated the New Year and welcomed in 2023, our celebration continues. Approaching our hundred-fiftieth year in March 2023, today we share another chapter of our company’s history. Through our founders and the intrinsic attributes of our products and solutions, we explore the principle-value of TydenBrooks and how we have succeeded since 1873.
Interestingly, corporate longevity or long-lived companies is increasingly rare. Over the last 50 years, the average lifespan of S&P 500 companies has shrunk from about 60 years to around 18 years. Today, only 66% of businesses make it to the two-year mark, and about half survive beyond five years. The oldest American company, Caswell-Massey, has existed since 1752, before our country was even founded. Despite wars, depressions, recessions, and slumps, some companies have positioned themselves in the market to stand the test of time. The ability to sustain a competitive advantage longer and more dominantly than others, has its distinction.
So, for today’s history blog, we turn to one of our successful and innovative founders, Emil Tyden, an immigrant Swedish farm boy who invented a self-locking, tamper-proof security seal and the process to make it in exceptionally large quantities at a competitive cost. A goal which he early-on realized must be achieved in order to make the product a commercial success.
Origins of the Tyden Seal
In October of 1997, the Tyden Seal Company celebrated its 100th anniversary of its founding. The company was started in Hastings, Michigan as the International Seal and Lock Company and 100 years later still operates in the town and makes virtually the same product.
The location in Hastings was due to a chance meeting between Tyden and Richard B. Messer during a train trip to Denver in the mid-1890’s. R.B. Messer represented a group of Hastings civic leaders and investors who were anxious to bring new industry to Hastings. At the time of the meeting, Tyden had conceived his plans, but had virtually no money or prospects of raising any for such risky venture. He had never heard of Hastings and had to idea of its location.
Although, Tyden had no actual experience in running his own company, the investors were much impressed with his credentials. He had arrived in the United States in 1882 at the age of 17 with $20 in his pocket and no knowledge of English. He found work in the Kimball Organ Company in Rockford, Illinois and established himself as a competent craftsman and mechanic. He worked at McCormick Deering, a prominent agricultural machinery manufacturer and advanced to the design department where several of his improvements were granted patents.
This experience encouraged him to study the basics of patent law in the Chicago public library during his free evenings. He took a job as an immigrant agent for the Union Pacific Railway, which at that time was endeavoring to encourage development of farming in Idaho. The farmers had great success in raising potatoes, but sales “back east” were disappointing.
Tyden developed a program to differentiate the Idaho potato and highlight its virtues. The thrust of the campaign was that the Idaho potato should be baked, not boiled, as was the procedure for the smaller eastern potatoes. He distributed free bags of potatoes with preparation instructions to Chicago restaurants and shortly demand boomed.
It was in Idaho that Tyden first ran into a problem that was exhausting, but by no means unique for the times. His problem was to seal a sixty-car train and get it moving in one hour. It was raining and he had only one sealing process.
After he had finished the job, sat wet and tired, the train had been late of course, it was clear that there must be an easier way to do the job. A tamper-proof seal was required since box car thieves were prevalent in those days and all the tin seals developed so far could be opened with a pin, knife, or simple tool. The only way, so far, to do the job was to use a lead and wire seal which used a heavy, hand operated sealing press to mash the lead around the wire. The seals were not consecutively numbered, and the sealing job was questionable at best.
Tyden toiled with this matter over in his mind, always intending to do something about it, until one day a friend showed him a seal which he had developed. Tyden saw at once that this seal was no better than the other tin seals because it used a simple hook. Shortly thereafter, Tyden saw the way to handle the problem. He would use a split ring of extremely hard material to lock the seal.
The ring would be held open and when the hole in the top of the seal lined up with the hole in the opposite end the ring would snap closed and be free to hang in the holes. At the factory, the locking mechanism would be enclosed in a tamper-proof housing and the band would be embossed with a name and serial number. The seal could not be opened without being destroyed. It was uniquely identified, tamper-proof and easy to apply. The product clearly answered the long-standing need. Tyden explained the principle to his friend, but his friend was not impressed.
With the basic design problem solved, Tyden now began to think through the business aspects. The first thing he recognized was that the market was enormous in terms of numbers. Every freight car required at least two seals which had to be replaced every time the door was closed. This amounted to a potential market of hundreds of millions of seals per year. Furthermore, it would be essential to compete with the lead wire seal. That meant a selling price of a few pennies per seal, even at today’s prices.
It was obvious to Tyden that this could be accomplished only through automation; this was 60 years before even the word was invented. The machinery to make the seals could not be purchased. It must be designed and built from the ground up and capable of producing over a half million Tyden Seals per day. The up-front work would be extremely time consuming and expensive, but Tyden was convinced the design was so good it would last a very long time. It is well to remember that this whole thought process occurred at least a decade before Henry Ford made his lasting impact on the automotive industry.
Although, Tyden had accurately appraised the problems and opportunities, it is unlikely that the local backers truly understood what had to be done. Hastings at that time was, essentially, a farming community and although there were several industries, their focus was hardly on precision craftsmanship and high volume. Although the investors may have been naive about the financial implications, they turned out to be a remarkably loyal lot. Some of them got out when the going got tough, but for the most part they hung on and a surprising amount of the stock is still held by descendants of the original founders.
Once the company was formed, the business progressed as Tyden had envisioned it, but not without a considerable number of surprises that no planning could have taken into consideration. Some of these were near tragedies, but others turned out to be opportunities in disguise, which Tyden and the management turned to their advantage. Almost before anything had started, fire destroyed the first factory. Tyden started on a new building the next day, but one investor got cold feet and sold-out.
As there were no qualified machinists and tool makers available in Hastings, Tyden went to Chicago and bought out a small company called “The Consolidated Press and Tool Company” and moved it lock stock and barrel to Hastings, along with the majority of its employees. This company built all of the machinery for the Tyden Seal operation while still maintaining a small product line of its own. In 1914, when the Tyden Seal work was finished, Tyden sold this company on the eve of World War I and the company prospered as a result of the war. It was subsequently sold to E.W. Bliss and continues in operation to this day.
Tyden’s experience with the burning of the first Tyden Seal plant and his “on the side” managerial contract with The Hastings Table Company, made him aware of the potential benefits of fire sprinklers in controlling fires and dramatically reducing fire insurance rates. This knowledge combined with Tyden’s creative abilities lead to the formation in 1920 of The Viking Corporation, which sold fire sprinklers and associated equipment which was manufactured by International Seal and Lock. Tyden literally invented his way into the fire sprinkler business, and by the late 20’s the company had become a growing factor in the sprinkler business with the addition of installation and financing capabilities. Today, Viking and its subsidiaries is a multi-national manufacturer and supplier of fire sprinkler equipment with company locations in 18 states and 15 foreign countries.
In 1967, the International Seal and Lock name disappeared and in 1987 the holding company, E. Tyden, Incorporated, was formed with the operating companies as subsidiaries. In addition to the Tyden Seal and Viking Sprinkler operations the company also owned Brammall, Incorporated of Angola, Indiana, manufacturers of high strength cargo security seals and Telesis Technologies, Inc. of Circleville, Ohio, manufacturers of automated pin stamp marking machinery for traceability applications.
Leading the Way, Securing the World
Present day, TydenBrooks is a division of Madison Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest privately held companies. As our dedicated and passionate global teams looks to the next 150 years, we are focused on providing the highest quality security products and solutions to meet the challenges our customers experience shipping their goods throughout the globe. We will continue to deliver more for our customers every day, as we lead the way to secure the world’s cargo. Contact us at [email protected] or contact us at 1-800-458-7325 (SEAL).
