Head office to Toronto
When Robert Crooks Stanley became president of INCO in 1922, priority was given to high quality research.[22] A head office for the Canadian operations of Inco was soon established in Toronto. In 1922 Stanley closed the Bayonne NJ refinery in favour of the new electrolytic one in Port Colborne, Ontario, while at Alfred Mond's nickel carbonyl refinery in Acton, London Inco was able to produce platinum.[3] As early as 1930, Canadian Industries Limited (CIL) had a sulfuric acid plant located in Copper Cliff; its product, which came in synergy with the smelter there, was used in CIL's Nobel, Ontario gunpowder factory.[23]
Stanley's excellent contribution to Inco was his devotion to alloy research, which contributed to the expansion of the market for the base metals it produced. In his first Annual Report in 1922 after becoming President, Stanley informed the shareowners of the new Development and Research Department. At the same time, management told the directors that "we had no market developed [for Monel] which would justify a mill, but we assured them that with a mill we could build a market which would earn the preferred dividend." The directors thereupon invested three quarters of all the liquid resources of the company into the Huntington WV plant to satisfy a market which management had just said did not exist.[3] The Monel alloy family grew into more than a dozen members, and Duranickel,[24] Permanickel,[25] Ni-span-C, Inconel X and Nimonic were all discovered under his watch, most at his Huntington Works baby.[3][26]
JL Agnew originated the Geology Department of the firm, as a result of his investigations into the Frood Mine problem, which precipitated the 1929 merger with the Mond Company. This department was instrumental in the Manitoba discovery 25 years after his death.[3]
On 1 April 1929 the Ontario Refining Company (ORC) was formed in a joint venture between the American Metal Company, the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, Inco and Ventures Limited (which was the parent of Falconbridge Limited). The first and third named companies had each a 42% share. By June 1935 the ORC, which worked at the electrolysis of copper, was a wholly owned subsidiary of Inco.[3] The Inco Triangle, a monthly newsletter for the company, had its first issue of eight pages in September 1936.[27]
During World War II, Inco's Frood Mine produced 40% of the nickel used in artillery by the Allies.[28] From 1939 to 1945, Inco delivered to the Allies 1.5 billion pounds of nickel.[20] During the war it almost doubled its yearly output of ore.[29] After the war, demand for nickel remained high because of the Korean War and the Cold War of the 1950s.[30]
Because of the Mond merger, Inco had ownership of nickel properties in Petsamo Province, Finland (now known as Pechengsky District) and had invested a fair sum in them. These properties were conquered by the Soviet Union after the Continuation War of 1941-44. As a result, reparations needed to be negotiated between Inco and the Soviet Union, through the Canadian government after 1944. The parties settled for $20 million, which was paid with difficulty.[3]
Also because of the Mond merger Inco was the owner of the Nimonic technology that allowed gas turbines and jet propulsion engines to function. This research was performed during 1940 at the request of the Air Ministry of the British government for materials that would withstand the elevated temperatures seen in these applications.[3]
Also during World War 2 was developed ductile iron, by Keith Millis, Albert Gagnebin and Norman Boden Pilling. The scientists were curious to replace chromium as an alloy agent in abrasion-resistant cast iron and they stumbled upon the amazing ductile property of magnesium-treated iron, which transforms carbon flakes into spheroids and thus ductilizes the whole.[3]
In 1948 Sproule and Harcourt patented ( and ) a new development of the Orford process, in which careful cooling of the matte enabled the precipitation of a small amount of nickel-copper alloy which contains platinum group metals besides. This is crushed, finely ground and treated by flotation and magnetic separation to part the constituents. This work was the culmination of experiments begun in Copper Cliff by Roy Gordon in March 1938 and was one of the reasons why his career ascent was so meteoric.[3][31]
In its heyday during the 1950s, Inco produced 85% of the world's nickel supply.[32] In 1956, geologists discovered the Thompson, Manitoba ore body and named it for Inco Chairman John Fairfield Thompson.[20][33] The first Canadian-born President of Inco, who held the office between 1960 and 1966, was named James Roycroft Gordon.[34]
The year 1969 saw a bloody four-month long strike at Inco's Sudbury operations, and the firm's share price was cut in half.[34]
In 1972, it was decided by Chairman L. Edward Grubb, ostensibly to pacify the labour unions, to move the head office from New York to Toronto where it resided in the Toronto Dominion Centre.[35] Also in 1972 the Inco Superstack was built in Sudbury; at the time senior technical staff like Paul Queneau thought this would solve the SO2 acid rain pollution problem.[4] And in 1972, the Sorowako project in Indonesia was begun together with involvement from six Japanese firms who together held a 40% share in the project.[35][36]
In July 1974, Chairman L. Edward Grubb decided to diversify Inco's holdings and make the first ever hostile takeover bid for Philadelphia-based Electric Storage Battery Company (ESB),[37] aided by Morgan Stanley.[38] United Aircraft Corporation entered as white knight and served to increase Grubb's bid to a 110 percent premium above the pretakeover price.[37] The merger was characterized as a "major blunder" and by December 1981 Inco was looking to exit the battery business.[38] In February 1983 Inco sold most of its holdings in Exide and exited the battery business.[39] ESB manufactured amongst other products the Ray-O-Vac battery.[35]
The 1975 Inco annual report had a picture of a supersonic Concorde jet which used nickel and titanium alloy blades forged by Daniel Doncaster and Sons, a 1975 acquisition of Inco (Alloy Products) division. A picture of Prince Charles talking with a Doncaster operator of electronic blade inspection equipment lies alongside it.[35] In 1976, the company's name was officially changed to Inco Limited.
Inco also built and operated a facility that included a research center overlooking Blue Lake in New York's Sterling Forest area.[41] That site was sold in the 1980s.
