Camille Mercader
Camille Mercader (c1863-1906)
1906 Obituary [1]
CAMILLE MERCADER died September 7, 1906, in St. Joseph's Hospital, Philadelphia, as the result of an operation. He was one of the most eminent and popular engineers in Pittsburg.
He was born in Hungary, near Budapest, forty-three years ago, and was educated at the polytechnic school at Dresden, Germany. He went to the United States in 1889, and for a short time was engaged in the bridge business at Chicago. Later he proceeded to Pittsburg to become assistant to Charles M. Schwab, then superintendent of the Edgar Thomson Steel Works of the Carnegie Company at Braddock. He remained at Braddock during the Schwab administration, and later became assistant to the president of the company, and was engaged on special work.
In 1892 he went to Hungary and built one of the largest steel plants in operation there. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant engineers, and one of his most recent inventions is that of a process to roll steel wheels for freight and passenger cars, which is being experimented with by the Pennsylvania and other important railroads. He also invented the hollow steel axle for steel cars. It was the intention of the Carnegie Company to make this equipment at the Howard Axle Works and at the Edgar Thomson Works. He was prominent socially, especially among the German engineers, and was always active when foreign engineers visited Pittsburg. He was president of the German Technical Society and a member of the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania and the Union Club.
He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1903, and contributed to the proceedings a paper on "Hollow Steel Axles."