Palmer Hall Langdon
Palmer Hall Langdon (1868-1935)
1935 Obituary [1]
PALMER HALL LANGDON died suddenly on September 18, 1935, at his home at Kidney Pond Camps, Mt. Katandin, Maine, U.S.A.
He was born on November 1, 1868, in Jersey City, N.J., and graduated from Public School No. 14 in Buffalo, N.Y. At the age of 16 he obtained work at the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, Providence, R.I., where his first machine work was in the brass room of the plant.
Afterwards he went to the Grant Locomotive Works of Paterson, N.J., the Hinckley Locomotive Works of Boston, Mass. (both of which closed down while he was in their employment), and the electrical factory of Frederick M. Kimball and Company, Boston, Mass., where he remained for several years. During the whole of this time he attended evening classes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Young Men's Christian Union in Boston.
In 1900, he attended the first summer school of Columbia University, and for one winter took an evening course at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y.
In 1892, Mr. Langdon went to New York City, where he secured a position as a reporter to one of the large metropolitan daily newspapers, finally becoming New York correspondent of a Chicago paper.
In October, 1894, a trade journal The Aluminium World was first published, and Mr. Langdon was engaged to write the metal market review; subsequently he bought this periodical and produced it for 8 years with the help of one assistant. Finding the field too narrow, he founded The Metal Industry (New York) in 1903, in company with the late Mr. Erwin S. Sperry. The first issue contained 28 pages and had a total distribution of 2000 copies. From this small beginning it has now become a paper of considerable size and influence.
In January, 1928, Mr. Langdon took over the Brass World, the title of which has since been changed to Platers' Guide.
Mr. Langdon was a keen sportsman, and his principal pastimes were skating, riding, sailing, &c. He was a life member of the American Scenic and Historic Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Municipal Art Society, and the Appalachian Mountain Club and numerous other societies of a like nature; he was also a trustee of the first of these, a member of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the American Foundrymen's Association, and an honorary member of the American Electro-Platers' Society.
Mr. Langdon was an original member of the Institute of Metals.