John Cromwell Lincoln

(1866-1959)

1998 Inductee from Mining's Past

John Cromwell Lincoln was born in Painesville, Ohio, in 1866. He graduated from Ohio State University in 1888 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He founded the Lincoln Electric Company in 1895 and went on to become a nationally known industrialist. In 1998, the company continues to hold a premier place in the industry. John had a penchant for experimenting and research and was directly responsible for 55 patents. He helped send his brother James to school and then told him, "You run the company and I will do the inventing." The bonus system he established at Lincoln Electric, and later at the Bagdad Mine in Arizona, made the employees among the highest paid in their respective industries.

Lincoln came to Arizona in the early thirties. His interests were many and varied. He joined in the construction of Camelback Inn and had an interest in the Universal Wire Spring Company. He was a great philanthropist, as well as a civic leader. He donated the money to begin construction of John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix.

Lincoln took control of the Bagdad Copper Corporation in September of 1944. A laboratory was soon established to research the leaching of the oxide ores. This led to the construction of a small pilot plant to test the fluosolids roasting of the sulfide concentrates. To make fluosolids an economical project, it was necessary to solve the high unit cost, as well as the capital costs of crushing and grinding. He experimented for a number of years with high speed crushing rolls and was still working on these problems at the time of his death in 1959.

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