Joseph Wharton - Starting in Business

Starting in Business

When he was 19, Wharton apprenticed with an accountant for two years and became proficient in business methods and bookkeeping. At 21, he partnered with his older brother Rodman to start a business manufacturing white lead. Wharton's chemistry mentor, Martin Boye, had developed a method to refine cottonseed oil and the Wharton brothers tried but failed to develop a profitable method to extract it. In 1849 Wharton started a business manufacturing bricks using a patented machine which pressed dry clay into forms. There was substantial competition in the brick business, which was affected by cyclical business swings, and after several trips to sell bricks and the brick-making machines, Wharton found the prospects for making good profits were dim. However from the endeavor he gained valuable experience. In 1853, Wharton joined the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, first managing the mining operation and later the zinc oxide works. Wharton proved himself by negotiating a new charter for the works, and in the difficult financial environment of 1857–1858 he took over control of the zinc works and managing it carefully turned a profit. In 1860 Wharton, after some challenging negotiations with the directors of the company, developed for Lehigh Zinc the first plant to manufacture metallic zinc in America. Looking into the next business cycle, he leased the plant for four years and eventually made a robust profit from the sale of metallic zinc, used in making brass, which picked up in the Civil War years.