Armour, Philip Danforth

Armour, Philip Danforth (är`mər), 1832–1901, American meatpacker, b. Stockbridge, N.Y. Armour's Chicago meatpacking plants introduced new principles of large-scale organization, as well as refrigeration, to the industry. He is said to have been one of the first to notice the tremendous waste in the slaughtering of hogs and to take advantage of the resale value of waste products. His prestige was dimmed by the scandals of 1898–99 in which his packing-house was charged with selling tainted beef.

Bibliography

See biography by H. Leech and J. C. Carroll (1938).

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Armour, Philip Danforth

(born May 16, 1832, Stockbridge, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 6, 1901, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. entrepreneur and innovator. Armour's first entrepreneurial success was in California mining endeavours. He vastly expanded his family's Midwestern grain and meatpacking business in 1875, originating the use of byproducts and the sale of canned meat. When railcar refrigeration was introduced in the 1880s (see Gustavus Franklin Swift), he established distributing plants in eastern states and began exporting Armour meat products to Europe. His Armour & Co. enterprises helped make Chicago the meatpacking capital of the world.