William Richard Jones

William Richard Jones (1839 – September 29, 1889) was an American steelmaking inventor and manager highly valued by his last employer, Andrew Carnegie.

Early life Jones was born in Luzerne, Pennsylvania, in 1839. His family had come from a mining area in Wales and immigrated to America for a better life nine years before his birth. Bill Jones was one of eleven children. His mother died when he was only eight. He attended public school in Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, but was expelled for sticking up for a classmate, causing controversy with a teacher. Due to the ill health of his father, Reverend John Jones, he began working at the age of ten in 1849, beginning an apprenticeship at the Lehigh Crane Iron Works, under David Thomas who was a friend of his father's in Wales. During this time, he was learning the skills which would help him become a leading figure in the industry years later. “Flesh and blood cannot stand twelve hours of continuous work.” Carnegie and Jones had a lot in common, especially when it came to discussing the Civil War. Jones was an “American Hero” for his actions in the Johnstown flood. In 1888, Carnegie restored the twelve-hour workday.

Jones began patenting his more than 50 inventions, beginning on June 12, 1876, with "Washers for Ingot Molds." His last and perhaps most important, the Jones Mixer, began operating in September 1888.

Death On September 27, 1889, Bill Jones entered Edgar Thomson Steel Works finding multiple workers around furnace C. He learned it was experiencing continual issues with its cooling system in the day. In the afternoon, the heat had chilled inside the chimney and forty tons of molten iron blocked the chimney furnace. Jones helped his workers try to pass the blockage. When pouring cakes of iron ore on the blockage in hopes of getting it to pass normally failed, Jones climbed the scaffolding of the furnace, assisting to work a rod through the cooling system. It was at this moment a sudden roar came from within the hole Jones was working. Forty tons of molten iron flooded the platform. In Jones’ effort to escape, he fell into a cinder car, striking his head against the car. He also suffered a bad burn on his right arm from his hand to his elbow, singed eyebrows, and burns all the way up to his abdomen. Jones was conscious afterward, checking with his brother John Lewis Jones about the other workers. His brother carried him to medical help. He was taken to Homeopathy Hospital, where doctors were confident he would fully recover, but two days after the accident, he died in the night at the hospital at the age of 50.