Whip Mix: Looking Back to 1919 and Before
Most historians say that Prohibition would never have been enacted in this country had not so many young American men been in Europe in 1918 fighting in the trenches of WW I… and absentee ballots were not yet in existence. Regardless, the U.S. Congress then passed the Volstead Act in 1919 which was promptly vetoed by President Wilson, but his veto was then overturned by a 2/3 majority of Congress. The great social experiment that followed finally ended 13 years later in 1933.
This chain of events greatly affected Edmund Steinbock, son of an emigrant tailor from Salmuenster, Germany whose name was also Edmund. Why? Because young Edmund was soon to be a former employee of Isaac Bernheim Distilling Company, he was engaged to be married and he needed to find a different line of work … quickly. In short order, young Ed met Dr. Louis C. Burgard, a dentist from across the Ohio River in Jeffersonville, Indiana who had just patented a “ glorified egg beater” that whipped and mixed water together with his secret, gypsum-bonded refractory investment and resulted in a creamy mixture that poured easily
and completely around a wax pattern, set to a dense solid and could then be burned out and cast in Dr. Burgard’s other equipment that was still being patented. The entire process was called lost wax casting which had been patented in 1907 by Dr. William Taggart of Illinois and which was becoming widely used (and copied) in the dental field.
You can guess the rest of the story…young Ed and his brothers formed a Company to license Dr. Burgard’s system, they manufactured and presented the system to dentists, dental labs and dental dealers near and far and the orders grew to the point that in 1920 he married the love of his life, Lena Gensheimer. Other products were added to the product line gradually and a son, Edmund A Steinbock Jr arrived in 1922. By 1926 the reputation for the little “Whip-Mixer” had grown to the point that the Company was reincorporated under its current name, Whip-Mix Corporation, Inc.
The family tradition and connection to Whip Mix has continued for 95 years, though it now takes the focused efforts of over 230 Team Members to develop, produce, sell and ship our products around the globe. In partnership with our dedicated team members and the constant support of our valued suppliers, Whip Mix is positioned to be a dynamic partner in the dental field for many more years to come.
