The Moline Body Co., the central building in the photo at left, is one of a handful structures demolished to clear the site, at right, for Parr Instrument’s new manufacturing building. Parr’s existing brick building will be remodeled. CREDIT RUSSELL
Parr Instrument Company has been rooted in the Quad Cities for more than a century and its products have helped researchers change the world since 1899. As the historic company celebrates 125 years and prepares to break ground on a major expansion and equipment upgrade, Quad Citians are waking up to the quiet manufacturer’s rich […]
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Parr Instrument Company has been rooted in the Quad Cities for more than a century and its products have helped researchers change the world since 1899. As the historic company celebrates 125 years and prepares to break ground on a major expansion and equipment upgrade, Quad Citians are waking up to the quiet manufacturer’s rich history. And thanks to the site preparation for that expansion, company leaders also are discovering new things about its history and century-old Moline story. Even before the news of Parr’s expansion, the global laboratory equipment manufacturers’ visibility had been on the rise. In July 2023, Parr Instrument was chosen by QCBJ readers as the Best Manufacturer in the Quad Cities. Then, in October the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association highlighted Parr in its statewide “Makers on the Move” bus tour. “Parr has a very long history in the Quad Cities community – 125 years, most of them here,” President and CEO Jim Nelson told business leaders and Parr employees who gathered that fall day at Parr’s 211 53rd St. facility. “The instruments we provide for industrial companies, universities and government research facilities around the world enable the development of everything from the clothes you wear to the car you drive, the items you use in your home, to the energy that powers our economy, to the food you eat and the medicine you need, to the space we explore, to the country we defend,” he added.Its products aren’t the only thing that make Parr unique. Its long independently owned history is noteworthy and rare. It’s also important to Mr. Nelson – just the fifth leader to helm the company – and Parr’s 50 or so shareholders, many of whom are descendants of the founders and former and current employees.“It’s very unusual for a company our size to not have been acquired by a larger business and remain an independent operating company,” he told the QCBJ in a recent interview. Indeed, the QC company is approached nearly every week by someone wanting to buy it, but it’s not for sale.“Yeah, there may be a short-term gain for shareholders, but I think we would lose the long-term success of the company. Because of the way we’re structured it still has that small company feeling,” Mr. Nelson said. “It’s been a nice formula to keep the success of the company going and people motivated.”Parr’s QC roots also are deep though its initial seeds were sown in 1899 in Champaign, Illinois, by University of Illinois Professor Samuel Wilson (S.W.) Parr.S.W. Parr
Mr. Parr invented an instrument – the calorimeter – for measuring the heating value of coal at a time when such devices were not generally available. He also discovered the alloy illium, an acid-resistant substitute for platinum, which helped Illinois find a market for its large reserves of bituminous coal. It also would later be used in boilers.
In 1911, Mr. Parr moved his manufacturing operations to the Root and Vandevoort Engine Co. in East Moline. Following World War I, the company moved to Moline, though a discovery made during the process of clearing Parr’s construction site makes it hard to determine where Parr moved and when.
While demolishing a large brick building that once housed a foundry and the Moline Body Company, workers uncovered an old wall bearing Parr’s first nameplate, the Standard Calorimeter Company. It also advertised illium, the aluminum alloy created by S.W. Parr and named for the U of I.Parr Instrument was familiar with that building, having rented space for its sheet metal operations there when it was owned by Artolite Electric. Even after Parr Instrument bought the building from Rock Island-based Crawford Co., which purchased it from Artolite, the current owner remained unaware of the company connection because the now exposed wall was still covered up by a later addition. Mr. Nelson speculated that when Standard Calorimeter left the Root and Vandervoort building, it may have moved into that brick building that once stood next door to the current Parr location. The original Standard Calorimeter Company would eventually team up with the C.F. Burgess Laboratories of Madison, Wisconsin, to form Burgess-Parr Company. That company split in 1933, with Burgess interests retaining all interest in the stainless alloy operation and a new corporation, Parr Instrument Company, retaining the calorimeter and laboratory equipment business. Harold L. Parr, son of the founder, was named its first president.
