TANTLINGER, KEITH W. “TANT” 1919 to 2011 Inventor with global impact Keith Tantlinger, whose inventions played a major role in globalization, died peacefully in his home in Escondido, CA on August 27th, at age 92. “Tant” was the mechanical genius behind the concept, design and patents for the basic methods and equipment used in containerization. A licensed mechanical engineer and Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers, he was granted 79 United States patents, all related to transportation equipment. Those patents included both the methods and equipment for engaging, lifting, securing and transporting large commercial shipping containers. His patents included the design of the eight or more container corner fittings on each of the world’s more than 30 million shipping containers (TEUs). Those fittings and their mating “twist locks”, also covered by his patent, enable shippers to engage, lift, load, unload and secure containers to ships, road trailers and rail cars for transcontinental and work transport. His container corner fitting and twist lock design patent was released to the public in June of 1967 in order for it to become the current world standard. In 2010 he was awarded the Gibbs Bros. Medal by the National Academy of Sciences “for his visionary and inventive design of the cellular containership and the supporting systems which transformed the world shipping fleet and facilitated the rapid expansion of global trade.” He also invented and patented the gooseneck skeleton container chassis and the container recess tunnel to accommodate that upward protruding gooseneck. For the past 55 years that invention has provided 4 to 6 inches of increased interior loading height in shipping containers. Other inventions encompassed the basic structure and many features of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) cars for San Francisco and the rapid transit cars for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA). Many of his patents related to commercial highway freight trailers and transit buses. H
…It appears the business and creation of the standard containers has been a great success. Modular design allowing them to be transported on most transportation methods.
One item of the containers remains unclear to me…That is the method of connection and release of the fasteners. Seems that happens without any great effort or complication…and yet is very reliable.
Anyone have any good close photos that might show how the connecters function…?
Good question. See these links (not my photos, though):
http://interboxconnectors.blogspot.com/2011/03/interbox-connectors.html
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/178899/1964499.aspx - see esp. doublestack’s post of 08-29-2010
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=136&t=53012
- Paul North.
NY Times article
Journal of Commerce article
http://www.joc.com/container-shipping**/container-twistlock-inventor-dies-92**
Excerpt from The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson
Tantlinger, then thirty-five, was chief engineer at Brown Industries in Spokane, Washington, and had already built a reputation as a container expert. Brown had been building truck trailers since 1932, and Tantlinger’s job, along with designing trailers for trucking companies, involved speaking at industry meetings to promote. Brown’s products. In 1949, he had designed the first modern shipping container, a 30-foot aluminium box that could be stacked two high on on barges operating between Seattle and Alaska or placed on a chassis and pulled by a truck" The order involved only two hundred containers, and despite much curiosity, no other orders followed. “Everybody was interested, but nobody wanted to reach for his pocketbook,” Tantlinger remembered.
McLean the trucker had never done business with Brown Industries. Now that he was in the shipping business, though, McLean wanted Tantlinger’s expertise -immediately. The next morning, Tantlinger flew to Mobile, where Pan-Atlantic was based. “I understand you know everything there is to know about containers,” was McLean’s gruff greeting. McLean explained his plan. He proposed to use containers thirty-three feet long, a length chosen because the available deck space aboard the T-2 tankers was divisible by thirty-three. These boxes were at least seven times the size of any container then in common use. Rather than having longshoremen stow them with other cargo i
Picture stolen from the Windmill blade thread shows the locking mechinism that is also used to lash containers together, on ship, when loaded to trailer frames, when loaded on rail cars as either single or double stacks.
!(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x218/MFJ_album/Freight cars/2011-06-11005.jpg)
I worked with Tant in the 70’s when he was at Rohr and i was Program manager of the Turboliner Project. In addition to being highly innovative, he was a true gentleman and a great engineer. When someone’s letter or report was sent to him for comment, he would write his thoughts all around the margins. This was called a “Tantogram” It was a priviledge to know him.
Thanks to a quick and timely ‘heads-up’ on the Yahoo “Model-Intermodal” group’s forum (at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/modelintermodal/ ), today’s National Public Radio Talk of the Nation show (Neal Conan, host) had a 7 min. 15 sec. piece on Mr. Tantlinger titled “Shipping Container Inventor Transformed World Trade”, which had as a guest “Marc Levinson, author, The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger” - see this link for a transcript and/ or to listen to it:
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/07/140256967/shipping-container-inventor-transformed-world-trade
The 2 comments below are interesting, esp. the one by Catherine Sullivan, as follows:
Catherine Sullivan (CMackayS) wrote:
I wonder what Mr. Levinson would think of the shipping container as sculpture? Just saw a public piece of art by American Sculptor John Salvest in Kansas City. A stack of shipping containers 7 stories high that creates a multi-colored mosaic that spells out on one side “IOU” and on the other “USA.” Even more interesting is it’s positioning in a public park facing the Federal Reserve of Kansas City. Check it out: http://www.grandarts.com/
Wednesday, September 07, 2011 4:08:01 PM
Go ahead - check it out ! See also: http://www.grandarts.com/current.html Can you find the “USA” and “IOU” patterns in the ends of that stack of boxes ? [swg]
- Paul North.