The Tréfileries et Laminoirs du Havre (TLH: Le Havre Wire-Drawing and Rolling Mills) was an enterprise based in Le Havre, France, that manufactured copper wire, other copper products and products of other metals including bronze and aluminum. It was founded to serve the rapidly growing market for electrical power transmission and for telegraph and telephone cables. It grew into a massive industrial empire with factories in many French cities and abroad. In 1962 it merged with the Compagnie française des métaux and became Tréfimétaux. In 1967 Tréfimétaux was acquired by Pechiney. The various plants were closed or sold over the years.
Founder
The company was created by Lazare Weiller (1858–1928), who was born in the small town of Sélestat in Alsace on 20 July 1858. He studied in Angoulême and Paris, and then in Trinity College, Oxford. He returned to Angoulême to work in his cousin's factory, which produced metal sheets for the paper industry. He became interested in the problem of drawing copper wires, for which there was growing demand, adapted the process of rolling hot steel rods into wire so the method could be used with copper and launched his own company in Angoulême to make copper wire in this way. He developed a bronze alloy that combined the conductivity of copper with the strength to remain stretched between poles apart, of great value to telegraph and telephone companies, and obtained several patents in France and other countries.
In 1880 at the age of 22 Weiller created what would become the Tréfileries et Laminoirs du Havre. Weiller joined the board of the Société des téléphones, which was both a customer and an investor in his company. Weiller remained interested in research and explored transmission of images over electrical wires, colour photography and flying. He was elected a deputy in 1914, and held office through World War I, then was a senator from 1920 until his death in 1928.
Early years
Weiller created the Société Lazare Weiller in 1883, with the first factory in Angoulême, and was the main owner of the enterprise. The company was incorporated on 7 July 1883. Weiller acquired land along the Paris–Le Havre railway and the new Canal de Tancarville in 1895, and in 1896 built a larger factory at Graville(fr) in the Le Havre region. The choice of location was to take advantage of Le Havre as a port of entry for copper and a port from which to export products to England and the United States. In 1898 the Le Havre factory had 14 steam engines with 8,300 horsepower and 114 electric machines. The factory avoided employing great numbers of workers, but in 1897 had 900 employees, rising to almost 2,000 in 1913. It covered about of which half was roofed. It included forges, foundries, rolling mills and wireworks and processed copper, steel, aluminum, brass, bronze and nickel. The bulk of the output was for electrical equipment and construction of telephone and telegraph lines.
In 1901 the company became the Compagnie des Tréfileries et Laminoirs du Havre (TLH). Weiller became associated with Swiss banks, and from 1907 started to acquire facilities and companies to become a huge industrial complex. The company, now a société anonyme, increased market share through purchase of the Société coopérative des fonderies, laminoirs et tréfileries de Rugles in 1907. In 1911 TLH further increased its production of electrical wires and cables by merging with the Canalisation électrique company, giving it a dominant position in the industry, reducing competition and opening new markets in Paris streetcars, the PTT and other ministries, railways and so on.
Eugène Étienne was appointed to the TLH board in 1911, left this position when he became Minister of War in January 1913, then rejoined the board the next year and became president until his death in 1921. Étienne was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1881 to 1919. He was leader of the Colonial group in the chamber of deputies, and agitated for expansion of railway lines in the colonies. He felt that the future of TLH lay in developing the railways and ports of the colonial empire. Etienne was linked to Robert Pinot of the Comité des forges.