MAGNALITE COOKWARE

My brother Tommy, the last of seven children, and the only male child, was born when I was a junior in high school. He and I are the only siblings who moved  far away from Loreauville because of careers. He now lives in Baltimore in a beautful home with his wife, a native of France. I know the name of the company Tommy works for, and I know he had an extremely high security clearance. I suspect he is really CIA because he gives me inordinately detailed answers when I inquire about his work. He spends a lot of time at meetings in DC and in other countries.

A voracious reader and researcher, Tommy has encyclopedic knowlege about many subjects. I love Magnalite cookware, and over the years noticed that Tommy was amassing an amazing collection. I purchase Magnalite on EBay; Magnalite is no longer in existence as a company. Cheaper knockoffs are sold at Walmart, and the difference in quality is notable.

I began collecting Magnalite cookware a few years ago, to accompany the set I received as a wedding gift forty-two years ago. I got into bidding wars with cooks employed in the oil industry and quickly learned the value and expense of the most sought after pots. With Tommy's guidance, I outbid someone for a small Magnalite pot used for making sauces. That was my most expensive purchase.

Here is Tommy's recent Paul Harvey commentary to me about Magnalite----
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Did anyone ever tell you why Magnalite pots were so popular and how they got their reputation?


Before World War Two, almost all cookware was cast iron.  And heavy.  Very heavy.  Aluminum was an exotic rare metal that could only be justified for lightweight applications like aircraft.


Along came World War Two.  We (the USA) discovered a huge bauxite reserve in the Guinea when we decided we needed a ton of raw material for World War II.  Bauxite is the ore aluminum is extracted from.


Also, because of engine development for heavy bombers, the USA also invested heavily in Magnesium ore and production.  Many airplanes were made with aluminum frames/wings/structures and many engines had magnesium parts because they weighed so much less than an equivalent steel part.  Magnesium is about 1/2 the weight of steel.

And Aluminum and Magnesium can easily be alloyed together.


So after World War Two, there were huge surpluses in the metals markets in aluminum and magnesium.  The metals markets almost collapsed in 1946-1950.  For that period, the price of aluminum and magnesium, dropped below that of cast iron.


And Wagner Ware, in Sydney Ohio, who had been making cast iron cookware since the 1800's saw an opportunity.  Why not make pots and pans out of this new cheaper lighter metal?


And so they called it "Magnalite", because they alloy they used was made with Magnesium + Aluminum.  Which was mostly recycled bombers and engines from World War II.


The metal surplus lasted until the mid 50's, but when the price of those lighter metals began to rise again, the American homemaker had become addicted to their new lighter prettier cookware and sales took off.  Cast Iron cookware slowly disappeared to be replaced by lightweight aluminum alloys like Magnalite.  Which lasted until Dupont came out with Teflon non stick coating (1963), and any cheap metal could be used for the foundation of the pot, and then teflon coated applied very inexpensively.


Which is what killed Wagner Ware.  By the early 1970's they were in bankruptcy as consumer tastes switched over to lighter cookware with non stick surfaces.

And now you know the rest of the story.