THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020 MB 7we held out for so long. This is our moment,
again.”
Mr. Quigley was referring to the fact that
his grandfather, an engineer named Louis
H. Pfohl and Plaxall’s founder, was known
for applying his skills in unique ways, espe-
cially during national emergencies, some of
them more clandestine than others.
During World War II, Mr. Pfohl ran an in-
dustrial design firm in Manhattan called
Design Center Inc. The federal government
approached him about making plastic rep-
licas of American, German, Russian and
Japanese airplanes so civilians and military
personnel would have a better chance of
identifying them during air raids. He also
made plastic globes that fighter pilots
would use to plot out flight courses during
training.
Family members do not know how many
plastic planes their grandfather made, or
how widely they were distributed. But
many of them recall playing with the planes
when they were children in Forest Hills,
Queens, according to Tony Pfohl, one of the
three Plaxall cousins involved with the
company.
The pressure-formed plastic spheres that
were used by the pilots likely became a
prototype for a Christmas ornament. After
the war, gold and silver ornaments that re-
sembled the flight training globes could be
spotted on the Rockefeller Center Christ-
mas tree from the 1940s to the 1960s, said
Paula Kirby, another cousin and company
leader.
Like many of the city’s small companies,
Design Center Inc. played a big role in the
nation’s wartime manufacturing effort, said
Kenneth T. Jackson, a professor of history
and social sciences at Columbia University.
Although the Brooklyn Navy Yard and
Todd Shipyards in Red Hook constructed
and repaired warships, many other goods
were made by smaller manufacturers, in-
cluding Brooks Brothers, whose workers
sewed thousands of military uniforms, and
Pfizer, which boosted its penicillin produc-
tion, said Dr. Jackson, also the author of the
book, “World War II & NYC.”
“It’s remarkable that a small plastics
manufacturer has survived in the city for
this long and finds itself having the capabili-
ty to help out yet again,” Dr. Jackson said.
It should be noted that part of Plaxall’s
success is its diversified portfolio. Upon his
arrival in Long Island City in 1950, Louis
Pfohl began to invest in local real estate. His
family’s holdings now include close to a mil-
lion square feet. (The family also stood to
make significant financial gains had Ama-
zon decided to build its next headquarters
in western Queens.)
Before he died in 1986, Louis Pfohl, who
was also a plane spotter, would participate
in one final wartime act. And this one, ac-
cording to the Plaxall cousins, involved a bit
of mystery and intrigue.
In summer 1944, Mr. Pfohl got a call from
someone in the government, inviting him to
come up to Buffalo. There, he gathered
around a big table with “army men and sci-
entists,” he told The New York Herald Trib-
une in August 1945.
The meeting was later revealed to be a
design confab for the Manhattan Project,
the government-led initiative that led to the
construction of the world’s first atomic
bomb.
Mr. Quigley recalled hearing about “two
men in suits” visiting his grandfather, whotold the men he couldn’t make what was re-
quested because he didn’t have the proper
machinery.
“A few days later, these two, huge lathe
machines showed up at the factory door,”
Mr. Quigley recalled.
Recently, the Plaxall cousins dug up old
letters and telegrams from the company ar-
chives, which are mostly kept in a dusty old
back room off the catwalk above the factory
floor. Some outline the dimensions of the pi-
lot training globe. Many documents are
from Fredric Flader Inc., an engineering
firm in Buffalo that was contracted to work
on the Manhattan Project, and which hired
Louis Pfohl as a subcontractor.
One letter was accompanied with asketch of the item Mr. Pfohl had been tasked
with making for the top-secret project: a
five-sided pyramidal cone. A telegram from
Fredric Flader later asked for Mr. Pfohl’s
discretion: “Loose talk and idle specula-
tions by persons now or formerly connected
with the project jeopardize the security of
the nation and must be controlled.”
The lathe machines that showed up on
Mr. Pfohl’s doorstep are now stored in the
basement machine shop, a throwback to an-
other era. Amid the metal shavings on the
wood block floor (which absorbs vibration
and help cushion the blow of dropped metal
tools), workers continue to find parts and
machines, decades old, which help shape
modern plastic products today.BENJAMIN NORMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESPlastics Maker Fit for All Roles
Above, a telegram urging
silence about World War II
work. Below, the factory floor
today. Bottom, a sketch of the
cone for the Manhattan Project.The company founder
was known for applying
his skills in unique ways.CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
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