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| foundation = Brooklyn, United States | founder = Rufus L. Patterson | defunct = | location_city = Mechanicsville, Virginia | location_country = United States | locations = | area_served = | key_people = | products = | production = | services = | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | assets = | equity = | owner = | num_employees = | parent = | divisions = | subsid = | homepage = | footnotes = | intl = | bodystyle = }} American Machine and Foundry (known after 1970 as AMF, Inc.) was once one of the largest recreational equipment companies in the United States. The company was founded in 1900 by Rufus L. Patterson, inventor of the first automated cigarette manufacturing machine. Originally incorporated in New Jersey but operating in Brooklyn, the company began by manufacturing cigarette, baking, and stitching machines.〔''Diversified Success'', Time Magazine, 19 May 1961〕 AMF moved into the bowling business after World War II, when AMF automated bowling equipment and bowling centers became profitable business ventures. Bicycle production was added in 1950. The company was once a major diversified manufacturer of everything from tennis racquets to research reactors for the US' "Atoms for Peace" program. AMF became a major part of what would soon be called by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower as "the military-industrial complex" after WWII. In the late 1950s the company's vice-chairman was Walter Bedell Smith. He was a formerly a US major general, Eisenhower's wartime chief-of-staff, and Harry Truman's Ambassador to the Soviet Union. He later became the fourth Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Until the mid-1980s, AMF's range of consumer goods included powered model airplanes, snow skis, lawn and garden equipment, Ben Hogan golf clubs, Voit inflatable balls, exercycles and exercise equipment, Hatteras yachts, Alcort sailboats, Nimble bicycles, motorized bicycles, mopeds, and SCUBA gear. At one time, AMF owned Harley Davidson motorcycles. Aging production facilities and increasing quality control problems in some product lines caused sales declines in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The company's vast diversified output proved difficult to efficiently manage, and after suffering a series of losses, the company began to sell off most of its manufacturing operations. == Bowling centers and nuclear reactors == In 1943, Rufus Patterson's son, Morehead Patterson, took over AMF. After WWII ended, Patterson determined that the company had to 'grow or die'.〔 One of AMF's post-WWII ventures was "AMF Atomics": a division that made "low-dose irradiation equipment" for "the US Army Quartermaster Corps’ bulk-food irradiation program". In a masterstroke of top executive recruitment, Patterson hired top US government Cold Warrior Walter Bedell Smith, whose leadership positions at the Pentagon, US State Department and CIA made AMF one of the pillars of the US' military-industrial complex during the 1950s and 1960s. AMF Atomics got Israel's nuclear weapons program off to a start in the late 1950s when the company "won" the contract for designing and constructing "a small 1 MW swimming pool-type reactor" at Soreq, Israel.〔 Patterson encountered a prototype of an automatic bowling-pin setter. To get the cash to develop the invention, Patterson swapped AMF stock to acquire eight small companies with fast-selling products. After incorporating key features developed by (Leslie L. LeVeque ), the AMF ''Pinspotter'', perfected and put on the market in 1951, helped to turn bowling into the most popular US participative, competitive sport.〔〔(US Census ) Most popular sport〕 Commonwealth Ventures, a group of private investors in Richmond, Virginia, paid $225 million to purchase AMF's bowling division in 1985 to form AMF Bowling Companies, Inc. (later known as AMF Bowling Worldwide).〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.hoovers.com/company/AMF_Bowling_Worldwide_Inc/ckhfci-1-1njhxk.html )〕 The division operated AMF Bowling Centers, and manufactured bowling pins and lanes at its plant in Lowville, New York and related equipment at its plant in Shelby, Ohio. The new owners sought to reverse $7 million in losses suffered in 1986 at the two plants and to make the company competitive by reducing expenses $10 million and laying off 172 salaried non-bargaining unit employees. A few months before Commonwealth acquired the bowling division, a 24% wage cut and 14% benefit cut had been negotiated for the employees at the Shelby plant. In 1988 however, AMF Bowling closed the Shelby, Ohio facility that had operated since the 1950s. The new owners also spent nearly $500 million to revitalize the bowling center business, and by 1995, the company became the largest owner of bowling centers in the US.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-01-11/business/1995011152_1_amf-bowling-fair-lanes-bowling-centers )〕 In 1996, Goldman Sachs paid $1.4 billion to buy out the company from Commonwealth Ventures. The company’s strategy at the time was to acquire additional bowling center properties and clean them up, with the goal of creating a national chain of amusement complexes.〔 For additional detail about the expansion (and subsequent contraction) of the bowling center division, see AMF Bowling Centers. AMF Bowling went public when it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in November 1997. In 1998, its stock price plummeted as losses mounted, and expansion plans were put on hold. In 1999, the decision was made to downsize. By 2000, the company was more than $1 billion in debt and it was delisted.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/amf-bowling-inc-history/ )〕 AMF Bowling entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the first time in April 2001. (Code Hennessy & Simmons ) bought the company in 2004 for $670 million to bring it out of bankruptcy. In 2005, AMF Bowling's products division and Italian-based Qubica Worldwide formed a 50/50 joint venture, QubicaAMF Worldwide. The partnership combined Qubica's expertise in automatic scoring technology and AMF Bowling's technology in lane equipment and pinsetters.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The History of QubicaAMF Worldwide )〕 In 2007, a new company, 900 Global, purchased the rights to sell bowling balls with the AMF logo.〔900 Global (Article )〕 (In February 2014, the principals of bowling ball manufacturer (Storm Products, Inc. ) made a significant investment in 900 Global). AMF Bowling went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in November 2012. In its filing the company said there had been a 36 percent decline in league memberships since 1998 and that it had been unsuccessful in selling assets.〔 In 2013, AMF Bowling was brought out of bankruptcy through its merger with Strike Holdings LLC (doing business as the bowling center operator Bowlmor), bringing the 50% interest in the QuibicaAMF joint venture and the remaining US and Mexico bowling centers under the control of Bowlmor AMF. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「American Machine and Foundry」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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