Ralph Stolle, a Cincinnati businessman, founded the Stolle Corporation in 1923. He opened a facility here in 1934. Stolle occupied a portion of the Prima Washing Machine Company building on Park Street and furnished chromium plating for Prima’s washers. Stolle engineers developed a new aluminum alloy for appliances and automobile trim pieces three years later that helped launch Stolle into a period of tremendous growth. The company’s engineers also perfected the manufacture of the popular ‘pop tab’ can opener in 1963 and purchased the old Sidney Machine Tool Company facility on Highland Avenue for that operation. The Aluminum Company of America now owns assets of the Stolle Corporation, which has been dissolved. It has several plants in the Sidney area, with the corporate offices located at 1501 Michigan Street.

Industry segment written in January, 1998 by Rich Wallace

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