HISTORY OF TSM
Frederick F. Scheich, an Austro-Hungarian immigrant who had been trained as a tinsmith in his homeland, began his own business in the basement of his house in Trenton, New Jersey 1912. He used a bicycle to get to jobs and deliver materials until, in 1915, he needed bigger quarters and a car. Five years later he moved again, to 30 Adam Avenue, where the business is still located. By the 1920s his company was one of the area's largest sheet metal houses, employing as many as 200 workers.

 

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Before electric motors, Trenton Sheet Metal used belts to transmit power to each machine.
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This machine has been replaced by a 60 Ton Bochert CNC

 Following the founder's death, the firm was purchased in 1951 by four partners: George L. Fluck, Joseph P. Somogyi, Russell H. Bogert, and John B. Cole, Sr. Six years later Fluck retired, and the remaining three partners bought his share and that of the Scheich family. Since 1963 the firm has been entirely owned by the Somogyi family.

Joseph Somogyi, whose mother was a cleaning woman for the Scheichs, joined the firm in 1924 at the age of 14. He worked for three years as a helper until there was an opening for him in a five-year apprenticeship. Encouraged by his employer, Somogyi studied at night to get a high school diploma, and also took courses at the School of Industrial Arts. By 1939, when Scheich decided to retire, Joseph was running the business much of the time.
When the elder Somogyi retired in 1972, his sons, Robert and Raymond, split the running of the company. Robert, the president, looks after installations, while his younger the brother, the vice-president, handles the shop work. Marilyn Somogyi, Robert's wife, is the firm's secretary/treasurer. Since the 1940's Trenton Sheet Metal's size has remained the same, employing 35 workers. Our present shop crew has over 100 years of combined hand-on experience in metal fabrication!

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