Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation was a subsidiary of Stone and Webster, Incorporated. Stone and Webster, Incorporated has offered its customers engineering, design, construction, consulting, and environmental services to build electric power plants, petrochemical plants and refineries, factories, infrastructure, and civil works projects since 1889. Stone and Webster helped build substantial portions of the nation’s power production infrastructure, including coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric plants constituting around 20 percent of the United States’ generating capacity. The company played a significant role in the nation’s defense efforts during World War I and World War II and afterwards, helping develop the A-Bomb, constructing large shipyards, and creating alternate means of production of strategic materials such as synthetic rubber. Much of the world’s capacity in petrochemical and plastics development was also developed as a result of Stone and Webster efforts. After a sudden decline in fortunes in the late 1990s, the company declared bankruptcy in 2000 and was bought by the Baton Rouge, Louisiana based engineering firm the Shaw Group. Stone and Webster continues to be a leader in power plant construction, engineering, and plant management, as well as in hazardous waste management and environmental services. The company’s founders were two electrical engineering graduates from MIT, Charles A. Stone and Edwin S. Webster, who started their own firm, the Massachusetts Electrical Engineering Company, a year after their graduation. The name was changed to Stone and Webster in 1893. Electrical engineering was a new field in the 1880s and Stone and Webster opened their doors in spite of discouraging advice from respected mentors who told them there would not be enough work for both of them. From the company’s start in Boston in 1889, however, there was plenty of work for both of them. Their work initially involved small jobs such as testing equipment and performing feasibility studies. Stone and Webster soon developed original testing systems and expanded their test activities to encompass the complete range of electrical equipment. By the early 1900s, Stone and Webster had diversified rapidly, involving itself in engineering, building, constructing, and managing power plants, and developing a name for its ability to build and operate integrated systems fueled either by coal or hydroelectric generation. Initial start-up operations were handled by the company’s plant betterment division, which created and used an early form of quality control. In addition to its plant operations, the company also installed and managed lighting systems and electric-powered street railway systems. By 1906, a number of major engineering project were in process in six states, with several other being planned. To handle the load, Stone and Webster formed its first subsidiary, Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation, which managed all engineering, construction, and purchasing activities. Corporation activities underwent rapid growth, and by 1920 some 14 percent of the nation’s total electrical capacity had been designed, engineered, and built by Stone and Webster.

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