Hercules

First of two parts. He was one of the first great chefs of Philadelphia - in fact, of the young nation. The chief cook in President George Washington's home here in 1790 had only one name: Hercules. In the mansion's open-hearth kitchen, where elaborate banquets were prepared, where spitted meats sizzled and "fricaseys" simmered in cast-iron pans over hickory fires, underlings scurried to execute the orders of Hercules, "the great master-spirit," according to one account, who seemed to be everywhere at once.

Hercules Inc. has encountered immediate complications in its effort to play white knight for AccuRay Corp. of Columbus, Ohio. Combustion Engineering Inc. yesterday increased its offer for AccuRay to $45 a share from $35, only one day after Hercules agreed to acquire the company for $40 a share. Two weeks ago, Combustion Engineering presented AccuRay with the unsolicited $35-a-share offer. AccuRay asked its investment bankers to seek better offers, a search that resulted Monday in a merger agreement with Hercules.

Hercules Inc., the Wilmington maker of specialty chemicals and aerospace products, reported sharply lower net income for the first quarter. The comparison was affected, however, by a large one-time gain during the 1987 period. Hercules reported a nonrecurring gain of $90.5 million from a public offering last year of stock in a joint-venture company, Himont Inc. Hercules said that net income from continuing operations decreased 4 percent for the first quarter. David S. Hollingsworth, chairman and chief executive officer, said the current earnings represented an important achievement for the company.

David S. Hollingsworth, chairman of Hercules Inc., said yesterday that he would retire next year after more than four decades with the chemical company. Hercules lost money last year for the first time in its 78-year history, after predicting a performance breakthrough. Profits of $33.7 million in the first quarter of this year were 25 percent below first-quarter profits of $44.8 million in 1989. Hollingsworth, 62, who took over as chairman and chief executive officer of the Wilmington company in 1987, said that in 1986, when he agreed to take the job, he did so with the understanding that he would retire before he was 65 and would hold the job no more than four years.

Hercules Inc. of Wilmington will sell its Electronics & Printing Products division, which has annual sales of about $80 million, officials said yesterday. The decision comes during a major restructuring at Hercules. Since earlier this year, the company has been focusing its efforts on its core businesses - chemicals, food ingredients and space propulsion. The Electronic & Printing Products business, with about 500 employees in Wilmington and Middletown, Del., is not part of those operations.

Hercules Inc., the Wilmington chemical and aerospace firm, yesterday reported double-digit increases in its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings, some of it because of unusual gains and charges. Sales for the fourth quarter and the year were down slightly, principally the result of excluding the sales of the flavors business, which was transferred to a joint venture in the first quarter. "The performance in the fourth quarter of 1992 was a fine accomplishment for our company," said Thomas L. Gossage, chairman, president and chief executive.

Although Hercules Inc. yesterday reported higher profits for the third quarter, the company's top executive said he was disappointed in results from a number of units and companies in which Hercules owns substantial stakes. Among the trouble spots cited by David Hollingsworth, chairman and chief executive officer of the Wilmington chemical and aerospace company, were the resins group, because of difficulties in starting up a plant in Brunswick, Ga.; aerospace, because of development costs associated with several missile contracts, and engineered polymers, because of the loss of an important piece of business to competition.

Hercules Inc., the chemical and aerospace firm based in Wilmington, yesterday reported that its first-quarter earnings rose sharply on a modest increase in sales. For the period, Hercules earned $45.4 million or 81 cents per share, up 27 percent from $35.8 million or 65 cents per share in the comparable period a year ago. Sales were up just 1 percent to $645.2 million from $638.4 million last year. During 1985, however, Hercules sold several businesses with sales of about $50 million.

Ten days into his second stint as chief executive officer of Hercules Inc., Thomas L. Gossage went back to Wall Street yesterday and left no doubt that the Wilmington specialty-chemical maker's days as an independent company are numbered. "There will be a point . . . sooner or later that Hercules will have to be part of a bigger company," Gossage said in a meeting with analysts, emphasizing that by Thanksgiving the company's strategic direction should be clear. In a release, the company also said it had hired Goldman, Sachs Group Inc. to explore its options, including the sale of the company.

Although the sale of some of its assets contributed to improved profits for the fourth quarter, Hercules Inc. yesterday reported a decline in sales for the quarter and all of 1991. In addition, while the quarterly net income of $34 million seems substantially higher than Hercules' 1990 fourth-quarter profit of $2.6 million, the difference is rooted in nonrecurring charges of $21.9 million Hercules took in the 1990 period. Also yesterday, Hercules said it had filed suit against Martin Marietta Corp.

HERCULES was barely a dog anymore, confined and forgotten in a Gloucester County basement like a box of dusty, old toys. Meanwhile, upstairs, Roxanne Notaro's chocolate Labrador, "Little," had food, warmth and love. Officials with the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals say it's a miracle that Hercules, an American bulldog, is alive after cops found him locked in a small crate and covered in feces, urine and fleas in the basement of Notaro's home on Vassar Road in Wenonah last week.

Barrel Fever (1994) Naked (1997) Holidays on Ice (1997) Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000) Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (2004) Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (editor, 2005) When You Are Engulfed in Flames (2008) Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary (2010)

PHILADELPHIA MADE history once again yesterday with the opening of the President's House on Independence Mall, believed to be the country's first federal commemoration of slavery. The $11.2 million project, known officially as "President's House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation," stands on the footprint of the original structure where presidents George Washington and John Adams resided from 1790 to 1800. The open-air site, at 6th and Market streets, also pays homage to the nine slaves of African descent who were owned by Washington and worked in the house: Austin, 32, Christopher Sheels, 16, Giles, 32, Hercules, 36, Joe Richardson, 26, Moll, 51, Oney Judge, 17, Paris, 16 and Richmond, 14. Hercules was Washington's chef and Oney Judge was maid to Martha Washington and her grandchildren.

There was cannon fire in Philadelphia on the morning of Feb. 22, 1797, as 16 rounds of salute - one for each state - rang out in celebration of the nation's greatest hero. It was the 65th birthday of George Washington, the "man who united all hearts," as John Quincy Adams called him. And with Washington's final weeks as president ahead, the event was celebrated with "more sincere joy" than ever, according to the Philadelphia Gazette. People of all classes paraded to the President's House at Sixth and Market.

He was one of the first great chefs of Philadelphia - in fact, of the young nation. The chief cook in President George Washington's home here in 1790 had only one name: Hercules. In the mansion's open-hearth kitchen, where elaborate banquets were prepared, where spitted meats sizzled and "fricaseys" simmered in cast-iron pans over hickory fires, underlings scurried to execute the orders of Hercules, "the great master-spirit," according to one account, who seemed to be everywhere at once.

Radical Comics has made a big name for itself by making sure all of its projects have the most sophisticated writing, art and packaging of any books on the shelves today. The books have been so light-years ahead of most competitors in terms of quality - so cinematic in terms of story and visuals - that Hollywood has taken notice and the majority of the company's titles have been optioned for adaptations to film. So how does the company Comics Guy feels is "the future of comics" successfully portray a god whose tales have been told countless times over thousands of years and update him for today's jaded, sophisticated audiences?

Look, up by the world's third-largest known sphinx: It's a 6-year-old from New Jersey! It's Batman! No, it's a 6-year-old from New Jersey dressed as Batman! "They're just costumes," said Owen Riley of Riverton, on this day better known as the Caped Crusader. "We've got lots of them at home. " It's exactly that kind of modesty that makes a hero super. Miniature avengers swarmed the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology yesterday to attend its Superhero Day. The festivities were the museum's contribution to the Penn Libraries' yearlong "POW: Comics, Animation, and Graphic Novels" program.