THE WESTERN TOOL BUILDERS
Prior to 1880 practically all of the tool building in the United States
was done east of the Alleghenies. The few tools built here and there in
Ohio and Indiana were mostly copies of eastern ones and their quality
was not high. In fact, there were few shops in the West equipped to do
accurate work. “Chordal’s Letters,” published first in the _American
Machinist_ and later in book form,[215] give an excellent picture
of the western machine shop in the transition stage from pioneer
conditions to those of the present day.
[215] Henry W. See: “Extracts from Chordal’s Letters”; McGraw-Hill
Book Co., N. Y. 12th Edition. 1909.
Good tool building appeared in Ohio in the early eighties, and within
ten years its competition was felt by the eastern tool builders. The
first western centers were Cleveland, Cincinnati and Hamilton. Of
these, Cleveland seems to have been the first to build tools of the
highest grade.
We have already noted that the Pratt & Whitney shop in Hartford
furnished Cleveland with a number of its foremost tool builders. The
oldest of these and perhaps the best known is the Warner & Swasey
Company. This company has the distinction, shared with only one
other, of having furnished two presidents of the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers. Oddly enough the other company is also a
Cleveland firm, the Wellman, Seaver, Morgan Company, builders of coal-
and ore-handling machinery, and of steel mill equipment.
Worcester E. Warner, of the Warner & Swasey Company, was born at
Cummington, Mass., in 1846. Although a farmer’s son and denied a
college education, he had access in his own home to an admirable
library, which he used to great advantage. When nineteen years old
he went to Boston and learned mechanical drawing in the office of
George B. Brayton. Shortly afterwards he was transferred to the shop
at Exeter, N. H., where he first met Ambrose Swasey. Mr. Swasey was
born at Exeter, also in 1846, went to the traditional “little red
schoolhouse,” and learned his trade as a machinist in the shop to
which Warner came. In 1870 they went together to Hartford, entered
the Pratt & Whitney shop as journeymen mechanics, and in a short
time had become foremen and contractors. Mr. Swasey soon gained a
reputation for accurate workmanship and rare ability in the solution
of complex mechanical problems. He had charge of the gear department,
and invented and developed a new process of generating spur gear teeth,
which was given in a paper before the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers.[216] Mr. Warner, also, became one of the company’s most
trusted mechanics, was head of the planing department, and had charge
of the Pratt & Whitney exhibit at the Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia.
[216] Trans. A. S. M. E., Vol. XII, p. 265.
In 1881 they left Hartford and went first to Chicago, intending to
build engine lathes, each putting $5000 into the venture; but finding
difficulty in obtaining good workmen there, they moved in about a
year to Cleveland, where they have remained. Their first order was
for twelve turret lathes, and they have built this type of machine
ever since. At various times they have built speed lathes, die-sinking
machines, horizontal boring mills, and hand gear-cutters, but they now
confine their tool building to hand-operated turret lathes. They have
never built automatics.
[Illustration: FIGURE 54. WORCESTER R. WARNER]
[Illustration: FIGURE 55. AMBROSE SWASEY]
The building of astronomical instruments was not in their original
scheme, but Mr. Warner’s taste for astronomy and Mr. Swasey’s skill
in intricate and delicate mechanical problems, led them to take up
this work. These instruments, usually designed by astronomers and
instrument makers, were in general much too light; at least the large
ones were. From their long experience as tool builders, Warner and
Swasey realized that strength and rigidity are quite as essential as
accuracy of workmanship where great precision is required. The design
of a large telescope carrying a lens weighing over 500 pounds at the
end of a steel tube forty or sixty feet long, and weighing five or six
tons, which must be practically free from flexure and vibration and
under intricate and accurate control, becomes distinctly an engineering
problem. To this problem both Mr. Warner and Mr. Swasey brought
engineering skill and experience of the highest order.
When the trustees of the Lick Observatory called in 1886 for designs
for the great 36-inch telescope, Warner & Swasey submitted one
which provided for much heavier mountings than had ever been used
before, and heavier construction throughout. They were awarded
the contract and the instrument was built and installed under Mr.
Swasey’s personal supervision. It is located on the very top of Mount
Hamilton in California, 4200 feet above sea-level; and to give room
for the observatory 42,000 tons of rock had to be removed. The great
instrument, weighing with its mountings more than forty tons, “was
transported in sections, over a newly made mountain road, sometimes in
a driving snowstorm, with the wind blowing from sixty to eighty miles
an hour.”[217]
[217] _Cassier’s Magazine_, March, 1897, p. 403.
As is well known, the instrument was a brilliant success. The
Warner & Swasey Company has since designed and built the mountings
for the United States Naval Observatory telescope, the 40-inch
Yerkes telescope, the 72-inch reflecting telescope for the Canadian
Government, and the 60-inch reflecting telescope for the National
Observatory at Cordoba, Argentina, the largest in use in the southern
hemisphere. In addition to this large work, the firm has built meridian
circles, transits and other instruments for astronomical work, range
finders for the United States Government, and introduced the prismatic
binocular into this country.
In connection with this astronomical work Mr. Swasey designed and built
a dividing engine capable of dividing circles of 40 inches in diameter
with an error of less than one second of arc. A second of arc subtends
about one-third of an inch at the distance of one mile. Although the
graduations on the inlaid silver band of this machine are so fine that
they can scarcely be seen with the naked eye, the width of each line is
twelve times the maximum error in the automatic graduations which the
machine produces.
Although their reputation as telescope builders is international,
Warner & Swasey are, and always have been, primarily tool builders.
They were not the first to build tools in the Middle West, but they
were the first to turn out work comparable in quality with that of the
best shops in the East.
The Warner & Swasey shop has had the advantage of other good mechanics
besides its proprietors. Walter Allen, an expert tool designer, did
his entire work with them, rising from apprentice to works manager.
Frank Kempsmith, originally a Brown & Sharpe man, was at one time
their superintendent. Lucas, of the Lucas Machine Tool Company, was a
foreman. George Bardons, who served his apprenticeship with Pratt &
Whitney, went west with Warner and Swasey when they started in business
and was their superintendent; and John Oliver, a graduate of Worcester
Polytechnic, was their chief draftsman. The last two left Warner
& Swasey in 1891 and established the firm of Bardons & Oliver for
building lathes.
Another old Pratt & Whitney workman is A. W. Foote of the Foote-Burt
Company, builders of drilling machines. Unlike the others, however,
Foote did not work for Warner & Swasey.
The first multi-spindle automatic screw machines were manufactured in
Cleveland. The Cleveland automatic was developed in the plant of the
White Sewing Machine Company for their own work, and its success led
to the establishment of a separate company for its manufacture. The
Acme automatic was invented by Reinholdt Hakewessel and E. C. Henn in
Hartford. Mr. Hakewessel was a Pratt & Whitney man and Mr. Henn a New
Britain boy, who had worked first in Lorain and Cincinnati and then for
twelve years in Hartford with Pratt & Cady, the valve manufactures. In
1895 Henn and Hakewessel began manufacturing bicycle parts in a little
Hartford attic, developing for this work a five-spindle automatic.
Seven years later the business was moved to Cleveland, where it became
the National-Acme Manufacturing Company, organized by E. C. and A.
W. Henn and W. D. B. Alexander, who came from the Union Steel Screw
Works. Their business of manufacturing automatic screw machinery and
screw machine products has grown rapidly and is now one of the largest
industries in Cleveland.
The White Sewing Machine Company and the Union Steel Screw Works were
among the first in Cleveland to use accurate methods and to produce
interchangeable work. It was at the Union Steel Screw Works that James
Hartness, of the Jones & Lamson Machine Company, got his first training
in accurate work. Their shop practice was good and was due to Jason A.
Bidwell, who came from the American Tool Company of Providence.
The Standard Tool Company is an offspring of Bingham & Company,
Cleveland, and of the Morse Twist Drill Company of New Bedford, Mass.
From the Standard Tool Company has come the Whitman-Barnes Company of
Akron, and from that the Michigan Twist Drill and Machine Company.
Newton & Cox was established in 1876, and built planers and milling
machines. Mr. Newton sold his share in the business to F. F. Prentiss
in 1880, went to Philadelphia, and started the Newton Machine Tool
Works. Cox & Prentiss later became the Cleveland Twist Drill Company.
They drifted into the drill business through not being able to buy such
drills as they required. They began making drills first for themselves,
then for their friends, and gradually took up their manufacture, giving
up the business in machine tools.
* * * * *
Cincinnati is said to have upwards of 15,000 men engaged in the tool
building industry, and to be the largest tool building center in the
world. There are approximately forty firms there engaged in this work,
many of them large and widely known.
This development, which has taken place within the past thirty-five
years, may possibly have sprung indirectly from the old river traffic.
Seventy years ago this traffic was large, and Cincinnati did the
greater part of the engine and boat building and repair work. When the
river trade vanished, the mechanics engaged in this work were compelled
to turn their attention to something else, and there may be some
significance in the coincidence of the rise of tool building with the
decline of the older industry.
There had been more or less manufacturing in Cincinnati for many years,
but little of it could be described as tool building. Miles Greenwood
established the Eagle Iron Works in 1832 on the site now occupied by
the Ohio Mechanics Institute. It comprised a general machine shop, an
iron foundry, brass foundries, and a hardware factory which rivaled
those of New England, employing in all over 500 men. The hardware
factory was important enough to attract the special attention of the
English commissioners who visited this country in 1853.
In the fifties and early sixties, Niles & Company built steamboat and
stationary engines, locomotives and sugar machinery, and employed
from 200 to 300 men. This company was the forerunner of the present
Niles Tool Works in Hamilton. Lane & Bodley were building woodworking
machinery about the same time, and J. A. Fay & Company, another firm
building woodworking machinery, which started in Keene, N. H., began
work in Cincinnati in the early sixties.
The first builder of metal-working tools in Cincinnati was John
Steptoe; in fact, he is said to have been for many years the only
tool builder west of the Alleghenies. Steptoe came to this country
from Oldham, England, some time in the forties. It is said that he
was a foundling and that his name came from his having been left on
a doorstep. He was married before he came to Cincinnati, and had
served an apprenticeship of seven years, although he was so young in
appearance that no one would believe it. After working some time for
Greenwood, he started in business for himself, making a foot power
mortising machine and later a line of woodworking tools. The first
metal-working tool which he built was a copy of the Putnam lathe. With
Thomas McFarlan, another Englishman, he formed the firm of Steptoe &
McFarlan, and his shop, called the Western Machine Works, employed by
1870 about 300 men. Their old payrolls contain the names of William E.
Gang of the William E. Gang Company; Mr. Oesterlien of the Oesterlien
Machine Company; and Mr. Dietz of the old Dietz, Schumacher & Boye
Company, now the Boye & Emmes Machine Tool Company.
Steptoe was not an originator or an inventor. He was a rough man, plain
spoken, honest and well informed. He died in 1888 at about eighty-four
years of age. Thomas P. Egan of the J. A. Fay & Egan Company, who had
worked for Steptoe and was the administrator of his estate, sold the
business for the widow to Otting & Lauder.[218] In compliance with
Steptoe’s wish it was stipulated that his name should be retained
and it has been perpetuated in the various changes through which
the business has gone. Today the John Steptoe Company manufactures
shapers and milling machines. Steptoe’s name should be remembered, for
Cincinnati tool building owes its start more to him than to anyone
else, with the possible exception of William Lodge, who was himself one
of Steptoe’s workmen.
[218] The above facts are given by several of Steptoe’s old workmen.
Mr. Lodge, the son of George Lodge, a skilled mechanic in the textile
industry, was born in Leeds, England, in 1848. After serving his
apprenticeship in the shops of Fairbairn & Company, Leeds, he came to
Philadelphia, where he worked for Chambers Brothers from 1869 to 1872,
making paper-folding machinery. He came to Cincinnati in 1872 and
worked for Steptoe for eight years, first as a journeyman machinist
and later as a foreman. Having saved $1000, he formed a partnership
with William Barker and they started in business the first day of
January, 1880, at Fifth Street and the C. H. & D. tracks. Associated
with them for a short time was Mr. Bechle, another Steptoe workman.
Their first task was to true up a few second-hand machines which they
had bought for their shop, after which they went out, secured some
business, and came back and executed it themselves, since they had
no one in their employ. Part of this first business was making some
opening dies for Powell and a small turret lathe for Lunkenheimer.
Lunkenheimer immediately ordered three more and during the following
year eighteen lathes were made and sold. Beginning with $1000, the
business inventoried at the end of the first year $7000; at the end of
the second year $32,000; and at the end of ten years $400,000. Fifteen
months after starting they employed seventy-five men. There is little
doubt that this rapid success induced quite a number of the better
and more ambitious mechanics in Cincinnati to take up similar work.
Mr. Lodge was well known among the mechanics of the city and had been
president of their union. If one of their own number could build up a
successful business, why could they not do the same? Some of the best
known of the Cincinnati tool building firms were established during the
few years after Mr. Lodge’s start.
In 1886 Mr. Barker sold his interest to Charles Davis and began making
Fox lathes and monitors independently. Lodge and Davis continued in
partnership until 1892, when Mr. Lodge sold his interest to Mr. Thomas
P. Egan and the firm became Davis & Egan, and later the American Tool
Works. Mr. Lodge, meanwhile, organized the Ohio Machine Tool Company
and a year later became associated with Murray Shipley, forming the
present Lodge & Shipley Machine Tool Company.
Mr. Lodge’s first export order was received in 1889. Alfred Herbert,
who had just started in Coventry, sent an inquiry in regard to drill
presses to Cincinnati, which was forwarded to Mr. Lodge in London.
Mr. Lodge went down to see him and asked whether the inquiry was for
purposes of information or for purchase. Mr. Herbert said that if Lodge
had a better machine he would buy. Mr. Lodge asked to see his machine
and after a little hesitation he was taken out into the shop. The first
machine he saw was a planer. He said that he could save 30 per cent
on the work as it was being done, and would sell them a machine which
would do it for £100. He was told that the planer they were looking
at cost only £65 and replied that that was all it was worth. He spent
several hours in the shop, and left the plant not only with an order,
but with the check in payment thereof. This was the beginning of a
large export business.
While the firm was Lodge & Davis, it built lathes, planers and drill
presses. Mr. Lodge wanted to manufacture rather than build, and to
specialize upon lathes. Mr. Davis, who was a business man, wanted a
complete line of tools, as he saw the opportunities of selling other
machines with the lathes. This led to a policy, the effect of which was
to build up a number of small tool building enterprises, independent
of each other, but not competing. About 1887 Lodge & Davis began
concentrating their manufacturing upon engine lathes, and placing
orders for other types of tools with mechanics known to them who were
just starting up, or with workmen or foremen from their own plant whom
they helped to start in business. For instance, to Smith & Mills, who
had been foremen with Steptoe and had started making set screws and
cap screws, they gave an order for 300 shapers. Another firm, Smith &
Silk, also built shapers for Lodge & Davis. Later they added planers,
and in the early nineties they moved to Kenton, Ohio, and began
building shapers and planers for their own account. To R. K. LeBlond,
who had served his apprenticeship with Brown & Sharpe and had come to
Cincinnati to make printers’ machinery and supplies, Lodge & Davis gave
a large order for slide-rests. To William Owen, one of their workmen,
they gave an order for Fox monitors. Owen went into partnership with
Philip Montanus and started the Springfield Machine Tool Company, and
Lodge & Shipley bought their entire product for eight years. Through
Mr. Lodge’s influence, Frank Kempsmith came from Warner & Swasey as
one of the partners in this firm. He afterwards moved to Milwaukee
and started the Kempsmith Manufacturing Company. This policy on the
part of Lodge & Davis unquestionably set upon their feet a number of
small companies which have since grown into successful, independent
enterprises.
William E. Gang worked for Lodge as vice-foreman. Greaves was his
planer foreman; Henry Dreses was his chief draftsman; and William
Herman, of the Fosdick Machine Tool Company, was his superintendent.
Gang & Dietz, and Fosdick & Plucker also began by doing work for Lodge
& Davis. Through various changes the former has become the present Boye
& Emmes Machine Tool Company and the latter the Fosdick Machine Tool
Company. Dreses, with Oscar Mueller, started Dreses, Mueller & Company
in 1896. In 1902 they separated and each formed a company of his own.
Greaves, with H. Klussman, began building woodworking machinery about
1890, to which they have since added the building of engine lathes.
The Cincinnati Planer Company is another offshoot of Lodge & Davis
and Davis & Egan through B. Quillen and W. Burtner, who were in their
office.
It is impossible here to give the history of all the Cincinnati tool
builders and only a few can be mentioned. Henry Bickford, a native of
New Hampshire and an employee of J. A. Fay & Company, started a few
years before Mr. Lodge. In 1874 he began building five sizes of upright
drills, from 20 to 38 inches in capacity. While his growth was not
so rapid as Mr. Lodge’s, it was steady and by 1885 he had built 3000
machines. The first machines were cheap and built for competition, but
from them has developed a product of the highest quality. The Bickford
Drill Company was organized in 1887 and the business was extended to
include radial and universal drills. The company was reorganized in
1893, and in 1894 it absorbed the Universal Radial Drill Company, its
only competitor in this special field in the city. Some years ago the
name was changed to the Cincinnati Bickford Tool Company. Mr. Anton
Mill and Mr. Henry M. Norris have in the main been responsible for
their engineering practice. Mr. Mill was a German who came to them from
the Cincinnati Milling Machine Company and Mr. Norris is a Cornell
graduate with a wide experience in the eastern tool building shops.
The Cincinnati Milling Machine Company comes from the Cincinnati Screw
& Tap Company, started by Frederick Holtz, who began making screws
and taps in a kitchen about 1880. He made a milling machine with a
wooden base for fluting his taps, because he was too poor to buy one.
Lunkenheimer saw this machine and ordered one, and from this start
came their present milling machine business. The firm became the
Cincinnati Milling Machine Company in 1889 with Mr. Frederick A. Geier
as president. Mr. A. L. DeLeeuw was for a number of years engineer
for this company and his experiments in cutting tools have had a wide
influence on all milling machine practice.
The prominence of Hamilton, Ohio, in tool building is due chiefly
to the Niles Tool Works, which moved thither from Cincinnati about
1876. Before the war the old firm, Niles & Company, to which we have
already referred, occasionally built tools for their own use. After
the war, George Gray, who was their designer and superintendent, was
sent through the eastern states to familiarize himself with machine
tool building and the company took it up as part of their regular work.
After their removal to Hamilton, they confined themselves wholly to
this work and have grown to be one of the largest firms in the country
in this field. About 1900 the Niles Tool Works were brought under the
same management as Bement, Miles & Company of Philadelphia, the Pond
Machine Tool Company of Plainfield, N. J., and the Pratt & Whitney
Company of Hartford, and they are now operated as one of the plants of
the Niles-Bement-Pond Company.
In 1880 Gray left the Niles Tool Works and started the Universal Radial
Drill Company in Cincinnati. This company built the first round column
radial drills, plain and universal, after Mr. Gray’s designs. He left
the company in 1883 and about ten years later it ceased business. The
G. A. Gray Company, which he started in 1883, at first built lathes,
but has specialized on planers and is now one of the foremost firms in
the country specializing in this type of tool.
As the demand for machine tools spread westward, tool building has
followed it, and an increasing number of companies are springing up in
Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. The oldest of these, the W. F. & John
Barnes Company of Rockford, Ill., began making jig saws in 1872. Six
years later they added the building of small lathes. About the same
time they made some drill presses for their own use and then began
manufacturing them for the trade. Later, tool grinders, arbor presses,
radial and gang drills were added successively to their line of
machines. Their only competitors were in Worcester and Cincinnati, and
the high freight rates at that time gave them an important advantage
in the West. Their early machinery, built to meet pioneer conditions,
found a considerable market in the less developed foreign countries and
they have built up a widespread export business.
Rockford has become a clearly defined center for tool builders. For
many years the W. F. & John Barnes Company was the only one in the
city, but in 1888 the Mechanics Machine Company was established.
About 1893 the Ingersoll Milling Machine Company moved to Rockford
from Cleveland, where Mr. Ingersoll had been associated with Cox &
Prentiss. This company has been the leader in the development of heavy
multiple-head milling machines of the planer type. The Barber-Coleman
Company began making mechanics’ tools and gear cutters about 1896. The
B. F. Barnes Company, now the Rockford Drilling Machine Company, and
the Barnes Drill Company were established in 1897, by B. F. Barnes, a
brother of W. F. and John Barnes, who had been associated with them
for twenty years as superintendent. In addition to these firms there
are the Rockford Machine Tool Company, the Rockford Milling Machine
Company, the Rockford Lathe & Tool Company, the Rockford Iron Works and
W. F. Lingren & Company. The first of these companies started in 1897,
making shapers and planers. In 1913 it bought out the drill business
of the older Mechanics Machine Company. It is said that one of the
reasons why Rockford has become such a tool building center is that
the neighborhood was settled by Swedish immigrants, who have furnished
excellent material for the development of skilled mechanics.
The International Machine Tool Company of Indianapolis was established
in 1906. This company manufactures the turret lathes developed
by Mr. C. L. Libbey, who was for eleven years chief engineer and
superintendent of the Bullard Machine Tool Company of Bridgeport;
afterwards superintendent of the Pacific Iron Works of the same city,
and of the Ludwig-Loewe & Company, Berlin, Germany; and for four years
and a half construction engineer of the Gisholt Machine Company of
Madison, Wis. From Madison he went to Indianapolis.
There are a number of tool builders in Chicago, but though a great
manufacturing center, Chicago, like New York, has not specialized in
tool building as have some of the smaller places. There are perhaps a
dozen firms making large and small tools. Of those who build the larger
types of tools, Charles H. Besly & Company, manufacturers of grinding
machines, are best known.
Frederick M. Gardner, of Beloit, Wis., who was at one time with this
company, was largely responsible for the development of disk grinding
machines. Mr. Gardner was born in Ashfield, Mass., and served his
apprenticeship with Wiley & Russell in Greenfield. From there he went
to Pratt & Whitney’s, was later placed in charge of the small tool
department until, about 1885, he was transferred to Chicago as their
special western representative on the Pratt & Whitney tools then
being sold by Charles H. Besly & Company. His acquaintance with Mr.
Besly led to the formation of a company, of which Mr. Gardner was
superintendent, located at Beloit because of Mr. Besly’s interest in
the water power there. This company manufactured taps, dies, clamps and
other small tools. The disk grinder was originated about 1890 for use
in the manufacture of their clamps. For a number of years it retained
substantially its first form, but with the advent of coarser grades of
emery, a more powerful design with various refinements and adjustments
was developed. In 1905 Mr. Gardner organized a separate company known
as the Gardner Machine Company. Since that time still larger and more
powerful machines have been designed, lever feeds and micrometer stop
screws added, and various types, such as double spindle, vertical
spindle and pattern makers’ grinders, built. Abrasive ring wheels,
interchangeable with disk wheels allow the use of wet grinding and thus
extend the field of this type of machine. Mr. F. N. Gardner died in
1913. His sons, who were with him from the origin of the disk grinder,
are continuing his work in the Gardner Machine Company.
The Gisholt Machine Works at Madison, which grew out of a plant
manufacturing agricultural machinery, has developed a widely used
turret machine for chucking work invented by Mr. Conrad N. Conradson.
This machine applied the turret principle to much larger work than it
had been used for up to that time. Mr. Conradson has left the Gisholt
Company and has since designed a powerful, multi-spindle automatic
lathe which, like the Bullard machine (shown in Fig. 56), is vertical,
and, although a lathe, it has assumed a form which would scarcely be
recognized as such. This machine is built by the Giddings & Lewis
Manufacturing Company of Fond du Lac, Wis.
Milwaukee is rapidly establishing a reputation for tool building.
Kearney & Trecker and the Kempsmith Manufacturing Company are
well-known builders of milling machines. Mr. Kempsmith, as we have
already seen, was a Brown & Sharpe man, afterwards superintendent
of Warner & Swasey and for sixteen years at Springfield, Ohio, with
William Smith and Philip Montanus. Other tool builders such as the
Milwaukee Machine Tool Company and the Steinle Turret Machine Company
of Madison are helping to spread the art of tool building in this new
region.
[Illustration: FIGURE 56. THE “MULT-AU-MATIC” LATHE
1914]
We have not been able to mention all of the western tool builders.
Most of these firms have been established in recent years and are busy
building up a market and a reputation. Some of them will take positions
of leadership as Warner & Swasey and Lodge & Shipley have done, but
this of course requires time.
There can be no “conclusion” to the history of a live and growing
industry. A few of the present tendencies, however, may be pointed out.
One of the most far-reaching influences ever received by tool building
came from the introduction of high speed steel through the work of
Frederick W. Taylor and his associates. These steels made possible
much heavier cuts, and increases in cutting speeds, to two or two and
one-half times the previous prevailing practice. Mr. Taylor also made a
remarkable investigation of the lathe-planer type of cutting tool. A.
L. DeLeeuw and others have studied the milling cutter and twist drill
and examined the causes of the failure of cutting edges in action,
and the influence of large clearances for chips and coolants. The new
cutting steels and these investigations have compelled an extensive
redesign of machine tools during the past fifteen years, a process
which is still going on as new demands are made upon the tool builders.
These years have also witnessed a development of the “station-type”
of machine, or one in which there are multiple chucks, indexed from
station to station, one position being used for putting in and taking
out work while a succession of operations is simultaneously going on
at the other stations. In general these are high production machines
suitable for long runs of standard work. The multi-spindle automatic
bar-stock lathe is an example. One of the latest of these station-type
tools is the vertical machine shown in Fig. 56, which performs all
the functions of an engine lathe and is in effect five lathes in one
machine.
Another development of recent years has been the extension of the
grinding process, both for the rapid removal of metal and for precision
work. This has been made possible by the introduction of new and more
active abrasives.
The map, Fig. 57,[219] gives a bird’s-eye view of the distribution
of the tool building industry in the United States, and shows that
it is located in a rectangle which includes southern New England and
that portion of the Atlantic and Middle States lying roughly north of
the Potomac and Ohio and east of the Mississippi rivers. The strong
tendency toward concentration in certain localities is clearly seen.
(Each dot in the map represents a shop.) Of the 570 plants shown,
117 are in Ohio, 98 in Massachusetts, 66 in Connecticut, 60 in
Pennsylvania, 57 in New York, 42 in Illinois, 29 in Michigan and 18 in
Wisconsin. Thirty years ago practically none would have been found west
of Buffalo. Today the majority are there, although most of the more
important companies are still in the East. Unquestionably this will
equalize itself as the newer western shops develop.
[219] From the _American Machinist_, January 29, 1914, p. 210.
The general types of machine tools seem to be firmly established, and
new or startling inventions and revolutionary changes seem unlikely.
The present trend is toward higher speeds, heavier cuts with the use of
great quantities of lubricant, further refinements of jigs and holding
devices, and the use of highly developed automatic machines which may
be operated by unskilled labor.
[Illustration: FIGURE 57. MACHINE TOOL BUILDING AREA OF THE UNITED
STATES, 1915]
The unprecedented demand upon American tool builders made by the
European War has vastly increased their facilities, and will probably
tend to establish them even more firmly as world leaders in the
industry.
APPENDIX A
Shortly before his death Richard S. Lawrence wrote for his son, Ned
Lawrence, an account of his life, which has never been published.
It unconsciously reveals his genuine worth, and draws a simple but
accurate picture of the life and struggles of an American mechanic
seventy years ago. Through the kindness of Mr. Ned Lawrence it is given
below. A few portions, only, dealing with family matters of no general
interest, are omitted.
Hartford, Conn., Dec. 17th, 1890.
To my son Ned Lawrence.
By your request I will give you from memory in part a history of my
life. I was born in Chester, Vermont, November 22d, 1817. When I
was two years old my Father moved to Hounsfield, Jefferson County,
N. Y., located on a farm half way between Watertown and Blanchard’s
Corners. When I was four years old my Father moved to Blanchards
Corners and kept a Log Tavern. This was on the road from Watertown
to Sackett’s Harbour.... When I was six years old my Father moved on
to a farm one-half mile north of Blanchards Corners. At this time
my Father had a hard time in clearing up a new farm of 100 acres.
In order to make ends meet, Father, when farm work was not driving,
carted cannon and grape shot from Sackett’s Harbour to Watertown.
This material was sent to the Harbour during the War of 1812, and
condemned and sold after the War by the U. S. Government.... This
was the time that I first commenced going to school, which did not
amount to much. Father died on this farm when I was nine years old,
leaving Mother with three children.... Mother moved about this time
with her Father to the town of Pamelia. Here they lived about three
years, then moved to another small farm in the same town. I spent
most of my time helping on these two farms, and breaking steers.
Had yokes made for yearlings, had a little sled, and many times in
winter drove to Watertown Village to mill with grists. When I was
fifteen years old Grandfather and Mother moved to what is now called
North Watertown onto a small farm. About this time I began to feel
a little uneasy, and wanted to try something else for a living. I
went to live with Uncle Judah Lord in Jewellville, North Watertown.
Worked for him making Carpenters’ and Joiners’ Tools. My work for the
first year was sawing by hand seasoned beach plank into blocks for
planes. This was hard work and I wished myself in some better place
(many times). There was nothing in the least to give me courage, but
after a while I could make tools very well. What little spending
money I had was earned by night work, making packing boxes for a
paper-mill nearby. Worked half the night for 25¢. Up to this time I
never had but one suit of clothes at the same time, and was doing
about as much work as those that had much more pay. (I only had my
board. My folks furnished my clothes.) Lord’s business was dull, and
I went to work for Orange Woods & Co. making window sashes. (Will
say here that in the basement of Lord’s Tool Shop was a Custom Gun
Shop. I was always anxious to learn what I could of anything in
mechanical line, and spent my spare time with a young man employed
in this shop, tinkering on guns, and became quite handy with tools,
and could do general repairs quite well. This was the fore-runner of
my gun work.) Made sash and doors under contract. All work was done
by the best machines, and this gave me a good chance to instruct
myself on machines. At the end of one year the shop burnt up, and I
was left out in the cold. After a while Wood & Co. bought out Judah
Lord’s Tool Shop and commenced tool making. They hired me to work
on tools. In about six months this shop burnt up and I was left out
in the cold again. At this time I was about seventeen years old,
was nearly disheartened and thought I must try some new business.
Lord had moved to Brownsville and had charge of a Rope Factory and
Plaster Mill. He hired me to run the mill 12 hours each day. This was
very unpleasant work, terribly dirty. In about one year this mill
stopped and I was left in the cold again. Lord moved into a Hotel
and hired me to go with him as Bartender, Hostler, etc. When about
twenty years old (living with Lord) was drafted out in the service
of U. S. to guard the Frontier in the Canada Rebellion of ’37-’38.
Served three months, was regularly discharged, paid off, and drew my
Bounty land (and sold it). Returned to Brownsville and decided to
strike out in something new. Being in my 21st year I thought it time
to settle on something in a larger field than found in Brownsville.
Thought I would start for Vermont. Went to Utica with a friend in
york wagon (no railroad then). This friend was taking two children
to their Father who was the Engineer (Mr. Hardy) on the Albany &
Schenectady Rail Road, the only road then built that I knew of. This
friend was taken sick at Utica and sent me on with the children to
Schenectady, which was no small job, as the journey was on the Canal.
After seeing the children safe with their Father, I changed my mind
and thought I would go west, so boarded a Canal boat and started. On
arriving at Utica stept off the Boat and a farmer living ten miles
from Utica in the town of Clay, hired me for a month. Worked out my
month, and two weeks for another farmer, then I thought it best to
visit my friends in Vermont, and took Canal boat for Albany, thence
by stage over the Green Mountains to Windsor. I found Windsor Village
a dull place. The next morning I started on foot for the west part
of the town where my friends all lived. On the road met a man with
a team, made enquiry where Mr. Foster Farwell lived, an uncle who
married my Father’s sister. He looked at me and said, “Get into my
wagon and I will take you back to Windsor and then show you one of
the best Aunts you ever had. I know you by your looks--your name is
Smith Lawrence.” He had not seen me before since I was two years
old. Found my friends all glad to see me. Visited with them for
several weeks. While with Doct. Story found he had two Rifles, one
made by his Brother, Asa Story, who had a gun shop close by. This he
called his Turkey Rifle, the other was an old Pennsylvania Rifle,
full stock, barrel 4 feet long, all rusty. The Doctor said it had
been one of the best. He had killed many a deer with it. I asked him
to let me repair the rifle and put on a peep sight. He had heard of
this sight but had never seen one. Was very much interested about
the sight but did not dare let me repair the Rifle for fear I would
spoil it. After a while he consented to let me make the trial and
went over with me to his brother’s shop and obtained his consent
to let me use his shop and tools. I went to work, took the gun all
apart, leaded out the barrel, forged out the sight, finished it and
put it on the gun. His brother watched me all day. He had never seen
a peep sight and a mere boy handling tools and forging out work as
I did was a little astonishing to him. On the Doctor’s return from
his daily trip he made for the shop to see what I had done with his
Rifle. He found it in such nice shape that he could not say too much
in my praise. He made an appointment for a trial the next day as to
the shooting qualities. I had most of the day to give the Rifle a
trial and adjust the sights. We went out, he paced off 12 rods from
a maple tree which had a ³⁄₄ auger hole in (made for sap spill). He
said to fire at that. I found a good rest, lay down on the ground
and fired. The Doct. tended target. Could find no ball hole. Said I
had missed the tree. I fired again--no ball hole to be found. Doct.
came up to me and said I had spoiled his Rifle. Before my repairs
he could kill a chicken every time at 12 rods. I said, “Uncle, I am
very sorry, but I will make the gun all right before I leave it.” He
said he could not consent to my doing anything more to improve the
shooting qualities--the sight he liked very much. I said that as the
gun was loaded would take one more shot and see if I could not hit
the tree. After the third shot I went up to the tree to investigate,
and all of the three balls which I had fired were found in the auger
hole. The Doct. was astonished--dumbfounded. Said he never heard
of such shooting. We spent half of the night talking about guns. He
said we must go down to Windsor Prison where N. Kendall & Co. were
making guns. They must know about the peep sights. Mine was the first
ever seen in that section. We went down to the Prison the next day.
The Doct. told them all about the sight and his Rifle. The Company
hired me at once for the term of two years at about $100. per year
and board. My first work was stocking rifles (short stocks, their
rifles were stocked only on the breech). The first day I put on
five stocks, all hand work. The next morning Mr. Smith, one of the
Company, came along and looked the work over. Said the work was done
well but it would never do to rush work as I had, for I would soon
gun-stock them out of town--must hold up a little and take it more
easy. After a few days I was put on iron work. I made it a point
not to let anything be done in the shop that I did not make myself
familiar with, and soon found myself capable of doing the best work.
The Co. had quite a number of free men to work on various branches
of the work, nice parts, engraving, etc. I found that I was equal to
any of them except engraving. Could not at the end of six months do
as nice engraving as the older hands, but soon after could compete
with any of them. At the end of six months from beginning was put in
charge of the shop, much to the dislike of the older hands, but I
carried the work along without any trouble, to the satisfaction of
all. The foreman of each shop by the rules of the prison acted as
turnkey, so I had one section of prisoners to lock up. I worked out
my two years engagement.... In 1840 I again entered into the employ
of N. Kendall & Co., wages $1.08 per day and board.... I continued
work at the Prison. This was in 1842. During this year the Co. gave
up the gun business. I then engaged with the State as foreman in the
carriage department, continued in this position for about one and
one-half years, then in company with N. Kendall, hired a shop in
Windsor Village on Mill River and started the Custom Gun Works and
Jobbing. Carried on the business for about one year, done a fair
business. One day in the winter of 1844 Mr. S. E. Robbins came into
the shop and spoke of the Government asking for bids for Rifles. We
talked the business over and decided to put in a bid for 10,000 U. S.
Rifles. Mr. Robbins, with a friend Price, went on to Washington to
put in a bid for the Rifles at $10.90 each, appendages extra. This
was 10¢ below any other bid. The contract was awarded to Robbins,
Kendall & Lawrence. This was in the time of the Mexican War and the
Government was very much in want of Rifles. We made the contract to
finish the job in three years. Guns were not made at this day very
fast. We had nothing to start with--buildings or capital. We had much
opposition from all the Government Gun Contractors. They said we
could never do the work. We had nerve and pluck and were determined
to carry out the contract. The real work fell upon myself, Robbins
not being a mechanic and Kendall not exactly calculated for such
nice work, made it hard for me. We went to work with a will--bought
land, built factories, bought and made machinery with determined
will. We started the business in good shape. Soon after finishing
the Rifles, Robbins and myself bought out Kendall. Robbins then said
to me, “Lawrence, if it were not for you as a mechanic and by your
attention to business we could never go along with the heavy outlay
(debts) on our hands.” We finished the contract 18 months inside of
the time. Made a nice thing out of the job. Went on to Washington.
The Ordinance Board (Gen. Talcott) told us that ours was the only
Gun Contract ever finished within the contract time. He said, “What
do you want now? You have done well and finished.” We said, “We
want another contract for Rifles.” He said, “Come with me over to
the Secretary of War’s Office” (Sec. Marcy). Gen. Talcott told the
Secretary all about our work and wants. The Secretary said they would
see about it. On our way back to Gen. Talcott’s office he saw that we
were a little disappointed. He said, “Go right home and a contract
will be sent to you in a few days.” The contract came for 15,000
Rifles, which placed us above board. In manufacturing Govt. Rifles
a loss of about 38% was considered for bad material and workmanship.
About this time the California Gold excitement was raging. Guns were
in great demand. We sold all of our second quality work and good
mixt with it, anything to make up the gun for full Govt. price. This
was a great relief every way. Things looked very bright. This was in
1849-50. About this time we contracted with Courtland C. Palmer for
the manufacture of 5,000 of the Jennings Rifles, now the Winchester
(improved). This required new buildings and machinery. We made the
guns. Before this date we were very unfortunately situated about
freight, as no Rail Road passed through Windsor. Most of our freight
came by team from Boston. About this time the Rail Road was built
through Windsor, which put us in the market much to our advantage.
The Rail Road contractor, Mr. S. F. Belknap, came to us and wanted
to start the car business with us, led us to believe that he could
control all the Rail Road car work in that section. We went into the
business with him. He put in $20,000 as a silent partner. We went
to a large outlay, and about the time we finished the first cars,
Belknap had a quarrel with the President of the Road and we could not
sell a car when we expected to sell. We sold the cars to the Rutland
and Burlington Road, took stock and lost every dollar to the tune of
$40,000. Then we sold $14,000 to Boston, Concord & Montreal Road,
lost it all; $5,000 to Sullivan Road, $75,000 to Vermont Central.
This total loss of $134,000 was a drain on the gun work and cramped
us terribly. About this time Belknap died. In settling his estate
they brought in a charge of $105,000 against Robbins & Lawrence as
money lent. This I knew nothing about. As near as I could learn
Belknap & Robbins lost this money in stocks in Boston. We had to pay
the charge, which made a total loss up to this time of $239,000,
all paid from gun shop business. We gave up the car business after
a while. It was a mistake in ever going into this business. While
we were finishing the 15,000 Government Rifles and Jennings guns in
1852, we contracted with the Sharps Company for the manufacture of
5,000 Sharpes’ carbines in Windsor, and 15,000 Carbines and Rifles
in Hartford. Sharps Co. advanced $40,000 to enable us to build the
factories in Hartford. I moved to Hartford in 1853, and after much
trouble and many trials started up the works. Want of funds by heavy
former losses made it very hard and troublesome work to start the
business. After starting the business on the Sharps gun in Hartford,
the Minie Rifle contract was taken from Fox Henderson & Co. for
25,000 Minie Rifles. Before this contract was taken we had the
assurance from Dr. Black, Fox Henderson & Co.’s Agent, that he had
in his pocket contracts for 300,000 more as soon as we finished the
25,000. Fox Henderson & Co. agreed and did advance on the contract
$100,000. I did not like to enter into this contract for 25,000 only,
as the outlay for the work would cost more than all the profits twice
over. I objected to signing the contract without seeing the large
contract in Dr. Black’s pocket, and proposed to ask the Doctor to
show it. This Mr. Robbins objected to strongly, said it would be
an insult to Dr. Black. After a long talk I yielded the point, but
told Mr. Robbins that the minute we signed the contract we would be
floored. We had better have cut off our right hands. We signed the
contract. It proved that Doct. Black had no additional contract. Part
of the work was done at Windsor and part in Hartford. For want of
funds the whole thing was a total failure. The inspection as far as
we went was very severe. With all the gun work on my hands in 1855
and 1856 had a very hard time. The failure of the Robbins & Lawrence
Co. at Windsor brought Robbins & Lawrence under. A new Company was
formed at Windsor. I stept out and engaged with the Sharps Co. on
a salary of $4,000. About this time Robbins & Lawrence’s Agent,
Mr. Robbins’ friend, failed. I had a notice of his indebtedness to
Robbins & Lawrence of $43,000. I went immediately to Mr. Robbins
for an explanation. He said that he put this money into Foster’s
hands to fall back on in case he had any trouble. I said, “You left
me out in the cold.” Then he said, “You are all right--can demand
a large salary any time.” This was the very money that Sharps Co.
had advanced to Robbins & Lawrence to aid them in starting the
Hartford shops. Robbins done all the financing and I attended to
the mechanical work--never could find out much about our books. He
kept all mostly on memorandum books as I found at last. This $43,000
made in all as far as I know of $282,000 lost in the business. I
had laboured night and day to build up a business and make myself
comfortable and well off for old age. All the disappointments were
about all that I could stand under, but I said to myself that I
started out in life with nothing but good health, and would try once
more, and try and keep a part of my earnings. While in the employ
of Sharps with my salary, patents and speculations on machinery in
war time, I found myself as I thought worth over $100,000. I went
to friends for advice what to invest in. All said, “Put your money
into real estate. It never will decrease in Hartford.” I took this
advice which proved a very disastrous speculation. In 1872, after
leaving Sharps & Co. went into the Street Department, thinking myself
well off in this world’s goods, but the hard times of 1873 came
unexpected, and it took all my salary to furnish my family with a
respectable living, and take care of my real estate. It would have
been better to let the whole go and pass through bankruptcy as many
others did. My pride and the name of my family prevented me from
doing this. It was a mistake but cannot now be helped. I have served
18 years as Supt. of Streets in Hartford, 9 years on Water Board, 14
years on Fire Board as Chairman, 4 years on Board of Aldermen, and
one year on Council Board, 46 years in all.
NOTE
When we first commenced the gun business at Windsor we commenced
building nice machinery, made many machines for other gun makers.
Made at Windsor for the English Government most of their gun machines
for the Enfield armory. We ran a regular machine shop also. In
Hartford we ran a machine shop and Sharps Co. continued the work.
In Hartford made most of the machines used in the factory, and many
others for the English and Spanish Governments, and other Gun and
Sewing Machine Makers. Started the manufacturing of gun machinery in
Hartford which brought Pratt and Whitney into the business. I tried
to have Sharps Co. enter into the business more extensively as there
were bright prospects in the future, but they could not see it, and
declined. Sharps Co. commenced on a capital of $100,000, increased it
to $125,000. The stockholders were paid back their full subscription
of stock, about $200,000 in dividends. Sharps was paid $1.00 on each
gun made; Penfield was paid about $1.25 on each gun or 10 per cent on
all sales. The Company could not agree on anything and sold out the
whole plant for about $225,000. It will be seen that the stockholders
made a good thing out of the enterprise. This was all accomplished by
the use and skill of my brain, as I had the full charge and control
of the business. If the Company had taken my urgent advice they might
today be in the position and place of the Pratt & Whitney Co. One of
my misfortunes in business all my life was being engaged with men not
mechanics, therefore not being able to comprehend the points coming
up every day in business. Sharps Co. had the chance of taking several
contracts which I worked up for them where the profits would have
been over half a million. They could not see it and declined. When
too late they saw their mistake.
NOTE 2
I introduced the first edging machine ever in use, on the Sharps gun
in Windsor. The principle of this machine is now in general use. Also
introduced the first machine for pressing on car wheels on a taper
without splining or keying. This was done at Windsor. This principle
has since been used in all Rail Road shops. Made a great mistake in
not securing patents on both of the above.
NOTE 3
Introduced the principle of lubricating the bullet for breach loading
guns which was the salvation of breach loading guns. The guns were of
no use before this. This was done in the winter of 1850.[220]
[220] See Appendix B.
NOTE 4
Before 1855 all annealing and case hardening was done with Char coal
which was very expensive. About this time in Hartford I introduced
the plan and furnaces for using hard coal which proved a great
success and is now used everywhere for both case hardening and
annealing. Many other improvements on gun work and machinery which I
have made might be mentioned, but the above is sufficient.
APPENDIX B
THE JENNINGS GUN
“Reminiscences of the first magazine rifle. Most important discovery
by R. S. Lawrence of this city (Hartford, Conn.).--Original use of
lubricating material in fire arms.”
A few days ago Mr. A. E. Brooks of this city (Hartford, Conn.)
received a very curious and interesting magazine gun from New York,
bearing the name of Ex-Superintendent R. S. Lawrence of the street
department as the manufacturer. Conceiving that there must be a good
story connected with the arm which was one of the first magazine
guns ever made in this country, a reporter of _The Post_ sought
out Mr. Lawrence and learned the history of the gun. “The rifle
which Mr. Brooks brought to my notice, with my name on it,” said
Ex-Superintendent Lawrence, “is one of a lot of 5,000 manufactured at
Windsor, Vermont, by Robbins & Lawrence, for Mr. Courtland C. Palmer
of New York. This rifle was known as the Jennings gun. A portion
of the lot was then called single loaders, and a portion repeating
rifles, carrying twenty charges. The charge of powder was contained
in the ball, consisting of twenty-two grains of powder only. With the
repeating rifle I have often fired twenty shots within one minute,
but not with any accuracy, for the reason that all breech-loading
guns up to this time used what is called the naked ball without any
patch or lubricating material. The result in firing the gun was that
the ball leaded the barrel, by building on, to such an extent that in
firing twenty shots from a 50-100 calibre bore there would be a hole
in the barrel less than 25-100.”
“In the winter of 1850, while the guns were being manufactured at
Windsor, Kossuth arrived in this country, as was supposed by many
for the purpose of purchasing rifles. Mr. Palmer was anxious to sell
his rifles, and telegraphed on to Windsor that Kossuth would purchase
largely, if he could be shown that the Jennings rifle could be fired
with sufficient accuracy to hit the size of a man ten times out of
twenty-five at the distance of 500 yards. I answered by saying that
it was impossible to do any such thing with the Jennings rifle.
Another message was sent to Windsor to come to New York by the first
train and bring the best gun and ammunition. I complied with the
request. Mr. C. P. Dixon, Mr. Palmer’s agent, had all things arranged
for the trial at Astoria, L. I. I did my best in trying to accomplish
the desired effect asked for, but not one of the twenty-five shots
hit the target. Mr. Dixon said that we must make another trial the
next day. I went to his hotel, more than ever disgusted with breech
loading rifles, as all efforts had failed to make any accurate
shooting with any naked balls. All gun men will understand this. My
business was manufacturing rifles for the Government and for the
Sharps Rifle Mfg. Co. Most of the night at the hotel was spent in
trying to devise some way to remedy the trouble then existing with
breech loading guns. At last the simple remedy came, which has proven
the salvation of all breech loading guns.”
“Early the next morning we started for the target field. I did not
tell Mr. Dixon at first of my discovery. I simply told him that the
trouble was all over with. If he would stop at the Fulton Market and
purchase a small piece of tallow the rifle would do all that was
required of it, but he had so little confidence in the gun that he
would not be prevailed upon to purchase the tallow. I then thought
that I would keep the new discovery to myself for awhile, but changed
my mind on arriving on the target field, and tramped a mile on the
ice to a farmhouse, and purchased a small piece of tallow. With the
aid of a lathe in the cartridge shop on the ground, I turned out a
number of grooves on the balls and filled them with tallow. I then
went on to the stand and hit the target ten times in twenty shots. By
this time I had the sights regulated and could hit the target about
every shot, and finished after many shots with a clean gun barrel.
This was the first instance of lubricating material being used in
breech loading guns or any other guns. I challenge any dispute on
this subject. This was the salvation of breech loading guns.”
“At this time William E., a brother of Mr. Courtland C. Palmer, was
in Paris with the Jennings gun. All parties were so interested with
the success of the gun that Mr. Dixon, the agent, had two boxes of
ammunition made up and sent by the next steamer to W. E. Palmer in
Paris. In two weeks from the time of the trial in New York, the
invention was known in Paris and applied to the French guns with
the same success as was met with in the Jennings rifle. The same
principle is used today in all breech loading guns. I came direct
from New York to Hartford, and informed the president of the Sharps
Rifle Mfg. Co. of my new discovery and tried to induce the company to
introduce the lubricating material in the Sharps Rifle, as this rifle
then used the naked ball and was subject to the same very serious
trouble as the Jennings. Mr. Sharps was called on and the use of the
lubricating explained, but he ignored the whole matter, calling it
a ‘humbug.’ I returned to Vermont somewhat disgusted. In less than
one week the president of the Sharps Rifle Mfg. Co. wrote to Windsor
to stop all work until Mr. Sharps and himself arrived, stating that
Mr. Sharps had tried the lubricating material and found that it was
indispensable, and that no more guns must go out before the change
was made for lubrication. The Jennings rifles, of which a few had
been made for samples, were in a crude state. Robbins & Lawrence made
new models and manufactured the 5,000 for Mr. Courtland C. Palmer.
After this Mr. Tyler Henry, an old and first-class workman of Robbins
& Lawrence, made in New Haven great improvements on the Jennings
rifle. After this it went into the hands of the Winchester Arms
Company of New Haven. They made great improvements on the gun and
called it the Winchester Repeating Rifle. It is the outcrop of the
old Jennings rifle.”[221]
[221] From the Hartford _Evening Post_, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 1890.
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Anderson: The Town and City of Waterbury. 3 Vols. New Haven, 1896.
Evans: The Young Millwright and Miller’s Guide. Philadelphia, 1826.
Freedley: Philadelphia and its Manufactures. Philadelphia, 1858.
Cist: Cincinnati in 1851. Cincinnati, 1851.
Cist: Cincinnati in 1859. Cincinnati, 1859.
Porter: Engineering Reminiscences. N. Y., 1908.
Transactions of the Institution of Civil Engineers. London.
Transactions of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. London.
Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Journal of the Franklin Institute. Philadelphia.
Files of “American Machinist,” New York.
Files of “Machinery,” New York.
Files of “Engineering Magazine,” New York.
Files of “Cassier’s Magazine,” New York.
Files of “Engineering News,” London.
Files of “Engineering,” London.
Much of the data in the latter portions of this book is derived from
private correspondence and personal interviews, and is, therefore,
not available for reference.
INDEX
INDEX
Acme Wire Co.: 160.
Allen, Ethan: 226.
Allen, Walter: 264.
Alvord, J. D.: 192, 197.
American Brass Co.: 236.
American industries:
reasons for delayed development, 109-114;
influence of the cotton gin, 114.
American iron:
results of exportation to England, 110-113;
early production, 115.
American Pin Co.: 234.
American Screw Co.: 125, 198, 226;
pointed screw, 126.
American Steel & Wire Co.: 225-226.
“American system”: see Interchangeable manufacture.
American Tool Works: 269.
American Watch Co.:
interchangeable system, 144, 164.
American Wire Gauge: 205.
Ames Manufacturing Co.:
gun-making machinery, etc., 138, 140, 228-229.
Amoskeag Manufacturing Co.: 123, 124, 216-217, 253.
Andover, Mass.:
scythe mill, 117.
Angell, William G.: 126.
Ansonia Brass & Copper Co.: 234.
Ansonia Clock Co.: 234.
Arkwright, Sir Richard: 6, 64, 121, 150, 161.
Armstrong, Sir William: 105.
Arnold, Asa:
partner of Pitcher, 124.
Arnold, Jeremiah O.: 125.
Arnold, Joseph:
brother of Jeremiah, 125.
Atwood, L. J.: 237.
Babbage, Charles:
calculating machine, 59.
Baldwin, Matthias:
Baldwin Locomotive Works, 256.
Bancroft, Edward:
Bancroft & Sellers, 247.
Barber-Coleman Co.: 274.
Bardons & Oliver: 183, 265.
Barker, William:
partner of Lodge, 269-270.
Barnes, B. F.: 274.
Barnes, W. F. & John, Co.: 273.
Barnes Drill Co.: 274.
Baush Machine Tool Co.:
drilling machines, 230.
Bayley, O. W.: 217.
Beach, H. L.: 165.
Beach, H. B., & Son: 165.
Beale, Oscar J.:
accurate standards, 205.
Beckley, Elias:
gun shop, 162.
Bellows, E. H.: 222.
Bement, Clarence S.: 255.
Bement, William B.: 217, 219, 249, 252-254;
estimate of, 255;
hammer, 255.
Bement & Dougherty: 254.
Bement, Miles & Co.:
history of, 254-255.
Benedict, Aaron:
brass worker, 232.
Benedict & Burnham: 234.
Benedict & Coe:
brass workers, 232.
Bentham Jeremy: 22, 25.
Bentham, Sir Samuel: 7, 22, 49, 89, 107;
work on Portsmouth block machinery, 8, 9, 18, 22, 26, 28;
in Russia, 23, 24;
in British navy service, 24;
woodworking machinery, 24, 25;
planer, 51;
patent of 1793, 38;
slide-rest, 6, 38;
relations with Maudslay, 89.
Bessemer, Sir Henry: 96.
Besly, Charles H., & Co.: 275.
Bibliography: 295-297.
Bickford, Henry: 272.
Bidwell, Jason A.: 198, 266.
Bilgram Machine Works:
gear cutting, 259.
Billings, Charles E.: 170, 174-175, 201.
Billings & Spencer Co.: 175-176.
Blake, Eli Whitney: 160.
Blake, Philos: 160.
Blaisdell, P., & Co.: 222.
Blanchard, Thomas: 220-221;
lathe for turning gun-stocks, 6, 140, 142, 219, 220-221.
Blenkinsop:
Locomotives, 56.
Block machinery: see Portsmouth block machinery.
Bodmer, John George: 75-80;
estimate of, 79;
diametral pitch, 70 note 66;
interchangeable manufacture, 76, 131;
firearms, 76;
two patents, 77-79;
traveling crane, 77, 80;
mill machinery, 76.
Bond, George M.:
Rogers-Bond Comparator, 180-182.
Boring machines:
Smeaton’s, 2, 13;
Wilkinson’s, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 60;
in 18th century, 4.
Boston, Mass.:
heavy forge, 117.
Boston & Worcester R. R.: 220.
Boulton, Matthew: 145;
on Wilkinson’s boring machine, 3;
on Wilkinson, 145.
Boulton & Watt: 3, 11, 46, 55;
relations with Wilkinson, 12, 13.
Bow-string truss: 82.
Boye & Emmes Machine Tool Co.: 268, 271.
Bramah, Joseph: 7, 8, 15, 107;
estimate of, 19, 20;
invention of slide-rest, 6, 36;
planer, 50;
hydraulic press, 18;
machine for numbering banknotes, 19;
woodworking machinery, 18, 19, 24;
other inventions, 18;
relations with Maudslay, 17, 19, 33, 34;
with Watt, 18;
with Clement, 19, 58.
Bridgeport Brass Co.:
micrometer, 211-213.
Bridgeport Machine Tool Co.: 184.
British Small Arms Commission: 138, 140, 141.
Brooker, Charles F.: 236.
Brown, David: 126, 202.
Brown, Capt. James S.: 124.
Brown, Joseph R.: 126, 202;
estimate of, 215;
“Universal” miller, 138 note 163, 196, 208-209;
linear dividing engines, 202, 204-205, 206;
vernier caliper, 203;
formed milling cutter, 206, 207;
improvements on turret screw machine, 207;
universal grinder, 214.
Brown, Moses:
textile industry, 120, 121.
Brown, Sylvanus: 124.
inventor of slide-rest, 6;
slide lathe, 120.
Brown Hoisting Machine Co.: 258.
Brown & Elton:
wire and tubing, 233.
Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Co.: 125, Chapter XVI;
J. R. Browne & Sharpe, 202, 204;
“Universal” miller, 138 note 163, 196, 208;
linear dividing engines, 206;
precision gear cutter, 206;
turret screw machines, 207-208;
limit gauges, 210;
micrometer caliper, 211-213;
cylindrical grinder, 213;
automatic gear cutters, 214.
Brunel, Sir Isambard K.: 32.
Brunel, Sir Marc I.: 7, 26, 27, 31, 49, 107;
slide-rest, 6;
inventions, 27;
Portsmouth block machinery, 8, 9, 22, 26, 27, 28.
Bryant, William L.:
chucking grinder, 200.
Buchanan:
English writer, 50.
Builders Iron Foundry or “High Street Furnace”: 125.
Bullard, E. P.: 183-184.
vertical boring and turning mill, 184-185.
Bullard Machine Tool Co.: 184.
Burke, William A.: 253;
Amoskeag Manufacturing Co., 217;
Lowell Machine Shop, 217, 218.
Burleigh, Charles:
rock drill, 228.
Burlingame, L. D.:
history of micrometer, 213.
Burton, James H.:
Enfield gun machinery, 140.
Calipers:
“Lord Chancellor,” 45, 211;
vernier, 203;
micrometer, origin of, 211-213.
Campbell, A. C.: 237.
Camus: 64;
“The Teeth of Wheels,” 64-65, 68.
Carmichaels, of Dundee:
engine makers, 86.
Carron Iron Works: 2, 85.
Change-gear box: 182.
Chase Rolling Mills Co.: 236.
“Chordal’s Letters”: 261.
Cincinnati, Ohio:
tool building in, 266-267.
Cincinnati Bickford Tool Co.: 272.
Cincinnati Milling Machine Co.: 272.
Cincinnati Planer Co.: 271-272.
Cincinnati Screw & Tap Co.: 272.
Clement, Joseph: 7, 8, 9, 57-58, 59, 99, 107;
screw-thread practice, 10, 19, 57, 58-59, 101;
gear practice, 68;
taps and dies, 10, 19, 58;
lathes, 19, 57;
planers, 19, 50, 52, 54, 59;
relations with Bramah, 19, 58;
with Maudslay & Field, 19, 46, 58.
Cleveland, Ohio: 183.
tool builders in, 261-266;
first multi-spindle automatic screw machines, 265.
Cleveland Twist Drill Co.: 266.
Clock industry in Connecticut: 171-172.
Coe, Israel: 236.
Coe, Lyman: 234, 236.
Coe Brass Co.: 234.
Coes Wrench Co.: 226.
Colby, Gilbert A.: 254.
Collins Co.:
axe makers, 169.
Colt, Samuel: 166-168;
interchangeable system, 137, 168;
Colt revolver, 166, 167;
erection of Armory, 167, 168.
Colt Armory: 165, 166;
erection of, 167, 168;
a “contract shop,” 178.
Conradson, Conrad N.:
turret machine, 276.
Cook, Asa: 174.
Coombs, S. C.: 222.
Corliss Machine Works: 126.
Cotton crop:
growth of, 150-151.
Cotton gin:
invention of, 131, 148 _et seq._;
influence, 114, 131, 145, 149, 150-151, 161;
patent rights of, 151-158.
Cowie, Pierson: 221-222.
Cramp Ship Building Co.: 257.
Croft, James:
brass worker, 232.
Crompton, William: 114.
Cup-leather packing: 18.
Currier & Snyder: 222.
Cushman, A. F.: 173.
Darby, Abraham, 3d:
first iron bridge, 15.
Darling, Samuel:
graduating engine, 203, 204.
Davenport, James:
textile machinery, 246.
Davenport, William S.: 214.
da Vinci, Leonardo:
anticipation of modern tools, 6, 36.
Davis, Charles: 269.
Davis, Jefferson:
on Whitney’s steel-barreled muskets, 160.
Davis & Egan: 269.
D’Eichthal, Baron:
partner of Bodmer, 75.
De la Hire:
gear teeth, 63, 64, 67.
DeLeeuw, A. L.: 273, 277.
Dennison, A. L.:
American Watch Co., 144.
de Vaucanson, Jacques:
milling cutter, 206.
Diametral pitch:
“Manchester pitch,” 70 note 66;
Bodmer, 80.
Die forging: 137.
Dietz, Schumacher & Boye Co.: 268.
Dodge, Cyril: 126.
Dodge, Nehemiah:
goldsmith, 126.
Dougherty, James: 254.
Draper Machine Tool Co.: 222.
Dresses, Henry: 271.
Dresses, Mueller & Co.: 271.
Drilling machines:
in 18th century, 4.
Drop hammer:
developed in America, 5, 143, 175.
Dwight, Dr. Timothy:
on Pawtucket, 121.
Eagle Screw Co.: 126.
Earle & Williams: 219.
Eberhardt, Ulrich: 259.
Edgemoor Iron Co.: 249-250.
Egan, Thomas P.: 268, 269.
Eminent Men of Science Living in 1807-1808.
engraving by Walker, 20.
Enfield Armory: 5, 96, 103;
Nasmyth on reorganization of, 140-141;
British Small Arms Commission, 138, 140;
gun-machinery, 138-141;
Robbins & Lawrence, 191-192.
Epicyclic curve: 63, 67, 68.
Essex Machine Shop: 219.
Euler:
gearing, 64.
Evans, Oliver: 239-246;
conveyors for handling materials, 240-241, 246;
steam engine, 241-242, 245;
description of shop, 243;
steamboat, 242;
prediction of railways, 245;
“Engineer’s Guide,” 242;
“Miller’s Guide,” 244.
Fairbairn, Sir Peter: 71, 74, 107.
Fairbairn, Sir William: 62, 107;
on machine tools, 10;
with George Rennie, 54, 71;
millwork, 71;
on “a good millwright,” 72;
Fairbairn & Lillie, 72-73, 77;
treatise on “Mills and Millwork,” 73;
iron ships, 73-74;
bridge building, 74.
Fairbairn & Co.: 268.
Fairfield, George A.: 170, 174, 176.
Fales & Jenks Machine Co.: 125.
Farrel Foundry & Machine Co.: 237.
Fay, J. A., & Co.:
woodworking machinery, 229-230, 267.
Fay, J. A., & Egan Co.: 230.
Fellows, E. R.: 199.
Fellows Gear Shaper Co.: 199.
Field, Joshua: 35, 89;
relations with Maudslay, 8, 35, 90;
founder of Institution of Civil Engineers, 90.
Fire engine:
first in America, 116.
Fitch, John:
steamboat, 82.
Fitch, Stephen:
horizontal turret, 197.
Fitchburg, Mass.: 219, 227-228.
Fitchburg Machine Works: 228;
Lo-swing lathe, 200.
Flagg, Samuel, & Co.: 221, 222.
Flather Manufacturing Co.: 228.
Flax industry:
Murray’s influence on, 57.
Foote-Burt Co.: 183;
drilling machines, 265.
Forehand & Wadsworth: 226.
Forq, Nicholas:
planer, 50.
Fosdick Machine Tool Co.: 271.
Fosdick & Plucker: 271.
Fox, James: 7, 50, 52, 53, 54.
Fox & Taylor:
manufacturers of blocks, 28.
Fox, Henderson & Co.: 192.
Francis, James B.:
hydraulic engineer, 218.
Franklin Machine Co.: 125.
Fulton, Robert: 150, 151, 161.
Gage, Warner & Whitney: 218, 228.
Gang, William E.: 268, 271.
Gang & Dietz: 271.
Gardner, Frederick M.:
disk grinding machines, 275.
Gardner Machine Co.: 276.
Garvin Machine Co.: 127.
Gascoigne, William:
principle of micrometer, 211.
Gay, Ira: 124, 216-217.
Gay, Zeba: 124, 217.
Gay & Silver Co.: 195, 197, 217;
planer, 53.
Gearing and Millwork: Chapter VI.
Geier, Frederick A.: 272-273.
“Genealogies”:
Early English Tool Builders, Fig. 5;
New England Gun-makers, Fig. 27;
Robbins & Lawrence Shop, Fig. 37;
Worcester Tool Builders, Fig. 45;
Naugatuck Brass Industry, Fig. 50.
Giddings & Lewis Manufacturing Co.: 276.
Gisholt Machine Works: 276.
Gleason Works: 183.
Globe Rolling Mill: 251.
Goddard, Benjamin: 225.
Gorham, Jabez: 127.
Gorham Manufacturing Co.:
founded, 127.
Gould & Eberhardt: 259.
Grant, John J.: 214.
Gray, G. A., Co.: 273.
“Great Eastern,” The: 32.
“Great Western,” The: 32.
Great Western Railway:
steamers, 93.
Greene, Nathaniel:
cannon factory of, 118.
Greene, Mrs. Nathaniel:
friend to Eli Whitney, 147;
connection with cotton-gin, 148-149.
Greene, Timothy: 119, 121.
Greenwood, Miles: 267.
Gridley, George O.:
automatic lathes, 194, 200.
Grilley, Henry:
founder of brass industry, 232.
Grinder:
developed in America, 5;
Brown & Sharpe’s, 213-214;
disc, 275-276.
Hakewessel, Reinholdt: 183;
Acme automatic, 265.
Hamilton, Alexander:
entertains Brunel, 8, 27.
Hamilton, Ohio:
tool builders in, 273.
Hampson, John:
with Maudslay, 98.
Hanks, Alpheus and Truman:
foundry, 165.
Harper’s Ferry Arsenal: 140, 143, 163;
established, 136;
interchangeable equipment, 137;
rifle, 160.
Harrington & Richardson: 226.
Hartford, Conn.: 127;
manufactories of, 164, 165, 170;
gun makers of, 164, 166.
Hartford Machine Screw Co.: 170, 174, 176.
Hartness, James: 194, 197-198, 266;
designer of machine tools, 198;
flat-turret lathe, 198;
Lo-swing lathe, 200.
Haskell, Co., The William H.: 124.
Hawkins, John Isaac: 69;
on early gear tooth practice, 65-68, 70.
Hayden, Hiram W.: 234, 236.
Hendey Machine Co.:
tool-room lathe, 182.
Henn, E. C.:
Acme automatic, 265.
Herman, William: 271.
Hick, B., & Son: 75.
High Street Furnace: 125.
Hildreth, S. E.: 222.
Hobbs, Alfred C.:
picks Bramah’s lock, 16.
Holmes, Hodgin:
cotton gin, 152, 154, 156, 157.
Holmes, Israel: 232, 233, 234, 236.
Holmes, Joseph:
pioneer iron worker, 117.
Holmes & Hotchkiss: 233.
Holmes, Booth & Haydens: 234, 237.
Holtz, Frederick:
milling machine, 272.
Holtzapffel, Charles: 74, 99;
on Roberts, 60-61;
plane surfaces, 100.
Hovey, P.:
partner of Pitcher, 124.
Howe, Elias:
sewing machine, 144.
Howe, Frederick W.: 195, 196, 209, 217;
milling machines, 138, 196, 208, 209;
profiling machine, 143, 191;
turret-head screw machine, 195-196, 207;
turret lathe, 197, 199.
Howe, Hezekiah: 119.
Humphries:
suggests invention of large hammer, 93.
Hydraulic press:
invented by Bramah, 18, 34.
Industrial conditions:
new elements in 18th century, 1.
Ingersoll Milling Machine Co.: 274.
Institution of Civil Engineers:
founding of, 90.
Interchangeable manufacture:
rise of, Chapter XI;
developed in America, 5, 129;
defined, 128;
abroad, 138, 140;
in France, 129-131;
in Hartford, 164;
tools for, 142-143.
clock, watch and sewing machine industries, 144;
Bodmer, 76;
Colt, 137, 168;
Enfield, 138, 141;
Simeon North, 131, 133, 135-136, 137, 162;
Robbins & Lawrence, 191;
Eli Whitney, 131-133, 136.
International Machine Tool Co.: 275.
Involute gears: 63, 64, 67, 68, 207.
Iron bridge, the first: 15.
Iron boats:
Wilkinson builds the first, 14;
Symington, 14, 82;
Brunel, 32;
Onions & Sons, 14;
Jervons, 14;
at Horsley Works, 14;
“Great Eastern” and “Great
Western,” 32;
Fairbairn, 73-74.
Jefferson, Thomas:
on interchangeable system in France, 129-131;
on Whitney, 135.
Jenks, Alfred:
textile machinery, 123, 246-247.
Jenks, Alvin:
cotton machinery, 124-125.
Jenks, Barton H.: 247.
Jenks, Eleazer:
spinning machinery, 123.
Jenks, Joseph: 115-116, 125.
Jenks, Joseph, Jr.:
founder of Pawtucket, 118.
Jenks, Joseph, 3d:
governor of Rhode Island Colony, 118.
Jenks, Capt. Stephen:
guns, 117;
nuts and screws, 124;
Jenks & Sons, 125.
Jennings gun:
origin of, 292-294.
Jerome, Chauncey:
brass clocks, 144, 171-172, 233.
Jervons:
iron boat, 14.
Jewelry industry in Providence: 126-127.
Johnson, Charles: 237.
Johnson, Iver: 226.
Johnson, Judge:
decision, Whitney vs. Fort, 155-157.
Jones & Lamson Machine Co.: 191, 193, 194, 197;
flat-turret lathe, 198-199;
Fay automatic lathe, 200.
Kaestner:
gearing, 64.
Kearney & Trecker: 276.
Kempsmith, Frank: 264-265, 271.
Kempsmith Manufacturing Co.: 271, 276.
Kendall, N., & Co.: 186, 189.
Key-seater: 61.
Lamson, Goodnow & Yale: 192, 193.
Lamson Machine Co.: 198.
Landis Tool Co.: 259-260.
Lane & Bodley: 267.
Lapointe, J. N.:
broaching machine, 183.
Lathes:
pole, 3, 41;
engine, 4;
in 18th century, 3, 4;
automatic, 5, 176;
French rose engine, 6;
screw-cutting, 19, 35, 40, 119-120;
tool-room, 182;
Lo-swing, 200;
Bramah and Maudslay, 17;
Ramsden, 38;
Bentham, 38;
Maudslay, 40-42, 46;
Wilkinson, 119-120;
Blanchard, 140, 142-143;
Spencer’s turret lathe, 176;
Fay automatic, 200;
Sellers, 250.
Lathe, Morse & Co.: 222.
Lawrence, Richard S.: 188-189, 195;
profiling machine, 143;
master armorer, Sharps Works, 170, 194;
lubricated bullet, 194;
miller, 191, 194;
split pulley, 194;
turret lathe, 197;
autobiography, 281-291.
Lawrence, Mass.: 127.
Lawrence Machine Shop: 219.
Lead screw: 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43.
Le Blanc:
interchangeable gun manufacture in France, 130.
Le Blond, R. K.: 271.
Lee-Metford rifle: 105.
Leland, Henry M.: 214;
on J. R. Brown, 215.
Leonards: 116.
Libbey, C. L.:
turret lathes, 275.
Limit gauges:
developed in America, 5.
Lincoln, Levi: 165, 171.
Lincoln Co., The: 165.
Lincoln, Charles L., & Co.: 165.
Lincoln, George S., & Co.: 137, 165.
Lincoln miller: 137, 165-166, 208.
Linear dividing engines: 206.
Lingren, W. F., & Co.: 274.
Locomotives:
early inventions, 56;
Sharp, Roberts & Co., 61-62;
Nasmyth, 93.
Lodge, William E.: 268-271.
Lodge & Davis:
policy of, 270-271.
Lodge & Shipley Machine Tool Co.: 270.
Lowell, Mass.: 127;
machine shops of, 218.
Lowell Machine Shop: 217, 218, 253.
Lucas Machine Tool Co.: 265.
McFarlan, Thomas: 268.
Macaulay, Lord:
on Eli Whitney, 161.
Machine tools:
effect of modern, 1;
crudity in 18th century, 3, 4;
developments of, 4, 5, 63, 107;
Fairbairn on, 10;
Bramah and Maudslay, 34;
Whitworth, 99;
Greek or Gothic style, 63;
developed by cotton industry, 120.
Machine Tool Works: 255.
Machinist Tool Co.: 222.
Madison, Wis.: 276.
Manchester, N. H.: 123, 127;
founding of, 217.
Manchester Locomotive Works: 217.
Manchester pitch: 70 note 66, 80.
Manville, E. J.: 237.
Map of tool building industry: Fig. 56.
Marshall, Elijah D.: 254.
Marvel, C. M., & Co.: 219.
Mason, William: 170, 173-174.
Massachusetts Arms Co.: 162.
Maudslay, Henry: 7, 8, Chapter IV;
estimates of, 9, 43, 44, 45, 48, 49, 88;
taps and dies, 10, 42, 88;
Portsmouth block machinery, 8, 29, 35;
screw thread practice, 10, 40, 42, 88, 101;
cup-leather packing, 18, 34;
the slide-rest, 6, 35, 36, 38, 40, 43, 49, 143;
screw-cutting lathe, 35, 40, 41, 42, 50, 120;
engine improvements, 43;
work on plane surfaces, 44, 45, 99, 100.
Maudslay & Field: 8, 19, 35, 58, 98;
influence on English tool builders, 46;
Moon’s description of shop, 46-48.
Maynard Rifle Co.: 161.
Mechanics Machine Co.: 274.
Merrick, S. V.:
introduces steam hammer into United States, 96, 257.
Merrimac Valley:
textile works, 124, 127;
shops of, 216-219.
Michigan Twist Drill & Machine Co.: 266.
Midvale Steel Co.: 250.
Miles, Frederick B.:
steam hammer, 255.
Mill, Anton: 272.
Miller, Patrick: 82.
Miller, Phineas:
partner of Eli Whitney, 148-149, 153, 154.
Miller & Whitney: 149, 152.
Miller, universal:
origin of, 5, 138 note 163, 208-209.
Milling cutter, formed: 206-207, 208.
Milling machine:
Whitney, 142;
first in Hartford, 170, 194;
Lawrence, 191;
Lincoln, 137, 165-166, 208.
Millwork: Chapter VI;
Nasmyth on, 71.
Milwaukee, Wis.:
tool builders in, 276-277.
Milwaukee Machine Tool Co.: 277.
Moen, Philip L.: 225.
Montanus, Philip: 271.
Moody, Paul:
expert in cotton machinery, 218.
Moore & Colby: 252.
Morris, I. P., & Co.: 257, 258.
Mueller, Oscar: 271.
Murdock: 55;
D-slide valves, 51.
Murray, Matthew: 7, 54-57, 107;
planer, 50, 51, 55, 57;
D-slide valve, 55;
steam heating, 56;
locomotives, 56;
influence on flax industry, 56.
Nashua Manufacturing Co.: 124.
Nasmyth, Alexander: 81, 82, 83.
Nasmyth, James: 7, 8, Chapter VIII;
with Maudslay, 46, 48, 87, 88;
millwork, 71, 88;
steam road carriage, 86;
milling machine, 89;
shaper, 92;
method of invention, 92;
steam hammer and other inventions, 93-96;
study of the moon, 97;
on interchangeable system of manufacture, 140-141.
Nasmyth & Gaskell: 92.
National Acme Manufacturing Co.:
multi-spindle automatic lathe, 183, 265.
Naugatuck Valley: Chapter XVIII;
brass industry in, 231-238;
pin machinery, 233.
New Britain, Conn.:
hardware manufacture in, 171.
Newell, Stanford:
Franklin Machine Co.: 125.
New England industries:
early development of, 109-110;
cotton, 114;
iron, 116, 117, 118.
New England Screw Co.: 126.
Newton & Cox: 266.
Newton Machine Tool Works: 266.
New York:
early steamboat trade, 127.
Niles, James and Jonathan: 251.
Niles & Co.: 267, 273.
Niles-Bement-Pond Co.: 179, 222, 255, 259, 273.
Niles Tool Works: 267, 273.
Norris, Henry M.: 272.
North Chelmsford Machine & Supply Co.: 124.
North, Henry: 165.
North, Selah: filing jig, 142.
North, Simeon: 161-163;
gun contracts, 131, 133, 134, 135, 137, 162, 163;
interchangeable system, 133-134, 136, 142, 145, 162.
Norton, Charles H.:
precision grinding, 214, 224, 225.
Norton, F. B.: 224, 225.
Norton Company, The: 224, 225.
Norton Emery Wheel Co.: 224.
Norton Grinding Co.: 224, 225.
Norwalk Iron Works Co.: 184.
Oesterlien Machine Co.: 268.
Ohio Machine Tool Co.: 269.
Orr, Hugh:
early mechanic, 116-117.
Orr, Robert:
master armorer at Springfield, 117.
Otting & Lauder: 268.
Owen, William: 271.
Palmer, Courtland C.: 190.
Palmer, Jean Laurent:
screw caliper, 212, 213.
Palmer & Capron: 127.
Parallel motion: 3 note 6.
Parkhurst, E. G.: 182.
Parks, Edward H.:
automatic gear cutters, 214.
Pawtucket, R. I.:
manufacturing center, 118, 127;
Dr. Dwight on, 121;
manufactures of, 118-125.
Peck:
lifter for drop hammer, 143.
Pedrick & Ayer: planer, 53.
Phelps & Bickford: 222.
Phœnix Iron Works: 165.
Philadelphia, Pa.:
tool builders in, Chapter XIX;
early textile machinery, 246.
Pin machinery: 233.
Pitcher, Larned:
Amoskeag Manufacturing Co.: 123;
Pitcher & Brown, 124.
Pitkin, Henry and James F.:
American lever watches, 164.
Pitkin, Col. Joseph:
pioneer iron worker, 164.
Planer:
in 18th century, 4;
developed in England, 4;
Bramah, 18;
Clement, 19, 52;
inventors of the, Chapter V;
early French, 50;
Roberts, 51;
Murray, 57;
Bodmer, 75, 76;
Sellers, 248.
Plane surfaces, scraping of:
Maudslay, 44, 45;
Whitworth, 44, 98-101.
Plume & Atwood: 234.
Plumier: French writer, 50.
Pond Machine Tool Co.: 222, 259.
Pope Manufacturing Co.: 170.
Portsmouth block machinery:
influence on general manufacturing, 5;
work of Bentham and Brunel, 8, 9, 22, 26, 27, 28;
Maudslay’s contribution to, 29, 35;
description of, 29, 30, 31;
Roberts, 60;
Maudslay and Bentham, 89;
approaches interchangeable system, 131.
Potter & Johnson: 183.
Pratt, Francis A.: 137, 170, 177;
Lincoln miller, 165, 191.
Pratt & Whitney: 137, 178-183;
Interchangeable system, 179;
gun machinery and manufacture, 179-180, 182;
screw threads, 180-182;
tool-room lathe, 182;
thread-milling, 183;
workmen, 183;
turret screw machines, 207.
Precision gear cutter: 206.
Prentice, A. F.: 224.
Prentiss, F. F.: 266.
Priority in invention: 5.
Pritchard, Benjamin: 216.
Profiling machine: inventors of, 143.
Providence, R. I.:
early cannon manufacture, 117;
trading center, 118;
textile industry, 123;
manufactures in, 118-126;
jewelry industry of, 126-127.
Providence Forge & Nut Co.: 125.
Providence Tool Co.: 125;
turret screw machine built for, 207;
universal miller built for, 209.
Providence & Worcester Canal: 219-220.
Punching machine, Maudslay’s: 43.
Putnam, John: 227-228.
Putnam, Salmon W.: 227-228.
Putnam Machine Co. Works: 200, 227-228.
Ramsden, Jesse: lathe, 38.
Randolph & Clowes: 236.
Reed, F. E.: 224.
Reed & Prentice Co.: 222.
Remington Arms Co.: 161.
Remington, E., & Sons: 175.
Rennie, George: 54;
planer, 50, 51.
Rennie, Sir John: 54.
Rennie, John: millwright, 54.
Rhode Island Tool Co.: 125.
Richards, Charles B.: 173.
Richards, John: on Bodmer, 79.
Robbins & Lawrence: Chapter XV;
interchangeable system, 138;
turret lathe, 143, 197;
miller, 165, 191;
government contracts, 190;
Enfield rifle and gun machinery, 191-192;
cause of failure, 192;
successive owners of plant, 192-194, 200.
Robbins, Kendall & Lawrence: 189-190.
Roberts, Richard: 7, 9, 59-60, 62, 107;
with Maudslay, 46, 60;
planer, 50, 51, 60;
locomotives, 61-62;
Sharp, Roberts & Co.: 61, 62.
Robinson, Anthony:
screw thread, 39.
Rockford, Ill.:
tool builders in, 274-275.
Rockford Drilling Machine Co.: 274.
Rockford Iron Works: 274.
Rockford Lathe & Tool Co.: 274.
Rockford Machine Tool Co.: 274.
Rockford Milling Machine Co.: 274.
Roemer: epicyclic curve, 63.
Rogers, William A.:
Rogers-Bond comparator, 180-182.
Root, Elisha K.: 168-169, 170;
influence on die forging, 137;
profiling machine, 143;
drop hammer, 143, 169;
Colt Armory, 169;
machinery invented by, 169;
horizontal turret principle, 197.
Roper Repeating Arms Co.: 175.
St. Joseph Iron Co.: 253.
Savage Fire Arms Co.: 161.
Saxton: gear teeth, 66-67.
Schneider, M., and Nasmyth’s steam hammer: 95-96.
Scituate, R. I.: Hope Furnace, 117.
Scovill Manufacturing Co.: 232.
Screw machines, multi-spindle automatic: 265.
Screw-thread practice:
Maudslay and Clement, 10, 19, 42, 58-59, 88;
Whitworth standardizes, 10, 101;
early methods of screw cutting, 38-40;
Pratt & Whitney, 180-182;
history of Sellers’ or U. S. Standard, 249.
Sellers, Dr. Coleman: 251-252;
design of railway tools, 251;
screw thread, U. S. Standard, 249.
Sellers, William: 247-251, 255;
inventions, 247-248;
planer, 248;
system of screw threads, 248-249;
bridge building machinery, 250;
great lathe, Washington Navy Yard, 250.
Sellers, William, & Co.: 251, 252.
Sentinel Gas Appliance Co.: 160.
Shapers:
developed in England, 4;
Brunel’s, 27;
Nasmyth’s “Steel Arm,” 92.
Sharp, Roberts & Co.: 61, 62.
Sharpe, Lucian: 202;
American wire gauge, 205.
Sharps, Christian:
breech loading rifle, 170, 192.
Sharps Rifle Works: 192, 194, 195.
Shaw, A. J.: 214.
Shepard, Lathe & Co.: 222.
Shipley, Murray: 270.
Slater, Samuel: 114, 119, 121;
Arkwright cotton machinery, 120, 121;
textile industry, 122;
Amoskeag Co., 216-217.
Slide-rest:
in 18th century, 4;
inventors of, 6;
early forms of, 6, 36;
Bramah and Maudslay, 17;
Maudslay, 35, 36, 38, 40, 43, 49.
Sloan, Thomas J.:
screw machine, 126.
Slocomb, J. T.: 214.
Slotter: 61.
Smeaton, John: 2, 3;
boring machine, 2, 13;
cast iron gears, 64.
Smith, George: 214.
Smith & Mills: 270.
Smith & Phelps: 234.
Smith & Silk: 271.
Smith & Wesson: 138.
Snyder, J. E., & Son: 22.
Southwark Foundry & Machine Co.: 173, 256-257.
Spencer, Christopher M.: 170, 175-177;
turret lathe, 143, 176;
board drop, 143;
silk-winding machine, 175;
repeating rifle, 175.
Spencer Arms Co.: 177.
Spring: planer, 50, 53.
Springfield, Mass.: 230.
Springfield Armory: 103, 136, 138, 143, 163;
Blanchard’s lathes, 142-143.
Springfield Machine Tool Co.: 271.
Standard Tool Co.: 266.
Stannard, Monroe:
with Pratt & Whitney, 178.
Steam boats:
early, 82;
Wilkinson’s, 119.
Steam engine, Watt’s:
new element in industry, 1;
problems in building, 1-3;
first built at Soho, 12;
Maudslay’s improvements, 43.
Steam hammer: 4;
Nasmyth’s invention of, 93-96.
Steam heating apparatus:
Murray, 56.
Steinle Turret Machine Co.: 277.
Stephenson, George: 6, 32, 56, 150.
Steptoe, John: 267-268.
Steptoe Co., The John:
shapers and milling machines, 268.
Stone, Henry D.: 192, 193, 196;
turret lathe, 143, 197.
Swasey, Ambrose: 183, 262, 263;
dividing engine, 264.
Syme, Johnie: Nasmyth on, 84.
Symington, William: iron boat, 14, 82.
Taps and dies:
developed in England, 4;
Maudslay’s, 10, 42;
Clement’s, 59.
Taylor, Frederick W.:
high-speed tool steels, 250, 277.
Taylor & Fenn Co.: 165.
Terry, Eli: clocks, 144, 171, 172.
Textile industries:
Arkwright and Strutt, 53;
influence of Whitney’s cotton gin, 114;
in New England, 114, 120, 123, 127;
Slater’s influence on, 122.
Textile machinery:
Robert’s spinning mule, etc., 61;
Bodmer, 77;
in New England, 114, 120-121;
Wilkinson, 122;
Alfred Jenks, 123.
Thomas, Seth: clocks, 144.
Thomaston, Conn.:
clock manufacture, 171.
Thurber, Isaac:
Franklin Machine Co., 125.
Thurston, Horace: 214.
Tool builders:
general estimate of early, 107;
in Central New England, Chapter XVII;
Western, Chapter XX.
Tool building centers: 127;
map of, Fig. 56.
Torry, Archie:
Nasmyth’s foreman, 91.
Towne, Henry R.: 257, 258.
Towne, John Henry: 256-257, 258;
screw thread, U. S. Standard, 249.
Traveling crane, first: 77, 80.
Trevithick:
steam road engine, 56.
Turret lathes: 140;
early producers of, 143;
Spencer, 176;
Howe and Lawrence, 197;
Hartness’ flat-turret, 198;
Warner & Swasey, 262.
Turret screw machine, improvements on: 207.
Union Steel Screw Works: 198, 265, 266.
Universal Radial Drill Co.: 273.
Wadsworth, Capt. Decius:
on Whitney’s interchangeable system, 134-135.
Waldo, Daniel:
Hope Furnace, 117.
Wallace, William: 237.
Wallace & Sons: 234.
Waltham Watch Works, see American Watch Co.
Warner, Worcester R.: 183, 262, 263.
Warner & Swasey Co.: 261-265;
building of astronomical instruments, 263-264.
Washburn, Ichabod: American Steel & Wire Co., 225, 226.
Washburn & Moen Co.: 225.
Waterbury Brass Co.: 234, 237.
Waterbury Button Co.: 234.
Waterbury Clock & Watch Co.: 234.
Waters, Asa: 226.
Waston, William: Nasmyth on, 84.
Watt, James: 3, 6, 82, 83, 150, 161;
invention of steam engine, 1, 2, 145;
parallel motion, 3 note 6;
dependence on Wilkinson’s boring machine, 3;
opposed by Bramah, 18.
Weed Sewing Machine Co.: 170, 174, 175.
Weeden, W. N.: 237.
Wheeler, William A.: 221.
Wheeler & Wilson: 192.
Whipple, Cullen: 126.
Whitcomb, Carter, Co.: 222.
Whitcomb-Blaisdell Machine Tool Co.: 222.
White, Zebulon: J. S. White & Co., 122.
White Sewing Machine Co.: 193, 266.
Whitman-Barnes Co.: 266.
Whitney, Amos: 137, 170, 177, 219.
Whitney, Baxter D.: 177, 230.
Whitney, Eli: 6, 146-147, 161, 177;
interchangeable system, 76, 132-133, 134-135, 136, 145, 146,
158-159;
cotton gin, 114, 131, 145, 148-158;
U. S. contract of 1798, 131-132, 158, 159;
Whitneyville plant, 132, 162, 158, 160;
method of manufacture, 158-159;
milling machine, 142;
Miller & Whitney, 149.
Whitney, Eli, Jr.:
contract for “Harper’s Ferry” rifle, 160;
steel-barreled muskets, 160, 162.
Whitney Arms Co.: 160-161;
first Colt revolvers made by, 167.
Whitworth, Joseph: 7, 8, 9, 93; Chapter IX;
screw-thread practice, 10, 59, 101, 102 note 105;
manufacture of plane surfaces, 44, 45, 98-101;
with Maudslay, 46, 98;
shaper and improvements in machine tools, 99;
improved methods of measurement, 101;
ordnance and armor, 104-105;
on American automatic machinery, 102-104;
William Armstrong, 105.
Wilcox & Gibbs Sewing Machines: 208, 210, 213.
Wilkinson, Abraham: 119.
Wilkinson, Daniel: 119, 122.
Wilkinson, David: 123, 124, 125;
patent on slide-rest, 6;
steamboat, 119;
slide lathe, 119-120;
textile machinery, 122;
nail manufacture, 122.
Wilkinson, Isaac: 119, 125.
Wilkinson, John: 2, 8, 11, 15;
boring machine, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 60;
first iron boat, 14;
first iron bridge, 15;
relations with Boulton & Watt, 12, 13.
Wilkinson, Ozeal: 118-119, 121, 122.
Wilkinson, William: 119, 121.
Willimantic Linen Co.: 175, 178.
Willis, Robert: 69 note 64;
gear teeth, 63, 64, 69-70.
Wilmot, S. R.:
micrometer, 212.
Winchendon, Mass.:
woodworking machinery, 230.
Winchester Repeating Arms Co.: 160, 174.
Windsor, Vt.: 127, 186.
Windsor Machine Co.:
Gridley automatic lathes, 194, 200.
Windsor Manufacturing Co.: 193.
Wolcott, Oliver: 132.
Wolcottville Brass Co.: 233-234.
Wood, Light & Co.: 222.
Woodruff & Beach: 165.
Woodward & Powell Planer Co.: 224.
Woodworking machinery:
Bramah, 18, 19, 24;
Bentham, 24, 25;
Brunel, 31;
in Massachusetts, 229.
Worcester, Mass.: 127;
tool builders in, 219-226;
early textile shops of, 220;
gun makers in, 226.
Worm-geared tilting pouring-ladle, Nasmyth’s: 91-92.
Worsley, S. L.:
automatic screw machine, 208.
Wright, Sylvester: 200, 228.
Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co.: 258.
Transcriber’s Notes
Inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, etc. have been retained,
in particular in quoted material. Minie rifles and Minié rifles both
occur in the text.
Depending in the hard- and software used to read this text and their
settings, not all elements may display as intended.
Page 20, Group portrait Eminent Men of Science: there are 50 people
in the portrait, but only 48 are identified in the accompanying list.
Page 217, ... he and his brother, Ziba Gay, ...: also referred to as
Zeba Gay in this text.
Page 223, Figure 45: The source document does not show any links to
or from the entry A. F. Prentice.
Page 235, F. J. Kingsbery, Sr. and F. J. Kingsbury, Jr.: as printed
in the source document; either one may be an error or misprint.
Index: sorting errors have not been rectified.
Changes made
Footnotes, illustrations and charts have been moved out of text
paragraphs; footnotes have been renumbered consecutively throughout
the book (and footnote references have been adjusted where necessary).
Some obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been
corrected silently.
Apart from the first one (Fig. 5), the “genealogical charts” are too
intricate and complicated to be represented completely in this text.
Instead, the charts have been transcribed, and the relationships
between individuals and companies are indicated by numbers, with
numbers between * and between # indicating the start and the end of
the arrows used by the author, respectively.
List of names after page 20: Patrick Millar changed to Patrick Miller.
Index: the inconsistent lay-out has been standardised; some entries
(mainly proper names) have been changed to conform to the spelling
used in the text.