USA > Connecticut > Connecticut yesterday and today : 1635-1935 : celebrating three hundred years of progress in the Constitution state > Part 17
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First in London and later in Paris, Professor Rogers obtained a reliable transfer of both the British Imperial Yard and the French Meter d'Archives. With
the cooperation of the United States Coast Survey, the most delicate and exhaustive compari- son of the standard bars prepared by him for the use of the Com- pany were made with the United States Standard Yard designated as Bronze No. It. The net result was that Pratt & Whitney Com- pany succeeded eventually in making several accurate copies of the British Standard Yard, the French Meter d'Archives and the American standard of length known as Bronze No. II. These famous bars, still in. the posses- sion .of the Company, were the basis of Pratt & Whitney accuracy, and established the company as the outstanding authority on accu- racy. The results of this research, combined with the Rogers-Bond Comparator, eventually brought about the development of the Pratt & Whitney Standard Meas- uring Machine. There were many problems to overcome in the cre- ation and building of a measuring machine which must be accurate to one hundred-thousandths of an inch. They were solved success- fully, however, and the Pratt & Whitney Standard Measuring Machine is known all over the
world today as the basis for the construction and duplication of recognized length. This work was practically completed in 1885.
The products of the Pratt & Whitney Company from the earli- est days up till the 1900 period were astonishingly varied. Ap- parently no attempt was made to specialize on ány one type of ma- chine tool. There were many and various types of lathes, boring mills, shapers, planers, vertical drills, grinders, screw machines, tapping machines, milling ma- chines, etc., etc. Mixed up with these were some of the early gun- machines, a crane, a reciprocating hydraulic engine, a cartridge-var- nishing machine and a great va- riety of bolt cutters. Automatic weighing machines for grain, coal, etc. were manufactured about 1890, and the Company was evi- dently one of the pioneers in this industry which now occupies the entire attention of several large concerns. Guns and gun machin- ery, the first model noiseless type- writer, envelope machinery (later purchased by the United States Envelope Company), the original model of the Paige typesetter which served in design as a basis
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The Pratt & Whitney Co. plant as it appears today.
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PRATT & WHITNEY ESTABLISHES THE INCH
1585
Blackstone Studios
CLAYTON R. BURT President
of the Mergenthaler and other typesetting machines were all products of the company during this period. As early as the turn of the century the Pratt & Whitney name cast in metal had reached to the eastern boundaries of Siberia.
In 1909 Pratt & Whitney secured a contract for the Australian Arsenal at Lithgow, Australia. Bids were called for in London, for a plant having a production capacity of fifty Lee-Enfield rifles per day. When Pratt & Whitney Company sought per- mission to bid, it was thought impossible to build the plant outside of England, as there would be no access to British Gages, and the Australian and British gun parts must interchange.
Pratt & Whitney declared they could produce a plant to duplicate the British weapon by using the interchangeable system of manufacture. The best English bid and the Pratt & Whitney bid were al- most identical, but the British firm required 700 machines to do. the work against the Pratt & Whitney estimate of 300.
Commander Clarkson was sent to the United States to investigate, and the contract was awarded to Pratt & Whitney, as he found their equipment far in advance of anything he had seen previously.
During the World War, Major Hoke of the Ordnance Department of the United States Govern- ment originated the system of precision lapping, and
produced blocks of far greater accuracy than had heretofore ever been manufactured. After the war the Pratt & Whitney Company obtained the right to manufacture these blocks, and developed the original idea, which was largely a laboratory process, into a practical manufacturing system. The result was that blocks were produced which could be guaranteed per- manently accurate within five-millionths of an inch for blocks up to six-tenths of an inch, and with simi- lar guarantees in proportion for larger sizes. This was the beginning of Pratt & Whitney Hoke Pre- cision Gage Blocks.
In 1878 the mechanical had outgrown the financial side of the business. At this time William A. Healy, a man of keen insight and large resources, after a careful inspection of the plant, accepted the treasur- ership and advanced $200,000. At his death in 1885 he was succeeded by Miles W. Graves. Both rendered highly valuable services to the company. Mr. Graves retired in 1893. In 1893 the capital of the company was increased from $ 500,000 to $3,000,000. In 1898 Mr. Pratt retired but he still gave the company the benefit of his valuable ex- perience and mechanical knowledge as Consulting Engineer. Mr. Amos Whitney was elected Presi- dent upon his retirement.
In 1901 the Niles-Bement-Pond Company purchased the Pratt & Whitney Company and re- organized it. In 1914 the buildings of the Pope Manufacturing Company, next-door to Pratt & Whitney became available and the entire plant was purchased by the Niles-Bement-Pond Company. In 1930 the company purchased the Keller Mechani- cal Engineering Corp. of Brooklyn, N. Y. The entire plant and much of the personnel was moved to Hartford.
This year, 1935, marks the seventy-fifth anni- versary of the founding of Pratt & Whitney Com- pany. For three-quarters of a century they have progressed along the basic lines laid down by the two founders, Francis Pratt and Amos Whitney: to seek to establish more accurate and efficient methods of manufacture. During this time they have suc- ceeded in their aim far beyond the dreams of the two Yankee inventors. Again and again the company experts have been approached with seemingly im- possible problems, and each time they have solved them through patient labor and experimentation. In recent years Pratt & Whitney Company engineers have concentrated their efforts upon a recreation of methods in manufacturing processes. The result has been that today Pratt & Whitney Company combine the craftmanship of the nineteenth century with the high-speed quantity production of the twentieth.
IF
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1898 - THE HART MANUFACTURING COMPANY - 1935
GERALD WALDO HART Founder and Inventor
H
Officers of The Hart Manufacturing Co.
GEORGE HEGEMAN HART, President
OSTROM ENDERS, Secretary
EDWARD TAYLOR, Treasurer
Directors of The Hart Manufacturing Co. GEORGE HEGEMAN HART, Chairman of the Board W. ARTHUR COUNTRYMAN, JR.
OSTROM ENDERS
HUBERT M. TOPPIN
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Factories
LONDON TORONTO
Branch Offices
NEW YORK CHICAGO
HE HART MANUFAC- TURING COMPANY was founded in 1898 in Hartford to manufacture electrical switches and wir- ing devices. The company was organized by Gerald Waldo Hart who was presi- dent of it from its inception until his death in 1931.
Mr. Hart was a pioneer in the inven- tion and manufacture of electrical switches. In 1890, in association with George S. Hegeman, he founded the Hart & Hegeman Manufacturing Com- pany in Hartford, where the first ro- tary snap switches for controlling lights were manufactured in the country. In 1898 Mr. Hart withdrew from The Hart & Hegeman Company, after Mr. Hegeman's death, and formed the pres- ent Hart Manufacturing Company. At that time the trademark, "Diamond H," recognized throughout the entire elec- trical industry, was established.
The inventive genius of Mr. Hart re- sulted in the development and market- ing of many new types of switches for the lighting and automotive field.
In 1910 a modern four story brick factory was erected on the outskirts of the city, west of Pope Park, at Hamilton and Bartholomew Streets. Additions to the factory were made in 1925 and 1929.
In this same year, the business of the Price & McKinlock Company of Boston, manufacturers of remote control equip- ment, was purchased and the equipment transferred to Hartford. This added a
new product of heavy duty electrical apparatus for automatically controlling large groups of lights from distant points.
The company maintained a sales office in London, England, for many years. The increased demand in England for the company's product necessitated the construction of an English factory at Gunnersbury Avenue, Chiswick, Lon- don, in 1932, where a substantial part of the output of the Hartford plant in the form of small parts is sent.
The company gradually divorced the line of wiring devices originally made and has specialized in selected quality items for the industrial trade. Early in the history of the company switches for electric ranges were manufactured and this has since become the predominate product. Many new and original types were developed so that the company now enjoys leadership in this field.
As the electric range business assumed greater proportions, thermostats for con- trolling the ovens were made and now a comprehensive line of these instruments, both for electric ranges and electric wa- ter heaters, is a part of the product. In addition, the company manufactures a great many special items such as relays, door bolt control switches and other specialties for electric heating, lighting and motor control.
George Hegeman Hart succeeded his father in the presidency of the company in 1931 and the company's affairs are now conducted under his management.
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.THE MET MAMFACTURING CO. < P>
THE HART MANUFACTURING COMPANY at Hartford, Connecticut
1153)*
1881 - THE CAPEWELL HORSENAIL CO. - HARTFORD
DR. GEORGE C. F. WILLIAMS President, 1912 to 1933
HE CAPEWELL HORSE NAIL COMPANY was founded in 1881 as the result of the fortuitous meet- ing of an inventor, George J. Capewell of Cheshire, and a manufacturer and promoter, Mr. A. W. C. Williams of Hartford.
Towards the later seventies of the last century Mr. Capewell had developed a machine to make horse shoe nails, which up until very nearly that time had been produced by hand with the black- smith's hammer and anvil. Mr. Capewell, who lived in Cheshire at the time, had told his physi- cian, Dr. William C. Williams also of Cheshire, of this machine. To Dr. Williams the possibilities of the idea were apparent, and he was particularly interested since his brother, Mr. A. W. C. Wil- liams, was a manufacturer of some prominence who had al-
ready established factories in England and France for the pro- duction of lawn mowers and ma- chine screws. On the occasion of his next visit to Cheshire, Dr. Williams introduced him to the inventor: this was the inception of the Capewell Horse Nail Company.
The company was incorporated in the year 1881 under the laws of Connecticut, the initial capital being subscribed by Mr. Williams and a few other people of means who had been interested in the venture by him. A small amount of floor space with power was leased, and operations were be- gun with some half a dozen ma- chines. The first seven years of the company's existence were a period of hard sledding, but by 1888 the tide had turned and the success of the concern had become assured.
Dr. George C. F. Williams,
the fifth president of the com- pany, and the son of Dr. William C. Williams and nephew of Mr. Williams, joined the company at this time ( 1888) as a result of cer- tain business adjustments, and immediately became an officer and director of the concern. Upon his entry into the company, he and his uncle assumed the active business management of the es- tablishment. The growth and development of the business was very largely due to Dr. Williams' energy and ability as an organ- iser and administrator. Mr. Cape- well also was actively connected with the company as Vice-Presi- dent and Superintendent.
A horse shoe nail has many exacting qualities not known nor suspected by the layman. The Capewell factory produced the finest possible horse nail and mar- keted it through a large, highly geared selling organization that contacted every wholesaler, re- tailer and horse shoer in the United States, numbering scores of thousand. As a result of the quality of the nail and the effi- ciency of the selling organization, the name "Capewell" applied to a horse nail was as "sterling" to silver, and Capewell horse nails became known throughout the country as the finest horse nail on the market at a time when this product was as extensively used and important commercially as automobile tires are at present.
Dr. Williams actively managed the business until the day of his death, November 15, 1933. The forty-four years of his manage- ment of the Capewell Company witnessed its growth from an ob- scure little business to the largest manufacturer of horse shoe nails in the world. In addition to a
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WORLD'S LARGEST PRODUCERS OF HORSESHOE NAILS - 1935
large business in the United States, this company exports its product to more than half a hun- dred different countries in both Hemispheres. This wide distri- bution requires the production of the many different styles of horse nails demanded by the various nations, and literally hundreds of varied styles and sizes of horse shoe nails are now being produced and sold.
In addition to horse nails, this company manufactures a product known as a foundry nail or foun- dry casting chiller, employed in the manufacture of steel castings. The manufacture of these pro- ducts is carried on in a large mod- ern fireproof factory situated in Hartford, Conn.
Dr. G. C. F. Williams was well known in Connecticut for his
First Board of Directors
GEORGE J. CAPEWELL NEWTON CASE
WILLIAM A. HEALY FRANK L. HOWARD JAMES L. HOWARD CHARLES W. LEONARD GEORGE S. MOULTON
WILLIAM H. POST CALEB M. TALCOTT A. W. C. WILLIAMS
Present Board of Directors CHARLES P. COOLEY WILLIAM S. CONNING
E. KENT HUBBARD TRUMAN S. LEWIS
CHARLES S. THAYER
ARTHUR L. SHIPMAN STAUNTON WILLIAMS
Presidents and dates of service
FRANK L. HOWARD 1881-1887
E. C. LEWIS 1887-1901
JOHN E. GILLETTE 1901-1911
JOHN H. WHITE 1911-1912
GEORGE C. F. WILLIAMS 1912-1933 STAUNTON WILLIAMS ... 1933 to Date
many varied interests in addition to his industrial activities. He gave liberally of his time to the service of the State, was a noted antiquarian and authority on American history and, among other things, served as Chairman of the Connecticut Tercentenary Commission until his death.
When. Dr. Williams died in 1933 in his 77th year, his son, Staunton Williams, was elected to succeed him as President, the third generation of the Williams family to assume the manage- ment of the company. Mr. Wil- liams was a lawyer, a member of a New York firm, and was actively engaged in practice in New York City, but had been connected with the Capewell Company as an officer and direc- tor for a number of years prior to his election as President.
5.7
NO
The Factory and Main Office of The Capewell Ilorse Nail Company at Charter Oak Avenue and Governor Street, Hartford.
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1862 -
THE CUSHMAN CHUCK COMPANY - HARTFORD
SIMON FAIRMAN
A. F. CUSHMAN
ADRIAN P. SLOAN
HARRY E. SLOAN
HE building of Fine Lathe Chucks by The Cushman Chuck Company and its predeces- sor is one of those industries which has been continuously identified with Hartford for a long time, even though the inception of its first Chuck came from an idea that originated in the mind of a certain Simon Fairman, living in Waterford, New York, and afterwards in West Stafford.
Mr. Fairman invented in 1830 a certain turning lathe accessory, which would automatically center the work to be held, and at a later day, this mechanical device came to be known as a Geared Scroll Chuck.
The old patent with its signature by John Forsyth, Sec- retary of State, under Andrew Jackson, can be found in the Cushman files, and with it is a cut of the original Chuck which is reproduced on the following page.
Of the Chuck invented by Simon Fairman, little was heard for the next thirty years, but in 1862, A. F. Cush- man, his son-in-law, began to make it in an industrial way at his residence, then on the corner of Spring and High Streets, Hartford. From that time to this, a Geared Scroll Chuck has been associated with the name of Cush- man.
The fame of the Cusliman Scroll Chuck extended to practically every civilized country, and although others have built similar ones, and although the Cushmans have been equally successful in making Lathe Chucks of many other types, as they are still doing, Cushman Geared Scroll Chucks have retained to this day the unique prestige that they possessed so long ago.
As time went on A. F. Cushman's business grew, and his facilities for making Chucks expanded correspondingly. More than once it was necessary to move into larger quar- ters, but at length the business settled down into its pres- ent home on upper Windsor Street. There, in place of
the original Lathe and Drill Press, which A. F. Cushman operated by hand or foot power, is a commodious factory, and in it can be found the latest of modern machine tools and those special facilities which are an absolute essential to every builder of fine chucking equipment.
A. F. Cushman in middle life became totally blind, and after that, although he retained the full use of his active mind, and could supervise his business to the day of his death at the age of eighty-one, more and more the respon- sibility for its mechanical side, improving of former chuck models, designing new ones, and the general oversight of the work that was being done, fell to the lot of Adrian P. Slcan, who had long been Mr. Cushman's superintendent.
The business was incorporated in 1885 as The Cush- man Chuck Company, A. F. Cushman, President. Fol- lowing Mr. Cushman's death in 1914, his son, Eugene, became President, and at his death in 1919, he was suc- ceeded by his son, Richard Cushman, who in 1923 re- signed in favor of Adrian P. Sloan, with the latter's son, Harry E. Sloan, as Vice-President and Works Manager.
In 1928 there was another change, and Mr. Sloan, on account of increasing years and the pressure of his other interests, withdrew from his more active duties of the busi- ness, becoming Chairman of its Board of Directors, and the enterprise has since been under the supervision of Harry E. Sloan, President. The other officers are Edgar J. Sloan, and Jas. J. Jordan, Vice-Presidents; A. Boyd Sloan, Secretary and Treasurer; Harry W. Hultgren, Assistant Secretary, and Edward L. Field, Assistant Treas- urer.
From their earliest days, the Cushmans have looked be- yond the home market. In 1861 Chas. Churchill had gone from Hampden, Conn., to London, England, and become a pioneer in introducing American tools into that country. In one of his early catalogues are listed egg
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MANUFACTURERS OF GEARED SCROLL CHUCKS -
1935
The Factory of 1862
Main Office and Factory Today
beaters, nutmeg graters, apple parers, lawn mowers, water pumps, and Cushman Chucks. This, in effect, marked the beginning of the use of Cushman Chucks in foreign countries. They followed English engineers wher- ever the latter went, and were known to mechanics all over the world, regardless of country and language, as "Cushmans".
About fifty percent of the Chucks made in the Cush- man factory were exported, and they so continued to be until the World War.
Both in this and other countries, Cushman Chucks have maintained to this day a reputation for precision, work- manship, and general excellence that is not surpassed.
The Cushman Chucks of 1935 have hardly even a family resemblance to those of 1862. Changes have been made, but the most important are of a kind not always ap- parent to the eye. These changes have been the result of the great progress that has been made in engineering and metallurgy during recent years, and which have brought
about an almost unbelievable development in the making of steel alloys and the heat treatment of them.
One of Cushman's latest type of Chucks is known as "the Cushmatic", capable of exerting a tremendous grip- ping power, and in it the jaw movement is actuated by an electric power unit instead of by a hand operated wrench.
Also, the Power Unit referred to above has been made adaptable to purposes other than for Chucks, such as mold- ing presses, the clamping vises of welding machines, the operating of the die movements, and for drawing the cores in die castings, opening and closing industrial doors, and for many other purposes.
For The Cushman Chuck Company, as with other mak- ers of so-called durable goods, recent years have been try- ing ones, but it has seemed to have lost none of its vitality, and now in its fourth generation is finding itself able to successfully meet present conditions and is hopefully look- ing forward to whatever the future has in store for it.
CUSHMAN
0
1840
1865
1935
THE ROOT COMPANY - 1866 - THE VEEDER MFG. CO. - 1895 VEEDER-ROOT, INC. - 1928
Joel Root
Charles Root
Curtis Veeder
David Post, Sr.
John Chidsey
Graham Anthony
HE present company, Veeder-Root, Inc., was established in 1928, but its beginnings go back to two previous companies; the Veeder Mfg. Co. and the Root Com- pany. A curious Yankee inventor, and a perspicacious Yankee manufacturer laid the solid foundations of this successful business in the late nineteenth century.
Curtis H. Veeder, an electrical engineer and inventor of note, was full of curiosity and demanded that it be satisfied. To this end he designed several cyclometers in the early nineties that he might know how many miles he traveled on his bicycle. In July, 1894, he in- vented the compound differential gearing, and then success was in his grasp.
Shortly afterward he made a practical design of the cyclometer, secured patents on it, made working models and interested David J. Post, then treasurer of the Hartford Cycle Co., in them. As a result of Mr. Post's interest, the Veeder Mfg. Co, was incorporated August 5, 1895.
The first headquarters of the infant company was in the building occupied by America's oldest newspaper-The Hartford Courant. The little device proved to be more troublesome to manufacture than any of Mr. Veeder's more formidable designs, To produce it accu- rately required special machinery nowhere available. Experiments were started in 1896 on die casting machines, which finally resulted in the completion of three successful machines still in use today. With the completion of a successful method of manufacture and the development of Veeder metal (a metal developed by Mr. Veeder especially for die casting work ) it was quite natural that the Veeder Mfg. Company should branch out into the manufacture of counters as well as die castings for industrial uses, especially after the heyday of the bicycle.
The automobile bred the need for speedometers. The Veeder Com- pany was best equipped to make the vital parts-wheels and pinions -- and today, as a part of Veeder-Root Incorporated, still retains a very large portion of this business, inchiding among its customers practically all of the well-known manufacturers of speedometers.
Presumably inspired by the early success of New Britain hardware manufacturers, Joel 11. Root, a well-known citizen of Bristol, Conn., began to manufacture small hinges in 1866. Within two decades the Business had grown in a limited way and was taken over by Charles J. Root, a son of the founder, who expanded it still further. By 1889 he had been sold the idea of manufacturing a counter by a resident of New Haven. It was known as the Eln City counter, the name being taken because the instrument came originally from New Ha- ven, known throughout New England as "The Elin City." This original Root counter was designed chiefly for attachment to heavy machinery as has been the case with practically all of the long line of Root automatic counter devices.
After the untimely death of Mr. Root by an automobile accident in 1907, Mr. John T. Chidsey, then an expert accountant of the Ses- sions Foundry Company, Bristol, was asked by the administrator of the estate to assist in taking inventory. Several weeks of close asso- ciation with company affairs gave Mr. Chidsey sufficient knowledge of the business to inspire him with the idea of buying it. Although the nation was at grips with a financial panic, he, with the assistance of his many friends and the banks of Bristol, succeeded in raising the necessary funds to take over the management of a new corporation known as the C. J. Root Company (later, The Root Co.).
Under Mr. Chidsey's leadership additional counting devices were added (especially for the textile industry) as well as a number of special hinges for pianos, automobiles, boats, etc. Because the greater
The Bristol Division of FEEDER-ROOT, INC. where Counters for Heavy Machinery fre Made.
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MAKERS OF PRECISION COUNTING DEVICE HARTFORD AND BRISTOL
THE OUBANT
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.lbove :- The Original Plant of The Root Company in Bristol. Standing Second from the Left in this Picture is John Sonstroem, and Fourth from the Left his brother Fred, and Second from the Right is Frank Northrup; all of whom are still associated with TEEDER-ROOT, INC., Today. Right :- The Old Hartford Courant Building cchere the Veeder Mfg. Co. Started Manufac- ture of Cyclometers on the First and Third Floors.
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