USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > The story of Bridgeport > Part 18
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INDUSTRY TODAY
Today finds Bridgeport with almost 500 manufac- turing concerns and industries, excluding stores, which employ 19,608 men and 11,408 women.
Manufacture for export is a prominent feature of Bridgeport industry, some of the firms maintaining special facilities for export trade. Among them are the following, three of which are from Fairfield and three from Stratford but which are included because of their importance in Bridgeport's industrial world:
Acme Shear Co., American Chain Co., Inc., American Fabrics Co., Stanley Works (American Tube and Stamping Co.), Max Ams Machine Co., Armstrong Manufacturing Co., Automatic Machine Co., Bassick Co., Bay Co., Bead Chain Mfg. Co.
Bridgeport Brass Co., Bridgeport Coach Lace Co., Bridgeport Hardware Mfg. Corp., Bridgeport Metal Goods Mfg. Co., Bridgeport Safcty Emery Wheel Co., Bridgeport Screw Co., Bryant Electric Co., Bullard Co., Canfield Rubber Co .. Columbia Phono- graph Co., Inc., Consolidated Ashcroft Hancock Co., Inc., Coulter and Mckenzie Machine Co., Crane Co., Dictaphone Corp., E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Co., Fabric Machine Co. Inc., General Electric Co.
Habirshaw Cable and Wire Corp., Harvey Hubbell, Inc., Jenkins Bros., La Resista Corset Co., Mckesson and Robbins, Inc., Raybestos, division Raybestos Manhattan, Inc., Remington Arms Co., Inc., Remington Typewriter Co., Saltex Looms, Inc., Singer Mfg. Co., Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Sprague
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Meter Co., Underwood Elliott Fisher Co., Warner Brothers Co.
A rough classification of Bridgeport's products are as follows : airplanes and aircraft accessories, ammuni- tion and firearms, bolts, nuts and screws; brass and bronze sheets, rods and tubing; brake linings and asbestos packing; chains, chemicals, corsets and brass- ieres; cutlery; drugs and pharmaceutical specialties; electrical supplies and wiring devices; electric and gas motors; fabrics and trimmings; hardware; marine cables; marinc engines; machinery; meters, gas and water; phonographs and records; plumbing supplies; rubber goods; sewing machines; shears and scissors; silverware; steel sheets, rods and tubing; tools; toys; typewriters; and valves and fittings.
At the present writing, there are in Bridgeport, 19 firms employing 500 or more men and women, the figures for the estimate being taken either from the annual report of the State Factory Inspection Depart- ment (corrected to June 1, 1936) or from the Directory of New England Manufacturers, 1936; or from the firms' own figures. An effort has been made to include all those employing 500 or more; if there are others which have been omitted, it is regretted The firms are as follows:
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
The huge plant which now houses the General Electric Company's Bridgeport works on Boston Avenue was formerly the scene of war munition operations. The Remington Arms Company erected the building in 1915 and here the Browning machine guns were manufactured during the World War.
The General Electric Company leased the works from the Remington Arms Company in May, 1920 and immediately commenced the manufacture of wir- ing devices and fractional horsepower motors. In 1922, the merchandise department was organized to handle the distribution of electrical supplies entering into domestic and industrial use, as distinguished from that department of the electrical industry which served the public works and utilities. Headquarters were established in Bridgeport.
The company selected Bridgeport as the center of its activities because of favorable conditions and facilities offered for manufacturing and distributing activities; because of the field of highly skilled labor; because of advantages offered employes in the way of climate, good homes, good parks, good schools.
The Bridgeport plant, located at the corner of Boston Avenue and Bond Street occupies a lot of 77.6 acres and has buildings of the most modern design and equipment, with about 1,680,000 square feet of floor space. The number of employes has reached a maximum of approximately 7,500 and averages over 6,000 persons.
In June, 1922, the plant was purchased from the original owners and although the manufacture of motors was transferred elsewhere, other production was rapidly added. In October, 1923, the manu- facture of armored cable and outlet boxes was trans- ferred from Maspeth to Bridgeport, and about the same time, code wire was added. In 1925, additional sizes of code wire, all fixture wire, and lamp cords
BANK ST. BRIDGEPORT.
THE "FINANCIAL DISTRICT" IN 1890
Looking west on Bank Street, the City Savings Bank is on the right. On the left is a building since replaced by the Mechanics and Farmers Savings Bank. Beyond, is the old Sturdevant building which now houses the tax collector's office.
were taken on. The famous G-E wiring system was developed and extended to become what it is today, the recognized standard for the complete and suffi-
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cient electrical equipment of the modern American home.
In 1926, the manufacture of electric fans was transferred from Pittsfield to the Bridgeport Works and this was the first of a succession of appliances to be added to the factory production. The manufac- ture of sunlamps commenced in October, 1929, to be followed by the first flatplate ironers in September, 1931. In the spring of 1932, heating devices were taken over from the Edison General Electric Appli- ance Company, Chicago. February, 1935, marked the beginning of washing machine manufacturing at Bridgeport, while in May of that year the production of radio receiving sets commenced.
At the same time the distribution of vacuum clean- ers, electric clocks, and other electrical appliances has been carried on from Bridgeport as headquarters, al- though this apparatus is mostly manufactured at other points. Some other products distributed by the Bridgeport organization are electrical rigid conduit, insulating material, asbestos and other heat resisting insulated wires, battery charging sets and many other small electrical devices and products for use in the home, office or factory.
A medical department cares for the health of the employes; a restaurant to accommodate 1000, with a completely electrified kitchen is just being opened; a new athletic field will be available in June; life in- surance, savings investment, pension system, profit sharing, home building, athletic and social groups are under the Merchandise department.
At the present time, Bridgeport made General Electric Company products find their way to every quarter of the globe, including central Brazil, central Africa and central China. C. E. Wilson is vice president in charge of the merchandise department. W. Stewart Clark is works manager.
BRIDGEPORT BRASS COMPANY
Hoop skirts, popular in the 60's gave a start to the Bridgeport Brass Company incorporated in 1865. The very best of dressmakers not only preferred brass to whalebone for the frame, but for the little spangles which held the framework in place.
When the style changed in 1870, the company turned its attention to the making of kerosene lamps and flyfans. To this day however, brass sheet is supplied the manufacturers of modern day dress fasteners.
The Bridgeport Brass Company is not the largest concern of its kind in New England, but its records show more patents for new processes than any simi- lar organization. One outstanding device developed in the local company was the micrometer for measur- ing the diameter or thickness of metal.
In 1871, the firm was making lamp burners and parts. Following the invention of the incandescent lamp by Edison in 1880 the Bridgeport Brass Com- pany developed the brass cap and shell which, when fitted with a porcelain interior, is now known as an electric light socket. The company also figured in improvements in installation and operation of the early telephone.
One of the early products of the Bridgeport Brass Company's tube mill was condenser tubes, now in general use. Printers' rules and block brass were made in large quantities from 1882 to 1895; when the photo engraving process came prominently into use in the early 90's, the Bridgeport Brass Company furnished the first flat copper sheets suitable for en- graving purposes. Today, a large part of the tonnage of engravers' copper used in this country and abroad is made in the mills of the Bridgeport Brass Company.
The company products now include Ledrite High Speed brass rod; Plumrite brass and copper pipes; Bridgeport copper water tubes; Phono-Electric trolley wire; Duronze Silicon bronze alloys; sheet, rod, wire and seamless tubing; plumbers' brass goods; automo- bile tire valves; and manufactured goods to order.
The company has kept pace with the changing de- mands of its market as is shown by the fact that where it once made kerosene lamps, footpumps for cars and acetylene searchlights, it now makes parts for flash- lights. Electric refrigeration has also used a great amount of brass.
The general offices, mills and factories of the Bridgeport Brass Company are located on East Main Street and Housatonic Avenue and it has branch offices and warehouses in New York, Boston, Phila- delphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Newark, Provi- dence, St. Louis, Seattle, Akron, Houston, Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles. It has representation in Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Vir- ginia, and Baltimore.
The Bridgeport Brass Company in Bridgeport is headed by Ralph E. Day as president. Approxi- mately 3250 men and women are employed.
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REMINGTON ARMS
The local plant of the Remington Arms Company was established in 1867. In that year the New York firm of Schuyler, Hartley and Graham, dealers in sporting equipment, purchased two small cartridge companies and organized the Union Metallic Cart- ridge Company, establishing the plant in Bridge- port. The first plant, consisting of a few small build- ings, was located just north of the New Haven Railroad tracks at what was then Pauline Street. Some of these first buildings are still standing and the local factory is commonly known among Bridge- porters, even today, as the U. M. C. plant.
In 1816, Eliphalet Remington made his first rifle at Ilion, New York, and shortly established a rifle factory there. This became the Remington Arms Company. In 1888 Marcellus Hartley purchased a substantial interest in the Remington plant at Ilion and later became full owner. In 1912, under the guidance of Marcellus Hartley Dodge, the Remington Arms Company of Ilion and the Union Metallic Cartridge Company of Bridgeport were merged into the Remington Arms Company, Inc. Thus, two of the oldest arms manufacturing organizations in the United States were joined together.
In 1920, the company commenced manufacture of pocket cutlery at the Bridgeport plant and soon became the world's largest manufacturer of fine pocket cutlery. The line was later expanded to in- clude flatware, such as butcher knives and kitchen knives.
In June, 1933, a controlling interest in the Reming- ton Arms Company was purchased by E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, another of America's industrial pioneers, having been founded in 1802. Since 1933 Remington has purchased a factory manu- facturing clay targets and traps in Findlay, Ohio; also the plant of the former Peters Cartridge Company at Kings Mills, Ohio; also the patents and designs of the Parker Gun Company at Meriden, and a half interest in the Companhia Brasileria de Cartuchos of Brazil.
The local plant has expanded during the inter- vening years to many times its original size and now occupies an area of 60 acres with its plant, and in addition, approximately 360 acres of wild land for the storage of explosives.
The manufacture of arms and ammunition is quite generally associated with military operations. As a matter of fact, however, during recent years fully
98% of all production has been for sporting purposes, i.e .: shotgun shells and rim fire and center fire cart- ridges for sport. During its history the various divi- sions of the Remington Arms Company have created a great many important developments and inventions for domestic, agricultural and industrial use.
At the present time C. K. Davis is president and general manager and 1800 men and women are employed.
SINGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY
Back in the year 1847 there lived one Allen Wilson, a native of Willett, New York, who had just invented a queer contraption which he called a sewing machine. Mr. Wilson, in his efforts to market the machine faced many problems: ridicule, financial troubles, patent difficulties.
Then he met Nathaniel Wheeler, partner of the firm of Warren and Woodruff of Watertown. In the end, the inventor went to Watertown to perfect his machine and superintend its manufacture.
Wilson substituted the rotary hook and bobbin for the shuttle used at first, and patented this improve- ment in 1851. In 1854, Wilson obtained a patent on the celebrated four motion feed which in some form or other has been adopted on all sewing machines.
Not long after, the new firm of Wheeler, Wilson, Warren and Woodruff came into being. To avoid litigation, Wilson contrived the stationary bobbin which became the important feature of the machine.
In order to get the machine before the public, Wheeler took the machine to O. F. Winchester, head of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, then largely engaged in the manufacture of shirts in New Haven. Winchester refused to try the machine; but after he saw a shirt wholly made on the sewing machine by Mr. Wilson's wife, he was so pleased that he at once purchased the rights in the machine for the county of New Haven.
In October, 1853, the Wheeler and Wilson Manu- facturing Company was organized under the laws of Connecticut. In 1856, the business was moved from Watertown to Bridgeport.
The company progressed rapidly. In 1885, Wheeler was elected president. Wilson had retired from active participation the previous year. Sewing machines were now being sent all over the country, although secretly to New York where it was believed the device would destroy the seamstresses.
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Wheeler died shortly after his return from the World's Fair in 1893 and he was succeeded by his son, Samuel Wheeler, who built the Stratfield Hotel. George M. Eames was vice president under Samuel Wheeler.
In the Fall of 1905, the Wheeler and Wilson Com- pany was taken over by the Singer Company and it is now factory No. 10 in that organization. Mr. Eames is now works manager of the factory and has just rounded out 59 years of employment there. At present there are factories in Canada, in Germany, in Scotland, France and Italy.
The Bridgeport factory has not produced a family sewing machine for 24 years. Production is now devoted to the making of machines for factory pur- poses such as machines for buttonholes, hemstitching, multiple needles, embroidery. The first electric machine was used about 40 years ago, batteries being used to run the motor. Philo M. Beers was respon- sible for machinery which could turn out a million needles a month.
In 1876 a sewing machine made 1000 stitches a minute. Today it makes 3500 to 4000 a minute.
At the present time the local factory makes tabling, shafting, and motor driven machines for the manu- facture of clothing, shoes and hats. About 1400 men and women are employed in the local factory.
BULLARD COMPANY
Seven of the third generation of Bullards are now in the employ of the Bullard Company, to carry on the traditions and policies of the founder, E. P. Bullard, who established the firm in 1880.
The Bullard Company, located in the Black Rock section at the extreme west end of Bridgeport, is a large industrial concern normally employing about 1300 in the manufacture of machine tools. Bullard machines are used internationally. The trade names of the Bullard products are Vertical Turret lathes, Mult-au-matics, Vertical Automatic lathes and Con- tin-u-matics.
These machines are established in their field of service as cost saving equipment for the manufacture of parts of automobiles, tractors, farm implements, electric motors, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, electric refrigerators, valves, aeroplane engines, ball bearings, bottle moulds, rotary pumps, marine motors, elevator equipment, textile machinery, and numerous other items. In addition to the foregoing, Bullard
machines are used in repair shops of railroad, ship- building plants, battleships, steel plants and other industrial activities.
In 1913 the idea of a multiple spindle machine, the Mult.Au-Matic, was conceived. This complete machining cycle of "rough work to finished piece" in the time of the longest operation, was termed the Mult.Au-Matic method. Today, the method still applies although many improvements have been made.
January 24, 1929, the Bullard Machine Tool Com- pany changed its name to the Bullard Company and in May of the same year the company was admitted to trading in the New York Stock Exchange. In March, 1930, the new quarters at Canfield Avenue were occupied. E. P. Bullard is president of the company.
UNDERWOOD ELLIOTT FISHER COMPANY
Adding, billing and accounting machines, some of which are uncanny in the tasks they perform, are products of the Underwood Elliott Fisher Company at 575 Broad Street.
This company is the outgrowth of mergers and one amalgamation. In the span of years between 1891 and 1926, the Elliott Book Typewriter Company, the Hatch Company, the Fisher Book Typewriter and the Sunstrand Corporation were combined in sequence to create the Elliott Fisher Company with home offices in New York. In 1927, the Elliott Fisher Company was merged with the Underwood Type- writer Company of Hartford and Bridgeport with executive offices in New York.
In June, 1933, the Sunstrand Adding Machine Company of Rockford, Illinois, and the Ellictt Fisher Company of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, were moved to Bridgeport.
One of the most interesting machines is the Sun- strand accounting machine, especially useful for auto- mobile finance companies and other industries en- gaged in similar lines. This is a 17 column account- ing machine and its work consists of repetitive opera- tions. It will figure the payments necessary, the pay- ments to date and the new balance
The Bridgeport works of the Underwood Elliott Fisher Company are situated in the south end of the city and the ground owned by the company covers 136,800 square feet. The floor space of the works totals 188,000 square feet.
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Machines produced at the Bridgeport works are: Underwood Sundstrand adding, Underwood Sund- strand 17 column bookkeeping, A, B, C, and D, Underwood Sunstrand wide base bookkeeping, A, B, C and D; Underwood Sunstrand portable electric, Underwood Elliott Fisher writing, and Underwood Elliott Fisher accounting.
In the raw stores there are 3072 items. In this plant are manufactured 15,000 piece parts of differ- ent design requiring 150,000 separate operations of which 35,000 are inspection and testing of materials, workmanship and final product.
number of workmen. The foundation of the Bryant policy laid in those days was to make "superior wiring devices."
In 1900, the Perkins Electric Switch Manufactur- ing Company of Hartford was acquired, and this brought to the Bryant Electric Company the foremost switch manufacturer of that time. The present ex- tensive Bryant switch line was developed from this acquisition.
In 1901, the Bryant Electric Company was pur- chased by the Westinghouse Electric and Manu- facturing Company but the Bryant Electric Company
WHEELER HOWE
WHEE ER SHOWES-
JAL
BRICKS, COAL AND WOOD
Wheeler and Howes, wholesale dealers in coal, wood, bricks, lime, bluestone and grains, conducted an extensive business "at the east end of Center Bridge" (Congress Street to Knowlton Street) in 1900. The firm, established in 1866, was known as "Bridgeport's Leading Coal House" at the turn of the century.
The total productive capacity of this plant exceeds the combined capacities of the works formerly located at Harrisburg, Pa. and Rockford, Illinois.
At the Bridgeport works the personnel includes 1112 employes, 862 male and 250 female. The Hartford and the Bridgeport plants are in charge of F. W. Conard, works manager; D. S. Sammis is assistant works manager at the Bridgeport plant.
BRYANT ELECTRIC COMPANY
A rented loft served as the first workshop of the Bryant Electric Company, incorporated in 1889 by Waldo Calvin Bryant who guided it through 40 years of expansion until his death in 1930.
The original Bryant line consisted of less than one dozen devices and was produced by an even smaller
retained its identity and its original policies remained unchanged.
The Hemco Electric Manufacturing Company of Bridgeport was acquired in 1928, bringing to the Bryant organization a quality line of plural plugs and an up-to-date molding plant for the manufacture of Templus (Bakelite) materials so extensively used in the manufacture of modern wiring devices.
The main plant of the Bryant Electric Company occupies more than half a million square feet of floor space which makes it the largest single plant in the world devoted exclusively to the manufacture of wiring devices.
The present Bryant line includes a modern device for every wiring need. From the original twelve devices the line has increased to about 3000 items.
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To provide adequate service nationally, the Bryant Electric Company maintains district offices and ware- house stocks in Bridgeport at 1421 State Street, in Chicago and in San Francisco, and has sales offices in Boston and in New York.
Walter Cary is president of the company which has about 1200 employes.
WARNER BROTHERS COMPANY
The first to make fine corsets in America to com- pete with European imitations; the first to make corsets with attached hose supporters; the first to make brassieres; the first to make cloth garments with elastic substituted for back lacings; the first to make the "corselette;" the first to make "two way stretch" woven Lastex fabric garments-this is the record of the Warner Brothers Company, corset manufac- turers, 325 Lafayette Street.
This great business began in a very modest way with the formation of a partnership between Dr. I. DeVer Warner and his brother, Dr. Lucien C. Warner in 1874. Dr. I. DeVer Warner had invented an improved form of corset with straps over the shoulders. The device was first called the "Sanitary Corset" but later, Dr. Warner's "Health Corset". The corsets were made in a little shop in McGraw- ville, New York, a single room but 25 feet square.
The first factory building in Bridgeport was erected in 1876 and is now that section occupied by the exe- cutive offices, at the northwest corner of Lafayette and Atlantic Streets. Today the factory covers two city blocks.
In 1887, the capacity of the factory was about 6000 corsets daily and 1000 to 1200 hands were em- ployed, seven-eighths of them being women. In 1894, the "Redfern Corsets" were introduced and later the "Warner Rust Proof Corset."
In 1894, the partnership was given up and the Warner Brothers Company incorporated with Dr. I. DeVer Warner as president. Dr. Lucien C. Warner was vice president and DeVer H. Warner, who had entered the business at the age of 19, secretary and treasurer.
In 1920, DeVer H. Warner was president. In 1929, he relinquished the office to his son-in-law, John C. Field. "DeVer H." was however, chairman of the board of directors until his death in 1934. Lucien T. Warner was named vice president; DeVer C.
Warner, treasurer; and Bradford G. Warner, secre- tary. These same officers hold today, except that J. W. Byrne became treasurer when DeVer C. Warner became treasurer of the Bridgeport Hydraulic Com- pany.
The largest expansion of the company took place about 1912. Additions were built to the metal de- partment and the corset factories and to the paper box factory, the storehouses were enlarged and a new power house was erected.
Today, the Warner Brothers Company employs about 1000 men and women in its Bridgeport plant. There are branches, not only in this country but abroad as well including: New York at 200 Madison Avenue; Chicago, San Francisco, London, Paris, Hamburg, Brussels, Barcelona, Cape Town, Toronto and Mexico City.
STANLEY WORKS
The "Magic Eye" which opens and closes doors without the touch of hand or foot was patented by the Stanley Works on Seaview Avenue.
The Stanley Works, with main offices and plants at New Britain has been famous for years for its tools and Stanley's "Bailey" plane; and the Stanley rules and levels are known to all trades.
In June, 1926, the Stanley Works purchased the American Tube and Stamping Company, prominent in the Bridgeport industrial world since its establish- ment in 1899, in order to obtain the economies of operating steel mills at a location on tide water.
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