Brown & Sharpe

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Brown & Sharpe is today a division of Hexagon Metrology, Inc., a multinational corporation focused mainly on metrological tools and technology. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Brown & Sharpe was one of the most well-known and influential firms in the machine tool industry. Its influence throughout mechanical engineering was such that its name is often synonymous with certain industrial standards that it established, including:

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Founding (1833) to World War I era (1916)

The text of this section is quoted from Roe 1916:202-215,[1] which is in the public domain in the U.S. (first published in the U.S. before 1923). The subheadings have been added to help with navigation. Hyperlinks have been added for the reader's benefit, but the links' anchor text has been preserved exactly as quoted.

[edit] Beginnings; dividing engine for graduating rules; vernier calipers

"[The company that would become Brown & Sharpe] was founded in 1833 [in Providence, Rhode Island] by David Brown and his son Joseph R. Brown. For nearly twenty years its business comprised the making and repairing of clocks, watches and mathematical instruments, in a small shop without power. [Editorial note: "without power" here meant without water wheel or steam engine. No one had electrical power in this era (1833-1853).] Its influence was hardly more than local and only fourteen persons were employed in 1853, when Lucian Sharpe was taken into the partnership, and the firm became J. R. Brown & Sharpe."
"The real development of the business had begun a few years before. In 1850 J. R. Brown had invented and built a linear dividing engine which was, so far as is known, the first automatic machine for graduating rules used in the United States. It was fully automatic, adapted to a wide variety of work, and provided with devices for correcting the inaccuracies of the machine as built, and such as might develop on account of wear."
[…]
"Soon after the first graduating machine was put into use, the vernier caliper, reading to thousandths of an inch, was brought out [that is, introduced to the mass market] by Mr. Brown; the first was made as early as 1851. In the following year he applied the vernier to protractors. A writer, in speaking of the invention of the vernier caliper, says, 'It was the first practical tool for exact measurements which could be sold in any country at a price within the reach of the ordinary machinist, and its importance in the attainment of accuracy for fine work can hardly be overestimated.'" [Note that Brown did not invent the vernier scale; but he pioneered the penetration of the technology to the level of the average machine shop.]
[…]
"Mr. Brown did not have the market [to himself] long, for in 1852 Samuel Darling also invented and built a graduating engine and began the manufacture of rules and squares at Bangor, Maine. Mr. Darling had been a farmer and sawmill owner, with a strong bent for mechanics. He had gone to work in a machine shop six years before and almost from the first had given his attention to improvements in machinists' tools. His first partner was Edward H. Bailey, but after a year a new partnership was formed with Michael Schwartz, a saw maker and hardware dealer of Bangor. They soon became active competitors of J. R. Brown & Sharpe […]. Competition between the two firms, both in prices and quality of work, became so keen that a truce was called in 1866, resulting in the formation of the partnership of Darling, Brown & Sharpe, which conducted this part of the business until 1892, when Darling's interest was bought out. The entire business was soon after conducted under the name The Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company, the original firm of J. R. Brown & Sharpe having been incorporated under that name in 1868."
[…]

[edit] Measuring and gauging wire and sheet metal

"The early business of J. R. Brown & Sharpe connected them closely with the various standards then in use for measuring wire, sheet metal, and the like. Mr. Sharpe was impressed with the irregularity and confusion of these various gauges, so that after he became Mr. Brown's partner, he interested himself in the establishment of a more systematic standard for wire gauges. In 1855 he corresponded with various people in regard to gauges for clock springs. By January of 1856 the wire gauge with a regular progression of sizes had been conceived, and a month later a table of sizes was made. The new system was laid before the Waterbury Brass Association by Mr. Sharpe, and in November of that year fifty gauges were sent to William Brown, president of the Association, for inspection by the members to show them the uniformity in size which could be maintained in making a number of gauges."
"The Association passed resolutions adopting this standard, and in February, 1857, eight of the leading American manufacturers signed these resolutions. The new gauge, introduced to the public through a circular sent out in March of that year, became the standard, since known as the American Wire Gauge."

[edit] Milling cutters and and gear-cutting milling machines

"The subject of accurate gearing came up in connection with the clock business then conducted by J. R. Brown & Sharpe. There were also calls for gears to be cut which were beyond the capacity of the machine they then had for such work. This led to the design and building of a precision gear cutter, not only to produce accurate gears, but also to drill index plates and do circular graduating."
[…]
"The formed milling cutter, which retains accurately the contour of its cutting edge through successive sharpenings, was invented in 1864 by J. R. Brown with special reference to the cutting of gear teeth. In fact, the oldest milling cutter known was used for cutting gear teeth. This cutter was made some time prior to 1782 by the French mechanic Jacques de Vaucanson and came into the possession of the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company about 1895. The teeth are very fine and apparently were cut with chisels. The hole in the center is octagonal and seems to have been broached."
"The formed cutters came as one of the important elements in the system of interchangeable involute gears, introduced by Brown & Sharpe, based on the principles of Professor Willis. While they used both the involute and cycloidal systems, they threw the weight of their influence toward the former and were a strong factor in the general adoption of the involute form for cut gearing, as well as for the use of diametral pitch, which, as we have seen, was suggested by Bodmer in Manchester, England."

[edit] Turret lathes; screw machines

"Early in the Civil War the Providence Tool Company took up the manufacture of Springfield muskets for the Government. Frederick W. Howe, who had become superintendent of that company after leaving Robbins & Lawrence, had been designing turret machines for a number of years, as we have seen. In order to equip the Tool Company for this work, and especially for making the nipples, he went to J. R. Brown & Sharpe and arranged with them to build a turret screw machine for this purpose. [This particular machine was what we today would call a turret lathe, because we reserve the term screw machine for fully automatic machines.] The general design of this machine was similar to those of Howe & Stone, and Mr. E. E. Lamson tells the writer that the castings for it were made at the Jones & Lamson shop in Windsor. J. R. Brown added the self-revolving turret, utilizing a ratchet and pawl action on the return motion of the slide, the device for releasing, feeding and gripping the bar-stock while in motion, and the reversing die holder. While Brown was the first to adapt these features to the Howe machine, the revolving feeding mechanism had been used before and Pratt & Whitney had begun the manufacture of turret screw machines [i.e., turret lathes] with self-revolving heads that same year, 1861."
"This screw machine [i.e., turret lathe] seems to have been the first machine tool built for sale by the Brown & Sharpe Company. Various sizes of screw machines, of both hand and [semi-]automatic types, were built by them during and since the Civil War. In the early eighties, S. L. Worsley developed for them the complete automatic screw machine […]." [Worsley's automatic was not the first, as that honor goes to Spencer's, patented in 1873[2]; but it was one of the early and important automatics.]

[edit] Universal milling machines

"At the opening of the war plain milling machines had been in use for many years. The Lincoln miller had taken its present form and Howe had designed a miller with a vertically adjustable cutter-slide and a swiveling chuck which could be revolved, indexed and swiveled in two planes and fed longitudinally under the cutter. The statement by Fitch in the "Report on the Manufacture of Interchangeable Mechanism" in the United States Census, 1880, that the "universal miller" was designed by Howe in 1852, is doubtless based on this machine or a forerunner of it. The drawings of it, however, show a machine of radically different design from what is now known as the "universal miller," which was invented by Joseph R. Brown in 1861-1862, at Howe's suggestion."
"The Brown & Sharpe universal miller is indirectly connected with the percussion nipple which brought about their first screw machine. The hole in this piece was drilled by twist drills which the Providence Tool Company were making for themselves. One day Howe came into the shop and watched the workman filing the spiral grooves in tool-steel wire with a rat-tail file. He decided that the method was too expensive and consulted with Joseph R. Brown to find a better and more economical way of making them."
"Mr. Brown appreciated the need of a machine to do this work, especially as he was just beginning to use such drills himself in the manufacture of the Wilcox & Gibbs sewing machines. He set himself at once to the task of developing a machine which would not only cut the grooves in twist drills, but would be suitable for many kinds of spiral milling, gear cutting, and other work which had up to that time required expensive hand operations. Little time was lost, and the first machine (Fig. 43) was built and sold to the Providence Tool Company, March 14, 1862. After passing through several hands it came back thirty years later into the possession of its builders and is now preserved by them for its historical interest. The first published account of the machine appeared in the Scientific American, December 27, 1862. The limited facilities of the shop were taxed to meet the demand created, and ten machines were built and sold during the remainder of the year 1862, most of the sales being in the eastern states. The first machine sold in the west went to the Elgin National Watch Company, and the first one sold abroad went to France."
"Howe never claimed to be the inventor of this machine, and, in fact, while still superintendent of the Providence Tool Company he wrote a testimonial to J. R. Brown & Sharpe, in which he said, 'I take great pleasure in recommending your celebrated universal millers.'"
"Howe was connected with the Brown & Sharpe Company from January 1, 1868, to about 1873. This is the last year that he appears in the directory as being at their works. There was some form of partnership by which he and Mr. McFarlane, the superintendent, had an interest in the business so that his name does not occur in its list of employees. The plain milling machine manufactured for years by Brown & Sharpe is his design, and his work was partly that of special designing and partly superintending the building of their new plant on the present site. They moved into this in 1872 from their old wooden buildings. At that time they employed from 150 to 200 men."

[edit] Better gauges; better metrological machine

"In the early sixties the company began the manufacture of the Wilcox & Gibbs sewing machine, which they [manufactured for many subsequent decades]. They used cylindrical and caliper gauges, including limit gauges, for this work. In 1865 a set of standards was made for John Richards, and cylindrical and limit gauges of various forms were regularly manufactured during the early seventies. For a long time the basis of accuracy for these was a set of Whitworth plugs and rings, which are still preserved among their archives. The sizes above the 2 inch are cast-iron, and commencing with the 2¾ inch they are hollow and ribbed. These were looked upon with reverence by the Brown & Sharpe workmen and were used as master gauges for the commercial plugs and rings. They found, however, that in trying the Whitworth plugs, say ¾ inch and 1¼ inch into a 2 inch ring and then other combinations into the same ring, an appreciable variation in fit could be noticed. This led to consideration of means for obtaining greater accuracy than was possible with dependence on these Whitworth gauges. At the time the question arose Richmond Viall had just become superintendent and Oscar J. Beale was chief inspector. It was decided to make a measuring machine which should be an original standard for measuring as well as a comparator. This machine, built in 1878, was largely the work of Mr. Beale. It has a measuring wheel graduated to read to ten-thousandths of an inch and a vernier reading to hundred-thousandths. There is also an adjustment which reads even finer than the famous "millionth dividing engine" of Whitworth. The basis of accuracy for the microscopic scale was a standard yard, which had been compared with the standards at Washington."

[edit] Micrometer caliper

"The micrometer caliper was introduced [to the mass market in anglophone countries] by Brown & Sharpe in 1867. Although not the pioneers in the sense of being the inventors, they were the first to recognize the practical value of this tool for machinists, and to put it on the market. As in the case of the vernier caliper, the introduction of the micrometer caliper into everyday shopwork marked an important step in raising the standard of accuracy."
"The principle is very old. William Gascoigne, of Yorkshire, England, used it about 1637, moving two parallel edges or pointers to and fro by means of a screw provided with a divided head. For two hundred years the principle has been used in controlling the movement of spider webs and cross hairs in transits and other optical instruments. It is well known that Watt had one (now [1916] in the South Kensington Museum in London), and we have already mentioned the "Lord Chancellor," used by Maudslay before 1830. R. Hoe & Company, of New York, in 1858, had a bench micrometer reading up to 9 inches. But none of these could ever have influenced mechanical standards generally as did the strong, compact little instrument developed by Brown & Sharpe. The circumstances surrounding its introduction are as follows: In 1867 the Bridgeport Brass Company had a lot of sheet brass returned to them from the Union Metallic Cartridge Company as 'out of gauge.' Investigation showed that the sheets were to the gauge of the manufacturer, but that the gauge used by the customer did not agree, and, further, when both gauges were tested by a third, no two of them agreed. All three gauges were supposed to be the regular U. S. Standard, adopted by the wire manufacturers in 1857, of the well-known round, flat form, with slits for the various sizes cut in the circumference. Gauges of this form were the best and most accurate method then known for measuring sheet metal."
"S. R. Wilmot, then superintendent of the Bridgeport Brass Company, seeing that the difficulty was likely to occur again, devised the micrometer shown at A in Fig. 44, and had six of them made by a skilled machinist named Hiram Driggs, under the direction of A. D. Laws, who was then in charge of the mechanical department of the Brass Company. The reading of the thousandths of an inch was given by a pointer and a spiral line of the same pitch as the screw, 40 to the inch, running around the cylinder and crossed by a set of 25 lateral, parallel lines. In the early part of 1867, the matter was taken up with J. R. Brown & Sharpe with a view to having them manufacture the gauges, and the one shown, A, Fig. 44, with Mr. Laws' name stamped on it, is still in their possession. As submitted, the tool was not considered to be of commercial value, for the cylinder was completely covered with spiral and straight lines intersecting each other so closely that it was impossible to put any figures upon it, thus making it very difficult to read."
"In 1848 Jean Laurent Palmer, a skilled mechanic in Paris, patented a 'screw caliper,' shown at B, Fig. 44, and began manufacturing it under the name of 'Systeme Palmer.' In this micrometer the graduations were divided, one set being on the cylinder of the frame and the other on the revolving barrel, an arrangement which permitted all the markings necessary for clearness. The importance of this tool does not seem to have been appreciated until August, 1867, when J. R. Brown and Lucian Sharpe saw one at the Paris Exposition. They at once recognized its possibilities and brought one home with them. To use Mr. Sharpe's own words: 'As a gauge was wanted for measuring sheet metal, we adopted Palmer's plan of division, and the Bridgeport man's size of gauge, adding the clamp for tightening the screw and the adjusting screw for compensating the wear of end of points where the metal is measured, and produced our "Pocket Sheet Metal Gauge." … We should never have made such a gauge as was shown us by the Bridgeport man in 1867, to sell on our own account, as it would be too troublesome to read to be salable. If we had not happened to find the Palmer gauge, and thereby found a practical way to read thousandths of an inch, no gauges would have been made. If we had never seen the Bridgeport device we should have found the Palmer at Paris, and without doubt have made such gauges, but possibly would have made a larger one first. The immediate reason of making the "Pocket Sheet Metal Gauge" was the suggestion coming from the Bridgeport Brass Company of the want of a gauge of the size of the sample shown us for the use of the brass trade.'"
"This gauge, shown at C, in Fig. 44, was put on the market in 1868, and appeared in the catalog of 1871. Comparison of A, B, and C in Fig. 44 shows clearly their close relationship. The term "micrometer" caliper was first applied to the one-inch caliper (D, Fig. 44) which was brought out and illustrated in the catalog of 1877. In Machinery of June, 1915, Mr. L. D. Burlingame has given an admirable and very complete account of the various improvements which have been brought out since that time. In connection with the article, a modern micrometer is shown and its various features, with the inventors of each, are clearly indicated."

[edit] Cylindrical grinding; surface grinding

"The cylindrical grinder was first made as a crude grinding lathe in the early sixties, and used for grinding the needle and foot bars of the Wilcox & Gibbs sewing machines. In 1864 and 1865 the regular manufacture of grinding lathes was begun by using parts of 14-inch Putnam lathes modified to produce the automatic grinding lathes. These modifications consisted in mounting a grinding wheel on the carriage, providing an automatic feeding and reversing attachment, and included the use of a dead center pulley. From 1868 until 1876 various plans were worked out for a complete universal grinder, and by 1876 one had been built and was exhibited at the Centennial Exposition. The first one used at the factory was put into service a few days after Mr. Brown's death, which occurred July 23, 1876. The patent granted to Mr. Brown's heirs for this machine included not only the ordinary devices of the universal grinder so well known today, but also provision for form grinding. The designing of surface machines as well as many other varieties followed, the work being done under the direction of Charles H. Norton, who later had charge of the design of their grinding machinery." [Charles H. Norton made groundbreaking advances in grinding machine design and is one of the Nortons of Norton Abrasives (although not the first—the first, F.B. Norton, was unrelated to Charles).[3]]

[edit] Automatic gear cutters

"The manufacture of automatic gear cutters was commenced by the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company in 1877, two designs by Edward H. Parks, a small manufacturing machine for bevel and spur gears and the larger machine for general use, being brought out in that year."

[edit] Widespread influence

"In sixty years the Brown & Sharpe Company has grown from an obscure local shop into a great plant employing thousands, but its influence and its product represent a greater achievement. Many mechanics of high ability have had their part in it. Among them are Henry M. Leland, president of the Cadillac Motor Car Company; J. T. Slocomb, Horace Thurston, Elmer A. Beaman and George Smith, of Providence; Charles H. Norton, of Worcester; John J. Grant, of Boston; William S. Davenport, of New Bedford; A. J. Shaw, of the Shaw Electric Crane Company, and R. K. LeBlond [founder of R. K. LeBlond Machine Tool Company], of Cincinnati."
"Hundreds of others, however, as managers, superintendents, chief draftsmen and tool makers, have perhaps done more to spread throughout the country the methods and standards of accuracy which have made American machine tools what they are."
"Mr. Henry M. Leland, who was trained in the Providence shop, says:"
"'The man who is responsible for this and who thoroughly demonstrated his rare ability and wonderful persistency in bringing out the accurate measuring tools and instruments, and the advanced types of more efficient and unique machinery, was the founder, Joseph R. Brown. I have often said that in my judgment Mr. Brown deserved greater credit than any other man for developing and making possible the great accuracy and the high efficiency of modern machine practice and in making it possible to manufacture interchangeable parts, because the Brown & Sharpe Company were the first people to place on the market and to educate the mechanics of the country in the use of the vernier caliper. They were also the first to make the micrometer caliper.'"
"'I remember that in those early days people came to Brown & Sharpe from all over the world to consult with Mr. Brown in reference to obtaining great accuracy and securing difficult results which had been deemed insurmountable by other high-grade mechanics. The mechanical engineers are now searching the records for men who have made themselves eminent in the industrial world as inventors and manufacturers; for a list of men to have honorable mention and to have their achievements and ability so recorded that the modern world may bestow upon them the credit and gratitude which they so richly deserve. Among these names I know of none who deserves a higher place than, or who has done so much for the modern high standards of American manufacturers of interchangeable parts as Joseph R. Brown.'"

[edit] World War I through World War II

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[edit] Post-World War II era

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[edit] Reference citations

  1. ^ Roe 1916:202-215.
  2. ^ Rolt 1965, p. 166-169.
  3. ^ Rolt 1965, p. 209-213.

[edit] Works cited

  • Roe, Joseph Wickham (1916), English and American Tool Builders, New Haven, Connecticut, USA: Yale University Press, LCCN 16-011753 . Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (LCCN 27-024075); and by Lindsay Publications, Inc., Bradley, IL, USA (ISBN 978-0-917914-73-7). Also available online via Google Book Search.
  • Rolt, L.T.C. (1965), A Short History of Machine Tools, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: MIT Press, LCCN 65-12439 . Co-edition published as Rolt, L.T.C. (1965), Tools for the Job: a Short History of Machine Tools, London: B. T. Batsford, LCCN 65-080822 .

[edit] External links