Milestones in History - I - First 50 Years

Milestones in The Torrington Company’s History
I - First 50 Years

1846
-Elias Howe Jr. of Cambridge, MA received the first American patent for a “Sewing Machine” and relocated to New Hartford, Connecticut.

1864
-Orrin L. Hopson and Herman P. Brooks received a patent on a mechanism to compress sections of steel wire

1865
-United States Civil War ends.

1866
-Hopson and Eli J. Manville of Waterbury, Connecticut and Brooks of Wolcottville, Connecticut organized Excelsior Needle Company locating its first plant in the Daytonville (northern)
section of Torrington, Connecticut

1870
-Built The Needle Shop factory at Railroad Square, bordering Church Street, in Wolcottville, the central section of the city of Torrington, to manufacture sewing machine needle blanks using the wire compressing process (blanking).

1872
-Purchased $3,000 worth of stock of the Davis Sewing Machine Company of Watertown, New York

1876
-Recorded sales of $75,000

1882
-First rotary swaging machine patent to form needle blanks issued to W.H. (Bill) Dayton for the Excelsior Needle Company

1890
-Took over National Needle Company of Springfield, Massachusetts which not only manufactured sewing machine needles but had also come up with a design for a sewing machine

1890s
-Constructed plant at the site of present Excelsior Field Street building. Vacated the Church Street property
-Incorporated in the State of Connecticut (1893)
-Set up the Torrington Swaging Company a forerunner of the Specialties Division to manufacture spokes and nipples
-Established its first foreign subsidiary, American Supplies Company, Ltd. in London, England
-Piloted The Leicester Swaging and Supply Company in England, in the manufacture of spokes and nipples for bicycle wheels
-Purchased T. Paice & Son of Redditch to manufacture needles in England
-Purchased A.H. Smith Company of New Haven and moved its hook needle-making machinery to Torrington
-Diversified into the manufacture of heavier hook needles and knitting machine latch needles
-Formed a subsidiary The Coventry Swaging Company, Ltd. which absorbed the Leceister and Redditch operations and relocated to Coventry, England
-Set up The Puritan Manufacturing Company in Torrington to manufacture sewing machines and shoe machinery.
-Developed a heavy duty stitching machine

1898
-Annual Sales of $768,000
-All of Excelsior Needle Company assets are conveyed to The Torrington Company of Maine (organized as a holding company) which had purchased all of its stock.
-The Torrington Swaging Company is renamed The Standard Spoke and Nipple Company which in turn was subsequently renamed The Standard Company

1904
-Purchased the bicycle pedal business of Bridgeport Gun Implement Company and merged it into the Standard operations

1905
-Opened a Torrington needle factory in Aachen, Germany, MetallwarenGesellshaft,m.b.h. (Metwar).
-Assumed control of the Domestic Sewing Machine Company of Newark, New Jersey, a sewing machine and carpet sweeper manufacturer

1906
-Built the present Standard Plant to house The Standard Company

1907
-Sold the original Needle Shop on Church Street

1910
-Invested in the Splitdorf Electrical Company of New Jersey which made ignition coils, spark plugs, magnetos and ball bearings and moved production to Torrington

1912
-Initiated the manufacture of screws and bolts at the Coventry plant
-Took on the manufacture of hook needles at the Aachen plant which although impounded by Germany during World War I, was returned intact in 1920
-Electrical service is installed at all factories in Torrington, Connecticut (1912/1914). The preferred method of delivering power to the machinery was belts driven from overhead line shafts which could now be electrified.

1913
-Purchased the Bedford Corey Needle Company of Bedford, Quebec, Canada, a maker of knitting latch needles. Later named The Torrington Company, Ltd. .

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