Finding Aids

The Christiana Machine Company was a small, general purpose machine shop and foundry located in Christiana, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This small collection includes incoming and outgoing correspondence related to orders following the buyout of Nathan F. Burnham's interest by the Broomells in January 1889.

The Christiana Machine Company is a small, general purpose machine shop and foundry located in Christiana, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Their records cover the operation of the company under the Broomells and Burnham from 1877 to 1915 and are typical of the records of a small machine shop.

The Ferracute Machine Company of Bridgeton, New Jersey was a press and die business founded by Oberlin Smith (1840-1926), inventor, writer, manufacturer in 1863. The collection consists of materials assembled by Arthur J. Cox for the preparation of the company history, Ferracute: The History of an American Enterprise (1985). This collection has been arranged into seventeen series: Administration; Advertising; Employees; History; Machine tools; Military work; Unions; Patents; Press work; Frederick A. Parkhurst (FAP) Time Studies; Miscellany; Scrapbooks; Drawings; Orders; Payrolls; Press cards; and Account books.

The Ferracute Machine Company was a press and die business founded by inventor Oberlin Smith (1840-1926) in Bridgeton, New Jersey, in 1863. It was incorporated in 1877, and ceased operations in 1968. This group of Ferracute Machine Company records is a small fragment preserved by an employee that primarily contains legal files and financial statements.

Fred C. Ielfield (1864-1948) was a mechanical engineer and inventor. This collection consists of twelve patents for mail canceling and postmarking machinery, corn-husking machinery, and a cereal cutter, all invented by Ielfield.

Thomas William Harvey (1795-1854) and his son, Hayward Augustus Harvey (1824-1893), were two important inventors in the arts of metalworking and metallurgy. The Harvey Steel Company constructed a furnace for making file and tool steel in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1887. In 1889, the company erected a much larger plant near Brills Station in Newark, and expanded it into the treating of armor plate. Thomas W. Harvey is represented in this collection by a selection of documents covering his business career. These include deeds to family property. There are small amounts of correspondence regarding his inventions and the patent laws, including an "Essay upon Iron," affidavits regarding his screw machine, and sketches for several inventions. The papers of Hayward Augustus Harvey include copies of patents and drawings of his various inventions and documents arising from patent litigation. However, the bulk of papers concern the Harvey Steel companies and the Harvey process.

Job T. Pugh, Inc. was a small specialty tool manufacturer of augers and bits located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The firm was incorporated under the laws of Delaware on August 30, 1917, succeeding a partnership of the same name. It was dissolved in 1954. The records of Job T. Pugh, Inc., and its unincorporated predecessors are a series of fragments. The collection documents the financial and legal matters associated with operating a tool manufacturing business in the early twentieth century.

The Leeds & Northrup Company traces its origins to Morris E. Leeds & Company, established by Morris E. Leeds (1869-1952) in 1899 to develop and manufacture precision instruments. Their records consists of minutes from the Development and Executive Committes and the Cooperative Association.

William Sellers & Co. was an iron works that manufactured machine tools used for turning, planing, shaping, drilling, boring, or cutting metal or wood. The company was founded in 1848 as Bancroft & Sellers by mechanical engineers and inventors Edward Bancroft (1811-1855) and William Sellers (1824-1905). The records consist of five volumes, as well as correspondence from William Sellers and the Sellers firm.