This company was founded by Albert Sidney Aloe in about 1860. The company seems to have begun as a retailer of surveying and other optical equipment, but at some point they began manufacture of some products. In 1926 they made a gasoline-powered contractor's tablesaw.

The company fell on hard times during the 1930s but survived as a distributor of medical products until it was absorbed by the Brunswick-Balke Collender Co. in 1959. The following year that company changed its name to Brunswick Corp., and remains a diversified company best known as a maker of bowling and billiards products.

Information Sources

• According to a web page at the Smithsonian, "Albert Sidney Aloe (1842–1893) was a Jewish immigrant from Scotland who settled in St. Louis, Missouri, in the early 1860s, and sold spectacles and other optical goods. He was soon offering surveying instruments and medical and laboratory supplies as well. The firm was A. S. Aloe in the years 1867–1876, Aloe & Hernstein in 1876–1880, Aloe, Hernstein & Co. in 1881–1884, and then A. S. Aloe & Co. By 1905, it claimed to be 'the largest house in the world.'"
• Thanks to Jeff Burks for drawing our attention to this maker. Jeff sent us a scan of an ad from the June 1926 issue of Building Age and National Builder for this firm's "Jiffy" gasoline-powered tablesaw.
• Information on the takeover of A. S. Aloe by Brunswick came from Matt Guesto's pages on the history of Brunswick-Balke Collender Co.