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Manufacturers Index - Albany Hardware Specialty Manufacturing Co.

Albany Hardware Specialty Manufacturing Co.
Albany, WI; Viroqua, WI, U.S.A.
Company Website: http://www.albanyhardware.net/
Manufacturer Class: Wood Working Machinery

History
Last Modified: Jan 30 2011 9:15PM by Jeff_Joslin
If you have information to add to this entry, please contact the Site Historian.

The Albany Hardware Specialty Manufacturing Co. (AHS Manufacturing Co.) was founded in 1898 by Henry Whitcomb. They are known to us from a lovely drill press with an ingenious variable-speed mechanism that was patented in 1908. The company is still in business but has not made the drill press for a great many years.

Information Sources

  • We learned of this company via a posting to the OWWM forum that pointed to an eBay auction of a drill press from this company. The drill press was in excellent condition and sold for nearly $1700. The drill is labeled as "A.H.S. Mfg. Co. / Albany, Wisc."
  • The above-mentioned drill had a patent date of "10-20-08" on it. A patent search turned up patent 901,635, granted to one Saxton Joseph Morgan. A witness on that patent, Harris Morgan Whitcomb, was co-inventor on some other patents granted to Morgan. A couple of later patents were explicitly assigned to Albany Hardware Specialty Manufacturing Co., which explains what "A.H.S." stands for.
  • A 1912 Congressional committee report on metals manufacturing lists this firm as a maker of drilling machines.
  • Listed as a maker of high-speed drills in the 1948 edition (published 1947) of Mechanical Engineers Catalog and Product Directory