In 1873 Jabez Reeves began manufacturing field cultivators in Knightstown, Indiana. In 1873 he and his sons (William F., Alfred B., and James M. D.) established Hoosier Boy Cultivator Co., with the ownership seemingly going mainly to Jabez and William; in 1877 they relocated to Columbus, Indiana. In 1878 William sold his interest to his son Marshal T. Reeves, who became company president. In 1880 another of William's sons, Milton O. Reeves, purchased an interest in the business, which became Reeves & Co.
In 1885 Reeves Pulley Co. bought Ritchie & Dyer Co. in order to be able to manufacture steam traction engines to complement their line of grain threshers. The steam traction engine line would be sold in 1912 to the Emerson-Brantingham Co.
One of our sources claims that Reeves & Co. incorporated in 1888 as the Reeves Pulley Co., but other sources indicate that Milton, Marshal and Girney purchased the Edinburg Pulley Co., and renamed that firm to the Reeves Pulley Co. The truth may be a combination of the two: by that time the mainstay product line of Reeves & Co. consisted of split pulleys of laminated wood construction that were widely used on lineshaft systems, so it seems plausible that a least a portion of Reeves & Co. was merged into the operations of the newly acquired Edinburg Pulley.
In 1897 Milton Reeves patented a variable speed belt drive system that used two pulleys and a drive belt. Each pulley consisted of an opposing pair of cones, with the belt's sides running between the pair of cones forming each pulley. By moving each pulley's cones relative to one another, the effective diameter of each pulley could be varied. A simple linkage connected the two pulley together so that as one pulley was increased in effective diameter, the other decreased. This was not an altogether new idea, but previous implementation had suffered from a problem where the belt would be tight when both pulleys were in the middle of their range, but would get slightly looser as the pulley diameters were varied. Reeves' first solution to this problem was to used curved surfaces on the pulley faces that were calculated to keep the belt tension constant. A series of improved designs would follow, and the "Reeves Drive" was very popular as many machines migrated from lineshaft drive to individual electric motor drive.
Also in 1897, Milton and Marshal were awarded a patent for what is recognized as the first effective exhaust muffler for internal combustion engines. Reeves Pulley would manufacture exhaust mufflers for a time before other companies came to dominate the business.
The above two innovations were both incorporated into the "motocycle", an early automobile built by Milton Reeves that was the fourth of fifth automobile built in the USA. This vehicle was offered for sale but only a small handful were sold, due at least in part to their unreliable engines.
Another product line was centerless grinders, which were manufactured for several years beginning in about 1918.
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