Prentice Brothers Factory ca 1909

Prentice Bros. was founded in 1877 as a partnership between Benjamin W. Prentice and Vernon F. Prentice after Vernon sold out from A. F. Prentice & Co. The firm reorganized in 1881 as the Prentice Brothers Co., when Albert F. Prentice joined the firm.

There is a familial connection to A. F. Prentice & Co., which was founded in 1872 by Vernon F. and his brother Albert F. and was renamed to F. E. Reed & Co. in 1890 shortly after Frederick E. Reed bought it. Reed went on to buy Prentice Brothers in 1912.

Information Sources

• We have found three 1912 patents assigned to this maker. Two were granted to Albert E. Newton and one was granted to Fred K. Hendrickson.
• The Massachusetts corporate registry database lists Prentice Brothers Co.'s first registration as 1898-12-02.
• American Lathe Builders: 1810-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2001 page 132
• Worcester Magazine by the Worcesters Board of Trade, Jan 1909 pg 107:

  Prentice Brothers Co., incorporated in 1898, is one of the oldest established machine tool concerns in Worcester. Lathes and Drill Presses have been their specialty from the start. Mr. Prentice made blacksmiths’ drills, but he disposed of that business to Boynton & Plummer. The Prentice Brothers Company make the highest price lathe in the market and they also manufacture the only complete line of high-speed friction-geared head lathes in the market. In addition they build the only line of friction-geared speed change, upright drills. Another of their specialties in their friction-geared head turret lathe for cast iron and steel work that has the special feature of a turret with power cross-feed in both directions, with automatic knockoff in either direction. They build a complete line of sensitive drills and upright drills from 20-inch to 50-inch swing and a full line of geared speed-change radial drills with from 3 to 10-foot arms. These radial drills are all of the same general design and the change of speed is obtained instantly by the shifting of levers through friction clutches. These radials have means of tapping holes at a certain speed and a quick return to spindle when reversed, at a speed of five to one. They are represented abroad by agencies in Cologne, Brussels, Milan, Bilbao, Barcelona, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Vienna, London and Japan, and also in this hemisphere by houses in Montreal, Mexico and South America. They have had for many years a very large export trade as well as a fine business in the United States among those who desired high-grade tools. They manufacture no other and base their reputation on that fact. Cuts of some of their best known tools, as well as a picture of their plant, accompany this article.