Stow Manufacturing Co. was established in 1875, named for inventor Nelson Stow, and specialized in flexible shaft machines. The company name was formally registered with the State of New York on 22 April 1895. In 1993, the company was acquired by another maker of flexible-shaft machines, Elliott Manufacturing Co.
The early machines were powered by hand or foot, requiring two operators. They were for tasks as diverse as clipping or shearing livestock and dental drilling. These were followed by industrial uses, powered by line shafts or electric motors, including drilling metal and wood, tapping, reaming, and grinding. The firm introduced Winkler's patent circular filing and setting saw vise in 1890.
In the 1880s Nelson Stow started a competing company that also bore his name, Stow Flexible Shaft Co., Ltd. of Philadelphia, PA. Various articles about him make clear that he was a better inventor than businessman.
A number of the patents assigned to Stow Mfg. Co. were from a family of inventors, including Clarence F. Hotchkiss (1859-1928), who became company president, his brother William E. Hotchkiss, and his son Clarence F. Hotchkiss, Jr. Their distant cousins, brothers Benjamin B. and Andrew Hotchkiss, were noted inventors in the armaments industry.
The company's address in 1949 was 41 Shear St., Binghamton.
In the 1960s Stow manufactured flexible shafts for Sears which were sold under Sear's Craftsman brand. These products bore Sears model-number prefix 239, and any Sears product with that model-number prefix was made by Stow Mfg. Co.
Information Sources
- Ad in 1955-56 Hitchcock's Wood Workers' Digest Directory
- Invented the Dental Drill, Moberly Weekly Monitor, May 30, 1901, Pg. 7
- The Genius of Inventors, by Clarence Hotchkiss III,Press and Sunday Bulletin, July 31, 2008, Pg. 9
- Ancestry.com family trees