In 1900 Frederick E. Wells left the Wells Brothers Co. and, with his son, formed the F. E. Wells & Son Co. to manufacture pipe threading tools. The product line expanded with manual training machinery, including a line of lathes that was acquired by purchasing Automatic Machine Co. in 1907; those lathes had earlier been acquired by Automatic Machine Co. from Wells Brothers Co.
In 1917 the F. E. Wells & Son Co. was acquired by Greenfield Tap & Die Corp. for its line of pipe threading tools. The company name, along with tools and machinery not related to thread cutting, were all discontinued. We have seen an example of this lathe with the Greenfield Tap & Die name on it, so the lathe survived for at least a brief time after the buyout.
Please note that this website is focused on woodworking and metalworking machinery; hand tools are outside of our scope. If you have questions related to this company, you can contact the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage.
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