The Black & Decker Manufacturing Company was established in 1909 by Samuel Duncan Black and Alonzo Galloway Decker of Baltimore. They began as a general machine shop and they also designed and built custom machinery for manufacturing. By 1916 they were working on designing handheld electric drills—an item that with the development of small but powerful electric motors, was rapidly becoming very popular—culminating in 1917 patents granted to the two men for drill gearing and for the first trigger switch for a pistol-style handheld drill. This innovation was one of the most important in creating the modern handheld drill.

Black & Decker were early innovators in handheld power tools. Over the years, primarily through acquisitions, they began making numerous other products that are also within the scope of this site, including radial arm saws, bench and pedestal grinders, drill presses, tablesaws, and fractional horsepower electric motors.

Acquisitions and Divestments

Black & Decker would survive two world wars, steady technological advancement, and ever-changing competition with a strategy of diversification and acquisitions. This section summarizes those changes that are relevant to the products we are interested in. There were also numerous changes related to other product lines which included kitchen appliances, hardware, plumbing supplies, etc.

B&D opened their first factory in 1917, in Towson, and quickly expanded to Baltimore as well. In 1920 when B&D moved all their operations to Towson, their Baltimore factory operations were sold to the Dieffenbach Westendorf Manufacturing Co.

In 1926 B&D acquired Marschke Manufacturing Co. of Indianapolis, makers of grinding machinery, especially bench grinders; Marschke's operations were soon relocated to Townson. In 1931 the rights to the Marschke line of grinders and buffers were sold to Vonnegut Moulder Corp.

In 1928, Black & Decker acquired Van Dorn Electric Tool Co., makers of bench grinders as well as valve and valve-seat grinders. B&D continued making these products under the Van Dorn name until the early 1950s.

In 1929 B&D acquired Domestic Electric Co. of Cleveland and Kent, Ohio, makers of fractional-horsepower electric motors, and renamed it to the Black & Decker Electric Co.. In 1936, Black & Decker became a publicly traded company with a listing on the NYSE.

In 1960 B&D acquired the DeWalt business from American Machine & Foundry Co. (AMF). Also in 1960, B&D acquired the rights to the panel saws of Richard C. Bennett Manufacturing Co., with B&D merging that business into that of DeWalt, a move that was unsuccessful and their panel-saw line was soon discontinued. In 1961 B&D acquired the woodworking machinery line of Atlas Press Co. and also merged that business into DeWalt. This effort was marginally more successful, with DeWalt making modest numbers of the former Atlas machines for a few years before quietly discontinuing them.

On January 28, 1985, The Black & Decker Manufacturing Co. formally changed its name to The Black & Decker Corp. In the late 1980s B&D sold the DeWalt radial arm saw line—a move perhaps motivated at least partially by concerns over product liability—to some former executives who founded Lancaster Machinery Co. to continue its manufacture (Lancaster soon failed, and Original Saw Co. took its place). In 1989 B&D acquired the remnants of Farrel Foundry & Machine Co., makers of cutter grinding machinery.

In 2004 B&D acquired Pentair's power tools group, which included the Porter-Cable, Delta, DeVilbiss, Oldham and FLEX lines.

In 2010, Black & Decker merged with The Stanley Works to become Stanley Black & Decker. In 2014 they rebranded as Black+Decker. In 2017 they acquired the Craftsman brand from Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Information Sources

• Bradley McDowell's roundup of early B&D 1/4" handheld drills provides catalog images and dates that is useful when identifying an old B&D drill.
• The Wikipedia page on Black & Decker provides a good historical overview of the company, which we used in piecing together the company's history from about 1960 onwards.
• From Catalogue of Copyright Entries, 1931:
  • Black & Decker mfg co., Towson, Md. Black & Decker fractional horsepower electric motors © Nov. 20, 1930 ; 2 c. Jan. 2, 1931 ; aff. Jan 3 ; AA 57893.
  • Black & Decker mfg. co., Towson, Md. Story of Cinderella. © Feb. 9, 1931 ; 2 c. Mar. 11 ; aff. Mar. 10 ; AA 64303.
  • Black & Decker mfg. co., Towson, Md. Black & Decker electric fender straightener. © June 3, 1931 ; 2 c. and aff. Jun 9 ; AA 71316.
  • Black & Decker mfg. co., Towson, Md. New and better ways to wash clothes. © June 13, 1931 ; 2 c. June 23 ; aff. July 1 ; AA 72654.
• Information on the 1985 name change comes from a USPTO name change registration.