This company name was given to the former Berlin Machine Works in 1916. The name had already been in use by that company's Canadian branch operation, located in Hamilton, Ontario.
In 1917, a catalog proclaimed P. B. Yates as "the largest manufacturer of woodworking machinery in the world", a claim sure disputed by J. A. Fay & Egan Co., not to mention various European manufacturers. In 1925, Yates bought a major competitor, American Wood Working Machine Co., to form Yates-American Machine Co. That firm went on to have great success in making large planer-matchers such as are used for manufacturing flooring. Meanwhile, the Canadian operations continued as an independent entity under the P. B. Yates Machine Co., Ltd., name.
In 1964, P. B. Yates Machine Co. of Hamilton, Ontario announced that they had acquired Turner Machinery Co. of San Francisco, makers of sawmill machinery.
Information Sources
- Planers, Matchers and Moulders in America, by Chandler W. Jones, reports that the P. B. Yates Machine Company name had already been used for their Hamilton, ON operations since 1908.
- We have seen a 1968 patent that was assigned to P. B. Yates Machine Co. of Hamilton, ON.