In 1903 the Davis Expansion Boring Tool Co. was established by Emery Emmett Davis to manufacture boring heads, reamers, and micrometer calipers. At some point before 1912 Claude L. Matthews acquired an interest in the business which changed its name to the Matthews-Davis Tool Co.. Before 1925 the name changed to the Davis Boring Tool Co., and in 1945 the business had been acquired by Giddings & Lewis, which operated it as the Davis Boring Tool Division of Giddings & Lewis
Information Sources
- 1911-10-10 Electric Railway Journal page 714, in a list of exhibitors at the the Annual Conventions of the American Electric Railway Association: "Matthews-Davis Tool Company, St. Louis, space 119, Machinery ahll. Davis expansion car-wheel boring tools and Davis expansion boring tools for general machine-shop use. Represented by Claude L. Matthews and J. W. McKeen."
- December 1911 Machinery page 328. "Matthews-Davis Tool Co., 219 N. Second St., St. Louis, Mo., manufacturer of Davis expansion boring tools, has just moved into a new plant, the new structure consisting of three stories, having a total floor space of 15,750 square feet. The plant is equipped with the most modern machine tools, and the hardening-room is provide with cyanide, has and coke furnaces."
- February 1912 Machinery page 59, full page ad from Matthews-Davis Tool Co., "formerly the Davis Expansion Boring Tool Co. Established 1903".