This business was founded in about 1860 to make steam engines. In 1862 they purchased the assets of Thayer, Houghton & Co., which got them into the business of making machine tools. The business seems to have disappeared in the 1870s.

We have seen the name New York Steam-Engine Works as well as New York Steam Engine Co., both appearing to refer to the same business.

Information Sources

• From an 1865 ad: "New-York Steam-Engine Works, Manufacturers of Engine-Lathes, Planers, Bolt-Cutters, Upright Drills, Shapers, Slotters, Combined Punch and Shears, Hand and Wood Lathes, Milling-Machines, and All Kinds of Wood and Iron-Working Machinery."
• Annual Report of the American Institute of the City of New York for the Year 1867-68, in their report on the October 1867 Fair of the American Institute, lists "New York Steam Engine Company, 222 Pearl street, for a bolt and screw cutting machine. Second medal and a diploma." They won a third medal and a certificate for a "crank planer", a second medal and certificate for a large shaping machine, a second medal and diploma for a drill press with swing table, ditto for a car wheel drill press, ditto for a horizontal drilling and boring machine.
• The 1874 book, Wiley's American iron trade manual of the leading iron industries of the United States.

  American Steam Engine Works. Office and wareroom, 98 Chambers Street, New York. Location of the works, Passaic, N.J. This is one of the most complete establishments in the world for the manufacture of machinists', locomotive, car-builders', and railroad repair-shop tools." The article notes that the works were originally located in Worcester, MA, but re-located to Passaic in 1869. Construction of new works in Passaic was completed in 1871, and much of the rest of the article is a paean to these works.

• American Lathe Builders: 1810-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2001 page 109