Founded by Henry J. Colburn, the Colburn Machine Tool Co. made tablesaws, drill presses, key seaters, and vertical boring mills. They were in business from the 1890s until 1922 when the business was "taken over by Consolidated Machine Tool Co. in a merger operation".

Henry J. Colburn had worked for Rollstone Machine Works from 1869 and possibly earlier. Between 1869 and 1881 Colburn was granted a half dozen woodworking machinery patents that are believed to have been used by Rollstone. He then went to work for Baker Brothers. When Colburn left that firm in the 1890s to start his own business, his son, Leslie H. Colburn, took over as superintendent of Baker Bros.

It is possible, though not likely, that there is a direct connection between Rollstone and Colburn Machine Tool Co. The more likely scenario is that Mr. Colburn found himself unemployed after Rollstone's 1890 move to Alabama and started his own company possibly with an intervening step of working for someone else.

Henry J. Colburn died in 1901 or 1902. Around the same time, his son left Baker Brothers to assume control of Colburn Machine Tool Co. Leslie, in poor health for some time, died in May 1918. Shortly thereafter, the firm moved to Cleveland, OH and in 1922 they were acquired by Consolidated Machine Tool Co., and merged out of existence. The "Colburn" name continued to be used on the vertical boring mills manufactured by Consolidated.

Information Sources

• The July 1918 issue of Machinery carried an obituary for Leslie H. Colburn. The article states, incorrectly, that he founded Colburn Machine Tool Co. in 1902.
• 1922-03-22 American Machinist, page 464c, and a lengthy (and in places inaccurate) article on the merger that created what would be known as the Consolidated Machine Tool Corp.

  The Colburn Machine Tool Co. came into being in Franklin, Pa., in the '90s under the guidance of Mr. Colburn, who was formerly superintendent of the Baker Brothers Co. in Toledo, and Chas. Miller, commonly known as "General" by his many railroad friends. Since 1901 this company has been under the management of Harry W. Breckenridge, moving from Franklin in 1921 and now occupying one of the finest and most modern of machine tool shops, in Cleveland, Ohio. Details of this shop were illustrated during the past year. Beginning with the Colburn keyseater, a line of heavy-duty drilling machinery and vertical boring mills have been developed, that have won an enviable reputation.

• The 1943 book, History of Northwestern Pennsylvania by Joseph Riesenman, Jr., and available online through the website of the Penn State University Library, contains two mentions of this company. A Dudley P. Warner worked as an engineer for the company "until the outbreak of the First World War". In December 1901, a William Edward Barrow "became connected with the Colburn Machine Tool Company, in Franklin. Not only did Mr. Barrow assist in organizing this company, but he became its secretary-treasurer and so continued until the enterprise was taken over by the Consolidated Machine Tool Corporation in a merger operation in 1922. Until 1924 he remained with the consolidated company." Barrow then organized Breckenridge Machine Co. of Cleveland, and later rose to president and chairman of Joy Manufacturing Co.
• A 1916 obituary for a David L. Connor noted that he had been an employee of Colburn Machine Tool Co.
• Seen on a 42" VBM with "COLBURN" prominent on the vertical column: "Consolidated Machine Tool Corporation / Betts . Newton . Colburn . Modern . Hilles & Jones / General Offices and works Rochester, N.Y."