Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co., Factory

Beginning in 1833, David R. Brown and son Joseph R. Brown operated various businesses in Providence, the father retiring in 1841. In 1850 Joseph developed an ingenious and effective dividing engine to create the graduations on rules. In that same year he began to manufacture steel rules, and this marks the genesis of what became the Brown & Sharpe tool business. During those early years J. R. Brown was also making yarn wheels and other items for the spinning trade, and was making and repairing clocks. From that 1850 beginning in making rules, he soon began making an early micrometer specialized for measuring sheet metal, and then general-purpose micrometers and other precision measuring instruments.

Beginning in 1848, Lucian Sharpe was an apprentice to Joseph R. Brown, and Sharpe proved highly capable, particularly on the business and administrative side whereas Brown was much more interested in the shop side of the business. In 1853, before Sharpe had quite completed his formal apprenticeship, he became a partner in the business which became J. R. Brown & Sharpe. With this change in the business Brown was able to devote his time to the exercise of his considerable mechanical abilities, and Sharpe's administrative talents proved vital to their growing success.

Meanwhile, in 1852 Samuel Darling, of Bangor, Maine, also began making precision tools, and independently developed his own rule-graduating machine which, although very different in its design compared to Brown's was also very effective. Darling worked at first on his own and then in the partnership of Darling & Schwartz. The businesses of Brown & Sharpe and Darling & Schwartz were in direct competition, which ended in 1866 when Darling joined Messrs. Brown and Sharpe to create the partnership of Darling, Brown & Sharpe. This new partnership did not supplant the partnership of J. R. Brown & Sharpe. Roughly speaking, after 1866 J. R. Brown & Sharpe built machines and clocks, and Darling, Brown & Sharpe built tools. The two businesses operated out of the same premises at 115 South Main Street in Providence.

Although most of Samuel Darling's efforts were focused on hand tools, which are not of interest to this website, he is responsible for at least one key innovation on the machine-tool side: he developed a method of using a machine screw—such as an engine lathe's lead-screw—to make another screw of greater accuracy than the original (see patent 226,162). Darling was conservative and secretive in his business practices and reportedly worked to limit the expansion of his side of the business.

in May of 1868, J. R. Brown & Sharpe incorporated as the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Co. In 1892 Darling's interest in Darling, Brown & Sharpe was bought out by the other partners. Darling died in 1896, and at the beginning of 1897 the business of Darling, Brown & Sharpe was absorbed into Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co.

Brown & Sharpe and its predecessors were important innovators in machinists' tools. They are credited with developing the American Standard Wire Gauge, they were the first to achieve widespread success with the U-frame micrometer, they created the vernier caliper, etc. The Vintage Machinery website's interest, however, is in their machinery. In that field Brown & Sharpe are credited with the development of the graduating machine mentioned above, plus the universal milling machine, the Brown & Sharpe standard taper, the formed milling cutter, 20 degree pressure angle gearing. They were also early innovators in turret lathes, automatic screw machines, grinders, and horizontal milling machines.

Bourn & Koch, Inc. is now the OEM for the Brown & Sharpe grinders and milling machines. They did not purchase the inspection equipment, turret lathes, or automatic screw machine lines.

Information Sources

• 1856 Adams' New England Business Directory, page 82, text ad: "J. R. Brown & Sharpe, 115 South Main Street, Providence, R. I. / Manufacturers of Watch Clocks, Yarn Assorters and Reels, Steel Standard Rules, The Standard Wire Gauge, And a variety of tools for accurate measurements."
• 1860 book Mechanics' Festival and Historical Sketches, Providence, page 111. "In 1794, Lemuel Brown, Jr. was established as 'saddle and chaise trimmer, at the sign of the Saddle, nearly opposite the store of Messrs. Brown & Francis,' now Brown & Sharpe's South Main street..." On page 114, "In 1791, Brown & Francis & Daniel Tillinghast had a distillery in operation for the manufacture of gin..."
• 1868 Sampson, Davenport & Co.'s New York State Business Directory, page 191, has a pair of ads. "J. R. Brown & Sharpe, No. 115 South Main St., Providence, R. I., Manufacturers of Sewing Machines, Revolving Head Screw Machines, Universal Milling Machines, Tapping Machines, Patent Cutters For Gear. Watch Clocks, Yarn Assorters and Reels. Gears cut and Index Plates made and drilled to order." Also, "Darling, Brown & Sharpe, No. 115 South Main Street, Providence, R. I., Manufacturers of U. S. Standard Rules, Patent Hardened Cast Steel Try Squares, The American Standard Wire Guage [sic], And a variety of Tools for accurate measurement. Our Price Lists sent per Mail on application."
• May 1868 Acts and Resolves of the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island, page 32: "An act to incorporate the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company... Joseph R. Brown, Lucian Sharpe, Frederic W. Howe, and Thomas McFarlane, their associates, successors and assigns, are constituted a body corporate, by the name of the Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company, for the purpose of manufacturing machinery, and working in iron and other materials, and for the transaction of other business connected herewith...The capital stock of said corporation shall by one hundred thousand dollars, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each..."
• Machine serial numbers from 1919 to 1977 may found at the Brown & Sharpe Co. serial number page.
• Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co. Catalogue, 1904, pg. xvii
• English and American Tool Builders, Joseph Wickham Roe, 1916
• 1935 Brown & Sharpe catalog, page 4.

  The business now conducted by the Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co. was founded in 1833 by David Brown and his son Joseph R. Brown. David Brown retired in 1841 and the business was continued by Joseph R. Brown until 1853, when Lucian Sharpe became his partner, and the firm of J. R. Brown & Sharpe was formed. The Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co. was incorporated in 1868.

  The manufacture of steel rules and other tools of precision was begun by Joseph R. Brown in 1850. In 1852 a similar line of work was begun by Samuel Darling and, in 1866, the partnership of Darling, Brown & Sharpe was formed, the business being carried on under that name until the partnership was dissolved by the purchase of Mr. Darling's interest in 1892.

  In 1850, Mr. Brown invented and built the first linear dividing engine in America for graduating rules. The adaptation of the vernier principle to a measure tool for machinists' use was brought out by him the following year.

  In 1867 when visiting the Paris Exposition, Messrs. J. R. Brown and Lucian Sharpe, impressed with the possibilities of the original micrometer, the Systeme Palmer, developed this tool upon their return.

  Their efforts were not confined to small tools alone, for as early as 1855 Mr. Brown designed and built a precision Gear Cutting Machine. The original Universal Milling Machine (1861) and the Universal Grinding Machine (1868) were both invented by Mr. Brown. The Formed Cutter was another of Mr. Brown's contributions to the metal industry...

• The American Precision Museum website has biographies of Joseph R. Brown and Lucian Sharpe.
• American Milling Machine Builders: 1820-1920 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2007, pages 41-58