1957 Factory View
Giddings & Lewis has been in continuous operation since 1859 and is the foremost designer and manufacturer of an extensive range of precision heavy duty machine tools, accessories, attachments, and cutting tools. The growth of Giddings & Lewis to a point where it comprises four individual operating divisions with a combined manufacturing space totaling nearly a million square feet serves to illustrate the importance of vision and alert engineering — plus capacity to produce. The development of ideas . . . their proper evaluation . . . and the constant striving to build products best in their class, have made Giddings & Lewis a major force in the metal-working progress of American industrial life.
Founded in 1859 as the Giddings & Lewis Manufacturing Co., makers of woodworking machinery. By 1921 the focus of the company had changed to machine tools, especially large horizontal boring and drilling machines, and the name had changed to the Giddings & Lewis Machine Tool Co. In 1955 Giddings & Lewis acquired Cincinnati Bickford Tool Co. and Kaukauna Machine Corp.
Cincinnati Bickford Division, Cincinnati 9, Ohio
The Cincinnati Bickford Tool Company established in 1874 is one of the oldest in the Cincinnati area. The Bickford plant is well situated and provides modern facilities for the design and manufacture of Radial and Upright Drilling Machines. As its products and accessories are widely known for dependability and high production with fast handling machine controls, Cincinnati Bickford has a reputation as a leader with their line of Super Service Machine Tools.
This modern machine tool company was acquired by Giddings & Lewis in 1955 and is operated as a separate division in Cincinnati.
Davis Boring Tool Division, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Giddings & Lewis purchased the Davis Boring Tool Company of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1945 and moved the entire operation to Fond du Lac where it is operated as a separate cutting tool division. This division, in its own modem plant facilities, designs and manufactures a complete line of boring, planing and turning tools for performing virtually any machining operation. Davis sales engineers are located in all principal industrial centers, and are available to assist in developing special tooling to meet individual job requirements, or to recommend standard tooling from a large quantity of catalogued items.
G&L and HYPRO Division, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
For the past forty-two years the G&L shield has appeared around the world as a well-known trade mark on Giddings & Lewis Horizontal Boring, Drilling and Milling Machines. These machines with their open construction and combination of movements, together with the variety of sizes and types which can be offered, provide a larger scope of machining possibilities than any other high power precision machine tool.
The Cincinnati Planer Company was in its 79th year of operation when acquired by Giddings & Lewis in 1948, and subsequently moved to Fond du Lac in 1950. At that time the name Cincinnati was dropped in favor of HYPRO, a long recognized name in the industry for Planers, Vertical Boring Mills, and Planer Type Milling Machines. Today, the G&L and HYPRO Division operates one of the finest machine tool plants in the world devoted to the design and manufacture of heavy duty precision machine tools.
Kaukauna Machine & Foundry Division, Kaukauna, Wisconsin
The Kaukauna Machine Corporation, founded in 1912, was purchased in 1955 by the Giddings & Lewis Machine Tool Company. This modem machine tool plant and foundry is now operated as a separate division of Giddings & Lewis and is known as the Kaukauna Machine & Foundry Division. This division designs and manufactures Vertical Turret Lathes and four types of Universal and Horizontal Drilling and Boring Machines for both portable and stationary use.
In 1958, the foundry capacity of this division was increased through the acquisition of what is now known as the Menominee Foundry, Kaukauna Machine & Foundry Division, Menominee, Michigan. Both modern foundry facilities are used for the production of machine tool grade gray iron castings up to 70,000 pounds.
In 2013 Giddings & Lewis was acquired by French engineering conglomerate Fives Group and now operates as Fives Giddings & Lewis, LLC.
From 1917-07-25 Canadian Machinery. Garlock-Walker was Gidding & Lewis's Canadian distributor.
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