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Manufacturers Index - Christiana Machine Co.

Christiana Machine Co.
Christiana, PA, U.S.A.
Manufacturer Class: Wood Working Machinery, Metal Working Machinery & Steam and Gas Engines

History
Last Modified: Jul 31 2020 1:00PM by joelr4
If you have information to add to this entry, please contact the Site Historian.

The company was a machine shop and foundry that began in 1834. It was not successful until it was purchased in 1862 by Isaac Broomell. In 1868, Broomell and his sons began to specialize in power plants suitable for rural mills. In 1878 the name became Christiana Machine Co. (based on the Hagley Musuem's online information, it is unclear what the name had been before 1878).

in 1886, this firm built Burnham's automatic steam engines and in 1895 Water Wheel Turbines.

Shortly after 1878, the company was making a line of products, including sawmills. We have no information on how long they continued to make sawmills, but so far we have not seen any surviving examples, so they may not have made them for very long. Besides sawmills, they also made (according to the Hagley Museum) "boring mills and turning mills". Those may be drills and lathes, respectively, although they may have been for metal rather than wood.

In 1915 the company became a subsidiary of the Charles Bond Co. of Philadelphia.

Information Sources

  • American Steam Engine Builders: 1800-1900 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2006 page 54
  • The Hagley Museum has 35 lineal feet of archival material on this company.