The company was established in 1875, named for inventor Nelson Stow, and specialized in flexible shaft machines. The name Stow Manufacturing Co. was registered with the State of New York on 22 April 1895. In 1993, the company was acquired by another maker of flexible-shaft machines, Elliott Manufacturing Co.
The early machines were powered by hand or foot, requiring two operators. They were for tasks as diverse as clipping or shearing livestock and dental drilling. These were followed by industrial uses, powered by line shafts or electric motors, including drilling metal and wood, tapping, reaming, and grinding. The firm introduced Winkler's patent circular filing and setting saw vise in 1890.
A number of the patents assigned to the company were from a family of inventors. They included Clarence F. Hotchkiss (1859-1928), who became company president, his brother William E. Hotchkiss, and his son Clarence F. Hotchkiss, Jr. Their distant cousins Benjamin B. and Andrew Hotchkiss, brothers, were also noted inventors in the armaments industry.
The company's address in 1949 was 41 Shear St., Binghamton.
Nelson Stow started a competing company that also bore his name, Stow Flexible Shaft Co., Ltd. of Philadelphia, PA. Various articles about him make clear that he was a better inventor than businessman.
Information Sources
- Ad in 1955-56 Hitchcock's Wood Workers' Digest Directory
- Invented the Dental Drill, Moberly Weekly Monitor, May 30, 1901, Pg. 7
- The Genius of Inventors, by Clarence Hotchkiss III,Press and Sunday Bulletin, July 31, 2008, Pg. 9
- Ancestry.com family trees