In 1858, Z. E. Coffin was making, or perhaps just reselling, lathes, planers, slotters and drilling machines. Zebulon Erastus Coffin would also be involved in the Boston Machine Manufacturing Co., rising to become general agent. By 1882 he left that company and established the Coffin Valve Co., makers of fire hydrants and other valves for municipal water systems.

Information Sources

• 1857 George Adams' Boston Directory carries a text ad.

  Z. E. Coffin, Manufacturers and Dealers in / Machinists' Tools, / Nos. 94 1-2 and 96 Utica Street, Boston. / Near the Old Colony and Worcester Depots / Lathes, Planing, Drilling and Slotting Machines, Bolt Cutters, Bolt Heading Machines, Scroll and Screw Chucks, Shafting, &c. Also, Patterns and Designs for Machinery, made to order.

• An 1867 stop-cock patent is to Z. Erastus Coffin of Boston.
• The website firehydrant.org shed light on Boston Machine Mfg. Co. and the Coffin Valve Co.
• A former water and sewage engineer for the City of Fredericton, NB, Laurie Corbett, is working on a history of their water system. He forwarded us pages of a 1883 City of Fredericton Daily Accounts that show payments to Coffin Manufacturing Co. on 1882-12-11 and 1883-01-11, and payments to Coffin Valve Co. 1883-02-08, 1883-03-08, and 1883-05-02. These pages considerably pushed back the earliest known dates for the Coffin Valve Co., and introduces a name, Coffin Manufacturing Co., that may have been used by Coffin before settling on Coffin Valve Co.