During World War II the Atchison Locomotive Finished Material Co. manufactured a No. 45 Giddings & Lewis Type Horizontal Boring Machine, under license to Giddings & Lewis Mfg. Co It is unusual for a manufacturer to license a successful product to another company, especially one with no record of manufacturing that kind of product and with no special access to new markets. In this case it was almost certainly part of the war effort.

Some history may be helpful in understanding what led to the Atchison-G&L licensing arrangement. During World War I the US government identified certain products in short supply and ordered their manufacturers to turn over plans and drawings so that other companies could also manufacture these products. There were handshake agreements on how things would be squared up after the war, but at war's end the government was strapped for cash and hence were tight-fisted about "squaring up", resulting in lawsuits, congressional hearings, and general unhappiness. Furthermore, a few of the manufacturers that received such plans kept manufacturing them after war's end, which created more headaches for both the government and the manufacturers whose plans had been co-opted. During World War II it seems that the US government was more careful about these kinds of arrangements, which led to Atchison and G&L having an explicit licensing agreement.

All the evidence suggests that Atchison's manufacture of horizontal boring machines ceased at war's end, as presumably was required by that licensing agreement.

Information Sources

• University of Kansas Libraries has a brief history of the company.

  HISTORY of the Atchison Locomotive Finished Material Company—The Atchison Locomotive Finished Material Company was founded in 1905 in Atchinson, Kansas by Harry E. Muchnic, a former employee of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad (ATSF). The company was formed to produce finished materials for locomotive construction and worked closely with John Seaton's Atchison Foundry and Machine Works, formed in 1872 when Seaton came to Atchison from Alton, Illinois. The two companies merged in 1914, shortly after Seaton's death in 1912.

• Thanks to Adam Leonhardt for sending us numerous photographs of an Atchison boring mill owned by his employer.