Oswego Nutyp Adjustable Bench Vise, 1929

Fulton Machine & Vise Co. was organized in 1905 to purchase the works of Lafayette Wetmore, Lowville, NY, and manufacture Hiram Edward Reed's patented vise design, pumps, and paper-making machinery. The incorporators were Edwin Wayland Fulton, Mason M. Swan, Lafayette Wetmore, and others. In May 1907 the 5-year old plant burned, and was rebuilt the same year. In 1908, the company issued a catalog of "the F. & R. universal swivel vises, coach-maker's double swivel vises, Star parallel machinist's vises, Fulton's wood-worker's vises, combination pipe vises, etc." The F. & R. vise was introduced in 1906 as the Reed patent vise, but its name would have infringed on trademarks of Reed Manufacturing Co.

Although it did little advertising, Fulton Machine & Vise Co. was apparently profitable through World War I, when it made vises for the War Department. The company had difficulties in the post-war deflationary recession. Edwin W. Fulton retired from the firm in the fall of 1921. Fulton Machine & Vise Co. entered bankruptcy in early 1922.

In Dec., 1921, Edwin W. Fulton and others organized Atlas Vise Co., Inc. and bought vise patents and selling rights from Fulton Machine & Vise Co. and Velox Vise Co. Atlas Vise Co. lacked a factory, so initial manufacturing was by Porter-Cable Machine Co. until Atlas built its own plant in Lowville. The F. & R. vise was renamed the Nutyp vise. Direct evidence is lacking, but it appears that Atlas failed within a few years.

In 1924, Edwin W. Fulton became works manager for a competing vise manufacturer, Oswego Tool Co., Oswego, NY, and Oswego began producing Fulton's vise designs. In 1930 International Nutyp Tool Corp. of Oswego succeeded Oswego Tool Co. International Nutyp Tool Corp. manufactured vises as late as 1950. At an unknown date, Sawyer Foundry and Machine Works, Oswego, began manufacturing the Nutyp and other vises. Photos on the internet show vises marked Sawyer Tool Co., which we assume to be a subsidiary or a "doing business as" name. Information on Sawyer is scarce, other than a 1960 fire which destroyed their pattern storage, and the 1971 indictment of company executive Roy A. Hanson for federal tax fraud.

This article covers firms which manufactured the vise designs of Edwin W. Fulton and Hiram Edward Reed. Velox Vise Co. was based in Lowville, but some production was by National Metal Products Co., Indianapolis, IN, according to ads from 1920. Lowville Machine & Vise Co. was a reorganization of Fulton Machine & Vise Co. It made the Sterling line of vises. Lowville operated until late 1928 or early 1929 when American Chain Co. bought its vise vise patents and stocks.

Information Sources

• A series of posts on Garage Journal was the starting point for this history.
• Biography of Edwin W. Fulton from Oswego County, NY Biographies
• The Iron Trade Review, Vol. 38, No. 30, July 27, 1905. Pg. 29.
• Hardware, Vol. 34, No. 12, Mar. 25, 1907. Pg. 23.
• Iron Trade Review, Vol. 69, No. 26, Dec. 29, 1921. Pg. 1698.
• Fulton Machine & Vice Company in Bankruptcy, The Journal and Republican, Feb. 16, 1922. Pg. 1.
• Oswego Daily Times, Aug. 19, 1924, Pg. 10.

  Mr. Fulton controls the Atlas Vise Company, Inc., and the Velox Vise Company, Inc., of Lowville, N. Y., and by this connection the Oswego Tool company acquires the rights to manufacture and sell the celebrated Velox quick action machinist's bench vise and the Nutyp combination pipe and bench vise, and the businesses of those companies will be transferred to Oswego. The Velox vise is a patented quick action bench vise used by the larger manufacturers where speed of production is essential.

• The Iron Age, Vol. 123, No. 31, Jan. 17, 1929, Pg. 260
• The Kingston Daily Freeman, Apr. 14, 1971, Pg. 7
• Archived history page by Todd Werts of Sawyer Foundry & Machine Co.
• Tentanda Via Est [biography of Lafayette Wetmore], New York History Review : 2017 Annual Edition, Mitchell D. Fidler, Pg. 85-88.
• Hendrick's Commercial Register, 33rd Ed., 1925, Pg. 2483.