In 1890, Henry Herbert Turner, eldest son in the English hat-making machinery manufacturer John Turner & Sons, established the Turner Machine Co. of Danbury, Connecticut, as a branch operation of the English company. Another brother, Arnold Turner, would become an important leader of the Danbury operation as well, though brothers Henry Herbert, Arnold and Albert would all divide their time between their English and US operations.

The Turner Machine Co. specialized in machinery for hat-making. In their early years they advertised themselves as makers of custom machinery. In 1896 they took over the assets of Danbury Machine Co., formerly known as Fanton Brothers. At one time Fanton Brothers had manufactured an oval lathe for wood-turning but by the time of the acquisition they were solely manufacturers of hat-making machinery.

In 1912, or a bit before, the Turner Machine Co. began making vertical turret drilling machines, which would evolve into a substantial sideline for the company. In about 1917 Turner Machine Co. acquired the rights to the vertical turret drilling, tapping and chucking machines previously manufactured by A. D. Quint of Hartford, CT, and in that same year Arnold Turner was granted a patent for a turret drilling machine. The Turner company's turret drills were sold under the names Quint Vertical Turret and Turner Turret.

Information Sources

• 1893 New England Business Directory and Gazetteer lists Turner Machine Co., Danbury, Ct., under the headings Iron Founders; Machinists and Machinery Manufacturers; and Special Machinery Manufacturers.
• September 1894 American Hatter, page 93, full-page ad for Turner Machine Co. This ad is topped with the names Henry M. Turner, Albert Turner and Arnold Turner.
• 1896 New England Business Directory and Gazetteer lists Turner Machine Co., Maple av., Danbury, Ct., under the headings Brass Founders; Hatters Supplies; Iron Founders; Machinists and Machinery Manufacturers; and Special Machinery Manufacturers.
• 1896-04-02 American Machinist, page 26.

  The Turner Machine Co., makers of hatting machinery, have purchased the entire plant of the Danbury Machine Co., Danbury, Conn. At this same place a new concern, known as the New Machine Co., has been organized, which will engage in general machine work.

  Various factory inspection reports and other public documents spanning 1900 to 1915 list New Machine Co. of Danbury as a maker of hatters' machinery.
• July 1897 The Foundry, page 239.

  John Morren, for the past five years foreman at the Turner Machine Company's foundry, at Danbury, Ct., and for three years previous to that with the Delamater Iron Works, of New York City, his father, Andrew Morren, and William Underwood are the members of a new company, to be known as the Danbury Iron and Brass Foundry...

• 1899 Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut, page 1334.

  Arnold Turner...

  Mr. Turner is an Englishman, having been born at Denton, near Manchester, England, March 19, 1871, and is the son of John and Jane (Ashworth) Turner...the former of whom, born in 1836, died in 1884... The father was a son of William Turner, a pioneer in the hat-manufacturing industry at Denton, England... John Turner started in the machine-manufacturing business at Denton in 1860...from which modest nucleus the business has developed in the passing years ... in Denton (England) and Danbury (Conn.), to over four hundred men.

  To John and Jane (Ashworth) Turner were born eight children... (1) Mary...; (2) Henry Herbert is a partner with our subject in the business at Danbury... (3) Albert is also interested in the Turner Machine Company's works at Danbury, and has charge of the work at Denton... (4) Nellie... (5) Eliza... (6)Arnold, our subject... (7) Clara... and (8) William Ernest...

  Arnold Turner received his elementary education at the public schools of his native place, later attending the grammar schools in Manchester, and then pursuing a course of study at Victoria University, in the same city. On leaving college he went to France and studied French under a private tutor; he also traveled considerably all over Europe, in order to become acquainted with the various languages, after leaving France visiting Germany, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Holland—in all spending several years in these countries. Not only did he occupy himself in acquiring the several languages, but he made himself acquainted, also, with the hat trade in each country... All this was highly necessary to him, as a partner in the Turner Machine Works, of Denton, England, which has now one of the most extensive plants of the kind in the world, supplying, as they do, machinery to every country where hats are made. In addition to this they have a special plant devoted to the manufacture of electrical machinery—dynamos, motors, etc. Their entire plant covers some ten acres of ground, and gives employment to two hundred and fifty hands. The members of the Turner Machinery Company of Danbury conduct, also, a separate business under the style of Turner Bros. (with offices in Danbury, New York, Manchester, London, and Paris, France), dealers in all kinds of hatters supplies...

  In 1890 Henry H. Turner came from England to the United States, and established he present business in Danbury, which now gives employment to from seventy-five to one hundred hands... In 1893 our subject came to America for the first time, and since then has divided his attention alternately between the firm's works at Danbury and those at Denton, England... He is unmarried.

• 1906 New England Business Directory and Gazetteer lists Turner Machine Co., Danbury, Ct., as makers of Fur & Wool Hat Machinery; Machinery Mfrs & Dealers; and Special Machinery.
• 1906-09-06 The Iron Age, page 93, text ad: "Special Machinery designed and built / Special facilities for manufacturing light and medium Machine Tools in quantities. / Turner Machine Co., Danbury, Conn."
• 1912-06-12 The Iron Age, page 1464, article on the Turner Machine Co.'s four-spindle turret drilling machine, which was called by Turner a "turret vertical boring and chucking machine".
• January 1915 Automobile Trade Directory, page 486, lists, under Turret Drilling Machines, both A. D. Quint of Hartford, Conn., and Turner Machine Co. of Danbury, Conn.
• 1918 Mechanical Catalog, ad: "Turner Machine Company / Incorporated with Turner, Atherton & Co., Ltd., Denton, Manchester and Stockport, England / DANBURY, CONN., U. S. A. / and Newark, N. J. / Manufacturers of Turret Machine Tools. Also Owners and Manufacturers of the QUINT Vertical Turret Drilling , Tapping, and Chucking Machines..."
• Machine Tools Made in America, by National Machine Tool Builders Association, 1921, Pg. 150-151.
• Hartford Courant, July 18, 1920, Pg. 44, obituary for A. D. Quint. It states that he had retired 3 years prior, so he may have sold his business in 1917.