The McDonald Machine Co. manufactured punch presses and related machinery. They also made canning machinery. They were in business between at least 1898 until the early 1950s when they were acquired by Continental Can Co.; after that time they continued to operate as the Equipment Manufacturing Division of Continental Can Co., and under this name they manufactured the Fastermatic Automatic Turret Lathe on behalf of the Gisholt Machine Co. The old McDonald plant was also known as the McDonald Machine Shop, Plant No. 33 of the American Can Co.

Information Sources

• 1898 Annual Report of the Factory Inspector of Illinois, page 58, lists McDonald Machine Co., 174 S. Clinton st., with 4 employees, all males over 16.
• 1899-1900 Annual Report of the Factory Inspector of Illinois, page 120, lists McDonald Machine Co., 174 S. Clinton st., with 12 employees including one boy under 16 years of age, and 11 males over 16.
• 1904 Records and Briefs of the United States Supreme Court, Buffalo Tin Can Company v. E. W. Bliss Company, provides some background. Erie Preserving Company had tried to purchase automatic can-making machinery,

  but owing to the said American Tin Can Company having purchased all of the automatic can-making machinery obtainable in the marking, including the manchinery manufactured by the defendant [Bliss] herein, it was wholly unable to purchase any such automatic can-making machinery capable of manufacturing tin cans such as are used in the business of the said Erie Preserving Company; and the best machinery that it was able to purchase, capable and suitable to make such cans, were sets of machinery known as the "McDonald Machine," which was made by the C. B. McDonald Machine Company of Chicago, Ill. That plaintiff thereupon purchased two sets of said McDonald machinery, adapated to make the two pound and three pound cans, and installed the same in its factory in the City of Buffalo, as aforesaid, and has since the installation of the same been engaged in the manufacture of tin cans, but which machinery is not an automatic can-making machinery and uses much more material in the manufacture of the same cans, and is much more expensive in the operation and handling of the same. That plaintiff was wholly unable to purchase any machinery to manufacture the gallon cans which the defendant agreed to so make and sell to the Erie Preserving Company as provided by the said agreement...

  Elsewhere in the document it is mentioned that Erie was using the McDonald machines in 1901.
• 1913 Illinois Public Utility Commission Law and Municipal Ownership Law lists "[Name] McDonald Machine Co. / [Capital stock] $100,000 / [Principal Office] 3207 Shields av., Chicago / [President/Manager] Chas. B. McDonald, 6285 Jeffery av. / [Secretary] Edward V. Quinby, 4147 N. Paulina st."
• 1915-11-11 The Iron Age: "The McDonald Machine Company, 3207 Shields Avenue, Chicago, is remodeling its plant and building an addition." From the 1915-11-25 issue: "The McDonald Machine Company, 3213 Shields Avenue, Chicago, is building a one and two-story addition to its shop. It manufactures can-making machinery."
• A March 1971 Federal Government document, related to a petition from the United Steelworkers of America, mentions the "McDonald Machine Shop Plant No. 33, Chicago", a part of Continental Can Company, Inc. It does not provide any sort of timeline on when McDonald Machine Co. may have been acquired except for the following, page A-7. "Continental Can Co. was incorporated in New York, January 17, 1913. It began absorbing companies by acquisition in 1947. By March 1, 1970, the Company operated 155 plants (93 owned, 62 leased) in the United States... McDonald [Machine Shop Plant No. 33] manufactures machinery and parts for use of Continental Can Co. ..."
• 1952 issue of Modern Machine Shop (Vol. 25 p. 272).

  The first Fastermatic Automatic Turret Lathe built for Gisholt Machine Company by The Equipment Manufacturing Division of Continental Can Company is shown being inspected by (left to right A. W. Vaughan, general manager, Equipment Manufacturing Division, Continental Con Company; Bert Kline, Gisholt resident supervising engineer; and B. V. Strothman, plant manager, McDonald Machine Shop, Continental Can Company.

• 1954 issue of American Paint Journal (Vol. 38 p. 132).

  The Continental Can Company, Inc., New York, announced the acquisition of the McDonald Machine Company, Chicago, manufacturers of can-making machinery since 1903...

  This 1954 date is not consistent with our 1952 data point; it is quite possible that one date or the other, as provided by Google Books, is incorrect, but we do not know which one.