In 1853 W. Burt & Son (sometimes W. Burtt & Son) were operating a foundry and machine shop in Kalamazoo where they were making steam engines, mill gearings, screws, and Stoddard's patent shingle machine.

Information Sources

• 1853 Annual Report of the Michigan State Agricultural Society, in a report on their Fifth Annual Fair, held at Detroit in September 1853, page 53, listing exhibitors of farm implements: "W. Burt & Son, Kalamazoo, Styles' patent straw cutter." There was no straw-cutter patent granted to anyone with surname Styles; there was such a patent granted on a David Stiles, Jr., of Middleton, CT (see patents tab).
• November 1853 Michigan Farmer, Volume XI No. 11, pages 332-333, in a report on the Kalamazoo County Fair.

  Messrs. W. Burt & Son manufacture for the proprietors, Messrs Fisher, Ransom, Benedict & Johnson, STODDARD'S PATENT SHINGLE MACHINE, capable with one horse power of making twenty thousand shingles per day. The shingle bolt is placed in the machine, and without removing is made into shingles of superior quality; the same motion then raises the shingle planes or shaves the previous one, and all so fast that the shingles are constantly dropping a perfect article. This machine way also be graduated so as to raise and plane 1500 headings for barrels in an hour. The machine certainly appears to work admirably and we do not see why it will not be brought into general use. W. Burt & Son are engaged in the manufacture of Steam Engines, Mill Gearing and screws, of all descriptions, at Kalamazoo. Their foundry is quite extensive and must be patronized extensively.

• 1859 George W. Hawes' Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory, page 213, lists Kalamazoo businesses including "Burt, W. & Son, manfs. pig iron, stoves, pot ash and caldron kettles, columns, window caps and sills, also hollow ware, &c., near R. R. Depot."
• 1859 book, The Iron Manufacturer's Guide to the Furnaces, Forges and Rolling Mills of the United States, by J. P. Lesley, page 139, lists charcoal furnaces in Michigan, including "Kalamazoo Hot-blast Charcoal Furnace, owned by W. Burtt & Son and managed by the same, Kalamazoo P.O. Kalamazoo county Michigan, stands at the junction of Kalamazoo river with a small stream one mile north of the village, was rebuilt in 1857 8½ feet across the bosh 31 feet high and made in half of 1857 with 1,000 tons of iron out of bog ore dug half a mile to the west across the river."
• 1864 book, A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860 by J. L. Bishop, page 818, in the category of "Charcoal Furnaces in the North West", lists "Kalamazoo, 1857, W. Burtt & Son, Kalamazoo co., Mich."