Starting in about 1914, the Automatic Saw-Guide & Machine Co. manufactured the patented Newell bandsaw guide, a complex but effective design. It was manufactured for many years, and parts are still available from Woodworkers Tool Works of Chicago.

Information Sources

• We first learned of this company from reported examples that had the patent date of corresponding to the first patent.
• Thanks to Steve Baum for providing information on the second patent. Steve also provided confirmation that the company was located in Irwin, PA. He reports that his bottom guide has the FEB 3 1914 patent date and is labeled

  AUTOMATIC SAW-GUIDE
  & MACHINE COMPANY
  DISTRIBUTOR IRWIN, PA

  His upper guide says "MANUFACTURER" in place of "DISTRIBUTOR". Although his guides only carry the earlier patent date, they have the improvements covered in the later patent.
• 1914-09-24 The Iron Trade Review.

  Irwin, Pa.—Automatic Saw Guide & Machine Co. have been incorporated, $25,000, by R. R. McClellan, W. B. Skelley, Frank Gregg, Edward Newell, John S. Kiehl, G. W. Flowers, Thomas S. Perkins, John H. Flowers, Pittsburgh.

• An owwm.org forum discussion has some useful information.
• July 1915 The Building Age provides a description of the first-generation Newell saw guides.

  Newell Automatic Band Saw Guide—An attractive booklet relating to the Newell automatic bandsaw guide, and of a size convenient to carry in the pocket has just been sent out by the Automatic Saw-Guide & Machine Company, 406 Empire Building, Pittsburgh, Pa., and with general office and works at Irwin, Pa. This band saw guide is constructed on unique principles and is of such a nature, it is claimed, as to greatly reduce the breakage of band saws, while improving the accuracy of the work. The guide is the result of a most careful development based on numerous and severe tests extending over a period of several years. The company points out that the Newell guide automatically counteracts the tendency of the saw to deviate from its true course and instead of being rigid as in the case of other guides, has a lateral swinging movement which allows the saw to swing freely at the back, but which holds the teeth practically stationary. The claim is made that the guide renders the small band saw practical for ripping or re-saw purposes, which is one of its distinctive features.

• 1918 edition of The American Bar. "Flowers, George W. ... Counsel for: ... American Saw-Guide & Machine Co., Irwin..."
• 1922 book History of Pittsburgh and Environs.

  GEORGE W. FLOWERS-In legal practice and extensive business connections, Mr. Flowers has for more than thirty years been active in Pittsburgh’s affairs. His family has long been resident in the commonwealth, and is allied with other Pennsylvania lines of distinguished record. The Flowers family came from England, having originally located after the Norman Conquest in Oakham, Rutlandshire, which county was represented for many years in the English Parliament by William Flower and his son Roger, the latter having served as Speaker of the House of Commons during five successive Parliaments. The first of the family in this country came with William Penn, and settled in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1683. The first institution of learning in Pennsylvania was the school established by Enoch Flower, or Flowers, in Philadelphia, in that year. A nephew, Henry, settled in Philadelphia, and a brother, William, in Delaware county, Pa., where many of his descendants still live. A number of their descendants fought in the ranks of the Continental army during the War for Independence, and one of them, Richard Flower, was a member of the Committee of Safety during that struggle, and at least two of them laid down their lives on the field of battle.

  George W. Flowers, son of John Horning and Sarah (Lenhart) Flowers, was born near White Hall, Pa., May 15, 1860. After attending public schools he entered Irwin Academy and was later for one year a student in Washington and Jefferson College. At the end of that time he entered the junior class at Yale and received his B. A. degree in the class of 1884. His legal studies were pursued under the preceptorship of Judge Alexander D. McConnell, of Greensburg, Pa., and George W. Guthrie, Esq., of Pittsburgh, who was later minister to Japan. In 1886 Mr. Flowers became chief deputy in the prothonotary’s office in Greensburg, and two years later was appointed prothonotary of Westmoreland county. In 1889, at the close of his term, he was admitted to the Westmoreland county bar, and in the same year to the bar of Allegheny county, two years afterward being being admitted to practice in the United States courts. Mr. Flowers came to Pittsburgh in 1890, immediately taking up professional work, and the thirty years of his activity have established him as an authority on corporation law...

• 1926 Cyclopedia of American Biography. "George W. Flowers ... Mr. Flowers is also President and a director of the Automatic Saw Guide and Machine Company of Pittsburgh..."