Welcome! 

Register :: Login
Manufacturers Index - Blake & Johnson Co.
History
Last Modified: Apr 16 2021 5:04PM by Mark Stansbury
If you have information to add to this entry, please contact the Site Historian.

This company began as Blake & Johnson, a partnership between James P. Blake and Charles W. Johnson; they are known to have been in business by 1852. Sometime between 1902 and 1909 the name changed to Blake & Johnson Co. They survived until at least 1941.

From 1913-01-02 American Machinist

In the early days they made cylindrical rollers for rolling out sheet metal. In later years they made machinery for making rivets and bolts. At some point in their later years they also made milling machines and a pedestal buffing and grinding machine. The 1905 The Iron Age Directory, page 279, stated that the firm made a horseshoers' vise.

Information Sources

  • The 1852-11-06 issue of Scientific American mentions Blake & Johnson of Waterbury, Conn. as exhibitors at the Fair of the American Institute in 1852. They exhibited cast-steel geared rollers.
  • The 1865-01-28 issue of Scientific American notes that the "Blake & Johnson Manufacturing Company" of Waterford, Conn., gave each of their employees a year-end gift of a one-year subscription of Scientific American, a gesture of which the magazine heartily approved as demonstrating the upstanding character and good judgement of both employer and employees.
  • The 1865-08-26 to 1866-04-07 issues of Scientific American carried this advertisement:
    MANUFACTURERS OF PLAIN AND ENGRAVED Hardened Cast-steel Rolls and Chilled Iron Rolls, of any form And size, for rolling Silver, Brass, Copper, Britannia Metal, Etc., with anything desired in the way of engraving for figured or fancywork.
    BLAKE & JOHNSON, Waterbury, Conn.
  • The Smithsonian Institution libraries have a 1906 machinery catalog and an undated grinder catalog in their collection. See this page in their online database for more information.
  • A page about a local high school provides the data point that the company was active in 1941.
  • American Milling Machine Builders: 1820-1920 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2007, page 29