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K & T Climaxing 42 Years 1898 - 1940
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Edward J. Kearney
(1868 - 1934) and Theodore Trecker (1868 - 1955) left Kempsmith Manufacturing Co. and founded the Kearney & Trecker Company in 1898. They tried to buy a Kempsmith milling machine for their shop but Kempsmith refused to sell them one, so they ended up building their own, which was a close copy of the Kempsmith design.
Kearney & Trecker incorporated in 1906. Located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and later West Allis, WI, the partners designed and manufactured the famous “Milwaukee” series knee-type milling machines. Since 1912, the “double overarm” arbor support design was the signature feature of their horizontal milling machines, along with the “Milwaukee” brand name.
By World War II Kearney & Trecker was the dominant American manufacturer of milling machines, known for their broad lineup of high quality machines that could withstand the rigors of production. After the war K&T was an early innovator of CNC machining. Early CNC customers were predominantly in aerospace and there was a constant push toward complexity and gizmocity at the expense of cost-effectiveness, which created an opening for Swiss, German and Japanese competition; K&T and the other big American machine tool manufacturers lost their early lead in CNC technology. During the 1980s competition from Japanese manufacturers began to erode K&T's mainstream milling-machine sales and profit numbers. The US Government did not provide much support or protection for the strategically important machine tool industry and in 1993 K&T joined a long list of American machine tool manufacturers that closed its doors.
Serial Number Lookup
Kearney & Trecker Serial Numbers are generally stamped on every machine and accessory that was sold by K&T. The serial numbers are in two parts - usually shown as one number over another number. The top number - or sometimes the first number - the number of the machine in a lot that was made. The bottom number is the lot number. You can look up the lot numbers in documents linked below and find out what the item is and the date that the last machine in the lot was made.
Information Sources