In 1898 John Stuart Alcorn and Bliss Charles Ames established a partnership, Alcorn & Ames, to manufacture precision tools and benchtop lathes. In 1901 the partnership was dissolved, with Alcorn keeping the rights to the partnership's lathe, punch and die product lines. He promptly established the Alcorn Machine Co. to continue their manufacture. That business lasted only a few months, and in January 1902 the Alcorn Machine Co.'s product lines, patterns, real estate and goodwill were acquired by the Waltham Machine Works. B. C. Ames, meanwhile, established B. C. Ames Co., which would manufacture a product lineup similar to Alcorn & Ames but would prove to be considerably more successful

Information Sources

• John S. Alcorn was granted patents in 1885 and 1897, for a metal planer and bicycle crankshaft, respectively. As John Stuart Alcorn he was granted patents related to steam engines and pumps.
• 1885 Hartford Directory lists (page 24) "Alcorn, J. S. at 1 Flower , h. 29 Chst." and (page 175) "Sexton, Joel B., foreman, 30 Cush.,h. 496 Far." Alcorn's work address of 1 Flower corresponds to Pratt & Whitney; Sexton's work address of 30 Cushman corresponds to Cushman Chuck Co.
• 1886 and 1888 Waltham city directories list John S. Alcorn as an employee of the Waltham Watch Co.
• 1898 Inaugural Address of Hon. Geo. L. Mayberry, Mayor of the City of Waltham, January 2, 1899 with the Annual Reports of the Several Departments for the Financial Year of 1898..., in a report of the City Auditor, lists a small payment to Alcorn & Ames for "Hardware, Tools and Supplies" for the school system. John S. Alcorn is mentioned as being on a list of jurors.
• 1900 Sampson, Murdock & Co.'s The New England Business Directory and Gazetteer, page 762, lists "Alcorn & Ames, Newton, cor. Robbins, Waltham" under the heading of "Machinists & Machinery Manufs."
• 1901-05-16 The Iron Age, page 37.

  The Alcorn Machine Company, Waltham, Mass., recently incorporated, have succeeded to the business formerly conducted by Alcorn & Ames, and will continue the manufacture of precision bench lathes, punches and dies and special machinery. John S. Alcorn is president.

• 1901 Delaware State Auditor's Report, page 101, in a list of "Corporations chartered from January 15, 1901, to January 1, 1902": "The Alcorn Machine Co. / [capital stock] $130,000 / [state tax] $20".
• 1902 New England Business Directory and Gazetteer, page 779: "Alcorn Machine Co., Newton, cor. Robbins".
• 1902-01-09 American Machinist page 75. "The business of the Waltham (Mass.) Machine Works, Ellis & Sanderson, proprietors, has increased... recently it has obtained control of the plant of the Alcorn & Ames Machine Company in Waltham, and is now carrying it on in connection with the other two shops..."
• 1922 Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Volume 44 page 1390, in an obituary for William Henry Sawtell. "From 1899 to 1904 he was connected with the firm of Alcorn & Ames, Waltham, Mass., as working foreman on tool and machine design and construction."
• April 1922 Mill Supplies page 81, in a list of new incorporations. "The Alcorn-Padelford Machine Co., Waltham, Mass., $50,000; incorporators: John S. Alcorn, James F. Padelford and William S. Alcorn." The 1927 Waltham Directory has a text ad for the Alcorn-Padelford Machine Co.: "Cylinder Grinding / General Machine Work / Richmond Piston Rings / Arrowhead Piston Rings / Ramco Inner Rings / Fly Wheel Starter Gears and Ring Gears Applied / Replacement Parts Furnished at Short Notice".
• 1923 Oildom Publishing Co.'s Obsolete Securities, page 10: "Alcorn Machine Co. / [registered in] Del. / [charter expired] 1906".
• 1957 book Waltham Industries: A Collection of Sketches of Early Firms and Founders, by Edmund L. Sanderson, page 55. "In December of that year they took the name Waltham Machine Works. The business grew slowly but steadily and, in a few years, had outgrown the building. The machinery, tools and goodwill of the nearby Alcorn Machine Company were purchased in January 1902, and its factory was leased and run in connection with the original building..."
• 1994 book Makers of American Machinist's Tools, by Kenneth Cope, page 134.

  ALCORN & AMES by John Alcorn and Bliss C. Ames (1867-1948). In 1901, Ames bought out Alcorn. The first products were a tool maker's bench table and small bench lathes, both developed by Ames. By 1903 Ames began making a wide variety of measuring gauges and dial indicators, continuing until the company closed c1960. Warren Ames, son of B.C. Ames, was elected president when the firm was incorporated in 1922 and, with his brother Ira, bought out his father in 1923. From 1918 to 1938, Warren Ames was granted 16 patents for dial indicators and other gauges.

• 2007 book American Milling Machine Builders: 1820-1920 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2007 page 6
• American Lathe Builders: 1810-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2001 page 1
• Findagrave.com entries for John S. Alcorn (1859-1938) and Bliss Charles Ames (1867-1948).