Cataract Tool & Optical Co. was formed in 1895 to make telescopes and other optical devices, as well as benchtop lathes and accessories. They obtained several patents for their optical devices. The company continued to advertise and promote their lathes and accessories in trade journals but entered receivership in September 1901, and the assets were auctioned off the following month. It appears that the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass., bought the company's assets but they were only interested in the optical products, and immediately sold the Cataract line of lathes to Hardinge Brothers.

Information Sources

• 1900-01 Buffalo City Directory lists Cataract Tool & Optical Co., 357 7th. Listed as employees are Margaret C. Bothwell (bookkeeper), H. L. DeZeng, Jr. (manager), Frederick Leonard Smith (superintendent), William Stokes (foreman), and Nellie M. Walrath (stenographer).
• 1900-02-15 American Machinist, pages 31-163 and 164-32, article on a bench lathe from "Cataract Tool and Bicycle Company" of Buffalo. In the 1900-03-01 issue, page 32-202 is a correction: "In our description of the new bench lathe made by the Cataract Tool & Optical Company, of Buffalo, N. Y., a mistake was made in the name of the company, which was called the 'Cataract Tool 7 Bicycle Company,' instead of Optical Company. The company call our attention to the mistake, and seem to be decidedly averse to being classed among the bicycle manufacturers."
• March 1900 Modern Machinery page 117; the following was likely extracted from the above-mentioned American Machinist writeup, which explains the incorrect company name.

  Improved Bench Lathe.—It is made with heavier bed and headstock than is common, to adapt it to a little heavier work and to give stiffness and freedom from vibration. The lathe is provided with all the usual attachments, including turret grinding attachments, inside threading attachment, etc. The Cataract Tool and Bicycle Company, of Buffalo, N. Y.

• 1901 issues of American Machinist carried small ads for Cataract's bench lathe with various attachments. The 1901-08-15 issue, page 914, reports on Cataract's exhibit at the Pan-American Exposition; the company noted interest from South American countries, Switzerland, and Spain. Then the 1901-09-26 issue page 48 has an ad: "Receiver's Sale of Plant of Cataract Tool & Optical Co. of Buffalo, N. Y. ... In the Matter of the Voluntary Dissolution of the Cataract Tool & Optical Company..." The list of assets included six Blaisdell lathes, milling machines from Brown & Sharpe an dCincinnati, various grinding, drilling, and screw machines, and then various refractometers, telescopes, microscopes, lathes and accessories, finished and unfinished; and "the United States patents for the Rifle Telescopes, sights and mountings, and Refractometers; the English letters patent for Refractometers." The sale was to take place 1901-10-14.
• 1905-10-26 The Iron Age page 1109.

  Precision Lathes.—Hardinge Bros., 1034 Lincoln avenue, Chicago, Ill. Catalogue, supplement and circulars. Catalogue describes the line of precision machinery and fine tools formerly made by the Cataract Tool & Optical Company, Buffalo, N. Y. Supplement deals with a new Cataract bench lathe, describing the construction of its essential parts in detail with a sectional line drawing. Circular shows Hardinge sensitive drill press and various attachments for precision machinery.

• 2019 book The Sniper Encyclopaedia, by John Walter. "The Cataract Tool & Bicycle Company and the Cataract Tool & Optical Company were both incorporated in Buffalo in 1895, sharing premises and officers. In 1902, in a bid to acquire rights to the De Zeng-type telescope sights, J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, purchased Cataract. Stevens retained the former Cataract manager F. L. Smith to develop the optical sights, initially continuing to market them under the 'Cataract' name (the brand lasted until 1940), but sold the machine-tool business almost immediately."
• American Lathe Builders: 1810-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2001