The Belknap Motor Company

      The high honor of setting the standard of excellence in these bustling days of competition, is achieved by comparatively few, but the policy of the Belknap Motor Co., has carried it restlessly upward to that eminence, until the name of the firm has become synonymous with the best in the line of goods manufactured and sold. Through years of constant growth, it has come to be one of the most widely and favorably known of Portland's well known business enterprises. This company was incorporated in 1890, and the officers are: President, Hon. E. B. Winslow; treasurer, E. R. Payson; manager, E. E. Fernald; head electrician, W. H. Chapman. From the time of the organization of this company, its business has had a phenomenally steady growth, the productive capacity of the plant having more than doubled. This success was not brought about by luck, or by a fortunate combination of circumstances, but by the fact that The goods put upon the market were of the highest grade of mechanical excellence. Add to this the business reputation of the men who have been behind the enterprise, the push, untiring energy and business integrity, which have always characterized the management of the Belknap Motor Co., and you have the secret of its enviable success. The product of the plant is motors, bi-polar and multi-polar dynamos, commutator brushes and electrical instruments of all kinds. One of the important specialties is the Chapman automatic voltage regulator, for either the alternating or direct current system. This regulator is the invention of W. H. Chapman, the head electrician of the company, and its utility consists in the fact that it produces a steady current from an unsteady power. Its merits are such that it has attracted universal attention, and has been sold for use in all parts of the world. This company also manufactures coffee mills, water motors and woven wire brushes; it has a large business in the installation of dwellings and business blocks for light and power, attends to elevator repairs and makes a specialty of electric railway repairing. The plant in Portland at present employs about forty-five hands, but it is simply a question of time when the increasing demands of business will call for still larger quarters, with a consequent increase in the size of the force employed. The exhibit made by this company at the World's Fair in 1893, brought to the attention of the whole world the unrivaled merit of its products, and the impetus given by this and other judicious plans of advertising, coupled with the important fact that machines and appliances were always found to be as represented, have aided materially in building for the Belknap Motor Co., a reputation that enables it to compete with rivals in all parts of the world. The company now has branch offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Toledo, Denver and San Francisco. A glance at the books of this company would surprise many who have watched the growth of the enterprise, from its inception, through the various stages of development, down to the present time. Here are recorded sales of motors, dynamos, regulators, and a general assortment of electrical appliances, in nearly every state in the Union, and in several foreign countries. After an analysis, giving due credit to the mechanical excellence of the goods manufactured, it can be truthfully said that an important element in the success of the Belknap Motor Co. has been the untiring energy and clear business foresight of the present manager, E. E. Fernald. Mr. Fernald was born in Portsmouth, N. H., thirty-four years ago. He was educated in the high school and at Smith's Business Academy. Coming to Portland fourteen years ago, he at once went to work for the Portland Company. When the Giant Motor Co. came into existence he accepted the position of foreman of the factory, performing his duties in a highly satisfactory manner. He remained with this company until the organization of the Belknap Motor Co., when he accepted the more lucrative position of superintendent of the newly organized enterprise. Early in the present year, he was made manager of this company, a position he is eminently qualified to fill, not only because of that education which comes through years of experience, but by reason of a natural aptitude that can neither be obtained from books or acquired by experience.

Biography of George W. Brown , president of Belknap Motor Co.

Information Sources

• Portland past and present, 1899 pg 196-197
• The Electrical Engineer, 31 Aug 1892, page 210