From 1890-07-05 The Age of Steel

Ernst A. Schumacher was in business and making drill presses by 1885. In 1893 he joined the firm of Dietz, Gang & Co., which was renamed to Dietz, Schumacher & Co. By 1898 the Aurora Tool Works Co. was advertising themselves as successor to E. A. Schumacher.

Information Sources

• The 1888 edition of Annual Report of the Department of Inspection of Workshops and Factories lists E. A. Schumacher at 28-30 Webster street in Cincinnati; Schumacher was ordered to "post noticed relative to number of hours minors are permitted to be employed per day, etc.; keep record of all persons in your employ under the age of eighteen years, in obedience to section 6986aa, Revised Statutes. Complied."
• The 1890-08-09 issue of The Age of Steel has this news item.

  E. A. Schumacher, Cincinnati, manufacture sliding head drill, presses and sliding head bench drills, writes: "Business good; orders ahead for at least three months, will have out soon a new 32 back geared and power feed drill, with Sherman Schaner's new quick return." Mr. Schumacher is to be congratulated upon rapid growth of business in his specialties and the popularity of the tools he is sending out.

  Sherman C. Schaner worked in the Cincinnati machine tool industry but so far as we can tell he was never granted a patent. The most likely scenario is that he applied for a patent but it was rejected because of a patent already issued to Edwin Smedley (see below).
• The 1890-08-16 issue of The Age of Steel had an article and ad for E. A. Schumacher's patent sliding-head drill press, available in a variety of sizes. Based on the description in the article, we matched the patented quick-return feature in a patent granted to Edwin Smedley of Dubuque, Iowa, and assigned to National Iron & Brass Works of that city.
• A correspondent reports a drill press that is not marked as to maker but appears to be by E. A. Schumacher. It was sold by A. S. & T. S. Kirkwood, selling under that name from 1875 to January 1885, according to page 487 of the book History of Chicago: From the fire of 1871 until 1885.