Barber-Colman Co. was founded in 1884 by Howard Colman and W. A. Barber to manufacturer textile machinery. In 1904, the company was officially incorporated at the Barber–Colman Company.In 1910 the company began manufacturing a gear hobbing machine. After Walter Colman (Howard's son) death in 1983, the textile part of the company was sold to the Reed–Chatwood Co. and the metalworking machinery business to Bourn & Koch.

Bourn & Koch, Inc. is now the OEM for the Barber Colman Co. machinery You can link to their website at the Bourn & Koch web site.

Information Sources

• 2003 book, Rockford-1900-World War I, by Eric A. Johnson, page 48, photo caption.

  Barber-Colman Co., 1300 Rock Street. Eighteen-year-old Howard Colman parlayed a $100 1891 loan from Wisconsin lumberman W. A. Barber into a 1904 patent and, eventually, an enduring global firm that todays ranks as one of metro Rockford's largest employers. From its early focus on manufacturing textile machinery, Barber-Colman broadened its scope into machine tools, temperature controls, and plastic molding. Barber-Colman's near southwest side Water Power District manufacturing complex, seen here, grew to encompass 15 buildings spanning 26 acres. The firm added its enduring Clifton Avenue manufacturing complex in Loves Park in 1953. The company's Rockford textile machinery business, seen here, was spun-off as Reed-Chatwood, Inc. (1984-99). One of the nation's largest privately-held companies by the mid-1980s, Barber-Colman was sold to Windsor, England-based Siebe plc in 1987 and London-based Invensys in 1999. Invensys sold Barber-Colman Aerospace to London's Smith's Industries in December 1999.

• Machine Tools Made in America, National Machine Tool Builders' Association, 1921
• Machine serial numbers from 1920 to 1957 may found here