Lathe & Morse was founded by Martin Lathe and Edwin Morse in about 1864 as a successor to Shepard, Lathe & Morse. In about 1871 it became Lathe & Morse Tool Co., and the name Lathe & Morse Machine Co. may have also been used. The business survived until about 1891 when it was sold to William F. Draper and became the Draper Machine Tool Co.

      The building of railroads created an increased demand for machinists' tools, and in 1845, Samuel C. Coombs, a machinist in the employ of Phelps & Bickford, in company with R. R. Shepard and Martin Lathe, a woodworker, in the same shop, formed a co-partnership under the style of S. C. Coombs & Co. They started in the Court Mills, then moved to Dr. Heywood's shop. Before they moved C. Wheelock was taken into partnership. From the Heywood shop, in Central Street, subsequently used by the Harrington Brothers as a paint shop, they removed to the Estabrook shop, where they occupied room in the northern end of the building, where their successors, the Lathe & Morse Tool Co., continued until they moved to their own building, in Gold Street, where they were located in 1889. Their business from the start was the manufacture of lathes and planers. They employed on an average about fifty hands, and their product went all over the world. The Lathe & Morse Tool Co. was succeeded by the Draper Machine Tool Co., which was later, in 1905, merged in the Whitcomb-Blaisdell Machine Tool Co., at 134 Gold Street.

This firm made machine tools, including metal planers, metal lathes, and drill presses.

Information Sources

• From an online assets inventory of the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad, as of 1916: Vertical drill press, 18" x 20", Lather [sic] & Morse Tool, Second hand, 1906". This machine was located in Phillips, ME.
• The 1874 work, Wiley's American iron trade manual of the leading iron industries of the United States lists "Lathe & Morse Machine Co.—Machinery and machine tools. 60 hands."
• Thanks to Jukka Konola, for pointing out that the first listing has the incorrect company name. Jukka provided the names of the founders and pointed us to the listing in Wiley.
• The November 1874 issue of Manufacturer & Builder has an article on that year's Cincinnati Industrial Exhibition that lists "The Lathe & Morse Tool Co." as an exhibitor having one of the largest and best displays of tools.

Information Sources

• American Lathe Builders: 1810-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2001 page 88
• Industrial Worcester 1917 page 120