Image courtesy of Microsoft Bing Maps, accessed 9/16/2012
This company was organized in 1865 to make brass
clock movements, and later made hoopskirt frames, kerosene parlor lamps and the
first successful kerosene bicycle lamp, exhibited at the World’s Fair in
Chicago, in 1893. An offshoot from clock movements was a spring motor-operated
flyfan, forerunner of the modern electric fan; F. R. Wilmot, superintendent,
designed a crude micrometer, and the company also made incandescent lamp
sockets. Bridgeport Brass Company produced the first copper wire strung between
New York and Boston, made many telephonic improvements, features a ‘hard-drawn
wire,’ various alloys of high tensile strength, and was a pioneer in the
adaptation of the electric furnace to the brass industry.
My father was killed at this Plant in 1944. He was hit in the head by a piece of Round Solid Brass 4″ Dia.
Worked there in the 60s 1967 till around 1973.
My father worked there from the 50’s until his death in 1968 at the age of 54.
I worked for Bridgeport Brass Company in the Detroit, MI district sales office from April 1968 until April 1986…I loved that job!
Hi,
The F. R. Wilmot spoken of, was actually S. R. (Samuel Russell) Wilmot. He is my great, great grandfather. He is credited with over 100 patents (some for Bridgeport Brass), which included not a crude micrometer, but a micrometer that is the first invented micrometer that is credited to S. R. Wilmot. He started Bridgeport Brass with a brother and a man named David W. Kissam as Wilmot & Kissam Mfg Co. P. T. Barnum approached Wilmot & Kissam to relocate to Bridgeport, CT. They did, and reincorporated as Bridgeport Brass. In 1877, after being forced out of Bridgeport Brass by Daniel W. Kissam, S. R. Wilmot established the Wilmot Mfg. Co, (in the business of steel manufacturing) which was renamed in the 1880’s as the Wilmot & Hobbs Mfg. Co. when Wilmot brought his son in law, Willis Farrar Hobbs in as a partner. Hobbs later left Wilmot & Hobbs and established the Bridgeport Hardware Mfg. Co. In the late 1890’s (after S. R. Wilmot’s 1897 death) Frank Ashley Wilmot (S. R.’s son) reorganized Wilmot & Hobbs into the American Tube & Stamping Co. Inc. with a $3 million reorganization $1.5million common and $1.5 million preferred stock). S. R. and F. A. Wilmot jointly invented the process of Cold Rolled Steel for Wilmot & Hobbs.
This factory was a key producer of ordnance during World War II, when Bridgeport, Conn. had 500 war defense factories working around the clock supplying everything from uniforms to medical products to vehicle frames to GE bazookas and electrical components to Singer Machine Works war materiels to Remington firearms and ammo to Chance Vought Sikorsky Corsair fighter planes to Stanley Works primary steel mills. This was a true Arsenal of Democracy as designated by FDR and it was the most diverse producer of a myriad of war related products of any heavy industrial belt in the U.S.A. and it could be argued the most valuable site when compared to Detroit or California or New Orleans or Balto with Glenn L. Marin aircraft mfg and Bethlehem Steel ship building and primary steel making for a multitude of war applications. Thank you Bridgeport, Connecticut for your huge role in the allied victory over the axis forces. Paul J. Cassavechia, M.A., Balto USA
My grandfather worked there. Not sure of the years.. His name was Stephen Kasper.
I have an antique bicycle pump. I am having an extremely hard time finding any information about it. I just found out it was possibley was made by Bridgeport. The picture I found is similar. I would really like to figure out the particulars of this pump. I would really appreciate if you can identify if this pump was made by Bridgeport and if it is, some information about it.
Thank you so much,
Greg Miller
Repurposing a piece of Plumrite brass pipe c.1928 from abandoned water pipe into pipe clamps. Thanks for the background and images. Reblogging on AmericanToolbox.
I have a 19X23 inch litho watercolor print titled “Brass Making -The Extrusion Machine” (c) 1935, Bridgeport Brass Co. The artist is Balconi and the plates and Lithography by Livermore & Knight Co. The print includes a corresponding, descriptive 5X6 inch written pamphlet. The artistic watercolor shows the “…smoke-darkened walls and rafters …the old-time casters and their helpers are at work.” The old pit-fired furnace days.
My mother (age 86) recounts that my great uncle, Herman Steinkraus, was an owner of Bridgeport Brass ages ago, but I wonder if that is just folklore. Does anyone know if that’s true?
Ms. Geraci,
According to “Labor History Archives in the United States”, published in 1992, Mr. Herman Steinkraus was President of the Bridgeport Brass Company and President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1930 to 1974. The following link with take you to the excerpt from the book. Bridgeport Brass Company Owner History
Thank you kindly for your response. As a child we were always told that “Great Uncle Herman” was the son chosen to be sent to college. He then “gave back” to his siblings by paying for their children to go to college (and he paid for my father’s medical school). How unfortunate to not have ever met him.
Susan Steinkraus Geraci