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"It is very hard to remember that events now long in the past were
once in the future." -Frederic Maitland
ONCE UPON A TIME hand tools were made in the USA in home workshops that turned into small factories. The people who made up all of these early businesses took great pride in making and selling a well designed product that others wanted to own. They also took pride in creating jobs for the other talented craftsmen and salesmen that lived in their communities. In some small towns, they even invested their money in other neighboring business ventures or made loans to each other during hard times because they wanted everyone in the area to prosper and grow. Because of the Industrial Revolution and the steady march of progress, most of those early tool companies are gone. Their dreams and ideas have been absorbed into much larger, more impersonal corporations but we still can benefit today from their vision if we choose to pay attention to it. |
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RAILROAD SWEETHART
When William S Hart took over the management of the Stanley Works in 1854, the company was losing money. It was Hart's background as a railroad station master and freight agent that made it possible to turn the tool business around. The early railroad companies were encouraging and financing the development of hardware stores in many of the cities along their routes in order to have profitable products to ship on their freight trains. Hart knew where these stores were located and how to get the Stanley line on the shelves. He tripled the company profits in his first year and though he spent the rest of his working life with Stanley, he always thought of himself as a railroad man at heart. The Stanley Sweetheart logo, 1920-34, was in honor of William Hart. The new logo commemerated the merger of the Stanley Rule and Level Company into Stanley Works. |
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"I have believed that I could do no
greater good than help create a business that would give people employment
and a chance to earn an honest living."
AFTER SPENDING COUNTLESS days at his kitchen table drawing designs and patterns and then working up ideas on a home foot lathe, Laroy S Starrett took his handy fixed blade combination square plans to a nearby machine shop to have it made. He stood by anxiously until the worker was finished and wasn't discouraged when the man didn't think much of his innovative design. |
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Starrett, an inventor since his childhood, knew there were still several production problems he had to solve before he could market the tool but he was up for the challenge. He was tired of working for others and was hoping this square would allow him to go into a business for himself that would take advantage of his keen interest in the development of precision tools. When his envious former business associates threatened to ruin anyone making or selling his new square, it looked like Starrett wouldn't be able to fulfill that dream. He solved the problem by buying out a frightened company, hiring the workers and later beating his former associates in court. His new square sold well and became the cornerstone of a new company built on product innovation and integrity. Even with the square's success, Starrett was busy making additions to it in order to make the tool even more useful so that millions of workers could earn their daily bread with it. |
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"To our faithful employees belongs a
large share of the credit for our rapid growth and great success."
Starrett set high standards for himself and those who worked with him followed his lead. He was also quick to recognize other good tool ideas that could come under the Starrett Tools umbrella including the Athol Machine Company, his former envious business associates. Before long, he assembled a stable of workers that became known as the "World's Greatest Toolmakers" and produced a line of fine tools that lived up to that claim. -LP
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