Today in 1902, former race car driver Andrew Riker, personally drove the first production model of the luxury $4000, four-cylinder, gasoline-powered car he had designed, engineered and manufactured in Bridgeport into New York City to present it to its new owner. Since its founding in 1899, the Locomobile Company, whose headquarters and main factory…
Tag: business and industry
October 22: A Poor Yankee Peddler from Harwinton Becomes a Railroad Tycoon
Collis Potter Huntington was born today in 1822, the sixth of nine children born to William and Elizabeth Huntington of Harwinton, Connecticut. The Huntington family, owners of a farm in a section of Harwinton fittingly known as “Poverty Hollow,” constantly struggled to make ends meet, forcing Collis to set off on his own as…
October 19: The Silver City’s “Perfect” Silver Gets Gold-Star Reviews at the U.S. Centennial
Today in 1876, Connecticut found itself in the national spotlight through the artistic craftsmanship of the silver pieces produced by the Meriden Britannia Company of Meriden when the New York Times published a glowing write-up of the silver products the company exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Noting the “peculiar excellence” of the…
September 15: Catastrophe at the Climax Fuse Company.
Today in 1905, an employee using a hot iron to clear fuse debris from a reeling machine touched off a muffled explosion in the main building of the Climax Fuse factory in Avon. Though the blast was barely heard 300 feet away, the sheets of flame it triggered instantly engulfed the factory, suffocating seven…
September 1: Connecticut’s Unknown Industrial Genius
The largely unknown man at the center of Connecticut’s 19th century industrial greatness – Elisha King Root – died in Hartford today in 1865. Root’s machine tool genius first revolutionized axe production in Collinsville and then made the Colt Firearms Company a worldwide icon of precision manufacturing. Born in western Massachusetts in 1808, Root…
August 11: A Piano Maker’s Play to Cut Insurance Rates Nets Him Millions
As the Industrial Revolution transformed American market towns into industrial cities during the 19th century, the risk of urban fires – always a hazard – sharply increased. This was especially true in the era that preceded the establishment of building and fire codes. In response to the sharp increase in fire-related damage claims in…
August 7: Connecticut Grinds to an Angry Halt
Today in 1919, Connecticut companies throughout the state were effectively shuttered as thousands of workers across a multitude of different industries joined in a massive regional strike that, within the course of a week, spread from Maine to New York and brought New England commerce to a screeching halt. Connecticut, like many other states…
July 11: The Neptune Returns with Astonishing Wealth
Today in 1799, the merchant ship Neptune sailed into New Haven harbor after an absence of two years and eight months with the most lucrative haul of cargo Connecticut had ever seen. Captained by New Haven native Daniel Green, the Neptune set sail in late 1797 with a crew of 45 “young, sturdy, and…
March 11: She Taught a Man’s World How to Build a Better Business
When Beatrice Fox Auerbach became president of Hartford’s G. Fox & Company in 1938, in an era where there were scarcely any female retail executives in the United States, neither she nor any of the popular department store’s board members expected her to remain in the position for very long. But instead of stepping…
December 31: Cutting-Edge Teamwork Turns A Starr Into A Star
As a major in the Continental Army, Nathan Starr forged and repaired weapons as part of his service during the Revolutionary War. After the war was over, Starr returned to his hometown of Middletown, Connecticut, and made a living manufacturing blades of a different sort: mostly agricultural tools like scythes for local farmers. In…
April 12: For Writers, It Was the First Laptop
Today in 1892, George Canfield Blickensderfer of Stamford patented the first successful portable typewriter, one of the most transformative examples of Yankee ingenuity ever to come from the Constitution State. An antique Blickensderfer portable typewriter Model 5, manufactured sometime in the 1890s. Blickensderfer’s machine used a radical, minimalist design that contained up to 90…
May 30: 12,000 Bridgeport Workers Mobilize to Support Striking Trolleymen
Today in 1922, Bridgeport’s Central Labor Union issued a formal call to all its 12,000 members to support the striking trolleymen who worked for the Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company, triggering months of labor unrest in one of Connecticut’s largest cities. The Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company was the primary operator of electric trains,…