Today in 1897, outside his factory in Hartford, successful bicycle manufacturer Albert Augustus Pope unveiled what he considered to be the future of the automobile industry: the battery-powered Columbia Motor Carriage. It was the first demonstration of a mass-produced electric car in American history. Weighing in at 1800 pounds and reaching a top speed…
Tag: connecticut industry
April 25: Oliver Winchester Aims for Success in The Rifle Industry.
In early 1857, businessman Oliver Winchester bought controlling interest in a struggling Connecticut firearms company from two inventors named Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson. With access to machine tools, raw materials, and a number of valuable patents — especially rights to the Henry Repeating Rifle, the world’s first multiple-round-firing longarm — Winchester formed the…
April 13: Eli Terry, The Man Who Made Us All Clock-watchers
Eli Terry, the man who revolutionized clock manufacturing and whose timepieces became featured objects in millions of American homes, was born in South Windsor (then a part of East Windsor), Connecticut today in 1772. Terry was a mechanical engineering prodigy who set his ambitions into motion at an early age, apprenticing himself to a…
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. Blickensderfer’s machine used a radical, minimalist design that contained up to 90 percent fewer parts than the heavier, more complicated desk typewriters that came…
February 4: In the Midst of Civil War, the Colt Arms Factory Is Destroyed By Suspicious Fire
Just after 8 a.m. on the morning of February 4, 1864, as the Civil War was nearing the end of the third year of the nation’s most violent and divisive conflict, the loud, sharp, incessant tones of a steam whistle pierced the air in Hartford, alerting city residents to danger. As men and women…
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…
December 22: Newgate Prison Incarcerates Its First Inmate. But Not For Long.
Today in 1773, Newgate Prison, the first penal institution to open in Connecticut, received its very first prisoner: 20-year-old John Hinson, who had been convicted of burglary and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. Newgate Prison was built on the site of a former copper mine in East Granby which had opened in 1705…
December 1: PEZ Candy Opens Wide in Orange
Today, PEZ candy conjures up images of whimsical plastic dispensers full of small, brick-shaped little candies. First invented in Austria in the early 20th century, PEZ candy has quite a storied history — one that visitors can learn for themselves with a visit to the PEZ Visitors Center in Orange, Connecticut, which first opened…
November 19: Bold as Brass, The Silver City Goes International
Today in 1898, in the middle of a sustained series of national economic crises, the International Silver Company, one of Connecticut’s most famous and globally recognized brands, was formally incorporated in Meriden. The central Connecticut city had already established a national reputation as a leading producer of silver and silver-plated goods by the late…
November 17: Plymouth Man Clocks in with a Timely Patent –– His First of 10
Today in 1797, an inventor, entrepreneur, and future-famous clock maker residing in the two-year-old manufacturing town of Plymouth received the first clock-making patent ever issued in the United States. That patent launched an incredible career in manufacturing that helped make Connecticut the epicenter of quality clock manufacturing for the duration of the 19th century,…
November 2: Introducing the “Best Built Car in America”
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…