Charles H. Amidon

Amidon's Early Years

Charles Henry Amidon was the son of David Amidon, a shoemaker from Reedsboro, Vermont, who moved his family to Monroe, in Franklin County, Massachusetts, in the late 1820s. Charles, the third of nine children, was born there on the 28th of May in 1830. The Amidon family appears to have moved back and forth between Massachusetts and Vermont several times during Charles' childhood—federal census records indicate alternating birthplaces for some of the younger children.(1) At the age of twenty-two, Charles Amidon married Louisa M. Yeomans, a young woman working as a servant in the nearby town of Ashfield. The couple moved to Greenfield where Charles took a job with the Greenfield Tool Company—an enterprise on its way to becoming one of the largest manufacturers of wooden hand planes in the United States. Their marriage was not a lengthy one; Louisa died at Greenfield in 1854. Before the decade was out, Charles was married again, to a woman named Harriet (maiden name unknown) who became his life-long companion.

Amidon's aptitude for things mechanical soon became apparent. Between 1852 and 1854, he was one of the five men at Greenfield Tool assigned the difficult task of making complex wooden plow planes.(2) He advanced to a position as a machinist and received his first exposure to the patent application process as co-assignee of a hollow mortising chisel he had developed with A.C. Hitchcock, Greenfield's filletster plane specialist.(3) While at the Tool Company, Amidon made the acquaintance of Levi Gunn, his future partner and a co-founder of the Millers Falls Manufacturing Company. The men worked well together and soon held the contract for the manufacture of all the company's tools.

Gunn & Amidon

In 1861, Charles Amidon associated with Levi Gunn for the purpose of building wash wringers. A year later, Amidon was issued United State Letters Patent No. 36,761 for a wringer roller that applied even pressure on the clothing passing through it. The patent was issued after the fact—the operation had already been producing the design for some time. At the time of the startup, the men were not partners in the legal sense of the word. An ad for the wringer in the August 24, 1863, Greenfield Gazette and Courier includes, in boldface, the notation, "L.J. Gunn, Manufacturer and Proprietor." It was not until later that year—some thirty months after the founding of the business—that Amidon became a full partner in the enterprise. The change in Amidon's status coincided with the completion of a large addition to the operation's factory on Cherry Rum Brook. The timing of the events suggests a significant capital investment on Amidon's part. At this point, the legal name of the business became Gunn & Amidon.

While 1864 saw the introduction of the firm's renowned Barber brace, long forgotten is the washing machine that Gunn & Amidon introduced the same year. In December 1864, advertisements extolling the virtues of the "Washing-ton Machine" began to appear in the local newspaper. John S. Lash, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, had patented a combination wringer and washer in the fall of 1862. Gunn & Amidon modified it, replacing the Lash wringer with Amidon's, and marketed the result as the "The Washing-ton Machine." Advertised as "the cheapest, simplest and most perfect machine in the world," much was made of the fact that the unit could be trusted to be gentle on clothing. Press notices advised that a bank bill could be "placed in the machine with a dozen dirty collars and the collars washed clean without doing the least injury to the bill." Eager to leave no promotional stone unturned, the partners' ads boldly included the challenge, "We defy anyone to produce a better."(4)

The men found themselves in a cutthroat business. Although wash wringers had become common in middle class households, they were relatively easy to manufacture, and competitors were legion. While Amidon's wringer sold well enough, it was apparent that enhancements were required to keep abreast of the market. In spring of 1865, Charles H. Amidon patented an improvement to his wringing machine. The new wringer was chain driven, allowing for a more reliable roller movement and a consistent pressure on laundry items. On July 31, 1865, Gunn, Amidon & Co. placed an ode to the new ringer in the Greenfield Gazette and Courier. While not exactly a literary masterpiece, an examination of the verses shows that, except for subtlety, there is little new in the psychology of advertising.

The partnerships established by Franklin County businessmen were not particularly long lasting. Often created for the purpose of attracting capital or acquiring goods and services, they were formed and abandoned with relative ease as personal or business circumstances warranted. On March 15, 1865, Elijah Root Saxton became a partner in the firm, and the enterprise was given a new name, "Gunn, Amidon & Company." Saxton's role in the operation remains unclear, but his tenure with the firm was not to be a lengthy one. He left after just fourteen months with the company. By contemporary standards, the duration of his partnership was unremarkable—the local paper carried frequent announcements of such couplings and uncouplings. After his departure, the firm went back to its original name, and Saxton moved on to Buffalo, New York, where, in 1870, he reported to a census taker that he was working at a steam forge. Elijah Saxton and Charles Amidon would become partners again in the latter 1870s.

Given the phenomenal success of the firm's Barber brace, it was almost inevitable that Charles Amidon would begin to toy with brace designs of his own. His first, patented in 1865, consisted of a shell-type chuck with its jaws attached to a floating socket block. His second design, patented in 1867, used an eyebolt and wing nut to hold a bit in place. Few examples of either tool survive.(5) By 1867, brace production at Gunn, Amidon & Company had risen to several hundred units per week, and a decision to de-emphasize the wringer business was made. Rather than manufacturing the new four-gear wringer patented by Amidon that spring, the rights were sold to the Bailey Washing and Wringing Machine Company of Woonsocket, Rhode Island.(6)

The formation of the Millers Falls Mfg. Company in 1868 by Henry L. Pratt, Levi Gunn, Charles Amidon and James Moore brought an end to the partnership of Gunn & Amidon. During his association with Gunn, Charles Amidon had developed three wash wringers and two bit braces for the operation. His contribution to the new company was no less significant. In addition to serving as plant superintendent, his 1868 re-design of the Barber chuck was outstanding in its simplicity and function, for in addition to being cheaper to manufacture, its jaws provided a secure grip on a wider variety of shanks. Amidon's "Barber Improved" brace became the operation's best-selling tool and had as much to do with the company's prosperity as any single product.(7) When Charles Amidon left the company in 1870 to establish his own business, Millers Falls Mfg. retained the rights to manufacture bit braces under his patents.

Amidon's Factory

Amidon's departure from the company left him with cash in his pocket. In January 1870, the month he left the operation, Amidon bought a farm from Solomon Caswell, and two weeks later, he purchased a waterpower right on the Millers Falls Mfg. Company's canal. The summer found him occupied with building a new barn (with a full cellar) on his farm and a factory at the canal site. The new, two-story brick factory was completed in January 1871. The building was to be given over to the production of baby carriages, and Charles Amidon was not alone in assuming the risks of the venture. Charles E. Fisk, a Greenfield coach maker who had once shared a house with Amidon, became a partner in the operation. Orson F. Swift, a flighty investor and dealer in tin ware, joined the firm soon after, and Henry M. Dunbar, a longtime acquaintance of Amidon, became an investor before the year was up. The new business was named the Amidon Manufacturing Company.

Amidon had known Henry Dunbar since his youth. Henry was the son of Charles Dunbar, one of the Connecticut Dunbars who had migrated to the Monroe area of Franklin County earlier in the century. Ties between the Dunbars and Amidons were close; the families had shared a household in 1850. Charles Amidon's mother, Bertha, was a Connecticut Dunbar, and it is likely that he and Henry were cousins. Henry had worked for Charles Amidon during the early years of the Millers Falls Mfg. Company and had lost four hundred dollars in stock and tools when fire destroyed the factory in December 1868.

The Amidon Manufacturing Company was located next to the factory of Solomon H. Amidon, Charles' younger brother. Solomon and his partner, Jesse Newton, built a two-story, 40 x 60 foot brick building to serve as headquarters and manufactory for Amidon & Newton, producers of small hardware items and operators of a successful construction company. On March 26, 1872, Solomon Amidon was issued United States Letters Patent no. 124,999 for a stay brace for trunk lids, and while it is not known if the design was ever produced, it is indicative of the sort hardware the partners manufactured.

Charles Amidon's responsibilities at the carriage shop did not put an end to his design work. He soon became involved in the development of drilling and boring devices equipped with feed mechanisms. In December 1872, he patented a hand drill with an offset crank that could be clamped to one jaw of an ordinary mechanic's vise. Six months later, on July 1, 1873, he was issued a patent for a bit brace that could be converted to a hand drill. The tool was designed to be mounted on a frame equipped with a feeding device that would move a piece of stock into a rotating drill bit. Although neither of Amidon's feed mechanisms was successful, a bit brace based on the 1873 patent was put into production—a move that did much to enhance the diversity of the Amidon Manufacturing Company's product line.

In January 1873, Charles H. Amidon was issued yet another patent, this one for a baby carriage with an adjustable push handle, pivoting rear wheels, and a recliner seat.(figure 3) Another baby coach patent followed in early 1875. It featured a bi-directional, adjustable top that allowed a surprising amount of flexibility in protecting a child from the sun. Modeled on the carriages of the well-to-do, the firm's coaches were intended to appeal to a prosperous middle class, and it is not surprising that skilled carriage makers such as Charles Fisk were involved in their production.(8)

Unfortunately, the business climate in the mid-1870s was less than ideal—especially for companies whose well-being depended on discretionary spending by younger, middle class consumers. Although the Amidon Manufacturing Company had begun to fabricate bit braces and other small items, its primary product—a high-end baby carriage—was highly vulnerable to an economic recession. A downturn, which began with the Panic of 1873, lasted for nearly five years, and Amidon Manufacturing, like so many other small companies, would struggle and fail.

By February 1875, losses had reached the point at which it was necessary to declare bankruptcy. Although the factory and grounds were sold to satisfy creditors that June, the equipment remained in the hands of the principals, who continued to operate the business in the original building—now owned by the private bankers Cheney & Waite. (At some point, the firm, or at least some part of it, had been renamed the Amidon Bit Brace Company.)

The situation at Charles Amidon's company went from bad to worse. On the evening of January 19, 1876, a fire broke out in the north attic of the operation's factory. The ensuing conflagration destroyed two-thirds of the 123 x 50 foot building. The part of the structure that burned housed the carriage-making operation, and although the building belonged to Cheney & Waite, the loss in tools and stock was substantial. Enough of the factory remained, however, so that after a brief pause, the bit brace business was able to continue in the undamaged part of the building.

Charles H. Amidon and Henry M. Dunbar filed for personal bankruptcy within days of the fire. Seven months later, a notice that Charles E. Fisk had opened a carriage-making shop in Greenfield appeared in the Gazette and Courier. The manufacture of bit braces continued at the Amidon Bit Brace Company for a time, but in May of 1877, the equipment was sold to Elijah R. Saxton of Buffalo, New York.

Off to Buffalo

E.R. Saxton had done well since his departure from Gunn, Amidon and Company a decade earlier. A manufacturer of axles for rail cars, he had become active in Republican Party politics and served as alderman for Buffalo's Second Ward. Saxton purchased the equipment of the Amidon factory with an eye to manufacturing small items for the hardware trade. The Greenfield newspaper reported that Saxton intended to manage the operation himself and to take on "an experienced mechanic from the East to oversee the workmen." No mention was made of a role for Charles Amidon.

Two months after the sale, Charles Amidon assigned half of his patent for a brace wrench to Elijah Saxton. On March 19, 1878, he assigned Saxton half interest in a thumb screw-type bit brace he had developed. The men became partners, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that the interest in the patents formed a substantial part of the bankrupt Amidon's buy in. The relative strength of the men's positions in the firm is evidenced by the name of the enterprise—Saxton & Amidon, rather than Amidon & Saxton.(9) On April 20, 1880, Amidon was issued United State Letters Patent 226,646 for a chuck featuring a pair of short, springless jaws that were designed to be "simple, cheap and durable." The 1880 chuck, inexpensive to manufacture and elegant in its simplicity, would remain in production until the mid-1890s. An 1883 ratchet brace that used a single disk-type pawl to control the direction of the tool's rotation was not as successful. (Comparatively few have survived.) Amidon's partnership with Saxton lasted five years. He remained in Buffalo to form partnerships with Ansley White (Amidon & White 1883-1887) and Walter Bastedo (Amidon & Bastedo 1887-1892). When his partnership with Bastedo ended, he was involved for a year or two with the short-lived Amidon Tool Corporation. All of the operations were involved in the manufacture of bit braces.(10)

Had Charles Henry Amidon remained with the Millers Falls Mfg. Company, he would have become a wealthy man. It is ironic that the success of the firm was in large part due to the solid foundation provided it by the enormous sales of braces featuring his Barber Improved Chuck. A solid mechanic with at least twenty-two patents to his name, Amidon lacked the temperament to successfully manage his own business or to remain in a partnership for any length of time. Amidon may have been well aware of his shortcomings as a businessman. When asked his occupation by a federal census taker in 1880, Charles Amidon replied with the word "inventor." Amidon died sometime after 1900.

In 1900, a patent for a tire pump was issued to an individual named Charles H. Amidon who resided in Buffalo, New York. The pump is unlike any of the other Amidon designs and may be the work of the other Charles H. Amidon living in the city at the time—a younger man who worked as a machinist.

Illustrations:
Greenfield Tool factory: View of Greenfield, Mass. Boston : O.H. Bailey & Co., 1877.
Wash wringers: United States letters patents.
Map: Beers, F.W. and Sanford, G.P. Atlas of Franklin Co., Massachusetts: from Actual Surveys. New York : F.W. Beers & Co., 1871.
Linked stay brace for trunk lids: United States letters patent.
Baby carriage: United States letters patent.

Patents:

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