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Hartford Special Machinery Company
Made the mechanical parts of the Baker Super-Schmidt meteor cameras in the early 1950s.
According to Preservation Connecticut's website (https://connecticutmills.org/find/details/hartford-special-machinery-co)
"The Hartford Special Machinery Company was organized in Hartford, Connecticut in 1912. The founders of the firm included three residents of Hartford; Ernest Walker and Herbert Knox Smith, both of whom were attorneys, and Joseph Merritt, who was a mechanical engineer and draftsman. The business was established for the manufacture of special machinery tools and fixtures and began work with 12 employees in a small shop on Main Street known as the Wood Building. Within two years the company’s profitability necessitated renting a second floor in the Wood Building, and within another year the decision was made to erect a dedicated factory on Homestead Avenue. A substantial addition was made to this plant in 1920, by which time the firm employed 150 hands. The Hartford Special Machinery Company continued to manage fairly well through the 1920s and successfully weathered the initial fallout of the stock market crash of 1929. Between 1920 and 1930, the firm had made several further additions to its Homestead Avenue factory and by 1930 employed 175 workers, although this number would dip slightly as the depression ran its course.
"By the 1920s, the company’s activities could be roughly divided into three categories. These included the design and manufacture of new single-purpose automatic machinery, the mass production of machines previously developed by other firms, and the in-house manufacture of all varieties and sizes of gears and cams. This operational diversity, of which the company boasted ‘You name it, we’ll make it,’ allowed the Hartford Special Machinery Company’s to survive the Great Depression and the company expanded significantly during the 1940s as a result of the American industrial boom that corresponded with World War Two."
According to Preservation Connecticut's website (https://connecticutmills.org/find/details/hartford-special-machinery-co)
"The Hartford Special Machinery Company was organized in Hartford, Connecticut in 1912. The founders of the firm included three residents of Hartford; Ernest Walker and Herbert Knox Smith, both of whom were attorneys, and Joseph Merritt, who was a mechanical engineer and draftsman. The business was established for the manufacture of special machinery tools and fixtures and began work with 12 employees in a small shop on Main Street known as the Wood Building. Within two years the company’s profitability necessitated renting a second floor in the Wood Building, and within another year the decision was made to erect a dedicated factory on Homestead Avenue. A substantial addition was made to this plant in 1920, by which time the firm employed 150 hands. The Hartford Special Machinery Company continued to manage fairly well through the 1920s and successfully weathered the initial fallout of the stock market crash of 1929. Between 1920 and 1930, the firm had made several further additions to its Homestead Avenue factory and by 1930 employed 175 workers, although this number would dip slightly as the depression ran its course.
"By the 1920s, the company’s activities could be roughly divided into three categories. These included the design and manufacture of new single-purpose automatic machinery, the mass production of machines previously developed by other firms, and the in-house manufacture of all varieties and sizes of gears and cams. This operational diversity, of which the company boasted ‘You name it, we’ll make it,’ allowed the Hartford Special Machinery Company’s to survive the Great Depression and the company expanded significantly during the 1940s as a result of the American industrial boom that corresponded with World War Two."
Preservation Connecticut, "Mills: Making Places of Connecticut," Mill Record Hartford: Hartford Special Machinery Co. https://connecticutmills.org/find/details/hartford-special-machinery-co (accessed 3/20/2020)