Fellows Gear Shaper Company (Closed)
Springfield, VT Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
Here's an old factory built over the river in the town of Springfield, VT. The sign above the entrance of the old factory said The Fellows Gear Shaper Company. This appears to have been a fairly large operation that had been there for a long long time but now sits mostly vacant. It was cool to seen an old industrial complex made partly of wood. (The interior of the office area was like an old hotel lobby). Many thanks to Richard Weiss for info. 07-07
Another shot from across the river
Springfield, VT Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
Check out this massive red brick factory stretching right along the banks of the Black River in eastern Vermont.
The Fellows Gear Shaper Company complex along River Street was the undisputed powerhouse of Vermont's legendary "Precision Valley." Founded back in July 1896 by inventor Edwin R. Fellows with backing from fellow industrial pioneer James Hartness, the operation grew from a modest 45x60-foot workshop into a colossal multi-story brick mill spanning over a thousand continuous feet along the riverbank.
Fellows Gear Shaper Company
Springfield, VT Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
To even reach the main plant entrance from the street, workers, visitors, and delivery trucks had to cross a well-preserved 1912 Pratt through-truss iron bridge spanning the churning river channel. Inside these brick walls, Fellows manufactured a revolutionary, patented gear-shaping machine that used a cutter shaped like a gear itself to carve out perfectly matching teeth through a continuous molding-generating process. That mechanical breakthrough helped kickstart the early American automobile boom by churning out reliable, precision transmissions for early automakers like Packard, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Buick, before switching gears to supply vital aircraft engine components and flight instruments during World War II.
Fellows Gear Shaper Company
Springfield, VT Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
The sprawling plant hummed with activity for generations, but shifts in global machine manufacturing finally forced the historic factory to file for bankruptcy and shutter its doors in 2002 after more than a century of innovation. During the messy liquidation phase that summer, a local preservation sweep famously pulled original 1896 handwritten company ledgers, engineering schematics, and typed wartime worker archives right out of factory dumpsters just in time, successfully sending the entire collection to the Smithsonian Institution for permanent safekeeping.
Take a look across the river from the old iron bridge today and you can still see the sheer industrial muscle and architectural history that put this sleepy New England town on the worldwide manufacturing map.
UPDATE: The sprawling riverfront mill complex has been adapted for multi-tenant use, housing local commercial offices, community spaces, and specialty gear manufacturing by former Fellows engineers. 08-26
Hamilton Waterworks Pumping Station
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
in Hamilton, check out this old pumphouse dating to the 1860's. It is now a museum where you can see the old engines slowly turn. Many thanks to Richard Weiss for info. 03-08
The Hamilton Waterworks Pumping Station (now operating as the Hamilton Museum of Steam & Technology National Historic Site) along Woodward Avenue in Hamilton, Ontario, is a true survivor. Built between 1857 and 1859, this heavy stone landmark is celebrated as the only surviving, completely intact mid-19th-century waterworks complex left anywhere in North America.
Hamilton Waterworks Pumping Station
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Photo courtesy Richard Weiss
Designed by pioneer civil engineer Thomas Coltrin Keefer, the rusticated limestone engine house was built using stone quarried right from the local Niagara Escarpment, with exterior window arches crafted to look like an ancient Roman aqueduct. Step inside the engine room and you'll find the real showstoppers: a pair of massive, 70-ton, 45-foot-tall Woolf compound steam-pumping engines framed by grand cast-iron Doric columns. These giants were cast locally by John Gartshore’s Dundas Foundry to pump clean, sand-filtered water straight from Lake Ontario after devastating cholera outbreaks hit the city in the 1850s.
Outside, the attached 150-foot brick smokestack towered over the city for decades as the tallest structure on the Hamilton skyline before electric pumps finally took over in 1910. Victorian mystery buffs might also recognize the historic brick-and-stone facade from the TV series Murdoch Mysteries, where it doubled as the Toronto city morgue.
UPDATE: The historic pumphouse is preserved as an active museum where visitors can check out the original steam machinery and live miniature train days. 08-26
Fellows Gear Shaper Company (Closed)
Another shot from across the river
Fellows Gear Shaper Company
Fellows Gear Shaper Company
Hamilton Waterworks Pumping Station
Hamilton Waterworks Pumping Station
