History

ff The

Taylor Thermometer Maker$by

rrre r'S.i,:::,*' $:il'\rru coin-cided with the l25th anniversary ofAnrerica's oldest existing and 6est-kno.wn nraker of thernrometers and .s-sociated instruments to nreasure tenl-perature, pressure and humidity.Known successively as Kendall A f"y-lor, Q.orge Tayloi, Taylor & Richari_son, Taylor Brothers, ihen Taylor fn_strument companies, this pioneer nran-ufacturer has now becomi the Tayior *Divisions of Sybron Corporation.

The coppny_started in Rochester,New York, in i851. The headquarters

. and. prirrcipal factory of the Taylor or-' ganization are still- located thlre, al-though its products and method of nlan-ufacture have changed vastly in the cer-tury 11rd quarter. David Kendall,aged 35, had iome to Rochester froniNew Lebanon, lrlew York, with knowl.9dS. 9{ thernrometer making learnedfrom his father, who had belun theirnranufacture in 1820. He j-oined inpartnerrhlp ryit!, George Tiylor, 19,fronr Stoddard, New Hampshiie, wherehis father was a prosperous f"r*er.Taylor brought irito it e union hisyouthful enthusiasnr, good businesssense, and some nloney.

How much money Taylor investeclis rrot certain, but tire anrount can beestinrated fronr the original inventorythat Kendall listed on October 31, lgSf,in which he included $600 for ,.knowl-edge of business" in the total anrount of$919. It seems obvious. th.at the partner-tlrip w?s based on this inventory, andsince the "knowledge" at that- pointcould only have been that which ken-dall brought with trinr from NewLebanon, i! can be assunted that Taylorcontributed $459.50. It was not a pit-t:tnce at a tinre when a fair wage

-for

:r six-day. week of ten-lrour days wasseven dollars.

That handwritten inventory now re-poses in a University of Rochesteryault ?nd, it is hoped, witt serve as thebasis for a n*lseun'r exhibit duplicatingthe ori'ginal orre-rooru shop where Keri

57 THE crr RoNrcLE

dall and Taylor set up business. Hownruch of tlre nraterial Kendall broughtfronr New Lebarrorr with hinr is ioiknown, but it is likely that nra,y of theitenrs were his own iools of thi trade.Most were standard wood and nr.i"iworkirrg tools, with a few unusual itenrssuch as llottles of potassiunr cyanideand four India rubb-er llalls.

With tin cases bought frorrr Taylor,stuncle and glals bought flo,r, the B"yState Glasi Conrpaiy of East Cam'-bridge, Massachusetfs, or fronr thefitnrous Boston and sandwich GlassConrpaU, the new trusiness went ,,onstreanl" quickly. Kendall blew andfilled the glass- tubes, graduated th;lcalgs, and assenlbled tlre i,strunrents ;Taylor kept the lmoks arrd did'the sell-ing. It is said that when a trunk or sohad been filled witlr thernronreters, Tay-lor hurried off by wagon, train or'."n"1lrcat to peddle itre l6t, while Kendallworked on the next shipnrent.

Things went well aria the assets ofthe partnership tripled in less than twoyears. Then David Kendall left the firnrand eventually headed west. It is knownthat he nrade barometers on his own inRochester for a short tinre, then incleveland, and later built fuiniture inMichigarr, after which his travels haverrot lleen traced. He died in EastBloonrfield, Nerv York, in 1862 at theage of 46,

Figurc 1. A crlsr iron "cobiuer" rrtcruto,te-tcr tnodc by . G eoroc Taylor in lgl3. f trc,rcule rs hand . stoni'y.,ed , ti* tuie ;i- irti ;i,{,1' c.oltlt-cr .zuire nrid t'lte .rcole i.r soldcredto thc boch of the frttmc.

Left to his own fortune, Geqrge T^y_lor irrrnrediately went to Ne# voir.city to find a r6placement for Kendall'snranufacturirrg skill. The nlan he hiredyas pniq $7.88 per six-day week. Thisfact is docunrented in a nrost detailecliqqry"l kept lry Taylor fronr lg53 t,1859, intact today in-his neat handwrit-ing. The journal- shows that fre houghttll'.er fronr Willianr_ AIIing (niwAllirrg and

-Cory).; .the.Taylo, ionrl)anystill buys from this f irm. sales weremade to custonrers who have renuinedon the conrpany books for nrore than100 years, sucli as L. Black Conrpatry,Detroit, and John Jacob Bausch, .o-founder of the- Bausih a,d Lonrb opri-cal Conrparry. Entries over the 'six

yeerrs recorded wages paid, cost ofqooq:, selling- prices. and llnny othercletails of tlre business.

The first Taylor catalog appeared in1877. Previously snrall - leiflets anddirectory listingrs had been the onlys_ales pronlotiorral lrraterial. By this timlGeorge Taylor had joined hir brotherFrank arrd for,red

- Taylor l3rothers,

il nanle that was to coutiirue urrtil l9oz,when Taylor .Instrunrcnt corrrpanieswas irrcorporat'ed.

-Tlr. eight-page catalog of lgTZ list_ed thermolrreters for horne, dairy, andbrewing, nrercurl, barometers, hydrom-eters, and weather gtasses. Weatherglasses, which sold foi one dollar, weretlre popular stornr glasses or .,weatherglass barometer and- thernronreter corl-bined,". popular. for at least a centuryas an rnexpensive weather forecaster.It was not in any sense a baronretricdevice. rt was a sealed glass tube filledwith a solution of cam[hor and grainalcohol, to which wers added postas-sium nitrate, anrmoniunr chloritie, anddistilled water. This witch,s brew had "the unique- capability of changing ap-pearancc through crystalization withchanges in temperatuie. Placed out-of-doors, it certainly did this dramatically,hut it hardly justified such forecaiiclaims as "dinr liquid with small starsmeans thunderstorms," or "small starsin winter on bright sunny days meanssnow in one or two days."

It is interesting to note irr passingthat the RochestCr directory cit 1869gavg minute instructions f6r makingone's own "chernical baronteter," sinri--lar to the commercial product but usingan eau-de-cologne bottle and substitut-iTS lpirits of wine for the straight grainalcohol. Another helpful hint in mikingyour own weather forecaster describeila leech barometer, supposedly of greataccuracy as deternrined by the activityof the creature. It neglect6d to give th;feeding requirementJ of this iifaltitrleweather forecaster.

A-ny of the items in this old Taylorcatalog are interesting antiques today.Fortunately rnany were preserved ariAare in nr.rsiums.'Ho*ever, none of theoriginal mercury baronreters shown inthg.catalog--ar9 krlown to exist. Theysold originally in black walnut cases forq8 if .plain and $10 if carved and gilt.9n. in good condition today, plairi orfarrcy, would bring hundrediof-dollars.Taylor Brothers had beconre wetl €s-tablished by the 1880s. However, it wasstill a snrali operation in a city that hadErown to alnrost 100,000 population.Rochester's largest enrploye; was therrthe Kinrball tobacco faCtoiy, on top ofwhich stood a statue of Mercnry. ttris

coPPER CUP CASE TIN CASE. WOOI

BREWERS' THERMOMETERS.

Figur-e 2. A *t f rom the. Taylor Brolhos 787? catalog illttstrating brcwels lhcruouelers.Fron the aatho/s coltcctiii.

ornantent l:ecanre locally famous, andit has now. been restored-to the Roches-ter slyline after its original perch wasdemolished and the stitue had spentnrany years in a dusty wryehouse. Bycoincidence, a sinrilai ,'Flying Mei-gur)r" yas inherited by the Taylor firmin the fornr of a tradenrark when it ab-sorbed one of its conlpetitors a fewyears later.

After the death of George Taylor in1889 and thg^ lnsolporatioi of taylorBrothers in 1904, dramatic growth'be-gan with the acqgisition of company af-te;. company and the opening of ialesoffices irr major Americin cities and inLondon. All

. t!r. products acquired by

those acquisitions were in ftre basilarea of tenrperature, pressure and spe-cific gravity measurenrent, but some od-dities did creep in. Anrong Taylor list-ings over the years werE gliss eyes,razor strops,. syringes, and urinalysisequipment, inrported "weather cot-!!ges," and fancy glass therrnometers.The strops were of- unusual four-sidedconstruction and were nrade by the

power plant engineer to occupy timewhile keeping watch over tha- boilerroom nrachinery,

The first acquisition, Hohmann &Maurer of New York City, has an in-teresting history. Henry Maurer was aSwiss enrigrant who carne to New Yorkin 1882 and soon owned a srnall lunch-room featuring French cuisine withdinners at twenty-five cents. One of hiscustomers was A, B. Hohmann, whoworked for a firm that rnade a fewthernrometers for industrial use.Legend has it that Mr. Maurer wasconcerned about keeping the dishwatersufficiently hot without burning hishands and that this led to the twofriends joining to nrake thermometersto check water temperature.

At any rate, the firm of Hohmann &Maurer becanre very successful andwhen acquired by Taylor Brothers in1896 added substantially to the productline with heavy-duty straight and angleprocess thernrometers. Hundreds ofindustries - fpsrn such now unfamiliarones as butterine makers and plaster

EARLY AMERIcAN INDUsTRIEs 58

TAYLOR IROTHERS, ROCHESTBR,

lrTltt PIIICNg,

BACX OB STIAP.

qtlciners to breweries ancl paper rniils

- were heconring ,rore aefeiaent o,inreasurirrg devices. Testirrronial teitersof 1899 flonr satisfied .urtoiirers borethe na,res of suclr lristoric firrrrs

-;;Edison Phorrograptr Works of Oi*,S.,T.qJeIsE, IJ-. f._G*drich ,f Ai;;;;:the clark rlrread corupany of New";il,*ncl Ro,re lJrass and cop[ler irr R";;;;New York.

Llecause of its welr-k,ow' nanre,Hoh,rann a,d Maurer was kept as adivisiorr and was operatecl almost as aseparate conrpany until 1907, rvhen itsideTjity was losi and it became partof Taylor Instrurrrent Co'rpanies, f;.,of which Maurer was a riirector andlater vice president. Holrrrr"nti did ;.trenrain with the conlpany.

At about the sanre iinr6, a,otrrer weil-known fin,, watertown TlrerrrrcnreterComparry in t!}e upstate city ,i W;;;;:town, New _York, was aiquilecl nn,t,roved to Rochester in lb10. Thi;union brought new types of tlrer,rroni.-ters and baronreters- is well as skilleclworkers who nroved downstate ancl re-settled in Rochester, watertown Ther-nronreter Conrpany contributed il,e at-tractive tradeniark of a traditional Mer-cury. with rather unsubstarrtial wirrgson his ankles a,d helnret a,cl carryifiIIhg physician's caduceusr I logical ;y"r.bol because of the clinicai tlrer:nronretersruanufactured.

The third largest acquisitiorr of U. S.firnrs was the take-ovir in rgOs

"r i.Hoehn Coypaly, I3rooklyn, an old "nJwell-established- conceri. since its

product line did rrot dif{er greatly fronrtlrat of Taylor, it ,ray be aisur6d thatt!. purclrase was nracre i; trr. i"terestof renrovilg conlpetition, gainint ;;established nrarklt, and - *.qulrineskilled personnel.' one of thesi-_inoilviduals, olyoy: caltecl ,,Ike,, fUayii,had been listid as a proprietor of n.Hoetrn. He l:ecanre an infliential risurein ,ltr.. Taylor I,strunrent conrp,aii.r.

It is difficult for the historian to sortout all the facts regarding the eonl_panies that eventually were ivelded intoa single corporation. Most articies con- 'tained errois discovered later, and itwould be brash to clai,r conrplete ?c-curacy in this one, although'extremecare has been taken. Miny devicesused in the..g?.rly. .d"yr_gf latatojfiadd to the difficirlties. They ;;;y not

h igure 3, A . sotid brass therrttonte ler ailhq door nude.-by.the Hohrrrnii A"Ur"r-i,Diaisiott of raylor obout tgoi. ini ebsed

d o or 1, r eain rc d o, t h e r i i, ii,- ii o r,','ii, g t e tt t _

frerature secrets of froces.sing,59 ,I }IE CTIRONICLE

:rtl trave lreen delilrcrate, btrt they cer-tainly cause confusion.

One problenr is tlre oruission of dateson catalogs. lpparently to prevent the:rppearance of ollsolescence. A nrinutesearch for a dated letter or ollscurellatent date on an illustration often givesthg o.nly clues to the date of a cataloglrrinting. Another problenr was tEconrnron practice of retouching the artwork that illustrated the itenrs" or giv-irrg the artist. a free hand in identifica-tiorr of the woodcuts used for illustra-tiorr. This lrreant that the picture andthe product could have diffelent identi-fication, whether the product was nradelry a firnr or purchased fronr some do-nrestie or foreign source. In addition,an early version of private brandingwls practiced, so an itenr might carryonly the dealer's nanre or that of theinrporter or domestic purchaser.

Figurc 4. A_p tllt oily mojor maher of bo-ronteters layloy wos called to supply ol-linteters f o, United .Srorc.r ond' itt;cdltlanes during World War l,

This confusion of identity is compli-cated with Taylor products in the earlypart of this century because parts andcomplete instrunrents were freely eX-changed between the units. Conieiva-!rly, a thermonteter or baronreter nrighthave wood parts fronr Watertown,glass tubing fronr R. Hoehn, and metalscales fronr Taylor Brothers. Theseconrplications did not occur in theearlier days of these companies beforeproduct exchange began, and well-identified products of each are in nlu-seunrs and private collections. As canbe seen on the Taylor "fanrily tree,"two other I-J. S. firnrs were acquired.The Pert Pinelli Conrpany of Boston,purchased in 1903, added expertise andproduct in the line of hydroqreters formeasuring specific gravity. ' A shorttime later, in 1906, canre Davis &Roesch Conrpany of Nerv York, whichhad been nraking regulators for theHolrnrann & Maurer Division. These

eoncenrs have not lleen researclred ful-ly and there is Iittle nraterial in thearchives, so it is not certain their cor-tributions in product or personnel weresignif icant.

A ntost rgportant developnrent in thehistory of Taylor Brothers was the ac-quilition.in 1900 of the prestigious andwell-establislred Lorrdon firnr of Short& Mason. Its high-quality weather in-strunrents and other scientific appara-tus were known throughout the world.Standard products ranged from fineaneroid lrarometer.s foi governnrentsand explorers, to sunshine recordersand elegant sundials for the Royal gar-den yit!, gnonrons ( the part that castthe shadow ) nrade of hrais, bronze, orgun nretal. Special itenrs were createdlry apprentice-taught workmen of suchskill that a crude drawing and a fewnotes could result irr an instrument ofsuch functiorral beauty and accuracy asto astound today's nrichine operator.

The specialized krrowledge .of Short& Mason served the TaylorJirnr well inthe years that followed. Fronr an S&Mpressulg gSuge was developed the TycosAneroid Sphygmonlanonieter, a shalldial instrunrent that revolutionizedblood pressure nleasurement. Knowl-9dge, product and personnel gainedfronr the l-ondon subsidiary ita toTaylor's becoming the firsi IJ. S,rnaker of baronreters, compasses, 8n€-nronteters, and altimeters for the grow-ing aircraft industry, and for mi-litaryuse.

As a conseguence, the Rochesterfirnr was sought out to supply instru-nrents for all the Allied-

-Forces in

World War f . And to it came GlennCurtiss, Victor Lockheecl, Glen Mar-tin, Orville Wright, and others whowanted to ascend into the sky, whetherlry balloon, dirigible or heaviir-than-aircraft. At the fascinating Glenn Curtissrl:useunr in Hanrntondsport, NewYork, can be seen tlre early planes andtlre instrunrents used in thern.

. Today Short & Mason exists onlyin ntentory and in the fine instrumentsstill in service. The clever craftsm€tr,tlre skilled instrunrent ntakers, the pa-tient inlaid woodworkers are also goneand, with no willing apprentices to r€-place thenr, are victinrs of the nrachine-production age. After years of dwin-dling denrand for these f ine instru-rrrents, the Taylor firnr was forced tocliscontinue S&M production in 1968.

Irrdustrial changes began to reshapethe history of the Taylor organizationin the early 1900s, That is anotherst9ly, so hig that it requires a historyof its own. Today, wlrile still an inr-portarrt errtity, a single plant in Arden,

1ilA0Y &,. FLEC I(

l;igure 5. This udaertising therntometer zrrosmade b),Ta3,l6v about 1912. It included a" cotloge" barometer uthich was actuallyo bottle contoittittgl o temperalure-sensitiierttisture ond not u baroneter at oll,

North Carolina, is devoted to the pro-duction and nrarketing of consumerproducts. Here are nrade the therrnome-ters, barometers, hydrometers, com-passes and nredical instrunrents, simi-lar in some cases to the items Taylorstarted with in 1851. The main plantin Rochester and large sales offices andfactories all over the free world are de-voted to products not dreanred of dur-irrg the first half of Taylor's 125 years.

The nrodern era for Taylor startedabout the same tinre as World War f .

Faster ways had to be found to makethings. New nrachinery ran too fast fornren to keep up with it. Yet unifornrcluality arrd close tolerances were de-

EARLY AIUERICAN INDUSTRIES 60

nr:rnded, whether for beer or bullets,auto parts or l-rreakfast cereals. Tonrake it all work, process control wasrerluired. Tenrperature, pressure, flowarrd liquid level, all had to be nleasured,nronitored, controlled. It was a newera for instruruerrt nrakers, and TaylorI nstrurrrent Conrpanies as well as othersrapiclly went fronr sirrrple thernronretersto clial and recording devices, f rorusinrple rggulators to recording control-lers and then. to vast contrbl panelsstretching great distances in larle in-stallations.

I t was soou realized that these f irstinstrunrents were nruch too big, tookup too nruch roonl, and nrade mbnitor-ing difficult. Miles of instrunrentswould not do. So they had to be nradesnraller, with nrodern conlponents andcircuitly, products of the electronic age.Now there are conrputer consoles wlthcontrol irrstructions punclred on a type-writer, digital readout, and other teih-niques gl " lpace age technology.

All this is a far cry, indeeil, evenfronr World War II days, when Taylorglgineerecl the instruntentation for- thqIlanlrattan atonr lrcnrll project. Thdcarloads of instruruents shipped fronrRochester under top-secret

-conditions

ended up at Oak - Ridge in control

roonls so vast that operators had tori,L. bicycles frorrr panel to panel.

In a real sense, the hisfory of theTaylor organization is the history ofArrrerican industry front l85l to 1976.\\'hat George Taylor and David Ken-dall started as a pioneer conlpany hasrveathered *nrs' and depreslionr,clrangirrg tinres good ancl llah, to be-corlre part .of n-giarrt_ indtrstrial conrprexspanning the globe. In 1968, Tayloi In-strunlent corupanies nrerged with two

. other. outstanding RocheJter f irnts -Pfaudler conrpany, which ,racle glass-lined tanks, and

- Ritter Conrpaiy of

dental equipnrent fante to iorn,Sybron Corporation. Since then othertnakers of allied products have rreenadcled and total shles for lg7 S wereover half a billion dollars.

So the Taylor story paralleis in al*1I that of George Eistnran, ThonrasE1liso,, Harvey l-;iresto'e, arrrt a lrost,f others who rirade A'rerica great. Hedid not invent anything

- "ps1 even

the thernlonleters he rrrade, but he nracletlteru rvell, and he wotrtcl certainl.v rlepleased to know tlrat a century ni,a ncluarter later thernronreters are-still lle-irg sold everywhere with his narreoll tltettt.

George A. Cansell fs a z,olunteer int,trl:nologlt at the Rochester l4useum &J ctc rtce C enter, Rochcster, N czs y orll.

6l TlrE cHRoNrcLE

THE TAYLOR INSTRUMENT I25 YEAR HISTORYA Ch'rorclogrv ol thr TAYLOR INSTRUM€NT Dtvtstot{ o; gy3fion @SFoRATtOil

Froar t8tt ro t9?C

Orrld X.cr|0. tl. rlrr rJ;brlincrf a t lorntr panna,h (CI{OALL 8nOS.. ThrrnnortaT.fa6 in }{rr Lrbtnon. i|. y.f.thor ltro.rr X.addl. Jr.!grr^6.d lrm in l&lO

Gror; Trvlor. 10, crrr toFochettor lrom Sroddrr4 tl. H.Frthe. f,t a gr(11tro6 l.'rntracl nrntor ol Strtt LtCittttu(.

lOruidl lGrorgolXENOAL! I ?AVIOI

,85t - t853OAVID KEiIOAL!

37 €xchrr,g|- Stt853 -

'859OIORGE ?AVTOR

,853 - t86t

TAYLOR & tEOWI{CLLltlhotantc Bop,a,86t -

'869

lGcorgp 3 Frtnll lxtmlrtlTAYLOR E RICHARDSON

t87t _ t872HOHMAT{N A 'UAURERNm york Ciry

Founcld tggsI lnclwt ri ol fhu nrometen I

,/brcd to f,ochuter u Oiviion lgg6

OSWEGO THERmOMETER co.Or*cgo. N. Y.

(-@tnnon" lhermomctctt & Storm Gt,,-,)$ld ltachir*ry, Stoch to

Warcrrcwr fhermometcr Co. lgg6

TAYTOR 0norxens

TAYLOR BROT}rERS. tNC.,890 - ,90,

WATERTOWN THCRMOMCTEN Co.Foundrd 1980, t{rrcrtown. N. y.

(Honr fhotmonrtcn & Br,romotonlcoueht by lAYLon tgsn, ttoY"d to

Rochcr'tcr $out lgl0HOHMANTTI & iIELSON

Brootlyn, N. y.

Circt t9t0htdustriil Thermontnrs

PERT PENELLI CO.Borton, Mas.lHrdrcmetenlAcquind tgOJ

PrTxt,l I SHORTLondon. Englrnd

3HORT 3 m,ASON. LTD.London, Engirnd

Fo_ndcd lE64 (Hryh Outtrtybrm*torl- Al ?i tl/,r]tcta u1 d

$rkntific lnstumcnts)kgutrcd by IAyLOR tttfr

Onnrcd a Division wilt t96gR. HOEHI{ Co.Brooktvn, N. y.

FouMd tbout lt60_ llheraonetal- &lronrrtatlAcquird 19O5, Horld to Rocttat*oAVIS a norscx co.

*.lyviti?5 lhved rc fror;ttatcr

TAYLOR II'STRUMENT COS. INC.t!ro,

*rovcd to hant Locttion95 An c, St., Rocirr,tcr

,905"IYCOS" ltdcn rrk tdoptcd lW,

Dtsontinud ,gJ2 erclcAt onFcver Tllcrmomclea ond

$hygmonnnorra?ert

CAMBRIDGE I NSTBUMENT GO.Cenrbridge. EngNrnd

(foromctcalfAYLOn *quird Amcrictn ilwinand fA Y LOR.CAHBI t OGE Oiybim

Formcd t9of

MAC.LCE INDUSTRIES, IrC..tnd

EiIIIET? IIACHINE A MFG., I,UC.Akron, Ohro

Acguircd - April tgS2

TAYLOR INSTRUiIENT CO'S.OF CANAOA TT

(Oqanircd rr Sr/ar Ornchin tgt4, in Toronto)lncorpot.rcd lgJO

TAYLOR COi|SUMER p8ooucts DtvtstoflArdcn, N. C.

lhrt drvltroer hat ,c?onfib.lttv lor mrnuractur rrdtna, l at'ne ol ihl,mon! ltr r, ltygnonrr.'r. co.rprora.rrd "Tvr,ol" Uood prttrura rnttrunlatt.

sYBRON CORPORATIOIVRochrrrcr. N. y.

Fonrnt! lg60 hy llergortrgth Ritter rPlaudlcr Corp.

Figure 6

o