PRATT & WHITNEY COMPANY
In 1860, Francis A. Pratt and Amos Whitney decided they would pool their meager resources and work out their own business destiny. They rented a small room on Potter Street in Hartford where they filled their spare hours with work done on their own account. At first they did not give up their jobs at the Phoenix Iron Works.
The room was very unpretentious, containing only a few tools and a stove. A fire burned out their little room and devoured everything they had. In less than a year we find them settled again in the “Woods” building which was in the rear of the old Hartford Times office. In these quarters they spent five successful years during the Civil War period until the growing plant could not be continued in the space and they were compelled to move.
In 1862 Monroe Stannard of New Britain, Connecticut, was taken into partnership. Each of the three men contributed $1.200 in the business, but Mr. Stannard took active charge of the shop as the other two still were working at the Phoenix Iron Works.
By 1865 the work in the new shop had grown to such an extent that a new building was started on the site now occupied by the plant and in March of the following year when the building was finally finished, the two men resigned their positions at the Phoenix Iron Works to devote all their time to their growing business.
The new building was three floors high and Pratt & Whitney occupied one entire floor.
The other two floors were rented to the Weed Sewing Machine Co.. Just as most new enterprises are laughed at and discouraged by the public at their start, dire predictions were made for Pratt & Whitney. They had bitten off more than they could chew, said the wise men of that day and it wouldn’t be long before the Weed Sewing Machine Company would own the entire building.
The sad prophets were wrong. Pratt & Whitney soon outgrew one floor and the Weed Company was forced out by the young, sturdy and fast-growing Pratt & Whitney Company.
In 1869 Francis Pratt and Amos Whitney hire Worcester Warner to design cutting gear machines and Ambrose Swasey to build telescopes {Warner & Swasey eventually left Pratt & Whitney Company, Inc. to form their own company}. Pratt & Whitney Company, Inc. is formally incorporated in the State of Connecticut with $300,000.
To be continued
As reproduction of historical artifacts, this works may contain errors of spelling and/or missing words and/or missing pages, poor pictures, etc.