PHOTOGRAPHY by LAZLO

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Torrington Factory Blues

Columns of the factory,
Reflecting in a puddle of water.
The sound of machines are gone.

Brief history
of
Torrington Standard Company

The origins of the Standard Company can be traced to the Excelsior Needle Company, which established a department for the production of bicycle spokes and nipples during the early 1890s. Initially organized as the Torrington Swaging Company, it was renamed the Standard Spoke and Nipple Company in 1898 when the Excelsior Needle Company was absorbed into the newly established Torrington Company of Maine, a holding company organized by executives associated with Kidder, Peabody and Company of Boston, Massachusetts, Excelsior’s majority stockholder. Despite the acquisition, the Excelsior Needle Company retained its corporate existence and the Standard Spoke and Nipple Company continued to be operated by local managers. In 1906 an independent factory was built for the Torrington Company’s spoke and nipple division, which by this time had been shortened to the ‘Standard Company.’ The plant was located on the north side of North Street and consisted of a pair of one-story manufacturing buildings each measuring 365’ x 72’. The factory was further enlarged ca. 1910 and ca. 1920 when additional buildings were erected to the north, east, south, and west of the original plant. The newly expanded factory allowed the Standard Company to expand its catalog to eventually include a diverse range of products including needles, bicycle spokes and nipples, handlebars, metal tubing, machine screws, carpet sweepers, piano hardware, and spark plugs. By the late 1920s the company had also begun to produce a line of ball bearings, this supplanted by the manufacture of needle bearings during the 1940s. The latter would develop into a market that continued to drive the company’s success into the second half of the 20th century and at its peak supported a workforce of over 1,000 employees. The Torrington Company’s Standard Plant – by which it was known after 1917 when the former was reorganized as the Torrington Company of Connecticut – continued to experience success through the 1960s, as evidenced by the construction of additional manufacturing and research and development buildings at the North Street plant. In 1968, the Torrington Company was purchased by the Ingersoll-Rand Corporation, which continued operations in Torrington through the early 2000s. Various mergers and corporate buyouts impacted the former Standard Plant throughout the second half of the 20th century, and although the factory complex stands largely vacant today, limited manufacturing work continues under the Albea Corporation, a manufacturer of beauty and personal care packaging.


~from Connecticutmills.org~

Reflection of old wall
a factory, forgotten
and left to rust

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