Lodge & Davis dealer tag

[Andy FitzGibbon]

I saw this Lodge & Davis on Facebook and thought the "Chicago Store" tag was interesting. The lathe is for sale in Lancaster, OH if anyone is interested.

 

[discodan]

That's interesting. I wonder what the story is on that?

 

[Joe Michaels]

The "Lodge & Davis, Chicago Store" tag would point to L & D, not only as manufacturers of the lathe, but having a 'factory branch' in Chicago. Not any different than any dealer putting their tag on a machine tool. In the days before things like adhesive-backed foil labels were around, this was the way a dealer got their name on machine tools they sold. I have a Southbend Heavy 10" lathe with a brass/silk-screened (?) nameplate from Stevenson Machinery Company of Kenilworth, NJ. They were the original dealer. The late Dave Sobel sold that lathe to me in 1985, and his dealer tag is an aluminum foil oval, with the lettering about faded out from too many wipe-downs and oil. My Bridgeport has a similar plate riveted to it from "The Wallace Machine Tool Company". These plates went on those two machine tools in the mid 1960's-early 70's.

The dealer tag was put on a machine tool as advertising as well as to let the users know who to contact for parts, or more hopefully, an order for another lathe or two.

My 20" Barnes Camelback Drill has a brass dealer tag of the same style and engraved (or etched) lettering as the one on the L & D lathe in this thread. The dealer's name and the store manager's name were on the tag, along with 'Chicago Store'. A little search of the dealer's name (Faye) and manager's name (Roche) enabled me to date my Barnes drill as 1885-1887. Those were the years when Mr. Roche was manager of Faye's Chicago Store, selling machine tools. Roche left Faye's employ to become mayor of Chicago on a reform platform. He was going to clean up vice and corruption and graft in Chicago. He lasted one term. Whether he went back to selling machine tools (his original occupation, which he had done previously). Looking in old business directories & corporate records on-line may turn up when a company was in business.

I once read a story-book type history of Lodge & Shipley, starting with William "Billy" Lodge as a young boy entering the shops and going on to become a machine tool manufacturer. As I recall, the story read like a who's who in the early machine tool industry in Cincinnati. Lodge had a man named Chard working for him as a foreman, and Chard eventually went on to have lathes made under his own name. Lodge was in partners with Davis, who may have come from Rochester, NY. Davis had been making lathes and shapers in Rochester under their own name. The L & D partnership dissolved and Billy Lodge was introduced to Murray Shipley. The L & S name is the one we all know.

 

[garyphansen]

My Lodge & Davis lathe was made in Feb 1888.

 

[Joe Michaels]

"William Lodge, A 19th Century Entrepeneur", is an easy to read history of what became Lodge & Shipley. It can be found by googling that title. This history will clear up the Lodge & Davis questions. Davis was a salesman, coming from the wholesale pharmaceutical industry. I was mistaken in connecting Lodge & Davis to Davis Machine Tool Company of Rochester, NY. Davis did initiate machine tool sales stores, hence the tag on the OP's lathe. William Lodge & Davis had a falling out over how the company was to be run. Davis wanted to sell a line of machine tools; drills, planers, mills, shapers, in addition to lathes. Lodge wanted to make just lathes and wanted to apply "The American System" of interchangeable parts to the manufacture of lathes. Davis held 49% of the company stock, as did Lodge and Burtner, the bookeeper held 2% of the stock. Davis and Burtner voted against Lodge, removing him from the company. That was the end of Lodge & Davis, though the Lodge & Davis name continued sometime after they parted ways. The whole matter happened sometime in the late 1880's.

William Lodge, having been frozen out of his company by Davis & Burtner, was introduced to Murray Shipley, Jr. by the banker who was going to lend Lodge startup capital. That was a marriage that lasted, and was founded on Lodge's wanting to make nothing but "good lathes only".

Reading the online history, it is a who's who of US Machine Tool Builders. Many of the 'big names" worked for each other before starting their own firms which went on to success.

In short, the OP has a lathe that is about 140 years old, give or take a few years. The engraving on the "Chicago Store" nameplate looks very similar to the J. Faye, Chicago Store" nameplate on my Barnes Drill. Same time period, same city.