Smith Manufacturing Company-and it would remain as such for the next 100 years, with several of Fred’s descendants keeping his legacy alive even after the business left the city for the burbs (first Downers Grove, then Addison, IL). ![]() In 1901, as co-founder Pomeroy turned his attention to a separate sister business (the Abbott Machine Company), Smith incorporated Chicago MFG & Optical under a new name-the F. By the turn of the century, though, Smith had steered the business into more manufacturing work, making not only vision related doo-dads, but a wide range of scientific instruments and its own line of riveting, punching, stamping, and fastening machines-mostly for smaller leather and textile work. ![]() The firm was mainly a smalltime wholesaler of optical accessories in its early years, operating out of an office at 18-30 West Randolph Street. That year, at age 34, he established the Chicago Manufacturing & Optical Company with fellow inventor / tinkerer Henry C. Smith (1858-1908) grew up near Boston, Mass, and was already a seasoned mechanic and watch-maker when he made his way west to Chicago in the summer of 1892. Half a century before Rosie the Riveter turned a once tedious trade into a patriotic call-to-arms, Chicago inventor and businessman Fred Herbert Smith was already ahead of the curve, if only lacking in proto-feminist iconography. ![]() Museum Artifact: “The Universal” Cast Iron Rivet Setter, c.
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