American Brass Company - Early History

Early History

In 1834, Israel Coe, a Connecticut farmer; John Hungerford, a Connecticut businessman; and Anson Greene Phelps, co-founder of the Phelps Dodge mining company, founded a brass mill in Wolcottville, Connecticut (now known as Torrington, Connecticut). The brass mill manufactured kettles and a limited number of brass buttons. The manufacturing works and most of the skilled workers had to be imported from Great Britain. This was not without significant physical danger, as British companies did not wish to lose their competitive edge and market share. Some skilled workers left England hidden in wooden casks. In 1841, the company went public: $51,000 in stock was issued to Coe, Hungerford and Phelps, and the company name changed to the Wolcottville Brass Company. The company now began to produce mostly rolled and sheet brass.

Anson Phelps purchased a large parcel of land at what is now Ansonia, Connecticut, in 1844. He founded the town of Ansonia, and built a dam across the Naugatuck River. He also built a canal and water reservoirs, and established a copper rolling mill. Phelps named the new company the Ansonia Brass and Battery Company ("battery" being the term then in use for hammering sheets of metal into kettles). Phelps later added a brass mill and a brass wire mill, and in 1869 added the manufacture of clocks to the company's business. On January 1, 1878, the clock business was spun off as the Ansonia Clock Company. In 1863, Lyman W. Coe, brother of Israel Coe, founded the Coe Brass Manufacturing Company in Torrington.

In 1892, Ansonia Brass sued inventor Alfred A. Cowles for patent infringement. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a major ruling in patent law, the Court held that merely applying an old process to a new and analogous purpose was not a patentable process, and voided Cowles' patent.