Jones and Lamson developed and evolved in Windsor, starting out as Robbins and Lawrence, early developers of what was called the “American System” of manufacturing. Basically the ability to mass produce machine parts so that each part is interchangeable with another. Up until this innovation, all machines, be they lathes or rifles or whatever, were individually hand made. The business moved to Springfield in about 1888, and built their first factory on Main Street (the present Senior Center). The larger facility (Plant #1) on Clinton Street was built sometime prior to World War I.

One of the early employees at Jones and Lamson was James Hartness; he was hired out of Massachusetts as a foreman, and became one of the main inventors of various products: the Hartness flat turret lathe, the Hartness Optical Comparator, and assorted thread cutting apparatus. Early in the company history appears the Fay Automatic Lathe, a cam-operated machine which at the time was hailed as a breakthrough in high production turning (this product was the result of a purchase agreement with the Fay Scott Company of Maine).

Several lines of grinding machines were developed over the years, including thread grinders, tap grinders and various form grinders (including one that ground the “Christmas tree” forms on jet turbine blades). I remember seeing a thick book at J&L which had manual drawings of these forms in enlarged views, their various angles and radii marked out. It baffled me at the time why so many variations were necessary, no two seemed alike. All the computations were done longhand, as there were no electronic calculators available at the time. We did have several  Friden mechanical calculators, and using those, and a seven place trig book I called “Hans Hof”, we could slowly get the job done. And of course the slide rule was still being used.

Another product line we had was the Optical Comparator. These were built in the lower plant after 1955 or so, and I really didn’t have any idea just what they consisted of. James Hartness, along with a fellow engineer by the name of Russell Porter, developed this product around 1920 or so.

Thread cutting die heads and taps, and a small precision lathe, rounded out the J&L product line.

So in summary, J&L had a very diversified product line. Which helped to “smooth out” workflow; when one product was down in sales, another may be up. And the sales of spare parts for all these machines was always lucrative. But the introduction of the TNC lathe, and its success, started a re-evaluation process that slowly ate away at this diverse product line. Management was forced to refocus our finite resources in space and manpower to the TNC lathe product line. The future would see J&L sell off or move some products out of town to make room for this.

 

The Specialmatic lathe was developed in the late 50’s and early 60’s, as an alternative to the early numerical control machines on the market. It eliminated the need for formal programming and the punched tapes necessary to run a machine. Instead, the Specialmatic lathe was equipped with a sophisticated (for the time) electro-hydraulic feedback system for each of its three axes. Control of these three axes was done thru the front mounted operators panel using a series of “Positioning Dials” for each slide axis. A competent operator could basically program the machine using these dials to set feed rates and slide endpoints. No external tapes (or programming personnel) were necessary. The machine was capable of repeating slide motions within .0005″ once the final endpoints had been determined. A separate “Program Wheel” was used to set up the sequence of commands necessary for an automatic cycle, using metal “keys” inserted in the appropriate slots. The machine “read” the prepunched holes in these keys and initiated the command to the particular positioning dial.

The Specialmatic lathe was basically a J&L ATL (Automatic Turret Lathe) that had been enhanced with the necessary items to make it easier to operate, setup, and run. The slides could be programmed to allow for quicker movements between positioning and actual metal cutting, thereby increasing productivity. Setup time was reduced compared to a standard lathe, which allowed the customer more flexibility. No special tooling was needed, the machine used standard off-the-shelf  tools.

The lathe was equipped with two slides, one with a hex turret for end work (called the saddle), and a narrow cross slide with one or two square turrets (front and back). The saddle had one axis, and rode on the bed rails toward and away from the spindle. The cross slide was equipped with two axes, to allow both facing and plunging cuts and turning type cuts. So basically it was a three-axes machine.

As with any of the J&L lathes, an optional barfeed unit was available for those customers who machined their parts from barstock. In this instance, the hex end turret would be equipped with a combination stock stop and cutoff / catch fixture.

I’m not sure how many of these machines were built; the initial development involved an outside firm by the name of Specialties, Inc. based on Long Island, New York. The first prototype machines were shipped to them for fitting, and J&L personnel assisted with the hydraulic and electrical systems deemed necessary for the job. All subsequent machines were built here in Springfield. As numerical control technology evolved, these machines became obsolete.

The machine tool business gets a great deal of its revenue from the automotive sector, and after the Arab oil embargo the folks in Detroit started developing smaller and more fuel efficient cars. But it takes several years of “behind the scenes” work before these cars are even ready for the road tests that must be done prior to public release. The next generation of automobiles were going to be smaller, with a front engine / front wheel drive design. General Motors dubbed their product the “X-Body”, basically the Chevrolet Citation size cars. J&L would receive their biggest machine tool order ever from New Departure, a division of General Motors, for specially designed lathes to machine the front wheel drive spindles and hubs (basically the wheel bearings). In the end there were well over 100 machines, most with custom designed automatic load and unload mechanisms and blue steel conveyors. The man at New Departure, a Mr. Ziegler, insisted that the machines be under 60″ tall, as many of the operators would be women, and a small machine would be less intimidating to them. Most of the machines would be shipped to the New Departure plant in Sandusky, Ohio.

The Chevrolet Citation was introduced to the public in April of 1979 as a “1980” model. It was GMs first mass produced small front wheel drive car, and because of the rush-to-market philosophy at the time, suffered many quality issues (Chrysler had similar problems with their “K-Car”). J&L had been quoting machines for this project since the mid-70’s, and had gone thru many requotes because the technical specs were always changing. I’m not sure of the dates, but engineering must have started sometime in ’75 or ’76. As I said, it was a huge project, and I remember spending quite a few nights doing design layout work. This was back when all the design work was pencil and paper (and eraser!!). We got to know the night janitors quite well.

Once the machines were built and debugged, they were shipped out to Sandusky. Because of the large scope of the project, we had several full time mechanics in place in Ohio, along with engineering support. Many of us in engineering were blessed with a revolving assignment to go out and “put in an appearance” at the New Departure facility (my boss called us “cannon fodder”). Just walk around with the J&L shop coat on so the customer was satisfied we were supporting them. It was interesting at first, but the days were long. And there were always little friction points with their union help.

In addition to our own in-house sales force, J&L had several sales branches located thru out the country (and overseas as well). The salesman who was responsible for the Ohio territory really hit a gold mine with this order. I don’t know what his paycheck was for this project, but J&L revamped their commission sales formula after this job……….I do remember he frequently dined with us out there, and picked up our dinner tabs.

One of the more unusual items to appear in the retail U.S. marketplace in the 70’s was the Pet Rock. It was conceived by a Gary Dahl after listening to his friends complain about the care and feeding requirements of their pets. His thought was, why not have a pet that does not require all that attention? His solution to this problem was to design a small cardboard box, line it with straw, and place a rock inside. “Air holes” were added to the box so the “pet” could breath. The rocks were of various sizes and colors, just like real pets. Improbable as it sounds, this idea took off with a vengeance. Although the current website shows a lot of these rocks with “faces”, I believe the original was just a plain stone. The owners could add these features if they wanted to.

It was the Holiday Season of 1975, and we of course had a few extra days off. After returning to work, word got around that someone in the R & D department had received a Pet Rock for Christmas. Those of us familiar with these folks just had to go down and see for ourselves this New Gift. Everyone was duly impressed, and congratulated the new owner. This owner decided to keep his Pet Rock at work, which led to a (comical) situation. The first thing that happened was the Pet Rock disappeared; after a couple of days there appeared a “ransom note”, classically done with cut up words glued to a piece of paper, but basically saying if the owner wanted to see his pet “alive” again, he had better come up with the demands outlined. I cannot remember the exact details, but after a few back-and-forth notes were written, and the ransom was paid, the Pet Rock was returned. I don’t think there was a monetary amount involved, maybe some cookies or things of that nature. Just one of those incidents that kept everyone in good humor.

Working in a machine shop takes some getting used to. I  remember my first “tour” of the old Fellows plant, back when I was in college. Down in the “bowels” of the building it was dark, dirty and noisy, with forklift trucks moving around everywhere. Until you are in this environment for a while, it can be pretty intimidating. So it was a similar situation at J&L, although somewhat brighter because of the roof design (with sawtooth windows). A lot of the veteran mechanics had missing fingers from mishaps. The business is dangerous, and you must keep alert anywhere around the machinery. Although I knew the basics of machining, I never considered myself a machinist; I left that up to more qualified people. The same with the assembly department; I can handle a wrench if necessary, but, again, except for my stint during the 1970 strike, “it ain’t my bag”. My job was in the design of the machinery, which I loved. Even though I used up a lot of eraser sometimes, the end results usually came out OK. Most of the time a new design on paper has to be “fine tuned” when finally built. Very few time does it end up being built without some sort of modification. It’s just the way it is, and the designer shouldn’t take it personally (even though it’s human nature to).

Because of our success with the TNC lathe line, we had many visitors who mainly wanted to observe our assembly lines and build procedures. In the beginning J&L had no real policy concerning picture taking, so the early visitors (mainly oriental), came with cameras loaded. They couldn’t possibly achieve what we had done, could they? Well, as we discovered later (to our chagrin), they could, and did. They listened to an American ( W. Edwards Deming), when America didn’t. His manufacturing philosophy and step-by-step methods for improvement enabled the Japanese to eventually become a machine tool powerhouse. But in the 60’s and 70’s we were complacent; just like the American and British motorcycle industry, we failed to see the threat (eventually, of course, we forbid any type of photography in the building). Because the lathe is the predominant machine tool in use worldwide, the Japanese targeted the U.S. lathe market first. This became quite evident to anyone who visited the NMTBA (National Machine Tool Builders Association) show in Chicago over the next decade. Their government worked with them with funding to enable them to develop marketable products.

As we all know now, their grasp of the basic tenants of manufacturing had enabled them to excel not only in the machine tool industry, but in automotive and electronic products as well. And this same approach is valid as these products have moved away from Japan to Taiwan, Korea, and China.

There were quite a few World War II veterans employed in the shops at that time. Their reactions to seeing their former enemies walking around with cameras ranged from polite toleration to (guardedly) hostile. Most of our foreign visitors were young, not having any firsthand experience in the war; a few were older, and were probably war veterans. But as far as I know, we extended a welcoming hand to them all. I’m sure they played up the possibility of being future “customers”.

I was living in North Springfield at this time, and made the aquaintance of an Electrical Tech on the assembly floor. He lived near us, and eventually we set up a carpool arrangement; he would drive one week, I would drive the next. This allowed my wife to have the car on the off week (his wife didn’t drive). He would stroll into the Engineering office from time-to-time, either seeking out some information, or for a brief visit. During one of those visits he asked me if I wanted to see a “Polish Trailer”. I was game, so I followed him out to the assembly floor. He went over to one of the mechanics and asked where the “Polish trailer” was. The mechanic said “it was just here, I think it’s over there”, pointing in some general direction. So off we went, again missing it “by just a few seconds”. This went on for a few more minutes, until I realized I was the “Polish Trailer”………… This joke of course caused a hearty round of laughter (and a red face).

 

One of the side effects of the Arab Oil Embargo was a resurgence of wood burning appliances for home heating. Heating oil, as well as gasoline, had skyrocketed in price. So it was only natural that consumers would look at more affordable ways of heating their homes. We at J&L were lucky in a way, as Textron not only owned us, but they had a division called Homelite, which sold chain saws, among other things. As a Textron employee, we could buy these saws at a considerable discount.

There were several of us office workers that took advantage of the Homelite connection and bought a chain saw. Getting firewood was not much of a problem, as the state of Vermont sold roadside woodlots if you got your bid in early; and there were private landowners who needed their woodlots thinned out. I was lucky enough to hook up with a fellow in the programming department, who had a line on a woodlot up in Reading, off Grasshopper Lane. We had bought a Franklin stove from Steve Bromley (who worked inside sales at J&L), and had it set up in the living room. Not a very efficient unit, but it helped with the oil bill. Several of us office workers pooled our money and bought a hydraulic woodsplitter over at Agway in Claremont. Although most of this group has disbursed over  time, we still have the splitter at our house (two motors later).

We made a family day of cutting firewood, everyone would jump in the pickup truck and head to Reading. Back then it was perfectly legal for the kids to ride in the bed of the truck; and they would climb on top of the load of wood going home.

A lot of the office talk centered around wood burning, BTU’s and stove types. There were Scandanavian stoves such as Jotul and Morso; domestics such as Nashua and Garrison. The various tool requirements for working up a wood pile; types of axes, mauls and wedges. Everyone had a detailed list of the various northern hardwoods and their heat values (BTU’s). There was a joke circulating about some poor soul who had added up the cost of all this required equipment, along with the cost of a pickup truck, and several smashed rear windows from carelessly throwing the wood in the bed. Needless to say, the total cost far exceeded the price of heating the house with oil. But being thought of as “self reliant” was important to many.

There were stories about some of the workers at J&L building their own woodsplitters in the shop, out of sight of supervision. I’m sure this happened in all of the shops over time, as all the components were readily available. Eventually there were seminars given to educate people about the problems that wood burning creates. These talks were usually given by the fire department, and centered around creosote buildup in the chimneys. Chimney fires had become more common, and these discussions helped people to understand how to clean their chimneys, properly dry their firewood and run their stoves efficiently.

The year 1973 started out on a bad note, there was a stock market “crash”, which affected all of us in the investment game. Thru out the summer there was an escalation of hostilities in the Mideast, ending in the Arab-Israeli war breaking out in October. The OPEC cartel, the group of oil producing countries, cut back oil exports to all who supported Israel. This of course included the United Sates. Oil prices doubled almost overnight, and shortages, real and imagined, became an everyday occurance. Gas stations closed early because of these shortages, and it was difficult to buy a tank of gas. Of course, no stations were open on the weekend, which curtailed any long distance vacation plans. Finally the government stepped in with a plan to give everyone an equal chance for fuel; the rationing setup called for those with license plates ending with even numbers go on certain days, and those ending with odd numbers go on the other days. But there were still long lines at the pumps, and you still may only be able to buy a few gallons at a time; I was lucky, as the wife was a stay-at-home mother, and could go to gas up during the day (I should mention that she may have been at home, but she ran her own child daycare business).

The Arab-Israeli war only lasted from October 6th to the 26th, but it started the upward oil price trend that has created immense wealth for the oil producing countries.

It is hard to believe that the classic 60’s and 70’s muscle cars that we see today ( and are quite valuable), sat unwanted after the oil shortage crisis. These big motored monsters were virtually worthless, as everyone rushed to buy smaller, more fuel efficient cars. Detroit suddenly became serious about building an “economy car”. Up until this event, their offerings were scant, Ford with the Falcon, and Chevrolet with the Chevy II. Chrysler was already selling their front wheel drive Omni and Horizon, basically a copy of the VW Rabbit. Speaking of VW, their “Bug” had been imported since the mid 50’s, and they had a solid magazine ad campaign which sold millions of these cars. We owned a couple ourselves over the years, it’s the only car I’ve owned that you needed an ice scraper inside to keep the windshield clear on a cold day. The heater / defroster was pretty dismal, especially if you had an older one with rusty heater boxes (which we did!!).

In November we were blessed with our third child, a son. We had lived in North Springfield for a little over a year, and all three of our children would eventually attend the North Springfield Graded School. It was an old fashioned, small school, with a sense of community. We were saddened at it’s closing.

Even though our “B” series TNC’s were the main offering, J&L also had larger versions of these lathes, with up to a 10″ thru-hole capacity spindle. These were “C” and “D” series machines, the “C” size comprised 4-1/2″ thru 8″ spindles, and the “D” size offered 6″ and 10″ spindles. These machines could mount very large chucks for those customers who needed them. The largest of the “D” size machines had a hydrostatic bearing spindle to be able to take the heavy chucks and high cutting forces generated during machining; instead of traditional ball or roller bearings, the R&D department had incorporated high pressure hydraulics and precise bearing areas, both in the radial and thrust direction. It did the job, providing very accurate machining capability for a lathe of that size. One of the critical requirements of a hydrostatic bearing is close oil temperature control, as the spindle is really floating on a film of high pressure oil with very small running clearances. Too wide an oil temperature range invites bearing seizure. We used a large commercial oil tank with an oil chiller (this unit was almost as big as the lathe). These large machines were usually bought by companies in Big Oil, machining threaded couplings and valves for use in the petroleum business. A lot of our customers were located in the southwest, in Texas and Oklahoma.

The “D” size machines were so large that the bed angle was steeper (by 10 degrees) than the other TNC’s. This was necessary to keep the machine narrow enough to be able to ship it on a commercial drop center flatbed trailer. The four-axis model had a three rail configuration for the slides.

Up until the fall of 1972 we had lived in a Harry Olney duplex on Prospect Street. We had been looking to buy our own house all summer, and had looked at a few in our price range. I was still in the Army Reserves and at summer camp that year, when the wife called me and said she had found a house in North Springfield on a dead end dirt road. We agreed to place a deposit on it so I could look at it when I got home. I believe we moved in at the end of September, and we have been here since then. The wife transported our five year old to the North Springfield school until we moved up from Springfield, a period of only a few weeks.

The basic house was a cape style, with an attached barn. There was also a separate two storey  gambrel roofed barn nearby. The owner was a retired J&L mechanic who was living out west. He had partitioned off the upstairs so he had two rental apartments. The yard was overgrown high grasses, with just a path mowed to the clothesline. Over the years we have converted the house back to a single family home. Even though the house is 200 years old, it had never gone thru the early “knob and tube” style of wiring. It had apparently gone from kerosene lanterns right into armored cable (with questionable integrity). The house had a 60 amp service and no insulation whatever. It was originally a center chimney affair, but that had been removed long ago (but I found out during our remodel that some of the main beams were charred from that!!). We had our work cut out for us, but it was what we could afford at the time (house payment $153 a month). Doing most of the work ourselves, nights and weekends, we now have a pretty decent home. But I wouldn’t want to do it again……………

As was common in most commercial buildings, our restrooms at J&L had tankless toilets. These units were able to accomplish their job because they use water at a greater volume and pressure than the toilets in our home. Once the job is complete, just a pull (or kick) on the lever will create a rush of water into the bowl. We are all familiar with this drill; sometimes things don’t work out according to plans, though……………..

One day we were all startled by shrieking coming from the ladies room. This went on for several seconds, followed by the exit of one of the office ladies. But we were not prepared to see what was to follow. The flushing procedure had been followed properly, except that the flush valve had broken off at the wall connection, apparently from corrosion. So a full, high pressure stream of water was released into the ladies room; it didn’t take long to cover the floor, and start coming out into the office. Any of us who had boxes stored on the floor quickly picked them up and put them on our desks. By this time water was literally gushing out into the engineering office. Because the ladies room was close to the down ramp into the grinder assembly area, that became a rapids of sorts. This must have gone on for several minutes, as we had to notify the plant maintenance department, and they were not sure where the main shutoff was. Needless to say, there was much damage to the tile flooring from this (it’s one thing to mop a floor, quite another when several inches of water stand on it).

Later it was determined that the lady had been trapped in her stall from the force of the water (and thoroughly soaked). It took her a few seconds to escape. She took  the rest of the day off……….

You might call this a “lighter moment” in the workday, and I’m sure all of us have similar stories to tell. And that is one of the reasons I have been writing these stories; trying to get others to take initiative and perhaps at least record these moments in time. Because they will disappear into the past if they are not written down. There are certainly many stories I cannot tell that happened at J&L, others have to relate them to me, as I was stationed in the engineering area. And plant #2 comparators was really unknown to us in the main building. I didn’t have a technical knowledge about the optical measuring machinery at all, until later in my career, after J&L closed.

I do have a small hardcover book that J&L published in 1920, titled “The Hartness Screw Thread Comparator For Accurate And Rapid Screw Gaging”. It’s a 46 page description on how the device worked. I bought it at a tag sale in Proctor years ago for 5 cents!!

The J&L TNC lathe really revolutionized the industry; you cannot find an NC lathe today that does not have many of the characteristics that the TNC had. They were a big hit at the Chicago Machine Tool Shows. We were kept very busy engineering all the various models and options. But the biggest sensation was the “Production Center” model, which was basically a combi configuration with powered end turret tools. On a standard lathe, the cutting tools are basically static; the cutting action is caused by rotating the workpiece past the cutting edge; on the production center model, not only could we rotate the workpiece at normal RPM for O.D. turning with the side turret (like the combi), we could also closely control the work rotation axis when doing machining from the end turret. With the ability to rotate various cutters on the eight sided (octagonal) end turret, we could do very complex contouring type machining, using the attached end turret servomotor to power milling cutters. Thus the customer could quite often do their turning, drilling, tapping and milling on one machine. I think these were only offered in the 4-1/2″ B size envelope, and not too many were made (with all the extra servo-controlled axes, they were quite expensive).

One of the many options that J&L offered with their lathes was a barfeed attachment. This unit was floor mounted to the left of the machine, and its purpose was to cradle the long pieces of barstock that was the raw material for the final machined workpiece. (the barstock is feed into the machine, thru the rear of the spindle, thru the chuck, to a specific distance; the bar stock is then gripped by the work spindle chuck, the machining takes place, the finished piece is cut off into a catcher, and the cycle continues until the barstock is used up). Sometimes it was more economical to use a barfeed instead of machining parts individually. I use the word “cradle” only to clarify that these bars are contained somewhat. Being around a lathe with a barfeed unit can be a very unnerving experience; it really is quite impossible to contain the “whiplash” that a rotating steel bar creates (especially in the larger sizes). J&L had a big cast iron unit that dated back to their earlier machines, and it did an admirable job with the smaller O.D. bars. Plus, it totally enclosed said bar, lessening the “scare factor”. But there were other barfeed manufacturers that we got involved with. I remember specifically a unit that was built for 6″ O.D. bars, I think the company name was “Pilot”(the owner was a pilot, maybe WW2).  We had sold one of these with a lathe order, and I went down to their plant (I think it was in Connecticut), to see it. Their design consisted of several shaft and roller assemblies that surrounded the barstock. When we finally got it set up on our lathe, with 6” heavy-walled steel tubing, out in the open and visible, it was pretty scarey. I believe this machine was sold to a bearing manufacturer (Fafnir?), who planned on making bearing races. A lot of our work on barfeed units led us to create a “straightness specification” so that the customer knew they couldn’t run just ordinary barstock (which was way too crooked).