John Tregoning

John Tregoning (c. 1845–c. 1920) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor and business manager from Lynn, Massachusetts, known for writing one of the very first books on factory operations in 1891. and as early systematizer of management.

Tregoning was educated as mechanical engineer and had started his career in industry in the 1860s. In the 1870s he was living in New York city, when he filed his first patents requests. In the 1880s he made it superintendent at the Mather Electric Company in Manchester, Connecticut. In 1888 he accepted the appointment as superintendent of the Thomson Electric Welding Company in Lynn, Massachusetts, and in 1890 he became superintendent of the machine factory Nicholson & Waterman Works in Providence, R.I..

In the 1870s Tregoning had come into prominence, while he invented and patented a mechanical improvement for a steam pump. In the 1880s he shifted his attention as inventor to electrical devices and patented a series op electrical designs such as a globe supporter for electric lamps (1882), an electric arc lamp (1883); and electrical indicator (1884), a collector (1884), and an electric switch (1899). Furthermore, in the field of mechanical engineering he patented among others a self-oiling box or journal (1890), a valve operation mechanism (1891), and a Combination Slash Lock (1914).

In 1891 Tregoning published the seminal work "A Treatise on Factory Management: Being a Comprehensive and Practical Scheme for the Better Management of Factories." This work earned him a place among other early management authors of the late 19th century, such as Captain Henry Metcalfe, Henry R. Towne, Emile Garcke, J. Slater Lewis and Horace Lucian Arnold They were the first foremost authors, who "developed systems of shop orders to control the flow of orders through factories."

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