Torrington Company
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The Torrington Company was a firm that developed in Torrington, Connecticut, emerging as a rename from the Excelsior Needle Company. It used a "cold swaging" technique to create sewing machine needles and other needles from cold metal, and was the largest employer in Torrington. in addition to its main facilities in Torrington, it acquired a division, located in South Bend, Indiana.
Later as a leading manufacturer of anti-friction bearings and a Fortune 500 company, The Torrington Company sold its products, which also included an array of metal parts and assemblies, to a variety of major global industries.
Originally a sewing needle manufacturer, Torrington diversified and grew over the years, becoming a discernibly different company with each passing decade. During the 1930s, the company diversified into anti-friction bearings and from that point forward evolved into the formidable force it represented during the 1990s.
In 1968 the management sold the company to Ingersoll Rand. It was later purchased in 2003 by the Timken Company. The Timken company utilized its Heavy Bearing plants and later Needle Bearing plants along with Torrington brand name was sold to JTEKT in 2009.
Yankee inventiveness, a familiar theme in American lore, manifested itself in classic fashion on two notable occasions during the 19th century, both which occurred in the state of Connecticut, where the drive for technological advancement and the spirit of innovation were firmly rooted in the hearts of its citizens. Connecticut was home to several inventive "Nutmeggers," including Samuel Colt, who developed the first revolver, Eli Whitney, whose invention of the cotton gin revolutionized the cotton industry, and Elias Howe, a transplanted "Nutmegger" from neighboring Massachusetts who made his life's discovery in New Hartford, Connecticut, where he recorded the first of two landmark achievements that would launch the predecessor to The Torrington Company into business.
In 1846, Elias Howe designed an early version of the sewing machine. Howe's invention represented a historic advancement in technology to be sure, but there were critical problems with his new machine that made its usefulness not quite the labor-saving device it purported to be. The chief problem with Howe's machine was the ineffectiveness of the needles it employed; Howe, in essence, had created a razor without the blades. In the years following his discovery, the sewing needles that existed were imprecise pins of steel hammered out essentially the same way a blacksmith formed a horseshoe. It was a crude method that produced imperfect results, frequently leaving the purchasers of Howe's machine with broken needles they had pounded out by hand. Twenty years would pass before a suitable solution was found.
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