Pratt-Read is an American manufacturing company based in Sycamore, Illinois , that produces screwdrivers . It is a subsidiary of Ideal Industries . Founded in 1798, it is one of the oldest companies in the United States .
7-452: Pratt-Read was founded in Ivoryton, Connecticut , in 1798 as Pratt, Read & Company, originally producing beads, buttons, and billiard balls from elephant tusks imported from Africa . The company began to specialize in manufacturing ivory piano keys in 1839 and eventually piano action mechanisms. The company made its first screwdrivers in 1834 but stopped in 1840, instead selling
14-566: A center for immigrants from Sweden , Germany , Italy , and Poland , who lived in worker housing areas throughout Ivoryton. Pratt, Read & Company was located just a few miles away from Comstock, Cheney & Company along the Connecticut River, and these two largest American ivory manufacturers "commanded a monopoly on all ivory production in the United States." The area thrived between 1860 and 1938, and at its height
21-506: A world center of the ivory industry. The area became industrialized when Comstock, Cheney & Company, an ivory import business founded by Samuel Merritt Comstock, an Ivoryton native, and his partner George A. Cheney in the 1860s was founded there. The district was one of several industrial areas in the Connecticut River Valley established during the late nineteenth century, and is also historically significant as
28-644: The acquisition of Pratt-Read from bankruptcy. Ideal acquired the Pratt-Read name and equipment and continued production out of existing Ideal facilities, as the Pratt-Read facility in Shelton, Connecticut had already ended operations. Ivoryton, Connecticut Ivoryton is one of three villages in Essex, Connecticut in Middlesex County . Ivoryton Historic District , the historic district in
35-520: The handles and blades to smaller companies made at the Pratt, Read and Company Factory Complex . During World War II , the company continued producing screwdriver blades and suspended production of piano parts to manufacture Waco CG-4 gliders for the military. The company built 956 of the fabric-covered wood and steel airframes. Piano part production continued after the war, but the company gradually shifted its focus to manufacturing screwdrivers, and in
42-609: The late 1980s, ended its piano parts business, closing a facility in Central, South Carolina , and began to focus on screwdrivers exclusively. Pratt-Read manufactures its own handles, blades, and—after a 2005 acquisition of Wisconsin -based American Industrial Manufacturers—bits, all in the U.S., which it sells directly to users under its own name, as well as to manufacturers such as Stanley , Snap-on , Danaher , and Klein . In 2009, Pratt-Read filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On March 22, 2010, Ideal Industries announced
49-599: The village, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 15, 2014. The Ivoryton Playhouse , which is separately listed on the Register, is located within the district. Ivoryton is roughly bounded by Main Street, North Main Street, Oak Street, Blake Street, Summit Street, Park Road, and Comstock Avenue. The area is known as a "well-preserved example of a nineteenth-century company town " and
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