The photo shows the machine shop and erection bay of the former
Blaisdell Machinery Co., South Bradford, Pa.
The Blaisdell Machinery Co. was formed about 1903 and was a
well-known manufacturer of steam, gas and belt-driven compressors
and vacuum pumps for industrial and oil field use. The firm also
manufactured sewage ejection systems and central vacuum cleaning
systems for large buildings. Gas and oil engines of single- and
double-acting types were made along with components for
hydroelectric turbines.
Machine tool enthusiasts may recognize many types of tools in
this black-and-white photo, including lathes, boring mills, planers
and key seaters. The engine in the foreground on the test stand is
a Class GOV combination gas engine and vacuum pump. Those flywheels
stacked up in the background are 7 feet in diameter. Erie Railroad
cars also loaded in the same area. Note the cluttered working
conditions prevalent all over the photo. OSHA inspectors would have
had a field day writing up violations.
In 1918, the company was renamed the United States and Cuban
Allied Works Engineering Corp., with general offices in New York. I
have been researching the name change, but I have not been
successful so far. Also at this period in time, the company began
building ‘Krajewski’ sugar cane mills that were shipped to
Cuba.
United States and Cuban lasted into the early 1920s, when Hanley
Ceramics bought the plant and used it for manufacturing
brick-making equipment. After Hanley, the building was taken over
by Georgia-Pacific to make corrugated containers, which continues
to this day.
An interesting side note to the old Blaisdell Co. is that
company founder Philo Blaisdell’s son, George Blaisdell, was
the inventor of the famous Zippo lighter.
The photo above shows the building as it exists today as a
Georgia-Pacific corrugated container plant. The building sits west
of Route 219 in South Bradford, Pa.
Contact engine enthusiast Michael Fuoco at: 656 W. Washington
St., Bradford, PA 16701.
