Cutting Steel Plates

Reverse reads: "Cutting steel plates, Robbins & Myers. Springfield, Ohio." This photograph depicts an unknown man cutting steel plates at the Robbins & Myers Company in Springfield, Ohio. Robbins & Myers, Inc. was originally established in 1878 by Chandler Robbins and James Myers in Springfield, Ohio, near Dayton. The founders brought varied experiences to the business; Robbins, had been an astronomer and surveyor, and Myers had been a teacher and grocer. Robbins had invested $500 in a gray-iron foundry in 1876, and was joined two years later by Myers. The new owners changed the company name from Lever Wringer Company to The Robbins & Myers Company. The company namesakes initially manufactured castings for agricultural tools and machines, and then broadened into bicycle parts when that industry boomed at the turn of the century. In the late 1920s, they also began to make hoists, winches, and crane motors to increase efficiency on assembly lines. From the late 1800s to the early 1900s the Company's product line expanded to include castings for the motor powered fan. The growing use of electricity prompted Robbins & Myers to develop and manufacture its own line of motor powered fans, which eventually included ceiling, desk, oscillating and ventilating fans, and later acquired the well-known Hunter brand of overhead fans. During WWII, the company switched to making motors for the Norden Bombsight, which measured an aircraft's ground speed and direction for more accurate high-altitude bombing