Charles Leonard Newcomb was born on August 7, 1854 in West Willington, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of Charles Leonard and Martha Jane (Hudson) Newcomb, and a descendant of Andrew Newcomb who was in New England as early as 1666.
Feeling the need of a technical education, he entered the Worcester Free Institute (later the Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Worcester, Massachussets, from which he was graduated with the degrees Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering in 1880.
While still in his teens, Charles, having a natural interest in the metal trades, went to work in an iron foundry. After several years of experience in this field, he began a machinist apprenticeship, upon the completion of which he spent upwards of ten years practising his trade in various places in Connecticut. He was millwright and stationary engineer for the Florence Mills; millwright and machinist of the Rock Manufacturing Company at Rockville; master mechanic for the Pratt & Whitney Company at Hartford; and a machinist for the American Clutch Company at Middletown.
In 1881 he moved to Holyoke, Massachussets, to accept the position of superintendent of the Deane Steam Pump Company, makers of pumping machinery. Until his retirement in 1927 he was directly connected with this establishment, and through his engineering and executive ability developed it into one of the most important manufacturing enterprises of New England.
When in 1899 the International Steam Pump Company obtained control of the Deane Works, Newcomb was elected president and general manager of the reorganized concern.
He was influential in bringing the Worthington Pump & Machinery Corporation to Holyoke, and when that corporation gained control of the Deane Works in 1914, Newcomb became general manager, continuing in that capacity until his retirement.
From 1907 to 1911 he served as general manager of the Blake-Knowles Works of the International Steam Pump Company at East Cambridge, Massachussets. Newcomb not only managed the affairs of these organizations but also employed his mechanical training and ingenuity in effecting the remarkable improvements in pumping machinery that took place between 1880 and 1930. Nationally recognized as an authority on mechanics and hydraulics, he acted in a consulting capacity as an expert in various lines of engineering.
In addition to his business and engineering work, Newcomb was active in the human relations side of industry.
Newcomb was vitally interested in national affairs affecting the metal trades.
From the very beginning of his residence in Holyoke, he took an active part in municipal affairs. He served two terms as councilman (1886 - 87) and one as alderman (1888). When, in 1893, the newly created fire commission was established he was named chairman, a position which he occupied for seventeen years. While on this commission he devised the rotary deluge nozzle, for which he received patent No. 616, 200 on December 20, 1898. By the use of this nozzle in connection with the aerial fire ladder, the latter was converted into a water tower.
He did much research work looking toward the improvement of fire hydrants, and the standards developed by him were adopted by the National Board of Fire Underwriters and by the American Water Works Association. During the whole of his extremely busy life he wrote prolifically for the technical press.
Newcomb established the first municipal electric lighting plant in the United States. He helped to found the National Foundry Association in 1898 and was its first vice-president; he was instrumental in forming in 1899 the National Metal Trades Association; and he was an active member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers from 1883 until his death, a manager from 1919 to 1921, and vice-president in 1926-28 under the leadership of Charles M. Schwab. He was also the organizer in 1919, and the first president of the Engineering Society of Western Massachusetts; a member of the American Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers; and a member of the executive committee of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
On January 20, 1874 Newcomb married Inez Louise Kendall of Rockville, Connecticut; he was survived by his widow and six children.
