Nathan Washburn was a descendant of John Washburn who settled in Duxbury, Massachussets, in 1632, and the son of Seth and Catherine (Washburn) Washburn, the latter the daughter of Solomon and Mary Warner Washburn. Nathan was born on his father's farm at Stafford, Tolland County, Connecticut In addition to running the farm the elder Washburn owned and operated iron furnaces in Stafford Hollow and Colchester, Connecticut.
Nathan spent his youth attending school in the winter, and at other seasons working on the farm and puttering around the furnaces.
When he was nineteen years old he became a carpenter's apprentice and followed that trade locally for two years. In 1840 he went to Worcester, Massachussets, and entered the iron foundry of W. A. Wheeler. After a year there he associated himself with a cousin, Augustus Washburn, and the two engaged in iron foundry work during the succeeding three years in Worcester, Fitchburg, and Ashburnham, Massachussets, Nathan Washburn showing particular skill in molding, casting, and finishing machine parts. Because of the illness of his partner, he sold out in 1844 and returned to Stafford, where, in association with a friend, he operated a foundry for two years, and then went to Rochester, N. Y. Here he engaged in making castings for cotton and woolen machinery and began supplying the local railroad with iron products. As a result of some investigations which he made relative to the peculiar strains to which pulleys were subjected, he designed an iron pulley so strengthened that it was unaffected by these strains. He next developed an improved railroad car wheel, and on April 3, 1849, patented a cast-iron wheel which in subsequent years came to be known as the "Washburn Chilled Car Wheel. " It was much stronger and less likely to break than previous types, for he had discovered a way of cooling cast-iron without cracking it, using in his process charcoal and white sand. As a result, his wheel displaced within a short time every other pattern of wheel. Selling out his foundry at Rochester in 1849, Washburn returned to Stafford and with E. A. Converse, a woolen manufacturer, organized the partnership of Converse & Washburn for the manufacture of his patented wheel and textile machinery. Converse withdrew in 1854 and Washburn thereafter conducted the business alone. The manufacture of iron products for cotton and woolen machinery and the rolling of railroad rails were also undertaken, and by 1857 the concern had an establishment in Worcester covering four acres. During the Civil War it did a large business in the manufacture of gun barrels, Washburn having perfected a new process of puddling pig iron whereby he could produce gun iron superior to that then imported from England. About 1865 he disposed of many of his diversified interests so that he could concentrate his attention in making still further improvements in car wheels. He did, however, become associated with W. C. Barnum and others in the purchase of certain iron ore properties and in operating them. In 1867 he produced a satisfactory steel-tired car wheel at Worcester, and the manufacture and further improvement of this product constituted his major activity for the rest of his life. At the time of his death, in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, he was survived by a daughter.
His wife was Eliza Young of Stafford. They had a daughter.
