Worcester Reed Warner

Background

Worcester Reed Warner was the son of Franklin J. and Vesta Wales (Reed) Warner, and was born on his father's farm near Cummington, Massachussets. He was a descendant of Andrew Warner who had settled in Cambridge, Massachussets, by 1632.

Education

Until he was nineteen Warner attended a district school in Cummington and showed a decided preference for mathematics, mechanics, and science, but little love of farming.

Career

In 1865 he found work in the drafting room of the American Safety Steam and Engine Company, Boston. When the offices of the company were moved to Exeter, N. H. , the following spring, Warner went there to work in the shop as well as the drafting room for three years. There he met Ambrose Swasey, who became his close friend, and in the spring of 1869 the two entered the shops of the Pratt & Whitney Company in Hartford, Connecticut Within two years both men were promoted to foremen, Warner having charge of the gear-cutting department and Swasey of a department for building machine tools. They both engaged in "contract work, " a system which played a large part in developing individual manufacturing talent, and were so successful that in their eleven years with Pratt & Whitney they jointly accumulated $12, 000. In 1880 they undertook to establish their own machine manufacturing business in Chicago, Ill. , but the difficulty of obtaining skilled mechanics led them to move in 1881 to Cleveland, Ohio, where they established the Warner and Swasey Company to manufacture turret lathes. This enterprise was wonderfully successful from the start, Warner attending to the administration and Swasey to the manufacturing. They designed and built not only turret lathes but also speed lathes, die-sinking machines, and hand gear-cutters, and such intricate mechanisms as range-finders, gun-sights, and field telescopes for the United States government. From the days of his youth Warner had been an ardent student of astronomy, and his chief avocation was the engineering of telescopes. The building of astronomical instruments was not included in the original manufacturing scheme of Warner and Swasey, but when the trustees of the Lick Observatory called in 1886 for designs for the great 36-inch telescope, the partners submitted a design incorporating the results of Warner's years of study and work. Their design, which provided much heavier mountings than had ever been used before and heavier construction throughout, won the contract, and the telescope was built and installed under Swasey's personal supervision. Their brilliant success brought the partners world-wide renown. The Lick Observatory telescope was followed by the 40-inch Yerkes telescope, the 72-inch telescope for the Dominion of Canada, and the 60-inch telescope for the Argentine national observatory. For twenty years Warner and Swasey conducted their business without any form of written agreement. In 1900, however, the Warner and Swasey Company was incorporated, with Warner serving successively as president and chairman of the board of directors until he retired in 1911 and removed to his estate, Wilson Park, at Tarrytown, N. Y. He devoted the remaining eighteen years of his life to his astronomical studies and to travel. During his thirty years' residence in Cleveland, Warner served as director of several banks, as a trustee of Western Reserve University, the Case School of Applied Science, and the Cleveland School of Art, and as president of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. He was active in the founding of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1880, and served as a manager in 1890-93 and president in 1896-97. In 1916 he endowed the Worcester R. Warner collection of oriental art in the Cleveland Museum of Art. At the time of his unexpected death in Eisenach, Saxe-Weimar, Germany.

Achievements

• With Ambrose Swasey he cofounded the Warner & Swasey Company.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Selections From Oriental Objects of Art Collected by Worcester Reed Warner: Most of Which Have Been Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Selections From Oriental Objects of Art Coll...)

  • A Few Astronomical Instruments From their Works: Cleveland, Ohio

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Membership

He was a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, the British Astronomical Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and received several honorary degrees.

Connections

On June 26, 1890, he married Cornelia Fraley Blakemore of Philadelphia, Pa. They had three children.

Father:

Franklin J. Warner

Mother:

Vesta Wales (Reed) Warner

Friend:

Ambrose Swasey