Harlech:
Hendey lathe No. 33891, a 14 x 30, 12 speed, Geared Head model, was completed on November 9, 1942 and sold through the Defense Plant
Corporation to Scoville Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, Connecticut. It is a Raised Swing model.
Hendey lathe No. 35277, a 16 x 54, 12 speed, Geared Head model, was completed on June 26, 1943 and was sold to Hershey Metal Products
Company, Ansonia, Connecticut. It is a raised swing model.
Some Repair Parts are still in inventory and all of the original drawings are still in the files, so part can be made if required. All
of the original Order Forms are still in the files which detail the items shipped with the lathe. Please note that the information listed
in the Serial Number Books does not always agree with the factory records. Keep in mind that the dates I post are the dates that a
machine was shipped and not the actual date that a machine was completed. Hendey did that because of cancellations and other problems
that would remove a machine from the production schedule.
Hendey went out of business not because of poor management but because of a corporate raider named Fredrick Richman. He bought Hendey
for about $2,000,000 in 1952, saying he would expand the company. About this time , it would appear that he had made a secret deal to
sell off a portion of the company to Barber Colman, Rockford, Illinois. While the arrangement was kept secret, the Barber Colman name
appears on some of the production drawings in 1953. During October 16, 17 and 18, 1954, the plant and equipment was sold off for about
$3.5 million, netting Freddy Richman approximately $1.5 million and putting about a thousand people out of work.
Hendeyman
