. History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut . he French war commissions. John and Harriet (Hotchkiss) Norton reared a family of two sons, the elder beingCharles Norton, of Worcester, Massachusetts, and founder of the Norton Grinding Com-pany of that city. The younger son and the subject of this sketch, Wendell PhillipsNorton, was educated in the schools of Plainville and his early opportunities in thatdirection were limited, due to a physical disability, and his ill health caused him toremain at home much of the time of his boyhood. Later, however, he attended Prof


. History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut . he French war commissions. John and Harriet (Hotchkiss) Norton reared a family of two sons, the elder beingCharles Norton, of Worcester, Massachusetts, and founder of the Norton Grinding Com-pany of that city. The younger son and the subject of this sketch, Wendell PhillipsNorton, was educated in the schools of Plainville and his early opportunities in thatdirection were limited, due to a physical disability, and his ill health caused him toremain at home much of the time of his boyhood. Later, however, he attended ProfessorCamps school in New Britain and at the age of seventeen he went to Thomaston, Con-necticut, entering the employ of the Seth Thomas Clock Company, where he servedan apprenticeship to the engineering and machinist trade under his uncle, Noah Norton,who was one of the most prominent and best known of the early mechanical engineersin the clock industry of the Naugatuck valley. After completing his apprenticeship, Wendell Norton went to Bristol, Connecticut,. WEXDELL P. NORTON WATERBURY AND THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY 67 where lie opened a small shop on his own account. After two years, he sold this andremoved to Hartford, where he took charge of the Dwight Slate Machine Company,remaining there two years, when for a brief period he returned to and travelled for theSeth Thcmas Clock Company. In 1886, he came to Torrington to accept the position as draftsman with the HendeyMachine Company, with which he has since been, save for a period of three years in theearly 90s, during which time he was a draftsman with the Garvin Machine Company ofNew York city. While there he invented the Norton lathe which is known the worldover under the name of the Hendey-Norton lathe and is universally considered the standardof perfection in the lathe making industry, as is evidenced by the fact that since theexpiration of the patents more or less direct copies of its special features have beenmade by nearly


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectwaterbu, bookyear1918