40

The Duff Norton Connection

Figrual bottle opener

collectors will

recognize the jack

opener in our story.

The Jack has the

advertising

―

Jacks

Duff Norton

‖

on one

side and

―

Jacks

Pittsburgh USA

‖

on

the other. It was a

souvenir of the Duff

Norton radio program

―

The House that Jacks Built.

‖

Although Joseph Boyer received patents for his

improvements to pneumatic tools from 1897 to

1901, it was Charles Brady King of Detroit who

first patented the pneumatic hammer (he also

built Detroit's first car in 1896 with Oliver

Barthel). King's pneumatic hammer was developed by a Milwaukee foundryman and,

in 1901, the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company (CP) was formed in Detroit. This new

firm produced the

―

Boyer

‖

and

―

Little Giant

‖

pneumatic tools. In 1923 they became the

agent for lifting jacks from the Duff Manufacturing Company of Pittsburgh. Duff

merged with Norton of Illinois in 1928 to form the Duff-Norton Company.

CP obtain license from Duff-Norton products for manufacture of their products in the

United Kingdom

The Burroughs Connection

Joseph Boyer also left a lasting impression in his

involvement with the inventor William Seward

Burroughs who invented the first practical adding

machine in 1888. When Burroughs needed a place to

make his product, Boyer gave him a bench space at

his St. Louis Boyer Machine Shop. Burroughs died in

1898 and Boyer moved the Burroughs Adding

Machine Company to Detroit. Boyer died in 1930

leaving a company that was going strong producing

150,000 adding machines annually.