This is the third and final installment of an article on Norwood Industries by Kobert A Chadbourne appearing in the current issue of “Industry,” official spokesman for the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, being reprinted here by special permission of the publishers.)
Franklin Manufacturing Corp.
When we were in the depth of the depression, between the two world wars, and a lot of people had little or nothing to do a budding jeweler in Norwood took advantage of the lull in business to specialize in thinking Business was not promising and there were no good Jobs in sight. Facing such conditions Henry A. Mintz, who had a jewelry store In the center of town, decided that his future depended upon his own initiative in creating a niche for himself in some productive field.
Net result was the start of a new industry in Norwood, manufacturing new types of products, identifying his new establishment as the Franklin Manufacturing Corporation on Pleasant Street. He has done so well that he is keeping a small force of employees busy and ¡3 getting so many orders from the field that this business is destined to continue to grow. Twice he has moved from rented quarters, that admittedly were not very pretentious, and his third move was into a new building of his own construction.
Familiar with the problems in the Jewelry business Mr. Mintz first made a little gadget with which the jeweler can stamp letters — names or initials — on goods for his customers. It was called a gold-stamping machine, but the gold is out of the picture now This little machine was so simple in construction that it could be sold for one fourth of the price of other machines then on the market. It found ready acceptance. Other designs followed, designated for other purposes. One ot them stamps initials on hat bands, another affixes “transfers,” such as names or drawings, to shirts. An entirely different kind of products made by the Franklin Manufacturing Corporation, mostly with plastics, is a price ticket that the storekeeper can put beside his merchandise. One of the newest devices is what the hat merchant calls a “steamer,” which in reality is a little ‘steamer, by the use which the retailer may quickly and effectively freshen up the nap in a felt hat, restoring it to its original look.
First Mr. Mintz made his gadgets in the basement of his store. Then he moved to an abandoned garage, and in 1940 he built his own plant on Pleasant Street where he is making most of the parts for his products, including the types he uses for which he has an especially designed machine.
Codex Book Company
No large business, and hardly any small one, is conducted with out the use of graphic chart sheets on which to measure and visualize the progress made. Such graphs show business trends at a glance and give management a true picture.
Production of such graphic chart sheets for the multitude of purposes for which they can be used as become a highly specialized industry, and one of the principal concerns in that field of manufacturing is the Codex Book Company in Norwood, located at 74 Broadway. Not only does this company design and print the chart sheets, but it also has published books on the subject dealing with the use of such sheets. There are calculating charts, percentage chart sheets, earthwork computation sheets, geneological chart sheets, graphic charts in business, probability chart sheets, and scores of other useful in business and in science.
It takes a visit to the Codex Book Company plant to realize the scope and importance of, this industry of making graphic chart sheets. This company started business in a very small way in New York in 1917 and was incorporated about two years later In 1930 the business was moved to Norwood, and has occupied its present quarters on Broadway for about five years. Now it has customers all over the world, its foreign business being accounted for in part by the fact that American engineers and businessmen located abroad send home for the chart sheets with which they had become familiar
Allen C.’ Haskell is President. Treasurer and General Manager of the company
Factory Mutual Testing Laboratory
While not exactly tn the manufacturing field, there is one activity that cannot be overlooked in Norwood in discussing its industrial background. And that is the Factory Mutual Testing Laboratories located on the outskirts of the town and just off Route 1. This is the laboratory where all types of experiments are carried on to discover causes and effects ot fires in industry and solve the problems ot proper handling ot materials and equipment which are hazardous from a fire standpoint.
Tobe Deutschmanh Corporation
Among the most modern manufacturing plants in Norwood is the .one on Providence Highway occupied by the Tobe Deutschmann Corporation. This is the plant built by the Norwood division of the Bendix Aviation Corporation, which division moved its operations to Brooklyn after the war.
(All articles originally appeared in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)