Warner & Swasey Company

Warner & Swasey designed and built the Lick Observatory refractor, shown here in an 1889 drawing. Alvan Clark & Sons made the 36-inch objective lens.

The Irving Porter Church Memorial Telescope (built in 1922) on its original Warner & Swasey mount. The 12" objective lens was polished by Brashear Co.

The first Warner & Swasey telescope, built in 1881,[7] was sold to Beloit College for its new Smith Observatory and had a 9.5-inch lens made by Alvan Clark & Sons. Among the notable instruments the company built were the telescopes for Lick Observatory (1888, 36-inch, refracting); the United States Naval Observatory (1893); Yerkes Observatory (according to the 50th-anniversary book,[8] this was a 40-inch refracting telescope completed in time for display at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, although its installation at Yerkes was apparently in 1897); and Canada's Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (1916, 72-inch, reflecting). In 1919, the company's founders donated their private observatory in East Cleveland, Ohio to Case Western Reserve University. Today's Warner and Swasey Observatory grew from that facility.

The company's 50th-anniversary book[9] describes the firm's giant-telescope-building work as unprofitable overall but a labor of technological love.

• Bosque Alegre Observatory, National University of Cordoba, ARG
• Burrell Memorial Observatory, Baldwin Wallace University, USA
• Crane Observatory, Washburn University, USA
• Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland, California, USA
• Drake Municipal Observatory, Des Moines, Iowa, USA[10]
• Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, NRC, Canada
• Dudley Observatory, miSci, Schenectady, NY, USA
• Durfee High School, Fall River, Massachusetts, USA[11]
• Fuertes Observatory (Irving Porter Church Memorial Telescope), Cornell University, USA
• Hildene Astronomy Club (Robert Todd Lincoln Telescope), Manchester, Vermont, USA
• James Observatory, Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
• Kirkwood Observatory, Indiana University, USA
• Lee Observatory, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
• Lick Observatory, University of California, USA
• McDonald Observatory (Otto Struve Telescope), University of Texas at Austin, USA
• Moraine Farm Observatory (Col. Deeds 7" Refractor), Col. Deeds Homestead, currently owned by Kettering health Network, Dayton OH, USA
• Painter Hall Observatory, University of Texas at Austin, USA
• Perkins Telescope, Lowell Observatory, USA
• McKim Observatory, DePauw University, USA
• Mueller Observatory, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, USA
• Ritter Observatory, University of Toledo, USA
• Spacewatch 0.9-meter Telescope, Kitt Peak, University of Arizona, USA
• Stephens Memorial Observatory (Cooley Telescope - 9-inch Refractor), Hiram College, USA
• Swasey Observatory, Denison University, USA
• Tate Laboratory, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, USA
• United States Naval Observatory (USNO), United States Navy, USA
• University of Illinois Observatory, Urbana, Illinois, USA
• Theodor Jacobsen Observatory, University of Washington, USA
• Warner and Swasey Observatory, Case Western Reserve University, USA
• Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA

A selection of turret lathe models between 1880 and 1920.

Warner & Swasey was one of the premier brands in heavy turret lathes between the 1910s and 1960s. Its chief competitors in this market segment included Jones & Lamson (Springfield, VT, USA), Gisholt (Madison, WI, USA), and Alfred Herbert Ltd (Coventry, UK).

An American Warner-Swasey depression position finder, illustration from a 1910 manual[12]

Military instrument contracts were an important line of work for the company.[13] The U.S. government referred many problems concerning such instruments to the company during the Spanish–American War (1898).[13] Instruments produced included "range finders of several types, gun-sight telescopes, battery commanders' telescopes, telescopic musket sights, and prism binoculars".[14] Presumably, the range finders included the company's depression position finder.[15] During World War I, three important kinds of instrument were produced: "musket sights, naval gun sights, and panoramic sights".[14]

A Gradall XL5100-III excavator, formerly a product of Warner & Swasey.

In 1946, Warner & Swasey Company acquired the patent rights to manufacture the Gradall telescopic boom excavator from the brothers Ray and Koop Ferwerda with their manufacturing company, the FWF Corporation, of Beachwood, Ohio. The Gradall, a type of hydraulic machinery, became a business of the new owner as the Gradall Division with operations in Cleveland. In the year 1946, the Gradall was the first production hydraulic excavator that was designed and manufactured in the United States. In July 1950, Gradall manufacturing operations were moved to New Philadelphia, Ohio, where it continues, in 2017, as Gradall Industries, Inc., a global manufacturer of telescopic boom excavators and industrial maintenance machinery. Gradall Industries, Inc. is a business unit of the Alamo Group of Seguin, Texas. [16]

The foundation of the Warner & Swasey Construction Equipment Division with five product lines was started in 1946 with the development of the first production hydraulic excavator; the GRADALL®. This machine was new technology for the industry and was highly versatile and productive for a variety of work. The DUPLEX TRUCK® Company of Lansing, Michigan, a heavy duty and specialized truck manufacturer was acquired in 1955 to supply truck chassis for the GRADALL and future Warner & Swasey backhoe excavator and crane products. In 1957 the Company sought a broader market penetration into the hydraulic excavator market. It acquired the Badger Machine Company of Winona, Minnesota, with its six HOPTO® hydraulic excavator models which complimented the Gradall models. The Company acquired in 1967, the Sargent Engineering Corporation of Fort Dodge, Iowa, a manufacturer of hydraulic cranes. Their six SARGENT HYDRA-TOWER® CRANE models enabled the company to move into another large segment of the construction industry using hydraulic machinery. That same year the Company partnered with a Canadian paper industry association in the manufacture of the ARBOMATIK® a line of hydraulic tree harvesting equipment. Through corporate diversity into hydraulic construction equipment, the growing popularity and productivity of this type of hydraulic machinery yielded strong business growth for the Warner & Swasey company of Cleveland, Ohio during the years of 1946 through 1977.