Charles Ethan Billings (1834–1920) was an American mechanical engineer,

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

, superintendent, and businessman. He held various U.S. patents on

hand tool A hand tool is any tool that is powered by hand rather than a motor. Categories of hand tools include wrenches, pliers, cutters, files, striking tools, struck or hammered tools, screwdrivers, vises, clamps, snips, hacksaws, drills, and kni ...

s, either assigned or licensed to the firm that he and Christopher M. Spencer cofounded, the Billings & Spencer Company. His name as patent holder is stamped (as C.E. Billings) on countless forged hand tools, many of which survive. Billings was an expert in

drop forging Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which it ...

and was an influential leader in the American system of manufacturing and its successor systems of

mass production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...

for firearms, sewing machines, hand tools, bicycles, and other goods. He served as president of the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

in 1895 and 1896. The Billings & Spencer Company was both a machine tool builder and a

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ran ...

of hand tools made with its

machine tool A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All m ...

Biography

He was born in Weathersfield,

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, the son of Ethan F. and Clarissa M. (née Marsh) Billings.Billings, Dwight Morris
at www.accessgenealogy.com He served his apprenticeship at Robbins & Lawrence in Windsor, Vermont.
pp. 174–177.
/ref> Robbins & Lawrence was a factory and armory that was an important early node in the social network of the 19th century

industry.
p. 187
In 1856, at the age of 21, he worked at the

Colt armory The Colt Armory is a historic factory complex for the manufacture of firearms, created by Samuel Colt. It is located in Hartford, Connecticut along the Connecticut River, and as of 2008 is part of the Coltsville Historic District, named a National ...

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

as a die sinker and tool maker and became their expert on the

process. In 1862, he went to E. Remington & Sons, where he built up their forging plant, increasing its efficiency and saving $50,000 by one improvement in frame forging alone. At the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, he returned to Hartford as the superintendent of the Weed Sewing Machine Company, which had taken over the old Sharps Rifle Works, built by Robbins & Lawrence. In 1868, while at the Roper Repeating Arms Company in

Amherst, Massachusetts Amherst () is a New England town, town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,263, making it the highest populated municipality in Hampshire County (althoug ...

, he worked with Christopher M. Spencer. The Roper company failed and in 1869, the two founded a partnership in

called

Billings & Spencer Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Metrop ...

, which would manufacture

sewing machine A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. Since the inv ...

s, drop-forged

s, and

s. Billings perfected a drop hammer for metal

forging Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which i ...

in the 1870s and designed the copper

commutator In mathematics, the commutator gives an indication of the extent to which a certain binary operation fails to be commutative. There are different definitions used in group theory and ring theory. Group theory The commutator of two elements, a ...

which was central to the operation of

electrical generator In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motive power (mechanical energy) or fuel-based power (chemical energy) into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, gas ...

s and motors. In 1895, Billings was president of the

. He died on June 5, 1920 in Hartford, Connecticut and was interred at Cedar Hill Cemetery.

List of patents held

This list may not be exhaustive; if you like, you can verify its exhaustiveness with a US patent search. * * *

References

Bibliography

External links

Biography
from http://www.all-biographies.com/

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Billings, Charles E. 1835 births 1920 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American inventors Burials at Cedar Hill Cemetery (Hartford, Connecticut) Businesspeople from Hartford, Connecticut People from Weathersfield, Vermont Presidents of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Machine tool builders