Humanities desk
< June 29	<< May \| June \| Jul >>	July 1 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

June 30[edit]

Ingersoll Cutting Tools and Ingersoll Machine Tools[edit]

The International Metalworking Companies article mentions "Ingersoll Cutting Tools" without clarifying further. Googling that name gives the company website of https://www.ingersoll-imc.com/.

The Ingersoll Machine Tools article links to the company website of www.ingersoll.com.

1. Given that the two company websites are different, and the names are (slightly) different, are these two unrelated entities?

2. Assuming that they are currently unrelated, was there a point in the past where they shared some sort of connection, given the similarity of their names? Mel Gervais (talk) 22:46, 30 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

They both have headquarters in Rockford, Illinois, probably not a coincidence. Or is it? They have different street addresses, but one company may have a number of facilities. I see from that map that we can add "Ingersoll Milling Machine Co." into the mix as well. (But those two are in the same building, further examination of maps shows, so they are undoubtedly the same company.)

Further observations: Ingersoll Cutting Tools is way off on the other side of Rockford. I notice that Rockford also contains an Ingersoll Memorial Park. Here, opposite a full page advert for a boring machine, is the obituary of Winthrop Ingersoll. It says that Mr. Ingersoll gave to the city of Rockford the Clayton C. Ingersoll Memorial Park in that city. And just as well that it was in the same city, it could have been awkward if he gave them another city's park. So I wonder if Ingersoll is a name commonly used for places around Rockford due to connections with this family, and the (presumably more recently established?) Cutting Tools company may be named Ingersoll just because of this established custom. Card Zero (talk) 22:58, 30 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Mel Gervais (talk) 23:40, 30 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure they're separate, but I still feel like I'm guessing until I get the origin story of the Cutting Tools one. Certainly there have been plenty of other Ingersoll things in Rockford, such as the Rockford Institute and its Ingersoll Prize for being extremely conservative. Card Zero (talk) 23:43, 30 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Another data point: "Ingersoll Production Systems" has a website at http://www.ingersollprodsys.com, and their site says:

Judge Jonathan Ingersoll purchased an interest in W.R. Eynon & Co., a local machine tool company in Cleveland, Ohio.  In 1887, his son Winthrop Ingersoll took over the business and in 1891, he moved the company to Rockford, Illinois.  Ingersoll was born.  The first shop was only 【15 × 46  m】 and employeed 19 people.[1]

Same city as the other two companies. Mel Gervais (talk) 23:42, 30 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yet another data point: Judge Jonathan Ingersoll was the father of Winthrop Ingersoll. [2] Mel Gervais (talk) 23:46, 30 June 2023 (UTC).[reply]

Yeah, that's our Ingersoll Milling Machine Co / Ingersoll Machine Tools / Ingersoll Heliport / Ingersoll Memorial Disc Golf Course one. They claim they had something to do with the Magellen Telescope. Washing it, possibly. I see they also made some sort of 52-foot tall fabricating device to help Jeff Bezos build his rockets. It's Ingersoll Cutting Tools (IMC subsiduary) who are the obscure ones. I'm imagining some renegade member of the Ingersoll family decided to take off to a less reputable part of town to set up his own engineering company. I don't know.

OK, here's the story. 110th Congress, 1st Session. The Israelis bought out Ingersoll Cutting Tools, built a $350 million campus in Rockford. The company was just sold to Warren Buffett, so it is a very viable company. The Italians, Comuzzi Brothers, bought out Ingersoll Cutting Tool Division. I think that's a mistake, I think he meant Machine Tool Division the second time. (Mr. Manzullo gets it right on another occasion, but supplies less backstory.) So yeah, it was a "division", and the whole business was in trouble and got carved up by foreign investors. Card Zero (talk) 23:51, 30 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

On the website of Ingersoll Cutting Tools one can see that they descend from the Ingersol Milling Machine Company founded by Winthrop Ingersoll, and that the Ingersoll Cutting Tool division was sold to IMC in 2001. Ingersoll Machine Tools (with the cutting division cut out) was acquired by the Camozzi Group (wait, what happened to WHAAOE?) and merged into its Camozzi Machine Tools division. --Lambiam 13:47, 1 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I have personal experience of this Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2023 June 5#Car industry, revive old car models. In addition to exporting Land Rovers, the firm also imported Yugoslav reisling ("Wine industry questions." on the same page). Not a question of "some renegade member" of the family deciding to set up his own company, the proprietors simply fell out [3]. 2A00:23C7:E529:8D01:5C84:D83A:62D3:7C (talk) 14:05, 1 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]