Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1467797
first auto crankshafts in 1902, earned its reputation as a premier producer of aircraft parts in both World Wars – biplanes for the first war, and forged components for aircraft manufacturers in World War II. It pivoted to jet plane components after the war and at the end of the Cold War it diversified into specialty alloys in a joint venture with Pratt & Whitney. In 1999, Precision Castparts purchased Wyman-Gordon. Norton Co., likewise, got its first big boost from the car. In 1914, Henry Ford ordered 35 Norton Grinders, which could produce more precise metal forms on automotive parts made of harder metal than had been the case up to then. Since then, Norton has developed scores of new applications for its grinding wheels. It was purchased by Saint-Gobain in 1999. The advent of digital technology beginning in the 1980s created yet another pivot for Worcester and the country as a whole, and the region's embrace of technology and health care innovations began to fill the void left by the departure of manufacturing. — Christina P. O'Neill Employees of the Royal Worcester Corset Co. grace the cover of Worcester Magazine in October 1910. IMAGE | WORCESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY Royal Worcester Corset Co. 1950 Corsets Whittall Carpet Company Carpets Heywood Boot & Shoe 1953 Men's shoes Bell Company 1955 Woolens & worsteds Reed-Prentice Corporation 1958 Machine tools American Steel & Wire Steel Pullman Standard 1960 Railroad passenger cars Graton & Knight 1962 Industrial belting Worcester Stamped Metal 1969 Metal machine parts American Steel & Wire 1971 Wire Harrington & Richardson 1973 Firearms U.S. Envelope 1974 Envelopes American Steel & Wire 1977 Electrical cable Worcester Molded Plastics 1978 Plastic household goods Crompton & Knowles 1980 Looms Curtis & Marble 1983 Textile machines Rexnord (Baldwin Chain) 1984 Industrial chainbelts Johnson Steel & Wire 1986 Wire Reed & Prince 1987 Screws and fasteners Coes Knife 1991 Industrial knife blades Heald Machine 1992 Grinding machines Loss of select manufacturing firms, 1950-1992 Companies Year it closes or moves Products 1922-2021 W o r c e s t e r 3 0 0 : C i t y o f I n n o v a t o r s 51