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| Ashcroft's Railway Directory, 1864 |
Whipple File Manufacturing Co. is significant because it was the first large-scale attempt to make files by machinery in the United States. It was named for Milton Dexter Whipple (1797-1873), a native of Worcester, Massachusetts. Milton Whipple was a gifted machinist with a number of patents in file-making, textile machinery, and engraving. His oldest son Lyman W. Whipple (1824-1886) followed his father in the mechanical profession and worked with him at Whipple File.
Whipple File started in 1859, with William P. Pierce, a Boston dry goods merchant, as president. Its offices and sales room were at 34 Kilby St., Boston, Massachusetts, and the plant was at
Ballard Vale (also spelled Ballardvale), MA. Whipple took over
John Marland's machine shop in 1860, then built its own works. Whipple was highly capitalized, $1 million in 1866, which it invested in a large works, machinery, steel making, and advertising. It suffered negative publicity when its files were included in a 65-day trial in 1865,
The United States versus Franklin W. Smith. Mr. Smith was accused of supplying substandard goods, including Whipple files, to the Charlestown Navy Yard during the Civil War.
Whipple failed in 1869 with a total loss of $2 million, in part because of resistance to machine-cut files. This must have been one of the the largest business failures of the time. The 4-acre works
remained vacant until 1883. The task of perfecting machine-cut files passed to
Whipple's chief draftsman, Alfred Weed, and to William T. Nicholson, founder of Nicholson File.
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| The Boston Directory, 1861 |
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| Appletons' Illustrated Railway and Steam Navigation Guide, 1864 |
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| Boston Directory, 1868 |
From WoodNet Forums, there is some possible good news about Nicholson files. According to this post by Daryl Weir, Nicholson has changed the packaging of their carded files from blue to green, with an accompanying increase in quality of the files. Please read it and judge for yourself.
