HISTORY OF WORCESTER AND ITS PEOPLE BY CHARLES NUTT, A. B. Former Editor and Publisher of THE WORCESTER SPY; Author of "The Puffer Genealogy"; "History of the First Regiment of Heavy Artillery, Massachusetts Volunteers"; "History of the Crompton & Knowles Loom Works:; and various Biographical and Historical Works. ILLUSTRATED VOL. 1V. LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY New York City 1919 Pages 644 and 645. FRANK HENRY SLEEPER - GEORGE DOWNING HARTLEY. These gentlemen, respectively president and secretary-treasurer of SLEEPER & HARTLEY, INCORPORATED, spring from widely-separated families, one owning the Emerald Isle as his birthplace, the other born in the Dominion of Canada. They met on the common ground of self interest under the same flag in Canada, and there joined the personal friendship which has drawn them into such intimate business relations - Mr. SLEEPER, the inventor and machine builder, Mr. Hartley, the typographical machine and patent expert and patent attorney. Each won prominence in their own particular field, but combined, they have achieved a wonderful success and served their adopted country well in her recent trial of her military power. SLEEPER & HARTLEY, INCORPORATED, is a corporation which took over the business of the partnership of SLEEPER & HARTLEY, which partnership in turn took over in 1913 the business of designing and building special automatic machinery which was inaugurated by FRANK H. SLEEPER under his own name in October 1911. The business referred to has shown a remarkable growth, extending practically to every country in the world except those with whom the United States in now at war. The number and variety of high-speed automatic machines furnished to the United States Government and to the Allied Governments to assist in the prosecution of the war shows a remarkable list. The arsenals and munitions factories of Great Britain, France, Italy, Russian, Canada, Australia, Japan and China have been equipped with high speed spring-making machinery, and it is safe to say that there is scarcely a shell fired on any front today which does not contain springs made from these machines. In addition many new and notable machines have been developed for various purposes, and when the history of the technical aspects of the war comes to be written it will be found that this company has contributed notably to the final victory. One of the special divisions of the corporation's activities was the establishment of a factory entirely devoted to the manufacture of a new type of nail machine of very high speed and great productivity, and practically noiseless in operation. A list of the various classes of standard machines manufactured by this company includes: Spring coiling and winding machines of every description; spring setting, grinding, hooking, and knotting machines; wire straightening and cutting; straightening and bundling; flattening and forming; and coil winding machines of every description. Tungsten filament coiling and resistance coil winding machines; flexible shaft coiling machines; casing coilers; metallic tubing coilers; staple, wire nail and double point tack machines; and swaggers for screw wire and lock washer outfits. The main plant of the company is located at Worcester, Massachusetts, a Canadian branch being located at Coaticook, Province of Quebec, MR. SLEEPER'S birthplace. Many of these machines, if not all, are the invention of FRANK H. SLEEPER, who it is safe to say heads Canada's list of mechanical inventors. The company is a member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS, THE ASSOCIATION OF INDUSTRIES OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMERICAN MANUFACTURERS' EXPORT ASSOCIATION, and THE NATIONAL METAL TRADES ASSOCIATION. During his active working years he has invented, designed, and built approximately three hundred and seventy-five different machines. The boldness and originality of his conceptions is only equaled by the remarkable perfection of the mechanical details. In every field entered he has produced new types of improved machinery, marking radical advances upon anything previously done. In the early nineties he was a pioneer on the development of electrical apparatus, including continuous current generators and motors with fields wound in series, shunt and compound. He achieved the almost unbelievable in producing a series-wound constant-potential generator. In 1891 he built what was probably the first self-starting, single-phase, alternating current motor made in Canada, and also designed both alternating current generators and motors of an induction type. Other electrical inventions include a great variety of transformers and automatic voltage regulators for three-wire systems and for industrial generators subject to fluctuations of speed. He was the inventor of several lifting jacks, amongst them the jack so well-known under the name of the "Norton Jack". In the field of machine tools he built new types of engine lathes, upright drills, punches and shears, and presses; in the typographical field he invented and built printing presses, paper cutters, etc. The rotary steam engines which he invented and built were remarkable for their high speeds and steam economy; other inventions in this line also include condensers and rotary pumps, but the field in which he will be remembered longest is that of special automatic wire forming machinery. Here his inventions include a very large number of special wire forming machines, wire rolling machinery of many kinds, spring coiling and spring winding machinery, spring setting, spring grinding and spring hooking machinery. It is impossible to enumerate these machines in detail, but mention should be made of the remarkable Flexible Metallic Tube Coiling Machines; the equally remarkable Tungsten Filament Coiling Machines for producing Tungsten filaments of the coiled type used in incandescent lamps, which last machine proved to be the keystone in the nitrogen lamp industry; and a new type of noiseless Nail Machine. FRANK HENRY SLEEPER was born in Coaticook, Province of Quebec, Canada, November 26, 1862, son of Wright and Philanda (Cole) Sleeper, his father a machine builder and an inventor of note. After graduation from Coaticook Academy, he embraced his father's trade and laid the foundations for his very successful career under the capable instruction of the honored father. At the age of twenty-five he had progressed so far that he started in business as a contracting engineer, a business in which he continued for twenty years, devoting himself largely to special purpose machinery, but also giving his attention to electrical and steam engineering. Until 1907 he confined his business to his native Canada, and there brought out and placed in operation many of the three hundred and seventy-five (Note: this was written in 1919) machines with which he is credited with having invented, designed and built. His reputation as an inventor and builder of special purpose machinery had far outgrown Dominion limits, and in 1907 he received a favorable proposition from the MORGAN SPRING COMPANY of Worcester as engineer for four years, 1907-11, and in October, 1911, started in business in a small way under his own name. The object was to build the special automatic machinery which he had invented, and for two years he continued alone in his undertaking. Then he was joined by George D. Hartley and the same business continued as a partnership from 1913 until its incorporation as SLEEPER & HARTLEY, INCORPORATED, Frank H. Sleeper, president, and George D. Hartley, secretary-treasurer. Mr. Sleeper is a member of the Commonwealth and Leicester Country Clubs, but his time is given to his business, and he has few outside interests. Mr. Sleeper married in Coaticook, Canada, December 3, 1883, Lilla Anne Hopkinson, daughter of William Cuell and Clarinda Howard (Smith) Hopkinson. They are the parents of three children; Lotta Frances, born June 11, 1886, married William H. Blount; Ethel May, born January 22, 1892, married Raymond F. Russell; Verna Lilla, born December 3, 1903.