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Manufacturers Index - Universal Automatic Carving Machine Co.

Universal Automatic Carving Machine Co.
Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
Manufacturer Class: Wood Working Machinery

History
Last Modified: Apr 3 2018 8:43PM by Jeff_Joslin
If you have information to add to this entry, please contact the Site Historian.

During the first two or three years of the 20th century, a pantograph-style carving machine was designed by prominent Chicago furniture manufacturer S. Karpen & Co., and they made some for their own use. The manufacturing rights to the machine were sold to Indianapolis-based Union Embossing Machine Co. Union began making the machine and then based on their experience they designed a considerably improved version, and their designers applied for a series of patents for their improvements.

In late 1904 or early '05, Universal Automatic Carving Machine Co. was apparently spun off of Union Embossing Machine. Some of the carving-machine patents were already issued by then, but subsequent patents were explicitly assigned to the new company. We have not found a single ad or article from the company, and it was dissolved in late 1910.

Information Sources

  • Patent records provide much of the timing info.
  • New Jersey records show that Universal Automatic Carving Machine Co., was dissolved on 1910-11-01.
  • The 1997 book Endless Novelty: Specialty Production and American Industrialization, 1865-1925, by Philip Scranton, has a note on page 381 that Karpen sold the carving-machine rights to Union Embossing Machine Co.