Gleason history

Almost a decade later, in 1874, Gleason invented the first bevel gear planer, which proved to be the start of a brand-new industry, the bevel gear industry, and created incredible new opportunities for the transmission of motive power.

The young Kate Gleason became the company's bookkeeper in 1880, when she was just 14, and within 10 years she was its chief sales representative.

Industrial Advance of Rochester 1884, pg.

According to a company history, Gleason made her first trip abroad in 1893 at age 27, securing business from major companies in England, Scotland, France and Germany.

In 1900 the lathe and planer product lines were sold to the Pittsburg Machine Tool Co.

The Gleason Works was incorporated in New York in 1903.

In 1904, he bought 1000 University Ave. and eventually moved the company there.

The first building was constructed there in 1905.

By 1911, the activities of the company had outgrown the facilities at Brown's Race, and all the operations were moved to the site on University Avenue.

The company lost one of its salesmen when the Titanic sank in 1912.

Apparently, friction between Kate Gleason and her younger brothers contributed to her decision to leave the family company in 1913.

As a bankruptcy receiver in 1914, she reorganized the struggling Ingle Machine Co. of East Rochester, returning the company to solvency.

In 1918, she stepped in as acting president of the First National Bank of East Rochester.

Her second career in real estate made her millions and she moved to Berkeley, California in 1924 and became an advisor to the city following a disastrous fire.

When she died in 1933 at the age of 67, she left an estate of more than $1.4 million, with special consideration for RIT and the Rochester Public Library, which has named its main auditorium for the business leader and philanthropist.

Andrew, whose primary interest lay in the gear design and manufacturing phase of the business, served as vice-president of the company until his retirement in 1934.

About 1961 the Cunningham Company which originally built wagons in Rochester moved to Honeoye Falls.

Little information, unfortunately, is available regarding the years leading up to the company's eventual reincorporation in Delaware in 1984 as the Gleason Corporation.

In 1989, the company put its Components Group, made up of four subsidiaries that manufactured industrial products, including powder metal parts, metal stampings, and precision plastic parts, up for sale.

In December 1991, the company sold all of the stock of Pennsylvania Pressed Metals, Inc., the largest of its four Components Group companies, to a group of investors.

Revenues for 1992 reached $147.3 million, with a net loss of $61.2 million.

Another product introduced in 1993 was the Phoenix 175 bevel gear cutting machine.

As the American automotive industry had higher sales and improved profitability, revenues for the company in 1994 reached $128.5 million, with a net income of $7.3 million.

The company's revenues for 1995 were $197.1 million, with a net income of $30.8 million.