Historic Mills of Connecticut

Companies Associated w/Complex

• Barden Corp.
• Barden Corp.

Use (Historic)

• Fabricated Metal Products

Largest Documented Workforce

Unknown.

Historic Narrative

Carl L. Norden (1880-1865) was a Dutch mechanical engineer educated in Switzerland. He emigrated to the United States in 1904, and after employment at the Worthington Pump and Machine Company in Brooklyn, among others, he worked for the Sperry Gyroscope Company c.1910-13. Norden helped Sperry design the first gyrostabilizers for large ships. Norden then struck out on his own as a consulting engineer to the Navy, working on marine stabilizers, aerial gyroscopes for torpedoes, and catapults and arresting gear for aircraft carriers. After World War I, the US Navy determined that it needed to be able to sink ships by way of high altitude bombing. Toward that end, it began a bombsight program, and eventually consulted with Norden, who recommended that the bombsights have both gyroscopic stabilization and an autopilot feature to automatically correct for flight conditions. Norden worked on designs for the Navy for years, often from his family home in Zurich where he puzzled out solutions to mechanical problems. In 1923, in preparation for mass production of the bombsight, the Navy had Norden team up with an engineer, Theodore Barth (1893-1967). The partnership was successful, and Barth built bombsights in his Manhattan apartment from Norden’s designs sent from Zurich. By 1928, the men had incorporated their enterprise as Carl L. Norden Inc., with its own space, and produced bombsights for the Navy and the Army Air Corps. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, production increased to 2,000 sights per month and the company’s facilities expanded to include several plant locations. Each plant was an affiliate named with some variant of the principals: Lukas-Harold Corporation (their middle names) in Indianapolis, Northhampton MA, Norden Laboratories in White Plains NY, and Barden Corporation in Danbury CT. The plant locations were guarded during the war, and the activities of Carl L. Norden Inc. kept secret. Bombsight production ended in September 1945, and Carl L. Norden Inc. was dissolved in 1949, although the subsidiaries remained. The Barden Corporation in Danbury was founded in 1942 specifically to produce ball bearings for the Norden bombsight. Since then, the firm has specialized in ball bearings to 'super-precise' tolerances for the transportation, machining and medical industries. Its products have been used in guidance systems for planes, missiles, ships, submarines, and in computers, machine tools, textile machinery, x-ray equipment, dental drills, and cameras. It was one of several hundred companies that supplied parts for IBM's innovative 701 'defense computer,' which was the first commercially available large-scale electronic computer developed in 1951-52. The firm became an affiliate of FAG Germany in 1991.

Number of Existing Buildings

Two (2) blocks with modern additions.

Dates of Construction

1957

Architect

Sherwood Mills and Smith Architects

Builder

n/a

Building Type

• Administration
• Warehouse / Production Shed

Architectural Description

The facility used during World War II is located at 23 East Franklin Road, and is partially demolished. The present factory was designed by Sherwood Mills and Smith Architects, with a central core (approx. 265 ft. by 380 ft.) and 60 to 80 foot structural spans for internal rearrangment and removable pre-fab insulated aluminum clad panels for expansion. All production is on one floor, with employee facilities on the open ground floor. The two story administration block on the east side of the factory (approx.80 ft. by 100 ft.) has a full height entrance foyer (enlarged since construction) and ribbon windows punctuated with full height vertical fins or columns. The plant was built at a cost of $2 million to maintain rigorous standards of cleanliness for several of its operations, using smooth surface materials such as concrete, vinyl sheeting and terrazzo, as well as high performance air conditioning systems, filters and air showers. It was nominated for the Reynolds Metal Company R. S. Reynolds Memorial Award (est. 1956), but apparently was not a recipient. The factory was expanded by 15,000 sq.ft.within the first few years of operation. Additions are to the south and west of the factory core.

Exterior Material(s)

• Aluminum Siding or Paneling

Structural System(s)

• Structural Steel or Iron

Roof Form

• Flat

Roof Material

n/a

Power Source

• Electricity

Condition

n/a

Condition Notes

n/a

Specific Location

One 19.1 acre parcel on the south side of Park Avenue off Bardens Drive, east of route 7; identified as 2 Sugar Hollow Road in assessor record.

Adjacent To

n/a

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• G16/ / 152 / Link →

Acreage

19.1

Use (Present)

• Industrial

Form Completed By

Renée Tribert

Date

December 2016

Bibliography

1. 'About Barden/FAG,' Barden USA, n.d. Web; accessed October 2015.
2. 'Precision Ball-Bearing Factory,' Progressive Architecture, Vol.43 (March 1962).
3. 'Norden, Carl Lukas, Inventor/Engineer,' The National Aviation Hall of Fame, n.d. Web; accessed October 2015.
4. Flying Magazine, Vol. 33, Number 1 (Chicago: Ziff-Davis Publication Co., July 1943).
5. 'The Unconventional Genius of Carl Norden,' Tails Through Time, 16 July 2015. Web; accessed October 2015.
6. The Norden Times (Norwalk CT and Melville NY: 1978). Web; accessed October 2015.
7. 'Do You Remember?', NewsTimes (Hearst Media News Services Connecticut LLC, April 2, 2010). Web; accessed October 2015.
8. ‘IBM 701: A Notable First,’ IBM Archives (2002). Web; accessed November 2016.