Historic Mills of Connecticut

Companies Associated w/Complex

• Bristol Co. 1889- c.1980

Use (Historic)

• Clocks, Precision Equipment
• Electrical Equipment
• Fabricated Metal Products
• Metal Treating and Finishing

Largest Documented Workforce

400 (1918).

Historic Narrative

Ben Bristol (1824-1904) was a machinist with the A. Platt and Company, and later Platt’s rolling mill superintendent. His youngest son, William H. Bristol, was born in Waterbury in 1859 and graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1884 with a degree in mechanical engineering and soon after became an instructed at his alma mater, and later a professor of mathematics. While employed at the Institute, Bristol patented a simple steel fastener designed to join two pieces of leather belting with ease and speed. When William approached his father with the idea to begin manufacture, he promptly purchased machinery for his son to start producing the fasteners and a press tool used to install them. With the help of his father’s capitol and joined by his Brother Franklin B. Bristol, William established the Bristol Company 1889 in one of Franklin’s barns in Naugatuck. Franklin was like his father, a skilled machinist and long-time employee of the A. Platt and Co. Upon the establishment of the Bristol Co., Franklin left his post with the Platts and became superintendent of the new venture. Demand for Bristol’s fasteners increased rapidly and the barn operation quickly became insufficient. In 1892, the Bristol Co., built a brick factory across the Naugatuck River from the A. Platt and Co. From its inception, the Bristol Co. operations were built to take advantage of the railroad lines and to provide room for further expansion. In 1894, the company was incorporated with a capital of $10,000. As the success of the fasteners increased, William Bristol began to experiment with modified Bourdon tubes to be used in the accurate recording of pressure and temperature. Early on, William Bristol also devised a system whereby he could accurately record temperature as well as pressure utilizing coiled copper tubing, filled with either a liquid or gas, depending on the application. The substances’ reaction to temperature in the coils could be accurately predicted thus recorded. From Bristol’s pressure gauge came the natural progression of other recording and monitoring instruments such as voltage, wattage, and amperage meters. Bristol's instruments were exhibited at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893, the Paris Exposition of 1900, and the Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915. The firm employed 50 in 1904, but with increased product demand and expansion of the plant between 1905 and 1918, the labor force grew to 400. Bristol Co. continued to broaden its product line through the 1940s, adding wrenches, rivets, screws and other tools, as well as airplane instrumentation during World War I, and the Bristolphone c.1920 which led to establishment of the William H. Bristol Talking Picture Corp. During World War II, Bristol made torpedo explosion mechanisms (contributing to the atomic bomb projects), underwater sonar equipment and aerial instruments. The company was purchased in the mid-1980s and operations were moved to nearby Watertown.

Number of Existing Buildings

Roughly twelve (12) blocks.

Dates of Construction

n/a

Architect

n/a

Builder

n/a

Building Type

• Administration
• Loft
• Powerhouse
• Warehouse / Production Shed

Architectural Description

n/a

Exterior Material(s)

• Brick

Structural System(s)

• Load Bearing Masonry
• Post and Beam
• Structural Steel or Iron
• Wood Frame

Roof Form

• Flat
• Gable

Roof Material

• Asphalt
• Metal

Power Source

• Electricity
• Steam

Condition

Good, Fair, Deteriorated

Condition Notes

Fire in 2015; building is in really poor condition, perhaps too far gone for rehab. DECD awarded $200,000 grant for environmental assessment Nov 2017.

Specific Location

north side of Bristol Street between the Naugatuck River to the east and Bristol Avenue to the west

Adjacent To

• Railroad

Exterior Visible from Public Road?

Yes

Parcel ID / Assessor Record Link

• 0546-1159-0043 / Link →

Acreage

6.6

Use (Present)

• Abandoned

Form Completed By

Mike Forino

Date

August 2014

Bibliography

1. 1947 Industrial Directory of Connecticut: Bristol Company. .
2. Bristol’s Recording Gauges for Pressure and Vacuum. .
3. Waterbury: Bristol Company, 1918. Bristol Company. .
4. The Bristol Company, Waterbury, Connecticut: Founded 1889. .
5. Waterbury: Bristol Company, 1935. .
6. Pape, William Jamieson. History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918. .
7. Prichard, Sarah Johnson. The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut. New Haven: Price & Lee Company, 1896. .
8. Roth, Matthew. Platt Brothers and Company: Small Business in American Manufacturing. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1994.
9. Republican-American, 1950-1985 .
10. Waterbury City Directory. New Haven: Price & Lee Company, 1910-1950. .
11. Bristol Company Photographs, Photograph Storage, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut. .