Charles Hotchkiss Norton
Charles Hotchkiss Norton (November 23, 1851 – October 27, 1942) was an American mechanical engineer who designed machine tools. He started at the Seth Thomas Clock Company in Thomaston, Connecticut. In 1886 he became assistant engineer at Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company in Providence, Rhode Island, where he redesigned their universal grinding machine. In 1890 he helped start Leland, Faulconer & Norton Company in Detroit, Michigan, making machine tools. He returned to Brown & Sharpe in 1896 and designed a larger, heavier grinding machine to supply parts for the growing automobile industry. In 1900 he left Brown & Sharpe to found the Norton Grinding Company in Worcester, Massachusetts, with support from the Norton Emery Wheel Company (unrelated to him). The two firms merged in 1919, with Norton serving as Chief Engineer until 1934, when he became Consulting Engineer. On April 8, 1925, he received the John Scott Medal and Premium for his invention of accurate, high-power grinding devices. Norton's house in Plainville, the Charles H. Norton House, is now a National Historic Landmark.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:27 (CET).