When Robbins & Lawrence failed, Howe went to Providence as superintendent of the Providence Tool Company and his work there contributed greatly to the success of that firm. While with both Robbins & Lawrence and the Providence Tool Company, he worked on the turret-head screw machine and the plain miller. The first screw machine brought out by Brown & Sharpe in 1861 was built for Mr. Howe. Joseph R. Brown added certain valuable features to it, but the parts for the first machine were said to have been cast from Howe’s patterns. Howe invented and built a universal milling machine,[187] but it should not be confused with what is now known as the “universal” miller, which was first built by Brown & Sharpe, also in 1861, for Mr. Howe to mill the flutes in twist drills. The distinction between these two machines has been pointed out by Mr. Burlingame. The No. 12 plain miller which Brown & Sharpe build today was designed by Howe, and for many years was known as the “Howe” type of miller. From 1868 to 1873 Mr. Howe was the superintendent of Brown & Sharpe, and built the first building on their present site. Later he started in business for himself as a consulting mechanical engineer and was designing a typewriter (which was never built) at the time of his death. He was a smooth-faced, well-dressed man, with a restless inventive mind, apt to change things frequently, improving each time, however, and when he finished anything it was thoroughly done. He left a deep impress on mechanical development in this country, and while Lawrence was perhaps the best mechanic, Howe was probably the ablest of the three men connected with the early Robbins & Lawrence history. [187] Illustrated in the _American Machinist_ of August 13, 1914. See also p. 208. [Illustration: FIGURE 39. FREDERICK W. HOWE] [Illustration: FIGURE 40. RICHARD S. LAWRENCE]