Many of the heavy stockholders, as Holmes, Elton, Burnham and Chase, were interested in several companies. Nearly all of the leaders were born and grew up in the valley and were full of local spirit. Israel Coe, Holmes, the Scovill brothers and Phelps, of the earlier order, were men of great ability, as also Lyman Coe, Cowles and Charles F. Brooker, of the later generation. The inventions of Hiram W. Hayden vitally affected the history of four companies. They seriously undermined the old Wolcottville company, shut the Brooklyn Brass Company out of important phases of its business, and built up the prosperity of the Waterbury Brass Company, and Holmes, Booth & Haydens. L. J. Atwood, of Holmes, Booth & Haydens, and, later, Plume & Atwood, L. S. White, of Brown & Brothers, and W. N. Weeden, of Benedict & Burnham, were prolific inventors, and their work contributed to the growth of the industry. Other influential men have built machinery for the large companies. Almon Farrel founded the Farrel Foundry & Machine Company in 1851, and had two establishments, one in Ansonia and one in Waterbury. The Waterbury plant was operated for many years by E. C. Lewis as agent. He bought it in 1880, but as a matter of sentiment retained the old name, prefixing the word Waterbury. The two plants have come to specialize somewhat, the Waterbury one building mainly presses and stamping machines, and the Ansonia one rolling mills and heavy machinery. E. J. Manville, an expert mechanic from the Pratt & Whitney shop in Hartford, with his five sons, founded the E. J. Manville Machine Company, which has built up a wide reputation for its presses and headers. Among the many others are William Wallace of Wallace & Sons, Ansonia, Charles Johnson and A. C. Campbell. The answer, then, to our question as to origin and success of the Naugatuck brass industry is as follows. It sprang from the local manufacture of buttons. A small group of able, forceful and ingenious men developed the best facilities in the country for rolling and drawing brass, and when new demands came they were the only ones with experience prepared to meet them. They were originally well situated for raw material. Later they bought their copper in Baltimore. By the time copper began coming from the West, the Waterbury companies were firmly established. Copper is expensive, its unit of weight is the pound and not the ton, and freight rates are far less important than with steel, so the industry’s detached location did not outweigh the advantage of its early start. A large force of workmen skilled in handling brass has been developed in these factories and no large enterprise could now be started elsewhere without drawing upon them. Many of these workmen own their homes, and their relations with the employers have generally been so friendly that higher wages elsewhere do not seem to attract them.