Finally, and perhaps most important of all, are the men who have designed and built the tools used. Connecticut leads all other states in the ratio of patents to the population, and Waterbury has led the rest of Connecticut in the proportion of nearly two to one. All the finishing or “cutting up” shops, as they are locally known, contain highly developed machinery--nearly all of it special, much of it designed and built in the shop where it is used. This includes machinery for making eyelets, hooks and eyes, pins, cartridges, wire forming machinery, thread rolling, and headers and stamping machinery. Some of these machines, as, for instance, the last two mentioned, are more or less standard, but their tool equipment has been wonderfully developed and is bewildering in its variety. Much of this machinery has never been made public, and nearly all of it is too special, too intricate and too varied for description here. It is natural, under these circumstances, that the mechanics who developed these tools should be comparatively little known. They have, however, been a vital element in the Naugatuck brass industry, and should be recognized as successful American tool builders. CHAPTER XIX PHILADELPHIA Although the commercial manufacture of machinery began in New England, Philadelphia became, and for a long time remained, the largest tool building center in the country. Its large population and nearness to coal, iron and tide water, made this almost inevitable, but it was hastened by the work of two brilliant mechanics, William Sellers and William Bement. Bishop, in his “History of American Manufactures,”[200] says: “In the invention and construction of machinery and instruments for practical and scientific purposes, Philadelphia mechanics early acquired a reputation for skill. The records of original American invention contain few names more distinguished than those of Godfrey, the inventor of the quadrant, of Rittenhouse, who made the first telescope constructed in America, and whose orrery and other scientific instruments displayed unusual mechanical and mathematical genius; of Franklin, Evans, Fulton, Fitch, and others whose inventive and constructive skill have added to the permanent wealth of the State and the Union.” Of these, Oliver Evans seems to have affected modern manufacturing methods the most. [200] Vol. I, p. 576.