The prominence of Hamilton, Ohio, in tool building is due chiefly to the Niles Tool Works, which moved thither from Cincinnati about 1876. Before the war the old firm, Niles & Company, to which we have already referred, occasionally built tools for their own use. After the war, George Gray, who was their designer and superintendent, was sent through the eastern states to familiarize himself with machine tool building and the company took it up as part of their regular work. After their removal to Hamilton, they confined themselves wholly to this work and have grown to be one of the largest firms in the country in this field. About 1900 the Niles Tool Works were brought under the same management as Bement, Miles & Company of Philadelphia, the Pond Machine Tool Company of Plainfield, N. J., and the Pratt & Whitney Company of Hartford, and they are now operated as one of the plants of the Niles-Bement-Pond Company. In 1880 Gray left the Niles Tool Works and started the Universal Radial Drill Company in Cincinnati. This company built the first round column radial drills, plain and universal, after Mr. Gray’s designs. He left the company in 1883 and about ten years later it ceased business. The G. A. Gray Company, which he started in 1883, at first built lathes, but has specialized on planers and is now one of the foremost firms in the country specializing in this type of tool. As the demand for machine tools spread westward, tool building has followed it, and an increasing number of companies are springing up in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. The oldest of these, the W. F. & John Barnes Company of Rockford, Ill., began making jig saws in 1872. Six years later they added the building of small lathes. About the same time they made some drill presses for their own use and then began manufacturing them for the trade. Later, tool grinders, arbor presses, radial and gang drills were added successively to their line of machines. Their only competitors were in Worcester and Cincinnati, and the high freight rates at that time gave them an important advantage in the West. Their early machinery, built to meet pioneer conditions, found a considerable market in the less developed foreign countries and they have built up a widespread export business.