Rockford has become a clearly defined center for tool builders. For many years the W. F. & John Barnes Company was the only one in the city, but in 1888 the Mechanics Machine Company was established. About 1893 the Ingersoll Milling Machine Company moved to Rockford from Cleveland, where Mr. Ingersoll had been associated with Cox & Prentiss. This company has been the leader in the development of heavy multiple-head milling machines of the planer type. The Barber-Coleman Company began making mechanics’ tools and gear cutters about 1896. The B. F. Barnes Company, now the Rockford Drilling Machine Company, and the Barnes Drill Company were established in 1897, by B. F. Barnes, a brother of W. F. and John Barnes, who had been associated with them for twenty years as superintendent. In addition to these firms there are the Rockford Machine Tool Company, the Rockford Milling Machine Company, the Rockford Lathe & Tool Company, the Rockford Iron Works and W. F. Lingren & Company. The first of these companies started in 1897, making shapers and planers. In 1913 it bought out the drill business of the older Mechanics Machine Company. It is said that one of the reasons why Rockford has become such a tool building center is that the neighborhood was settled by Swedish immigrants, who have furnished excellent material for the development of skilled mechanics. The International Machine Tool Company of Indianapolis was established in 1906. This company manufactures the turret lathes developed by Mr. C. L. Libbey, who was for eleven years chief engineer and superintendent of the Bullard Machine Tool Company of Bridgeport; afterwards superintendent of the Pacific Iron Works of the same city, and of the Ludwig-Loewe & Company, Berlin, Germany; and for four years and a half construction engineer of the Gisholt Machine Company of Madison, Wis. From Madison he went to Indianapolis. There are a number of tool builders in Chicago, but though a great manufacturing center, Chicago, like New York, has not specialized in tool building as have some of the smaller places. There are perhaps a dozen firms making large and small tools. Of those who build the larger types of tools, Charles H. Besly & Company, manufacturers of grinding machines, are best known.