HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



Makers of jVfac/?fnert; History, 



Porter B. Yates. 



{••ice I'uitruit ,s II ii/ilc incut.) 



NIMBKR V. 



In Ilis w(]rk — priiiiarilv in the ciireful iiiak- 



Wherever woodworking inadiinery is iiscil 

 the trademark "Berlin" is invariably known 

 as murkini; liijjli-ilass tools. Closely a.sso- 

 ciated with this word is the name of tin- 

 town in which these ai)i)!ianees are manntae 

 tured^Beloit, Wis. In this issne of th( 

 Haudwood KECOiy) are published u numlin- 

 of lialf-tone engravings and a sketch telling 

 sometliing of the woodworking mac-hine man 

 ufactnring hou.se of that city, which will 

 lirove interesting to many thousands of users. 



In connection with this article it is i)erti- 

 ncnt and timely that a brief sketch be given 

 of the master mind of the institution, who 

 has brought into such universal iiroininciice 

 the Berlin woodworking tools, tor, in spite 

 uf the fact that a very great measure of 

 success has attended their making, there are 

 few people who know anything abovit the 

 man v,-ho i.s responsible for their ]irestige. 

 This is because he has always been reticent 

 when his own achievements were under dis 

 cussiou. He has avoided publicity, and it is 

 doubtful if ever before the picture of Porter 

 H. Yates, president of the Berlin Machine 

 Works, has been seen in print. 



.Mr. Yates was born in Schenectady, >.'. Y.. 

 in 1S.56, his parents being Joseph and Jane 

 K. Yates. While Porter was still a child the 

 family removed to Berlin, Wis., where as a 

 boy he attended the common schools of the 

 district, finally passing through the high 

 school, from which ho was graduated at the 

 age of seventeen. This ended his school 

 I lays, for immediately after graduation he 

 liii-ame clerk in a retail hardware store 

 nuned by his father and a partner named 

 I'oute. In 1S77 he became his father's ])art 

 ncr, llr. Foote selling out his interests. 



In 1884 Mr. Yates bought a small machine 

 ^hop at Berlin, known as the Berlin Machine 

 Works, which manufactured a single drum 

 sanding machine. In 1887 the business was 

 oigani'.ed as a stock company capitalized at 

 $100,000. In 18S8 the com]]any removed to 

 Beloit and established its jilant in a small 

 two and one story stone building. The floor 

 space occupied by the factory was only tiox 

 140 feet, with a wing 40x100 feet, but the 

 little shop was practically the begiuning of 

 the Berlin Machine Works, which now cov- 

 ers two large city blocks and has a ca.sh 

 paid-up capital of $2,.50O,00O. The jilant is 

 equipped with hundreds of the highest (dass 

 and most mcxleru iron and steel working tools, 

 which turn out annually thousands of the 

 finest woodworking ajipliances. 



Physically, Mr. Yates is a s()uarely built 

 man who invariably gives the impression of 

 being extremely alert and forceful. He is 

 typical of the keen, accurately minded Amer- 

 ican business man, and the success which has 

 attended the making and marketing of the 

 products of his factory has been largely due 



ing of the machines, and afterwards in the 

 vigorous exploitation of their merits. He is 

 easilv the first i-itizen of his own town, and 



I'ltiNT XU'' CHESTNUT OAK LEA1<\ 



as a manufacturer of wiiuihyorkiug tools, 

 ranks fort most in the country. 



By training and inclination Mr. Y'ates is 

 ])reeminently a business man rather than a 

 mechanic, but he has surrounded himself 



with the best men that money and merited 

 promotion can attract, and as a cousequen<-e 

 he has a staflf of workers that includes the 

 most skillful men in every detail of the 

 production of woodworking tools. 



Mr. Yates 'talks very little, and that mod- 

 estly, about himself. His life has been de- 

 voted to making high-grade tools for wood- 

 workers, and in the constant effort to better 

 his product and extend its market he has 

 found ample scope for hjs energies. The 

 fact that he has succeeded in building up a 

 vast and profitable business and forced a 

 >vorlil-wide recognition for his machinery, is a 

 better tribute to his personality, and a more 

 enduring monument to his business sagacity 

 than any that could be conceived. His sue 

 cess is the more commendable when it is con- 

 sidered that the wide market for his pr<id- 

 iicts was won against a number of veteran 

 iKuises that had occupied and covered the 

 Held for years. In order to make any prog- 

 ress viith his machinery he recognized that 

 his tools would have to be better than any 

 then being produced. He devoted his ener- 

 gies to this end, with the result that the 

 products of his factory have become remark- 

 able for their excellence. 



One of the mo.st striking features of Mr. 

 Yates' personality is his ability to infuse his 

 employes with his own energy and enthusi- 

 asm. Every man of the great corps of work- 

 ers is a firm believer in Berlin tools, and 

 <'very one knows the details of their constrm - 

 tion and can talk about them intelligently. 



.\Ir. Yates is married and lives at Beloit in 

 .1 modest way. He is entirely domestic in 

 Ilis tastes, but to his friends is a host par 

 excellence. He travels extensively both ou 

 business and pleasure, and he has branch 

 houses scattered all over the T'liited States 

 and agencies in many foreign countries. He 

 is a member of the Union League VAvtit of 

 Chicago, and has the respect of his competi- 

 tors and the esteem of his patrons. 



A Lumberman's Letters to His Son. 



Chic.u.o. Uct. 6, 1906. 



JIy Dear Son : It occurs to me, bright 

 and blessed, that the longer you are in the 

 liardwood game the less sense you have about 

 the business, (lur swamp oak is none too good at 

 best, and what I want you to do is to have it 

 shipped out on Just as high a standard of 

 grade as can be made. IJou't you do any 

 more "salting" of cars at your end of the 

 line. This Arkansas mill proposition has got 

 to .stand on its own bottom. 1 am perfectly 

 competent to manipulate grades after they 

 reach me. You need not butt into that at all. 



X am just home from a little selling trip 

 over in Michigan and Ohio. The furniture 

 people are jiutting up a lot of loud noise over 

 the i>rice of oak and, as a consequence, are 

 liuying at their own prices — but on the ship- 

 ]ier's grade. The wholesale con.sumer W'ho 

 gets a shipment of first and second with less 

 than fifteen per cent of No. 1 iu it is tickled 

 to death. 



Your report indicates that you are away in 

 the soup on the woods end of the operation. 

 1 have told you for months to keep ahead 

 with your log sujiply. You ought to know 

 that we are going to have weather in Arkan- 



sas for some months to come that will have 

 burrs on it. If you keep the mill running 

 steady for the next thirty days you will iln 

 better than I expect you will. 



Let me again impress on you that the only 

 secret of successfully running a .sawmill in 

 the swamp or mountain country is to kee]i 

 your mill stocked. This is the ))lace where 

 nine operators out of ten fall down. Next 

 sjiring you will fully realize thu forc(> of this 

 observation. 



Get on to another thing. When you get a 

 little short of labor, don't go to raising the 

 scale. You will get more work down in Ar- 

 kansas with low-priced labor than you will 

 with high-priced. All they want is money 

 enough to live on, anyhow, and if they can 

 support themselves by four days' work you 

 can bet your life they won't work six. <'ut 

 wages. 



Your aft'ecticjuate I'athf.k. 



l-". S. — No, i shall not suggest to your 

 mother to buy you that pigeon-blood ruby 

 scarf pin at Peacock's. A chicken-blood gar- 

 net is good enough for Arkansas. You can 

 buy that a. Memphis. 



