Gleason Works La empresa familiar que construyó el imperio de los engranajes de Estados Unidos
Mechistoria
29,251 views
The fascinating story of Gleason Works, the family business that built America’s gear empire
🔧 Discover the forgotten practical skills and workshop knowledge once passed down from master to apprentice. Explore The Forgotten Workshop Journal here:
👉 https://mechistory.netlify.app/
In this video, we recount the story of how an eleven-year-old girl named Kate Gleason walked into her father’s machine shop in Rochester after overhearing him say he wished he were a boy, and how her lifelong obsession with a single machine helped put her family’s name on nearly every car ever built.
Gleason Works traces its roots back to 1865, when Irish immigrant William Gleason opened a workshop next to Brown’s Race in Rochester, New York. Her 1874 bevel gear planer became the foundation of a global empire, and her daughter Kate—who was prevented from finishing her engineering degree at Cornell—crossed the Atlantic alone in 1893 with two hundred dollars and a single dress to build an international sales network that continues to this day.
Expelled from her own family business by her brothers in 1913, she went on to become a court-appointed administrator for a bankrupt company, the first woman to head a national bank without having inherited the position, and a pioneer in the development of concrete housing.
What you'll discover in this video:
Why William Gleason's murmur—"Oh, if only Kate had been a boy"—set his daughter's entire career in motion after her brother Tom died of typhoid fever in 1876.
How a fire at the neighboring Genesee Foundry in 1889 allowed Gleason to expand and reorganize around gear production.
Why Kate crossed the Atlantic during the Panic of 1893 with a letter of introduction from Henry Sharpe of Brown & Sharpe, and why she tried to return half her earnings to him.
How Henry Ford's false claim that she invented the planer became a myth that Kate publicly debunked.
Why her brother Andrew's ultimatum forced her to leave the family business in 1913.
How the spiral and hypoid bevel gears developed by James Gleason ended up in the Sherman tank and the Apollo program. Why Gleason remains the world's largest supplier of gear technology today.
Mentioned in this video: Kate Gleason, William Gleason, Tom Gleason, James Gleason, Andrew Gleason, Henry Sharpe, Henry Ford, Susan B. Anthony, Gleason Works, Brown & Sharpe, Ingle Machine Company, Cornell University, Brown's Race, Genesee Foundry, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, bevel gear planer, spiral bevel gear, hypoid gear, Panic of 1893, Golden Gate Bridge.
Sources:
Detroit Historical Society / Encyclopedia of Detroit
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Kate Gleason profile
Gleason Corporation, company history
Rochester History Archives, Kate Gleason
National Women's Hall of Fame, Kate Gleason
#GleasonWorks #KateGleason #IndustrialHistory #GearManufacturing #WomenInEngineering #RochesterHistory #ManufacturingHistory #EngineeringHistory #AmericanIndustry #ForgottenHistory
4 Comments
Gleason Works La empresa familiar que construyó el imperio de los engranajes de Estados Unidos
Mechistoria
29,251 views
The fascinating story of Gleason Works, the family business that built America’s gear empire
🔧 Discover the forgotten practical skills and workshop knowledge once passed down from master to apprentice. Explore The Forgotten Workshop Journal here:
👉 https://mechistory.netlify.app/
In this video, we recount the story of how an eleven-year-old girl named Kate Gleason walked into her father’s machine shop in Rochester after overhearing him say he wished he were a boy, and how her lifelong obsession with a single machine helped put her family’s name on nearly every car ever built.
Gleason Works traces its roots back to 1865, when Irish immigrant William Gleason opened a workshop next to Brown’s Race in Rochester, New York. Her 1874 bevel gear planer became the foundation of a global empire, and her daughter Kate—who was prevented from finishing her engineering degree at Cornell—crossed the Atlantic alone in 1893 with two hundred dollars and a single dress to build an international sales network that continues to this day.
Expelled from her own family business by her brothers in 1913, she went on to become a court-appointed administrator for a bankrupt company, the first woman to head a national bank without having inherited the position, and a pioneer in the development of concrete housing.
What you'll discover in this video:
Why William Gleason's murmur—"Oh, if only Kate had been a boy"—set his daughter's entire career in motion after her brother Tom died of typhoid fever in 1876.
How a fire at the neighboring Genesee Foundry in 1889 allowed Gleason to expand and reorganize around gear production.
Why Kate crossed the Atlantic during the Panic of 1893 with a letter of introduction from Henry Sharpe of Brown & Sharpe, and why she tried to return half her earnings to him.
How Henry Ford's false claim that she invented the planer became a myth that Kate publicly debunked.
Why her brother Andrew's ultimatum forced her to leave the family business in 1913.
How the spiral and hypoid bevel gears developed by James Gleason ended up in the Sherman tank and the Apollo program. Why Gleason remains the world's largest supplier of gear technology today.
Mentioned in this video: Kate Gleason, William Gleason, Tom Gleason, James Gleason, Andrew Gleason, Henry Sharpe, Henry Ford, Susan B. Anthony, Gleason Works, Brown & Sharpe, Ingle Machine Company, Cornell University, Brown's Race, Genesee Foundry, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, bevel gear planer, spiral bevel gear, hypoid gear, Panic of 1893, Golden Gate Bridge.
Sources:
Detroit Historical Society / Encyclopedia of Detroit
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Kate Gleason profile
Gleason Corporation, company history
Rochester History Archives, Kate Gleason
National Women's Hall of Fame, Kate Gleason
#GleasonWorks #KateGleason #IndustrialHistory #GearManufacturing #WomenInEngineering #RochesterHistory #ManufacturingHistory #EngineeringHistory #AmericanIndustry #ForgottenHistory
The Forgotten Workshop Journal recupera esas técnicas de taller olvidadas — desde reparación y medición hasta afilado, trabajo con metales, herramientas y los conocimientos prácticos de un verdadero artesano.
📖 Explora el diario aquí:
👉 https://mechistory.netlify.app/