Charles E. Billings

Who was Charles E. Billings?

Charles Ethan Billings was an American inventor.

He was born in Weathersfield, Vermont, the son of Ethan F. and Clarissa M. Billings. He served his apprenticeship at Robbins & Lawrence, a factory and armory that was an important early node in the social network of the 19th century machine tool industry.

In 1856, at the age of 21, he came to the Colt armory as a die sinker and tool maker and became their expert on the drop forging process. In 1862, he went to E. Remington & Sons, where he built up their forging plant, increasing its efficiency many times, saving $50,000, it is said, by one improvement in frame forging alone. At the end of the American Civil War, he returned to Hartford as the superintendent of the Weed Sewing Machine Company, which had taken over the old Sharps Rifle Works, built by Robbins & Lawrence.

In 1868, while at the Roper Repeating Arms Company in Amherst, Massachusetts, he worked with Christopher M. Spencer. Roper failed, and the following year, 1869, the two founded a partnership called Billings & Spencer, which would manufacture sewing machines, drop-forged hand tools, and machine tools.