On March 2, 1866, the Excelsior Needle Company of Wolcottville was organized. The company produced machine-made sewing needles by a new method called swaging, a process of cold-forming metal by compression with dies. Orrin Hopsan, Heman Brooks & E. J. Manville had patented a “machine for reducing or pointing wires” on February 6, which allowed Excelsior Needle to produce needles of a uniform size and shape for the first time, a Connecticut original.
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