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ANTIQUE 1880 FLUTING IRON CROWN PRESS CRIMPER NORTH BROS CAST IRON VICTORIANBrass rollersFantastic shape for its age! Still has original ornate paint job. Last patent day mark on machine says 1880. Large CROWN on base front and North Bros. manufacturing on bottom. In the 1870s dressmakers were using pleated frills, also called fluting, lavishly. Dressmakers and classy laundries offering “fancy” ironing services both had plenty of use for a fluting machine. Fluters were sold for home use too. Classified ads from the 1860s to the end of the century show employers looking for a laundress who “thoroughly understands fluting”, or women claiming they could “do all kinds of fine laundry work, pleating, French fluting, starching, and polishing”.
North Brothers Manufacturing Company begun its existence as a small business established by Selden Gladwin North, a machinist, in 1878. Ralph H. North, his brother, joined Selden about two years later. They operated a business under the name of North Brothers. They operated iron and brass foundry and a tinning and galvanizing business in Philadelphia.
The firm operated a foundry at 23rd and Race Streets in Philadelphia, but soon moved to larger quarters at Lehigh and American Streets in North Philadelphia.
In 1887 the company was incorporated with a name of North Brothers Manufacturing Company.
Five years later, in 1892, North Bros. purchased American Machine Co. of Philadelphia. The facilities of this business were located at Lehigh Ave. and American Street. After the purchase North Brothers Mfg. Co. moved their operation to this new location.
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