Talk:Henry Babson

message: In 1952 and 1953 I worked at Babson Brothers Company on the South Side of Chicago.  I had taken a year off from College and got a job working in their office.  Upon returning to College (Harvard) I chose to write my Senior Thesis in the Economics Department on The Mechanical Milkmaid: A History of the Milking Machine.  Babson Brothers was very closely held and the woners kept the operating results a tight secret from the employees.  I remember Mr. Babson himself would come into the office once a week, look at the day's orders for milking machines, and retreat to his office.  I doubt if I spoke 10 words with him in the course of a year, but the office was small enough (perhaps 40 - 50 people altogether) that I did know all the other employees.  Mr. Babson's son-in-law was the CEO, but day to day operations were run by George Mather, a crusty old veteran of World War I.  I will never forget on November 11, 1952 Mr. Mather came out of his office at 10:59 am and in a loud voice told everyone to stand silently at attention at exactly 11:00 am [11/11/11:00].  Coincidentally, the National Sales Manager was Bob Mather, no relation despite the coincidence of the same last name71.63.67.25 17:01, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Great story.  I started this article because of Mr. Babson's influence on Arabian horse breeding, it's very difficult to find other information about his life...but horses cost money and it had to come from somewhere!  Can you describe more of what the business was like, what they sold, etc..?  (Besides, apparently, milking machines and record players??)  Do you know anything about when the Babson Brothers Company began (trying to sort out the timeline on when Babson was a salesman for Victor and when he and his brothers started their own company.  Any info much appreciated! Montanabw(talk) 03:26, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Babson Brothers Company 

message: I have a hobby of trying to document the history of dairy technology, and I would like to see an article talking about the history of the Surge bucket milker and other past Surge products on Wikipedia.
From what I've been able to find at this external website, this probably should be done as subsections under the name of Babson Brothers Company:
* http://surgemilker.com/
Any history related to Westfalia/Surge after their merger, and the current "GEA Technologies" consolidation can be handled in separate articles, later.
A long-standing challenge for me has been to try and figure out where the "Step Saver" milk transfer cart fit into the picture. It looks like Surge may have originally patented it, but it was sold by several others such as apparently Zero Manufacturing, so I don't know yet who actually first invented it. I have heard the Bender Machine Works may have been involved but I've searched through every patent by Lloyd F. Bender and he doesn't appear to have patented it. The whole subject is shrouded in mystery.
I have another stub of an article I am slowly trying to flesh out, which I've renamed several times now, talking about the Step Saver cart and the Bender Washer/Releaser:
* Bender Machine Works
* Step-Saver (dairy farming) -- (former article name)
* Bender Step-Saver and Washer/Releaser  -- (former article name)
It appears Bender's historical dairy products should stand on their own, plus also mention its use with the cart from Surge (or whoever). 
I have purchased several washer/releasers on eBay that I intend to set up and demonstrate on video for Wikipedia, and I'm hoping to find the cart with the hose rack and the cart hose dryer, so I can make some videos of how it all operated, also. 
DMahalko (talk) 01:20, 14 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds like a fun project!  Drop a line here when the Babson Bros article goes live!  I don't think Henry had all that much to do with the milker.  But sounds interesting!  Montanabw(talk) 21:12, 14 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Start new article for Babson Bros Company? 

message: Babson Homestead.
January 2014. The Babson homestead located in Grand Detour, Illinois, is currently for sale and can be located at the website realtor.com using the 60121 area code.  The interior and exterior pictures of the original home could probably be used for the article with the listing agent's consent.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.182.246.178 (talk) 20:38, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Babson horse breeding farm