History and Culture by Bicycle: Private Collection: Arcade Manufacturing Company, Crystal No. 3 Coffee Mill

Arcade Manufacturing Company was in business from 1868 to 1946. The company started out as Novelty Iron Works. Over their 78 years they designed, patented and manufactured a variety of products.

Products such as: door hinges, plows, stove pipe dampers, lid lifters, cork extractors, corkscrews, plows, pumps, animal banks, toys, tools, woodworking machinery, coffee mills, and numerous small notions and novelties.

1868 - The Morgan Brothers, Charles and Edward H. began the Novelty Iron Works in Chicago, IL.

1874 - They built a new, larger and more modern facility complete with a machine shop, foundry, and engine room.

1877 - J.P. Easeter joins the company as a new partner. The company starts manufacturing a variety of castings, the most dominate being plows and pumps.

1885 - Novelty Iron Works goes out of business. Edward Morgan, Charles Morgan, and Albert Baumgarten reorganized the company as the Arcade Manufacturing Company. The company grew very fast and became crowded. They had to move to a new facility in East Freeport, IL.

1891 - The company moved to a building previously owned by the Emory and Williams Canning Company that already had the necessary machinery installed.

October 20, 1891 - Charles Morgan’s was issued the patent for his coffee mill design, No. 461,784.

1892 - The company suffered a devastating fire that destroyed all of the supplies nad equipment along with 40,000 finished coffee mills. Arcade Manufacturing accrued a deficit of over$20,000. That is equal to $555,551.65 in 2019.

1893 - The company quickly reorganized and recovered from the fire and successfully built a new factory at what came to be called the Arcade Addition. The Arcade Addition was built on land that belonged to the Keller - Wittbecker farm. A portion of the farm was sold to the new addition. This is also when Loyal.L. Munn became a partner in the company.

1897 - Arcade Manufacturing Company started manufacturing a variety of coffee mills.

1900 - The United States Patent Office grants Charles Morgan the patent, No 652, 323 for a new type of wall coffee mill, which is known as the Crystal No 1.

After this other Crystal model coffee mills were manufactured. Including the most popular the Crystal No. 3.

1908 - The animal banks were launched with a horse figure. A lion, seal, pig buffalo, cow, rhinoceros, and rat were added to the horse.

1909 to 1933 - Arcade Manufacturing Company produced a variety of toys, including their famous Yellow Cab and Fordson.

1935 - Arcade Manufacturing Company introduced a line of inexpensive home-shop tools, called Arcade Craft Tools and Craftmaster.

1941 - The company introduced the Homecraft line of woodworking machinery.

1946 - Arcade Manufacturing Company was purchased by Rockwell Manufacturing Company. Rockwell wanted Arcade mainly for their foundry and machining facilities. None of the Arcade products were continued.

Information source:Arcade Manufacturing Company

This is the Arcade Crystal No. 3 Coffee Mill. It is missing the bottom part, called the catch cup. The decoupaged design is not original and was added by the original owner. The original owner lived in Peru, Illinois. The second owner owned it while they lived in Central Iowa. The current owner has it in their private collection in NW Iowa.

Friday, March 22, 2019

Private Collection: Arcade Manufacturing Company, Crystal No. 3 Coffee Mill

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