Frederick T Flinchbaugh born 1872 a York County, Pennsylvania Dutch farm boy was always busy making adjustments to his father's machinery, plows, cultivators, harvasting equiptment and threshing hay equiptment and his mother's household equiptment. His parents encouraged him to become a machinists.
He finally got a job with a local manufacturing company and served an apprenticeship. In those days to become a machinist required four years. The start was cleaning castings and doing errands. Next, operating a hack saw or small machine lathe, drill press, sharpener, boring mill for about two years. Next was bench work, erecting and finally tool room.
There was no diploma to be had but a good master Mechanic was always known and in great demand; in fact he could get a good job in any factory.
It is interesting to know that apprentices had to work with out pay untill they could earn about one to two dollars per week and finish up the fourth year at about $4.00 a week; 10 hours or more a day and 6 days per week.
Fred made rapid progress at the trade and was outstanding. He was energetic and ambitious. Was always in the front line when there was a chance for service. While serving his apprenticeship with A.B. Farquhar Company the valve mechanism on the engine that furnished power for he plant became loose. The men familiar with the valve were not on the job at the time, and while several men failed to make the adjustment, Fred suggested he could do it, and of course Fred, an apprentice, was not given much considersation for such an important adjustment. Finaly, the boss said, "men stand back and give this boy a chance."
Fred made the adjustment. They turned on the steam and the engine furnished the power to operate the plant same as before.
Fred became interested in gasoline engines. Before 1900 gas engines were very scarce. However, he decided to build one. With a few tools and a lathe he set up a workshop in a wood shed at the rear of his home. He designed a vertical 1 and 1/2 horsepower engine; and then made patterns. After many hours of work he built his first engine. What a joy when it made it's first puff!
He found a buyer for the engine No. 1 so he started building another. While Fred was building gasoline engines in his spare time, Eli worked his way to Master Mechanic and was asked to do reparing about the shop. This spread rapidly and he recieved offers from out-of-town factories who were in need of a mechanic of his type. As time went on he worked at Coatvilles, Pennsylvania.
The management there decided to replace a large lathe and a planner with new engines. Here Eli got the idea that the lathe and planner could be bought at a low price. As soon as possible he made a trip to York and planned with Fred to buy the machinery and open a factory; after their father agreed to help with the finances. Not to lose any time, Eli made the trip back to Coatsville in Sunday, located the boss sitting on his porch and asked if he could talk business. Yes was the reply. He gave him a surprisingly low price for the lathe and planner.
Eli got right on the job, and had the machinery shipped to York, quit his job at Coatsville, came home and the boys decided on a location, started to build a factory. Fred kept his job for awhile, but as time went on they had all the work they could handle and were doing business as Flinchbaugh Brothers. The date was 1898.
