The Bullard Machine Tool Company was a large American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 machine tool

Machine tool

A machine tool is a machine, typically powered other than by human muscle , used to make manufactured parts in various ways that include cutting or certain other kinds of deformation...

–building firm. It specialized in vertical boring mills and was largely responsible for the development of the modern form of that class of machine tools.

The firm was founded in 1894 by Edward Payson Bullard Sr (born 1841-04-18 in Uxbridge, Massachusetts

Uxbridge, Massachusetts

Uxbridge is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It was first settled in 1662, incorporated in 1727 at Suffolk County, and named for the Earl of Uxbridge. Uxbridge is south-southeast of Worcester, north-northwest of Providence, and southwest of Boston. It is part of...

, USA; died 1906-12-22 in Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...

, USA). He received formative experience at the Colt armory

Colt's Manufacturing Company

Colt's Manufacturing Company is a United States firearms manufacturer, whose first predecessor corporation was founded in 1836 by Sam Colt. Colt is best known for the engineering, production, and marketing of firearms over the later half of the 19th and the 20th century...

 and Pratt & Whitney

Pratt & Whitney Measurement Systems

Pratt & Whitney Measurement Systems is a multinational corporation that specializes in producing high-precision measuring instruments and systems.-History:...

, which were influential development centers for generations of toolmakers

Tool and die maker

Tool and die makers are workers in the manufacturing industry who make jigs, fixtures, dies, molds, machine tools, cutting tools , gauges, and other tools used in manufacturing processes...

. Bullard Sr is believed to have developed the first small boring

Boring (mechanical)

In machining, boring is the process of enlarging a hole that has already been drilled , by means of a single-point cutting tool , for example as in boring a cannon barrel. Boring is used to achieve greater accuracy of the diameter of a hole, and can be used to cut a tapered hole.There are various...

 machine designed to do the accurate

Accuracy and precision

In the fields of science, engineering, industry and statistics, the accuracy of a measurement system is the degree of closeness of measurements of a quantity to that quantity's actual value. The precision of a measurement system, also called reproducibility or repeatability, is the degree to which...

 work previously performed on the faceplate

Lathe faceplate

A lathe faceplate is the basic workholding accessory for a wood or metal turning lathe. It is a circular metal plate which fixes to the end of the lathe spindle...

 of a lathe

Lathe (metal)

A metal lathe or metalworking lathe is a large class of lathes designed for precisely machining relatively hard materials. They were originally designed to machine metals; however, with the advent of plastics and other materials, and with their inherent versatility, they are used in a wide range of...

. Roe (1916) says that "Up to that time boring machines were relied on only for large and rough work."

Bullard Sr's son, Edward Payson Bullard Jr (1872–1953), continued the family machine tool business and brought the turret principle to the vertical boring mill, making it a vertical turret lathe. For a while in America during the 20th century, the name "Bullard" on the shop floor was something of a genericized trademark

Genericized trademark

A genericized trademark is a trademark or brand name that has become the colloquial or generic description for, or synonymous with, a general class of product or service, rather than as an indicator of source or affiliation as intended by the trademark's holder...

 for vertical turret-head boring mills. E.P. Bullard Jr led the development of the company's multiple-spindle

Spindle (tool)

In machine tools, a spindle is a rotating axis of the machine, which often has a shaft at its heart. The shaft itself is called a spindle, but also, in shop-floor practice, the word often is used metonymically to refer to the entire rotary unit, including not only the shaft itself, but its bearings...

  brand machine that became an important automatic lathe

Automatic lathe

An automatic lathe is a lathe whose actions are controlled automatically. Although all electronically controlled lathes are automatic, they are usually not called by that name, as explained under "General nomenclature"...

 in the mass production of parts for the automotive industry

Automotive industry

The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....

. Bullard Jr was president of the company for 40 years, through World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the interwar period

Interwar period

Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....

, and World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, a period during which the Bullard company was the largest machine tool builder in the U.S. and vast volumes of military matériel

Materiel

Materiel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management....

were produced by countless companies running Bullard machines.