Worthington Pump & Machinery

Worthington Corporation was started in 1845 by Henry R. Worthington, inventor of the direct acting steam pump, and William H. Baker, in Brooklyn, New York.

The company manufactured pumps for the steamship industry until Baker’s passing in 1860. Following Baker’s death and the dissolving of the partnership, Henry Worthington devised a new partnership, Worthington Hydraulic Pump Works in 1862. Worthington Hydraulic Pump Works continued manufacturing pumps for the municipal water works, U.S. Navy, furnishing bilge pumps on the U.S.S. Monitor during the Civil War, steam turbines, and wartime industries including the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb.

In 1879, Worthington launched the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

When Henry passed in 1880, he was succeeded by his son, Charles C. Worthington. Worthington contributed improvements to the product lines, developing power engines, integral gas engine-compressors, and separable compressors. In 1904, the company moved to Harrison, New Jersey. 1885 brought about vast opportunity for Worthington following an order from the British Army for ten high-pressure pumps. This would later result in a signed agreement and exclusive manufacturing rights for Worthington pumps in Britain.  

In 1899, Worthington Pump Works became the largest firm to merge with the International Steam Pump Company, founded by Benjamin Guggenheim. Guggenheim would later perish in the RMS Titanic tragedy and the company would reorganize as the Worthington Pump & Machinery Corporation in 1915 with subsidiaries in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, and England.     

In 1967, Worthington Pump & Machinery Corporation merged with Studebaker to become Studebaker-Worthington. After several mergers and being purchased by Dresser Industries, the company would be acquired by Cooper Industries in 1985.