Worcester Reed Warner

Worcester Reed Warner
Worcester Reed Warner
Born	May 16, 1846 Cummington, Massachusetts
Died	June 25, 1929(1929-06-25) (aged 83) Eisenach, Germany
Resting place	Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York
Nationality	United States
Occupation	Machinist, inventor, manager, entrepreneur
Known for	Co-founder of the Warner & Swasey Company

Worcester Reed Warner (May 16, 1846 – June 25, 1929) was an American mechanical engineer, entrepreneur, manager, astronomer, and philanthropist. With Ambrose Swasey he cofounded the Warner & Swasey Company.

Warner was born near Cummington, Massachusetts. He met Swasey at the Exeter Machine Works. On the completion of their apprenticeship in 1870, both entered the employ of Pratt & Whitney in Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1880 he co-founded a business to manufacture machines with Ambrose Swasey. The firm, Warner & Swasey, was initially located in Chicago but soon moved to Cleveland. Worcester Warner would design the 36-inch refracting telescope installed at Lick Observatory in 1888. He later built telescopes that were used in Canada and Argentina.

He was a charter member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and from 1897 to 1898 he served as the 16th president of ASME. (Ambrose Swasey would later serve as the 23rd ASME president.) In 1900 the firm was incorporated as Warner & Swasey Company. Warner served as president and chairman of the board, but retired in 1911.

Both Warner and Ambrose Swasey also became trustees of the Case School of Applied Science. As both men had an interest in astronomy, they donated an entire observatory to the school. This became the Warner and Swasey Observatory. It was dedicated in 1920.