This machinist's tool chest belonged to Charles Potter, who worked at the
Taunton Locomotive Works in Taunton, Massachusetts. He started there as
an apprentice in 1863, at the age of eighteen, and stayed as a machinist
and later a foreman until the plant closed in 1902. Like other master
craftsmen at large metalworking factories, Potter probably contracted
with the management to produce subassemblies of a given quality at a
specific price. The company provided machinery and materials and paid the
wages of the men who worked for Potter, but he took responsibility for
profit or loss on the contract.
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