Their speedometers were used in the Ford Model T. In 1912 John Stewart joined with Edgar Bassick to make vehicle instruments and horns.
Bassick owned Alemite Co. and Stewart had bought the Warner Instrument Company; thus the name was changed to the Stewart-Warner Corporation.
[1] They also made radios and refrigerators, among other products, and produced the ubiquitous "zerk" grease fitting, named after its inventor, associated with the company.
In the last years of the company's Chicago factory, it owned a number of aging six-spindle Brown & Sharpe and New Britain screw machines.
Stan Hagerman initially was Director of the UK plant, followed by Curtis W. Van Allen in 1960, who later became vice president and general manager of international operations in Chicago.
Stewart-Warner operated a free shuttle van service for employees who commuted by train to and from the Clybourn Metra (C&NW) station.
[10] In 1989, new owner BTR decided to relocate operations to Juarez, Mexico, and shut down the Chicago plant and offices, which at the time still employed 700 workers.
Maxima Technologies was then acquired by Actuant Inc., now called Enerpac Tool Group, a diversified multi-national industrial corporation in 2006, and renamed Maximatecc.