Web links, resources, and references

Other Internet resources

Yahoo! groups
There are groups for engravers, and mills.
USENET (now Google) news groups
rec.crafts.metalworking has some postings, mostly about mills.
Ebay
Gorton documentation and equipment is occasionally available on Ebay
Other old books
- Graduating, Engraving, and Etching by The Industrial Press, 1921 and reprinted by Lindsay Publications has a little bit about engraving with Gorton Pantographs.
Google is your friend...

Specific Pantograph & engraving equipment related items

Engraving the Lord's prayer on the point of a pin
One of the most remarkable technical feats performed using the companies' machines was engraving the Lord's Prayer "in as small an area as possible" in 1934-35. This is best described on its own page.

Thanks to:

The content on this web site would never have been possible without the assistance of various family members, and a few other key organizations/contributors. These key contributors include:

Diana Dretske, of the Lake County, IL, Discovery Museum.
Diana wrote an article published in the Rittenhouse Journal about William Buffham's optical equipment. Prior to discovering this article, I knew almost nothing about George Gorton II's ancestors excepting the name William Buffham. With her assistance, contact was made with other of William Buffham's descendants.
Racine Heritage Museum:
The archives of the museum (www.spiritofinnovation.org) include card files about local people and businesses up until the 1970's (possibly even more recent). In any case, they had records which provided a wealth of genealogical information previously unknown, as well as numerous articles about the company excerpted from various local papers.
Dick & Jane on two counts:
For keeping numerous records and brochures, including the Gorton and Graham business records, a copy of GG2's unpublished memoirs, etc.
Secondly, for putting up with the hassles of raising a computer geek (me).
Bob Pedersen - for rescuing some of the very early records
Ann and Tom - for the stock certificates
John - for not scrapping the prototype pantograph
Dennis Boll - for passing on so many photographs and obsolete documents

References:

A wide variety of publications and documents were used a references.
All of the manuals and product catalogs displayed are scanned versions of content owned by this author.
All scanned photos are property of the author or family members; in the case of images of modern day usage of equipment, explicit permission has been granted to publish those images.

[Dretske]	William Buffhams's Telescope and Microscope. Diana Dretske, Vol. 12, Issue 47 (July 1998) of the Rittenhouse Journal
[Bgene]	Genealogical data provided by Frances Buffham
[GG2mem], [GG2memUWP]	As I remember it. Unpublished memoirs of George Gorton II, written 1946-1949. Copies owned by family members; a working copy (with penned in edits) exists in the archives of UW Parkside.
[Oil]	A "Big-Ass" Boy in the Oil Fields. George Gorton III, pub. 1976
[Spurs]	Bit and Spur Makers in the Vaquero Tradition. Ned and Jody Martin, 1997
[Hist79]	History of Racine and Kenosha Counties, 1879
[Port92]	Portrait and Biographical Album of Racine, 1892 (photocopies of a few pages of this - I have been unable to obtain a copy)
[Bio06]	Biographical record of Racine and Kenosha counties, 1906
[Hist16]	Racine Belle City of the Lakes and Racine County, Wisconsin. Two volumes. Fanny S. Stone, editor. S.J.Clarke publishing co, Chicago, 1916. (Spine of the set says) "History of Racine County"
[Holmes]	Wisconsin: Stability Progress Beauty. Frederick Holmes, 1946 (Vol 4 of 5)
[LakeMuse]	Lake County Discovery Museum, Wauconda, IL.
[News]	Various early newspapers of Racine. Copies are on microfilm at the Racine Public Library, as well as in UW-Parkside's library. Only a very few of these references have been verified (see RHM entry below). These papers include: Racine Morning Advocate, Racine Daily Journal,
[RCity]	Racine City Directory (sometimes Racine Business Directory. UWParkside and Racine Heritage Museum have sets of these. They contain information about individuals, their place of work, their place of residence, and sometimes, phone numbers.
[RHM]	Racine Heritage Museum, Racine, WI. (archives). These archives include a set of 3x5 cards with brief summaries of a person, along with the source of the information. Unfortunately, the items which refer to early Racine Newspapers are extremely difficult to verify. After spending two hours trying to verify four of these notecards, I was able to find the exact news item once.
[UWP]	Archives at University of Wisconsin Parkside, Kenosha, WI
[RWeb]	RootsWeb Search for William Buffham or George Gorton, specify year of birth for George or death location of Racine. A number of the Gorton entries were done as part of the Porch Family Tree, by Lori Welsh (but her hotmail account has long since expired)

Copyright, 2004 - 2015 Richard Gorton - rcgorton@verizon.net
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