Earl W. Brinkman ("Mr. Davenport")

Earl W. Brinkman was no stranger to innovation and hard work. His many patents speak to that fact. As early as age seventeen, Earl distinguished himself in the machine tool industry to the degree that William Simeon Davenport, owner of Davenport Machine Company of Rochester, New York, noticed him when Mr. Davenport visited the machine dealer where Earl was working in the early 1920's. Mr. Davenport hired Earl to work when he moved to Rochester one year later. Earl immediately began operating Davenport screw machines, Brown and Sharpe and Acme automatics at Davenport Machine Company.

Mr. Brinkman worked hard and moved up the ranks quickly at Davenport Machine. In 1932 he became Chief Engineer. Following the death of W.S. Davenport in 1937, Earl Brinkman became an officer of the company and assumed the presidency in 1966.

The scope of his involvement with an idea sometimes included selling the idea on the road, returning to the plant to build the hardware, setting up for production, then training the customer in the operation of the product.

Earl W. Brinkman was granted his first patent at age 21 for adjustable aligning nuts for Davenport feed tubes. Some of his other patents include those for the pinch-type thread rolling head, the Revinloc milling attachment, a fly cutter, a bent shank tapping arrangement, and a method for producing socket head set screws.

In the eulogy of his father, son Robert Brinkman remembered his father as a man who "was always looking for a better way, a faster way, a way never tried before". It is, therefore, no surprise that Mr. Brinkman's 54 years of hard work and innovative ideas at Davenport Machine earned him the moniker "Mr. Davenport"