Rise, fall of Rhode Island industrial giant Brown & Sharpe told with precision

By 1900 economically diverse Providence ranked among the nation's 10 biggest industrial centers, and its board of trade boasted (perhaps without exaggeration) that the city contained the world's largest tool factory (Brown & Sharpe), file factory (Nicholson File), engine factory (Corliss Steam Engine Company), screw factory (American Screw), and silverware factory (Gorham), writes Patrick T.