Francis Ashbury Pratt (February 15, 1827 – February 10, 1902) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, and co-founder of Pratt & Whitney.
Biography
Pratt was born in Peru, New York. His parents moved the family to Lowell, Massachusetts, when he was eight years old. He was educated in Lowell and apprenticed in a machine shop. In 1848, he moved to Gloucester, New Jersey, and worked for Gloucester Machine Works as a journeyman and contractor. In 1852, Pratt moved to Hartford, Connecticut, to work at Colt Armory. It was at Colt that he met Amos Whitney. Pratt soon left Colt to work at Phoenix Iron Works and brought Whitney along with him.[1]
While still working at Phoenix Iron Works, he designed a milling machine for George S. Lincoln & Company of Hartford, Connecticut, which became the Lincoln miller, in some ways perhaps the most important American machine tool of the late 19th century. Over 150,000 machines were built on this form factor (by many firms).[2]