Leiman Bros.: Leiman Bros.

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LEIMAN BROS. was established in 1889 and became a well-known American manufacturer of industrial machinery, vacuum pumps, air compressors, jewelers’ equipment, and specialized workshop tools. The company developed during the great era of northeastern industrial expansion, operating from both New York City and New Jersey. Over the course of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Leiman Bros. built a reputation for durable precision equipment used in factories, laboratories, aviation maintenance, and metalworking trades.

The firm maintained a number of showroom and sales locations in New York City, including 81 Walker Street, 23 Walker Street, 60 Lispenard Street, and 62 John Street. These addresses placed the company in Manhattan’s historic wholesale hardware and manufacturing district, where machinery suppliers, metalworking firms, and industrial merchants were concentrated. Through these showrooms, Leiman Bros. marketed equipment to jewelers, machinists, industrial shops, and commercial customers throughout the Northeast.

Manufacturing operations were centered in Newark, New Jersey, one of America’s major industrial cities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The company operated facilities at 146–181 Christie Street and 66 Bonykamper Avenue in Newark before later expanding to a larger plant at 140 East Union Avenue in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The move reflected the company’s continued growth during the postwar industrial period, when many manufacturers sought larger and more modern production facilities outside crowded urban centers.

Leiman Bros. produced a wide range of machinery and industrial equipment. Among its best-known products were vacuum pumps and air pumps designed for continuous industrial service. These pumps were widely used in laboratories, manufacturing plants, aircraft instrument calibration systems, and heating equipment. Surviving examples from the 1940s through the 1960s demonstrate the company’s emphasis on heavy cast-metal construction and precision engineering. The firm also manufactured jewelers’ benches, rolling mills, pneumatic devices, and specialized shop equipment, reflecting its early ties to the jewelry and metalworking industries.

The company was also involved in mechanical innovation and held patents connected to workshop and industrial equipment. Early products associated with Leiman Bros. included improved jewelers’ workbenches designed to recover precious metal dust more efficiently, an important feature in the jewelry trade where even small amounts of lost material had significant value.

During the mid-twentieth century, Leiman Bros. continued to expand its industrial product lines and became associated particularly with pneumatic and vacuum technology. By the early 1970s, the company was reportedly acquired by ITT Corporation and absorbed into ITT Pneumotive, marking the end of Leiman Bros. as an independent manufacturer. Despite the company’s disappearance, surviving machinery and pumps remain valued by collectors and restorers as examples of Newark’s once-extensive industrial manufacturing heritage.

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William H. Leiman

Birth: Mar 1862 in Manhattan, New York, New York

Death: 3 Mar 1931 in Orange, Essex, New Jersey