James Hartness

Born in Schenectady, New York, in 1861 and raised in Cleveland, James Hartness trained as a machinist before building his career in Springfield, Vermont. He became a leading figure at the Jones & Lamson Machine Company, earned patents for machine-tool innovations including his well-known flat-turret lathe, and helped make Springfield an important center of precision manufacturing.

Hartness also wrote about industry in a way that feels broader than pure engineering. Books such as The Human Factor in Works Management and Industrial Progress and Human Economics show his interest in efficiency, worker development, and the human side of industrial life, not just the machinery itself.

His interests reached far beyond the factory floor. Hartness was also active in public life, serving as governor of Vermont from 1921 to 1923, and he was known for his enthusiasm for astronomy and early aviation. That mix of practical skill, civic ambition, and restless curiosity gives his writing an unusually lively perspective.