About 6 years ago I had the opportunity to acquire an awesome piece of AC history that I couldn’t pass up. We restored a Farmall M for an implement dealership, and the gentleman who set up the restoration said he had a piece of Allis-Chalmers history I might be interested in. He showed me these pictures of a drafting table from the Allis-Chalmers factory in West Allis.
I think I paid $70 for it. I have actually never seen it put together. I got it home and it went into the rafters in my folks’ garage. Seems silly, but it is a big piece of furniture! My plan was always to set it up once I got a place of my own, which is what is going to happen now. I think it would be fun to get a blueprint of a tractor or other part that AC drafted to display it on the drafting board side. Once in a while an AC blueprint will show up on Ebay, but maybe AGCO Corp would be able to help me out.
This drafting table is a May-O-Matic built by Mayline in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The company began in 1939Â specializing in drafting tables, blueprint files, and straightedges. I contacted the company to ask if they have any record or information about this desk. Unfortunately, the company does not because of its age; However, they were able to tell me this:
We don’t have a great deal of information to pass along. The drawer pull was used until the late ‘70s, at least until 1977. We do not have a record of how many Allis Chalmers bought, but I would imagine they had quite a large engineering department back then.
Like the Mayline representative said, Allis-Chalmers had a huge engineering department; which makes me wonder what happened to all the others when the place cleared out? I am pretty fortunate and happy that I acquired this piece. Once I get this all set up I will be sure to share some pictures of it.
Austin M. Frederick 