John Tibbits Slocombe was born in New Brunswick but moved to Maine as an infant. At 16 he started at Bangor Foundry & Machine Co. as a machinists apprentice. From there he worked at several machine companies and while working with the highly crafted measuring devices of the day developed the idea for making a precise, affordable micrometer. He also seems to have been influential in setting the standard of measuring in thousandths of an inch.
He and a partner, C.E. Barlow set up J.T. Slocombe Co. and started selling measuring tools in 1893. The company was sold to J.H. Drury in 1914.
How to adjust a Slocombe micrometer
![]() |
| Patent 559,820 |


We had to learn to read those in high school.Ive bought a few at garage sales,just because.Everything is digital now .
ReplyDelete