The innovative Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation has invented and improved heavy-duty power tools for professional welders and builders since the company began in 1924. Although purchased by Stockholm's Atlas Copco AB in 1995, the company still has a plant in Brookfield.
It all began with the "Hole-Shooter." At the end of World War I, Henry Ford asked A.H. Petersen, a young manufacturer, to design a small, lightweight 1/4" capacity power drill. Petersen produced the "Hole-Shooter," the tool industry's first heavy-duty hand drill weighing in at only five pounds.
In 1922, A.F, Siebert began to work with Petersen, and later moved the company to State Street in Milwaukee under the name Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation. Originally, the company repaired tools that were already invented, but after years of research, engineers discovered what the market needed and started to manufacture its own horsepower motors that, along with the improved Hole-Shooter, garnered positive attention and support from the industry.
Eventually, all Milwaukee tools were manufactured under the Navy's standards and were used during World War II.
In 1951, the company produced a brand new tool, a portable hacksaw called the Sawzall, and later, a full line of Sawzall blades.
{INSERT_RELATED}Milwaukee moved to Brookfield in 1965, and in the '70s, opened plants in Jackson, Mississippi, Blytheville, Arkansas and in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Around the same time, the company introduced the first 1/2" professional pistol drill called the Magnum Hole-Shooter, and the first U.S.-made 4 1/2" angle grinder.
Milwaukee continued to create and improve power tools well into the '90s, and in 1998, celebrated 75 years of service by offering collector's edition Super Sawzall, Sawzall Plus and Magnum Drill. Today, the company has 325 tools and 3500 accessories.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
