Darwin Almy worked for the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in Bristol, Rhode Island where he was the foreman of the boiler/engineering department for 11 years. Darwin patented the Almy Water-Tube Boiler in 1890. He started the Almy Water-Tube Boiler Co. in 1889, first at 74 Clifford St. then at 178-184 Allens Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island, to produce boilers based on his 1890 patent. The company was succeeded by Neale & Carr, Inc. with offices at 83 Babcock St. but maintained the shop at 184 Allens Ave.
Darwin Almy announced the founding of the Providence Steel Casting Company in the 5-Sept-1903 issue of the Engineering and Mining Journal:
It would have a 150′ x 118′ foundry building in Providence, RI. A 10 ton 50′ wide electric gantry crane would be installed, and all of the machinery in the foundry would be powered by independent electric motors. The electric equipment would be powered by a 160 kW generator powered by a 250 HP compound steam engine. They planed to make small and medium weight castings using the Tropenas process. The Tropenas process uses a modified Bessemer converter designed specifically to produce high-quality, easily pourable, light steel castings. The officers of the company will be President: Darwin Almy, Vice President: F.W. Hartwell (Also secretary/manager of the General Fire Extinguisher Company, makers of the Grinnell automatic sprinkler), Secretary: J.C. Hartwell, Treasurer: E.M. Shaw.
Unfortunately the Providence Steel Casting Company only lasted until Sep-1907.
In the image below you can see that the offices of the Providence Steel Casting Company were completed in early 1904, and that the frame for the foundry was under construction. The building to the right is the Almy Water-Tube Boiler Co. 
ALMY00436 Providence Steel Casting Company
The museum holds:
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- A collection of more than 400 glass plate negatives from the Almy company.
- A photographic copy of an early company ledger listing the customers and specifications for boilers with serial numbers between 1 and 709 (with gaps).
- Two card files containing service records of Almy and Neale & Carr customers and their boilers (1930s, 40s & 50s).
The glass plates contain images of:
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- Vessels that used Almy boilers, including yachts, ferries, tugs and other working vessels.
- Boilers, boiler parts and boiler sub-assemblies.
- Buildings where Almy boilers were installed.
- Family outings.
In addition, the collection includes a 2 1/2′ x 3′ poster board with thumbnail images of more than 200 vessels, at least some of which correspond to negatives in the collection. Click on thumbnails below to view examples from this collection.
