Under New Ownership

Roe International was purchased by Irwin Tool Company, which renamed it Irwin Measuring Tool Company. It was an interesting merger, for the Irwin Tool Company’s history also went back to the nineteenth century and both had founders who gave up profes­sional careers to manufacture tools. Charles Irwin, a pharmacist in Ohio, bought a blacksmith’s patent rights or a solid center auger bit and formed Irwin Auger Bit Company in 1884. Irwin Measuring Tool Com­pany continued the Roe tradition of producing world-class tape mea­sures under the leadership of its president, Carol Basset.