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During the Civil War period Mr. Brown also invented the Brown & Sharpe formed tooth gear cutter, a basic invention which ultimately revolutionized the world's gear manufacturing industry by changing its basic economics.

Up until that time it had been possible to make cutters for making gear teeth, but they were good for only one sharpening.

As soon as the time came for re-sharpening, the precise form of the gear tooth was lost and a new cutter had to be made.

This process made the economical manufacture of gears questionable until some way could be found to permit the repeated re-sharpening of gear tooth cutters without the loss of the precision form.

Mr. Brown's invention achieved this and, as a byproduct, formed the cornerstone of Brown & Sharpe's position of leadership in the gear making equipment field which lasted until the 1920's when superceded by other methods.