Pratt, Francis Asbury (1827-1902)

US inventor. He was an apprentice, journeyman, and finally a contractor in the machinist trade. He co-founded Pratt & Whitney in 1865, which made machine tools for making guns and sewing machines. He promoted the use of interchangeable parts and sold guns to many European nations 1865-75. He worked to establish a standard system of gauges and patented a number of important machine tools. He was born in Woodstock, Vermont.