Mr. Benjamin F. Sturtevant, the founder of the company which constructed fans, was a Maine shoemaker of inventive genius. He had devised a machine to shave a ribbon of wood from a log, form it into pegs, and drive them into shoes. This process, however, created a dust which bothered his workmen. Accordingly he next constructed a fan which performed as an exhauster and removed the dust. Thus in 1864 the first Sturtevant fan was produced.

Concentrating on his latter invention, he established what grew into the B.F. Sturtevant Company, with its great plants and offices, research laboratories and corps of engineers, and its wide variety of products in the field of fans, blowers, and allied air-moving equipment.

The Boston heritage site says 'Huge factory complexes dotted the district, perhaps the most impressive being the giant turbine and fanblower manufacturer B. F. Sturtevant Company, founded in 1876. It survives under the same name today as a subsidiary of Westinghouse.'

The company produced Steam Turbines, Air systems such as the extraction system for the Holland Tunnel in New York, fans for locomotives Steam engines, and under its subsidiary the Sturtevant Aviation Co , it produced several Aircraft.

Vincent Tocco has produced an excellent website covering all aspects of the B. F. Sturtevant Company on www.sturtevantfan.com