The longest relationship with a supplier is the Reeves pulley company.  If you are interested in automobiles and specifically the “new” CVT transmissions that have been appearing in the last several years –  Reeves invented the variable speed transmission for industry (1879) and also put it in a Reeves manufactured auto in 1896.   Reeves was purchased by Dodge which was purchased by Reliance which was purchased by Baldor.  Eventually Reeves was spun off  and sold to Master PT.

A R Young Company may have made the first treadmill used for a cardiac stress test.  Over the years A R Young Company made treadmills for universities, hospitals, and the US government for use in testing.  Besides a normal treadmill there were ladder treadmills (for testing firefighter equipment), treadmills for dogs and one for a horse.  ARY stopped making them in the 1960’s or early 70’s. In the last decade we’ve heard from two people who still have and use our treadmills.  One is at IU somewhere in their SPH (HPER) group – it was still working just fine they just wanted to operate it in reverse.  One is in the basement a hospital in Sacramento, CA and the guy who worked there called just to see if we were still in business.  Just in case something ever went wrong.  He said it wasn’t used often but was used to give the Sacramento Kings their physical every year because it was rugged enough to handle the abuse of professional basketball players.  Why did we quit making treadmills?

Over the years we’ve worked with a lot of inventors.  Some of them smart, some crazy, some made us nervous, some forgot to pay us, and some were successful.  Just about all of them were interesting.  In most cases they would call with an idea we’d figure out how to make their ideas move.

Through the years various family members have joined and left the company.  If you are familiar with A R Young you may remember Bob Young, Tom Young, Robin Young, John Young, Libby Young, Ricki Whitcomb (Young) – lots of Young’s over the years. Currently there’s Karen Sipe (who was Karen Young) and Nick Young.