When Bliss Charles Ames opened his works on Ash Street in Waltham, Ma. in the late 1890s, he was joining an exclusive club of manufactures* who, though they produced relatively few machines, made a significant contribution to improving the standards of quality and precision employed in American manufacturing industry. Amongst his fellow high-class machine-tool makers in Waltham were Stark, the American Watch Tool Company, The Waltham Machine Works, Wade and F. W. Derbyshire - with others, including  Pratt & Whitney, Rivett, Cataract, Hardinge, Elgin, Hjorth, Potter, Remington, Sloan & Chace and Pearce in other parts of the U.S.A.
Ames quickly became well-known (as the B.C. Ames Co.) for a range of very accurate machine tools and precision measuring equipment; they did not produce a huge number of machines - the specialised marked for precision bench lathes and millers was relatively small and the competition fierce. In the early 1920 an average of one hundred No. 3 lathes were being produced each year, a number that fell to a low of just two or thee at the height of the depression in the early 1930s; sales picked up to nearly fifty a year during the middle and late 1930s followed by an explosion in growth during the years of World War 2 when, if the serial numbers are to be believed, as many as eight hundred and six left the factory during 1942 and 1943.
The entire range of No. 3 and EH3 Bench Lathes, Bench Millers, Slotters and Shapers were all made until 1957, when production abruptly ceased.
Today the Ames company still thrives in the precision engineering field and concentrate on high quality measuring and inspection equipment.
* including: Hjorth, Potter  Pratt & Whitney, , Rivett, Stark, Wade, Waltham Machine Works, Wade,  Rivett, Cataract, Hardinge, Elgin,, Remington, Sloan & Chace.