reid bothers company was founded in beverly, ma in 1900 by robert and andrew s. reid. the brothers were expert millwrights and machinists. their primary business was serving the shoe industry in the beverly, salem, lynn areas. needed parts and assemblies were made in their own machine shop which became a busy job shop. shortly before wwi, the innovative brothers designed the first coin sorting and counting machine. it ejected bad coins and foreign coins, rolled and wrapped sorted coins. in the early 20's it was sold to the pneumatic scale company. the reid brothers also helped design the birdseye frozen food machine and built the first few machines.