WATERBURY, a city of western Connecticut, U.S.A., one of the county seats of New Haven county; on the Naugatuck river, 21 m. N.N.W. of New Haven. Pop. (1920) 91,715 (33% foreign-born white) ; Federal census 99,902 in 1930. It is the centre of the brass industry of the country. Other products are clocks and watches, silverware, files, recording instruments, machinery, chemicals and acids. The output of its factories in 1927 amounted to $122,208,284.
The city's assessed valuation was $164,828,901. The town of Waterbury (settled in 1677) was set off from Farmington and incorporated in 1686. The city was chartered in 1853, and in
1901 city and town were consolidated. The brass industry dates from 1802, when the manufacture of brass buttons was begun. Sheet brass was first made in 1830. Iron buttons covered with silver had been made about 1760; block tin and pewter buttons about 1800. Tall wooden clocks were made here in the latter part of the 18th century. The manufacture of cheap watches was begun in 1879; these were long distinctive of Waterbury, and were often called "Waterbury watches."