Beno J. Gundlach Company was founded in Belleville, IL in 1927. The company was named after its founder, Beno J. Gundlach. It was Beno's brother, Bill, who had asked Beno to invent and design a manually operated cutter for asbestos roofing shingles. At the time, Bill was the local sales representative for the Johns Manville Corporation, the company who had introduced these shingles to the U.S. market. The cutter Beno designed received a U.S. Patent and was produced in a small building located at 11 North 8th Street in Belleville until the early 1930's. It was also in the early 1930's that asphalt floor tile was invented.  Some manufacturers of this new floor tile asked Beno to modify his shingle cutter for use with these new flooring material.  This marked the company's first entry into the manufacture of floor covering installation tools.  http://www.benojgundlachco.com/