In 1933, Lawrence injured his hand in an accident and decided to retire. Edwin stepped into his father’s position as a patternmaker at Demmler. Two years later, in 1935, Edwin married Dorothy M. Heath. Their only child, son Edwin Heath Peterson, was born later that same year. Edwin was kept busy providing for his young family, tending the Peterson beehives in the evenings and tinkering in his basement workshop until late at night.

At the Demmler foundry, Edwin had noticed workers pounding the automatic core machines with hammers to loosen the sand and release products from the molds. This not only damaged the machines, it was inefficient, noisy, and unsafe. He became absorbed with theorizing solutions to this problem and was often known to say, “I know there’s a better way to build a mousetrap.”

His analysis led him to devise an invention that would harness the natural element of vibration to keep sand flowing and release the products more efficiently and safely. He envisioned a machine that would be brilliantly simple – and revolutionary – like the wheel. In 1944, Edwin created a simple, round device that consisted of a single ball propelled by compressed air moving in a circular path inside two enclosed steel raceways. The amount of air pressure determined the level of rotary vibration. Edwin believed his invention would be more attractive to industries if it was simple in design and easy to use, so he made it small enough to be carried in one hand and able to be placed on any surface that needed to be shaken evenly and steadily.

Edwin resigned from Demmler to devote himself full time to the development of his invention, using his beekeeping “honey money,” as he and Dorothy called it, to help pay for a patent application. In 1949, he was granted U.S. and international patents for the Peterson VIBROLATOR®. He obtained a loan from an area bank to start up the company in a building on Rose Street in Kewanee. With the help of investors including Charles H. Waller and his friend, W.E. “Jim” Martin, of Martin Machine Company, he began manufacturing and marketing the Peterson VIBROLATOR®. His first two employees were Carl Matson and Eddie Szafranko, who had worked with him at Demmler. The company’s initial focus was on serving industries that required vibrators and other complementary equipment to move, compact, sift, or segregate bulk materials.

Edwin’s wife, Dorothy, who had attended business college in Peoria, served as the company bookkeeper and Edwin’s secretary. They marketed the Peterson VIBROLATOR® at national and international trade shows together and made plans to eventually establish a global sales network. As Edwin networked at trade shows, he noticed that his friend Jim Martin’s company, Martin Machine Company, had better name recognition than Peterson. So, with Jim’s blessing, he borrowed his last name and added “Engineering” to represent quality and precision; Martin Engineering was born.