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7,
P
'iil
fflifptodiici^J l<t/ pnmi'jMi'n ftnm the paiiilimj Ay Wm. S. I'^^ai^alL
'795l'895
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF
AMERICAN COMMERCE
CONSISTING OF
ONE HUNDRED ORIGINAL ARTICLES ON COMMERCIAL TOPICS DESCRIBING THE PRACTICAL
DEVELOPMENT OF THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF TRADE IN THE UNITED STATES WITHIN THE PAST CENTURY
AND SHOWING THE PRESENT MAGNITUDE OF OUR FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL INSTITUTIONS
91 ^isstm oC American Commerce b? #ne f^uvasm ^m:encatiiai
WITH A
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
OF THE IMPOKTAMT EVENTS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE AND INVENTION WITHIN THE PAST ONE HUNDRED YEARS
EDITED BY
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, LL.D.
ISSUED m COMMEMORATION OF THE COMPLETION OF THE FIRST CENTURY OF AMERICAN
COMMERCIAL PROGRESS AS INAUGURATED BV THE TREATY OF AMITY, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION
NEGOTIATED BY CHIEF JUSTICE JAY AND APPROVED BY PRESIDENT WASHINGTON IN 1 795
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II
ailuuttatcti
NEW YORK
D. O. HAYNES & CO.
M DCCC XCV
0-
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1895, by
D. O. Haynes & Co.
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
*
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• 1
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•
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•••
• • • •
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THE DEVINNE PREaS, NEW^ORK.
F ^F ^F^* ^>^F^F^F ^F ^F ^F^ ^^ ^^^^^p- ^b !a^ ^kj^Jjb ijpciji^jjJjLySi. ijpi.iffiLiipi.JIii joL ink 1^ j% jn
I AMERICAN BANKING .
3 AMERICAN LABOR
3 IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
4 INTERSTATE COMMERCE
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
Levi P. Mokton, Gootmer oftlu Slate ef Nem York
rr, LL.D., WuhiDgtoii, D, C,
Unittd Slala CtmmUsmur ef
Ford, Washineton, D. C,
Ckief UmUd Slates Bureau afStatiitict 20
6 OUR MERCHANT MARINE .
; AND VOLUW
8 THE CORPORATION IN COMMERCE . . CoL William Jay, New York , .47
9 COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATIONS . . Albjcander E. Orr, New York,
I^tidenl New York Chamber cf Commerce 50
10 ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF NEW YORK COMMERCE, General Horace Porter, LL.D., New York 55
13 WALL STREET ....
13 ADVERTISING IN AMEMCA '
14 FIRE AND MARINE INSURANCE
15 UFE INSURANCE .
16 AMERICAN RAILROADS
17 AMERICAN CAR-BUILDING .
18 AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING
19 THE TELEGRAPH
. -, ^RASC;)! Wav-anp AY3S, PiulaiiripUa, N. W. Ayer &• Sen 76
. Henry H. Hall, New York, /Tall &• I/emkaw 84
Stuyvesant Fish, j
J«
President Illiiwis Central Railroad 98
Charlbs H. Cramp, Philadelphia,
President William Cramp &• Sam
Skip and Engine Building Co. 1 19
General Thomas T. Eckebt, New York.
President Western Union Telegraph Co. 13$
VI
CHAPTBR
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
PAGB
20 THE TELEPHONE John E. Hudson, Boston,
President American Bell Telephone Co, 133
21 THE EXPRESS
Levi C. Weir, New York,
President Adams Express Company 137
22 THE STREET RAILWAYS OF AMERICA . Herbert H. Vreeland, New York,
President Metropolitan Traction Company 141
23 THE HOTELS OF AMERICA
24 AMERICAN THEATERS Albert M. Palmer, New York, Proprietor Palmer's Theater 157
Hiram Hitchcock, New York,
Hitchcock, Darling dr* Co., Proprietors Fifth Avenue Hotel 149
25 AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS .
General Charles H. Taylor, Boston,
Editor and Managing Proprietor Boston Globe 166
26 THE AMERICAN TRADE AND TECHNICAL PRESS, David Williams, New York,
Publisher and Proprietor The Iron Age 1 74
27 AMERICAN MINES Richard P. Rothwell, New York,
Editor The Engineering and Mining Journal 1 78
28 AMERICAN QUARRYING
29 POWDER AND EXPLOSIVES
. Redfield Proctor, Proctor, Vt,
United States Senator from Vermont 188
Francis G. duPont, Wilmington, Del 192
30 AMERICAN LUMBER Bernhard E. Fernow, Washin^on, D. C,
Chief Division of Forestry, U, S. Department of Agriculture 196
31 PETROLEUM: ITS PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTS, Henry C. Folger, Jr., A. M., LL.B., New York,
Standard Oil Company 204
32 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
33 AMERICAN LIVE STOCK .
. George E. Morrow, Stillwater, Oklahoma,
President Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College,
and Director Agricultural Experiment Statum 215
Lazarus N. Bonham, Oxford, Ohio,
Ex-Secretary Ohio State Board of Agriculture 220
34 AMERICAN COTTON Richard H. Edmonds, Baltimore,
Founder and Editor Manufacturers* Record 231
35 AMERICAN WOOL Willlam Lawrence, A. M., LL.D., Bellefontaine, Ohio,
President National Wool Growers* Association, and
36 AMERICAN HORTICULTURE
President Ohio Wool Growers* Association 236
Alfred Henderson, New York, Peter Henderson 6^ Co, . 248
37 AMERICAN SUGAR John E. Searles, New York,
Secretary and Treasurer American Sugar Refining Company 25 7
38 AMERICAN RICE John F. Talmage, New York, Dan Talmage's Sons . . 262
39 AMERICAN FLOUR
40 AMERICAN GLASS INTERESTS .
• _• •
• • • : /•. •.
41 AMERICAN POTTEailfife •* * *• /
42 AMERICAN GAS INTERESTS
• •
Charles A. Pillsbury, Minneapolis,
rnbit
Pillsbury- Washburn Flour Mills Company 266
. Tabids Qh^^^^dee, BhilM^elphK
:':*,: I ^- w: :/! PfesiS^eni ClilHnder &" Sons, incorporated 274
. 'John IiIoses, Trenton, N. J.,
President The John Moses &* Sons Company 285
Emerson McMillin, New York, Emerson McMillin &* Co. 295
43 AMERICAN PAPER MILLS .
44 AMERICAN PUBLISHING
45 AMERICAN PRINTING
46 THE IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY
. Warner Miller, Herkimer, N. Y.,
Herkimer Paper Company 302
. John W. Harper, New York, Harper <&• Brothers . . 308
. Theodore L. De Vinne, New York, The De Vinne Press 314
. Charles Huston, Coatesville, Pa.,
President Lukens Iron and Steel Company 320
47 COPPER AND BRASS
Alfred A. Cowles, New York,
Vice-President Ansonia Brass and Copper Company 329
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
vu
VOLUME II
CHAPTER
48 LOCOMOTIVE AND ENGINE WORKS
PAGE
Alba B. Johnson, Philadelphia, Baldwin Locomotive Works 337
49 MACHINERY MANUFACTURING INTERESTS, William Sellers, Philadelphia,
President and Engimer Wiitiam Sellers 6* Co,, Incorporated 346
50 AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY AND IMPLEMENTS, Eldridge M. Fowler, Chicago,
Vice-President McCormick Harvesting Machine Company 352
51 STOVES AND HEATING APPARATUS . . Jeremiah Dwyer, Detroit,
President Michigan Stove Company 357
52 PLUMBERS AND STEAM-FITTERS' SUPPLIES, Jordan L. Mott, New York,
Presidents. Z. Mott Iron Works 364
53 BUILDING MATERIALS
William H. Jackson, New York,
President Jackson Architectural Iron Works 371
54 ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING INTERESTS, Thomas Commerford Martin, New York,
Editor The Electrical Engineer 377
55 THE PACKING INDUSTRY
56 AMERICAN FISH FOODS
57 AMERICAN CANNING INTERESTS
58 AMERICAN WINES
59 AMERICAN DISTILLERIES .
60 THE BREWING INDUSTRY .
61 AMERICAN TOBACCO FACTORIES
62 AMERICAN SOAP FACTORIES
63 THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
64 THE LEAD INDUSTRY .
• •
65 THE SALT INDUSTRY
66 THE BISCUIT INDUSTRY
67 THE COTTONSEED OIL INDUSTRY
68 THE STARCH INDUSTRY
69 THE MATCH INDUSTRY
70 THE ICE INDUSTRY
71 SODA FOUNTAINS
72 AMERICAN TEXTILE MILLS
Philip D. Armour, Chicago, Armour <&* Co,
• 383
Eugene G. Blackford, New York,
Ex-Commissioner of Fisheries 389
Edward S. Judge, Baltimore,
Editor The Trade, and Secretary National
Association of Canned Food Packers 396
. Charles Carpy, San Francisco,
President California Wine Association 401
. James E. Pepper, Lexington, Ky., James E. Pepper 6* Co, . 407
Fred Pabst, Milwaukee, President Pabst Brewing Co.
413
Pierre Lorillard, Junior, New York,
President P. Lorillard Company 418
Samuel Colgate, New York, ColgaU <&* Co.
422
. Henry Bower, Philadelphia,
Henry Bower &* Son, Manufacturing Chemists 429
. William P. Thompson, New York,
President National Lead Company 433
. Henry G. Piffard, A.M., M.D., New York,
President Genesee Salt Company 442
. Frank A. Kennedy, Cambridge, Mass.,
Kennedys Branch, New York Biscuit Company 446
. Thomas R. Chaney, New York,
President American Cotton Oil Company 451
. Thomson Kingsford, Oswego, N. Y. ,
President T. Kingsford 6* San 456
. Ohio C. Barber, Akron, Ohio,
President The Diamond Match Company 460
Robert Maclay, New York,
President Knickerbocker Ice Company 466
James W. Tufts, Boston,
President American Soda Fountain Company 470
. S. N. Dexter North, A.M., Boston,
Secretary National Association of Wool Manufacturers 475
TUl
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN CX)MMERCE
73 AMERICAN CARPETS Sheppard Knapp, New York, Sheppard Knapp 6* Co,
74 THE CORDAGE INDUSTRY
75 HIDES AND LEATHER
Benjamin C. Claek, Boston, Pearson Cordage Company
Robert H. Foerderer, Philadelphia
PAGB
485
489
494
76 AMERICAN RUBBER MANUFACTURES . Charles L. Johnson, New York,
Secretary United States Rubier Company 498
. Henry Burn, New York,
' President National Wall Paper Company 505
77 AMERICAN WALL PAPERS .
78 AMERICAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS . William Steinway, New York, President StHnway 6* Sons . 509
79 AMERICAN CARRIAGE AND WAGON WORKS, Chauncey Thomas, Boston, Chauncey Thomas 6* Co, . 516
80 AMERICAN SAFE WORKS .
81 AMERICAN SEWING MACHINES
82 AMERICAN WATCHES AND CLOCKS
83 AMERICAN TYPEWRITERS .
84 THE BICYCLE INDUSTRY .
V •
85 THE DRY GOODS TRADE
Willis B. Marvin, New York, Marvin Safe Company . 521
Frederick G. Bourne, New York,
President The Singer Manufacturing Company 52$
. Edward Howard, Boston,
Founder The E, Howard IVatch and Cloch Company 540
Clarence W. Seamans, New York,
Wychofft Seamans ^ Benedict 544
. Albert A. Pope, Boston,
President Pope Manufacturing Company 549
John N. Beach, New York, Tefft, Weller 6* Co,
554
86 THE CLOTHING AND FURNISHING TRADE, William C. Browning, New York, Browning, King 6- Co, 561
87 THE BOOT AND SHOE TRADE
. William B. Rice, Boston, Rice <5r» Hutchins
566
88 THE HARNESS AND SADDLERY TRADE . Albert Morsbach, Cincinnati,
President National Wholesale Saddlery Association 575
89 THE FUR TRADE F. Frederic Gunther, New York, C, G, Gunthet's Sons . 579
90 THE JEWELRY TRADE
. Charles L. Tiffany, New York, President Tiffany 6* Co, 589
91 THE GROCERY TRADE
James E. Nichols, New York, Austin, Nichols 6* Co, . 595
92 THE FRUIT TRADE
John W. Nix, New York, John Nix 6* Co,
. 602
93 THE DRUG TRADE
. John McKesson, New York, McKesson 6* Robhins . . 607
94 THE PAINT, OIL, AND VARNISH TRADE . Daniel F. Tiemann, New York, D, F, Tiemann ^ Co, .620
95 THE CONFECTIONERY TRADE
96 THE FURNITURE TRADE .
97 THE HARDWARE TRADE
98 THE STATIONERY TRADE
Albert F. Hayward, Boston,
President and Treasurer Fobes, Hayward 6* Co, 625
George W. Gay, Grand Rapids, Mich.,
Treasurer Berhey 6r» Gay Furniture Company 628
Edward C. Simmons, St. Lonis,
President Simmons Hardware Company 633
. John G. Bainbridge, New York, Henry Bainbridge 6* Co, 642
99 OTHER INDUSTRIES .
Albert Clark Stevens, New York, Editor Bradstreefs . 648
100 THE NEXT ONE HUNDRED YEARS . . Chauncey M. Depew, LL.D., New York .
. 675
ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME I
CHIEF-JUSTICE JOHN JAY. Frontispiece
FACING
PAGS
LEVI P. MORTON . .
CARROLL D. WRIGHT .
WORTHINGTON C. FORD
EDWARD A. MOSELEY
THOMAS L. JAMES . .
EUGENE T. CHAMBERLAIN
CHARLES F. CLARK
WILLIAM JAY . . .
ALEXANDER E. ORR
HORACE PORTER .
CHARLES R. FLINT .
JOHN P. TOWNSEND
FRANCIS W. AYER .
HENRY H. HALL .
SHEPPARD HOMANS
STUYVESANT FISH .
4
13
20
29
36
40
45
48
53
60
65
69
76
84
93
104
JAMES MCMILLAN . .
CHARLES H. CRAMP .
THOMAS T. ECKERT .
JOHN K HUDSON . .
LEVI C. WEIR ....
HERBERT H. VREELAND
HIRAM HITCHCOCK .
ALBERT M. PALMER .
CHARLES H. TAYLOR .
DAVID WILLIAMS . .
RICHARD P. ROTHWELL
REDFIELD PROCTOR .
FRANCIS G. DUPONT .
BERNHARD E. FERNOW
HENRY C. FOLGER, Jr.
GEORGE E. MORROW.
FACING
PAGB
117
124
128
135
138
145
152
161
168
176
181
188
192
200
209
216
LAZARUS N. BONHAM
RICHARD H. EDMONDS
WILLIAM LAWRENCE
ALFRED HENDERSON
JOHN E. SEARLES . .
JOHN F. TALMAGE . .
CHARLES A. PILLSBURY
JAMES GILLINDER . .
JOHN MOSES ....
EMERSON McMILLIN .
WARNER MILLER . .
JOHN W. HARPER . .
THEODORE L. DE VINNE
CHARLES HUSTON . .
ALFRED A. COWLES .
FACING
PAGK
. 224
. 232
. 241
. 252
. 260
. 264
. 269
. 276
. 289
. 296
• 304
. 308
. 317
. 325
. 332
VOLUME II
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, LL. D. Frontispiece
ALBA B. JOHNSON . . .
WILLIAM SELLERS. . .
ELDRIDGE M. FOWLER .
JEREMIAH DWYER. . .
JORDAN L. MOTT . . .
WILLIAM H. JACKSON .
T. COMMERFORD MARTIN
PHILIP D. ARMOUR . .
EUGENE G. BLACKFORD
EDWARD S. JUDGE. . .
CHARLES CARPY. . . .
JAMES E. PEPPER . . .
FRED. PABST
PIERRE LORILLARD, Jr.
SAMUEL COLGATE . . .
HENRY BOWER ....
WILLIAM P. THOMPSON .
FACING
PAGB
340 HENRY G. PIFFARD
349 FRANK A. KENNEDY
352 THOMSON KINGSFORD
357 O. C. BARBER . .
364 ROBERT MACLAY
373 JAMES W. TUFTS
380 S. N. D. NORTH .
384 SHEPPARD KNAPP
389 BENJAMIN C. CLARK
396 ROBERT H. FOERDERER
401 CHARLES L. JOHNSON
408 HENRY BURN ....
416 WILLIAM STEINWAY .
420 CHAUNCEY THOMAS .
424 WILLIS B. MARVIN. .
428 FREDERICK G. BOURNE
437 EDWARD HOWARD
FAONG
PAGB
444
449
456
464
468
472
477
485
492
496
500
506
512
516
521
525
540
FACING
PAGK
CLARENCE W. SEAMANS . 544
ALBERT A. POPE 549
JOHN N. BEACH 556
WILLIAM C. BROWNING. . 564
WILLIAM B. RICE .... 573
ALBERT MORSBACH ... 576
F. FREDERIC GUNTHER . 584
CHARLES L. TIFFANY . . 593
JAMES E. NICHOLS ... 597
JOHN W. NIX 604
JOHN McKESSON .... 613
DANIEL F. TIEMANN ... 620
ALBERT F. HAYWARD . . 625
GEORGE W. GAY .... 628
EDWARD C. SIMMONS . . 637
JOHN G. BAINBRIDGE . . 644
ALBERT CLARK STEVENS . 653
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF
AMERICAN COMMERCE
CHAPTER XLVIII
LOCOMOTIVE AND ENGINE WORKS
A LTHOUGH transportadoii for self or chattels
l_\ has long been known to man, improvement
A. A. in its various meihods was so slow as to be
almost imperceptible until tlie introduction of steam
gave ii an impetus on land and water. This power-
ftil agent has been adapted to transportation within
[he past one hundred years, and the event has been
followed by the decline and fall of the stage-coach
and the canal-boat, and the rise and development of
the locomotive and the steamship. These two have
constituted the most important factors of transpor-
tation, which is itself one of the most important ele-
ments of the civilization of the present century.
On sea and land rapid transportation was impossible
without steam. This was apphed first to power
transmission, as in pumping and the movement of
machinery; then to navigation, where the conditions
correspond most nearly to those of stationary prac-
tice, and last to the propulsion of vehicles on land.
The factor by which its power is utilized for the
latter purpose is the locomotive. There axe no
tn^nchcs of the mechanic arts which possess greater
fascination for the general public than the building
of steamships and locomotives. Properly directed.
they struggle, they accomplish, they excel ; and all
are interested in their achievements. This interest
is not new. It anached no less to the transporta-
tion of bygone generations. The rivalry of compet-
iog stage-coaches and the popularity of the favorite
whips are traditional. To-day the master of the
^>eediest steamship and the driver of the fastest
locomotive have inherited the same popular regard.
As the entire development of locomotive engin-
eering in the United States has taken place within
the past century, it is not difficult to trace its in-
ception and progress. Although other lines of rails
had previously been laid for special pnqioses, the
Baltimore and Ohio and the South Carolina rail-
roads — both begun in i8z8 — were the first Ameri-
can railways coostnicted to cany passengers and
freight. Upon the first mentioned of these lines
was run the first American-built locomotive, — that
of Peter Cooper, which was constructed in 1829.
This was, however, a mere working model, not in-
tended for permanent service, but to demonstrate
the practicability of operating the line by locomo-
tive power. It did this successfully, and led to the
completion of the road, which otherwise might have
been abandoned. This little machine, with a single
cylinder three and a half inches in diameter, a boiler
no larger than that of an ordinary kitchen-range,
and tubes improvised from gun barrels, on its trial
run attained a speed of eighteen miles an hour, and
hauled forty passengers besides the driver, who was
Peter Cooper himself The first locomorive for
real service used in the United States was the
" Stourbridge Lion," built at Stourbridge, England,
and imported by Horatio Allen, in 1829, for the
Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. It was
of a primitive type, quickly abandoned both in Eng-
land and the United Stales, but forms one of the
interesting steps by which a uniform pattern was
subsequently reached. In 1830, the first locomo-
tive constructed in the United States for actual
work — the "Best Friend" — was built by the West
Point Foundry, for the South Carolina Railroad.
In 1831 Matthias W. Baldwin, a manufacturer of
bookbinders' tools, of Philadelphia, was engaged by
the proprietors of Peale's Museum, of Philadelphia,
to construct a mode! locomotive to operate on a
circular track, to satisfy the public curiosity growing
out of the RainhiH contest, in England, which had
resulted in a victory for Robert Stephenson's
" Rocket," and which was then attracting wide-
spread attention. In September, 1832, there were
built at York, Pa., by Davis & Gartner, three loco-
motives of the " grasshopper " pattern, for the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad, from designs of Phineas
338
• • •
ONE llUIfbiiiO '¥£ARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Davis and Ro$s Wjnltds*** "Some of these locomo-
tives contiiiiied*.in senrfce about sixty years, and
until Fdcipbtty^w^ still in use at Mount Clare, in
."^attfiQor^.
* *The success of the Peale Museum model was
such that Mr. Baldwin was employed by the Phila-
delphia, Germanto wn and Norristown Railroad Com-
pany, in 183 1, to construct a locomotive for their
line. This locomotive — " Old Ironsides " — was
completed in November, 1832. It was a four-wheel
engine, similar to the English design of the day,
and weighed in running order something over five
tons. The rear, or driving wheels, were fifty-four
inches in diameter, placed on a crank axle. The
cylinders were nine and one half inches in diameter,
by eighteen inches stroke, and were attached hori-
zontally to the smoke-box. The firame was of wood.
The wheels were made with heavy cast-iron hubs,
wooden spokes and rims, and wrought-iron tires.
There was no cab. The tender was four-wheeled,
with wooden sides and back for holding the wood
used for fuel, and with an iron box used as a water-
tank. This locomotive attained a speed of thirty
miles an hour, with its train attached, and upon a
special occasion it is said to have attained a speed
of sixty mfles per hour. Locomotive engine build-
ing may be said to have become fairly established
by 1834; but in those early days, when there was no
practice to guide, when skilled workmen were few,
and but little in the way of shop facilities existed,
the difficulties siurounding the locomotive builder
were extraordinary, and only the most indomitable
perseverance attained success. Civilization owes a
debt of gratitude to those pioneers of railway me-
chanics — Cooper, Allen, Baldwin, Rogers, Norris,
Winans, Campbell, and their co-workers, and later
to William Mason, Cooke, McQueen, MillhoUand,
Hudson, and others.
The early American locomotives were similar in
all essential features to the English engines of the
day, being constructed largely either from published
descriptions or from actual observation of those im-
ported. The importation of locomotives did not
long continue, however, as the mechanics of the
country soon proved their ability to supply the de-
mands of the growing railroads. The many bright
minds engaged upon the subject, together with ac-
tive competition among the early builders, soon re-
sulted in radical departures from the English types.
Developing independently, under various conditions,
the differentiation soon became marked, and re-
sulted in features which still distinguish the Ameri-
can firom the English locomotive, in whatsoever
country they may be found. The steps by which
these difierences were reached may be briefly
touched upon as follows : the substitution of a four-
whed swiveling truck or bogie for the pair of fixed
carrying-wheels (1832); the use of the cross-head
pump for suppl3ring feed-water to the boiler (1833) ;
the use of the half-crank driving-axle in place of
the crank-axle (1834); the use of outside connec-
tions to the driving-wheels (1835) ; the coupling
together of two pairs of driving-wheels, patented by
H. R. Campbell (1836); the use of counterbalance
weights to balance the revolving and reciproca-
ting parts (1837); the use of lap-welded wrought-
iron boiler tubes (1838); the use of bar-firames of
forged iron with forged pedestals (1840); the use
of wooden cabs with glass windows, to afford am-
ple protection for the enginemen, which originated
about 1840 in New England, where such protection
was necessary on account of the severity of the win-
ters; the introduction of Baldwin's flexible-beam
truck (1842) ; the use of equalizing beams connect-
ing the driving-wheels, invented by Eastwick and
Harrison (1845); the use of the "ten-wheel" loco-
motive, with six coupled wheels and a leading four-
wheel truck ( 1846) ; the use of the Mogul locomotive
with six coupled wheels and a leading two-wheel
truck (1861), and of the Consolidation type, with
eight coupled wheels and a leading two-wheel truck,
designed by Alexander Mitchell of the Lehigh Val-
ley Raibroad, and built at the Baldwin Locomotive
Works in 1866. The Mogul type took its name
fi'om the first engine of this class; the Consolidation
t)rpe likewise took its name fi'om Mitchell's " Con-
solidation," but the latter was named not because of
any peculiarity of design, but because of the then
recent consolidation of a number of smaller lines
now joined in the Lehigh VaUey system.
Other features of the American locomotive appear
to the foreigner to be peculiar, such as the pilot or
" cowcatcher," the bell, the boiler covering of plan-
ished or Russia iron, the large headlight, and the
directness and visibility of the pipes and other ap-
purtenances. The aim of American locomotive
designers has been to produce a machine having the
maximum flexibility of wheel-base to enable it to
pass sharp curvature and adapt .itself to the uneven-
ness of track subject to the action of severe firosts ;
and to provide for repairs by making every part
accessible and removable without afiecting other
parts. Prior to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876,
it was firequently customary to use gaudy painting
and forms of unessential parts supposed to be orna-
mental ; but during the period of business depression
LOCOMOTIVE AND ENGINE WORKS
839
and retrenchment in which the Centennial occurred,
the raihx)ads learned to dispense with this source of
expense. This cause, together with the improve-
ment in the pubUc taste which was coincident with,
or the result of, the Centennial, led to the aban-
donment of fancy painting and molded or beaded
ornamentation, and the substitution of smooth, ap-
propriate forms, painted in plain dark colors, with
little or no striping.
In the early fifties the "American" type, with
four coupled wheels and four-wheeled truck, patented
by Campbell in 1836, became the most generaUy
adopted class of locomotive, and was for many
years thereafter used for general service — passenger,
fireight, and switching. The growing traffic of the
railwa3rs, however, created the need for more power-
ful locomotives constructed especially for freight ser-
vice, as well as for engines better adapted for switch-
ing than old road locomotives. Therefore, in the
sixties, the Mogul and ten-wheel types were widely
adopted, and between 1870 and 1880 the Consoli-
dation type became the recognized standard for the
heaviest freight service. Prior to 1880, the general
use of iron tires and iron rails of light section, usually
not exceeding fifty to sixty pounds per yard, limited
the weight per axle to about twelve tons as a maxi-
mum. About that year the general substitution of
steel tires and the growing use of steel and the in-
troduction of the heavier rails possible in steel, to-
gether with an awakening to the advantages of larger
heating surfaces in locomotive boilers, led to the ac-
ceptance of greatly increased weights. This ten-
dency has since grown constantly. The use of
heavier, more powerful locomotives made practi-
cable economies in transportation by the use of cars
of larger carrying capacity, which in turn required
still heavier locomotives to move them. Like the
perpetual contest between the impenetrable armor-
plate and the irresistible projectile, it is difficult to
predict the conclusion of the struggle. It appears,
however, that the present car loads of 60,000 to
80,000 pounds are about as large as will serve the
convenience of shippers. It is safe to predict that
rails of 100 pounds per yard, which have already
been adopted by a number of the most important
lines, must shortly come into general use. The
heaviest locomotives of 1895 have as much as
twenty-foiu: tons' weight per axle.
Among the locomotive-building establishments
which have contributed a share to the motive-power
of the past, and have either disappeared altogether
or have discontinued, the manufacttu^ of locomo-
tives for other lines of business in which competition
is less intense^ may be mentioned the works of Nor-
ris Brothers, of Philadelphia, which in early days
were active competitors of Baldwin and Rogers, but
which, after many vicissitudes, went out of existence
in 1865. These works in part are now included in
the plant of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Balti-
more had the works of Ross Winans and the Den-
meads. Boston has had the works of Seth Wilmarth,
the Globe Works of John Souther, and the works of
McKay & Aldus at East Boston, whilst the Hinckley
Locomotive & Machine Works, one of the oldest,
occupied an honorable position in the business
until within ten years. New England has been an
active locomotive-building section. In addition to
the works mentioned may be noted those of Ballard
Vail, Andover, near Boston, Mass.; Corliss & Night-
tingale, Providence, Geo. H. Corliss, the great en-
gine-builder, proving less successful in the manufac-
ture of locomotives ; A. Latham & Company, White
River Junction ; the Amoskeag Locomotive Works
at Manchester, N. H. ; the Locks and Canals Works
at Lowell, Mass. ; a works at Lawrence ; and in later
days the Taunton Locomotive Works, the Mason
Machine Works, and the Pordand Locomotive and
Car Company, three concerns of enviable reputa-
tion, which have recently found other lines of busi-
ness more profitable. New Jersey also has been a
prolific field of locomotive-manufacture. An ofi"-
shoot from the Rogers Works was that of Will-
iam Swinburne, of Paterson, which was subse-
quently called the New Jersey Locomotive Works,
and finally the Grant Locomotive Works. Find-
ing their shops antiquated and their appUances
inadequate to modem requirements, the Grant
Works ceased business at Paterson in 1885, and
reorganized with new capital and new shops at
Chicago. This plant succimibed to the financial
storm of 1893, and was sold to the Siemens & Halske
Electric Company, which now operates it under
its own name for the manufacture of electri-
cal equipment and locomotives. For many years
Breese, Kneeland & Company operated the Jersey
City Locomotive Works at Jersey City, and Van
Cleeve, McKean & Dripps had shops at Trenton.
Eastwick & Harrison were builders of locomotives
at Newcastle, Delaware, but, failing in 1840, were
succeeded by the Newcasde Manufacturing Com-
pany. The partners subsequentiy gained fame and
wealth in railway operations in Russia. In the
West were the Cuyahoga Works of Cleveland, those
of ScoviU at Chicago, Booth & Company at San
Francisco, and others at Detroit and Milwaukee.
Later the Rome Locomotive Works, at Rome, New
340
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
York, entered the field, but had only a few years
of disastrous existence, which ended in 189 1. The
list might perhaps be extended further, but it is a
more agreeable task to record the works which
are, in this year 1895, engaged in keen but fiiendly
rivalry to contribute to the progress of transporta-
tion and to supply the motive power for 180,000
miles of railways in the United States and a con-
^derable number abroad.
The Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia
were established in 1831 by Matthias W. Bald-
win, as has before been mentioned. These works
are now the property of George Bumham, Edward
H. Williams, William P. Henszey, John H. Con-
verse, and William L. Austin, partners, constituting
the firm of Bumham, Williams & Company. The
annual capacity is 1000 locomotives, and 947
have actually been constructed in a single year,
during all of which, however, the demand for lo-
comotives was not sufficient to keep the works
running continuously to their maximum capacity.
The works occupy sixteen acres in the center of
the city. A number of the buildings of later con-
struction are from four to six stories in height and
of the most substantial character. Employment is
given to about 5100 men.
The Rogers Locomotive Works, of Paterson,
N. J., were founded in 1836 by the firm of Rogers,
Ketchum & Grosvenor. The mechanical head
and dominating spirit was Thomas Rogers. Upon
his death in 1856 the business was incorporated
under the title of The Rogers Locomotive and
Machine Works, of which Jacob S. Rogers was
president and William S. Hudson was superinten-
dent. Mr. Hudson exercised an important influ-
ence upon the development of American locomo-
tive manufacture. Owing to Mr. J. S. Rogers' in-
creasing age, the company was reorganized in 1892
under its present title of The Rogers Locomotive
Company. Mr. R. S. Hughes, for many years
treasurer, became president, and Mr. Reuben Wells,
well known for his honorable connection with rail-
road management, became superintendent. These
works give employment to about 1400 men, and
have an annual capacity of 250 locomotives.
The Schenectady Locomotive Works were estab-
lished by Norris Brothers in 1848, were incorpo-
rated in 1 85 1, and in 1863 passed into the sole
control of John Ellis, who associated with him as
superintendent Walter McQueen. Mr. Ellis was
succeeded, upon his death in 1864, by his next
younger brother, Charles G. Ellis, and upon the
death of the latter in 189 1 Edward Ellis became
president Mr. A. J. Pitkin is now superintendent
The works employ 1800 men and have an annual
capacity of 400 locomotives.
The Cooke Locomotive and Machine Com-
pany, of Paterson, N. J., began the manufacture
of locomotives in 1852, the title of its ownership
then being Danforth, Cooke & Company. The
works were originaUy established about the year
1800, and for fifty years were engaged in the man-
ufacture of cotton and other machinery. Upon
the entrance of John Cooke, who had previously
been in the employment of Thomas Rogers, the
manufacture of locomotives was begim. John
Cooke may therefore be regarded as the foimder
of this establishment as a locomotive- works. The
present organization is John S. Cooke, president;
Frederick W. Cooke, vice-president; William
Berdan, secretary and treasurer; and Charles D.
Cooke, superintendent The original shops in
Paterson have recently been abandoned to other
uses, and new and completely modem shops have
been built with a capacity of 180 locomotives per
year. The works employ about 800 men.
The Pittsburgh Locomotive Works were organized
in August, 1865, and were completed so far as to
construct their first locomotive in the latter part of
1866. The works were originally designed for a ca-
pacity of thirty locomotives per year, but by the con-
struction of new fire-proof buildings, and the addi-
tion of new and improved machinery, the capacity
has been gradually increased to 300 engines per
year. The works occupy nearly twelve acres of
ground, and their equipment includes the most im-
proved hydraulic, pneimiatic, and electric appliances
for fashioning the work and handling materials.
There is also a completely appointed laboratory for
chemical and physical tests of materials. The works
employ about 1500 men.
The Rhode Island Locomotive Works of Provi-
dence, Rhode Island, were likewise established in
1865, at the close of the War of the Rebellion,
when the nation once more turned to the arts of
peace and began the work of restoring its wasted
energies, expanding its means of internal communi-
cation, and developing its material resources. These
works have occupied an important position in the
field of locomotive-manufacture. As now organ-
ized, Charles Felix Mason is president, Arthur Liv-
ingstone Mason is vice-president. Earl Philip Mason
is secretary and treasurer, and Joseph Lythgoe is su-
perintendent. These works employ about 1400 men,
and have an annual capadty of 250 locomotives.
The works of H. K. Porter & Company, of Pitts*
LOCOMOTIVE AND ENGINE WORKS
841
burgh, were established in 1869, and have been
devoted exclusively to the manufacture of light lo-
comotives for such special purposes as in mills, fur-
naces, mines, contractors' and plantation service,
etc. The firm was at first Smith & Porter, and
later Porter, Bell & Company. It employs 325 men,
and has a capacity of 120 locomotives per annum.
The Brooks Locomotive Works of Dunkirk, New
York, were originally constructed as the locomotive
building and repair shops of the Erie Railway. In
1869, Jay Gould, then president of the Erie Rail-
way, having completed extensive shops at a more
central location on the line of that road, ordered
the Dunkirk shops to be permanently closed, and the
machinery removed to other locations. Mr. Horatio
G. Brooks, at that time superintendent of motive
power and machinery of the Erie Railway, whose
home was at Dunkirk, and whose interests were
identified with the welfare of that place, made a
proposition to Mr. Gould for a lease of the shops
and machinery for the purpose of establishing the
business of locomotive-building. The lease was
consummated in November, 1869, and before the
close of the year the first two locomotives of the
new Brooks Locomotive Works Company were
turned out The growth of the works since that
time has been constant, imtil their capacity at the
present time is 400 locomotives per year. During
the year 1883 the property, comprising twenty acres
of land, the permanent plant, additions and ma-
chinery were purchased firom the New York, Lake
Erie and Western Railroad Company by the Brooks
Locomotive Works. These works employ about 1500
men. At the present time Mr. M. L. Hinman is
president and treasurer, and Mr. R. J. Gross vice-
president
The Richmond Locomotive and Machine Com-
pany of Richmond, Va., is the only locomotive-
manufacturing plant in the South. The works were
established in 1865 for the manufacture of planta-
tion and saw-mill machinery, and were gradually
adapted for the construction of tram and street-car
motors. In 1880, the shop having been destroyed
by fire, it was removed beyond the city limits and
reconstructed upon an enlarged scale. In 1889 it
secured the contract firom the United States govern-
ment for building the machinery of the armored
batde-ship Texas, which gave it wide prominence.
This contract was successfiilly executed, but the
works have since been devoted exclusively to the
construction of locomotives. They give employ-
ment to 1200 men, and have an annual capacity of
200 locomotives.
22»
The Dickson Manufactiuing Company of Scran-
ton, Pa., are important manufactiurers of locomotives
and of mining machinery, for which their location in
the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania is most
suitable. These works were established in 1862.
They have a capacity of 100 locomotives aimually,
and employ firom 400 to 450 men.
The Manchester Locomotive Works, of Manches-
ter, N. H., established in the early fifties, are under
the management of Aretas Blood. They employ
about 700 men, and are capable of producing about
100 locomotives aimually.
From the foregoing it is apparent that, exclusive
of such locomotives as are built in railroad shops or
shops not regularly engaged in the business of loco-
motive building, the locomotive-manufacturing estab-
lishments of the country have an aggregate capacity
of about 3000 locomotives a year. At the present
time this capacity is largely in excess of the require-
ments of the country. The actual reported produc-
tion of the past six years, with the number exported
(not including Canada and Mexico), is as follows:
LOCOMOTIVES PRODUCED AND NUMBER
EXPORTED.
Ybak.
Total
Production
Rbportko.
Number
exfortbd
(Omittxng
Mbxicoand
Canada).
RSMAINDBR
NOT
Exfortkd.
Number of
Works
Rbtorting.
1889
1890
1891
1892
^893
1894
i860
2213
2300
1764
201 1
695
187
137
357
141
205
189
1673
2076
1943
1623
1806
506
16
14
15
12
13
13
Average. . .
1807
203
1694
The total number of locomotives in use upon the
railways of the United States, Canada, and Mexico
for the same years, as reported to " Poor's Manual," is
as follows: 1889,31,062; 1890,32,241; 1891, 33,-
563; 1892,35,281; 1893,36,012; 1894,35,813.
As the average life of a locomotive may be taken
at twenty years, it is apparent that an annual pro-
duction of about 1800 locomotives will supply the
natural wear, whilst there is in the country a capacity
for constructing in contract and railroad shops about
twice that number. The difference between the
number requiring replacement on account of natural
wear and this total capacity must be absorbed by
locomotives for new lines, for permanendy increased
traffic, and for export. The locomotive -building
establishments above mentioned employ in the ag-
342
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
gregate 15,000 men, who receive in wages about
$10,000,000 annually. The total value of the pro-
duct of these works, when operating to their full
capacity, is about $30,000,000.
Although the earliest locomotives used in the
United States were imported from the mother coim-
try, it was not long before the achievements of
American mechanics attracted attention abroad. In
1845 ^^ Baldwin Works exported locomotives to
the Royal Wiirtemberg Railroad. In 1848 Rogers
shipped locomotives to Cuba; and while the expor-
tation of locomotives diiring recent years has been
largely to those countries without the resources
requisite for locomotive-building, in the earlier years
it was not imcommon for American manufacturers
to ship their products to Austria, to England, and
elsewhere in Continental Europe. Statistics fail to
show the number of locomotives exported during
the earlier years, and even recent statistics are in-
accurate in not covering shipments of locomotives
to Canada and Mexico. During the twenty -five
years comprised within the period from 1 871 to 1894,
there were exported 2879 locomotives to countries
exclusive of those reached by rail connections from
the United States. These locomotives were dis-
tributed throughout South America, Cuba, Australia,
Japan, Norway, Sweden, Russia, South Africa, and
the Islands of the Pacific. The shriek of the Ameri-
can locomotive is heard in the Holy City. Although
the line from Jaffa to Jerusalem was constructed by
French capital, the locomotives were supplied from
the United States.
The market price of a locomotive in 1832 appears
to have been $4000, this sum having been agreed
upon between Matthias W. Baldwin and the Phila-
delphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad for
the locomotive " Old Ironsides." The highest prices
known in locomotive-building, as in other industries,
were those obtained during the War of the Rebellion,
when heavy freight or passenger locomotives com-
manded from $30,000 to $35,000. Prices declined
after the close of the war to about $7000 for a thirty-fi ve-
ton passenger locomotive in 1878-79. During the so-
called boom of 1880-81, prices again rose to about
$15,000 each for similar passenger locomotives; but
since that time there has been a constant reduction
in the price per pound, the weights of locomotives
gradually increasing with the demands of increasing
traffic, while prices have remained nearly stationary
at about $8000 to $9000 each for average passenger
locomotives, and from $9000 to $10,000 each for
average freight locomotives.
The importance of fuel economy was appreciated
in Europe earlier than in the United States. Pro-
gress had been made in the development of the
compound locomotive by Lindner, Von Borries, La
Page, Worsdell, Webb, and others. W. S. Hudson,
superintendent of the Rogers Locomotive Works,
designed a two-cylinder, or cross-compound, loco-
motive, as early as 1873, ^^^ ^^ ^^ never built. In
1882 Henry D. Dunbar designed and patented a
four-cylinder tandem compoimd locomotive, which
was tested on the Boston and Albany Railroad. In
1889 the Pennsylvania Railroad imported from
England a compound locomotive of Webb's pattern
for experimental service. The same year Samuel
M. Vauclain, superintendent of the Baldwin Loco-
motive Works, designed a four-cylinder compound
locomotive, in which a high-pressure and a low-
pressure cylinder are placed one above the other on
each side of the locomotive, both formed within a
single casting, together with the steam-chest, and
occupying the same place as the ordinary single-ex-
pansion cylinders. The two piston-rods connect
to a common cross-head. From the cross-head pin
back, the locomotive does not differ in any essential
respect from the ordinary engine. The first loco-
motive of this pattern was built the same year for
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Tests indicated
highly economical results. About the same time
A. J. Pitkin, superintendent of the Schenectady
Locomotive Works, brought out a two-cylinder, or
cross-compound locomotive, having a form of inter-
cepting-valve differing from those previously used
abroad. The general interest in compound loco-
motives, together with the powerful influence of
two of the most prominent works in the country, led
to the rapid introduction of compound locomotives,
and caused other locomotive-builders to bring out
similar designs. There have since been built in the
United States about 800 compound locomotives, of
which nearly 600 are of the Vauclain pattern, four
are of the four-cylinder " tandem " type, and most
of the remainder are of the two-cylinder or cross-
compound type. The compoimd locomotive is un-
questionably a step in advance, realizing as it does
an economy of from fifteen to forty per cent, ac-
cording to the service in which it is employed.
The most conspicuous improvement in transpor-
tation, which resulted from the introduction of
steam-power, was the great increase in the capacity
for high speed. Peter Cooper's first locomotive is
said to have attained a speed of eighteen miles per
hour. Baldwin's "Old Ironsides" is recorded as
having attained a speed of sixty miles per hour for a
short distance. Speeds of sixty miles per hour have
LOCOMOTIVE AND ENGINE WORKS
348
therefore been known from the inception of Ameri-
can railways. The real progress of locomotive de-
velopment has not been so marked in increasing the
capacity for speed as in increasing the weight of
trains which can be hauled with certainty at rates
of speed which have previously been regarded as
phenomenal. Up to the year 1889, when the com-
pound system was introduced, there did not exist a
demand for sustained speeds exceeding fifty miles
per hour. In November, 1892, one of Vauclain's
compounds. No. 385, running on the Philadelphia
and Reading and the Jersey Central railroads, be-
tween Philadelphia and Jersey City, with a train of
four heavy cars, attained a speed of ninety-seven
miles per hour by covering one mile in thirty-seven
seconds. On May 10, 1893, locomotive No. 999, of
the New York Central Railroad, is said to have
covered a mile in thirty-two seconds, equivalent to
112^ miles an hour, hauling the Empire State ex-
press, consisting of four heavy cars. On July 19,
1893, engine No. 682, of the Philadelphia and Read-
ing Railroad, hauled a train of nine loaded passen-
ger cars from Winslow Jimction to Pleasantville,
twenty-six mOes, in twenty-two minutes, or at the
rate of 70.9 miles per hour, and on August 27th, the
same locomotive hauled seventeen loaded passenger
cars over the same distance in twenty-seven minutes,
or at the rate of fifty-seven miles per hour. These
performances are remarkable for the weight of the
trains hauled. The locomotive is a Vauclain com-
pound. On September 11, 1895, a locomotive of
the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad
hauled the Empire State express, consisting of four
cars, from New York to East Buffalo, 436^ miles,
in 407^ minutes, being an average speed of 64.26
miles per hour. It is believed that the steam loco-
motives of to-day possess capacity for running at
as high a speed as is required by public demand,
or as is consistent with the commercial conditions
governing the business of transportation.
During the past few years the general substitu-
tion of electric power for horse-power and for other
means of propulsion on tramway lines has caused
electricity to be regarded as perhaps a rival of
steam, or at least as a competitor which may prove
to be a serious rival in the future. The progress of
electrical science is so rapid that what is written
to-day is obsolete to-morrow. What we regard as
impossibilities now may shortly become established
facts. In 1840 Davis & Cook constructed a walk-
ing-beam engine with a zinc and copper battery,
using a solution of blue vitriol. In 1842 Davidson,
of Scotland, constructed a five-ton electric locomo-
tive, which was actuated by seventy-eight pairs of
thirteen-inch-square zinc and iron plates in sul-
phuric-acid solution, and propelled itself at the rate
of four miles an hour. In 1844 Channing con-
ceived the idea of substituting electro-magnets for
permanent steel magnets, and of exciting the field
magnets by an electro-magnetic machine. This
idea was subsequently developed by Henry Wilde,
Manchester, England, between 1863 and 1866. In
1847 Farmer constructed an electro-magnetic loco-
motive having forty-eight pint cup cells of Grove
nitric-acid batteries. This drew a car containing
two passengers on a track of eighteen inches gauge.
In 1850 Page, of Washington, constructed an elec-
tro-magnetic locomotive of sixteen horse-power, ac-
tuated by 100 cells of Grove nitric-acid batteries,
having platinum plates eleven inches square. This
machine propelled a car carrying a dozen or more
persons on the Baltimore and Washington Railroad,
at a speed of nineteen miles an hour. In 185 1
Thomas Hall, of Boston, constructed and exhibited
a small electric locomotive which took its current
from a stationary battery by means of the rails and
wheels. It was arranged automatically to change
the current and return at the end of the track. In
i860 he made a more elaborate model called the
" Volta," which was exhibited at the American Me-
chanics* Fair. In 1859 Farmer invented what he
designated the self-exciting dynamo, which was con-
structed in i860. Improvements on this were made
by Wheatstone, Leaman, and Ladd in 1867, and
by Gramme in 187 1. It made possible the substi-
tution of the dynamo for the galvanic battery, and
permitted the generation of electricity at low cost
The first experiments in the use of electrical lo-
comotives on steam roads appear to have been
made by Leo Daft on the New York Elevated Rail-
road with a motor of 125 horse-power. In 1886
Frank J. Sprague conducted experiments on the
same road with trains of individual motor-cars. In
1891-92 the Thomson-Houston Electric Company
built a locomotive of about 125 horse-power for
freight service at Whitinsville, Mass. This locomo-
tive handles an aggregate load of 200 to 300 tons
at a speed of five miles an hour. In 1892 the
North American Company ordered from the Bald-
win Locomotive Works a powerful electric locomo-
tive to be constructed firom the plans of Sprague,
Duncan & Hutchinson, Limited. This locomotive
was completed in 1894 and weighed sixty-seven
tons. It had four pairs of wheels connected by
coupling-rods, and the field magnets were hung
firom the driving-boxes, whilst the armatiure was
344
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
hung on the driving-axle. In 1892 the General
Electric Company undertook the construction of
an electric locomotive for the tunnel of the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad in Baltimore. This loco-
motive was completed in 1895, and was designed
to weigh ninety tons and develop 1500 horse power.
In 1892-93 the General Electric Company equipped
in the grounds of the World's Columbian Exposi-
tion at Chicago, and operated during the period
of the Exposition in 1893, an elevated railroad
known as the Intramural Railway. Its mechanical
success was such that in 1894 the Metropolitan
West Side Elevated Railroad, which had been de-
signed as a steam line, countermanded an order
for twenty-five steam locomotives and substituted
electric power. In 1895 the Lake Street Elevated
Railroad of Chicago discontinued the use of steam
locomotives and substituted electric power. The
same year the New York, New Haven and Hartford
Railroad equipped its Nantasket Beach branch
electrically for experimental purposes, and the
Pennsylvania Railroad equipped a branch road at
Mt Holly for the same purpose. In 1895 the
Baldwin Locomotive Works consummated a work-
ing agreement with the Westinghouse Electric and
Manufacturing Company, for the production of
electric equipment for railway service. There is a
large field for electricity in railway work, and it is
probable that after it has been applied to switching
and suburban service in the great cities, public
opinion will compel the abandonment of steam lo-
comotives in these precincts.
Although the steam locomotive is more promi-
nently brought to the attention of the public, and is
therefore more popular and better known, yet it has
no greater effect on daily life than other steam en-
gines. Mention has been made of steam-power
applied to transportation in navigation on the ocean
and on inland water-ways, but besides this use for
steam it supplies a thousand wants of daily life, such
as the furnishing of the water-supply of great cities,
the driving of the machinery of busy hives of indus-
try, the lighting of streets and houses^ the running
of elevators in high modem buildings, the extinguish-
ing of fires, the operating of the electric tram-car,
and in many other ways meeting the wants of mod-
em civilization. For many years the development
of the stationary engine and the marine engine were
identical. The first experimental steam engine built
in the United States is said to have been constmcted
in 1773 by Christopher Colles, a lecturer before the
American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia. In
1787 John Fitch launched on the Delaware River at
Philadelphia a steamboat propelled by paddles, which
attained a speed of thirteen miles per hour, and in
1796 he experimented in New York with one ope-
rated by a screw. His efforts were closely followed
by those of Robert Livingston. About the same
time other mechanics were devoting attention to the
problem of steam navigation, among them Samuel
Morey, Nathan Read, Nicholas Roosevelt, Oliver
Evans, Robert Fulton, John Stevens, and others.
Transatlantic steam navigation began in the year
18 1 9, when the American steamer Savannah made
the trip firom Savannah to St. Petersburg. The de-
velopment of the marine engine through its various
forms of single expansion, compound, and triple ex-
pansion cylinders has resulted in the powerful mech-
anisms which drive the Campania^ the Lucania, the
JPariSy the St Lauis^ and the St. Pauly at the rate of
500 miles per day. This development has resulted
firom the labors of many, among whom may be men-
tioned John and Robert Stevens, Robert Thurston,
James P. AUair, the Copelands, and John Ericsson.
Since 1850 the improvements have been rather in
details of constmction than in any marked change
in type. The engineer has striven and is still striv-
ing for the highest efficiency with the greatest degree
of economy. The introduction of what is known as
the Corliss valve gear marks probably one of the
greatest eras in engine building. This is a device
by which the steam is admitted into the cylinder for
any desired portion of the stroke, and the point of
cut-off automatically maintained by the governor
without affecting in the least the firee opening of the
exhaust Many devices had been introduced before
this time for the purpose of using the steam expan-
sively, among which may be mentioned that of Fred-
erick E. Sickles, in 1841, whose drop cut-off with
detachable valve gear was used in this country until
1849, ^ben George H. Corliss brought out the im-
proved expansion gear which bears his name, and
which is used to-day by builders all over the coun-
try. The adoption of the surface condenser may also
be noted as an improvement of great practical utility
in the economy of that class of engines to which it is
adapted.
As the country developed, there was an ever-in-
creasing call for smaller engines with higher speed
and higher steam pressure. Excessively high pres-
sures had already been experimented with as early
as 1823 by Jacob Perkins, who in 1827 constmcted
a single-acting engine in which steam of 800 pounds
pressure was used, and in the same year he made a
compound on the Wolfe plan, in which he adopted a
pressure of 1400 pounds, expanded eight times. He
LOCOMOTIVE AND ENGINE WORKS
345
even went so far as to propose to adopt a pressure of
2000 pounds, using engines with small cylinder di-
mension and cutting off the admission at one sixteenth
of the stroke. For obvious reasons these excessive
pressures were not adopted in general practice, but
the experiments had the effect in later years of call-
ing the attention of builders to the greater economy
of high pressure steam, and engines and boilers were
adapted to its use in a moderate degree. This
caused inventors to consider different plans by which
high pressures could be utilized and high speed en-
gines constructed. A number of designs were exe-
cuted, among which may be noted the Westinghouse,
which is a double-cylinder, single-acting engine. The
low cost and simplicity, combined with a high de-
gree of efficiency, have brought this engine into ex-
tensive use.
The competition among engine builders has caused
marked changes to be made in simplifying and re-
ducing the cost of manufacture. Probably no change
which has been made equals that, adopted by nearly
all builders of what may be called the merchantable
engine, of reducing the number of main parts to a
single colimm or bedplate, in which the revolving
and redprocating parts are supported and the cylin-
der secured direcdy to this column or bed. Engines
of this class, both vertical and horizontal, are manu-
factured by builders all over the country, and per-
haps no better estimate can be derived of the advance
in this particular than to consider that in 1795 there
were exceedingly few in this country who were in-
terested in the introduction of the steam-engine,
whereas in 1895 scarcely a town of any importance
exists which does not boast of one or more shops
where steam-engines are built. The marked advance
in the efficiency of the steam-engine may be seen
when we consider that previous to 1850 it took from
five to eight pounds of coal and something like
eighty pounds of water per horse-power per hour to
operate what was then considered the best class of
engine, whereas to-day the same work is done vnth
an expenditiure of one and eight tenths pounds of
coal and fifteen pounds of water per horse-power
per hour. The manufacture of stationary engines is
so widely distributed and so extensively followed
that neither in the United States Census nor in other
compilations of statistics, is it possible to determine
the number of men employed, the number of em-
ployers interested, the amount of capital involved, or
the value of the productions of this branch of
engine building.
The steam fire-engine is an important factor in
securing the safety of human life and property, and
the improvement in such engines within fifty years
has been great Captain John Ericsson built a port-
able steam fire-engine, which was tested in New
York City in 1842, but was not put into regular ser-
vice. The time required for raising steam was then
eighteen minutes. Steam fire-engines were put into
permanent service in Cincinnati about 1853, and at
that time steam could be raised in less than four
minutes from the time the torch was applied. Econ-
omy is not a matter of prime importance in steam
fire-engines, the first requisites being power and por-
tability. Modem machines of beautiful design and
superb workmanship can be drawn by two horses,
and can be made ready for delivering enormous
quantities of water within three minutes after the
sound of the alarm. This comparatively small ap-
paratus can throw a stream of water over all except
the highest buildings in the large cities, and can
run for hours without damage. The boiler of the
steam fire-engine is one of the most powerful for its
weight used in any practical work. The fire-engines
manufactiu-ed in the United States are admittedly
superior to those manufactxu-ed elsewhere. This
superiority has doubtless resulted from the need ot
the most efficient apparatus to protect cities largely
built of wood, and which are much more subject to
conflagration than those of older countries, where
brick and stone are the principal materials used in
construction.
While the progress of steam-engineering during
one hundred years has largely revolutionized the
methods of living, this development has not reached
its termination. On the contrary, the engines and
boilers which have recently been used in torpedo
boats, the experiments of Maxim in England, and of
Langley in the United States, introducing steam-
engines and boilers of power heretofore inconceiv-
able for their lightness, and the light engines and
boilers which are used in road carriages, indicate
that we may expect in the near future an enormous
saving in the amount of coal used in producing
power, and in the convenient subdivision of power
for a great variety of uses. It is reasonable, there-
fore, to expect that this advance will continue at
an accelerated pace, and it may be predicted that
the further development of steam engineering will
result in the increased conservation of the world's
resources and in an added contribution to the com-
fort and happiness of mankind.
CHAPTER XLIX
MACHINERY MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
WHEN the harvest of a century is gathered
we are able to measure its quantities and
to determine its values; but the improve-
ment in the arts of a century can be estimated otJy
by comparing the conditions existing at its begin-
ning with those at its close.
Looking backward, then, to 1795, we discover a
sparsely settled country, with means of transporta-
tion limited to the slow ox or to the more speedy
horse ; the forest is cleared by a clumsy axe, adapted
more for dressing the timber after it is felled than
for felling it ; the ground is tilled by the spade and
the plow of wood, saving only the coulter and some-
times the mould-board, which turns the soil but little
below the surface ; and the harvest is gathered by
the scythe and the sickle, wielded by arms and
hands strengthened and hardened by toil. A few
sawmills have existence, but most of the timber for
construction is hewed. The grist-mill is the most
complex piece of machinery ; its shafts and gear-
wheels are of wood, and its owner, the jolly miller,
depends upon his customers not only for his tithe
of the grain, but also for the assistance necessary to
grind it. The condensing steam-engine of Watt,
patented in England in 1 769, was only practically
at work there for the first time in 1776. The non-
condensing engine of Oliver Evans had demon-
strated here in 17S0 that it would operate, but
in this country both the condensing and the non-
condensing engine were absolutely unknown in
practice. The spinning-frame of Arkwright, in-
troduced into England in 1771, was as yet an
experiment here. The spinning-wheel propelled by
the fool, and the loom by the foot and the hand,
were the sole domestic agencies for clothing the
people and their beds, upholstering their fumitiure,
and providing their table-napery. Iron had been
made in the forge for more than a century, and cast-
ings of iron of uncertain quahty were supplied from
the small cotd-blast furnaces, whose output was from
one and one half to two tons daily, a few of the
largest making from twenty-five to thirty tons per
week. With few exceptions every kind of production
was by hand, or if machinery aided, it was directed
at every stage by human intelligence. Whenin 1771
Arkwright established his spinning-frame in Eng-
land, and a few years later Oliver Evans organized
a flour-mill in this country to execute the several
operations of the mill previously conducted by the
miller, machinery was enabled for the first time to
perform successive but dissimilar operations without
human direction.
The jealous policy of Great Britain, which aimed
to concentrate within her borders all the improve-
ments in the arts, prompted legislation from 1750 to
the close of the century, first to prevent the manii-
factiue of iron in this coimtry beyond the stage of
pig and bar, then to prevent the exportation from
Great Britain of any " tool or utensil used in work-
ing up or finishing cotton or linen, woolen or silk
manufactures, and of any other tool or utensil which
now is, or at any lime or times hereafter may be,
used in working, finishing, or completing of the iron
or steel manufactures of this kingdom," under pen-
alty of forfeitiu^ of such tools or utensils, a fine of
;^30o, and imprisonment for twelve months. That
the unfortunates outside of the kingdom should never
be enhghtened, they were forbidden, under penalty
of ;^5oo and imprisonment in the common jail for
twelve months, " from seducing artificers, and others
employed in the manufactories, to depart out of this
kingdom ; and if any artificer has promised or con-
tracted to go into foreign parts to practise or teach
his trade, such artificer may be obliged to give
security, at the discretion of the court, that he shall
not go beyond the seas, and may be committed to
prison until he give such security."
At the close of the last centtuy and during the
early part of this, these acts were rigidly enforced,
and they were not rescinded until 1845. In con-
MACHINERY MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
347
sequence of this legislation machinery could not be
obtained from England, and the only alternative was
to rely upon our own mechanical ability and con-
struct what was needed at home. Our workmen
were skilled in the use of the axe, die adze, and all
carpenters' tools ; they had successfully constructed
our sawmills and grist-mills, in which tlie gearing and
shafting were of wood, the latter revolving upon
small iron journals ingeniously secured in the ends
of the wooden shafts.
our iron with facility i
chinery then coming i
demanded that this in
ish and be given a m
afforded by the forge, and out of this i
machinist was born.
From the " History of American Textile Machi-
nery," by John L, Hayes, LL.D., we learn that
Samuel Slater, a young Englishman, aided by the
Our blacksmiths fashioned
1 the forge, but the new ma-
nto extensive use in England
n should receive a higher fin-
are exact form than could be
ssity the
Provide
n that State, in
1 this country to
s machinery was
e may conceive
capital of some enterprising
R. I., constructed at Pawtucket,
1790, the first of the textile mills i
use the Arkwright system. All of i
built by him on the premises, and
the difficulties under which he labored when
consider that he brought whh him from England no
plans or models of the machinery, and in that age of
the world not one of the machines now so common
for shaping cold iron had existence. What expedi-
ents he must have resorted to, and what a school it
was for his workmen I At this period woolen cloth
fabricated in the household was the only domestic
source of the supply of that article; but in 1793
John Schofield and his family, with his brother
Aithtu', emigrated from England to this country,
and, being well skilled in the most approved method
of manufacturing woolen goods in England, con-
structed, with the aid of some persons of wealth in
Newburyporl, Mass., the first carding- ma chine that
was worked in the United States. This apparatus
was first turned by hand ; but when the remaining
machinery was completed the factory was put into
operation by water-power, the business thenceforth
being conducted prosperously. Like the cotton-
mill of Slater, the machinery of this first woolen-
mill was built by Schofield on the premises. Rude
indeed must such machinery have been ; but it
served its purpose, not alone to prepare the fiber and
to spin the yam for which it was designed, but also
to educate every man, woman, and child who aided
to construct or to operate it.
Out of such experience came, first, that adjunct
of the lathe, the slide-rest, the progenitor, in fact, of
nearly all the appliances for automatically shaping
cold iron. At this time the lathe had but lately ad-
vanced beyond the first stage of its existence, that
of two dead-centers, which supported the work as it
was rotated backward and forward by a band around
it, one end .ittached to a spring-pole above it, the
other end to the fool of the operator, while the tum-
ing-lool was held in his hand. Think of the skill
and tlie patience required to produce good work
with such an implement! And yet with no better
appliance all of the domestic turned work of our
colonial period was executed.
The lathe had now, however, advanced beyond this
first stage, and was provided with a revoluble spindle
and center, by which the work was axially supported
and rotated ; but the tools for turning either wood
or iron were still held and manipulated by hand.
The new industries demanded large numbers of
cylindrical iron pieces exactly parallel and of like
diameter, tor the production of which manual skill
was inadequate. This want was supplied by the
slide-rest, which theretofore had been found only in
the workshop of the optician and the mathematical-
instrument maker, but was now to become a com-
mon adjunct of the lathe. From this time the
capacity of the lathe to produce cylindrical work of
the required exactitude was unlimited, but the work-
man had to manipulate the slide-rest to enable the
cutting-tool which it carried to perform its work.
The preparation and the adjustment of the culting-
tool, as well as its rate of traverse, required skill ;
but to perform the work after that demanded only
constant attention, and the number of workmen
who could patiendy give that was limited. As a
consequence the slide-lathe was introduced, where-
by the advance of the cutting-tool, and the rotation
of the work, were automatically performed. The
facilities for producing the long, flat, and straight
surfaces best adapted for such a machine were then
limited to the hammer and the cold-chisel, the file
and the straight-edge, the latter then produced by
grinding three surfaces alternately upon one another
until they touched uniformly, in any order of pairs.
The slide-lathe, therefore, had a curious develop-
ment. The hand-lathe, with its wooden bed and
short slide-resl, could produce cylinders economi-
cally, and these were utilized for slide-lathe beds;
but lacking stability, as well as security for the slide-
rest, the cast-iron bed dressed by the cold-chisel and
the file was finally adopted. The form of the guid-
ing surfaces of the slide-rest was, however, mortified
in the lathe to save hand labor, and this distinctive
form has maintained an existence to the present day.
d
348
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
The next development of the slide-rest was the
planing-machine, whereby the rough and irregular
surface of the castings and forgings, traveling slowly
under a cutting-tool movable at right angles to the
travel of the work, was smoothed and reduced to a
true plane. The advent of this machine was an era
in the life of the machinist, as great, perhaps, as that
of the sh'de-rest. I am unable to determine when
the first one was started, but to give some idea of
its development I may say that in 1838 it was gen-
erally understood that there were but four of these
machines in the United States. With this machine
it was at once possible to construct lathes of in-
creased capacity, power, and exactitude. The drill,
which before that had been limited to a revolving
vertical spindle, was endowed with an iron frame,
and a table at right angles to it, upon which the
work might be rigidly supported and adjusted with
ease and certainty. The boring-mill or vertical lathe
was then economically possible, and took its place in
the machine-shop to execute a large class of turned
work that did not require to be supported upon
centers, or as preparatory thereto. Much of this
work consisted of wheels that had to be keyed upon
their shafts. The seats for these keys were chipped
and filed, and the first development of the planing-
machine was the key-seating machine, in which the
tool moved while the work was fed against it. The
capacity of such a machine for other work was soon
developed, and when provided with compound slide-
rests and a revoluble table moimted thereon, it took
its place as a standard tool in the machine-shop,
imder the name of the slotting-machine. This
planer, with its vertically movable tool, was the
progenitor of a machine with similar attachments,
but with its tool moving horizontally, upon which
work could be conveniently shaped in a great variety
of forms ; and the shaping-machine, as it was called,
soon became one of the standard tools of the
machine-shop.
With the advent of these tools the art of driving
the cold-chisel and of guiding the file, once the
criterion of a good workman, was rarely exercised.
In the mean time, however, the vertical spindle-
drill, with its compound tables, movable vertically
and adjustable horizontally in two directions at
right angles with each other, had been supplemented
by the horizontal drill, with similar tables, but with
its drill-spindle parallel to the tables ; and the further
requirements in this direction had been supplied by
the radial drill, in which the vertical drill-spindle is
movable about a vertical axis, toward and from which
it is adjustable radially.
The development of the machine-shop was not,
however, exactly in the order above indicated ; it
had other requirements which these tools supplied
inadequately, if at all, among which were the screw-
bolts and nuts for securing the parts of the machines
together, a want which had been imperfectly sup-
plied before even the original lathe had an existence.
The iron screw-bolt was then formed by compress-
ing a split die upon it, provided with spiral threads,
and rotating the bolt or the die backward and for-
ward until the thread was partly cut and partly raised
to its completed form, while a taper-tap was screwed
into the nut from one side and then from the other,
until by trial the nut was found to enter upon the bolt.
The apex of the thread was always larger than the
diameter of the bolt, and bolts and nuts were only
interchangeable by accident. The slide-lathe made
it possible to cut out the thread without raising it,
but for the great mass of bolts this was far too ex-
pensive, so that the split die continued to produce its
imperfect product in this coimtry imtil the solid die
patented by Philetus W. Gates, May 8, 1847, ^^
sectional threads, was introduced. After this die
had cut the thread at one pass, its direction of rota-
tion was reversed to unscrew it from the bolt, which
not only left a mark upon the thread, but was liable
to injure the die, and no compensation for wear was
possible. It was not until 1857 that a bolt machine
was devised by William Sellers, and constructed by
his firm in which dies to cut the thread at one pass,
and adjustable to size, could be opened and closed
while running continuously in one direction, and
thereafter ordinary screw-bolts could be made inter-
changeable. In i860 this tool was introduced into
England, and subsequently upon the continent of
Europe.
Another of the early machine-shop tools was the
gear-cutter, simply a revolving milling-cutter against
which the wheel was forced, mounted upon a spindle
above the dividing-plate on the same spindle. The
only power used was that required to rotate the cut-
ter ; the movement against the cutter and its reverse,
and the division or adjustment for the next tooth,
being all performed by the workman. The cost of
such work was so great that the teeth of nearly all
wheels, even for fine machines, were cast, until a
machine was devised by William Sellers, and con-
structed by his firm in 1867, and exhibited at the
exposition in Paris in the same year, in which the
work of the operative was limited to adjusting the
wheel to be cut to the cutter. After that the ma-
chine proceeded with the work of cutting each tooth,
retracting the cutter, turning the wheel for the next
William Sellers.
MACHINERY MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
349
tooth, and so on, until the wheel was completed in
less time than it could be done when these move-
ments were effected by hand ; so that now one man
can easily attend several machines, and cast teeth
are no longer admissible in good machines.
One other typical machine-tool which has re-
ceived its greatest development in this country must
be referred to — the milling-machine, by which the
various shapes for use or for ornament in our fire-
arms are fashioned. Its use is so varied that it has
become a necessary adjunct to every machine-shop,
and I close with this the list of machine-tools ne-
cessary to make other machines. It must not be
supposed, however, that the above comprise all or
nearly all of the machine-tools now in common use ;
they are but t5rpes, upon which an infinite variety of
changes have been wrought to adapt them to special
requirements. Their development marked the first
stage of the machinist's art, when machine-tools were
only required to perform the simple operations of
turning and planing, drilling and milling, to make
other machines.
Along with the development of these tools for
general piurposes came a development of the system
of interchangeability as an economical principle in
manufacturing machinery, requiring in some in-
stances special machines, but more commonly spe-
cial tools or appliances for use in connection with
the ordinary machine-tools. While it cannot be
claimed that this country was the first to attempt
manufacturing machinery upon this principle, it
must be admitted that the system was in successful
use here very many years in advance of any other
nation, and that, in fact, the demonstration here that
the system was economical, as well as advantageous
in other respects, induced the nations of Europe to
adopt it and procure the necessary apparatus here
to establish it at home.
For the economical manufacture of machinery or
of apparatus in which large numbers of the parts
shall be interchangeable there are certain prelimi-
nary conditions which must be observed : first, refer-
ence standards must be provided, with which to
compare the several parts and determine the toler-
ance — that is to say, the amount of variation per-
missible between the standard and the product;
second, every part of the finished piece must be
completed without the intervention of hand labor;
and third, for every piece a base must be established,
to which each and every succeeding operation must
refer; consequently every piece must form a sepa-
rate study to determine the best appliances for
each operation, so that the efficiency of the opera-
tion shall not be dependent upon the skill of the
operator.
The first application of these principles was made
upon firearms in our government arsenals, under the
direction of Mr. Eli Whitney, the inventor of the
cotton-gin. The growth of the system must have
been slow, and confined for a long period to a few
of the principal parts; but from the first it had
proved economical, for in 1822, Mr. Calhoun, then
Secretary of War, admitted to Mr. Whitney that the
government was saving $25,000 per year at the two
public armories alone by the use of his improve-
ments. The drop forging-press, with its dies con-
forming to the shape desired, served to produce
expeditiously in red-hot metal all of the smaller
parts of the gun, closely approximating the finished
size and shape. The milling-machine, when its
capacity was developed, finished these forged parts,
however varied the shape, with an accuracy well
within the limit of tolerance ; and the drill, when the
order of procedure had been determined and the
guiding templets were provided, fashioned the bear-
ings for the working parts and the holes for securing
the parts in position. The wooden gun-stock, of
irregular form, was rapidly and automatically shaped
exteriorly as it and its model revolved in a lathe
designed by Thomas Blanchard, and patented by
him January 20, 1820. Other special tools routed
the groove for the gun-barrel and the cavity for the
lock, with the other details required to receive the
guards and fastenings of the gun, with such accuracy
that the several parts could be assembled as they
came from the machines. The accuracy then at-
tainable, however, was far short of that now de-
manded ; the gun then produced did not require it.
The machine-tools were limited in variety and com-
paratively rude of structure, so that the quality of
their work could not be depended upon. The
vernier caliper was the most delicate instrument of
measurement, and a thousandth of an inch was its
extreme limit of accuracy, while the form of the
screw-thread did not admit of very accurate deter-
mination.
As the quality of our machine-tools improved, the
skill of our workmen advanced and their appreciation
of accuracy was enlarged. Appliances necessary to
detect with certainty an error of the twenty thou-
sandth of an inch were supplied by the Pratt &
Whitney Company, after designs by Professor W. A.
Rogers and Mr. George M. Bond; and the form
of screw-threads advocated by Mr. William Sellers
in a paper read before the Franklin Institute, April
21, 1864, has since become the standard for the
350
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
United States ; so that now a degree of accuracy is
easily attainable which, at the introduction of the
system, was impossible. The failure of the earlier
attempt to establish an interchangeable system of
manufacture in France was perhaps due to rude
apparatus ; but from the description that has come
down to us it would seem that the cardinal condi-
tions before referred to had not been observed, with
the result that a commission appointed by the French
government in 179 1 decided that it was inexpedient
to establish a central manufactory of locks, mainly
for the reason that it had not been found economi-
cal, and in 1807 the last factory engaged in the
manufacture was suppressed.
From the first our method of working the inter-
changeable system had proved economical, and, with
the growth of excellence in every detail of machi-
nery, the system had been so extended and improved
that the knowledge of its advantages reached to
foreign countries, and various commissions were
appointed to investigate it. In 1870 the German
government contracted with the Pratt & Whitney
Company for gun machinery to the value of $350,-
000, and within the next three years for $1,250,000
more; and until 1875 ^^^ company was kept busy
on European orders. By a supplemental contract
with the German government the Pratt & Whitney
Company agreed to superintend the erection of the
machinery they had furnished, and to instruct native
workmen how to operate it. The results were so
satisfactory that, departing from precedent, the au-
thorities forwarded a letter, from which the following
is an extract :
"The Pratt & Whitney Company has furnished
the royal armories of Spandau, Erfurt, and Danzig
with plants of machinery which execute the work
with such nicety and precision as to save one half
the wages, and to render the government in no
small degree independent of the power and skill of
the workmen." About the same time other manu-
facturers of gun-making tools — notably Brown &
Sharpe, of Providence, R. I.— received large orders
for such machinery from other foreign countries,
and our system for the manufacture of this class of
interchangeable parts was thus established in Eng-
land and on the continent of Europe.
The record, therefore, discloses the fact that for
more than half a centiuy this country has been in
possession of a system of manufacture peculiar to
itself, developed first in the manufacture of the
larger class of firearms, then extended to pistols,
and subsequently to a great variety of products,
such as the sewing-machine, the type-writer, the
bicycle, and the watch, in all of which we stand to-
day unrivaled.
Within the period I have been reviewing every
art has advanced enormously, and many have been
developed that had no previous existence. The
farmer no longer scratches the surface of his fields.
His plow of steel sufi&ces to turn the sod to a depth
that compels a more bounteous harvest ; his seeds
are planted and his crops are tilled by machines
which he rides and guides ; and his harvest is cut
and cured by still other machines, that carry him to
their work, obedient to his will.
Textile fabrics, at first hand-made, by successive
steps have become the product of machinery to
which the raw material is supplied, and from which
the finished material only is removed by hand. The
twine for the fisherman was once spun and the
meshes of his net were knit by hand. But he need
no longer knit, because he can buy his net for less
than he must pay for the twine of which to make it.
The yam for knitting, formerly hand-made, is no
longer in the market, and its knitted product, once
a fireside occupation, is' now supplied at a cost that
even those so-called idle hours could not compete
with. Boots and shoes then required a skilful work-
man to produce. Each was the work of one man.
But the shoemaker no longer exists. More than half
a hundred workers each contributes his mite to the
shoe which machinery produces, while garments
then cut out and laboriously stitched by hand are
now fashioned in piles and stitched and buttonholed
by machinery. While machinery has thus been
adapted to feed and to clothe us, it has been taught
to produce almost every article required in the
household or the workshop. Indeed, the very
houses that shelter us no longer represent the skill
of the joiner, for the mill has usurped his place, and
the carpenter only assembles its work.
The same changes have occurred in the fabrica-
tion of metals. The blast-furnace, whose maximum
product early in the century was 25 to 30 tons per
week, now produces 500 tons per day. The bloom
of iron, then the unit from which the largest masses
were built up, small as we now regard them, has
given place to the ingot of steel, weighing many
tons, which requires less labor to produce than the
bloom of as many pounds. The forge and the roll-
ing-mill which fashion the ingot in great masses are
new creations, and the machines which shape it in
detail with such marvelous rapidity, and at one heat,
are developments so great that the original parent
is barely recognizable. In transportation the team
of horses has long since been displaced by the loco-
MACHINERY MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
351
motive, and present indications point to another and
more efficient substitute.
The immense number of similar parts which the
automatic machinery of these and other industries
demanded afforded opportunity for the introduction
of machine-tools to manufacture machinery, as dis-
tinguished from those designed simply for making it.
The difference may be illustrated in the two processes
of making a turned bolt with a square or hexagonal
head, the one after the introduction of the slide-lathe,
and the other at the present time. Then, a bar of
iron of suitable size was heated and forged by the
smith to a size and shape approximating that of the
finished article; this was centered; a carrier was
secured upon one end whereby it could be rotated ;
the end opposite the carrier was squared in the slide-
lathe by a side-tool, the carrier was transferred
to the other end of the bolt, and the opposite end
was squared, the side-tool was changed for another
tool, adapted to tiuning the body of the bolt, and
this again for another, adapted to cutting the
thread. At each change of carrier and of tool the
lathe was stopped that the workman might release
the one tool and secure the other. Now, the iron
bar, square or hexagonal, and of the size and shape
of the head of the bolt, is delivered from the rolling-
mill to the attendant of the machine, who thrusts it
into the machine against a stop ; the machine grips
it, squares off the projecting end, turns up the body
of the bolt, cuts the thread, bevels the end, and
finally cuts off the bar beyond the last turning, to
make a head, and the bolt drops, a finished product.
The machine releases the bar, moves it forward the
distance required for another similar bolt, and re-
peats its operations, imtil the bar is converted into
bolts ; and it could, if desirable, inform its attendant
that it was out of work, or notify him of the fact by
stopping its movement. The attendant is no longer
of necessity a machinist, for his only occupation is
to provide his machine with bars, to remove its pro-
duct, and to keep it clean, duties which attendance
upon a number of such machines does not make
onerous. The turned bolt so manufactured is as
good as, but no better than, that which was first
forged and then finished upon the simple slide-lathe ;
but the product of the workman is vastly greater,
and the skill required for it is far less. For such
apparatus quantity of like product is the first req-
uisite. Given this, and the skill of the engineer
and the machinist is demanded to produce by suc-
cessive automatic operations the desired result.
These operations without the intervention of human
intelligence may at first be few in number, but they
will be extended from time to time as experience
warrants or as futiure discoveries may render possible.
The field, then, for machinery and for manufac-
turing interests is forever widening. Every secret
of nature that is imfolded, every discovery in the
arts, every combination that produces new results,
only opens other avenues of progress, which must
become more rapid and more diverse with the
growth of the centuries.
At the close of this century, however, it should
be noted that within the period I have been review-
ing the trade of the machinist had its origin. It
would be interesting to determine accurately, if that
were possible, what is now the annual product of this
new industry ; but the census gives only the aggre-
gate value of the machinery, tools, and implements
in use, and the annual production of all manufactur-
ing industries. From this source, however, we find
that the annual product of all manufacturing in-
dustries per employee amounts to $1988, a sum con-
siderably in excess of what I believe would be found
to be the product per employee in a manufactory
comprising foundries and machine-shops. The last
census gives the number of foimdries and machine-
shop establishments at 6475, ^^ capital employed
at $382,798,337, and the number of employees at
247,754 ; and if we assume the annual product per
employee to be $1500, we shall have an annual pro-
duction of machinery equal to $371,631,000, which
is probably a moderate estimate. The importation
of machinery is so small compared with our own
production that the cost has but little effect upon
our market, particularly so as its design and con-
struction are generally regarded as inferior to our
own ; but it is of interest to know that our average
annual importation for the last five years has been
$2,512,417.
It is to be hoped that, with a more widely dis-
seminated knowledge of the value of statistics, the
coming decade will develop census reports from
which, for the principal industries at least, an ac-
curate knowledge of our production per operative
may be determined.
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CHAPTER L
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY AND IMPLEMENTS
KNOWLEDGE is not a matter of words: it
is an acquaintance with things. Theories
. may present a seemingly formidable front,
but they must ever yield before the battering-ram of
facts. The farmer who hitched his small hoise to
the short end of the whiffletree to balance the large
horse at the longer end may not have appreciated
the stem philosophy of the fiiilure of his scheme, but
die failure itself was a demonstrated fact. Needless
to say, he was not a farmer of the present day and
age, to whom the laws of mechanics, as applied to
his calling, are almost as fami liar as to the inventor
himself. The contributions of invention to the ad-
vancement of agriculture are as self-evident as cause
and effect. These contributions — the things con-
tributed — are familiar to the great farming public.
This acquaintance with the various machines and
implements designed for his use has given the agri-
culturist a knowledge that is power — a power that
is seen not only in his own ameliorated condidon,
but in the generally augmented commercial pros-
perity of the nadon and of the world. The uni-
versality of the value of important agricultural
inventions is uniformly recognized by writers upon
commercial and economic subjects. In 1869 Mr.
J. J. Thomas published a book entided " Farm Im-
plements," and in the course of his introductory
remarks said: "The great value of improved farm
machinery to the country at large has been lately
proved by the introduction of the reapn. Careful
estimates determine that the number of reaping-
machines introduced up to the beginning of the
great Rebellion performed, whQe working in harvest,
an amount of labor neady equal to that of a miUion
of men with hand implements. The reaper thus fills
the void caused by the demand on workingmen for
the army. An earlier occurrence of that war must
therefore have resulted in the general ruin of the
grain interests, and prevented the annual shipment,
during that gigantic contest, of the millions of bush-
eb of wheat which so greatly surprised the com-
mercial savants of Europe."
In contemplating the subject of farm machinery
and implements, one is struck by the infinite variety
of useful inventions extant, and is at a loss to know
where, within the scope of a brief sketch, the line
shall be drawn between special mention and mere
allusion covering the general field. Research in
this direction, however, as doubdess in most other
industrial lines, discloses the names of a few whose
individuality has become so indelibly stamped upon
the age as to entitle them to more than a. passing
notice. Aside from these apparendy necessary ex-
ceptions, it is not the purpose of this article to dwell
upon particular inventions, classes, or individual in-
ventors, but rather to indicate in a comprehensive
manner the growth and devdopment of the speci-
fied art during the past 100 years, and to show or
attempt to measure the accruing advantages not
only to agriculture but to the commercial progress
of this wonderful century.
There are no tangible figures relative to the early
manufacturing interests of the United States. The
government made an effort to secure data on this
subject in i8ro, and, under the direction of the Sec-
retary of the Treasury, the marshals of the several
States, and the secretaries of the Territories, began the
work, but the returns were so irregular and deficient
in specific particulars that they have never been
accepted as possessing any value for the statistician.
It may be said, however, that down to the begin-
ning of the present century but litde progress had
been made in the improvement and development of
agricultural implements. It is true that during the
eighteenth century in Great Britain there were va-
rious spasmodic efforts at improvement which showed
that inventors were dreaming of something better
dian was then in common use, but they either lacked
ELUkiuiiE M. to
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY AND IMPLEMENTS
353
capacity to make their new devices practically op-
erative, or agriculturists lacked sufficient intelligence
to appreciate and operate them. The first quarter
of this century had passed before invention in this
line had made any practical progress, and it was
not until the middle of the century that manufac-
turers undertook a general advance, and began to
push their product and arouse agriculturists to the
advantage of improved implements. Then opened
this modem period of rapid progress, development,
and perfection. The movement began in this coun-
try, and Americans have maintained the lead ever
since.
The centennial character of this pubUcation sug-
gests the fact that loo years ago the patent on Eli
Whitney's cotton-gin was two years old. As a fac-
tor in the acceleration of the national resources and
wealth, its value can scarcely be overestimated.
Referring to it, Lord Macaulay is reported as say-
ing: "What Peter the Great did to make Russia
dominant, Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin
has more than equaled in its relation to the pro-
gress and power of the United States." In 1791,
just previous to the time of Whitney's invention, the
cotton crop of the world was estimated at 490,000,-
000 pounds, of which the United States produced
about one two-hundred-and-forty-fifth. As early as
1845 the total product had increased to 1,169,600,-
000 pounds, of which the United States suppHed
1,000,000,000 pounds, or more than seven eighths.
Other cotton-produdng countries were slow to
avail themselves of Whitney's invention, and were
consequently distanced in the race to supply the
world's increasing demand. In this connection it
is interesting to note that in 1784 a consignment of
eight bags of cotton, a total of about 1600 pounds,
was seized at Liverpool on the ground that so large
a quantity could not have been produced in the
United States ! A conservative estimate of the cot-
ton crop of this coimtry for the current year places
it at about 9,500^000 bales of 477 pounds each.
The first need of the original agriculturist was an
implement for stirring the soil, and for this purpose
he fashioned a stick with a hooked end, which he
himself drew. In time, when beasts were trained
for the bearing of burdens and for draft, this stick
was enlarged and drawn by them ; later it was shod
with iron, and through all the centuries down to a
little more than 100 years ago it remained substan-
tially the same, even among the most highly civi-
lized peoples, being to this day in common use in
Mexico and in other Latin-American nations. Some
improvement was made in Great Britain during the
23
last century in the form of plows, and iron was in-
creasingly used in their construction, but the plow
still in common use was the primitive implement,
generally made by the farmer himself. The first
American patent on a plow was granted to Charles
Newbold of New Jersey, in 1797. The claim was
for a plow of solid cast iron, excepting handles and
beam, consisting of a bar, sheath, and mold-plate.
It cut and turned over the soil very well, but farm-
ers did not accept it because they thought that iron
was poisonous to the land.
The man who laid the foundations of the modem
plow was Jethro Wood. He gave it its present
form and made it of cast iron, with share, shin,
mold-board, and landside, the parts being common
to any plow — that is, interchangeable. It was
patented September i, 18 19. During the forties
plow-making was carried on extensively in the East-
em States, but the demands of the Westem and
prairie States from 1850 and onward, and the use
of chilled iron, expanded the industry and led to
the many inventions and the perfection that have
followed. Among the names that will ever be as-
sociated with the plow are John Deere, pioneer in-
ventor and manufacturer, and James Oliver, whose
perfection of the chilled plow was an important ad-
vance in this line of invention.
The first drag, or harrow, was the limb of a tree,
with extending branches. This suggested the A
form of drag with teeth inserted, and it, in turn, the
square or oblong Roman harrow. These came
down to the middle of this century, substantially un-
changed. The first improvement in harrows was
the revolving disk, for which the first patent was is-
sued by our Patent Office to G. Page on August 7,
1847. Many and various have been the improve-
ments in harrows since.
Hand dropping or sowing of seed was the common
practice down to the middle of this century. A sort
of drill plow was produced in Assyria long before
the opening of the Christian era, and the Chinese
claim the use of a similar implement some three or
four thousand years ago. About 1 730, Jethro Tull,
an Englishman, produced a machine that was the
protot)rpe of the modem drill By the end of the
century, considerable advancement had been made
in England, and a broadcast seeder mounted on a
wheelbarrow had been invented. The first Ameri-
can patent on a seeding-machine was granted in
1799 to Eliakim Spooner, and several others were
issued during the early years of this century; but
nothing practical resulted until about 1840. J. Gib-
bons, on August 25, 1840, patented the feeding cavi-
354
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
ties and a device for regulating the amount deliv-
ered. Next, M. and S. Pennock, of Pennsylvania,
obtained a patent March 12, 184 1, for improvements
in cylinder drills, a class of drills they largely placed
upon the market. Patents on slide drills and " force-
feed " drills followed, the first patent on the latter
having been granted to Foster, Jessup & Brown,
November 4, 185 1. The feeding or dropping de-
vices having thus been invented, various kinds of
seeding-machines followed — drills, broadcast seed-
ers, and combinations, etc., to be developed and
perfected as the years passed.
The original cultivator was like the original plow,
simply a hooked stick. This in time was developed
into the hoe, and remained the common cultivating
implement until this century was well advanced.
Early in the eighteenth century Jethro Tull origina-
ted in England the " horse-hoe " system of cultiva-
tion. He sowed grain in rows, cultivating between
them. To carry out his system he invented the horse-
drill and the horse-hoe, or cultivator, with which to
work between the rows. His system failed for the
time, cultivating continuing to be done with the hoe,
and sometimes by plowing between rows, until corn-
fields began to be of considerable size, when the
single-shovel com cultivator for one horse was pro-
duced by some blacksmith, and later another shovel
was added, forming the two-shovel plow. The latter
was generally used in the prairie corn-fields up to
i860. April 22, 1856, George Esterly took out a
patent on a straddle-row two-horse com cultivator,
which was the first in the invention of a line of im-
plements in the manufactiure of which millions are
now invested; there being an almost endless vari-
ety of cultivators — hand and horse, single and dou-
ble, walking and riding, shovel-bladed, spring-tooth,
disk, etc.
Among the prehistoric implements that have been
found are several forms of sickles and scythes for
cutting grain. The earliest are of flint, but curved
and shaped quite like the old sickle that our grand-
fathers used ; the scythes being similar in shape, but
larger, some having shanks for handles, or snaths.
These were the implements with which grain and
grass were cut, down to about fifty years ago. Of
course, through the many centuries they were im-
proved in form and material; the snath of the
scythe was given the proper shape, and finally fin-
gers were added, forming a cradle, early in this
century. It is true that Pliny describes a crade
stripping-header, as in use in Gaul during the first
century of the Christian era, and several efforts
were made to produce a grain-cutting machine to
be drawn or pushed by horses, in England and in
this country, toward the end of the last century and
the fore part of this; but nothing practical came of
these efforts.
The earliest demonstration of a successful reaper
was made by Cyrus Hall McCormick in Virginia in
the summer of 1831. His first patent was granted
on June 21, 1834. Letters patent bearing date De-
cember 31, 1833, were issued to Obed Hussey, but
the McCormick reaper had been operated in the field
two years before Mr. Hussey claimed to have in-
vented his machine. Both McCormick and Hussey
built reaping-machines that did good, practical work.
Hussey, however, was hardly strong enough for the
struggle necessary for pushing a radical innovation ;
but McCormick zealously persevered, improving
and perfecting his machine, building an increased
number each year, and pushing their sale with un-
tiring energy, until the demand so largely outran
manufacturing facilities that in 1847 ^^ plant was
removed to Chicago and fully equipped for supply-
ing the harvest-fields of the West
In 1849 the United States Commissioner of Pat-
ents, referring to the McCormick reaper, said: "In
agriculture it is in my view as unportant a labor-
saving device as the spinning-jenny and power-
loom in manufactures. It is one of those great and
valuable inventions which commence a new era in
the progress of improvement, and whose beneficial
influence is felt in all coming time." Mr. McCor-
mick exhibited his machine at the London Exposi-
tion of 1 85 1, and after witnessing its field work the
juries were enthusiastic over its success, it being
openly asserted that this machine alone was worth
the entire cost of the Exposition. In recognition
of the value of Mr. McCormick's invention, it is
worthy of note that in 1878 he was elected a cor-
responding member of the French Academy of
Sciences, on the ground of his " having done more
for the cause of agricultiure than any other living
man."
Since the invention and general introduction of
the reaper, improvements have been many and val-
uable. Among those marking the progress of the
development it should be noted that in July, 1851,
Palmer & Williams were granted a patent on their
self-raking reaper. During the fifties patents were
also issued to John H. Manny, Walter A. Wood,
Cyrenus Wheeler, and others, for improvements on
reapers; to Louis Miller for important features of
both reapers and mowers, and to C. W. and W. W.
Marsh for the first practical hand-binding harvester,
with which, later, the binder was successfully incor-
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY AND IMPLEMENTS
355
porated. The first patent on a grain-binder was
granted to John £. Heath on July 22, 1850. Com-
ing down, however, to the automatic twine binder,
as in use at the present time, the McCormick de-
vice patented by Marquis L. Gorham, February 9,
i^75> ^ the original successful invention. The
early reaper has gradually developed into the mod-
em harvester, and is now quite generally superseded
by it. The range of the harvester's utility is also
being enlarged, and we have a machine adapted to
the successful cutting of rice, and another to com
and sugar-cane. Within the past decade some at-
tention has been given to the Universal Harvester,
designed for the simultaneous cutting and threshing
of grain. It is built to cut from sixteen to forty
feet, but climatic conditions are such as to preclude
anything more than a very limited adoption, though
machines of this type are used to some extent on
the Pacific Coast
Implements for mowing and reaping were origi-
nally of the same class, and mowing and reaping
machines were thus classified in the Patent Office, so
it is not known who first invented a machine intended
solely for mowing. The early reapers were gen-
erally of the class known as combined — that is, they
both reaped and mowed. William F. Ketcham was
the first to build distinctively mowing-machines for
the market His first patent was granted on No-
vember 18, 1844.
Grain was first poimded out of straw by a stick,
neact by the flail, and then by cattle or horses on
the " threshing-floor," and the larger portion of the
grain in this country was thus threshed prior to 1840.
The first successfully operated threshing-machine
was the invention of Andrew Meikle, in Scodand,
ibr which he obtained a patent in 1788. A fanning-
mill was added in 1800, and it then became a com-
plete separator, but it was very imperfect and was
stationary — being mn by water-power — and the
grain was brought to it to be threshed. Threshers
without separating devices were used in this coun-
try as early as 1825, but to Hiram A. and John A.
Pitts belongs the honor of producing the first prac-
tical combination of threshing and cleaning, or sepa-
rating, devices, all in one machine, and that portable.
In 1854 they made the combination and successfiilly
operated it Their first patent was dated December
29, 1837. The Pitts Brothers laid the foundation of
the threshing-machine industry, and they and McCor-
mick, who was bringing forward his reaper at the
same time, together laid the foundation upon which
has since been built the whole structure of the mod-
em agricultural-implement industry. It opened up
great possibilities for improvements in other classes,
and stimulated invention in all lines.
Com-planters are strictly an American invention.
Several patents on seeding-machines were issued by
the United States Patent Office from 1799 down to
1836, when the records were destroyed by fire, and
some one or more may have been granted for put-
ting seed- com into the groimd. A patent was issued
to D. S. Rockwell, March 12, 1839, ^^^ ^ com-plant-
er. Afterward other patents were granted, covering
various devices and improvements in hand and horse
planters, but it was left for George W. Brown to
produce a practical and marketable machine of this
type. His first patent was issued on August 2, 1853.
The hinged marker was successfiilly attached by
Jarvis Case, whose patent is dated December i, 1857.
The first patent on a check-rower was granted to M.
Robbins, on Febmary 10, 1857; but to Haworth
Brothers is due the credit of making the check-rower
sufficiendy practical for common use and putting it
on the market.
In haying tools and machinery, J. £. Porter's
patents of 1872, on carriers, opened the way for a
big industry. The Keystone Manufacturing Com-
pany were first in the field with a successful hay-
loader, and to P. K. Dederick must be accredited
the perfection attained by the baling-press.
In view of the fact that windmills for pumping
piuposes were very generally used in Holland several
hundred years ago, it seems somewhat surprising
that the farm wind-engine, as we know it to-day^
has a history of only some two-score years. In 1 841 ,
a man named Wheeler, who was laboring as a mis-
sionary among the Indians in Northern Wisconsin,
conceived the idea of a windmill for grinding grain
and pumping water, but it was not imtil 1867 that
his theories were embodied in a model of what is
known as the " solid-wheel " mill. In 1854, Daniel
Halliday and John Bumham crystallized their ideas
of a sectional windmill, and, engaging at once in its
manufacture, stimulated others, until now inmiense
capital is invested in this branch of industry.
It is apparent that there are many other impor-
tant machines and implements of this class well de-
serving more than passing note, but the scope of
this article precludes any specific reference to them.
Of incalculable value is the long line of portable
engines, horse-powers, ditching machines, com shel-
lers, shredders, and buskers, cane machinery, potato
planters and diggers, etc. Suffice it to say that in
these various lines improvement is the watchword;
and if our American inventors have not quite reached
perfection, they are making commendable progress
356
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
toward it, and need have no apprehension of being
superseded by inventors or manufacturers of other
nations.
The niunber of establishments engaged in the
exclusive manufacture of agricultural machinery and
implements, as shown by the census returns of 1890,
was 910 ; or, as specified in the " Government Bulle-
tin," this is the "number reporting," and we can well
believe that it is considerably below the actual total.
These concerns reported an aggregate capital of
$145,313,997, the number of hands employed being
39,580, receiving in wages $17,652,162. The value
of the manufactured product, including receipts from
custom work and repairing, was $81,271,651. Our
foreign trade in this line of manufactures is increasing
at a rapid rate, having grown firom practically noth-
ing at the time of the Rebellion to $5,027,915 for the
fiscal year ending Jime 30, 1894, a forcible illustra-
tion of the fact that American genius and skill,
American capital and push, are asserting their su-
premacy around the globe. The number of farms
in the United States is given as 4,564,641, or 623,-
218,619 acres, worth $13,279,252,649. These farms
were supplied with machinery and implements to
the value of $494,247,467, this figure represent-
ing a gain of over twenty-one per cent, in ten
years. It will thus be seen that the modem agri-
culturist is keenly alive to the value of either im-
proved methods or implements looking to the bet-
tering of his condition and the lightening of his labors.
If he does not repeatedly say so in words, he puts it
more forcibly in deeds. That he takes kindly to
the manufactured products of inventive skill is seen
in the gradual ratio of increase of the money annu-
ally expended for purchases in this direction. It is
also seen in the wonderful increase of our country's
cereal product, which has grown firom about 600,-
000,000 bushels in 1840 to considerably more than
3,000,000,000 bushels as estimated for 1895. There
has, of course, been a natiural logical increase in our
farm product, but it is safe to say that a fair percent-
age of it, as shown by the above figures, has been
directiy due to the benefits which invention has con-
In the early colonial days, machinery was re-
garded as a special invention of the devil, and it was
a bold step, taken by the Rev. Thomas Barnard, to
preach his " manufactory sermon " in Boston, in the
course of which he asserted that " an industrious
prosecution of the arts of civil life is very fiiendly to
virtue," assuring his hearers that such encouragement
to manufactiures as would enable them to produce
at home what they were then importing fi-om foreign
countries would be the part of wisdom and prudence.
It was nearly three quarters of a century later before
the agricultural-implement industry gave even a hint
of its ultimate magnitude, and the story of its won-
derful growth during the past fifty years — were it
told by a master who should picture all its bright-
ness — would read like a tale of the Arabian Nights.
The invention, development, and marketing of our
modem farm machinery and implements have directly
advanced the cause of agricultiure to a degree that
our forefathers never dreamed of, fairly lifting it fit)m
the treadmill round of dmdgeryto the table-lands of
thought, so that now, instead of being a mere matter
of the application of brute force, its rich possibilities
call into constant requisition the God- given attri-
butes of intelligence and reason. In the United
States there are more than 10,000,000 persons actu-
ally engaged in agriculture in its various branches, a
number which far exceeds those employed in all
other fields of labor, and in nothing is the progress
of the farmer's calling shown so strikingly as in the
wonderful improvement in the implements designed
for his use. By the aid of these he has, within the
last half-century, been enabled to increase the effec-
tive force of labor fully twenty per cent, which means
an annual net gain to the agricultural community of
probably not less than $200,000,000 ; and when it is
remembered that the products of the fiarm present a
most important figure in our commerce, our manu-
facturing, shipping, railroad, and kindred interests, it
will be conceded that the advancement of agriculture
means also the advancement of these industries, and
a material augmentation of the general prosperity
of the whole country, and of all countries.
tributed to modem agriculture. X^ . ^ ^^ y
I
Jeremiah Dwver.
CHAPTER LI
STOVES AND HEATING APPARATUS
CAREFUL research into the histoiy of the
origin and evolution of stoves and heating
apparatus develops the fact that advance in
invention and manufkcture has not followed isother-
mal lines, as would seem natural, but that the
United States, from the inventive character of its
people, has easily taken the lead, although in doing
so it has not hesitated to appropriate all that was
best and most useful in the systems that obtained in
Other countries. The vast geographical extent of
OUT country, its various climates, and the complex
character of its population have been'reflected in the
history and nature of this as of other great industries.
Stoves are said to have been cast for the first time
in Alsace, France, in 1490, and as early as 1509
they were cast at Ilsenberg. The first casting
known to have been made in America was a small
round-bottomed kettle with a cover, made at Lynn,
Mass., in 1643, at the first blast-fiunace erected in
this country. The jamb-stove was made by Chris-
topher Sower, of Gennantown, Pa., between 1730
and 1740. In 1744 Franklin stoves were made in
Philadelphia.
Between 1752 and 1768 stoves of the box-stove
<»der were made at Marlboro, near Winchester, Va.
In 1760 Baron William Henry Steigel cast Stoves at
his finnace near Letiz, Pa., and was very successful.
In 1786 heating-stoves of the box shape were cast
in Philadelphia, and plates for these stoves were
shipped to Providence, R. I., and to Troy, N. Y.,
where they were put together. The Conant stove
was made at Siandon, Vt., in 1830. The plates for
the Woolson stove were made at Brandon, Vl, and
carted seventy miles to Claremont, N. H. The
Woolson stove was also made at a later date in
Massachusetts, Detroit, Mich., and in Cleveland,
Ohio.
The character of heating and cooking appliances
at any period is determined by the kind and price
of fiiel. At the beginning of the century wood was
cheap and labor scarce ; therefore the fireplace was
made capacious enough to contain a laige back-
log which lay in the ashes at the rear, and in firont
of which was the forestick, resting on andirons. The
space between these two logs was filled with smaller
wood. The living-room in which this fireplace
was located served for both kitchen and dining-
room, and at night high-backed settees were ar-
ranged in front of the fire to intercept the heat, and
prevent cold draughts from behind. The home
idea of the fireside that pervades our literature had
its origin in these early family rooms. The fire-
place also served for cooking. Hinged to the
right-hand jamb was an iron crane filled with dan-
gling pot-hooks. It was pulled out so that pots and
kettles might be hung on the hooks, and the crane
was then swung back over the blazing fire. Pota-
toes were baked in the hot ashes. In the wall
alongside the fireplace was built the brick oven,
with its flat bottom and arched top, having an iron
door in front On baking-day, a wood fire was
built inside of this oven, and when it was burned to
coals and the oven thoroughly heated, the fire was
neatly removed, and the bread placed on the oven
bottom. In England, with soil coal for fuel, they
still cling to the open fire, and do not take kindly
to the substitution of close stoves. In the northern
part of America the climate made it desirable to
heat other rooms than the one in which the fire-
place was located. The fiist effort in this direction
was the jamb-stove. This was a cast-iron box built
into the side of the fireplace so that one of its sides
received heat from the fire, while the rear end,
which could be dosed with a door, opened into the
room in the rear of the fireplace, which thus re-
ceived some heat from the adjoining chamber.
In the early days churches were not heated, foot-
stoves being used to keep the feet of the congrega-
358
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
tion warm. These consisted of sheet-iron pans about
six inches square, in which live coals were placed,
and these were enclosed in casings of metal perfo-
rated at the sides and top, having bails by which
they were carried. In 1744 Benjamin Franklin de-
vised a cast-iron open fireplace which stood out
firom the chimney and so caused the heat from its
back and sides to be thrown into the room.
The six-plate or box-stove was the earliest form
of the present heating apparatus. It was made
from iron taken directly from the blast-furnace, and
was very heavy. These stoves stood on an orna-
mental frame, and were made in this country as
early as 1752. Early in this century cylindrical or
oval stoves of sheet iron were made in Philadelphia,
and also in New Hampshire, by Isaac Orr. This
developed later into the oval regulator, with a draft-
damper, opened and closed automatically by the dif-
erence in expansion of a brass rod and the sheet-iron
stove-body. In 1836 James At water, of New York,
made a stove with an illuminated case of cast iron
and mica. It had inclosed flues, a check-flue, and a
direct draft-damper. The Stanley square heating-
stove, with return and exit flues inclosed in the four
corners, was perfected about this time. In 1845
Dr. Bushnell invented a cylinder-stove with the in-
side lined with fire-clay, and having a pipe at each
of the foiu: comers, down which the heat returned
to a hollow base, and thence went up through a
pipe at the back.
Gas-biuners or surface-burners next appeared in
the order of time. These were both round and oval,
and by perforated fire-pots, or perforated gas-rings
at the top of the brick, the coal was more perfectiy
consumed than in any former device. They were
mostiy made of sheet iron ; and generally the flues
which returned the heat to the base were inclosed
in the stove body. The most popular of these were
the P. P. Stewart's oval and round parlor-stoves,
first made about i860, by Fuller, Warren & Com-
pany, of Troy, N. Y.
Base-burning stoves have now been long in use.
The principle of these stoves is ** to place the fuel in
such a position that air to supply combustion shall
come from one direction, and the fuel from the oppo-
site direction, thereby causing the heated products of
combustion to pass from the sides of the pile of fuel,
instead of up through it.'' The magazine idea is first
seen in the English patent of David Riz, 1770. Next
came the patents of James Watt, in 1785; Pollock,
in 1807, and Stratton in 1817 and 1822. Anthracite
coal was brought into use in America between 1820
and 1830, being afterward used to a limited extent
for heating in open grates. It was so difficult to
prevent a fire kindled with anthracite coal from go-
ing out, that those who were interested in this fuel
sought for an expert to devise the best method of
burning it. Dr. Eliphalet Nott, President of Union
College, of Schenectady, N. Y., had invented a box-
stove in 1820, with which all the students' rooms in
the college were heated ; and as he was an acknow-
ledged authority on the combustion of fuel, a small
quantity of anthracite coal was sent to him. The
result of his experiments was the construction of an
illuminated magazine-stove of an oblong square
section, lined with fire-brick. This worked well,
but for the fact that when the cover was removed
gas would escape and often explode. When a pas-
sage was made from the top of the magazine to the
exit flue, which allowed the gas to pass ofi^ the users
would often carelessly leave the damper open, thus
causing all the coal to become ignited. These de-
fects rendered the new stove of no value.
Jordan L. Mott, Sr., a merchant of New Yoik
City, who in 1830 had become a manufacturer of
stoves, in 1833 constructed a self-feeding base-burner.
In this stove he introduced the burning of the chest-
nut size of anthracite coal in thin layers, fed from a
magazine. Mr. Mott's stove contained the princi-
ple of the modem base-burner, as it is now used.
In 1852 D. G. LitUefield, of Albany, constructed a
self-feeding base-biuning stove, which he improved
in 1856 ; and in 1862 he made his " Morning Glory"
base-bimier, which had a very large sale wherever
anthracite coal was used. The construction of this
stove, employing chestnut coal, showed how anthra-
cite coal might be burned successfully. In 1862 the
"Oriental" base-burner was devised by Perry &
Company, being similar to the " Morning Glory "
construction. It had a great sale.
About this time the "American" base-burner was
brought out by Van Wormer & McGarvey, of Al-
bany, proving very successful. About 1863 Hailes
& Treadwell, acting for Rathbone, in Albany,
added a magazine to the revertible-flue gas-burner,
which drew the flame away from the magazine, and
heated the floor more than the direct-draft base-
burners had previously done. In 1865 Hunt &
Miller, of Hudson, produced a base-burner with
very small mica windows opposite the grate. In
1 87 1 James Spear, of Philadelphia, constructed his
anti-clinker direct-draft base-biuner^ with a small
illumination opposite the grate, and the same year
W. J. Keep brought out " Keep's Side-Burner," which
was the first stove that had been made with a full
mica section both below and above the fire-pot.
STOVES AND HEATING APPARATUS
359
Fuller, Wairen & Company, who manufactured this
stove, were of the opinion that " no one would admire
mica windows opposite a dirty ash-pit," and therefore
thought best to be very careful about putting it on the
market Perry & Company, of Albany, were watch-
ing the anti-clinker and the side-burner, and in 1873
put the anti-clinker grate and the full double illum-
ination into a case of the graceful proportions of the
American base-burner, and produced the *' Argand "
base-burner. The arrangement of flues in the Ar-
gand was the same as had been made by Elihu Smith,
who did much to develop the base-burning stove.
The Argand construction and shape were exacdy
what the people wanted. The Michigan Stove Com-
pany manufactured it on royalty in the West. The
Detroit Stove Works made the " Crown Jewel " of
the same shape, except that they sloped the lower win-
dows outward. Fuller, Warren & Company in 1875
made " The Splendid " after the lines of the " Crown
Jewel," and in 1876 the Michigan Stove Company
dropped the " Argand " and made the " Garland."
This type of roimd stoves held its own until 1880,
when the Magee Furnace Company, of Boston, con-
structed a rectangular double illuminated base-
burner, with an artistic ornamentation. This shape
was followed by leading firms, but did not meet the
approval of the masses, partly because the fire-box
was square.
In 1884, the Michigan Stove Company brought
out a stove with square base, round fix)nt, and nearly
square sides, with a round fire-pot, and a round top
surmounted by a dome, called the " Art Garland."
This was the invention of Mr. Keep, who had re-
moved fix)m Troy, and had become the superintend-
ent of the Michigan Stove Company. This stove
was imitated by six of the largest firms the next year.
The same year Smith & Anthony of Boston made
the " Hub " base-burner, with a modeled ornamen-
tation by Mr. Osbum, designer of the Low Art Tiles.
In 1885, the Michigan Stove Company adopted the
modeled style of ornamentation, which has since
been used by the principal manufacturers. In 1887,
Mr. Keep patented the use of an intumed mica sec-
tion over the fire, with a reflector placed above it,
in the " Reflector Art Garland " for the Michigan
Stove Company. The patents were respected for
about five years, but at present nearly all first-class
houses have constructed stoves with the reflectors
and the shape of this base-burner.
The first departure fi-om the early brick oven was
the tin reflector. When this was set before the fire
the baking was done on shelves by radiant heat.
In the brick oven the fire was placed inside. The
first efibrt at improvement tended to place the fire
outside the oven, so as to impart a continuous heat,
and at the same time to make a portable stove which
would warm a room by the heat escaping through
its outside walls. The first cooking-stove was prob-
ably evolved by placing an oven in a box-stove. The
James stove was the first of this kind of which we
have any record. It was called a nine-plate. The
oven door opened on the side of the stove, and the
flues about it led the smote up its sides and over
the top to the pipe collar.
The Vermont " Historical Magazine " has this to
say concerning the great change wrought by the
introduction of the cooking-stove :
In 1 8 19, John Conant invented the Conant stove,
and made the first one from castings obtained at the
furnace in Pittsford, Vt. In 1820, Mr. Conant erected
a furnace at Brandon, Vt., and the first blast was made
in October. At this furnace was cast the old Conant
stove, the first made in the State, and a great invention
for the time, and which was the wonder of the farmer's
kitchen. It was the inauguration of a new era in the
culinary kingdom. The pleasant old fireplace, with
its swinging crane of well-filled pots and ketdes, hearth-
spiders with legs, and bake-kettles, and tin bakers to
stand before the blazing logs and bake custard pies in,
all went down at once and disappeared before the first
stove, without so much as a passing struggle. Stoves
with ovens, but without boilers, etc., had been previ-
ously made to some extent. The State of Vermont was
being supplied previous to 18 19 by a house in Troy,
N. Y., who had their castings made in Philadelphia.
The Conant stove had an oven above the fire,
with a door in both ends, the firont one being over
the fire-door. Each side of the stove was extended
so as to receive a pot which rested in the recess by
its rim. This presented one side and a portion of
the bottom of each pot to the fire. At the rear of
the stove another chamber was constructed to hold
a third pot, and this could be heated by an inde-
pendent fire, if it was not considered desirable to
heat the whole stove. The fire was still under the
oven.
The Woolson stove, invented at Claremont, N. H.,
had the oven at the side of the fire-box, and by
dampers the heat could be thrown under or over the
oven. The top was flat, and there were several
cooking-holes. The "Premium" succeeded, and
was an improvement upon this stove. As an illus-
tration of the change in the requirements of the
trade, Mr. H. C. Woolson, a son of the inventor,
writes : " When my father's stove was first made
the fiaxmers said it did not bum half enough wood,
360
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
but when it was laid aside the complaint was that it
burned too much wood. A sheet-iron stove was in-
vented soon after my father made his stove, called
the 'Yankee Notion,* which was the beginning of all
elevated-oven stoves." Experiments in oven-stoves
showed that the fire underneath the oven heated the
bottom too rapidly, and the fire at the side caused
one side of the oven to bake faster than the other.
This led to placing the oven at the rear, and on a
higher level than the boiler-holes, which brought the
heat uniformly against all parts of the oven. This
also enabled the boiler- holes to be placed very near
the floor, and brought the oven higher up than in
any other construction, making it a very convenient
stove to operate.
The next progressive step was Stanley's rotary
cook- stove in 1833, a stove which had the cooking-
holes and fire-box as low down as the elevated oven.
The top revolved by a crank and cogs, so that any
hole could be brought over the fire. Tin ovens
were placed over the pots or sad-irons to retain the
heat, and a tin cover was put over a rack on which
were placed loaves to be baked, making a portable
oven for the top of the stove. An elevated oven
was attached to the stove when required.
The evolution of the cooking-stove did not follow
in regular sequence, as would appear firom the fore-
going account. The Conant, and Woolson, and the
elevated-oven were probably made at the same time.
Mr. Giles F. Filley, of St. Louis, sheds light on the
subject as follows : " A Mr. Hoxie, a Quaker, had
gone firom Philadelphia to Salisbury, Conn., where
pig iron was made before 181 2. He had no doubt
used the ten-plate stoves, for he held that the heat-
ing of an oven fi-om the under side was wrong, and
that the fire should be on the top of the oven, and be
made to pass around the same to heat it evenly in
all its parts. Hoxie's first stove was oval in form,
the fire passing down the two end flues, meeting at
the bottom of the stove, thence to a chimney by a
channel cut in the hearth of the fireplace over
which the stove was placed. Hoxie then made a
two-flued portable stove, the flues similar to those in
the two-flued ranges now in use. He next made a
stove with what is now called the three-flued princi-
ple. The stoves made by Hoxie were principally
sold in the neighborhood of Salisbury, and they
were hardly known outside of that place during his
lifetime, which ended about 1820." J. G. Hatha-
way, who made a great stir in the stove trade, ob-
tained a patent on his stove in 1837. He claimed
to have invented the three-flue construction, but he
afterward admitted that he had seen one of Hoxie's
stoves. The Buck stove was invented by a Mr.
Crowell, of Palmyra, N. Y. ; but according to con-
tract the patent was taken out in the name of Mr.
Buck, in 1839.
P. P. Stewart's first patent was in 1838. The fire-
box hung in the upper part of the oven, so that the
heat fix)m both sides and the bottom was thrown into
it. The flame passed down in one sheet in fi-ont of
the oven, then under and up the rear to the pipe
collar on top of the stove. Stewart's large-oven
stove was made in 1850, and was at first a three-flue
construction, but he soon after adopted a sheet flue
under the oven, and three flues at the back. Sam-
uel Pierce about this time invented the curved plate,
now generally used at the front of the oven, which
threw the ashes firom the grate into an ash-pit in the
hearth. There have been no important changes in
cook-stove construction since that date. Minor
changes have been made to increase sales, such as
Filley's gauze door, his return-flue construction, the
various arrangements of reservoirs and grates, the
methods of oven ventilation, and Buck's Stove Com-
pany's brilliant glass and enameled oven doors.
Several innovations have also been introduced by
Bridge, Beach & Company.
Royal Deane, of the Bramhall-Deane Company,
N. Y., gives a number of facts regarding French
ranges, or those made of wrought-iron and steel.
Before 1850 a Frenchman, who, he thinks, was
named Gillette, had supplied the Boston market with
a sheet-iron range. The fire in this range was sus-
pended inside of a sheet-iron casing in a basket
grate, the cooking and heating being accomplished
by radiant heat fi-om the fire direct. The firm of
Stimson Brothers, or Stimson & Son, of Boston, had
also made similar ranges. About 1850 the firm of
Duparquet, Huot & Moneuse, of New York, was
established, and made a similar range, but later the
oven was made a separate part of the construction,
and flues were placed around it as at the present
time. In 1855 John Van, of Cincinnati, placed on
the market the first modem wrought-iron range, in-
tended to be used on Mississippi steamboats; and
since that date this branch of the trade has increased
very rapidly.
Stoves were manufactured in Detroit during the
thirties at the Hydraulic Iron Works foundry. In
1849 the writer of this paper, while learning the
molding trade in this foundry, worked on repairs
for Woolson stoves, and in this way had his atten-
tion turned to the subject of this manufacture, and
in 1 86 1, with his brother, James Dwyer, he estab-
lished the first foundry in Detroit exclusively for
STOVES AND HEATING APPARATUS
361
making stoves. In 1864 this concern was merged
into the Detroit Stove Works, W. H. Teflft and M.
I. Mills joining the company. In 187 1 the present
writer, with Charles DuCharme, George H. Barbour,
and others, established in Detroit the Michigan
Stove Company, and in 188 1 his brother organized
the Peninsular Stove Company.
Foimdries for the manufacture of stoves exclu-
sively were established at Troy and Albany at an
early date on account of the superior molding-sand
found there. In 1835 Joel Rathbone and Pratt &
Treadwell conducted stove foundries in the latter
city. Such foundries were also established at vari-
ous points in the New England States. New York
City possessed a number of stove foundries, and
Jordan L. Mott was one of the first to use a cupola
for remeldng iron for stove manufacture.
About 1865 the competition of foundries located
in the West became so sharp that eastern manu-
facturers were obliged to establish branch houses at
Chicago to fiEudlitate the delivery of stoves to their
western customers. Later, eastern men began to
move their entire plants to western points, with the
result that at present Chicago is the center of stove
distribution.
As the result of the efforts of Mr. John S. Perry
of Albany, a meeting of stove manufacturers was
held at Ddmonico's in New York on March 6,
1872, with Mr. John S. Perry as chairman, and
Henry T. Richardson as secretary. General Rath-
bone suggested that a permanent organization was
desirable^ and the following conmiittee was chosen
for that purpose: Messrs. Resor, Smith, Shepard,
Rathbone, McDonald, Tefit, Patterson, Bradley,
Greene, and Filley. This committee presented a
draft of a constitution and by-laws which were
adopted after discussion and amendments, an as-
sociation being organized with John S. Perry as
president; G. F. Filley, first vice-president; David
Stewart, second vice-president, and Mr. A. Bradley,
treasurer. John S. Perry held the office of presi-
dent until 1874; Sherman S. Jewett was president
until 1878; John F. Rathbone, 1879 and 1880;
R. P. Myers, i88i; W. H. Whitehead, 1882 and
1883; Grange Sard, 1884 and 1885; Jacob L.
Smyser, 1886 and 1887; George H. Barboiu:, 1888
and 1889; D. M. Thomas, 1890; Jesse Orr, 1891
and 1892; George D. Dana, 1893 and 1894, and
Lazard Kahn, 1895. In 1886 D. M. Thomas was
made permanent secretary and held the position
until his death in 1895, with the exception of the
year 1890, when he accepted a position with a
manufacturing concern. He resumed the duties of
his office, however, in 189 1. T. J. Hogan suc-
ceeded him in 1895, having been secretary during
the year 1890.
At the first meeting in 1872, Mr. Perry presented
the following table, showing the number of stoves
manufactured in the years enumerated:
Ybars.
NUMBBR MADB.
Gain pek cent.
iS-^O
25,000
100,000
375,000
1,000,000
2,100,000
*"j
184.0
300
275
167
110
1850
i860
1870
■*'/*' •••••
The following figiures are furnished by T. J. Ho-
gan, secretary of the association mentioned above,
the National Stove Manufacturers' Association :
In 1870 there were 275 stove and hollow- ware
manufacturers, consuming yearly 275,000 tons of
iron. The volume of business in 1872 was $37,-
600,000. The stove foundries in the United States
January i, 1895, were 215, with an estimated capac-
ity of $35,840,400. The volume of business in 1892
was $34»S7S»30o; i» ^^93f $3o>o3S>7oo; estimated
volume of business in 1894, $24,204,810.
The estimated capacity is divided as follows :
ConDecticut $234,000
Maine 324,000
Massachusetts . . . 2,580,000
New Hampshire . . 169,200
Rhode Island .... 421,200
Indiana 1,098,000
Ohio 4,107,600
Illinois 3>859,ooo
Kansas 360,000
Michigan 3,480,000
Minnesota 342,000
Missonri 1,540,800
Wisconsin 921,600
Maryland $720,000
New Jersey 100,800
Virginia 216,000
West Virginia .... 100,800
Pennsylvania .... 6,062,400
New York 6,776,000
Georgia 11 1,000
Alabama 120,000
Kentncky 975,000
Oregon 00,000
Tennessee 1,086,000
Texas 45>ooo
The Stove Founders' National Defense Associa-
tion was organized in 1886 with Mr. Henry Crib-
ben, president, and D. M. Thomas, secretary. Mr.
Cribben has bfeen elected president each year. The
office of secretary has always been filled by the
secretary of the National Association of Stove Man-
ufacturers. Committees from this association and
from the Iron Molders' Union meet each year to
decide upon prices to be paid for molding, and to
adjust dififerences and avoid strikes. Through the
efforts of this association no reduction in the wages
of molders employed by its members was made ne-
cessary during the period of business depression ex-
tending from 1893 to 1895.
In 17 13, M. Ganger, in a treatise on the construe-
362
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
tion of fireplaces^ recommended the heating of air
by means of a hollow back or wall of a fireplace.
In 1744 Dr. Franklin invented a stove for burning
wood, in the form of a box, of a greater distance
from side to side than in depth, with an open front
The smoke escaped over the top of a flat chamber
behind the fire, and passed downward between it
and the real back of the stove, and thence into the
chimney. This flat, hollow chamber communicated
underneath the stove with a tube opening into the
external atmosphere, and a quantity of air was thus
passed through the flat chamber into the room,
through small holes left in the sides. This was
probably the first attempt to construct a hot-air fiimace
for supplying pure heated air to rooms. A patent
was granted Daniel Pettibone of Philadelphia, in 1 808,
for stoves for rarefying, by heat, air for warming
buildings. This system was soon after introduced
in the Philadelphia Almshouse, and was used for
heating churches and large buildings. In 1835
William A. Wheeler is said to have made at Wor-
cester, Mass., the first warm-air fiunaces that were
made in New England. Gurden Fox, a grocer of
Hartford, Conn., some time between 1835 ^^^ ^^4°
brought out a hot-air furnace which had a large
sale. Other hot-air furnaces of an early date were
the Blaney and the Culver. The old firm of Rich-
ardson & Boynton, of New York, put the Boynton
furnace on the market at an early period.
In 1843 ^^- Henry Ruttan began his experi-
ments in heating and ventilation, and later wrote a
book on the subject. The first attempt to heat
buildings with anthracite coal was made in a very
crude way. The furnace was placed in the cellar,
surrounded by an air-chamber of brickwork, and
the gaseous products of combustion were carried
through the building, passing through cylindrical
drums on the upper floors and out at the top of the
house.
The use of hot water in pipes for heating seems
to be an invention of great antiquity. Seneca has
accurately described the mode of heating by water
in the Thermae at Rome, which shows that the me-
thod of heating baths by passing water through a
coil of brass pipes which passed through the fire
was known prior to the Christian era. The appli-
cation of this invention appears to have cropped up
at various periods. In France, in 1777, M. Bonne-
main used a coil of small pipes filled with water
for the incubation of chickens. In 181 7 Marquis
de Chabannes introduced it in London for heating
a conservatory, and also heated some rooms in a
private house by means of pipes leading from a
kitchen boiler. In 1822 a Mr. Bacon, also in Eng-
land, introduced hot water for heating purposes,
using a single pipe of large diameter, which was
slightly deflected from a horizontal line, the hot
water passing along the top of the pipe, which gave
very imperfect circulation. Mr. Atkinson, an archi-
tect, suggested the addition of a separate pipe for
returning the colder water to the boiler.
Hot-water heating came into general use in Can-
ada a number of years ago, and the open-tank sys-
tem seems to have been first used there; but this
did not become a popular method of heating in the
United States until recently. In 1842 the Perkins
hot-water apparatus was introduced in New York
and Boston from London, by Joseph Nason ; and
the business was conducted in both places by the
firm of Walworth & Nason. One of the first
houses warmed by the Perkins hot-water heater was
No. 15 Ashburton Place, belonging to the estate of
Ebenezer Melleken, and the apparatus was in 1892
doing good work after a use of forty-seven years.
In a Perkins apparatus circular, issued in London
about 1820, a heater spoken of as being the only
one in the United States is recorded to have been
in the residence of Colonel Thomas H. Perkins,
Pearl street, Boston.
Hot-water heating has been extensively used in
England and in Canada, but was not thoroughly
appreciated by the people of the United States un-
til within the past fifteen years. The Gumey and
the H. B. Smith heaters were very generally used.
During the last fifteen years this method of heating
has become very popular, and there are a great
number of good heaters on the market. Detroit
has done much to introduce hot-water heating. The
Peter Smith heater was the first The Detroit
Heating and Lighting Company in 1885 began con-
structing the Bolton Heater, which had previously
been made in Canada. The Mouat was the next.
The United States Heater Company has during the
past four years done a large business, and the Penin-
sular Stove Company are heating many buildings by
a combination of hot water and hot air, their system
being considered equal to any in use.
William Cook, of Manchester, England, proposed
in the middle of the last century the heating of
houses by steam. In America the practice seems to
date from 1 841, in which year Mr. J. J. Walworth
bought a small stock of wrought-iron pipe and fit-
tings, which had been sent to this coimtry by James
Russell & Sons, of Wednesbury, England, to be
sold on commission by James Boyce, who soon be-
came discouraged by the small amount of business
STOVES AND HEATING APPARATUS
done, and retunied to England. The gas compa-
nies weie just beginning to use wrought-iron pipe.
One year aAer, Mr. Joseph Nason returned from
England, bringing the Perkins Steam Heater, which
had been manufactured in England since 1820, and
the firm of Walworth & Nason was formed. In
1845 or 1846 Mr. Nasonconceived the idea of using
small wrought iron pipes, three quarters to an inch
in diameter, for warming buildings with steam.
The first building wanned in this way was the East-
era Hotel, of Boston, and the first factory was the
Burlington (Vt.) Woolen Mill. The steam-fitting in
the fectory was done by N. H. Bundy, the inventor
of the fiundy radiator. For many years every steam-
fitting firm in this country could trace its origin to
the <dd shop of Walworth & Nason, through either
one or two removes.
The improved methods of heating buildings by
steam and of ventilatiDg them by " fan blowers,"
now so extensively used throughout the United
States, owe much of their development to James J.
Walworth. It was in 1841 that he entered into
partnership with bis brother-in-law, Joseph Nason,
and established the buaness of steam and hot-water
warming and ventilating buildings by radically new
methods. In 1844 the construction of apparatus for
warming buildings, especially manu&ctories, by
steam, was begun and rapidly extended. Immedi-
ately following this came a new system of ventilation
by the use of the " fan blower," propelled by steam-
power, which was and is used in conjunction with the
system of steam-heating. Though J. J. Walworth has
been the business head of the concern, yet as an en-
gineer in steam-heating he has designed and executed
many important works. Mr, Nason retired from
the firm in 1852, and at present the Walworth Man-
ufactiuing Company owns an extensive steam-heat-
ing plant at South Boston, employing there and else-
where upward of 800 workmen.
In 1846 Mr.Thos. F.Tasker, Sr., of Philadelphia,
introduced the first closed apparatus returning the
water of condensation to the boiler, and thus keeping
up the circulation for heating purposes. His firm,
Morris, Tasker & Morris, became very prominent soon
afterward, in both steam and hot-water heating, be-
ing also manufacturers of pipes and fittings. This
establishment subsequently became widely known
as Moiris, Tasker & Company. They made the
first wrought-iron pipe that was made in this
country.
Men who have been prominentin the introduction
of steam and hot-water heating apparatus are Henry
B. and Edwin Smith, John H. Reed, John H. Mills,
and George B. Brayton.
Cast-iron radiators have been extensively manu-
&ctured in this country. The first we have record
of is the N. H. Bundy radiator, and after that the
Gold Pin radiator. The Gumey Manufacturing
Company and a large number of others are making
radiators, probably the laigest concern being the
American Radiator Company, which controls two
extensive plants in Detroit and one in Bufialo.
In preparing this history I am indebted to "The
Metal Worker," New York; R. Z. Liddle, Albany;
Giles F. Filley, St Louis; George W. Cope, Asso-
ciate editor of "The Iron Age," Chicago; John
H. Mills, Boston ; Jordan L. Mott, New York ; W. L.
McDowell, Philadelphia; D. G. Littlefield, Albany;
John Van Range Company, Cincinnati; and Frank
A. Magee, Boston.
'■!i^:^M&.^..
V-VVV
^^^
'».®.'rf«;
CHAPTER LII
PLUMBERS' AND STEAM-FITTERS' SUPPLIES
IT is through the agency of the plumber and
sanitary engineer that life in cities, under the
healthful conditions which govern it at the pres-
ent time, is made possible. Though to the ordinary
layman the work of the plumber may be less obtru-
sive, he really deserves a. much more prominent
position as a benefactor of communities than his
fellow-craftsmen of the building trades are disposed
to accord to him. The architect may prepare plans
of edifices, the symmetry and beauty of which ex-
cite the pleasure of the eye, and his more mechani-
cal co-laborers, the mason, the brick-layer, and the
carpenter, may follow his tracings with the finished
skill in the acquirement of which their lives have
been spent; these create a habitation. But to the
man who interweaves, as it were, his efforts with
theirs, who provides sanitary appliances after a fash-
ion compatible with the sternest laws laid down by
the dictators of pubhc health — to this man, the aim
of whose life is to provide safeguards insuring his
fellows against all danger of infection from that
most insidious enemy of human life, the microbe
bred by careless or imperfect domestic surroundings,
is due a meed of gratitude but seldom forthcoming,
because the reasons for it are so slightly understood.
Engineers, architects, and health officers accom-
plish much by their influence with individuals and
by the exercise of their professional and official func-
tions. They reach, however, only a limited portion
of the community, while the plumber makes his in-
fluence felt on every hand. A certain trust is thus
imposed upon him, which raises the better and more
conscientious element of his occupation to a higher
plane than is usually awarded to the followers of
mechanical pursuits, as it has converted the calling
itself into what enthusiasts on the subject might be
tempted to denominate one of the fine arts. The
word "plumbing," derived from the \,3X\a plum&um
(lead), meant originally to seal or repair with this
metal. In the earlier ages lead was the material
most favored for such purposes, owing to the ease
with which it could be manipulated. Lead pipes
were used to some extent by all the nations of old,
and were invariably utilized in the ancient cities of
Asia, Egypt, Syria, and Greece for conveying water
under pressures too great for pipes made of earthen-
ware. These pipes were made from sheets of lead
rolled into the form of cylinders and soldered at the
edges.
When the improvement in plumbing fixtures is
compared with that of other materials used in me-
chanical pursuits a curious disproportion in the rela-
tive rime that has been required for this development
is revealed. Almost the entire history of progression
in this department is covered by the past fifty years.
Hardly a half-dozen plumbers were known in New
York a half-century ago, and all these were men who
fashioned in their individual workshops the some-
what crude fittings they supplied. After the com-
pletion of the Croton Aqueduct in 1843, however,
the necessity for durable pipes and fittings began to
be felt, and this led to the establishment of manu-
factories of plumbers' supplies. At first these con-
cerns were engaged almost exclusively in the manu-
facture of lead pipe, sheet lead, or iron pipe. In the
earlier part of the century, wooden pipes, or log»
bored out, were used for conveying water through
the streets. This was under the old Manhattan sys-
tem. There was at that time, and is there yet, a
tank in Reade Street for maintaining which the
Manhattan Bank received its charter.
A modem chef would regard with curious con-
tempt the kitchens of that day, though their oc-
cupants doubtless thought them adequate for all
purposes of the culinary art. In contrast to the
elaborate arrangements now in vogue for producing
every degree of temperature desired, there was Aen
the ordinary kitchen range with its water-back con-
J
PLUMBERS' AND STEAM-FITTERS' SUPPLIES
365
trivance for heating water, which, however viewed
by modem eyes, was then regarded as being ahnost
the veritable culmination of that half-century's de-
velopment in domestic apparatus. The same princi-
ple applies in ranges to-day, and is in general use in
private houses, although for hotels and other large
buildings special appliances for heating water, inde-
pendent of range connections, have accompanied the
increased magnitude of such structures. The first
kitchen appliance independent of the range, with its
water-back and boiler connections, was a sink used
in the kitchen, with the usual hot and cold water
faucets over it. This for many years comprised the
entire plumbing of an ordinary dwelling. The next
feature was a bath — a wooden box lined with lead,
a primitive and unsightly fixture. Following that
came cast-iron bath-tubs, painted inside and out, and
next a box lined with copper, which was the favor-
ite bath for many years.
A quarter of a century ago was commenced here
the manufacture of porcelain-lined bath-tubs, which
for a long time were brought out exclusively by the
company of which I am the head. To-day similar
goods are made in various parts of the country by
other concerns. The most popular and elegant tub
— the very acme of perfection in bathing apparatus,
in fact — is one of solid porcelain, which has become
almost indispensable in the finest plumbing. These
goods were, until a year ago, always imported from
Europe ; but since that time one of the most enter-
prising potters in the United States has so perfected
this variety of ware that the American article to-day
stands on an equal footing with the world's produc-
tion. There is practically no expense to which one
may not go in this direction, should he feel so dis-
posed, and some of the private bath-rooms in the
homes of modem millionaires could compete in point
of beauty with the famous public baths of ancient
Greece and Rome.
In the possession of our house is a Dresden-china
bath-tub, the only duplicate of which is owned by
the emperor of Germany. It is comparatively
simple in design, and betrays but few evidences of
the value put upon it — $3000. It is seldom, how-
ever, that extravagance extends thus far with this
particular article. As a rule it is more generally
distributed throughout the bath-room; and hand-
painted tiles, which constitute the material for walls
and floors, come in for a fair portion of the finan-
cial outlay, much fanciful decoration being permitted
with these. Then the more immediate toilet acces-
sories are to be considered, and among these are
found on3rx and variegated marble slabs with brass
supports, plated with nickel, silver, or gold, and
furnished with the most elegant Cauldon-china
basins, painted by prominent artists. These adjuncts
themselves constitute an important item of cost in
the equipment of the thoroughly up-to-date bath-
room.
In examining the subject of domestic sanitation it
is worth while to note that while the expense of the
plumbing of the average first-class dwelling of thirty-
five or forty years ago could be computed at $250,
this work to-day may be reckoned, in the majority of
instances, at from $2000 to $6000, according to the
size of the building and the fancy of the owner.
As has been aptly observed, " Look out well for the
health-rate, and the death-rate will lose its signifi-
cance." Doctors for many centuries had the mo-
nopoly of what little knowledge existed of the con-
ditions affecting public health ; but of late years the
Dwelling Reform Association of New York, Amer-
ican Public Health Association, Public Health
Association of New York, and similar organizations
in other large cities throughout the Union, together
with the architect, the plumber, and the inventor and
manufacturer of plumbers' supplies, have done more
to reduce the death-rate from zymotic disease in our
large towns and cities than probably the doctors
have themselves.
As a part of the general sanitary system now to
be considered, each house has its own network of
pipes which convey the refuse of the basins, sinks,
and closets to the general sewer. It is obvious that
any leakage or deposit from these would nullify the
purpose for which they were designed. The air
within them must also be kept out of the dwelling
by placing a water-trap at every opening through
which sewage is to enter the pipes, and by making
all internal pipes gas-tight. It is necessary that a
ciuxent of fresh air have free access to the pipes,
that the filth within them may be oxidized ; and the
air of the sewer outside must be rigorously shut off
from that of the pipes within the house. This
seciu'es freedom from contagion from without, and
the water-trap, as previously mentioned, furnishes
protection against the passage of gas within through
openings which admit of the entry of water.
The inverted siphon, which is sealed by water
lying in the bend, is almost universally regarded as
the simplest and best form of trap. True, inventors
are appearing from time to time with other proposi-
tions in the way of a seal, but a better device hardly
seems possible. A separate, distinct trap is placed
in the house-drain to disconnect the main sewer from
the house. This will not insure perfect security, how-
366
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
ever. Practically a distinct trap is required at each
basin or other fitting, its function being to shut out
the air of the house-drains from the rooms. The
soil-pipe is ventilated by a current of air which flows
upward, and must always extend to a point above
the roof. This, together with the ventilating of each
trap, insures the most perfect immunity against the
accumulation of sewer-gas within the pipes that is
known. Sometimes the additional flushing received
by a soil-pipe into which the refuse of both a water-
closet and a bath or wash-basin is discharged works
rather as a benefit, and it may be contended that
plumbing-work after the ideas just set forth, with
proper traps, light and ventilation, good workman-
ship and first-class material, is all that is necessary
to insure perfect safety from contagion.
A bedroom basin is usually made perfectly safe
by leading its waste-pipe into the ordinary drain-pipe
which connects with the sewer, and which must
be protected by a water-seal, itself ventilated to
prevent siphonage. It is a good general rule to
have all plumbing fixtures ventilated in the same
way. Occasionally rain-pipes are utilized as venti-
lating continuations of soil-pipes and waste-pipes.
This should never be, for these pipes terminate under
the eaves, a point where the drain-air is likely to be
carried back into the house.
All drain-pipes should be made of iron. Lead
pipe is afiEected by hot water and is often destroyed
by rats. Clay decomposes and is easily broken.
Two grades of soil-pipe are known to the trade-
common and extra heavy. The common pipe, if
certain conditions exist, can be trusted to serve for
a considerable length of time. The heavy-grade
pipe is the safest to select, however, and its diameter
is a leading point of importance, as the quantities of
water usually proceeding from bath and acciunulat-
ing fixtures will, as a rule, flush a four-inch pipe
better than one of larger size. Every joint of the
soil-pipe should be made with a view to its being
tested under pressiu'e. Iron, as already indicated, is
preferable in pipe to any other material. With
the introduction of sewers generally the manufac-
turers in New York for some time supplied every
section of the United States with iron pipe. The
custom of tarring pipes cannot be too strongly con-
demned, as imperfections may exist which cannot
be discovered after this has been done, but which
manifest themselves after the pipes have been put
into actual use and when it is too late to remedy
them without great expense.
In the interests of good ventilation it is best to
continue the soil-pipe and all vent-pipes to a point
above the roof without any reduction in diameter.
That the greatest care must be exercised in the
manufacture and the adjustment of this class of
pipe will be appreciated when it is stated that any
want of air-tightness in drains or soil-pipes within a
dwelling leads to the pollution of the air, both by
indraft as well as by diffusion. A common method
of testing such leaks as may admit foul air is to fill
the house-drains, soil-pipes, and the rest with smoke
from cotton-waste soaked in oil. The escape of
these impleasant fumes by other than the proper
channels is readily detected. In occasional in-
stances, too, the lower end of the pipe is stopped
and the pipe itself is filled with water, the fall of
which, of course, denotes an imperfection some-
where.
I have already referred briefly to the subject of
traps, which, above every other branch of the more
practical part of plumbing, causes the most vexation,
and continually presents a problem that every aspir-
ing sanitary engineer feels called upon to cope with.
Few there are who have shrunk from charging this
barrier, and but few of these, in turn, have failed to
contrive some sort of a trap that for the nonce, at
least, seemed to combine the essential features of
which the plumbing world has been so long in
search. In general, though, from its simplicity and
practical utility, the system of back ventilation, in-
dorsed by all the boards of health, is believed to be
the most eflicacious and satisfactory in existence.
In any article dealing with this subject attention
must necessarily be directed to the progress which
has been made in the construction of water-closets.
It is with this division of plumbing more than any
other, perhaps, that the question of general public
health is most intimately concerned, and upon this
point particularly have the manufacturers of plumb-
ing fixtures brought all their inventive faculties to
bear. Water-closets, apparently, were of as early
origin as definitely constructed baths. In the his-
tory of Rome we find records of some which were
designed in gold and silver. It is contended that
traces of others were found in the ruins of Pompeii,
and that they even existed in Egypt Fosbroke,
writing on this subject, speaks of closets in the pal-
ace of the Caesars which were adorned with marble
and mosaic, and which were provided, apparently,
with complete drainage by water.
Throughout Europe, however, the subject seems
to have received but slight serious attention until the
eighteenth century. The first English patent for a
water-closet was issued in 1775 to Alexander Cum-
mings, a watchmaker in Bond Street This closet
PLUMBERS* AND STEAM-FITTERS' SUPPLIES
367
had a sliding valve between the trap and bowl, and
here we find the first recorded instance of a siphon-
trap being used in this connection. In 1778 Joseph
Bramah received a patent for a closet with a valve
at the bottom of the bowl, working on a hinge.
Bramah's closet was the forerunner of a large num-
ber of inventions founded on the same general prin-
ciples as the first, and in most respects but slight
improvements over that one. A valve closet sup-
plied by a tank, the hopper of which was flushed by
pressure on the seat, was patented in 1792. No
patents were issued for water-closets in America
until 1833, nor does it seem that previous to the
nineteenth century they were consi4ered as coming
within the province of the plumber at all. At the
present day we have for consideration valve closets,
pan closets, plunger closets, hopper closets, cistern
closets, siphon closets, and latrines. A score or so of
years ago the pan closet was the type generally in
use. Then came the valve and plunge closets,
which have been superseded by the siphon closets.
The valve closet takes its water from the main service-
pipe, and cisterns are not usually required with this
class of closets. A cistern closet differs in that its
water supply is taken into the cistern direct from a
main or a tank, and is released into the bowl by a
system of valves and pulls. In the material of
construction water-closets have followed the general
trend of toilet furnishings, and are now made mostly
in one piece and of glazed earthenware. Next to
the water-closet, urinals are of vital sanitary impor-
tance, but their general construction and principles
scarcely require extended discussion.
Thus it will be seen that never in history have
plumbers had so much to do with the health of the
families in our large cities as now, nor have they
ever so well understood the principles of internal
plumbing-work as at present. The knowledge of
sanitary work is spreading rapidly, and to keep
abreast of his trade the plumber has to educate his
eyes as well as his hands ; for it is not enough that
he becomes a skilled hand- worker — he must become
an intelligent head-worker as well.
An almost incalculable advantage now exists in
the fact that even in the cheapest flats all kinds of
closed plumbing have been superseded by open
work, with no boxed fixtures or pipes. This is to
be commended on accotmt of its cleanliness, health-
fulness, and availability in event of the necessity of
repairs. Much of the progress made by the plumber
has been due, without doubt, to the intelligent action
of the boards of health. When it was definitely felt
that this aid and codperation were being furnished.
the efforts of the better class of plumbers were
strengthened and stimulated. To Mr. John Dema-
rest, more than any other inventor, the public is in-
debted for the best plumbing fixtures known in any
section of the globe. Many of these he himself has
patented, and his entire career has been fairly illu-
minated with repeated successes in the devising of
appliances to conform with the consensus of opinion
expressed by the most capable sanitary engineers of
modem times.
In proceeding to the second division of the sub-
ject I might remark at the outset that in these days
it would be considered about as sensible for a man
to contemplate the construction of any building of
consequence without the aid of the workmen who fit
the stone and lay the floors as to eliminate the
steam fitter from his calculations. But few Ameri-
can industries have grown with such rapidity as this
one, which has pushed ahead at a pace parallel with
the manufacture of wrought-iron pipe. With the
latter, too, its progress has been almost inseparably
connected, for had not the production of wrought-
iron pipe by perfected machinery and at a reduced
cost occurred at the time it did, the development
of steam and hot-water heating would have been
greatly retarded. This growth may be said to date
practically from 1840, though it did not assume
proportions of consequence, relatively to the great
industries, until after the close of the war. The ear-
lier developments of the industry were largely assisted
by Joseph Nason, of New York, and J. J. Walworth,
of Boston.
Attempts at steam heating had been made in
England by the emplojonent of the Perkins system,
in which very small pipes were connected with boil-
ers, on the calculation that a high temperature would
thus be generated. Sometimes this temperature be-
came sufficiently high to elevate also its environ-
ments, after a most unexpected and distressing
fashion ; and because of this liability to explosions,
as well as through its irremediable extravagance in
the consumption of fuel, it was finally abandoned.
At the period referred to it is probable that not
twenty buildings in New York City were heated by
steam. With the introduction of low pressure, the
early development of which was greatly assisted
by the two gentlemen mentioned, a change became
almost immediately apparent. Low "pressure"
meant practically no pressure at all, and possessed
economical advantages hitherto unheard of. It was
durable in that there was practically no wear upon
the apparatus, and no fuel was wasted in generating
high temperatures.
368
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
All of this was brought about^ of course, by suc-
cessive inventions and improvements. Though the
two are included under the one title now, steam
heating really preceded heating by hot water in
pipes. The first boilers set up were similar to those
that had been used for power purposes. They were
made from wrought-iron. Radiators followed
quickly, being constructed from wrought-iron tubes,
both vertical and horizontal; but as low-pressure
work came into more general favor other forms of
radiators in sheet-iron were adopted, chiefly because
of the low rates at which they could be sold. They
lacked durability, however, and at last their use was
abandoned. About 1865 the attention of manufac-
turers was directed to the construction of heating
boilers and radiators from cast-iron ; and though for
a time progress in this direction was slow and the
sale of these goods limited, it had assumed by 1880
proportions of fair size, and since that date has ex-
panded with such rapidity as to make the manufac-
ture of steam and hot-water furnaces one of our
most important industries. A number of American
manufactiu'ers, in fact, are exporting goods of this
description, and find that they can successfully
compete with foreign makers. Because of the de-
velopment of hot-water and steam heating, also, a
strong impetus has been imparted to an auxiliary
occupation — the making of such hardware goods
as bolts, nuts, washers, gauges, facings, and various
tools — which represents large investments of capital
and on which the success of the main industry
largely depends.
While the advancement in supplies for steam and
hot-water heating has not hinged absolutely upon
the development of the modem office building, it is
undeniably true that this institution has constituted
the most important factor in its increased prosperity,
and has added enormously to its growth. The
boilers used for this purpose are almost always of
wrought-iron or steel, owing to the fact that in
nearly every instance high pressure is used on the
boilers for the running of elevators, electric lights,
and for pumping. In a large number of these
buildings the exhaust steam from the engines is
alone sufficient for all heating purposes, and where
it is not, a reducing pressure-valve is used, so that
the pressure in the distributing pipes and radiators
rarely exceeds ^ve pounds, and the water condensa-
tion is returned to the boilers by automatic devices
of various kinds, the manufacture of which occupies
the attention of several large factories.
It is safe to state that in 1840 the amount of
trade in this line did not exceed $200,000 per
anntun, and that not more than $75,000 were in-
vested in it. In i860 the trade had increased to
about $2,000,000 per annum, which represented a
capital of about $500,000. By 1880 these figures
had increased to an annual trade amounting to
$15,000,000, the capital behind which was $4,000,.
000 ; and at the close of the season of 1895 I can
safely assert, I believe, that this industry has ex-
panded in its yearly transactions to between $80,-
000,000 and $100,000,000, and that the invested
capital will amotmt to $50,000,000. As an illustra-
tion of the rapid development of certain branches
of this business it may be stated that while in 1870
only 8 firms were engaged in the manufacture of
house-heating boilers, in 1 880 there were 1 8 ; in 1 890,
63 ; and for 1895 the number is estimated at 150.
The manufacture of cast-iron radiators has kept
pace with that of the boilers. Only from 250,000
to 300,000 feet of radiators were cast in 1870, while
in 1880 the output was little less than 2,000,000
feet. By 1890 it had increased to between 6,000,-
000 and 7,000,000 feet, and for 1895, as far as
reports can be gathered, close to 18,000,000 square
feet of surface will have been cast. The lowering
of the cost of production has been a very material
factor in the progress of this trade ; in fact, it may
be said that the reduced cost of steam and hot-
water heating had a very sensible effect on its
growth generally. As an illustration of this we may
revert to 1880, when radiators were sold at thirty-
eight and forty cents per square foot, figures which
by 1895 had dropped to from sixteen to eighteen
cents per foot for the standard sizes.
In other branches of this industry, as well, have
occiured reductions as great proportionately to the
cost of production. This is most notably the case
in the manufacture of iron pipe and brass valves.
These reductions have been brought about by im-
proved methods of manufacture, better systems of
management, and by largely increased trade, which
permits business to be done with a smaller margin
of profit.
In the foregoing, reference has been made at more
or less length particularly to the culinary, bath,
toilet, heating, and supply and waste pipe systems ;
but there are one or two subjects that have only
indirectly been touched, among which one of the
most important is ventilation or pure air. The out-
side air, as is well known, contains carbonic acid
varying between 3 and 6 parts in 10,000 volumes;
but in close places, such as crowded buildings, this
rises to the extent of even 25 volumes in 10,000
of air. It has been experimentally proved that
PLUMBERS' AND STEAM-FITTERS' SUPPLIES
369
when the heat is excessive organic matter charging
the air of crowded places rises in amount as the
carbonic acid increases, so that we have a fouhiess
of the air, or, as it may be termed, want of ventila-
tion. The sanitary plumber must fully understand
this, just as he must also know that wherever there
are sewers there is certain to be sewer-gas, which,
when it finds its way into houses, becomes a deadly
enemy to the human race, and the source or pro-
moter of nearly all the so-called zymotic diseases.
To abate this evil has been one of the greatest prob-
lems which the modem sanitary plumber has had to
encounter, and which he has now happily solved for
the benefit and welfare of the millions who live the
artificial existence of our large cities. The wise and
exact observance of all these sanitary laws and reg-
ulations by oiu- plumbers in their work has within
the past quarter of a century materially reduced the
death-rate in oiu* larger cities. Thus it will be seen
that the work of the practical or sanitary plumber
demands high and peculiar qualifications. His or-
dinary work is easily learned, but the scientific or
sanitary part requires careful study. There are four
things in a building which cannot be sacrificed to
economy. They are the foundations, the roof, the
plumbing-work, and the apparatus for heating. The
two essentials first mentioned are usually seciu'ed at
any cost; but the attempt to economize comes in
the plumbing-work and furnace. As time goes on
and the importance of the plumber's work comes to
be still better understood, the vital interests affected
by this false economy will be realized, and people
will come to appreciate that the best way for all
concerned is to pay the plumber a fair price and
hold him to a strict account for the quality of the
work.
In closing this article it may be interesting to
show by figures the exact importance of the allied
industries under discussion. The following tabular
statement gives the number of plumbing and gas-
fitting and plumbers' supply establishments, with
the invested capital, the value of the product, etc.,
in thirty-seven of the principal cities of the Union,
taken from the census reports for 1890 :
PLUMBING AND GAS-FITTING AND PLUMBERS' SUPPLIES, 1890.
Atlanta, Ga
Baltimore, Md
Boston, Mass
Brooklyn, N. Y
BnffiOo, N. Y
Charleston, S. C
Cbkago, 111
Qncinnati, O
dereland, O
"Dcnrcr, Colo
Detroit, Mich
Galveston, Tex
Indianapolis, Ind
Jersey ayr» N. J
Kansas CSty, Mo
LonisTille, Ky
Memphis, Tenn
Milwaukee^ Wis
Minneapolis, Minn. .
MobOe, Ala.
Newark, N.J
New Haven, Conn. .
New Orleans, La
New York, N.Y....
Norfolk, Va.
Omaha, Neb
Philadelphia, Pa
Pittsburgh Pa
Portland, Me
Providence, R. I . . . .
Richmond, Va
Sl Loois, Mo
St. Paol, Minn
San Frandsoo, Cal. .
Savannah, Ga
Syracnse^ N. Y . . . .
Washington, D. C. . .
H
Plumbing amd GAS-FrrrtNC Estabushmbnts.
No. ESTAB.
251
63
278
"4
4
1
12
37
27
40
10
39
33
si
?i
769
7
20
498
16
28
124
no
II
CAnTAL.
$44,050
299,637
886,860
i»307.3S6
673.S59
27,862
1,550,718
381,970
225,980
44,450
3^3W
35465
63,720
156.707
306,087
138,249
222,450
437Jia
442,847
14,105
547469
2,705,093
37,305
243»7oo
2,612,597
136.407
95,025
177.319
315.895
581,067
364,835
393^47
27,650
154,300
467,735
ElirLOYXBS.
105
J?
2,5^
674
453
72
477
20
115
233
286
192
612
647
33
774
158
5.537
54
310
2,975
173
no
251
271
1,047
477
824
46
172
646
Pkoduct.
$205,892
799,525
3,250,086
4,137,514
1,360^)70
54,825
5,608,857
1455,915
783,926
181,860
913,503
57,300
184,165
401,712
1,155.254
418,613
399.850
927,024
1,232,541
43.800
1,352,845
535,526
329.748
10,304,253
720,090
5,701,478
279,380
240,892
441,565
495,850
1,651,169
i/)75,827
1,660,346
80,020
373,259
1,130,574
Plumbkrs' Supplus.
No. ESTAB.
• • • •
4
3
10
6
5
17
• • ■
15
Capital.
$295,819
78,100
611,650
• • • • ■
1,255,346
149400
110,552
• • • • •
1,408,954
1401,675
97,550
Product.
$495,500
73,800
540,750
1,248404
363,227
275,972
2,345.383
1,100,031
• • • • •
169,600
370 ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Thirty years earlier the census reports for i860 its growth, and its own achievements to vouch £ot
divided the plumbing business and its branches into its worthiness, the trade of the plumber is one to
four general classes, reporting them as follows : which the future can only mean progress. Much
E«T«»USHKIMTt.
IXVUTXD.
CoiTor
Matiuai.
Eut^onu.
.™a.Wac^
i;^.
P urab ng in«terial»
3
4
$14,000
3.S«>
*«6,90S
30,300
694456
^1
1.580
389,910
'.599-430
P umbrnfiMd pu.fitiing .. .
As showing the material increase since then, each has been done in fifty years, as I have shown ; but
one of a half-dozen of our principal cities exhibits more remains to do, and the next century will see
in 1890 a larger value of product than did the whole the fruition of this one in the enlarged scope of new
country in i860. With these figures to demonstrate and changed conditions.
^^^
CHAPTER LIII
BUILDING MATERIALS
THE improvement in the art of building indi-
cated by the variety of building materials, in
iron, stone, clay, and wood ; the machinery for
their production ; the skill with which these materials
are used singly and in combination ; the appliances
for rapid construction ; the devices for the conve-
niences and comfort of the occupants of buildings;
and the artistic treatment of the interior and exterior
of edifices, is self-evident to any person who com-
pares the structures erected within the past few years
with those put up less than a quarter of a century
ago. These improvements in the art and science of
butldiog may be said to have been achieved within
the business period of a single lifetime, without going
back to the time when brick, stone, iron, and wood
were worked into shape by laborious processes, after-
ward being used in the most commonplace manner,
and when almost everything in which artistic effect
was sought had to be imported from Europe, or
the skilled labor to produce it had to be specially
brought from the old countries. There are still
standing in the lower sections of the city of
New York dwelling-bouses erected a century ago,
old office buildings proudly named after owners who
have passed away in the natural course of events,
and old hotels that were once looked upon as mar-
vels in their way. And yet many things that appeal
to the eye and receive admiration as component parts
of new buildings cannot strictly be classed as build-
ing materials, however essential to artistic effect or
to comfort and convenience such things are. Deco-
rations in oil and water colors on walls and ceilings,
hangings of paper, leather, and other materials,
electric hghting, steam-heating, and even the eleva-
tor, without which the modem high building would
be impracticable, are among these.
The height to which many new buildings arc
carried indicates the greatest advance in the art of
construction, for such edifices represent principles
untried twenty yean ago, and have for their basis
the use of iron or steel for the support of the floors,
instead of masonry, reducing the walls to a mere
inclosure for keeping out inclement weather, and
for protecting the ironwork incased in them from
damage by fire. Twenty-five years ago a six-story
building was considered very high ; but passenger-
elevators came into use, adding value to the upper
stories. Ten and eleven story edifices followed.
With solid masonry the thickness of a wall is
regulated by its height, tapering by stories from the
bottom to the top. Under this method the great
thickness of the lower portions of the walls oc-
cupied the most valuable space for rentals, and with
a height of ten or eleven stories the greatest prac-
ticable limit seemed to be reached. No more of the
area of a valuable lot could be given up to the oc-
cupancy of brick walls. Suddenly and simultane-
ously a number of architects and engineers grasped
the idea that metal columns could be carried up
to any desired height, having girders between on
which to carry the floors and the requisite amount
of masonry as an outside protection. Thus an
edifice could be elevated to the clouds, and, irre-
spective of height, take up far less of the area of
a lot than would be required by the old fashioned
method of solid brick walls. Fifteen, twenty, and
twenty-five story buildings quickly followed, and it
is conceded that structures 500 feet high, or of any
height whatever, can be safely erected on this plan.
The use of a framework, or, as it is generally
termed, a skeleton, of iron or steel, with curtain-
walls supported on girders placed between the
columns, the latter and the girders carrying the floors
in addition, is an American novelty, notwithstanding
it has for its immediate prototype the cast-iron fronts
with column standing upon column. The first cast-
iron front ever erected in the world was put up in
New York in 1848; yet that was but a repetition of
iron columns and lintels long previously used as a
substitute for stone and brick to the extent of a
372
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
single story. The skeleton, as used in the lofty
buildings, is simply an evolution or expansion of
the principle contained in the familiar cast-iron
fronts, and in the oft-used method of increasing the
bearing strength of a brick pier of too small an area
safely to bear alone the load to be imposed, by plac-
ing an iron column in the center of the pier.
Obviously it is to the interest of an owner, as well
as necessary for public safety, that an excessively
high building shall be so constructed that in the
event of fire the building itself shall not be seriously
damaged, nor shall it imperil the safety of siuxound-
ing buildings. Laws regulating the construction of
buildings in New York require all structures above a
stated height (eighty-five feet) to be built fire-proof ;
that is to say, they must be constructed with walls
of brick, stone, or iron, the floors and roofs of
materials similar to the walls, and the stairs also
must be of incombustible materials. Fire-proof
floors are now commonly constructed of rolled iron
or steel I-beams, with arches of biunt clay between
the beams.
The first wrought-iron I-beams rolled in this
country were made by Peter Cooper, at his mills in
Trenton, N. J., about i860. The Phoenix Iron Com-
pany, of Pennsylvania, began to roll them about
the same time. Prior to that date there was a very
limited number of fire-proof buildings in this country.
Those which did exist chiefly belonged to the gov-
ernment. In the early fire-proof structures erected
in New York City — the Cooper Union building,
Harper's publishing building, and the Historical
Library building — the iron floor-beams are of a
shape known as deck-beams, being very similar in
section to an ordinary rail, only deeper. The depths
of I-beams have been increased from six and seven
inches up to twenty-four inches, and mild steel has
displaced wrought-iron. Eastern and Western roll-
ing-mills yearly turn out an enormous quantity of
rolled steel I-beams for use in buildings.
Before the time when rolled beams could be expe-
ditiously procured and at moderate prices, cast-iron
beams were used. When the openings to be spanned
were of considerable width, bowstring-girders, or
arch-shaped castings with horizontal wrought-iron
tie-rods connecting the ends, were commonly used.
It is admitted by all who are competent to judge
that wrought-iron or steel is superior for use where
the load tends to tear the metal asunder; and in
course of time cast-iron for beams and girders be-
came almost entirely superseded by rolled wrought-
iron, and later on by rolled steel. The use of
cast-iron beams, lintels, and columns in commercial
buildings kept a number of large foundries in
New York busy for many years. More than half a
century ago the Jackson Architectural Iron- Works,
now a corporation, were started, being practically
the pioneer foundry for the manufacture of ironwork
for buildings. It was in these works that the first
entire iron front was made, from drawings furnished
by the introducer, James Bogardus. Several firms
that became quite renowned in the line of architec-
tural ironwork — among them J. B. & W. W. Cornell
— procured their cast-iron work for many years from
the Jackson foundry. Iron fronts became popular,
and New York supplied the demand from Boston,
Philadelphia, Chicago, and St. Louis, until finally
their manufacture was taken up in every section of
the country. During the past ten years architects
have shown a preference for fronts of brick with
terra-cotta or stone for trimmings, and cast-iron
fronts have largely gone out of fashion, perhaps
later on to be revived, particularly for commercial
structiu'es, as cast-iron has in its favor unequaled
advantages of lightness, strength, durability, econ-
omy, incombustibility, and ready renovation. John
Roach, who became celebrated as an iron-ship
builder, started in the foundry business in a small
way in New York about the year 1840, making
castings for builders' uses ; but he veered off into
ships' castings and machinery, and finally into build-
ing ships.
The Jackson foundry was started to manufacture
grates and fenders, and during all the years of its
existence has continued that as one of its principal
branches. It was the establishment of a new in-
dustry in this country, for these things were all
imported from abroad. While fireplace fronts can'
scarcely be included among ** building mat^als," in
the ordinary understanding of that term, yet they go
to make up a permanent and necessary part of build-
ings. There are a number of other adjuncts to an
edifice that cannot properly be included as building
materials, but each of which makes progressive steps
in providing useful, convenient, and comfortable
structures. In a modem building electric light and
steam-heat are looked for as matters of course ; and
mail-chutes, telephone and electric call service are
developments of recent years. In dwelling-houses
gas-stoves are supplanting coal-ranges for cooking ;
the old-fashioned pan water-closet has given way to
the S trap-bowl; bath-tubs are of enameled iron,
solid porcelain, or marble, instead of wood lined
with copper or other metal; pneumatic or electric
appliances open the street-door at will ; locks that
are unpickable and burglar-alarms secure reasonable
WlLLfAM H. J»(
Jh
BUILDING MATERIALS
373
safety from would-be intruders; and in a variety
of ways the conveniences, comforts, security, and
healthfulness of homes have been added to of late
years by provisions made in the planning and con-
struction of buildings.
Formerly French or English plate-glass was de-
manded for every good building. American plate-
glass slowly but surely worked to the front rank in
quality, and has become one of our great home
industries. In art glass-work for windows, American
manufactiu'ers and American artists produce the
equal of the best made in any other country, but the
time was not long ago when everything in that line
of art-work was of foreign make.
Marbles in great variety, sandstones in almost
every color, and granite of various hues are quarried
in all directions ; and through cheap transportation
by water or rail, every section of the country has an
available supply of every kind and color of stone
for architectural effect in buildings. Stone is planed
and carved by machinery more accurately and
quicker than by hand. The labor thus saved, and
the consequent cheapening of molded and carved
stone, have increased the consumption and given em-
ployment to a far greater number of workmen than
would otherwise have been the case. The world's
experience has shown, moreover, that while machi-
nery increases production, it also opens new fields
for useful labor, and the cheapening of the cost of
manufactured products proportionately increases
their consumption by bringing them within the
reach of a greater number of persons. Not only
in stone, but in every kind of material which enters
into the construction and finishing of buildings, has
machinery reduced the cost. The army of work-
men is vastly greater in numbers, and wages are
higher, than when hand labor had the field entirely
to itself.
Wood moldings were laboriously worked out by
hand in former years. Machinery changed all that,
so that to-day a carpenter would as soon think of
hewing out timber from the log by hand as to work
out by hand the trim for a house. From the mold-
ing-mill the trim now comes all ready to be put in
place. Hard woods, especially ash and oak, have
largely taken the place of white pine for trim, and
it is due to machinery that doors and architraves
around openings can be obtained in hard woods at
less cost than the same in soft woods could have been
had a few years ago. Hard wood for mantels, of all
grades from the simple and cheap to the elaborate
and costly, has, to a great extent, taken the place
of marble and slate. The advance in woodworking
24*
machinery and in carving by machinery enables
very artistic and elaborate work in wood to be ob-
tained at very reasonable prices, and architects and
builders have not been slow in availing themselves
of their opportunities. Improved fillers and varnish
coatings for hard woods are on sale in every paint-
store, and cabinet finish is easily and cheaply
produced. Ready-mixed paints for interior and
exterior uses are extensively used, the grinding
being done by machinery, the mixing, therefore,
being more thorough than by hand. Paint mixed
with such ingredients that fire is repelled from
wood or other materials coated with it is a compara-
tively new article of manufacture, but is being largely
used for protecting frame factories and other build-
ings where the danger of burning is great. Wire
cloth, in place of wood lath, is much used, not only
because it keeps the plaster better and prevents
cracks, but because it makes a good fire-resisting siu*-
face for ceilings under wood beams and on the sides
of wood studs. A variety of solid, thin, light, and
strong partitions of iron and plaster are used in
place of the wood-stud, lath, and plaster partitions,
so dangerous in case of fire. Mortar and plaster
mixed by machinery are supplied to masons in any
quantity required. The mixing being more perfectly
done by machinery than by the hoe, the blisters so
often seen on finished wall surfaces, due to bad
mixing, are obviated. To ordinary plaster other
ingredients are now added, these plaster mixtiu'es
being known in the market under several different
names, but all having for their object hardness and
durability. A few years ago American hydraulic
cements were looked upon with extreme suspicion
by engineers and architects, and imported Portland
cements were demanded for use in important foun-
dation-work. Now American cements are recog-
nized as having equal strength with the English
and German cements, joined with other good quali-
ties, and are sold at lower prices than the imported
brands.
In appearance the streets in our great cides are
taking on a lighter hue, due to the light-colored
brick so generally used for the fronts of new build-
ings. Twenty-five years ago, in New York, red was
the universal color for front brick, the choice front
brick being brought from Philadelphia and Balti-
more. The clays of New Jersey give us brick in
white, lemon, buff, mottled, and other hues, and these
are used to the exclusion of red. Terra-cotta in
a variety of colors and artistically executed enters
largely into the ornamental treatment of the fronts
of buildings. The extensive use of this material,
374
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
and the erection of manufactories for its production,
are of recent date in this country. In clay products
alone architects have a chance to display taste and
skill of which their professional brethren a decade
or so ago never entertained a thought.
In the Post-Office building in this city, a little
more than twenty years ago, hoUow-tile flat arches
between iron floor-beams were introduced for the
first time in this or any other country. This was
the invention of Mr. B. Kreischer, a manufacturer
of fire-brick in New York. The flat-arch system
provided a level ceiling at once, at a less cost and
with much less weight of material than filling in be-
tween iron beams with segmental arches of common
brick, and then furring down with wood or iron to
obtain a level ceiling surface. The new system
came into general use for fire-proof buildings all
over the United States. A long litigation ensued
over the patent, but under the crucial test of publi-
cations from all parts of the globe, the courts finally
decided the Kreischer patent void for want of orig-
inality. Abroad the system of flat arches whose end
sections abut against rolled iron or steel beams for
floorings is recognized as an American invention,
and at a meeting of the Royal Institute of British
Architects, held in 1882, this method of constructing
floors was commented upon, the chairman of that
meeting going on to say that when a man in the
United States brought out a good invention con-
nected with building or anything else, it was straight-
way adopted all over the country, remaining in use
until something better was provided, when that, in
its turn, was taken up.
Another American invention whose merit has
been recognized everywhere is illuminated tiles
— the placing of small disks of glass in iron plates
which form a walking surface and at the same time
transmit light to a vault or room beneath the side-
walk. The name Hyatt will always be associated
with this invention in America and Eiu'ope. Years
of litigation ensued after the introduction and use
of this invention, but fortunately for the inventor the
court decisions were finally in his favor, by which he
realized large sums of money.
Iron for the frame and bars of skylights has su-
perseded wood in all large cities, in part because
modem building laws will not permit the use of
wood for any but very small skylights. Twenty-five
years ago iron skylight bars were of solid rolled
iron. An American inventor, Hayes, introduced
skylight bars of sheet-iron, bent by machinery to a
proper shape, and these light, strong, and cheap
bars are now everywhere in use. Galvanized sheet-
iron for cornices on the fronts of buildings has taken
the place of wood in cities, and in the manufacture
of them an enormous amount of sheet-metal is used
annually.
In bank and safe-deposit buildings the burglar-
proof work for vaults and strong rooms represents
a very large manufacturing industry in providing
what is deemed essential to the equipment of such
structures. Bank vaults of chilled iron and sted
were used a long time ago, but the increase in the
demand for burglar-proof work resulted in improved
methods of construction, and in the invention of
better time-locks and alarm appliances to give warn-
ing of attempts at burglary.
Wood necessarily enters into the construction of
buildings of every character. Hundreds of millions
of dollars are invested in the work of handling this
material, and several hundred thousand artisans are
employed in preparing it for use from the time the
logs are gathered in the forests until they are
fashioned into the required shapes. This industry
is among the most important in the United States,
but there are no reliable data extant from which
anything approaching an accurate estimate of the
capital invested or the number of timber workers
employed can be determined. Some idea of its
magnitude may be formed when it has been es-
timated by builders of wide experience that out of
some 12,000,000 dwelling-houses in the United
States nearly 11,000,000 are built mainly of wood.
In the almost countless number of fire-proof
buildings the stairs, of course, are made of incom-
bustible materials — iron for the strings, risers, and
railings, and slate or marble for the treads. Several
large iron- works devote their attention solely to this
class of manufacture. The variety of designs and
the coating of the iron with other metals by electro-
processes, or by a process that preserves iron against
rust without paint, go to make up in extent and
beauty a branch of iron manufacture that has de-
veloped from very small beginnings to extensive
proportions. The inclosure of elevator-shafts in
fire-proof buildings is generally of iron grille-work,
which has the same characteristics as iron stair-work
in points of design and workmanship.
In putting the different kinds of materials in
place in the building a saving of time and labor is
sought. Even in ordinary buildings brick and mor-
tar are no longer carried on men's backs up a ladder.
Hod-hoisting machinery has taken the place of
manual labor in this respect. On important build-
ings power-derricks Uft all heavy weights from the
ground to the uppermost story— stone, iron, and
BUILDING MATERIALS
375
everything else. It is not an unusual sight to see a
cart-load of brick brought to a building, the horse
then unhitched, the cart hoisted by the derrick to
an upper story, and the brick dumped, after which
the cart is lowered to the ground. The riveting of
connecting parts of ironwork in important buildings
is frequendy done by machine instead of by hand.
Foundations for high buildings, where the soil is
uncertain or inadequate to bear enormous loads, are
in some instances carried down to rock by means of
cylinders of iron sunk to the required depth and
then filled in with masonry. In other cases a fram-
ing of iron beams covering the whole area of the
building, much like a raft, is laid and covered with
concrete. Engineering skill in its application to
building work has no limit, in reality ; it can reach
down deep into the ground or tower up high toward
the clouds. But the opportunities to do the things
that would have been considered marvelous a cen-
tury ago have arisen only during late years. Possi-
bly the same ability existed then, but the call for its
exercise has come with a more recent date.
Architecture has played a most important part in
the development of the modem building. Conse-
quendy a slight departure from the main thread of
this subject may be allowable in order better to
trace the progress of the century in the building
line. The origin of architecture is wrapped in ob-
scurity. Caves and huts of branches were the first
buildings made by man. Examples of a second
stage of development are found in the stone monu-
ments of various islands in the Pacific and in
the andent monuments of America. The ruins of
Mexico show no foreign influence in their artistic
workmanship, and are therefore regarded as an in-
dependent national development. Some of these
show an advanced and highly ornamented form of
the pyramid. Of Oriental architecture the Egyp-
tian examples are perhaps the most striking. The
numerous monuments of India can be compared in
extent and magnificence only with those of Egypt.
China received its architecture from India. Gre-
cian, Roman, and Gothic architecture furnishes high
examples of the art, and many of its features are
interwoven with modem architecture.
A new period in the development of architecture
began about the close of the eighteenth century,
when a reaction against the rococo style made it-
self felt. Important examples are the Mint in Berlin
and the Brandenburg Gate, built at the close of the
eighteenth century. The age and conditions of
American civilization do not admit of an indigenous
axchttectuial development, as in older countries, and
therefore we find in the United States examples of
almost every known national style. The building
operations of the settlers of the seventeenth centiuy
were modeled upon those of the coimtries whence
they had emigrated.
Thus the early buildings of New England and
Virginia are essentially EngHsh ; those of New York
and Pennsylvania are Dutch and German; while
Florida shows thoroughly Spanish architecture, and
New Orleans is practically a transplanted French
city. With the beginning of the eighteenth century
the increased intercourse between the individual
colonies gave rise to a more homogeneous archi-
tecture. The more important buildings of the
period are all the works of English architects,
among them being King's Chapel, Boston (1749),
by Harrison, and St. Michael's, Charleston, S. C.
(1752), by Gibson, a pupil of Wren. To the same
period belong Christ Church, Philadelphia, and the
old State-houses of Boston and Philadelphia. The
dwelling-houses of the colonial period were simple
in style and usually of wood, depending for their
external efiEect principally upon the use of columns,
and with interiors of great plainness, the ornamen-
tation being concentrated in the staircases, of which
some artistic examples are still in existence.
The first and chief of the government buildings
at Washington was the Capitol. In its present form
the Capitol is a monumental edifice with a dome
135 feet in diameter rising 217 feet above the roof.
The architectural effect is secured by the free use
of porticos and colonnades, and by the striking
approaches. The other government buildings are
of a similar style. Since that period a style founded
on the Italian Renaissance has been employed in
nearly all public buildings, sometimes with great
success. To this period, also, belongs the New
York City Hall (1803-12), built of marble and free-
stone, which at the time of its erection surpassed all
buildings here in material and conception. For a
time Greek architecture became the fashion, and
it was applied to many buildings. To this develop-
ment belong the Custom-houses in Philadelphia and
New York (with monolithic columns) and Boston,
and Girard College, Philadelphia.
The first successful attempt of Gothic architecture
was the erection, in 1839-45, in New York, of
Trinity Church, by Richard Upjohn, which has
since remained the accepted type of American
church buildings. From the church the Gothic
style was for a time carried to all other classes of
buildings, but was soon abandoned. With the rapid
growth of the country in wealth and ambition there
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
succeeded crazes for vanous architectural styles,
Egyptian, Moorish, Swiss, and other types were
employed, but finally all of them were abandoned.
Subsequently a revival of Gothic architecture, under
the influence of Ruskin, produced some buildings
of merit, among them the National Academy of
Design, New York, largely in the Venetian style ;
the State Capitol of Connecticut, at Hartford ; and
the Harvard Alumni Memorial Hall, at Cambridge.
During recent years the prevailing style for muni-
cipal buildings has been that of the French Renais-
sance. Imposing examples of this style are seen in
the new municipal buildings of Philadelphia and in
the new buildings of the State and War departments
at Washington. Many of the newer capitol build-
ings of the various States are of architectural merit,
the most elaborate being the Capitol at Albany. In
church architecture, New York, Boston, Chicago,
Baltimore, Philadelphia, and some Western cities
possess good examples of Gothic and other styles.
The largest and most costly church edifice on the
continent is St, Patrick's Cathedral, in New York.
A notable departure from the Gothic style is seen in
Trinity Church, Boston, where the Romanesque has
been employed with great artistic success.
Much of the sameness and monotony in dwelling-
houses which obtains in most of the older cities is
giving way to a pleasing variety, especially in newer
localities. This change is largely due to the forma-
tion of schools of architecture, which are turning out
thoroughly equipped native architects. The Ameri-
can Institute of Architects, founded in 1867, with
its local branches, assists in encouraging professional
intercourse among its members, and the
architectural journals spread an increasing know-
ledge of the art. All these agencies combine to
form a national educated taste which may originate a
national type of architecture, thus rendering impos*
sibte the crudities of past generations, and developing
refinement in the choice or combination of existing
Styles.
Every one of the group of subjects referred to
occupies a relationship more or less indmate to
the others. A modem building is something more
than merely the walls and roof. It includes the pro-
ducts of trades that a century ago had no existence,
others that have lived less than half a century, and
still others that less than a quarter of a century ago
were unknown. With the growth of population
the number of buildings proportionately increases.
In our great cities many families living indepen-
dently of one another occupy together a single build-
ing, while the former rule was one family to a house.
New conditions of living have arisen, not merely far
the poor in tenement-houses, but for the well-to-do
and affluent, in the aggregation of many homes
under one roof. Increasing the size of buildings
verticaUy instead of horizontaUy called for the work-
ing out of new problems not only in engineering,
but in sanitary science. American ingenuity and
skill have, however, kept pace with every require-
ment or necessity. The achievements and progress
in every direction which have added so much to
the welfare and greatness of our country during the
past one hundred years have nowhere been more
marked than in the materials used and the know-
ledge of their proper applications in the construc-
tion of buildings.
jt/^t/\t<%tm«^
CHAPTER LIV
ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
THERE is no wayin which the electrical indus-
tries of 1895 can be compared with those of
1795, for the simple reason that a hundred
years ago electrical science was rudimentary and the
electrical arts were all unborn. A few stray pieces of
apparatus built by instrument makers under the vague
directions of philosophical investigators constituted
throughout the first quarter of the present century the
bases from which all our later inventions and de-
velopments have dated. It was not until within the
last fifty years that, the correlation of electricity and
magnetism being fairly understood, and the ability
to turn mechanical energy into current being fully
perceived, the world enjoyed the benefits, in quick
succession, of telegraphy, electroplating, electric
lighting, telephony, electric power, electric traction,
electric heating, forging, welding, aod cooling, and
economists ; but indications are not wanting that it
is the agency chiefly to be relied upon hereafter in
the closer knitting together of city and country, the
increasing of facilities for commerce, and the diffu-
sion throughout remote districts of information that
should be common to all
The telegraph, representing a pioneer electrical
development, has attained, it is believed by many,
the magnitude of maturity, while its methods are
pretty much the same as when Morse first operated
his crude devices. Inclusive of allied and similar
services to the public, the telegraph system of the
United States reaches a capitalization of about
$300,000,000, of which the Western Union and
Postal lines may be credited with more than one
half. The condition of the telegraph industry is
portrayed in the following figures:
MESSAGES SENT BY THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
Yum.
.„,„
ExriMBU.
A™.*g. Ton.
AviiAn Co«T
3a,3i8/>i9
¥16,307,857
i74fa*>5
16,060,170
16,076,630
31.6
3"-a
30-5
30-7
18M.. ......
33-3
a3-3
iSi..
1^ .
the electric extraction of minerals and precious met-
als. These constitute a noteworthy fruition for five
decades, yet have barely scratched the possibilities,
and have so far been limited in their usefulness al-
most entirely to urban populations. Strange as it
may seem at a time when dwellers in the city en-
counter electrical appliances on every side, there
is not a single art that has been a direct boon to the
agricultural sections of the country, despite the fact
that America is a land of farms, and that here elec>
tricity has been more vigorously exploited, and in
more ways, than anywhere else in the world. Elec-
tricity is, in fact, at the present moment, curiously
associated with the intense and crowded city life
that engages the thoughts of social and political
Hence it will appear that there is no rapid expan-
sion in telegraphy going on, nor can there be one
without some very radical changes. If the popu-
lation of the Um'ted Stales of America be taken at
65,000,000, it would appear that only one telegram
per head per year is sent, and the ratio remains
about the same through many years, without any
variation that denotes a growing habit on the part
of the people.
When we turn to telephony an explanation of this
state of affairs is seen. The advent of Professor .
Bell's telephone in 1876 found capital quite averse
to assuming any risk in it, and even in 1879 the
Western Union Telegraph Company surrendered all
its telephonic work to the American Bell Telephone
378
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Company, on condition of being paid for a term of
years twenty per cent, commission on the receipts
in royalties from the telephone — an arrangement
which has brought some $7,000,000 into the West-
em Union treasury without any expenditure. But
the telephone has meantime gained ground so enor-
mously that some observers believe the effectual
supercession of the older telegraph to be well in
sight. The American people now exchange yearly
750,000,000 telephonic talks; that is, they use the
telephone ten times as much as they do the tele-
graph, at infinitely less cost. Each telephone talk
through an exchange costs the subscriber less than
five cents on the average. Every twenty-four hours
the telephone is used more than 2,000,000 times, so
that, broadly, 4,000,000 people, or twenty-five per
cent, of the adult population, resort to it daily,
chiefly for commercial purposes. As an actual fact,
hand-written letters are only four times as numerous ;
and thus, if both telegraph and telephone were out
of existence, the number of sealed pieces of mail
matter, on the same calculation, would be increased
by 800,000,000. New York City alone would re-
quire 40,000 district messenger-boys to carry around
its communications that are now sent in a single
day over its telephone wires.
The total investment in telephony, however, in
1894, was only $77,500,000, although it is rapidly
increasing. One of the most important commercial
branches of it is the long-distance work, which, be-
gun in 1885, is done with a ramification of 55,000
miles of pole-line and 265,000 miles of wire, con-
necting together no fewer than 2000 towns and cities
by double or " metallic " circuit, any one of which
places any telephone subscriber in New York, for
example, can reach ; while the public can do the
same in this city by using some 1200 scattered pay
stations. The rate to Chicago from New York is
$9 for five minutes* talk, or $4.50 at night. The
recent expiration of fundamental patents has also
greatiy stimulated telephonic work.
In view of these and other conditions, Mr. P. B.
Delany, a well-known electrician, has worked out
a plan that would render the telegraph remarkably
valuable, and popularly rehabilitate it He proposes
that letters shall be telegraphed instead of carried
by trains. There are 40,000 letters exchanged daily,
for instance, between New York and Chicago, and
the perfection of methods now is such in " machine
telegraphy" that with two good copper wires he
would carry 28,000 messages of fifty words each
daily between the two cities. The contrast with
old methods is seen in the statement that with a
single copper wire of only 300 pounds to the mile,
thus machine-worked between New York and Phila-
delphia, Mr. Delany proposes to handle 3000 words
per minute ; whereas by the present key system in
vogue, for the same quantity of matter, thirty-eight
wires must be worked quadruplex, or 152 circuits,
at about twenty words per minute. Here certainly
lies a great futiure, with great benefit, if the plan is
feasible, to commercial and social intercourse.
Although this country ranks with England in its
patronage of the submarine cable, and is proud of
the indomitable New York merchant, Cjrrus Field, it
has no cable industry and a very small cable owner-
ship. Vast as are the quantities of fine cable made
in America for telegraphic and telephonic work
along its rivers and lakes, the American cable is still
unknown to the deep seas. There has been no
period, apparently, since the New World was eleo
trically moored alongside the Old, when our manu-
facturers could, in this branch, compete on equal
terms with those of England and Germany.
The fire-alarm telegraphs have been an important
item in this field of manufactiu^, and there are over
600 places equipped, generally with the Gamewell
system, which is, perhaps, the best known. In 1890,
the last year for which definite statistics are avail-
able, a group of fifty cities had no fewer than 8400
fire-alarm boxes in use by their fire departments. A
system for a small city costs about $1000. Every
city has now its police telegraph also, many com-
bining with it a telephonic patrol system that brings
a squad to any point within five minutes after the
call is sent in. The district messenger system has
become familiar in most American cities, as an
auxiliary to the telegraph. In New York City the
average number of boys employed for this work is
1200, who run some 2,500,000 errands in a year.
That the boys loiter is obviously a calunmy.
As an offset, perhaps, to the European preemi-
nence in the one department of submarine tele-
graphy, we may tiun to the generous figures of the
growth of electric lighting in the United States.
There are barely one hundred central stations in
all Great Britain; there are 2500 local electric-light
companies here, and some 200 municipal plants.
The investment there has reached $35,000,000 ; in
such work in this country the total is placed at
$300,000,000, New York alone approximating the
figures for all England. Of isolated plants for arc
or incandescent lighting in mills, mines, stores, halls,
docks, etc., the number in the United States has
reached probably 7500 ; there were in 1893 no fewer
than 3500 such isolated incandescent plants, with
ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
379
a capacity of 1,500,000 lamps. The value of the
total arc and incandescent outlay, independent en-
tirely of the central stations, is placed at $200,000,-
000. All this is the outcome of the inventions
of men like Edison, Brush, Elihu Thomson, Wes-
ton, Wood, Hochhausen, and, in the new era just
beginning, Nikola Tesla, Stanley, Bradley, and Stein-
metz. At one time some forty or fifty manufactur-
ing companies competed for the sale of the plant ;
but the art has in many respects become specialized,
and the leading survivors are the General Electric,
Westinghouse, Fort Wa3me, Excelsior, Brush, Stan-
dard, and Western Electric companies. The General
Electric Company, for example, had its arc appara-
tus operating in 957 central stations, in May, 1895,
supplying 130,000 arc-lights. This is a tjrpical
"parent" company, which now has a total capital
of about $44,000,000, employs some 7000 men in
its factories, and has an annual output ranging from
$10,000,000 to $15,000,000. A typical "local"
suborganization is the Chicago Edison Company,
with a capital of $7,000,000, and four central stations
supplying current daily for 161,000 incandescent
lamps, 4000 horse-power of electric motors, and
3600 arc-lamps, using about 500 miles of under-
ground tubing and cable to reach its customers.
A t3rpical isolated plant is that in the Auditorium,
Chicago, with 17,000 incandescent lamps; or that
in the new Carnegie Steel- Works, at Duquesne, Pa.,
where 3000 horse-power is used for electric light
and power.
The practical incandescent lamp was brought to
commercial perfection by Edison less than twenty
years ago. The dynamo capacity in this country
to-day for incandescent h'ghting is estimated at over
8,000,000 lamps of sixteen candle-power, while the
number connected to the circuits is from 12,000,000
to 15,000,000. The number of lamps produced by
about a score of factories is from 50,000 to 75,000
dally. Ten years ago an incandescent lamp cost
the consumer not much less than one dollar, while
excellent lamps are now bought at about twenty
cents apiece. The average life of lamps is 600 to 800
hours. Equally remarkable is the reduction in the
cost of carbon-points for arc-lamps. In 1876 they
were imported from a French maker, a dozen or two
in the batch, at forty cents each. The American
manufacture began in 1878, with over thirty hand
processes, and at prices of $80 per 1000. The car-
bon art to-day recognizes only four hand processes,
and prices are in the neighborhood of $10 per 1000.
Within the past fifteen years some seventy-five fac-
tories have been started to supply the annual con-
sumption of 200,000,000 carbon-points, and their
capacity has reached three times that figure. There
are to-day twenty-five factories in the world, with
a capacity of, say, 350,000,000 per annum. The
largest of these factories is in Cleveland, O., owned
by the National Carbon Company, comprising four-
teen large buildings on seventeen acres of ground,
with a capacity of 250,000,000 per annum.
All these seem large figures, but as a matter of
calculation it will be found that they would need a
tenfold multiplication if electric light were entirely
to replace gas. The process is, however, going on,
with the effect at the same time of raising the stan-
dard of illumination everywhere, and greatly cheap-
ening gas production. In 1890 no fewer than 278
American cities, with a population of 7,000,000, had
entirely given up gas for electricity in lighting their
streets. Although no mimicipal gas-plants are now
erected, the number of electric-lighting plants built
by municipalities is strikingly on the increase all
over the Union.
Associated closely with electric light is electric
power, the motors being placed on the same circuits
as the lamps. All the concerns building electric-
light apparatus also build motors; but there are
about a dozen factories, such as the Crocker- Wheeler,
and Eddy, that devote themselves exclusively to
motors, of which it is estimated that 500,000 are
now in use, the bulk of these being the small fan-
motors for ventilation, costing, on an average, $15
each. Motors of fifty horse-power and upward are,
however, by no means uncommon ; while the ten-
dency in all new factories, machine-shops, etc., is to
distribute power by such motors, instead of using
long lines of belt and shafting. At the Homestead,
Pa., Steel- Works, for example, power is thus fiu*-
nished to electric motors aggregating 4000 horse-
power ; at Bessemer, Pa., to about 2000 horse-power ;
and a third metal plant has thirty electric cranes,
three electric traveling bridges, six motor freight
conveyers, fifteen motor-cars, and a score of motors
for miscellaneous purposes.
The use of electric elevators in cities, furnished
with current from both central stations and isolated
plants, is a distinct class of work. In New York
there are several hundred of these elevators, requir-
ing a total of upward of 5000 horse-power daily for
their operation. For the Parrott Building in San
Francisco Mr. F. J. Sprague is furnishing fifteen of
his electric elevators. At present to be found chiefly
in office buildings, they have already made their
way into apartments and into private dwellingSr
Electric heating and cooking apparatus, fed with
380
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
current from central stations, is also becoming famil-
iar, especially in laimdries, restaurants, canneries,
and hair-dressing establishments.
A few years ago the dynamos in central stations
were large that would operate 500 lamps; to-day
machines of from 5000 to 25,000 lamp capacity
are not unusual. These are now driven directly by
huge steam-engines of the vertical triple-expansion
marine type. In the same manner arc-dynamos
were usually able to energize twenty-five or thirty
arcs of 2000 candle-power each ; but their place is
being taken by machines that will feed 150 to 200
such lamps on circuits thirty and forty miles long.
It is evident that great economy is thus effected.
Arc-lighting, which at its introduction cost seventy-
five cents or more per night per lamp, now averages
from thirty to thirty -five cents. Incandescent lamps
cost about one cent an hour each for current, and
motors obtain their supply at less than ten cents
per horse-power per hoiu:. Whereas it was once the
well-nigh universal custom to sell a current at a
" flat rate," it is now the more scientific custom to
meter it. Indeed, one of the most significant de-
velopments of late years has been the perfection of
American electrical instruments of measurement and
precision devised for lighting and power circuits.
Those of Edward Weston have won a reputation
that has gone around the world.
Very early indeed were the efforts made in elec-
tric railroading. The work of Thomas Davenport,
a Vermont blacksmith, fifty odd years ago, embodied
many of the elements familiar in the street-railway
of to-day ; but no progress was made, because the
primary battery was then the sole soiurce of current.
It was not until within the last ten years that the
electric railway industry became established. The
present writer collected the first American statistics
on the subject in 1887. There were then but thir-
teen small roads. This year the trolley roads in the
United States have reached the imposing total of
900, with 11,000 miles of track, 25,000 cars, and a
capitalization of fully $750,000,000, which in spite
of frequent inflation has a notable dividend-earning
capacity, rarely falling below six per cent for the
bonds, and the common stock receiving as much.
The ability of electricity to increase the traffic of a
street-railway has hardly ever been less than forty
per cent, in the year of its adoption, and has fre-
quently exceeded one hundred per cent. In all
Europe the niunber of electric roads is below 1 00.
The annual increase here is at least that number,
representing a purchase of some $100,000,000 worth
of rails, cars, motors, wire, engines, boilers, poles, etc.
The electric railway industry has endless aspects.
In New York, Washington, and Chicago, under-
ground trolley conduit roads are being adopted in-
stead of the overhead trolley type, with fair success.
In Chicago, at the World's Fair, an elevated electric
road carried 8,000,000 passengers, and there is now
a similar road in regular operation in that city. For
New York City is proposed a tunnel electric railway
S3rstem, to cost the metropohtan taxpayers $50,000,-
000, on the plan so successful for some years past
in London.
Nor is this all. As far back as the summer of
1894 there were sixty-two street-car lines carrying
United States mail; thirty-five lines had gone into
the express business, and fifty-five were hauling
freight. These figures have probably been doubled
in the past twelvemonth. More interesting still is the
intenu-ban extension of the trolley system. Within
a year as many as 190 electric railway companies
have been projected to ply across country, with 3457
miles of track. Many of these have been built and
are already running. They range from four miles
up to seventy-five in length. The competition of
these roads and the regular street trolley railways
with steam railroads has begim to revolutionize the
latter, if only for the reason that ten miles for five
cents is an ordinary car trip, while the steam train
needs ten cents for five miles for its mainte-
nance. On some steam roads the suburban travel
has been practically wiped out, and a great many
schedules have been abandoned. To meet this seri-
ous condition of affairs the Pennsylvania, and the
New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroads, as
well as others less well known, have adopted electri-
city for some of their branches with marked success ;
and the intention is to carry this change much further
at once.
Additional to this is the use of heavy 1500 horse-
power electric locomotives by the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company for freight haulage in its Bald-
more tunnel. These locomotives haul trains of 1400
tons, and make, when necessary, a speed of sixty
miles an hour. The same method is to be adopted
for the Grand Trunk Timnel under the St. Clair River.
In short, the steam railroad system is at the point of
a new departiure, and is everywhere being prepared
for the greater utilization of electricity.
An art allied to electric locomotion is that of
electric navigation. At the World's Fair in Chicago
in 1893, 1,003,500 passengers were carried on the
lagoons by a fleet of fifty electric launches; and
these boats, scattered all over the country, have
become nuclei for a number of smaller busy fleets
T. COMHERFORD MaRTIN.
ELECTRICAL MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
381
employed by trolley railways, park boards, police
departments, and private owners. These boats are
operated by means of storage batteries charged from
time to time, and able to run them continuously for
forty or fifty miles. A boat of such a character,
making ten to twelve miles an hom*, thirty-five feet
in length and six to eight feet beam, is obtainable
complete for about $1600.
The storage battery has been far more successful
afloat than in street-car propulsion, but it is now in
swift adoption for isolated plants and central stations,
as a reservoir of current when the machinery is not
in operation. The Edison Company in Boston has
recently erected and equipped a five-story building
as a storage-battery adjunct, which supplements an
earlier annex of the same kind, the two together
being by far the largest in the world. They have
a capacity of 30,000 amperes of current, or 60,000
lamps ; and have taken care of all demands on the
company for current during periods of fifteen hours.
It is becoming the practice, also, to equip fire-alarm
departments with storage batteries in place of the
old primary batteries.
Electric mining is one of the latest of the indus-
tries to be developed by the electrical engineer, and
bids fair to surpass the electric railway in magnitude.
The demand for apparatus in it is estimated to have
reached already the sum of $100,000,000, for hoists,
crushers, drills, ptunps, ventilators, cars, etc., all
driven electrically. The adoption of this machi-
nery, furnished with current from dynamos driven
by water-power, has enabled scores of mines to pay
expenses that were unable to do so with fuel as high
as $15 a ton. Some of these plants are being oper-
ated at altitudes of 1 2,000 feet above sea-level, and
exemplify the beauties of long-distance electrical
power transmission, which in itself is even now con-
stituting a separate field of endeavor.
By all odds the most important long-distance
dectrical power enterprise is that of the Niagara
Falls Power Company, in the utilization of part of
the energy of the great cataract. By means of its
plants on both sides of the Niagara River this com-
pany will develop 350,000 horse-power; and its
power-house, canal, and tunnel on the American
side are adequate to the production of 100,000
horse-power of electrical current, generated by the
Tesla two-phase system. An expenditure of $3,000,-
000 has been made, and is now yielding an income.
Part of the current is being used in the electrical
manufacture at the falls of aluminium and carborun-
dum, and a large manufacturing city is beginning to
form about a mfle above the falls, free from smoke,
dust, and gases, all the energy being distributed
silently over hidden wires. Arrangements have been
made by which Buffalo, twenty-two miles away, is
to receive this current in large quantities, the price
being $18 per horse-power at the Niagara end of
the line ; while it is estimated by experts that the
current can even be delivered 300 miles away in
Albany, to compete on equal terms with the power
of steam-engines on the spot, using coal at $3 per
ton. The boats on the Erie Canal are also to have
this power, at a rate of $20 per horse-power per
year, and vital improvement in canal haulage is ex*
pected. The first trials in this direction have been
made, with notable success. All over the United
States the example at Niagara is being imitated, and
millions of dollars are pledged for similar water-power
utilizations, while a great many such plants have gone
into commercial operation.
Incidental reference has been made to the use of
American electrical measuring instruments abroad.
But for the fact that om- own markets have had so
large a capacity of consiunption, an enormous ex-
port trade would long ago have grown up. As it is,
the demand from foreign countries in certain lines
is already respectable. Throughout Mexico, the
West Indies, Central America, and South America,
our dynamos for light, and motors for power, are in
use on an extensive scale ; and many are also found
in Canada, although it is the practice there to manu-
facture under patents of American electrical inven-
tors. A considerable part of the new gold-mining
work in South Africa is done with American elec-
trical plant ; and Buluwayo, which but two years
ago was the bush capital of savage Lobengula, is
lit every night from a central station whose machi-
nery was made in New York State. Japan and China
have taken large quantities of electric-lighting ap-
paratus from us ; the royal palace of Corea is illu-
minated by our incandescent lamps ; American tele-
phones are thickly strung in the Sandwich Islands ;
and electric railway plants from Ohio are in success-
ful operation in Indo-China. Even England has
not disdained to take electric motors and electric
railway apparatus from us, and some of her most
important electrical manufacturing corporations bear
famous American names and employ many Ameri-
can inventions and methods. Indeed, if the remark
of Emerson be true, that steam is half an English-
man, we may with equal felicity assert that electricity
is nine tenths an American.
The above are to-day the main lines of Amer-
ican electrical manufacturing and supply, reaching
toward a capital of $1,500,000,000; but they are
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
not all, and they draw their material from a swarm
of subsidiary industries ; while they throw out every
year new commercial tendrils and employ thousands
of intermediaries in order to gain access to the pub-
Uc. The electric refining of metals is a growing de-
partment, in which millions are invested annually.
There are 393 electroplating establishments in the
United States, with a capital of $38,000,000, employ-
ing 270Q hands ; and there are also no fewer than 300
electrotyping finns, besides large numbers of etching
and jewelry houses using current in their work. The
insulated wire and cable factories number a dozen.
Their output mounts into countless millions of feet of
wire annually, while the practice of running interior
wires through tubes has necessitated the production
of some 15,000,000 feet of insulated conduit annu-
ally. Merely placing wires underground is estimated
to have required $150,000,000 for cables and sub-
ways. Every hotel in the country has its annunci-
ator system, and every private residence of any pre-
tension has at least its electric bells. In medicine.
electrotherapy is so well recognized that a score of
large manufacturers are busy turning out galvanic
and faradic apparatus for practitioners of all schools.
The production of disinfectants electrically has as-
sumed large proportions, and their use is growing.
The place of electricity in education may be gauged
by the fact that 1500 students take up electrical
engineering in a single year as a special study at
leading colleges. It is seen clearly to-day that the
future of all the electrical arts depends upon a re-
duction in the cost of current, and to this end Mr.
Tesia has devised his oscillator, combining steam-
engine and dynamo in an integral mechanism which
shall create and distribute power at half or one
quarter the present cost. Others are working at
the problem of obtaining electricity directly from
heat ; and if there be one thing that is clearly writ-
ten upon the face of mechanical and industrial ad-
vance, it is that the succeeding century, no less than
the present has been that of steam, will be emphat-
ically the age of electricity.
7^ M-<t^r^^^
CHAPTER LV
THE PACKING INDUSTRY
THE packing industry may be considered as
applying more particularly to the curing
and packing of hog products; but no re-
view of this business would be complete which did
not take into consideration the slaughtering, dress-
ing, and shipping of cattle and sheep. The Ameii-
can packing-house of to-day is usually found com-
bining the two branches of business, although it is
true that only a small percentage of the product
from the cattle and sheep is "packed," using the
texm in its most literal sense.
The information available docs not make it plain
as to where and when the packing industiy, as dis-
tinct from butchering operations and incidental cur-
ing of meats, had its origin. It is said — although
I cannot find satisfactory proof of the statement —
that pork was cured and packed in barrels in Salem,
Mass., in 1640, and it is certain that, about 1690,
Boston did quite a trade in that line; but the pater-
nity of the Western packing business, as we under-
stand it to-day, belongs, I think, to Cincinnati. In
181 8, oneElisba Mills, a " down-easter," was estab-
lished as a packer in Cincinnati. The first drove of
hogs ever received in Chicago was in 1837, but no
attempt at packing seems to have been made until
1832. In that year George W, Dole packed some
pork for Oliver Newbury, of Detroit ; but Chicago
does not figure in the statistics of packing points
mitil 1850. It is claimed that 9600 hogs were
packed there in 1834. It was not until the season
of 1832—33 that a definite attempt was made to
obtm statistics covering such operations. In that
vintct Cincinnati was credited with slaughtering
SSi^oo hogs, several houses being engaged in the
IV development of the agricultural resources
"• the Western States, especially from Ohio to
™ Mississippi and Missouri rivers, cheapened the
"^ <rf producing animals, particularly hogs ; and
'"mtioD to their production was stimulated and
encouraged by the demands from Southern and
Eastern dealers for product for their markets. Pack-
ing operations naturally followed in many places
west of Cincinnati, more or less directly in commu-
nication with the transportation facilities afforded
by river navigation. The movement of the product
was by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to
New Orleans, and a great deal was shipped thence
by vessels to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York,
Boston, and other cities on the Atlantic coast.
In the early days of Western pork packing the
slaughtering was, to a large extent, a distinctive
business from the curing operations. The packer
confined himself largely to the cutting and curing
of dressed hogs. The farmer in those early days
slaughtered his own hogs on the farm, in the months
of December and January, the neighbors usually as-
sisting ; and he sold whatever he could spare over
and above the needs of his own family to the near-
est storekeeper, or to the small packer, who, located
at some convenient point, cut up the dressed hogs,
cured the product, and shipped it South, as I have
already mentioned. Sometimes, indeed, the pack*
ing-house took the form of a flatboat on the river,
tlie curing, such as it was, being done on board.
When the spring " break-up " came the flatboat was
floated down the river, and the product exchanged
at Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and New Orleans,
for sugar, molasses, rice, and other merchandise.
Chicago's place in the packing business is preSmi-
nent to-day, but it was not always so. In r84s a
Cincinnati journalist published the following state-
"The putting up of pork has been so important
a branch of business in oiu: city for five and twenty
years as to have constituted its largest item of manu-
facture and acquired for it the soubriquet of ' Pork-
opolis.' . . . Our pork business is the largest in the
world, not even excepting Cork or Belfast, in Ireland,
which country puts up and exports immense amounts
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
in thai line ; and the stranger who visits Cincinnati
during the season of cutting and packing hogs should
on no account neglect making a visit to one or more
slaughter-houses and pork-packing establishments in
the city.
" It may appear remarkable, in considering the
facility for putting up pork which many other points
in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky possess, in
their greater contiguity to the neighborhoods which
produce the hogs, and other advantages which are
palpable, that so large an amount of this business is
engrossed at Cincinnati. It must be observed, how-
ever, that the raw materia! in this business — the
hog— constitutes eighty per cent, of the value when
ready for sale, and, being always paid for in cash,
such heavy disbiu^ements are required in large sums,
and at a day's notice, that the necessary capital is
not as readily obtainable elsewhere in the West as
here. Nor, in an article which in process of curing
runs great risks from sudden changes in weather,
can the packer protect himself, except where there
are ample means in extensive supplies of salt, and
any necessary force of coopers or laborers to put on
in case of emergency or disappointment in previous
arrangements. More than all, the facilities of turn-
ing to account in various manufactiu-es, or as articles
of food in a dense community, what cannot be dis-
posed of to profit elsewhere, render hogs, to the
Cincinnati packer, worth ten per cent, more than
they will command at other points in the Mississippi
Valley."
In the Cincinnati " Price Current " of November
16, 1844, it was mentioned that a large pork-pack-
ing house had been established at Louisville, and
the Louisville "Joiunal" was quoted as saying:
" Heretofore all the pork killed here has been packed
at the slaughter-houses, and the purchases have been
in gross ; but the packing-house on Pearl Street wil!
now enable dealers to purchase the net pork at the
slaughter-houses and have it packed in the city, pre-
cisely as this business is done tn Cincinnati."
The " Price Current " in the same month said :
" The number of regular packing- houses at Cincin-
nati is found to be twenty-six, the most of them
prepared to do a pretty extensive business, as far as
the necessary conveniences are concerned ; but only
a small proportion of them will pack to any consid-
erable extent on their own account." In 1853-54
the number of packing-houses there was forty-one ;
in 1855-56, forty-two houses, Among the various
points in the region of the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers where hogs were packed in considerable num-
bers in the forties were Columbus, Chillicothe, Circle-
ville, and Hamilton, in Ohio; Lafayette. Lawrence-
burg, Madison, Terre Haute, and Vincennes, in Indi-
ana ; Alton, Beardstown, Pekin, Peoria, and Quincy,
in Illinois; and many places of minor importance.
The greatest number of places engaged in the hog-
packing business was reported in 1873— 74, 397 places
being included in the official reports ; and since that
time the number has steadily declined, the process
of concentration in the large centers going steadily
on, the number in 1894-95 being only 76.
The first effort at a definite statement of pork
packing in the West was instituted by Charles Cist,
of Cincinnati, in the winter of 1832-33. The " Price
Current " of that city, which was started in January,
1844, by A. Peabody, inaugurated a more complete
system of investigation, and this publication has con-
tinued such statistical work, with a very greatly
widened scope of investigation in recent years, the
trade now relying upon its weekly and annual state-
ments for information concerning this industry, I
am indebted to my friend, Mr. Charles Murray, the
present editor and proprietor of the " Price Current,"
for most of the statistical information incorporated
in this article.
The first season in which the Western packing
reached a total of 1,000,000 hogs was in 1843-44,
the number falling below this point during the next
three years. The following table shows the number
of hogs packed in the \Vest up to the beginning of
summer slaughtering operations :
HOGS PACKED.
V^.
Nu»»»
Yui.
Kiwm
'842-43
'843-44
1844-45
'|45:45
1846-47
J849-to. ::*:::
1853-54 ■■■"■■■
lllf:P ::::::■
1856-57
675,000
1,345,000
790,000
940,000
825,000
1,560,000
1,652,000
[.3^3.^
2,535,000
3,124,000
i|5J;S«
ilk!:-;::
1861-62
1862-63 ■■-
1863-64
«;:;;■
1867-6^:;:::.
1869-70' "'::
1870-71
i87'-72
3,31 i/no
3465,000
2,35i/»o
2,156,000
2,893,000
4.069,000
3.zfi".ooD
3401,000
3,781,000
3,J0O,ODO
3,635^00
3.695/»oo
4,831,000
Prior to 187a summer slaughtering had not
reached proportions of importance. In that year
500,000 hogs were killed during the season, and
subsequently, with the introduction of chilling
processes, summer killing developed into large pro-
portions, as is shown by the following comparison
THE PACKING INDUSTRY
385
of yearly totals for the summer and winter seasons,
and the aggregates :
HOGS PACKED.
Ybak.
SUMMXIL
WZNTXiL
Twelve
Months.
1872—7^
505,000
1,063,000
1,200,000
1,262,000
2^0^000
2,543,000
3,378,000
4.051,000
5,;24/x)o
4,803,000
3,211,000
3,781,000
4.059,000
4,964/)oo
5,644/)oo
5,611,000
tji 81,000
9,540,000
6,696,000
7.757.000
6,721,000
8,8i2/X)0
5410,000
5466,000
5,566,000
4380,000
5,101,000
6,505,000
7480,000
6,950,000
6,910,000
5,748,000
6,132,000
5402,000
0460,000
6,299,000
6439,000
5,921,000
5484,000
6,664,000
8,173,000
7,761,000
4,6^3,000
4.884,000
7,191,000
5,915,000
6,529,000
6,766,000
6,142,000
7409,000
9,048,000
10,858,000
11,001,000
12,243,000
10,551,000
9.343.000
9,183,000
10,519,000
11,263,000
12,083,000
11,532,000
10,799,000
13.545.000
17,713.000
14457,000
12,390,000
11,605,000
16,003,000
l87^-7A
187A-7S
«'^ #3
1875-70
«'5 *
1876-77
1877-78
jl/L 1 ••••••••
"|g;p- • ••••
1881-82
i882-8a
188^-84
MpS
iMjUI.
1886-87
1887-88
1888-89
1880-00
X ^ ^
1590^1
I80I-Q2
1802-0-1
180^-04
i8q4-oc
J^iFD
The summer season covers the period of eight
months, from March to October inclusive, and the
winter season four months, November to February
indugive, in these exhibits. For the past ten years
the summer packing represents nearly fifty-two per
cent of the aggregate. It is here shown that from
abusmess of about 1,000,000 hogs, as the yearly ex-
tent of Western packing operations fifty years ago,
Ac growth of this industry brought the annual aver-
age for the following decade to 1,606,000, during
^Wch period the largest total was 2,535,000, in
'^53-54; for the next decade, 1855-56 to 1864-
^5» the annual average was advanced to 2,613,000
'^ogs, the largest number being 4,069,000, in 1862-
^3; for the following decade, 1865-66 to 1874-75,
"^c annual average reached 3,993,000 hogs, with
^»766,ooo as the largest nimiber, in the last year of
*« period; for the next decade, 1875-76 to 1884-
^5» there was a more striking advance, the annual
*^erage representing 9,015,000 hogs, with 12,243,-
^o as the largest yearly nimiber, in 1 880-8 1 . Again
* large increase is shown for the past decade,
^ding with 1894-95, for which the annual average
^ ^2»i39,ooo, and 17,713,000 the largest yearly
^^ber, in 1890-91.
For the ten years ending with 1851-52 the pack-
^8 at Cincinnati represented twenty-seven per cent.
^^ the total for the West, that city reaching 475,000
^ in 1848-49. At that time the industry had
'^^^ly been inaugurated at Chicago, and was of
25
unimportant proportions at St. Louis, while Milwau-
kee, Kansas City, Omaha, and other towns were
unknown in the packing lists. Railroads penetrated
the West in 1852, and by 1855 several roads were
in operation. This influence, tending, as it did, to
open up the country to settlement, and facilitating
the exchange of commodities, had a marked effect
on the extension of the packing business, and in
changing its geographical position and its character.
At Chicago about 20,000 hogs were killed in 1850-
51, and the increase at this point from that time on
was rapid. In 1858-59, 99,000 hogs were killed in
Chicago; 505,000 in 1861-62; 1,225,000 in 1871—
72; 4,009,000 in 1877-78; 5,752,000 in 1880-81 ;
and in 1890-91, 6,071,000, by far the largest yearly
total for one city in the history of the industry, Kan-
sas City coming second with 2,398,764 in the same
year.
Until 1861-62 Cincinnati continuously main-
tained its position as the leading packing point in
the country. In that season the distinction passed
to Chicago, where it has remained, and is likely to
continue for a long time. Of the aggregate of 131,-
000,000 hogs handled by Western packers in the
past ten years, Chicago represents 46,000,000, or
thirty-five per cent. During the past ten years
Western packers have paid out $1,429,000,000 for
hogs, or an annual average of about $143,000,000,
reaching $172,679,000 for the year ending March
I, 1895. These figures relate only to the manufac-
ture of hog products, and to the business in the West
prosecuted for commercial purposes.
While curing operations were carried on in East-
em markets at an earlier period, what may be termed
regular packing establishments probably were not
established there until after the industry had been
developed in the West. The following is a state-
ment of the reported sales of beef-cattle, sheep, and
hogs at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Balti-
more, in the year 1844, most of these animals being
undoubtedly slaughtered for local consumption in a
fresh state :
ANIMALS SOLD IN FOUR EASTERN CITIES
IN 1844.
Cattlb.
Shbbp.
Hogs.
TOTAU
Boston
New York . .
Philadelphia. .
Baltimore . . .
43.530
49,002
37420
33.500
98,820
75.713
91,480
90450
43.060
13478
22480
24,000
I854IO
I3^»i93
151.380
147.950
Total
163452
356463
103,018
622,933
386
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
The aggregate value of the 623,000 animals mar-
keted in the four large cities in one year, fifty years
ago, was $7,500,000. For the year 1894 the re-
ceipts of cattle, sheep, and hogs at Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore were as follows :
ANIMALS SOLD IN FOUR EASTERN CITIES
IN 1894.
Total.
Cattlb.
Shbbp.
Hogs.
Boston
New York . . .
Philadelphia. .
Baltimore
182,276
564,932
1 76,960
154,958
688,334
2,436,822
591.985
361,722
1,66^,671
1,656^35
602,996
Total
1,079,126
4,078,883
4,287,773
2,535,281
4,658,209
1,132,616
1,119,676
9,445,782
The total value of the 9,445,000 animals repre-
sented in the foregoing exhibit for 1894 was approxi-
mately $ 1 40,000,000. There were exported 421 ,000
live cattle, valued at $38,963,000, leaving approxi-
mately 9,000,000 animals for local slaughtering es-
tablishments at the seaboard, and representing about
$100,000,000 in value.
For many years a number of large packing estab-
lishments have been in operation in Eastern cities,
notably at Buffalo, Boston, Providence, New Haven,
and Springfield. At about fifty establishments in
New England, New York, and Pennsylvania from
which returns of packing have been obtained, the
total packing for the year ending March i, 1895,
was 3,098,000 hogs. The total of these establish-
ments ten years ago was 1,550,000, which exceeded
any previous year. The hogs slaughtered the past
year at the seaboard and other Eastern localities
represented a value of about $60,000,000, which
with the amount paid out by Western packers makes
a total of $232,000,000 for the year's outlay for
hogs, or an average of about $750,000 daily.
These statistics indicate in general terms the sig-
nificant progress of the pork -packing industry in the
United States, which we may say really had its begin-
ning about seventy-five years ago. The limits of
this article will not permit me to explain in detail
how this vast quantity of meat is to-day handled
and prepared for market. Naturally, labor-saving
devices have been adopted as pressing needs dem-
onstrated their necessity. The killing is done by
hand, no mechanical means of wholesale slaughter
having been evolved; but in the manipulation of
the carcass many ingenious contrivances are utilized.
The scalding and the scraping of the hog used to
be a slow and tedious job ; but to-day as soon as
life has left the animal he is hooked by the nose to
an endless chain, passed through the scalding-vats,
and through an automatically adjustable scraper,
where he is deprived of his hair and bristles in a
few seconds ; he is then hoisted, head down, upon
an inclined rail ; and is disemboweled, beheaded,
washed, trimmed, and whirled off to the chill-rooms
at the rate of twenty hogs a minute. The cutting
and curing of the hog, too, is different from the cus-
tom of early days. Hams, shoulders, sides, or bar-
reled pork, comprised the selling list of thirty years
ago. To-day the variety of cuts is bewildering to
an outsider. The world is to-day the packer's mar-
ket, and he has to study the peculiarities and prefer-
ences of each country, and even each county. The
influence of English county idiosyncrasies in the
cutting and curing of home-killed bacon is reflected
to-day in our cuts. Wiltshires, Cumberlands, Staf-
fordshires, Yorkshires, etc., are only a few of such
distinguishing styles.
No one factor has done more to render possible
the development of the last twenty years in the
slaughtering, curing, and packing of meats than the
discoveries seciuring and improving artificial refrig-
eration. At the bottom of all successful meat curing
lies the proper and thorough chilling of the carcass.
The packing season is now twelve months long, and
summer-cured meat differs in no material respect
from that cured in winter.
Beef packing was among the earliest of operations
in the curing of meat for transportation to other
localities, as well as for preservation for home de-
mand. Barreled beef was put up in the West in
considerable quantities as early as pork, and prob-
ably earlier, and transported by water to the Eastern
markets ; and beef packed at Boston, New York,
New Haven, and other Eastern cities found its way
all over the world on shipboard.
The canning of beef was attempted in Chicago in
the sixties, and enjoyed some little growth ; but it
was not until the year 1879 that the beef-canning
business was taken up on a large scale by the pack-
ers. Mechanical ingenuity, in discovering a sure
and practicable method of hermetically sealing tins,
rendered possible the preservation of food in this way
on a large scale ; and the facih'ties already secured
by the large packers for disposing of every part of
the animal placed the business entirely in their hands.
The convenience of canned beef, tongues, potted
meats, and soups, and the fact that they could be
guaranteed to keep sound in any climate for years,
combined to steadily increase this branch of the in-
dustry. In 1890, 111,000,000 pounds of canned
beef were exported.
THE PACKING INDUSTRY
387
The dressed-beef trade, which now forms so large
a part of the packing business, had little importance
prior to 1875. '^^^ settlement of the West, and
the rapid increase in the numbers of cattle on the
Western ranches and farms, afforded a new and
bountiful addition to the world's food-supply; but
it was not until the invention and development of
refrigerator-cars that the food which the world lacked
was brought in quantity, and in good condition, to
its table. The exportation of fresh beef had its
beginning in a moderate way in the early months
of the year 1876, and was enlarged with the later
months, making a total of 19,838,000 pounds for
the year. For five years, ending with 1880, the
average was 59,000,000 pounds, reaching 100,622,-
000 pounds in the last year of the period. For the
next ten years the annual average was 113,000,000
potmds, reaching 182,500,000 in the last year of the
period. For the past four years the average was
203,000,000 pounds, reaching 233,000,000 pounds
in 1892. At first the cattle were transported on the
hoof, and handled in the Eastern cities by the local
abattoirs ; but the long and tiresome journey was bad
for the beef, and this method had to give place to
something less wasteful and more humane. The
large hog-packing establishments which had already
grown to prominence in Chicago afforded the neces-
sary means of effecting the revolution. There the
offal could be manipulated to better advantage than
elsewhere. Mechanical skill, as I have said, pro-
vided the refrigerator-car, cold-air machines, and a
number of other devices. The packer to-day slaugh-
ters thousands of head of cattle daily, chills the car-
casses at a uniform temperature, whether in mid-
winter or in the " dog days," loads the beef, after
thorough chilling, into his own refrigerator-cars, in
which a uniform temperature is maintained between
Chicago and the Eastern markets, delivers the beef
into his own cold-storage warehouses in the large
Eastern centers, and distributes the carcasses to the
local butchers at a lower price and in better condition
than the local beef slaughtered by themselves, and
in vastly better condition than the meat which they
previously obtained from cattle shipped on the hoof
1 500 or 2000 miles by rail. If the meat is intended
for export the packer runs his refrigerator-cars along-
side the ocean-liners, and transfers the meat to the
specially constructed chill-rooms of the steamers, and
lands the beef in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow
in prime condition and at a low price. There is
good ground for the view that the cattle-raising in-
dustry of the West has been greatly benefited by
this extension of slaughtering through the develop-
ment of the dressed-beef trade.
Definite figiu-es illustrating the growth of the
slaughtering of cattle for commercial dressed beef
are unfortunately very meager ; but the general piu*-
pose of such information is served by the introduc-
tion of statistics indicating the number of cattle killed
at prominent Western markets where this industry is
prosecuted. The following compilation shows the
average annual number of cattle killed in periods
of five years, from 187 1 to 1890 inclusive, and the
average annual number for the four years ending
1894, at the places named:
CATTLE KILLED IN FOUR WESTERN CITIES.
Pbkiod.
Chicago.
St. Louis.
Kansas City.
Omaha.
1881-85 ....
1886-90 ...
1890-94 ...
190,000
AI 1,000
86^000
1,696,000
2,223,000
104,000
165,000
182,000
210,000
303,000
37»ooo
60,000
82,000
34i»ooo
756,000
10,000
170,000
460,000
The killing of cattle for supplies of commercial
product has also been prosecuted at various other
points in the West, including Milwaukee, Sioux City,
Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Cleveland.
The following is a comparison of the number of
cattle killed in 187 1, 1880, 1890, and 1894, at the
large Western markets mentioned, with the total re-
ceipts at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bal-
timore for the same years, with totals for Western
and Eastern markets mentioned:
CATTLE KILLED AND CATTLE RECEIVED.
Chicago
Sc Louis
Kansas City .
Omaha
Foar Western centers
Seaboard
West and East
Z87Z.
1^1,000
69,000
20,000
230,000
745,000
975,000
z88o.
496,000
196,000
50,000
■ ■ • •
742,000
1,268,000
2,010,000
z89a
2,224,000
227,000
549,000
323/)oo
3»323.ooo
1,280,000
4,603,000
1894.
2,023,000
492,000
92C,O0O
518,000
3,958,000
1,079,000
5,037,000
388
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
The aggregate value of the 5,037,000 cattle in
1894 in the several markets where they were killed,
including the number exported alive (421,000), was
approximately $235,000,000.
Incident to traffic in dressed beef, the mutton
trade has assumed important proportions in late
years, this product being largely distributed in the
refrigerator-car shipments of meats. The following
figures show the number of sheep killed in the four
Western centers and received at the seaboard cities
in the years 1871, 1880, 1890, and 1894:
SHEEP KILLED IN FOUR WESTERN CENTERS
AND RECEIVED AT SEABOARD CITIES.
Z87Z.
z88<x
1890.
X894.
Sheep, West . .
Sheep, East. . .
261,000
2,793.000
405,000
3,005,000
1,621,000
3,274,000
3,564,000
4,079,000
The published records of the Census Office do not
give figures showing the capital invested in the pack-
ing business earlier than 1870. The official figures
for 1870, 1880, and 1890 are as follows:
1870 $22,124,787
1880 49419,213
1890 116,887,504
Even after the packing business had assumed
fairly large proportions, the packers were not aware
of, or did not appreciate, the value of the offal, and
the problem of how to get rid of it at the least ex-
pense was ever present. So recently as twenty-five
years ago, in Chicago, the blood was allowed to run
into the river, and men were paid five dollars a load
to cart the heads, feet, tankage, and other waste
material out upon the prairie and there bmy it in
pits and trenches. Instead of being a source of
profit, the offal, in this respect, was a distinct source
of expense. Gradually there grew up in the vicinity
of the packing centers subsidiary enterprises having
for their object the utilization of some or all of this
waste material. Such concerns turned out glue, oil,
tallow, and crude fertilizers. In time, however, the
necessities of the business, and the growing compe-
tition, forced the progressive packer to include these
industries in his own establishment. It became less
profitable to pack in a small way, and to-day a large
packing plant depends largely for its profit on the
intelligent utilization of those so-called waste mate-
rials which in the early days of the packing business
were not only thrown away, but the removal of which
was, as I have shown, an actual source of expense.
In all this packing business, whether it is in beef
or hogs, the waste which previously prevailed when
the animals were handled one by one by local butch-
ers, or were handled on even a slightly larger scale
by the numerous small packers that were scattered
over the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and
Missouri, or in the East, is, by the present methods,
entirely obviated. It is the aim that nothing shall
be wasted. The large packing establishments of
to-day manipulate their own horns, hoofs, bones,
sinews, hide-trimmings, etc., in their own glue- works.
The sweet fat of the cattle forms the basis of butter-
ine, made in their own butterine factories ; the sheep
pelts are scoured, and the wool removed in their own
wool-houses, cleansed, and sold direct to the large
Eastern cloth-mills. The intestines are cleansed and
salted and used for sausage casings in their own
sausage factories. The blood and all animal refuse
are treated by their chemists in their own fertilizer
factories, with a view to the scientific preparation of
fertiKzers to suit different soils ; and in one or two
packing houses there has been established a labora-
tory where the inner lining of the hog's stomach is
made into pepsin of greater purity and activity than
was possible when the sensitive material had to be
transported in a raw state, and subjected to all the
risks of decomposition and consequent loss of diges-
tive power.
I do not know of any business in which the de-
velopment has been so marked in the same length
of time as in the packing business. It seems a '' far
cry " from the packing-house which consisted of a
flatboat on the river to the packing-house of to-day,
which owns and operates, as part of its equipment,
6000 refrigerator-cars ; but the distance as measured
by the lapse of time is only fifty years. I do not
care to venture a prophecy as to the future. I shall
leave that to the genial editor who writes, I under-
stand, on the " Next Hundred Years." The popu-
lation of the United States in 1871 was about 39,-
500,000 ; in 1880, 50,1 55,000 ; in 1890, 62,622,000 ;
in 1894, about 68,000,000. The population in 1894,
as compared with that of 1871, was as 172 to 100.
The total number of animals marketed in 1894, as
compared with 1 87 1 , was as 306 to 1 00. The fierce-
ness of competition may force the packing-house
of twenty-five years hence to include a tannery, a
boot and shoe factory, a cloth-mill, and a mammoth
tailor-shop, and the tendency to concentration may
be still further intensified ; but the packing business
as a whole seems destined for greater development,
and should grow with the country's growth.
I^^aXJ. of
CHAPTER LVI
AMERICAN FISH FOODS
IT is conceded diat the search for gold was in a
measure one of the propelling forces of discov-
ery; but the quest for food, and particularly
for fish food, must also be conddered as a reason
for the love for wandering. This double incentive
was conspicuously shown in 1614. Captain John
Smith, in describing " New England, a part of Amer-
ica, at the Isle of Monahiggin," writes, " Our plot
was there to take whales and make trials for a mine
of gold and copper. If this failed, fish and Airs was
then our refuge, to make ourselves savors howso-
ever."
The earUest knowledge that edible fish of the kinds
known in die old world were to be found in abun-
dance in the waters of the new dates back to the
time of John Cabot and his sod Sebastian. Under
a charter granted by Henry VII., John and Sebas-
tian Cabot reached, in June, 1497, what was proba-
bly the coast of Labrador. We find on a map of
somewhat later date (the authenticity of which can-
not be questioned) a land which bears the name
"Tierra de los Bacallaos," which, in English, is
"the Land of the Codfish." Philologists are often
struck by what may be called the resistance of a
word to all changes. J. Carson Brevoort has shown
in the most convincing manner that the Greeks, the
Latins, the Iberians, the English, and the Dutch all
derived the name " cod " fi'om the small stick, gad,
or rod used in drying the gadus, and baculeum in
Iberian is a small sdck, hence the Spanish baccalaos
or dried cod.
In 1415, as stated by Prof. G. Brown Goode,
English vessels fi'equented the fishing- grounds of
Iceland, and it is not impossible that these ships
sailed further westward in search of the cod. If
tradition is worth anything, the probabilities are
strong that the hardy Basques reached the northern
coast of America centuries before Columbus did.
" The banks of Mewfoondland were among the prin-
cipal inducements which led England to establish
colonies in this country, and in the records of early
voyages are many allusions to the appearance of
cod." (Goode.)
Less than a century later, an adventurer petidoned
Queen Elizabeth (1577), offering to "destroy the
great Spanish fleet which went every year to the banks
of Newfoundland for fish for their fasting days."
Eleven years later (1585), when war was imminent
between England and Spain, Barnard Drake was
commissioned to proceed to Newfoundland to warn
"the English fishery there of the trouble." In 1600
there are records which show that England em-
ployed 200 vessels and 1000 men and boys in the
New England fisheries. With the settlement of Vir-
ginia the excellence of the fish on the southern coasts
was cited. " A bold channel so stored with sturgeon
and other sweet fish as no man's fortune has ever
possessed the like " (1607). George Percy wrote to
England of " the good mussels and oysters of Vir-
ginia " (1606). There is a record of the same time
describing an encounter with the Indians of Virginia,
who, having been driven off, " fled, leaving many
oysters in the fire." The presence of salmon (saUos)
in Virginia is indicated by a document found in the
Simancas archives. There is a curious fiagment of
verse which has come down to us, written by Dray-
ton (1619-20), entitled "An Ode to the Virginia
Voyage," where the adventurers are "to get the
pearle and gold."
In the study of fish as food, comparing the long
past with the immediate present, one marked differ-
ence is in the method of preservarion. Among
aboriginal races, more particularly those living in the
far North, climatic conditions permitted conservation
of fish by the simplest methods of drying, but such
measures were not possible in warmer zones. The
method of salting and drying fish, as practised in
Scandinavia, is of the most remote antiquity. Smok-
390
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
ing fish in order to prepare them for eating, it is be-
lieved, is of a later date. In the earlier times it must
have been necessary that a catch of fish should be
at once landed so that it could be marketed. Later
came the preparation of fish for future use by salting
and drying. If the port of final destination were
far distant, a convenient shore in the proximity of the
catch had to be found, so that the fish might be
cured. The early Norseman or Basque of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, or the English, French, or
Spanish fishermen of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, must have sought such curing-grounds,
so that fishing interests had much to do with the
early founding of colonies.
Modern methods of preserving fish are refine-
ments of older processes, the result of a better scien-
tific acquaintance with the composition of food. If
there always must exist a demand for cured fish, be-
cause it can be kept over, and has the advantages
of small bulk and high nutrient quality, neverthe-
less the demand for the more natural fi-esh fish re-
mains constant The first use of ice on board of
fishing-smacks, it is believed, was by the fishermen
of the American colonies, the practice always having
been in vogue among the New England fishermen.
The reason for it is plain ; the low temperature of
New England furnished an abundance of ice during
the winter, but in summer the heat was excessive,
and fish would spoil. In England and France ice
always has been, in the past as in the present, an ex-
pensive luxury.
The credit for the refrigerating of fish on a large
scale is to be accorded to Enoch Piper of Maine,
who first perfected it in the British Provinces. This
method is now general in all the large cities on the
American seaboard. The advantages of the refriger-
ating process are evident In former times, when
there was a glut of fish, it often had to be destroyed,
because the expense of handling amounted to more
than the price offered. To-day, no such waste is
possible. Whenever fish is landed at the large cities,
and is low in price on account of catches in excess of
inmiediate demand, such fish are bought at a fair
price and stored in refrigerators. In this way the
labors of the fishermen are not lost, and the stock of
food is increased.
Sometimes the idea has been advanced that co-
operative methods, such as are successfully carried
out by dairymen, should be used by fishermen. It
has been proposed that desiccating establishments
should be organized in the neighborhood of fisheries,
where the excess of fish might be dried by means of
approved apparatus.
An important factor in the extensive use of fish is
a more expeditious method of transportation. By
means of rapid transportation, fish from all portions
of the United States reach in a short time the main
centers, and distribution on a large scale becomes
possible. By actual comparison, it is found by look-
ing over the list of fish offered for sale every day in
New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago, that
the variety offered far exceeds that to be found in
London, Paris, or Berlin. The large centers of Euro-
pean population require fish, but those living at some
distance from the capitals have it only in sparse
quantity. This arises from want of a better system
of distribution, or from indifference on the part of
those who supply the markets. In the New York
fish markets, as in those of other great centers of the
United States, fresh fish may be found at all times in
excellent condition, coming fix>m every portion of
the country. There are no waters, salt or firesh,
from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, which do not
contribute their fish to the general markets. Even
salmon from Kamtschatka, via Bering Strait, have
been found in Fulton Market, New York.
The natural increase of any population requires a
larger supply of all kinds of food, but there is another
factor to be considered in this — a brief study offish
alimentation in the United States. In proportion to
the flesh of domestic animals eaten in this countiy,
the quantity of fish consumed per capita is larger
than elsewhere. If there should be the least de-
crease in any staple article of food, no matter whether
derivable from an animal or vegetable source, such
diminution would be at once attended with the
gravest consequences. Has, then, the supply of fish
been equal to the demand ?
For the elucidation of a question of this character,
not a general but a special area of water, with refer-
ence to the catch, should be studied. As has been
before presented, the fishing-banks of Newfoundland,
first discovered by the Cabots, gave abundance of
fish during the sixteenth century. Though statistics
of fishermen cannot be presented with precision^
since we learn that in Queen Elizabeth's time there
were *' a thousand English men and boys " fishing
there, we may safely believe that, counting the
Spanish, French, and Dutch fishermen working over
the same grounds, there were some 5000 men em-
ployed. For almost 400 years these same waters of
the Atlantic have been fished, — and by an array of
fishermen ever increasing, — who have employed for
the last century very much improved methods of
taking fish; yet it cannot be said that in these waters
the staple fish, the cod, has shown any appreciable
AMERICAN FISH FOODS
391
diminution. A vastly increasing quantity of fish
only could have sufficed the business demands of the
more numerous fishermen. This constant presence
of fish is not singular to American waters. The same
conditions of perennial abundance occur in European
waters. The European herring, or other fisheries,
are of the remotest antiquity, yet they still bear the
stress of the vast requirements of to-day.
It may then be laid down as a general rule, that
so far as pelagic or deep-sea fish are concerned, in
contradistinction to the capture of fish hving in
dose proximity to the coast, the supply of such
deep-sea fish is well-nigh inexhaustible, as man's ef-
fort to diminish their number has so far been with-
out appreciable effect This was the conclusion
arrived at by the late Professor Huxley in his ex-
haustive study of the English fisheries. It is not,
however, to be questioned, that fi-om causes beyond
our comprehension certain kinds of fish are in abun-
dance one year and scarce the next. This may be
the case of one special fish, but not of all the fish
firequenting known areas of water. The error made
by the superficial observer is to give too great
prominence to the absence of special fish in a par-
ticular year. When systematic research is made,
extending over periods of twenty or fifty years, the
average quantity of pelagic fish is found to be the
same. A particular fish may be scarce in certain
waters while abundant in others. Fishermen, when
the catch is poor off the coast of Massachusetts,
naturally complain, but are ignorant of the fact that
north or south of them these same fish are in abun-
dance.
There are exceptions to this general rule as ap-
pHcable to the constancy of certain pelagic fish.
In former years what was known as the shore cod
were in abundance near our coasts. These fish
have become comparatively scarce to-day. Whe-
ther too many have been caught, so that reproduc-
tion became difficult, or for the reason that the
sources of food for the fish have been diverted, is
not now known. As far as relates to one fish, the
halibut, its absence fix>m its former grounds is a
well-ascertained fact That the halibut is scarcest
to-day in eastern waters of the United States can-
not be questioned. The possibiHty is that the old
halibut groimds have been over-fished.
It is this ignorance on the part of our legislatures
of the inexhaustible natiural supplies of pelagic fish,
which has brought about numerous acts which
have only resulted in hampering the fishing inter-
ests of the country. The laws of nature are indif-
ferent to human laws. '^As early as 1670 laws
were passed by the Colony of Massachusetts pro-
hibiting certain instruments of capture, and similar
ordinances have been passed firom time to time
ever since. The first recourse of our State govern-
ments has always been in seasons of scarcity to
attempt to restore fish to their former abundance by
protective legislation." (Professor G. Brown Goode.)
In a careful study made of the mackerel, extending
over three quarters of a century, there were found
periods of abundance and scarcity. " These alter-
nated without the least reference to the alleged
causes of over-fishing or any particular cause." If,
then, useless laws were made in what was certainly
the infancy of American fishing, a better acquain-
tance with ichthyology should preclude the formu-
lating of any such restrictive acts to-day, so far as
deep-sea or free-swimming sea fish are concerned.
So far the subject of fish as a food-supply de-
rived from the sea or ocean has been presented,
and an endeavor has been made to show how un-
wise and useless it is to place any restrictions on
the taking of pelagic fish. With fish found in the
rivers or lakes the conditions are entirely different.
If it is beyond man's power to exhaust the food de-
rivable from the sea, this is by no means the case
with fresh-water fish. There are many fish called
anadromous, or those which return periodically firom
salt to fresh water, as the salmon and the shad, and
these species would be absolutely exterminated if
man so willed it. These fish, bom at the source of a
river, go down to the salt water at certain periods
during their existence, remaining there till, later on,
urged by the instinct of reproduction, they return
to their places of origin in the same rivers. The
period of their return fix)m salt to fresh water, in or-
der to lay their eggs, is when these fish are caught
It is precisely at this time that these fish are of ser-
vice to man, being in their best edible condition.
It can thus be understood how a river could be so
cross-barred, by means of nets, as to catch almost
every anadromous fish ascending the stream. A
practical example of this may be found in the Co-
lumbia River, once the finest salmon river in the
world. The Columbia has supplied canned fish
during the last quarter of the century, and now,
from over-fishing, the river is almost depleted of
salmon.
The presence of dams for manufacturing purposes
may or may not have been an industrial necessity,
but such dams have in the past brought about the
entire disappearance of salmon and shad in certain
New England rivers, for the reason that the fish
could not ascend the streams to lay their eggs. It
392
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
is therefore wise and proper that State legislators
should pass laws regulating the character of the nets
to be employed in catching such anadromous fish,
and fixing certain periods when fish could or could
not be caught, or establishing what are known as
close seasons.
Our great North American lakes, when compared
with the vast extent of the sea, are restricted areas
of firesh water. The range of fish in these lakes is
limited, and their habits can be readily determined.
If no heed were to be taken as to the seasons of
spawning of these lake fish, and their indiscriminate
capture were carried out, the inevitable result would
be their complete destruction. It is a salutary and
just provision, that laws should be passed restrict-
ing fishing in the lakes to certain seasons, and regu-
lating the size of the meshes of the nets.
It is therefore evident that with certain firesh-
water fish, forming a large proportion of our food,
their present or futxire abundance must depend upon
protective legislation. But even then the legiti-
mate supply, bearing in mind the constantly in-
creasing demand, would be notably decreased if it
were not for the intelligent methods devised for re-
stocking with fish depleted rivers and lakes, and
even in some cases the seas.
Here the newer science of fish-culture becomes
important. Fish-culture does not create fish. What
it does is to study particularly the spawning habits
of fish. It secures the fecundated eggs, hatches
them artificially, rears the young fish, cares for them
up to the period when they are able to provide for
their own wants, and, lastly, introduces the young
fiy in quantity in those rivers or lakes where, firom
over-fishing or other "causes, the fish are wanting.
Fish-culture has to do with our future supply. It
plants the fingerling to-day, so that in the years to
come the little fish, grown to full size, may fiimish
wholesome food.
In studying the advance fish-culture has made in
the United States it is highly flattering to signalize
the practical good sense and enterprise of a private
body of citizens, the American Fish Cultural Associa^
tion, which first directed public attention to the re-
stocking of our rivers and lakes. It was through the
influence of this association that the attention of the
government was called to the matter, with the re-
sult of creating the United States Fish Commission
(1871), with that most distinguished man, the late
Spencer F. Baird, at its head. With the fiillest ap-
preciation of the exigencies of the case. Professor
Baird endowed the study of American fish-culture
with all the treasures of his scientific and, above all,
practical mind, and our country will always be in-
debted to him for the many benefits he has bestowed
upon it
It is evident that preservative measures wiU al-
ways be necessary in order to keep up the average
stock of useful fish in our rivers and lakes, but when
we study the condition of the oyster a more serious
problem is presented.
The oyster is a type of immobility. If in its em-
bryotic state it is endowed with motion, in its sub-
sequent condition it becomes forever fixed. If the
oyster were taken in an indiscriminate manner. In
time it would be exterminated. In England and
France the supply would have ^ed long ago had
not stringent measures been carried out looking to
their preservation. In France efforts were directed
toward restocking old beds and the creation of new
ones.
The oyster-beds of Maryland and Virginia were
at one time deemed inexhaustible, but constant
dredging for oysters, the quantity desired being on
an ever ascending scale, showed that the beds of
Chesapeake Bay were unable to stand the demands
made on them. Legislators finally directed their at-
tention to these oyster-groimds, and to other oyster-
beds on our North Adantic seaboard, and with good
effects. Grants were established in some cases,
making a tide to oyster-beds, or municipalities
rented oystering privileges. The planting of oysters
was encouraged, and laws were formulated regulat-
ing the dredging. The chaotic conditions of some
fifteen years ago have been changed. Even with
the many precautions used it is to be feared, such
is the demand for oysters, that our time of plenty
has passed, and that the price of the oyster will be
increased in the years to come. Methods of estab-
lishing new beds by means of oyster-culture have
been successfully carried on in France, but do not
seem to have been available in the United States.
This arises not fi-om any want of knowledge or skill
on our part, but because the spat of the American
oyster has certain peculiarities in which it differs
from the French oyster. The clam is still abundant,
nor does there seem to be any reason why for many
years to come it will not meet the demand.
Lobsters are becoming scarce. This is caused by
their having been over-fished in the first place, and,
secondly, because of the indifference of the captors
as to the size, condition, and consequently the age
of the lobster. In a general taking of lobsters, the
small females having been captured, natural chances
of reproduction were destroyed. At one time lob-
sters were fairly abimdant in the waters of New
AMERICAN FISH FOODS
393
York* To-day, few, if any, are caught. The ab-
sence of lobsters from their former grounds upon the
North Atlantic seaboard must be noted. Methods
of fish-culture applied to lobsters have not as yet
been successfully operated. Legal restrictions in
regard to the indiscriminate capture of the lobster
have been exceedingly difficult to carry out. The de-
mands of the lobster canneries in certain seasons are
always on the increase, and supervision is apparendy
impossible.
Terrapin of the finest variety is becoming very
scarce. This is due to the overcapture of the North-
em terrapin. In the South terrapins of not so high
a quality are still moderately abundant. Fish on
our American coast are not taken to serve as food
alone. The menhaden is among our valuable fish,
as a source whence oil and fertilizing material are
derived. With a very much increased force of
fishermen, and with more approved methods of cap-
ture, the catch of the menhaden is still large. The
menhaden shows, as do other pelagic fish, that in cer-
tain years they are more abundant than in others.
Looking over a list of fish offered in the New
the halibut. In 1804 Nantucket shoals, or localities
even nearer to New York, furnished the halibut As
time went on halibut was fished for near Labrador ;
then the waters near Iceland were sought by our
adventurous Gloucester fishermen. At present fi^esh
halibut comes in good quantity firom Alaska and
the far northern Pacific. To-day all the ordinary
fish marketed, taking New York as a center, is de-
rived, not only firom adjacent seas or rivers, but firom
waters 800 miles north or 1000 miles south on the
Atlantic sea-board.
In presenting such figures as are available, show-
ing the weight and value of the American fisheries
for 1870, 1880, and 1890, those of 1870 are not con-
sidered by the United States Fish Commission as
absolutely trustworthy. The census of our fisheries
had not, in 1870, the advantages of the careful
supervision of the Commission. Unfortimately, too,
that of 1890 is wanting in some details, the
work not having been entirely concluded. If, how-
ever, errors have been made, experts believe that
the statements as to values are rather under than
overestimated.
PRODUCTS OF UNITED STATES FISHERIES IN 1870, 1880, and 1890.
Kinds.
1870.
X880.
X890.
Pounds.
VALua.
Pounds.
VALua.
Pounds.
Value.
General fishery products . .
Mammalian prodacts
$11,096,522
4,529,126
1,771,822,000
$36,692,200
4,613,756
2,026,020,900
$42,141411
2,136,103
Total
$15,625,648
1,771^22,000
$4I»30S»956
2,026,020,900
$44,277,514
•
York markets in 1804, it will be found to be made
up of some fifty-seven varieties. Deducting firom
this list two which are rather unusual and not salable
to-day, we have fifty-five kinds. To-day seventy-five
different kinds of sea products may be seen in any
of the wholesale or retail fish markets in the Ameri-
can cities of the seaboard, according to the season.
A notable change is to be found in the places from
which the fish are obtained. Our great-grandfathers
who were captains of fishing-smacks caught the
general run of pelagic fish in about the same areas
of water as do their great-grandsons, the skippers of
the Gloucester or New York fishing fleets of to-day.
By means of transportation other sources of fish fur-
ther north or south furnish the present additional
supply.
The greatest exception among the deep-sea
swimming fish, as has been before stated, would be
FISHERY PRODUCTS EXPORTED IN 1870, 1880,
AND 1890.
Products.
Fiscal Year
X870.
Fiscal Ybar
x88o.
Fiscal Ybar
Z890.
Fish and shellfish
Oils and spermaceti . .
Whalebone
$1,380,601
1,049,882
343*937
$4,028,626
881,131
255.847
$6,040^26
682,131
705,500
Total
$2,774420
$5,165,604
$7428457
In 1875 the value and extent of the fisheries
carried on by the port of Gloucester alone was es-
timated at $4,059,500. In 1876 it was worth $4,-
648,000. This was one only of many towns which
kept out fleets on the Atlantic and in the bays and
sounds of New England. For this same year (1876)
Professor Baird estimated that the yield of the fish-
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
eries prosecuted in vessels and from the ports of the
United States amounted to :
KiKD. P<.U«DS.
Codfish 7i.373.9<»
Mackerel 3O1S43.500
Herring 23,318,700
Other fish II.S03.S40
Fresh fish not cured 99i677.9ii
It must be bome in mind that twenty yeais ago
the fisheries of the North Pacific were in their
infancy.
It has been possible for the United States Custom
House to determine, with a fair amount of accuracy,
the total tonnage of vessels employed in the cod,
mackerel, and whale fisheries for a series of years.
In 1800 the total tonnage was 35,626 tons; in i8ao,
1,108,464; in 1840, 241,232; in i860, 329,605;
and in 1880, 115,946. The diminution of tonnage
is due to the withdrawal of the large vessels em-
ployed in the whale fisheries.
The abstract taken from the last census presents
many remarkable features. In 1890 there were
163,348 persons employed, with a capital invested
of $43,602,123, returning products worth $44,277,-
514. There were 7257 vessels, with a net tonnage
of 174,020, worth $11,133,265. Marj-land, with
her oyster fisheries, had the most men, 36,436;
Massachusetts was the next with 16,250 men.
New York had 9321 employed. California had
3094 men. Dividing the value of (he products, the
general fisheries were worth $26,747,440; the whale
fisheries $1,697,875; the seal fisheries $438,218;
menhaden fisheries $1,817,878; oyster fisheries $13,-
294,339; and the sponge fisheries $281,754.
The latest statistics of the fishing business of the
States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of
Columbia (1894-95) show 91,000 people em-
ployed. The value of the oyster product alone was
$12,400,000. Shad was worth $i,zi6,ooo. In the
oystering business the investment in Maryland was
$7,649,904, and the oyster product represented $5,-
259,865. The total weight of the product from the
water was 590,454,369 pounds, worth $19,023,474.
The weight of fish caught was :
1874 295.726,800
18S0 465,6do,o<»
1890 332,211,600
1894 . . 324.ai7.*°o
The oil exported in 1894 was 430,389^^ gallons.
The particulars of the menhaden industry are of
great interest, because they are carried out upon the
Middle Atlantic seaboard in a more systematic way
than any other fishery. The catch, it will be no-
ticed, was the lightest in 1874, and the heaviest in
1880; but the takes in 1890 and the last year far
exceeded that of 1874, which tends to prove that
with fish having powers to move as they please,
man's efforts to lessen their numbers materially by
capture become impossible.
A statistical study of the weight and values of
fisheries on the Pacific coast, from the watere of San
Francisco Bay to Alaska, is not yet possible. On
the Columbia River the canning of salmon began in
1866, with 4000 cases, and in 1889 reached 309,885
cases. Then came the exhaustion of the Columbia
River. In 1S83 the salmon of Alaska were first
canned, and in that year 6000 cases were marketed.
In i8go the enormous total was 610,717 cases. In
the seven years from 1883 to i8go this would have
meant a consumption of 27,706,958 salmon. There
can be no question as to the speedy extermination
of the salmon in some of the Alaskan rivers.
As to the cod and other pelagic fish of the North-
western Pacific waters of the United States, there is
no reason to suppose that they are in less quantity
than on the Atlantic seaboard. With each succeeding
year, these fish fi^m the Pacific will find their way all
along the great lines of railroad from the West to the
East, and in increasing quantities.
Extensive canneries, many of them devoring their
attention to the herring and lobster, are found on the
eastern coast of the United States, and they contrib-
ute largely to our stock of food. On the California
coast the presence of the true sardine has been noted.
When there shall be oHve-culture in California, sar-
dines, as they are put up in France, will unquestion-
ably be added to our home fish food.
MENHADEN INDUSTRY — SEASONS 1874, 1880, 1890, and 1894.
v„..
F«>
vSi.
^■^
Mn
CiPITAl
NuxoEi or
Fish Cauckt.
Made.
..„
ToNimr
lie:;:::
44
27
30
11
57
3.a6i
a.s6o
$2,500,000
2,550.000
I.75O.OOO
1.737.000
492,878,000
776.000,000
553.686,156
540,361,900
3,37^847
2,035,000
2,930,217
'fl99.505
50.976
I9.'9S
25,800
M,339
M.33*
AMERICAN FISH FOODS
Fish-culture has been of great benefit to California.
The shad, at one time unknown in the Pacific rivers, is
now to be found there in abundance, its original pro-
genitors having been taken thither from the Atlantic
seaboard. California shad exceed ours in size, and
from their abundance arc cheaper. The striped bass
(Reecus iineatus), now abundant in California, is also
due to fish-culture.
There is no reason to suppose that there will ever
be any diminutiou in the supply of fish. There is
no limit as to the area of American waters where edible
fish are to be found. And, as has been shown, there
can be no reason why our stock of anadromous fish
should ever be sensibly diminished. The only ex-
ception recorded so far, as to the constancy of our
North American pelagic fish, was the absence of the
tilefish. It disappeared some time in 1S82, due, it
is believed, to a sudden change of temperature in
the deep waters. After ten years of absence, the tile-
fish {Lophoiatiius chamaieonticeps) has again put in
an appearance.
It is needless to dwell further on the present facil-
ities of transportation, which will undoubtedly be
increased in the immediate future, nor comment on
the very much more perfect means which are appli-
cable to the preservation of all perishable products.
The catch of 1S95, it is considered, has a value of
CHAPTER LVII
AMERICAN CANNING INTERESTS
THE development in this country of the prac-
tical arts pertaining to the hermetical sealing
of food, now so well known under the generic
title of canning, is an interesting feature of the com-
mercial growth of this country. Evolved from the
Studious and observaiit brain of an humble French-
man, and tested through years of his plodding expe-
rience, the new method came amidst the throes of
the French Revolution, in the year r793, a veritable
of&pring of the First Repubhc About fourteen
years later the French government, under Napoleon
the Great, awarded the discoverer the prize of ra.ooo
francs, which long before had been offered for a
method that would preserve alimentary substances
without robbing them of their natural qualities and
juices. Nicholas Appcrt, bomin r75o, spent his life
in brewing, wine-making, pickling, and the making
of confectionery, Kving over ninety years, and con-
tinuing to the last to invest all funds he could obtain
in the prosecution of his investigation in these differ-
ent lines. He died, in 1841, neglected and alone.
His children have received some benefit from his
labors, the title of Chevalier being borne by a de-
scendant of his to-day, indicating that the cross of
the Legion of Honor had been awarded to him in
recognition of his merits. This industry, which has
now become essentially American, begins, therefore,
exacdy within the century to which this work ap-
plies. Appert had obtained financial assistance from
English sources, and as a result we find that, about
i8ro, his method was being used in the factories of
an English firm of purveyors.
In that year, a patent was granted in England to
one Peter Durand, for a can, made of tin, to be used
in hermetically sealing food, the patent also covering
die use of glass, pottery, and other fit material. In
the letters patent, it is stated that the new method
was communicated to him by a foreigner residing
abroad. Ezra Daggett, who was in the employment
of this English firm, brought the secret, it is believed,
to America between 1815 and 1818. In 1819, he
was engaged in the packing of hermetically sealed
food by this process in New York dty, in company
with his son-in-law, Thomas Kensett. The descend-
ants of Mr. Kensett sdll have some cans of these
goods in their possession which were put up in 1832,
as tlie labels show. Salmon and lobster were among
the earliest goods packed, and oysters also were pre-
served, according to these labels. In 1825, a patent
was granted to Ezra Daggett and Thomas K.ensett
for an improvement in the art of preserving. The
can was then called a " case," the Label containing
directions for opening it.
About the same time that Daggett came to
America from England, Charles Mitchell arrived in
Boston from Scotland. He was bom in London,
there learning the canning business as an apprentice.
He left London in 1820, and on reaching Boston al-
most immediately entered the employment of Will-
iam Underwood, who established the firm of William
Underwood & Company, in 1833, to hermetically seal
food. There is a lack of information concemiDg the
development of the industry during the next twenty
years, but it was throwing out roots fivm the New
York and Boston plants. In 1843, the firm of Treat,
Haliday & Company were canning lobsters in New
Brunswick, and salmon in Maine. There is a suppo-
sition that Haliday brought the process from Scot-
land and joined Treat about 184.0. Already there
was a known distinction between the French (01 Ap-
pert) process and the Scotch method. Appert used
glass vessels only, but the Scotch method required
the puncturing of the tin after the first cooking, and
then recooking after the hole was soldered. About
1846, Wells, Miller & Provost had a packing-house
in New York, on Front Street, near Peck SUp. ; W. R.
Lewis & Bro. established a factory at Portland, Me.;
and E. C. Wright began packing oysteis in Balti-
AMERICAN CANNING INTERESTS
397
more, having obtained his knowledge of the process
from Thomas Kensett the first At this time cans
were made by the regular tin-workers, but cappers
were becoming a regular branch of the business.
Henry Evans, Jr., a tin- worker by trade, learned the
process while working as a capper for Wells, Miller &
Provost In 1848, he went to Eastport to pack
lobsters for that firm; in 185 1 going to Baltimore
and later engaging with Thomas Kensett the second,
who had formed a partnership with Ira Wheeler in
New York. In 1849, Evans had a factory at New-
ark, N. J., for Kensett & Company, and here were
packed supplies of firesh vegetables for Dr. Kane's
Arctic Expedition. These included tomatoes, on-
ions, potatoes, and cabbage. Some time after this
Evans went to the West Indies, where he packed
for Kensett & Company the first pineapples ever
packed in that way in those islands.
About 1850, the business began to develop rapidly,
and its history is difficult to follow. The oyster
business of Baltimore and the lobster and sardine
fisheries of Maine were the principal bases of exten-
sion. William Numsen & Sons began work in this
business in Baltimore in 1847; in 1849, they were
packing cove oysters. Tomatoes, peaches, pears, and
other articles were put up about the same time, the
process being applied to nearly all the firesh foods in
the different canneries. A number of active New
Englanders located in Baltimore, embarking in the
zaw -oyster shipping business, and in time many of
them began hermetically sealing oysters. The widow
of Thomas Kensett the first sold the secret to Holt
& Maltby and others, and thus they got into the
cove-oyster packing. This title of " cove oysters "
has come to be recognized as the specific name for
hermetically-sealed cooked oysters. "Cove" oys-
ters were firom coves famous for the size and quaHty
of their oysters, which were located on the west side
of Chesapeake Bay, above the Potomac. The can-
ning business has given them immortality.
For the first half of the century the industry was
obliged to produce all the supplies it needed by hand-
labor, and even after canneries multiplied, the output
was necessarily restricted, because of the number of
hands required and the cost of the goods, based en-
tirely on hand-labor. This industry is the connect-
ing link between agriculture and manufactures, the
can being an essential to the foods in this condition ;
and the food is the raison d^Stre of the can — useless
each without the other. The manufacturing lines
that have received an impulse firom the introduction
of this industry are those that imite in the production
of die can, the cases, labels, and canning machinery.
Previous to 1850 the cans were made by hand,
usually by cutting out the tin blanks with shears,
beating the ends into shape with a mallet over a
former of some kind, and cutting the opening with
a hand-punch and mallet Originally the opening
was covered on the flat top by a flat circular piece
of tin, well soldered down. The first can-making
machinery we have any authentic record of was
naturally adapted from such as tinsmiths used, they
being the first providers of cans for the packers, but
in 1849 Evans, at Newark, N. J., introduced the use
of the " Pendulum " press, for making can- tops. This
same press came to Baltimore in 1851. With this
press Evans introduced the crease and convex cap.
The California gold-fever gave a great impetus to
the canning industry, and the list of the new firms
that entered the business during the ten years fi-om
1850 to i860 would be too long to insert here, even
if it could be made up with accuracy. Two historic
firms arose just previous to the close of the first half
of the century — Rumery & Biunham of Portland,
Me., and Louis McMurray of Baltimore. The former
was merged at the close of the war into the firm of
Davis, Baxter & Company, a firm then well estab-
lished. Later, this became the famous Portland
Packing Company.
The Civil War gave another impulse to the in-
dustry, many of the established firms canning meat
on government contracts. The canning of milk,
under the title of condensed milk, resulted in a wide
extension of the industry as previously carried on.
Condensed milk, produced by evaporation and pre-
served with sugar, became a regular article of com-
merce; large quantities of it were used by the
commissariat of the United States army. In i860,
the New York Condensed Milk Company of New
York was in full operation, Mr. Borden being a
stockholder of the company. In 1863, William
Numsen & Sons of Baltimore were handhng such
large quantities in this same line that they formed
the Baltimore Condensed Milk Company, in which
Mr. Borden was also interested. On November 4,
1856, a patent was issued to Gail Borden of New
York for this method, and imder the same date
another for an improved method that dispensed with
the boiling.
On April 8, 1862, a patent was issued to I. Win-
slow of Philadelphia for a new method of preserving
green com, which was the regular Appert process for
hermetically sealing goods. Winslow assigned this
to J. W. Jones, of Portland, Me. It is understood
that Winslow learned this art in France, when on a
visit there in 1840. Nathan Winslow of Portland,
398
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Me., is said to have been the first who commercially
canned sugar com, and the Winslow Packing Com-
pany has ever since been famous for its canning of
this vegetable. There is reason to believe that the
industry was first carried into the Mississippi Valley
by the same Henry Evans, Jr., who was in Balti-
more with Thomas Kensett the second. Evans,
who was at that time a member of the firm of Evans,
Day & Co., was returning East in 1873, when he
happened to He over at Circleville, Ohio. There he
met Mr. C. E. Sears, who was engaged in drying
sugar-corn, such as is known as shaker com. He
found he could purchase cut com, fresh and sweet, at
a price per can far below the cost of the com in the
husk at Baltimore. His firm bought largely of it
that season, besides fitting up a cannery at Circle-
ville to can it there. The next year, however, the
cannery was sold to Mr. Sears. This same factory,
greatiy extended by Mr. Sears, is now owned and
operated by his widow, Mrs. C. E. Sears, so success-
fully that in 1894 she packed the largest output of
sugar-corn of any factory in the West, if not in the
world.
In the spring of 1864, the business of canning sal-
mon was begun by the firm of Hapgood, Hume &
Company, at Washington, Yolo County, Cal., on the
Sacramento River. In two years, salmon became
scarce there, and after an inspection tour the firm
built a cannery at Eagle Cliff, on the Columbia River,
Washington. This factory began operations in 1867.
The development of the Pacific Northwest was due
more to the salmon industry than to any other single
influence.
In 1866, Mr. G. C. Van Camp, of Indianapolis,
Ind., began packing all kinds of fruits and vegetables
in six-gallon cans, the goods being sold in the city
markets by the pint or quart. In 1868, he went
into the regular canning business, mostly in No. 2
cans. Mr. G. W. Baker began the canning of sugar-
com in Aberdeen, Harford County, Md., in 1866,
and several of his sons still continue in the business.
Between 1877 and 1885 canneries developed in
great numbers, Harford county, Md., alone having
over 400. At the same time firms spread through
all the States of the West, mainly packing sugar-
com and tomatoes. There had been many efforts
to introduce machinery into the packing-houses, but
it was generally resisted by the employees, led by
the cappers, on whom depended the proper sealing
of the cans. This important function had been or-
ganized into a regular system, one boss capper taking
the capping of an entire factory and, in some places,
of several factories. For the sake of having expe-
rienced cappers in season the firms would keep them
employed in making cans during the winter months,
so even the making of cans was largely governed by
these employees. Machines to do capping had been
invented, but proved to be unpractical until, about
1883, Mr. I. H. Cox, of Bridgeton, N. J., introduced
a hand-capper which proved a success. Very soon
thereafter machines for all kinds of operations in the
business were introduced. As machinery multiplied,
country canneries increased in number because it
supplied the place of hands, which the rural sections
lacked. By 1892 the variety of machinery special
to this industry had increased to such an extent that
in that year, at an exhibition of canners' supplies
held in the city of Chicago, in connection with a
convention of the Western Packers' Association, Mr.
Buchanan, Chief of the Department of Agriculture
of the Columbian Exposition, who had been invited
to see it, stated to the Chief of the Department of
Machinery that it was extraordinary and novel. Al-
most every operation was done by machinery, and
the business of " packers* supplies " has become a
large one. The introduction of machinery greatly
reduced the price of goods and increased the output
Meantime the old, original method of cooking (or
processing, as it is called) the goods in open kettles
in plain boiling water was improved upon by adding
salt to the water to increase its density and thus gain
greater heat and quicker results. About 1858 this
was further improved by substituting chloride of cal-
cium for the salt; and later, steam-kettles, having
a cover and containing a coil of steam-pipe, were
patented by A. K. Shriver and G. W. Fisher, both
of Baltimore, and these have superseded all other
methods for processing foods. Machinery likewise
revolutionized the making of cans, until at present
they are made by hundreds of millions in special
factories, by '^ systems " that have almost banished
the use of manual labor in their production.
The growth of the industry, the multitude of
firms, the rapid cheapening of the goods, and the
popularity of the business, which requires hermetical
sealing and therefore exclusion of the goods from
sight, made the fixing of grades and terms of sale
and delivery absolutely necessary. Growing in a
century from nothing to a vast industry, and pecu-
liar in its nature, it was entirely without commercial
rules. The first commercial organization of packers
of canned goods met at Philadelphia in October,
1872, but had only a brief existence. In February,
1883, a Canned Goods Exchange was organized in
Baltimore, that city then being the great center and
producer of these goods. Mr. A. L. Scott was its
AMERICAN CANNING INTERESTS
399
first president, and Mr. R. T)mes Smith its first secre-
tary. The intention was to have regular sales on
the floor daily, but this plan was abandoned. It,
however, adopted grades for goods, rules and terms
to govern transactions, and laid the foundation of
commercial procedure for the business.
In 1885 the packers of the Mississippi Valley or-
ganized in Chicago under the tide of the Western
Canned Goods Packers' Association, with William
Ballinger, of Keokuk, la., as president, and L. G.
Seager, of Gilman, la., as secretary, and this has been
a successfiil and powerfiil influence in the business,
imder the guidance of wise and tireless officers. It
is based on the principle of mutual exchange of pri-
vate statistics among members. The packers of the
State of New York organized about the same year,
with T. L. Bunting, of Hamburg, as president, and
J. G. Gibson, of Utica, as secretary, with quarterly
meetings and the statistical principle. Virginia and
New Jersey organized about two years later, each
locally.
The basis of a national association was laid at
Indianapolis, in February, 1889, at a meeting of a
number of representatives of the local associations,
thus making it of a federal nature ; the plan being
submitted by Mr. Bunting, of New York. This was
consummated at a meeting in Baltimore in May of
the same year, by representatives firom all the minor
associations. Mr. L. G. Seager, of Gilman, la., was
chosen its first president, and Mr. £. S. Judge, the
publisher of " Trade," as secretary. There is no-
thing of the nature of a trust in the organizations
of the packers ; they are based entirely on the ad-
vantage of mutual information and general busi-
ness rules.
In 1894, the Peninsula Packers' Association was
organized at Dover, Del., with James Wallace as
president and C. M. Dashiell, of Princess Anne,
Mi, as secretary. The " Atiantic States Canned
Goods Packers' Association " was also organized in
the Ian of the same year, at Baltimore, with E. H.
Thuiston, of Mechanic Falls, Me., as president, and
H. P. Cannon, of Bridgeville, Del., as secretary.
These bodies are also members of the National
Association.
In 1894, there were in the United States over
19^ known canned-goods packing- firms, distributed
^ong forty-two States and operating about 2000
^^^^es, of which Maryland had twenty-five per
^^; Maine, seven per cent; New York, six per cent.;
^hio, Illinois, and Virginia, three and one half per
^^ each; California, five per cent.; Indiana, three
P^ <^t, and the other States ranging firom fifty-six
factories in Pennsylvania down to one in Arizona.
The total output of canned goods is computed to
have been about 700,000,000 cans of all sizes and
kinds. The principal articles packed are tomatoes,
com, milk, oysters, corned beef, salmon, sardines,
peaches, peas, beans, apples, pears, pineapples, small
firuits, and pumpkins. They are important in about
the order given, although values of the aggregate
packs may not run in the proportion of the number
of cans.
There is a species of sectionalism about the pack-
ing, due mainly to climatic influences. Thus, the
principal corn-packing States are Maine, New York,
Maryland, Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas. Tomatoes
are more southern in their trend — New Jersey,
Maryland, Indiana, Virginia, and Kentucky being
the heaviest packers, while New York, Ohio, and
Illinois have the principal milk-canneries. Cove
oysters are confined to Maryland, Virginia, North
Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi. Beef has been
packed in many sections, but the States north and
west of the Ohio now almost monopolize this line of
canning. Salmon is now only packed on the Pacific
Coast, and Alaska is the main source of supply
for the market, the canneries multiplying there as the
fish have fled from the over-fishing of civilization.
Maine monopolizes the American sardine-pack-
ing, as it does lobster-packing, except what is done
in Canadian waters. Peaches are packed principally
in Maryland, Delaware, California, and Michigan;
Georgia is, however, annually increasing the number
of her canneries of this fruit. Peas are packed prin-
cipally in Maryland, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and
of late in Delaware ; but many of the States in the
upper Mississippi Valley are steadily increasing their
output. Beans are of three kinds: string beans,
baked beans, and lima beans. The first named are
a heavy but profitiess pack, being put up in all
sections to fill time between other crop seasons; the
second have their headquarters in Massachusetts,
though New York is a strong second, and the arti-
cle is being added to the list of packers' products in
canning-houses everywhere. Lima beans find most
packers in New York, Maryland, California, and
Ohio; the Pacific Coast furnishing large quantities
that in a mature state come east to be packed in
winter as soaked goods. Apples are annually be-
coming a heavier pack in tin — Maine, New York,
Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas putting
up large amounts, and the industry is spreading to
the new apple fields of Washington and Oregon.
New York and California are the principal packers
of pears, Maryland and Delaware also doing much
400
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
in them. Fineapples, now one of the favorite firuits
in tin, are packed mainly at Baltimore, Md, but the
packing of them is extending in all directions. Small
fruits have declined in the quantity packed till the
pack of 1894 was probably not over one fourth the
number of cans put up in a year fifteen years ago.
California is the great packing region for small
fruits, but a varying amount is annually put up by
canners in all sections. Pumpkin is almost entirely
confined to the Nonhcm Sutes. Soups are packed
principally in New York and Illinois, but the output
of this class of goods is being increased by large can-
neries in several of the other States. There is an
almost endless line of varieties of canned goods, from
green figs in Mississippi and Texas to turtlein Florida,
and dandelions and mince-meat pies in New York.
The annual aggregate value of these goods amounts
in an average year to over $71 ,350,000. At 500 cases
to the car and two dozen cans to the case, they would
need 58,750 box-cais to carry the pack annually.
Besides the market it has made for the agriculturist,
it has made a demand for labor in the cannery and
its work, which requires at least 400,000 people in
the height of the season. They would require over
3,000,000 boxes of tin-plate for the cans, about
30,000,000 cases, and 700,000,000 labels. Such is
the business to-day that 100 years ago had just
been shown to the public in a foreign country. The
genius of this American republic seized on this idea
of the humble Frenchman, and has made of it a great
industry and a new article of quotation in the mar-
kets of the world. Its vasmess is due entirely to
the ability of the American workmen to secure and
consume the good things of life which Heaven sends
us and genius pres«ves for us in all climates and all
L'harlls Caki'v,
CHAPTER LVIII
AMERICAN WINES
THE history ot the wine business in the
United States is very recent. It is recorded
that the first attempt to cultivate American
vines by European colonists was made in Florida.
Ii is well known that in 1769 the French colonists
of Illinois, near the town of Kaskaskia, made wine
from the native wild grapes, and even as early as
1630 the London Company sent French vineyard-
isis to Virginia 10 plant vines. Many efforts were
made in the eighteenth century to introduce the
tender European rine, and to adapt it to the harsh
clunate of the Eastern States ; but without excep-
tion the attempts proved abortive.
In the nineteenth century there must have been
several hundred failures in the same attempt, and in
1851, Downing, writing in the "American Horti-
cultuiist," said : " The introduction of European
vines In America for cultivation on a large scale is
impossible. There is first a season 01 so of promise
and then complete failure."
Several of the French settlements in the Ohio
Valley succeeded in raising grapes to a limited ex-
tent, and early in the century some Swiss from
Vcvay planted a town in Indiana and attempted
the culture of vines on a large scale ; but it proved
imsaccessful, although a certain quantity of wine
was produced. The first successful grower was
Longworth, of Cincinnati, who in the forties and
fifties raised many grapes and produced some wine.
It was of his Catawba wine that Longfellow wrote
his inspiring lines. Many other kinds were tried at
the time, and while Mr. Longworth lived, a fair re-
turn was secured, although possibly at too great a
cost, for Cincinnati is not now a grape center.
Commercially speaking, wine making was not car-
ried on to any extent in the Eastern United Stales be-
fore the Civil War. Underbill, in his vineyard upon
the Hudson, and a few others, made wine ; but the
sale was small, although grapes were beginning to
be produced in abundance. The islands in Lake
Erie, which were perhaps the first wine -producing
centers of the Atlantic States, practically began to
be known about 1857.
The history of vine cultivation in California is like
a romance. Where the earliest vines came from no
man knows ; but, under the famihar cognomen of
the " mission " grape, the vine was brought sup-
posedly from Spain by way of Mexico. It was
cultivated to a considerable extent around the old
missions which were founded ui southern CaUfomia
during the second half of the last century. The
priests planted small tracts close to the missions,
cared for the vines jealously, and surrounded them
by high adobe walb. The cultivation was careful,
and an abundance of fruit was grown, from which
wine was made. What the latter was can be judged
from the harsh qualities of the small quantity of
mission claret made in California to-day. As far as
can be learned, the product of the vineyards of the
mission fathers did not enter into the trade of those
days, which was largely in hoofs, hides, and tallow ;
but iheir wines were used upon the tables of the
priests, ser\'ed to the occasional visitors at the mis-
sions, and dealt out to the immediate retainers of
each establishment.
E\'en after the arrival of the American settlers,
in 1849, as well as of representatives from every
nationahty on the globe, next to no advance was
made toward increasing the area of land devoted to
viticulture until the year 1858, when, through the
publication of articles devoted to wine growing, in
the report of the State Agricultural Society and in
the newspapers, a wide-spread interest was mani-
fested in vine planting, and the area thus required
in California was suddenly largely increased.
Many of the vineyards planted in the years im-
mediately after 1858 were devoted to grapes for
table use, and the remainder were almost exclusively
planted with the old mission grape. The centers of
production in those days were in southern California
402
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
(in the San Gabriel Valley, and about the old town
of Anaheim) and in the Sonoma Valley around the
town of Sonoma.
Toward 1862 vine planting became almost a
matter of general enthusiasm. In 1861 Governor
John G. Downey appointed three commissioners to
report upon the best ways and means of promoting
the improvement and cultivation of the vine. One
of these commissioners went to Europe, and, after
visiting all the European districts, made an elaborate
report upon the methods of cultivating the vine,
making wine, and curing raisins, bringing with him
on his return 200,000 grape-vine cuttings, with
rooted vines of every obtainable variety to be found
in Europe, Asia Minor, Persia, and Egypt. This
collection embraced about 400 varieties, and in it
was brought, presumably from Hungary, the Zin-
fandel, which has been so prominent in the later pro-
duction of wine in California.
Between 1870 and 1875 the making of wine had
so largely increased that the consiunption was more
than met. As a natural consequence, in compli-
ance with the laws of trade, there was a great de-
pression in prices, and many vineyards were rooted
out. In 1879 the demand again caught up with the
supply, and there was a new era of vine planting.
It was not until 1 880 that the great body of viticul-
turists of that State had begun to believe that other
varieties of grapes, aside from the old mission, were
suitable for wine making. Before that time few
believed that any grape could be as good as the
mission. Experience, however, has proved that
California soil is well adapted to the fine varieties of
European grapes. In point of fact, most of the vine-
yards there are planted with varieties more hardy,
more resistant to disease, more consistent bearers,
and producing finer qualities and greater quantities
than the mission ever succeeded in doing, even
under the most favorable conditions.
Following the persistent efforts of enterprising
viticultiuists, the great quantity of the wine made
is now produced from imported varieties, whose
character is so distinct, and whose quality is so
superior to wines made from the mission grape, that
new faith in the future of California wines has been
born ; and the belief has spread that under proper
conditions the State makes wine of a high average
grade, and eventually may rival some of the classic
growths of the Medoc and of Burgundy.
The new era began in 1880. In spite of the
efforts made by wine makers and wine merchants,
only a limited market had been seciu'ed for Cali-
fornia wines in Eastern States, plainly shown by the
fact that the total shipments out of the State by sea
and by rail in that year were but 2,487,353 gallons,
valued at $i,343ii7o, while the exports of this year
(1895) are expected to approximate 15,000,000 gal-
lons, valued at about $6,000,000.
In the latter part of 1879, ^^^ ^^ short vintage
of that year had been gathered in, it was found that
most of the old stock had been exhausted. Sud-
denly the price of all kinds of wine went up, and the
supply was barely sufficient to meet the demands of
the market. This at once awakened a more general
interest in wine growing ; but there was a woful lack
of knowledge on the part of the growers, and only a
few acknowledged authorities to which to apply for
information. Numerous newspaper articles ap-
peared calling attention to the value of viticulture
in that State, and expressing a desire for the foima^
tion of some State institution where such practical
knowledge might be obtained as was necessary for
the conduct of this important branch of agriculture.
Under these circumstances the State legislature took
the matter up, and in March, 1880, the State Board
of Viticultiure was created, and provided with funds
to meet its necessary expenditiures.
This board has been in existence for fifteen years,
and under its direction all the standard literature in
the English language on vine planting, vine culti-
vation, cellar management, distillation, and every
branch of vinicultiure and viticulture, has been col-
lected and published. The wealth of information
to be found in French, German, and Italian works
has all been drawn upon and compared with the
actual experiences in California. Besides this, the
board has been instrumental in procuring State laws
promoting the making of pure wines, and in attending
to matters of national legislation pertaining to the
wine and brandy interests, and has exercised a
fostering care over those who intended to plant
vines, the cellarmen, wine makers, and wine ship-
pers. Its cost to the State has been nominal com-
pared with the returns that have resulted from its
efforts.
At the present time wine making in California is
one of the best paying agricultural industries, not
only in that State, but in the United States. Wheat
is depressed beyond example ; barley has at present
a comparatively low value ; wool is scarcely worth
the cost of shearing; the hop-fields, not only in
California, but in New York, Oregon, and other
producing States, are being sadly neglected on ac-
count of the great cost of picking ; the fruit business
at best is, particularly in California, one which de-
pends largely on the failure of the Eastern crop to
AMERICAN WINES
403
insure good prices for Western producers ; oranges
are subject to every conceivable sort of fluctuation ;
while wine is returning a handsome profit to the
producer.
There are two reasons for this. First, not only
are the producers combined, but there is an era of
good feeling existing among the shippers without
parallel, perhaps, in the history of the California
trade. The second reason is that there is no over-
production of wine. The shipments to the Eastern
States, to Central America, Hawaii, Europe, and
elsewhere, added to the California consmnption
of about 8,000,000 gallons, more than offset the
production. No new vineyards are coming into
bearing, whQe many of the old vineyards are being
gradually killed by phylloxera. It will take at least
six or eight years before the wine production of
California can be materially increased, and for
that time the wine industry will have to meet
steadily increasing demands upon it, both in quality
and quantity. There is, therefore, every prospect
of an era of prosperity for at least ten years to
come.
While I have thus far given a history of viticulture
in California, with which I am particularly familiar,
it must not be forgotten that there is in the Eastern
States, particularly in New York, Ohio, Missouri,
Illinois, Virginia, and Georgia, a most prosperous
viticultural interest. The viticulturists east of the
Rocky Moimtains have had to contend with the
difficulty of using native American vines and their
hybrids for wine-producing grapes. Considering the
drawbacks that they have encountered, their efforts
have been in every way commendable, and their
wines have a steady sale at remunerative prices.
Nicholas Longworth, already spoken of, was un-
doubtedly the leader in American viticulture. Until
he began his efforts wine was practically unknown
among Americans in the country districts, although
a few bottles, having about as much value as goose-
berry wines, were put up in many families, expressed
from the grapes which were the progenitors of the
Isabella, the Concord, or other common varieties.
Longworth showed that really desirable wines could
be produced upon American soil, with American
growers and makers. Becoming rich early in life
by fortunate purchases of land lying in the city of
Cincinnati, he retired from the practice of law, his
ostensible business, about the year 1825, to embark
in horticultural pursuits. He first tried foreign
grapes, but unsuccessfully, and then began experi-
ments with native ones, with which he did not have
the same difficulty. His first vineyard was a small
one, but he gradually enlarged it, until he had 200
acres in grapes. His favorites were the Isabella
and the Catawba, and from them he produced wine
of a high marketable value. Since 1865 particular
attention has been given to grape growing in many
of the States in the East, there being a large de-
mand for them for table use, and this incidentally
has stimulated wine making. There are years in
which the yield is so abundant that it hardly pays
the grower to send the grapes to market ; then more
wine is made. But the bulk of the Eastern crop which
is intended for wine is grown for that purpose. It is
carefully handled, and by the best houses is kept
three years in stock before any is sold.
The chief grape and wine growing district in the
East is around Lake Keuka, in the western part of
the State of New York. This is in the lake district,
and the vineyards are from 500 to 800 feet above
sea-level. The natural harshness of the climate is
so modified by the existence of these large and deep
bodies of water, fed by natural springs, and rarely
freezing over, that grape cultiure can be better car-
ried on there than in much of the region 500
miles south of them. Every one of these lakes, which
lie at the end of the Appalachian chain of moun-
tains, has many vineyards adjacent. Next to Lake
Keuka come in importance Seneca Lake, Cayuga
Lake, and Chautauqua Lake. Along the Hudson
many grapes are grown. In an island in this river
Underbill propagated the lona grape, long regarded
as the most valuable kind known. Ohio ranks with
New York as a wine producer. The soil on Kelley's
Island and Put-in-Bay, and around Cleveland and
Sandusky, seems particularly adapted to it. Much
comes from North Carolina, the Scuppemong being
principally grown there ; there are admirable wines
in Missouri, and Virginia is now producing consid-
erable quantities. No wines come from New Eng-
land, although possibly they might be grown in the
sunny valleys of Connecticut ; but New Jersey is
now making rapid strides in the way of good sound
wines, fit to compare with good Burgundies. The
skill of American wine makers has increased. The
methods of handling the grapes, of caring for the
newly expressed product, of improved cellarage,
and of bottling, have all been learned with thorough-
ness. Although labor is dearer than in Europe, de-
vices which save much cost have been introduced
everywhere except to facilitate maturity. This de-
pends entirely upon age, no artificial method being
used to hasten that. Neither are there syrups
introduced to give mellowness or tone. American
champagnes are now largely used, and when properly
404
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
prepared are much esteemed. Much American wine
is sold as foreign.
I am aware that there is a general impression in
the East, particularly among some wine dealers who
have heretofore handled only the European product,
that California should produce but one distinctive
variety of wine. On this point I wish to quote from
a work recently published by the State Viticultural
Commission, and written by Charles A. Wet more :
"I have found generally that a notion— it is
hardly fair to call it an opinion— prevails among the
importers that there is, or should be, one distinctive
type of California wines in general, and that we
make some sort of a mistake in not producing a par-
ticularly distinctive type of California wine. To them
the well-known characteristics of the vineyard dis-
tricts of the Old World, such as Xeres in Portugal,
Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhine, appear to as-
sume broad territorial significance individually, each
being in importance equal to the opportunities of
California. Small places in Europe occupy, in their
minds, larger places than youthful California. They
little appreciate the fact that the viticultural area,
both in latitude and longitude, and in the value of
climatic and soil conditions, of all the regions where
grapes are grown successfully in Spain, Portugal,
France, and Germany, is equally matched, both in
extent and variety, on the Pacific coast. One might
as well speak of the one typical wine of all those
countries of Europe as to think of one wine repre-
sentative of this coast.
"Few realize that the western coast of North
America is practically the counterpart of the western
coast of Europe, with Great Britain attached to the
Continent. Every condition of soil and climate is
here reproduced to compare with Xeres, Malaga,
the Mediterranean coast of France, the slopes of the
Alps, the valleys of the Rhine and Rhone, and the
humid climates on each side of the British Channel.
In the variations of practical possibilities in viticul-
ture, every distinction known to the west of Europe,
from Gibraltar and Nice to Scotiand and the Nether-
lands, is found on this coast from Lower California
to British Columbia. Our Algiers is inland in Sonora
and Arizona, and our Russian Siberia is between the
Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. To the
average New York mind, however, both Los Angeles
and Shasta appear to be suburbs of San Francisco,
and as nearly related as Xeres and Malaga, or as
the Medoc and Sauteme districts, while, in fact,
they are as far apart as Xeres and Burgundy.
" To those who do not comprehend this coast let
me say that every known viticultural condition of
Europe that has been observed from the Rhine to
the Mediterranean coast, and even across on the
northern borders of Africa and eastward toward
Palestine, can be found here in the territory from
the Columbia River to the Gulf of California and
eastward into Arizona. Every known variety of
European wine-grapes finds somewhere here its
natural home, and somewhere a place where it can-
not be successfully cultivated. In some places none,
in others few, and in others many, just as in Europe,
are found to prosper. Many mistakes in the at-
tempts to transplant and adapt have been made, and
equally many in experimentation with European
methods ill suited to locality.
"Our experiences and present conditions are
similar to what might have been expected if, during
a single generation, an enterprising people had found
western Europe impopulated, and had attempted,
with one common purpose, to establish viticulture
from the Mediterranean to the Rhine from one
common nursery of all vines, and without such
knowledge of the local peculiarities as has been, in
fact, the growth of generations. Under such a pos-
sibility we might have had Spaniards cultivating the
Palomino in the Medoc, Frenchmen trying the
Medoc in Xeres, Germans essaying the Riesling in
Languedoc, and Portuguese worshiping port on the
Rhine, with numerous admixtures of all kinds of
efforts in all places. The present condition of
California viticulture is not much different from
such a supposed condition in Europe, with the ex-
ception that our producers are far more intelligent
and better informed as to their mistakes and the
means of remedying them than European vintners
generally are as to the causes of any of their present
successes.
"I shall show, however, that progress and im-
provement in given hues of perfection are not entirely
subject to the will of producers, even if natural con-
ditions and knowledge are present. The producer
who exports is governed by the will of distant
markets, and California, so far as even the Atlantic
States are concerned, is yet an exporter, aided only
by a very limited consumption locally. Even France
produces one kind of claret for England and another
for the Argentine Republic ; one kind of champagne
for Russia and another for America; one kind of
Burgundy for foreigners and another for Paris ; and
everywhere in her own territory is satisfied with her
local wines of every kind and character, without re- {
course to foreign delicacies. Whenever foreigners
— and I include New York as among the most
foreign people we have to deal with — will become
AMERICAN WINES
405
satisfied with the best that each of our districts can
produce without any attempt to imitate European
styles, it will be time for them to complain that we
do not produce typical California wines; but so
long as the markets demand styles like favorite
European brands, so long must California producers
and dealers make attempts to please them, either
with ignorantly devised methods and blends, or false
labels; and so long as our Eastern Atlantic coast
markets refuse to pay as much for equal quality,
whether domestic or imported, they cannot expect
producers to sacrifice quantity for quality in wine
making to any practical extent."
The statistics of the production of wines in Cali-
fornia from 1877 to 1895, and the exports out of the
State by sea and rail for the corresponding years,
are as follows :
PRODUCnON AND EXPORTS OF WINE FROM
CALIFORNIA.
Ybab.
PsODUCnOK Of
Gallons.
Shifmxnt out op Statb
m Gallons.
11^:::.:::::::
4/XX>/XX)
SfiOOfiOO
7/xx),ooo
I0,200/XX>
8^000,000
0,000,000
8,500,000
10,000,000
II/XX>,000
i8^ooo/xx>
15,000,000
17,000,000
18,000,000
i8iooo/xx)
ao,ooo/xx>
20,000/XX)
25,000/xx)
i5/xx),ooo
i7fOoo/xx)
1,462,972
l3l2,I^9
vr* ••••
1879
2,155.944
2.487»353
2345i')^5
1880
1881
1883
i88t
2,810,735
3,190,167
3,52^.099
4,256,224
5,192,223
0,901,771
XX^ • • • • •
1884
■ wv^ ...........
|g5
lOOD
I©7
1888
0,092,082
1889
«VW^ - . . . 4. , . i ^ . .
1890
Yj^*^ *
I89I
II,II4/)29
1892
iSot
11,117.752
12,326,033
i8q4
I4,0^lJ|0<
iSoc
> 15,000,000
•w^^ ...........
lEsdmaled.
The total consumption of the United States is
about 36,000,000 to 38,000,000 gallons annually,
which is supplied as follows:
Gallons.
California (avenge) 20/xx),ooo
Other Slates andTerritories 14,000/xx)
Imported 4,000,000
Total 38,000,000
It may be now asked. What of the future? As
for quantity, we can expect but litde increase in
California in the next six years. In quality we can
expect much. Many choice producing sections are
already well known. The best of foreign varieties
have been tested in many locations, and their
adaptability to different situations is thoroughly
understood. Every year sees some improvement in
our methods of viticulture, wine making, and cellar
management. An industrious, intelligent, and ex-
perimenting class of citizens are bending their
energies and thoughts to the production of the
highest types. Lacking the experience that has
come with centimes of work in Europe, possessing
a new and rank soil at best, they are seeking to
overcome every defect which may be found by an
exacting connoisseur. Financially the prospects are
excellent. Most of the old stocks of wine have been
bought up and cleared out of the cellars. Markets
have been developed in New York, New Orleans,
Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and all
the leading cities of the country. There is scarcely
a large city in which our wines have not found a
market. The drug trade conunends them and the
brandies in the highest terms. At home we have
the producers combined and standing for prices that
will bring them a fair remuneration for their labor ;
we have the merchants receiving remunerative re-
turns from their connections all over the country.
Of the needs of the viticultural industry there are
but few things to say, though much might be said
on each topic. We need a national pure wine law.
We need some amendments to the internal-revenue
laws which will, at least, place our producers upon
an equality with the French brandy producers in the
matter of blending and bottling brandy.
Concerning the necessity of a general national
pm^e wine law, it can be said that there is a very
general movement among all wine-producing coun-
tries for stricter regulations. The time has come
when it should be generally recognized by the gov-
ernments of the world that wine means fermented
grape-juice, and does not mean a combination
recentiy given by William Bailey Bryant in his
" Nineteenth-Centiuy Handbook on the Manufac-
ture of Liquors, Wines, and Cordials without the
Aid of Distillation," published by the Industrial
Publishing Company, of Owensboro, Ky. His idea
of an imitation of " red wine, cheap," is as follows :
"Water, one gallon; sulphiuic acid, to the
strength of weak vinegar; honey, one pint; pow-
dered alum, one-half ounce; one sliced red beet
and a half -pint strong tincture of logwood; one
drop oil of wintergreen dissolved in a wineglassful
of alcohol ; one half of a grain of ambergris rubbed
up in sugar ; one pint tincture of grains of paradise.
Any kind of bright sugar or syrup will answer in
the place of the honey, and in less quantities. This
wine, when prepared on a large scale, can be made
at a very low price, as the honey is the only article
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COHHERCB
that is of value, the tincture of the grains of paradise
being substituted for spirit ; and any quantity of it
can be prepared at the shortest notice. The color-
ing is kept prepared in barrels for use. When the
beets axe added, the mixture is allowed to stand for
the coloring to become discharged from them for
several days."
This book, I believe, is protected by the copyright
laws of the United States. It is infamous, not alone
that such a receipt should be allowed to be pub-
lished, but that we have no national pure wine law
to prevent the concoction of such a beverage, with
sulphuric acid and water as a base. I say that we
need a national wine law, because, tmder the Inter-
state Commerce Act, no State pure wine law can be
made operative outside of the boundaries of that
State, and, as far as I am aware. New York, Ohio,
and California are the only States which have a
wine law designed to prevent adulteration and the
manufacture of imitation wines. One effort was
made to secure such national legislation, but it was
defeated, by what interests it is needless to mention ;
but the effort is to be resumed. Our second need,
to secure the right to bottle and blend brandy in
bond, will, I trust, be obtained at the coining session
of Congress.
CHAPTER LIX
AMERICAN DISTILLERIES
THE extraordinary consumption of alcoholic
liquors, and the extensive application of alco-
hol for all purposes, show it to be one of the
most important substances produced by art. There
is but one source of alcohol, its production arising
from the fermentation of sugar or other saccharine
macter obtained from plants containing either free
sugar or starch convertible into sugar. It is a vola-
tile, inflammable, colorless liquid, of penetrating odor
and burning taste. In commerce, when made from
maize or other grain, it is called grain-alcohol ; from
reindeer and Iceland moss, moss-alcohol ; from pota-
toes and beets, root-alcohol ; and from grapes, wine-
alcohol.
The discovery of the art of distillation is attributed
to the Arabian alchemists, the first mention of it oc-
curring about the eleventh century ; but it was un-
doubtedly known and practised for centuries before
by the Chinese. Brandy was named the water of
life, and one of the early alchemists, in his enthu-
siasm over the discovery, declares that " this admi-
rable essence is an emanation from the Divinity ; an
element oewly revealed to man. but hid from antiq-
uity because the human race was then too young
to need this beverage, destined to revive the energies
of modem decrepitude." Distillation consists in
converting a. liquid into vapor in a closed vessel by
means of heat, and then conveying the vapor into a
cool vessel, where it is reconverted into liquid. The
posabiliiy of separating substances by vaporization
is dependent upon the fact that very few substances
are x'olatile at the same temperature. Thus while
water boils at 2 1 ao alcohol boils at 1 73°. Strictly
q)eaking, the spirits are not produced by the act of
distillation, but are the resiJt of the previous act of
fennenlalion. distillation merely separating the spirits
from the mixture in which they already exist.
A little over a century ago, in J791, the first in-
ternal-revenue tax on spirits was imposed, being nine
cents a gallon on spirits manufactured from grain.
it being estimated that at that time about 3,000,000
gallons were annually produced from domestic mate-
rials. This tax, light as it was, was strenuously re-
sisted by the western counties of Pennsylvania, which
rose in rebellion, and had to be suppressed by the
militia of that State and adjacent ones. From 1803
to 1813 the internal-revenue tax was abolished, after
which a tax on distillers was substituted for a tax
per gallon. In 1816 the internal-revenue tax was
reduced one half, and abolished entirely in 1818, re-
maining non-existent until 1862, in which year, being
pressed for money to carry on the war against the
Southern Confederacy, the nation found a prolific
source of revenue in tlie taxation of spirits. The fol-
lowing has been the rate of taxation under the differ-
ent statutes from 1862 to the present: July i, 1862,
the tax was twenty cents per gallon ; March 7, 1 864,
it was made sixty cents; June 30, 1864, it was in-
creased to $1.50; December zi, 1864, it was fmther
increased to $i; July 30, 1868, it was reduced to
fifty cents; June 6, 1872, it was changed to seventy
cents; and on March 3, 1875, it was fixed at ninety
cents, where it remained until August i8, 1 894, when
it was raised to the present rate of $1.10. In 1874
the revenue derived from spirits from all kinds of
materials, including fruits, was about $43,000,000,
of which $2,000,000 was from spirits manufactured
from fruits. This was $2,000,000 in excess of the
previous year. The total number of gallons pro-
duced during 1874 was about 69,500,000. The im-
mense revenue derived by the government from dis-
tilled spirits is shown by the fact that during the last
ten years it has aggregated about $1,000,000,000.
The progress made in the distilling business during
the past century has probably been greater than in
almost any other line of manufacture, ail the latest
achievements in science having been used to bring
about such a result. At the dawn of the present
century distilling was chiefly conducted by farmers,
who made the crudest product in the crudest way.
408
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
A small ketde and a worm placed alongside his log
cabin were almost as essential a part of the farmer's
household equipment as a flail for his grain or a plow
for his lands. In nearly every family liquor was a
daily article of consumption, and the brown jug an
indispensable adjunct to labor on every occasion.
No commerce was conducted in alcoholic liquors in
farming regions, each man creating his own supply.
When one glances at the present immense business,
with its distillery plants, many of which are palatial
in their appointments, and some having a daily mash-
ing capacity of 5000 bushels, the progress that has
been made appears simply amazing.
The first product that reached the dignity of a
place in commerce was so-called rectified whisky. It
was the crude high wine after it had passed through
a layer of charcoal, which largely extracted the
fusel-oil and made a product ready for sale. To
this were frequently added flavoring extracts, the
compound then being put into heavily charred bar-
rels, and a little sugar coloring added to smooth over
its rankness and fieriness. Thus prepared, it was
distributed among consumers, and some brands won
for themselves a considerable demand. Following
this process a redistilling apparatus was invented, by
means of which the fusel-oil was more thoroughly ex-
tracted from the spirits. To make it more palatable a
certain proportion of old-fashioned Bourbon from
Kentucky, or rye from Pennsylvania or Maryland,
was added to give bouquet, flavor, and the appear-
ance of genuine whisky. This class of goods became
known as redistilled whiskies, and the proportion
of these which were sold in commerce as against
the genuine whiskies of Kentucky and Pennsylvania
was fifteen to one. In fact, the genuine goods made
in Kentucky were used by dealers mainly for flavor-
ing these so-called redistilled whiskies. It may be
well for me at this point to define Bourbon whisky.
The name now has a very wide significance. Orig-
inally it was whisky distilled from Indian com or
rye in Bourbon County, Kentucky. As its fame
spread, countless imitations sprang up, so that to-
day Bourbon whisky may be said to be whisky dis-
tilled from com or rye after the manner in which it
is made in Bourbon County. The yield of Bourbon
whisky was then about three gallons to the bushel.
It was heavy in body and flavor, qualities which
made it very valuable in compounding ; but it took
many years of maturing to neutralize the fusel and
other essential oils by the action of the atmosphere.
The process of improvement was slow, and the trade
recognized the fact that whiskies required at least
three years or more to attain full maturity and be-
come ready for consumption. At this stage the sci-
ence of mashing was greatly improved, increasing
the yield and lessening the cost of production. This
had the effect of popularizing Kentucky Bourbons
among the masses, and instead of being employed
so largely for compounding purposes they came into
use on a larger scale as a beverage. It also became
patent to distillers and dealers that a larger yield did
not injure the quaUty, but, on the contrary, made
the whisky finer, as it contained less oils when made
in quantity, and did not require so much time to de-
velop its highest maturity. The pressure of compe-
tition has since induced some distillers of standing to
sacrifice quality for quantity, and they have resorted
to artificial means to produce the appearance of de-
velopment. The whisky which has given Kentucky
its reputation is that known as sour mash, and there
are a few distilling firms who are so jealous of their
reputation that they continue to distil only genuine
sour mash, yield being a secondary consideration.
To attain a fine bouquet, with its accompanying
flavor and body, they eschew all artificial means of
forcing development, recognizing as an undisputed
fact that the atmosphere is the only chemist that can
bring about such results. These firms constitute the
bulwark which maintains the reputation of Kentucky
whiskies. The larger number of the distillers look
merely to the production of a deteriorated cheap
grade, and the demoralization has taken such deep
root that it is claimed by some producers that a
year is all the time that is necessary to fit whiskies
for consumption. While the production of cheap
grades has lowered the standard of Kentuckies, it
has diffused the taste for them among the masses,
causing the dealers to substitute them for redistilled
whiskies or so-called "domestics," which are but
imitations of the genuine article. The present con-
sumption of whiskies of all grades made in Kentucky
is estimated at about 25,000,000 gallons per annum.
The stocks remaining in bond of the product of
the past four years are 83,000,000 gallons. Of rye
whiskies, which are mainly produced in Pennsyl-
vania, Maryland, and West Virginia, there were re-
maining in bond of the past foiu* years' production
as follows : Pennsylvania, 23,953,000 gallons ; Mary-
land, 8,838,000 gallons; and West Virginia, 1,073,-
000 gallons; to which may be added Tennessee,
which makes straight wheat whisky, with stocks in
bond of the last four years amounting to 1,194,000
gallons. This represents the stocks of so-called
straight whiskies, although, as above stated, but a
small proportion of Kentuckies can properly be so
classified.
James E. Pepper.
AMERICAN DISTILLERIES
409
The principal States in which ordinary spirits are
produced are Illinois, with a production for the year
ending June 30, 1895, of about 21,000,000 gallons,
of which there are remaining in bond 6,300,000;
Indiana, with a production for the same period of
7,000,000 gallons, having 2,800,000 gallons remain-
ing in bond ; and Ohio, with an output also of about
7,000,000 gallons, having 4,000,000 remaining in
bond.
I have hitherto confined my remarks almost en-
tirely to spirits distilled from grain, the product from
fruits being comparatively unimportant. From its
greater availability and its cheapness, grain is in gen-
eral use ; while from fruits, which have a perishable
nature and are non-available during the greater part
of the year, there is distilled only a limited supply
of apple, peach, and grape brandy, the State of Cali-
fornia producing more than half of the fruit brandy
made in this country. The total revenue for spirits
from fniits in 1894 was but $1,287,497. Molasses
as a distiller's material yields nothing but rum. Of
late, however, attempts have been made to produce
pure spirits from that source, but, owing to the diffi-
culty of eliminating the rum odor from the output,
the experiment is problematical. There is a very
small production of rum, which is principally con-
fined to New England ; and the cheapness of grain
spirits has tended to reduce the rum product to con-
tinually smaller dimensions. It is mainly manufac-
tured for export purposes, very little being used in
this country, as straight whiskies have superseded
the once popular beverage. It should be stated
that common spirits require no aging, being ready
for manufacturing purposes or for compounding the
day that they come from the still, and they never
improve. In most cases, after having been doc-
tored up to produce the appearance of genuine-
ness, they are palmed off as true whisky under
some euphonious title, and frequently they are
audaciously placed on the market masquerading
as sour mash.
In a review of American distilleries it is necessary
that I should dwell for a moment upon the distilled
spirits consumed in the arts, manufactures, and medi-
cine in this country. Of these alcohol and cologne
spirit take the lead, although high wines, whisky,
brandy, rum, and gin are also used. Pure alcohol
cannot be obtained by ordinary distillation alone.
The rectified spirit or alcohol of the pharmacopceias
contains nine per cent, by weight of water in the
United States, sixteen per cent, in Great Britain;
proof-spirit or diluted alcohol, fifty-four and one
half per cent, by weight of water in the United States,
fifty-one per cent, in Great Britain. That alcohol is
used in some localities as a beverage is undoubtedly
true, and it is said that fully one half of the alcohol
that finds its way to the Northwest is so consumed
by Poles, Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Htmgarians,
and Russians. It has been estimated that about
fifteen barrels of alcohol are consumed as a beverage
daily in New York City, but it is impossible to collect
data upon which to found a reliable estimate on this
point. The foreigners employed in the coal regions
of Pennsylvania are drinkers of alcohol, and a con-
siderable quantity is annually disposed of among
them. A large percentage of the cost of pharmaceu-
tical preparations arises from the distilled spirits used
in their manufacture. Concerning the amount of
alcohol alone consumed in the arts, manufactures,
and medicine in the United States, the Secretary of
the Treasury, in his annual report of December 2,
1 889, estimated it at about 6,000,000 proof-gallons.
Cologne spirit is used for many purposes for which
alcohol would be unsuitable, and whisky, brandy, rum,
and gin form the basis of many proprietary medicines
and of tinctures and medicinal wines. The amount
of distilled spirits consumed in the arts and manu-
factures has been estimated at fifteen per cent, of
all distilled spirits consmned, which is equivalent in
round numbers to 12,000,000 gallons. The returns
in proof-gallons, for the entire United States, of the
wholesale druggists and manufacturers, eleemosy-
nary institutions, and retail apothecaries, are given in
the following summary :
DISTILLED SPIRITS CONSUMED IN THE ARTS, ETC., IN 1889.
Aggrxgatb.
AIjCOHOU
COLOGNB
Spirit.
High
WiMBS.
Whisky.
Bbandy.
Rum.
Gof.
Toul
10,976,842
6,745»IS2
1453,048
75.992
2,023,900
266,874
189,581
222,2QC
f^^j
Jl^um&ctaren and wholesale druggists .
S'^^niosynary institatioiis
**^tpotbccarie»
7,966,640
102,790
2,907412
5425*791
30,092
1,289,269
i.334,033
4»374
ii4,S4i
^§1
20,372
879,282
59,222
1.085,396
100482
6,599
159.793
87.378
101,362
84.937
^779
136.579
410
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
The eleemosynary institutions here referred to
are dispensaries, homes, asylums, and others of a
similar character. The above table shows that the
total quantity of distilled spirits consumed in the arts,
manufactures, and medicine in the United States dur-
ing the twelve months ending December 31, 1889,
was 10,976,842 proof-gallons. The following table
gives the returns in proof-gallons, by totals for States,
of all forms of distilled spirits consumed or sold by
manufacturers and wholesale druggists, eleemosy-
nary institutions, and retail apothecaries combined.
The inherent repugnance to paying the heavy tax
on alcoholic liquors imposed by the government has
given rise to a large number of illicit distilleries
throughout the country. Occasionally one of these
secret stills is unearthed in the large cities, which
indicates that there are always more or less of them
in operation at the centers of population. In the
mountain regions of the country, more particularly
in the South, a large amount of distilled liquor is
drunk that never has been recorded in the Internal
Revenue Department, or paid a penny of taxation.
DISTILLED SPIRITS CONSUMED IN THE ARTS, ETC, IN 1889.
BY STATES AND TERIUTORIES.
States Ain> Tbrritoriks.
The United States
Alabama
Arizona ...
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Colombia
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indian Territory
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentackj
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri • • • • .
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire . . . .
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West V&ginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
ACCRBGATB.
10,976,842
4i»343
30.234
294.572
33r4<>9
234.510
11,063
25,930
9.737
143.153
3*030
1.300,332
42,518
131.912
152,914
"5.585
243,951
i,oi8,(
16,231
1,071,068
6,394
i8o,3W
2,118
59.465
176,175
3,619
»»76o,343
1^661
0,272
647.339
85.917
1,142,9^1
133.065
22,510
5422
221,981
101,455
25,058
43412
37,903
10,874
32,361
164.728
3,231
Alcohol.
6,745,152
18,781
244
13.532
170,948
12,942
138,011
sIsto
lOI
721,552
131,123
98,354
10,492
59,083
115,276
83,369
187,209
659406
356449
125,899
^ 5493
655,824
4,653
106,258
248
27,133
123,909
;oo
1,107,
4,841
2,758
412,151
60,732
703,625
101,848
15,59'
2,179
128,434
51.994
8,736
30,744
26,986
2406
11,929
123,675
1,722
COLOGNB
Spiarr.
1453,048
648
High
WiNBS.
SS3
74.613
9.644
3410
849
32,236
15
231,190
10,719
6,525
790
2,824
6,262
6,396
28,154
74.951
20,133
'3.583
120,688
9
1,966
1,057
22,922
366,184
81
188
37,550
' ' *8.i35
1,083
367
32,375
8,302
7.913
1,820
2448
258
431
'IS
75.992
7.663
146
7,222
15
237
?
18,698
1.137
lOI
1,500
l/)23
627
1,983
5.051
"7
216
1.955
"n6
K
7:
1.33
18,386
*"75
1,321
7
1,902
225
853
3
3,101
9
37
753
343
Whisky.
2,023,900
19,961
12346
29,236
14,961
42437
2,012
10,033
2,238
11,378
2,028
267,022
20
120,561
74,206
26,092
58,853
26,972
'3.539
20,096
33.794
9.852
253.756
1,264
54,607
1,222
16,578
18,372
2,353
197,551
7,987
2485
162,001
12,851
102,711
14.269
4445
2,349
54,164
33.660
5.038
7,213
7414
5.774
16,400
25,071
1.073
Brandy.
Rum.
226,874
714
152
'.3'4
6,630
2,992
7,53'
200
1442
1
Si*
3'.38
U
'7.035
543'
1,905
8,153
3,120
19.883
32,«
327
",384
290
2,^18
4.868
29.581
1,302
486
16,781
2.851
14497
2,185
334
357
5,34
3,52
2,593
751
537
1,622
1.708
5,756
265
Gnr.
189,581
237
17
I?
1,562
520
12,147
49
793
lis
66
4.552
88
3|5
6.942
2,718
'°2'354
8,258
692
48
2,213
19
742
59
7447
'.335
16,727
264
100
3.243
5.7S
7.734
21
68
150
75
234
'.653
411
211
28
813
70
M
1.659
3.920
i.73|
17,518
197
1.135
151
541
259
31*935
,5
12.368
4447
1,651
1,621
888
3.381
1.752
31.692
10^51
13.991
122
4317
343'
34.2^
180
14,293
1.097
8,86d
4^36
183
199
1479
1.795
53S
1,198
5
1,112
1,920
63
AMERICAN DISTILLERIES 411
This criminal branch of the history of American dis- The amomit of spirits withdrawn from distillery
tilling would make interesting reading on account of warehouses for scientific purposes and for use in the
its pictiiresque character, but I can only allude to arts in the United States is very small, but increasing,
it here. For reasons that are obvious, no estimate Thus in the year ending June 30, 1892, there were
worth having can be formed of the amount of dis* 39i4oo gallons ; in the following year, 54,552 ; and
tilled liquor in the United States that evades the gov- in the next year, ending June 30, 1894, the amount
emment tax, but the figures would doubtless reach was about 70,000 — an increase of 15,000 and 14,-
considerable magnitude. 500 in each successive year. Of the withdrawals
The daily capacity of grain distilleries in opera- in 1892, 65,000 gallons were alcohol and 4500
tion February, 1895, was 85,237 bushels, equivalent neutral or cologne spirits, out of a total of 69,700
to an output of 358,620 gallons ; and in the previous gallons.
month there was a daily output of 364,559 gallons. The entire production of alcoholic spirits from
I select January and February as the season when dis- grain in the United States for the last fiscal year,
tilling is in full operation. In August, 1895, there was ending June 30, 1895, was 80,1 16,374 gallons ; with-
a daily mashing capacity of 68,454 gallons. August is drawn tax-paid, 74, 200,7 20 *> ^^^ remaining in bond,
a month in which distillation is almost at a standstill. 138,35 1,894.
It should be stated here that the official compila- The tax paid to the Internal Revenue Department
tions as to the number of distilleries are apt to be mis- for the maintenance of the government from alco-
leading. A very small number of distilleries are prac- holic liquors for the last fiscal year, ending June 30,
tically turning out the entire output Officially, it is 1895, was $79,862,627, or $5,396,674 less than the
stated that in February last Illinois had but 1 5 stills previous year.
in operation, with a daily capacity of nearly 100,000 When one compares these figures, reaching over
gallons ; while North Carolina is credited with nearly 80,000,000 gallons, and the enormous revenue ac-
300 stills, with a daily capacity of but 3148 gallons, cruing to the benefit of the general taxpayers, with
In other words, the number of stills in operation ap- the petty production for private use by farmers a cen-
pears nominally very large, approaching 1000, while tury back, the unexampled progress must be appa-
actually the bulk of the output is produced by less rent without further comment. The spirit interest has
than a tithe of that number. interwoven itself with the life of the nation, so that
The number of fruit (apple, peach, and grape) dis- it has become one of the most trustworthy sources
tiUeries registered and operated during the year end- of national income.
ing June 30, 1894, was 3633, with an average daily The necessityof increasing the revenue has fostered
capacity of not quite one gallon each. Of these legislation favoring a higher tax, which unfortunately
North Carolina had 1 1 1 5 stills, or nearly one third tends to bring among the masses inferior goods ; for
of the whole ; Virginia had 1 230, leaving outside the higher the impost the lower the standard of
of these two States but 1288 stills. quality must be in order to make up for the increase
The average quantity of grain used in the pro- in cost. The purpose of every legislator should be
duction of spirits during the last ten years is about to promote the public health and welfare by mak-
22,000,000 bushels; in the year ending June 30, 1893, ing it possible for producers to furnish a wholesome
it reached 29,000,000 bushels, which produced 1 26,- beverage, thoroughly matured, at the minimum cost.
545)000 gallons. Fully half the grain used is com. To tax it to death does not accomplish this object.
An important collateral industry is the feeding of It naturally forces the production of cheap imita-
^(tle and hogs on the distillery slops. During the tions, which are made out of common spirit, and
y^ ending June 30, 1894, this industry showed the often sold the same day that they are made. That
«)IIo^rt[ig results : whisky requires several years' time for properly ma-
turing is universally acknowledged. Those brands
CATTLE FEED FROM DISTILLERIES. ^j^^^ should be, in my opinion, allowed to be sold
SS^^"*^* .*".". '*«°^.!^': '"'""°" "^•'5 that can show natural aging,
j^l^^sc in weight of cattle 14449,516 In European countries alcoholic liquors, such as
f"*^^ ^^^^fed ^.^f . .... *"'* 25,554 brandy, etc., are allowed to remain in bond until re-
^^SSl^ •" ^^^^' ofhoa 1^1,748 quired by the trade for consumption. This plan al-
^?^^^:retse in weight of cattle and ways insures a large stock of matured goods in bond.
To^P* : t\;.' M. • ; '^S*»^ There is no reason why our government should force
a^'us mcreaie* lUinois CMitribated .
V^ooyooo pounds, or about one hall the tax-payment at any given period.
412
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
In order to extend the trade into foreign countries,
the privilege of bottling whiskies in bond, and re-
ducing them to such proof as may be required for
commercia] purposes, should be extended to the dis-
tillers of this country, as it is in Canada, where the
government, alive to the interest of its manufactu-
rers, affixes a stamp to each bottle, thus certifying to
the genuineness of the contents. This would infuse
confidence and promote export trade, as well as
afford an opportunity for oiir citizens to secure a
genuine and wholesome beverage. The trade in
Canadian whiskies has been steadily on the increase
for years, owing to this privilege so wisely conferred
by the Canadian government.
The inequality in the conditions affecting our dis-
tillers as contrasted with those of Canada may be
better understood when it is remembered that at the
last session of Congress our government increased
the tax on oiu* product from ninety cents to $i.io
per gallon, and lowered that on foreign spirits from
$3.50 to $1.80, thus letting down the bars to those
who already had superior protection from their own
governments. This was not merely the special privi-
lege of bottling in bond, but the ruling, in the case
of the Canadian government, that forbade the impor*
tation of any whiskies from the United States unless
in loo-gallon packages. It should be stated that our
packages run about forty-five gallons, larger packages
not being found practicable for aging purposes. This
action of the Canadian government amounts to
practical prohibition, and results exactly as was in-
tended, for none of our whisky now finds its way
into that country.
The history of the lai^ combination of American
distillers of alcoholic liquors is too recent and some-
what too complicated for me to dwell upon at this
time. I have endeavored to show the enormous
importance of the distilltng industry not only to the
government, but to the people of the United States,
and my conclusions with reference to legislation on
the subject of distilled spirits are arrived at with a
sincere desire to foster and assist by inteOigent means
the progress of one of America's greatest industries-
Marvelous as has been that progress during the cen-
tury now closing, it is but reasonable to suppose that
the record of the next hundred years of our history
will be such as to reflect the greatest credit upon the
intelligence and enterprise of American distilleia.
CHAPTER LX
THE BREWING INDUSTRY
|EFORE the use of written words the Ups of
. our Aryan ancestors articulated a sound
which expressed for them food and drink,
and the source from which tliese things came. This
source was the bearded barley of the Himalayas.
The porridge and the bread of the .\ryans, made
from the first grain used for common food, were the
crudest forms from which has sprung the brewing in-
dustry. It was not until the Sanskrit writers, in their
eajhest record of the living language, drew the dis-
linctioQ, that separate words were used to express
barley, bread, and beer; and even now a euphoni-
ous ear will catch the similarity in these three words,
which, though much changed from their Aryan pro-
totypes, still have a musical resemblance which tells
us of the kinship of the three. The story of beer is
therefore as old as the story of humanity.
In (he most remote antiquity the Egyptians
IwTwed, as did the Assyrians, and later the Greeks
and Romans ; and from time immemorial the Teu<
tonic race have been famous for their skill in the pro-
dncrion of the beverage for which they praise to-day,
in poem, prose, and story, in song and eulogy, the
Oame of the very modem but acknowledged patron
saint of brewing, Gambrinus. The word for beer
has been preserved, as the art of brewing has been
dcreloped, by the Teutons. The Egyptians called
beer zythum, and the Greeks and Romans, cercvisia,-
but the word " beer " in some form has always been
osed 10 express to the Teutonic mind the ancestral
beverage.
While the written history of brewing begins with
Egypt, and the development of the art of brewing
should properly be accredited lo the Teutons, to
America must be credited the attainment of scientific
perfection in the craft, which, like mathematics, has
become in the United States practically a finished
science. When the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plym-
outh Rock they brought with them from England,
in addition to the fiery potables they were wont to
drink,^" and not a man afraid, "—some of the sturdy
brew of " merrie England," and also a knowledge of
the brewer's craft, which they soon turned to practi-
cal use in the land of their adoption.
The Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, with their
long clay pipes puffing clouds of blue smoke, were
wont to sip from generous tankards the beer of the
Netherlands, and crack their jokes around the tav-
ern table, the while they grew fat, sleek, and jolly
under the gende influence of their beneficent national
beverage. Good William Pcnn found solace in
the brew made under his direction for his young,
peaceful, but aspiring colony ; and farther south,
in old Virginia, many were the happy gatherings
where harmony prevailed, and memories of their
old home far across the sea rose through their com-
panionable chat, Uke the foam upon the treasured
musty ale.
In New England, where the stronger spirits most
prevailed, our good forefathers passed a law grant-
ing immunity from taxes and a prize in money to that
energetic brewer who should brew in a single year
more than 500 bairels of honest beer ; for, said they,
not only does this peaceful beverage add to the pros-
perity of the farmer by giving him a market for his
grain, but, by supplying to our worthy citizens a bev-
erage of much milder form, adds much to the temper-
ance and good order of Massadiusetis Colony, So
peaceftJly, with full approval, and yet with growth
most unfortunately slow, an infant industry was
formed, which in 1795 produced upward of 3,000,-
000 gallons.
Legislative enactment, in the varying application
of intelligence and ignorance, liberality and fanati-
cism, has, since the days of the Egyptians, hampered
or caused the expansion of the brewing industry.
While, prior to 1795, it does not appear that legis-
lation adverse to the brewing industry was enacted,
legislation favorable to the cheaper distribution of
distilled liquors brought the more potent beverages
I
414
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
to the front, and held in check the brewing indus-
try, which would otherwise have proved itself more
powerful in promoting temperance than any organ-
ized legislative effort. During the administration of
Washington, Congress, in considering the very first
federal-revenue law, was impelled by consideration
of public morality to take cognizance of the impor-
tance of fostering the brewing industry. But oppo-
sition from various quarters arose. In 1789 Madi-
son expressed the hope that the brewing industry
would strike deep root in every State in the Union,
and Thomas Jefferson gave expression to the opin-
ion that "no nation is sober where the deamess of
fermented drinks substitutes ardent spirits as a com-
mon beverage."
In 1 810 the domestic production of malt liquors
amounted to 5,7 5 4i 73 5 gallons. There were only
129 breweries in this country, most of them pro-
ducing ale and porter exclusively. In 1847 ^^ ^'^"
creasing German immigration brought into America
not only a demand for their favorite beverage, lager-
beer, which gave a new impetus to the trade, but
also a practical knowledge of the craft ; and lager-
beer breweries began to spring into existence wher-
ever a sufficient number of Germans had settled
to make these little local establishments possible.
Americans sniffed suspiciously at this form of beer,
which was new to them, and allowed difference in
race to prejudice them against what was destined
to be their national beverage. Owing to the
greater popularity of lager-beer, the production of
ale and porter at the present time does not exceed
1,000,000 barrels.
The modern reformer, when confronted by the in-
disputable fact that the Germans are one of the most
temperate of nations, if he be somewhat fanatical in
his prejudices, blindly closes his eyes, and in his at-
tack upon what he is pleased to call the moral wrong
of the production, sale, and use of intoxicating bever-
ages, forgets to discriminate, and thereby misses in
many instances the true solution of the whole ques-
tion, which is such legislation as will make reasonably
accessible the mildest of the great family of beverages,
and hold under proper restrictions those which are not
beneficial in their effects. Long before German im-
migration had assumed any noteworthy proportions
the wisest and most patriotic statesmen of our coun-
try were so alarmed at the increased use of fiery in-
toxicants that they would have resorted to any legiti-
mate means to force breweries into existence.
Therefore, between these conflicting elements, it was
a constant struggle for existence with the brewing
industry up to 1862.
It remained for the exigencies of the great Civil
War to bring forth such excise meastu'es as should
put the lighter beverages prominently to the front.
Heroic meastu'es were taken to raise the revenue
and save the government from impending disrup-
tion. The internal-revenue laws came into exis-
tence. These threw the biuden of taxation heavily
upon ardent spirits. The passage of these laws in
July, 1862, was practically the beginning of the de-
velopment of the present vast brewing industry. It
was like the breath of new life, and the extraordinary
advancement of brewing from that day to this has
been a surprise and wonder to all who have watched
its history.
It was in 1862 that the Brewers' Association was
formed. A moving cause in its organization was a
desire for self-protection, and yet the fundamental
principle which brought the American brewers to-
gether was patriotic, for they associated for the pur-
pose of jointly aiding the government in perfecting
the revenue laws relating to malt liquors, enforcing
by their moral influence the collection of the rev-
enue without discrimination, and of securing them-
selves by organization against unjust treatment. To
its credit be it said that the Brewers' Association has
never lost sight of its fundamental purpose. Bom
in the throes of the great struggle for national unity,
it has served the government faithfully and well, and,
instead of criticism and opposition, it has evinced
sympathy and cooperation in the efforts of the gov-
ernment to establish proper internal-revenue laws,
and has willingly acquiesced in the payment of this
species of taxation.
The War of the RebelUon also brought about a r«-
markable revulsion of feeling in regard to our foreign
population and their customs, especially as to the
Germans and beer drinking. When the war put the
patriotism of the people to a crucial test the Germans
were found among the first to rush to arms in defense
of our country. Old prejudices vanished before the
bond of sympathy soon warmly established, like mist
before the sun. This brotherhood established by
the Rebellion has never died out, but has constantly
grown stronger, and has cemented us together as
one race. We have contributed to one another many
of our habits and peculiarities, many of our cus-
toms. The habit of drinking fermented beverages,
which was a characteristic of the Germans, is prob-
ably the highest contribution to temperance and
good order which has come to us from any foreign
nation.
The production of beer from the year 1863, ex-
pressed in barrels, is as follows :
THE BREWING INDUSTRY
415
BEER PRODUCTION FROM 1863.
1S63
1864
I
I
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
.1^
1879
Babkbls.
2fi€6fi2$
afi4i«38i
$,115,140
0,207,^02
6,146,663
6»342,os5
^574.61 7
7,740,260
8,659.427
9.633.223
9,60^7
9.453,697
9.9»,3J«
93io/)oo
10,181,158
10.589.937
Yeas.
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
x888
1S89
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
Bakxbls.
12,800,900
IA,I2;466
16,610,364
i8!85^£6
19,216,630
20,289,029
22;46o,345
24,569,682
25«8,765
263ao,953
30,021,079
3M74.SI9
33^76466
33.789.984
33.237.648
SALES OF BEER IN THE PRINCIPAL CITIES OF
THE UNITED STATES, FOR THE YEAR
ENDING MAY i, 1895.
ClTDB. BarRBLS.
Albany 364.694
Baltimore 591.557
Boston 1,025,948
Brooklyn 1,941,395
Buffalo 618,743
Chicago 2,687,947
Cincinnati 1, 145,806
Clereland 429,665
Detroit 365,215
LooisTiIle 212,695
Milwankee 2,208,654
Newark 1,209,058
New York 4.732,300
Philadelphia 1,852,106
Pittsborg 435,880
Rochester 554,8i5
San Frandsoo 500,183
St. Lonis 1,943,084
Syracose 252,202
Toledo 245,609
Troy 230. 539
These statistics, showing a development in the last
century from 2,000,000 gallons in 1795 to 1,030,-
368,088 gallons in the year 1895, speak more elo-
quently of the marvelous advance than glowing lan-
guage. There are now 2 200 brewing establishments,
by far the greater number making the lager-beer of
the Germans. They range in magnitude h'om the
little home brewery of some German garden to the
^gantic business enterprise with an annual output
exceeding 1,000,000 barrels. In the earlier years
^^rewing was carried on exclusively for local markets.
Within the last thirty years, however, the shipment
^ beer in barrels from one point to another began,
2nd now train-loads of the delectable, foam-capped
"^^gc leave the great shipping cities daily. The
^PJtal invested in brewing in the United States is
«K)ut ^00,000,000. The value of the annual out-
P^ of the industry is $200,000,000. It contributes
to the support of the United States government, in
internal-revenue taxes alone, over $33,000,000. The
local taxes paid by it aggregate over $3,000,000
more. The development of the bottling of beer
from nothing to a business which, in one brewery
alone, amounts to over 42,000,000 bottles annually
— mostly quarts — is a remarkable evidence of growth.
Over 50,000 men are directly engaged in the brew-
ing of beer in the United States.
These material manifestations of progress by the
mere aggregation of figures are based upon a deeper
and broader advance in the application of science to
the art of brewing. The establishment of brewers*
schools, where theory and practice could be brought
into constant association, where experiments could
be conducted, and where a thorough training could
be given to brewers' sons who, with an inherited ten-
dency to skill in the art of their forefathers, desired
to equip themselves with a higher knowledge of the
craft, has brought into the field of competition a
skill in the manipulation of the various processes of
the brewing industry which has made possible a
greater advance in the art of brewing since the year
1870 than had occiured from the time of Queen
Elizabeth and the days of Shakespeare's Falstaif.
Only thirty years ago the principles governing the
production of beer were, as we see, essentially un-
changed. The interval of seventy years from 1795
had brought no noticeably valuable advances in the
art. While it is true that chemistry, physiology,
and botany, and, above all, the science of mechan-
ics, passed through great development during the
first half-century, it apparently meant nothing for
the art of brewing save a thorough and necessary
preparation of the various factors which were to be
the foundation on which should rest the subsequent
extraordinary progress — a progress destined to make
brewing one of the most delicately scientific arts of
manufacture. During the last quarter of a century,
however, the brewing industry, taking advantage of
every development of modem analytical investiga-
tion and mechanical advance, has been subject to
radical improvements in all directions. It is espe-
cially indebted to Pasteur, Naegeli, Hansen, Lint-
ner, and Delbrueck, who have contributed immea-
surably to the creation of the higher art of brewing.
The dawn of an unsuspected and unparalleled
line of improvement in the science of brewing, con-
sidered especially with reference to the physiology
of fermentation, appeared with the labors of Pasteur,
published to the world in his " fitudes sur la Bifere "
in 1876, in Paris, and later with those of Hansen
at Copenhagen, concerning the physiology of the
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
organisms of fermentation. From time immemorial
beer had been known as a perishable product, but
the causes leading lo its spoiling were shrouded in
deep mystery. Pasteur proved that the diseases of
beer might be traced to the growth of injurious
organisms, especially bacteria, and indicated the
ways and means of preventing these diseases through
the application of a rational process of wort cooling
and fermentation. Hansen advanced an important
step further by proving that the brewer's yeast might
become, by contact, under given circumstances, with
similar organisms closely resembling it, more injuri-
ous than bacteria. He crowned his labora by de-
veloping and introducing a process of cultivating
yeast, in absolute purity and in large quantities, from
a single germ, thereby also preventing the introduc-
tion of wild yeast into the beer. These improve-
ments were soon applied upon a large scale in the
leading breweries of the United States, and brought
about material changes in their practical operation.
After the principle of preventing infection had once
been proclaimed, the old-fashioned open cooler was
replaced by a suitable closed apparatus, often in-
geniously constructed, which came up to the high-
est requirements of the new science. Closely con-
nected with this was the use of filtered air, rendered
germ-free, and of sterilized water, so that to-day the
product of the brewer's art, in its highest and ideal
perfection, is absolutely protected against infection.
From the moment it leaves the brew-kettie, passes
over the coolers, and througli the process of ferment-
ing and lagering, and up to the moment when it is
served as a refreshing and perfect beverage, perhaps
thousands of miles from the place of its production,
it is protected by constant, accurate, and effective
scientific safeguards.
Physiology and theoretical chemistry, hand in
hand, have made brilliant progress in the science
of brewing. The most complicated processes in the
malting of barley, in mashing, and also in fermen-
tation have been thoroughly explored and have
come to be perfectly understood during the last few
decades, and have laid solid foundations for the
activity of the maltster and the brewer. An impor-
tant place in this connection must be assigned to
an invention which has brought about more radical
changes in the brewery than any other, and which
alone has made possible the introduction of numer-
ous other improvements and innovations. This in-
vention is the ice-machine and the application of
artificial refrigeration upon a larger scale, Hardly
twenty-five years ago the imperfect ice-machine of
Carr^, a Frenchman, was considered a curiosity,
while to-day the model machines of Linde and De
la Vergne are common property of all the brewers,
Americans may now justly claim to produce in
the United States, not only the best beer, but, as is
acknowledged by European authorities, the most
durable beer, in the world. It is a peculiar, although
incontrovertible fact, that the latest scientific theories
of brewing, credit for which belongs to European
investigators, have always found the most rapid and
complete application and introduction in practice in
this country. Professor Delbrueck, of Berlin, and
Professor Schwackhoefer, of Vienna, who were sent
to America in 1893 by their respective governments
as authorities upon brewing, for the purpose of study-
ing American breweries, were agreed in acknow-
ledging this fact, and in their official reports did
honor to the American brewing industry as they had
found it. We have parricular reason to be proud of
the fact that a special process of fermentation which
has been in use in this co'untry for years has recently
been proved by Professor Delbrueck to be the most
rational process, judged from a scientific standpoinL
This shows clearly to what an extent the theories of
European investigators have been practically applied
in this country before they were ever practically
adopted abroad.
It would be going too far to recount all the differ-
ent improvements to which the science of brewing
has led us within the last few years. But there is
one innovation tliat deserves to be mentioned, which
has attracted attention of late, and which had its
origin in our own country. This is the collection
and utilization in its purity of the carbonic-acid gas
formed during the process of fermentation. This
process makes it possible to abandon the former
" kraeusen " process, the old-fashioned method of
carbonating. The finished product may now be
charged with the finest natural carbonic-acid gas.
This collection of the by-product of fermentation
produces such a superabundance of carbonic -acid
gas that it may readily be liquefied, and is destined
to crowd out of the market all other products of its
kind. As Americans we have particular reason to
be proud of this achievement, because the solution of
the problem had been attempted in vain by European
authorities for many years.
During a trip covering the year just passed it has
been the pleasure of the writer to satisfy his curios-
ity, as never before, by a careful investigation of the
methods of foreign brewers, and, by taking the
American method of perfect brewing as a standard,
to reach certain conclusions which, as an American,
he is proud to hold 1 first, that while the deep, analyt-
THE BREWING INDUSTRY
ical, concentrated, and tireless mind of foreign, and
especially Gennan, scientistE may, by more pains-
taking and patient application, have attained for the
world a better knowledge of the fundamental the-
ories on which success in the ait of brewing should
rest, it took the broader grasp, the more nimble and
daring intelligence, of the American mind, and the
tremendous energy of American enterprise, to put
these theories into practical operation; second, there
is an overwhelming difference in advanced methods,
to the credit of the American ; third, the American
schools of brewing are now in the veiy van of scien-
tific progress, and, even if equaled, are certainly not
surpassed in the higher technical instruction which
they give.
As beer is to become, if it is not already, the
national beverage of the United States, and as in-
creasing skill in the art will contribute immeasurably
to the good health and temperance of the race, it is
indeed a source of congratulation that the breweis
of America are fully alive to the responsibility which
rests upon them, and that they realize in the deepest,
broadest sense that their own prosperity, their own
advancement, and their own standing in the com-
munity depend upon the development of their craft
to the highest ideal of perfection.
'^sfoy^^.
CHAPTER LXI
AMERICAN TOBACCO FACTORIES
IT seems almost incredible that tobacco, the dried
product of a common herb, possessing the
properties of a narcotic stimulant, and in no
way necessaiy for man's sustenance, should have
from its firet introduction progressively increased in
consumption wherever used throughout the habitable
globe ; that, despite the opposition of the combined
powers of the church, the state, and the moralist to
its use, its consumers being the subject of ridicule,
persecution, and even mutilation, and itself an ob-
ject of universal taxation, it furnishes at the present
time not only one of the largest staples of commerce,
but provides as well one of the leading manufactur-
ing industries of mankind.
The use of tobacco being nowhere mentioned
prior to the discovery of America, at which time the
species Nicotiana Tabacum, now almost universally
grown, was being extensively cultivated by the na-
tives, it need excite little surprise, when its universal
use is considered, that the tobacco industry has been
inseparably connected with the history, growth, and
prosperity of our country from its earliest settlement
to the present time, or that the few thousand pounds
grown and exported by John Rolfe, of the colony
of Virginia, in i6ia, should have increased to the
present enormous yield of 500,000,000 pounds per
aDuum, grown upon an area of 693,000 acres, by
305,000 planters. About one half of this product
is consumed at home, and the remainder exported,
mainly to Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain,
and Italy.
The high prices which tobacco commanded upon
its introduction into England in 1 586 greatly stimu-
lated its production in the colonies. The foundation,
however, for the enormous tobacco industry of our
country was laid through an event which afterward
proved a most potent factor in the destiny of the
American Republic In August, 1619, the captain
of a Dutch man-of-war sold to the planters upon the
James River, Virginia, twenty negroes (African cap-
tives), the first slaves introduced into the territory of
the American colonies. Within the next one hun-
dred and fifty years the slaves in the colonies num-
bered over 390,000, scattered from New England
to Georgia ; and under the stimulus of this class of
labor the annual exports alone of the staple exceeded
70,000,000 pounds.
In Virginia, as early as 1633, tobacco-inspection
warehouses were established, to which all tobacco
grown for sale was required by law to be brought
before the last day of each year, for examination by
colonial inspectors appointed for that purpose, " who
shall cause all the badd and ill-conditioned tobacco
instantlie to be burnt, and the planter thereof to be
disabled further from plantinge any more of that
commodite of tobacco." These inspectors, being
sworn and placed under heavy bonds, were aathw-
ized to issue formal receipts for accepted tobacco.
Such receipts by law became a legal tender, and
under the title of " tobacco notes " were for over a
century the medium of domestic and foreign ex-
change, being receivable for all debts, public and
private, at a value per pound annually fixed by the
Assembly, the price being based upon quality, sup-
ply, and demand. The price was therefore uniform,
whether the tobacco was raised for sale or for use as
a legalized circulating medium in barter. The pen-
alty for forging these certificates, as well as against
inspectors who issued them fraudulently, was death.
During the year 1 633 the barter price of tobacco
was hxed at ninepence a pound; but in 1639 so
great was the over-production and disregard of
quality that its cultivation was restricted, and all
debts ordered satisfied in tobacco at threepence a
pound. Indiscriminate planting was stopped by
the governor and council of Virginia, with the con-
sent of the Assembly, and each planter restricted
to 100 plants, on each of which should be left but
AMERICAN TOBACCO FACTORIES
419
nine leaves. As late as 1732 tobacco was made a
legal tender in Maryland, on a basis of value of one
penny a pound.
A marked change is shown in the distribution of
the tobacco crops of the United States during the
past one hundred and fifty years. In 1750 tobacco
cultivation was confined almost entirely to Virginia
and Maryland. In 1840 the product of the eight
leading producing States, expressed in millions of
pounds, was: Virginia, 75; Kentucky, 55; Ten-
nessee, 29; Maryland, 24; North Carolina, 16;
Missouri, 9 ; Ohio, 5 ; and Indiana, 2 ; while in
1890 the product was: Virginia, 49; Kentucky,
222; Tennessee, 36; Maryland, 12; North Caro-
lina, 36; Missouri, 9; Ohio, 38; and Indiana, 7 —
the production of Kentucky alone being 33,000,000
pounds in excess of the other seven States combined.
Retarded for a time by the War of the Revolution,
and again, later, by the Civil War, the cultivation
of tobacco has constantly increased, until at the
present time its production is the largest in its his-
tory. Its cultivation has always been confined to
the belt where it originated — a tract of about 600
miles in length by 300 in breadth, comprising por-
tions of the States of Maryland, Virginia, and Ken-
tucky, the northerly counties of North Carolina, the
Cumberland Valley in Tennessee, the Miami Valley
and Ohio River counties in Ohio, and small areas in
Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, and Mississippi. These
districts produce nearly all of the manufacturing and
export tobaccos of the United States, exclusive
of the tobacco grown for cigars, which is a more
northerly product.
The manufacture of tobacco and snuff is, so far
as known, coeval with its cultivation. The practice
of snuff taking was observed by sailors sent by
Columbus to the isle of Cuba on his second voyage
in 1494. In 1 502 Spanish explorers on the South
American coast noted the habit of tobacco chewing
^ong the nadves, and a few years later European
Qplorers crossing the North American continent
observed the imiversal custom of pipe smoking
among the Indians, both as a sjrmbolical and a social
custom. Small factories were early started through-
out the colonies to supply, in some form convenient
^or handling, those localities where either tobacco
^as not grown or the larger proportion of settlers
^^ engaged in other pursuits.
The earliest form of general use, by which each
nidividual became, as it were, his own manufacturer,
^ the rubbing and breaking up of tobacco in the
™d for pipe smoking. As the outside demand
^^^^^^Bit greater the dried tobacco was rubbed by the
manufacturer through sieves of various meshes to
the inch, to suit the convenience and taste of con-
sumers. This procedure, with improved methods of
handling, is still the process by which granulated
smoking-tobacco is made. A machine for mak-
ing cut smoking-tobacco was described in 1732 as
located in a Virginia manufactory, the output of
which was 54,000 pounds per annum. In 1765 the
manufacture of snuff was in comparatively few
hands, the product being ground entirely by hand
through the use of iron mortars and pestles. Before
the adoption of the Constitution the leading snuff
industries of the country, which were located at
New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, had attained
considerable proportions.
About the year 1760 the entire tobacco industry
was revolutionized by the introduction of water-
power. This in tiun being later replaced by steam
resulted in the industry becoming centralized in the
hands of a few manufactiurers. As late as 1794,
imder a law for the encouragement of manufac-
turers. State aid was conjoined with private capital
in New York for the construction of a combination
mill near Albany, to manufactiure and grind, roll
and cut tobacco, Scotch and rappee snuff, mustard,
chocolate, starch, hair-powder, split pease, and hulled
barley. In this mill all the operations, even to
the spinning of tobacco, were performed by water-
power, the tobacco-mill having a capacity of 100,-
000 pounds per annum. This plant, at that time
the most extensive and perfect of its kind in the
country, well illustrates the advance of the tobacco
industry during the past one hundred years.
The subdivisions of the industry at the present
time maintain about 800 factories, of various capa-
cities, located in all sections of the Union, at least
4 of which are snuff-mills, each producing annually
upward of 2,000,000 pounds of snuff; 10 plug-
tobacco factories, each with an annual output rang-
ing from 5,000,000 to 20,000,000 pounds; 15
smoking-tobacco factories, whose annual produc-
tion varies from 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 pounds
each ; and 5 factories in each of which are annually
manufactured from 1,000,000 to 4,000,000 pounds
of fine-cut chewing-tobacco. In all there are 50
factories manufacturing over i ,000,000 pounds each,
and nearly 200 factories producing over 100,000
and less than 1,000,000 pounds each.
Manufactured tobacco and snuff were early the
objects of internal taxation by the general govern-
ment. Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Trea-
smy, in 1790, recommended a tax of ten cents per
poimd on snuff, and six cents on other kinds of
420
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
manufactured tobacco, as likely to produce annually
from $90,000 to $100,000, computing the quantity
of these articles manufactured as exceeding 1,500,-
000 pounds, and reasoning that "this, being an
absolute superfluity, is the fairest object of revenue
that can be imagined." Acting upon this recom-
mendation, an act was passed by Congress in 1 794,
under which snuff and sugar were combined in one
bill as objects of internal-revenue taxation, the tax
on the former being eight cents and the latter two
cents per pound, the import duty being respectively
fixed at twelve cents and four cents, and the draw-
back or allowance for export the same as amount
of internal tax paid.
In 1795 the internal duty was taken from snuff
and laid on snuff-mills, for the reason that " the tax
was difficult of collection and liable to great eva-
sion"; and "it appearing that a snuff-mill works
about half the year, — that is, 156 working-days, —
yielding per mortar an average of forty-five pounds
of snuff per day, it follows that $561.66 per mortar
per annum, as the equivalent of eight cents per
pound, would yield a similar revenue." The tax was
therefore fixed as follows : every mortar worked by
water-power, $560 ; every pair of millstones, $560 ;
every pestle other than that worked by hand, $140 ;
every hand-pestle, $112; and every mill in which
snuff is manufactured by stampers or grinders, $2240
— providing at the same time for a drawback of six
cents on each pound exported. The internal-rev-
enue tax on snuff collected for the six months end-
ing March 31, 1795, at the rate of eight cents per
pound, amounted to $3887.84^, while for the six
months ending September 30, 1795, including the
mill tax, the collections increased to $1 1,662, and for
the year ending September 30, 1 796, the collections,
under the law taxing the snuff-mill, etc., aggregated
$17,124.80. This last system of taxation caused
great dissatisfaction among manufacturers, since the
duty was paid on the plant regardless of the quantity
manufactured ; and as the government paid out for
drawbacks to some manufacturers an amoimt ex-
ceeding that received for revenue, the inequality of
the operations of this law was so apparent that the
act was suspended in 1 796, and again by subsequent
sessions of Congress until 1800, when it was repealed.
During the past thirty-two years the tax on to-
bacco has proved a source of enormous revenue to
the government. During this period the contribu-
tion through taxation of the tobacco industry to the
support of the general government approximates
close to $1,000,000,000, being nearly one quarter
of the receipts from all soiuxes of internal revenue
between July, 1863, and July, 1895, and nearly ten
per cent, of the entire income of the government
from customs, internal-revenue and direct taxes,
sales of lands, premiums on bonds, and other mis-
cellaneous sources during the same period of time.
By the United States internal-revenue laws the
tobacco industries were divided for purposes of taxa-
tion into two distinct classes : one the manufacture
of chewing and smoking tobaccos and snuSs ; the
other the production of cigars, cheroots, cigarettes,
etc. The factory production of tax-paid tobacco
and snuff in the United States for the calendar year
ending December 31, 1893, exceeded 250,000,000
pounds, subdivided into plug chewing, 148,000,-
000; fine-cut chewing, 14,000,000; smoking-to-
bacco, 76,000,000; and snuff, 12,000,000 pounds.
Other materials aggregating 70,000,000 pounds
annually —mainly sugar, licorice, malt, etc. — are
added in various proportions during the manufacture
of these products, to suit the taste of consumers.
The amount of tobacco and snuff exported during
the same period was 15,500,000 pounds. In addi-
tion it is estimated that fully 28,000,000 pounds,
representing the local consumption by growers, es-
cape taxation. Statistics covering a series of years
show that the percentage of consumption in our coun-
try of the various kinds of manufactured tobacco
and snuff is: plug, 62 per cent. ; smoking-tobaccos,
27 per cent. ; fine-cut, 7 per cent. ; and snuff, 4 per
cent. During the past twenty-five years the im-
proved methods of manufacture introduced in all
the subdivisions of the tobacco industry have ma-
terially reduced the cost of production, with a cor-
responding decrease in price to the consumer. In
manufactured tobacco and snuff the processes of
cleaning, ordering, casing, drying, cooling, cutting,
dressing, flavoring, weighing, packing, stamping,
labeling, with the additional procedures in the cigar-
ette manufacture of carding, rolling, wrapping, and
cutting off, are now generally carried on by machine
instead of hand labor.
The general consumption of the product of the
tobacco industries of the United States has increased
enormously during the past thirty years. Such in-
crease has not been relative in its subdivisions.
Based upon the collections of the internal-revenue
department, the production of manufactured tobacco
and snuff during 1863 was 24,000,000; 1865, 37,-
000,000; 1875, 119,000,000; 1885, 180,000,000;
and 1895, 259,000,000 pounds. A comparison of
the reports of the internal-revenue department with
the last published report for the calendar year end-
ing December 31, 1892, shows that the consumption
AMERICAN TOBACCO FACTORIES
421
of plug tobaccos has mcreased during this period 66
per cent ; fine-cut chewing, decreased i8 per cent. ;
smoking, Increased 1 1 7 per cent ; and snuS, increased
aoi per cent. The large number of cigar makers
who have qualified as tobacco manufacturers for the
purpose of sorting, sieving, and packing for sale
their refuse scraps, clippings, and cuttings, accounts
in a measure for the increased consumption of
smoking-tobacco. The increase in consumption of
SDuff from 4,000,000 pounds in 1880 to nearly
13,000,000 in 1893, due in a large measure to its
use for dipping purposes, is entirely at variance with
the generally accepted view of the pubUc that the
Qse of snuflf is fast becoming a relic of the past.
During the fifteen years ending June 30, 189s, the
annual consumption of tax-paid cigars, cheroots, etc.,
increased from 3,683,000,000 to 4,164,000,000, an
increase of 56 per cent. ; and during the same
period the atmual consumption of tax-paid cigarettes
has increased from 567,000,000 to 3,338,000,000,
an increase of 486 per cent While this increase
has in both instances been annually progressive, it
is apparent that the greater increased consumption
in cigarettes has been at the expense of the cigar in-
dustry ; for while the production of the former dur-
ing the years 1894-95 was 370,000,000 in excess of
the average for the past five years, the production
of cigars, cheroots, etc., declined 350,000,000 dur-
ing the same period of time. In addition there are
annually manufactured for export about 2,000,000
cigars and 400,000,000 cigarettes. Aside from the
cultivation, preparation, and handling of the raw
material, according to the latest available statistics
the various tobacco industries of the United States
are carried on by 11,351 establishments, with an in-
vested capital of nearly $100,000,000, employing
139423 persons, whose annual wages aggregate
$53,336,060, using material costing $79,491,309,
and having miscellaneous expenses incident thereto
aggregating $33,000,000.
I have thus endeavored, so far as the space al-
lotted me would allow, to trace the progress and
present status of the tobacco factories in the United
States from the early cultivation of the raw material
in the colonies to its present extensive production,
both as the basis for one of our largest domestic in-
dustries, as well as furnishing one of the largest of
our staples for export
A^ac^^
i/ykAcy^,
CHAPTER LXII
AMERICAN SOAP FACTORIES
SOAP making in the American colonies was
largely a household art in the beginning.
The thrifty housewife, utilizing the kitchen
fats saved in the dripping-pan, made her own soft
soap for domestic purposes, and even a species of
hard soap, usually molded in the form of a ball, and
of a quality that, though considered excellent in
those days, would scarcely be used by housekeepers
of to-day.
If the soap boiler proper, as distinguished from
the household maker, attained little prominence in
the early days, soap was still a product the prepara-
tion of the material for which afforded a flourishing
colonial industry. So early as 1608, when the sec-
ond ship sent out from England to the Jamestown
colony arrived, there were landed a number of
Germans and Poles, skilled craftsmen, among whom
were several proficient in handling fat and soap-
ashes. The superabundant timber of the virgin
woodlands afforded every advantage to this indus-
try. In 1621 soap-ashes for export to England
were worth from six shillings to eight shillings per
hundredweight, and fifty years later the settlements
in that part of the country now included in Maine
and New Hampshire derived their chief wealth
from the fat and soap-ashes there produced.
The candle and the tallow dip, then the ordinary
means of illumination, have always constituted in
their manufacture a branch of the soap maker's
business, but in those days it was a far more impor-
tant one than it is to-day. Newport, R. I., had a
number of these establishments by the middle of the
last century. Boston and all New England were
likewise active in this trade, owing to the large
whaling interests there, which furnished the sperm-
oil.
Such was the status of the soap industry at the
beginning of the century which comes within the
limits of this article. While there were small soap-
boiling establishments in nearly all the large towns
by 1795, it is safe to say that they did not produce
a great deal over $300,000 annually. The balk of
the product consumed was, as has already been
stated, home-made.
The earliest moving cause in the evolution of a
small and comparatively unimportant trade into a
great industry was the discovery by Leblanc, a
Frenchman, in 1791, of his celebrated process for
the manufacture of soda on a large scale. This
discovery, although made so early, was not appre-
ciated in its full significance undl more than thirty
years later, when chemical manufacturers and soap
makers began to avail themselves extensively of the
supply of soda thus cheaply afforded.
Prior to this latter event, however, the trade
foundations of the great soap industry of to-day
were laid by a few persons who were long-sighted
enough to perceive the future requirements, and
courageous enough to believe they could fulfil them.
Among these, one of the oldest, as it is one of the
largest, in both present and past importance, was
the establishment of William Colgate, founded in
1806 in a modest way in the old building in Dutch
Street, where the warehouses and offices have re-
mained to this day. Fancy soaps were at this time
unknown, and the makers of the American product
contented themselves with a very common grade of
soap. The same conditions prevailed in both Phil-
adelphia and Boston ; but so rapid was the advance
that by 1835 we were supplying all the home de-
mand, with the exception only of certain of the fin-
est qualities of soap, the secret for making which
was possessed by some English or French manufac-
turer. We were in addition heavy exporters, sending
abroad, principally to England, nearly as much
every year as we are bringing in from there to-day.
The total imports of soap for 1835 were but $36,-
ai8, while of our home-made product of soap and
candles there was shipped abroad $534,467 worth.
In Great Britain the soap industry was hampered at
AMERICAN SOAP FACTORIES
423
this time by a duty originally imposed in 171 1, and
not repealed witil 1853. Despite this drawback, it
is interesting to note, as showing the growing com-
mercial and industrial importance of soap, that dur-
ing the fifty years which followed 1801 the annual
production increased from the amount as previously
stated to over 197,600,000 pounds.
The increased importance of the soap industry
thus developed in England, together with the many
new uses to which the product was soon being put,
especially as an auxiliary in other manufacturing
processes, was speedily felt on this side of the water.
Nevertheless the stimulation manifested itself rather
in increased production than in improved quality.
Fifty years ago we were employing substantially
the same methods and processes that were used in
England. New England was then the principal
center of the manufacture for the United States,
although New York and Philadelphia were gaining
prominence. At that time filling materials were
practically unknown, and "settled" soaps were
merely run into the wooden frames and crutched
for hours, until rendered thick from cooling, or were
finished by boih'ng down. The material was ladled
by hand from the kettles into the frames, or put into
backets or tubs and carried and emptied into the
frames. The kettles themselves had cast-iron bot-
toms, to which a wooden curb was fastened by means
of cement. The composition of this cement, which
was used to prevent leakage, was regarded at that
time as a great trade secret, especially when the
cement was capable of preventing the leakage for
some length of time. The waste lye was run off
through a pipe reaching through the wooden curb
to a point near the bottom of the kettle. The ket-
tles were heated by open fire, and the contents were
kept from burning by stirring them with a long iron
rod flattened at the end. The lye was made by
leaching wood-ashes, since the use of caustic soda,
although dating back to the beginning of the cen-
t^, had made very slow advances.
Wiile processes and methods were thus, compar-
atively speaking, at a standstill during the first four
decades of the present centmy, the soap industry,
^nevertheless, steadily advanced in importance, and
prepared itself for the wonderful development that
immediately followed the discoveries of Chevreul
"^ ^841. He demonstrated the true principles of
saponification, and no later improvement, whether it
"* in the introduction of the steam processes or in
the discoveries and uses of the many new vegetable
*^d animal oils, has been of greater importance,
^e unpetus thus given is shown in the fact that
only one year later, in 1842, there were produced
in the United States alone 50,000,000 pounds of
soap, 18,000,000 pounds of tallow candles, and
3,000,000 pounds of wax and spermaceti candles,
while exports to the value of more than $1,000,000
attested the preeminence we were gaining in the
markets of the world. Of the total soap product at
this time Massachusetts was credited with over
one quarter, and of the spermaceti she produced
nearly all.
Five years later, at the time when our house re-
moved its factory to Jersey City, the soap industry
had grown to great proportions. There were many
manufacturers of soaps and candles in New York
at this time, and among the more prominent of
these I recall Enoch Morgan, James Buchan, John-
son, Vroom & Fowler, D. S. & J. Ward, J. D. &
W. Lee, Holt & Horn, Patrick Clendenen, John
Alsop, C. W. Smith & Company, John Taylor &
Sons, W. G. Browning & Company, Lee A. Com-
stock, John Buchanan, George F. Penrose, John
Ramsey, John Kirkman, and John Sexton. The
manufacture of fancy soaps had already been
begim, and in 1850 was established on an exten-
sive scale by our house. Shaving-soap, always in
great demand in those days, when beardless faces
were the vogue, was also greatly improved in this
decade, and many other of the common toilet
necessities of to-day were either first brought out
or developed to comparative excellence at this
time.
In common, too, with almost every manufactur-
ing industry of importance, the making of soap was
soon facilitated by the introduction of machinery.
American ingenuity, always on the alert for labor-
saving devices, has since been active in this field as
in others, and the improved and extensive equip-
ment of the modem factory testifies to its success.
Manual labor, which was the rule in the earlier days,
has been replaced in many of the various processes
by machinery that performs the work more expe-
ditiously and at a reduced cost. There are specially
constructed machines designed and adapted for
almost every step in the different processes of manu-
facture where their introduction has been either fea-
sible or of advantage. A technical specification of
the nature and functions of these machines would
not only require too much space, but it would be
tedious as well to the general reader, and is therefore
omitted.
There are various sources for the fats used in the
production of soap. The berries of the soap-tree of
South America and the West Indies possess excel-
424
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
lent natural qualities for the manufacture of soap,
and the bark of the Quillaia Saponaria^ from Peru,
is used in Liverpool for washing woolens. In Cali-
fornia the roots of the Fhaianjium Pomaridianum
are found in great abundance, and have the odor of
brown soap; these are used for washing clothes.
Different kinds of oils are used in the manufacture
of soap, these offering different proportions of ap-
proximate principles of fatty bodies, such as stearine,
palmitine, and oleine. Different kinds of alkalis
used to unite with the fats produce soaps of vary-
ing hardness, soda making a harder soap than pot-
ash. The hardest soap is made by the use of stearine
and soda, and the softest soap by the union of
oleine and potash. Glycerine is often combined
with fatty acids, since it is broken up by the action
of the alkali, the glycerine then existing in a free
state in the soap, or it may be extracted as a sepa-
rate product. The principal fats and oils used in the
manufacture of soap are tallow, and palm, rape,
poppy, linseed, hemp-seed, and olive oils.
Qlive-oil is used in the manufacture of Castile,
Marseilles, and other marbled and plain soaps of
southern Europe. Similar results by similar methods
are attained in this coimtry. The best oils for mar-
bled soaps are obtained from Naples. The Spanish
oils are also valuable for the same purpose. The
oils from the East are not so rich in stearine, and
contain a certain amount of green pigment, which
make them less desirable. Mottled or marbled soaps
are obtained by sprinkling the surface of the freshly
made substance successively with lyes less and less
concentrated. The saponification — which by its
very Latin derivation shows that the manufacture
existed among the Romans — is conducted ordinarily
by boiling the fat with a solution of caustic potash
or soda. Most fats require a long boiling with an
excess of alkali, but lard, beef-marrow, and the oil
of sweet almonds may be saponified merely by an
agitation with caustic soda at an ordinary tempera-
ture.
Soaps are scented and colored by mixing coloring
substances and volatile oils or odorous matter with
them. Sometimes, for the purpose of producing a
medicated soap, antiseptics, such as carbolic acid,
creosote, chloride of potash, and sulphur, are mixed
with the ingredients. A soap for the use of taxider-
mists in preserving skins is produced by the addition
of arsenic. A large industry has developed in this
country in scouring-soaps, which are produced by
the addition of fine sand or pumice-stone to the
ordinary soap when in its plastic state. The secret
of the cleansing power of soap has never been satis-
factorily explained ; yet while it is generally supposed
to be due to what is known as "hydrolysis," or
partial decomposition into free alkali and insoluble
acid soap, it is probably due, as a matter of fact,
to the power of the solution to emulsionize fats.
The processes of soap manufacture are three in
number, according to the ordinary classification.
First, there is a process of direct union of free fatty
or resinous acid and alkalis, a process which is not
much in use. Second, there is the treatment of fats
with definite quantities of alkalis, in which the
glycerine remains with the soap. This is known as
the "cold process." Third, there is the treatment
of fats by boiling them with indefinite quantities of
alkali and lye. The great bulk of soaps is hard
soap, and this is of three kinds — the curd, the mot-
tled, and the yellow. The finest quality of the curd
soap is obtained by the use of tallow, the lye being
concentrated by the use of close steam till the soap
is hard. In producing mottled soap, while the pro-
cess is the same as in the manufacture of the curd,
darker fats are used, and concentration of the fats
is not carried to such an extent as with the other.
When there is a natural mottling of the soap it is
an absolute guaranty that there is no undue amount
of water present in it. The artificial motth'ng of
soap is carried on to a very large extent for legiti-
mate purposes ; but there are those who practise it
for the express purpose of fraud. The mottling
process is largely used for laundry-soaps. Yellow
soaps contain more or less resin, the finest qualities
of such soap being secured by the use of Hght-
colored resin and the best grade of tallow. The
finishing or " fitting " of yellow soaps requires long
experience on the part of the manufacturer for satis-
factory results. The method of finishing all kinds
of soap is a variable factor, depending upon the
precise kind of article desired.
In the production of cocoanut or marine soaps
the cocoanut-oil is saponified by the use of strong
lye without salting. After several days of harden-
ing the blocks of soap are first cut into slabs by
means of a thin steel wire, and the slabs are then
transformed into bars. These bars are stamped
with the name of the maker and the brand of the
soap, and are then ready for the market.
The demand for cheap soap has resulted in the
introduction and extension of a process known as
"filling." In this various substances designed to
increase the detergent power of the soap, or to in-
crease its bulk and weight, thus lessening its power,
are introduced into the soap after it leaves the
" copper." This process is also known as " crutch-
AMERICAN SOAP FACTORIES
ing." The substances used as adulterants are water,
talc, clay, chalk, sulphate of baryta, etc. In the
production of soft soaps impure solutions of potash
soaps are combined with glycerine in caustic lye,
which results in transparent jellies.
In the production of toilet-soaps good curd or
yellow soap is used as the basis, special precautions
being taken against the presence of (ree alkali.
The soap is cut into shavings. It is then partially
dried, and, coloring- ma tier and perfumes being
added, the composition is passed several times be-
tween granite rollers to make it homogeneous. The
mass is then " dotted," which consists in the use of
great pressure to form the soap into bars. These
bars are then cut and stamped. The lower qualities
of toilet -soaps are generally made by the "cold
process." Transparent soaps are produced by dis-
solving good dry soap in alcohol, pouring off the
clear solution, and then removing the bulk of the
spirit by distillation. The soap remaining is then
put into molds, cooled, and preserved for several
months in warm chambers, until it becomes quite
transparent. Many kinds of transparent soaps are
made by the " cold process," the transparency being
accomplished by the addition of sugar. Glycerine
is often incorporated with opaque and transparent
soaps for emollient effects, while for disinfecting
purposes carboHc acid, cold tar, eucalyptus-oil, and
other substances are added. The commercial value
of all soaps depends upon the percentage of fatty
anhydride present in them.
Having thus briefly reviewed the technology of
the soap-manufacturer's art, we return to the consid-
eration of the historical features of the subject. In
the decade ending in 1850 the annual production of
soap and candles had reached nearly $10,000,000,
and by i860 it had increased to still greater propor-
tions. Its extent in that year, as well as in each
succeeding decade, as gathered from the census re-
ports of the United Slates, was as follows:
most important phase of this industrial success.
This is contained in the fact that American soaps
are strong competitors in the markets of the world.
Not only do we produce enough and to spare for
oiu' own wants, but we also send annually great
quantities to foreign countries. Showing as this
does the superiority of the American article, it Is
most gratifying; and the fact that England and
France are still the most noted producers of toilet-
soaps does not prevent me from declaring that we
are producing here at home at the present time arti-
cles every bit as good, if not better than those
made abroad, and that it is a question of only a
short time before our superiority in this direction
will be as freely conceded as it now is in the com-
moner grades of soap. The development and pres-
ent importance of our foreign trade can be gathered
from the subjoined table, giving the exports and
imports of soaps by half-decades during the past
twenty- five years :
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF SOAP, 1870 t
1894.
v™
i-„„,.
E.».^
$627,352
697^94
1,109,017
i.'39.7»
[m
$306,386
401,150
IRIS
Modem conditions have greatly changed the
methods of soap manufacturers. Commencing with
the introduction of the first pressed cakes of laundry-
soap in this country by B. T. Babbitt, innovations
and improvements have followed thick and fast.
Upon the breaking out of the Civil War resin be-
came very scarce, and other substances were added
to the soap as substitutes. After the war, when
resin became plentiful, there was a tendency to
revert to the old methods of making soap ; but late
THE SOAP INDUSTRY, i860 t
VtAJU
WiCBL
Mat«i«i. Coh-
V.ITOOT
PllDDUCT.
6.4
3.147
4-p2
9.30s
$18^64.574
".53S-337
$ifl25,95>
« 19.531
4,951,648
$io-(S4,86o
14,541,294
$15,333,587
iSio"::::::;::::::::::::::
The above figures demonstrate most clearly the
growth that has been made by the soap -manufactur-
ing interests, but they do not express another and
in the sixties the process of hardening resin soaps by
the use of sal-soda was first introduced by A. Van
Haagen, at thai rime of Philadelphia. Gradually
426
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
the process of recovering glycerine from waste-soap
lye was perfected in England, but it has been im-
proved upon here, so that now refined and chemi-
cally pure glycerine is made by a goodly number
of soap factories. The manufacture of soap-powder
pertains to this same period. White floating soap
was first put upon the market by Procter & Gamble,
of Cincinnati.
The introduction of sapolio also marked a new
era in the soap business. It was a combination of
true soap and scouring substances in such propor-
tions as to increase to the highest point the advan-
tages of each. The Bath brick of the scullery
has gone since its advent, and the principle upon
which sapolio was established is now utilized in
many forms. Intense competition has burdened
the business with enormous advertising expenses,
with all the various ramifications thereon attendant,
such as the " gift trade " of premiums in crockery,
glass, lithographic art work, and household novelties.
While the maker of the housewife's soaps has had
increased by these things his cost of production, the
manufacturers of the finer grades have been equally
alert to keep abreast of the demand for artistic
wrapping and boxing, with the result that thousands
of dollars are annually expended for the purely
esthetic requirements of the business. Despite all
this, the best grades of soap are now made in the
United States. In quality, form, and preparation
they are equal to those made anywhere in the world,
while along the line of mechanical facilities for oper-
ating upon large quantities of material with the
greatest economy of time and labor this country is
acknowledged to take the lead among the nations
of the earth.
Among the great firms engaged in the business
to-day, and identified with its progress, I might
mention B. T. Babbitt, N. K. Fairbank & Company,
James S. Kirk & Company, D. S. Brown & Com-
pany, Procter & Gamble, and Colgate & Company.
Thus far I have avoided all mention of perfu-
mery, notwithstanding the fact that its manufacture
is sometimes a subsidiary branch in the great soap
establishments. The subject, nevertheless, is one
that must properly come up for discussion by itself.
Under the general head of perfumery are grouped a
great variety of articles for toilet use, such as cos-
metics, pomades, toilet powders, oils, depilations,
dentifrices, sachet powders, etc. In their manufac-
ture has been developed a business which more than
almost any other demands the extremest care, taste,
and experience on the part of the maker.
The hardy settlers and stem old Puritans who
first came to America had little use and less dedre
for the sweet-smelling unguents of the Old World
dandies. Accordingly it was long before perfumery
was established as a manufacture here. In the
proud old Tory days before the Revolution, and in
the time of the Confederation which followed, per-
fumery, cosmetics, and the like were necessities in
the toilet of any person of fashion. The carefully
powdered hair and cue, the delicately scented shirt-
frills and handkerchief, were all indispensable to the
gentleman who wished to appear in good society.
The supply of these articles, however, was drawn
almost altogether from abroad, from the great cen-
ters of England and France. The housewife's rose-
water, steeped lavender, and kindred preparations
were generally known, and made by each family in
quantity requisite for its own needs. As in the case
of soap, so with perfiunery, it took many years and
changed conditions to bring the industry from the
kitchen to the factory.
There are several methods for the extraction of
the odoriferous qualities of plants, and for imparting
them to spirits and oily bodies. For pomades the
best fat to be procured is the marrow of the ox.
An inferior source Hes in the mixture of beef and
veal fat and lard. These are beaten in a mortar,
melted in a water-bath, and then strained. Before
cooling the essential oil for the perfume is stirred
in, or else flowers are thrown in and left to digest
for several hours. These flowers are then removed,
the fat is again heated and strained under heavy
pressure, and fresh flowers are supplied. This pro-
cess, known as maceration, is continued for several
days ; the product is then strained.
For delicate plants such as jasmine, tuberose, and
cassia, the process employed is known as " absorp-
tion " or enfleurage. In this process square wooden
boxes, the bottoms of glass plate, are used. In
these is first placed a layer of purified lard and suet
mixture ; freshly gathered flowers are placed upon
this layer every morning. The boxes are then shut,
and the grease finally acquires a very strong odor
from the flowers. For the saturation of oils the
boxes are supplied with a wire bottom, on which
cloths are placed after being soaked in the oil
After being charged the cloths are placed, several
of them together, under heavy pressure, and the
perfumed oils are thus regained. For the scenting
of spirits the process of maceration or of digestion
with essential oils is conducted in a water-bath and
by agitation for several days. Perfumed soaps are
prepared by substituting pomades for the grease in
the mixture of soda lees.
AMERICAN SOAP FACTORIES
427
The meagemess of the records, and the difficulty
of distinguishing between the perfumer who dealt
in imported articles, or at best made but one or two
special and usually simple scents in limited quantity,
and the actual American manufacturers, prevent as
full a history of the early trade as might otherwise
be given. It is certain that perfumery was being
made in the United States, and in steadily increas-
ing quantities, during each of the first four decades
of the present century. The impetus given to the
soap industry early in the forties by ChevreuPs dis-
covery reacted directly upon the production of per-
fumery. Many Frenchmen, skilled perfumers, had
come to this country, and were vying with the
American manufacturers for a trade that was already
most profitable. Distinctive American scents had
been introduced and become popular. "Ask for
Cream of Lily," or " Take nothing but Violet Blos-
som," were advertisements illustrating the extent lO
wWch the business had grown. Among the manu-
facturers in New York at this time — between 1845
and 1847 — were Thomas Jones, John Lindmark,
Levi Beals, John Wyeth, Johnson, Vroom & Fowler,
James Mackey, John Ramsey, William White &
Company, Robert Reed, and John B. Breed. The
French element in the trade was represented by
such houses as J. M. de Ciphlet, F. F. Gouraud,
August Grandjean, and Eugene Roussel.
Since then the growth of the trade has been
great, and its importance is steadily increasing as
American processes, intelligence, and push bring
their forces to bear in competition with the great
established centers abroad. The foreign strongholds
the native herbs, as at Mitcham in Surrey, where
tons of peppermint and lavender are often distilled
at a single operation. In the northern part of the
United States there are many essences and essential
oils manufactured from scented woods and herbs,
such as wintergreen, sassafras, and others. Pepper-
mint and roses and other flowers from gardens, fruits,
seeds, and other vegetable products are unlimited
sources for the production of this fascinating article.
The delicate scent of flowers has been traced to
certain oils and ethers which may be elaborated
from substances possessing even disgusting odors.
The fetid fusel-oil affords odors which, obtained by
processes of differentiation, are the same as those of
fruits. Oils from gas-tar yield bitter-almond odors
or the essence of mirbane. These are extensively
used for perfuming soaps, and in many instances are
regarded as preferable for culinary uses and the
perfuming of confectionery. Then we have per-
fumes supplied from animal sources as well as vege-
table. Among these are musk, civet, ambergris, and
hartshorn. Ambergris supplies the most ethereal
odors for use in combination with other perfumes.
The greatest number of materials for perfumes (this
being twenty-eight) comes from the south of France.
Among these are the orange and the jasmine flowers,
which form the bulk of the product, and also violets,
roses, cassia, and tuberoses.
The progress made by the perfiunery industry in
this country during the last four decades is best
shown in the following tabulated statement, taken
from the United States census reports for the years
noted :
PERFUMERY AND COSMETICS, i860 TO 1890.
YSAB.
1860I,
1870..
1880..
1890..
ESTABUSHMSNTS.
67
«S7
Employbbs.
535
727
741
hJSS
Wages.
$260^15
238,259
877,679
Capital.
$597,000
1,172,
813,
Material Con-
sumed.
$892,219
1,201,409
2,128,420
Value of
Product.
$1,222,400
2,029,582
2,203,004
4,630,141
1 The statistics for diis year include the manufacture of &ncy soap.
^ 4e perfumery industry are London, Paris, and
^c Mediterranean cities of southern France, to-
E^ther with the rose-growing regions of Turkey and
**^a, where the manufacture of the ethereal attar
®^ roses is carried to great extent. Cannes is famous
w its roses ; Nimes for its thyme, rosemary, astic,
^^ lavender ; Nice for its violets and mignonettes ;
^cJy for its lemons, bergamot, and orange perfumes.
^Q England some essential oils are obtained from
Of our foreign trade in perfumery there is little
to be said, except that its condition has been and
is encouraging. France and England, controlling
as they do to a great extent the supply of raw ma-
terial, have long been regarded as rulers of the per-
fumery market. Nevertheless this country has for
many years sold abroad nearly as much as it has
imported. In 1894 the figures show the imports
to have been of the value of $427,850, while the
I
428
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
exports were but $327,835, or, speaking roundly,
$100,000 less. This disparity, however, is not so
great as it at first appears, owing to the fact that the
classification of imports includes toilet preparations
of every description, embracing many articles ex-
cluded under the export grouping. At home, with
an annual production at the present time certainly
amounting to, if not in excess of, $5,000,000, the
progress of the last quarter of a century is plainly
evident. Among the great firms active to-day in
that advance throughout the country are Colgate &
Company, Lundborg, Lazell, Dalley &
Theodore Rickseckcr, Solon Palmer, A1&
£. W. Hoyt & Company, Lanman & ',
Frederick Steams & Company. Great, 1
has been the advance made here in bot
the soap industry, it is safe to predict 1
extent is not yet reached. An increase*
wider knowledge of applied chemistry, ai
opment of internal resources are all tendi:
us at no distant day in the very van of
progress in these industrial arts.
Henry Bower.
CHAPTER LXIII
THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
CiOR is a combined effort of the animal king-
dom, led by mankind, to overcome and sub-
due, to subject and utilize, the forces of na-
ture. Labor, in its various relations, assumes forms
that are both psychical and physical in character.
Groups, combinations, and subdivisions of these
fonns exist in the great war of the animal kingdom
oo the solid, fluid, and gaseous condidons of matter.
Hence it is that the chemist and chemical manu-
facture! are called on to organize and array the final
attack on all known productions of the earth, of the
water, and of the atmosphere.
Hk chemical industry of the United States may
be considered to have been in existence, at this
time, about one hundred years. In common with
other leading manufactures, it has reached large
proportions. Almost every State of the Union has
chemical establishments of some kind. The indus-
try is affected for good or bad in quick response to
the rise and fall of other manufactures.
Before the Revolution no chemicals were made
here. From such reports as are obtainable it ap-
pean that 8000 pounds of copperas were made in
Vennont in 1810, and a smaller quantity in Mary-
land in the same year. In tSij alum was made in
*e latter State. Oil of vitriol was manufactured in
^^>iladelpbia in 1793. At Baltimore, the manufac-
tve of chemicals, paints, and medicine began in
1816. InthecensusofiSao, two chemical establish-
•"Kots were reported from New York City.
By 1830 die industry was firmly established in the
United Sutes, Philadelphia being the center. There
*^ then thirty firms in the business in the entire
^'X'Qtry, having a capital of $1,158,000, and produc-
^ articles valued at $ i ,000,000 per annum. Alum,
'"Ppetas, and some other articles were manufactured
•o the almost entire exclusion of the foreign product
">c list or productions included calomd and various
"*« mercurial preparations, Glauber's and Rochelle
"^ tartar emetk, ammonia, sulphate of quinine,
oil of vitriol, tartaric, nitric, muriatic, oxalic, and
acetic acids, aqua fortis, Prussian blue, chrome yel-
low, chrome-green, refined saltpeter, refined borax,
refined camphor, acetate and nitrate of lead, prussiate
of pota^, and bichromate of potash.
The totals for the chemical industry, as reported
in 1S90, are shown in the following summary:
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY IN 1890.
Number of eaUbUshmenU reporting 1,616
Qifitai;
Direct investment $168,463,044
Value of hired property ii2,ogSfl^j
Miacelluneaus expenses $l3i^Oi343
Avenge number of employees 43,7oi
Toml wage* 9tS-3*^fiJ7
O^ert.firm mmthers, andtlerki:
Average Dumber
Total wagci
All ather emflgyeit:
Average niunber 37>74^
$7,464^
Value of prodncts 9>77i8i 1,833
The principal products reported, and their quan-
tity and value, were as follows :
CHEMICAL PRODUCT : QUANTITY AND VALUE.
Product*. Qoajititv. Valub.
Alum (lbs-) 93fl98.«>8 $i,6i6,7ii>
Coal-tar prodncts 687,591
Dyeing and tanning ex-
incts and sunuc (lbs.) l87#}6,gll 8,857/184
Gunpowder and other ex-
plosives « ias,64Sflia 10,993.131
Fertiliters (tons) 1,898,806 35>5>9^i
Faints, colors, and var-
nishes 53,908,351
Pharmaceutical prepara-
tions 16,744,643
Potash and pearlash {lbs.) 5.106,939 I97<S07
SodM '■ 333.1*4.375 5-433.400
Snljrfmric »cid 1 " l,384,776fl73 S.'9^78
Wood-alcohol and acetate
of lime 1385.4^
Chemicals (including all
adds, basei, and salts
not heretofore ennmer*
»ted> a4.75'.974
All other products 13.018,153
Total valne $177,811,833
430
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
The most important of all chemical products is
sulphuric acid, which maintains its supremacy over
any other known article in promoting the manu-
facturing interests of the world. By the census of
1890, 105 establishments were reported as engaged
in the manufacture of this acid, the production being
1,384,776,972 pounds. Of this quantity, 581,536,-
200 pounds, estimated as being worth $2,480,495,
were produced and consiuned as an intermediate
product by establishments manufacturing fertilizers.
Taking this into account, the total value of all sul-
phuric acid manufactured in the United States dur-
ing 1890 was $7,679,473, an increase in value of
109.71 per cent, over 1880, and in quantity of
348.49 per cent. The large increase in the number
of establishments and in the quantity produced, to-
gether with the reduction in price, indicates the
advance that has been made in general manufactures
in the United States during the decade intervening.
Of the 1,384,776,972 pounds reported, 1,009,863,-
407 pounds were 50^ Beaiun6 acid, 20,379,908
pounds were 60O acid, and 354,533,657 pounds
were 66^ acid. Reduced to a uniform strength of
50^, the total production for the year was 1,567,-
138,777 pounds. Supposing all of the chambers to
be running 365 days in the year, we find the amoimt
of 50^ acid and equivalents manufactured in each
twenty-four hours to be 4,293,531 pounds, or 2147
tons.
From technical considerations, manufactured
manures are the next in importance to sulphuric
acid in the category of chemical productions. The
total of 1,898,806 tons of these materials produced,
indicates, by no inaccurate measure, the extent of
the farming interests of the country. When we
consider that about 300 pounds of artificial fertilizer
are commonly used to one acre of land, it is seen
that 12,658,700 acres were enriched by its use.
Dr. David T. Day, chief of the Division of Mines
and Mining, states that 375,000 tons of fertilizers
were consumed during the last census year in the
Southern States, leaving 1,523,806 tons as the
consumption of the Eastern, Middle, and Western
States. The increase in manufacture over 1880 is
1 , 1 7 1 ,3 53 tons, or about 161 per cent. These figures
show that large areas of our country are becoming
unprofitable to farm without the use of these aids to
fertilization; and the existence of factories in the
States of California, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,
Minnesota, and Wisconsin is indicative of the grad-
ual exhaustion of soil that was virgin in character
less than twenty-five years ago. These facts tend
to show that the time is approaching when none of
our unmanured soils will yield in remunerative
quantity. They prove that economies are coming
into practice in the utilization of material that for-
merly ran to waste.
The farmer occupies a reversed position to that of
the manufacturer of artificial manures. By prodigal
wastefulness and culpable ignorance he permits im-
mense quantities of manurial matter to find their way
to the sea, while bemoaning his lot and sighing over
the yield of virgin lands in comparison with that
of his own ; whereas the manufacturer, by the aid
of chemical skill and mechanical devices, converts
refuse matter into valuable merchandise.
The figures presented here yield consolation to
the farmers of the Atlantic slope. When the not
distant time arrives for the extinguishment of an
agriculture that is based on primordial soil, the
lands of these regions will recover their lost value ;
for the facts herein submitted tend to show how
closely fertility is allied to the production of manu-
factured manures, and this manufacture can be
carried on most profitably at those points where
supplies of foreign crude material can be obtained,
and where seaboard transportation can be made
available.
The decade between 1880 and 1890 is rendered
memorable to the chemical industry by the perma-
nent establishment of the manufacture of soda salts
in the United States. Previous to that time all at-
tempts to produce these articles successfully from
common salt had failed. The causes that led to re-
peated failure and the consequent loss of large sums
of money are to be found in the high cost of labor,
the absence of customs-duties on bleaching-powders
or chloride of lime, and the exceedingly low rates
of ocean freight that rule on this class of mer-
chandise.
The Solvay Process Company, of Syracuse, N. Y.,
has been founded on the experience and skill of the
now noted Solvay, of Belgium. But, however satis-
factory the process may be, it has a drawback that
affects the production of many articles in the United
States, — notably bleaching-powders, paper stock, and
certain chemicals, — inasmuch as all the chlorine of
the common salt employed is lost, passing away as
valueless chloride of calcium. Consequently the
United States remains dependent upon Great Britain
and Germany for its supply of so important an article
as bleaching-powder.
A question of the greatest interest centers in this
problem — how to overcome this defect in our manu-
facturing system. The efforts of inventors have for
many years been directed toward the solution.
THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
481
Theory has marked out a number of paths, but
practice has not yet succeeded in following any of
these to a satisfactory result. It may be remarked
that, in addition to bleaching-powders, the important
chemicals, alizarin, chlorate of potash, and chlorate
of soda, are not foimd among the salts produced in
this country, and that these articles, so essential to
the textile interests, are free from customs-duty.
The States of the Union often provide chemical
manufactures relatively to their natural products;
but the markets for chemicals are situated chiefly at
such attractive points as the great centers of textile
manufactiuing, of dyeing and bleaching works, and
of the oil-refineries and artificial-manure works;
hence, chemical works are to be foimd principally at
or near these points. It appears from the report for
the Eleventh Census on the dyeing and finishing of
textiles, considered as a distinct industry, prepared
by Mr. P. T. Wood, that chemicals and dyestuffs
to the value of $8,407,693 were consumed by the
248 establishments engaged in this industry, to which
must be added $1 1,278,970, the value of chemicals
and dyestuffs consumed during the census year by
textile manufactiu'ers who do their own dyeing and
finishing, making a total of $19,686,663 as the value
of this class of chemicals consumed in the textile
industry.
The leading articles of raw material and their
derivatives used in chemical manufactures, briefly
stated, are as follows:
RAW AND MANUFACTURED CHEMICALS.
Raw Matbhial.
firimsionc or salphor ;
pyrites containing sal-
pnur.
Nitrate of soda.
S«lt (common).
Pottth salts.
Nickdores.
^^JjTOoic-iron ores.
^^ony ores,
fittmnth ores.
^T^ttores.
CoUltorcs.
Iron ores,
lucres.
^^"nginese ores.
Mercury ore*.
Zbcorei,
Goli
Siher.
MANUrACTURBD ArTICLBS
OR Dbrivativbs.
Oil of vitriol, or salphoric add,
the most important of all
chemicals.
Nitric acid and all nitrates.
Soda ; muriatic add.
Bichromate of potash, pmssiate
of potash, and many other
combinations.
Salts of nickel, for plating.
Chromates of potash and soda.
Alloys ; medicinal salts.
Allo3rs ; medidnal salts.
Sulphate of copper, or blue vit-
riol.
Oxide of cobalt.
Sulphate of iron, or copperas.
White and red lead ; litharge.
Disinfectants ; chlorine.
Calomel; white and red pre-
dpitate; vermilion.
Oxide of zinc.
Chloride of gold.
Nitrate of silver.
Raw Matbkial.
Manufacturbd Articles
OR Dbrivativbs.
Innumerable vegetable
Dyeing extracts ; alkaloids ;
productions.
adds ; and pharmaceutical
preparations.
Linseed.
Paints.
Cotton-seed.
Soap ; oils used in cooking.
Cotton.
Guncotton.
Com and all cereals.
Glucose; alcohol; starch.
Wood.
Explosives; oxalic add; potash;
acetic acid ; paper.
Argol or tartar.
Tartaric add ; cream of tartar.
Borate of lime.
Borax.
Bar3rtes.
Paints.
Chalk.
Whiting.
Iodine.
Sublimed iodine ; all iodides.
Limestone.
Lime ; carbonic add.
Magnesia.
Carbonate and sulphate of mag-
nesia.
Ochres.
Paints.
Crude phosphates.
Phosphorus.
Fats.
Soap; glycerine.
Animal matter, such as
Prussiate of potash; artificial
horns, hoofs, and leather.
manures.
Oils.
Soap; perfumes.
Coal (bituminotis).
Ammonia; coal-tar colors; cya-
nide of potash.
Clays.
Alum.
Corundum.
Aluminium.
Cryolite.
Alum; soda.
Silica or sand.
Silicate of soda ; glass.
Tin.
Tin-salts, for dyeing purposes.
Atmospheric air.
Oxygen.
Water.
Gas; hydrogen; oxygen.
The innumerable variety of combinations made
of the raw materials named renders it impossible to
state them in any limited space. The variety of raw
materials, and of the numberless combinations thereof,
gives to the chemical industry a unique position. No
other branch of manufacture can approach it in
scope, in the necessity for its existence, or in the
knowledge required for its prosecution.
The merchandising in chemicals is of a complex
character, and is based chiefly on chemical tests,
both of the raw materials and of the manufactured
articles. The markets of all quarters of the globe
are scanned, and supplies, in many instances, are
carried in large quantities, owing to the remote
points of their production. The chemical industry
affords one of the largest sources for transportation
to railroad and water carriers, in raw materials as
well as in partly finished and wholly manufactured
stuffs. In many articles the competition of countries
enjoying low prices for labor is difficult to meet On
the other hand, through advantages not enjoyed by
foreign manufacturers, considerable exportation of
certain chemicals is going on at this time.
The industries or trades dependent upon the manu-
facture of chemicals may be enumerated as follows :
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
INDUSTRIES USING CHEMICAL PRODUCTS.
Woolen nuuiafacture. Tunning.
Oil-clotli
Explosives
Pyroxylin
Paiot
Soap "■..'""'■
Adifidal ice mnnufaclure.
Pharmsce atical "
Pyrotechnic
Eleclrical or gdvanic mar
faclur
Artificial manures. Prinling-inks manufacture.
Oil reliniDg. Paper tnanufaclure.
Bteadiisg- work < .
The plant of a chemical works involves the use
of a larger area of land than is necessary in other
manufactures, as the buildings adaptable to the
operations are usually only one story in height,
nearly all the work being done on the ground floor,
where large furnaces, grin ding-mills, and engines
can be placed. This is one reason that the capital
required for ihe conduct of these manufactures
seems disproportionate to the value of the products,
in comparison with other branches of industry.
In the eyes of one unversed in the art, a chemical
works may appear to be only a mass of rude furnaces,
old pots, and rough machinery ; yet the establish-
ment may contain appliances of the most costly de-
scription, such as underground flues ; furnaces of the
most modem construction ; iron castings fashioned
in innumerable forma and weights; copper vessels,
coils, and stills ; thousands of fire-bricks and other
forms of refractory material ; steam boilers of the
most economical pattern ; lofty chimneys ; powerful
engines ; expensive pumps ; mills of different kinds
for the grinding and powdering of a great variety of
materials ; leaden chambers for acid making, with
tanks, towers, and accessories of the same metal;
platinum apparatus and slilU for concentrating sul-
phuric acid; and chemical earthenware, vitrified to
resist the action of acids. Indeed, it may be stated
that a chemical works of any magnitude contains
and requires every manufacturing apphance used or
known, excepting those adapted especially to weav-
ing and printing.
Skill and scientific knowledge are needed in the
successful conduct of manufacturing chemistry at
this time to an extent unthought of by the men who
were good workers twenty years ago. The com-
petition of scientific Germany in many departments
of chemical manufacture has forced the progress of
an industry that was yet in its infancy two decades
ago. The laboratory, well equipped with careful
workers and good apparatus, has become the pulse
of the whole establishment. Each step in the pro-
cesses is indicated in the unerring results obtained
by the analyst and tester, while the huge and costly
machinery of the factory is the counterpart, to a
great extent, of the miniature equipment of the
laboratory. Chemical engineering is an important
factor in the adjustment of plant to the exigencies
of the difficult and tortuous operations. Some in-
stitutions of learning have recognized this fact by
adding to their curriculum a course of chemical
engineering. The advance in the manufacture of
chemicals in the United States during the past
twenty years has been marked, not by many changes
of processes, but essentially by the new appliances
furnished by engineering skill.
The processes used in making chemicals are al-
most as varied as are the articles produced, but cer-
tain leading steps are essential to all, as grinding,
furnacing, dissolving, separating, evaporation, filtra-
tion, and crystallization. The laws governing chem-
ical constitution are closely followed at each step,
and the processes improved and revised, from time
to time, by the aid of mechanical contrivances.
These changes are rendered more and more neces-
sary as the strong competition of the age sweeps
away old and unsuitable appliances.
Many chemical operations demand a long time
for the production of finished material. Crj-stalliza-
tion is of slow growth in many instances, and de-
composition takes place very gradually in others ;
therefore another reason presents itself for the
abnormal amount of capital required to carry on
this branch of industry. Both crystallization and
decomposition are hastened or retarded by many
physical conditions ; heat and cold, intense motion,
and absolute quietude are in their turn called to the
aid of the chemist. When we speak of crystalliza-
tion we should bear in mind the fact that by this
process the great purity of commercial chemical
salts is obtained— sometimes, it may be, by frequent
dissolvings and as many distinct crystallizations.
The chemical industry takes rank as the fourth
among the great manufacturing divisions of the
country, the three preceding it being (i) iron and
steel, (2) woolen goods, and (3) cotton. (It may be
well to explain that cattle kiUing, the making of
clothing, and of boots and shoes, and any other as-
sembling industries are not considered manufacture
proper.) The chemical industry represents a diver-
sity of interests such as center in no other depart-
ment, and it affords to the United States a source of
activity tor labor, skill, and capital that is highly en-
couraging to those who have pride in the progress
of their country.
CHAPTER LXIV
THE LEAD INDUSTRY
IEAD xras known, probably, to the earliest peo-
ples of the earth. Its use antedates written
^ history, and its abundant occurrence in nature,
taken in connection with the ease with which it is
reduced from its ores, leads archseologists to infer,
even when little mention and few traces are found,
ttiat the ancient nations were familiar with its prop-
odes. Egypt, when the pyramids were building
and the golden serpent of the Pharaohs still reprc-
lected living royalty, knew the plumber's meCa! and
raed it, either as an alloy for her wondrous bronze,
« in native fonn for small images and amulets.
TTie armies of Thotmes III. brought it back with
dinr spoils &om Mesopotamia, and made it into
ding bullets, the Egyptian slingers using it, as did
Hk Persiaos, and later the invincible legions of
Greece and Rome. Babylon used lead to render
nwiBture-proof the famous hanging gardens ; Troy,
n Hector fell, and Priam, saved by the most duti-
tnl of sons, became a wanderer, made images of
W; and the Phenician mariner, steering his bark
across the sea by the glittering constellation of the
IJtile Bear, not only carried it in his hold, consigned
to the great storehouses of Sidon and Tyre, but the
'm'Qow tubes of his anchors were weighted with it
uvelL
Greece and Rome knew lead as well as wc of to-
^- Conquered Britain yielded to the Roman not
o'llythe "imperial tenth," but her immense stores,
"^produced thousands of tons, and which Rome
^'^uned, in fee forceful, and took. Spain also
yidded the Romans thousands of tons, and the
"•'''« of the Urals were works of antiquity when
^^ was a chOd. Nearly every land on earth
^oondmore or less lead within its borders, and the
^'^% of this metal in a small way was almost uni-
™m1 it the time America loomed up before the
^oropean imagination as the world's El Dorado.
Naturally so base a metal as lead was not the
'^^ treasure of the adventurous minerB and
metallurgists who first struck their picks into Amer-
ican soil. Gold and silver they sought, and if for
many years they found Htlle, their search at least
developed many mines and regions, as perhaps the
too easy discovery of the yellow metal they coveted
might not have done.
The first American lead discovered, by white men
at least, was in 1621, in the vicinity of FaUing
Creek, near Jamestown, the original English settle-
ment in Virginia. Iron-smeldng works had been
erected by the London Company, and an expert
metallurgist named John Berkeley was put in charge.
Berkeley, in addition to his services rendered to the
company, did a little prospecting on his own account,
which developed the existence of a vein of galena
—the sulphide and commonest ore of lead. He
worked this secretly, and supplied his neighbors with
lead for bullets and other purposes; but cupidity
caused him to keep the location of the vein a secret,
so that when, a year or two later, he was killed by
Indians, his secret died with him, A few years
later a friendly Indian disclosed the location of the
old mine, and the lead deposits of Virginia have
been worked more or less ever since, although the
output has never been very great. Lead was also
early discovered in Connecticut and Massachusetts,
and by the middle of the last century valuable work-
ings were open in New York State. The lead-mines
of the East, however, have never been of such im-
portance as those of the great central and Western
regions of the Upper Mississippi and in Missouri,
which were early developed by the French. The
lead-fields of the Galena district, comprising portions
of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, which have been
among the most productive in the world, are believed
to have been first discovered and worked by an
Indian trader named Nicholas Perrot, who explored
from the Canadian settlements of the French as far
as the river Des Moines during the last of the seven-
teenth century. By 1690 the Indians living in the
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMKKCK
regions about Galena were smelting and selling lead
to the French tradere. The region contiguous to
the present city of Dubuque, which was one of the
richest lead districts in America, was also first worked
by a Frenchman, Julien Dubuque, who settled
among and made friends with the Sacs and Foxes
in 1774, just prior to the Revolution.
The Indians in 1788 granted to Dubuque the
mine he had discovered, known as Prairie du Chien,
and in 1796 the grant was confirmed by Baron de
Carondelet, the French govern or- general of the
tract called Louisiana, which included the present
States of Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana,
parts of the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Illinois, and all the broad lands to the westward.
Dubuque worked his' mines until his death, in 1809,
when the Indians, after burying him with tribal cer-
emonies in a massive leaden coffin on the great bluff
which bears his name, reclaimed them from Du-
buque's creditors, and held possession until their
removal from the district, in 1832, by the United
States government. Dubuque's heirs at once claimed
the property, but the government ejected them ; and
legal squabbles kept the status of the district in a
most uncertain condition until 1847.
The mine La Motte, upon the head waters of the
St. Frands River, a great lead property, was also dis- '
covered by a Frenchman, the famous adventurer and
explorer, M, de la Motte-Cadillac, who founded De-
troit. La Motte discovered the celebrated Golden
Vein sometime between 1715 and 1719; but authori-
ties differ as to the precise year, William H. Pulsifer,
in his " Standard Notes for a History of Lead," seem-
ing to incline to the former date. The lead-fields in
the vicinity of Potosi, Mo., were discovered about
1720 by Philippe Francois Renault, and in 1763
the extensive fields known as Mine i Burton were
discovered by Francis Burton, who in 1798 granted
about one third of his claim to Moses Austin. The
latter erected improved furnaces for smelting, sunk
the first shaft ever seen in a lead-im'ne in that dis-
trict, and began the manufacture of shot and sheet-
lead. Around this industry grew up the town of
Herculaneum.
The condition of the lead-mining interests of the
country in 1795, when the century of which this
paper properly treats began, was as oulhned above.
Minor workings in the Eastern States, while they
produced but a comparatively small output, were the
only really American interests.
France and Spain, with their respective territo-
ries of Louisiana and Florida, had jurisdiction over
nearly all the valuable mining lands of the lead
region ; and even in those districts where the United
States had acquired rights, the mining privileges
were usually in tlie hands of the FrencJi and Indians,
who recognized their value and were slow to part
with them. The Indians, in particular, made the
rich surface sheets of galena a source of continual
profit. Their methods of smelting were crude in
the extreme, consisting usually of a small hole dug
in the ground and lined with rocks. This was usu-
ally located on a side-hill, botli for the purpose of
getting a strong air-draft, and also in order that a
smaU tunnel connecting with the bottom of the
furnace -hole might be dug, through which the
molten lead could run off when the galena and fuel
were thrown in and fired. Rough pigs, run in a
scooped-out hollow of the earth itself, and weighing
about seventy-five pounds, were usually made by
the Indian squaws and taken to the trading-posts
for barter. This method of smelting was wasteful,
but with the practically unlimited supply it made
httle difference, and almost any man who foimd
either a pocket of the " float " mineral or a small
vein could mine and smelt it roughly himself. .As the
surface deposits became exliausted, and the miners
had to go deeper, while at the same time improved
and economical methods of reducing the ore became
necessar>-, more capital was required and the works
became more extensive.
There is probably no ore that reduces more readily
than galena, yet at the same time the volatility of
the molten lead permits great loss from careless
methods. The composition of the ore, which, as
before stated, is a sulphide, is about eighty per cent,
of lead, frequently carrying more or less silver, and
sometimes nickel, cobalt, or antimony, with about
seventeen per cent, of sulphur. Simple roasting
suffices for its reduction, the sulphur combining at a
low temperature with the oxygen of the air, and pass-
ing off. This is, in its simplest statement, the process
by which lead is extracted from tliis ore ; and either
open furnaces with strong draft, or reverberatory
furnaces, are used. Unfortunately a considerable
quantity of the lead passes off in fumes from the
furnace. In remedying this, some of tlie modem
smelting- works have found it profitable to build a
very long funnel-pipe, through which the fumes
from the furnace are passed before they reach the
air. During this passage they are cooled, and a very
appreciable quantity of lead in the form of powder
is deposited along the pipe.
Another and great discovery was not made in this
country until 1838, when cerusite, or the lead car-
bonate, was foimd by the American miners to be
THE LEAD INDUSTRY
435
reducible and a valuable ore. This ore, previously
thrown away by tlie miners, who called it "dry
bone," was found in large quantities, and its utiliza-
tion very greatly increased the annual output during
the decade following. Under this stimulus, and the
litigation over the more important lead regions hav-
ing been settled, the output of the mines in the
Galena district jumped from 664,530 pounds in 1825
to 54,494,856 pounds in 1845. The decade between
1840 and 1850 witnessed the high-water mark of the
lead interests in America up to the time that the
Western lead-fields were opened. The rich prop-
erties of the Mississippi and in Missouri yielded
plenteously, and in iheir eagerness the mine owners
allowed themselves to glut the market, with the in-
evitable result that prices fell and the entire lead
industry received a. set-back from which it was some
years in recovering. The Jasper County lead-fields,
which have built up the town of Joplin, Mo., were
also discovered during this decade, in 1848. Oper-
ations were carried on in a small way, but no general
attention was attracted to tliis district until a dozen
years later, when, in three years, 17,500 tons were
produced from these mines. Since then the annual
output has been as great as 1 7,765 tons, and in one
year (1884), the disastrous one for all lead interests,
as little as 3665 tons.
American lead-mines held but a poor third place
among the productive fields of the world, however,
until well into the seventies. England and Spain
each produced greater quantities of lead than the
United States in 1877 : but the development, about
this time, of the great Western deposits of argentif-
erous galena, which had been discovered in 1864,
changed all this. This rich region, neglected on
account of its inaccessibility to a market, suddenly
took on life and activity with the extension of the
railroads through the territory. In 1877 the Eureka
district was turning out nearly 20,000 tons of lead
annually ; the Utah lead-fields, worked by the
Mormons, were producing 15,000 tons annually so
early as 1873, and by 1877 the output had increased
10 17,000 tons for the year. Colorado was a year
later in showing respectable results for her workings,
but by 1883 the output of the mines of that State
amounted to tlie tremendous total of 70,557 tons.
This marvelous increase was largely due to the
cerusite deposits at Leadville, which were first
worked in 1878, and from which fully one half of
(he total lead production of the State was derived.
These Western lead ores were, almost without
exception, very rich in silver. While silver in small
quantities is found in all galena, and has been ex-
tracted even from the ores of the Mississippi and
Missouri lead regions in quantity ranging from six
to twenty ounces per ton, it was only in the Western
mines that the precious metal was found in quan-
tity sufficient to make the lead a by-product so far
as relative values were considered. So little was
thought of lead, in fact, that in the earlier days,
when transportation was more difficult and expen-
sive, the ore was cupeled at the mines, and only the
silver brought to market. For this reason the lead
output has been more or less dependent upon the
silver market, but this is beginning to change.
Lead itself has gained a place in the useful arts and
manufactures that cannot be ignored, and its supply
must be maintained. Owing to this tlie production
of the American mines has been developed to a
point far in excess of the figures of twenty years
ago. The year following Uie development of the
Western argentiferous deposits the United States
was producing as great a quantity as was England
in 1872, when she was the great lead miner of the
world. Less than ten years later the annual output
of the American mines had reached a figure greater
than the combined production of England, Spain,
and the United States in 1872, and the increase was
steadily maintained.
In the foreign commerce of the nation lead has,
within the past five years, come to play a far more
important part than it ever did before. In 1885
the imports of lead and its manufactiu^es were only
$486,436, and the exports $123,466. In 1S90 the
figures had only increased to $657,658 for the
imports and $182,412 for the exports ; but the very
next year saw a marvelous advance, which has con-
tinued ever since. The importation of silver-bear-
ing ores, containing much lead, has also become an
important matter, and until the silver repeal bill was
passed, and the " bull " days for that metal ceased,
Mexico had a great interest in that direction. The
figures for the past five years, excluding 1895, for
which full reports are not yet published, are as
follows :
VALUE OF LEAD IMPORTS, i
890 TO 1894.
VUL
LiAD, Ann Manu-
FACnias or.
ILVU-^^UNO
1---^^^
3:^S3.'378
ii!ioo;747
6,679.171
1894
The exports during the same period show only
a comparatively slight gain, having ranged from
$182,412 in 1891 to $638,636 in 1894.
i
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
During the sixty-five years between 1825 and
1890 the production of the lead-mines of this coun-
try amounted to the almost incredible total of
5,314,794,000 pounds, or, expressed in the briefer
figures of commerce, to 1,662,397 tons. The pro-
duct, as summarized for the same period by the
demi-decades, will give, if ihe previous explanation
of causes is borne in mind, the best illustration of
conditions, rise, and progress in the lead industry
that can be drawn. Up to 1873 lead was almost
entirely obtained from the no n -argentiferous ores of
the Missouri and Mississippi regions; but after 1875
the table specifies the relative quantities from the
two grades of ore. The figures given are in the
standard short ton :
PRODUCTION OF LEAD. 1815 i
,894.
iSas ..
1830..
rt35.
1845 ■■
1850 . .
;ig::
iMj.,
[870..
59.640
97.825
119,413
161.754
2.3.262
•59.33'
15.600
14.700
17^30
24.731
21)975
31.35'
37)6^
34.909
70.13s
107437
130.403
i8<.;84
121,64s
In the production of the 161,754 tons of metallic
lead in 1890 the smelting and refining works em-
ployed 6131 men, to whom was paid in wages for
the year $4,228,634.15, This sum, together with
$5,154,682,04 paid out for supplies and materials,
and other charges incidental to the carrying on of
the business, brought the total expenditures for the
year to $11,457,367.25.
Between lead crude, and cast or hammered into
some required form, and lead manufactured, chemi-
cally changed, and metamorphosed, there is a great
break in rime. The chief of all the products of lead
manufacture is, of course, the carbonate, which was
the psmithium of the Greeks, the cernsa of the
Romans, and is the white lead of to-day. As a
pigment and base for colors it finds its chiefest use,
its well-known body and opacity and ready assimi-
lation with linseed-oil, which is the best of all vehicles
for coloring-matters, making it tlie best substance
roan has yet discovered for this purpose. Other
important lead products are litharge, the yellow
substances h;
recent date.
protoxide ; minium or red lead, which is a combina-
tion of the protoxide with a peroxide ; orange mine
or orange mineral, made by heating white lead ; and
lead acetate or sugar of lead. There are several
other forms in which lead combines, but the sub-
stances already given are those of most importance
in the arts.
In point of antiquity the oxides seem to have
been longer used than the white lead, no traces of
which are found in the wall-paints of the Egyptians,
Hindus, or other ancient peoples ; whereas the
oxides are found to have been used both for the
glazing of pottery and in colors. ^Vhite lead was
first brought into extended use by the Romans ; and
Rhodes, the manufacturing center of antiquity, was
the place from which the finest was obtained. Ro-
man women used the ceruse as a cosmetic— a use it
also found among the Athenian belles ; and minium
was used as rouge. In these peculiar uses, despite
the well-known injurious qualities of lead, the same
2 remained up to a comparatively
rVhite lead was also used by the
Romans as a body for their paints, and both it and
its manufacture are described by such ancient writ-
ers as Theophrastus, about 300 b.c. ; Vitruvius, who
wrote about two hundred years later ; and Pliny and
Dioscorides, who filled respectively the records of
the two succeeding centuries. These writers all
agree in stating that white lead was produced by
placing sheets of lead in pots with vinegar or wine
lees, and allowing them to stand. This fails to
accoimt for the presence of the carbon dioxide
necessary to the reaction which converts the lead
acetate to the carbonate ; but it is certain that this
substance was present, for the product was unques-
tionably white lead. During the dark ages, and up
so far as the sixteenth century, there was but little
use for white lead. About the latter date its manu-
facture was begun in Holland by what is now known
as the " Dutch process." This process, however,
can scarcely have been original with the Dutch,
since Theophilus, a monk who wrote about the tenth
century, describes it very exactly, and the Saracens,
Italians, and Spaniards are all said to have used it
With the addition of stable litter banked around the
jars, in which small bits of marble are also placed,
the Dutch process differs in no way from that de-
scribed by Pliny, who says: "The lead is thrown
into jars filled with vinegar, which are kept closed
for ten days ; the sort of mold which forms upon
the surface is then scraped off. and the lead is again
put into the vinegar until the whole of the metal is
consumed."
J
- " r< ^
THE LEAD INDUSTRY
437
The Dutch process, whether it dates from Amster-
dam or Rhodes, has ever since, however, been the
one which, in its elemental principles, but with
improvements and technical modifications from time
to time, has proved the best and most profitable.
Holland became skilled in this manufacture, and
England had already established it firmly upon her
own tight little island at the time when the century
under discussion opened. America, on the other
hand, had not one establishment for the manufacture
of white lead. What white lead was used during
the eighteenth century came from England ; but the
primitive habits of the community in those early
days caused paint to be regarded not only as a
luxury, but, furthermore, as a useless one, since tim-
ber was far too plentiful and cheap to require pres-
ervation at the expense of paint. Neither inside
nor out were the buildings of the early colonial
townspeople painted, and the log cabins of the
settlers needed little such adornment. After the
Revolution, however, more luxurious customs and
greater pretensions were indulged in by the citizens
of the new Republic, and the use of paint became
general in the cities. For the body of this paint all
the wb'te lead had to be imported from England.
The English product at this time was most imblush-
^ttgly and heavily adulterated, and prices were more
than high. So great did the demand become, and
^ profitable the business to the English manufac-
turers, that when the manufacture of white lead was
Pi'oposed and conmienced in the United States, the
niost desperate attempt, resorting to means beyond
^^^m the lawful limits, was made to ruin the new
^^Xierican industry. Had it not been for the War
^^ ]8i2 and the consequent shutting out or British
?^>ci(is, it is highly probable that the white-lead in-
^^^istry would have been delayed for many years in
^^^^ hemisphere.
*The original manufacturer of white lead in the
^«>ited States was Samuel Wetherill, of Philadelphia,
^Ixo was also one of the earliest woolen, cotton, and
K^^xaeral chemical manufacturers. This enterprising
^^ntleman, who was one of the most prominent
"^^onbers of the Pennsylvania Society for the
Eiricouragement of Manufactures and the Useful
^^*^ which was established in 1787, began the
^*^^Jiufacture of white lead early in the present cen-
^^^^. Concerning the exact year authorities differ,
""^^some so widely as to place it in 1789,— but Mr.
^^^^Isifer, to whose " Notes for a History of Lead "
•^ lave before referred, takes the authority of a
descendant of Mr, Wetherill, and dates the first lead
^^^annfactory in the United States from 1804.
Shortly after the factory was.* opened a young Eng-
lishman applied for work. A'nigbf or.tyj9 ^^'^r ^^e
factory was destroyed by fire, and Qie-^Jb'ifpIg ^ng-
lishman left that very morning for England. - jSLQgsftr.. „
always connected the two events. About 1809 At >
factory was rebuilt, and then began the bitterest
struggle any two great conunercial interests here and
in England ever waged. British lead was put on
the market at a price that was absolutely impossible
for the American maker to quote. The War of
181 2 saved Wetherill from ruin, and imder the im-
petus thus given the industry grew rapidly for a few
years, its growth being still further aided by the
development of the recently acquired lead regions
that Louisiana, as purchased from the French, in-
cluded. By the census of 18 10, Wetherill's factory,
which was the only one in the country, was credited
with an annual product of 369 tons. Red lead was
also produced in small quantities, but the imports of
these two products exceeded the domestic produc-
tion as two and one half to one. In Philadelphia,
where the industry began, the second factory in the
country was started by John Harrison, at the Ken-
sington Works, about 1810. In the latter year the
manufacture of white lead was begun at Pittsburg
by Adam Bielin and J. J. Stevenson. A second
factory in the same town was started, but proved
unsuccessful after a year or two. Meantime an
Englishman named Smith appeared in Philadelphia
as a manufacturer of white lead, and all five of these
firms were struggling against the English manufac-
turer when the War of 181 2 came to their relief.
All of these early manufacturers employed, so far
as can be learned, the Dutch process, as previ-
ously described. Certain patents for improvements
upon it were taken ; but the bmning of the Patent
OflSce has destroyed all record of them, except that
Samuel Wetherill devised and secured a new and
better method "for setting the beds or stacks."
Stable litter as the source of the required heat was
in universal use. Various new and speedier methods
for the manufacture of white lead than those pro-
vided by the Dutch process were invented, and in
1814, Welch & Evans, of Philadelphia, patented
one by which granulated lead, placed in revolving
lead-lined barrels partly filled with water, was
groimd by attrition, oxidized by the air, and carbon-
ized by the addition of burning charcoal. A factory
for the manuf actiu*e of lead by this process was built
soon after by a Mr. Richards, who had succeeded
the Englishman Smith. The venture, like all sim-
ilar ones, proved unprofitable.
The price of white lead before the War of 181 2
i
_.aNE l^UTNtJRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
was from ten tO^tw^tV debts per pound. American
manufacturers mpinly used the imported pig-lead,
and_tlre."i^^iijieSilc supply was small. When the im-
■ .^rtaticfli of the foreign pig-lead was suspended by
: fiiS war, the price of the native metal took a great
Jump. The Western lead-fields, however, were
either undeveloped or, as in the case of the rich
Galena district, stiil in the hands of the Indiana ; and
a great scarcity of the metal resulted, which caused
the price of white lead to advance to thirty cents a
pound. The profit inevitably suggested by these
figiu'es, together with the general resiunption of
business that came after peace was declared, gave
a fresh impetus to the white-lead industry. During
the next twenty years many new works were estab-
lished, and older ones extended. By 1830 there
were twelve establishments in the country, of which
eight were east of the AUeghanies. These factories
were not turning out over 3000 Ions annually, and
as the price of white lead, following a temporary
glut of the pig-lead market, had dechned to nine
cents per poimd, the total value of the year's output
was but a little over $500,000.
One of the great advances made in the manufac-
ture of white lead in this country came about two
years after this, when Augustus Graham, a promi-
nent New York manufacturer of white lead, discov-
ered, by obtaining employment as a common work-
man in one of the great English factories, the secret
of the use of spent tan-bark instead of stable litter
as a means of obtaining heat and carbonization.
This knowledge worked a considerable change in
white-lead manufacture, and by 1840 the annual
product had increased about sixty-six and two thirds
per cent, in the whole country. Prices, however,
had advanced but little, white lead being quoted at
only a cent a pound more than in 1830. The sud-
den bursting forth into prosperity and productivity
of the mines in the Galena and Missoiu"! lead
regions, which occurred during the fifth decade, had
an immediate effect upon the white-lead industry.
The supply was unlimited, but the question of trans-
portation was a serious one. Waterways were, of
necessity, considered the only freight routes avail-
able, and Europe was far nearer to the Eastern
cities than those towns situated to the westward of
the great bar of the AUeghanies. From the Mis-
souri lead-fields, and the Galena region as well, the
pig-metal was boated down to New Orleans, and
there transhipped by vessel to New York. Not
only was it a long journey, but it was a costly one
as well ; and in some sections, not readily within the
distributive field of New York or the large coast
dties, other means were adopted. At Buffalo,
especially, I recall the method of transportation by
which the Galena district pigs were landed at the
factories of the corroders. The manufacturer had
to keep an agent at the mines, and buy daily, as
auctioned off, the product of the day's smelting.
When an agent had thus purchased a sufficient
quantity he secured a caravan of prairie-schooners
drawn by oxen, and started it across the open prairie
to the nearest settlement and lake port, Milwaukee,
where the lead was shipped in sailing vessels and
taken to Buffalo.
The ten years preceding and those during which
the Civil War was raging marked no important ad-
vance in the lead industry. The introduction of the
manufactured zinc oxide as a substitute for white
lead, together with the advance in the price of
metallic lead under the strong influence of the war-
time demand, checked the use of the manufactured
product until the return of better times at the con-
clusion of the war. Furthermore, adulteration,
which had long been regarded as permissible by
while-lead makers, came to the condemnation it
deserved, and the purer product developed by iliis
sentiment had its immediate effect in raising the
manufactured lead in the public estimation. It was
about this time, also, that " sublimed lead " came to
be introduced for use as a substitute for white lead.
The discovery resulted from certain unsuccessful
experiments made by two gentlemen named Lewis
and Bartlett, in the direction of an improved and
speedier process for manufacturing white lead. It
is a singular fact that the manufacture of white lead
is one of the few of the useful arts in which modem
science has so far been able to make little appreci-
able advance. The monkish presbyter Theophilus,
in the ninth century, knew, as did the Rhodians
before him, and the Dutch nearly seven hundred
years after him, the basic principles of the manufac-
ture of white lead ; and if the empirical knowledge
of that early day has been replaced by formulated
knowledge, it still has accomphshed but little to
recompense its added learning. Englishmen, French-
men, Germans, and all other nationalities have ex-
perimented with the subject abroad, and Americans
have invented and patented at home, but all to no
purpose. The original Dutch method, with certain
improvements in detail and manipulation, seems
destined to survive this century, as it has the many
The white-lead production of the United States,
as followed by decades from 1810, while it can only
be given for much of the time in approximate
THE LEAD INDUSTRY
amounts, is still sufficienily exact to show the steady
growth which has brought it to prosperity and prom-
inence in the industrial affairs of 'the nation. As
accurately as can be obtained, the figures are :
WHITE-LEAD PRODUCTION. 1810 to 1890.
y-An.
ro..
YllAI..
Tons,
369
3.000
9,000
i860
15,000
50,000
Isfe::::"::::
iSq;:::::;:::
1^:::; .:,.:
■890
75,000
The lead oxides, of which a considerable quantity
is annually produced in the United States, were, like
white lead, first manufactured in the western hemi-
sphere at Philadelphia, where, before the War of
1811, there were at least three establishments.
Their manufacture has changed little during the last
one hundred and fifty or two hundred years, during
which time they have been recognized products of
the English factories, and have also been made in
Holland, and to some extent in France, In making
red lead, which is, perhaps, the most important of
the oxides, the method is simply to heat litharge in
ft reverberatory furnace, which immediately changes
it from yellow 10 red. In this country this method
b the one commonly employed, although some
works substitute a botde-shaped iron cylinder for
the reverberatory furnace. Red lead and litharge
ire usually manufactured at the white-lead works,
ind there are but few separate establishments for the
exclusive manufacture of the lead oxides. Orange
mine or orange mineral, a form of lead oxide pro-
duced by heating white lead, is another of the use-
ful products of the metal ; and the valuable astrin-
gent known in medicine as sugar of lead, and
chemically as acetate of lead, being obtained by the
simple treatment of lead with acetic acid, and with-
out the presence of carbon dioxide, is still another
product well known to the commerce of to-day.
The personnel of the white-lead industry since its
establishment in 1804 has been an interesting one,
and has included many men of the rarest business
abilities and most unswen'ing integrity. For a com-
prehensive summary of it up to within ten years
I acknowledge my indebtedness to the author of
" Notes for a History of Lead." According to this
authority there were, outside of those firms already
mentioned, only two established during the second
decade — the Cincinnati Manufacturing Company in
1815. and Barney McLennon's works, in the same
city, in 1820. Dr. Vanderberg, of Albany, was ex-
perimenting with its manufacture by improved pro-
cesses in New York in iSzo; and ten years later,
having come back from experiment to the old-time
Dutch process, he, together with David Leavitt and
John and Augustus Graham, under the title of the
Brooklyn Wliite-Lead Works, were operating suc-
cessfully. This company was incorporated in June,
1825. Another Brooklyn firro of early establish-
ment was the Union White-l.ead Company, started
by the Messrs. Cornell about 1827. The Salem
Lead Company in 1824, and Francis Peabody in
1826, established the white-lead industry in Salem,
and Robert McCandless and Richard Conkling
established works in Cincinnati during this same
decade. In 1830 there were about a dozen white-
lead factories in the United States, and eight of
these were east of the AUeghanies, including, besides
those just mentioned, Lewis & Company, Wetherill
& Sons, Harrison & Brothers, of Philadelphia, and
Hinton & Moore, of New York, who also handled
large quantities of the imported article. During the
next decade there were started the Boston Lead
Company, in 1831 ; Great Falls Manufactiuing
Company, in 1832; Jewett, Sons & Company, at
Saugerties, in 1838; Gregg & Hagner, at Pittsburg,
in 1S37; and Reed & Hoffman, at St, Louis, in
1837. This latter establishment, taken shortly after-
ward by Henry T. Blow, became in later years the
Collier White- Lead and Oil Company.
From 1840 to 1850 was a period of the most
rapid growth for the white-lead industry. Among
the larger works established during this decade
were: the Atlantic White-Lead Company, of New
York, founded by Mr. Robert Colgate ; John Jewett
& Sons' Staten Island works ; the Great Falls Manu-
facturing Company, changed by Batelle & Renwick
to the Ulster White-Lead Company ; Suffolk Lead-
Works and Norfolk Lead Company, of Boston ; the
Forest River Lead Company, of Salem, successors
to Francis Peabody ; Thompson & Company, of
Buffalo; B. A. Fahnestock & Company, of Pitts-
burg ; Eagle White-Lead \Vorks, at Cincinnati ; and
William Glasgow, Jr.'s, works, at St. Louis.
The succeeding decade saw less increase than the
one preceding. William Wood and T. J. McCoy
look the Eagle Works, of Cincinnati; the Niagara
White- Lead Company started at Buffalo, and Wilson
Waters & Company at Louisville. This was but a
lull, however, that was to give place to renewed
activity. From i860 to 1870 there were founded,
among others, such great establishments as the St.
Louis Lead and Oil Company, which succeeded the
440
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
O'Fallon White-Lead and Oil Company in 1865 ; the
Southern White-Lead Company, established by
Piatt & Thomburg in the same year; Goshom
Brothers, who secured the McCandless establishment
in Cincinnati, and afterward organized it as the
Anchor White- Lead Company; the Eagle White-
Lead Company, also of Cincinnati; the Shipman
White-Lead Company, organized at Chicago by
D. B. Shipman ; J. H. Morley's works, at Cleveland ;
Haslett, Leonard & Company, who succeeded
Waters in Louisville; Lewis & Schoonmaker, of
Louisville, who later sold out to T. J. McCoy and
the American White-Lead Company; the Western
White-Lead Company, in Philadelphia ; the Cornell
Lead Company, which succeeded the Niagara
Company, at Buffalo ; foiu* branch establishments
of Fahnestock & Company, at Pittsbiu*g; Hall,
Bradley & Company, of New York and Brooklyn ;
the Salem Lead Company, a new company organ-
ized by Mr. Francis Brown at Salem; and the
Maryland White-Lead Company, which was estab-
lished in Baltimore in 1867. In Cincinnati Fred-
erick Eckstein became interested in the business of
Townsend Hills.
Since this period there have been comparatively
few large establishments founded. Even so early
as 1870 the tendency toward consolidation rather
than individual extension was already noticeable,
and the two largest of the plants founded during the
succeeding decade were both absorbed by the older
companies.
The manufacture of white lead in former years
had been very profitable, which had induced the
building of an unnecessarily large number of facto-
ries in difiEerent sections of the coimtry, which in turn
brought on severe competition, and many of the
factories became unprofitable. In order to lessen
this competition various devices of association were
successively tried, and failed, until at last, in 1887,
a number of factories came together in an associa-
tion practically similar to the then existing Standard
Oil Trust. The association, however, was unsuc-
cessful, and in 1889 my friends H. H. Rogers and
the late Charles M. Pratt, both of whom had had
large experience in the lead and paint business,
knowing that I was about to retire from my associa-
tion with the Standard Oil Company, called my
attention to the fact that the National Lead Trust
were desirous of my becoming interested with them.
At that time the suggestions were declined, because
of the totally inadequate capital of the existing
concerns, the extreme and foolish capitalization,
and the disorganized condition of the management.
Subsequently arrangements were made by which
other great factories of the coimtry, consisting of the
John T. Lewis & Brothers Company, Philadelphia ;
the Salem Company, of Boston; the Atlantic
Company, of Brooklyn ; the Collier and Southern
Companies, of St. Louis, including the Southern
Company, of Chicago, and the Maryland Company,
of Baltimore, were acquired. These properties
came in, necessarily, on the same basis of capitali-
zation as in the preceding organization. The writer
then became president, and shortly thereafter
acquired the important works of Armstrong, Mc-
Kelvy & Company and the Davis-Chambers Com-
pany, at Pittsburg ; and by the end of that year the
then National Lead Trust manufactured about
eighty per cent, of the coimtry 's production of white
lead, seventy per cent, of red lead, fifteen per cent
of linseed-oil, ten per cent, of sheet-lead, nine per
cent, of lead pipe, and sixty per cent, of lead ace-
tate, together with sundry other of the important
manufactures of lead. These, together with the
large smelting and refining plant at St Louis,
smelters at Socorro, N. Mex., and Leadville, Colo.,
and sampling-works in different parts of Mexico,
were included in the great organization with which
the lead industry of this country entered upon the
last decade of the century.
The real work of consolidation, sifting out, and
practical organization may be said to have then
fairly commenced. Many small factories operating
in a desultory way, with frequent stoppages, were
closed for good ; works in favorable localities, and
capable of producing the best results in any one
direction, were devoted to this branch, enlarged and
improved, and the best class of employees selected
and taken to the more important works. New
machinery and more healthful appliances were at
once put into use. Schools for mutual education
among the more important manufacturers were
organized, and the expert knowledge of each placed
at the service of all.
Efforts to reduce the unwieldy capitalization cul-
minated successfully in 1891, when the Lead Trust
was dissolved, and a new company, organized imder
the laws of the State of New Jersey, with a capital
of $15,000,000 preferred and $15,000,000 common
stock, took its place. Before the organization of
the National Lead Company all the floating debt of
the various corporations included in it had been
paid oflf, and soon after its organization the large
mortgages which had existed upon some of the
works were liquidated, and the National Lead
Company enjoys the unique position of never hav-
THE LEAD INDUSTRY
ing boiTowed a dollar. Economics have been intro-
duced in eveiy department, and the character of all
[Danufactured products marvelously improved, and
at the same time placed upon the market at prices
lower than ever before known, and the fact demon-
strated that honest management in a combination
of interests is of greater advantage to the share-
bolder for profit, and to the pubhc for cheapness,
ihan an unintelligent system of piratical competition.
With practically the same methods as those em-
ployed by the ancients, the industry has risen,
through the sheer executive intelligence of the
present age, until it has assumed the proportions
seen to-day. Less than a century old, the lead
industry in America ranks with that of any nation
in the world; and from our boundless mineral
resources will probably some day be drawn the
greater part of the world's supply.
CHAPTER LXV
THE SALT INDUSTRY
4
THE early history of salt making in this coun-
try is veiled in much obscurity. The prin-
cipal centers of population on the Eastern
coast were in great measure supplied with the arti-
cle imported from England, the price of which was
exorbitantly high, and during times of disturbance
with the mother country was almost unattainable,
In the early part of the eighteenth century small
saline plants were established along the Atlantic
coast from Massachusetts to Virginia, and salt was
made directly from the water of the sea, either by
direct open-air evaporation in broad vats, or in
smaller kettles with the aid of artificial heaL For-
tunately fuel was plentiful and cheap, and, as the
process was simple in the extreme, special experience
and skill were not requisite. Almost every family,
therefore, on the seaboard was its own salt maker,
just as, within the writer's recollection, people resid-
ing at a little distance inland were their own soap
makers and candle makers.
\VhiIe those living on tlie coast could always ob-
tain sufficient salt without difficulty, the settler ad-
vancing westward could not carry with him a very
abundant supply, owing to his lack of capital and of
means of transportation. As he penetrated the wil-
derness, however, he came in contact with the In-
dian and the beast of the forest, to whom salt was
just as necessary as to civilized man. From them
he soon learned the sources of iheir supply, and,
locating at one of the "licks" or brine springs, set
up his kettle, poured in his brine, and lighted his fire.
In a short time he could thus prepare a supply of
salt sufficient for his needs during several months.
These brine springs were found at various localities
in neariy all of the Middle and Western States in-
vaded by the early settler, but none of them was as
rich in saline constituents or as ample in supply as
those which were found in the country of the Onon-
Upon the coast, salt making, by both solar and
artificial heat, was extensively pracdsed until after
the War of iSia. The restrictions on our com-
merce being then greatly rehcved, salt from foreign
countries was more freely imported; and this, to-
gether with increasing supplies from the Onondaga
district, led to tlie reduction in price to fifty cents per
bushel, and even less. It was then found cheaper
to buy the salt from merchants than to continue its
manufacture in the primitive manner at the coastwise
stations. These, then, were gradually abandoned,
and the Eastern and Middle States obtained their
supply almost exclusively from the two sources
above mentioned. This could hardly be otherwise
when we consider that the water of the ocean con-
tains only about two and one half per cent, of sail, as
against the brines of the Onondaga salines, which
held in solution from fifteen to seventeen per cent,
of the precious substance. With salt selling, at the
present time, for six or seven cents a bushel, the use
of the word " precious " in such connection may
seem extravagant ; and yet salt, absolutely essential
as it is to human life, has been in former times and
among certain peoples the general unit of value, and
has even, further, served the purposes of a circulat-
ing medium.
The American salt industry proper dates back to
just beyond the last decade of the last century, when
the State of New York, with enlightened foresight,
purchased in 1 788 from the Indians the Onondaga
salines, embracing an area of about 15,000 acres.
In the winter of 1 789 and 1 790 Nathaniel Loomis
made 600 bushels of salt on the State reservation.
Others followed, and in 1797 the State deemed this
infant industry of sufficient importance to put in
force laws and regulations regarding the control and
management of salt making in this field, a Superin-
tendent being appointed to see that they were prop-
erly carried out. During the first year the product
THE SALT INDUSTRY
443
of this field amounted to about 25,000 bushels, equal
to 700 tons, of 2000 pounds each, of what is now
graded as common fine salt.
The general arrangement made by the State with
salt makers was to lease them the groimd, on which
the lessees erected the necessary structures. The
State then pumped the brine and delivered it to the
boilers, who paid a royalty of one cent for every
bushel of salt obtained from the brine. Even with
the early methods of salt making then in vogue
(chiefly boiling in kettles) the manufacture was very
profitable, and many were induced, on this account,
to undertake it. This led to the rapid development
of the field, and a corresponding increase in the
output, which as early as 1820 amounted to about
13,000 tons. At about this time it is stated that the
manufacture of solar salt was commenced on the
State lands ; but I fail to find any estimate of the
quantity produced until 1841, in which year 6000
tODS of solar and about 87,000 tons of the other
grades were accoimted for to the State. The pro-
duction of salt steadily increased until 1862, when it
amounted to about 56,000 tons of solar and 200,000
tODs of other grades. From this time there was a
gradual diminution in the product of fine salt, which
altered the proportions theretofore existing, until in
18S0 84,000 tons of solar and about 155,000 tons
of odier grades were being made. Since 1 880 there
has been a further falling off in the output, and the
oflfidal figures for 1894 indicate a production of
about 66,000 tons of solar and less than 25,000 tons
of other grades. The seemingly immense output of
the Onondaga or Syracuse district would doubtless
have become still greater had it not been for the
devebpment of a field in Michigan, which soon sur-
puied its older rival in the amount of its output, and
JWtcrially restricted the territory in which the latter
could compete to advantage. The second impor-
^t blow given to the Onondaga industry was the
devebpment of the western New York salt-field, in
Wyoming, Genesee, and Livingston counties, em-
l^^^cing what is known as the Warsaw and Genesee
^Jittricts, the latter being in Livingston County and
Bering on the Genesee River. In these districts
salt of various grades is made by evaporating the
'^c with artificial beat, the amount of solar salt
^^ insignificant As an offset to this, four large
**^ have been sunk, three in Livingston and one
^ Genesee County, from which immense quantities
of salt have been brought to the surface in lumps
* blocks, some of which are reduced by grinding
^ smaller sizes. The output of this field increased
^*^ 16,000 tons in 1885 to 324,800 tons in 1893.
The evaporating-works in western New York pos-
sessed a great advantage over those near Syracuse,
as they were able to obtain brine holding from
twenty-three to twenty-five per cent, of salt, which
in practice meant that two tons of fuel would pro-
duce as much salt there as three tons would at Syra-
cuse. As a partial offset to this, Syracuse, by its
location on the Erie Canal, was enabled to trans-
port its product to the seaboard more cheaply than
its rivals. Despite this slight advantage in freight
rates the fine salt industry at Syracuse has been
obliged to yield the field to competitors in other
places, and with no present prospect of revival in
this branch of its trade.
The Michigan salt-fields, which were the second
of any importance to be developed, possessed the
very great advantage of cheap fuel, using, in most
cases, sawdust, chips, slabs, and other refuse from
the liunber-mills. The first salt made in Michigan
on a commercial basis was in i860, and during the
last half of that year 560 tons were made. This was
increased in 186 1 to nearly 18,000 tons, and the out-
put gradually augmented, until the maximimi point
(about 550,000 tons) was reached in 1887. Since
then there has been a somewhat lessened product.
Besides the Michigan fields there were other impor-
tant regions discovered in the West. The Kansas
field was opened with a product of about 22,000 tons
in 1888, increasing to 178,000 tons in 1893. In
California the product, which was almost wholly solar
salt, increased from 30,000 tons in 1886 to 41,000
tons in 1893. During the last two years, however,
finer grades of salt have been manufactured in that
State. In Ohio there are several salt plants, the
principal one of which, at Cleveland, enjoys excep-
tional facilities in the way of cheap water transpor-
tation for its product. The output of the State for
1893 amounted to about 70,000 tons. In Utah the
production of salt increased from about 15,000 tons
in 1883 to nearly 200,000 tons in 1892, dropping
back in the following year to about the output of
1883. This was due to the shutting down of the
silver-mines, which had drawn their supply of salt
from this district.
The development of the salt industry in Louisiana
reads ahnost like a romance. About eighty years
ago, a Mr. Marsh, desiring to obtain a well of fresh
water on an island of his, known as the Petite Anse,
after digging a few feet, found instead a well of brine.
By evaporating this he obtained considerable salt,
and upon exploring his possessions farther he discov-
ered a bed of rock-salt about fifteen feet beneath the
surface. This salt was mined in the usual way, and
i
444
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
as' the surface of the rock was further exposed, vari-
ous aboriginal relics, such as stone axes and other
implements, were brought to light, showing that the
same mines had been worked hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of years before. The Louisiana salt
deposit has never been an important factor in the
American trade, except during the War of the Re-
bellion, when the Confederate States, shut off from
purchases in the Northern market, drew largely on
these mines, running the price up to $30 and even
$90 a ton. At the present day it probably does not
command over $2. During the past ten years the
annual output of the Petite Anse mine has varied
from 25,000 to 50,000 tons. In addition to those
above mentioned there are a few other localities in
which salt has been manufactured on a commercial
scale, but the output is too limited to demand sepa-
rate mention. The United States reports give the
total production of salt for the year 1893 as 1 1,8 16,-
772 barrels, equivalent to 1,654,040 tons; but in
my judgment New York is credited with 1,000,000
barrels more than the facts will warrant.
Salt is obtained in this country in several different
forms and ways. From the mines it comes in blocks,
and from strong brines it is obtained by evapora-
tion or boiling by solar or artificial heat. Boiling is
conducted under four distinct systems: (i) in long
wooden troughs containing steam-pipes (these are
called grainers, and the system is distinctively Ameri-
can) ; (2) in large open pans of iron or steel, with
direct heat beneath them ; (3) in large vacuum pans
in which the brine is boiled at a comparatively low
pressure ; (4) heating in closed tubes, at a tempera-
ture much higher than that at which brine boils under
ordinary atmospheric pressure. As the writer is a
manufacturer using two of the above-named systems,
he deems it improper in this place to comment on or
discuss the merits of the methods adopted by others.
Boiling in kettles was at one time an important fea-
ture of the Syracuse field, but has never been gen-
erally adopted elsewhere.
The grades of salt prepared for market in the
United States comprise rock, solar, common fine,
and common coarse, which are not artificially dried
after manufacture ; and so-called " dairy" salt, which
is dried and either sifted or ground. The term
"dairy" salt is generally used in too comprehen-
sive and loose a sense, and is made to include salt
prepared for table use rather than for the dairy. A
strict dairy salt specially prepared for the use of but-
ter and cheese makers is the most expensive grade
manufactured, selling for a little over half a cent a
potmd at the works, and costing the consumer about
one cent a pound, including package, at most points
east of the Mississippi River. For table use this
price seems too high, for neither merchant nor con-
sumer will pay it. The greater part of the table salt
used in this country is sold by the manufacturers on
a basis of about $3 a ton. At $5 a ton there are
comparatively few buyers, and at $10 a ton (half a
cent a pound) there are none. (These are car-load
lots, free on board, and exclusive of the cost of bar-
rels, sacks, or other packages.) This is especially true
of large cities like New York and Chicago, while in
smaller cities and country towns the merchants are
more generally willing to pay higher prices, thereby
securing better qualities of the article. For a strict
dairy salt there is but little market in New York City,
this point not being a distributing center for this
grade. Chicago, however, takes large quantities of
the best qualities. From that city it is distributed to
the large creameries and cheese factories of the West.
The uses of salt are manifold. Many, perhaps,
look on it simply as a condiment, or as a preserva-
tive of food, butter, cheese, beef, pork, and so on.
Its other uses, however, are extensive and important
Hide salting, bottoming of ships (to prevent decay
of the wood), acid making (muriatic), and salt-cake
(used in the manufacture of glass), soda-ash, bleach-
ing mixtures, soap making, and silver smelting, all
make their demands on the salt deposits of the
country. The farmer also feeds it to his stock and
spreads it on his land.
The salt industry of the United States has had its
ups and downs, and history repeats itself wherever a
new location is selected for its development In the
Onondaga region salt making was for many years
highly remunerative, attracting capital so freely that
in course of time upward of 100 firms or corpora-
tions made this the seat of their operations. The
inevitable result of this was a general fall in prices,
the profit on each bushel of salt becoming smaller
and smaller. To meet this each operator increased
his output to the limit of his resources, thus aggra-
vating the difficulty, until finally it became a ques-
tion of the survival of the strongest ; the only alter-
native being a combination of all interests imder
one efficient management. The manufacturers of
fine salt solved the problem of existence many years
ago by pooling their interests, forming in i860 the
American Dairy-Salt Company. This concern for
twenty years or more received reasonable returns
on its investments, but when called on to compete
with the stronger brines of Michigan and western
New York was obliged to yield to the inevitable,
and some three years ago these interests were put
THE SALT INDUSTRY
MS
las of a receiver. The manufacturers
of coarse salt at Onondaga in like manner formed
a combination, under which their plants are still
operated.
In Michigan the vast and rapid development of
the territory led to a combination of a majority of
the manufacturers, under the name of the Michigan
Salt Association, which controlled ail sales and fixed
all prices. This was well enough until western New
York entered the field. The manufacturers of this
district wanted the trade that formerly had been sup-
plied by Syracuse and Michigan, and made prices
sufficiently low lo attract a great deal of it. Not
content with this, they entered into the most intense
competition among themselves, until the price was
brought down so low that some were forced to the
wall. Here also attempts were made to harmonize
the diverse interests and place prices on a just and
equitable basis, Selfishness, dishonesty, and ineffi-
cient control rendered these attempts nugatory. Of
the Kansas field the same story might be told, and
no one field has yet found an effective means of con-
trolling the industry in its own district.
When we consider that any one of the States of
New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Kansas is capable
of supplying, and desires to supply, the entire coun-
try, we need not be surprised that a good article of
common salt may be bought at almost any of the
manufactories in our country for about $2 a ton.
The superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs,
in his last report to the legislature of the Slate of
New York, correctly expresses the situation in tlie
following words: "The past season has not been
remunerative to those engaged in the manufacture
of sail." A similar expression could, we believe, be
justly employed in connection with the salt industry
of the entire country. The Ohio field, with enor-
mous resources in both salt and money, also wants
its share of the business. The general outlook for
the salt industry, therefore, is not very encouraging.
Two attempts have in recent years been made, by
drawing in the aid of foreign capital, to consolidate
tlie native salt interests. The first effort failed ; and
the second, when on the verge of fruition, came to
grief in consequence of the failure of certain land
speculations in South America.
Foreign competition was for many years held in
comparative check by a moderate duty on the im-
ported article. For a little over a year, however, sail
has been admitted free. The effect has been a very
decided increase of importation and a corresponding
decrease of home manufacture. As the domestic
prices were already very low, there was very Utile
appreciable gain to the consumer, and some of the
works have shut down, and their employees have
been deprived of this means of gaining a hvelihood.
Without having accurate figures on which to base an
opinion, I hazard the estimate thai about twenty per
cent, of our salt operatives have been thrown out of
employment, while the wages of the remainder have
been reduced by about the same percentage. The
sums thus lost to the American artisan have gone in
part lo the middlemen ; and in part to the salt work-
ers of England, the coastwise inhabitants of southern
Europe, and the negroes of the West Indies. It may
be stated that at the present time the salt factories
of England are getting from $2.50 (ten shillings) to
over $3 (thirteen shillings) per ton of 2240 poimds
for common salt. As the freight from Liverpool to
American ports is less than half the freight from the
New York State fields to the seaboard, the removal
of the duty places our workers at a great disadvan-
tage, and has absolutely compelled the reduction of
wages. Comment is needless.
^-(O
CHAPTER LXVI
THE BISCUIT INDUSTRY
THE history of the biscuit industry in America
for the past one hundred years is the story
of a phenomenal development from an
almost complete obscurity to the wide-spread and
weJl-known conditions of to-day, Perhaps no other
single industry is so far-reaching in its sources of
supply, or enters into so many homes with its per-
fected product, as that under consideration. Great
difficulty is experienced in procuring early statistics
in relation to the biscuit business, as those who were
engaged in it during the first part of the century
have all passed away and have left no written
records. Tradition, therefore, is responsible for
almost all our early information.
The name " biscuit," derived through the French
from the Latin, means " twice baked," and had,
according to Gibbon, its origin in the fact that the
military bread of the Romans was twice prepared in
the oven. As applied to tlie product of bakeries,
this term was brought from England to America,
and came into general use here probably not much
earlier than the middle of the centtuy. In Europe
all articles of food in the shape of small cakes made
from flour, with sweetening or flavoring added, have
always been and still are called " biscuits." Goods
of this variety, however, were at first unknown in
the United States, and the term generally applied to
the first crude productions made of plain and un-
sweetened dough was " cracker." This latter name
has ever since retained its significance in tliis coun-
try in connection with the plain, usually crisp,
unflavored grades of goods, which last, however,
when introduced much later into Europe, were there
all absorbed into the generic title "biscuit," the
name " cracker " falling into disuse. We have grad-
ually adopted to some extent in America this more
sweeping classification, but the distinction between
the specific name "cracker" and the general term
" biscuit " it is well to bear in mind.
The first cracker produced in the United Stales,
4
so far as known, was pilot or ship bread, a large,
round, clumsy, crisp affair, which supphed the
demand of the merchant marine for an article of
food that would, unlike ordinary bread, keep for a
prolonged period. Subsequently another variety
was originated, the cold-water cracker, which differed
from the first chiefly in its smaller size, more com-
pact texture, and greater hardness. For a long time
these two crackers were the only goods known to
the trade. They were both made of unleavened
dough (flour and water and a httle salt), mixed and
kneaded by hand ; and each cracker was rolled out
and shaped separately before being placed, one at
a time, on a long-handled sheet-iron shovel or peel,
and transferred in order to the floor of the oval-
shaped tile oven then in use. It was not until some
time later that raised or fermented dough was used
in the manufacture of crackers, and it is only within
the past fifty years that any great variety has been
produced.
The first cracker bakery in the United Slates of
which we have any trustworthy record was that of
Theodore Pearson at Newburyport, Mass., in 179a.
His specialty was the pilot or ship bread already
spoken of, and in that quaint old town the manu-
factiu-e is still carried on, the name Pearson having
long been a household word in all that pan of the
country. At Milton, Mass., in 1801, Joshua Bent
erected his first oven, which doubtless was a small
affair, as it was carried on no more than three days
in tlie week by himself and family, the product then
being loaded into his wagon and sold in the sur-
rounding towns. This was the beginning of the
baking of the celebrated " Bent's water- cracker,"
which has achieved a more than national reputation.
A little later, in 1805, Artemas Kennedy, a great-
uncle of Frank A. Kennedy, estabUshed himself at
Menotomy, now known as Arlington, Mass., after-
ward moving to Westford, and finally to Milton.
The elder Kennedy died in 1832, and in 1834 one
THE BISCUIT INDUSTRY
447
of his sons, Jason, started a similar enterprise in
Charlestown. Jason's cousin, also named Artemas
Kennedy, who was his foreman, came in 1840 to
Cambridgeport, Mass., and conmienced baking for
himself. Continued success marked the business
until 1 86 1, when Mr. Kennedy died, its conduct de-
volving upon his son, Frank A. Kennedy.
In Boston the oldest recorded bakery was that of
Richard Austin, who started in Ann Street about
1830. He was succeeded by his brother Thomas
in 1843, and the business continued under various
titles, in which the names of both J. £. Fowle and
A. L. Graves appeared at different times, until it
came, in 1885, into the hands of J. W. Austin, a
descendant of the first Austin, who still carries it on.
At a later date came several other firms of promi-
nence m New England, among them Thurston, Hall
& Company, of Cambridgeport ; John S. Carr, of
Springfield ; Parks & Savage, of Hartford, Conn. ;
C. D. Boss, of New London, Conn. ; and the New
Haven Baking Company, of New Haven, Conn.
In New York City the oldest existing firm is the
house of Treadwell & Harris. Ephraim Treadwell,
the founder, began business in 1825. About this
date, and during the quarter-centiuy following, the
feins of Robert Spier, Erastus Titus, John T. Wil-
son, C. T. Goodwin, J. Bruen, and J. Parr were also
in business in the same city ; but none of them is
now in existence. Later, in 1850, Garrett B. and
Edwin 0. Brinckerhoff started business on Madison
Street, removing, in 1857, to Elizabeth Street, where
ihe Brinckerhoff branch of the New York Biscuit
Company is still carried on. At Albany, N. Y.,
Mcher & Larrabee established themselves about
i860. In 187 1 the firm name was changed to
E. J. Larrabee & Company, which gained and still
nuintains a most enviable reputation. Mr. John
Hohnes, an Englishman, entered their service in
1870, and in 1877 formed in New York City a
partnership with G. H. Coutts, under the firm name
of Holmes & Coutts. The famous brands of this
^^ at once forced their way to the front, and
gave their owners both fame and fortune. A little
^er J. R. Vanderveer and D. M. Holmes erected,
2lso in New York City, a model establishment, and
in a few years made their names recognized as manu-
«cturers of the highest grade of goods.
Meanwhile, following the lead of New England
^ New York, other bakeries were springing up all
over the coimtry. It would be impossible to present
^y adequate list of these, and the mention of the
allowing more important firms must sufl&ce : Het-
fieW & Ducker, of Brooklyn ; Walter G. Wilson and
A. J. Medlar & Company, of Philadelphia ; James
Beatty (since gone out of existence), J. D. Mason,
and J. R. Skillman, of Baltimore ; Haste & Harris,
of Detroit ; the Margaret Bakery, of New Orleans ;
C. L. Woodman (no longer existing), D. F. Brem-
ner, and the Dake Bakery, of Chicago ; Gameau,
Dozier & Company (later known as Dozier & Weyl),
of St. Louis, and S. S. Marvin & Co., of Pittsburg,
Pa. These and many other smaller houses joined
in the race for recognition and competed with one
another over the country, sending their represen-
tatives from Maine to Oregon and from the lakes
to the Gulf, besides exporting no small quantity
of goods to parts of South America, Africa, and
Australia.
Turning our attention at this point to the mechan-
ical processes employed in the manufacture of the
goods which the foregoing names represent, we
discover in the twenty-five years dming the middle
of the centiuy a development no less remarkable
than rapid. Until about 1840 machinery in the
biscuit business was almost unknown, all the goods
being worked up and put into the oven one piece
at a time by hand. As the demand increased a
machine was finally invented which rolled out the
dough, already prepared by hand, into a thin sheet
This sheet, passing along on an endless belt or
apron, was cut into the required shape by a stamp
rising and falling automatically. In this way about
a dozen crackers were cut out at a time, and it be-
came possible to bake five or six barrels of flour a
day — an important increase over the preceding aver-
age rate of one barrel. Except in size and capacity
the ordinary cracker-machines of to-day differ but
little from the first crude invention. The machines
for making fancy goods, however, were of a later
date and of correspondingly greater variety, and
must not be confounded with those used for making
the plain, unsweetened crackers.
In 1849 the discovery of gold in California, and
the consequent demand for crackers as a suitable
article of pioneer food, proved a marked stimulus
to the biscuit trade. Up to about this time the first
machines had been turned by man-power. Gradu-
ally horse-power and then steam-power were intro-
duced, and the capacity of the various existing'
plants enlarged. The War of the Rebellion gave a
second great impetus to the industry, and the old-
time flat-tile ovens being taxed beyond their capacity
to meet the increased demand for hard bread for
the use of the army and navy, a mechanical reel
oven, consisting of a series of long iron pans revolv-
ing in a framework, similar in action to the Ferris
448
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
wheel, the whole located in a large brick oven-
chamber, was invented, and practically revolution-
ized the cracker business. This change at once
caused the capacity of a single oven to jump from
the earlier rate of six barrels to twenty-five or thirty
barrels of flour a day. The size of these reel ovens
has been gradually increased, until at the present
time almost all the large plants have a daily capacity
of from forty to fifty barrels per oven.
Commensurate with the growth of the business
was the increase in the variety of goods produced.
In 1840 but five kinds of crackers were known,
these being the original pilot-bread, the hard cold-
water cracker, the soft or butter cracker, the square
soda, and the round sugar-biscuit; the last three
differing from the others in containing shortening,
butter or lard, and in being the product of a fer-
mented dough. This fermentation or raising greatly
increased the lightness and softness of textiure of the
cracker, and in consequence rapidly met the approval
of the public. It will be noticed from the above
statement that, with the exception of the sugar-
biscuit, no sweet or fancy biscuits were manufactiured
here at that time. In England, however, fancy
cakes of several kinds were on the market; and
some years before the War of the Rebellion the two
large English firms, Huntley & Palmer, and Peak,
Frean & Company, began sending different lines of
their fancy biscuit to America. They established
agencies in nearly every large city of the Union,
even as far west as California, and their goods were
sold in all the principal retail grocery houses in the
United States. Recognizing the growing impor-
tance of this new line of trade, but unable to procure
any machinery in this country to supply it, Belcher
& Larrabee, of Albany, already mentioned, sent to
England in 1865 for the necessary cutters and
machines to compete with the foreign imports.
Their attempt was successful from the start, and
thus began in America the production of sweet or
fancy biscuit, which, gradually extending, has be-
come at the present day the most profitable element
of the biscuit industry. Shortly after the above
date American mechanical skill started into action,
and soon H. J. McCollum, of New York, and
Denio & Roberts, of Boston, the only prominent
makers of bakers* supplies at that time, were equip-
ping the various plants with machinery which, at less
cost, rivaled in capacity and operation that of Eng-
land. In consequence the importation of English
goods decreased, and the American varieties, being
equally good, almost entirely took their place.
Encouraged by this success at home, several
American firms, among them being Holmes &
Coutts, Wilson of Philadelphia, and F. A. Kennedy,
made an attempt about 1880 to introduce into
England and France some of our brands of xm-
sweetened goods ; for it will be remembered that in
Europe unflavored biscuit — or plain crackers, as we
call them — was at that time utterly unknown. For
a time this attempt proved successful ; but the two
large English firms above referred to, finding a
growing demand for these new importations, sent
men to the United States to study the processes and
the grades of flour used here. The result, as may be
expected, was but the complement of their earlier
experience with their own specialties in America.
The English ovens soon produced all the grades
of common crackers exported from here, and the
American trade, in consequence, declined. Nor has
it been possible since that time to revive it to any
great extent, owing to the almost prohibitory com-
petition of foreign cheaper tin packages in which
the goods must be placed to be shipped, and cheaper
labor. American goods are, however, still exported
in medium quantities to Africa and South America,
while in many of the large cities of Europe some of
the specialties of a few firms can be found.
Glancing over the development of recent years,
we see a progress and a growth that it is almost
impossible to analyze. Originative skill and strict
business application have produced machine after
machine and established system after system, by
which the industry, though perhaps still somewhat
short of perfection, has reached a high rank in the
scale of magnitude and efficiency. A great many
of the processes involved have been practically rev-
olutionized, in almost all instances machinery taking
the place of the former hand labor. As an instance,
the dough, which until twenty years ago was mixed
and kneaded by hand in long boxes, is now entirely
prepared in large iron mixers by means of a revolv-
ing paddle, some of these machines being capable
of handling as much as twelve barrels of flour at a
time. Machines, also, to produce an almost endless
variety of fancy cakes and biscuits have been in-
vented and introduced, resulting in an ever-increas-
ing list of new goods. When Joshua Bent first
established his bakery at the beginning of the cen-
tury only two kinds of crackers were known. To-
day the number reaches in the aggregate at least
500 different grades and varieties. Some of the
greatest successes in this increase have been the
result of accident, while others are the perfection
of long and costly experiment. In this connection
must be mentioned the names of J. H. Mitchell, of
Frank A. Kennedy.
THE BISCUIT INDUSTRY
Philadelphia ; Ruger, of Buffalo ; H. J. McCoUum
and Fowler & Rockwell, of New York; and Roth
& McMahon, of Chicago, all manufacturers of
bakers' supplies aiid machinery, and each taking
a part in the invention and development of the
mechanical processes introduced. And the end is
not yet. New specialties are constantly being pro-
duced by the various competing firms, and the skill
and ingenuity of all those directly interested are
constantly taxed to bring to life some new combina-
tion of dcUcacies, while a host of artists is kept
active in originating attractive and suitable labels
and coverings for the various packages in which the
goods meet the public. To give some slight idea
of the magnitude of the biscuit business as it stands
to-day, a few statistics may be of interest. Before
giving these, however, it will be necessary to add a
short account of the recent organization of the bis-
cuit industry,
In 1890 three large companies were formed,
comprising together nearly all the largest and most
prominent plants in the country. The first of these,
the New York Biscuit Company, includes the lead-
ing houses of New England and New York, with
an immense factory in New York City, the largest
and most complete in the United States. The build-
ing is 600 feet long, aoo feet wide, and rises six
stories in height. Forty ovens are its complement,
whh an aggregate daily baking capacity of looo
barrels of flour. The second is the American Bis-
cuit and Manufacturing Company, with one factory
in New York City, but doing its principal business
in the West and South. The third is the United
States Baking Company, its largest factories situated
in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. These tliree
companies represent an aggregate capital of $25,-
000,000, and in 1894 their consumption of flour
approximated 1,400,000 barrels. A foiulh, some-
what smaller, company, the National, has since been
formed, which has plants situated respectively in
Denver, Colo., Cedar Rapids, la., Des Moines, la..
Rock Island, III, and New Orleans, La.
Although these four companies represent almost
all the important plants, it is safe to assume that
their consumption of raw material and consequent
product is not above one half the total in the United
Slates, for in nearly every large city and town from
Easlport to California can be found independent
bakeries, each with one or more ovens. In the
manufacture of biscuit, flour is, of course, the most
prominent item ; and the importance of this fact to
the farmer can be gauged when we calculate that in
order to supply the needs of all the cracker bakeries
of this country during the past year at least 2,800,-
000 barrels of flour were required. Reckoning five
bushels of wheat to a barrel of flour, and twenty
bushels to the acre, we find that the above figure
means the product of no less than 14,000,000 bush-
els or 700,000 acres. But flour, though the most
important, is by no means the only raw material
of cotaequence used in the biscuit business. The
following figures are taken from the report for the
year 1S94, and, though rough, are as close an ap-
proximation to the actual amounts of materials other
than flour as it is possible to estimate :
eloocwioo
pound
slard.
butter.
pillor.
5 milk.
1,900,000
doien
eEES.
1,017.770
pounds honey from Cobe, Florida, Cfllifomi^ »nd
».i32.330
raisins from ihe
fomie.
figs from Smjrna
Mediterranean wd Cali-
m>43?
"
sodB.
cocoannU.
'' fsjflS
nlmood Dots.
"S
w
salt
ginger.
7!'a8
s ei tract vaniUa.
70,764
"S.936
pound
s jeQies.
oil pf lemoD and a
range.
r^
"
cbocolale.
cream of taitai.
S!:]S
-
IrT-
I
To these figures must be added the following,
which enable the finished goods to properly reach
the consumer: 10,000,000 wood boxes; 7,000,000
barrels; tin to the value of $250,000, made into
cans and packages; logellier with 5000 tons of
paper and pasteboard. To handle all these mate-
rials and prepare the product for market an army
of workers is required. For all the heavier labor,
mixing and baking, men are employed ; but the
packing, labeling, and some portions of the fancy
or iced work are done by skilful-fingered girls.
Traveling salesmen visit every portion of the country
for orders, and in the large cities drivers by the
hundreds, with handsome wagons, make daily and
weekly rounds, supplying the trade with the factory
product. The New York Biscuit Company alone
has 2500 operative,"!, besides 350 salesmen and
drivers ; and the total number of hands engaged in
the various processes of the biscuit industry in the
United States will probably reach not less than
25,000.
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Not a frei^t-train or steamer of any principal
line bul carries these goods over the country. Not
a yacht skims along our shores, not a vessel crosses
the ocean, without canying biscuit in greater or less
variety in its store-room. Not a hotel would think
its menu complete without the after-dinner coffee
with crackers and cheese. Not a picnic party
would arrange for an outing without calling upon
the grocer for its supply of biscuit. Not an after-
noon tea, luncheon, or other social function would
be complete without the dainty novelties so lavishly
supplied by our leading bakeries. When we add to
this the daily home consumpdon, and the constantly
increasing exports to the West Indies, Central aad
South America, which are following closely on the
growth of political alliances between the American
republics, the value and importance of the biscuit
industry to the country is appreciated. No field
affords better opportunity to intelligence, genius,
and business enthusiasm. The century which is
closing has recorded great achievements, but that
which lies ahead is equally full of promise.
CHAPTER LXVII
THE COTTON-SEED-OIL INDUSTRY
THE utilization of one waste product does
more to enrich the worid than an increase of
many millions of dollars of product in some
old and well established industry. Perhaps there is
> single thing that more forcibly illustrates this
truism than the utilization of the once despised
cotton-seed. In the process of ginning seed-cotton
the result is a little more than two pounds of seed
tor every pound of cotton produced; and forty
ytars ago, aside from the small amount of seed that
might be reserved for the next season's planting, and
such small quantities as were consumed by the cattle
on the plantation, there was absolutely no use to
which it could be apphed. At the gins the great seed
heaps grew, as the sawdust heaps rise to-day around
the portable sawmill, until, as a last resort, the gin
sould be moved from the base of the seed mountain
" had reared up to itself. Thus was cotton-seed, in
'840 and 1 850, a source of actual expense and an
fincmnbrance. That there was an oil that might
'>* made useful contained in the cotton-seed was
'">o*n,of cotu-se, ever since 1783, when that august
■nd venerable body, the London Society for the
Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Com-
merce, first called public attention to it. The real
"alue of this oil, or a method for its extraction, was,
oowever, not known to the society ; and while it
declared that the seed-calte resulting from the manu-
facture of the oil was good cattle-food, and though
uie society offered gold and silver medals of reward
^or the first successful process of making the oil and
^^e, it never had occasion to bestow its honors.
Laier on, when the seed of the Egyptian cotton was
'DiiDduced into Europe, the manufacture and re-
"ungof the oil was begun and carried on quite ex-
^fiively. The use of the product for food purposes
*3s iilso learned abroad before any advance what-
*^had been made by this country in that direction.
"Oie dilatoriness of Americans in availing them-
"'VBof this great wasted asset was undoubtedly due
lotht [act that the South, where cotton was king, was
not a manufacturing community, and had neither
taste nor inclination to develop along any but agri-
cultural lines. Her population, further, embraced but
few of the operative class needed for the labor of the
manufactory. The first recorded attempts in this
country to extract the crude cotton-seed oil were
made at Natchez, Miss., in 1834, and at New Orleans
in 1847. Both were complete failures from the
standpoint of practicability, and it was long a
lugubrious jest with the late Mr. Frederick Good,
of New Orleans, who was active in the second at-
tempt, to show a small bottle of the crude cotton-
seed oil, which he stated had cost him juat $1 1,000.
Abroad the seed of the Egyptian cotton continued
to be used more or less successfully, and experiments
— rather desultory in their nature, perhaps — were
continued on this side of the water. The greatest
difficulty encountered by the pioneers in this field
was the total lack of appropriate machinery. Fore-
most as Americans have been in the invention of
mechanical appliances, they were singularly back-
ward in developing machinery for the expression of
the cotton-seed oil. At the time now under discus-
sion each mill that was attempted had its own
mechanical ideas, and these were uniformly crude
and unsuccessful. In fact, the introduction of im-
proved or even fairly practicable methods of extract-
ing and refining cotton-seed oil did not come until
some of the -American manufacturers— notably Mr.
Paul A!dig6, of New Orleans— had visited the great
European works, including those at Marseilles, and
patterned from them, in the early years after the
Civil War.
Prior to this, however, the industry had gained a
foothold on a small scale, and crude cotton-seed oil
was put on the market in limited quantities. Its ap-
pearance as a domestic product dates from about
1855, and to Mr. Paul Aldigd, of New Orieans, later
one of the most prominent cot ton -seed- oil manufac-
turers in the country, is due the credit for the first
successful attempt at crushing the seed in a mill. He
d
452
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
had to contend with many difficulties, not the least
of which was procuring the cotton-seed. The
wealthy planters of those ante-bellum da3rs, when
their cotton crop was picked, ginned, and baled,
were quite disposed to regard the business as com-
pleted. To be troubled about selling the waste
seed product of the gins was not worth their while ;
and as the small planter did not exist to any extent,
it was more than difficult to secure the needed seed.
It was harder to get one ton then than it is to get
one hundred to-day. Furthermore, the transporta-
tion facilities for bringing in the seed from the out-
lying districts were of the poorest. These obstacles,
together with crude machinery and little knowledge
concerning the valuable by-products to be obtained
from the manufactiure of the oil, all operated to keep
the industry at the lowest point.
Singularly enough, it was in the tight little Yankee
State of Rhode Island that the first firm foothold for
this peculiarly Southern industry was obtained. A
mill was started at Providence, R. I., in 1855-56,
and the seed was shipped from the South, principally
from New Orleans. While but a small affair com-
pared with the huge works of to-day, this mill con-
tinued to be operated until the outbreak of the
Civil War put an end to Southern seed shipments.
During the years of war that followed, the cotton-
seed-oil industry made little headway here, although
abroad it was rapidly coming into prominence.
There were a few small mills and refineries in the
cities along the Mississippi, notably at Vicksburg
and New Orleans; and after the blockade of that
river began to shut off supplies, their product came
into demand as an illuminating oil, despite the fact
that it could not be bmned in chimney-lamps. In
the accumulation of the seed-cake resulting from
this blockade, which prevented all exportation, the
South first came to use it, in default of anything
better, as a food for cattle. It had never been
used for such a purpose here before, although it had
been exported, and its valuable properties were well
known on the continent of Europe. The hulls, also,
were discovered at this time, in the same forced
way, to be good food-stuff for cattle, and their use
for this purpose, in a limited way in the South, dates
from this time. These hulls, mixed with a certain
percentage of the meal of the seed-cake, make a
compact form of fodder, and were used in the timber
regions and other localities where hay was hard to
obtain and difficult to transport.
It is not many years ago that every cotton-seed
mill in the country utilized, as far as possible, its
hulls for fuel to operate the mills ; but this demand
fell short of the production, and the larger mills were
put to an expense for hauling the hulls away or for
erecting furnaces to convert them into ashes. Grad-
ually the value of the hull became known to the
dairyman, and then to the feeder of stock for the
butcher, till at the present time practically all the
hulls produced are utilized as cattle-food, and that
which was only lately an expense to the crusher has
become a source of revenue.
This and many other most valuable by-products
were, however, almost unknown here until after the
war had ended. In New Orleans and at Vicks-
burg the crushing of the seed was continued in a
small way during the years between i860 and 1^5,
when peace, with the consequent return of the
people to their agricultural pursuits, again brought
larger crops and increased activity. In 1 866 there
were in the whole United States just seven mills for
the crushing of the cotton-seed. Though the diverse
usefulness of the cotton-seed oil was manifesting itself
almost daily in some new form, the growth of the in-
dustry was comparatively slow. Twenty-six mills in
1870 increased in the next ten years to only forty-
five. These represented a capital invested of
$3,862,300, through which was turned out an
annual product valued at $7,690,921. In wages
the cotton-seed mills in 1880 paid out $880,836 to
3319 employees, and the value of the material con-
sumed by them in the processes of manufacture was
$5,091,251. These figures, while of respectable
amount, considered with due allowance for the
short time the industry had been known, stiU sink
into insignificance by contrast with those represent-
ing its condition to-day. The fifteen years that
followed 1880 have seen the most wonderful change
in the status of the cotton-seed-oil business among
the commercial and industrial interests of the coun-
try. While the total product of the country in 1880
was less than $8,000,000, that of a single concern,
the American Cotton Oil Company, ten years later,
was over $20,000,000, and 5000 employees were
carried on the rolls of this one company.
One of the great factors in this wonderful growth
has been the continued bringing to light of new uses
and value for the product What the discovery
of the by-products of petroleum did for that min-
eral oil was done for cotton-seed oil, when the
manifold uses of the refined product began to be
understood. As an oil, that of the cotton-seed
possesses in high degree all the properties conunoa
to the best vegetable oils, with the exceptions that
for household illmnination, or as a lubricant, it can-
not be used to advantage. As ordinarily known ia
THE COTTON-SEED-OIL INDUSTRY
453
the phraseology of the market, refined cotton-seed
oil is of four varieties, viz., summer and winter
yellow, and summer and winter white. From the
summer yellow are derived many valuable products.
The well-known lard compound, "cottolene," and
similar products, which have so largely superseded
hog-lard for cooking purposes, take a great deal of
this grade of oil, the bulk of which, in fact, may be
said to be consumed in culinary channels. When
cheaper than tallow, " summer yellow " is also used
in great quantity in the manufacture of laundry and
toilet soaps, and a large amount of it, made from
selected crude oil, is exported for use abroad in the
making of butterine, a substitute for butter much
used in Holland, Belgium, France, and other £iu:o-
pean countries. This grade of oil is of the finest
quality, and in many places has supplanted olive-oil
as a dressing for salads or the general uses of the
table. Druggists find in it a reliable and excel-
lent substitute for olive-oil in many preparations
for external application, such as salves and lini-
ments. Not being inflammable, cotton-seed oil is
used by the salt manufacturers to float on top of
their tanks, and the paper makers find a similar use
for it. By a process of bleaching, " summer yellow "
is converted into " summer white." " Winter yel-
low" and "winter white" will stand a cold test at
32O Fahrenheit, without chilling. These oils are
prodaced fix>m the summer oils by extracting a large
percentage of the stearine contained therein. Winter
oils are largely used as a substitute for whale and
hrd oils in miners' lamps, and considerable quanti-
ties are used in foreign countries. Cotton-seed soap-
stock, as known to commerce, is the residuum of the
lefining-kettle, and is utilized in low-grade laundry
soaps and in wool-scouring soaps.
Besides these uses of the refined oils, the crusher
<rf cotton-seed sees his product and by-products
Wng him returns from various other sources. The
cotton-seed cake, or solid residuum of seed remain-
»
H after the expression of the oil, finds sale as cake,
pnnapally in Great Britain; but by far the larger
potion of the cake is converted, by grinding, into
cotton-seed meal, which is of such high repute at
home and abroad, both as a food for cattle and
sheep and as an ingredient of ammonial fertilizers,
^ the entire production finds a ready sale. The
^tcrs" or short staple cotton, ranking relatively
^ of about half- value with " middling cotton," is
Mother by-product which the cotton-seed crusher
gains through a careful reginning of the seed.
The process of extracting the ofl from the cotton-
seed is a rather complicated one in its preparatory
29*
stages, but is simplified to the last degree by the em-
ployment of machinery at each and every step. The
seed, on reaching the mill, is first screened, to re-
move sand, dirt, bolls, and foreign substances, and
finally a draft of air is used to complete the cleaning
process. The seed is now ready for the linters,
which machines are an elaboration of the ordinary
cotton-gin; and whatever staple remains upon the
seed is stripped off in passing through them. From
the linters the seed passes to the huller, a high-
speed cutting-machine, which cuts it up most thor-
oughly. The hulls, by screens and beaters, are now
separated from the meats, which latter are, by screw-
conveyers, conducted to bins contiguous to roller-
crushers, and as fast as required are passed through
the crushers, where the mass is reduced to a uniform
consistency, and is known to millmen as " uncooked
meal." The first step is cooking this meal, which is
done in steam-jacketed kettles. When heated to a
proper degree the meal is drawn from the kettles,
formed into cakes, enveloped in camePs-hair cloth,
and placed in boxes of an hydraulic press, when by
the application of proper pressure the crude oil is
speedily extracted. The solid residue remaining in
the press-box is the decorticated cotton-seed-oil cake
of commerce.
In the practical methods by which these mills
are supplied and operated all the improvements of
modem industrial enterprise have been laid under
tribute. In the distribution of the oil product, tank-
cars on the railroads and tank-steamers on the high
seas are used for transportation in bulk; and the
American Cotton Oil Company, in its immense ex-
port business to Rotterdam, has a tank-steamship
capable of carrying 4200 tons of oil in bulk, thus .
saving the heavy item of cooperage. This steamer
can thus carry, without injuring, even the finest
quality of the food-oil, which is in great demand
in Holland and Belgium. As an evidence of the
amount consumed there it is shown that Rotterdam
alone imported in one year, recently, no less than
8,356,676 gallons of cotton-seed oil, of which
5,973,760 were from this country. The diversity
of the industry requires factories other than the
crude-oil mills, as refineries, lard and cottolene plants,
soap factories, cotton-ginneries, cotton-compressors,
and fertilizer-mixing establishments. The supply for
all these is derived directly from the crude-oil mills,
which in their turn are operated immediately from
the raw material, in providing which there has grown
up a most important branch of the agricultural sys-
tem of the South.
With the development of the industry in later
CHAPTER LXVIII
THE STARCH INDUSTRY
STARCH is a white pulverulent substance
composed of microscopic spheroids, which
are, in fact, sacs containing amylaceous mat-
ter. These microscopic panicles vary in size and
form, and exist in many plants. Chemists name
three kinds of starch — one found in cereals, another
called inuhn, and a third called lichen-starch. They
are all insoluble in cold water, alcohol, ether, and
oils, and, with the exception of inulin, are converted
into sugar by dilute sulphuric acid and by diastase.
The first-named forms with hot water a mucilaginous
solution, which, when cold, is the starch used by the
laundress of to-day ; it is tinged blue by iodine. The
second forms a granular precipitate when its solution
in boiling water ts allowed to cool, and is tinged a
fugitive brown by iodine. The third, by cooling the
concentrated solution, gives a gelatinous mass, with
clear h'quid containing very little starch floating over
il ; its jelly becomes yellow with iodine. Starch is
fotmd in wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, rice,
com, millet, pease, beans, potatoes, arrowroot, and
other plants, and varies greatly in quantity under
different circumstances.
The making of starch had a very ancient origin,
for it is spoken of by Pliny, in the first century a.d.,
as being made from wheat on the island of Chios.
Very little is said of it by modem writers, however,
until the time of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when
its use became almost a necessity for stiffening the
enormous ruffs wom by the queen and her court.
So scarce and exclusive was the article at that time
that its use was forbidden by English law except for
the purpose just mentioned, and by perfumers in
making the hair-powders then in vogue. The Greeks
made starch from wheat for food about the beginning
of our era, and potatoes formed a considerable source
of starch-supply early in the sixteenth century.
As the manufacture of cotton goods increased, and
especially after the development of calico printing,
there was a greatly enlarged demand for starch, and
as the early restrictions upon its manofacture were
removed, inventors and experimenters turned their
attention to its cheaper and better production.
Crude methods for making it became generally
known, and it was produced in small quantities in
many families for home use. New sources of sup-
ply were also discovered, and gradually took their
proper place in the general economy of the industry.
The importance attaching to these is indicated by the
fact that in 1796 the British Society of Arts gave a
medal to Mrs. Gibbs, of Portland, for her discovery
of Arum maculatum as a soiu'cc of starch. But for
many years the principal source of the article was
wheat or potatoes.
One hundred years ago there was not a starch fac-
tory in all our broad land except the domestic ones,
where our great-grandmothers grated the potato and
washed the starch out of the pulp. This was then
strained and left over night to settle ; in the morning
the water was poured off, and the starch removed
from the vessel and dried in the sun, being then laid
aside to be used as occasion required. The oldest
process of manufactiuing wheat-starch in the United
States consisted in steeping the grain in water until it
was soft, when it was passed through a malt-mill, or
between rollers, and again mixed with water. Fer-
mentation then set in, forming lacdc and acetic acids,
which disintegrated the cellular structure of the ker-
nel and hberated the starch granules. These were
collected by repeated washings and precipitations,
the process being continued several days, the gluten
putrefying and giving off a very foul odor. The
sugar and a portion of the starch were converted
into alcohol, and a part of this into lactic and acetic
acids, which dissolved the gluten that had escaped
putrefaction. Thorough washing removed the solu-
ble matter, and the starch left behind was dried and.-..
prepared for market. The other method, known air^^
non-femienling, is of French origin, and consisted icra
kneading wheat-ffotu' into dough with water,and their=i
THE STARCH INDUSTRY
washing in a fine sieve in a stream of water as long
as the passing water continued milky. The starch
in suspension and the sugary portion in solution
were caught below the sieve, and the gluten nearly
all remained behind in a sticky mass. What passed
through was left to ferment twenty-four hours in
an oven at 680 Fahrenheit, and a little leaven was
added, or ihe skimmings of a former operation, to
hasten the process. The portion of gluten carried
through with the starch was thus separated and re-
covered by skimming. The starch was then treated
like that otherwise produced. This last-described
method gave a product of about fifty per cenl. of
the weight of flour, while by the firel process it was
only thirty-five or forty per cent. Most of the
gluten was saved in a condition to be used for food
by mixing it with potato or other substance. The
starch thus produced, while good for some purposes,
lacked the required strength for fine laundry-work,
was not clear and pure white like the modem pro-
duct, and, being made from wheat, was compara-
tively costly. The removal of the gluten was never
perfect, causing endless annoyance and perplexity
to the laundress when it came in contact with her
hoi irons ; and it was by these, or still more crude
and costly methods, that nearly all the starch was
produced down to about the year 1841.
The uses to which starch is put are numerous.
Not only in the laundry and kitchen do we find it,
but also in many of the leading manufactories of
the day. It is used largely in the manufacture of
textile fabrics, in calico printing, paper, confection-
ery, breadstuffs, paint, wood filling, etc.
The manufacture of starch from potatoes in
this country ts now confined principally to the
New England States, Maine having forty-four
factories. There are sixty-four factories engaged in
this branch of the starch industry of which 1 have
knowledge, these factories consuming 1,814,513
bushels of potatoes, producing 24,008,352 pounds
of starch per annum, requiring 1536 horse-power,
and employing 659 hands for about three months in
each year. The capital invested is $355,765, and
the value of the annual product, $854,697.33. Cull
potatoes are largely used. Potato-starch is used
almost entirely by manufacturers of textile fabrics.
The wheat-starch industry early in the century
gave promise of great importance, the annual output
of this commodity continuing to increase until 1842,
when the discovery and perfection of the process for
the extraction of starch from Indian com, by Thomas
Kingsford, turned the attention of manufacturers to
this cereal as a source of starch supply, and many
wheat-starch factories were remodeled thereafter to
use Indian com. The first wheat-starch factory of
which I have knowledge was that started by Edward
and John Gilbert at Utica, N. Y., in 1S07, which
factory continued until about 1849, when it was re-
modeled to use Indian com. The business was given
up and the plant abandoned in 1859. In 1817 a
wheat-starch factory was started by Thomas Bamett
at Philadelphia, Pa., which was removed to Knowl-
ton. Pa., in 1879, and there continues in operation.
The next wheat-starch factory was operated by
George Fox in Cincinnati, O., in 1824, at which
time but five bushels of wheat were consumed in the
weekly output. The business gradually increased,
until 500 bushels per week were required to meet the
demand. This factory began the manufacture of
starch from Indian corn in 1854. In 1S37 William
Colgate & Company started a wheat-starch factory
in Jersey City, N. J., where they had a very suc-
cessful career in this branch of the starch industry.
Their plant was altered into a corn-starch factory in
1842, and continued in the manufacture of starch
from the latter-named grain until 1865. In 1843
Colgate & Wood (Charles Colgate and JuUus J.
Wood) began the manufacture of wheat -starch at
Columbus, 0. There are but five wheat-starch fac-
tories in this country at the present time of which I
have knowledge. These factories have an aggregate
capital of $195,000, the annual production being
8,31 2, 000 pounds, valued at $346,000, requiring 250
horse-power, and employing 88 hands. The capa-
city of these factories is 1077 bushels of wheat per
day.
As early as the year 1841, while Thomas Kings-
ford was superintending the wheat-starch factories of
William Colgate & Company in Jersey City, N. J.,
where he had been employed since thespring of 1832,
he clearly saw the objectionable features of both the
methods of manufacture and of the product, and in
his study to remove them became convinced that in
our ripe Indian com lay the future source of abun-
dant starch that would in every way excel all others
if it could be separated from every substance foreign
to its nature. He imparted his conviction to his em-
ployers, the result of which may be inferred— manu-
facturers and capitalists are seldom ready to aid in
the experiments of investigators. They thought that,
at the best, the prospects of success were doubtful.
They were making money, and why should they not
continue manufacturing starch from wheat instead
of taking up a wild project ? He talked with other
starch makers of that day, who ridiculed the idea,
and declared it to be impracticable and visionary.
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Satisfaction with present conditions is always a foe
to advancement. The more he thought of the sub-
ject the more his mind was imbued with the behef
tliat ultimate success awaited him. The history of
his experiments is deeply interesting.
In the year 1841, at the Colgate factory in Jer-
sey City, N. J,, he began a series of experiments to
test his theory, following substantially the processes
in use in the factory. He first soaked a quantity
of Indian com-meal, and then washed it through a
fine sieve, hoping thus to secure the starch ; but it
remained only com-meal. He then obtained some
shelled com, soaked it several days in lye lo soften
the grain, and endeavored to reduce the kernels to
pulp with a mortar and pestle. This done, he washed
out the starch, or endeavored lo, from the other con-
stituents ; but this attempt also failed. He then tried
a wooden screw -crusher, with which, and the use of
several solutions, he endeavored to extract the pure
starch; but again failure attended him. His next
mechanical contrivance for reducing the com to
pulp was a paint-mill, but the final result was the
same— he failed to effect a separation of the starch.
He then soaked another quantity of com, and passed
it between the rollers of an old sugar-mill, borrowed
from a grocer ; but the rust on the mill discolored
and spoiled his product. Still persistent, he procured
a pair of granite rollers, mounted them on shafts in
a frame, and by passing the com repeatedly between
them, obtained a clear pulp. When this was strained,
washed, and settled by the process with which he
was familiar in the manufacture of wheat-starch, he
found it so mixed with gluten, albumen, woody fiber,
and other impurities, that he could not effect the
separation desired. Mr. Kingsford now continued
his experiments with various kinds of acid, hoping
to produce the long-sougiit separation of the pure
starch from all the other constituents of the grain,
but without success. He then made a solution of
wood-ash lye, the use of which also failed, as did
other similar experiments. Almost discouraged, but
siil! stimulated with a desperate hope of ultimate
success, he ground up another quantity of com and
treated it with a solution of lime. Again success
evaded him. But he was now nearing his triumph.
He had thrown the first lot, treated with a lye solu-
tion, into a receptacle, and to this, in his discour-
agement, he added the last quantity, upon which he
had experimented with hme, and left them to be
thrown away with the results of many former fail-
ures. On entering the room a few days later to put
it in order, he proceeded to empty the tub, and to
his great joy and surprise found at the bottom a
quantity of beautiful white starch, thoroughly sepa-
rated. Continuing his work, he rapidly perfected
his process, and in 1842 produced his first quantity
of marketable starch. Mr. Kingsford fully realized
the importance of his discovery, although liis most
sanguine anticipations could scarcely have led him
to hope for the great success that followed. Corn
was then vastly cheaper in comparison with wheat
than it is at the present day, thus promising lower
prices and greater profits, as well as increased de-
mand (or the new starch. He freely exhibited his
product to buyers and consumers, as well as to his
employers, and there was only one verdict : it was
incomparably superior to any other starch. Now
he did not have to ask for financial aid. William
Colgate & Company were ready and anxious to
make any in\'estment necessary to establish the
manufacture if they could share in the profits, and a
business engagement was accordingly effected, under
which Mr. Kingsford was to superintend all the
operations and devise the necessary machinery for
the manufacture, at the same time retaining the
knowledge of his process for himself. None of
the starch-making devices formerly used in the
factory could be utilized, and he set himself to the
work of inventing and building special machinery
for the new process. The task was successfully
accomplished, the manufacture began, and the new
starch soon reached consumers in comparatively
large quantities. It met with prompt and universal
favor, and soon crowded the former starches from
the market.
In 1846 the firm of T. Kingsford & Son was
formed by the association of Thomas Kingsford and
his son Thomson. They erected a small factory at
Bergen, N. J., and there the manufacture of tiie
Kingsford starch was successfully inaugurated. As
the knowledge of the superiority of this starch spread,
and the rapidly increasing demand became known,
capitalists came forward with propositions for in-
vestment in the business. This resulted, in 1 848, in
the incorporation of an organization st>-led the
Oswego Starch Factory, and the removal of the
business to Oswego, N. Y., where suitable factory
buildings were erected. Unfailing water-power, a
pure water-supply for manufacturing purposes, and
good shipping facilities were the chief advantages
secured by this change of location. In i85oThoma.s
Kingsford became impressed with the conviction
thai, by following processes somewhat different from
those employed in making laundry starch, a food-
substance might be produced from corn, which
would be free from the objections inherent in com-
THE STARCH INDUSTRY
q^^lI, extremely nutritious, and at the same time
juic^^ to the most delicate or infantile stomach,
gynplanting arrowroot, sago, tapioca, and similar
farixx^ceous foods. He immediately began a series
of ^:7Cperiments, which resulted in the discovery and
pr<»c3 action of the now universally known corn-starch
(or food purposes. From 1841 the demand for
con^-surch continued to increase, leading to the
(sia.t>lishment of many plants ; but the concentration
Qf tirte starch interests into fewer hands has within
the past few years resulted in the cessation of work
in seventeen factories. There are at present sixteen
factories engaged in the manufacture of starch from
Indian com in this country, with an aggregate capa-
city of 29,000 bushels of com per day, producing
206,673,000 pounds of starch annually, valued at
$8,738,895. In this branch of the industry there
is, at present, an invested capital of $8,450,000;
11,740 horse-power are required, and 2219 hands
are employed. In i8gi a combination or trust was
foimed, composed of many of the starch companies
in the United States, and called the National Starch
Manufacturing Company. The manufacture of
starch may be counted among the leading industries
of this progressive nation, and a large proportion of
the product is annually shipped to, and finds a ready
market in, foreign countries.
Like other industries, the growth of starch manu-
facture has kept pace with our ever-increasing pop-
ulation. In 1880 there were 139 factories engaged
in the manufacture of starch from potatoes, wheat,
and corn. Ten years later there were but 80
factories, which would seem a falling oft of the in-
dustry. But a carefully prepared table of facts
concerning the subject shows a marked increase in
the number of hands employed, quantity produced,
and value of annual product. A brief simimary
shows a total of 2966 hands employed in potato,
wheat, and corn starch factories, utilizing 13,526
hoTse-power, producing 238,993,352 pounds of
starch annually, valued at $9,939,592.33, and em-
ploying $9,000,765 capital.
CHAPTER LXIX
THE MATCH INDUSTRY
B'
k Y the coaction of thought and energy are all
things developed from nature. The quick-
whirling, sharp-pointed stick of hard wood,
brought in contact with resisting hard wood, gener-
ated by friction the heat which gave primitive man
his firet spark of fire. That primitive man who, with
energized thought, produced the first spark of fire was
a greater inventor than any who followed him up to
the day when man harnessed electricity to produce
the same spark of fire. How similar their methods,
— action and reaction ; the positive and negative
poles of the battery : the whirling armature of metal
coming in contact with metal, generating the heat-
fluid that is distributable by proper conductors : yet
how great the step in mechanics between the two —
one base and rudimentary, the other the perfection
of mechanics I
It has been written that "human culture may be
said to have begun with fire, of which the use in-
creased in the same ratio as culture itself." The
ancients regarded fire as a sacred element, and,
when once produced, it was watched, replenished,
and cared for with a religious zeal by virgins, who
were scourged if they permitted it to expire.
To the development of mechanics and chemistry
we owe our progress physically; and while some
branches of industry may attract more attention
than others on account of their importance, it would
seem that all have traveled along at about the same
pace and made about the same progress, the match
industry, like its neighbors, only keeping step to the
music of the rapid march of industrial affairs. The
progress made in the methods of producing fire
quickly was for several centuries exceedingly slow,
taking into consideration the fact that phosphorus
was discovered in the eighth century by an Arab
named Bechel, Owing, perhaps, to lack of proper
chemical and mechanical appliances at that time, it
dropped from sight, and was rediscovered in 1669
by Brandt. Both Bechel and Brandt discovered it
in liquid human refuse after it had been changed
by keeping. Later it was procured from human
bones, and still later from all kinds of bones ; and
now it is extracted by electricity from mineral
phosphates. It is exceedingly strange that, while
its properties were well known for several centuries,
its apphcation to matches dates back only a little
over half a century. It would be hard work to
compute accurately the value to the human race of
the introduction to general use of this useful little
It is estimated that five matches per day are used
for each man, woman, and child in the United States,
and that fifteen seconds are required to consume a
match, while the time required to produce the same
number of fires by the best-known methods before
matches were invented would have been ninety
hours per annum for each person. The difference
between the two methods would figure out a saving,
at five cents per hour, of over $270,000,000 per
annum to the people of the United States.
The original discovery of the ignition of phos-
phorus and sulphur by friction was made by God-
frey Haukwitz in 1680. About one hundred and
fifty years later. Walker, of Stockton-on-Tees, in-
vented the friction-light. Two or three years prior to
that the famous instantaneous-light boxes were in
use. These were called Eupyrions and Prome-
theans, and consisted of slicks of wood tipped with
sulphur and chlorate of potash, which ignited on be-
ing dipped into sulphuric acid. These instantaneous
lights retailed at a very high price. The lucifer or
improved friction-match succeeded them in 1833,
The first patent granted in the United States for a
friction-match was to Alonzo D. Phillips, of Spring-
field, Mass., October 24, 1836, and the manufacture
in this country began in the same year.
The splints were whittled out by hand at first,
and continued to be made in a crude way until
1842, when Reuben Partridge patented the first
THE MATCH INDUSTRY
461
i
^Unt-cutting machine. The discovery of red or
anMHphous phosphorus was made by Schrotter, a
Gemian, in the early fifties ; and one of its earliest
users was Herr Lwidstrom, of Jonkoping, the
original Swedish safety-match manufacturer, in
1855-56. A history of this industry in 1856 states
that it had reached gigantic proportions in Sweden,
Geraiany, and England. In the latter country there
was an average daily output of 40,000,000 matches
in that year. To-day the Diamond Match Com-
pany's largest factory, at Barberton, O., has facilities
for turning out 100,000,000 matches per diem.
HLow quickly, in the familiarity of conmion use,
iias the little match lost its merited consideration as
an important factor in human events, and how litde
do ^^e realize its importance in commercial affairs!
There are consumed in the United States 115,200,-
000, coo matches per annum, which, if put end to
end, would reach a distance of over 4,000,000 miles,
or span the earth 170 times. Allowing eleven
matohes to the inch in width when put side by side,
they would make a band around the earth fifteen
inches wide.
There are annually consumed in the production
of xnatches in the United States, and in casing them,
over 40,000,000 square feet of pine lumber one inch
thick ; 8000 tons of strawboard and paper are used
in l>oxing and wrapping them for market ; 3,500,000
pounds of paraffine and brimstone are used for
saturating the ends of match-sticks ; and 6,000,000
pounds of chemical compound are used for match-
heads. About $7,000,000 are invested directly in
the match business, and $5,000,000 are invested in
lumbering and manufacturing enterprises, owned and
operated by the match manufacturers to supply them-
selves with materials used in the making of matches.
The annual product is delivered to the consumer for
**^iit $7,000,000. In the match business proper
^^vx 2200 people are employed, and as many more
^^ employed in the manufacture of material for
"itches. The aggregate wages paid amount to about
^'> 500,000 per annum.
I'he production of matches has been attended
^tli a great amount of misery which is incidental
^^ the business. People of scrofulous or delicate
^J^titution who are brought in contact with phos-
PHorus in handling matches, or who daily inhale the
tOiues of phosphorus, are frequently attacked by a
^ost distressing disease called necrosis of the bone.
it usually attacks the lower jaw-bone ; when it at-
^^^^ the upper jaw-bone death is almost certain.
iti the early history of match making the business
^"^ conducted in the crudest way possible to
imagine. It was driven by competition into the
hands of the poorer classes of people in London
and in the larger cities of the continent of Europe.
The manufacture was in cellars ; and so nmnerous
became the cases of this most loathsome disease
that the different governments drove the manu-
facturers out of the cellars and ordered that they
work in better-ventilated buildings. Despite the
growth of the business the evolution of machinery in
the manufacture has very much lessened the number
of people employed, and reduced the danger of this
disease to the minimum.
From whittling out match-splints in 1833, when
matches were first invented, there has followed a
mechanical development (the several steps of which
would be more interesting to the specialist than to
the general reader, and will not be dwelt upon in
this paper), until now the most perfect and modem
machinery is used in their manufacture. The opera-
tion of these machines may be described as follows :
The wood from which the match-splints are made
is pine plank, two inches thick, which, after being
thoroughly dried, is resawed into lengths from one
and seven eighths to two and one half inches, repre-
senting the length of the matches to be made. The
knots and cross-grained parts are cut out of the
blocks, and only good straight-grained lumber is
used. These blocks are then put into the automatic
feeder of the machine, the paraffine and composition
for the head of the match having been properly
prepared and placed in their respective receptacles,
which are so arranged that they can be replenished
from time to time without stopping the machine.
The knives or dies that cut the match-splint from the
block are so placed in the head-block of the machine
that when the splints are cut they are separated by
a quarter of an inch, and placed or set in cast-iron
plates made into an endless chain by link attach-
ments. At each revolution of the machine forty-
four matches are cut and set, the machine making
from 175 to 250 revolutions per minute, its rapidity
depending on the length of the match and other
conditions.
From the cutting end of the machine the endless
chain moves along over a drying or heating block
prepared for this purpose, where the match-splint is
heated to a degree nearly equal to that required to
melt paraffine, so that the paraffine may not chill
on the stick when the splint passes through it, but
that the end may be thoroughly saturated. The
chain continues to move on in its course to the com-
position rollers, where the match receives its head ;
thence on in a circuitous route, passing back and
462
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
forth, coming in contact with blasts of cool, dry air
for a period of one hour and a half, when it returns
to the place of beginning, just before reaching which
the matches are punched out of the chain by an
automatic device into small paper or strawboard
boxes varying in size, capable of containing from 65
to 500 matches, the boxes having been fed into the
machine by an automatic device with such regularity
that one might almost truthfully say that the matches
were counted into the boxes ; the chain continuing
along to take other match-splints on their roimd, to
be made complete matches and dropped in turn into
other boxes. These boxes of matches pass from the
machine to a rotary table, around which sit from two
to four girls, who take the boxes, place the covers on
them, and then pack them into cases.
The machines require just enough manual help to
feed them the raw material and to take care of the
manufactured product, and are so nearly perfect that
it does not seem possible for much further develop-
ment to be accomplished. The world is indebted
for the present perfection, first, to the policy of the
Diamond Match Company, which has kept em-
ployed, since its organization in 1881, a corps of
expert inventors and mechanics for the invention
and improvement of its machinery, at an expense
of at least $50,000 a year; second, to the inventors
themselves, chief among whom are E. B. Beecher
of Westville, Conn. ; McClintock Young of Fred-
erick, Md. ; J. P. Wright of New Haven, Conn. ;
Joseph Baughman of Akron, O. ; Charles Palmer of
Akron, O. ; and John W. Denmead of Akron, O.
The writer has occasionally added a thought in this
development, especially as to the architecture of
factories best adapted to match manufacttire, and
so arranged as to bring the danger from the use of
phosphorus down to a minimum.
Coincident with this development of machinery
for the manufacture of matches has been that of
machinery for the manufacture of paper and straw-
board boxes used in the match business, a large
part of which machinery has been the creation of
E. B. Beecher. Its operation is as follows : A roll
of strawboard of proper width, lined with white or
colored paper, is placed in the machine, which takes
it and scores the board for the comers without cut-
ting or breaking its fiber. The strawboard is then
glued by an automatic device and folded into an
endless tube, passing on in that form through print-
ing-presses that print three sides of the tube. It is
then cut into proper lengths. Passing on in the
machine, it is sanded on the fourth side, which
makes the rubbing surface for the ignition of the
match. This forms the cover or outside of the
boxes ; these covers are turned out from the machine
at the rate of 450 per minute. The boxes proper are
made in a similar way, by machinery which folds and
glues them in shape.
The immense saving to the world by the intro-
duction of machinery for making match-boxes is in-
dicated by the following facts : There are now used
in the manufacture of matches in the United States
at least 2,000,000 paper or strawboard boxes per
day, which, if made by hand, as the greater part of
them were twenty years ago, would require at least
1 500 people ; while now it requires to operate the
machines that make these boxes not over 75 people.
Besides this great saving of labor, a great saving in
the use of strawboard and paper for labels, paste,
etc., has followed the introduction of machinery, ma-
chine-made boxes being much lighter and stronger.
A fiuther economy has been achieved in the space
required for the manufacture of boxes. Strange to
say, in England and parts of the Continent hand-
made boxes are largely used, the material for them
being weighed out and charged to people who call
for the work and take it home to complete, returning
the finished boxes to the factory in due time. This
work is taken at prices which indicate, at least, that
it is not done in brownstone houses. It is one of
the strange sights to be seen in London and Liver-
pool, this giving out of material for match-boxes to
the poorer classes of people. It is at once pictu-
resque and disgusting. " May human life never be
so cheap in America," is one's first thought on wit-
nessing it.
Nature has queer ways of working out her prob-
lems. Perhaps it is this very cheapness of human
life abroad that has prompted the better fed and
housed Yankees to inventive habits. Certain it is that
they have made greater progress in match making
than any other people on earth. To-day the largest
match-making firm of England or the Continent is
using match machinery invented by Americans over
thirty years ago, while Americans are using machi-
nery that is making a saving in labor over that referred
to of seventy-five per cent. The Diamond Match
Company is now constructing in Liverpool, England,
the largest match factory in the world, for the intro-
duction of the latest and best-known methods for the
manufacture of matches. It would not be strange
if, with the cheap labor and the saving in cost of
material, chemicals, etc., some of the products of
these works should reach the eastern shore of this
continent. Such has been the evolution of the
match industry, with and without protection.
THE MATCH INDUSTRY
463
The effect of this automatic machinery of the
match industry is easily summed up. In 1880, be-
fore the organization of the Diamond Match Com-
pany, there were in existence throughout the
United States over thirty match factories, employ-
ing about 4000 people. The total product of all
these factories at that time was 2,200,000 gross per
annum, which constituted at least ninety-five per
cent, of all the matches that were consumed in the
United States, there being but very few imported ;
while now, with a much smaller number of people
employed, four times as many matches are pro-
duced, the greater part of which are consumed in
this country. Manufacturers' prices of matches
have been reduced from fifty to seventy-five per
cent. The consumption of matches has been in-
creased much more than in proportion to the in-
creased population of the United States, this result
being largely due to the low prices at which they
are sold.
A very large portion of the material used in the
composition for the heads of the matches in this
country is imported. Chlorate of potash, of which
there are consumed in matches in this country 1,500,-
000 pounds per annum (besides several millions of
pounds that are used for other purposes), is all im-
ported—not one pound of the article is made in the
United States ; and the same is true of some other
chemicals used, notwithstanding that they could be
prepared here as cheaply as in Europe, barring the
difference in the price of labor. With a judicious
system of protection to those American industries
which need it there is no reason why, in a few
decades, we can not only be self-sustaining and
independent as a manufacturing and commercial
people, but be able to compete for the trade of the
world on an equal footing ; though we cannot ex-
P^t to command for a long time yet much of the
^e of other countries. The civilized nations of
Ae world are each encouraging home industries by
protective tariffs on such articles as require their
fostering care, and are especially appealing to the
P^otism of their people to patronize home indus-
^cs. The sooner that the American people learn
^ foreign coimtries buy of us only such articles as
*^ are forced to buy, so to speak, the sooner they
will be prepared to save to themselves the great-
^ market on earth — that of their own country.
Although we may pride ourselves on the great
P^pess that has been made in the physical and
commcrdai development of our country, there seems
to be plenty of work yet to do.
*^c writer visited match factories last year in
Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, and England,
and he was unable to discover any material pro-
gress made by these different people beyond the
processes in vogue in America twenty-five years
ago. Of course, the people of those countries have
not had the stimulus of high wages to prompt them
to the use of labor-saving machinery. In Italy the
writer visited a match factory where several hundred
people were employed at wages that in our country,
with our habits of Hving, would not furnish even the
common necessaries of life. A large number of girls
worked for wages not exceeding nine cents per day,
and the most that was paid to girls in this factory
was one franc per day. The writer's attention was
naturally attracted to these people. One of the girls
had on a knit blouse, so open and loosely knit as
to disclose the fact that the wearer had a chemise
underneath ; a calico skirt, hooked together at the
waist over the blouse ; and a cotton underskirt that
showed itself in spots. Her legs were bare, as re-
vealed by the shortness of the skirt, which did not
reach half-way below her knees; and on her feet
were wooden sandals. The effect of the whole was
plainly to outline her rounded contour. Such a
costume would not be recommended to New York's
four hundred, but it was none the less suggestive of
comfort, as the weather was warm. It is probable
that the whole outfit did not cost one dollar. Like
their sisters of high society, some of these girls were
better dressed than others.
If to do the greatest good to the greatest number
be an economic principle, then the American people
should be thoroughly satisfied with their match sup-
ply, matches being so cheap that they are often used
for kindling-wood without materially affecting the
expenses of the household. Such results could only
be obtained by the best methods of manufacture
and distribution. Before the business of manufac-
turing matches in the United States was so thor-
oughly organized by the Diamond Match Company
matches were made by over thirty different com-
panies, many of which did not know the first
principles of the manufacture of good matches.
Notwithstanding competition was then very sharp,
the bulk of the product was sold at about three
times the present price of matches, and in many
cases the goods were utterly worthless.
The expense of conducting the business in those
days was enormous, comparatively, and, of course,
increased the price of the goods. In the city of
Chicago five separate stores were maintained, with
all the expenses incident to such establishments;
and in other cities of the country there were stores
I
I
464
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
in proportionate number to the amount of goods
sold. Moreover, each manufacturer had from one
to five traveling salesmen tramping over the country
at large expense, not less than from $2000 to $3000
per annum each. The system has been so revolu-
tionized that one store in each of the larger com-
mercial centers supplies the public need for matches,
with greater facility than in the olden times, and
very few traveling men are now found necessary in
this line of business. The public have received the
benefit of these economies.
To still further lessen the expense of the produc-
tion of matches, the management of the Diamond
Match Company has adopted a policy, so far as it
has been practicable to do so, to make the company
as self-supplying and independent as possible, they
having invested several millions of dollars in manu-
facturing many of the articles used in the making of
matches, and in pine forests, and large mills for the
reduction of pine-trees to lumber for splints by the
most economical methods, in order that all possible
waste may be avoided. These investments could
be profitably made only by a company using such
large quantities of these several articles as are used
by the Diamond Match Company. A compre-
hensive system of factories to supply the want
of matches has been advantageously distributed
through the country. Nearly all of these factories
have been modernized and brought up to a very
high standard of efficiency. While concentration of
capital in this business has brought down the num-
ber of factories to about twenty, the match business
is in no sense a monopoly, and many times more
people are now interested directly in the business
than were before the Diamond Match Company was
established in 1881. The company is rather in the
nature of a cooperative company (although regularly
chartered), in which every important person in the
business 6x>m time to time, as he comes on the stage,
is aided to the ownership of stock in the company.
The liberality of the management in this particular
has wedded to the business a corps of very able
yoimg men in each and every branch of their
different factories and stores.
The difference between this company and a
monopoly is illustrated by a comparison of it with
a monopoly in the same line of business. The
French government runs the match business as
a government institution. The revenue or profit
derived from it is somewhat over $4,000,000 per
annum. The cost of matches to the French peo-
ple is quite four times what is paid for better
goods in America. The "Pall Mall Gazette" of
recent date describes this monopoly in the following
language :
"Those who have had occasion to travel much
beyond Calais of late cannot fail to have been
struck by the fact that, since the French match
makers struck, matches in France have, in an
imusually large number of instances, been found
capable of doing so. The ' Matin ' supplies an ex-
planation of this phenomenon. The matches that
have been striking were all made in Belgium. Dur-
ing the strike the French government has been
drawing its supplies from Ghent It appears Ghent
can supply this sort of matches at j£^ 4s, 2d, per
1,000,000, whereas the match-wood turned out by
the French factories costs not less than j£$ Ss, 4//.
for about the same number of misfires. So the
' Matin ' has been moved to make a little calculation.
And, according to this, it would seem, if France
were to give up the business altogether, close her
factories, pay the hands to do nothing for the term
of their natural lives, and run the Belgian articles,
she would net an annual profit of ;^8ooo. This
sounds very nice, and Mr. Ribot could do with the
money, and there would not be nearly as many bad
words about. But then, as another Paris journal
points out, the thing would be unpatriotic, and when
patriotism wants a light it will probably have to go
on using those words, or learn the two-stick trick to
get one."
One is a monopoly, run by the operatives, not by
the owners ; the other is a company largely owned
by operatives, who carry on the business for their
own benefit, the result being economies whereby the
public is greatly benefited.
One of the greatest achievements of the Diamond
Match Company was its last winter's lumbering
operation, conducted by J. H. Comstock, who or-
ganized a force of men in October, and between the
I St of October and the ist of April cut 185,000,000
feet of lumber in logs, having at one time in the
woods over 6000 people and 1200 horses. The
expense was over $600,000. This work was made
necessary by the extensive fires of last fall in order
to save the lumber. Such is the advantage of capital
in preventing waste.
The writer, who has had forty years* experience
in the match business, has not only seen it wonder-
fully developed, but he has been equally impressed
with other lines of development that have had an
effect on it. The method of distribution of matches,
in the early fifties was by canal or wagon — at leasC:
in the West, when there were but very few railroads
in Ohio and west of Ohio, and the roads then run-
THE MATCH INDUSTRY
46S
niog would not transport matches, which were con-
g'dered too dangerous.
It was only in the eariy sixties that railroads be-
gan to cany matches. The writer has been in every
county in Ohio with a wagon, also in a large portion
of Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia, and western
Pennsylvania, on the mission of parceling out to the
country stores small lots of matches, for which he
did not always get cash. In fact, all cash was the
exception, and the business was chiefly done in what
then was called "barter"; that is, matches were
traded for calico, cotton cloth, boots and shoes, tea
and coSee, sugar, candles, and everything else that
was useful in the home and could in turn be traded
off to the hands in payment of labor. The cash
received in those days for matches went to buy
lumber, brimstone, phosphorus, and other chemicals
used in their manufacture, which were all imported,
with the exception of lumber. It was very little cash
that labor received in the West " in those good old
days." There was one notable exception when cash
was paid out to hands, and that was when a circus
was in town, the amount required being twenty-five
cents per head. And all went, if it took the last
cent.
The evolution from these methods to those of to-
day is quite as remarkable as the evolution in
mechanical development. Strange it is that a con-
dition of trade could exist such as existed in this
country in the fifties, when there were produced
from the mines of the country so many, many
millions of dollars of gold, all going out to foreign
countries in the purchase of merchandise which we
were unable to manufacture.
Prominent among the men who have developed
the manufacture and distribution of 1 1 5,200,000,000
matches per annum (so that no person shall want
for matches in the United States if willing to pay a
very moderate price for them) are found William
Gates (deceased), Frankfort, N. Y. ; George Barber
(deceased), Akron, O. ; D. M. Richardson (de-
ceased), Detroit, Mich.; John K. Robinson, Chi-
cago, 111. ; E. B. Beecher, Westville, Conn. ; L. W.
Beecher, Westville, Conn. ; James Hopkins, St.
Louis, Mo. ; William H. Swift, Wilmington, Del. ;
Joseph Swift, Wihnington, Del. ; M. Daily, Phila-
delphia, Pa.; William M. Graves, Chicago, IlLj
George P. Johnson, New York City ; E. G. Byam,
Boston, Mass. ; J. C. Jordan, Portland, Me. ; James
Eaton (deceased), Utica, N. Y, ; Henry Stanton (de-
ceased), Syracuse, N. Y. ; James Clark (deceased),
Oshkosh, Wis.; William H. and J. H. Moore,
Chicago, III. These last two gentlemen became
largely interested in the business in 1889, and have
aided greatly in bringing it up to its present com-
mercial importance.
mm^w%m^wAW&ws^m%ws^m
^k^^!^! !3^ ^^l^^^b l^ 1^ ^^^^ a^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ J^ 1^ 1^ 1^^^ ^^^^^
CHAPTER LXX
THE ICE INDUSTRY
THE use of ice as an article of commercial im-
portance dates from early in the present cen-
tury. It is to the people of America above
all Others that the credit must be given for its rapid
development as an industry, hardly less phenomenal
than the progress of steam, the improvement of the
printing-press, and the introduction of electric and
Other inventive industries.
Prior to the beginning of the present century we
learn little as to the use of ice. Dating back to the
days of Job, we find him singularly oblivious to his
opportunities when the Lord called his attention to
" the treasures of the snow," " the treasures of the
hail," "the ice," and "the hoar-frost of heaven."
Galileo seems to have been equally inappredative,
notwithstanding that he is accredited with having
been the first to observe that "ice is lighter than
water ; hence it floats." In the early ages of Greece
and Rome it is shown to have been used, snow in the
days of Seneca having been sold in the shops and
peddled upon the streets of Rome. The snow thus
used was collected on the dry plains of Hannibal's
camp on the ancient Mons Albanus, where pits were
dug, cone-shaped, about fifty feet deep and twenty-
five feet in diameter at the surface, then filled with
snow, and beaten down as hard as possible, the pit
having been first lined with straw and prunings of
trees. The extreme bottom of the pit was obstructed
by a wooden grating, in order to form a drain ; and
more prunings being added, a thatched roof was put
on, and a door, well covered with straw, left at the
side, through which entrance could be effected for
the purpose of cutting out with mattocks the ice thus
formed. In the East Indies a somewhat analogous
example appears, the pits there, however, being about
thirty feet square by two feet deep, lined with sugar-
cane or the stems of dried Indian com about a foot
thick. In these pits shallow earthen dishes are placed,
which are filled at dusk with water that has been
boiled, which readily freezes during the night; and
at sunrise hundreds of laborers carry the thin sheets
of ice thus formed to deep pits, ramming them down
to force them to congeal into a solid mass. Id
China a like method is pursued.
In the reign of Henry III. of France, toward tbe
close of the sixteenth century, tbe use of snow for
cooling liquors at tbe tables of the wealthy became
somewhat general, and its sale near the end of the
seventeenth century was made a profitable trade in
some parts of that country. From that time to the
early part of the nineteenth century little progress was
made in developing the use of ice, although some
experiments were made in increasing refrigeration
by mixing saltpeter and snow with ice, and in coa-
gealing by cold various juices, creams, and other
luxuries. I refer to tbe original manuscript of an
article prepared for tbe United States census of i88o
for thus much of " ancient history," as, strange to
relate, the literature of the business may be said to
be still in its infancy ; and the absence of accurately
compiled statistical infonnation from tbe various sec-
tions of our own country, as well as others, prevents
such a r^sum6 as can be given from property con-
veying a clear idea of the magnitude of this won-
derful outgrowth of American enterprise.
When Daniel Webster moved to Marshfield in
1S35 and cut his own ice, he had seen but the birdi
of this new child of nineteenth -century progress, and
but little of its infancy, for it had not then developed
into youth. The year 1805 may be taken as mail-
ing the first stage of its life, if we except the ship-
ment made from New York in the year 1799 by»
gentleman in Charleston, S. C, who chartered a ves-
sel for a cargo which was cut on a pond near Canal
Street, in the city of New York. In 1805 Marti-
nique's hot sun destroyed the frigid cargo of 130 tons
which had gone to its shores from Yankeedom in
the little brig Favorite to assuage the sufferings on
that fever-swept island. The ill results of dutt ex-
periment, by which $4500 were lost, only temporaiily
THE ICE INDUSTRY
467
disheartened its originator, Frederic Tudor, son of
Judge William Tudor, who as a colonel had served
on the staff of General Washington. The brig 7h-
deni^ two years later, carried Mr. Tudor's second
shipment from Boston, which arrived in Havana,
but likewise proved unprofitable. The War of i8i 2
caused a cessation of his efforts, and not until the
year 18 16, after obtaining a concession from the
Spanish government securing a monopoly in Havana,
did he again venture to export from Charlestown,
Mass., cargoes of ice to the South. Their success-
ful sale justified further ventures to other Southern
ports on our coast, and the Stars and Stripes for suc-
ceeding years waved over many an American ship
freighted with frozen crystals which found a wel-
come in home and foreign ports as far as the East
Indies. In 181 7 and 18 18 the trade was extended
to Charleston and Savannah; in 1820 to New Or-
leans; in 1833 to Calcutta; in 1834 to Rio Janeiro.
An illustration of the progress of ice exportation is
furnished in the following table :
EXPORTATION OF ICE.
Ybab.
NUMBBK CaKGOBS.
quaktity.
Tons.
x8o6
I
5
45
363
130
1^00
1816
1&6
4,000
I2/X)0
1836
4..;.....:
65,000
146,000
18(6
•"jw •••..•••#•••...
In this latter year shipments had covered ports in
the West Indies, South America, Ceylon, Calcutta,
Bombay, Madras, Batavia, Manilla, Singapore, Can-
ton, Mauritius, and Australia. In 1842, Gage, Hit-
tinger & Company, of Boston, entered the field as
exporters, and introduced American ice by the bark
Shnn to the people of London. Mr. Lander, of
Salem, followed them in this trade. In 1872 ship-
OKnts had increased to 225,000 tons, and thus the
tnde continued until the year 1880, when the ex-
tnordinary failure of the ice crop opened the field in
tropical countries for manufacturing ice. In that
3r«rthe shipments by 1735 vessels from the Ken-
>Kbec alone amounted to 890,364 tons.
Thus the irrepressible American was different
^ Job and Galileo ; he saw his opportunities and
"^ the most of them. In a few years the business
^^28 hegon in Eastern cities, notably in New York,
^^it has since attained the most gigantic propor-
**WK. Previous to the introduction of Croton water
*^ 4at dty, the earliest efforts at gathering ice, ex-
^^pting die first shipment in 1 799 to South Carolina
before referred to, were directed by a few butchers
desirous of preserving meats for the wants of the
small population. Their ice came from what was
known as Sunfish Pond, on the outskirts of the city.
In the year 1826 some ice was cut on Rockland
Lake, the purity of this water particularly commend-
ing it. This ice was conveyed from Rockland Lake
landing in a rude box, set upon a truck with wheels
cut from logs of wood, to the sloop Contractor^ com-
manded by Captain John White, and from the sloop
it was trundled around ashore in a one-horse cart
until sold. Later the steamboat that made a trip
firom Haverstraw and return in two days brought
all the supply to the city customers. As in Boston,
these pioneers thought ice could not be kept above-
ground, and therefore stored it in a large hole twenty
feet square by fifteen feet deep. Then followed the
building of stone houses at the old red fort, Hubert
Street, in New York City, and another at the foot of
Christopher Street. This plan of storage was event-
ually abandoned, owing to the waste ensuing from
firequent exposure of the ice while loading wagons.
Thereafter followed, as the business grew, the erec-
tion of storehouses at the lakes and other places where
ice was first gathered; these storehouses varying
greatly in size, but ordinarily built about 100 or 150
feet in length by 36 to 40 and 50 feet in width, and
containing rooms more or less in number for the
separation of the ice. These rooms in some of the
States are each called a house, although all are
under one roof ; while elsewhere an aggregation of
rooms is designated a house. Thus an owner of a
twelve-room house is spoken of in one section of
the country as owning twelve ice-houses, and in
another section as owning one house. The storage
capacity of houses ranges from 10,000 to 90,000
tons, 30,000 tons being a fair average acconmio-
dation ; and the total storage of natural ice for mer-
cantile use may be safely estimated for the whole
United States at 10,000,000 tons.
A lack of unity of interest and harmony in the
trade, and a tendency to overestimate rather than
underestimate the magnitude of individual opera-
tions, have resulted in promoting incorrect opinions
as to the storage capacity, the consumption, and the
capital invested. Thus, in some cases, chartered
companies have been erected upon fictitious value,
arbitrarily fixed without reference to intrinsic or
market value, often comprising sums stated as con-
sideration for " good-will," a rather valueless com-
modity in many cases. Shorn of these values, how-
ever, an estimate taken from the best information
at hand, and firom actual inspection of most of the
468
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
large centers where the business is conducted, results
in fixing the entire capital engaged in the ice busi-
ness of the United States, inclusive of that invested
in manufacturing ice, at not less than $30,000,000 ;
and the production for commercial use at about
1 5,000,000 tons, about one half of the crop gathered
being available for use, the waste by melting and
chipping amounting to fifty per cent. No pro-
vision, however, is made in this estimate for the
business conducted in the small towns and villages
of the country, of which it is impossible to obtain
statistics.
To move this great body of ice requires a large
fleet of vessels — saiHng vessels for export, and
mostly ice-barges and other boats for the home
trade. The railroads also, in many sections, are
largely used for transportation, more particularly in
the West, where the value of the ice dealers* patron-
age has been recognized in rates that make it pos-
sible for dealers to use cars in transportation profit-
ably ; whereas in the East this has generally been
found to be impracticable, except where the railroad
company has entered into competition with ice deal-
ers to build up its own freight by controlling owner-
ship of the ice plant. In the year 1878 large
quantities were shipped in train-load lots by the
Knickerbocker Ice Company, of New York, to
Cincinnati and other cities in the West and South,
twelve gross tons weighing out ten net tons, much
to the surprise and admiration of buyers in those
cities for the skilful packing. Ice was railroaded
afterward in the same year to St. Louis from Maine
— a longer distance; but the experiment was not
repeated, owing to a waste of fifty per cent. The
large fleets of ice-barges traversing the Hudson by
day and night, in tow of steam-tugs, during the
season of navigation, which is limited to an average
calculated during fifteen years at 268 days, form a
picturesque scene familiar to tourists on that river ;
and the great storage-houses so numerous on its
banks between Rondout and Coxsackie have awak-
ened their wonder, equipped as they are with ele-
vators and chains, stored away during the stun-
mer, but which in winter run to the music of steam-
power with the white blocks of crystal from the
water to the interior of the houses. The electric
power has not yet been put in service there, except
for light while working at night. The movement
of the large stock of ice required for New York and
adjacent cities must of necessity be made in the
limited period for water transit, the record of fifteen
years showing a closing of navigation on the Hud-
son an average of ninety-seven days in the year.
Over 1500 wagons and 3000 horses are in use for
the distribution of ice in the cities of New York and
Brooklyn alone, and the weekly pay-rolls in these
two cities for laborers engaged in such work amount
in the stunmer with the leading dealers to about
$25,000 per week. To the yearly pay-rolls must be
added the cost of towing, loading, and discharging
barges, dock and stable rents, repairs and mainte-
nance of boats, wagons, ice-houses, and other things
in which the deterioration from usage is rapid, and it
will be foimd questionable whether any other indus-
try retiuns out of its receipts so large a percentage
to the people from whom the revenue is derived.
The manufacture of ice-tools and machinery, as
a necessary adjunct of the ice business, is made a
specialty by some dealers in this country, who thus
have attained not only a national but an interna-
tional reputation for excellence of work. Mr.
Nathaniel Wyeth, of Boston, who constructed the
first double-walled modem ice-house, has the
credit, in connection with Mr. John Barker, of the
same city, of inventing many of the ice-tools, now
numbering over seventy, which supplemented the
primitive ax and hand-saw used in the early years
of the business. The Norwegians were the first
foreigners to recognize the advantage of American
ice-tools and machinery, after the invention of ice-
plows in the year 1839 (although the patent clear-
ing-tooth was not invented until the year 1872);
and it was not many years after the exportation of
ice was shown by Americans to be practicable that
certain of those Northmen visited this country to
learn the method of harvesting, storing, and ship-
ping, which business dealers in that country have
since largely pursued. Some cargoes of Norwegian
ice have found a ready market in the city of New
York in seasons of scarcity, the first cargo arriving
in the year 1880.
The production of cold by artificial means has
attracted attention from a much earlier date than is
generally supposed. The existence of porous day
vessels for cooling water in Egypt, Arabia, China,
and other Eastern countries would indicate that this
method antedated the use for like purposes of even
ice itself, notwithstanding ice was already prepared
in natiure's own laboratory. In the southern part
of the eastern hemisphere, where ice could not be
found, the earliest process was the plunging of wine-
bottles in water to lower the temperature of the
wine ; then succeeded the plan of wrapping them in
wet cloths, thus appl3ang the principle of evapora-
tion, a principle still in existence combined with the
use and solution of saline substances. When snow
%
THE ICE INDUSTRY
could be procured it was substituted for water, and
eventually the application of sail was found to
hasten evaporation. The use of ether was also
known as productive of cold by evaporation shortly
after its discovery ; and in India it was common,
owing to ihc cheapness of niter, to use a solution of
niter and water also as a cooling mixture for wine.
The becarros of Malaga and the alcarrazas of Spain
are but modernized developments of those coobng
vessels which the Saracens introduced, and faithfidly
attest the antiquity of the practice of artificial means
of refrigeration. The record of early experiments
for mercantile uses starts with the Italians in the
sixteenth centmy. Lord Bacon later took some in-
terest in the matter ; and the record of the resiJts of
the experiments of Mr. Walker, of Oxford, England,
in 1795, contains highly interesting tables of many
freezing mixtures. Professor Leslie, of England,
produced a considerable degree of refrigeration on
the principle of including in the exhausted receiver
of an air-pump sulphuric acid, a substance rapidly
absorbing vapor. Later experiments were made
by Frencli and German inventors. The ether-
machine followed, being patented in Connecticut in
1850; but a serious danger arises from the use of
ether, owing to its liability to explosion in case of
leakage. Other machines have been made using
liquefied ammonia, and others sulphurous acid and
various frigorific mixtm-es. More progress in these
has been made by manufacturers in this country
than elsewhere, particularly in the commercial use
of cold air for refrigeration in breweries and places
where cold air only is required, but with more
varying success in the production of ice itself for
consumption, except at points remote from the
soiu'ces of natural ice-supply. Thus in the South,
and notably at points away from the coast, machine-
made ice has been handled to better advantage than
the other ; but the cost of manufactiuing such ice,
even without the additional cost of making a chem-
ically pure article, precludes the prospect of ever
bringing it profitably into competition with ice
formed by nature's own hand.
America may well be proud of the ice industry,
and may well claim its parentage. It brings com-
fort to the afflicted, it puts sweetness and purity in
tiie place of decay, and by wasting gives up its own
life to save lives greater and more valuable. It
promotes the honest investment of capital, and feeds
and clothes laborers by the thousands. On the
fields adjacent to the city of New York alone it
tinds employment in the harvesting season for from
I S.ooo to zo.ooo men, and in its distribution during
summer for nearly 5000 men. The cost of harvest-
ing goes to the laborer, thence to the merchant;
the costly plants set as jewels among the farm lands,
wherever located, reduce the taxes of other land-
owners ; and thus all classes reap a benefit from the
money which stores, moves, and distributes the crop.
It is a productive industry in the fullest sense, and as
" blessed is he who makes two blades of grass grow
where one grew before," so should this industry, in
all the glory of its productive power and beneficial
results, be fostered and classed among the thousand
things which stir the pride of the American people
in this nineteenth century.
^cn^^'-^On.axIc
Ci4^
CHAPTER LXXI
SODA-FOUNTAINS
JAMES PARTON, in his " Life of Hiomas Jef-
ferson," says of Dr. Joseph Priestley: "It is not
true that no public memorial of Dr. Priestley
has been erected. Every soda-fountain is his
monument; and we all know how numerous and
splendid they are. Eveiy fountain, too, whence flows
the home-made water of Vichy and Kissingen is a
monument to Priesdey ; for it was he who discov-
ered the essential portions of the process by which
all such waters are made. The misfortune is, how-
ever, that of the millions of human beings who quaff
the cool and sparkling soda, not one in a thousand
would know what name to pronounce if he were
called upon to drink to the memory of the inventor.
And really bis invention of soda-water is a reason
why Americans should join in the scheme to honor
his memory. He not only did all he could to assist
the birth of the nation, but he invented the national
beverage."
"Soda-water," or, more correctly, carbonated
water, which is simply a mechanical mixture of car-
bonic-acid gas with water, was first made by Professor
Venel, of Montpellier, France, whose researches
were laid before the French Academy of Sciences tn
1750, by mixing two drams of soda and "marine"
acid in a pint of water contained in an ordinary
glass bottle. Carbonic acid was discovered by the
Belgian chemist, Van Helmont, in the early part of
the seventeenth century. He coined the word
" gas " to designate it. Lavoisier named it carbonic
acid, and Priestley, in r767, produced a carbonated
beverage by pouring water briskly back and forth
between two small vessels held in a layer of carbon
dioxide on the top of the fermenting mass in a brew-
cry vat at Leeds, England. Bergman, the Swedish
chemist, in 1770 generated carbonic-acid gas from
chalk by the use of "vitriolic acid," and invented a
generating apparatus for the purpose. In 1810,
Simmons and Rundell, of Charleston, S. C, were
granted a patent for saturating water with " fixed
air." John Matthews, of New Yoric, in 1831 began
the manufacture of soda-water, and apparatus with
which to make it, and may fairly be termed the
father of soda-water as it is known in the United
States. Matthews, who learned his business in
England under Bramah, manufactured generattHS
of cast-iron lined with lead, in which be produced
carbonic add from marble-dost and oil of vitriol,
purifying it by passing it through water in a purify-
ing chan^>er, whence it was conducted into fountains
of cast-iron lined with block-tin, in which the gas
was combined with water by means of a revolving
agitator, or by rocking the fountain, which, for this
purpose, was mounted by means of trutmiona in a
cast-iron frame. His dispensing apparatus was a
simple draft-tube projecting from a counter, beneath
which the fountain was incased in ice, or the fonn-
tain and draft-tube were connected by means of a
coil of pipe placed in an ice-box; the syrups for
sweetening and flavoring being kept in glass bot-
tles on the counter. Subsequendy these bottles
were mounted on a caster, and later they were in-
verted, mounted in rings npon a marble slab, and
stopped from within by a valve upon the end of a
rod which projected through a hole in the top of the
inverted bottle.
The apparatus for manufacturing soda-water de-
scribed above, with various modifications and im-
provements, is that most generally used to-day
throughout the United States, and nearly all manu-
facturers use marble-dust and sulphuric add for the
production of carbonic-acid gas.
In 1844, A. D. Puffer, of Boston, began the
manufacture of soda-water apparatus, and probably
about the same time A. J. Morse, who in his day
was one of Boston's leading coppersmiths, took up
this branch of manufacture. Puffer invented the
first cooler for soda-water upon which a patent was
granted, and Morse manufactured a vertical copper
generator and portable cof^ter fountains or tanks
SODA-FOUNTAINS
471
for holding and transporting the beverage. In
1847, William Gee, of New York, who had been an
apprentice under Matthews, estabh'shed himself in
business. He was an ingenious mechanic, and pat-
ented many minor devices in soda-water machinery
and apparatus.
To G. D. Dows, an Englishman, who carried on
a drug business in Boston, belongs the honor of in-
venting and patenting the first marble soda-water
apparatus, the protot3rpe of the modem soda-foun-
tain. He began business in 1854. His apparatus
was a marble box, containing a coil-pipe cooler for
soda-water, and metal containers for S3nrups, and an
ice-shaver, in which a block of ice was shaved into
snow, the syrups and soda-water being drawn in
a tumbler previously partly filled with shaved ice.
This i^paratus was distinguished by a row of silver-
plated syrup-faucets, upon each of which an eagle
was perched, serving as a lever for opening the
^ucet His soda draft-tubes were provided with
nozzles of soft rubber, which served to retain the
gas in the water while being transferred to a water-
bottle held against the rubber nozzle, the water
being subsequendy poured from the bottle into a
tumbler containing the ice and syrups.
Later he invented the first double-stream soda
draft-tube, which delivered the soda direcdy into the
tumbler, thus doing away with the use of the bottle.
This draft-tube furnished a fine forcible stream which
stirred up the ice and syrup, and was provided with
a "spoon " pivoted in the edge of the nozzle, which,
when the tumbler was pressed against its projecting
end, was forced beneath an inner nozzle, breaking
the force of the fine stream and producing a large
stream without force, which retained gas in the
water without intervention of the water-bottle.
Dows exhibited his apparatus at the Paris Exposi-
tion of 1867, and received medals and high com-
mendation. About this time he established a branch
house in London, which is still in existence. He
was the first to manufacture a fine article of bottled
ginger-ale in this country, and much of that now
manufactured is made upon his formula. Among
his early customers were Z. S. Sampson, of Court
and Hanover streets, Boston, and Orlando Tomp-
kins, who kept a drug-store at the comer of Wash-
ington and Winter streets, and who was the father of
£ngene Tompkins, proprietor of the Boston Theater.
In 1863, being in need of a soda-fountain for use
in my drug-store in Somerville, Mass., I invented
and patented an apparatus styled the ''Arctic,"
which subsequently attained a wide popularity, and
led me to abandon the drug business to engage in
its manufacture. Although a crude machine judged
by modem standards, it was considered to be in
advance of any in the market at that date. Its .
peculiar features consisted of cylindrical metal cool-
ers, which possessed the advantage of producing soda-
water of so low a temperature that the use of shaved
ice, which had the effect of driving off the gas
from soda-water drawn upon it, could be dispensed
with. The symp-containers were placed in the rear
of the marble box, and connected with the syrup-
faucets by means of coolers passing beneath the ice,
producing chilled symps. S3nrup-faucets bearing a
star and liberty-cap, doubtless remembered by many
readers, distinguished this apparatus, which was
noted for the coldness and consequent good quality
of the beverage drawn from it.
My first catalogue was issued in 1864 from a little
factory at 11 Haverhill Street, Boston, and was
illustrated with woodcuts made by Kilbum, Boston's
leading wood-engraver. It is curious to read in
this book, in the light of subsequent developments,
the statement of a conservative dmggist: "Folks
don't drink soda nowadays." Among my first cus-
tomers were Henry C. Choate and John I. Brown
& Son, leading druggists of Boston, and Southmayd,
the leading confectioner of the city; also Ellis F.
Miller, of Hanover and Union streets, a location
which is still one of the leading soda-water stands
of the city.
About this time Puffer introduced his apparatus
with the " magic " draft-tube, from which soda-water
and a variety of S3nrups were drawn through the
same nozzle. This apparatus attained a wide pop-
ularity, and is known to New-Yorkers through its
use by the celebrated Hudnut. During the years
1864, 1865, 1866, and 1867 my business extended,
covering a wide range of territory; Frederick
Steams, of Detroit, F. E. Suire & Company, of
Cincinnati, then the largest retailers of soda-water in
the country, and Charles Lippincott, the largest
soda-water manufacturer in Philadelphia, being
among the users of and dealers in the "Arctic."
The Lippincott business, which was established in
1832, subsequently took up the manufacture of
marble soda-water apparatus, becoming one of the
leading manufactining houses in the line.
At this time, E. Bigelow, of Springfield, Mass.,
was manufacturing an apparatus which had at least
one excellent feature— the "wonder" cooler, sub-
sequendy purchased, with other effects of the Bige-
low Manufacturing Company, by John Matthews,
on the failure of the company. The Bigelow
apparatus was supplied with a piston-style faucet,
472
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
which proved unsatisfactory and went into disuse
when this company discontinued business. The
Bigelow apparatus was in use by Hegeman & Com-
pany, of New York, in 1865.
In 1854, and subsequendy, many inventions of
both the elder and younger John Matthews were
patented; among others the measuring syrup-tank
of glass, still used by their successors. William Gee
invented and patented the two-wheel soda draft-
tube, the pipe-lined coupling, a blow-off cock for
generators, and other devices, which subsequently,
by purchase, became the property of the Matthews
concern. This ingenious mechanic received a pat-
ent for the combination of a force-pump with a
soda-fountain, for forcing water into the fountain
against pressure, thus preventing the waste of gas
consequent upon opening the fountain to refill with
water ; and this invention is the basis of the present
splendid machine for filling portable fountains made
by the Matthews Company. Another of his inven-
tions is the draft apparatus of silver plate, made
popular by Huyler, the confectioner, and used at all
his stores. This apparatus, known as the " Monitor
Crystal Spa," and made by the Matthews Company,
consists of a central cylinder containing coolers and
syrups, surrounded by a revolving caster supporting
an array of glass syrup-bottles. Gee's manufactur-
ing apparatus was used by the celebrated Dr. Han-
bury Smith, of Union Square, New York, and his
bottling apparatus by Comstock, Gove & Company,
of Boston. John Matthews is referred to in the
New York " Evening MaO," in 1868, as the " Nep-
tune of the trade," and is stated to have the largest
house in the business, employing 100 men and car-
rying on no less than sixteen distinct trades, the
factory at First Avenue, Twenty-sixth and Twenty-
seventh streets, where it is still located, supplying
everything in the soda-water line, from a quart of
syrup to a $1400 apparatus.
In 1868 my apparatuses were already being imi-
tated by rival manufacturers, and from that time on
the competition has been sharp. The first departm^e
from the square white marble box was made by me
in 1869, when the cottage style was introduced, and
the design patented. Colored marbles were used in
this design, the Tennessee, Vermont, and New York
State marbles being used in addition to the white
Italian. In this year I introduced the patent revolv-
ing tumbler-washer, and began the use of block-tin
syrup-cans, which were a great advance in purity
and durability over the syrup receptacles of copper,
glass, and earthenware previously in use. In this
year, also, I had the satisfaction of selling one of
my fountains to Copeland & Tarbell, of Boston,
who had at that time the finest confectionery estab-
lishment in the United States.
Joseph Hindermyer, of Philadelphia, was one of
the early manufacturers of soda-water apparatus,
and many ingenious devices originated with him.
Among his appliances which came into general use
was the ground-plug syrup-faucet, which, with many
improvements and modifications, is still used by the
majority of manufacturers of soda-fountains. At
this time there were 1200 of my fountains in use,
and I opened my first branch at Maiden Lane and
Nassau Street, New York. In 1873 the first hot-
soda apparatus was patented, and in 1874 a sliding
valve, double-stream draft-tube, and the cup-cooler,
the latter still being used in all apparatus of my
make. In 1874, also, the first patent was granted
under which the Matthews steel fountain was man-
ufactured. The introduction of the steel fountain
marked an era in the business, it being a vast im-
provement over the so-called portable cast-iron foun-
tains, or even the lighter copper fountains, once so
common and now so seldom seen.
The Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia af-
forded an opportunity not to be overlooked for ad-
vertising the soda-fountain and popularizing soda-
water as a beverage, and the exclusive privilege
of serving it within the groimds was secured by
Charles Lippincott & Company and myself for the
sum of $50,000. The business done was enormous,
and, although not profitable in itself, proved a valu-
able advertisement. Puffer in this year invented the
arc, a small silver-plated counter apparatus, which
has proved very popular ; and Gee invented a self-
closing acid-valve for carbonic-acid-gas generators.
Matthews in 1878 invented the solid-plunger
syrup-piunp, which, with modifications, is still ex-
tremely popular with bottlers of soda-water ; and in
1880 the "sublift" s)rrup-valve for glass syrup-
tanks, provided with measuring chambers, which
form the distinguishing feature of this make of dis-
pensing apparatus. In 1881 Matthews was granted
the first of a series of patents for filling portable
fountains with soda-water, which formed the basis
of the so-called "new system" now coming into
general use. Puffer in 1 88 2 invented and introduced
the revolving water-gauge, and the same year intro-
duced the patented pressure-regulator, a useful device
for preventing breakage of botdes when being filled
with soda-water, lessening danger to operators from
flying fragments of glass, and improving the uni-
formity of beverages. Roger Scannell, of Boston,
in 1884 patented the first spray-carbonator, a simple
James W, Tufts.
SODA-FOUNTAINS
and efficient device for combining gas with water
without mechanical agitation.
An era of the business was marked again in 1885
by the invention of the drawer syrup-can, which
was patented and introduced by me. This syrup-
can, which differs from all that have preceded it in
being horizontal and located betow the ice-chamber,
has become so popular that it has practically driven
every other form of syrup-can from the market.
Numerous patents have been granted upon imita-
tions of it, and several suits for infringements are
now before the courts. The heat-regulator used on
my hot-soda apparatus was invented and patented
in this year.
In 1886, Harry Robertson, of New York, pat-
ented a spray- carbonator containing some ingenious
automatic features, which is manufactured by Wit-
teman Brothers, of New York. In 1887, William
P. Clark, of Medford, Mass., invented the latest of
a series of double-stream draft-lubes, which were for
many years, and are still, used exclusively on my
fountains. This tube, which is a nice piece of
mechanical construction, may be entirely taken
apart without the use of a wrench, and draws alter-
nately line and large streams of soda by slight move-
ments of a lever. Luther W. Puffer patented the
non-clogging blow-off cock for generators in 1SS7,
and F. Hazard Lippincott patented a removable
glass syrup-jar, with a simple and ingenious device
for detaching the cock from its lever by simply lift-
ing it with the jar in removing the latter.
Early in 1891 the proprietors of the four largest
concerns engaged in the manufacture of soda-water
apparatus came together and organized the Ameri-
can Soda-Fountain Company, which purchased from
the owners, at fair valuations, the four businesses
represented. The company is capitalized at $3,7 50,-
000, one third of which is first preferred stock,
bearing six per cent, dii-idend ; one third second
preferred stock, bearing eight per cent, dividend ;
and one third common, which to date has paid ten
per cent., while a surplus of $300,000 has been laid
aside. The company conducts its four branches as
separate and distinct businesses under the old firm
names of James W. Tufts, A. D. Puffer & Sons,
Charles Lippincott & Company, and the John
Matthews Apparatus Company. It has recently
acquired by purchase the Harti Manufacturing
Company, of Chicago. The stock of the American
Soda-Fountain Company is held by some 800 differ-
ent owners.
The Harlt Manufacturing Company patented and
introduced in 1891 a drawer-can which is dropped
before withdrawing. This patent has already be-
come a source of litigation, two suits for infringe-
ment having been brought under it. Henry Carse,
of Rock Island, 111., in 1892 patented a carbonating-
machine for combining carbonic-acid gas and water
by the spray process, which was introduced by the
Hartt Manufacturing Company, and has attained
considerable popularity. The Low Art Tile Com-
pany, of Chelsea, Mass., took up the manufacture of
soda-fountains in 1891, abandoning its older busi-
ness of manufacturing tiles for architectural and
decorative purposes, and produced the first apparatus
incased entirely in tiles.
F. H. Lippincott in 1893 patented the first tilting
syrup-jar, which was closely followed by a similar
device invented and patented by Herman Hoff, of
the Harlt Manufacturing Company; and the same
year I patented the "Cataract," the latest and most
improved form of spray-carbonator. In this machine
gas is admitted under high pressure to a vertical
chamber, through a regulating valve which maintains
a imiform pressure ; by means of a pump, water is
forced into the top of this chamber through a plate
perforated with hundreds of tiny holes; and a
revolving agitator in the lower part of the chamber
completes the combination of gas and water. The
quantity of water is governed by the action of a
small vessel hung in knife-edge bearings and counter-
balanced, the water flowing and ebbing in the vessel
as its level varies in the mixing chamber, and gravity
causing the vessel to rise and fall as its weight varies
with the changing flow of water. The rock-shaft,
upon which the vessel and its counterpoise arc
mounted, carries a belt-shipper, and its movement
ships the driring-belt of the pump from the fast to
the loose pulley, and vice versa, thereby alternately
stopping and starting the pump. The action of this
machine is entirely automatic, and adapts its output
to the demand made upon it by the bottlers, work-
ing equally well whether supplying one or six bot-
thng tables. I have recently completed for the
Charles E. Hires Company, of Philadelphia, a
machine consisting of three of these carbonators
mounted in battery with two generators of the larg-
est size, which is capable of supplying eighteen bot-
tlers and turning out 3600 dozen bottles of beverage
in ten hours. This is probably the largest machine
in the world for the manufacture of soda-water.
Besides the patents described, hundreds of others
have been granted for soda-water machinery, the
American Soda-Fountain Company alone owning
nearly aoo live patents. In addition to those men-
tioned previously in this article, there are scattered
474
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COHHERCE
throughout the country numerous other concerns
manufacturing soda-fountains, among which may be
mentioned Otto Zweitusch, of Milwaukee ; Bennett
& Gompers, o( New York; and the Robert M.
Green Company, of Philadelphia. Wrought-iron
portable fountains are also manufactured by the
Iron-Clad Can Company, of Brooklyn.
The amount of capital invested in the business is
hard to estimate, and also the number of people
employed. The capital of the American Soda-
Fountain Company has already been stated, and this
company employs nearly looo hands, in addition
to a force oi about 125 traveling salesmen. The
number of soda-fountains in use is estimated at from
50,000 to 60,000. Fully this number have been
made and sold by the various concerns now forming
branches of the American Soda- Fountain Company,
and of these the majority are still in use. The dis-
pensing fountains, which are generally made from
foreign marbles, many being of rare Mexican onyx,
vary in value from $100 to C 10,000 each, bottling
outfits of cast-iron and copper ranging at about the
same values. The business annually done by the
users of these fountains takes about the same range,
though in exceptional cases it is much larger.
Plows, who until recently was the leading dispenser
in Chicago, sold $24,000 worth of carbonated bev-
erages in a single year.
Without doubt the large consumption of this
wholesome and agreeable beverage has an influence
in promoting temperate habits among the people of
the United States, by lessening the consumption of
alcoholic drinks. That ±e use of soda-water in-
creases largely year by year is shown by the annual
sale of several thousand of the practically indestruc-
tible steel fountains used as portable containers. As
a source of profit the soda-fountain contributes
largely to the prosperity of its owner, and no retail
drug or confectionery store can lay claim to be well
appointed that is not supplied with one. The busi-
ness of manufacturing soda-water apparatus is in a
prosperous condition, and its prospects for the future
are bright, although competition has forced prices
to such a point that profitable business can be done
only upon a large scale, involving the investment
of enormous capital in plant and labor-saving
appliances.
The cost of selling and collection is large, and
payments are made in non-negotiable lien notes, and
it is only by making them in vciy large numbers that
soda-fountains can be profitably manufactiured.
The collateral branches, which include the manufac-
ture of fruit-juices, flavoring extracts, syrups, bot-
tlers' supplies, and the silver-plated furnishings of
the soda-water counter, are in a flourishing condi-
tion. In conclusion I may say that soda-water,
which a few years ago was a novelty and luxury, is
now looked upon as a necessity, and bottled waters,
plain and salted, as well as ginger-ale and similar
sweetened carbonated beverages, arc now commonly
found upon the tables of a large percentage of our
people.
CHAPTER LXXII
AMERICAN TEXTILE MILLS
ONE hundred years ago ihcre were no textile
mills, as we now understand the term, in the
United States. Whatever our people did in
the way of manufacturing their own clothing was
mostly done in the household ; the spinning-wheel
and the hand-loom were utensils as familiar in the
old-fashioned kitchens as the pots and kettles of the
housewife. The homespun garments worn by our
forefathers were fashioned out of wool grown on the
home farm, carded by hand-cards, washed in tubs,
spun and woven by hand, fulled and finished at home,
cut up and sewed— all by the joint labor of husband,
wife, sons, and daughters. The finer clothes worn
in those days were all imported ; and as the colo-
nies grew and muhiphed, and their consumption of
English textiles increased, the manufactiurers of the
mother country foresaw a wondrous new market
opening up before them. The desire to retain and
increase that market for textiles, in the manufacture
of which England already led the world, was far more
prominent among the causes leading up to the Amer-
ican Revolution than the historians of that event have
yet discovered.
The homespun garments of colonial days were
plain in weave, and wore like iron ; their ingredients
were indicated in the name commonly applied to
the cloth— "linsey-woolsey." It was a fabric of
woolen weft, woven on a linen waip. Linen was
much more commonly produced in the household
than cotton fabrics, and wool was
all other fibers combined. Cottc
commodity in colonial America un
Revolution. It possessed a value
wool, and sometimes very much higher. What little
of it was used prior to the nineteenth century was
mostly imported from the Barbadoes. 'When Samuel
Slater started the first American cotton-mill at Paw-
tucket, in 1793, he insisted upon using cotton from
the Indies, because of the poor quality of the cotton
then raised at home. No one dreamed, when the
til long after the
equal to that of
"Shipping and Commercial List and New York
Price Current " first made its appearance, that Amer-
ica was destined to become the cotton -producing
country of the world ; nor did Slater's little mill
of 250 spindles, which had then been in operation
live years, give signs that it was the gemi of an
American industry which would consume annually
within 100 years more cotton than all the world was
then growing. The historj' of the textile industries
during the colonial period is nowhere suggestive of
the development which confronts and amazes the
student at the close of the nineteenth century, who
finds them, with their subsidiary industries, employ-
ing more capital and creating a greater value of
annual product than any other group.
Our forefathers realized how important it was
that the colonist.s should learn to clothe themselves.
They resorted to all sorts of expedients, some of
which smack strongly of state socialism, to overcome
the difficulties in the way. They offered bounties
to increase the number of sheep and promote the
growth of flax. In Massachusetts laws were passed
making it compulsory that each family should spin
a given quantity of yam every year, under penalties
of heavy fines. Gradually the household textile in-
dustries assumed an importance which alarmed the
mother country, and the Lords of Trade attempted
by various restrictive orders to prevent and harass a
development which threatened to destroy the colo-
nial market for the chief products of British indus-
try. Parliament passed an act in 1774 — which was
shortly after the Arkwright inventions had inaugu-
rated the modem factory system— forbidding the
exportation, under heavy penalties, of any of the
machines used in the cotton, silk, woolen, or linen
manufactiu-e. One smiles, in recalling this statute,—
which remained in force, with certain modifications,
until 1845,— at this evidence of a puerile hope that
the English people could keep the fruits of inventive
genius bottled up in their little island, so long as she
J
476
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
permitted her sons to carry their brains across the
water. Slater brought his spinning machinery in his
head ; in the same way Arthur Scholfield, three years
later, brought the first wool-carding machine, which
he built and put into operation at Byfield, Mass., in
1794, thus fixing the date of the beginning of the
factory manufactiu-e of wool, by machinery operated
by power, in the United States. American machi-
nists and inventors did the rest.
It is not to be denied, however, that this English
statute did retard, embarrass, and make trebly diffi-
cult the early development of our textile factories.
At the founding of the newspaper whose century of
existence is celebrated in this voliune, the American
textile industries were easily one hundred years be-
hind those of Great Britain.
It would be interesting, if space permitted, to
follow the evolution of this household industry, by
slow and gradual steps, into the highly organized
factory system which marks the close of the nine-
teenth century. First came the neighborhood full-
ing-mill, utilizing the friendly services of the adjacent
stream, and relieving the housewife of the labor of
fulling and finishing the cloths and blankets accu-
mulated by the busy shuttle diuing the long winter
evenings. Then the carding-machine was added to
the fulling-mill ; the farmers for miles about brought
their wool to be converted into rolls ready for the
spinning-wheel. After Slater had successfully ap-
plied the Arkwright invention to the spinning of
cotton at Pawtucket, here and there throughout
New England little mills gradually appeared which
spun both cotton and woolen yams by water-power.
Hand-looms were still used in all these mills until
1 81 3, when Francis C. Lowell's invention of the
power-loom led to the building of the Waltham
cotton factory by the Boston Manufacturing Com-
pany, and the American textile mill first took on
the characteristics which have since increasingly
distinguished it.
Power spinning and weaving machines were rap-
idly applied to the manufacture of woolens, and it
began to be seen that the household manufacture of
textiles was disappearing before the greater economy
and efficiency of the factory system. The transition
was not rapid, and the ups and downs of our first
textile mills were numerous and discouraging. The
outbreak of the War of 181 2, and the non-intercourse
acts and Embargo which preceded it, were the most
potent factors in completing the transition. The total
suspension of importations threw our people suddenly
upon their own resources for their entire supply of
clothing. Cotton-mills and woolen-mills were quickly
built. High prices and the promise of quick f ortimes
drew many men with little or no knowledge of manu-
facturing into the business.
All went well enough imtil the war ended ; then
collapse and ruin followed apace. The work of
laying the solid foundations of textile manufactur-
ing had all to be done over again. Imported cot-
tons and woolens again invaded the market with a
rush, and the domestic manufacturers found it im-
possible to compete with them either in quality or in
price. Labor was tmskilled and hard to get ; know-
ledge and experience were sadly wanting ; machinery
was clumsy and defective ; the coimtry was poverty-
stricken, and trade and the national finances thor-
oughly demoralized. Then first began the great
battle in Congress, which has waged more or less
intermittently ever since, for the protection of the
domestic manufactiures by means of tariff laws.
The Tariff Act of 1 816— the first of the series in
which the principle of protection was recognized
in the rates fixed as a distinct purpose of the law,
conjointly with the raising of revenue — was much
more favorable to the cotton than to the wool
manufacture, because it applied the minimum prin-
ciple to cotton cloths, which was in effect a specific
duty of six and one quarter cents a yard, while the
simple ad valorem rate of twenty-five per cent, was
applied generally to woolen goods.
From the date of that law the cotton manufacture
began a healthy development, and it naturally grew
much faster than the wool manufacture. The later
tariffs were in hke degree, as a rule, more favor-
able to cottons than to woolens; partly owing to
this fact and partly to other causes, such as the
much more delicate, complicated, and expensive
operations incident to the latter, the cotton manu-
factiure has, at all times except during the Civil
War, shown a greater prosperity, and on the whole
a more rapid development, than its sister industry.
But in both industries for many years it was an up-
hill struggle against great odds. Few fortunes were
made ; many were lost ; and the courage and tena-
city of those early textile manufacturers are worthy
of a better eulogy than any yet written.
Since the year 1850 the development of our tex-
tile industries has been pretty accurately recorded
by the Federal census, and it is therefore possible to
measure, from that date, the degree and the char-
acter of the development. To give the reader a
bird's-eye view of the growth of American textile
mills in the last fifty years I reproduce here a table
prepared by me for the Eleventh Census, in which
the statistics of the three principal textile industries
^^^^H AMERICAN TEXTILE MILLS 477 1
are presented chronologically in comparison with of the country, we have an additional product, as ^
one anotlier, and in a form more condensed than I shown fay the Eleventh Census, of $413,012,516; |
have seen it elsewhere given. This table offers making tiie total value of the products of our textile J
nearly everything in the nature of statistics with mills, when they finally reach the marltel, the enor- ■
which it is necessary to burden this paper. mous sum of $1,134,971,778. This total is the H
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF COMBINED TEXTILE INDUSTRIES IN THE UNITED STATES, 1
1850 TO 1890. 1
YKAlt.
NUMW. 0-
ESTABLISH-
CAPtTAt.
AvBHAGi Num... of E«-
noYEKS AHD TOTAL WaGES.
Cost OF
Uatioiai^
USSD,
VALuk or
<„„„„,
Wagis.
1°
z
1.760
■T,
104
$32,516^66
74,500.931
678,300
4^18,350
&
'.743
5.«<»S
\
$I9.»46.696
34.835.056
i/>93,8fio
11.540,347
15.454^30
Dyeing and Ijoishing lextilet . . .
1 Combined textiles
1850
i860
i860
1S60
i860
3/»5
1.673
139
124
3^7
3^56
'^
292
Ii2,5i3«7
S.'7'8:67i
146397
59.5*2
122,028
5.435
7.097
$13,361,602
23,940,108
1,050.224
2,001,528
76.7'5.9S9
57'.2S5;s34
3,901,777
5,005.435
I28,769fl7i
80,734.606
115,681,774
6,607.771
11,716,463
H Ujreing and finUhiflj: textiles...
W Combined teidleB
i860
1870
isjo
1870
1870
150,080,852
I3*j8f.3>9
140.706J91
6,23i.»3o
18.374.S03
194,082
40.353.462
40.357.135
39,044.13?
1,942,286
S.W1.538
112,842,111
, 7.817,559
' 99.539.992
214,740,614
217,668.826
177.489.739
12,210.622
»"3.o"7.537
Silk manufaclore
Dyeing and finishine textiles. . .
Combined lexlilea
1870
I8S0
1880
1880
1880
4.790
191
297,694,243
159,091,869
2^,280,346
274.943
'6i,SS7
= 174.659
86,565,191
47.389.087
42^40,510
6!474!364
353.»49.ioa
164,371.551
102.206,347
22,467,701
13.664.295
520,386,764
267,252,913
192,090,1 10
41.033,045
32,297420
Dyeing and finishing textiles . . .
Combined tectiles
1880
1890
.890
IS90
1890
4,018
2,489
905
472
248
412.721.496
296,494^81
354,020,843
1«S
384.»S'
50,913
20,267
105,050,666
76,660,74a
69^89,272
19*80,318
9,717.011
301.709,894
203,095.572
154,912,979
51,004,425
12,385,220
532*73,488
337.768.524
267.981.724
87,298454
Silk niMiufacture
Dyeing and finishing textiles. . .
Combined leitiles
1890
4.1 14
739,973.661
511.897
■75.547.343
421.398,196
721^49.261
1 IndudcA honery uid knit (fiKxLs.
proc™. <rf djrd^g ^d finishing ^ p.™.
Here we find, in the half-century, a growth in largest in value of any single line of related indus-
the value of products from $118,769,971, in 1850, tries. The total most nearly approaching it is that
to $721,949,262, an increase of nearly six times, and of the iron and steel industries, the multiform varia-
not less than ten times if it were possible to mea- rions of which reveal a value of products, when
sure this product by quantity instead of by value, aggregated from the census tables, of $1,096,163,-
Even these figures convey an inadequate idea of 056. These two industries include, therefore, two
the relative importance of our textile mills in the ninths of the total value of all the domestic manu-
industrial economy of the nation, for these mills factiu-es reported by the Eleventh Census ; and those
supply the materials for a great group of subsidiary of the textile mills and the factory products grow-
factory industries, such as the wholesale clothing ing out of them are equal in value to one ninth of
manufacture, the shirt manufacture, etc. When we all our manufactures. Figures of this magnitude
aggregate these, and add to thera the value of the bring us face 10 face with the true relative impor-
products of the linen, jute, hemp, and bagging mills tance of our textile mills in the industrial economy
^^^^^^^H^^^^^^H
^^H
^^^H
478
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
of the nation. Few people realize how vast and
how varied it is ; for they do not stop to think that,
next to the food question, nothing comes so closely
home to all the people as the question of what they
shall wear.
The decrease in the cost of goods during the
period covered by this table has been one of the
most striking phases of the development. Unfor-
tunately it is not a phase which statisticians have
learned to measure in figures. This decrease in the
cost of textile goods is due in some measure, of
course, to the decreased price of the raw materials
from which they are made ; but in even larger mea-
sure is it due to the remarkable advance in the meth-
ods of manufacture — to the new and more perfect
machinery employed, in the invention of which
American mechanical genius has contributed cer-
tainly as much as any other people, and perhaps
more.
All the fundamental inventions in spinning ma-
chinery were of English origin; so was the comb-
ing-machine and the power-loom. The English
have a remarkable record in this respect, and the
French and the Germans have also done much in
the invention of labor-saving textile machinery. But
the American record siurpasses them all, in my judg-
ment. The wool-carding machinery of all countries
owes its chief improvement over the machines of a
century ago to the invention of John Goulding, of
Worcester, Mass., whose patent, dated 1826, dis-
pensed with the splicing-billy and produced the end-
less roll or sliver. Michel Alcan, the distinguished
French writer, describes it as "the most important
advance in the wool manufacture of the nineteenth
century." '* It was not a step," he says, "but a flight."
The modem cotton-spindle, making 10,000 revo-
lutions a minute, is an evolution of our own me-
chanics. General Draper, in his interesting paper
on " The History of Spindles," has shown that the
saving effected by the new forms of spindle invented
and adopted in the United States since 1870, when
5000 revolutions a minute were the average speed,
has been more than equal to the capacity of all the
warp-spinning machinery in use in this country in
that year. He adds the interesting fact that "to-
day more than three times as much warp-yam is
spun in the United States as in 1870, a rate of in-
crease without parallel since the earliest introduction
of the cotton manufacture."
The Lowell loom was the first successful applica-
tion of power to the weaving of cotton, the Cromp-
ton loom to the weaving of fancy woolens, and the
Bigelow loom to the weaving of carpets. " Not a
yard of fancy woolens," wrote Samuel Lawrencei
" had ever been woven by power-looms in any coun-
try until it was done by George Crompton at the
Middlesex Mills in 1 840." Every carpet ever woven
was woven by hand until Mr. ^igelow's power-loom
revolutionized the industry. Beyond these funda-
mental machines the American mechanisms for ex-
pediting processes, for automatic devices, for dispens-
ing with intermediate help, have been so numerous
that they have completely transformed the modus
operandi of textile mills throughout the worid. These
mechanisms are more generally in use to-day in the
best American textile mills than in those of any
other country. So far as mechanical equipment is
concerned, our best mills, whether cotton or woolen,
are fairly equal to the best in any foreign country.
It does not follow that textile manufacturing is
done here, as a rule, with equal economy in cost;
some of the reasons for this may be pointed out
later. In stmctural equipment the modem Ameri-
can mill is in some respects superior to the average
foreign mill. It is not so massive a stracture, nor
so solidly built, we using brick when the English
generally use stone ; but in the lightness and airiness
of its rooms, in economy of arrangement, and in
general completeness of equipment and care for the
comfort and convenience of the operatives, it is
generally superior. Since Mr. Edward Atkinson's
successful efforts to introduce the slow-combustion
construction, the liability to loss by fire is hardly
greater, as the insurance statistics show, than it is
abroad. Of course there are left many old-fash-
ioned mill stmctures, built long ago, and often of
wood, to which these remarks do not apply. But
the lesson is fast being learned by our textile manu-
facturers that in these days of close competition and
small profits successful manufacttiring requires that
buildings shall be of the latest design and the most
approved arrangement, and machinery shall be not
only modem in make, with every latest improve-
ment, but must also be kept in perfect condition by
constant renewal. Many parts of the machinery re-
quired for the equipment of our textile mills are still
necessarily imported from England, because not
made, or less perfectly made, in the United States.
This is true of some varieties of cotton machinery, and
of most of the preparatory machinery of the worsted
manufacture. Our machine manufacturers have
been advancing as rapidly in recent years as the
textile mills themselves, and the time cannot now
be far distant when every new mill built in America
will be equipped throughout with American-made
machinery.
AMERICAN TEXTILE MILLS
479
The American textile mills now supply practi-
cally every variety of fabric made in the world,
with the exception of linens and the very finest
grades of other fabrics. In a single branch of tex-
tile manufacturing — flax — our efforts have been a
failure by the test of experience, and are likely to
continue a failure. But three establishments mak-
ing linen goods reported to the last census, showing
a capital of $900,000, and products valued at $547,-
378. These products were chiefly thread and twine,
the latter for use in the shoe manufacture. Except
crash goods, there are now no linen fabrics of any
moment manufactured here. Great sums of money
have from time to time been invested by daring
manufacturers in constructing plants for the manu-
facture of linen fabrics. The result has invariably
been disappointment and failure. If the obstacles
were of a kind that ingenuity and perseverance could
overcome, they would have been conquered. These
obstacles are climatic in the first instance, flax being
a fiber which requires more moisture than any other
for its successful manipulation. Again, there is dif-
ficulty in obtaim'ng a home supply of suitable raw
materiaL Years of high protection have failed to
persuade the American farmer into growing flax for
fiber. The care, the skill, the trained labor required
to grow and separate the best quality of fiber, dis-
courage him, and the absence of any considerable
home market removes the inducement which tariff
protection would otherwise afford. The history of
the linen manufacture in other countries seems to
establish the fact that it is the one textile manufac-
ture likely to remain segregated in a few localities
like Holland and Ireland, where the fiber is grown
on the ^t, where the climate is peculiarly adapted,
ud where the help has acquired an expertness bom
of genenitions of experience. Moreover, linen is
the one textile the consumption of which has not
^)preciably increased with the growing perfection
of textile machinery. The quantity of linen fabrics
i&ade to-day is hardly larger than a century ago.
The other fibers, less difficult to handle, more sus-
^tible to cheap manipulation, continually encroach
upon its uses.
Tunimg from this single failure, we find extraor-
dinary success in every other department of textile
iQannfacturing. Perhaps the most striking contr^t
to our experience with linen is that afforded by the
dk mantifacture. At first sight it would appear
^ this must be the particular textile industry which
^d not flourish in America. Since the whirlwind
of q)ecalative excitement over the culture of the silk-
worm which swept New £ngland in the thirties, and
wrecked the fortunes of many too credulous farm-
ers, we have settled down to the conviction that Amer-
ica cannot grow raw silk in competition with China,
Japan, and Italy. Moreover, the silk manufacture,
like the linen, has always been highly specialized
and localized. The city of Lyons, in France, had
well-nigh monopolized the manufacture, so far as it
had escaped from the hand processes of the £astem
nations. The skill and taste of generations have
been concentrated upon the production at these cen-
ters of fabrics which in beauty of design, in richness
of coloring, in delicacy of workmanship, alone among
the fabrics made by modem machinery, rival the
splendors of medieval textile art. £ngland has for
centuries struggled in vain to place her silk manu-
facture on equal terms with it. Nevertheless we
have built up in America, in the last forty years, a
silk industry which among machine-using nations is
second only to that of France, and is to-day supply-
ing our people with the bulk of the silken fabrics
consumed by them.
We owe this great achievement largely to the
energy and the genius of the Cheney family, father
and sons, of South Manchester, Conn. The Cheneys
began the manufacture of spun silk about forty years
ago. About the same time, John Ryle, sometimes
called the father of the American silk industry, had
become superintendent of a little silk-mill in Pater-
son, N. J., which he afterward purchased and grad-
ually enlarged. At first sewing-silks only were made,
then ribbons were added, and in 1842 Mr. Ryle
built a number of looms for silk piece-goods — the
first to be successfully operated in America; and
the industry in all its branches has since developed
so rapidly there that Paterson, which calls itself
the Lyons of America, now occupies to this indus-
try the same relation that Fall River does to the
cotton manufacture, and Philadelphia to the wool
manufacture.
Diuing the Civil War the high duties stimulated
the silk industry and diversified its product. The
making of plain grosgrain dress silks was then
started, and at the present time brocaded silks and
satins are manufactured on a large scale; indeed,
there is no form of fabric into which silk enters
which is not now produced in great variety. Espe-
cially noteworthy has been the recent development
in the manufacture of silk plushes and all varieties
of upholstery goods. The value of home-made silk
goods was in 1880 just about equal to the foreign
value of the goods imported. In 1890 the product
had so grown that it was more than double the
value of the imports, and more than double the
480
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
value of the product in 1 880. Mr. Briton Richardson,
the secretary of the American Silk Association, has
recently compiled statistics which show that in the
five years since the census of 1890, the rate of in-
crease has even accelerated. He points to one mill,
erected in Paterson since that date, which is already
the largest silk-ribbon mill in the world. There are
other mills in that city, notably that of the Pioneer
Silk Company, which is an outgrowth of the little
mill operated by John Ryle, and now covers an acre
and a half, which can nowhere be surpassed either
in size or in completeness of eqmpment.
The cotton manufacture must, on the whole, be
taken as the textile industry which best illustrates
the possibilities of this group of manufactures in the
United States. The number of cotton-spindles in
operation in 1894 is estimated at 17,126,418, and
this nimiber has been considerably increased in 1 895,
particularly by new mills in the Piedmont region of
the South. The manufacture is there conducted
under so many advantages — particularly the cheap-
ness of fuel and labor — that careful students of
economic conditions predict that the manufacture
of the coarser grades of cotton goods is destined to
gravitate more and more to the Southern States.
New England, and especially Massachusetts
(which is the largest cotton-manufacturing State,
containing 7,160,480 out of the 17,126,418 spindles
in operation), has done much to hasten and facilitate
such a transfer by the enactment of harassing labor
laws and by excessive taxation. She possesses no
natural advantages for this particular industry, and
her manufacturers have looked with some apprehen-
sion upon the rapid growth of the industry in the
South, chiefly through the aid of New England capital.
Thus far there has been no diminution in her machi-
nery capacity, but, on the contrary, a steady increase,
which, while relatively smaller than the increase in
the South, continues to be actually greater. This
is due primarily to the increased production of the
finer grades of goods in New England, and, secon-
darily, to the rapid development of the country, with
its enlargement of a market in which the South can
share largely without injuring New England. Never-
theless the economic forces at work are of such a
character that eventually a marked change in the
geographical status of the industry seems inevitable.
From the national point of view, the important
fact is that the growth of the American cotton manu-
facture for the last twenty years, both relatively and
actually, has been greater than its growth in Great
Britain, which reported at the last enumeration a
total of 45,270,000 spindles. The whole of the re-
mainder of Europe operates less than 30,000,000
spindles. These statistics place the American cot-
ton manufacture second only to that of England,
and reveal a steady gain even upon the island which
manufactures cotton for all the world except the
United States. The American market for American
cottons constantly expands with the growth of our
own country, while our foreign markets show little
gain. The English market as steadily contracts, as
English and native capital builds new cotton-mills in
India and Japan for the supply of the vast markets
of the East. The influence of this increasing com-
petition, under circimistances which greatly handi-
cap English manufacturers, is apparent in the values
of the stocks of the Oldham Limited Companies, as
they are quoted to-day, and in the gloomy talk of
Lancashire manufacturers when they forecast the
future. On the other hand, our own cotton manu-
facturers, as they emerge from the prolonged busi-
ness depression, face the future with hope and
courage.
The casual student of first-class English and
American cotton-mills, while he will observe certain
differences, will not be able to detect any point of
superiority in the former over the latter. He will
find the English mills much more closely specialized,
and he will find a larger proportion of them engaged
upon the finer grades of goods. He will observe,
also, that in the Engh'sh mill mule-spinning is the
predominating method, especially for fine numbers;
while in the United States ring-spinning strongly
predominates. In 1870 the proportion was neariy
equal between the two systems in American mills,
there being reported by the census of that year
3,694,477 frame-spindles and 39437,938 in mules;
in 1890 there were 8,824,617 frame-spindles and
5,363,486 in mules; and subsequent development
has accentuated this disparity. This is due to the
extraordinary advances, already alluded to, in the
mechanism of the ring-spinning frame, advances
which are wholly of American origin, and which
greatly cheapen the cost of production by increasing
the product in proportion to the increased speed of
the spindle. In mule-spinning, also, great advances
have been made during the last fifteen or twenty
years. Whichever method is employed, the develop-
ment of the industry has reached that stage where
success depends upon the closest attention to the
mechanical details of manufacturing. The margin
of profit in print cloths, for instance, has come to
depend upon the saving of a fraction of a cent in
the price of a pound of cotton, and the economy of
another small fraction of a cent in converting that
AMERICAN TEXTILE MILLS
481
cotton into yam and cloth. To realize these frac-
tions, which mean profit or loss, machinery must be
kept in the highest state of efficiency.
The improvements in spinning have been so rapid
since 1870 that most of our large corporations have
been compelled to replace their spinning-frames at
least twice in that interval. The bulk of the frames
now in operation have been introduced in the last
ten years, and are of the highest efficiency. A similar
statement can be made regarding no other branch of
textfle manufacture ; and it is probably true that if
the American woolen-mills had been forced, as the
cotton-mills have been, to abandon machinery as
soon as it became in any degree obsolete, their abil-
ity to face foreign competition would be more nearly
in keeping with that shown by our cotton manufac-
turers. The conditions we have been narrating have
thrown the cotton manufacture more and more into
the hands of large corporations, which now almost
universally conduct it. The wool manufacture, on
the other hand, while it numbers some of the great-
est corporations in the land, is stiU largely in the
hands of individuals and partnerships, and the bulk
of the mills are comparatively small in capacity.
The more recent tendency in the wool manufacture,
for obvious reasons, is strongly in the direction of
the corporate form of management.
The quantity of fine cotton goods made in Ameri-
can mills continues to be very small in comparison
with the whole production. Mr. Edward Stanwood,
the expert who made the cotton report for the
Eleventh Census, calculated that only 6.31 per cent.
of the value of the total product could properly be
classified as " fine or fancy woven goods " ; and it
follows that the bulk of our consumption of this
class of cottons is still imported. In other words,
there is ample room remaining for the further and
higher development of the American cotton manu-
facture. Into this field we are entering with char-
acteristic Yankee energy. Within comparatively few
years mills have been successfully established in New
England which spin yams as fine as Nos. 1 50 or
200 ; and there are mills at New Bedford, Taunton,
and elsewhere which make, in bewildering variety,
fabrics as delicate in texture and as artistic in design
and coloring as any which reach this country from
the machine-using nations of Europe.
The range of products made in American wool
factories is as wide as the multiform uses to which
this most valuable of all the fibers is put. They
divide themselves naturally into four great groups,
leaving the hosiery and knit goods out of the classi-
fication: woolen-mills, worsted-mills, carpet-mills,
3«
and felting-mills. There are the various sub-classi-
fications of spinning, weaving, dyeing, and finishing
mills, although, as a rule, all these separate processes
of the manufacture of wool continue to be carried
on jointly in this country, as the related parts of the
one operation of manufactiuing. In this statement
is embodied the chief point of difference existing
to-day between the woolen-mills of America, and,
in fact, all our textile mills, and those of England
and the Continent. The reasons for it lie on the
surface of things. The fact remains that American
textile mills can never expect — the great body of
them, at least — to successfully compete with foreign
mills on terms which are fairly equal, apart from the
difference in wages, until they have passed through
the same evolution and approximated to the same
methods which prevail abroad.
In so saying I am not passing a wholesale criti-
cism upon our mills or their management. In the
wool manufacture, as in the cotton and silk man-
ufacture, we have many establishments which, in
completeness of stmcture, in perfection of machi-
nery, in all the details of mechanical equipment,
and in sagacity of management, are nowhere in
the world surpassed. Indeed, it is only in this
country that we find, on a very large scale, textile
mills in which are performed all the separate pro-
cesses for the manufacture of great varieties of
goods. Elsewhere they have learned that tlie great-
est economy and the best practical results are secured
by specializing the processes. Thus in Bradford,
England, are enormous establishments which do
nothing but comb wool into tops, either on commis-
sion or for sale. Other great mills do nothing but
spin tops into yam, and generally they confine their
operations to a limited variety of yams. Still others,
buying their yam, devote themselves exclusively to
weaving. And, finally, a fourth class of establish-
ments take the woven goods and dye and finish
them for the merchants, who are the men who find
the ultimate market for all the specialists who have
been thus employed upon the goods.
In this specialization of the different branches of
the work exists the characteristic distinction between
the American and the foreign textile mills of to-day.
Such investigation as I have been able to make of
the two methods convinces me that the English is
far superior to the American, and that ultimately
we must gravitate into the former, if we are to cut
any figure in competition for the world's markets.
The manufacturer who devotes his whole energies
to one particular thing, and studies to do that one
thing as cheaply and as well as it can be done, can
482
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
do it better and more cheaply than the manuf actuper
who is doing half a dozen different things at the
same time. This is not a theoretical deduction, but
an axiom founded upon prolonged experiment and
experience. I have talked with manufacturers in
Bradford who have* tried both methods, and who
say there is always a gain in economy when the
weaver buys his yams, instead of spinning them
himself. Obviously the English method requires a
smaller investment in plant, secures a simpler and
more perfect autonomy in operation, involves less
waste, and avoids the accmnulation of superfluous
raw material.
The American woolen-mill was evolved from con-
ditions which rendered this specialization originally
impossible. It was situated in some isolated spot,
drawn thither by a superior water-power, with no
raikoad to facilitate quick transportation, and was
necessarily a complete mechanical entity, however
crude its machinery. In a word, it must perform
under one roof all the processes necessary to con-
vert the greasy wool into the finished cloth ready
for the market. Thus there sprang up all over the
country little woolen-mills, each one independent in
itself ; as the country grew some of these little mills
became large mills ; other large mills grew up beside
them ; gradually we had centers in which the wool
manufacture predominated; but conditions were
long in appearing which tended to that specializa-
tion of processes which has marked the English
method from the very introduction of automatic
machinery. It followed that the American mill
owner, even of a small mill, was compelled to make
a variety of goods, in order to use up advanta-
geously all the grades of material which grew out of
the sorting of his wool. Naturally he could not
produce a variety of products as cheaply and as
successfully as he could have manufactured one
particular line upon which his whole attention was
centered. These habits of manufactiuing, forced
upon us originally by the logic of the situation, are
tenacious. Wc have been slowly breaking away
from them, but it will be years yet before it is pos-
sible to fully outgrow them. In Philadelphia, which
is the largest center of wool manufacture, the pro-
gress of the evolution is very perceptible. There
they have top makers, yam makers, dyers, and fin-
ishers, who do nothing else. And the result is ap-
parent in the large number of small manufacturers
in that city. The small amount of capital required
to equip a little weave-shed permits enterprising
superintendents and operatives to start in business
for themselves. The comparative cheapness of pro-
duction under such conditions enables them to hold
their own against the big establishments with unlim-
ited capital at their back.
The bulk of the small wool-manufacturing estab-
lishments in the United States are woolen-mills
proper, as distinguished from worsted-mills. It is
noticeable that the number and product of these
woolen-mills decrease from census to census as the
worsted manufacture gets more firmly established
here, and the more popular worsted fabric comes into
wider use. But there are certain lines of woolen
goods in the manufacture of which American
mills have earned a world-wide preeminence, and
in which they are nowhere surpassed. Prominent
among them are flannels and blankets of every grade
and variety. The American wools are peculiarly
suited for these goods, and for many years past our
American mills have practically supplied the home
market. Other mills make a specialty of woolen
dress-goods for ladies' wear with equal success. The
bulk of our woolen-mills are, however, engaged upon
the manufacture of cloths for the million — cassi-
meres, beavers, satinets, cheviots, etc., the cheaper
grades which enter into the consumption of the
wholesale clothing-houses, goods in which, under
the weight duties of recent tariffs, our American
manufactiurers have controlled the home market,
and of which their production has been enormous.
Many of these goods are woven upon a cotton
warp, and into some of them enters more or less of
the revamped wool known as " shoddy." We have
much to leam, however, in the handling of this class
of materials, before we shall equal the expertness of
foreign manufacturers. It is to the success of our
manufacturers in producing a handsome, durable
cloth at cheap prices, that our people chiefly owe
their reputation of being the best-dressed people on
the globe.
The worsted manufacture was late in getting lodg-
ment in the United States, and has been slow in as-
smning proportions commensiu^te with its impor-
tance abroad. Early in the forties there were two
or three large worsted-mills erected in New England
for the production of worsted fabrics or stuff goods
for women's wear ; but the manufacture made litde
headway until after the close of the Civil War, and
it was not imtil about 1870 that we began making
men's- wear worsted goods. Since then the develop-
ment of the manufacture along both hues has been
phenomenal. In 1890 we made over 73,000,000
yards of worsted dress-goods, valued at over $76,-
000,000 ; and we have to-day three or four nuUs, of
the most modem equipment, which turn out these
AMERICAN TEXTILE MILLS
483
I
goods in larger quantities than any foreign establish-
ments.
In the manufacture of fine men*s-wear goods,
both in woolens and worsteds, a few of our mills
have been equally successful ; their products sell side
by side with the best makes of foreign goods, not-
withstanding the lingering prejudice among fashion-
able Americans that only foreign-made cloths are fit
to wear. Another obstacle is the high cost of labor,
which counts against us more strongly in fine-wool
goods than in the cheaper grades, or in cottons and
sQkSy because of the much greater care and skill and
labor that must be bestowed upon their finishing.
The manufacture of felted wool is comparatively
small here and elsewhere. Thirty-five American
mills produced a product valued at $59329,381 in
1890, and the importations are comparatively in-
significant in volume. Felted wool was the earliest
form into which this fiber was manufactured, the
primitive races discovering, before they learned
to spin and weave, that peculiar characteristic of
wool which causes it to mat together, by the appli-
cation of heat, moisture, and pressure, into a firm
and smooth textiure, susceptible of a great vari-
ety of uses. Modem machinery has utilized this
peculiarity for many purposes which, while limited,
are economically important. Table-cloths and floor-
coverings, and hats for men's and women's wear, are
the most ordinary ; but they are also used for shoe-
Hnings, sheathing materials, polishing purposes, etc.
The hat manufacture, formerly confined to wool for
its raw material, has found that fur is better suited
for this use ; and the processes of manufacture are
so different from those employed in spinning and
weaving mills that the hat-manufacturing establish-
ments, in which the United States has always been
preeminent, are not ordinarily classed among the
textile mills.
Perhaps our most notable achievement in the tex-
tile line has been in the carpet manufacture. Be-
yond question the United States is the greatest
carpet-manufacturing nation in the world; if we
leave out of account the hand-loom productions of
Ac Eastern countries we excel all others not only in
Ac quantity of our production, but in the variety of
our carpets, in the excellence of design and work-
°^^"whip, and in general adaptability to popular
oceds. One hundred and seventy-three American
^^^'pct-mills produced in 1890 carpets and rugs
to the value of $46,457,083, employing 11,223
P<>wer-looms. Their production included two- and
Afee-ply ingrains, Brussels, moquettes, tapestries,
▼dvets, Smjrnias, and the higher grades of Axmin-
sters and Aubussons. This product represented an
aggregate of over 76,000,000 square yards of car-
peting, which enter into the annual consumption of
the American people. The popular reason assigned
for this unique development is the general prosper-
ity of our people, the high wages earned permit-
ting families of all grades of life to indulge in the
luxury of floor-coverings to an extent elsewhere \m-
known. Stimulated by the lucrative market thus
offered, American manufactiurers have made larger
and more important contributions to the mechanism
of the carpet manufacture than those of all other
nations combined.
The real development of the machine industry
dates from the successful application of power to
the weaving of ingrain carpets by the late Erastus
B. Bigelow, of Boston, in 1844. Subsequently he
invented Jacquard looms for weaving Brussels and
Wiltons, which produced carpets pronounced by the
jury at the London Exposition of 1851 to be "bet-
ter and more perfectly woven than any hand-loom
carpets that have ever come under the notice of the
jury." A still later invention of Mr. Bigelow's was
for weaving tapestry carpets. His inventions are at
the base of all the power-loom carpet-weaving now
done in Europe. Subsequent inventors have greatly
improved them, and have added new inventions,
such as those for weaving Axminsters, and Smyrna
rugs. By their skill and enterprise the American
carpet manufacturers have not only retained the
control of their own market, except in the matter of
the Eastern hand-made rugs, but they have in some
instances successfully forced their products upon the
European markets.
In one other branch of the textile industry pro-
gress in the United States has outstripped the world
— the hosiery and knit-goods manufacture. More
machine-made knitted goods are turned out annually
here than in all other coimtries combined. The
explanation is somewhat the same as in the case of
carpets. Our people wear more imderwear than other
people ; they are not only obliged to wear more for
climatic reasons, but they can afford to wear more ;
and the general desire for personal comfort in wear-
ing apparel results in an enormous distribution of
the products of these mills. The beginnings of the
industry are well within the lifetime of many manu-
facturers still living. Until 1832 the knitting of
socks and stockings remained mostly a household
industry — the only form of textile work which the
machine had not wrested from the housewife. In
that year Egbert Egberts successfully applied the
principle of knitting by power, at Cohoes, N. Y.
484
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
His machine was simply the square stocking-frame
of William Lee adapted to power. From that adap-
tation dates a revolution in underwear, which had
previously consisted wholly of flannel, fashioned and
sewed at home, according to the individual needs.
The revolution gathered momentum gradually, as
invention after invention — almost all of American
origin — perfected the knitting-machine; but once
the new industry was fairly and firmly established,
it spread with amazing rapidity. In the decade
between i88q and 1890 the number of knit-goods
mills doubled, and the value of the annual product
jumped from $29,167,227 to $67,241,013.
The great variety of goods made facilitates the
tendency, peculiar to this industry, toward the build-
ing of comparatively small mills, requiring but mod-
erate capital; and it happens in consequence that
these mills spring up all over the country, and can
now be found in nearly every State. Many of them
employ only cotton as a raw material; others use
chiefly wool ; and still others manufacture what are
known as merino knit goods or mixed goods — cot-
ton mixed with wool in proportions varying from
fifty to seventy-five and ninety per cent, of cotton,
according to the particular market sought. The
tendency to the larger use of cotton in these goods
is perceptible, not necessarily because of greater
cheapness or a desire to adulterate, but because the
liability of wool to shrink, and its excessive warmth,
lead many to prefer undergarments in which cotton
is an equal or predominating material.
In 1858 Mr. E. E; Kilboume invented a machine
for automatically knitting full-fashioned underwear ;
and this machine has gradually wrought a second
revolution in the industry. The amount of hand
labor now done is reduced to the minimum — to the
mere sewing on of buttons, so to speak.
Having said much in this paper about the enter-
prise and mechanical ingenuity of American textile
manufacturers, I may be pardoned for concluding
with an allusion to an obvious deficiency, as applied
to the industry as a whole. They have left little
to be desired in the direction of cheapening textile
products without deteriorating quality. They have
built and equipped mills which rank with any in the
world. They have planted on this continent ma-
chinery enough to supply all the textile wants of
our people, except in a comparatively few lines of
very fine fabrics. They have managed these mills
with rare business sagacity, and as a rule with nota-
ble financial success. They have taken one specialty
after another which had never been attempted here,
and transported its manufacture from across the
water, literally inventing anew the necessary machi-
nery, as in the case of braids and plush goods,
when they could not obtain it otherwise. They have
taken these several textile industries, which have been
localized and specialized in Europe for generations,
and in less than half a century have made them
one of the chief comer-stones of our national wealth.
They have contributed far more than their share to
the mechanical development which makes the labor
of a single operative stand for that of a regiment of
hand- workers in the eighteenth century. They have
failed only in contributing their equal share to the
artistic side of textile industry. They have been
imitators instead of originators, although justice
compels us to add that there are among them many
striking and gratifying exceptions to this rule. But
American-made goods do not bear, generally speak-
ing, any distinctive artistic characteristics which
distinguish them as American-made ; and, generally
speaking, they are inferior in this respect to the best
products of foreign looms.
All this is natural— natural to a new country in
which utility everywhere predominates over the or-
namental. The next great forward step in our tex-
tile manufactures must be in the artistic rather than
the mechanical direction, for there we recognize its
weakest point. In the designing of patterns, in the
use and application of dyes, in all that goes to im-
part to fabrics the artistic element, to lift the manu-
facture into an art, our textile mills are still far
from the top of the ladder. This deficiency is not
in any sense peculiar to the textile industries. It is
an educational deficiency in which our people as a
whole may be said to share. It is incidental to a
crude country of limited facilities in art directions.
What needs to be done is to supply those facilities ;
and the time is at hand when our manufactures
should themselves take the initiative in that work.
All over Europe there exist technical schools for the
training of textile workers, — weaving-schools, de-
signing-schools, dyeing-schools, — in which those who
manufacture goods are trained by the best instruc-
tors ; and the result is not only better workmanship,
but more beautiful and more artistic tissues. We
have but one such institution in America — the Phila-
delphia Textile School, which is doing a noble work
in elevating the standard and educating the taste of
American manufacturers. We need more like it,
need them badly, and need them at once.
CHAPTER LXXIII
AMERICAN CARPETS
A1
, HUNDRED years ago very few woolen car-
pets were in use on Manhattan Island. A
. few wealthy people had Turkish rugs, and
some ingrains were imported ; but they were so rare
that children were cautioned to tread lightly on them
when permitted on state occasions to enter the car-
peted room. No carpets were made here, except
■' rag carpets," the striped combination of rags and
list which the Knickerbocker housewives wove at
home, and which are still made in small quantities
both in farm-houses and in factories. The first car-
pet dealers in New York of whom we know any-
tiiiiig were J. Alexander & Company, whose adver-
tisement in Parker's " New York Gazette ; or, TTie
Weekly Post-Boy," on Monday, June 30, 17601
reads as follows:
"J. Alexander & Company have removed their
store 10 Mr Haynes's house on Smith St., where
Mr Proctor, watch-maker, lately lived, where they
sell Check Handkerchiefs, linens of different Isinds,
Lawn and Minonets, Scot's Carpels, broad and nar-
row cloths, Shoes of d liferent kinds, made shirts.
Hats, Stockings, with several othei
Scot's barley and Herrings. Also
of Old Madeira Wine in Pipes."
In the toUowing year they offered for sale Turkey amount e
many millions. It was not until many years after
carpets were first used in the colonies that the man-
ufacture was introduced here, and the colonies had
then become the United Stales. In 1791 William
Sprague began to make Axminsters in Philadelphia.
One of his first productions was a pattern which
represented the coat-of-arms of the young Repubh'c.
The carpet was probably not wonderful, but it has
achieved fame, not so much on account of the fact
that it was our first attempt, as becatise tt was the
first article to which the principle of tariff protection
was applied. Alexander Hamilton was Secretary
of the Treasury, and in a report on manufactures
sent to the House of Representatives in 1791 he
recommended that a duty of two and one half per
cent, be laid on carpets. To quote his own words :
"To which the nature of the articles suggests no
objection, and which may at the same time furnish
a motive the more to the fabrication of them at
home, toward which some beginnings have been
made." (December g, 1791.) The proceeds of
this duty he proposed to use as a bounty to encour-
joods ; Eine's age the growth of wool in the United Slates.
choice parcel Early in the century the manufacture of ingrains
was begun, and has continued steadily increasing
carpets, and two years later stale that they " have
imported some English and Scot's carpets and Hair
Cloth for Stairs and Passages." They were then
located " in the house right opposite Mr Donald
M orison Ship Chandler House, betwix the Fly
and Burling Slip." Judging from their advenise-
ments in the papers of the day, they were not only
the pioneers in the carpet business, but also the
originators of the modem department store.
From this lime on the use of carpets began to
increase and the business to grow, until, according
to the city directories, there were last year 304 firms
engaged in the sale of carpets in New York and
Brooklyn, the amount of capital invested being
Probably the first ingrain mill
in the United Slates was that of George M. Con-
radt, who came to this country from the kingdom
of Wiirtemberg, and settled in Frederick County,
Maryland. The factory was a stone building, and
was still standing not many years ago. The carpets
were made in a hand-loom on a drum having rows
of pegs somewhat like the cylinder of a music-box.
This drum worked the harness, Jacquard's great
invention was made in 1800, and soon after began
to be applied to the weaving of carpets in this
country. Among the early mills was one owned by
Henry Burdett, which was located at Medway,
Mass. Alexander Wright was the superintendent,
and the concern is notable as having been the start-
486
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
ing-point of what became later the great corpora-
tion known as the Lowell Manufacturing Company,
whose carpets afterward were the standard goods of
the country. In 1825 Wright endeavored to gain
information touching the jealously guarded secrets
of the Jacquard machine, then in use in the manu-
factiure of ingrains in Philadelphia, which city seems
to have been the second starting-point for the man-
ufacture of ingrains. He was unable to gain access
to the mills, and sailed for Scotland, whence he
soon returned with the best looms he could procure.
He also brought over with him William and Glaude
Wilson, to aid in operating the machinery. Glaude
Wilson was a skilled mechanic, and devised improve-
ments in the Jacquard loom, simplifying its con-
struction and rendering it more certain in operation.
He resided many years in Lowell, and lived to see
the Lowell Company become one of the most im-
portant manufacturing establishments in the country.
While the Medway experiment was going on, a
charter had been granted to the Lowell Manufactur-
ing Company, and on February 22, 1828, its organ-
ization was completed. In those days directors'
meetings were held at seven o^clock in the evening.
Whitney, Cabot & Company were appointed to
build the mills, employ the labor, and afterward sell
the goods. The Medway mill and machinery were
sold to the Lowell Company, which kept the looms
in operation in that place imtil its own factory at
Lowell was finished. Alexander Wright, referred
to above, was the first superintendent. For a long
time the enterprise was regarded as an experiment,
and many believed that the demand for carpets
would not justify paying for the skill necessary to
make them. The hand-looms of those days were
by no means as perfect as the hand-looms of our
time. The Lowell Company, however, persevered,
and ingrain factories continued to spring up in va-
rious parts of the country. The progress was slow,
and with the exception of the Hartford Carpet
Company, then operating as two separate concerns,
very few of the firms which afterward became
famous started until many years later.
E. S. Higgins & Company began to manufacture
ingrains in New York in 1841. Alexander Smith
began at West Farms in 1844. Robert Beattie
started in New York in 1840. John Bromley did
not set up his looms in Philadelphia until 1845.
This city now has some of the finest factories in
existence, and its production is larger than that of
all the rest of the country combined. More yards of
ingrain carpets are made there than in any other city
in the world, and the goods range from the highest to
the lowest grade. The imports from England and
Scotland continued to be heavy in spite of distance
and duties, as up to 1850 hand-looms only being
in use, the product of these and the other mills using
these looms was necessarily very limited, and we had
to overcome the prejudice against domestic goods.
Meanwhile Alexander Smith and J. G. McNair
had devoted much time and labor to the invention
of a patent process for weaving tapestry ingrains.
They succeeded in producing a carpet which filled
a want of the times for a strong and durable fabric
in which a large variety of color could be introduced.
The Crossleys, of Halifax, England, purchased the
rights to the invention, paying a royalty of a penny
a yard for England. Templeton, of A)rr, paid j£2oo
and a like royalty for Scotland. The goods became
enormously popular, and Stephen Sanford, of Am-
sterdam, N. Y., also secured the right to manufac-
ture them. The fame of the carpets spread so rap-
idly that it did much to stop the importation of
foreign ingrains.
Erastus B. Bigelow, a young medical student of
Boston, who was but twenty years of age, had seen
somewhere the manufacture of coach-lace by hand.
He was without mechanical training, and, in fact,
had never read a book on the subject ; but in forty
days after he took up the idea he perfected a power-
loom by which coach-lace weaving could be done.
At a single stroke he so reduced the cost of weav-
ing this class of goods that what had previously cost
twenty-two cents a yard was reduced to three cents.
This invention brought him into notice, and he set
to work to devise a power-loom for ingrain-carpet
weaving. Before the year was out he succeeded.
At this time eight yards a day was the product of
the ingrain hand-loom. Mr. Bigelow's loom at once
increased the product to ten and twelve yards, and,
after some defects had been remedied, rolled it up
to twenty-five yards a day, thus stimulating succes-
sive inventors of power-looms, such as Duckworth,
Murkland, Crompton, and others, who have multi-
plied the result, so that the product now reaches to
from forty to forty-five yards a day, although the
hoiurs of labor have been materially shortened.
But Mr. Bigelow did not rest here. In 1848 he
set to work to invent a power-loom for the weaving
of Brussels and tapestry carpets. At this time the
product of a long and hard day's labor for a weaver,
including a boy to draw the wires, was seven yards
of Brussels carpet. At once Mr. Bigelow raised this
to over twenty-five, some modem machines now
getting fifty-five yards of production in a day. Prior
to the perfecting of this invention, he had, with his
AMERICAN CARPETS
487
brother, Horado N., organized the Bigelow Caxpet
Company, which has the honor of being the original
power-loom manufacturer of Brussels and Wilton
carpets. The company has been very successful,
and now ranks among the foremost concerns in the
world. The Crossleys, of England, promptly pur-
chased, at a cost of ;^2o,ooo, the right to use the
Bigelow loom in^ England ; and A. & E. S. Higgins,
of New York, and the Roxbury Carpet Company,
of Massachusetts, also secured the exclusive use for
the United States for tapestry and velvet during the
term of the patent. Mr. Bigelow, of course, reserved
the right to manufacture Wiltons and Brussels on
his own loom. It has been my experience, in a
connection of over thirty years with the trade, that
the Wiltons, velvets, Brussels, and tapestries made
at that day by these establishments would compare
favorably in durability of wear and stability of color
with the same grades of any country in the world.
The success of Mr. Bigelow's looms stimulated
others to like inventions. The manufacture of
Axminster and moquette carpets by hand in foreign
countries was one of the slowest of trade processes.
In this two men and a boy were employed at one
loom, and could make but one and one half yards of
French moquette in a day. In i860, Alexander
Smith and Halcyon Skinner, of Yonkers, invented an
Axminster and moquette power-loom which was per-
haps more striking in its ability to increase the produc-
tive capacity of labor than was that of Mr. Bigelow.
This was the beginning of a second era in the
trade. The invention increased the production to
about eleven yards per day, the loom being attended
by a girl. Its merits were imiversally conceded,
and foreign and domestic manufacturers were glad
to pay large royalties for its use. The Alexander
Smith & Sons Carpet Company became one of the
most famous in the world, and its plant in Yonkers
is to-day the largest of the kind in the country.
How thoroughly American invention and American
mechanical skill have gained control of the home
market can easfly be imderstood from a few figures,
which I present as follows :
In the year ending June 30, 1870, there were
entered at the port of New York alone body Brus-
sels and tapestry Brussels valued at $1,355,832 ; in
1894 there were imported in the entire United States
body Brussels and tapestry Brussels valued at $58,-
208. In 1870 the manufacture of carpets in the
United States amounted in value to $21,761,573 ;
in 1890 the value of the carpets made in the United
States was $479770,193.
The number of firms engaged in the various de-
partments, with the approximate number of power-
looms employed, was last year as follows :
PRODUCTION OF CARPETS.
Vaaibtiks.
Manufacturbrs.
POWBS-LOOMS.
Insrains
16
6
4»«oo
1,200
1,700
600
Brussels and Wilton
Tapestry and velvet
Axminster and moquette.
These firms were capable of producing 100,000,-
000 yards, of the value of $50,000,000. There are
also many hand-looms on ingrains, and many man-
ufacturers of damasks and Venetians, Smyrna and
other rugs and mats.
On the artistic side the improvement has been
equally great At the outset most of our designs
were copied or adapted from foreign patterns. It
was only a few years ago that a foreign manufac-
turer, to whom I showed a sample of the first piece
of tapestry produced by Stephen Sanford, remarked,
after examining the fabric closely, " Well, you may
be able to manufacture the goods, but you can't
design them." In less than five years from that
time, the same gentleman, on his way to Canada to
sell goods, proposed to me to exchange samples,
that he might take orders from the American pat-
terns. After looking through his line I thanked
him, with the assurance that I could find nothing
there that could compare favorably with the dis-
carded designs of last season's patterns of our
domestic manufacture. In the fully eqiupped
studios of the Bigelow, Lowell, Smith, Hartford,
Higgins, and the Philadelphia companies a large
proportion of the designers are Americans, and the
proportion is steadily increasing. The American
dealer of to-day has to overcome very little preju-
dice against either the fabric, color, or pattern of
American carpets, and it is long since I have heard
a customer ask, " Is it English? "
Were I able to give the exact amount of money
expended each year, from the time the wool leaves
the sheep's back until the carpet reaches its resting-
place upon the floor of our homes, to be trodden
upon, beaten, and sometimes abused, notwithstand-
ing the fact that there is no article which goes so far
to make the home comfortable and attractive, the
figures would be astonishing. The people employed
in designing, manufacturing, and selling this article
to-day would form a sufficient population for a
young republic, with abundant capital to carry on
the government.
The skill and inventive genius in carpet manufac-
4S6
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
tones have so built up the home industry of the
United States as to give emplo3rment to a vast army
of operatives, and reduced the cost of the manufac-
tured article to such an extent that the humblest
citizen is enabled to have a floor veil carpeted with
fabrics that are attractive, and even artistic; and,
with the thrifty housewife, the addition of a rug or
two upon the carpet and a good lining underneath
is necessary, in her estimation, to sustain her status
as one of the social leaders in her humble sphere.
In no other time and no other country has such
comparative luxury been within the reach of modest
means. The white and well-scrubbed floor of the
Holland frau, the poUshed oak and tiling of France,
Germany, Italy, Austria, and the Other countries of
continental Europe, have given no precedent for the
American indulgence in carpets ; and even England,
outgrowing the rush and straw strewn floors of the
time of Erasmus, has not yet learned to fill the great
gap between the velvet pile carpets of the homes of
the nobility and the bare boards of the Whitechapel
tenements. It is in this respect that the United
States stands forth preeminent. There are carpets
for all, and from the days when the grandmothers
wove their rag carpets, to the present, when a far
superior article is turned out from nearly every fac-
tory in the country, at a cost cheaper even than that
of the home-made article, there have been few Ameri-
can homes too poor to enjoy the comfort of neat and
pretty floor coverings.
CHAPTER LXXIV
THE CORDAGE INDUSTRY
THE infancy of this industry was marked by In a great fire, July 30, 1794, seven ropewalks
great feebleness, but perhaps not more so were destroyed ; and the selectmen provided that no
than the average of American manufactures, more should be constructed in the heart of the town,
Rope making formed one of the principal branches and tendered the use of the low land west of the
of business from the early days of the colonies, and Common, where six others were at once constructed,
«
a ropewaik appears to have been first set up in 1642
in Boston, Mass., twelve years after the town was
founded. In this connection it is interesting to note
that in 1638 Boston was "rather a village than a
town, consisting of no more than twenty or thirty
houses." Prior to that time nearly every kind of
rigging and tackle for vessels was brought from
England.
With the building of the first ship in Boston, the
lyiai, of 160 tons, and probably on account of its
construction, John Harrison, a rope maker, was in-
vited to Boston from Salisbury, " on mocon of some
gentlemen of this town," and he set up his ropewaik
or " rope-field," ten feet ten inches wide, on the land
adjoining his house on Piu-chase Street, at the foot
of Summer Street, The work was done in the open
field. Posts were set in the ground firmly enough
to permit the suspension of cords and rope of no
inconHderable circumference,
Harrison was granted a monopoly of the business
until 1663, when permission was granted to John
Heyman to "set up his posts," but with "libertie
onely to make fishing lines " ; but even this license
was found so to interfere with Harrison— who was
now advanced in years and had a family of eleven
persons — that it caused him to fear tliat he could
not support them, and Heyman's permit was ac-
cordingly withdrawn. An additional argument em-
ployed to bring about tin's revocation was the
scarcity of hemp! After Harrison's death rope-
walks multiplied in number, and at the West and
North Ends of the town in sixty years there were
fourteen ropewalks. In 1793 the industry was
thrii-ing, no doubt greatly fostered by a bounty
granted by the General Court.
20 to 24 feet wide and 900 feet in length. These
were also destroyed by fire in 1806. Five were re-
buih, and were all once more burned in i8ig. The
elder Quincy, in the first year of his mayoralty,
with his usual energy and sagacity, promptly re-
moved all of these, with marked improvement to
the neighborhood, and the land was purchased for
$55,000 on February 35, 1824.
So much tor the early beginnings of this industry.
It is with a smile that we read that " in the Federal
procession of 1788 the men employed in this in-
dustry outnumbered any other class of mechanics in
Boston," and that in 1794 "over fifty men were
employed in this branch alone." The work in the
old ropewalks, although done mostly by hand, was
in some cases supplemented by horse or water
power. The workmen resented the employment of
any hands who had not served a regular apprentice-
ship at the trade, and there was bitter opposition to
the introduction of machinery.
Besides the ropewalks previously mentioned,
Nantucket had, in the height of her prosperity,
three, none of which now exists. Newburyport
had a good-sized ropewaik for those days. There
was one at Castine, Me. One was on Broadway,
New York, before the Revolution, and others were
found in other parts of the country. Early in the
century Samuel Pearson owned and operated one
in Portland, Me. His two sons, Samuel and
George C. Pearson, having learned llie trade with
their father, were afterward interested in steam
plants at and near Boston. Still later they started
the Suffolk Cordage Company, which grew into the
Pearson Cordage Company, now one of the largest
mills in the country.
A
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Shortly after the death of his father (Samuel),
Mr, Charles H. Pearson, who had been identified
with him and the other son, became connected with
the Boston Cordage Company, and still laler with
the Standard Cordage Company. Mr. Samuel
Pearson made many inventions in rope-machines
and in regulators for spinning,
Mr. A, L. Tubbs, of California, bought most of
the machinery in one of the old Boston mills and
shipped it to California. He started the business
on the Pacific coast, and at the present day controls
the two or three factories now located there.
Up to about 1850 it was the custom to import
spun yarns to be made into cordage. Thes« yams
were chiefly spun by Russian serfs, and could be
furnished for less money than similar ones made
here; but the introduction of improved machinery
gradually cut off these importations, and hardly any
spun yarns were bought after 1865.
The period between 1830 and 1850 witnessed the
starting of what may be termed the modern factory,
in distinction from the crude and primitive mode
of manufacture before existing. The difference be-
tween the two methods was this : In the old-
fashioned ropewalk the twisting of libers was done
by a man walking backward down the walk, spin-
ning from the hemp round his waist, the twist being
imparted from a wheel turned by a boy. The pos-
sible length of the rope could thus be no greater than
the length of the building or ground. Longfellow's
description, in his poem on " The Ropewalk," is too
fine to be omitted, even in a commercial article :
" In that building, long and law.
With its windows nil arow.
Like the port-holes of b hulk,
Hnmim spiders spin and spin.
Backward down their threads so thin
Dropping, each a hempen bulk.
" At the end, an open door ;
Squares of sanshine on the floor
Light the long and dusky lane;
And the whirring of a wheel,
Dull and drowsy, makes me feel
All its spokes arc in my brain."
In the modem factory the twist is imparted by
rapidly rotating machinery similar to that used in
cotton and woolen mills, making it possible to spin a
rope of several thousand feet in length on an upright
apparatus occupying but a few square feet. For
some purposes, however, the ropewalk rope, as it is
called, is still held to be superior to that manu-
factured by the other process. AVhen rope was
made without use of the ropewalk it was
to call it "patent cordage," to distinguish it from
the old style of ropewalk rope, and the name is still
used by some firms.
The inventions and patents of most consequence
and in most general use are those of John Good, of
New York City, whose spreaders and breakers did
away with the use of lappers, and whose nipper and
regulator on spinning-machines have given universal
satisfaction, although with the perfecting of " prep-
aration machinery " the use of a regulator has in
many instances been discontinued.
The era of the largest mills commenced in 1878,
after the invention of the self-binding han-ester.
Among the factories started during the period
alluded to were Sewall, Day & Company of Boston
{183s); Pearson Cordage Company of Boston; J.
Nickerson & Company of Boston; Weaver, Filler
& Company of Philadelphia {afterward and at the
present day Edwin H. Filler & Company) ; Plym-
outh Cordage Company of Plymouth, Mass. ;
Hingham Cordage Company of Hingham, Mass. ;
New Bedford Cordage Company of New Bedford,
Mass. (1842); Baumgardner, Woodward &: Com-
pany of Philadelphia ; J. T. Donnell & Company of
Bath, Me. ; William Wall & Sons of New York City ;
Lawrence Waterbury & Company of New York ;
Tucker, Carter & Company of New York; Eliza-
bethport Steam Cordage Company of New York;
Thomas Jackson & Son of Easton, Pa. ; J. Rinek's
Sons of Easton, Pa, ; and John Bonte's Sons of
The demand for cordage in those days being
largely for export and the use of ships, it will be
noticed that the manufacture was mainly confined
to Atlantic seaports. In later times, with the de-
cline of American shipping, the substitution of wire
for hemp standing rigging, and especially after the
great demand for binder twine, all this was changed,
and factories rapidly multiplied in the West, Peoria,
Miamisburg, Akron, and Xenia taking an important
part in the business.
As late as the year 1843 the total quantity of
Manila hemp manufactured in the United States
was only 27,820 bales or 7,511,400 pounds. This
amount of hemp could, in 1895, easily be brought
from Manila in three sailing-ships or in two steam-
ers—the latter capable of making the voyage in fifty
or sixty days by the way of the Suez Canal to
New York, Boston, or Philadelphia. Moreover,
one of half a dozen of the larger mills in the
country could, in 1895, manufacture the whole
quantity of Manila hemp used in the year 1843 in
tlie space of fifty days, by running night and day.
THE CORDAGE INDUSTRY
In 1863 the business had increased to five times
its size in 1843. With the War of the Rebellion
came a great demand for cordage ; and as hemps
rapidly advanced in price, in common with a!l other
staples, it was an era of great prosperity for the cord-
age industry. Orders were so numerous that it was
deemed a favor to a customer to supply him ; and it
is wilhin the knowledge of the writer that the profits
of one Eastern factory during that epoch amounted
in one year to $510,000, nor was its experience at
all exceptional.
It was in i860 that the first importations of Sisal
hemp were made. Commencing with the manufac-
ture of about aoo tons in that year, its use rapidly
extended, and it became in a few years an important
factor in the trade. In ten years its importation
amounted to 3500 tons, in twenty years to 13,000
tons, in thirty years to 34,000 tons, and in thirty-five
years to 50,000 tons.
With the extension of the business and [he in-
crease of factories, both In number and importance,
there was found to be a necessity for some regula-
tion of the prices of cordage. The first agreement
between the cordage manufacturers was entered into
on February 23, 1861, the object being to correct
certain abuses which had prevailed among firms
engaged in the trade. Weekly meetings were held
by the manufacturers in their respective cities, and
opportunity afforded for any complaints or any
suggestion about the condition of trade and the
regulation of prices. The object, as stated by one
of the Eastern manufacturers, was "to look each
other in the face and maintain prices." Various
amendments were from time to time made in this
agreement of 1861, but in July, 1874, a careful re-
vision was made and the manufacturers pledged
themselves, " as men of honor and integrity," to the
true and faithful observance of the rules. A stronger
agreement was made in April, 1875 ; but complaints
of underselling, answered with various excuses, were
frequent, and, there being no pecuniary penahy, the
ingenuity of the manufacturers finally hit upon what
was known as the " pool system." This went into
operation on January i, 1878. The business was di-
vided among the manufacturers in proportions which
seemed just, and when the business of one concern
exceeded during any month the proportion which
its share bore to the total business done according
to the returns, it would pay in so much per pound
on the excess. In case a concern fell short it would
be a recipient to that extent.
It was supposed that this arrangement would act
as a preventive to tlie cutting of prices, and it un-
doubtedly had that effect to some extent. The
novelty of the plan was also in its favor, and on the
whole it worked well enough amply to repay the
great amount of labor expended in securing its
adoption. The percentages ranged from eleven and
one fourth to one per cent.
In 1880 the amount of the pool was reduced from
two cents to one cent per pound, and in June of
that year to one-fourth cent; in January, 1881, the
pool was abohshed. In April, 1883, it was deemed
best to reestablish it, and on the 28th of June the
proportions were again agreed upon for three years.
At the expiration of that time the new concerns
which had grown up were taken into tlie associa-
tion, and after much labor, lasting from February to
July, 1885, a new pool was formed, and the propor-
tions as fixed by the committee were accepted.
No one who was present will ever forget the
magnificent banquet given at Long Branch, on the
29th of July, 1885, to Ihe members of the associa-
tion, by the Hon. Edwin H, Filler, of Phfladelpina,
who, as president for many years, had been untir-
ing in his efforts to unite the members and preserve
harmony. Equal honor should be awarded to
Mr. Frederick Davis, of Sewall, Day & Company of
Boston, and to Mr. D. B. Whitlock of New York,
for many years secretary of the association, who
died in 18S8.
In April, 1887, before the expiration of the time
agreed upon at the formation of the last pool, it
was broken up ; and the next event of great interest
was the formation and incorporation of the National
Cordage Company. This was composed of the four
leading concerns in New York Cily ; and although
their circular, dated August i, 1887, announced that
their " large facilities and long-established reputation
were a guaranty that they could fulfil all that they
promised to do," yet the successful accomplishment
of their aims would have demonstrated that the age
of miracles was not wholly past, Tlie projectors
were, no doubt, sanguine enough really to believe
that it was possible to control the product and prices
of Manila and Sisal hemp, but the attempt was a
failure. An effort was made to subsidize the houses
and brokers engaged in the trade, but they did not
remain subsidized, and the scheme would not work.
In some remarks made by the writer. May 37, 1886,
in the Old South Church, Boston, at a meeting
called to discuss the Morrison tariff bill, he said:
" The day of monopolies in this country is past, and
there is no danger but that the competition among
ourselves, with the wonderful and ever-increasing
labor-saving appliances and economical devices of
J
492
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
the present day, will keep down prices, in our own
products at least, to a reasonable point."
Thus it was with the attempt alluded to. The
time had gone by for any such arrangement to be
more than temporary, and measures to undermine
the project were taken by those who did not pro-
pose to give up their individual judgment in pur-
chasing raw material; and it is not strange that,
with the immutable laws of trade working in their
favor, these measures were at once and continuously
successful. The National Cordage Company was
in the position of a whale attacked by swordfish.
The whale was only one organization, and was cum-
bersome and unwieldy ; the swordfish were numerous
and extremely lively in their movements, and the
result of the conflict was what might reasonably
have been expected. The whale was exhausted by
his attempts to maintain his ground, and what was
bad rapidly became worse. In January, 1890, the
National Cordage Company made an attempt to
have all the manufacturers outside of their organiza-
tion join them. But no one who joined the National
knew the terms made with his neighbor, and it was
not long before distrust and suspicion ruined the
whole project. On the 4th of May, 1893, the
National passed into the hands of receivers, al-
though they had paid eight per cent, dividends from
1 89 1 on their preferred, and from nine to ten and
one half per cent, on their common stock, dividends
having been declared on both three days before
their failure.
It is too early to write the history of the United
States Cordage Company, which organization suc-
ceeded the National Cordage Company. Circum-
stances scarcely controllable by any one resulted in
disaster, and, in fact, its career was never much
more than a continued liquidation. A fall in the
prices of raw material, unexpected and unprec-
edented, together with other misfortunes, cul-
minated in the appointment of receivers, June 3,
1895.
For the future the prospect is brighter, and with
lower fixed charges, strict economy, judicious pur-
chases of the raw material as needed, a substantial
cash capital, and especially with the stock of binder
twine in the country practically used up for the first
time in five years, we may hope that the interest
on the bonds may be easily earned and the industry
again give fair results.
The figures given below are the aggregate of the
sworn returns of rope delivered by the members of the
United States Cordage Manufacturers' Association.
MANUFACTURED IN 1878, 1879, AND 1880, IN POUNDS.
Year.
Manila.
Total.
Sisal.
Total.
Gkamd Total.
1878
Home Trade
26483^33
4,213,964
14.085.037
Export
1378,825
30»697.797
15.963.862
46^661,659
1879
Home Trade
33.839»404
4,360,127
19,672300
Export
I.936.C93
38»i99.53i
21,608,893
59.808,424
1880
Home Trade
Export
40,729,610
3340,748
44.570.367
23.945.019
1.965.075
25,910,094
70,480461
MANUFACTURED SINCE 1880.
Ybax.
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
188S
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
Manila.
Bales.
216,706
193.873
184480
202,208
190,960
177,221
260,000
340,000
320,000
260,000
330,000
332,000
350,388
334.377
Pounds.
58,510,620
52,145,710
49,812,050
54,596,160
51,550,200
47,849,670
70,200/X)0
01,800,000
86400,000
70,200,000
89,100,000
89,640,000
94,604.760
90,281,790
Sisal.
Balks.
100,777
102,067
115.239
161,800
178,650
204,008
205,000
190,000
220,000
190,000
240,000
342,000
310,369
308,193
Pounds.
38303.060
40326,800
46,095,600
64,720,000
69.673.500
78,013,230
76375.000
71,250,000
8j,6oo,ooo
68400,000
864oo/xx>
123,120,000
114336.530
110,949480
Gkand Total.
Pounds.
97.313.680
93,172,510
95.907.^30
119,316,160
121,212,700
125,862,900
147.075.000
i63,050/x>0
I7o,ooo/)00
158,600^000
195,500,000
233,160,000
231441,290
211,231,270
Benjamin C. Clark.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^M THE 493
Canada ig included in the years 1S91, 1893, and product amounts to $11,000,000. The figures given
1.S94, but not before, on manila. In 1890 and 1891 below were collected with much care, and will give
New Zealand added zo, 000,000 pounds to the con- an approximate idea of the growth of this industry,
sumption for each year; 189J, 30,400,000 pounds; Other fibers, such as Russian and Italian hemps and
1893, 32,000,000 pounds; and 1894, 10,000,000 jute, have at times been used to a considerable extent,
pounds. but the writer beh'eves that the figures he has col-
There are about 10,000 spindles in this industry lecled practically give what is needed for statistical 1
at the present time, two thirds of which are ample purposes,
to supply tlie wants of the country. The annual Early figures of this trade are as below :
TABLE OF QUANTITIES OF MANILA, SISAL HEMP, ETC, MANUFACTURED IN THE 1
UNITED STATES, 1S43 to 1877.
V^.
»..,^
s,.^
TOIAJ, POUKDl.
BaluwitoLu.
POUHM.
B«..
bIldTh
Pounds.
POUMD*.
47438
46.343
■K
90.174
100,760
114,203
■3«58
?&
140^30
'3W53
Mifloa
'33.338
157,343
155.573
!!;:I3
"5.904
133.23'
146.715
7.5 11 -400
[i^Z
12,512.610
'0,559,970
16,772,400
13,156,020
19,647.630
16,439.760
23.534,S20
38,721,520
24.346,980
27,205^00
30.K34.810
33,172,120
29,8^4,140
a?S
28,436,940
311,532,080
34,607.160
|»
38,329,740
36,^50,410
36/»i,26o
424S3.340
'Mr
37,154.160
33,994.080
35.702,370
39.6i3/'So
1
"«95
3.774
2,797
^^H
16A,6
'0.893
16.733
'2479
21402
30.527
51.538
320
3*5
330
335
334
340
34"
350
352
l&
350
402
389
404
7,5 11400
\IAZ
12.512.610
io.SS9.97o
16,773400
13,156.020
;&&
23.534.820
»^
27,205.20a
3o,83a.o
29;M4|i40
34.916,670
il:637.5fo
33.070.980
36.385.035
37447.500
35.634.1 S5
39.599.i»o
38,584450
41.537.780
46.581.906
5 ".987466 "
60.434,40a
Us. ,
.848
a; .
.aS
i:::;:::;;:;::;:;-
:l§:::::::::::-:;:.::
■ess
■«56
Isll::::::::::::::::':
;I8:::::;::::::;::::.
445.760
200,640
915420
1,710,080
3.336.140
3,198,040
8,064,720
;::»
16,283,096
20,821^52
1862
iSS::::::::::::::::;:
;lll:::,::::::::::::::
;iS-::-.:::::;:
S;;:;;;::;;:;;:::.
;lg::;:.::.::::::;;.:
■8;;
3.769,839
1,017,856,530
385,734
106*17441
1.1J3.873.97'
1 y^
W X^. /
^^
_J
CHAPTER LXXV
HIDES AND LEATHER
THERE is probably no tndustiy in which the
advance in scientific attainments and busi-
ness methods during the last one hundred
years has been greater, or has wrought more impor-
tant changes, than in the manufacture of leather;
and there is likewise no product except those of agri-
culture, the application of which to the uses of man-
kind is of greater antiquity. From the earliest period
known to history the skins of animals, however
crudely prepared, have contributed to the necessities
and comforts of man, and, at the present day, there
is no product which contributes more luxury to en-
lightened humanity than " hides and leather." Dr.
Campbell, in his " Pohttcal Survey of Great Britain,"
aptly says : " If we look abroad on the instruments
of husbandry, or the implements used in most me-
chanic trades, or the structure of a multitude of
engines and machines; or if we contemplate at
home the necessary parts of our clothing,— breeches,
slioes, boots, gloves,— or the furniture of our houses,
the books on our shelves, the harness on our horses,
and even the substance of our carriages, what do we
see but instances of human industry exerted upon
leather? What an aptitude has this single material
in a variety of circumstances for the relief of our
necessities, and supplying conveniences in every
state and stage of lifel Without it, or even without
it in the plenty we have it, to what difficulties should
we be exposed I"
The art of tanning is one of very great antiquity,
and it is difficult to resist the temptation to refer,
however briefly, to the fact that the ancient Egyp-
tians inscribed on their tombs tableaux which referred
to the tanner ; that the Jews, after the exodus, prac-
tised the knowledge learned of the subjects of the
Pharaohs in preparing the rams' skins for the service
of the tabernacle ; that in the sepulchers of ancient
Mexico there have been found bronze leather slices
^milar to the Egyptian, indicating a knowledge of
leather working by a. people possibly coeval with
those of the Eastern continent. For hundreds of
years there appears to have been no mailed im-
provement in the tanning of leather, although there
are evidences of attempts to beautify it, for there
are specimens of embossed leathers made by the
Moors centuries ago. There is no accurate way of
ascertaining the nature of the preparation by the
ancients, but they subjected the skins to some treat-
ment to prevent putrefaction. There is probably
no vegetable growth containing tannin which has
not been tried and found favor; but of all these
oak-bark has held undisputed sway as the best tan-
ning agent for many years.
It is only within the last sixty or seventy years
that the manufacture of leather has taken great
strides, and, like many other industries, its advance
was made by the energy, inventive genius, and bosi-
ness ability of the American people. Originally the
small tanners depended for hides upon the stur-
rounding country. With the advent of the canal,
and later the railroad and steamship, together with
the application of chemical science, the tanner of
to-day is dependent upon no one country or any
special animal for his raw material, for the birds of
the air and the creatures of the ocean assist in con-
tributing to his needs in the present age. Hides, as
the term is accepted to-day, can be divided into
three classes : (i) hides proper, comprising the skins
of the larger animals, such as those of oxen, cows,
and horses ; (2) kips, or the skins of small or year-
ling cattle, exceeding the size of calfskins; (3) sidns,
including those of calves, sheep, goats, deer, pigs,
seals, and various kinds of fur-bearing animals, which
latter, of course, usually retain their hair after
tanning.
The heavy hides are converted into sole, belt, and
harness leather. Calfskin is a principal material for
the manufacture of upper leather for shoes and
boots, and is much used for bookbinding. Sheep-
skins are used for a variety of purposes, such as Im-
HIDES AND LEATHER
495
ings for shoes, bellows, whips, aprons, cushions and
covers, gloves, women's shoes, etc. Goatskins are
used almost exclusively for gloves and ladies' shoes.
The morocco leather, so extensively made until
recently, has almost entirely given way to the
"glazed kid" of the present day. Hogskins are
useful for saddle-leather, traveling-bags, etc. Dog-
skins, being thin and tough, are valuable for gloves.
Porpoise-skin, on account of its durability, is used
for shoe-strings. It may be interesting to note that
among the other creatures who contribute their
skins to the tanner are found the buffalo, kangaroo,
alligator, deer, hippopotamus, elephant, rhinoceros,
walrus, and even the shark.
From the best records obtainable, it appears that
the first tannery in this country was operated about
the year 1630, in Virginia; and a year or two later
the first tannery in New England was estabhshed in
the village of Swampscott, in Lynn, Mass., by Fran-
cis Ingalls, who came from Lincolnshire, England.
The vats used by him were filled up in 1825. The
industry was much encouraged by the colonial
authorities, and there are many records of laws made
regulating the manufactiure of leather and the saving
of skins for the tanners, under heavy fines for non-
compliance. In 1646 a law was made in Massa-
chusetts prohibiting the exportation of raw hides or
imwrooght leather, under heavy penalty alike to the
shipper and the master of the vessel. It is a fact,
and probably a consequence of these laws, that in
a little more than twenty years, or about 1651,
leather was relatively more plentiful here than in
England.
A noted leather manufacturer, who left a consid-
erable impress upon the business in the beginning
of the period covered by this work, was Colonel
William Edwards. He commenced business in
Hampshire in 1790, before he was twenty years of
age, and sent the first tanned leather from there to
Ae Boston market in 1794. He began a series of
improvements in the mechanical branch of the art,
which were adopted and extended by others, and
infused a greater spirit of enterprise into the business.
His new ideas in mechanism and in the arrangement
of the tannery were among the earliest and most
important of the advances in leather manufacture.
Probably the first incorporated company in the
business was the Hampshire Leather-Manufactiuing
Company, of Massachusetts, established in 1809,
with a capital of $100,000, chiefly owned by mer-
chants of Boston, who purchased the extensive tan-
neries of Colonel Edwards and his associates at
Northampton, Cunnington, and Chester. These
works had a capacity of 16,000 full-grown hides a
year.
In 1 8 10 tanneries were established everywhere,
the bark being cheaper by far than in England;
and 350,000 pounds of American leather were
annually exported, although some particular kinds
of English leather and morocco were imported.
The value of all the manufactures of hides and skins
at this time, according to the census of 18 10, was
$17,935,477. The actual amount was probably
over $20,000,000, as this census was very crude and
incomplete. Only the manufactiu-es of the loom,
including wool, flax, hemp, and silk, exceeded in
importance and amount at this time those of hides
and skins. The business increased gradually and
steadily until, in 1840, there were about 8000 tan-
neries in the United States, with a capital of $16,-
000,000, and emplopng about 26,000 hands. In
1850 the capital employed was over $20,000,000,
and the value of the product of hides and skins
alone was $38,000,000, which in i860 had in-
creased, including morocco and patent leather, to
$72,000,000. In 1870 there were 7569 establish-
ments, emplopng 35,243 hands, whose wages
amounted to $14)505,775 ; the capital engaged was
$61,124,812, and the product was valued at $157,-
237»597-
The number of establishments making leather was
enumerated so differendy by the census of 1890 and
that of 1880 that the statistics do not furnish a
reliable basis of comparison. In the census of 1880
the enumerators evidently included all the small
tanners and curriers, making an aggregate of 5424
establishments. In 1890 they as certainly included
only the large establishments, for they report 1596.
The figures of 1880 are the more nearly correct.
THE LEATHER INDUSTRY, 1880 to 1890.
Capital
Number of employees
Wages paid
Cost of material used .
Value of product
x88o.
$67,100,574
* 34.865
$14,049,656
145.255.716
184,699,633
z89a
$81,361,696
$17,825,605
100,114,806
138,282,004
The very great difference between the two years
in the cost of material used and the value of product
is attributable to the remarkable decline in prices,
which were at a maximum in 1880 and at a mini-
mum in 1890.
It will be observed that the number of persons
employed was a litde larger in 1880 than in 1890.
The explanation of this is found in the introduction
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
of machinery, making fewer hands necessary to per-
form ihe same service. Long after all other im-
portant industries had been revolutionized by the
troduction of machinery, tanning and leather tnai
facturing continued to be done by manual labor.
Inventions in this line were generally frowned upi
Formulae and processes had been transmitted from
father to son for generations, and it was considered
impossible to make leather in any other way.
While these barriers have been gradually removed,
and inventive genius appreciated, yet it is only
within the last ten or fifteen years that the most
radical changes are recorded and the old traditions
done away with.
Among the first patents taken out for the appli-
cation of a special process in the manufacture of
leather was one, in 1823, by which the tanning
liquor was forced through the skin by hydrostatic
pressure. A modification of this was introduced by
William Drake, in 1831, by which two skins were
sewed together, the liquor being put in the vessel
thus formed, and allowed to remain until the tanning
was completed. In 1836 a patent was issued for
suspending the hides in a close vessel, from which
the air was removed by an air-pump, and the con-
version of hides into leather much accelerated. To
enumerate the patents would require too muchspace ;
but I give below the dates when the first patent was
issued for each of the details which enter into leather
manufacture, and also the number of patents in each
item up to the present time. The total is approxi-
mated, as I have not at hand the records of the last
several years.
LEATHER PATENTS.
Leather Patents. — Coniinutd,
PunroBi Fa> w
Processes >nd ap^ratus for
leaching and making eilracia
from tim-bBrk
Bark-milla
Processes emnloying apparatus
for lanning lealher
Leather -splitting machine
Un hairing- machine
For rolling leather
Scourine uid setting machine . .
Tanners^ vats and handling ap-
pliances .... . .
Machines for boarding and grain-
ing leather
Compoands for depilaling hides
For Seshing-machines
Componndi for bating hides and
Whitening, boffing, and shaving
Datb of FiasT
July 19, 1794
July 9, iSoS
July 9, t8oS
July 12, iHii
Oct. 19, 181Z
Nov. ai, 1831
Jan. 9. 1834
March 25. 183s
Tune 30. 1836
June 17, 1837
Feb. 3. 1838
May 10. 1838
Compounds and miierials for
tannine and lawing leather and
prepanne raw hities
Processes \ot tanning leather. . .
For cnrrying leather
Machines for stoning, polishing,
finishing, glassing, glazing,
Aiming, creasing, and dicing
Compounds for coloring an j pol.
ishing lealher
Methods for manufacturing
enamel ed,j spanned, ind patent
lealher
For stuffing leather
For pebbling leather
For employing mineral sob-
stances fun- tawing hidei and
For slretching lealher
Bark-rossing machinet
For preserving hides
Machines for shaving or mohing
leather of uniform thickness . .
Apparatus for blacking leather .
Measuring-machines
Striking-oat machines
DATS or FlKIT
July iz, 183S
Aug. I, 1838
Aug. 1, 1S38
March 15, 1845
Ocu 9, 1847
Ian. 9, .|SS
Feb. 6, |8SS
May 6, iSj6
Aug. 4. I8S7
Feb. 8, 1859
Jan. 9. (863
Sept. II, 1866
Sept. 24, 1867
Sept 30, 1 8 70
Aug. z8, 1877
March 27, 1883
The number of cattle killed in the United Stat«
whose hides fiunished raw material for the tanner
not recorded prior to 1868 ; but since that rime the
Department of Agricuhure has a cattle census takeS'
each year. As the number killed is about one
fourtii of the total, the following figures are approx-
imated. The number of cattle (cows and steers)
killed in the United States in 1868 was 5,100,0
1870, 6,400,000; 1875, 6,800,000; tSSo, 8,300,-
000; r885, 11,000,000; 1890, 13,200,000; 1894,
13,250,000.
The imports of all kinds of hides and skins into
the United States from 1821 to the present time
(year cndingjune 30th from 1850 to date; prior tO'
1850, September 30th) were valued as follows:
IMPORTS OF HIDES AND SKINS.
Not duiified
$4.»97.376
ij!844!z4S
8.583.211
10,954.827
Not dassilied
4.799.031
10,514,706
13,003,560
30,003,254
'&%
31,881,886
aa,347.89«
ie,786,i5X
36,113,94s'
HIDES AND LEATHER
407
No hides were imported and none were wanted
until about 1815 ; the largest tannery in the United
Sta^tes at that time turned out 10,000 hides a year.
The imports and exports of tanned leather in the
lasC twelve years are shown to better advantage by
being placed side by side, and no better illustration
cajcx be given of the superiority of the American
article, and the progressiveness and persistence of
tlx^ American manufacturer:
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF LEATHER.
ENDING JUNB y^.
I
I'
1892
18^5
Importbd.
6329,722
6,689,506
6,606,858
EXPORTXD.
*6,792»574
7,952,169
9,913,369
12,958,312
.An interesting phase in the history of any industry
for the past one hundred years is developed in the
ooQsideration of the duties levied from time to time,
^und the changes made by the government during
tiisu period. In the leather industry this subject is
embraced in the following :
TARIFF RATES ON LEATHER, 1789 to 1894.
of the time required. This has been accomplished
wholly by mechanical improvements. Experiments
are constantly being made, however, and it is be-
lieved the day is not far distant when sole-leather
will be turned out in as many days — perhaps hours
— as it now takes weeks. In the lighter skins the
change has abready been radical. About 1880 Don-
gola kid was first put on the market, being the
result of a discovery by James Kent, of Gloversville,
N. Y., which completely revolutionized the manu-
facture of kid or morocco. As far back as 1856 the
system of tanning or tawing by the use of chromium
compounds was discovered by a German chemist;
but all the early experiments failed because the tan-
nage could not be made permanent. A remedy
was finally found in hyposulphite of sodium, by which
the tannage was made lasting. The discovery of
the remedy and its successful application were made
in Philadelphia, and were the means of creating in
that city within five years what is to-day the largest
and best equipped leather manufactory in the world.
The future of the great leather industry is depen-
dent entirely upon skill and a knowledge of chemical
and scientific principles. Upon these depend the
Ybax.
s
x:^
gj«
1^:::::::::::
?S« (MardiV. ! !
X (December)
I:::::::::::
Hi:::::;::::;
Raw Hides
AND Skins.
Free
u
M
M
«<
««
«<
U
5%
5%
4%
5%
w%
10%
10%
Free
M
««
a
Lbathbk
(All Kinds).
7M%
10 %
35 %
28 %
26 %
Sole
Lbathbr.
23%
20%
>5%
20%
20%
35%
35%
15%
15%
10%
10%
Uppbk
Lbathbk.
8c. per lb.
8c
8c.
8c.
8c.
8c
8c
it
M
«<
M
M
M
25%
20%
20%
20%
Calfskins.
20%
15%
25%
^5%
30%
30%
a5%
«5%
20%
20%
Patent
Lbathbk.
30%
30%
35%
35%
35%
35%
20%
20%
In the gathering of statistical information for this
^^*^cle I am much indebted to Mr. F. W. Norcross,
^^ the " Shoe and Leather Reporter " of New York.
The various tannages are oak-bark, hemlock-bark,
^^^iion, Dongola, alum, chrome, combination, elec-
^^^<^ sumac, and gambier, in addition to which there
'^^V'c been experiments without number. In the
^ajinage process of sole-leather almost the only
^Hange which has taken place is a slight diminution
acceleration and cheapening of the tanning process.
Our leather manufacturers must aim to be more
than good machinists; they must be practical and
thorough chemists. Already they have done much ;
and to one who knows them, and what their broad-
minded and progressive efforts have done for hides
and leather, the future of that industry can never be
in doubt. It will take its place far up in the ranks
of the great industrial enterprises of America.
ju/.p(^^^
CHAPTER LXXVI
AMERICAN RUBBER MANUFACTURES
THE rubber industry in the United States can
hardly be said to have had any real and tang-
ible existence until the discovery of the pro-
cess of vulcanization, a little over fifty years ago. It
may, however, prove not uninteresting to go back a
half-century earlier, to the very beginnings of rubber
history in this country ; for the first half-centiu'y
of this industry, though it achieved little else than
failure, is, perhaps, fully as instructive as the last
half-century, which has been marked with such
constant and conspicuous success.
The first rubber ever imported into this country
was brought into Boston in the year 1800. By a
singular coincidence, Charles Goodyear was bom
this same year — the man who was destined to con-
vert this useless sap of the Southern forests I'nio a
product that should contribute in a thousand ways
to the comfort and wealth of humanity, and to the
progress of science and an. While rubber was un-
known, prior to this time, in the United Stales, it was
by nomeansaproductof recent discovery. Columbus
found the natives of South America using it ; and the
Spanish soldiers, who followed in his wake, smeared
their cloaks with the Hquid gum, to make them
waterproof. French savants, visiting the New World
in the earlier pari of the last centiuy in quest of
scientific information, took back accounts of the
strange forest-trees whose sap could be molded into
shoes which were as flexible as leather and as im-
pervious to water as metal.
It was not, however, until 1770, that rubber was
utilized in any civilized country; ihen a few pieces
of it were sent to England to be used by artists for
erasing pencil-marks. It is a singular fact that
rubber derives its name from this trivial circum-
stance, the name "India" coming either from the
fact that it was gathered by the Indians of South
America, or, possibly, because some of ihe early im-
portations into Europe came from India.
It may not be uninteresting to lake a hurried
glance at the nature of this substance, its origin, and
the method of its collection. Rubber, in its crude
stale, is the sap of a tree which grows in great
luxuriance in hot chmates and in locahties that are
subject to annual inundation. This tree grows
chiefly in Central and South America, western
Africa, British India, and the Indian Archipelago.
Two thirds of the rubber product of the world, how-
ever, comes from the Amazon region, and is known
as " Para " rubber, deriving its name from the city
of Para, at the mouth of the Amazon River, whence
it is exported. The botanical name of the South
American species is Siphania Elastua; of which
there are several varieties, ranging in height from
forty to eighty or ninety feet.
The methods of gathering differ somewhat in the
different countries. For instance, in Peru and in
Central America the destructive method of felling
the tree is pursued, cutting it into pieces, and
letting the sap run into a hollow, from which it
is gathered. The method in vogue along the Ama-
zon, briefly, is this : Shortly after the rainy season is
over— that is, in midsummer— the rubber gatherers
take to their canoes, paddle up the tributary streams
of the Amazon, build their httle huts, and then start
into the forest, making small incisions, with a little
hatchet made for the purpose, in the bark of the
rubber-trees, cutting each tree in a half-dozen or
more places, according to its size. Beneath each
incision a small clay cup is placed, being made to
adhere by a daub of clay. Later in the day, the
gatherer goes his rounds and empties the contents
of each cup into a calabash, or earthen jug, which
he carries back to camp. Then, building a fire of
palm-nuts, he dips a wooden paddle into the ad-
hesive sap and cures layer after layer in the dense
smoke, continuing this process until the lump of
cured rubber at the end of his paddle becomes in-
conveniently heavy, when it is cut open and put
aside, ready for shipment. The sap of the tree, be-
fore it is cured, has the color and the consistency of
milk. Its color as it comes to this market is gener-
AMERICAN RUBBER MANUFACTURES
499
aUy a dark brown, the change being effected by the
smoke to which it is subjected in curing.
The first rubber imported into this country, in
1800, came in the form of bottles, and was looked
upon simply as an interesting curiosity. During the
next twenty years, sea-captains coming from South
American countries were constantly bringing with
them specimens of "gum elastic," as it was then
more generally called, not as an article of com-
merce, but simply as the strange product of a distant
land. It was natural, however, that a material so
pliable and elastic and so impervious to water
should suggest to the active American mind great
possibilities in the way of usefulness. But it was
not until 18 13 that this activity had any palpable
lesult In that year a patent was granted to one
Jacob Hummel, of Philadelphia, for a gum-elastic
varnish; of which, however, there seems to have
been no further mention. Some ten years later, in
1823, a Boston sea-captain, coming from South
American ports, brought with him a pair of gilded
rubber shoes which excited the greatest interest.
Two years later, 500 pairs of rubber shoes, made by
the natives along the Amazon, were brought into
Boston, this time without the fantastical refinement
of gilding. They were exceedingly thick, clumsy,
and unshapely shoes, and yet they sold readily,
bringing from $3 to $5 per pair ; for, with all their
heaviness and awkwardness, it was found that they
were a secure protection against dampness. This was
the entering wedge for the Para rubber shoe. The
next year more came, and each year the number in-
creased, until during the next fifteen years probably
over 1,000,000 pairs of these shoes were brought
into this country and sold at these very considerable
figures.
It naturally suggested itself to a great many en-
tciprismg minds that if rubber, when crude, had so
little value (such lots as had already been imported
^ sold at five cents a pound), and when manu-
factured into shoes commanded so high a figure,
there must be an excellent profit in rubber manu-
facture; and so people began to study the rubber
problem. Among them was Mr. Chaffee, a manu-
facturer of patent leather in Roxbury, Mass. It oc-
curred to him that if he could manufacture a leather
^th a varnish of rubber, which would give not only
a smooth and finished surface, but would render
^c leather impervious to water, he would have
a material of obvious usefulness. He began to ex-
P^cnt This was in 1831. He soon discovered
mat by dissolving the crude rubber in spirits of
^>cntine and adding a quantity of lampblack, he
obtained a varnish which, when spread over leather
or cloth, gave a hard, smooth, impervious surface.
He was enthusiastic over his discovery, and so were
his friends. A company was formed, and the Rox-
bury India-Rubber Company, the first to engage in
rubber manufactiu-e in the United States, was organ-
ized and received its charter in 1833. The prospect
for a very large and lucrative industry appeared
most promising. They began to make not only
rubber-coated shoes, but rubber cloth, rubber life-
preservers, and various other articles. Other com-
panies were started in 'the vicinity of Boston and
New York, and several millions of dollars were in-
vested in this enterprise. In fact — to borrow a
modernism — rubber "boomed"; for here was a
new product made of the sap of a forest-tree, the
supply of which was inexhaustible, and the uses of
which, when manufactured, promised to be almost
infinite.
In the winter of 1834, President Jackson visited
Boston, and the managers of the Roxbury Company,
having an eye to a good advertisement, presented
their distinguished visitor with a suit of rubber
clothes, which he put on — the day being rainy — and
wore as he rode on horseback through the streets of
Boston. It may well be imagined that the fame of
india-rubber was notably increased thereby, and the
demand for these goods became greater than ever.
Charles Goodyear, who was then a bankrupt
hardware merchant of Philadelphia, had read about
this wonderful new product and was greatly in-
terested therein. Bom in New Haven, the son of
a Connecticut manufacturer, he had acquired by
inheritance and by association a very considerable
inventive ability. He had been in partnership with
his father, conducting a branch store in Philadelphia
for the sale of their Connecticut-made hardware ;
but owing to an over-extension of credits the firm
had become insolvent, and Goodyear, then a young
man but a trifle past thirty, found himself out of
business and out of health, with a large load of
debt upon his shoulders. He thought he saw in
this new product, then being put upon the market,
an opportunity to retrieve the family fortunes. Ac-
cordingly, on his next visit to New York he called
at the office of the Roxbury Rubber Company and
examined some of their goods, and particularly their
life-preservers. He showed so much intelligence, in
some improvements he suggested, that the agent,
struck by his perspicacity, confided to him that the
whole rubber industry, notwithstanding its seeming
prosperity, was but a bubble that must burst — that
the rubber shoes, and blankets, and coats, which the
500
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
factories had sent out in such large quantities were
being daily returned to them, as the rubber melted
and stuck in summer, and stiffened and cracked in
winter. The man who could remedy these diffi-
culties, said the agent, had a fortune in his grasp.
Goodyear went back to Philadelphia determined, if
possible, to solve the rubber problem.
It was a singular augury of the years before him
that his first experiment in rubber was begun in a
debtors' jail. Here, with a little lump of rubber,
and with no other tools than his fingers, he began
those experiments which were to continue until his
death, some twenty-seven years later, and which,
though for the most part carried on under circum-
stances of the utmost privation, were destined to add
hundreds of millions to the wealth of the world.
The agent of the Roxbury Rubber Company proved
a true prophet, for the great rubber industry which
had sprung up so rapidly soon came to naught.
The boots and shoes, and rubber clothing, and other
articles made of the wonderful new product did not
stand the test of actual service. The factories were
soon closed and the investment proved an utter loss.
But this general disaster did not discourage Good-
year. In a certain sense he was assisted by the ab-
solute collapse of the enterprise, as it made crude
rubber so apparently useless and so cheap tliat even
a bankrupt in a debtors' prison could get all he
wanted.
From this time, in 1835 and 1836, when in the
entire industrial vocabulary there was no other word
so despised as "rubber," until twenty-five years
later, the history of the rubber industry in the United
States is little else than the personal history of
Charles Goodyear. There are many other names
connected with rubber development, but they are
all simply incidental; the one persistent, potent
force was Charles Goodyear. Taking up the rub-
ber problem as a possible means of papng his
debts, he became so absorbed in the pursuit, so
dominated by it, that from that time to the day of
his death it was the one all-engrossing purpose of
his life, from which no straits of circumstances, no
distress of physical pain, no enticements of wealth,
could serve to swerve him. It is impossible in the
limited scope of this article to follow Goodyear
through the ten years of trying and unceasing
labors which were ultimately crowned by the dis-
covery of the vulcanization process. They were
ten years of groping in the dark, ever getting a
little nearer to the light. Three different times he
thought he had reached the goal — first, when he
mixed his crude rubber with magnesia; second.
when he boiled this compound in quicklime and
water; and third, when he washed the surface of
this mixture with nitric acid ; but each time apparent
success soon turned into complete and disheartening
failure. It was six years from the time he began
his experiments before he discovered that the two
things necessary to make rubber an article of prac-
tical utility under all conditions of heat and cold
were sulphur and heat. This discovery was made
by accident — but it was such an accident as befell
Columbus when he discovered America; it was
only such an accident as could befall a man who
had given his whole thought, his whole time, his
whole being, to one subject for many years.
How he was sitting by the kitchen stove expound-
ing his theories to his incredulous neighbors, and in
the enthusiasm of his gestures struck a handful of
rubber and sulphur against the hot stove, thus ac-
cidentally discovering the secret of vulcanization,
has been told and retold so often that it need not
be repeated here ; and yet this wonderful discovery
that heat was the thing that rubber needed to make
it insensible both to heat and to cold — a discovery
which meant to Goodyear the triumphant solution
of the problem which had remained for so many
years unsolved — signified so little to his friends—
indeed, the entire community was so weary of the
whole rubber question, and men of means viewed
the subject with so much suspicion — that it was not
until two years later, in 1840, that he was able to
interest any one in his new system of vulcaniza-
tion. In that year he secured the assistance of two
New York capitalists and built a factory in Spring-
field, Mass. Here, four years later, he took out a
patent for preparing rubber by the process of vul-
canization, and began to sell licenses for the manu-
facture of various articles under this patent. The
license to manufacture rubber boots and shoes was
sold to Leverette Candee, of New Haven, the
founder of L. Candee & Co., a company which
has continued to the present time an important
factor in the American rubber footwear industry.
The license to manufactiu-e rubber gloves he granted
to the Goodyear's India- Rubber Glove Manufactur-
ing Company, of Naugatuck, Conn. The license
to manufacture door-springs, which seemed a very
trivial branch of the industry, but which later grew
to considerable proportions, was granted to Daniel
Hodgeman, of New York ; and various other licenses
for the manufacture of other goods were given out
under his patent to different companies, which im-
mediately began the manufacture of rubber goods
under these licenses. All branches of the rubber
Charles L. Johnson.
AMERICAN RUBBER MANUFACTURES
s as we find it in this country' to-day took
their permanent rise from the date of Goodyear's
patent. Several other companies, in addition to the
Candee Company, bought licenses to manufacture
boots and shoes ; among them Ford & Company
(now the Meyer Rubber Company), and the New
Brunswick Company, both of New Brunswick, N. J.,
and the Hayward (which later grew into the Col-
chester Rubber Company), and the Goodyear's
Metallic- Rubber Shoe Company, of Naugatuck,
Conn.
Mechanical goods, and especially belting, began
at this time to receive considerable attention. Some
rubber garments were also made. An immediate de-
mand for the poncho— a blanket for horsemen, with
a hole in the center for the rider's head— came from
the far Southwest and from Mexico ; and various
druggists' sundries also began lo find their way into
the market. With the discovery of hard rubber the
field of rubber's usefulness was still further largely
extended. The prosperity of the early rubber com-
panies which took their rise from Goodyear's patent
in 1844, was sufficient to warrant them in paying
Daniel Webster, who defended the patent in a seven
years' lawsuit— , finally adjudicated in 185a,— a fee
of $35,000— the largest legal fee that had at that
time been paid in this country.
Still it was the day of small beginnings, for we
find that the importations of crude rubber at Salem,
Mass., to which port the greater part of the rubber
then imported was brought, amounted in 1851 only
to 334,000 pounds, in 1851 to 1,961,000 pounds,
and in 1854 to 2,055,000 pounds. In i860 the
boot and shoe industry had a yearly output of only
1,100,000 pairs, at a valuation of $795,000.
The Civil War gave a great impetus to the rubber
industry. This was particularly true of the clothing
branch ; blankets were needed for the soldiers, and
the government gave out large contracts. The
attempt was made, and with some success, to con-
struct rubber pontoons to be used in military opera-
tions. The boot and shoe industry increased rapidly
with the other branches of rubber manufacture,
so that, from an output in i860 of the value of
$795,000, the yearly output in 1870 had increased
to $8,000,000.
The manufacture of mechanical goods took a
rapid start shortly after the war. This was owing lo
a considerable extent to the great increase of rail-
road building at that time. The railroads called for
large quantities of packing, and for hose to be used
in conveying steam and gas. The impetus given
to manufacturing in general made an increased de-
mand for rubber belting. The first rubber belt was
patented in this country in 1&36, but this particular
branch of the rubber industry reached no consider-
able size until after the war, when rubber belting
was in demand for mills, factories, and elevators,
and especially for all outdoor machinery. It pos-
sessed several advantages over leather belting; its
lower price, the greater friction between the belt
and the wheel, and the fact that it was not affected
by exposure or by moisture. The rubber mechan-
ical goods industry has increased constantly from
the lime of the war to the present day, until now it
covers a vast variety of articles.
The making of rubber tires for bicycles, and to a
growing extent for other vehicles, took its rise about
fifteen years ago with the solid tire. That gave way
to the cushion tire, which some five years ago was
displaced by the now universal pneumatic tire. It
is estimated that at least 6,000,000 pounds of rubber
are now annually used in the making of bicycle tires.
Next in importance to rubber tiring — which stands
next to hose, belting, and packing— comes the mak-
ing of rubber mats. This industry has enjoyed a
constant and rapid growth, until we, have mats for
floors and for stairs, pitcher-mats for tables, and
coin-mats for counters— and all in an infim'te variety
of design. They have lately come into vogue in
the form of tiles, which can be laid in ornamental
mosaics, and are particularly adapted to ship use.
The introduction and rapid growth of the type-
writer industry has consumed a constantly increas-
ing quantity of rubber in various details of type-
writer construction. The humble carpet-sweeper
consumes, it is said, over $100,000 worth of rubber
yearly in the bands that encircle it to keep it
from injuring furniture. Several hundred thousand
pounds of rubber are used each year by one com-
pany alone in the manufacture of jar rings. The
making of pencil erasers consumes a large quantity,
and there is a large annual output of goring, in
which rubber thread is used. A quarter of a million
dollars' worth of rubber is used in this country each
year in the making of cushions for billiard -tables.
Probably the most widely extended branch of
rubber manufacturing— existing to some extent in
almost every civilized country — is the making of
rubber stamps. This is a large industry in this
country. Then the item of rubber balls is a very
considerable one. One firm alone makes over
$100,000 worth a year of tennis-balls, and it has
several competitors. The making of base-balls and
foot-balb, and the various foot-ball accoutrements
in which the player arrays himself, consumes con-
003
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
fiderably over $i|000y000 worth of rubber each
ycftr.
"Iliere arc, in short, to-day, some thirty companies
making rubber mechanical goods, with an aggre-
gate capital of about $20,000,000, employing 4000
men, and having an annual output valued at from
$18,000,000 to $20,000,000. Our export trade
in mechanical goods amounts to something over
$1,000,000 a year.
The attempt to utilize the waterproof properties
of the caoutchouc gum in the manufacture of cloth-
ing was one of the earliest directions which rubber
invention took. In England this branch of the in-
dustry has received more attention than any other ;
but in this country very little was done in this de-
partment of rubber manufacture until the Civil War,
and the great demand to which it gave rise for rub-
ber coAts and blankets. After the war rubber coats
continued to lie made, but they were chiefly of
a heavy sort and almost solely for men; women
continued their vain attempt to protect themselves
Against the rain l)y the use of heavy woolen garments,
most inaccurately called ** waterproof." These gave
way about twenty years ago to the light gossamer
garment, whicli was at first very popular. But ex-
cessive competition resulted in such deterioration of
quality as seriously to affect its popularity. About
twelve years ago the manufacture of mackintoshes
for l)oth men and women was started in this country.
Some garments had been imported from England,
but they were not found perfectly suited to our drier
climate* The American mackintosh has grown
constantly in excellence and in general esteem,
until now there are some twenty factories engaged
in this branch oi manufacture, mth an investment
of $6,ooo,ooo« and an annual output amounting to
alH>ut the same sum« Of the se\*eral companies
making rubl>er ganuents, the American Rubber
Ct^ini^ny, Camlmiigei>ort« Mass.» leads with a
daily cai^city of 1500 garments.
Another impl^rtant branch of the rubber industry
in the United States is the making of druggists* sun-
dries. I1ie pioneer in this industry was the Union
Rubber CiHiiivany^ Kvatev! in Hariem. It derived
its license direct fixwi Gvxxiyear, and began to
manufactUT^ druggists^ sundries eariy in the fifties,
making syringes, water-bottles, bandages. air-puUows,
air-cushions, and a x^rietr oC <vther druggists*
aiticks. The atvytniier^ now so generaDy in ose^
was a later \levek){^inent« and came into vogoe per-
haps a doien jnean a^v We do a fair export
httsmess m ceitain vazienes v^ draggists" sandrie&
TVere are mim mi companies engaged m diis
branch of the business in this country at the present
time, with a capital of between $4,000,000 and
$5,000,000, and with an annual output of about
$4,000,000.
The hard-rubber industry, while somewhat distinct
from the soft-rubber industry, may properly be in-
cluded in the scope of this article. After Goodyear
had brought his vulcanization process to a fair degree
of perfection he turned his attention to the making
of hard rubber, in which he was greatly assisted by
his brother Nelson, who in the year 1851 obtained
a patent for the production of hard rubber. Hard
rubber differs from soft rubber in its composition
— containing a much larger proportion of sulphur —
and in the degree of heat used in vulcanization,
which is considerably higher than that at which
soft rubber is vulcanized. The first article made in
hard rubber to any considerable extent was the comb.
It is said that Goody ear's first experiments in this
line made his combs cost twenty times as much as the
ivory combs then in use ; but the rubber comb has
now practically displaced all other kinds. Probably
five hundred varieties of rubber combs have been
made since the beginning of this industry.
For twenty years after the invention of hard rub-
ber two companies practically enjoyed its monopoly
— the India- Rubber Comb Company and the Ameri-
can Hard- Rubber Company; but other companies
entered the field after the expiration of the Goodyear
patent, and now there are four large companies, em-
ploying 2500 operatives, having an aggregate capital
of $4,000,000, and a yeariy output of over $3,000,000
in value. The principal articles of manufacture are
combs, syringes and syringe fittings, fittings for
pipes, buttons, harness trimmings, and various desk
articles, such as ink-wells, penholders, and rulers.
We do a small export trade in this branch.
It is the boot and shoe industry, however, that
has led in robber manufacture in this country from
the very first. In fact, for many years the boot and
shoe industry used the great bulk of the rubber im-
pcNTted into this country ; but the later development
of other branches c^ the rubber business has been so
large that now the boot and shoe industry compiises
probably not over forty per cent c^ the rubber
manufactured in the United States.
From an annual output in 1S60 of the value of
$795«ooo« the valne of the rubber boot and shoe
prodnct grew in 1S70 to $$,ooo.ooc, in iSSo to
$16^000,000, and in 1890 to $24,000,000. There
are now a dotcn or more large factories engaged in
die manufactoFeofrabbcr boots and sboe& Therare
die American Robber CompanT, Cambridge, Ifjiss. ;
AMERICAN RUBBER MANUFACTURES
503
the Boston Rubber Company, Boston; the Boston
Rubber Shoe Company, Maiden, Mass. ; L. Candee
& Co., New Haven, Conn. ; the Goodyear*s Metallic-
Rubber Shoe Company and the Goody ear's India-
Rabber Glove Manufacturing Company, Nauga-
mck. Conn. ; the Jersey, Meyer, and New Brunswick
Rubber Companies, located at New Brunswick,
N. J. ; the Lycoming Rubber Company, Williams-
port, Pa. ; the National India-Rubber Company,
located at Providence, R. I. ; and the Woonsocket
Rubber Company, with three factories in Rhode
Isl^md — two at Woonsocket and one at Millville.
Tlie combined daily capacity of these companies is
I S 0,000 pairs of boots and shoes, they employ
^S*^^^ workmen, and their aggregate capital is
^4.5,000,000. Their aggregate annual output in
X 3^5 will equal 40,000,000 pairs of boots and shoes,
V3lued at $29,000,000.
In Europe there are some eight factories manu-
fajoturing rubber boots and shoes— two in England,
one at Paris (owned and managed by Americans),
t^o in Germany, and three in Russia. The aggre-
ga.te daily capacity of these eight companies does
not exceed 30,000 pairs, as against the 180,000
pairs which the American factories can daily pro-
duce. The boots and shoes made by the European
factories are uniformly heavy, and present few
v^arieties in widths, sizes, or shapes; while the in-
dustry has been carried to such an extent in this
coiantry that several of the larger companies make-
baking into consideration all the different shapes and
s>«cs— fully a thousand varieties of rubber footwear.
There are several reasons why this country has so
Si^eatly outstripped Europe in the making of rubber
^^oots and shoes. In the first place, labor being
'^iuch higher here, we have had a greater incentive
^oir making inventions and improving our machinery.
Sec:ondly, the great body of the working-people in
^l^is country are better able to afford the luxury of
'■^iDber footwear than they are in Europe, so that the
d^^nand is vastly greater here. In Europe rubbers
^^■■^ worn only by the well-to-do ; here they are worn
^'y every one, the yearly average consumption being
^ I>air of rubbers to every other person. Then pos-
Sil:>ly our cUmate, with its more intense winter se-
^^rrity, has had something to do with our greater
^^^^xisumption,
^e have as yet done comparatively little in the
^^ay of exporting rubber boots and shoes, our annual
^^ports in this line rarely exceeding $300,000.
*^e reason has been chiefly that the American
^dnand has been so large and has so constantly
^creased that our manufacturers have not yet
felt the necessity of looking for a broader field.
They have consequently made no effort to appeal to
foreign buyers by making rubbers particularly suited
to their local conditions. The rubbers which we
export go chiefly to England, the Continent, Japan,
and China.
A very important event in the history of the
rubber boot and shoe industry in the United States
occurred in the fall of 1892, when the United States
Rubber Company purchased nearly all of the large
rubber footwear interests in the United States. This
centralization of the rubber industry has already
resulted in conspicuous economies; for while the
different factories have remained under their former
individual management, they have shared their in-
dividual advantages in common, the patents and
secret processes of one factory becoming the prop-
erty of all. In this way all the improved methods,
a part of which each factory enjoyed before, are
now shared equally and fully by all the different
factories. There has been also a great saving in
the matter of purchasing crude rubber, a large single
purchase being made at a great advantage over a
number of smaller scattered purchases. In reducing
the necessity of carrying large stocks, in diminishing
the duplication of a vast number of expensive lasts,
and in various other ways, marked economies have
been effected, while at the same time the quality of
the goods has been more uniformly excellent than
heretofore. The combination of all that was best in
the methods of the different companies has proved
a potent agency in advancing the rubber footwear
industry in this country toward the universal goal of
all industrial enterprises — better product at a lower
cost.
The entire rubber industry in the United States,
in its five important branches, — footwear, mechan-
ical goods, clothing, druggists' simdries, and hard
rubber, — consumes considerably more than one half
of the rubber manufactured in the world. The
consumption of rubber in this country increased
from 9,830,000 pounds in 1875 to 17,835,000
poimds in 1880, and 31,949,000 pounds in 1890;
while the consumption of crude rubber in 1895 will
aggregate fully 36,000,000 pounds. To this large
amount must be added the rubber which is obtained by
the reclaiming process, which has now been brought
to such a state of perfection that very little rubber
goes to waste, old rubber articles being collected
and subjected to a process which eliminates from
the compound everything but the rubber. This re-
claimed rubber is serviceable in several branches
of manufacture, and is largely used in certain
L
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
mechanical goods, in which the product is bene-
fited rather than impaired by its use. It is probable
that the amount of this reclaimed rubber used
annually in this country equals 25,000,000 pounds,
making the total yearly consumption of rubber
60,000,000 pounds. The rubber industry in the
United States in 1S95 is ten times what it was in
i860, three times what it was in 1870, and has
doubled since 1880. There are $85,000,000 of
capital invested in the various branches of rubber
manufacture in this country, and the value of the
yearly product is fully $75,000,000, while 150,000
people depend upon it for their support.
Almost the entire rubber output of this country is
used at home, our exports amounting, all told, to
less than $3,000,000 a year ; but with our improved
machinery and superior methods of manufacture,
it is only a question of time — even though we pay
nearly seventy per cent, more for our labor than
is paid in Europe — when our export trade should
assume large proportions. As soon as American
manufacturers feel the need of a larger market, and
will sufGciently direct their attention to foreign fields
to make the boots and shoes best adapted to climatic
conditions and local preferences, there is no reason
why our export trade should not reach an importance
more nearly commensurate with the large dimensions
of our home consumption.
CHAPTER LXXVII
AMERICAN WALL-PAPERS
JUDGED from the value of its product in dol- closely that in many cases it is impossible to detect
lars and cents, the wall-paper industry ranks the difference. In this work they are most con-
very low in the list of American manufactures, scientious, not permitting the smallest detail to be
Considered apart from its monetary value, how- slighted. This attention to artistic accuracy neces-
cver, it assumes an importance tiiat can hardly be sarily renders the work very laborious and expensive,
over-estimated, due to the refining influence it exerts The rates of wages paid in Europe are low, how-
in decoration and home adornment. Wall-paper has ever, when compared with those paid in this country ;
l:>ecome the key-note in the decoration of a room ; otherwise the prices of such goods would be almost
ives the tone. Carpets and furniture are sub-
sidiary. Criticism is chiefly directed to the wall-
paper. The design must be perfect, and its coloring
Iiarroonious. In fact, wail-paper has become prac-
tically indispensable in furnishing a room. It is now
the custom to paper the walls of new houses as soon
prohibitory. The high measure of skill acquired in
the manufacture of these goods is due in great de-
gree to the fact that several generations of one
family follow the same occupation, the son receiving
instruction in the art at an early age, and succeed-
ig the father in identically the same line of work.
as completed, instead of submitting to bare white This state of proficiency is seldom met with in this
'vralls as formerly ; and builders find that they can country, where the opportunities of advancement are
more readily dispose of houses whose walls
papered, and can, furthermore, obtain a better price
for them, especially if there has been a reasonable
exercise of taste in the selection of the paper. An-
other point in its favor is the fact that it can be
•quickly applied, the annoyance incidental to the
cjecoration of a house being reduced to a minimum
Khrougb its use ; and time is always an important
factor with the American people. It is, furthermore,
a not unhealthf ul agent, the ingredients entering into
its manufacture being mainly wood-pulp and pure
<:Iay; and, being comparatively inexpensive, it can
fce replaced easily and as often as desired.
Unquestionably the industry had its origin in
<rhina centuries ago. Europe commenced making
■Vall-paper about the beginning of the last century,
the goods produced being mainly imitations of tapes-
tries and various fabrics which had, previously to
that, been employed in covering walls. In fact, the
best goods produced in Eiu'ope at this day are imi-
tations of tapestries, velvets, silks, cretonnes, and
leather hangings. In these classes of goods Eu-
ropean manufacturers have reached a
of perfection, imitating any particula
. high slate
fabric so
great that the young man is not willing to follow
in the footsteps of his parents, but strives to improve
his condition and, if possible, establish a business of
his own. This brings about a scarcity of skilled
labor which is seriously felt by every manufacturer
having advanced ideas, and which retards the pro-
gress of the business to a large extent. A more
liberal provision on the part of labor organizations
for apprentices is absolutely essential to secure the
best results. Low wages have, to a certain extent,
acted against the progress of the wall-paper industry
in Europe. They have caused manufacturers to re-
tain primitive methods that are in strong contrast
with those used in this country, where labor is better
compensated, and where, in consequence, inventive
minds have been at work to overcome, by improved
methods and increased production, the higher rate
of wages paid here.
According to the best authorities wall-paper was
first manufactured in this country about the year
1790, so that a retrospect of the business for the
last hundred years practically embraces the entire
Ufe of this industry here. Those who introduced die
industry were two Frenchmen, Boulu and Charden,
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
in association with John Games, who had been the
American consul ai Lyons, France, followed shortly
after by WUliam Poyntell, and by John Howell and
John B, Howell, fadier and son respectively, who
bad formerly conducted a similar business in Eng-
land. The Howeils established themselves at Al-
bany, N. Y., but in a very modest way, their factory
being a few rooms In the rear part of their dwelling.
However, the amount of space required was not
great, as the method of manufacturing was very
crude, and the volume of business coirespondingly
small. Paper was at that time made only in sheets,
and had to be joined before being printed. Color
was then applied by means of a brush lo form the
background of tiie design, and the latter was subse-
quently printed upon the paper from wooden blocks,
as many blocks being used as there were colors in
the pattern, each block having a part of the pattern
upon it in one color. One block was printed the
whole length of the paper before the next color was
applied. It should be stated that this method of
printing by means of blocks still prevails, but only
in connection with designs which, on account of
their dimensions, or through some other peculiarity,
cannot be printed on the cylinder-machines that
have practically supplanted block or hand work, as
it is termed. The method of applying color to the
background by means of a hand -brush has, however,
been done away with altogether.
It does not appear tliat any other factories were
established until about the year iSio, at which time
a man named Boriken was engaged in the business.
The Howell firm had meanwhile sold out their Al-
bany business to Lemuel Steel, and, after a short
experience in New York City and Baltimore, had
finally, in the year tSao, located at Philadelphia, Pa.,
where they have been established ever since, the
present owners comprising the third and fourth gen-
erations engaged in the business.
It was not, however, until 1844 that any decided
advance was made in the growth of the industry.
About that lime paper in continuous lengths came
into more general use, and the necessity of joining
sheets together was obviated. In that year, also,
the first machine for printing wall-paper was im-
ported from England and introduced into the
Howell factory. While very crude, as it printed
only a single color, it had a stimulating effect on the
business, inasmuch as it enabled goods to be pro-
duced at a largely reduced price, and increased the
volume of the business considerably. As near as
can be ascertained, the entire production of wall-
paper in the United States at that time did not ex-
ceed $250,000. The second printing apparatus was
imported from England in 1846, this one printing
six colors. Machines were subsequently built in
this country, at first by the machinists connected
with wall-paper factories, but after a time a specially
of this class of work was made by William Waldron,
of New Brunswick, N. J. He was succeeded by his
son, the present John Waldron, whose conscientious
attention to the machinery requirements of the wall-
paper trade has, during all this period, secured to
him the bulk of the business in this line. Being of
a highly practical mind and very observant, he has
been quick to perceive possible improvements, and
has, furthermore, been able to render practical the
ideas of others.
The printing-machine of to-day is imquestionably
a great improvement on that originally imported into
this country, although the principle of its operation
is practically the same. It is cylindrical in shape.
The paper passes over the cylinder, the pattern
being printed on it by means of rollers on which the
design has been placed, each roller representing one
of the colors used in the design. These rollers are
registered so accurately that as the paper, in passing
over the revolving cylinder, reaches one of them, it
leaves the impression on the paper, and the succeed-
ing rollers follow in regular order. The paper is
hung up by an automatic process as it leaves the
machine, and passes into drying-racks which are
usually several hundred feet in length, after which
it is rolled up in lengths of eight to sixteen yards,
and is ready for market.
While the printing-machine is necessarily the most
prominent feature of the business, yet other factors
have contributed largely to the progress made by
this industry. Among them are the grounding-
machines, which furnish the background color to
the paper; the bronzing-machines, which apply
bronze powders to certain of the goods; the em-
bossing-machines, which give various textures to the
goods after they have been printed ; the pressing-
machines, which are used to make goods showing
the design in relief; the machine or contrivance
that is used to hang up the paper after it leaves the
printing-machine ; and a host of similar deWces that
enable the manufacturer to produce novel effects
and manufacture the goods more rapidly than be-
fore, and at a lessened expense. U is these con-
trivances that have led to the tremendous progress
achieved by this industry in the last fifty years, and
more particularly within the last twenty years (the
pace having been accelerated each year), which
have enabled ns to become independent of foreign
AMURICA-V WALL-PAPERS
inufacturers, and, notwithstanding a. reduction in
duties on wall-paper, have caused a continued fall-
ing off in imports, so that at the present lime impor-
tations of wall-paper are simply nominal.
The improvements referred to have, however,
not been so radical at any lime as to enable us cor-
rectly to apportion to each individual the credit to
which he is entitled. They were such as were called
for by the exigencies of the moment, slight at the
time, but cumulative, and enabling the industry
eventually to attain its present state of perfection,
The most notable are as follows: (i) Soon after the
introduction of the printing-machine one McKeman
invented a contrivance for festooning the paper
automatically as it leaves the printing-machine and
passes on to the drying-racks, This was undoubt-
edly a long stride in the process of making wall-
paper, inasmuch as the speed of the printing-
machine could be increased to the full capacity of
the drying-racks connected with it. (i) The single
(or continuous) process of making wall-paper was
introduced about the year 1S70. Formerly the
ground color had lo be applied by one machine,
after which the paper was dried and rolled up and
next passed through the printing-machine to receive
the impressions of the design thereon. In the con-
tinuous process the paper passes through the machine
which applies a ground color for the design, and
then passes through a drying apparatus that is
termed a " hot box," or into drying-racks, and then
automatically passes into the printing-machine which
applies the colors of the design, saving a double
handling of the goods and involving less waste.
(3) Tlie method of applying bronze powders to wall-
paper automatically was introduced about tlie year
1872, although, as it was conducted in secret for
some time by one or two firms, the discovery may
have been made at an earlier date. This method
reduced largely the cost of making bronze (other-
wise termed gold) papers, and led to an increased
demand and output of them. {4) The next and
most recent discovery was the application to wall-
paper of bronze powders in a liquid state ; that is,
mixed with an adhesive material (made from potato-
starch) of sufficient density to keep the bronze
powders in solution without impairing their luster.
This was first placed upon the market about 1882,
and as the new process enabled the use of as many
different shades of bronze as there were colore in
the design, the opportunity was afforded for produc-
ing many new and brilliant effects, and for supersed-
ing in a large measure bronze or gold goCKls made
by the former method.
AVhile, as before stated, it would be diJScult to
apportion to each individual the credit to which he
is entitled for his share of the improvements to
which attention !ias been directed, yet mention
should be made of those who may properly be
termed the pioneers of the business, and who by
their energy and individuality have left their imprint
on its history. The firm of Howell & Brothers has
already been mentioned, and ranks as the oldest
now in existence. Next among the firms that made
a distinct impression on the business was that which
was founded by Thomas Christie about tlie year
1835, and which had a most successful career until
its dissolution in the year 1881. Mr. Thomas
Christie, in connection with a Mr, Robinson, started
his factory at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and subsequently
removed lo a larger factory in Twenty-third Slreetj
between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, New York
City. Of the firms now existing that had their
beginning about the time that wall-paper printing-
macliines were introduced are Janeway & Company,
New Brunswick, and the Robert Graves Company,
New York and Brooklyn. The firms of William
H. Mairs & Company and Frederick Beck & Com-
pany, New York, began shortly thereafter, and all
of these achieved decided success. They comprised
men of ambition, perseverance, and the strictest in-
tegrity, and their success is but the result of these
quahties. Among the firms who, for a greater or
less period, claimed the attendon of the trade were
those of Josiah Bumstead, of Boston, Mass., and J. R.
Bigelow & Company, of Boston, Mass. ; and Whiting
& Young, of New York City. Mention should also
be made of those firms which, though established
more recently, possess a distinct individuality, have
been highly successful, and whose future career is
assured. Prominent among these are Warren, Ful-
ler & Company, Wiliiam Campbell & Company,
M, H. Birge & Sons, Henry Gledhill 8c Company,
and Janeway & Carpender. This list might be
extended indefinitely, for there are many others
whose work and standing in the trade deserve
commendation.
While the mechanical part of the business has
made vast strides, there is yet another feature tliat
outranks it in importance, and that is the artistic
element. The American people have a constant
craving for something new, and the manufacturer is
taxed to the full extent of his powers to satisfy this
demand. On no industry does this demand fall
more heavily than on wail-paper manufacture, and
by no occupation has the demand been more fully
satisfied, To meet this call it has become necessary
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
to produce an entirely new line of goods each year.
Imagine, then, the labor and expense necessary to
reach this ever-heightening standard, the number
of designers necessary to produce annually several
thousands of designs, each entirely distinct from the
other. But American enterprise is equal to every
exigency. Formerly it was the custom to reproduce
foreign styles of wall-papers, hut we have outgrown
that, and have distinct styles and methods of our
own. VVe produce elaborate schemes of decoration,
combining proper treatment of wall and ceiling so
that perfect harmony of color will prevail. We
offer these schemes of color and treatment not only
in expensive grades, but in the cheapest grades as
well This makes it easy for the dealer or for the
consumer to insure a well -decorated room, and one
that cannot justly be subject to criticism. Talent of
a high order is necessary to secure such results, and
the staffs of the various manufacturers contain men
of exceptional capacity, whose training and experi-
ence entitle them in the highest sense to the title
of artist. The exhibit of the National Wall-Paper
Company at the World's Fair at Chicle bears
testimony to this fact, and the award of a gold
medal is a recognition of the merit there displayed.
Statistics as to the growth of the industry are
necessarily defective, but, according to the most
trustworthy information obtainable, the following
table gives some idea as to the progress made in
the wall-paper business:
YuAfc
NDMmu
Camtai.
K^^or
X^^'
ffi;:;;:;
:IS:::.;::
3
S
as
30
35
Nomiiul
*3<V»o
i5o,o<w
3.500.000
9,000,000
12,000,000
Nominal
75
S«>
a.500
S.SOO
JfiOO
Nominal
aso,o<»
6,500,000
Such is the record of the wall-paper industry at the
present day. While its growth in the past has been
remarkable, its growth in the future must be even
greater, as the advantages of the use of the product
become more apparent
^.
..t-'i--\.\^
I
William Steinwav.
CHAPTER LXXVIII
AMERICAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
FOR the introduction of the pianoforte, to
which such an ennobling, educating, and
progressively fascinating mission was in-
trusted, America is indebted to Europe. This in-
strument was invented almost simultaneously by
Christophale, of Italy, about 1710, and Gottlieb
Schroedter, of Germany, wilhin a few years of that
date, and was greatly perfected by Silbermann, of
Strassburg, shortly afterward. The pianoforte did
not coroe into general use until the beginning of this
century, in either America or Europe. In London
it was for the first time publicly played in the
Covent Garden Theater in the year 1767. John
Jacob Astor, of New York, imported from Lon-
don the first pianofortes as early as the year 1784.
They were small four and one half to fi^-e octave
square pianos, having eight legs. Their tones were
feeble and tinkling. Each piano had his own name
on the name -board.
The few pianos which were used in the United
States at the close of the last and the beginning of
the present century were imported. In a short time,
however, the trying climate of North America, with
its ever- recurring dry land winds, its severe winters,
and the general heating of houses by stoves and sub-
sequently by hot-air furnaces exerted its destructive
influence upon these instruments, which had been
constructed for the comparatively uniform and moist
European climate. Again, the great distance be-
tween the American settlements, scattered over so
vast an extent of territory, with wretched roads, made
it next lo impossible to effect necessary repairs, even
if trained and skilful piano repairers had been ac-
cessible ; therefore to keep the instruments in any-
thing approaching a playable condition was only
possible in the largest cities. As a natural conse-
quence pianos were articles of luxury, accessible only
to the wealthy.
It was quite natural, then, that as the demand for
pianofortes gradually increased, the enterprise of
American manufactiu-ers should have been directed
toward their production here, The first successful
attempt at building pianofortes was made in Phila-
delphia about the year 1790, by an American named
John Hawkins. In the year 1802 he sailed to
London, taking with him two upright pianofortes
which he had manufactured, and exhibited them in
London. One of these original instruments, pre-
served for over eighty years, was exhibited at the
International Inventions Exhibition, South Kensing-
ton, London, in 1885, and there was personally ex-
amined by Mr. William Sleinway, who could not but
admire the ingenuity of this pioneer of pianoforte
making in .\merica. Drum and fife and military
music were imitated in this instrument, which, though
of no practical utility, showed great inventive genius.
There were one or two more manufacturers in
Philadelphia at the close of the last century and the
beginning of the present one, but not until the close
(1815) of the second war between England and the
United States was the industry of pianoforte mak-
ing taken up as a distinct American manufacturing
feature. From the close of that war till about the
year 1825, a great business depression prevailed in
Great Britain. In consequence a number of young
and skilled English piano makers and artisans emi-
grated to the United States and began manufactur-
ing pianofortes. Among them were Robert and
William Nunns, Geib, Stoddard, Morris, and others.
Pianofortes were gradually extended in compass
from four and one half and five octaves to six oc-
taves; but up to about the year 1830, none were
larger than six octaves, all being of square form.
About 1815 the first steps of improvement in
American piano making may be traced. In that year
the first successful attempts were made to give the
body of the instrument more durability and c
creased power of resistance against the "pull "of the
strings, by the application of a full frame of cast-iron
in place of one of wood, which had before been used.
510
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
The object of this brief synopsis is to describe the
enormous dimensions to which the manufacture of
pianos has grown in the United States, and the ex-
cellence which has been attained, making the Amer-
ican piano a standard which has been recognized by
all Europe for a number of years. Consequently,
only those inventions can be mentioned which, by
their practical and lasting value, have aided materi-
ally in the development of this branch of art indus-
try. It must be mentioned, however, that a careful
search of the records of the United States Patent
Office from its beginning has revealed the fact that
a large number of most interesting inventions have
there been filed, which, though impracticable in
themselves, prove that for nearly one hundred years
there has existed a constant and earnest endeavor to
improve the manufactiure of pianofortes in North
America.
In the year 1825, Alpheus Babcock, of Philadel-
phia, obtained a patent for the construction in a
square piano of a cast-iron ring, somewhat resem-
bling the shape of a harp, for the piurpose of increas-
ing its power of resistance to the "pull" of the
strings. By this invention the principle was first
practically introduced of casting the iron hitch-pin
plate in one piece with that portion which supported
the wrest-plank.
In the year 1833, Conrad Meyer, of Philadelphia,
exhibited at the fair of the Franklin Institute in that
city, a six-octave square piano which was constructed
with a full cast-iron frame, substantially the same as
that used at the present time. This original instru-
ment, still in perfect condition, was exhibited by
him, together with his new pianos, at the Centennial
Exhibition of 1876. The successful introduction of
this full iron frame was aided to a great extent by
the excellence of the quality of American iron and
the perfection to which the art of casting had already
attained in the United States at that period. It
may be mentioned here that as far back as the War
of 181 2, cannon using thirty-two-pound and even
forty-eight-pound balls had been successfully cast in
the United States and effectively employed in that
war, while in Eiurope nothing heavier than eighteen-
pounders were known.
By the year 1837, Jonas Chickering, of Boston,
who was bom in 1800 and died in 1853, had greatly
perfected the application of the full iron frame in
square pianos. It was indisputable that the iron-
frame pianos thus made stood better in tune than
those previously constructed ; but one great defect
was that they had a thin and disagreeably nasal
character of tone. For this salient reason the new
invention soon had quite as many opponents as ad-
mirers, so that until the year 1855 all the New York,
Philadelphia, and Baltimore pianoforte manufactur-
ers made no attempt to utilize it In fact, before
1855 not one of the prominent manufacturers out-
side of Boston employed the full iron frame in the
construction of his instruments ; but all the piano-
fortes manufactured in Boston at that time had a
full cast-iron frame, of which the wrest-plank bridge
was a portion. Across the acute edge of this iron
bridge were laid the strings, which were generally
exceedingly thin. The action used in these pianos
was, without exception, what is styled the " English
action," having a somewhat " dragging " touch.
In New York, on the contrary, the instruments
made were provided only with a small cast-iron
hitch-pin plate, and the "French action" had a
more direct and prompter touch. They differed
from the Boston pianos in possessing a much fuller
and more powerful tone, though at the same time
with a quality which was less singing. The New
York piano makers succeeded in giving their instru-
ments the capacity of standing in tune more per-
manently than had been previously accomplished,
by a greater solidity of construction and a heavy
wooden bracing of the case, and more particulariy
by the use of a solid bottom or bed of wood fully
five inches in thickness, which, however, to some
extent marred the elegant appearance of the instru-
ments. By degrees a new difficulty manifested itself
in the instruments thus made, for, as their compass
gradually extended and finally reached seven or
seven and one-third octaves, it was found impossible
to obtain the necessary power of resistance against
the " pull " of the strings, even by the most solid
construction of the case, if wood alone was the
material used.
At that time (1850-55) the principal pianoforte
manufacturers were the Chickerings, Lemuel Gilbert,
Hallet & Davis, Woodward & Brown, of Boston ;
Nunns & Clark, Stoddard & Monis, Bacon &
Raven, Horatio Worcester, John B. Dimham, J. C.
Fischer, Light, Newton & Bradbury, Albert Weber,
Adam Gale, Hazelton Brothers, Steinway & Sons,
and Haines Brothers, of New York ; Conrad Meyer
and Schoraacker, of Philadelphia ; Knabe & Gaehle,
of Baltimore ; and Boardman & Gray, of Albany.
There were a number of minor manufacturers in
New York and Boston and their vicinity, but with
few exceptions their firms became extinct many
years ago, and other successful manufacturers—
Decker Brothers, George Steck & Company, Ernest
Gabler, Kranich & Bach, Sohmer & Company, and
AMERICAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
511
Others— took their places. In the year 1849 * Ger-
man named Mathushek, who was a highly skilled
piano maker, was engaged in John B. Dunham's
piano factory. Mr. Dunham was one of the suc-
cessful piano manufacturers then established in New
Vork. Mathushek had invented the so-called
"sweep-scale" (increasing at the same time the
compass from seven to seven and one-third octaves
in square pianos), which greatly improved the power
of tone, but also increased the size of the instrument
and weakened its durability by narrowing the so-
prano part of the wrest-plank.
The Steinway family had arrived in New York on
June 9, 1850, and the father and three sons (among
them William Steinway, then a lad fourteen years
of age) worked for nearly three years in different
New York piano factories, familiarizing themselves
with the requirements and tastes of the American
musical community. Though possessing a reason-
able amount of capital, they did not start in business
for themselves until the fifth day of March, 1853,
when, with cautious modesty, they placed their first
shop in a rear building at 85 Varick Street, remov-
ing in 1854 to 88 Walker Street, New York. In
1855 they succeeded in constructing an overstrung
square piano with a solid front bar and full iron
trame, the latter covering the wrest-plank, the wrest-
plank bridge, however, being made of wood. With-
out describing in particular the novelty of the
instniment, it may be said that for the first time the
oveistrang plan — that of placing the bass strings
obliquely across all other strings in the shape of a
^an — was successfully introduced. The results
achieved by this novel construction were in every
way most successful. The instrument, by the
^inanimous verdict of the jury, received the first
prize, a gold medal, at the exhibition, in 1855, of
the American Institute at the Crystal Palace in New
York. This was located at what is now known as
Bryant Park, and was destroyed by fire in 1858.
The new method of construction immediately be-
<^e the standard for all American manufacturers
and soon after for all other countries, and has re-
^''^ed so ever since.
As stated before, nearly all the pianos made in
^e United States up to the year 1856 were square
P^^os. Jonas Chickering, one of the leading pio-
^^^ of American piano manufacturing, in 1840
^Jistnicted the first American grand piano, success-
'^y introducing the iron frame. A small piano
Dianufacturer named Buttikoffer, a former workman
^ Erard, of Paris, France, also made Erard fine
Pianos entirely of wood ; but the demand for grand
pianos was so limited that the great pianist Thal-
berg, who arrived in the United States in the year
1856, brought with him two Erard concert grand
pianos for his concert tour throughout the coimtry.
In 1859 Steinway & Sons made a great improve-
ment by successfully introducing into grand pianos
the overstrung system, which was secured to them
by United States patent dated December 20, 1859.
At the same time several other standard piano
makers of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
Boston commenced the manufacture of this kind of
instrument, all of them with the overstrung system.
Overstrung grand and square pianos were exhibited
by Steinway & Sons at the World's Fair of 1862, in
the Crystal Palace, London, taking a first-prize medal ;
and again overstrung grand, square, and upright
pianos were shown by them at the great International
Exposition of Paris in 1867, these being crowned
by a first grand gold medal and the unanimous in-
dorsement of the international jury. Messrs. Chick-
ering, of Boston, also exhibited parallel-stringed
grand and upright pianos and overstrung square
pianos, and were also awarded a gold medal, so that
America's triumph in the piano department was
literally overwhelming.
The overstrung system was at once imitated by
nearly all of the prominent manufacturers of Europe,
and has ever since been known as the " Steinway "
or " American system " ; and the supremacy of the
product of all first-class American piano makers has
been conceded by the musical public of both con-
tinents. The importation of pianofortes from Europe
into the United States not only practically ceased,
but since that time the export of the American pro-
duct to all parts of the civilized world has steadily
increased, notwithstanding the somewhat higher
prices. It must also be added that, practically
speaking, almost all important novelties and inven-
tions by which the tone and durability of all three
styles, grand, square, and upright, have been en-
hanced and increased within the last half-century,
have been made by American pianoforte manufac-
turers, all being imitated in Europe as soon as the
details became known.
It may be interesting to state here that, up to the
year 1850, England and France produced more
pianofortes than all other countries, and supplied the
European continent as well as the outlying colonies.
Since that date there has been a marked change in
that direction. Germany, which undoubtedly has,
with America, the most skilled piano manufacturers
and workmen, has nearly kept pace with the United
States in the quantity of pianos manufactured, and
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Gennan piano makers were iovariably the first to
see the importance of American inventions and im-
provements. Only one old liouse in Paris and one
old house in London still adhere Co the antiquated
system of parallel strings. All others have adopted
the American overstrung system and fuU cast-iron
frame. As far as can be judged, Germany, produc-
ing 70,000 pianos annually, has the largest export
of pianofortes of any country in the Old World,
especially in the cheapest class of instruments ; and
there is no doubt that Germany, although making
at the present time more pianofortes than all other
European countries combined, is surpassed by the
United States of America, which, on a careful
and conservative estimate, produce annually from
80,000 to 90,000 pianofortes.
The manufactiu-e of pianos in the United States
was formerly confined to the following four cities;
first. New York ; second, Boston ; third, Baltimore ;
fourth, Philadelphia. Within a dozen years Chicago
has stepped in, and now has become third in the
number of pianos annually produced. The list is
now: first, New York; second, Boston; third,
Chicago ; fourth, Baltimore ; fifth, Philadelphia ;
and successful pianoforte manufacturers have also
located in other large cities of the United Stales,
such as Buffalo and Rochester, N. Y., Cincinnati and
Norwalk, O., and Erie, Pa,
In Europe the manufacture of square pianos
practically ceased about the year 1855, and only
grand and upright pianos were thereafter made. In
the United States, as mentioned before, the square
pianoforte was, up to the same time, ahnost exclu-
sively manufactured, and sales of grand pianos were
about as scarce as angels' visits.
During the years 1844 and 1845 a French man-
ufacturer named Henri Herz, who at the same time
was a first-class pianist, traveled through the United
Slates, giving concerts in the larger cities. He had
brought with him a number of French upright
pianos, and during his stay in this country imported
many others. These were readily sold, but within a
few years aU succumbed to the influence of the cli-
mate and became total wrecks, from the fact of hav-
ing been made from wood alone. This caused such a
deep-rooted prejudice throughout the country against
upright pianos that they became absolutely unsalable,
and up to the year t866 fully ninety-seven percent,
of all the pianos which were annually made in the
United Slates were square pianos. In that year
Steinway & Sons succeeded in completing a system
of manufacture for upright pianos which produced
instruments that were fully as beautiful in tone and
as diuable for use as the square and grand pi
This was speedily followed by other standard Amer-
ican piano makers, some of whom made improve-
ments of their own ; and within a few years thereafter
a complete revolution in the piano industry took
place, so that the situation of to-day is exactly the
reverse of what it was less than thirty years ago.
The manufacture of square pianos has now almost
entirely ceased. The annual production of Ameri-
can pianofortes consists of about ninety-five per
cent, uprights, less than two per cent, squares, and
a htde more tlian three per cent, grand pianos.
There is no question that by the year 1900 not a
single square piano will be manufactured in the
United States or any other part of the world.
Setting aside, then, the effects of the business de-
pression of the year 1893, and, to some extent, of
1894, which fell with very much greater severity
upon other branches of manufacture than it did
even on pianofortes, American piano manufacturers
have every reason to feel proud of the results
achieved by tliem. There has not only been steady
progress in the number of the pianofortes produced
by them, but the art of piano making in the United
States has been elevated to the highest perfection —
a fact which is recognized all over the world.
Quite a number of good European pianos were
exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadel-
phia in 1876, and at the Columbian World's Fair in
Chicago in 1893 ; but none of them were sold, and
all of them had to be reexported. No grand piano
of foreign make has ever been publicly heard in the
United States since the advent of Thalberg, now
nearly forty years ago ; but many first-cla.ss Ameri-
can concert grand pianos have been, and are at
present publicly used in the art centers of Europe
by the greatest artists. Besides, the five largest
piano manufacturing concerns in the world are
located in the United States. They are: two at
New York, one at Chicago, one at Boston, and the
fifth at Baltimore. This is indeed a proud and
unique position, and American piano manufacturers
have no reason to complain of anything in their in-
dustrj', with one exception, as follows :
In 1850 the overwhelming majority of piano
artisans were of American nativity, while since that
lime, and now for many years, almost all of them
are either foreign-bom (mostly German) or the
direct offspring of foreign-bom parents, who, by
permission of the employer, are taught a certain
single branch of the business by their fathers. This
is much to be deplored, for American boys, many
of them extraordinarily intelligent and ingenious, are
AMERICAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
practically kept out of this important industry
through what might be called the force of circum-
stances. As far as can be learned there is now no
effective apprentice law in force in any of the States.
This is very different from the conditions existing in
Europe, Take, for instance, Germany. After hav-
ing been released from school, say at ihe age of four-
teen or fifteen years, a boy is apprenticed to a master
mechanic for six or seven years. It is true he receives
his board and lodging, but he has to pay, say, $ioo
lehrgeld (learning money), in order to indemnify the
" boss " for the time lost in instructing him, or for the
defective workmanship and spoiled material which
may result from his unskilfulness.
No American boy would be willing to be placed
in the position of an apprentice for six or seven
years, although that is the only way in which a busi-
ness can be acquired thoroughly in all its branches
and details. Thus there is no guaranty to any
employer that a boy, after one or two years spent in
learning a branch or subdivision of a business, will
not leave him and shift for himself. To enact laws
compelling a lad who is growing up to remain with
an employer and make up in the later years of his
apprenticeship the losses he has caused in the litst
years does not suit American ideas, and probably
never will. Still this matter should engage the at-
tention of all those interested in social problems, for
our American boys are second to none in intelli-
gence and practical ideas. And this, too, is one of
the chief causes of the sad fact that in no civihzed
country are there so many young men who are un-
skilled as in the United Stales.
In 1850, when William Steinway, then aged
fourteen years, arrived in New York, a very lamen-
table state of affairs prevailed in the pianoforte
and other manufacturing industries. The city was
still suffering from the effects of the cholera epidemic
of 1849; there was but little ready money in the
country, much being of tlie "wildcat" order; there
were no saiving, planing, or other labor-saving
machines to do the hard work required in piano
manufacture, nor were there any elevatore ; all
heavy loads having to be carried up and down staiis
on the shoulders of the artisans.
The despicable " truck " system prevailed through-
out the country. The skilled workman was not
paid his hard-earned wages, which were from $6 to
$10 a week: but he would receive, say, from $1 to
$3 of his weekly earnings in cash, and some of the
rest in orders on grocers, tailors, and shoemakers.
The remainder would be retained by the employer,
who acted as a self- constituted savings-bank for his
employees, without paying interest, and sometimes J
not even paying the principaL William Sleinway, ■]
at the age of seventeen years, lost all his savings of '
$300 by the bankruptcy of his employer, William
Nunns, b 1853. There were piano factories and
other manufacturers who each were thus constantly
owing over$ioo,ooo in wages to their workmen. By
the year 1 860 this reprehensible " truck " system had,
however, entirely ceased throughout the coimtry.
The Civil War, between i86t and 1S65, also I
caused the piano manufactiuers great hardsliips and j
struggles. They lost nearly all their claims against '
piano dealers in the South ; there was no immigra-
tion to speak of; skilled artisans were scarce, many
of them having gone to the war; and in February,
1862, the workmen in New York instituted a strike
for higher wages, in which they were perfectly justi- I
fjed. The currency had then depreciated, and all ]
the necessaries of life and rents had risen enormously j
in value. The workingmen's demand for ten per
cent, was readily granted. In May following they '
again demanded ten per cent, more on the increased '
wages, which was also acceded to. But in October,
1863, they had formed a large society, the Piano-
Makeis' Union, and suddenly demanded an aug-
mentation of twenty-five per cent, on the twice-
increased prices, being in all a raise of fully fifty per
cent, on the original rates. This was simply impos-
sible for the employers to grant, the more so as no
increase whatever had as yet been made in wages
in (he same occupation in Boston, Baltimore, and
Philadelphia.
For the first time in the history of piano manu-
facture the twenty-three piano employers were driven
together by necessity, and met at Ittner's Hotel,
where it was resolved to resist the demands of the
employees. A committee of seven manufacturers
(of which William Sieinway was a member) was
elected to receive the committee of fifteen who
represented about 3000 world ngm en then on strike.
The spokesman of the employees first demanded the
increase of twenty-five per cent., with payment for
all the time lost by the strikers, and then announced
the program mapped out by the leaders of the
strike as follows:
" Gendemen bosses, we, the piano makers of New
York, will now assume control of the piano business.
You shall no longer be permitted either to engage
or dismiss any workman without our consent. You
must pay us full wages irrespective of bad or good
limes. You must all pay the same wages, must not
undersell one another, and must every Saturday af ter>
noon submit your books to our inspection, so that j
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
we may satisfy ourselves that you have strictly car-
ried out our instructions. Now, gentlemen bosses,
what can we report to our union as your response? "
The employers' committee were simply stupefied,
when one of the manufacturers, Albert Weber (who
died in 1879), a very quick-wilted man, observed:
" Gentlemen employees, your demands are exceed-
ingly moderate ; but in your very modesty you have
omitted your most important point."
The spokesman of the employees inquired, " Well,
and what might that be ? "
" Simply this," returned Mr. Weber ; " that every
Saturday afternoon, when you have looked over the
manufacturers' books, the employees shall go a-
bowling, and that the bosses should be made to set
up the tenpins for their workmen."
A deafening and unanimous roar of laughter fol-
lowed this sally. It was the right word at the right
time. The ice had been broken, and both parties
were conciliated. Half an hour later a compromise
was effected, that fifteen per cent, (instead of
twenty-five per cent.) increase was to take place in
wages, all other demands by the employees being
withdrawn.
The truce, needless to say, did not last long ; the
strike broke out anew in February, 1864, and was
completely put down, after a struggle of nine weeks,
by the unflinching resistance of the United Piano
Manufacturers. Another strike in 1872, to reduce
the daily hours of work from ten to eight, was also
defeated, and since then but few and brief strikes
have occurred. One partially successful occurred in
1880. Those in 1S86 and 1890 both brought de-
feat to the strikers. As a general thing a much
kindlier feeling between employers and employees
gradually arose, and has existed for a number of
years past.
PRINCIPAL INVENTIONS OF AMERICAN PIANO-
FORTE MANUFACTURERS. WHICH HAVE
BEEN MORE OR LESS ADOPTED BY AMERI-
CAN AND EUROPE.'\.N PIANO FIRMS.
it-plank bridge,
of a
square pianos.
1833. Conrad Meyer, of Philadelphia,
TratDC in aijuare pianos, except wn
".""led of wood.
sl-plank bridge (i
pianos) of iron, all in one piece — an imporlant in-
vention, allhough his application for a patent was
nn justly rejected for alleced want of novelty.
1840. Jonas Chickering, snccessTul patented construction of
the full iron frame with agratte bar in grand pianos.
1849, Mathnshek (with John B. Dnnham), invention of so-
called " sweep-s<ile " in sqniire pianos, the compass
of which he at the same lime saccessfiilly extended to
nvcniion by Sleinway & Sons, of New York, of th«
overslrUDg system and its iron frame, placing the
strings in form of a fan, in sqaare pianos,
nvenlion by Sleinway & Sons (United States patent,
December 20, 1859) of the overstrung system, with
its strings in fanlikc shape, and novel construction of
Ihe iron frame, in grand pianos : also the sqnue grand
piano and novel agratfe bar (United States patent,
November ig. 1859).
nvenlion (United States patent) by Decker Brothers,
of New Vork, of novel wresl-plank construction, in-
creasing capacity lo stand in lane, in square pianoi;
also novel apparatus to veneer round comers in
square- piano caiies.
nvenlion {United States patent, Jnne 5, 1866) by
Sleinway Sc Sons of double iron frame and patent
resonator (controlling tension of sounding-boards) in
upright pianos.
□vention (United States patent, August 16, 1868) by
Sleinway & Sons of tubular metallic aclion-frame in
grand and upright pianos.
nvenlion (Unilal States patents, March IJ, 1870, bd<1
August 15, 1870) by George Steck & Company, of
New Vorlc, of the self-supporting, independent iron
nvenlion by Sleinway & Sons (United Slates patent.
May iS, 1S73) of the iron cupola and pier frame;
also the grand duplex scale (United Slates patent.
May 14, i872)._
year Mr. Hanchett, oj Syracuse, N. V., brought
out (United Stales patent) a novel apparatus for pro-
longing Ibe lone.
nvenlion by Sleinway & Sons (United Slates patents,
October 20, 1S75) of conceit grand with cafo J'atltv
bar all cast in one piece, and design thcreuC.
nvenlion by Steinway& Sons (United Stales patents,
May 21, 1878), bending into form ihe entire case
of grand pianos, composed of a series of continnonc
veneers ; also lone-pnisalor in grand pianos ; also rafo
d'aslro bar in upright pianos.
nvenlion by George Steck & Company (United States
patent, January 7, 1879) of further improvements in
self-supporting, independent iron frame.
nvenlion by George Steck & Company (United Slates
patent, October 18, 1881) of further imptovemcnts in
self-supporting, independent iron frame.
nvenlion by Sleinway & Sons (United Stales patent,
March 31, iSSj) of double cupola troo frame in grand
nvenlion by Henry Ziegler (nephew of William Stein-
way), of Sleinway & Sons (two United Slates patents
of November 21, 1893), of the grand piano with raf^
a'aslre bar in upright form.
improvemenl by George Steck & Company in self-sup-
porting, independent iron frame in nprighl pianos.
nvenlion by Henry Ziegler, of Sleinway St Sons
(United States patent. Jonuary 8, 1S95), of iron
frame with iaf^t J'astro bar and suspended wrcsC-
plank io grand pianos in upright form.
After a careful and conservative estimate, it ap-
pears that there are now engaged in the production
of pianofortes and their component parts upward of
200 manufacturing concerns established in the
UnitedStates,representing a capital of over$4o,ooo,-
000, and giving employment to about 40,000 skilled
artisans; to say nothing of the many millions of
capital invested in, and the many thousands of peo-
ple employed by, houses engaged in the sale of diese
and other musical instruments.
Next to pianofones no class of American musical
AMERICAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
instruments has attained the prominence of the
American reed-organs, the manufacture of which
toolc distinct shape about the year 1850, commenc-
ing with melodeons in small square-piano shape,
produced in great excellence by the late George L.
Prince, of Buffalo, N. Y., Carhart & Needham, of
New York City, and many other makers. These
readily gave way to the superb reed-organs of
Mason & Hamlin, of Boston, Mass, ; the Estey
Organ Company, of Bratlleboro, Vl, ; Burdett, of
Erie, Pa. ; the Fort Wayne Organ Company, of
Fort Wayne, Ind. ; and others too numerous to
mention. Besides the interior capacity and the
quahty and quantity of tone, a variety of musical
effects and the imitation of wind-instruments, as well
as exquisite external workmanship, were introduced
by these and other manufacturers. In good season,
even before American pianofortes were exported,
shiploads of these line American reed-organs were
sent to Europe, especially to Great Britain, Sweden,
Norway, and other Protestant countries. Of late
years, however, the importance of this branch of
industry has diminished almost in the same ratio as
the general interest in pianofortes has increased, the
latter instrument becoming more and more popular.
As the manufacture of the piano from year to year
increased, the pianoforte, with its larger compass and
its greater variety of expression, allowing full scope
for the individual touch and for novel musical
effects, has gradually taken the place of the organ.
It has become the most welcome instrument in the
American home and family circle, being especially
fitted for accompanying the voice. Of late many of
the standard manufacturers of American reed-organs
have also gone into the manufacture of pianofortes,
and several have been very successfuL
Formerly, with the exception of banjos and man-
dolins, all small string and wind instruments had to be
imported. All this, by the constantly growing perfec-
tion of the American manufacture of these articles.
has been so greatly modified that llie importation of
these instruments does not now cut very much of
a figure. At the present lime fine harps, violins,
guitars, flutes, and all kinds of wind-instruments are
successfully produced in the greatest perfection by
American manufacturers in all the larger cities of the
country. They have greater durability, especially
against climatic effects, than the imported articles, in
which wood plays a part, can ever possess. Many
millions of capital and thousands of skilled artisans
are engaged in the manufacture of small musical
instruments, and of lale Chicago seems to make llie
greatest progress in this direction. Lyon & Healy,
of that city, produce excellent small musical wind-
instruments in large quantities, and their haips,
which are of superb quality, are unexcelled by the
best ones made in Europe. The latter are unable
to withstand the effects of our severe North Ameri-
can climate for any reasonable lengtli of time.
C, G, Conn, of Elkhart, Ind., and of Worcester,
Mass., also produces most excellent brass wind-in-
struments in very large quantity. Vocalions, an
English invention by Sir Bailey Hamilton, were first
produced, and have been brought to high perfection,
by Messrs. Mason & Risch, Worcester, Mass. jColi-
ans are also extensively manufactured and sold.
^V'ithin a few years autoharps, manufactured by
Alfred Dolge & Sons, of Dolgeville, N. Y., have
come into great favor, and are extensively produced.
The construction of church organs during the
past fifty years has also reached large proportions in
the United States. Everything is now manufac-
tured, from the largest cathedral church organ down
to the small portable pipe church organ. They arc
of the finest quality.
In all classes and kinds of musical instruments
American ingenuity has achieved great triumphs
and introduced many improvements, adding to the
quality, and especially to the durability of the article,
so that the importation of them has almost ceased.
^^^H^
CJ'f-^^.-i^f^
CHAPTER LXXIX
AMERICAN CARRIAGE AND WAGON WORKS
FHOM the earliest times of which there has
been any historical record, mankind has uti-
llied wheels as a means of transportation. On
the great sculptured stones now in the British Mu-
seum, taken from the ruined city of Nimrod near
Nineveh, can be seen, besides the innumerable war
chariots, cans drawn by oxen, and carts drawn by
men. The writer made a drawing of one of the
latter kind, which shows very good construction.
The wheels have six spokes and are well propor-
tioned; probably they were about forty-two inches
high. The body is framed up with posts and a top
rail, and the spaces are filled with handsome wicker
work. There is an arched guard over the wheel to
protect the latter from contact with the overhang-
ing load. The cart is loaded with logs of wood.
On another slab is shown the king's chariot, with
an elegant canopy over the royal head. This
chariot carries, besides the king, the charioteer and
an arms-bearer. In Biblical history the chariot is
very frequently referred to, those of the great army
of Pharaoh being engulfed in the Red Sea. It is
worth noting that the word "carriage" was at one
time used in the sense of goods or baggage, and we
find in the New Testament, " After those days we
took up our carriages and went up to Jerusalem."
The Greeks and Romans were, of course, familiar
with the horse-drawn vehicle, and in the story of the
Trojan war we find Achilles dragging the body of
Hector around the walls of Troy lashed to his
chariot. Carriages without wheels were used as late
as the seventeenth century, when they were known
as litters, having shafts behind and before which
were supported upon the backs of the horses. The
litter was but a form of the sedan chair, itself a spe-
cies of carriage. If we look for a carriage with
wheels but without horses, we find it in the jinrikisha
of Japan, a unique vehicle drawn by man-power.
The ancient chariot, with all its splendor of deco-
ration, was but a two-wheeled cart without springs,
and this, the starting-point in the evolution of the
carriage, we find among many barbaric peoples, the
wheels being formed of solid wood rendered cir-
cular when nature formed the trees from which
they were made. Even the triumphal and funeral
cars of early history were but springless carts;
and ages of progress lie between a gorgeous
chariot of the C^sars and a modem buggy.
Queen Elizabeth's wonderful state coach, with its
highly ornamented and canopied body, was without
springs. It was a sort of triumphal car, for State
parades. Her usual mode of locomotion was by
water or on horse-back.
The various forms which the modem carriage
has assumed appear to be almost limitless. The
old-time stage-coach has developed into the fash-
ionable drag or tally-ho; the post-chaise and the
curricle are no more; but there are still left to us
innumerable forms of vehicles, of which the Ameri-
can buggy is perhaps the most useful and represents
the highest development of the carriage-builder's
art. Many of the forms came to us from England,
notably the brougham, named for Lord Brougham.
The landau takes its title from the town of the
same name in Germany, where it was first made.
A few specimens of the Irish jaunting-car have
found their way to America, where they serve to
remind us of the active nation with which they are
popular. The hack as a name is solely American,
but is of course a lineal descendant of the English
hackney coach.
Carriage building, as an art, began to be devel-
oped in all parts of Europe about the middle of the
seventeenth century. Steady but slow progress was
made in all the great cities, and some almost elegant
forms are shown in the old prints, profusely deco-
rated. The running parts, however, were very im-
perfect The first relief from the jolting of the dead-
AMERICAN CARRIAGE AND WAGON WORKS
axle carnage was accomplished by suspending the
body of the carriages on long leather thorough-
braces stretched from upright iron jacks which stood
up from each end of the running part. The next
improvement was made by transforming these stiff
iron jacks into spring jacks, and by making them of
steel plates. Finally, in the early part of our own
century, the spring jack was given a bold, sweeping
curve, and the beautiful C spring evolved. The
Collinge axle now in common use all over the world
^as perfected almost loo years ago, and the elliptic
spring, the best of all springs, was invented at about
the same time. It was early in the eighteenth cen-
tury that the post-chaise came into use for journey-
ing, and the hackney coach and hackney cab came
to take the place of the sedan chair in the great
cities. This created quite a war in London between
the watermen and the chairmen on the one side,
S-nd the coaches on the other.
In very old times the post-chaise had a small
l>ody hung very high on its leather straps ; the wheels
were very high and far apart, and the driver rode the
■wheel horse. In later times this uncouth post-chaise
developed into the elegant chariot, perhaps the most
perfectly formed carriage ever built. This carriage,
■w^th its gorgeously draped coachman's seat, as well
3s the full coach similarly mounted, is now only seen
at royal receptions and other state occasions in the
*^a.pitals of monarchical countries. As with other
inventions, the evolution of the carriage has taken
place by fits and starts, the greatest progress hav-
'^g been made during the present century, and the
"dd in which that progress occurred having been
*^*»e United States of America.
The volume of business done by American car-
ufacturers in 1795 was exceedingly small.
^chnical knowledge was not wanting, however, for
_ "^ere were many shops which had been established
*■*-* colonial days, where fine carriages were occasion-
^'^'y built, and many imported French and English
ides repaired. But business languished for
^k of customers. Before the War of the Revolu-
■*^u the rich shipping merchants of Salem, Boston,
^^^ewport, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
■latleston lived in good style, as was common in
^^*^se monarchical times, and imported in their own
^^^»ps coaches, chariots, and phaetons, from England
,^"**^ France. Repair shops sprang up in all the
^^^■Se towns and cities, and skilled workmen came
'^t*! England, Ireland, and Scotland, finding ready
***ploymeni on their arrival.
A. curious bit of history, clearly showing the use
'^' Carriages in New York City in 1770, came to the
33"
writer's knowledge some yeara ago fi^jm the late
George W. VV. Houghton, who embodied the facts
in a lecture delivered before the New York Historical
Society. The old record, which he somcwliere dis-
covered, gives a list of fifty-nine owners of carriages;
and the vehicles mentioned were twenty-six coaches,
thirty-three chariots or post-chaises, and twenty-six
phaetons — in all, there were eighty-five vehicles.
The names of the owners were Cadwallader Colden,
Daniel Horsmanden, John Watts, Oliver De Lancey,
Joseph Reade, Charles W. Apthorp, Colonel Roger
Morris, Henry Cruger, John Cruger, James De Lan-
cey, the widow of Governor James De Lancey, the
widow of William Walton, the widow of Judge John
Chambers, the widow of James McEvers, the widow
Lawrence, Mrs. Waddell, Andrew Elliott, William
Bayard, Nicholas Bayard, PhiUp Livingston, John
Livingston, Robert G, Livingston, Walter Ruther-
ford, Gerardus Beekman, Colonel Eeekman, Na-
thaniel Marston, John Marston, Rev. Dr. Ogilvie of
Trinity Church, Anthony Rutgers, Jacob Le Roy,
David Johnson, William Axtell, Miss Lodge, Leon-
ard Lispenard, Samuel Verplanck, Lawrence Kort-
right, David Clarkson, John Van Cortlandt, Robert
Murray, James Jauncey, Dr. William Brownjohn,
Dr. Jonathan Maliet, Thomas Tiebout, Jacob Wal-
ton, John Watkins, Nicholas Gouvemeur, John
Aspinwall, Hugh Wallace, Isaac Low, A. Van Cort-
landt, Gerardus Duyckinck, General Gage, John
Read, Archibald Kermedy, Thomas Sowers, Captain
John Montressor, John Leake, Abraham Montier,
and Ralph Izard. Many of these names are familiar
to the New Yorker of to-day, the prestige of the old
families havitig kept pace with the march of events.
It will be observed that there were but three styles
of carriages known among the old aristocracy, and
they were all for town use. No similar records are
to be found in other cities, but there are many ancient
relics of grand chariots now to be found in Boston
and vicinity, still preserved in the stables of the old
families as curiosities. One fine old chariot-body is
now at the writer's factory, sound and serviceable.
It was used by the owner's grandfather in Lon-
don in 1793. The wheels and running-gear long
ago disappeared, but the body is now being fitted
with an elegant set of runners, and, when the first
snow comes, will enter upon a new career of use-
fulness, completely rejuvenated as a stylish winter
carriage.
The effects of the struggle for independence, and
the hard times which followed, so impoverished the
people that there was but little use for carriages of
luxury in the early days of the present century.
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
The tendency of all classes was essenrially demo-
cratic, and rigid economy was esteemed a great
virtue. This state of things was not favorable for
the makers of fine carriages; but, fortunately for
them, all well-to-do people required something to
ride in, and that took the form of the two-wheeled
chaise, immortalized by Dr. Holmes. These were
in great demand as the country grew prosperous,
and were built in large numbers in Boston, Salem,
Worcester, Pittsfield, West Amesbury, Mass., New
London and New Haven, Conn,, as well as in Wil-
mington, Del., and Philadelphia. They had enor-
mously high wheels, and the tops were stationary,
being supported on iron posts. Curtains of painted
canvas or leather covered the sides and back.
These chaises were often built without dashers or
aprons in the earlier times, but in later years they
had falling tops and were gay with silver plate. So
universally was this style of carriage in use that
most carriage-makers were known as " chaise-mak-
ers," as the old sign-boards of fifty years ago plainly
indicated. Chaise-making throve mightily, and up
to about 1840 it seemed that nothing could ever
fully supplant the favorite old two-wheeler. But
the buggy, which had been struggling for existence
for several years, began to come to the front.
The chaise had been for generations of nearly
the same form, no radical changes having been
tolerated; but the buggy came in a muldtude of
forms, as it was new and without any recognized
standard of shape to hamper the fancy of the
builder. At last the door was open for novelties,
and has since been still wider open, with no signs
of being closed again.
The buggy is purely American in its origin, and
is without doubt the greatest achievement of Ameri-
can carriage- makers. The body may be of any
form, but the running part is always of the same, or
nearly the same, type. Its common-sense construc-
tion is wholly unlike the work of any other country.
It is simpler, hghler, stronger, and cheaper than
any other style of vehicle, and is so admirable in
all respects ihat it is not hkely to go out of use for
at least another century.
In tlie eariy days of this century of progress a
great stimulus was given to the carriage and wagon
trade by the advent of the grand old stage-coach.
It was elegant in form, gay with paint and gilded
scrollwork, and when starling out on its journey,
rocking on its tough thorough-braces under its
load of passengers and baggage, with its team of
four or six Morgan horses, it was an inspiriting sight.
It has been said that the stage-coach was unknown
in America prior to 1810, but this is a mistake. In
1776 John Hancock stole away from his duties in
the Continental Congress to Tamfield, Conn., where
he married the beautiful Dorothy Quincy, and look
her on a wedding journey to Philadelphia by stage-
coach. The incidents of the journey, including the
upsetting of the coach, are duly set fotUi in the
record of William Bant, attorney to Governor Han-
cock. It is also related that Mrs. Hancock took
a simUar journey with her son, who was but two
weeks old, to join her husband in Philadelphia.
This was in 1778. The roads, however, at this
early date, were little better than bridle-paths, and
the chief resource for journeying was the saddle.
In 1791 there were but 1905 miles of post-roads
in the States, and in these roads were many bottom-
less sloughs, and corduroy bridges consisting of
round logs laid crosswise over swamps, sometimes
for long distances. As the government and local
authoriues improved and extended tlie roads, some
sort of public conveyance followed.
In New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania the
great Conestoga wagon, bro a d-w heeled, and with
huge canvas-covered body, was drawn over the
rough roads by six or eight horses or oxen for the
transportation of freight and passengers. This
wagon was the prototype of the famous "prairie
schooner," or emigrant wagon, of later times.
Government roads, called military roads, were
buiit across the mountains of Virginia, connecting
the East with the valley of the Ohio ; also through
the great forests of Maine to the town of Houlton
on the New Brunswick frontier, and in many other
parts of the country. They were for postal and mili-
tary purposes. On all these were quickly estab-
lished thriving stage lines, and the business grew very
rapidly. Capital was freely invested in the varied
interests direcdy and remotely connected with the
innumerable lines which radiated from all the chief
towns and cities in the country; and the investments
paid good dividends.
The cairiage-maker, the harness-maker, the hotse-
breeder, and the jolly old country tavern-keeper,
with his good dinners, his well-stocked and well-
patronized bar, all seem to have been prosperous
and happy in the good old slow-going time.
Stage-coaches and wagons were built in many
places at the time I write of. Salem, Mass., was
eariy in the field. Osgood Bradley, of Worcester,
was a large builder ; the Troy coach, of Troy, N .Y.,
was very famous in its day ; but a little later, and
still more famous, came the Concord coach, of Con-
cord, N. H. The founder of the house of .\bbott,
AMERICAN CARRIAGE AND WAGON WORKS
519
Downing & Company, now the largest wagon-buOd-
ers in New England, whose work is known through-
out America as well as in South Africa and Aus-
tralia, was Louis Downing, who moved to Con-
cord firom Salem, Mass., in 1815. There he began
the manu&cture of coaches and wagons ; and after
dglity years, this old house is still in the full tide of
active business.
So great was the coaching business from 18 10 to
al>oiit 1845, that in addition to the builders hundreds
of smaller shops derived their chief income from
repairing and painting these fine old road coaches.
After the War of 181 2, trade and commerce en-
tered upon a new career of prosperity. The ship-
ping merchants were piling up wealth; manufac-
turing, which had grown strong by the fact that
the war had thrown us wholly on our own resources,
mras opening up new sources of wealth, and again
stylish carriages for city use were in demand. Fine
coaches and chariots, hung on C springs, and made
grand with the hammer-cloth coachman's seat, were
l>uilt in all the large cities. Boston had two well-
equipped shops for this kind of work; New Haven
and Bridgeport were active and growing ; Newark,
N. J., became celebrated for its fine productions,
and New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Wil-
'liington, Del., were supplying their own wants, and
so^ng the seeds of greater development in later
About this time a considerable export trade grew
^P with the West Indies. The carriages shipped
^Here were known as volantes, and were large two-
'^•'heeled vehicles with immensely long shafls. The
"^heels were placed so far in the rear of the vehicle,
**^ order to give greater freedom of access, that
^^e shaft horse had a very large share of the weight
n his back. In addition to this, the overloaded
carried the postilion, while the leader did
^^*^ost of the hauling. These carriages were shipped
*^y the sugar and molasses merchants of the nor-
^•iero cities to the planters of the West Indies, in
^^^^traiercial exchange for their product, which was
^^I^^edily converted into rum, then in great demand
^^ home and abroad. Thus the carriage-maker
^^^yed his part in the interchange of conunodities^
trade flourished,
farmers' wagons and carts had been made in
^ry village in the country since the earliest time,
^^t wagon-making as a great business began with
^*^^ development of the Western States. First came
^e large emigrant wagon, and after that the lighter
^^^^ wagon, and, later still, wagons for the great
^Veiland current of emigration, which flowed like
a mighty river from the East to the gold-fields
of Cahfomia. HappOy for the emigrants, the
wagon-makers of the West were equal to the oc-
casion. Great factories quickly grew up, stimulated
by this additional demand, and among the rest the
great house of Studebaker Brothers, which had its
origin as far back as 18 13, now came to the front,
reorganized and ready for business. This firm,
now the largest wagon and carriage manufacturers
in the world, was just in time to take a leading part
in supplying the government with army wagons for
the western regiments in the Civil War. It was due
to the thorough equipment of the wagon-makers of
the country that the armies of the North were better
and more properly supplied with the means of trans-
portation than any army in military history. Wagon-
building is so vast in its proportions that when one
visits such an establishment as that at South Bend,
Indiana, he wonders where purchasers can be found
for so many vehicles, a wagon being produced every
ten minutes in this one factory.
The older men of the present generation of car-
riage-makers have witnessed a great change in the
extent as well as in the method of manufacturing.
In the early years of the century, business in the
old carriage towns was done on what is called
the "dicker" system. Woodworkers, blacksmiths,
trimmers, and painters, each did business on his
own account, and swapped parts, as they termed it,
the final settlements being made in finished car-
riages. The dealer in materials also took carriages
in payment. The workmen were paid with orders
for goods, and money was almost unknown in all
the various transactions. The old operators, who
did business in this way, used to say that the plan
was much safer than the cash system, there being
fewer failures, and less danger of getting involved in
debt.
By and by the small operators with their little
shops went the way of all old-time things, and well-
organized factories succeeded them. Then a mul-
titude of inventions in machinery were eagerly taken
up and utilized. Larger and larger grew the fac-
tories, more and more perfect the machinery, until
the present time, when the limit of quick methods
and cheap production seems to be well-nigh reached.
But the end is not yet
Much the larger number of carriages built in the
great factories where machinery is employed are
built in duplicate by the million, and are sold to
the million at exceedingly low prices. Of course,
there are many qualities among the vast variety of
vehicles built by the new processes, and many
ONE HUNDRED VEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
grades of stock enter into their composition. As
in all other manufactures, the price is a very fair
indication of quality. One might think that in the
rush for low prices of both builders and buyers all
really good work would be superseded by low grades,
and that the tendency would be steadily downward
in quality ; but such is not the fact. Fine work —
I may say superb work, that which taxes the high-
est skill and care of the best designers and mechan-
ics — is still in great demand, and will probably con-
tinue to be for all time.
There are many builders of high-grade work
widely known by the public, of whom I should be
glad to speak, and who are distinguished for their
excellent productions; but I will name only one,
easily the first in this or any other country — Brew-
ster & Company of New York. A visit to this great
establishment — of which a!l American carriage-
builders are justly proud — will show the apprecia-
tive observer to how high a degree of perfection,
beauty, and completeness modem carriage-building
has attained.
In 1872 the leading carriage-makers of the coun-
try formed an association called the " Carriage
Builders' National Association. " The good that
this organization has accomplished by means of its
annual conventions can scarcely be estimated. All
trades which have similar associations know the
value of good fellowship and good feeling among
competitors instead of the old-time jealous antago-
nism. Very early in the history of the association
the decay of the useful old apprenticeship system
was recognized; and as a substitute for this past
method of training workmen a fund was raised by
subscription for a technical school, to be established
in New York City, to teach the science of carriage
drafting and construction. This school has been a
great success. Under able teachers a large number
of talented young men have graduated, well equipped
to take charge of the constructive department in
our factories. Thus scientifically trained foremen
and whirling machinery now very largely take the
place of the skilled workmen who formerly occupied
our benches, each working by his own methods,
carefully guarded, in which there was more of the
rule of thumb than of science.
It is fortunate for the graduate of the technical
school when, in addition to the knowledge gained
in the course of his studies, he has the inborn fac-
ulty of producing new and beautiful forms; that
keen sense of fair proportions and graceful lines
which is the necessary qualification of a designer.
Few things fashioned by human skill are more beau-
tiful than a fine carriage; none but a true artbt in
his line is fit to determine its form, and none but an
expert mechanic, painstaking and honest, is fit to
supervise its construction. The hght-weight car-
riages now required, the tremendous strain and
rough usage which they must undergo without a
sign of weakness, require the most carefully selected
stock and the most watchful care in all the details
of mechanical arrangement.
The volume of business done by all the carriage-
makers in the country is clearly shown by the last
census report, from which the following figures are
taken :
AMERICAN CARRIAGE AND WAGON TRADE.
Number of eslablishmenls 4.S7I
Number of workmen employed ^iSM
Number of all other emploTecs S^iS^S
Officers, firm-members, uid eletk* 6,069
Capital employed $93^55^57
MiscelUneoQs eipeoses 5,495,171
Wages of workmen 34^7,827
W^es of other employee! 28,971^(01
Wages ofaSicers, tirm-metnber«, and clerks .... 5,715,426
Value of all products 101,680,341
Cost of materials 46,021,769
Value of road eart* 6,074,173
Value of buggies 27,345,540
Otber light carriages 13,109,983
Broughams, coaches, Victorias, etc 4,279,73s
Other heavy carriages 2,973,89s
Light and heavy spring wagons, etc 12,640,339
Farm wagons and carts 14.146.70a
Repairing 18,610,366
It will be seen from the above figures that the
value of buggies manufactured was double that of
any other style of carriage or wagon, and more than
one fourth of the total product.
That the volume of business done in the carriage
trade at the present time is fully equal to the wants
of the community is evident from the exceedingly
sharp competition among builders and dealers. The
business, however, will certainly continue to grow
as fast as the increased capacity of the purchasing
class can be made to absorb the increased producL
Given that prosperity which our country and her
beneficent institutions insure us, if wisdom rules, a
continued advance will be made, a wider and wider
market will be open to us, greater novelties will be
forthcoming to tempt the lovers of new things,
greater perfection will be attained, and a greater
number of our hard-working fraternity will find good
employment »*ith satisfactory returns.
£Z'^-*'*<
C.'C^
.:X=»
iiiiiH
CHAPTER LXXX
AMERICAN SAFE-WORKS
FROM the earliest period in history, the inven-
tive genius of man has been applied to the
work of providing safe receptacles for the
storage of treasure, jewels, and otlier valuables.
The developmeni has not been so rapid as in some
other industrial interests, but it has kept pace with
the demands of ihe commercial world, and the
evolution from the strong-box to the mammoth
chilled-iron and steel vaults, absolutely fire-proof
and burglar-proof, seems to have reached the high-
est stage that science and art can impart to the
wonderful mechanism of American safe-building.
In the early days of Egypt the organization of
government had attained a point of perfection
which made its treasury an important interest, and
the moneys obtained by the tax-gatherers upon the
industries of the country were carefully guarded in
securely- built treasure-houses fastened with locks of
elaborate design and construction, From the keys
which have been found in the ruins of Thebes it
would appear that the ancient Egyptians were ac-
quainted, even at this early period, with some of
the principles which have been supposed to be dis-
tinctive in modem improvements in locks — for ex-
ample, that of tumblers which hold the bolt fast
until it has been moved by the key. Locks rudely
constructed upon this principle were also to be
found in many European communities during the
middle ages, although its use by our modern safe-
makers has been comparatively recent.
The discoveries in Pompeii and elsewhere have
shown that among the Romans locks of intricate
workmanship were known; and in Great Britain
keys have been found which date back to the Ro-
man occupation of that countrj-. Among the Chinese
the art of lock-making has for a long time been well
understood, and the locks there constructed upon
the principle of the famous Bramah lock, invented
in England in 1784, were made of wood from early
dmes. In these the tumblers were made of different
lengths to fit the sizes of the wards in tlie keys.
During the middle ages chests for the safe-keep-
ing of valuables were ordinary articles of furniture
in houses. Some were very elaborately made,
strengthened with ironwork of various kinds, and
furnished with locks which were frequently deco-
rated in very artistic ways. These chests, which
were really the safes of that period, were protected
by bands of iron. The burglar's skill and cunning
had not then attained to its present perfection, and
a modem " cracksman " would laugh at the provi-
sions then made for the security of \'aluables. The
oaken chest, or strong-box of that time, seems to
have been considered the acme of security. In
1707 such a chest was made and used for the safe-
keeping of the crown jewels of Scotland, and when
the Royal Commissioners desired to examine them
they were obliged to force open the chest, because
no keys could be found thai would open the locks,
and no " expert " could pick them ; yet they can be
picked to-day by an ordinary expert locksmith in
three or four minutes with a simple piece of bent
wire. These safes or chests were often reinforced
with iron bands and knees, and made lo look more
formidable with sharp-headed spikes or similar de-
vices. No attempt seems to have been made to
construct these articles to resist fire or heat, or to
render them to any degree fire-proof, until between
1835 and 1835.
About that dale the Yankee inventive genius
produced an oaken chest that was a great im-
provement on the old style, and many of the old-
time business houses in New York and Boston still
have in their offices specimens of these first efforts
of the inventive genius of America in the " fire-
proof" safe line, A body of solid oak plank three
or four inches thick, saturated with an alkali, was
covered with sheets of thin iron. Bands of iron
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
were crossed and recrossed over these plates and
secured to the body with large round-headed iron
nails. This made a very formidable-looking affair,
and with its immense key, weighing sometimes over
a pound, was considered thoroughly fire and bur-
glar-proof. As a fire-proof safe when new it would
probably stand a severe test of two or three hours.
In the great fire of 1835, which destroyed a large
pOTtion of the lower part of New York Ctly, hun-
dreds of these safes were shown to be worthless in
a severe conflagration.
\Vith the advent of paper money and the com-
mencement of our modem commercial activity,
wealth began to assume a more portable form ;
large values began to be possible in conveniently
small packages, and the necessity was soon made
apparent for improved methods in safe-making.
The oaken box defended by iron bars, which had
done duty as a burglar-proof safe during the last
century, began in the early years of the present
century to be replaced by boxes covered entirely
with iron. The Hall Safe and Lock Company, of
Cincinnati, have in their possession a safe formerly
used by the Marietta Bank, and made in New York
City in 1807, which is constructed of oak plank
two inches thick, bound together by iron straps, and
thickly studded with small nails. It is fastened by
an ordinary hasp and padlock.
About the year tSjo the attention of safe-manu-
facturers, mechanical engineers, and inventors was
directed toward making safes absolutely fire-proof,
for the preservation of money and valuables. The
first attempts appear to have been made in France.
The safes were made with double walls, the space
between them being filled with a non-conducting
substance, a composition. This idea was quickly
taken up in the United States, and in 1843 the first
patent was issued to Daniel Fitzgerald, who had
conducted experiments on his own account in the
same direcrion. Fitzgerald had been a workman
engaged in grinding plaster of Paris. A simple in-
cident had suggested to his mind an improvement
in the construction of fire-proof safes. Being in the
habit of washing his hands daily in a tin basin, he
one day desired to warm the water, and, placing
the basin over the fire, discovered that it did not
heal rapidly; and, after stirring the fire, he threw
out the water, and discovered that a thin scale of
plaster of Paris had gradually formed in the bottom
of the basin. This he scraped out, and found that
the water heated rapidly. He concluded that if a
safe were filled with plaster of Paris it would be
8 good protection from fire, and he immediately
secured a patent and began the manu&
first so-called Salamander Safes.
In a short time, as the business grew, he needed
much more capital, and Mr. Azor S. Marvin was
induced to engage in the business with him. A few
years later Mr. Silas C. Herring also secured a right
to manufacture safes under this patent Mr, Fitz-
gerald's patent was subsequently assigned to B, J.
Wilder, and the safes manufactured under it were
known as the " Wilder Patent." In these the space
between the walls of the safe was left vacant,
reliance being placed upon the non-conducting
properties of the air thus enclosed to preserve the
contents from heat. Other substances, which had
also a high non-conducting power, were proposed
for filling the space left between the walls, and
numerous patents were granted for various com-
pounds.
But other inventors were also at work upon the
problem of fire-proof safes, and asbestos, mixed with
plaster of Paris, clay, alum, fire-clay, mica, and chalk
were each used with eflfect, and were proclaimed in
turn absolutely fire-proof. The intense heat, how-
ever, to which safes have been subjected has demon-
strated that none of these fillings was absolutely
safe. Another plan, invented by Prof. A. K. Eaton,
of New York, consisted in using pure alumina, and
he also introduced the idea of using steam as a non-
conductor. Experiments showed that as long as
any steam was produced no excessive heat reached
the articles in the safe ; but the objection to this is
found in the dampness to which the contents of the
safe are subjected.
Protection against burglars is in modem days re-
garded as of very great importance in the building
of safes. The modem burglar has the thorough
experience of a practical mechanic, together with a
full comprehension of the details and theory of safe-
making. During the present centurj' great atten-
tion has been given both to lock-making and lock-
picking. The invention of the Bramah lock was
regarded as a step of great importance. The lock
abandoned the use of wards, and other improve-
ments introduced into its mechanism enabled it for
a long time to retain its reputation as a lock that
could not be picked. It was finally picked, how-
ever, in 1851, by a Mr. Hobbs, by what is known as
the " tentative process." Subsequently the worlt
of picking the lock became comparatively easy.
The next important lock invented was Chubb's,
which was introduced in England in iSiS. This
was also picked with ease by Mr. Hobbs, A lock
made by Mr. Pyes was placed in the London exU-
AMERICAN SAFE.WORKS
523
bition in 1 851, but it was picked by Linus Yale, Jr.,
of Philadelphia, by what he called the " impression
process," The father of Mr, Yale then patented a
luck which was regarded as absolutely safe, but it
was finally picked by his son. The inventors per-
severed, however, and tlie modern lock- combinations
are such as to defy the skill of the most accomplished
or ingenious burglar, while the conslrucdon other-
wise renders them absolutely fire-proof. The lesd-
mony of E. B- Denison, the celebrated lock-makci
of London, demonstrates the superiority of Ameri-
can-made safes over those produced anywhere in
the world. He says: "The American safes are
vastly superior to any we have ever seen made in
England; and on the whole tlie United States are
evidently far ahead of us in the manufacture of both
good and cheap locks."
The method of construction used in the modem
safes makes them impregnable to any appliance in
use by the most expert burglars. The doors, which
are generally the weak point of a safe, are con-
structed of plates so dovetailed, and fitting corre-
spondingly into the jambs, that the wedge, the most
effective implement used by the burglar, is powerless
against them, while the accuracy with which they
5t offers no opportunity for any crevice into which
nitro- glycerine or any other explosive fluid or sub-
stance can be introduced. The body of the safe
being also constructed of alternate plates of iron,
welded iron, and steel, carbonized and decarbonized
steel, and crystal steel, fastened together by bolts
from the inside, effectively prevents them from being
forced by sledge-hammers, jimmies, jackscrews, or
other mechanical devices. Their fire-proof qualities
are also secured by fiUings of concrete which make
them absolutely proof against fire and damp.
But in addition to the building of safes much at-
tention has been paid in recent years to the manu-
facture of burglar-proof bank vaults and chests.
Among the specialties employed in their construc-
tion is a material made from Franklinite ore found
in Sussex County, N. J., which possesses a hardness
exceeding that of the finest tempered steel. This
metal, often presenting the appearance of crystal-
lized silver, is so interwoven with wrouglit-iron rods
that it can be battered until bent without being
broken, and at the same time the combination of
wrought and crystallized iron is such that, in any at-
tempt to drill, the tool will pierce the soft metal faster
than the hard, and, consequently, working sideways,
will soon have its point fractured and broken off.
A first-class banker's chest consists of three casings
of one- fourth-inch v/rought iron with angle
casing of one- fourth- inch steel bars, a casing of onc-
fourth-inch wrought bars, with angle of solid corners,
a casing of patent crystallized iron two inches thick,
with wrought-iron rods cast tlirough it, and project-
ing rivets on each side, so that the entire thickness
is three and one fourth inches. Such a safe will not
only overcome any drill or cutting-tool, but is also a
restraint against sledging or battering, which has
always been the weak point in safes in which hard-
ened metal lias formed an integral part. Many of
the vaults in use in this city are receptacles for
enormous sums of money and other valuables, the
safety of which is rendered absolutely secure by the
modem methods employed in their construction.
Thesafetyofhundreds of millions of treasure against
the depredadons of the most expert burglars, and
also from loss by fire, is thus assured. One of
the most important factors in securing absolute
safety for valuables in bank safes and vaults has
been the introduction of the combination-locks, the
evolution of the " tumbler " principle already al-
luded to. The mechanism in these locks exhibits
the highest skill. Each one is practically unlimited
in the number of combinaHons upon which it may
be set, thus rendering it absolutely impossible for
any person, other than the one who knows the com-
bination, to open it. In recent years a valuable
addition has been introduced in the shape of chro-
nometer or time locks. The mechanism and adjust-
ment of these are as fine as the work of the most
expertly constructed watch. Three movements are
usually inclosed in a single case, so that, should one
or even two of them get out of order, the remaining
one would still unlock the ponderous doors at the
hour appointed for them to be opened. Bank offi-
cers have in the past been compelled in some in-
stances to unlock the door of a safe at the point
of a burglar's revolver, under threat of death, but
the chronometer combination has effectually pre-
vented robbery in that way, as no human agency
can open the doors of the safe or vault until the
time on which it is set has expired.
The construction of the modern office building of
fifteen or twenty stories has induced safe-manufac-
turers to build the framework of safes much thicker
than was formerly the case, and to make use of
greater quantities of fire-proof filling, so that the safes
may withstand a fall from an upper floor to the
cellar, and also the crushing weight of heavy walls
and machinery.
There are at present about ten leading firms and
corporations in the United States engaged in the
manufacture of safes, vaults, etc. They give em-
0N£ HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
ployment not only to mechanics, who are mostly of
a very high class in the factories, but, in addition,
large numbers of salesmen, draughtsmen, and others
are connected with the work, aggregating upward of
5000 people, and producing annually in the neigh-
borhood of $10,000,000 worth of work. The
capital invested in machinery, plants, etc, for the
production of this work approximates $6,000,000.
Some of the principal manufacturing companies
are located in the West, principally in Cincinnati :
those include the Hall Safe and Lock Works, the
Mosler Safe Company, the Diebold Safe Company;
and in the East the Herring Safe Company and
the Marvin Safe Company of New York, and the
Farrel Safe Works and Remington Safe Works of
Philadelphia. These companies all noanufacture
first-class work, and it is due to their energy and
business activity that the American safe is the stan-
dard for the entire world. No foreign safes are
imported to this country.
The immense superiority of the American over
the European safes was shown in the great safe test
at the Paris Exposition in 1S67. An American safe
was pitted against an English safe of one of the
leading manufacturere of that country ; the Yankee
workman opened the English safe in less than three
hours, while it took the Europeans more than dou*
ble that time to open the American safe.
At the Centemiial Exposition in 1876, the difier-
ence in the qualities and improvements shown in
the American safes over the European exhibits was
very marked, while the European safes were found
to be but slightly in advance of those produced
soon after the World's Fair in London, in 1850, and
were about on a par with the safes produced in the
United States twenty-five years previous. The
American safes, in both fire-proof qualities and bur-
glar-resisting devices and construction, were so far
superior to all others that the foreign safes did not
receive a single medal, or even honorable mentioiL
Naturally the recognized security o&ered by Amer-
ican safes opens the market of the world to the
products of this important branch of industry. Not
only throughout Great Britain and her colonial de-
pendencies, but throughout Europe, Asia, Afiica,
and Mexico, the American safe-manufacturer finds
customers ; and great as is the volume of the trade
to-day, the possibiUties of the future cannot be fore-
shadowed with anything approaching accuracy, al-
though its steady growth is a
ycB^yHjo^^Aj^^
CHAPTER LXXXI
AMERICAN SEWING-MACHINES
THE American sewing-machine is the sewing-
machine of the world. Not only is this
true aa to the machines used for domestic
purposes, but of machines used in manufacturing for
stitching all kinds of textile fabrics and leather, in-
cluding special machines for working buttonholes,
eyelets, overseaming, embroidery, etc. It is, how-
ever, proper, in writing a brief history of the incep-
tion and invention of the sewing-machine from its
begiiming down to the advent of the first American
sewing-machines which were of practical value as an
article of commerce and trade, that we refer to what
had been done in other countries in the way of in-
venting and producing sewing-machines.
The first sewing-machine of official record is that
of Thomas Saint, on which a patent was granted in
England, July 17, 1790. It is not known whether
more than an experimental machine was made ; only
the drawings on file in the English Patent Office, to-
gether with a full description of the machine in the
specifications of tlie patent, are in evidence to show
to what extent success was attained. Enough is
shown in the drawings and description to demon-
strate thai it corresponded more nearly to the form
and mechanical arrangement of the first successful
American productions of 1850 than did any of the
several machines made diuing the intervening time.
Knight says in his "Mechanical Dictionary": "The
overhangingarm, vertically reciprocatingneedle, con-
tinuous thread, and automatic feed, were patented
in England fifty yeare before Greenough's [machine]
and sixty years before the Singer attained its excel-
lence," This indicates ihat subsequent inventors
from 1790 to 1850 eitlicr did not have knowledge of
Saint's invention or did not choose to profit by it.
The first sewing-machine of official record that was
put into operation is that of BarthWmy Thimonnier,
patented in France in 1830. This machine was so
far a success that in 1S41, it is said, eighty of them
were made, and used in making clothing for the
French army, and were destroyed by a mob, as had
been the Jacqiiard loom and other labor-saving
machines years before. Thimonnier made another
attempt in 1848 to introduce his machines in France,
and a mob again defeated liis efforts. He took out
a patent in the United States, September 3, 1850,
but his machine had no important features that were
of value as compared with the sewing-machines of
that date.
Several patents on sewing-machines were taken
out in England and the United States up to the year
1846, but none of them contained the essential fea-
tures necessary for success. September 10, 1846,
Elias Howe, Jr., took out a patent in the United
States on a machine that had new and important
features, and that placed his name among the great
inventors of this age of inventions. Prior to Howe
all the sewing-machines patented made the chain
or tambour stitch, or attempted to imitate sewing by
hand, making what might be called the backstitch.
They used a short thread with a common needle
that was passed through the material and pulled
out with pincers, or else a needle with an eye in
the center, passing it through the material and
making the same stitch as is common to workeis
in leather.
The chain-stitch was produced by Saint, Thimon-
nier, and others, and might properly be called a
knittetl stitch, as they used a continuous thread
direct from the ordinary spool, and tlie stitch was
formed the same as in knitting. Howe used an
eye-pointed needle and a shuttle, passing the shuttle
through a loop of the needle-thread and producing
a lock-stitch alike on both sides of the material, with
the lock or intertwining loops of the two threads
pulled to the center; this might very appropriately
be called a woven sritch in contradistinction
chain or knitted stitch.
There is a general impression that Howe invented
the eye-pointed needle, but this is not true. The
J
526
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
eye-pointed needle was invented many years before,
and was extensively used in France for the purpose
of working by hand, in a chain-stitch, the name of
the manufacturer on the ends of broadcloths. It
was also used in chain-stitch sewing-machines.
Howe's invention consisted of the combination
of the eye-pointed needle with a shuttle for forming
a stitch, and an intermittent feed for holding and car-
rying the material forward as each stitch is formed.
The mechanical device for the feed was called the
" baster-plate," and the length of the seam sewed at
one operation was determined by the length of this
plate. The material to be sewed was hung by pins
to the " baster-plate " in an upright position, and if
the seam to be sewed was of greater length than the
plate it was necessary to rehang it on the plate, which
was moved back to position in the same manner as
a log is carried back and forth in a saw-mill.
It is not claimed that any machines made after the
model of the original Howe machine were ever put
into practical use. Mr. Howe, in his application for
an extension of his patent, only claims to have made
three machines, one being the model deposited in
the United States Patent Office, and the other two
he retained and claims to have used in sewing the
seams for two suits of clothes, one for himself and
the other for Mr. Fisher, the assignee of one half of
the patent. Mr. Howe also relates that, not meet-
ing with any success in obtaining adequate capital
in this country, he sold the other half of his patent
to his father for $1000, and went to England, where
his right for a patent had been sold to William
Thomas for ;^25o. He engaged to work for Mr.
Thomas at ^^3 per week in perfecting and adapt-
ing the machine for work in the corset factory of
Mr. Thomas, in London. He was not successful in
this, and was arrested for debt and took the " poor
debtor's oath." Through the kindness of the cap-
tain of an American packet he was enabled to send
his wife and children back to the United States.
Later he took for himself steerage passage for Bos-
ton, where he found that sewing-machines had been
made during his absence that infringed his patent.
He then obtained a reconveyance of the half -interest
previously conveyed to his father, and commenced
suits to enforce his rights in Boston and New York.
In the latter city he found I. M. Singer & Company
making and selling machines, they setting up in the
courts, in justification of their right to make machines,
the claims of Walter Hunt, who established the fact
that he made a sewing-machine with an eye-pointed
needle and a shuttle that made the lock-stitch pre-
vious to the year 1834, but failed to apply for a pat-
ent on it or to produce a machine made at that
time.
Mr. Howe further sajrs that the suits brought by
him in New York were fought with the utmost vigor
and pertinacity by I. M. Singer & Company ; but the
courts decided that Hunt's invention was never com-
pleted in the sense of the patent law and did not
in any way anticipate the patent granted to Howe.
I. M. Singer & Company submitted to the decree of
the court, and July i, 1854, took out a license under
the Howe patent, and paid him $1 5,000 in settlement
of license on machines made and sold prior to that
time. Howe then purchased the other half -interest
of his patent, and his success in the Singer suit
made it comparatively easy for the enforcement of
his legal rights with others. He obtained an exten-
sion of his patent in 1 860 for seven years, and again
applied for another extension in 1867, setting up
that he had received only $1,185,000, that his in-
vention was of incalculable value to the public, and
that he should receive at least $150,000,000 for it
His second application was very properly denied.
In 1853 Amasa B. Howe, an elder brother of
Elias Howe, Jr., commenced the manufacture of
sewing-machines under a h'cense from his brother
Elias, in which he infringed the Bachelder, Wilson,
and Singer patents. Under subsequent arrangements
he obtained the right to use those patents, and the
machines were called the " Howe sewing-machine."
This gave an erroneous impression to the general
public as to what was really the original Howe sew-
ing-machine. The facts in regard to it came out in
after years, when Elias Howe, Jr., made an attempt
to manufacture sewing-machines that were very like
those made by Amasa B. Howe, and endeavored to
appropriate the name of Howe as a trade name for
the machines he manufactured. A suit brought by
Amasa to establish his right to the word "Howe"
as a trade name proved successful, the decision of
the court being that Amasa B. Howe was the on- -
ginal inventor and proprietor of the trade-maik of ^
" Howe " as applied to sewing-machines.
The next invention patented that covers a funda
mental and important feature was that of JohoK^
Bachelder, patented May 8, 1849. Bachelder's ma — -i
chine was the first to embody the horizontal tabl^^.
with a continuous feeding device that would sew an]
length of seam. His invention consisted of an endl<
leather belt set with small steel points projecting
through the horizontal table and penetrating the
terial to be sewed, carrying it along intermittently
a proper time to meet the action of the needle.
To Allen B. Wilson must be awarded the hig^i
AMERICAN SEWING-MACHINES
(MT
if praise as an inventor, and for the ingenuity
displayed in constructing and improving the sewing-
machine. His patent of Novemberii, 1850, covered
the invention of the moving feed-bar, with teeth pro-
jecting up through the horizontal table or plate of
the machine, in conjunction with a presser-foot com-
ing down on the material to be sewed, and holding
it in position for the action of the feed-bar. His
patents of August iz, 1851, and June 15, 1852, for
improvement in a feeding device, and for a revolv-
ing hook for passing the upper thread around the
bobbin containing the under thread, gave to the
world a feed that would admit the sewing of a
curved seam, which has become almost universal in
the sewing-machine, while the revolving hook is a
marvelous piece of ingenuity and mechanical skill.
It is to be regretted that Wilson did not receive
ail adequate reward for his great inventions. In his
petition to Congress in 1874 for a second extension
of the three above-named patents he stated that he
did not receive anything above his ex-penses during
the fourteen-year term of his original patent ; that
owing to his impecuniotu condition he was obliged
to sell a half-interest for $200 ; that for the seven-
year term of the extension he had only received
$137,000: and that he had no stock or interest in
any company manufacturing sewing-machines at that
date ; which statements were verified by his original
partner.
The sewing-machine constructed by Allen B. Wil-
son was small and light, and only adapted for domes-
tic purposes in the ordinary sewing for a family, or
on very light fabrics in manufacturing. It used a
vibratory arm for carrying the eye-pointed needle,
which was curved to meet the arc of the circle de-
scribed by the motion of the arm.
In 1873 the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing
Company produced its first machine, with horizontal
bed and overhanging arm attached thereto, using a
needle-bar with perpendicular action and carrying
a straight needle. Its vibratory arm was actuated
by a cylinder-cam on the shaft under the table of the
machine. This defective and cumbersome mechan-
ism was not a success and was superseded by a rock-
shatc in the overhanging arm. This was again dis-
placed by substituting the revolving shaft, as used in
the original Singer machine, and giving motion to
the needle-bar and the upper thread "take-up" in
the same manner as applied on the Singer machines
at the present day.
In 185a Mr. Isaac M. Singer visited Boston for the
purpose of promoting the manufacture of a machine
that he had invented for carving wood. His atten-
tion was there called to a sewing-machine made by
Blodgetl & Lerow, after the model of the Howe
machine. That night he worked out in his mind a
machine differing materially in shape, form, and
mechanical construction, and made a rough draft of
his conception, showing its advantages over the plan
of construction of the Rrst and only sewing-macliine
he had ever seen or heard of.
The feasibility of his plans being apparent to Mr.
Orson C. Phelps, the owner of the machine-shop, and
to Mr. George B. Zieber, who had previously been
interested in the machine for carving, an agreement
was entered into by which Singer was to furnish the
plans, Phelps to do the work in his shop, and Zieber
to put in $40 in money to pay for materials and ex-
penses. It is a matter of well -authentic a ted history
that the first machine was made in eleven days, and
that " it went to work at once," and was the most
perfectly organized sewing-machine for practical use
that had been made up to that time.
Thus was created a sewing-machine that in its
size and the mechanical construction of its arm and
table serves as model for ninety-five per cent, of all
the sewing-machines that are being made through-
out the world to-day. It had the horizontal table,
with a continuous feeding device coming up tlirough
an aperture in the table; an overhanging arm at-
tached to the table ; a horizontal shaft in the arm
giving motion to a needle-bar acting perpendicularly
and carrying a straight eye-pointed needle ; a hori-
zontal shaft under ihe table of the machine, and di-
rectly connected with and driven by the upper shaft,
giving proper motion for moving the sliuttle back
and forward, and an intermittent motion to the feed-
wheel, which was an improvement over the Bachelder
feed, as it was constructed of iron, with a corrugated
surface that did not penetrate the fabric or injure
its surface. It also had a presser-foot to hold the
fabric down to the feed-wheel, which had a yielding
spring that would permit of passage over seams, or
would sew different thicknesses without requiring
any change in its adjustment. This important fea-
ture had not been shown in any other machine up
to that time. The yielding spring presser-foot was
claimed by Mr. Singer in his original application for
a patent on a sewing-machine; but this claim was
disallowed because there was a question as to who
was the iirst to invent this important feature, although
the idea was undoubtedly original with Singer.
The construction of the original Singer machine,
with its straight horizontal shaft in the overhang-
ing arm, easily admitted enlargement and extension,
thus gaining increased space for handling the work.
528
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
As an indication of its capabilities in this respect it
may be stated that at this time there are over forty
distinct classes of machines made by The Singer
Manufacturing Company, that vary in size and ca-
pacity from the smallest for domestic purposes to a
machine having a bed eighteen feet in length and
capable of stitching canvas belting of any practica-
ble width and up to one and one half inches in
thickness. Mr. Singer did not confine his efforts to
his original machine and the lock-stitch, but in 1854
he invented a " latch imdemeedle," and constructed
a machine making the single-thread chain-stitch;
and the same year he produced a machine for em-
broidering, using two threads and making a double-
thread chain-stitch, with a very ingenious mechan-
ism for throwing another thread back and forth in
front of the needle and producing an ornamental
fringe.
In 1856 he brought out a machine making the
lock-stitch, but discarded the wheel-feed and used
the " Wilson four-motion feed " ; so that the name of
Singer, as applied to sewing-machines, did not des-
ignate any particular type of machine, or a machine
making any one kind of stitch, or using either of
the well-known feeding devices. He also turned
his attention to making attachments for the sewing-
machine, in the way of binders, rufflers, etc.
The machines of prior date to Singer, and many
of them for a long time after, used either a vibratory
arm and a curved needle or a vibratory arm and a
needle-bar carrying a straight needle. It is obvious
that a machine constructed on either of these prin-
ciples could not be enlarged without destroying its
effectiveness. The shorter the arm, the greater the
curve of the needle, and the more contracted the
space for turning and handling the work ; the longer
the arm, the more liability to spring and affect the
proper action of the needle, and the more power re-
quired to propel the machine and drive the needle
through the material to be sewed.
We have now reached a period where the inven-
tors had discovered the essential features of a sewing-
machine and made them mechanically practicable.
The time had arrived for active and practical busi-
ness men to take hold of it and make the discovery
of value to the world at large. A new industry had
sprung into existence, the product of which was not
only to be of great importance in itself, but was also
to work a revolution in many branches of manufac-
turing industry.
The men who came to the front and duly appreci-
ated the magnitude of the prospective business were
Mr. Natlianiel Wheeler of the Wheeler & Wilson
Company, Mr. Orlando B. Potter of the Grover &
Baker Company, and Mr. Edward Clark of I. M.
Singer & Company. Mr. Nathaniel Wheeler became
a partner of Allen B. Wilson in 1851. Mr. Wheeler
brought with him energy and ambition that soon
developed into superior business ability. This, with
fine presence and engaging manners, enabled him to
obtain financial aid from some of the leading capi-
talists of Connecticut, his native State. His great
tact in the way of bringing before the pubUc, by ad-
vertisements and otherwise, the fact that sewing by
machinery could be practically accomplished in the
household gave the invention of Wilson an enormous
sale, and its manufacture at Bridgeport, Conn., soon
became one of the most important manufacturing
industries in that city.
Mr. Wheeler became prominent in banking and
other business interests, and received political honors
from both city and State. He was president and
general manager of the Wheeler & Wilson Manufac-
turing Company from its organization down to the
date of his decease, in January, 1894.
Mr. Orlando B. Potter was president of the Grover
& Baker Sewing-Machine Company, a corporation
organized under the laws of Massachusetts, with its
factory located at Boston. Mr. Potter, however,
recognized the fact that New York was the metropo-
lis, and the proper place for him to establish himself
and the headquarters of his company.
The inventions of William O. Grover and William
£. Baker were of prime importance in some of the
sewing-machines of early date, but the great feature
was the " Grover & Baker stitch." It was formed
by interlocking the upper and lower threads on the
under side of the material, and producing on the
knitting principle a double chain-stitch. This com-
pany also made a few machines using a shutde
and making the regular lock-stitch ; but Mr. Potter
became imbued with the belief that the Grover &
Baker stitch would be the stitch imiversally used in
family sewing and nearly every branch of manufac-
ture, and he apparently directed his efforts to that
end. That he had committed an error became evi-
dent, as the sales of the Grover & Baker machines
decreased, while those making the lock-stitch were
increasing in much greater proportion.
In 1875 Mr. Potter sold out the business and all J
the effects of the Grover & Baker Sewing-Machine ^
Company to a company making lock-stitch sewing- -
machines. The demand for the Grover & Baker '^
machines became so small that their manufacture ^
soon ceased, and the name of the Grover & Baker ^^
machine and stitch soon passed out of existence. -
AMERICAN SEWING-MACHINES
529
The merits of a double chain-sdtch are in its elas-
ticity, and in using the imder thread direct from
the commercial spool without rewinding. Machines
making a similar stitch have been made since that
time for use in the manufacture of knit goods, bags,
etc., where an elastic seam is required, and the stitch
is also used in machines made by the Singer Company
for sewing the seams in carpets.
After Mr. Potter's graceful retirement from the
sewing-machine business he showed his faith in the
progress and growth of his adopted city. New York,
by large investments in real estate. He became in-
terested in politics, being twice elected to Congress,
wbere he was very prominent and an important mem-
ber of some of its leading committees.
The complex and important litigation of the early
d^ys of the sewing-machine required the employ-
ment of the very best legal talent of that period ; and
soon after the establishment of the business of I. M.
Singer & Company in New York, in the early part
of 1851, they employed Messrs. Jordan & Clark as
their attorneys and counselors. The senior mem-
ber of that firm, Ambrose L. Jordan, was at that
time attorney-general of the State of New York,
^Qd the affairs of that office so engrossed his atten-
tion that the junior partner, Edward Clark, took in
charge the new clients. They were unable to pay
the fees and costs of the extensive litigation in which
they were involved, and Mr. Clark accepted an in-
terest in the firm to secure payment for his services
*^<i the advances he had made. Mr. Singer recog-
"^^i^ed the legal ability and business sagacity of Mr.
^^^k, and proposed that they should buy out the in-
terest of the other partners, Mr. Clark taking charge
^^ the legal and financial branch of the business,
^hile Mr. Singer gave his attention to the manufactur-
es and improving of the sewing-machine. In March,
' ^53, they consunmiated this arrangement ; and from
^*^at time up to the incorporation of The Singer Manu-
^*<^turing Company, in April, 1863, Mr. Clark had
clxafg^ of the financial and commercial branch of the
and directed the affairs in litigation. That
Conducted both of these important parts of the
b
^^^iness with success is well attested by the remark-
"le growth of the first and the well-protected inter-
^^^ of the latter.
^r. Clark at an early day appears to have fully
^^**^prehended the value of the sewing-machine as an
'^^^cle of trade and commerce. His policy always
^^^t^nplated the diffusion of the business in every
r^^^^ction, following the most direct method of plac-
es its products in the hands of the consumer. He
^^ only established agencies throughout the United
14
States, which were conducted by agents employed
under salaries, but he gradually extended a system
of agencies throughout Europe and all other parts
of the civilized world. In 1856 he originated and
inaugurated the S3rstem of selling sewing-machines
on the renting or instalment plan, and this method
has been adopted and extended throughout the
offices of the company all over the world. This
system has been extended by others to the sale of
nearly every article of merchandise, from a family
Bible to a railway-car, and has proved of inestimable
benefit to mankind.
Mr. Clark continued to take an active interest in
the business of The Singer Manufacturing Company,
holding the office of president of the company from
1876 down to the day of his decease, in 1882. He
was a large owner of real estate in the city of New
York, being one of the first to construct a building
for residences on the French system. Among the
notable buildings of this class erected by him are the
" Dakota " and the " Van Corlear."
Mr. Clark was of a very modest and retiring dis-
position, and never permitted himself to be brought
prominently before the public; and although he was
at the head of one of the largest mercantile enter-
prises in the world, his natural tendency for associa-
tion was with the members of his profession. If
occasion called he had an easy flow of rhetoric, and
with a pen his diction was pure, terse, and to the point.
These qualities, with clear logical reasoning on legal
questions, and an inherent love of equity, would have
insured him high standing had he continued in active
practice at the bar, or he would have graced with
ornate dignity the bench of a court of last resort.
After the validity of the patent of Elias Howe,
Jr., had been fully established, he commenced a
system of licenses to manufacturers of sewing-
machines, demanding the exorbitant price of $25 on
each machine, without any regard to its merits. In
his application for a second extension of his patent
he states that his first license was granted May 18,
1853, and that up to July, 1854, he had granted
fifteen licenses " for the general manufacture and
sale of sewing-machines.'* As Howe's imperfect
and impractical models did not contain the features
essential to practical sewing-machines, the result of
operation under his licenses was suits and counter-
suits by the owners of the more important patents,
and great distrust and unrest on the part of all pur-
chasers of sewing-machines.
In 1856 the owners and controllers of the
Bachelder, Wilson, and other fundamental patents
brought about a coalition, in which they included
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Elks Howe, the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing
Company, the Grover & Baker Se wing-Machine
Company, and I. M, Singer & Company ; thus form-
ing the famous "sewing-machine combination" in
which were pooled all the patents of the essential
features of the sewing-machine in such a way as to
protect the interest of each of its members in an
equitable manner, and enable other mamifacturcre
to continue in the business by the payment of only
one license-fee to the combination. Under this
arrangement any manufacturer who had a. meritori'
ous machine that was not an offensive imitation of
the machine of some other licensed manufacturer
was granted a license, the rate being uniform to all,
and much less than the excessive and exorbitant
license previously demanded by Elias Howe, Jr.
There was no pooling of any other interest in
the combination excepting that of the patents ; no
restrictions were placed on the price at which tlie
machines were to be sold, either at wholesale or
retail, but the maricet was open to fair competition
on the merits of the several machines, and the result
was to be the " survival of the fittest." The com-
bination continued in existence with Mr. Howe as
a member until the expiration of the extended term
of his patent in 1867, and was then continued by
the other members in interest until the expiration of
the Bachelder patent in 1877.
No record or estimate was made as to the num-
ber of sewing-machines manufactured prior to the
date when Howe began to grant licenses, but from
that time to the termination of the combination a
report was made at stated p^ods by all licensed
manufacturers. Unfortunately some of the lecords
of the combination were destroyed by fire, and only
a partial list, showing the number of machines made
from 1853 to 1877 by each of the several manufac-
turers, can be furnished. Enough, however, is shown
in the tabular statement appended to indicate the vol-
ume of business from year to year during that period.
Naui of MANurjtcruRH
1853.
jBs*.
18SS
1856.
IBST,
.Ss6.
1659.
,86.
.»,.
t8«3.
.86^
.86*.
litij.
,m.
■Wheeler & WUton Mfg, Co. . .
■3S
■;a;
'■56*
1
3,6fo
7.978
■=.9S3
!!!
■ 6.™ to)
ii
59.778
»1
wi.
■fht Sin« MsnubcluHnj ci,
Grover ft Biker S. M, Co. . .
il
»^.o,M»„.,:.v-..
iU,.
.«^
>«l9.
.870.
.8,1.
.8,..
>B7>
.8,4.
i»TS.
1«T«.
S3',£SSs2E'.'^.=!;;:
5S
IS.000
as
'iS,
4i;«o(.)
MI
57.*"
i
Kilos I
■J.947
■?.s
4.7«
"i
aiS
114
SSil
Mjlooo <■)
Is
.8,950
II
"il
'W
^4s8
■■,;.8i""
"i,080
M'.679
ij!s»9
I5.SI4
J49.1S.
w
■4.44
"WW
■■:^'
■■^Sl7'
S.7»>
707
A. R Haws'" " "
mucox gTcibbi SewiD[-MiciiiH'C(L !!
WUBn (W. GJ
l.OOO
3.S"
arj5a-''i^-"-!H-S»::;:
Dmw " " " ....
ffiU :: - : :::::::;:;:
R-™y..S™.,.«.J,i,.Cj.......
ii.rit «
I.OJI
;e::;
MeK.r^-i.ii.Mi;to^ j^: :: ■,;;': ;
:::::::■-
.,6^ "■
Ml"
:;::::;rr
ceDnomii ::;:::::'
iJ:::;-/
AMERICAN SEWING-MACHLNES Sai
From the beginning to the end of the combina- sewing-machine, and patents covering devices of
tion there was an army of would-be infringers and more or less utility are constantly being granted,
imitators who kept up a constant howl on any anti The annexed list shows the number of patents issued
all occasions, claiming that the existence of the by the United Slates for sewing-machines and acces-
combination tended to retard the improvement of scries, from the first to J. J, Greenough, dated
the sewing-machine, and that the public were the February 2\, 184?, down to September 10, 1895,
sufferers thereby. It is now nearly twenty years the total being 7439. Of this number there were:
since the expiration of the last important patent on se^,i„g_machit.« making ihe chain-siitch 433
a fundamental principle of the sewing-machine, and Sewing-macliincs mnking Ihc lock-sl[tch 661
it is a notable fact that two of the companies thai Sewing-mKhines for siiiching leather 431
were members of and formed the combination in F«dmg devices (or sewing-machines 316
„ , ., , , . .., . Machines for norking bntlonholes 448
iSib are the only manufacturers, with one or two ,, , . , . ,
■^ ' Machines (or sewing 00 butlona 33
exceptions, that have shown any marked improve- Miscellaneous parts of sewing-machines 2.950
ment in the sewing-machine proper over those of Attachments, rufHers, hemmers, corders, etc ,., i,5a4
twenty-five years ago, or who now produce machines Cabinet cases and tables 473
that are capable of being run by steam or other Motors : foot. hand, siean.. air. and electric 170
power at the high rate of speed, and doing the grade This classification is a continuation in part of the
of work, that is required in the factory use of sewing- system adopted and used in Knight's " Mechanical
machines at the present day. Dictionary," comprising patents on sewing-machines
It may be said that the patents issued to Howe, issued up to March 10, 1875. It is not a complete
Bachelder, and Wilson cover all the fundamental oraccurateclassification,asitenumeraleseachpatent
principles of the sewing-machine. If we divide the only once, classifying it according to its most im-
various machines into two classes, the " dry thread " portant feature, although it may cover several other
and ihe " wax thread," it appears that the number of minor features of the sewing-machine which may
patents covering all the essential elements in the have been embodied in the same patent. For in-
fijBt-named class do not exceed ten, and an equal stance, the original Howe patent covers the combi-
number those in the other. Reference will be made nation of the eye-pointed needle and the shuttle for
later to important inventions in machines using wax forming the stitch, and also the very important
tiiread, and only employed on leather in the manu- device for feeding the material to meet the proper
facture of boots and shoes, harness, etc. action of the needle and shuttle ; yet it is entered in
The inventive genius of the age is actively en- the hst but once, atid then simply as a sewing-
gaged in the production of new developments of the machine making the lock-stitch.
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF EARLY U. S. PATENTS ON SEWING-MACHINES FROM 1S43 to 1855.
SntAL ri.T. N.M.. lHV.HT.OM.
1842.
M66
..J.J.Gre
U both eniii.
L
6.099
6437
6h»39
. .March 4. . . . . B. W. Bean Short thread, running stitch, ordinary hand -needle, cloth crimped
into ridges for passage over the needle.
G. H. Corlisa " Sewitig Engine." Short thread. Siraiiat to Greenoogh's.
,844.
. Jaly 22 J. Rodgers Rnnning stitch. Similar to Bean's.
1S46.
.SepLlO EUAS Howi.jr Eyt-peinUd netdU in
tinuSM! thriadfroi
basler-pSalt.
1S48.
, , Nov. 28 ..... J. A. Bradshaw Lock-stitch, reciprocating shuttle.
1849.
..Feb. 6 C. Morey & J. B. Johnson Chain-stitch. JorAn/ nm/i^.
. .May 8 J. S- Conanl Chain-stitch.
. .May 8, . J. BacHeloer ... ... Twe or mart tkrtads,(liam-sliUk,ceHtinuinis feeding dt
tttilt, and everkanging arm.
. . .S. C. Blodgell & }. A- Lerow . .Lock-stitch, shuttle rotating in « lateral annular
,__j L 1, -^-igbaster-
feed by endless rotatiDg bi
■vice, Aoritontat
:. ConcinaOQS
532
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF EARLY U. S. PATENTS ON SEWING-MACHINES.— C^f»iftf««/.
SSRIAL
NUMBBK.
Datb.
Namb.
Invbntion.
1850.
7,296 ^ril 16 D. M. Smith Running stitch, short thread.
7*369 May 14 O. L. Reynolds Chain-stitch.
7,022 .... Sept. 3 B. Thimonnier, Sr Chain-stitch.
7*659 Sept 24 ... . J. Bachelder Chain-stitch.
7,776 Nov. 12 A. B. Wilson Lock-stitch^ vibratory shuttle pointed at both ends^ recifrocatsng
fted'bar,
7,824 Dec. 10 F. R. Robinson Short thread.
1851.
ti Feb. II W. O. Grover & W. E. Baker . Chain-stitch^ two or more threads,
>2 Aug. 5 W. H. Akins & J. D. Felthousen . Lock-stitch.
8,294 Aug. 12 1. M. Singer Lock-stitch, yS'^-te^A^r/, thread controller.
8,296. . . Aug. 12 A. B. Wilson Lock-stitch, rotary hook^ for carrying upper thread euvund
containing under thread.
8,876
9,041
9»o53-
9.139
9.338
9.365.
9.380
1852.
. April 13 1. M. Singer Lock-stitch, thread controller, and tension device.
.June 15 A. B. Wilson Lock-stitch, rotary hook. Four-motion feeding bar,
June 22 W. O. Grover & W. E. Baker. . .Chain-stitch, two threads,
uly 20 C. Miller. Back-stitch, vibratory shuttle.
. Oct. 19 O. Avery Chain-stitch, two needles, two threads.
. Nov. 2 C. Hodgkins Chain-stitch, two needles, two threads.
. Nov. a J. G. Bradeen Short thread, running stitch.
1853.
9,556 Jan. 25 F. Palmer Feeding device.
9,<92 . .Feb. 22 W. H^ohnson Chain-stitch, two needles, two threads.
9,641 March 29 T. C. Thompson Lock-stitch, magnetic shuttle and race for keefMng shuttle in contact
with race.
9,665 April 12 W. H. Johnson Goth holder and feeding device.
9,679 . . April 19 W. Wickersham Sewing leather, barbed needle, two threads.
10,344 . . . Dec 20 H. L. Sweet Binder, for binding hats, etc.
10,354 . . . Dec. 20 S. C. Blodgett Chain-stitch, two needles, two threads.
0,386.
0.597-
0,609.
0,615.
0,622.
0,728
0,757
0.703
0,842.
0375.
0378.
0.974
0.975
0,994
1,161
1,240
1,284
1,507
1.531
1.571
1,581
1,588
1,615
1.631
1,680
1,884
1.934
1.971
2,011
2,014
2,01
2.074
2,116
.Jan. % , .
.March 7
.March 7
. March 7
. March 7
April 4 .
.April II
.April II
.May a. .
May 9. .
. May 9 .
May 9 .
. May 9 .
.May 30.
.May 31.
. May 31 .
June 27
July 4..
.July II .
.Aug. 8
.Aug. 15
Aug. 22
.Aug. 22
.Aug. 22
.Aug. 29
.Aug. 29
.Sept. 12
.Nov. 7
.Nov. 14
.Nov. 21
.Nov. 28
.Nov, 28
Nov. 28
.Dec. 12
Dec. 12.
.Dec. 19.
1854.
. S. C. Blodgett Hemmer, for sewing umbrellas.
,W. H. Jolmson Chain-stitch, one thread, needle feed,
, C. Miller Buttonhole, two threads.
.W. Wickersham Sewing leather, chdn-stitch,/zevii//<///;f,/nv/tffB/iSf/fmB(f^iilr>il^
. C. Hodgkins Chain-stitch, two threads.
.W. H. Akins Cop for shuttle,
S. T. Parker Lock-stitch, transverse reciprocating shuttle,
.], Harrison, Jr Lock-stitch, reciprocating shuttle. Upper and under thread con-
troller.
I. M. Singer Chain-stitch, two threads ; embroidery attachment carryitig third
thread,
. S. Coon Lock-stitch ; reciprocating shuttle, thread controller.
. H. Crosby, Jr Lock-stitch ; revolving hook, thread controller.
, C. Hodgluns Feed-wheel movement.
O. Avery Chain-stitch, two needles, and two threads.
.1. M. Singer Chain-stitch, one thread; latch undemeedle, lifting presser foot.
.1. M. Singer Lock-stitch, shuttle-thread controller and tension.
. M. W. Stevens & £. G. Kinsley. . Lock-stitch, reciprocating shuttle in cylinder bed, wUhfeed-wkeeL
Walter Hunt Lock-stitch, reaprocating shuttle. Needle feed.
. W. Butterfield Chain-stitch, waxed thread for leather. Barbed needle, wheel
. G. A. Leighton Chain-stitch, two threads.
.A. Swingle Sewing leather, chain-stitch, one thread.
. S. H. Roper Short thread, luickstitch.
. E. Shaw Sewing leather.
. M. Shaw Sewing leather. Clamp-guides.
S. S. Turner Sewing leather. Single mread, chain-stitch.
.J. B. Nichols Binder and folder.
. S. S. Turner Sewing leather, wheel-feeding device.
. P. Shaw Wheel-feeding device.
. D. C. Ambler Lock-stitch, two needles, overseaming for felling lap-seami,
. D. Harris Lock-stitch, upper-thread controller.
. C. Parham Lock-stitch, shuttle carrier.
.T. E. Weed Thread controller.
. O. G. Boynton Binder.
.T. J. W. Robertson Lock-stitch, stationary shuttle.
W. Lyon Feeding device.
.G. W. Stedman Chain-stitch.
.A. B. Wilson Feeding device.
AMERICAN SEWING-MACHINES
033
CONDENSED CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF U. S. PATENTS ISSUED FROM 1S42 TO SEPTEMBER 10,
1895, ON SEWING-MACHINES AND ACCESSORIES THERETO.
1S42 to 1855 As per preceding list 70
1855 to 1867 Expiration of Howe's patent 843
1867 to 1877 End of sewing-machine combination and expiration of Bachelder patent a,!^
1877 to 1887.
1977 to
1887 to
Sept, 10, 1895
Tbtal 7^9
The large number of patents indicates that inven-
tors have not been idle or neglected the sewing-
machine. But there is something required aside from
the mere invention. The inception of the original
idea is only the first essential ; it is equally necessary
to have the place and opportunity to experiment,
and to get the machine into practical operation and
test it on the class of work it is required to do.
In the larger factories of the present time the
experimental department is one of the most impor-
tant and expensive. Here the inventor's idea is
carefully wrought into form and receives preliminary
tests of its efficiency. After carrying it to what
^cems to be a perfect condition, involving months,
^d sometimes years, of patient toil and disappoint-
^^t, the machine or attachment is then sent to
various factories engaged in the class of work for
^^ich it is intended, and there it is put to the sever-
^^ tests of practical use. If its operation appears
^o l>e satisfactory, then a special plant of machinery
^ installed to make this new machine, attachment,
^^ part, so that it can be perfectiy duplicated in any
'^'iniber required. After all this expensive prepa-
'^^on and experiment, the invention may soon be
'^^laced by something better and be abandoned.
Rotable instances of this are shown in the develop-
ment of the Goodyear machine for stitching soles to
^'^oes. It was a matter of several years of devoted
lat>or before the inventors succeeded in getting this
***^chine to perform satisfactory work, and within
^e past year improvements have been made that
'^^der a change from the old to the new machines
^«^sirablc.
*I*he same can be said of the latest production of
^^ Singer Company for sewing breadths of carpet
^^cther. The older machine is propelled by hand-
^^^^"^er, and the operator walks along by the side of
^^ distended breadths, working the machine, and
^^^^g some skill and labor in getting the carpet
y *^peiiy matched and stretched. The new machine
operated by mechanical power, and is constructed
^^ as to hold the carpet in position by means of
^^nips, that also assist in matching the figures prop-
^V, and then stretch it so that it will lay perfectiy
i ^t on the floor after it is sewed. The littie sewing-
34*
machine, which passes along on a track in proper
position to do the sewing, is propelled by electric or
other power. It starts and stops by means of auto-
matic devices that work in conjunction with the
clamps that match and hold the carpet in position.
When it arrives at the end of the seam it unlocks
itself from the forward motor-power and grasps
another, that takes it quickly back to place of be-
ginning. The production of the hand-machine is
equal to that of eight or ten hand-sewers ; but the
new power-machine has a capacity eight or ten times
greater than the hand-machine, and one operator
can handle the increased quantity of carpet with
greater ease and less labor. There is no royalty on
the product of this machine, but it is sold outright,
as are all machines made by the Singer Company.
Under the tide of " motor " are classed devices
for driving a sewing-machine by hand and foot
power, and engines to be attached to the machine
and propelled by water, steam, air, and electricity.
The sewing-machines prior to Singer had no arrange-
ment for applying power for driving them except
the common hand-crank. This required the use of
the right hand, and only the left hand could be used
for arranging and guiding the material to be sewed.
The machines were put on a bench or table of home
construction. Singer, in traveling about exhibiting
his original machine, utilized the box in which it was
packed for shipment as a table, and conceived the
idea of using a treadle similar to that employed on
the old spinning-wheel, and having a pitman attached
to the handle on the driving-gear to assist him in
working the machine. He used an ordinary door-
hinge as a fulcrum for the treadle, which was longer
than the depth of the box, and projected therefrom.
He therefore placed the hinge about where the in-
step of the foot would be, and attached the other
half of the hinge to the box, and thus found that he
had a rocking motion on the treadle that aided in
securing uniform motion to the machine. He soon
discovered that, with the addition of a balance-wheel
on the upper shaft for increasing the momentmn
when the machine was once in motion, he could run
it by foot-power with his rocking treadle, operated
by heel-and-toe motion, and so have the use of both
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
hands for guiding and arranging the material. This
was a great gain in utilizing the machine, and he
soon after produced an iron stand having a rocking
treadle constructed for the use of both feet. Mr,
Singer did not realize that he had made a great and
important discovery, and failed to apply tor a pat-
ent. He was very much chagrined after having
used the invention for two years and thus debarring
himself from a patent, to be informed of his over-
sight by a rival manufacturer.
Many devices have been made for driving the
sewing-machine by foot-power since that time, the
latest being the revolving treadle with the bicycle
movement ; but none of them have been as good
as the rocking treadle. Backus, in 1874, made a
water-motor that had some sale ; Ericsson made an
air-engine in the same year ; and a number of small
steam-engines and a great many devices using
springs, weights, etc., have been tried, but no effi-
dent motor has been successfully put on the market
until the development of the use of electricity for
power. The " Diehl electric sewing-macliine motor "
can be directly connected to the main shaft of a
sewing-macliine, and is a great success on account
of its convenience, compactness, and effectiveness.
In its smallest form, for driving individual machines,
the field-magnet is secured to the arm of the machine,
the armature being carried inside a brass wheel
which acts as a balance-wheel. The rheostat is at-
tached to the ordinary foot-power table or cabinet
case, and is connected by a pitman with the treadle,
so that the machine may be started and slopped and
the speed regulated as desired by pressing the foot
on the treadle. The versatile inventor of this motor
has made a notable demonstration of the uses of
electricity by applying it to the operation of a sew-
ing-machine drop-cabinet and its contents tor the
purpose of public exhibition. The cabinet stood in
a show-window on Broadway, and, apparently of its
own voUtion, the cover of the case opened, the
sewing-machine was elevated from its receptacle
under the tabie, the doors to this receptacle were
folded back, and the machine began operation at a
high rate of speed. After a few minutes this oper-
ation ceased, the machine descended to its former
position, the cabinet was fully closed, and became
an elegant and useful table, appropriate to the most
ornate furnishings.
For the factory operation of sewing-machines
there are ingenious devices for their stable support
on tables which are made in sections, carrying the
shafting, and so arranged as to be readily con-
nected in longer leng:ths as desired, and adjusta-
ble to any unevenness of floor. These tables arc
made for the operation of one or of two rows of
machines from one line of shafting, which is so
carried beneath the tables ihal it is easily adjmted.
The tables have a thick wooden top that may be
entirely flat, or it can be provided with convenient
work-holding troughs. In point of convenience,
cleanliness, safety, and economy these tables leave
nothing to be desired, for they seem lo satisfy all
requirements in these respects. In the matter of
power transmission from the shaft lo the machine
there are several devices to enable the instant stop-
ping and starting of the machines. The use of
electricity has demonstrated the feasibility of at-
taching the electric motor directly to a shaft for
transmitting power at the point where it is needed.
Much economy is gained by this method over the
old system of successive countershafting and belting,
with its dangers, its expense, and the loss of efficiency.
The idea! system will have been reached when the
motor is attached to the head of each sewing-ma-
chine, so that all objects intervening between the
source and the subject of power, other than the wire
for the electric current, can be dispensed with.
The reports 10 "the sewing-machine combina-
tion" of the sales of sewing-machines during the
four years 1873-76 show a total of 2,303,941, the
average for each year being about 576,000. As
these reports terminated with the year 1876, we have
no other information as lo the extent of sewing-
machine manufactiue since that time than what is
indicated by the United States census reports of 1S80
and 1890. The total value of production reported
at the census of 1880 for one year was $13,863,188,
the census of 1890 showing a value of $11,813,147.
These figiu^es indicate that the average number of
machines made annually during the last twenty years
has been from 500,000 to 600,000.
A comparison of the census reports of 1880 and
1890 shows a decrease of fifty per cent, in the num-
ber of establishments engaged in the manufacture of
sewing-machines, but also shows that the number of
persons employed was about the same, and that their
average wages increased about ten per cent, during
the decade. In 1880 the average wages were $485,
and in 1890 they were $567 per annum, thus show-
ing the class of labor employed to be of a very high
order. The reports, at the census of 1890, from
fifty-six establishments showed the employment of
gi2i operatives, whose wages amounted to $5,170,-
555. The market value of their product was $ia,-
823,147, so that the cost of their labor constituted
forty per cent, of this value.
AMERICAN SEWING-MACHINES
The rable on pp. 536 and 537, relating to exports
of sewing-machines, shows the value of such exports
to have exceeded $67,000,000 during ihiriy years,
1865-95, ^^ annual average during the last ten
years exceeding $2,500,000. This sum does not,
however, adequately represent the foreign use of
the American sewing-machine, because American
establishments are extensively engaged in the manu-
facture of these machines in other countries. An
active foreign demand for the American sewing-
machine was developed during the Civil War, 1861
—65, and the value of machines exported during
the year ending June 30, 1865, was nearly $2,-
000,000. The foreign selling-price per machine
was less than the domestic price, but the high
premium on foreign exchange and the depreciated
United States currency made the business fairly
remunerative at that time. As previously stated,
the cost of labor in the manufacture of a sewing-
machine is forty per cent, of its total cost at the
present time; but during the period from 1861 to
1865 wages did not increase as fast as the value of
the currency decreased, and thus the machine could
be sold at a price in specie very much below its
value in United States currency.
Upon the gradual restoration of that currency to
its normal specie value, however, the rates of wages
were not reduced to correspond to their increased
purchasing power ; on the contrary, these rates have
Steadily increased, as has been shown. Thus the
cost of the domestic manufacture became too high
to enable competition in the world's markets with
the numerous imitators who were manufacturing
in Great Britain and on the continent of Europe.
Therefore some of the American manufacturers
established factories in foreign countries, and sup-
plied them with American machinery and tools for
producing facsimiles of the machines made by these
manufacturers in the United States.
The " American system " of making all parts of
the finished product completely interchangeable has
been carried to its highest development in the
manufactiu'e of sewing-machines, every piece being
made to gauge and tested before assembling. In
□ branch of manufactiu-e has the use of automatic
machines and tools of fine precision become more
essential than in this. The special tools required to
make the various parts of some of the many varieties
of sewing-machines often require greater inventi^'e
talent and ingenuity than that displayed in the ma-
chine produced.
The Singer Company have continued the manu-
facture in foreign countries of duplicates of the ma-
chines made in this country ; and the factories erected
by this company at Kilbowie, near Glasgow, Scotland,
are equal in capacity to the factories at Elizabethport,
N. J., and have produced about 400,000 machines
annually during the past four years. The total
number of all the machines made by I. M. Singer
& Company and their successors. The Singer Manu-
facturing Company, from 1853 to October i, 1895,
is 13,150,000, and of this number 5,877,000 have
been made in factories located in foreign countries,
but under the direct control and management of the
American company.
The average value of the exports of sewing-ma-
chines, including cabinet-work and parts of sewing-
machines, from the United States, indicates that
about 150,000 machines are exported annually; and
it is a fair estimate that the total number of Ameri-
can sewing-machines sold annually in foreign coun-
tries, including those made abroad, is equal to the
sales in the United States by all the American com-
The export of sewing-machine cabinet-work is
a matter of considerable importance, because the
United States easily surpasses all other countries in
the wealth of its woods for this purpose, in the in-
genuity of its cabinet-makers, and in the efficiency of
its woodworking machinery. The different climatic
conditions of other countries and continents do not
admit of finishing the woodwork in this country ; but
it is cut "in shape" and exported "in the white,"
so that it can readily be put together and finished
where it is to be used.
The number of tables and cabinet-cases for foot-
power stands, and of cases for hand -machines, ex-
ported by the Singer Company aggregate about
694,000 annually ; of this number the cases for
hand-machines constitute about seventeen per cent.
The proportion of hand to foot-power machines used
in Europe and in Asiatic countries is far greater than
in the United Stales, where the operation of a sewing-
machine by hand is very exceptional, and usually
confined to those crippled and physically unable to
apply foot-power. The great difference in social
conditions is largely accountable for this peculiarity,
and the increased use of the hand-machine in Europe
is also largely due to the itinerant character of the
urban population, who find the tables and stands an
impediment in their constant moving from house to
house.
The most remarkable industrial development fn
connection with the sewing-machine has been its di-
versification and adaptation for use in a great variety
of manufactures, which have thus been enabled to
G36
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
VALUE OF AMERICAN SEWING-MACHINES EXPORTED.
Compiled from Statistics of the United States Treasury.
no data for the year 1866.
EXFORTXD TO
CONTXNBNTAL EUKOPK :
Austria Hungary —
Belgium
France
Germany
Holland
Italy
Portugal
Russia
Spain
Sweden and Norway.
Switzerland
Turkey
Gkbat Bkitain
BxinsH NoKTH Amrrica.
Bkitish Australasia
Wbst Indies:
British West Indies
Haiti
Santo Domingo ,
CuU
Dutch West Indies
Danish West Indies and I>en<
mark
French West Indies
Puerto Rico
Mexico
Centrai. America.
South America:
British Guiana.
French Guiana
Dutch Guiana.
Colombia
Bolivia
Ecuador
Brazil
Argentina
Uruguay
Venezuela
Peru
Chile
18QS.
5.754
55i96«
465.425
6a8
30
66x
a8.433
5.728
»35
753.79a
as. 784
X35,6a6
7.«95
x.a33
1,805
94.ax3
474
3.059
X3,a8a
103,434
3.276
54.037
X867.
80
9,103
X38.437
362.244
133
604
100
3.407
358
618,965
13,665
9«.758
1.743
436
90
80,659
300
1,463
2,249
30,316
805
140
9^.548
1866.
107,781
377.7x0
150
130
3,913
3.539
723.003
16.385
57.763
X.094
770
72
49.042
103
859
314
3.702
36.945
1,199
65
76
23,959
1869.
100
8,107
185,334
706,709
150
6,700
1,900
50
663,070
23,169
130,776
3,183
204
93,049
363
809
3,178
26,657
1,315
30,x8o
1870.
11,610
8,338
148,059
5x6,303
330
X59
833
14,190
5,734
X39
936,896
33,631
X49,X44
2.906
2,245
37.633
442
549
6.447
43.928
987
187X.
$
6,400
10,633
377,013
359
■••■•••
400
9,769
14,019
X.509
986,553
35.030
59.869
3.845
6,870
66,969
X.436
683
x6,567
10,683
38.950
988
55.633
xSts.
1873.
$
100
X33.9X5
456.640
zoo
330
X.677
898,405
53.490
97.406
5,690
3.X75
3.884
71,994
1,985
13,004
31,881
60,339
2.780
«37.i3S
$
79,886
330, X99
6,588
52
903
768,903
49.953
176,995
7.500
3.443
4.7x5
138,046
3.367
1,633
17,668
110^786
6,051
58
309,301
1874.
$
40
53,086
214.965
X34
400
84
3.228
900
180
5x2,338
60,753
x4o,5a4
8,6x7
4x0
2,040
68,610
8,552
54
1,010
9.268
131.530
3,271
S<H
X74,289
1875.
$
19,800
93,111
469,964
330
50
103
987
567.764
72,5x8
89,480
7.4x4
x,X37
3.294
58,979
4.534
119
457
24.237
X 14,436
4.2x7
XX5.734
1878.
$
8,793
57.230
367.369
854
980
x877* X876.
699,016
70*987
X03.X54
9»S07
3.556
4,238
87.074
X.403
65
625
X4.327
75.577
3.872
610
90,997
8,951
38,981
587.684
x,X3X
x,984
799
486,84a
xa4,34X
77.63*
5.393
4,616
1,283
63.47X
757
805
588
xo,8S7
115,970
5.632
X.049
80,734
10,4x6
4X.X35
539.X87
605
t,88z
989
xx$
48«.574
X9.7«$
zzo,9ai
3.084
5,007
9,90t
66,631
1,998
1,103
X.293
9.35X
X53.574
13,999
136
93.
1879.
$
X7.670
563,9x0
9,810
835
363
7,650
908
3»
3^3X
«3.8xi
1x^671
4t«3x
x,«S6
2^897
48,289
1,9X8
6,8^
X58,ta4
ix.tss
x6c
«03.*79
Africa
China
Japan
Hawaii
East Indies.
All Other..
74,550
59.539
46.336
10,443
xo,449
X2,359
2,851
70
1,20s
6,418
17,070
X03.785
64,142
19,041
3.297
3.985
xo,993
3.030
346
360
x,59x
4.279
X35,i49
46,439
36,615
6,669
4,348
33,099
3,5x4
1,858
716
841
33,43X
133,384
66,037
x7,o93
4,086
11,063
38,84a
3,043
617
867
2,649
940
4.259
X52.84X
59.496
X6,;
5,
18/
38,
,521
i.993
'.942
i.392
4.X36
4.004
774
X.674
13.613
Totals by years
x.999.274
x.650,340 1,657,942
2,051,581
2.233,326
X59,534
37,530
4,775
7,X94
37.393
46,924
5,344
849
1,669
x,950
373.513
38,718
34.659
11,830
45,967
39,072
3, 161
10,673
22,644
1.660
8,1x8
4.108
61.958
66,486
6.752
99,538
X7.685
43,32x
x,398
9,654
X9.524
X.976
• • • • •
X.893
73,07X
33.244
705
39,6x4
X5.64X
35.523
7.7x3
X.654
9.X95
2.536
■ •••••
2.325
72.446
xx,937
3.444
30.958
19,466
7.694
11,638
396
1,373
3.X38
X95
3.X87
29.483
X4.77X
469
58,208
5.2x0
X 7.444
3.005
X.X44
X.244
3,425
9.667
1,898,864
9,436,085
9,150,790
x,594.296
x,797.929
x.742,764
9X,X58
xo,o8x
60
38,668
8,803
36,xx9
X.X43
X.353
99X
5.609
40
X,92t
x,743*a93
",8x4
x8,34i
5x7
30,x74
X5.356
x*x59
55a
z,o66
a.786
8,681
3.661
39»99T
•8,700
1,883
ax,493
X5,8xi
a*3S6
5.346
x,305
871
•0,966
S86
9io83
1,661,7151,648,914
AMERICAN SEWING-MACHINES
VALUE OF AMERICAN SEWING-MACHINES EXPORTED.— C™/.>
CounLED FBOM Statistics of thk United States Treasurv.
NO DATA FOR THE VBAR 1866.
itao.
.«.
.».
1S83.
tn*.
.tss.
■nt.
tm.
i8>8.
■Og.
ilV.
tH».
■■91.
«•»
>•»
"»
TOTAU BY
FOB 30 YkUO.
s
M.'Ji
>.«4
».(49
3i
49
66j
387.6M
8fcM7
fi.US
3.H4
70I434
i.T«
.31,8.3
>7t.
"MS.
7.1<H
^041
t
.6,M3
4>.>6i
S.6j6
3,6.8
3.0M
4^7*
1.13s
3.014
49*
•Ji.'-i
S9.IOO
.»...6
6.7"
"7.330
6.J6.
a.ui
>7.W
1J.I64
■3.6311
708,950
6,178
50
863
"5
8«,8,3
'■7.J»3
6,9M
..164
»,o84
i6>
990
«.>99
*J6
.rf,4tS
M,66.
*',6S4
3.74=
:.S,.8j
.6.473
8.977
.,038
•3,B94
«.4«t
7>.074
Sm..7«
3'.S74
36,
3."B
•69
■,o*3i7"
■38. M>
IS..""
«,»o.
■.7J8
Si."*
.,")
170
<i.l48
3",Bh
13,040
1,648
■3*8);
<6,j63
s^9"
8.7"
>.9J0
S3»
i.o4«
64s
l,7»
i
.6.38.
56.956
49.°59
■ ,iJ«.o37
4>.437
,,866
3..6sr6
s.s»s
.,ii8o..as
.)8.«j
"S.J7S
9...6
4.B«9
3.3"
60.443
>,S»
■.669
.,84.
•.7S3
«7.o.l
9*0
83,84.
43.081
6,i«
-.'3i
3.4«
t,o<8
'6,804
.4.336
S
S.161
63.944
67.o«7
lM.114
49.S33
(i,a.o
6.953
'»9.S«4
7.366
.,50'
.9..73
1.03.
.98.634
44..9*
35
M,396
73.7*3
i5.e«,
36.766
3..9«
8.847
1.0.9
$
56i67>
99-4*.
680.604
■.7«3
68.
3.94S
7.830
746
■09'4<S
"7i'5S
...64
..095
784
.,687
',485
68,j7o
51.*.9
■8..J.
«J,>7t
7,!'98
.3,8.4
X9.S6i
B,l»9
..688
1,487
83.
■5,35"
*
1.8B9
SS.S6.
384,6.0
.,06,
S.950
.6.S73
3.34*
iS.8»
8.3. ..5
87.790
■14,6^
>.3<3
53.9*3
...50
1.146
").*99
.9.0.8
4..«3.
83.83=
iJ.o!i9
«S.8"
.s..3a
9.980
...30
3.790
736
■ 3,t34
..3B6
7,057
..736
J9S,..4
5.8.9
38.350
..309
..607
847.."
.0..891
.03..6.
8,18.
I,o«
*341
..0.9
.,647
■46.398
.53
46,W9
.09.6.5
.0,454
49.68.
9...B
8,.|o
1.99"
..36.
10,606
6.3).
$
9..8ai
■■'3.95^
..63^
■47
8»,730
.43.787
3,39.
4.';l7'
.,»8
.60.7.3
509
190
8..5S.B
78.75.
W9.86.
.6,199
.8.6,4
.3,069
4.0*.
8,030
.0.3*7
3.483
6..8,
t
34.0..
.'J.978
456.884
370
3.956
8.378
16.
..0.8.44.
63.370
M.3a.
4.406
60,741
..903
1,166
.31. Mi
9".468
850
5C9
IJO
9i.'36
178
60.538
66, .43
.5.358
«.,BiB
.3..8B
.3.7*4
3,0.0
1.5"
16,876
4.685
7.36!
$
30,6.6
.16.046
609,7(6
■0.S3.
S59
848.493
»4.oS9
M.s,t
..9.1
i»,)>9
3.9*.
1.8
..7rf
..760
.74.546
'.09J
»J4
.«..48
7«,393
S.683
7*.*3.
3*.. OS
.0.6.3
6.«i
..453
.6,^9
3-94.
6.888
$
3.850
"^.387
6.6.93«
3..a69
.J.9»
910
.66
...5SB
809.39.
60. »8
36fco,B
.6.983
6,619
.46,..8
876
..333
163.'..
7^84■
1,116
473
.30
99.790
I,»»4
9.0.5
7.,97«
...89.
3..763
n,66,
6,.6.
6.9J6
I.OJI
7."*
8.387
$
h9B
33,938
S..757
3*3,40.
47.3*5
...307
17.98.
84^S40
90.3"
io,.49
3.7=3
9S,*3=
77*
7S0
4.6.8
14..764
59,. 77
■.965
3*.
.5
65.-4
■99
16,738
89.83.
6,,S8«
..S*9
S..673
.9.503
.9.84.
«.4.a
8.93J
7.318
7.479
s
3.413
48,3*3
91, M*
4.*T3
8.696
3..70
>.J40
'.097
835
71..411
.14..99
310.94a
<3.8S3
,,,96,
1,96.
.I..696
¥H
3..066
^86.
6.7
.6j
«9.«74
.95
7..56
43.306
4.958
J.35>
..i6j
8.981
t
...160
3«.w>
9B.J66
47..«3
...6.3
8.736
8,9.9
645.847
>..,}88
»4,B7S
■ 3.6.8
4.906
..a.7
.6.114
1.069
1,958
■,849
i3..a4.
64.97*
3.189
3M
39.9M
■3.
140.054
.3.3.7
46..4a
B.*o,
=..894
3.001
3.4*5
9.968
9.*77
$
81,709
780.846
..645.04s
>).417,6«S
4O3,80<.
»M.8..
■S.039
.30,580
78.977
B..6JB
a.7.9
.5.685
...9S..6.3
4.4IJ.OS*
M..436
..3.4.8
70.908
68,841
J4.16.
11..76B
4,018,18.
903.967
>l.>8t
».6*4
.,6-..933
3.3.9
M7,M9
..3'o,M9
..48..760
3.9,784
979.6.3
493,7'.
S*9.i"
16..681 ,
91.63. '
«S9,*49
48,0.8
.AST"
I.«49.36T
.,9»..3.4
•.S47,S'S
3.«1'.639
J.iS..«'4
.,898.6,8
■,384,717
■,»>,B}]
...43.1.0
». .47,873
■.79J,7»o
.,883.377
3,133.99.
>.4A446
'.347.354
•.•«o,.3.
*67.Mi.M3
i
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
E the quantity, quality, and value of their pro-
duct, and to cheapen its cost to the consumer.
In the census reports relating to the principal
manufactimng industries that use the sewing-machine
largely, the figures show that the total value of their
products in 1890 had increased about seventy-five
per cent, from 1880. These census figures are given
in a tabular statement which is appended, and which
contains comparative data for seventeen classes of
industry in the operation of which the sewing-
machine is an important factor. These industries
employed 66r,ooo hands in 1890; they had about
$437,000,000 invested in machinery, tools, and
implements of all kinds, and the value of their
product approjcimaccd one thousand million dollars
{$[,161,196,659).
introduced, and demonstrated that neater and more
uniform work could be done on the machine. The
result was the concentration of the scattered home
industry into convenient factories, and the use of
steam-power for driving the machines. The use of
machines for stitching the uppers suggested the need
of machines for sewing on the soles, and in 1861
the machine known as the McKay, under patents to
L. R. Blake and others, was first put into successful
operation. The time and money put into experi-
ments on this machine, and the large amount of
work which it performed, caused the owners of tlie
patents to place a royally on each pair of shoes
sewed on it, as the only way to obtain a fair remu-
neration for their invention. The value of tlie inven-
tion to its owners may be estimated when it is stated
Awnings, tenls, and alls <
Beg^i other than paper \
Bookbinding )
Boots and shoes (factory product) <
Qothing (men's) <
Qothing (women's) 1 <
Corsets J
Flags and banners \
Fntnishing goods (men's)
Gloves and mittens
Hats and caps, not inclnding wool hats
Hat and cap materisls
Pocketbooks
Rubber and eUslic goods
Saddlerf and hsimess
Shirts
Horse clothing
$523,700
2,425,900
6,015,685
5.798.671
43,994,028
95.283,311
79.861,696
iSj.553,938
8.207.Z73
34,141,607
1,611.695
6,640,056
54.300
376.130
3,734.664
12.299,011
3.379.648
5,977,S3o
S-IS5468
13.724,002
746,828
1,709.650
598.150
1,131%
6.057.987
13.703.787
16,508,019
1,368
3.871
2,343
3.769
143.857
25.192
8,669
17,240
27. '93
$1,968,942
7,829.003
9,736.600
16.355.365
11.976,764
17,067.780
166,050.354
220,649.358
209.S484'»
378,033.815
32.004,794
"5.235.75"
6^94- 705
12.401,575
iigfiixt
45S.&49
11,506,857
29^70,946
7.379*05
10,103.821
21.303.107
37.3 ".599
2,217,250
3,465,5*4
1,769.036
2,165,463
1I.708.917
53,970,801
20,130/931
33.638.593
695,000
1.573J65
n the Beam bt 1890
In no branch of manufacture has a greater revo-
lution occurred than in boots and shoes. The fitting
of the uppers was formerly accomplished by sending
them out in small quantities to be sewed and stitched
by hand in the homes of the operators. The hand-
workers bought sewing-machines when they were
that as many as 900 pairs of shoes have been sewed
on one machine in one day of ten hours ; that tJie
average license was at the rate of two cents per pair ;
and that over 350,000,000 pairs of shoes had been
made on it up to the year 1877 in the United States,
and probably an equal or greater number in Europe.
f
AMERICAN SEWING-MACHINES
539
The McKay machine made the chain-stitch with
a waxed thread. The outer sole was stitched to
the inner sole by removing the last and placing the
shoe on an arm similar in its general appearance to
the hmnan arm, with elbow bent to hold up the
hand and swing around on the shoulder-joint, so as
to bring the needle and awl in the overhanging arm
into position above the shoe, to take up the thread
irom a very ingeniously worked undemeedle in the
.ann inside of the shoe. The awl also had a lateral
movement, and acted as a feed to move the shoe
:f orward as each stitch was taken. This very useful
.2nd meritorious machine has been superseded to
some extent by the Goodyear machine, which makes
^e lock-stitch with waxed threads and sews on the
sole in the same manner that it is done by hand. In
llie Goodyear process the last is left in the shoe, and
llie welt is sewed to the inner sole and upper by a ma-
crliine making the chain-stitch, that not only does the
s^iTinng, but also draws the upper tight on the last
greatly assists in " lasting " and giving proper
pe to the shoe. The outer sole is then sewed to
welt in a manner that successfully imitates the
best of hand-work. The Goodyear machines
sold on a royalty plan based on their production.
The next sewing-machine of great importance
for working buttonholes, and was made under
^ents to Vogel, Humphrey, and others. After
3^^<sus of experimenting the Union Buttonhole
^^^Miiine Company produced a machine that was a
in its line. It worked buttonholes that had
peculiar " purl " of the best hand-made button-
to which they were superior in strength and
The manufacture and sale of this machine
not profitable to the Union Buttonhole Machine
^>mpany, and in 1867 it passed to the Singer
^>mpanyy and by that company was still further
roved and became a great success, having a
:^e sale in the United States and Europe.
The Reece buttonhole machine was brought out in
it is a wonderful organization of machinery,
has had a large sale on the royalty plan, making
^^ery remunerative to the owners of the patents.
3)tiring the early years of the sewing-machine, its
by clothing manufacturers was confined to the
action of the medium grades, the custom tailors
^Dwing a great prejudice against machine sewing.
This prejudice gradually disappeared as it became
S^parent that seams made on the machine were
^lal to the best handwork, and the sewing-machine
^iu)w in general use for making the finest garments.
The enormous increase during ten years in the
factory production of clothing is remarkable, and it
may fairly be claimed that the development of this
industry has been coincident with the invention of
special appliances and attachments adapting the
sewing-machine for factory operation in the per-
formance of all stitching processes, including button-
hole and eyelet making, attaching buttons, staying
seams, etc.
The concentration of clothing manufacture into
factory operation has effected greater economy in
the marketing of the cloth, especially the cheaper
fabrics, such as jeans, shirtings, denims, etc. These
are now sent from the mills where they are woven
directly to the manufacturers of clothing, shirts,
overalls, etc., thus saving the cost of commissions
and handling, formerly incurred through the whole-
saler, the jobber, and the retailer to the local tailor
or housewife. Several hundred sewing-machines are
sometimes operated in a single power plant for the
manufacture of clothing.
By the use of improved methods for cutting to
standard sizes in great variety, well-fitting garments
are now as easily obtained in "ready-made" as
in " custom " clothing. By the use of the sewing-
machine they are as well made, and are furnished to
the wearer for what the material formerly cost him.
Economies of equal importance have been effected
in many other industries in which the sewing-machine
is the principal element of productive force.
While these industries have thus been enabled
to more than double their output diuing the last
decade, the population of the country has only in-
creased about one quarter. It is evident, therefore,
that the quantity of sewing done in the home has
been greatly reduced, and that domestic burdens
have been correspondingly lessened ; also that the
cost to the consumer of the products of the sewing-
machine has been reduced, all of which may fairly
be claimed as the results of inventive genius and
executive ability in the field of sewing-machine
manufacture, its development and improvement.
In the preparation of this article the writer has
received invaluable information and assistance from
Mr. John F. Elliott, who has been intimately con-
nected with the sewing-machine industry in many
capacities for nearly forty years; and much credit
must be awarded him for the research and inves-
tigation which have given this brief history whatever
of value it may possess.
CHAPTER LXXXn
AMERICAN WATCHES AND CLOCKS
c
BLOCKS were among the first articles of a
complicated constniction which were made
' in America. In 1765 there was in Grafton,
Mass., a remarkable family named Willard, all of
whom were clock-makers. There were three bro-
thers, named Benjamin, Simon, and Aaron. The two
former removed to Roxbury, Mass., in 1771, and
established themselves there as clock-makers, on
Roxbury Street, at the " Sign of the Clock," where
Simon remained over seventy years, dying at the
age of ninety-six. He was the best workman and
the most ingenious of all the Willards, as he not
only made several kinds of clocks, but invented a
number of machines for various other purposes.
He was only thirteen when he made his first clock,
all the work being executed by him, thus showing
the character of the boy. There was no machinery
in those days by which labor could be saved, and
everything was filed out from the rough. Some-
where in the latter part of the last century or the
early part of the present, he invented and patented
the " timepiece," so called, which very soon super-
seded the tall eight-day clock, which before was the
only method of recording time. He was also the
inventor of perambulators for accurately measuring
distances, cook-jacks, alarums, chimes, etc. He
made many turret clocks for public use in Boston,
New York, and Philadelphia, as well as one for the
University of Virginia. In Virginia he became
clocks, great and small, are just as good, after the
lapse of a century, as when they left his hands.
Aaron, a younger brother of ihis family, set-
tled in Boston, Mass., building what, for the times,
was a large establishment, on Washington Street,
Boston Neck, near the Roxbury line. His particu-
lar branch of business was the tall striking clocks for
halls. These he manufactured almost exclusively;
they were of excellent workmanship, and stood
every lest. His clocks were largely sold in Virginia
in exchange for Haxall flour, a trade which proved
very advantageous to him. He died at about the
age of eighty-five. The fourth Willard, Aaron, Jr..
was also a clock-maker, being the son of the one
just mentioned. He was bom in Boston, Mass.,
and was taught clock-making by bis father, after-
ward setting up in business not far from where
his father was located, and there making various
forms of clocks for common and extra use. His
business was not large, no more than four or five
workmen being employed, the most of whom were
apprentices. The shop he occupied was thirty by
fifty feet, and one story high.
My connection with clock-making commenced
at the age of sixteen, in 1S29, under the in-
struction of Aaron Willard, Jr., with whom I
served an apprenticeship of five years. The aggre-
gate production of Mr. Willard in money value
would not exceed $8000 per annum. During my
intimately acquainted with Thomas Jefferson, our five years of apprenticeship not a single tower or
third president, and James Madison, our founh hall striking clock was made by us, although now
president, corresponding with them for years. Jef- there are hundreds, if not thousands, of these kinds
ferson had a strong mechanical turn of mind, and of clocks made every year. In 1875 there was only
liked to divert himself with curious problems.
lard made and set up the clocks in the United
Stales Senate Chamber and in the House of Repre-
sentatives, performing the latter labor after he was
seventy-five years of age. He never considered
a small amount of such work done, as compared
with what has been accomplished during the last
twenty years. Then there were only a few dock-
makers scattered throughout New England, — mostly
in Connecticut, — whose united production only
profit, the quality of work being everything. His amounted 10 a few thousands of clocks yearly, while
J
AMERICAN WATCHES AND CLOCKS
Pnow Uiereare numerous clock factories of
size, filled with the most ingenious labor-saving
machinery. The demand then was limited to the
United States alone ; now we have the whole world
for a market, and the demand and supply run into
millions every year. Then the forms, styles, and
finish were few ; now they are almost innumerable,
it seeming impossible to conceive of anything novel.
Clocks were then often set by the noon sun-dial,
but now we make ihem to run so close to true
time that we sometimes think the sun has gone
wrong. The tower-clock business has had a won-
derful growth in the past thirty years, and more have
been made and put up in that time than during all
the preceding period from the time of the landing
of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Some that I made
fifty years ago are now running, being still in good
working order.
I went in business for myself, as a clock-maker, in
1840, continuing up to 1882, when I retired from
active industry, During that time I manufactured
various kinds of clocks, many being specially de-
signed for halls, churches, offices; also electric watch
clocks, tower clocks, etc, I began in a shop not
over thirty feet square, and ended with a number
of buildings, one of which was one hundred and fifty
feet long, seventy feet wide, and seven stories high.
The clock-manufacturing companies are not very
numerous in the United States, not exceeding
twenty-five in all; but iheir size and facilities are so
great that it does not take long to flood the market
when they are all in operation. I commenced the
clock business single-handed, but later employed
fi-om 100 to aoo hands. The amount of capital
invested in clock-making in 1795 is very much a
matter of conjecture, as well as the amount of yearly
production at that time, but it is probable the
former did not exceed $ioo.ooo, and the latter could
not have been over $aso.ooo.
The most extensive clock factories at the present
time are located as follows : New Haven Clock Com-
pany, New Haven, Conn.; Waierbury Clock Company,
Waterbury, Conn. ; Seth Thomas Clock Company,
Thomaston, Conn.; J. E. Ingraham Clock Com-
pany, Bristol, Conn.; Gilbert Clock Company, Win-
sted, Conn.; Phelps & Bartholomew Clock Com-
pany, Ansonia, Conn.; E. M. Welch Clock Com-
pany, Forestville, Conn.; E. Howard Clock Com-
pany, Boston, Mass.; F. Knoeber Clock Company,
New York City ; Ansonia Clock Company, Brook-
lyn. N. y. Their combined capital in i860 was
about $885,000, and production about $2,300,000,
The combined capital in 1892 was $5,550,000, and
the production in that year, $10475,000. No suf-
ficient data exist before i860 to make any satisfac-
tory estimate of the capital invested or the amount
of yearly production; but it can be seen that for the
last thirty years there has been a large and con-
tinued increase of capital and production, and it is
fair to believe that it will continue to grow.
Watchmaking did not exist in the United Stales
as an industry in 1795. There were watchmakers,
so-called, at that time, and there are great numbers
of the same kind now, but they never made a
watch; their business being only to clean and repair.
Watchmaking, as a business, was not started in the
United States until 1850. Its commencement on
a comprehensive and systematic method was the
result of many deliberations during the yeare 1848
and 1849, between Mr, Aaron L. Dennison and
myself. Mr. Dennison was a first-class watch re-
pairer, none being better, and he knew from expe-
rience that there was no proper system employed in
the manufacture of watches. In watches purporting
to be of the same size, of the same makers, there
were no two alike, and there was no inierchangea-
bility of parts. Consequently it was " cut and try,"
by which a great deal of time was wasted, and many
imperfections resulted. Mr. Dennison being a
watch repairer, and myself a clock-maker, we made
a good combination to systematize watchmaking,
and to invent labor-saving machinery for producing
perfect and interchangeable parts. With such views
and intentions, we began the watch business in the
spring of 1850, building a factory in Roxbury, Mass.
It is almost needless to say that we met with
many obstacles. We were told by importers and
dealers in watches that we would never be able to
carry out our plans, and that our project would be an
utter failure. Some of our friends even told us we
were crazy to attempt such an undertaking, but we
were Yankees, both of us, and had a sufficient quan-
tity of the proverbial " grit," and at least believed
in ourselves, even if others did not have so much
faith. We could not import and use foreign help,
unacquainted with our methods or tools, so we had
to instruct our men from the beginning. There
were many times when we felt that the predic-
tions of the importers would prove true, but per-
severance, money, and brains conquered. The
financial problem was a hard matter to solve, as the
unbelief in our success was universal. Frequently
it was difficult to raise the necessary funds to carry
on the work. This struggle was continued for six
years before the tide turned. The company's best
friends during that time were Samuel Curtis and
542
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Charles Rice, both of Boston. Without the finan-
cial assistance of these gentlemen, watchmaking
would probably not have existed at the present time
as an organized industry in the United States. This
may seem to be a sweeping statement, but no one
can conceive the trials and tribulations that Mr.
Dennison and m3rself endured. We hear and read
about going through purgatory, but that must be a
species of pleasure compared with what we expe-
rienced at that time.
We were trying to establish under one roof an
industry embracing at least a dozen distinct trades.
Such a thing had never been done before, and we
were still further handicapped in our undertaking by
having only inexperienced assistants. We had to
teach ourselves first, and then teach others, making
our progress slow and expensive; and there was
much bad work that we were obliged to throw
away. We did not know how to make a jewel, or a
dial, or a tempered hair-spring, or to do proper
watch-gilding or to produce a mirror polish on steel.
Each one of these operations was a feat of which
the ways and means had to be studied out and
worked over until, after many attempts, one at last
would be successful.
All the tools to make the different parts, after
being designed or invented, had to be made in the
factory by the machinists then employed, under our
own supervision, in order to have them perfect and
durable. Attempts were made to have them exe-
cuted outside, but it was impossible to get them
constructed carefully. When it is understood that
if many of the parts of a watch are one five thou-
sandth of an inch thicker or thinner, longer or
shorter, larger or smaller, than the proper sizes, the
watch will not run well, it will be seen at once that
the tools must be as near perfection as possible, to
produce the exact and uniform sizes needed. It
was more than three years before the establishment
had fairly and fully started in the business of making
watches, and then it was found that it would re-
quire ten times as much room as had been provided,
and we set about building a very much larger factory
at Waltham, Mass., where the American Waltham
Watch Company's works now stand. We removed
there in 1854. The company remained at Waltham,
making watches, until 1857, when it met with finan-
cial reverses, and the property was sold to Royal E.
Robbins in settlement of its affairs. Up to that
time the watch factory had been under the name
and style of the Boston Watch Company. I then
returned to the first factory at Roxbury, when a
new company was formed as successor to the Boston
Watch Company. It was entitled the Howard
Watch and Clock Company, and had a nominal
capital of $150,000. It was necessary to begin at
the bottom and make all tools anew. Mr. Dennison
left me in the early part of 1857, but after Mr. Rob-
bins bought the factory at Waltham, Mr. Dennison
was employed by the new company for two or three
years.
During the War of the Rebellion the Waltham
Watch Company became a great financial success
as well as a mechanical one. At that time the {me-
mium on gold increased the price of watches so
much that very large dividends were paid, which
occasioned the establishment of several new watch
factories in different parts of the coimtiy. Nearly
all the companies were obliged to increase their cap-
ital from two to four times the amount originaDy
believed to be necessary before they were success-
ful, while several never did succeed.
Previous to 1853, many thousands of En^^ish and
Swiss watches were imported into the United States
yearly. At that time the American manufiaurturers
had begun to control the market, and in a few years
more the importation of English watches had gen-
erally declined. At present this trade is of little or
no account. The importation of Swiss watches was
also very much reduced at the same time, but the
Swiss have in the last five years regained a part of
their trade by adopting American methods and ma-
chinery.
In 1866 the American market was not only mostly
supplied with American watches, but extensive offices
were also opened by the American Waltham Watch
Company in London, where their watches met with
ready and extensive sales, the business continuing to
this day. An attempt was made several years ago
to introduce the American plan of watchmaking
into England, a set of American machinery being
set up there, but it did not prove a success. There
was also a plant started in Switzerland by two
Americans about the year 1869, to be carried on in
the American manner. The machinery was all made
here and sent over. A plant was started in the
West a few years since, which had a lingering life,
after a while being moved to San Francisco. It did
not succeed there, so it continued its journey to
Japan, where it is a fixed institution, and soon will
be in competition with Americans in their home
market. This will be hard to meet, as a workman can
live there on four cents a day and get rich on eight
cents a day. It would sometimes seem that Amer-
icans are altogether too good and accommodating,
desiring to let the whole world know what they can
AMERICAN WATCHES AND CLOCKS
>, ftad just how they do it. On the other hand, I
do not believe they care to leam of the Japanese
how to live on four cents a day.
A well and properly made watch has wonderful
qualities as a macliine, considering the labor it has
to perform and the length of time, if treated with a
very little care, it will continue to do its work. It
is conceded that every person in the world has a
distinct individuality, and it is just so with every
watch that is made. Some of the parts are so mi-
nute that, although you suppose you have them all
alike, the fact is that no two have been made with-
out some little variation, having an appreciable effect
on its action as a timekeeper. That is where the in-
dividuality comes in. The lowest or medium, grade
watch may be found, occasionally, to be keeping bet-
ter time than some of those which have had a great
deal of time spent on them to make them as nearly
perfect as possible, yet if you take the latter in
pieces, and thoroughly examine them in all the parts,
you cannot find any cause for the defect. Therefore
I say that each watch has an individuality of its
own, as all human beings have, and we must make
the best of such a condition. Does any one ever
consider the amount of labor that is performed by a
watch during its lifetime, which is fifty years at
least? In its daily duties the balance vibrates
t8,ooo times each and every hour, 432,000 rimes a
day, or 157,680,000 times a year. The hair-
spring makes the same number of vibrations and an
equal number of ticks from the escapement. The
first thought would be that the machine would be
worn out in a year, but this does not prove true. If
it is a good watch you can multiply 1 57,680,000 by 50,
which would give 7,884,000,000 pulsations, and yet
the watch will still be in good condition. This is a
wonderful record, considering the small amount of
food that has been consumed by its constant action.
I say food, for whatever labors must be fed, and the
watch lives on about sixteen inches of mainspring
every twenty-four hours. It is cheap feeding, how-
ever, as the spring is not digested, but only the
power which is stored in it, which costs nothing to
renew daily. Thus it goes on, with very little care,
year after year.having no palsied hands, no wrinkled
or care-worn face, no failing heart-beats, but with
the same vitality as ever.
The people of the United States are to be con-
gratulated on the successful establishment of such
an important industry as watchmaking within their
borders, on such a magnificent scale as at present,
and with so great a future before it There have
been wonderful strides in tlie last twenty years in
the ijuantity and quality of the movements. There
has been so much improved automatic machinery
that the cost of production has been greatly reduced,
at the same time that the quality has been improved.
At the present time there are no key-winders made,
but all are stem-winders and stem-setters. They are
also nearly all made so that if the mainspring should
break, while wound up, no damage would happen to
the train, which is an advantage over all othera.
The principal watch-manufacturing companies do-
ing business on an extensive scale, at the present
time, are located as follows :
The E. Howard Wnlch Company Boslon, Mass.. . 1850
American Wallhani Watch Company. .Wahham, Mass. 1859
Elgin National Walch Company Elgin, III 1864
Illitiois Waich Company Springfield, 111 . . 1S70
Rockford Waieh Company Rocktord, 111 . . 1874
United States Watch Company Waltham, Mass. 1883
Trenlon Watch Company ... Trenton, N. ;.. . 1883
Hatnilion Walch Company Loncasler, Pa.. . 1893
The combined capital of the above at the com-
mencement of the business, as nearly as can be as-
certained, was $1,501,110. Five years later the
yearly sales were $3,379,344- The capital in iSgi
was$io,55o,ooo, and sales in ihat year, $15,838,817.
CHAPTER LXXXIII
AMERICAN TYPE-WRITERS
THOSE who tcU in these pages the story of
the progress of a century in the many lines
of life's activities, record a history of achieve-
ment which, for growth in volume, in character,
and in method, is marvelous and un equaled in the
history of any other nation or of any other lime.
But all who write will concede that the American
type-writer has been a factor in the growth and
progress of other lines of commerce, and it must be
admitted that had the American type-writer come
into being in the early part of the century, instead of
toward its close, a greater advancement would have
been recorded in every particular line of industry,
because of the assistance which the type-writer
would have rendered.
The type-writer, world-wide in its use, is essen-
tially and almost entirely American. True, the
idea of reducing the manual labor of writing, so far
as the records show, first occurred to an Englishman.
The earliest patent on mechanical writing was
granted to an Englishman nearly two hundred years
ago. He thought that there might be an easier
method of writing than that practised by his fore-
fathers ; but the machine which he devised did not
prove to be practicable. One hundred and fifty years
elapsed between the first and the second English
patents on writing- machines. The Englishmen are
slowly awakening, for there have been issued up to the
present time 375 English patents for improvements
in type-writing machines. Many of these have, of
course, been granted to American inventors, and
those which have been granted to Englishmen have
made no mark in writing-machine history : for no
machine has yet been made in England, nor, for
that matter, anywhere outside of the United States,
which has found any extensive sale, or which has
equaled, in any way, any one of the leading Ameri-
can type-writers.
^Vhile oiu- English cousins slept, and while they
have been rubbing their eyes and partially awaken-
ing, American genius and ingenuity have been at
work. Beginning in 1836, when the first American
patent on a type-writer was granted, patents were
taken out at an average of about one a year for
forty years. Our early American inventors were,
however, not very successful in their attempts to
produce a practical writing- machine. For thirty
years nothing of especial value was evolved, or, if
any practical machine was, during that period, in-
vented and patented, the faith and the capital
requisite for commercial success were not enlisted in
its behalf. We can, therefore, not fairly date the
beginning of the history of the type-writer as &
factor in commercial life further back than the
patent granted in 1868 to C. Latham Sholes (now
deceased), who was then collector of the port of
Milwaukee, and an editor, a scholar, and a man of
genius. His inventions, patented in 186S and later,
formed the foimdaiion of the first American type-
writer, and covered a basic principle upon which all
successful type-writers have since been made. Since
the patent was issued to Mr. Sholes some laoo
American patents on type-writers have been issued,
including, it would seem, every conceivable modifi-
cation which can be made in such an instrument,
and yet no one has devised any plan of constructing
a machine on a better principle than that invented
by Mr. Sholes.
In discussing the American type-writer and the
type-writer business, therefore, we may be said to
be considering the whole field of the type-writer in-
dustT)', for our American type-writer manufacturers
have no competition from abroad, either in home or
in foreign markets. We are discussing, too, a busi-
ness which has grown from nothing in twenty years.
The first type-writer was offered for sale in 1875:
but so few were made and put in use in that year
that it may properly be said that the beginning of
the business dales from the introduction of the
machines at our Centennial Exhibition held in Phil-
sL
J
AMERICAN TYPE-WRITERS
adelphia in 1876. Shall we be able to show that
within twenty years the type-writer has won its way
into usefulness and popularity to an extent such as
justifies the assignment to it of a place in these
pages among the iirst one hundred American Indus-
tries? Let us see.
When the type-writer made its bow and offered
itself as a candidate for public favor, il was looked
upon as a plaything rather than as an instrument of
genuine utility, as a toy rather than as a practical
labor-saving implement. It wrote in those days
with capital letters only, and though the work which
it produced was a great improvement over the illeg-
ible chirography of many lawyers and business men,
objection was nevertheless raised to it on account
of its monotonous appearance. Notwithstanding
these objections, the early machine, cumbersome
and unsatisfactory as it was, was accepted as a
helper by men whose business required an amount
of writing which was irksome ; and 3000 or 4000 of
them, writing capitals only, were made and sold
within three years from the first introduction of the
machine, and before the makers had worked out a
plan for constructing a machine which should write
with both capital and small letters. The sale of
3000 or 4000 machines by no means established the
business upon a firm basis, nor did it even result in a
general acceptance of the machine itself as a useful
article. While a few men here and there used the
type-writer with acknowledged advantage in their
work, just as a few of the older boys of that time
used and appreciated the bicycle (velocipede) of a
quarter of a century ago, the great majority of busi-
ness and professional men failed to see any real
merit or advantage in it. Even after the machine
writing both capital and small letters was, in 1878,
presented to the public, the type-writer salesman
was generally looked upon as offering an article of
no real merit ; and the men who have been from
fifteen to twenty years in the business well re-
member the discouragements and rebuffs whicli
they met in their endeavor to show business men
that a writing -machine was a useful adjunct to a
business office. Even the judges of some of oiw
courts refused to accept type-written documents,
strange as such a thing may seem in these days,
when it is a rare exception to find any legal docu-
ment not written with a type-writer.
But this condition of public sentiment could not,
and did not, long prevail. The type-writer had
merits which could not be permanently ignored.
From its inception there were a few men connected
with it who knew its usefulness and realized its pos-
35
sibiiities, and they pinned their faith and their future
to it, and never wavered nor lost faith in it during
the half-dozen years of its early history, when the
skepticism and the opposition of tile people who
might have used it with profit made the cost of sell-
ing the machines much greater than the profit
realized upon them. So much was this the case
that, when the first 10,000 machines had been sold,
not only had no money been made in their manu-
factiffe and sale, but the business had been con-
ducted at an actual loss of something like $250,000.
It will, perhaps, serve no useful purpose to narrate in
detail the history of the struggles of the invention
during the first half-dozen years after its introduction
upon the market, and the names of the men who,
during that period, labored to make it a success.
Some of them were men of marked ability who had
achieved success in other lines of trade.
Men of equal faith and energy, with steadfastness
of purpose and the benefit of the experience of those
who had preceded them, came later, and to these
new men fell the control of the sale of the machines.
New plans for the education of the public were
adopted. Advertising was done in a more systema-
tic and a more extensive manner. The public was
given to understand in an emphatic way that the
day of doubt was passed, and that the type-writer
was a mechanical and a commercial success. The
wheels began to revolve more rapidly. The growth
of the business became more marked. Americans
believe in success. We like to buy of successful
houses. Convince us that an article is useful and
that it has passed the experimental stage, and we
adopt il. The latest ideas, the most improved
methods and machinery, are none too good for us.
We revere the memory of our fathers, but we are
willing to use better tools than they had, and not,
like some of our foreign cousins, adhere to the cala-
mus, the stylus, or the quill, because they were used
by their ancestors ; and so when the writers in busi-
ness and in the professions once realized that the
type-writer would lighten their labors, the machine
found ready sale.
Then began the competition; for as soon as
success attends the manufacture or sale of any
article in this country, just so soon does some enter-
prising American devise a modification or a substi-
tute for the original article, and he launches it upon
the market in the hope of getting a share at least
of the profits of the business. At first, competition
came slowly. When the first machine, the Reming-
ton, had been on the market ten years, two compet-
itors were in the field. Since tliat time several new
546
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
machines have been launched each year, until now
they aggregate, taking them all, about loo. Per-
haps this statement ought to be modified. About
100 have been at one time or another on the market
during the past ten years; but the law of the sur-
vival of the fittest has been in operation, and the
manufacture of eighty or more of them has been
discontinued. The mention of the names of the
machines which have thus come and gone can
hardly prove of interest. They have had their day.
We shall see them no more. Let them rest in peace.
Neither is it the purpose of this article to particular-
ize the machines which have survived. Is it not
better to group them together and to treat them as
a whole, showing what they have unitedly accom-
plished in the two decades since the leader made its
appearance upon the market ?
Gradually, the usefulness of the type- writer began
to be appreciated. First the professional stenog-
raphers — court reporters — took it up. Then the
lawyers saw that the reports furnished them by the
court reporters were more legible when written with
the type-writer than with the pen, and they became
purchasers. Commercial men still held aloof. They
thought it might be all very well for legal docu-
ments, but not for business correspondence. The
mercantile agencies realized the great usefulness of
the machine, and they began to use it in their offices,
scattered over the world. Presently the machine
was found in the counting-room of the leading dry-
goods house in America, and other houses in the
same line of trade followed the example. One after
another the principal houses in each branch of
manufacture and of trade realized that a type-writer
could be made useful, and adopted it. A list of the
early users of the t)rpe-writer would show that those
who were the first to appreciate its advantages were
then, and are still, the leaders in the professions and
in commerce. When once the leaders had com-
mitted themselves to it, the smaller concerns followed
in that, as they usually follow in other things.
Until 1880 the sale of the machine suffered for
lack of skilful operatives. Business colleges, schools
of commerce, and similar institutions were then pre-
vailed upon to engage in the work of qualifying
young men and yoimg women for employment in
the use of the type-writer. The schools helped
greatly the type- writer business, and the type- writer
people helped the schools. The increased adver-
tising and soliciting of salesmen, as one machine
after another made its appearance upon the market,
brought the machine more prominently to the notice
of business and professional men. Curiosity was
awakened, then interest aroused ; investigation fol-
lowed, then purchase. By 1885 the permanence
of the machine as an institution, and its prosperity
as a commercial enterprise, were assured in America.
From that date until the present the business has
had a steady growth, uninterrupted in its yearly in-
crease, except by the temporary set-back due to the
commercial depression of 1893 and 1894, from which
it is now rapidly recovering. Starting with 1000 in
1880, increasing to 5000 in 1885, the sales had
reached the respectable figures of 60,000 per year
in the early part of 1893, exclusive of the many
thousands of low-priced machines which were annu-
ally sold, and which are not considered in this arti-
cle except to give them credit for the work they do
as educators, used, as most of them are, as toys, but
serving a useful purpose by convincing thousands of
people of the value of a better machine in the actual
business of life.
As this article is not intended to be a detailed
history of the type- writer as an invention and as a
business, but rather to show its origin and what it
has accomplished, few names are mentioned and few
figures given. Commercially it occupies no mean
position among our business enterprises. Beginning
within a very few years, it has grown from nothing
until it now occupies ten acres of factory-floor space,
and furnishes employment in its manufacture and
sale to 15,000 people; but those who derive their
income and their livelihood directly from their con-
nection with the manufacture and sale of the
machine are few compared with those who are fur-
nished employment through its use. Let us consider
the changed conditions regarding its popularity.
For years rejected and its usefulness denied, it has
worked its way by its own merit into every profes-
sional office and every counting-room of prominence
in the land. It is foimd in every State and national
capitol, and even in the Vatican. It figures in
every political movement, and the first step in any -
political campaign is the opening of a headquarters ^
and the installation of a corps of type-writer opera —
tives and machines. One of the first articles ulmt:
furnishing a new office or in starting a new business^
is a type-writer. Even if there be no work for it tco
do, it is put in to give an appearance of business <^
Considered a few years ago as fit for only the mosr-^
unimportant documents, it is now used for the mosr.^
important work of the American and foreign govemMri
ments. Nearly 2000 machines are used in th».^
offices of the government departments at Washin gcg
ton, and it has been formally adopted for govenrrra
mental use in England and her colonies. Franc
AMERICAN TYPE-WRITERS
MT
Gennany, Russia, and, indeed, in nearly every
country on the globe. Many of our States have
placeii laws upon their statute-books legah'zing its
work. Judges who once objected to it now require
that it be used in the production of all papers sub-
mitted to them. It is used for drawing deeds, for
writing wills, for state and diplomatic correspon-
dence. Even foreign noblemen and potentates have
adopted it. The Queen of Madagascar has her
lype-writer; the khedive of Egypt has his. The
czarina of Russia acts as secretary for her husband,
the czar, and does her work on the type-writer.
The httle machine, once so unpopular, has invaded
the realm of fashion. Our English cousins were
more slow to admit the propriety of using the type-
writer for personal correspondence, but merit and
usefulness have won. Among the wedding gifts to
Princess May of Teck was an American writing-
machine. The acknowledgments of the wedding
presents of another one of the royal family were
written upon a type-writer, and llie Prince of Wales
himself has recently brought Marlborough House
up to date by the introduction of an American
writing-machine. A representative of one of the
leading American manufacturers has been decorated
by a foreign ruler with a distinguished order, in
token of his appreciation of the ingenuity and value
of the American writing- machine, which is used ex-
tensively by his Excellency's government, and even
by his Excellency in person ; and the leading firm
of American manufacturers has received the appoint-
ment from her Majesty, and his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales, of contractors to her Majesty's
government.
So much as to its present popularity at home and
abroad. Now what has it accomplished? It has
made itself a factor in the increase of business in all
lines of trade. It has enabled a telegraph operator
to supply at one writing every newspaper in New
York with the news of the day. Its speed has re-
sulted in an abbreviation of the original Morse sys-
tem. By the use of the new code the capacity of a
telegraph wire is doubled, resulting in great savings
to the telegraph companies. It has shortened the
number of hours during which a business man is
confined to his correspondence, and has given him
a greater portion of the day to devote to other
things, to the advantage of his business. It has
improved the correspondence itself, so that letters
are more easily read and the contents more quickly
grasped. The greater legibility of its work prevents
many errors and consequent loss, The head of a
Wall Street house, overloaded with a certain slock,
and desiring to realize upon a little of it without
affecting the value of the rest, sent a message to his
broker on the floor of the Exchange : " Sell quietly
looo shares." Illegible handwriting made the mes-
sage read, "Sell quickly looo shares." The hasty
sale demorahzed the market, broke the price, and
the house failed. Had the message been type-writ-
ten the failure would not have occurred, It has in-
creased the trade of those who have used it, and
has driven the fogies out of business, or compelled
them to adopt it. It has educated the public in
spelling, in punctuation, in capitalization, and in
paragraphing, to a great degree. Compare business
letters of twenty years ago, all of them written by
hand, with business letters of to-day, nine tenths of
them written on a type-writer, and observe the im-
provement in these respects. It has lessened the
laboring hours of thousands of men, giving them
more lime for recreation, and perhaps lengthening
their lives. It has in a measure solved the problem
of women's work. It has opened an avenue of
genteel and profitable employment to an army of
educated women.
To those who are permitted to look back over
their connection with the business from its infancy,
and recall the struggles and discouragements of the
first few years, its present popularity is naturally a
source of pride; but even more gratifying is the
contemplarion of the vast army of young people
who, as the outcome of those struggles, have found
congenial and profitable employment. To fully
impress upon the reader what the type-writer has
accomplished in this respect is no easy task. One
writing-machine company, realizing the mutual ad-
vantage which would result, began in 1883 the work
of finding employment for type-writer operatives.
Employment bureaus were established in the princi-
pal cities of the country, and have been continued
until now, at a cost of many thousands of dollars,
serving without charge both employers and em-
ployees. If the young people— mostly women—
who have found employment through the agency of
this one house could march through one of our city
streets, shoulder to shoulder, from curb lo curb, it
would require from daylight to dark for them to
pass in review. Would the size of this army be
more easily comprehended if the number is men-
tioned ? Here, then, it is— 70,000.
What, loo, of the earnings of the legion of yoimg
people who, by means of the type-writer, not only
support themselves, but in many instances contrib-
ute to the support of others ? The entire amount
paid as wages to operatives has been found lo be
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
$1 50,000,000 yearly — a sum greater than the customs
receipts of the United States ; greater than the cost
of maintaining the army and navy or the entire
civil list of the government ; a sum equal, in fact, to
the entire cost of the public schools of the nation.
This vast amount of money has been earned without
corresponding loss of employment by any other
class, and may certainly be said to have added an
equal amount to the wealth of the nation.
Who deserves the greatest credit for these accom-
plishments? A measure of credit must be given to
those who first conceived the idea of decreasing the
labor and of increasing the speed and legibility of
writing ; but this credit must be divided among
many persons. Credit is also due to the men of
business acumen who, taking up the enterprise when
the crust of opposition had been broken, used their
ability, their money, and their energy in establishing
the business firmly in public favor and confidence,
and made it profitable. Space will not be taken to
discuss those whose inventions have added to the
value of writing-machines, but who were not pioneer
inventors in the field ; nor those who, having in-
vested their money, devoted their time to getting
a. share of the profits of the business, after the
leaders in its introduction had demonstrated that it
was an enterprise which could probably be embarked
in with profit.
Above all others, credit seems due to three men,
all of whom have finished their work and entered
into their reward : James Densmore, who, when the
idea was unpopular, invested several thousands of
dollars, ^all that he had, — and who, when he had
used aU of his own means, had the faith and the
courage to borrow from others many thousands
more, all of which he spent in converting the public
to his ideas ; George W. N. Yost, Mr. Densmore's
lifelong friend, who with no less faith worked with
him from the beginning, and who possessed in a re-
markable degree that enthusiasm and tenacity of
purpose required to overcome public prejudice;
and William O. Wyckoff, who believed in the ma-
chine from the time he saw the first crude model,
and was among the very first to use and Bell it, and
who, with better business ability than either of the
others, had not only the faith to invest his money in
the enterprise at the dawn of its history, in spite of
the protests and the ridicule of his friends, but had
also that prescience which told him that sooner or
later the whole civilized world would want type-
writers. When the hour came it foond him ready.
Dropping all other tasks, he put into the work all
that he had of means, of energy, and of enthusiasm,
with results so magnificent as to command umversal
wonder and admiration.
To revolutionize commercial methods; to give
employment even indirectly to hundreds of thou-
sands of young people; to add annually to the
nation's wealth hundreds of millions of dollars, are
no mean accomplishments. These results have been
attained through the instnunentality of the Ameri-
can type-writer.
Albert A. Pope.
mmmmmmmmmmm
CHAPTER LXXXIV
THE BICYCLE INDUSTRY
THOUGH the idea of man-power locomotion
ia an old one, its practical development is a
modern achievement. Wliat appeare to be
a machine of the hobby-horse type is illustrated in
a stained-glass window of the old English church at
Stoke Pogis, whose graveyard is famous as the scene
of Gray's " Elegy " and the final resting-place of the
poet's remains. This window bears the date 1642,
but as no records throw fmlher light on the subject,
it must be taken as an isolated point in the history
of wheeling, or perhaps be considered merely t!ie
strange product of an artist's imagination.
Within the space allotted to this subject it would
not be of advantage to describe, even in outline, the
crude devices which appeared during the early ex-
perimental period ; yet iheir number and variety are
of interest as showing how persistent inventors were
in their search for a vehicle with which the muscular
force of the human body could be used to such ad-
vantage as to secure an easier and more rapid tran-
sit than was attainable on foot.
The first rudimentary bicycle of which we have
a fairly satisfactory record was a machine used by
Baron von Draise, of Mannheim -on -the- Rhine. It
was of great service to him in the performance of
his duties as Master of the Forests of the Grand
Duke of Baden. From him it took the name
" draisine," though the claim of priority in inven-
tion has been questioned, as a wheel of the same
type— the c^Wrif&re— was exhibited in 1S16, in the
Garden of Tivoli, a favorite Parisian resort of the
day, The construction of this machine was very
simple, consisting of two wheels in line, connected
by a perch on which the rider sat, and to the fore
end of which the front-wheel fork, bearing a cross-
bar for steering, was swiveled- The rider propelled
this contrivance by quick thrusts of his feet upon
the ground, but on down grades they were held
up and the machine allowed to coast. Johnson's
pedestrian curricle, brought out in England in iSiS,
35' 5-
was an improvement in detail over the draisine or
c^l^rif&re, and at once came into favor under the
names of " dandy -horse " and "hobby-horse." In
1819 machines of this kind were introduced into
New York, where people took kindly 10 them, riding
them on the Bowery, through the parks, and even
speeding them on the dechne 10 City Hall Park. It
was during this year that W. K. Clarkson was granted
a United States patent fur an improvement in the
velocipede. Little or no progress was made for a
number of years after this, but a great problem was
successfully solved by Lallemont, a Frenchman, who
hung cranks to the front axle of the modified form
of the hobby-horse, so that the machine could be
propelled entirely by the feet and steered by the
hands. Lallemont's machine, the original "bone-
shaker," was exhibited by hjs employer, M. Michaux,
at the Paris Exposition in 1865, but little attention
was attracted by the improvement in driving-gear.
The next year, however, Lallemont worked his pas-
sage to America, where he at once built a wheel,
and aroused considerable interest by riding it through
the streets of New Haven. In November, 1866, a
joint patent was granted to Lallemont and Catrol,
and this is the first one in the United States show-
ing the two-wheeled velocipede with foot-cranks —
in fact, the first complete patent actually obtained
anywhere for such a machine.
This vehicle consisted of two wooden wheels, of
nearly equal size, one before the other, shod with
iron tires and surmounted by a wooden perch, from
which projected downward, near its rear end, two
arms on either side of the rear wheel, each pair of
arms meeting at the end of the hub and forming a
bearing for the axle. A similar device projected
from the fore end of the perch on either side ihe
forward wheel, furnishing bearings for its axle, and
arranged with a pivot in the perch near the upper
end, so that, by means of a handle-bar above, the
front wheel could be turned to the right or left in
I
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE
Steering the machine. The perch was curved down-
ward in the middle part, and from a joint near the
front forks, backward to a joint over the rear wheel,
extended a straight steel spring bearing a saddle
about midway between and above the two wheels.
From this position the rider could place his feet upon
the balanced pedals on the cranks connected with
the front axle, the latter being fixed in the wheel.
Thus seated, he started the machine in motion with
his feet on the ground, and then put diem on the
pedab and propelled it. This was certainly a better
contrivance than any other yet brought out, but, al
best, it was clumsy and awkward, and lacked the
important features which were essential for the suc-
cess of a practical road vehicle. The application of
power was disadvantageous, as the thrust, instead
of being directly downward, was forward and down.
It required several times as much propelling force
as is used on the modem bicycle. Historically it is
a rare curio, and as such is preserved in the collection
owned by the Pope Manufacturing Company.
The popularity of die velocipede in America
reached its height about 1869 or 1870, and the
makers who had gone into this line of work had all
they could do to supply the demands of the trade.
The " Velocipedist," a journal devoted exclusively
to the new interests, was issued, and a book written
on the sport; and yet— so suddenly come the
changes of public sentiment— two years later these
machines had entirely disappeared, save here and
there one in the hands of a boy. The reason for this
short-lived popularity was the fact that the carriage
builders who put out these wheels neglected to use
proper bearings and such other devices as would
have made riding more easy and enjoyable. Some
steps looking to improvement in this direction were
taken, however. C. K. Bradford, an American, had
suggested the use of rubber tires, and experiments
were tried with larger front wheels and antifriction
bearings. In point of fact, one of our carriage
manufacturers made velocipedes of a type similar to
the high or ordinary bicycle, but the improvements
came too laie to save the trade, so that in 1870 he
was caught with his store-rooms well stocked with
these wheels, and no market for the goods.
The Franco- Prussian War retarded for a time the
progress of cycling interests in France, though
during that period there was a slow and steady
growth in England, and the United States Patent
OfSce reports show that our inventors were earnestly
endeavoring 10 solve the problem. Meanwhile the
use of wood gradually disappeared, giving place to
wire spokes, steel hubs and felloes, and the tubular
backbone, handle-bars, and forks. The round con-
tractile rubber rire, too, came to be used in place of
steel, and added materially to the comfort and ease
of riding.
The first bicycles seen by me were some English
machines shown at the Centennial Exhibition in
Philadelphia in 1876. They attracted my attention
to such an extent that I paid many visits to this ex-
hibit, studying carefully both the general plan and
the details of construction, and wondering if any but
trained gymnasts could master so strange and ap-
parently unsteady a mount. Some eight years had
passed since the velocipede had excited interest in
man-motor vehicles. This cumbersome machine,
which had failed of success and gone out of use, be-
cause it was wrong in design and poorly constructed,
had yet served a purpose in awakening the desire
to possess a light and easy running mount suitable
for every-day road service, and it naturally followed
that many of the early devotees of the bicycle were
men who had enjoyed a foretaste of Its pleasures in
riding the old bone-shakers.
The sport had by this time become more or less
popular in England, and early in 1877 1 had a
bicycle constructed under the personal supervision
of an English gentleman who was a guest at my
house. This wheel, completed in August, was made
entirely by hand, and cost the somewhat extravagant
sum of $313. As soon as the machine was mastered
I became so interested in it that I at once took
active steps toward introducing wheels in America.
The Pope Manufacturing Company had already
been organized, and in September, 1877, an order
was sent to England for a small quantity of bicycles,
which were received late in that year. The initiative
step in this great industry, however, was an order for
the construction of the first fifty Columbias. It was
given to the Weed Sewing- Machine Company, of
Hartford, Conn., in the spring of 1878, During
that season we marketed all told ninety-two wheels.
A trip to England and a careful review of the
field abroad confirmed me in the opinion that this
line of manufacture could be made profitable in llie
United States, and that Americans could be brought
to look upon wheeling without unfavorable prejudice.
The wheels seen at the Centennial Exhibition had
been turned over to a Baltimore firm, who imported
a few more, but soon went out of the business. In-
terest having been aroused, however, importers ap-
peared in the market, and some years subsequent
to our beginning to make wheels other companies
were organized and took up the manufacture of
bicycles ; but from an historic point of view it is of
THE BICYCLE INDUSTRY
551
o note that the Pope Manufacturing Com-
pany is the sole survivor of all the concerns started
diuing ihe first few years.
As soon as the possibility of the industry being
pushed to success was realized, owners of patents
became aggressive in their demands, so that, at the
inception, die manufacture of bicycles was threat-
ened with financial disaster. It was at this point
that we adopted the policy of purchasing outright
whatever patents proved to be valid and of value ;
or, if this was impossible, we took licenses. In this
way a control of the business was secured, the in-
dustry was practically protected, and we were en-
abled to go on with the work and license others to
manufacture under our rights. It became necessary,
also, at the outset, to educate the people to the ad-
vantage of this invigorating sport, and, with this end
in view, the best literature that was to be had on the
subject was gratuitously distributed. At first the
prejudice against the bicycle was so intolerant that
its use was prohibited in many parks and public
thoroughfares : and it cost many thousands of dollars
to carry through the cases which resulted in the
courts classing the bicycle as a vehicle, and granting
to wheelmen the same privileges that were enjoyed
by the users of carriages and other vehicles. We
spent over $8ood in the Central Park case alone.
During the life of the ordinary or high bicycle,
wheeling was a sport, pure and simple, and the trade
was pushed practically to its ultimate limit, as the
demand was naturally confined to those brave men
whose courage and love of the sport could not be
dampened by an occasional header. With the ad-
vent of the safety those of maturer age and more
timid temperament gradually took up the exercise,
and their enthusiasm, backed by its beneficial re-
sults, added thousands of new riders to the hst of
wheelmen.
The first safeties were necessarily heavy,— fifty
pounds or more,— and, equipped with solid rubber
tires, were not particularly comfortable. The next
step in the development, therefore, was the adoption
of the cushion tire, which, with the spring frame, so
lessened the jar of riding over uneven surfaces that
the weight of the machine could be reduced. The
comfort thus secured broadened the demand. Then
came the introduction and perfection of the pneu-
matic tire, which did away with the jars to such
an extent that the manufacturer could with safety
again decrease the weight, thus adding greatly to
the speed and practical utility of the wheel as a
means of easy transit.
With added yeaisof experience the manufacttu-ers
have scientifically developed Ihe bicycle as a whole,
and put into use hundreds of devices in the detail
of its construction, The results are seen in the
wonderful wheels of to-day, ranging in weight from
seventeen to twenty-four pounds. Wheeling can
now be enjoyed by young or old ; any one who is
able to walk has the strength necessary to propel
t!ie bicycle. Furthermore, as the demand increased,
makers of medium-grade bicycles came into the
field, putting out machines for boys and girls, as
well as for men and women, so that now bicycles
are practically within reach of even the most
moderate means. The cardinal points of develop-
ment noted above show quite clearly the reason
for the increased use of bicycles, and the way in
which the field has been broadened, starting with
daring young men and ending in the adoption of
the wheel by all classes and conditions of mankind.
From the outset many doctors have believed in and
recommended the use of the bicycle, and now prac-
tically all physi