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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est filmd d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. ^ errata d to It le pelure, pon it i: 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY CF THE 4 UNITED STATES, J?iam tijc IZarlicst Srttlrmcnts to tijc ^Jrcscnt JCitUf: IIUING A COMTLirrE SURVEY OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES, EMIlKACING AGklCLI/l'URE AND IlORTICUl/rUUK; INCLUDING TilK CULTIVATION UK COITON, TOIiACCO, WIILAT; TIIL RAISING OF IK )kSKS, NLAT- CATII-K, KTC; ALL TIIK LMl'ORTANr MANUFACTURES, SIIIITINCJ AND FISIILRIKS, RAILROADS, MINKS AND MININ(;, AND OIL; ALSO A IIISTORV OF THE COAL-.MINKRS AND TIIK MOLIA' MAGUIRKS; HANKS. IXSURANCK, AND CO.MMKRCK; TRADK-UNIoNS, SIRIKKS, AND KU;HT-1I0UR MOVKMKNT; TOOKTIIKK WITH A DESCMI'TION OF CANADIAN INDUSTRIES. In .Sfbfu Boohp. COFIOUSLV ILLUSTRATED Wiril AliOUT THREE HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS BY THE MOST EMINENT ARTISTS. BY ALBERT S. BOLLES, LECTURER IN I'OLITK AI. FCDNOMY IN HOSTON UNIVERSITV, AND AUTHOR OF "the (ONI- LICT IlKTWEEN LABOR AND CAPITAL," AND "CliArTEKS IN I'OLITICAL ECONOMY." NOIJWKII, CONN. : Tlii-: IIKNIIV HILL I'rnLISIIING COMPANY. 1SS1. 0)i'YKic;iir, 1S78, iiY The Hknry Bill PuuLisiiiN(i Comi-any. Franklin Press: dlectroty/>{ti and Printed I']/ Kami, Avery, dr" Co., lioitOtt. PREFACE. Till' jircsent work was projected by tlie author several years ago, and is now given to the i)iil)lic in tlie belief tliat it will prove really iiseful, inasmuch as nothing wordiy of the name has appeared, whilu the field itself is quite as deserving of study as any other portion or pha>e of American history, A great variety of materials have been collected and used in the i)rescnt ..ndertaking : many facts, also, have been gathered from conversation with persons who were more or less familiar with some special bran( h of American industry. The author has sought to make jirojier acknowledgment for all facts and incidents herein related, though doubtless he has failed to do justice to every work and author from whom special information has been drawn. On page 56 he omitted to state that the statistics relating to ship- ments of cotton were taken from Mr. Dana's valuable work entitled "Cotton from Seed to Loom ;" while ought to be mentioned, that, in the introductory chapter, tree use has been made of the short but excellent sketches of Hen : Perley I'oore ami ("harles T,. I'lint of the History of Agriculture contained in the United-States .\gricultural Reports, as well as the paper of the latter on Ann rican Horses which is to be found in the same publication. Likcwis<\ in rary lor ihr privili'gf of (onsniling to my !)i'st advanlai^i- tlic tri'asnp.'s of that tolk-ction. 'I'lu' ai»ls llins oltiaincd t'i'(., witlioiit them, il from tlu'so tliri'i' noMi- instiiulions wen.- iinalna'jK' : ind would lia\r Ih'iii inipo^->ilil(.' for llii.' author to have (.'Xfi iitiil iIk' juscnt wori NokWK II, CnNN., ( l(t. I ;, iS-S. PRiaAci-: ic) rill-: tiiird j:i)irioN. I ^ilA r two (.'ihlions of this work should ho exhausted within a k-w months -^ stroni;ly \erilies the author's lielief. whi'n writin,:; it, that such a work was needed. Since the lirst edition was i'.^ued. i hani^es and im])r(>veinents in the text and illu'lrations ha\i' hi'cn made, which, it is believed, will render the work still more valuable to the reader. Till'; AUriloK. M TABLE OF CONTENTS. HOOK I. AGRICULTUIil-: AND HORTICULTURE. cii.\i'ri;i< I. GlCNEKAl, IFlSTOKV I-3I Introdiii lory. — Iiicllaii AKrliMiltiire. — CulDiii.il .\);rii:iilliirc in the Southern Colonics. — C^olo- nial Agriculture in the Ncw-KnKl.ind ColoiiicN. — Krcncli Colonial AKfi'^i'lHirc. — FCKccts of American Kcvoliilion. — Causes of I'rogrcss in A(;riciiltiire. — Iloniestc.ul Laws. — Agriciiltiir.il Societies. — flranger Movement. — Agricultur.il I'.ducation and Literature. — listablishnient of Stale Hoards of Ayriculture. CII.MTI'.R II. Agricultural Impluments J2-45 CliAI'TKR III. Cotton 46-61 CHAPTER IV. Wheat 62-72 CHAPTER V. t;oRN 73-79 CHAPTER VI. Sugar and Molasses 80-89 * CHAPTER VII. Tobacco 90-98 CHAPTER VIII. Grass and Hay 99-iot VI cox TENTS. CIIAPTKR IX. Minor Crops , 102-113 CHAPTER X. NeaT'Catti.e .... • • • • • . 114-1:6 CIIAPTKR XI. l!liri:K \Nt. CllKKSE • • • • . 127-1^6 'I'lii IIdrsk ciiAPT ;r \ti. • • • • i37-'»'i The Trotiing-Horse. — The Paunu-Horie. CIIAPTKR XIII. SlIKEP 149-156 CIIAPTKR XIV. ^«INK 57-163 CIIAPTKR W. Ilouin I'l iruK, Ni'RsKKii-s, and Kri;it-K.m.iI.\.; . . . . 164-181 BOOK II. Ar.Lvrr.iricRns. t CIKM'TIIR I. M.\\iir.\r riiur m Ikon and Siir.i F.arly Histnry. — Forty Ycais of Roiircssioii and Striic^lc. — The F.flcct nf T.irifTs. — The F.ra of AniliraritL- Fuel ami ihc Hot I'.l i^l. — Tin.' ('■rowtli of Ivol'iii^Mllls. — Influence of Paris I'.xpo.ition on American Iron-MannfaLtnrc. — The Mannficlnrc of Sled. I.S5-216 CIIAPTKR n. Iron and Stkf.f. MANrFAcrrKKs -17-315 Nails. — Cnllcry. — Clocks ami Wati hcs. — Iron Piiios and Tubes. — I.oconiotlvcs. — Scwing- Mai'hincs. — Fire-Arm-;. — Iron- working M.u liincn,'. — A\o> and Saws. — Stoves. — Safes. — Iron IJridges. — "riming- Presses. — Wire. — W.alcr-Wheels. — Locks. — Pumps. CIIAPTKR III. Manui'actukks ok r>ni,n, .Sii.vf.u, and Oniiu Mktai.s 316-36S Coinage. —Jewelry. — (Jold and S'her Leaf. — Silver T-dile-Warc. — Copper and Prass f'tcn- sils. — Bronze W.'.ro and Statuary. — P.ells. — I.ead-Maniificturcs. — Stereotyping. — Tin -Ware. —Toys. — .\pplic.itions of 7.u\c. . I02-II3 . 114-126 . 127-136 . 149-156 ■ '57-1^3 . 164-181 1S5-216 : 1 7-3' 5 3.6-368 p. CONT/iNTS. CIIAPTKR fV. Vii 'Vnv. M.\NiM-,\rri'KK ok Wooi 369-402 (icm;r.il lli>ii>ry of the WrM.llcn.M.iniif.utiirc. — Spinning and Weaving. — Ham. — CarpeW, — ShoUUy. — Cloihiiig. — llii»icry. Till. M.VNUKACnui.. ()!• Col ION Sll.K-M,\Nir|-.\ FlKKWOUKS CIIAI'TKR VIII. CIIAITKR l.\. • ■ • CI I APT I ;r X. Im>i \-Rui!i;kk Manuka 'M'urks • • • • 444-4 S^J 4S7-4(.S 469-47S . 47?-4^7 « • • CIIAI'Tl.R XI. Cll KM IC A I. M A N I ■ KAC ru RKS 488-4<.j6 CIIAITKR XII. WdiPi) AND oiiiKR Manupactukks 497-559 Liiniliir. — W ol-Workiiit; M;ii Iiiiu:r>'. — Kiiniltiin;. — St.inh. —Wine, Spirits, ,ind Hccr. — Cord.iL;<; ;mil liTg.{in;4. — So.ip. — Kliiiir.-- Mii'-icil I ii>triimi;ms. — iMalclics. — Gl.iss- Ware and I'uUcry. — Ulue. — Vciiccriiii;. — C.irri.i^cs and Cars. CIIAI'TKR XIII. Conclusion • • 560-565 VVooDRN Ships Steamboats BOOK III. SHIPPIXG .l.vn R.\n. ROADS, CIIAI'TKR I. CIIAPTKR II. . 569-582 • 583-595 VIM coA //:x/s. CIIAI'TIK III. Iron Steamsmips 5is- tain life is not less worthy of jjreservation. The famous minister of Henry IV. of France, Sully, called agriculture, including both tillage and pasturage, " the two breasts of the state." Strikingly true as the figure is, will not a review of the subject, by showing what has been already accomplished, e.xcite the farmer to new experiments and incjuiry? I \i ij t ! liji \ ! 1' INDIAN' Ar.l^ /ith rice- in 1724 Imcnts in London Ires, pro- liums for myrtle- bpposed gather- After a [granted considerable sums of money at various times to stimulate the culture of silk, indigo, and other plants. Colonial tra I ?■!. : I lii i6 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY f| III I; i! I ■ on its broad current to the Gulf of Mexico. The discoveries of the French, Cultivation '^'^ joumey of La Salle among the Indians and down the mighty of the sugar- stream, arc full of romantic interest ; but we can only stop to *""'■ note what was done when the French landed in Louisiana, and began the permanent conquest of the soil. A variety of crops was planted ; but none flourished like the sugar-cane, which had been transported into Spain from India by the Saracens, again to Madeira, and thence to the West-India Islands, from which the French planters obtained their plants. For several years its cultivation proved unsuccessful. Not until 1 764 did the experiment succeed, upon the eastern bank of the Mississippi, under the intelligent and careful culture of Chevalier de Mazan. The following year, Destrehan, the royal treasurer in the colony, and other planters, erected works on the opposite bank below New Orleans ; but the results were disappointing. Indeed, the planters lost so much heart, that, in 1769, they abandoned the business, and turned their attention to the cultivation of indigo, cotton, tobacco, rice, corn, and other crops. A few small gardeners continued to plant sugar-cane in the neighborhood of tlie city, which they retailed in the market for the use of children ; or expressed the juice, making sirup, which they sold in bottles. More than twenty-five years elapsed before further efforts were made to culti- vate the sugar-plant. The engraving here inserted represents the early process of manufacturing sugar, and will not be without interest to our readers. The cane was stripped of its leaves, and ground, or rather crushed, by a heavy stone made to revolve by manual force. The expressed juice, after boiling in a caldron, was ladled into large stone jars, which were exposed of the sun until the sugar crystallized. Later on we shall learn what success attended renewed efforts in the way of cultivating the sugar- plant. Early mode of making sugar. to the rayf EFFECTS OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION. The American Revolution wrought a profound change in the agriculture of the country ; not, indeed, in the way of stimulating interest in the cultivation of the soil, but in giving greater freedom in the exchange of commodities. Thrift- less as was the mode of farming \mox to that event, during the Revolution it was well-nigh paralyzed ; nor did it speedily recover. So dull were the people to tiie vast cai)acities of the country and to the great fortunes which lay bjforc tlicni, that the same spirit which animated the ante-Revolutionary farmer Revolution ^^'-'^ found to iivc withiu the breast of his immediate descend- ants. ]5ut the ])olicy of England, which was to make the colonics as profitaljle as i)ossil)lc to the mother-country without thought of an a(le<]uate return, came to an end. Restrictions against manu- ficturing were removed. The colonists were free to buy where they pleased : no longer could P^ngland compel them to buy of her. On the gave free- dom in pur- chase and sale of com nioJitie^. i I 'I OF THE UNITED STATES. 17 le French, be mighty ,y stop to isiana, and inted; Init Spain from lia Island;;, l1 years its It succeed, ind careful 1, the royal le opposite Indeed, tlie usiness, and I, rice, corn, cane in the the use of 1 in bottles, ade to culti- lanufacturing ,vas stripped stone made er boiling in L-re exposed shall learn the sugar- jriculture of lultivation of Ities. Thrift- levolution it le the people ^s which lay jnary farmer Ite descend- the colonics thought of lainst manu- buy where lor. On the 'tVmt Other hand, they were at liberty to sell their surplus in any market in the world. Thus their hori/on was immensely broadened. The transition from a colony to a state was complete. CAUSES OF PROORKSS IN AGRICULTURE. Until the present century was fairly inaugurated, American agriculture can- not be said to have made any notable progress : it had simply made a com- mencement. Since then a number of causes have combined to causes of give it marked dc clopment and stimulus. Among the first of prosperity in , » . /- .1 • 1. 1 1 agriculture. these is national peace. In tune of war, the agricultural classes are drawn on most heavily for soldiery. The extent to which foreign nations, especially those of ICurope, were en- gaged in war prior to 1815, was a great hinderance to their agricultural pros- perity. The United States have enjoyed a remarkable advantage in this regard. A second influence which we have felt was the foreign demand' for our produc- tions. This is touched upon repeat- edly in the ensuing chapters of this work. It will suffice to note here the fact that densely-populated countries like those of Europe, especially where the people are largely engaged in man- ufacturing pursuits, look to the regions of the earth which are sparsely settled for agricultural j)roducts, food, and tex- tile fabrics. Vmg^w in our colonial days we had shown great possibilities of pro- duction, though but little reality ; and as soon as cur independence was achieved, and we took a place among the nations of the earth, we were looked to eagerly as a supplier of agricultural produce to the world. This foreign demand has been felt more particularly by cotton and tobacco i)lanters, grain- growers, and stock-raisers ; but an immense variety of other produce has gone to make up our enormous export trade. Still another great stimulus lias been afforded to the agricultural interests of this country by the invention of improved implements for use by the husbandman. This marked advance in a^jriculture is treated by itself in another chapter of this work. Five other influences tliat have operated to forward and develop this in- dustry are, — the occupation of the \Vest under the encouragement of govern- ment Icf^islation and land and railroad companies ; co-operative effort, the SrlNNING-WHEEL. I f i : J 'I I ' i 18 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY I I ,; I ! nmtual exchange of experience, and the patronage of organized agricultural Other causes societies ; the foundation of a special department of government specified. f^^^ <^^^^, collation and dissemination of information among the agri- ciillural classes, and otherwise aiding them in their pursuits ; the development of a class of literature devoted to these subjects; and the special scientific education afforded by agricultural colleges. HOMKS'ncAI) LAWS. The v;ist expanse of our arable territory, and the steps we have taken to encourage its occupation and setUement, have been elements of prime impor- Eitcnsion of ^'^^'^'^'^^ ''■> thc flcvelopmcnt of our agricultural interests. Prior to farming thc Rcvolutiou, the American settlements were confined chiefly to thc .Atlantic coast. After the war, adventurers began to explore a;id locate in the Ohio Valley. The Louisiana purchase in iiSo3, tlie large annexation of territory from Mexico in 1847, and tlie definition of our British- American boundary, enlarged our domain wonderfiilly, and added greatly to thi.' area sus( eptible to tillage east of the Mississippi. At one time tlie unsettled "public " domain of the United States embraced 1,446,716,(172 acres, exclusive of the Alaska purchase. It is out of this that Unsiittied ^'^'- States and Territories not included within the present limit of p-;bi)c the original thirteen were erected. Of this vast area, large grants o.Ti.ain. j^.^^.^_ been made to soldiers for military service, to rail'-oads, to agricultural colleges and other pur])o.5es, and reservations made for Indians and government use. A very considerable proportion is mountainous or sterile sand ; yet the extent of territory suited to agricultural purposes exceeds the like territory of any country in Europe. But the United States not only had the land, but promoted its purchase and settlement by munificent offers. In 1.841 Congress passed a law providing for Sale of pub- the Sale of these public lands for the remarkably low price of a he lands. dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, in lots of a hundred and sixty a( les or less each, to those who would really go to live thereon, and cultivate th-m. Tiiis pre-emption law was followed up in 1863 by another piece of legis- lation, known as tlie '• Homestead Act," which provided that the setUer might have the land lor nothing, under proper conditions. Prior to and during the operation of these laws, the new Western States and the railroad companies therein put forth special efforts to draw agriculturists thither. The consequence of these inducements was to draw people in large num i)ers from the T^astern States, and even from Europe. Doubtless the Irish Emi ration *"'^''^^''^'-' between 1S45 and 1S47, and tlie jioor success of the Ger- man revolution of 1848, did much to accelerate foreign emigra- tion, — a movement which the Know-nothing movement in politics a decade liter slightly checked. But as large numbers of unopposed Swedes also came. ■ft. OF THE I'NITED STATES. igricultural ;overnment ig the agri- jvelopmcnt il scientific «9 over, and as the greater jiroportion of the new-comers went West to live on farms, it is apparent that our pre-emption and homestead laws were a great attraction. The perfectly surprising growth of the States of the Ohio and Mississipi)i Valleys can hardly he attributed solely to the fertility of the soil in that section, remarkal)le as tiiat feature of it was. Those who have looked into the subject say that agriculture thrives nowhere with such life and success as where the men who do the work own the soil. ve taken to rime impor- ts. Prior to ;d chiefly to I to explore )3, the large ■ our British- (1 greatly to tes embraced of this that ient limit of , large grants rail'-oads, to {o\ Indians mtainous or loses exceeds purchase and [providing for kv price of a Ired and sixty md cultivate bicce of legis- sctder might [l during the |l1 companies In large num :ss the Irish of the Ger- .'ign emigra- Ics a decade les also cani€. ■^ .i'- li.MIOKANT TKAIN. :-f Under the European feudal system, and the tenantry system which has suc- ,i cceded it, the rustic populace are eitlier hired by, or lease their land from, : U .'■ exacting owners, and never know such a thing as proprietorshii). _ _,. . .j-V^ o ' n 1 1 1 Conditions '^mt But here tlie agriculturist is made to feel the dignity of labor of agricui- iind a larger stimulus of self-interest bv tlie consciousness that he *"''^' ^^°^' perity. ^ may own tlic broad acres which he tills. JS'o otlicr country in tlie world has felt the induencc of this incentive as lias the United States. AC.KIClT.TI-'KAr. .^OClF.TiT-.S. The first steps ti)war(l organization for encouraging and forwarding tillage anVilliam Miner, steward ; A. S. Moss, assistant steward ; the Rev. A. B. (irosh, chaplain ; William M. Ireland, treasurer ; O. H. Kelley, secretary ; and Edward P. Faris, gate-keeper. The constitution provided for the admission of women ; and four feminine offices were created, named respectively Ceres, Pomona, Flora, and Lady Assistant Stewardess. There was also an executive committee api)ointed. Later in the month a subordinate Grange was formed, with about sixty members. On the ist of January, 1S68, Mr. Saunders disseminated throughout the country circulars netting forth the principles of the order, and urging the organization of Oranges and the foundation of (Grange libraries. Progress was at first very slow. For three months the local Grange in Washington was the only subordinate one in the whole country. On the ist of April Mr. Kelley resigned his government clerkship, and gave Growth of his whole time and energy to promoting the growth of the order ; **^' ovAtr. for which he was to have a salary of $2,000, provided he could organize enough Granges to secure it in fees. During April, four were formed ; and, before the year was out, six more, these latter in Minnesota. In 1869 to the original eleven were added thirty-nine, and in 1870 thirty-eight, liesides these, there were the National Grange, already mentioned, and three State Granges. Mr. Kelley came to Washington again Jan. i, 1871, as the secretary and executive officer of the organization. From that time forward progress was rapid. The additions to the order numbered 125 in 1871, 1,160 in 1872, 8,600 in 1873, 11,000 in 1874, and about the same number in 1875. At the ■K-s 24 INI) US TK' /A I. Ills TON Y I i i I ■ 'i !l Its objects. Mode of attaining them. rlosc of the last-named year, a few (irangcs having horonio extinct, thtrc were about 30,000 in the country aUogctiuT, with a nienihership of about 2,500,000. Sin< c tlien it has grown but httlc, the niovenienl having about rcachetl its climax in US75. The objects of this order, which was secret but strictly non-political, were the higher social and intellectual culture of the members, and the dispensing with tlu- services and profits of the middlemen in both buying and selling. 'I'iie former end was attained by the introduction of music and literary exercises at the meeting of the Orange ; and thus thousands of rude farmers and fiirmers' wives were led to develop and gratify tastes, and engage in avocations, pursued l)y persons in more advantageous conditions of life. The latter end was secured by several means. Agencies were established for the sale of produce directly to shippers and other legitimate ])urchasers, thereby dispensing with the medium of speculators. Thus the farmers were enabled to get better prices for their crops. The same sort of co-operation saved to the fiirmcrs the large profits of middlemen in buying household furniture and farming-utensils. Books, sewing-machines, all kinds of implements and merchandise, were procured at a saving of from twenty- five to thirty per cent through these agencies. These advantages, and co-operation in other directions, ])ut the farmers in a more prosperous condition than ever before, cleared off their debts, and gave them many comforts and novelties which otherwise they could not have enjoyed. It was one of the first principles of the order that it should in no way meddle with jjolitics ; and though it has been alleged repeatedly that this or _. _ that candidate for local, state, or national office, had been elected The Grange ' ' ' dissociated or defeated through Granger inlluence, positive and emphatic deni- from poll- jjIj. yf ^^^ same have been made by the oniccrs of the organiza- tics. . . ■' '^ tion. The discussion of political topics in meetings of the CIrange is also prohibited. A semi-polit'cal influence has, however, been exerted by the order, though to an extent, doubtless, far less than has been generally believed. One of the Demands ^^''^ against which the Western agriculturist declaimed most bit- made of the tcrly was the discrimination of the railroad companies against railroads. j^^^j shippers of freight, in fovor of through shii)pers. It was felt that these exactions were grievous, and a remedy was sought in legislation. No " Granger " tickets were put in nomination ; yet, doubtless with this object in view, the Patrons of Husbandry gained sufficient strength in the Illinois and Wisconsin legislatures to secure the enactment of State laws in 1873, restrict- ing the railroad tariffs to a basis more favorable to the farmers who were way- passengers and shippers. The railroad companies resisted this legislation at first as unconstitutional, declaring that a State had no right to modify their charters when once granted. The matter went into the State courts, and, by appeal, to the United-States courts. But in 1876 a test case, appealed to the > M or TIN-: cx/r/'-.n statks. «5 ;lKrc wcTO 2,50(),(K)». L'achcd its tical, were dispensing jiiying •"■"^ liiction of i thousands tastes, and iidilions of Agencies lippcrs and \\c medium ;es for their large jirofits Is, Hooks, rocured at a ;ics. These i in a more I gave tliem enjoyed. I in no way that 111 is or )een elected iphatic deni- he organiza- the Ci range irder, though One of the ;d most bit- inies against It was felt li legislation, |h this object Illinois and ;73, restrict- 10 were way- legislation at 1 modify their lurts, and, by lealed to the SMprctne Court of tlic nation, evoked a decision to the effect that the " Potter Law" of Wisconsin, the most famous of all these "dranger" enactments, was constitutional, 'I'iie moral effect of this decision was to secure greater or less concessions from the Western railroads to the agri< ullural interest. A(;ioard of Agriculture by William Pitt in 1793. In the minds of many Americans of that day and later the idea of congressional provision for this industry was warmly cherished ; but it was long in attaining realization. In 1837-38 the country was roused, by the necessity for importing several million dollars' worth century, the farmer looked at aj^riculture as little more than gathering what Mother Earth would yield him spontaneously. He had not studied the subject of vegetation, weather, soil, chemistry, and the other elemen'o which entered into and vitally affected his industry. He had not indulged in wide observation, nor reduced his labor to what could be termed a science. Nearly a hundred years ago, scientific methods of wide- spread observation, logical deduction, and experimental application of theory, were begun by a few enterprising agriculturists, or patrons of agriculture, in the Old World, and subsequently in America. But no provision for pro- curing scientific information, and making it practically useful, has equalled the establishment of special agricultural colleges. Except Germany, this coun- try has no equal in the educational advantages she offers her people in this direction; although the establishment of these institutions is comparatively recent. The first three agricultural schools were started in Germany and Switzerland in 1799. They were locatvd at Celle in Hanover, n^ar Berne, poundipgof and at Kruman, Bohemia. In 181 1 a private forestry-school was agricultural established in Saxony, which in 1816 was transferred to the state, ^'=^°°'^- and in 1830 became an agricultur:',! college. The great agricultural college of Introduction of scientific methods into- agriculture. ssa :, i'^i t 38 /JV/) USTK14L I/IS ■/ W A- V Europe — that at Hohenheim, near Stuttgart — wns founded in 1818, and another such institution was starteil in Pomerania in 1835. Ten years ago Contrast be- there wcre a hundred and forty-four stations, institutes, schools, tween ^jp^j colleges in Germany. Great Britain has but two of any Europe and i i- i i i r ^ , United consequence, — one at Cirencester, established before 1840, and States. one near Dublin. French legislation in 1848 led to the organiza- tion of one college at Versailles, and several minor schools in various parts of France. It will be seen from these facts, and from others which wc are about to state, that Europe led us but very little in agricultural education, and soon fell Efforts of behind. We have already referred to the depression of agriculture Judge Buei. in America between TS3oand 1840. Besides the suggestion then made for a government bureau of agriculture, the establishment of technical schools in this department of knowledge was strongly recommended, Judge Buel of New York being foremost in pressing the idea. No immediate action was taken, however. In 1844 an agricultural department was established in connection with Oberlin College, Ohio. A separate college was founded at Cleveland in Increase of 1855, to which the Oberlin endowment was transferred. In 1854 agricultural Dr. William Terrell made a bequest to the University of Georgia, amounting to $20,000, to establish a professorship of agriculture. Arrangements for a similar dejoartment in connection with Amherst College were made by Massachusetts in 1855. Subsequently a veterinary institute was established at Boston. In 1852 a charter was obtained for an independent agricultural college. The endowment was to be raised from town, county, and personal subscriptions. Little was done toward organization until 1855. It was i860 before the school was in operation ; and, the war breaking out soon after, it closed after two terms. Michigan was the first State, after Ohio, to get an independent agricultural college in actual operation. The act of incorporation and appropriation Formation of P^ssed Feb. 12, 1 85 5. A farm of 676 acres, mostly wooded, agricultural at first was purchased, and buildings erected for college-purposes, students' boarding-house, and professors' residences. The institu- tion went into practical oj)eration in 1857 ; and its stock-stables, botanical gardens, and course of instruction, soon made it famous. The original grant was of $56,000 : a subsequent one of $40,000 was made ; and even then there was a debt of $13,000, making a total cost of $109,000. In i860 it passed under control of the State Board. The <^hird such independ- ent institution was the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, opened in Centre County of that Slate in 1859. Three years later its name was changed to the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. Iowa made a grant of $10,000 for such an institution in 1858, and got it going on a small scale in 1859. The Ovid College appears to have been the fifth of these institutions. schools in Michigan and Penn- sylvania. OF THE UNITED STATES. 29 1 81 8, and 1 years ago es, schools, wo of any ; 1840, and lie organiza- ous parts of irc about to md soon fell )f agriculture rcrestion then of technical nided, Judge >ediate action mection with Cleveland in ed. In 1854 y of (ieorgia, Df agriculture, iiherst College inary institute independent town, county, m until 1855. king out soon lit agricultural appropriation )stly wooded, ege-purposcs. The institu- stock-stables, ade It famous, o was; made ; of $109,000. ich independ- ned in Centre anged to the |f t" 1 0,000 for in 1859. The In 1862 Congress passed an act granting land to each State in the Union, to the extent of 30,000 acres for each representative in Congress, the proceeds of the sales of which were to go to agricultural and mechanical colleges. Immediately stepj. were taken in several of the Northern sjonargrant States for the foundation of industrial schools of this sort. Massa- for state chusetts devoted the proceeds of one-tenth of her land-scrip to go^e^er"^"' buying a farm at Amherst, which cost $40,000 ; and $75,000 more was appropriated for the buildings of her Agricultural College. In New York the land-scrip was given to Cornell University, which had an agricultural department. In Connectit..:t: the Slicfifield Scipntific School profited in the same way. Kentucky at first established a college in connection v/ith the State University, but subsequently separated it, and bought a farm for it, which included " Ashland," the historic estate of Henry Clay. This school was opened in 1866 ; in which year the colleges of Maine, Vermont, and New Jersey, were nearly or quite completed. Where some institution had already been founded, as in Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio, they were made the recipients of the Federal grants. In some States the endowment was utilized at existing universities by the opening of special departments. The Southern States followed suit soon after the war. In 1876 ail the States but Nevada had availed themselves of the government provision; antl there were then 41 industrial colleges in existence in this country, with 463 professors and 3,703 students in all grades. In 1875 there were 382 graduates from these colleges; a number steadily increasing since. At the present time nearly all the land- scrip has been sold, some of it having been exceedingly desirable. Our agricultural literature has been regarded by eminent authority as not exclusively a cause of the development of agricultural science, but as partly an outgrowth of that advance in thought and interest ; for, '-'ith Agricultural slight exceptions, we had very little until nearly a quarter of the literature, present century had passed. In the middle of the last century the Rev. Jared Eliot of Connecticut prepared and published several papers on the state of husbandry in this country, which were almost as valuable to his generation as the famous " Georgics " of Virgil. But these essays were a little aiiead of *he time, and hr.d but few readers. The Philadelphia, New-York, and Massachu- setts societies also published their transactions, wiiich were valuable. Those of Massachusetts, beginning in 1796, were especially helpfiil. Mr. Flint thinks that " The American Farmer," published in Baltimore for the first time in 1819, was the first purely agricultural periodical in the I'nitcd States. It soon attained a wide circulation, and seems to have Agricultural set the fanners to reading and thinking more scientifically than periodicals, before. "The Agricultural Intelligencer" was started in Boston the following year; but it lived only a few months. In 1822, ho- _'ver, a new venture was made with better success. Mr. T. O. Fessenden founded "The New- F.n'jland Farmer," v/h ich was continued until 1S46; when, upon its death. 3° INDUSTRIAL HISTORY \ |i another periodical of the same name, weekly and monthly, succeeded it. Mr. Samuel Fleet started "The New- York Farmer" soon after the New-England publication made its advent, subsequenUy selling it out to 1). K. Miner, Mr. Luther Tucker, an experienced agricultural editor, started still another paper in New- York State, near Rochester, in 1S31. It was called "The Genesee Farmer," and,4Jiough it was long in becoming firmly established, eventually became a valuable and widely-circulated periodical. Judge Buel of Albany founded "The Cultivator " in 1833; and in 1839, on his death, it was consolidated with "The Genesee Farmer." "The American Agricul- turist" was started in 1842. Shortly prior to this, and since, numerous other I^eriodicals, weekly and monthly, sprang up ; and their publication, and increase of circulation, rapidly developed. Among these may be mentioned "The Maine Farmer," "The Rural New-Yorker," "The Country GenUe- man," "The Ohio Farmer," "The Michigan Farmer," "The Valley Farmer," "The Wisconsin Farmer," "The North-western Farmer," "The Southern Planter." There are now between fifty and sixty weekly and monthly agricul- tural periodicals in this country. Besides these, many other papers devote a special department to agriculture, stock-raising, dairying, poultry, and fruit. Then, too, within the past forty years, a considerable number of books have been written on special topics in agricultural and horticultural science ; Andrew Agricultural Jackson Downing having been one of the earliest and most prolific books. writers on the subject. The reports of the United-States Govern- ment, first prepared by a clerk of the Patent Office in 1839, and then, after 1862, by the commissioner of the Agricultural Bureau, have also proved exceedingly valuable accessions to this class of American literature. o > CI a ? X .0 OF THE UNITED STATES. 3> i it. Mr. /-England tC. Miner. .11 another [led "The stablished, ludge Buel is death, it tn Agricul- ;rous other :ation, and mentioned try Gentle- ay Farmer," le Southern thly agricul- ipers devote , and fruit, f books have ice ; Andrew most prolific ates Govern- id then, after also proved lllsii:'-?!! M ', ! ! I i 33 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY CHAPTER II. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. ONE of the most interesting and important features in the history of American agriculture relates to the improvement of means for cultivat- ing the soil. The history is a record of marked originality, perseverance, and great triumphs, with enough of tragic disappointment or pecuniary loss to spice the tale ; while the vast development given to American resources and wealth by the improvement of these prerequisites to toil has given this nation its distinctive pre-emi- nence. Our highest rank among the peoples of the earth, in a material point of view, is as an agricultural people ; and though great progress has been made in other industries, to which Americans can look with justifiable pride, im- provement in means for subduing and cultivating the land is still the most marked characteristic of native inventive genius. The most important of agricultural implements is the plough : besides, it is one of the oklcst ; for its origin is lost in the dim twilight of antiquity. The Origin of the plough is probably an improvement upon the hoe, which can lay plough. claim to a still more ancient history. At first, it was made of the tough crotches of trees ; then the forked piece was trimmed and bound to the High charac ter of Ameii can inven- tive genius. ANCIF.NT IIOE ANU PI OIGHS. handle to pre\'ent the two from splitting apart. In the accompanying engraving an ancient kind uf hoe is given. The plough had a similar and equally humble origin. It was not the product of great and enduring genius. The earliest l)Ioughs known to us were rude enough in their construction. Like hoes, one limb of a tree formed the beam of the plough, and th^ other the share ; from which simple device improvements liave been slowly made, until this imple- ment has been brou^^ht nearly to perfection. m % OF THE UNITED STATES. 33 lie history of IS for cultivat- perseverance, )pointment or lopment given ment of these ictive pre-emi- material point has been made able pride, im- still the most besides, it is ntiquity. The which can lay- made of the d bound to the lying engravmg equally humble The earliest I Like hoeb, one |hc share ; from Intil this imple- When the colonists first began to upturn the soil, tlie plough was a very rude afl^iir. It was made wholly of wood. 'I'hc beam, standard, and handles, if the plough had two, were of seasonetl stuff; and the mould-board was a Rujenes, block of wood, and ai)i)roximating to the curve rccjuired. A great of early deal of power was needed to draw it. Yet even this, rude as it p'""^*''' was, far excelled the plough used in the days of Elisha, who, when summoned to assume the functions of prophet and teacher for the Hebrew children, was walking l^ehind his i)Iough drawn by twelve yoke of oxen. The earliest ploughs were doubtless imported, and as early as 1617 they might be seen pirstimpor- upon a Virt^Muia plantation. The complaint of the governor at that tation of time was, not lack of instruments, l)ut "skilful husbandmen, and ^ °"^ means to set their ploughs on work, having as good ground as any man can desire, and about forty bulls and oxen ; but they wanted men to bring them to labor, iron for ploughs, and harness for the cattle." But ten years later, it is recorded there were only thirty plouglxs in the colony at Massachusetts Bay ; and, for twelve years after the landing of the Pilgrims, the farmers there had none whatever, and were compelled to prepare their lands for seed with cliunsy hoes. It has been affirmed that it was the custom in that part of the country,^ even to a much later period, for any one owning a plough to go about and do the ploughing for the inhabitants over a considerable extent of territory. A town often paid a bounty to any one who would buy and keep a plough in repair for the purpose of going about to work in this way. The massi\e old wooden plough recpiired a strong and well-fed team to move it through the soil, a heavy, muscular man to press it into the ground, another to hold, and another to drive. During all the centuries preceding the present one, but few improvements were made in this most important of all agricultural implements. All the earlier ones never turned a furrow, but f)nly stirred up the ground ; slowness of and hence they were difficult to draw, beside doing their work early im-, very imperfectly. In the last century tlie plough in use among the P''°^e"'"='>ts. French settlers in Illinois was made of wood, with a small point of iron tied upon the nose with strips of raw-hide. The beam rested upon an axle and small wooden wheels ; while the oxen whicli drew it vvere yoked by their horns by means of a straight yoke attached by raw leather °^s<="Pt'°n . -^11 1. ,.'■ , of early straps, With a i)ole extending from the yoke back to the axle, ploughs used Knight has described the luiglish plough in use among the colo- '" *^'= nies along the coast in 1776 as being made of wood, except the """*''^' wrought-iron share, and some bolts and nuts whereby the parts were fastened together. The standard rose nearly vertically, having attached to it the beam and the sole-piece. On the nose of th(; beam hung the clevis. The mould- board and share were attached to a frame braced between the beam and the sole. The wooden mould-board was sometimes plated with sheet-iron, or by strips made by hammering out old horseshoes. A clump of iron shaped like , I ' h iii 34 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY a half spear formed the point. It was known as a " bull-plough," " bull- tongue," or "bar-share " plough. Two pins in the standaril formed the handles, and it required the strength of a man to manage it. The work was slowly and poorly performed by cattle. During the last century, the Carey plough, as it was termed, was more ex- tensively employed than any other, and may be briefly described, although the Carey form varied very much, according to the ideas and skill of the plough. blacksmith who made it. It had a clumsy wrought-iron share, a land-side and standard made of wood, a wooden mould-board, often plated over in a rough manner with pieces of old saw-plates, tin, or sheet-iron. The handles were upright, and were held by two pins. A powerful man was required to hold it, and double the strength of team now commonly used was required in doing the same kind of work. Importation of the first cast-iron plough. PLOUGH OF l3l2. The first cast-iron plough ever seen in this country was imported from Scotland soon after the Revolution, and was the invention of James Small of Berv/ickshire. The mould-board was cast-iron, with a wrought-iron share, the form being somewhat similar to those now in use. The first person in this country who devoted his attention seriously to this subject was Thomas Jefferson. Immersed as he was in the politics of the Jefferson's time, he never lost his interest in the greatest of all pursuits ; and from 1788 to 1793 he studied and experimented diligently to determine the proper form of the mould-board, treating it as a " lifting-wedge and an upsetting-wedge," and endeavoring to ascertain the curve necessary to accomplish this jjurposc with the least friction. Probably he was stimulated to exercise his genius in this direction by receiving an improved plough from the agricultural society of the Department of the Seine in France. His son-in-law, Col. Randolph, whom Jefferson regardetl as the best farmer in Virginia, soon after invented a side-hill plough adapted to the hilly regiors of that State. This plough was made with two wings welded to the same bar, with their planes at right angles to each other ; so that, by turning a bar adjusted to an axis, either wing could be laid flat on the ground, while the other, staneling vertically, served as a mould-board. Stimulated by the example of Jefferson, others entered this field of inven- interest in the subject. OF THE UNITED STATES. 35 igh," "bull- the handles, k was slowly as more ex- although the skill of the -iron share, a , often plated or sheet-iron. ;rful man was only used was imported from ention of James st-iron, with a tmilar to those seriously to this politics of the ll pursuits; and ]d diligently to treating it as a ascertain the tion. Probably hy receiving an lartment of the Ion regarded as l:)lough adapted with two wings each other ; so laid Hat on the board, field of inven- tion. Robert Smith of Pennsylvania, it is said, took out the first patent for the mould-board alone of a plough ; and Newbold of Burlington, g^^jy ^^^^^, N.J. , in 1797 patented a plough with a mould-board, share, and tions secured land-side all cast together. Peacock in his patent, in 1807, cast '•>'?■*«'»*• his plough in three pieces, the front of the colter entering a notch in the breast of the share. We now come to the invention of Jethro Wood of Scipio, N.Y., whose improvement was made in 1819. It was much wood'i in- superior to any previous invention ; but he entertained a wrong mention, idea concerning its novelty, supposing it to be the first iron plough ever invented. Its peculiar merit consisted in the mode of securing the cast-iron portions together by lugs and locking-pieces, doing away with screw-bolts, and much weight, complexity, and expense. Wood did more than any other person to drive out of use the cumbrous contrivances common throughout the coun- try by supplanting them with a lighter, cheaper, and more effective implement. It was the first ])lough in which the parts most exposed to wear could be renewed in tlie field by the substitution of cast j^ieces. Wood was entitled to a great deal of credit for the genius and enterprise which he displayed ; but, like many an unlucky inventor before and since his time, he spent all his fortune in developing and defending his invention. Since his day improvements have been continuous, and every year new designs are sent to the Patent Office ; nor does human skill show scarce a sign of abatement in this direction. The application of steam to ploughing in the United States makes another phase of improvement in agricultural implements worthy of mention. The first invention of the kind in the United States was patented by E. steam- C. Bellinger of Sovith Carolina in 1833; but, for some reason or pi°"b1i8' other, it never went into general use. Twenty-one years later, John Fowler of England improved upon Bellinger's in\ention so far as to manufacture and employ several of his machines. About the same time that Fowler's invention appeared, several other American improvements were made upon a very different principle. Engines were designed to travel over the field, drawing ])loughs behind them. Promising as these various inventions arc, many im- l)rovements are required to make them perfect ; and a splendid field still lies before the genius of the inventor. Great as has been the economy effected by using the improved plough, the farmer, for a long time, did not take so kindly and quickly to successive im- provements in this most important of all agricultural implements „ ' 01 Farmers as he does now. Slowly learnetl as were the principles upon were slow to which the true construction of the i)iough depended, — the turning adopt im- , , . . 101 o provements. over and puhenzing of the soil with the least friction, — farmers were slower still in adopting any improvement. Not unfreciuently th ~y asserted that cast-iron poisoned the ground, and spoiled crops ; and so they adhered to their old clumsy wooden affairs. Slowly has this prejudice worn away, and 36 IND US TRIA I. HIS TOK Y Eagerness of with its disappearance every real improvement has been more and more eagerly tested. 'l"he inventor has l)een stimulated to prosecute his eflbrts more critically ; he has found that dil'ferent kinds of ploughs modern ' ' " farmers to will work to the bcst advantage on various soils; that, while one testinven- j^ ^^^^^ adapted for a damp soil, another is for dry; and that, tions. while one works well on level ground, another turns over the i-ojl more perfectly on the hill-side, besides, there has been an enormous. STEAM-l'LOUCH. J I I improvement in the manufacture of the plough itself. Formerly, ploughs were made by every country blacksmith ; and his work, however skilful, must have been rude enough compared with that performed by the great concerns which are expressly fitted up to manufactiu'c these instruments. The saving which fcjllows the employment of this one invention is enormous. We know of no method of estimating it with exactness ; but he who stops a moment to consider liow many days he would be in digging up ten acres with a hoe or with one of the earliest ploughs invented as a substitute, > '1 '?! OF THE UNITED STATES. 37 incl more ,scciitc his of ploughs , while one and that, i over tlio I enormous I, ploughs were \\\\, must have ioncerns which Ln is enormous. Le who stops a vip ton acres a substitute, ar.d realizes how (lulckly and how much more perfectly the work is done now, will he able to form an estimate for himself. Without Economy of this invention, thousands of acres would be untilled, or, if cul- modevn ploughs. tivated at all, only in a very imperiect manner. There are several outgrowths of the plough, among whicr. oro the horse-hoc, invented by James Alden of New-York State, and others, and the so-called cultivator, provided with a series of diminutive plough-points to Horse hoe stir the scjil about the roots of corn, cotton, and other crops, and cuitiva- These implements, while of minor importance, have been of vast value ; for with one of them, one horse, and a man, more work can be done than thirty men tan do provided with hand-hoes. IIOKSU-IIoE. The harrow, the next implement to be used in tillage after ploughing, is but a little different tool from what it was in the days of the ancients. •^ The harrow. Indeed, few implements have changed so immaterially m construc- tion, and principle of operation, as this. Very little data is attainable showing the progress of seed-drills for plant- ing. J.ired Eliot, writing in 1754, alludes to Mr. Tull's wheat-drill as a wonderful invention ; but, owing to its cumbersome and compli- pianting- cated construction, he urges Mr. Clapp, President of Yale College, machines, to apply his "mathematical learning and lechanical genius " to the invention of a simj)ler machine. Drills for spreadin.; manure were soon after devised. The most marked improvement in seed-drills adapted to all kinds of crops has been made within the present century. ,3 As regards practical value, 'probably no agricultural implement can compare with the mower and reaper. ifter the farmer has planted and raised a crop, he must harvest it : and it happens that most of his hay ripens at Mower and I one time ; and so with his wheat, rye, barley, oats, and buckwheat, reaper. 38 INDUSTKIAI. HISTORY ^. '• Wt Not American inventions. If the hay be cut too soon or too late, it is of poor (iiiality : and, if grain is allowed to get over-ripe, il rattles out of the luisk, and is lost ; or it sprcnits in the head, and spoils. 'I'housands and thousands of acres of wheat in the fertile West were wasted in a single season before the reaper was perfected, owing to the inability of the owner to secure help enough to harvest it in the proper time. While it is true that American mowers and reapers are acknowledged to be the best in the world, and have always triumi)hed over all rivals in competitive trials in iOugland, l''raiue, Ciermany, Russia, and South America, they are not of American origin. 'I'he mower was invented in Eu- rope ; but Yankee genius simplitled and improved it greatly. No? is the invention so very recent. 'I'he great improvement of the original dates back scare ely more than a generation ; but the first reaping-machine of hi^toiy is that mentioned by I'liny the elder as in use among the (lauls over eighteen centuries ago, or about the year 23 of the C'hristian era. .At that time, and until within fifty years of the present day, most of the reaping of grain was done by the sickle. But Pliny mentions i)articularly a large-si/ed van on ^ . . wheels, with teeth i)ro)ecting from the forward edge, and driven Description ' i J n o > of Pliny's through the oat and barley fields, with an ox yoked in the rear, reaping- between thills, in such a way as to push the machine ahead of him. Sometimes the sickles thus employed cut off the heads of grain at the top of the stalk, and sometimes half way down the stalk; ])ut in either case the grain fell over into the van. Palladius, an Eastern eccle- siastical writer, A. 1). 391, describing these same reapers, or an improvement thereupon, says that the driver could regulate the elevation or depression of the teeth by means of a lever. Thus it will be seen that a semi-barbaric race had invented and used a reaping-machine long before Rome's glory had departed, and even before Christ was crucified. In 17H5 we read of proposals being submitted in Faigland for the construc- tion of a rea])er ; but, from the description, it iloes not appear to have differed Early Ecr- Substantially from that of the ancient (Jallic husbandmen. And lish reaping- yet, as in the development of a plant or of a fine art, we now mac ines. i,t.gii^ to sce in rudimentary shape some new elements of the perfected machine. The jiower was applied as formerly, from behind, by either horse or ox ; and the big box or van was emptied into a storeroom when full. But mention is made of a heavy drive-wheel, toothed wheels, and pulleys ; which indicates that a series of knives were made to beat against the teeth in a different manner from those of old. Another reaper is described in 1 799, which cut a swath two feet wide, and threw it to the ground on one side. This was another advance on the past ; for the machine could now work with less frequent interrui^tion. Agricultural writers always estimate the work of a horse as e(]ual to five men, and judge the value of a machine accordingly. As this reaper, with a horse and a boy, could do more than six men with ? OF THE VX/TED STATES, 39 ., if grain is t si)routs in heat in the s i)crfc(tc(l, wt it in tlic Icilgcd to lie comiietitivc nth Amcrita, •cnlcd in I'ai- ^rrcatly. No» original dates line of history over eighteen liat time, and r of grain was -sized van on Tc, and driven mI in the rear, hine ahead of Tf the heads of the stalk; l>nt Eastern ecde- n inii)rovenient depression of |ii-l)avl)aric race Lie's glory li^id L- the construe- Ito have differed Landmen. And Ine art, we now llements of the om behind, by ito a storeroom |hed wheels, and )cat against the is described in |uid on one side, now work with the work of a |ine accordingly, m six men with ■MB 40 IND US TRIA L HIS TOk V I I- 1 m sickles, it fulfilled the requirements of a labor-saving machine. Two nvjre British machines deserve to be noticed, Mr. Gladstone devised one in iSo6, which delivered the grain in gavels to be bound ; and Mr. Plunckett constructed one the following year, which was drawn, instead of jnished, by the horse. In \S22 Mr. M;.nn brought forward a reaper, under the auspices of the Highland Society of Scotland, which would cut ten acres in ten hours. In addition to being drawn, and having a siie-projecting cutter-bur, this machine made use of" a sliding or reciprocating knife, had a reel to beat the grain against the knivee;, .^nd h,' ' a platform on which the grain fell. The first record of an American invnition of this sort is of a mower, constructed by an ingenious mechanic of Genoa, Cayuga County, N.Y., in First Ameri- 1S26 or 1S2S. The characteristic feature of it was a large wheel, can mower, ^yliich rcvolvcd horizontally near the ground, and which was pro- vided with scythe-like knives on its periphery. A heavy drive-wheel commu- nicaved the necessary power. It was drawn by a single horse. The machine never amounted to much, and was never perfected ; \,a\. it marks the first awckenino: of decided interest in this direction in America. In 1828 Samuel Lane of Maine invented a reaper, and is said to hav combined therewith a "thresher ; " but we think this is a verbal error, and that Lane's " mowcr " is meant. A successful mower, which had sonii^ little reaper. popularity, \vas invented by William Manning of New Jersey in 1 8,3 1 ; and in 1834 the Ambler patent applied Hussey's vibratory knives to the mower. In 1833 the first really successful and famous American reaper was invented by Hussey of Maryland. This had reciprocating knives, ^.hich oper- Hussey's ated throiigh slatted fingers, — an entirely new principle, — and reaper. ^]^q cutter-bar was hinged so as to turn up at right angles with the ground. M'Cormick of Virginia patented a combined mower and reaper in 1834, which, with subseejuent improvements, took a council medal at the World's Fair in London in 1851. The period from 1S30 to 1S50 was one during which great attention was given to improving these machines ; but even more ingenuity has been ap- plied to their improvement since then, no less than three thousand patents having been taken out for such harvesters in this country. Among the most important attac;hments to the reaping-machine is the self-rake, which lays the grain off in gavels for binding ; which work was formerly done by an extra man seated on the machine. From about 1855, experiments have been made to devise and perfect a machine which shall bind grain as fiist as it is cut. The man who has given the Grain- most attention thereto is Allen Slierwood of Auburn, N.Y. His binding apparatus consists of a series of fingers, arranged horizontally, mac inc. upon which the grain is delivered by the rake in bundles ; which fingers, co-operating with a slender, curved arm, are made to embrace the .-jf. i OF THE UNITED STATE a. 41 WO more in i8o6, instructed lorse. Ill Highland ildition to made use tgainit the • a mower, y, N.Y., in arge wheel, ;h was pro- "el commu- le machine ks the first aid to hav ■or, and that I soni'^ httle tw Jersey in iry knives to reaper was v.hich oper- iciplc, — and les with the nd reaper in iiedal at the attention was las been ap- isand patents n'jf the most lich lays the an extra man md i)erfect a has given the , N.Y. His horizontally, buUes; which embrace the bundle, and instantaneously girdle it with fine wire, which is cut from a reel, and its ends are twisted together for a knot. As yet, we believe that the ma- chine has never come into practical use. The American mowers and reapers are now awarded t'-e palm of superi- ority the world over. In i^e, a competitive trial of readers was had near Paris, P>ance, in which machines from England, America, and superiority Algiers, participated. The result was, that the American machine of American cut an acre of oats in twenty-two minutes ; the English, in sixty- '^°^m ^" six minutes ; and the Algerian, in seventy-two ; and the same triumph has been repeatedly achieved in other sunilar contests. Our machines are exported to all parts of the civili^:ed word, in preference to those of every other country. The average capacity of the American reaper is fifteen acres per day; but, under favorable circumstances, it will reap twenty or twenty-five : whereas, by hand, an acre and a half to a man is a large average. But capacity and this comparison does not fully represent the great advantage of advantages this invention to the farmer. It must be remembered that these °^ American reaper. increased harvesting facilities enable him to gather crops which otherwise would spoil and be lost altogether, so short is the season in which grain must be harvested, if at all. The manufacture of reapers and mowers amounts to between eighty thou- sand and a hundred thousand a year ; and, though they are made Manufacture at Chicago and elsewhere in large numbers, the principal centre of mowers of the industry in America is Auburn, N.Y. Several machines have been invented within the present century, which have materially focilitated the gathering of the hay-crop. One of these is the tedder, which upturns the new-cut and half-cured grass as it lies Tedders, upon the ground, and promotes its more rapid curing. i"hus the rakes, and risk of exposure to sudden summer storms is gready les. ened. Another very valuable implement is the horse-rake. It i . found in many forms ; but the two most esteemed are those with curved s eel tines attached to a bar hinged to a light axletree, — first brought out it. Pennsylvania, and manufactured by the Messrs. Sprout at Muncy, Lycoming County, — and those which have two sets of wooden teeth, lie close to the ground, and revolve at the will of the driver. These latter were invented by H. N. Tracy of Essex Jimction, Vt. These rakes are used to gather pease, beans, and other crops, and enable the farmer to handle both them and his hay with far greater rapidity than of old. It is estimated that they do ten times the work of hand- rakes. The invention of the horse-fork, by means of which wjiole haycocks can be hoisted into the wagon, or from the wagon to the stack or mow, has also been the work of the past generation, and largely conduced to the saving of labor and time. Agricultural implements may be divided into three principal classes, — those t i I li^ 11 V: i\f 42 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY which prepare and till the soil, those which garner the crop, and those which Potato-dig- separate the i)recious part of the p.oduct from its refuse. In ad- B*=''- dition to the mower and reaper and the horse-rake and tedder, there are several less important machines belonging to this second class. The most interesting is the i)otato-digger. Several attempts to devise a machine which shall plough up these tubers from the furrow, separate them from the loose earth, and deposit them on the surface of the ground, have been made, but none of them with perfect success. The great difficulty is in separating the potatoes from the dirt, when once exhumed. IIAV-TEDDER. Prominent among the third class of machines above referred to is that which takes the place of the flail. For thousands of years, even back in the Threshing- davs of Israel's glory, grain was separated from its husk by throw- macMne. jpg jt upon large threshing-floors, beating it with r"ails, or causing it to be trampled by horses or oxen, and then purging the floor with a fan in the hand. The modern threshing-machine is less than a hundred years old, and, like ^ii:i|i OF THE UNITED STATES. 43 those which ise. In ad- and tedder, class. The \ a machine em from the been made, n separating Irred to is that ;n back in the I husk by throw- }ails, or causing lor with a fan in old, and, like the reaper, is a foreign invention, which has been greatly improved upon by- American ingenuity. Attempts v/ere made to devise such appara- a foreign tus by Menzies in 1732, and Stirling in 1758, in Scotland; but invention, both failed, because of an unsuccessful principle. In 1 786 Andrew Meikle- of East Lothian, also a Scot, invented a machine which proved effective.. Tliis device introduced the sheaf between rollers, and caused it to be beaten with arms on a drum. The English impro\'ed upon this arrangement by- making this dnun operate in a concave " breasting," which allowed of a more vigorous scutching and rubbing. The loosened grain fell mostly through bars in this concave, while the straw was carried onward to the shaker. The Ameri- cans improved on this still further by putting spikes, or teeth, both on the drum and the concave, and also by making the whole machine lighter and swifter than the cumbrous English apparatus. A lamous trial of rival threshers was had in P^ngland in 1853 on the farm of Mr. Mechi, Tiptrce Hall, j^ g. Kclvedon ; and the American machine did nearly three times the ments \u work the English machine did in the same time, and turned out threshmg- ° machines. the grain much cleaner. A subsefpient trial was made in France, which resulted as follows : Pitt's (American) machine threshed seven hundred and forty litres of wheat in an hour; Clayton's (English), four hundred and ten; Duvoir's (Irench), two hundred and fifty ; Pinet's (iM-ench), one hun- dred and fifty ; and six experts with flails, sixty altogether. The threshing-machine is generally owned by itinerant proprietors, who ga through the country working for successive farmers, as in the early colonial days did the plough-owners. At first they were operated by tread- j^j^^g ^, mill and rotary lever horse-powers ; but now portable six or ten operating horse power engines are largely employed. The capacity of one ^'"" good steam-power threshing-machine in a season of three months is from forty thousand to a hundred thousand bushels of grain. There is a record of a horse-power thresher cleaning eighty thousand four hundred bushels in fifty- two days, of which eleven thousand three hundred were threshed in five days and a half. Small winnowing-machines, for hand use, have been used from early colo- nial days. Special machines for threshing clover, and gathering its winnowing- seed, have also been dc ised during the present century. machines. No effective machine for cutting corn or husking it has yet been de- vised, akhough repeated attempts in those directions have been made. A sheller exists, however, which removes the grain from the cob, and which is operated by hand, shelling one ear at a time ; and a more rapid separator, worked by horse-power, has also been developed therefrom, and come into extensive use in the Western grain regions. Prol)ably no machine 'las so conduced to the sudden and vast develop- ment of an\' agricultural industry in the whole world as the cotton-gin. The Mac;.;nes for cutting, husking, and shelling corn. arsBSi 44 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY \ .. Cotton-sin. Roller-gin. cotton-boll contains coarse, Jiairy seeds, which cling to the soft fibre, and which need to be removed therefrom before the latter can be marketed or manuflictured. A century ago this labor was generally performed by women and children in the house, at evening ; and the process was so slow and laborious, that cotton-culture was not particularly profitable. In India a bow and string were used to whip the cotton, and thus remove the seeds : this implement was first used in this country in Georgia, the market- able fibre being called " Georgia bowed cotton." A machine called a gin, designed to accomplish this object more expedi- tiously, is said to have been invented in 1742 by a French planter who lived on Dubreuii's the present site of New Orleans, and who was named Dubreuil. invention. '^''iic invention greatly stimulated the culture of the plant. Its mechanism is not described ; but it probably was a less efficient apparatus than the roller or saw gin. Early in the Revolution, a roller-gin, composed of burnished gun-barrels fixed in wooden rollers, was devised by Kinsey I'orden, — the man who brought the Sea- Island cotton to this country. Whether the idea was origi- nal with him, or imported, is not known. Mr. Bissell of Georgia simplified the roller-gin in 1788. Its product for a day was about five pounds of cleaned cotton. Shortly after the Revolution, Joseph Eve, or Eaves, of Rhode Island (who is ixlso spoken of as the son of a Pennsylvania loyalist who had moved to the West Indies), introduced into Georgia an improvement on the roller-gin. It was furnished with a double set of rollers, and operated by ox-power instead of a hand-crank or treadle. It was not patented until 1803. In letters written at that day, there is a suggestion of the possibility, that, before Eve's machine was introduced, a foot-gin was in extensive use near Philadelphia, which was superior to that employed in Georgia. Still another roller-gin is mentioned as having been introduced from the West Indies, or invented by Mr. Crebs, who used it on his plantation on the Pascagoula River, in what was then called West Florida, but is now Alabama. The best of all machines for this purpose, however, is that which is be- lieved to have been the invention of Eli Whitney ; namely, the saw-gin. We Whitney's refer to this in connection with the history of cotton-culture in invention. ^]^jg country. This machine employed an entirely new principle ; namely, teeth on a roller, for which sets of circular saws were after\vards substituted, rotating so closely to a set of parallel bars as to catch the fibrous cotton on the other side, and pull it through, leaving the seeds. Its relative superiority will be better understood when we say that it enabled the planter, with the employment of a single hand, to clean a thousand pounds of cotton a day ; whereas the roller-ijin would clean but twenty-five, and hand-picking "but five or six. Bishop truly remarks of this invention, that, " in economical value, it ranks with those of Arkwright and Fulton." Indeed, it did more for the southern section of this country than the improvements on the plough, the sickle, and the flail, did for the North. m '■ii -«3a OF THE UNITED STATES. 45 fibre, and arketed or performed he process ■ profitable, uis remove the market- ore expedi- 'ho hvcd on d Dubreuil. plant. Its It apparatus gun-barrels who brought ,ea was origi- 1 of (^.eorgia : five pounds yc Eaves, of i-ania loyalist improvement uid operated latented until le possibility, isive use near Still another :st Indies, or agoula River, Iwhich is be- ^aw-gin. We Ion-culture in lew principle ; \c afterwards \\ the fibrous Its relative the planter, Ids of cotton [hand-picking economical J did more for le plough, the ■'-M Besides all these machines of which we have made mention, a host of ethers of less importance have been invented. Stone and stumi) extractors, which are of material use in clearing the soil for cultivation, have come into use within a generation. But, while they were valuable in the ini; rovement of limited areas in the East, the most rapid extension of our agriculture has been in the West, where trees were scarce, and sucli apparatus was unnec:essar}'. Hence they have really promoted our agricultural interests a:; a whole but little. Saws for lumber, ditching-machines, drain-tiles, land-rollers, planting- machines, improved hoes, rakes, shovels, scythes, wagons, churns, bee- hives, pruning-knives, and other apparatus and implements for farm-labor, have been invented almost without number, some of them proving highly popular and convenient. The introduction of these new means of culture and harvesting has revo- lutionized the several branches of agriculture completely within the past century of our history, and has incalculably increased our capacity of i;ro- ductio"\ The wide use into which these have come will be realized when it is known that the agricultural implements manufactureil in the United States in 1870 amounteu in value to fifty million dollars; though but part of this, it must be remembered, was for the export trade. The aggregate value of such apparatus owned throughout the country was a hundred and fifty-two million dollars in 1850 : in 1870 it had increased to three hundred and thirty seven million dollars, or more than doubled. Without doubt, it will be twice this figure by 1880. INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ; : I t^' CHAPTER III. COTTON. I fl k ! 'ii i ' ■ : 1-. 1' I !;ti NO one industry in the United States is of so great value and importance to the nation and to the world as cotton-culture. Though the annual product is not worth more than half as much as either our corn or wheat crop, Importance ^^'*^ '^^^^ cnough left over to export, after our own consumption, to of cotton- more than ecjual the su.n total of our cereal exports. It is the one "°^' great puduct which we offer the other nations of the globe in exchange for what we want from them. Except petroleum, it is the leading product upon which the outside world is most dependent upon America. Yet our total produc,'; annually is worth four times our total product of rock-oil. Moreover, while we export scarcely two-thirds of our petroleum, we send abroad nearly three-fourths of our cotton, ^^'ithin a century, cotton has come to succeed silk, linen, and wool, as the most useful and common textile fabric for clothing. It is a necessity of life in all civilized and semi-civilized quarters of the globe, nnd the United States raises seven-eighths of the world's supply. And not only do we raise the most cotton, but also the best cotton i)ro(luced by any nation under heaven. It is as characteristic a product of this country as spices are of the Indites, or tea of China, but vastly more precious. It has exerted a greater political influence over this country than any otlier one interest. For a century it was intimately associated with negro slavery, and those who were* identified with both constituted one party to the greatest ci\il war known on this continent, in that strife, the dependence of Cireat Britain on the cotton States of our Union tor the basis of her greatest manufacturing industry, and source of wealth, determined the sympathies of the empire, whose friendship was of the greatest value tr; the contending factions. As tlie well-informed and thoughtful American looks forward into the industrial future of his country, lie sees no agricultural interest that promises to be an ecjually permanent and remunerative reliance in coming years. Great Britain, it is true, is trying to become independent of tlie United States by raising her cotton supply in India. Thus far, however, her efforts have not been very successful. The quantity has been largely increased j but the OF T//E UNITED STATES. 47 quality has not been much improved. So inferior s its vahie for manufac- turing purposes, that India cotto.i can only be used by mixing it with some longer staple. Even the India manufacturers, who aspire to the production of only the coarsest and cheapest fabrics, are obliged to import cotton to mix with that of native growth. Nor is this defect likely to be soon remedied. The physical conditions of India are such as to render it quite impossible for cotton ever to be grown the/e possessing the same length, strength, and deli- cacy of fibre, as is found in ihe American product. Thus Nature has crowned our country with an advantage m raising cotton which will probably ever baffle human genius to overcome. I importance h the annual r wheat crop, isumption, to It is the one the globe in s the leading America. Yet bt of rock-oil. am, we send cotton has mmon textile semi-civilized ehths of the also the best Stic a product vastly more country than ;d with negro party to the dependence )f her greatest ympathies of contending joks forward interest that :e in coming I of the United .'1- efforts have Ised; but the INDIA si'iNNiN(;-\vni;r.i.. Although the name " cotton " is of Arabic origin, and the plant is indige- nous to all warm climates of the world, the fibre was first utilized in India, whence came our word "calico," and then in Persia, which gave g^^,, ^.^j. us the first "muslin." Thence its culture and use extended into ture of cot- China, Arabia, Africa, and Europe. Herodotus discovered the *°"' Hindoos cultivating the plant, and weaving its delicate fleeces into cloth, 450 B.C. ; and from that people the Greeks and Romans imported it before the Christian era, first fui awnings, then tents, and tlien for clothing. Hindostan still produces considerable cotton ; but her poor communications from the Ulterior to the coast, and her inability to raise as good a quality of cotton as the United States (the American varieties not being successfiill}- (uiltivated), leave her far in the background as a reliance for the world, although England still imports largely from hei. Farther India and the islands of the Indian Archipelago produce cotiun likewise, to some extent. China has cultivated it 48 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY countries. since the eleventh century, but has to import to sui)i)ly her own manufactories. Japan raises a coarse, inferior grade of cotton. Livingstone found it growing , in abundance in Central Africa. On the western coast of that Culture of cotton by grand geographical division it has been cultivated with marked various success, although to no very notable extent. The late Lord Palm- erston, for many years one of England's greatest statesmen, and long her prime minister, is said to have feared that the supply from the United States would some time give out ; and he urged upon his country the policy of encouraging cotton-culture on the west coast of Africa as the grert. resource of the future. As yet, his fears and expectations have been but poorlyjustified. 'I'l.e Moors brought the cotton-plint from Ara- bia into Northern Afri- ca and Spain. In the latter country, its use by the Moslems for mak- ing turbans ga\e rise to a Christian prejudice against its culture. P2s- pecial efforts were made to introduce cotton into F^gypt in 1821, and they ha\J been attended by quite successful results. Columbus discovered cotton growmg on tlie ne. -found Island of Ilis- paniola; Magellan saw it in lirazil ; m.l Pizairo, in Peru. Cortez gathered it Discovery of '" Southern Cuba to quilt into his soldiers' armor, and, on reach- cotton in ing Mexico, found it urider high cultivation and use ; the natives *^ '*'■ • weaving it into the most delicate and bcautifi.d curtain^ '••xl robes, and, mingled with feathers, converting it intf the most love;y and richly- ■':olorf'd ornaments. OHier explorers found it growing as far north as the bank j of the Mississippi and some of its tr'butaries, and some of the Indians of Texas and New Mexico even yet utilize it for blankets. Naturalists fiml many varieties of cotton mi existence, and their classifi- cation thereof differs greatly. The division is made by them according to botanical distinctions, rather tlian sue h practical ones as the length and quality COTTON-rL '.NT. 3 msi OF THE UNITED STATES. 49 mufactories. d it growing ;oast of that vith marked Lord Palm- itesmen, and 11 the United Id some time and he urged country the encouraging ture on the ; of Africa as esource of the s yet, his fears ictations have )oorly justified, rs brought the mt from Ara- Northern Afri- spain. In the uitry, its use by Icms for mak- ans gave rise islian prejudice s culture. Es- orts were matle vuc cotton into S21, and they ;n attended by ;cessful results, si and of llis- tez i,athered it and, on rcach- ,e ; the natives ipc i';d rol)es, ;;y and richly- ir north as the of the Indians Jd their classifi- \\ according to Vth and ciuaUty of the fibre. But all kinds of cotton may be narrowed down substantially to three botanical classes, — the Gossypiuin herbaccnm, arltonum, and hirsutum, or herbaceous, tree, and shrub cotton. The tree and Varietieaof shnib cotton-plants have a life of from six to ten years, and the <=otton. arborescent species sometimes grow to a height of twenty feet. In the United States, however, only the herbaceous or annual varieties are under cultivation ; and these may be classified as follows : — The upland cotton, with a short staj^le, a yellow blossom changing to red, and naked black seeds (this was the first kind introduced into this country) ; the Tennessee cotton, which partially succeeded the above-named, ciassifica- liecause of its- freedom from rot, and which has seeds covered tion of cot- with green down ; the Mexican, which has to a great extent suc- ceeded both of the two previous-named varieties (especially in Mississippi) because of its greater vigor and productiveness, and which has seeds covered with a dingy, wliitish-brown down ; and the Sea- Island cotton, which has black seeds ami a long staple, and is the finest cotton in the world. The historian Purchas says that cotton, probably the short-stapled, was planted in this country by early setUers in 1621. Historical papers in South Carolina indicate that it was under cultivation in that colony in cultivation 1666. Maryland is known to have grown it as a garden-plant of cotton by in 1739; and some forty years later it was to be found in Cape- '=° °"'**** May County, New Jersey. At the breaking-out of the Revolutionary war, Gen. Delagall had no less than thirty acres of green-seed cotton under culti- vation. Up to about this time the manufacture of cotton was attended with great disadvantages. The demand was slight, and scarcely an; one but fan- ciers thought of raising it in this coun- try. There were, nevertheless, some exports prior to the Revolution, state- ments to the contrary notwithstanding. In 1748 seven bags of cotton-wool were sent from Charleston, S. C, to England, valued at three pounds eleven shillings and fivepence each. Further shipments were made in 1754 and 1770, And yet in 17S4, when eight Ivags were found aboard an American vessel by the Lritish at sea, they were seized, on the ])lea that America could not produce so much, — two thousand pounds. To Alexander IJissell is due the credit of bringing here the Sea-Island cotton. He cultivated it first on St. Simon's Island, at the mouth introduction of the Savannah. For a time its culture was I.'mited to the islands of sea-isiand off a part of South Carolina's coast and at tie mouth of the ''°"°"- Savannah River. Afterwards it was culiivated in the lowlands of the conti- COTTON-GIN. ^^ 50 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY neat, in most places less tlian fifteen miles from the roast, but in one place in (ieorgia no less than a hundred and twenty-five miles inland. In Middle and Western Florida the Sea- Island cotton has since been very extensively grown. Something was done toward the cultivation of Sea-Isiand cotton on the Texan coast ui)wards of twenty years ago, with tolerable success. It deteriorates rapidly, however, when cultivatetl in the interior. Its excellence and the limited size of the crop give it the ascendency in the market. In 1806 it brought thirty cents a pound when the short-stapled cotton brought but twenty: in icSi6 it was worth forty-seven cents to twenty-seven for the short. I3y careful selection of seed, and uniciue improvement of the plant, Mr. Kinsey Burden of St. John's, Colleton District, B.C., raised the best Sea-Island cotton about that time, and could get twenty-five cents more a pound than other raisers. The crop of 1832, amounting to eight million pounds, was the largest of tliis variety ever produced in this country ; and a bale sent to England in 1857, from Kdisto, S.C., brought the highest price on record, — one dollar and thirty-five cents a pound. It might be remarked in this connection, that the Hindoos spun tlie cotton fibre so finely on one occasion, that it took a hundred and fifteen miles of thread to make a pound. lOnglish spinners have stretched American Sea- Island cotton out so fine, that a pound o{ it would reach a thousand and twenty-six miles. In "The Year-lJook of Agriculture " we find this account of the introduc- tion of the Mexican cotton to the United States by Walter Ihirling of Natchez : inuoduction " ^" '''^^^ he was scut by ( Icu. Wilkinson to the city of Mexico, of Mexican where he dined with the viceroy. In the course of the conver- cotton. salioii at the table concerning the products of the country, he requested permission to import some of the Mexican cotton-seed, — a recpiest tliat was not ;"inted, on the ground that it was prohibited by the Spanish Gov- ernment. Ijut the viceroy, over his wine, sportively accorded his free permis- sion to take home with him as many Mexican dolls as he might fancy, — a permission well understood, and which, in 'le same vein, was accepted. The stuffing of these dolls was understood to have been cotton-seed." By the carefiii selection of seed, the use of seed from another section of the country, and like expetlients, enterprising growers have at \'arioiis times developed seemingly new varieties in many localities South, and each of these has had an ephcnieral local fame. Ikit they did not differ substantially from any of the foregoing varieties. Attempts have been made, too, to naturalize other foreign spti ics, such as the Nankin in (leorgia, but not to any notable extent. The upland varieties most popular at the present time are said to be the Dickson, Peeler, Cheatham, IJoyd's Prolific, Simpson, Petit Gulf, Johnston, Hurlong, Shupeck (or Schupach), Ramases, Matagorda Silk, Java Prolific, and South- American Cliampion. Five causes have operated very decidedly to develop the culture of cotton in this country. The first of these was the remarkable improvements ■; 'I OF 77/ K UNITED STATES, 5' c place in iddlc and ely grown, the Texan icteriorates e anil the In iSo6 il rought but the short. Mr. Kinscy land cotton than other s the largest England in - one dollar nection, that at it took a [)inners have I (^{ it would the introduc- r of Nauhez ; y of Mexico, f the (onver- country, he . — .a rec^nest Spanish Gov- free permis- ht fancy, — a ccptcd. The -r section of Ivarious times each of these |stantially from to naturali/e any notal)le Ire said to bo lulf, Johnston, |i Prolific, and ic culture of improvements made, a little over a century ago, in the macliinery for spinning and weaving cotton, together witli the gradual discovery in ICngland that cotton alone < oukl be used for making cloth. In 1738 Wyatt invented the spinning- jenny to succeed the distaff. Later the process of carding cot- yv'!i"'ied to ton was devised by I'aul. Arkwright and llargreaves improved development «>n the previous spinning-machines; and then, in 1779, ("rompton "^(lo""" °' invented the mule, utilizing the ideas of his pretlecessors. C'art- wriglit patented his power-loom in 1787; but it was not until the present century that it came into use. These remarkable improvements very naturally stimulated the production of cotton, and the application of Watt's steam- engine to the manufacture of the fibre in 1 7.S5 added still further impetus to the inilustry. For a time, in England, ( otton was used only to adulterate linen. Some time afterwards it was found that it might be used altogether for filling a flaxen warp ; and linally both warp and woof were made of cotton. COTTON-<;iN. A Still greater stimulus to cotton-culture wa^, given by the iii\-ention of the cotton-gin. Previous to that event the difficulty of separating the seeds from the fibre of the cotton-boll was so great, that the cost of the prod- invention of net formed a very serious obstacle to its use ; but the cotton- cotton-gin. gin removed this, and inmiediately gave this material the most marked ascend- ency over other textiles for cheapness and utility. A ■ ijt») /ATD US TRIA L If IS TON V The honor of this invention nnfitiestionahly belongs to Eli Whitney, who went from New Haven, Conn., to Savannah, (la., as a tutor in the family of Whitney's Mrs. ( len. Citeene, in 1792. Here he learned of the difficulty Invention. experienced hy the short-staple cultivators in separating the cotton from the seed. Being of an ingenious turn of mind, he applied himself to the construction of a ma( hine which would perforin the work. At first he covered a roller with hooked wire teeth like those of the cards, and revolved it close to a frame of parallel wires on which the hall cotton lay, so as to catch the fibre, and draw it through, leaving the seeds. The teeth not proving strong enough, he substituted a series of saws on his cylinder, which worked far better. Hehind the saw cylinder he placed revolving brushes, which dex- terouslv removed the fibre. When the machine was comi)leted, he showed it to the neighboring firmers, who pronounced it a success. The next year he got his invention patented, and then, with the co-operation and capital of one Miller, went into the business of manufacturing it, and using it to gin cotton for patrons. Hut patenr laws were then new, almost unknown, and poorly understood. Cotton -cultivators hired orilinary mechanics to make these machines for them, in utter disregard of the jiatentee's rights. In 1794 Whitney's sickness and that of his employees delayed their work ; antl in 1795 their shop was destroyed by fire. Thus the infringers were given still greater chance to impose upon him, the immense value of the invention being almost instantly recognized. Protracted and wide-spread litigation ensued ; but so ably was Whitney fought in the courts, that he could get but slight damages, or none at all, in return for his pains and his own outlay. Sul)se([uently the State of South Carolina paid him fifty thousand dollars for his invention ; but the costs of his litigation swallowed it all up. The story is one of the most pitiable in American history. The original invention was sus- ceptible of little improvement, unlike many others for which Americans have become famous ; and he deserves the honor of being one of his country's greatest material benefactors. Yet he reaped not a bit of fruit for his skill, and there stands not a monument to his memory to-day. Of course the invention of the gin wrought a wonderful effect. The profit Effect of his of cotton-culture was thus immensely enhanced, and the business invention. ^yas rapidly extended ; rice and tobacco, which for a time exceed- ed cotton in value as an export, very quickly dropping to a subordinate rank. A third influence upon American cotton-culture was the introduction of negro labor ; which, however, was an effect as well as a cause. The blacks seemed to be admirably adapted to perform the reipiisite labor in the scorch- ing climate of the Southern States, where alone the plant could be grown : hence the ra])id development of the slavery system, already ingrafted upon our body politic. Although the experience of the past twelve years shows that slavery is not essential to cotton-culture ; that free negro labor is as good as slave labor, so far as the yield is concerned, if not Negro labor. r.'.S OF THE UNITED STATES. 55 ncy, who tiimily of (UtfuuUy ho cotton limsclf to t first he [ rcvolvt'tl IS to catch it proving eh worked ,hich tlex- sliowcd it ;xt year he ital of one gin cotton ivnd i)oorly iiKiko these . In 1794 irk; and in 2 given still \e invention -id litigation )uld get Imt own outlay. |l dollars for I'he story is \\()\\ was sus- Icrieans have [lis country's for his skill. The profit I the business Itime exceed- linate rank. }oduction of '\\\(t l)lacks the scorch- plant could Lvery system, lence of the Ire ; that free lerned, if not better; and tliat acclimated whites can do good service on the cotton planta- tion, — yet practiialiy the work of raising our cotton was, until tlie late civil war, done altogether by the negroes of this country ; and they have been an important means in the extension of the industry. I'ourthly, the expansion of the area of the United States in the South naturally gave further development to cotton-culture. ;\t tiie close of the last century, as wc have already indicated, the little cotton grown ^^ in this country was ( onfmed aluujst entirely to South Carolina and o( area of (ieoPL'ia. I'rom tlie former it e.\tenSoo Egypt 86,445 East Indies 445,637 Total outside Uni'ed States 541,672 United Sta..s 3,880,580 That is, we produced seven-eighths of the world's cotton. Now for the consumption. In 1850 it v/as thus estimated : — BALES. Great Britain i,m3,ooo United States 487,800 France 369,300 Russia 125,200 Trieste und Austria 125,200 Hamburg and Bremen 70,700 Holland and Belgium . 71,700 Spain 80,400 Ita y, Sweden, &c 52,100 Total 2,895,400 otton which ; back to us lur manufac- utilized the )pe had not n discovered tance, in the ngland came ;. This pro- lied England ate years our ecause we are h for our own md even now ngland's chief -culture Will be : various coiui- e proportion in i represent the : have ccme to countries have r, these changes s : — ■ 541,672 I 3,880,580 I. Now for the BALES. 1,513,000 487,800 369,300 OF THE UNITED ^STATES. 55. Thus it apr ears that England inanuftvctured half or more of the worki's cotton. Very naturally, then, the principal producer furnished the Quantity principal consuiner most of her supply, as will appear from tin.' exported hy following statement of our export in i860 : — BALES. To England 3,037,763 " Fiance 709.9 '8 " Other Countries 671,535 Total 4,419,215 This figure represents the abnormal export of the year following that of our largest crop, and is the largest aggregate shipment we ever made in any one year. We propose to give now, somewhat more in detail, a state- shipment ment showing the extent of our exportation of cotton during a for several series of years ; and, if this be conn)ared with the statement y'*"* which we shall presently give of our total production, it will be easy to see what share of the whole yield we have been acci stomed to sell to other coun- tries in exchange for what we have been obliged to buy from them. We have already mentioned that we sent small amounts in "sacks" to England in 1748, 1754, and 1770; and that seventy-one bags, amounting to about eight bales, were seized aboard an American vessel in 17S4, Early ship- becausc it was deemed impossible that this country could produce ""ents. so much, and that such a quantity of cotton could only have been obtained by the ship illegitimately. In 1789 we shipped no less than 842 bales to Eng- land. In 1 79 1, it is stated in the Agricultural Bureau's Report for 1862, we exported 189,316 pounds, or 4,733 bales of the modern standard.' In 1800, so ra[)id was the development of the industry, we exported 17,789,803 pounds, or 44,476 bales, — an increase of nearly ten to one in a single shipments decade. During the next thirty years the increase was about four- 1830-1855. teen-fold, as will be seen from the followinir table : — Five vcnrs endi "g 1S35 1S40 1845 iS SO 1S55S 1,273,232,281 1,695,970,409 2,621,360,414 3.443.757,674 3.551.036,317 5,128,295,805 During the twenty-five years from the first half-decade to the last half- decade here registered the increase was a trifle over fourfold, shipments Herewith we give the figures for the next twenty-two years, sepa- »856-i877. rately and in bales : — 2,895,400 ' Four hundred pounds. ■"' Average per year, in b-iles, 2,564,148. • Average per year, in bales, 636,616. i ■ f. 's Kansas, e largely But, as le world's lA va lincipation of [ary demorali- the repeated Ithree miUion )ur tables of the war, we 3re, and that I any year an- is no doubt, inual yield to lother notal)le IS a westward of iSsy. movement of the centre of cotton production. In 1849 Alabama stood in the front rank, with Georgia next, and Mississippi third. In production 1859 Mississippi had the lead, with Alabama second, Louisiana of the sev- third, and Georgia fourth. In 1876, as will be seen by the follow- state"""" ing table showing distribution of yield and fertility, Mississippi was first, Texas second, Louisiana third, Alabama fourth, and Arkansas acA Georgia nearly equal : — North Carolina. Soiitli Carolina . Clcorgia Florida Alabama . Mississippi Louisiana . Texas Arkansas . Tcinicsscc . Indian Territory, &c. Total . 609,000 945.500 1,515,000 165,000 1,732,250 1,976,000 1,260,000 1,483,500 1,133,000 741,000 1 17,000 11,677,250 Acreage less than before the war. It may be remarked in passing, that, while our i)roduct is as large as before the war (larger on the average), our acreage is less, it having been upwards of thirteen million in iS6o.^ This shows an im- provement in methods of cultivation. Improved cultivation is noticeable in several respects. The relative pro- portion of corn and other supply crops is increasing. Heretofore pork and meal have been bought from the North ; but, raising them at home, the food of the laborer is made cheaper, and the profit on labor is greater. Then, too, rotation of crops is studied more closely in consequence. Greater pains are taken to prevent waste of the soil, and also to feed and restore it. Beyond the Mississippi, along the new and rich alluvial bottom-lands of the Red River and Ouachita, no such expedients are now necessary : but, in the States east of the Mississippi, greater economy is practised with cotton-seed and lot manures ; and experiments are numerous with commercial fertilizers used chiefly in combination with composts of home material. ' The distribution of the cotton-culture in the so-called cotton-belt is very uneven. Out of seven hut.Jredand fifty-nine counties, no less than ninety-three produced no cotton at all in 1870, and two hundred and .v.nty- seven others from less than a thousand bales down to one; whereas seventy-nino produced about 1 f of tha whole crop, each yielding upwards of ten thousand bales. As an illustration on a smaller scale, ii m: be stated that four out of Tennessee's eighty-t'ive counties produced four-tenths of that [state's crop in 1870. Corn, tha other prominent Southern crop, though of much jyss importance in the aggregate, is much belter distributed. Greater economy in cultivation of cotton. •I .M! m INDUSTRIAL HISTORY :1 The soil is being cultivatt'l more tlioroughly, and with improved imple- ments, especially in those regions where white labor is in the largest pro- portion. A noticeable diminution in the size of farms is going on, which conduces to higher culture. Between i860 and 1870 the number of farms of over a Sir.aiicr hundred acres decreased in every cotton State, and those of under farms. ^ hundred acres increased, the reduction being twenty-two per cent, and the increase thirty-five per cent. This movement is still progress- ing, the ratios being largest in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida. There is a tendency to depart from the method of working on shares (which came into vogue immediately after the war), and to pay cash wages Mode of instead ; and, on the whole, wages are growing a trifle less. Where working the share system prevails, — and it still predominates, — contracts farms. ^^^^ somewhat in particulars. Thus bare labor gets about one- fourth of the crop on rich lands, and one-third on poor soils. If the laborers Rates of re- fumish their own rations, they get from four-tenths to one-half the muneration. crop, according to the productiveness of the soils. As the supply of crops becomes more plenty and larger, the tendency will be for the help to provide themselves more and more with rations, and rely less on the land- owner. The propv'otor receives a third or half of the yield ; if he provides imi)lements, live- •^^ stock, and rations for the help, about two-thirds. Rations consist of about two hundred pounds of bacon and fifteen bushels of meal per man a year, which is equivalent to from forty dollars to sixty dollars. A landlord will sometimes let his land for a bale of cotton to a man, and half a bale for a woman, giving them the rest. Where cash is paid, the yearly system rather than the monthly is pursued ; and the rate is from a hundred dollar; to a hundred and forty-five dollars for a " full hand," and half or two-thirds that for youths and women. The freedmen are coming to take a proprietary interest in the labor, rather COTTON-I'ACKET. OF THE UNITED STATES. 6x :d imple* gest pro- conduces of over a t of under ;y-tsvo per \ progress- la. on shares cash wages ess. Where — contracts about one- the laborers one-half the ,s the supply r the help to on the land- f he provides nents, hve- and rations t help, about irds. "Rations t of about two :d pounds of and fifteen ,s of meal per year, which livalcnt to from ^loUars to sixty A landlord iometirnes let Ind for a bale Itton to a man, ,alf a bale for a n, giving them ist. Where cash [id, the yearly ,ni a hundred ' and half or 1 than to vvuik as hirelings ; which tends to greater economy, thrift, and energy. (Jiic in twenty of the freedinen are cultivating lands of their own, and in Florida the proportion is one in twelve. Like every other great industry of the country, cotton-culture has given chan'.cter and development to «jities, railroads, and shijipinginterests. Just as Chicago and Buffalo are built up out of the grain-business, Cincinnati out of pork-production, and Pittsburg out of iron ; so cotton has done Effect of cot- much to create Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, New Orleans, (lal- ton-cuiture veston, Vicksburg, and Memphis. Railroads from the interior of Industrie" the cotton States to their centres of export have been built more and move- for this class of freight than for passenger-traffic, and it is the "'" ^" cotton-interest that so earnestly seconds the schemes of Northern capitalists for a Texas Pacitlc Railroad. Except river-boats, the South has never owned much shipping ; but the heavy export-trade of cotton necessarily has given great expansion to American and foreign ship-building and navigation. So wide-spread and huge is the production, that no cotton-rings, like the coal, oil, and grain cliques, have ever existed to control the markets. But the political infl.'.'^r.cc of the cotton-growers has been the most powerful that lias ever been wielded by any one interest in this country ; though now, the necessity for its assertion having gone by, it is no longer noticeable. labor, rather INDUSTRIAL IJliiTORY iJ^VU CMVFrER IV. WHLAT. THE culture of wheat is among the very earliest products in American agriculture, and is now, in point of aggregate cash value, one of the three Importance most valuable. Moreover, it is a prime necessity of existence, of wheat. Food to maintain life, and clothing, and houses to shelter us, are, of course, the very essentials of living. Bread is indeed the staff of life ; and though, previous to its invention by the Greeks several centuries before Christ, other articles of diet formed the staple of human food, yet wheat bread is now characteristic of civilization. No people on the face of the globe have fully emerged from barbarism who do not li\e iJrincijially ujion wheat. Indeed, the cultivation of that grain has hatl more tlian any other one thing to do with raising man from a nomadir and unintellectual life, as will Effect of ^^ apparent to almost any one upon reflection. C'revecanir, the wheat- old French traveller, illustrates this point by attributing this utter- raising upon ^j^^,^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ aboriginal chiefs in this country, in a speech nomadic hfe. ° . to his own people : " Do you not see the whites living ujjon seeds, while we eat flesh? that flesh requires more than tiiirty moons to grow up, and is then often scarce ? that each of the wonderful seeds they sow in the earth returns them a hundred-fold ? The flesh on which we subsist has four legs to escape from us, while we have but two to pursue and capture it. The grain remains where the white men plant it, and grows. With them winter is a period of rest, while with us it is a time of laborious hunting. For these reasons tliey have so many more children than we, and live longer than we do. I say, therefore, unto every one that will hear me, that before tlie cedar of our ^•illage shall have died down with age, and the maple-trees of the valley ha\x ceased to give us sugar, the race of the little corn (wheat) sowers will haw exterminated the race of flesh-eaters, provided their huntsmen do not becomr sowers." The thought might be traced still furtlier ; but it is not witliin our proving to do so. The earliest origin of wheat is unknown. It is generally conceded, that, k OF THE UNITED STATES. 63 in American ; of the three of existence, helter us, are, f of life ; '^ntl before Christ, A\iidX bread is lie globe have dicat. any other one aai life, as will ■revecteur, the ing this utter- ,', in a speech :s living upon L)ons to grow they sow in the [ubsist has four ipture it. The them winter i^ ling. Foi" t'"*^^^' jgt-r than we do. |ie cedar of our the valley have lowers will have Ido not become [in our proviw '- conceded, that, | unlike our fniits and lomcstic animals, it was not developed from a wild, inferior growth by luunan culture.' It is claimed, moreover, that it has been found growing wild in uninhabited [^ions of Persia, Mesopotamia, and Texas. I'lgypt was one of the greatesi wheat-producing countries of Origin of aiu ent times: thither Jacob's sons went for it in the days of a wheat, famine in C"an.?an thirty-six centuries ago. Identically the same grain of th.^l age, (.Atraciec from the cerements of mummies that were entombed in Joseph's time, has lately been planted ; and the product is a grain substan- tially the same as our modern wheat, only a trifle larger and better, 'i'hus it will be seen, that, from the earliest historical period, this grain has remained substantially unchanged ; and, though upwards of three hundred .rieties are said to exist, these may practically be narrowed down to thre< . — ■ . hard wheat of Southern Russia, Italy, Sicily, Kgypt, the BarbarN 'itat. Chili, Peru, and other warm coimtries ; the so-called Polish whe?i a cl liie soft wheat of Northern Russia, France, England, and North Am>.iiC,T The hard wheats, it may be remarked, possess rather more of gluten than the other varieties ; while the soft wheats abound rather in starch. The Egyptians were not only among the most famous of ancient agricul- turists, but they also de\'ised a method of preserving grain which has never yet been excelled ; namely, placing it in stone depositories her- cuUivation metically sealed. Many eminent historians have taken the mam- of wheat in moth Pyramids of that land for granaries ; but, besides these, ^^''*" they are known to have had other huge receptacles in which they stored grain for years at a time. The Israelites were educated in the arts of husbandry during their bond- age to the Pharaohs, and practised them extensively in later da)'s ; and the Bible contains many beautiful references to the wheatf.elds of Palestine. Without dwelling further u])on the ancient history of this precious grain, we proceed to consider its introduction to and culture in our own country. Cereal grasses were found under cultivation in Mexico by Covtez in 1530; but European wheat was introduced there l)y accident ; one of the Spaniards finding a few grains mixed with his rice, which he carefully sorted ^ , •' Early out, and planted. Thus, in time, the newly-brought grain was scat- cultivation tered about the Spanish-American colonies, and finally spread into °^ wheat in territory now belonging to the United States. Wheat was neces- sarily sown by the earliest English colonists of Uiis country almost immedi- ately upon their arrival : indeed, C lOsnold is said to have planted it on the Elizabeth Islands, off Massachusetts, as early as 1602. For a time, Virginia gave much attention to its cultivation ; and in 1648 several hundred acres in • In The Vear-Bo'-'. ,„' Agriculture for 1856 the editor mentions snme curious facts which had recently been laid before the French Academy, relative l.i the transformation of two grasses, — ,-j?^//,i/>j (niata and /Egilots triarihtrata. A gardener named Esprit I'abrc of Adge, France, by seven years experimenting found he could develop from these two grasses all or the greater number of our species of wheat. A savage plant, under culti- vation, was thus made 10 change its entire aspect and figure, and gradually assume a new character. d^ 64 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY :; n i ;,« that colony were sown with wheat. But the more profitable tobacco-crop soon supi)lantc(l it ; and fur nearly a century scarcely any was raised, even though the colonial authorities offered a premium thereon. Since the Revj- lulion, however, this branch of agriculture has revived ; and Virginia raises a good wheat-crop. In New England, wheat was grown rather assiduously until about 1662, when, for four successive years, the blast and mildew damaged the crop to such an extent as to greatly discourage those who raised it ; and so the colonists fell back again on corn and potatoes, to which they have given EGYJTIAN GKANARV. great attention, even down to the present time. Colonial subsidies to wheat-growers in those days stimulated them but very little, the failure of their crops more than offsetting such encouragement. Wheat was grown in New England somewhat more generally in the early part of the present century ; but the wearing-out of the soil, and other causes, led to its neglect. Vigorous efforts have been made to revive the industry, but without success. During the last century consideral)le wheat was grown in the Hudson an<' Mohawk River \alleys of New York, and in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 1750 New Jersey produced more wheat tnan any other of our colonies; 111 IP : •; OF TIIF. rXlTKD STATES. 65 cco-crop ictl, even he Rt-o- 1 raises a jusly until iiaged the t ; and so have given kkd I subsidies to Idie failure of ,was grown in if the present [to its neglect, lithout success. Hudson and Pennsylvania, our colonies; and, long l)cforc that date, wheat and wheat-flour were exported from New York and I'hiladelphia. .\fter the Revolution, Western New York gradually i])i)l licit - - • ■ — -- - — — - _ — SECTION. 1849. 1859. 1869. 1876. 5 ■•4 .307 20 19.6 43-3 54.6 49 40.S clt 5-3 147 3' 39-6 " The first .section has now a little more than one-third o\ its former pro- portion ; even the second, which was swept with so heavy a wave; of immigra- Proportions ^'*'" ''^ ''^'-' '"'^'^ decennial period, exhibits a declining i)ercentage ; between the while tlic iliird lias eight times its former ])romiiU'n(e, even in a year of low production of spring wheat, and promises to make the [)roportion nine to one in 1877. A few years more will find a preponderating: ' IViinsylvania \v;is rcliirntd as yii:l(Jiun 15, 367,691 Iniiliuls of wliuat in tlic .xmisu-. of 1850,3111! Oliio .h only ii;... (87,351. Tiiis was rc.illy tin i.rKp of iS.(ci. (Jljlo prodiicci'. 28.70.1,1 ly liiislu.'l ; iif wheat in 1850, — i tic:nLni.luii lean t.i t!iO li-'nt. J (>/• 77/A UNlTHIi STATES. 67 L' true, it nrc. Hut of empire ihc loun- ii,n ti) tlu' rest whc.vt- u\ Virniniii is was first, cnnsylvania cinlUli and ;ir(;iniiv ami St. lniH5'> low ea( 1^ of ; Maryland's lliis Western s the volume •s ago, but the ^sin\)i Kivcr is only was then S76, a year of )rty per cent. incUuling the ,. Ohio River, wc fmd niore 1 each secti.^n 1876. 86.5. |20 I49 I US former pro- ,^. of immisra- [ng percentage ; Ince, even in a s to make thr preponderalin;:, ,,,• ,850, LUU\ Ohio .1; ,1- wlu-.>i ill I85'^■~ ' ■| ■I weight of wheat produi lion licyond the ' leather of Waters.' Comparing rela- tive <|uaiuitics. rather than proportions of the crop, we find that tl>e Atlantic (oast has iield its own and little more : the ( entral belt produces three tiints as much ; liie trans- Mississiitpi bell, more lluui twenty limes as much. 'The figiues are as follows : — HKCriON, Atlantic (,'f)ast (ciilr.il licit . Trans-Mississippi Hell Total . .8,.;. 51,657,020 43,522,646 5.300,278 100,485,944 iB^cj. 53.294. '37 94,458,609 -5.352. •?« t73,ioi,924 57.47^37' 140,877,070 «9.392,i8s 287,745,626 iflyft. 56,489,500 I 18,122,000 n4,74S,ooo 2H3S6.S00" Croji of 1877. Tf the exact distribution of the crop of 1877, arnotmting to three himdred and sixty millions of busheU, could be giveii, we unagine the change would appear even more marked than in these ligures of the commissioner. The jjopulation of this coimtry, for the years 1850, i860, 1870, atid 1877. was in the almost exact ratio, res[)cctively, of three, four, five, Ratiooipro- and six;' but the aggregate wheal-i)rodu{'tion of those years was auction to in the ratio of four, seven, eleven anil a half, and tourteen and .1 *'°''" half.-' As the increase from 1840 to 1850 was only fifteen per cent, — scarcely e(|ual to the increase in i)opulation. — it is easy to see when the new impulse began lo be felt. We now ( ome to consider some of the causes of the marked development of this department of American agriculture. 'l"he first of them was the rapid occupation" of the prairie-land in the Ohio and Up[jer-Mississippi Valleys by emigrants from the I'lastern States, and from Oermany, Scandi- _ _ -" Causes of navia, and other countries of Mnrope, toward the middle of this development centurv. Another was the remarkable adaptabllitv of liie soil and °* wheat- ■ culture. climate of that sc on to wheat-growing.* Still another was the famine in Ireland in '847, whieli made an untisual foreign demand for Ameri- can (ereals. Still another was the development of the railroad* system in ' 'I'lic exact figures are, 23,i. - 'I'lic fi.i;iires arc, i«\485,94t liiisliuls, 173,104,924, 287,745,626, rinil iihoiit 36o,ooo,ix». ■■' \V lilli; cniigralioii iMdiiidtcil wliiMl-ciiliiire and exportation, the wlieat-ijiterost, in turn, built i.). ,.il!rs. I'nr iweiily years Chicago lias been the greatest grain-dlse\vhere we have con- sidered this matter ; and of the improvement in the plough early in this century, and of the invention of the threshing-machine in place of the poetic but feebly-efficient old Hail, we need not here remark. lUit what Mr. Charles L. Flint says of the reaper bears immediately ui)on the subject. He remarks, — " The sickle, which was in alaiost universal use until a very recent date, is undoubtediv one oi the most ancient of all our farming-implements. Reaping by the use of it was always slow and lal)orious : while, from the fact that many of our grains would rip^cn at tlie same time, there was a liability to loss before they could be gathered ; and practically there Quotation was a uHich greater loss from from Flint, ^j^j^ causc than there is at the present time. It is not, therefore, too much to say, that the successful introduction of the reaper into the grainfields of this country has added millions of dollars to the value of our annual han'ests, by enabling us to se- cure the whole product, and to enlarge the area of our wheatfields, with a certainty of being able to gather the crop. NoUiing was more sur[>rising to the mercantile com- munity of iMu^pt: than the fact that we could continue to export such vast ([uanti- ties of wheat and other breadstuffs through the midst of the late Rebcllio'i, with a mil- lion or two of able-bodied men in arms. . . . The number of two - horse reapers in operation throughout the country in the harvest of 1861 performed an amount of work equal to about a million of men." Probably ti'.e numl)er of these machines used in the sununer of 1877 was more than three hundred thousand, — e(|uivalent to at least five ' ' 'lions of men. 'Ihe exportation of wheat and wheat-flour tVom thi- country was a large Exportation husiucss ]:rior to the Revolutionary war and for twenty-five years 01 wheat and subse(]uently. In 1 79 1 we sent abroad 619,681 barrels of flour "^ ^ ■ °" • ;i.-4 1,018,339 bushels of wheat : this was equivalent to a trifle over 4,000,000 bushels. What proportion of our total product this was, we cannot onc- ;ind th;ii it a< ci'op e.vpoi \\\ OF THE UNITED STATES. 69 i;d up these lis (!)>• c eon- in this of the lat Mr. suV)jecl. ;nt (late, lemenls. ays slow fad that the same :fore they illy there loss from is at the too much tion of the is country ■le value of lis to se- nlarge the ortainty of Nothinii ntile com- ■t that we ast quanti- ffs through dlh a mil- in arms. •se reai)crs btry in the [amomit of was more |of men. L-as a large ly-five years [els of Hour la trifle over wc cannot say. The quantity has steadily increased in a larger proportion than the yield, just as the yield has increased in larger proportion than the population. For the five years ending 1845, '^'''^ average exportation was hut 7,000,000 bushels, including Hour. This was a comparatively slow increase. I'Voni that i)oint it was more rapid, partly owing to the start given by the Iri^,h famine. For the next (\\ the ue.-essity for Kivinu' every possihle seopo to industrial pro.lurtiou in Kurope. The n„ rr,,s, ^. ,ost of Rratn-pro.luction in Fatrope, on the one han.l, an.l the improvenuut in traitsa.lanlie transpor- tattoa.on the other «ave .0 the ,nilh„« interest, espe, iaily ,n KuK-lan,! an.l Fr.mee, a n.ar(.in of profit in ^-rin.ling Aiiieriran Kiam, which seeured to that interest an eu.unious .levelopnient. ti i IND CS TRIA f. ///.S 7'0/s: V growing grain for exportation, except as a pioneer expedient Ascendency ''^ opening and improving farms, is not to be commended. No over other material portion of our i'\])orts can ever be made up of breadstuffs, countries. „or is it desirable that this should l)e." But since then our produc- tion and exportation of cereals have rapidly increased ; while die ex])()rlation of cotton, with which he made compari.son, has decidedly decreaseti. Our ex])orts of cotton in 1868 were worth ^152,820,733 ; of wheat and flour. 851,135,430 ; and of ail breadstuffs, ,'>79,o4(), 187. In 1875 our cotton exports amounted to only about $175,000,000 ; while wheat and wheal-flour amounted to .^83,31 7,- 937 > <'orn, to $25,747,470 more ; and ih^se, with other breadstuffs. to about #125,000,000. C^otton increased only about one-sixth, and <-ereals a])out one- half, in the interval. When we consider that Russia and the I'niled States furnish those countries of liie world which cannot raise wheat enough for themselves with three-ipiarlers or more of the surjilus in the proilucing coun- tries ; that the United States now exjiort nearly twice what Russia does ; that, notwithstanding Russia's recent introduction of imi)roved agricultural imple- ments, we are likely to maiiitain the same ascendency over her as regards ))roduction, — we see that our wheat-ex])ortation promises to continue a lead- ing industry for many years to come. 'I'his will further appear on the consid- eration of two or three other promising features of the history of wheat-culture in America. Although the wheat-crop is susceptible to many hurtful influences, — such as rust, l)last, smut, the wheat-fly, weevil, chinch-bug, grasshopper, winter-killing Injurious i'- '''^"^ exposurc to frost, and the bloving and lodging from heavy sects, grass- galcs, — yct these influences have thus far proved local, and have hoppers, &c. ^(.greely affected the total production of the country at any time. The New-England blights of 1662-65, though discouraging, were limited. The grasshopi)er depredations of 1875 and 1876, in Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin, were very serious in their effects upon the farmers temporarily ; and yet the effect on the total yield of the country, or die price of flour in the East, inasmuch as we had some of 1874's wheat left on hand, was to lessen but slightly our exportation. In 1877 the pest had nearly disai)i)eared ; and. by planting an extra area, we more' than made up the loss. The wars of in(lej)endence and of 1S12-14 temporarily impaired our ])roduct and exportation ; but the war with Mexico in 1847-48, and the late civil war, did not interfere perceptibly. Cireat Britain is now so dependi lit u])on us for bread, that she can scarcely go to war with us again under any circumstances : so we are safe in thai Effect of wars upon production of wheat. re I ;ard. ' Tiic cToj> of 187:; \v;is not iiior" 'li.ui two jicr cent bcluw llic average, ami lliat of 1876 not iiuire tliaii lluc'' iK-r cent, — riboul eleven million bushels shorl. T)]-: crop of 1S77 was twenty yier cent above the average, an) fifty million bushels more tHan any previous yii;l !. .J« OF THE UNITED STATES. 71 .expedient led. No ivadNUiffs, iv pnxluc- )rtation of nil" c'\l)orts 1.135-4;/^; lounlcd to s, to about about one- lilcd States L'no\i,^V\ for (icing coun- docs ; that, Itural imple- r as regards linue a Icad- 1 the consid- ivheat-culture Mices, — such winter-killing ly from heavy cal. and have It any time. Ilimited. 'H^^' In-aska, Iowa, li iheir effects vicld of the )ine of 1H74 s In 1.S77 the ic more ' tlian impaired our 1847-48.'"^'' Iveat Britain i^^ .scarcely go to Le safe in thai I not inor*-' i''^" '''"''' |,vc the average, an 1 '^y 1 ■ - ^i ^ I ill INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Within ten or fifteen years the centre of wheat-production has moved west of the Mississippi River. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan Future pro- ^ccp steadily increasing their yields ; while Minnesota, Iowa, auction of Nebraska, and Kansas have each a still greater development yet wheat. jj^ store. Then, too, California is looming uf) tremendously as a wheat-growing State. In 1850 she raised but 1 7,325 bushels ; ten years later, 5,928,470; twenty years later, 16,676,702; and now, upwards of 30,000.000. If not so alrcaily, she will soon be the largest producer of wheat in the Union, with a huge latent capacity for lurther development. Outside of the States here named, there is comparatively little new territory which we can devote to the culture of this grain ; yet here is still magnificent promise, and one which even Russia cannot ecjual. We have already alluded to Klippart's gloomy prophecies as to the failure of our wheat-production through impoverishment of the soil. The expe- Restoring rience of the Atlantic States, however, where the chemical ele- exhausted mcnts of the soil are different from those of the prairie-lands ^°' ^' and from those of California, offers no sure analogy. It must be admitted that Ohio, which in 1859 yielded over thirteen bushels to the acre, now produces but nine bushels and a half; yet, within a icw pages of these same dark auguries, Klippart points out the ability of American husbandmen to restore the fertility of the soil by artificial manures, as the Englishmen do, and quotes Mr. Caird's allusions to the wheatfields of Lombardy, which have steadily yielded crops for two thousand years. In view of all these facts, we fail to see whv America is likely to be worse off than her principal rival, Russia. i If! 1; i i i m ii\ 'V\ ti(| ani in I ha| chj ill OF THE UNITED STATES. 73 ed west [ichigan L, Iowa, ncnt yet CHAPTER V. the failure rhc expe- niiical ele- iralric-lands It mvist be .0 the acre, r^-s of these husbandmen glishmen do, wrdy, which these facts, ■incipal rival, CORN. INDIAN-CORN, or maize, is the crop which this country produces in the largest ([uantity and value, and v/hich l;as the widest acreage, while it ranks next to wheat among our agricu cural exports. Thus in 1875 we raised 292,136,000 bushels of wheat, anv' 1,321,069,000 of corn. In importance 1877 the corn-product was the same nearly, while wheat had of com-crop. increased to 360,000,000 bushels. I.i 1875 t'"*^ value of our corn-crop was ^555.445'93o; of wheat, $294,580,990 ; of hay, $342,203,445 ; and of cotton, $272,936,400. That same year we had 10,803,030 acres yielding cotton, 23,507,964 yielding hay, 26,381,5.2 yielding wheat, an-' 44,841,371 yielding corn. Such is tiie story which the figures tell by comparing ihem. Though used almost exclusively among the cereals by the mass of the Southern people as an article of diet, it is not so exclusively an article of human food in the United States as wheat. It is fetl to horses largely, and to cattle, sheei), and poultry, but to swine more than to any other animal, the pork of this country b-.-ing largely flittened on this grain. Ti stalks of this grain, too, make more nutritious fodder for live-stock than the straw of any other. There is also a perceptible consump- tion of corn by distillers of whiskey; and at times it has been so plentiful in some of the Western States, that it has been used for fuel. It was much cheai)er. its heat considered, in many kxa'ities, in 1871, than coal at nine dollars a ton; and it was thus consumed in large (juantities, although fires made of it required close attention. COKN-SMri. IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y Regarding the origin of this particular grain, there has been much con- troversy. It has been claimed as a j)urely American product, all other : r Origin of corn. countries getting it from the New World. \Vhile, however, there can be no doubt that it was indigenous to America, it cannot be established that it fast made its appearance in tliis country. In 1204 the Marquis of jMontferrat and his companions brought back from the Orient to Italy a grain known as " melica." or " melaga," — a name which was afterwards used interchangeably willi that of the real maize, and led to the sujjposition that this kind of corn came first from Asia. The name "Turkish corn," which it long bore in luuope, ga\e rise to a supposition that it came from Turkey's Asiatic possessions. Neillier of these theories has been demon- strated, however. 1 Setter evidence of the fact that the Old World had this same grain under cultivation before Columbus discovered y\mcrica is found in the fact that the Chinese historian, J.i-chi-tchin, speaks of a plant exactly corresponding to it in his country toward the middle of the sixtec'nth century. The proverl)ial sK)wness of that people in introducing new ideas and institu- tions, the shortness of the interval, and the inference from his remarks that the crop was long established, incline one to believe that they leally had our Indian-corn in China more than four centuries ago. Indeed, i')riental trav- ellers incline to believe that it has been cultivated in the islands of the Indian Archipelago from the earliest ages. A fact of still more decisive character is the discovery of mai/.e in the cerements of a mummy exhumed at Thebes, Egypt, under circumstances leading to a belief that it was two or three thousand years old. Nevertheless, it is known that it was cultivated on this continent a great many centuries ago. Longfellow embodies in his " Hiawatha " a well-known _ ,. ^ , legend of the Ojibwavs as to the gift of maize to the red man Earliest cul- " ■' - <^ tivation of by thc Great S])irit. The Aztec nations of Mexico and Central corn in America, who attained a high civilization, have a tradition that America. '^ the Toltccs introduced the culture of maize into this country in thc seventh century ; but there is reason to believe that it was already com- mon with the natives at that time, and that the Toltecs merely improved the methoils of cultivation. I'hc Mexicans had a deity corresponding to the Cer&s of thc Romans, who was supjxosed to watch o\'er this crop, and whom they worshipped accordingly, Tlu 1,1 ain was raised plenteously from Southern Chill to the southern part of Pennsylvania when luiropeans first visited America. Parched corn was the great vegetable staple of Indian diet. Corn reciuires k-s^ ( iiIun alion than almost any other food-cro]) in this country, altliough it is aflectt'd more by the condition of the season than some Mode of cu'- others. It prefers diy, loamy soils, and rich bottom-lands, to wet. tivation. jj^|.,j el ,y^ 'I'hough there are many varieties (some growing tn the height of fifieen or sixteen feet, and others scarcely above one's knee ; ami some being better adapted to one section than another, there being variation. in I" la I 'N OF THE UNITED STATES. n uch con- all other ivcr, Ibcro it cannot 1204 the Orient to afterwards svipposition kish corn," came from en demon- rlil had this ca is found ilant exactly nth century. and institu- remarks that cally had our Oriental trav- of the Indian •c character is ed at Thebes, two or three tinent a great a well-known the red man and Central tradition that his country in already corn- improved the )onding to the rop, and whom from Southern isited America. ,d-crop ni this Hison than some L -lands, to wet. Ime growing t" ^ne's knee ; and being variation. -.% also, in the shape, size, and color of the kernel), tlierc arc practically hut two kinds, — the white and yellow, each hcinu (livuled in no tl le nanl and sofi and one or another is culti\atcd in almost c\cry jiart of the I'nitcd Stales where ctised at all. From these various causes, the first emigrants agriculture is prac to this country raised it extensively, relying upon it as the ])rin( ipal artit !e of food, and using it, also, for barter and export. Later, tl.e crop was conibined with i)Otatoes or I'umpkins, or 'x)tli, on small tracts of land ; and the three nourished together more jirohpcviusly than any one of tliem would with any other common agricultural product. Thus we find that corn-culture tbliowed the whites into all new territory which tliey occupied. New England raised hut comparatively little ; but, long before the Revolution, New Jersey, I'enn- sylvania, and Delaware were exporting corn cxtensi\ely, Virginia even more so, and the two Carolinas and (jeorgia also, having a sur])lus to exchange with Europe Ibr necessary imi)orts. The aggregate exjiort of tlie colonies in 1770 was 578.349 bushels, — an amount more than once e(|ualled by VirL,nnia alone, before the Revolution. .\t the close of that war, for a time, agriculture in this country made little headway; and some special causes, like the sudden devc ipmcnt Effect of of cotton-culture in the South, mav have retarded the ijroi,^ ot Revolution- , ^ . ^ , sry war other lines of agriculture. From these various causes, \vc find, upon corn- that from 1 79 1, when we exported corn and meal amounting to culture. about 2,064,936 bushels of grain, there was a gradual decline for over twenty years in the export. In 1800 it amounted to 2,032,435 bushels, and in 1810 to only 140.996. In the next two decades, influences of a stimulating character began to operate on this industry, which were followed up by others during succeeding years ; so that the corn-crop has for the past fifty years shown , J - i i J J Increase rapid increase. In 1S25 the Erie Canal was opened, giving cheap during next transportation to ^\'cstern crops. Railroads were built later, i)en- twenty ' years. etrating all the more prodiu-.tive sections of the ^^'est. Emigra- tion rapidly increased. I'arm-implements greatly improved, although these were not so essential to corn as to some other grains. The value of this cereal for fattening cattle, too, began to be realized : and its demand for this use was soon vigorous. From 184010 1850, the total yield increased from 377,531.- 875 bushels to 592,071.104, —a gain of fifty-seven ])er cent, while population was increasing but thirty-five per cent. The increase of wheat during this time was only fifteen percent. ISy iSOo the figures had grown 10838,792,- 742, — an advance of but a trifle ov.r fort\-one ])ercent, — three- increase (juarters of which gain was in the Northern States. During that ^•""• decade the iK)])u!alion increased thirty-five per cent as before, and wjieat had increased ncady seventy-five per cent. In 1870 a falling-off was noticeable, the product being only 760,944,549 bushels. This, probably, was due to the corn- lands bcin"^ converted, in some cases, to wheat-culture ; wliich. how ver, is not, .fm* i^--:£--»Sw and corn-meal make \\\i forty ])er cent of our cereal Export of export. We have already remarked, that from 1791, when we '^°''"' sent abroad 2,064.936 bushels of corn, there was, for many years, a falling-off in the export of that commodity. For the whole five years end- ing irevailing, it was estimated that this trade would prove profitable to both countries. Hut the movement ])artly defeated itself bv calling out supplies of grain in excess of a normal demand, and, consecpiently, by cutting down prices in lOngland below tiie calculated mini- mum. Some of the grain, from lack of care in shipment, was injured by heating in ocean transit, causing considerable losses. On the whole, howe\er, it is estimated that tlie profits of this movement more than counterbalanced its losses. This was one of the causes that so greatly enlarged the export of <'orn during tlie fiscal year 1876. In 1S62 the commissioner of agriculture remarked that the _ . . '^ Opinion of export of corn was very undesirable, as it was worth more to this commis- (oimtrvio keeij our sui)plv at home, have low prices, and fiitten sioner of ' ' ' - .... agriculture our cattle more cheaply. As the possibilities of our product are concerning comparali\elv unlimited, such solicitude does not seem to be export of ' corn. lully warranted. It may be remarked, that corn exhausts our lands less rapidly than wheat ; that it returns more handsome profits for increased caie in cultivation than .some other crops ; and that careful experiments show that ex- _ ' Corn a more hausted land may be renewed with artificial manures to such an exhaustive extent as to pay immense dividends on the investment. These '^^°^ "^^" ■ wheat. Kicts, and the steady increase of territory devoted to the produc- tion of this cer.;al, make the outlook for the future of the industry rather more certain and bright tlian that of wheat-culture. • Tliose d.iti;s arc of f ■■,cai years, ending June 30. The export of 1876, therefore, is re.nlly b.ised upon tlie crop of ihi; c.nlciid.ir yc.ir 1875. - As ill the case of wheat, the tendency in our corn-export has been steadily to send less manufactured grain, and more ungrouiid. Thus, during the five years ending 1830, we sent abroad 3,530,710 bushels of corn unground, and 3,133,632 in the fo'-n. ^^ nn.ai_ In 1S76 the corn sent abroad as meal was but two and three, fuurths per cent of the whole quantity. ■ t >y ; I ! I f f iiii 78 IXprsriUAI. Jf/STOKY The distri that of any Corn more generally raised than wheat. )f lltl throughout ihi. untry is more oven than ottou, tijljacfo, hay, aiii-Mn.i.. SECTION. Atlantic-coa^'. States Central licit . Traiis-Missis.iippi Hclt 1S49. 30 58 12 1859. 24 55 21 1869. 1875. 20 14 53 51 27 35 The I'last lias declined continuously and hopelessly; the centre has held a determined struggle, yielding only inch by inch; the West has trotl thi' track of destiny with accelerated step. As a result of the rapid growth and the geographical location of tin' great cornfields, there has l)een an immense growth of cities- .d railroads II ! '!■: OF THE (r XI TED STATES. 79 1 Uuin each y con- es not he ten ginias ; ,a, l»i- rl, iii^^l [)ro(huc ok' irol) I'hc cu\- ,cvcr, i>^ stribvited in, sugar, K* South- itcs ; and ng home- ( creal isi JVC gcner- lAore, that suffered c recently fooil-Hup- gUmd, en- nufactviring than in ill that section of country between the Ohio and the (Ire, it Fakes, and just west of tiu' Mississi|)])i. On the rivers and lal<(s, cspeciall) 'he latter, ship- ping has grown iniineiiscly. to carry on the work ot transpi.r ^ msequen- tation. It would he difticuk to say exactly how much of this cesot ruising , . , . . I . • , II I ^orn upon m.iterial wealth ol development is due to corn, and how much other iiiUus- to wiieat; hut the division woukl give lli former the larger triea and 1 ^.i ■ • I- .1 ... I • . . movementi. share. Chicago is, ot < ourse, the great centre ol ilie corn interest ; hut many other lake and interior t.ities are the product of this industry. So completely «lci ''iident, too, on the grain-transpurtai on business, are many of the Western railroails, that their sloe ks rise an fall on Wall Street will. I'very (hiclualion of the crops and the demands therefor. Indeed, to corn, more than lo ail) other one agricultural j)roduct of tlus country, do w^. owe the expansion of our material prosperity. a westward |)c apparent 1875. 51 h-c has hel c?3 :^ > W V o / Photographic Sciences Corporation 73 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^^ <^' 80 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY CHAPTER VI. SUGAR AND MOLASSES. SUGAR and molasses are among those agricultural products of the United States, which, in amount, fall far short of our necessities, rendering a heavy import (chiefly from the West Indies) requisite to supply the defi- Description ^i^^i^cy. The production is, moreover, limited in locality, as well of sugar- as in (juantity, being mostly confined to Louisiana. The cane cane region, jj^^ives, and is the staple product, in all parts of the State south of the latitude of Baton Rouge, except in the pine uplands bordering on Texas. It must not l)e thought, however, that the whole of the region * "ithin these boundaries actually produces sugar. The area of cultivated land is comparatively small ; swamps, lakes, rivers, and bayous occupying most of the surflice of the country, and the territory available for i)lanting being restrictetl to narrow strips along the water-courses. The shores of the Mis- sissippi, for fifty miles above and below New Orleans, are lined with cane- fields, extending l)ack for about a mile to the cypress-swamps. Along the Atchafalaya. and the La Fourche, Platjuemine, Teche, Boeuf, Courtableau, and other bayous west of the Mississippi, there is little besides sugar raised. The Teche, and the parishes bordering upon it, known under the general name of the Attakapas couiitry, is the paradise of the sugar-planter. Per- haps the land is no better than that along the other bayous ; but its conforma- tion makes it easy of drainage, while the proximity of the Gulf gives it cool breezes in summer, and the natural l)eauties of the region make it the most attractive part of Louisiana. Longfellow's description in " Evangeline " fits it very well : — " IJcautiful is the land, with its prairies, and forest of fruit-trees: Under tlie feet a garden of flowers ; and tlic bhiest of lieavens Bending above, and resting its dome on the walls of the forest. They who dwell there have named it the Eden of Louisiana." There are many litUe descriptive passages in the poem that are remarkably true to nature ; and the wonder is that Longfellow could have got the local coloring so well without once visiting the region he pictures. OF 71/ E UNITED STATES. 8x ts of the United ies, rendering a supply the defi- , locality, as well iana. The cane the State south ds bordering on the region i'ithin :ultivated land is cupying most of ,r planting being lores of the Mis- lined with cane- pps- -'^l^^g ^^^*-' icuf, Courtableau, ides sugar raised. jnder the general ^ar- planter. Ter- but its conforma- iulf gives it cool (iiake it the most EvangeUne" fits Irccs: Lvens lircst. Iia. »» It are remarkably Lve got the local Long before the Revolutionary war the New-England colonies carried on a largo (oinniorcc in sugar and molasses, which, with rum, they brought from the West Indies, and carried hence to luuope. There were re- Early com- fineiiis in various parts of Connecticut, and Massachusetts too, merce in mostly for such sugar as was kept for home consumption. The ^^"^*jy| enactment of laws by Parliament, restricting this carrying-trade to IJritish vessels, as also the stamp-acts, which threatened to lay a tax on such sugar and molasses, seriously affected this industry. Accounts of Virginia and North Carolina, by the earliest settlers, speak of sugar-canes as indigenous to that section, but inaccurately. Sugar-canes do not ajjpear to have been grown in any part of what is now the g^^jy gy,jj. United States until 1 751, when the Jesuits introduced them to vation in Louisiana from San Domingo. The first sugar-mill in this section was erected by M. iHibreuil, whose plantation is now covered by the city of New Orleans. But little headway was made in the culture until 1 794, when persecuted Frenchmen fled from San Domingo to Louisiana, and carried their business ideas with them. This State did not form a part of our Union, however, until 1S03. In later years the culture extended into Texas to a slight extent. In ICS05 an enterprising Georgia planter obtained Extension of and set out in his own State one hundred young sugar-canes, culture. These were rai)idly propagated ; and the culture extended into Florida, Alabama, and elsewhere. It was soon found, though, that the soil of Lou- isiana was by far the most productive, and the industry never prospered very much elsewhere. In 1850 eleven-twelfths of the yield of cane sugar and molasses of this country was Louisiana's. The following table shows the distribution in 1S70: — SUGAR, MOLASSES, STATES. HOCSHIiADS. OALLUNS. Louisiana 80,706 4.585.150 Texas 2,020 246,062 Tennessee 1,410 3.629 South Carolina ».oss 436,882 T''lorida 952 344,339 «55 192,607 185.145 377.752 1856 -55. -'92 123.468 378,760 IS 57 241,165 39,000 280,765 185S 244.758 143.734 388,493 •859 -\59.O34 192,150 431,184 J 860 296,950 I '8,33' 415,181 1S61 241,420 122,399 363,819 1862 241,4" 191,000 432.4H 1S63 ^'y-i>'f> 52,910 284,308 1864 192,660 28,000 220,660 1865 345.809 5,000 350,809 1 866 383. > 78 8,500 391,698 1867 378,068 22,500 400, 568 1868 44C'.533 23,000 409.533 1869 447.899 45,000 492,899 1870 483,892 46,800 530,692 1 87 1 5 53.7 '4 79,600 633.3 '4 1872 567.573 6<;,8oo 637.373 1873 592.725 59,300 652,025 1874 661,869 48,500 710,369 •875 621,852 63,500 68 5.3 52 1S76 561,369 77,000 638,369 ' I >inittins tluit wlilcli was exported - Oiuiuiiig lliu Irillc coiiaiiiiiL\l on tlic I'.icific coast. ■;ji ■si- 1 ()/•■ 77//: rxirr.D statf.s. H sHRnr-busincss ; in the latter ; tlic product (I statisticians the country, ihc liistory of . lv)\v far it i^ jwinij; tlu' total hereof was im- •roTM..' 40,672 79.'78 103,(101 108,674 93.2 '4 128,201 133.336 I 2S,002 160.450 21 1,214 202,301 304.S1O 321,824 315,217 372.989 385,298 377.75- 378,760 280,765 388,492 431,184 415,181 363,819 43-.4H 284,308 220,660 350,809 391,698 400, 568 4*^9-533 49-.^99 530.692 633.314 637.373 652.025 710,369 685,352 638,369 |)ll llic I'.ioifu: coast. Stiirtinp; at notliin.fj, our domestic production rajjidly ,i;aiued on t)ur im- ports until 1X4^. when, spasmodically as it were, it suddenly ovcrlea|)ed and more than douMi'd lliem. In 1.S46. rS4S. .iiid 1S54, our domestic product exceeded the imjKjrts. hut not to so u'reat .m extent. (Jwing lo increase oi the accumulation of a lari,'e sto( k in t'le country in i(S56, the Production, next Mar's home \ ield fell off ama/iuL;iy. What alirupl and utter ruin was brought ui)on this indiistry l)y the war may he inferred from the fact, ihut, by Sll.AR-Mll.l . the year 1.S63. the cane-crop iiad (hvmdle.l down lo 50,000 tons. In 1S64 it fell to .30.000 : and in 1X65, the last year of the svar. shrunk to the minimum of only 5,000 Ions. The great trade that was thus ..haltered in three vears. has, 84 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY since the war, been slowly reviving ; but still a long time will have to elapse before it again reaches the proportions to winch it had r. 'ained in 1853. i-or the pa;;t three or four years, owing to labor-troubles and political causes which need noi now be mentioneil, the crop harvested in Louisiana was not so large as many supposed it would be : still, in spite of every drawback, it has increased 25,000 hogsheads each year, and during the season of 187C-77 amounted to 169,331 hogsheads, or a total of 190,672,570 pounds. It is confidenUy exi)ected that the crop of the season of 1877-78 will amount to not less than 200,000 hogsheads. It is asserted ' that the business of sugar-planting offers peculiar induce- ments to Northern people who want to find new homes in the South. The p ofit d Pi'ofits are immediate, and, with proper management, very large, prospects of A plantation near Franklin, with 1,100 acres in cane, received for its product of sugar and molasses $120,000; and the net profit, deducting all expenses, even to the cigars smoked by the planter and his friends, was $60,000 dollars. This is an exceptionally large plantation. About 300 acres under cultivation is an average one. The following is the condensed balance-sheet, for 1876, of a 300-acre place above Franklin : — this indus try. RECEIPTS. 400 Iilids. .sugar at eight cents per pound $41,600 300 bbls. molasses at two dollars 6on Total $42,200 EXPENSES. M Labor : twenty-five hands throughout year, and ten extra in sugar-mak- ing season $12,000 Rations : five pounds pork and a peck of meal a week to each hand . 2,500 Mule feed Ii500 Hogsheads and b.-rrelj 2,500 Purchase of mules, tools, repairs, &c 3,000 Commission on sale of crop .... .... 1,275 %775 Profit $19,425 The cost of a plantation like this, in good condition, with sugar-house and machinery in good repair, would range from $40,000 to $75,000. There is usually three or four times as much swamp as arable land sold with a planta- tion. But the swamp has a value ; for it furnishes the wood required for fuel in the sugar-mill. A hogshead of sugar to the acre is a small yield, a hogs- head and a half a fair yield, and two a large one. There are thirteen hundred pounds of sugar in a hogshead ; and the price in New Orleans ranges from seven cents for an ordinary brown grade to ten and eleven cents for the white coffee-sugar made by vacuum pans and centrifugal machinery for sepa- * New- York Tribune. OF THE UNITED STATES. 85 have to elapse 1 in 1853. For political causes ouisiana was not /cry drawback, it ison of 1876-77 3 pounils. It is 8 will amount to 1 peculiar induce- the South, 'i'he :ment, very large, cane, received for nd the net profit, ed by the planter ly large plantation, e following is iV". e Franklin : — . $41,600 600 . $42,200 ik- $12,000 2,500 1,500 2,500 3,000 1,275 Ih sugar-house and R 7 5, 000. There is [old with a planta- |d required for fuel Inall yield, a hogs- le thirteen hundred Irleans ranges from ven cents for the machinery for sepa- rating the molasses from the sugar. Field-hands are paid sixteen dollars a month and a ration, and have Saturday aftcrnocjns to themselves, and the use of a mule to c ultivate patches of their own. The cane they raise on these pat( hes is workeil up by the planter, and they get half the i)roduct. An in- dustrious negro will thus add a hundred dollars or more to his yearly earnings. Thus far the land has usually been cultivated in large sections, two hun- dred acres being considered the minimum ([uantily that wouitl sustain the expenses of a sugar-mill and of the colony of hands necessary to Jik both land and mill. The large jjlanters are now encouraging the ter t-system, and a tendency to separate the business of sugar-making from l. :eand cane-growing begins to show itself. On the smaller farms, where ••" " '"'"'"■• only a few hogsheads of sugar are i)ro(luced, the owners are obliged to con- tent themselves with (rushing and boiling in the old-fashioned style ; thus wasting much of the cane, and producing a very inferior brand of sugar. Indeed, it is stated, that, of the 1,050 sugar-houses in o])eration in Louisiana, ui)ward of 250, or nearly one-fourth, still crush the cane by horse-power, — an exceedingly primitive ai.d unsatisfactory process, by which it is impossible to extract any high percentage of juice from the cane, dreat waste, and , and which have generally been very siK'cess- ful. The process of refining has been nuu h improved within a few)ears; anil the former method, which seemed to be any thing but a refining process, is rapidly going into disuse. .,,. . Siiuar is made from three other plants besides the .American or vvnat BUKar -^ ' West-Indian cane: namely, the sugar-beet, the ( "hinese-cane nr sorghmii, and maple-sap. Forty per cent of 'he total sugar-product of the world is made from beetx I''Al)eriinent was made in (iermany. toward the latter pari of the last century, by a chemist named .\chard, who ilemonstrated that sugar could be made from beets. The first Napoleon did much to encourage this industry in l''ran( e, especially in iSiJ, when the blockade of French ports pre< luded a foreign supply of cane-sugar. .\l one time S20o,ooo were placed in the hands of the minister of agriculture to encourage it. IJiit, after Water- loo, beet-sugar production almost died out. In iSjo it revived again, and, with lliictuations, has since rapidly and e.\tensi\ely developed, until the jjrod- uct IS immense. Kxperiments in this country began as early as I1S38; I)avi(l L. (^hild of Northampton, Mass., having produced 1.300 pounds of sugar that year. The next attempt was that of the (iennert brothers, (leriians, at Chats- worth. 111., in ICS63, who bought 2.400 acres of land, and went into beet-cultiirc for sugar very extensively, 'i'hey had bad iuck for several years. In iSyo they consolidated with a like establishment at l'"ree])ort. III., and produced that year 200,000 pounds of good sugar at moderate cost. Messrs. IlonV'*-''^! iV nit(j embarked in the business at Fond ilu Lac, Wis., in i pnuluc t. as well of thf counlrj, en very su«-fess- \\\\\ a iVvv N^-'^rs ; refining i)r()ccss. the American or ChiiK'sc-ranc or made from beet>. the last century, that sugi^r couM uch to encourage le of French ports o.ooo were i)lace(l lint, after Water- .■vived again, and, d, vmtil the prod- ,y as 1 S38 ; 1 ^avid |nnds of sugar thai '.ernans, at Chats- lit into beet-cuU>uc il years. In 1S7" 11.. and produced ^lessrs. iionViteel L, in 186/ -.•"I'l •k, Wis., in 1870. Iwortli of .Mvarado jid the next year ricuUural C^ollegc juals, have experi- his coiintry by the ])st any part of the it by the conimis- Lice. It yields a Id the product of M 88 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY r.ALLnNK, Iowa 1,311,512 Indiana 881,049 Illinois 806,589 Mi.ssuuri 796,111 Ohio 779,076 Tennessee 706,66-, Other St.itcs S6X,i23 Total 6,749.'2J Iowa was then the largest producer; but Ohio developed tlic industry more rapidly until 1866, since which year it has graihially declined there and Production '" Indiana and Illinois. It extended up into Wisconsin too, from ior- soniewliat, but rather more largely in Kansas, and all through the ghum. South, prominently in (leorgia. It is estimated that we raise annually 12,000,000 gallons of sirui), which, at sixty-five cents a gallon, would come to $7,800,000 ; and 250,000 pounds of sugar, which, at six cents a pound, would make the annunl yield worth over 57,815,000. When the value of the crop comes to be better understood, it is believed its cnlture will be vastly increased. The maple-sugar industry dates from the earliest colonial days, but has not been carried on extensively in any part of t'lc country. It is mostly in the Maple- hands of individual farmers, and is chiefly confined to the North- luitar. crn States, from Maine into Minnesota, though reaching into Ken- tucky. Statistics are imperfect and scarce; bit the Department of Agriculture says, that, in 181 1, Ohio produced 3,033,08(1 pounds, Kentucky 2,471,647, and Vermont but 1,200,000. Probably the total production throughout the country was something like 15,000,000 or 20,000,000, with sirup equivalent to as much more, a gallon of sirup counting for ten pounds of sugar. The census-returns for 1850, i860, and 1870, show the following total product in pounds and gallons : — [. I i 1850. i860. 1870. Sugar .... Sirup .... 34,25;„436 106,782 40,120,205 '.S97.5S9 28,443.' '15 921,436 In 1850 New York was the leading State, producing about thirty per cent of the whole. Vermont held the second i)lace, with Ohio third, and Indiana fourth. In i860 the order was, — New York, Ver- mont, Michigan, and Ohio. In 1870 Vermont had reached the first place, with New York second, Ohio third, Michigan fourth, and Indiana fifth. Several of the States have since improved on the fig- ures of 1870 ; and it is likely that the total product now almost equals that of Production of maple- sugar in the several States. OF TUB UNITED STATES. 89 LONH. 1,049 0,5«9 »6.iit i<).o76 58.12,^ .(<;.' 23 the industry c(\ there and isconsin too, I through the Ihat we raise gallon, would at six cents a When the its culture will days, but has is mostly in the d to the North- [:hing into Kcn- it of Agriculture iicky 2,47»»647» throughout the [ip c(iuivalent to uf sugar. The otal product in i860, and is worth something like |6,ooo,ooo. The utmost limit has already been reached, in all probability, however ; though we are not likely to see a very marked decline for a ninnber of years. Much of the maple sugar and lirup used in this country comes from Canada. 1870. 28,443 A> 5 92i,43^J , thirty per cent Hth Ohio third, kew York, Ver- Icached the first 'an fourth, and f vcd on the fig- cquals that of 90 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY CHAITER VII. TOBACCO. WIIMN roliimbiis landed in I Iisi)aiii()la, in 1492, he saw the natives I)n.athin<; out sinukc from their nostrils ; and he was offered a roil of a fragrant narcotic weed, in the form of a cigar, that he might do likewise. 'I'his Early his- ^^''^^ ''^•-' '""^^ ^'^'^^ ''i*-' c'lvilizeil world ever knew of tobacco. 'Ihe tory of Spaniards \\\(\. Portuguese soon made Europe ac(iuainled with the to acco. plant and its uses. In 1560 the agent of the King of !•' ranee in Portugal, named Jean Nicot, obtained from a Dutchman some seed of the p];uit from I''lorida ; and thus it was introduced into France, where it was known as the Nicotian weed. Tobacco, the Indian name, appears to have been applied originally to the pipes wherein the C'aribbees smoked the dried leaves. In 1586 Sir Walter Raleigh and his colleagues, who had been unsuccessful in founding a colony in America, brought back to England the custom of using tobacco; but until 1607, when the Jamestown Colony was planted, Ilnglaud obtained the little tobacco which it used, indirectly, through the Spaniards, from the West Indies. As the various nations of the world were using narcot- ics and stimulants of various sorts, this new one had to fight its way into f.ivor against great prejudice. King James I. of F.ngland wrote a pamphlet in 1616, vigorously denouncing its use; in 1624 Pope Urban \'I1I. decreed excommu- nication to all who used snuff; in 1634 Russia affixed a jjenalty of cutting off the nose for smoking tobacco ; and other nations restricied its importation, culture, and use, in various ways, a favorite ])lan being to lay very heavy taxes thereupon. Vet the use of the weed — which the American Indians smoked as a solace to care, a cheer in idleness, and a token of fidelity around the council- fire and at peace negotiations — soon became popular in l^urope. and thus spread all over the Old World. — into 'l\irkey, ICgypt, Arabia, Persia, the Indies, and China. More than any other product of the soil, tobacco has an unquestioned title exclusively to American origin. The culture of tobacco was undertaken almost imniedia»:ely by the first settlers in Virginia; and it is recorded, that, in 1615, not only the gardens and fields, but also the streets, of Jamestown, were ])lanted therewith. It or Till': rxiTF.n sr.-irF.s. 9« .im'rkly hcramc tlic st.ipU' < rop (if the- < nlDiiy. 'I'Ik.' laws of the niothor- roiiiUry lorliadc any niatiiillu turcs. of necessary rlothin^ ; and tnlMcro was soon found lo lie ilu- most valuable of a^'riciiltural itrodiicts. cultivation fvcn wheat W\u^ abandoned for its < iilture. \\\ the year \U22 o( tobacco the prodiKt of N'irKinia had increased to sixty thousand pounds. " "i:""»> ;ujd it doiiliird in twenty years. Its culture was be^u.i in l,ie |)ul( h » olony of New Netherlands (afterwards called New N'ork) in 1646; but it never spread vcrv rapi< tobacco. 'Ihe iiinled with tl\e g of France in L'edoflhc plant t was known as VI- been applii^'*! ra'd leaves. In unsuccessful in instoni of "S''*!-^' llanlcd, I'-ngland the Spaniards. |,-c using narcul- ^s way into tavor ,,nphlet in 161 6. veed cxcommu- y of cutting off its importation, cry heavy taxes lians smoked as luiil the council- iirope, and thus \)ia, Persia, the lobacco has an lely ^'y ^^^*-' ^""^^ Inly the gardens therewith. It SMuKINlj l.S^l Kl Ml.N 1^. li| Al.l. NAllONS. introduced it into Louisiana in lyi.S. So rapidly did the production increase at first in Virginia, and so slowly was its consumption augmented abroad, that prices fell, and the colonists could not make tol)ac( o }»ay for tiieir clotliing. In 1639 the Assembly ordered the product of the next two years to be burned, except a hunilred and twenty thousand i)ounils, properly divided among the planters, in order to check production and raise pri( es. A trac t on X'irginia, printed in London in 1649, ^''''' I'l'^' t'^'-' price of tol);ic< o in the colony had fallen to threepence a ]Hiuiid 011 at louiU of the supply. In 1652 Cromwell r, I \ I ? ill ;i j'i 5 fi 4^ m 92 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ordered all tobacco-' lants in England to be destroyed, in order to give the colonies a belter chance ; and the increasing popularity of the weed also stimulated the production in the colonies again, and it made rapid strides. In 1729 the product of Virginia and Maryland had increased in quantity and value, so as to be worth ;;^375,ooo; and a fleet of three hundred sail was employed in its transportation. The annual export from all the colonics for the ten years prior to 1709 averaged 28,868,666 pounds; and from 1744 to 1776 the average was 40,000,000' pounds, or one-tenth of our present yield. Of this amount, more than three-quarters came from Virginia alone. Prior to the Revolutionary war the planters had discovered that their lands were deteriorating; and from 1758, when Virginia exported 75,000 Increase of hogslicads, there was a falling-off for a number of years in acreage until the amount raised on the original plantations. The acreage in- *®*°' creased, however, extending into new States, notably Georgia and Kentucky ; so that the total yield of the country kept about the same, or increased slightly. In 1790 our exports were 118,460 hogsheads, — a figure not reached again until 1840. In- asmuch as domestic consumption was increasing meantime, a.^l the taxes were enormous which foreign countries imposed upon our tobacco when imported by them, it is proba- ble that our product increased at least threefold during that period uf fifty years, — from something like 60,000,000 to over 200,000,000 pounds. Between 1840 and 1850 tobacco culture remained almost at a stand- still : indeed, the figures given by the Agricultural Bureau show a slight Production falling-off. Thusini840 since 1840. t^g ^X^X^X waS 219,163,- 319 pounds, while in 1S50 it was but 199,752,655. During the next decade, however, there was a very marked development of the industry. In that short time it attained double dimensions, the returns for i860 being 434,209,461 pounds. Since that time it has been impossible to more than approximate the yield, inasmuch as the heavy internal revenue-tax on tolncco has induced producers to falsify their returns by diminishing them. Thus the ' Probably equivalent to 100,000 hogsheads in that day. A hogshead now contains about i,aoo pounds. TODACto-I'l.ANT. ^^ TifE UNITED STATES. r 200,000,000 Jt 1,300 pounds. census-Statement for 1870 g.Ves .r3, . ^^ tne commissioner of i.rri,. u "^'735.341 pounds as the fnMi and. as a f„r,l,er ll«, r7: >"■■-' ""'"''"'^ "'■■" '' "-^ a. ca , If ' ""' returns ,o Feci™ c™!' 'l '"" '"= ''"'"'' "■^" '" ^'io n s', "' ^T"' assessor <,ec,„ec, .i::~t.x«r'v- ^^•^^'.^:^. ;:;'s.; : ■» -re ,„ sa, .„a, „l ..J;', 1,^ °:";|f '-'-a.i,,, i,, .,, :;i,,^ ,;»'5 l>atlliei.Klustrialdcmor-il,V„' ""'aiiciliation of ,|,e slue, ■,-, ^ I r^lt far more b, tl^ 1:^ r.^tr V"", ^^'^"'^ '"^' ^ . ' "' It may be remarked hovvevr h ! '''' ""■' ™"on-gro»ers ""'°' -ab„oste„tire,ys„'se ,:,,;,:'.: "'■ ""', "'"- ofco.; „ .r/.S»- was but slightly airecte I a sm-, I , ""■' ""^ '"''acco-imerest ■"""'■ .Ist;"' "'■"" '™- ""■" M of ,t'2a^->d Virginia bave, for .',:;:;' "'"" '"= 1""°'"y Induced in each S,a,e '!! '"■°''''"- ™^ --""-"ing .abfe Kentucky Virginia . Total . North Carolina Tennessee Missouri . Maryland Oliio Total . Pennsylvania . J'ldiana . •Connecticut Massachusetts . Illinois ^'lier States . Grand total 55.501,196 5'5,So3,227 "2,304,423 ".984,786 20,148,932 ^7,113,784 21,407,497 *°'454,449 ioS,ro2,433 '23,967,757 232,070,190 32,853.250 38,931,277 25.086,196 38,410,965 25.528,972 '05.305,869 38,086,364 '43,392,233 11,150,087 2 ',465,452 '2,320,483 '5.785,339 18,741,973 '93,413,871 WSSnSr^ 1' 39-,66o,85o 221,855,567 ■''■'5.655 434,.o,„„ 5;^ 130,000,000 59.240,0001 189,240,000 '4,750,000 35.000,000 40,000,000 '' ^,000,000 ' ■>. ';oo,ooo 314,490,000 16,000,000 12,750,000 9,900,000 8,500,000 8,000,000 9,707,0008 379,347,000 '^-'"d-»,.4o.ooofro„,Wes. Virgin,-, ,, , —-^ « all in the ubie i \xr- ^ '^'"^" 'ast five Stat« =1, 94 IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y tures in pro duction. This irregularity of distribution will more clearly appear on a more minute examination of returns. Thus one county in New Hampshire (Cheshire) Other fea- yielded niuety-sevcn per cent of the State's crop in 1870. Three counties in Massachusetts, adjoining the Connecticut River, yielded all but 23,610 of the 7,812,885 pounds raised in that State. Connecticut grows some in each of her eight counties ; and yet Hartford County produced 5,830,209 of the 8,328,798 pounds raised in the State that year. In New-York State, three counties (Onondaga, Chemung, and Steuben) yielded 1.884,048 out of 2,324,730 pounds. Pennsylvania produces seven times what New \'ork d:)es ; and yet the great proportion of her yield is confinetl to Bucks, Lancaster, and York Counties ; while nine-tenths of what is grown in lUicks County is i)roduced in the immediate vicinity of the old William I'enn mansion, in Falls Township. In 1869 three-fourths of Ohio's yield was inside of one county (Montgomery) ; although the next year the crop was so disseminated, that, according to the returns, ten counties produced only a trille over half. In the great tobacco belt, of course, the distribution is considerably more even in proportion to the whole yield ; yet the difference between the yield of the several towns in a county is often- times very marked. Among the more marked minor changes in the production of tobacco is the development of the yield in Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Con- Production necticut, and Massachusetts, within the jiast twenty-five years, by States. Ohio had already come to grow it largely prior to 1S50. The two States next west, doubtless, were incited to the experiment more by her example than by any thing else. In New England the culture is confined mostly to the Connecticut and Housatonic Valleys ; though tobacco-raising was scarcely known there even in 1850. Massachusetts yielded but 138,426 pounds that year; while in i860 she produced 3,233,198, and now raises more than 8,000,000 pounds annually. Pennsylvania raised but 912,651 jiounds in 1850; but in 1875 ^^^'" crop amounted to 16,000,000 pounds. New York re- turned 83,189 pounds as her yield in 1850. In 1869 the figures were 8,500,000 :" since then they have greatly declined. This decline, as also that to be noticed in some of the other States, is probably less than is returned. Coming to the more proiluctive regions, it is to be observed that Maryland, North Carolina, (^hio, anil Tennessee have bravely held their own during the past quarter of a century, on the whole, though not doing as well now as they did formerly. Virginia, long the chief producer, has been compelled to take a second place in the line ; and Kentucky has come to the head of the pro- cession. This westward movement of the centre of production is also noticeable in the growth of Missouri's production. The varieties of tobacco raised in the United States differ somewhat according to the section. Connecticut yields a light-colored, fine-fibred leaf, which makes particularly good wrappers, and which is exi)orted largely to OF THE UNITED STATES. 95 lore minute (Cheshire) ,70. Three icut River, scd in that is; and yet aised in the benning, and nia produces of her yield ne-tenths of icinity of the cc-fourlhs of the next year ten counties of course, the ole yield; yet ounty is often- on of tobacco isylvania, Con- :nty-fwc years, to 1850. The [it more by her ire is confined tobacco-raising led but 138,426 low raises more ^651 pounds in New York re- lic figures were me, as also that [an is returned, that Maryland, ,wn during the 'cU now as they mpelled to take ad of the pro- uction is also [iffer somewhat Ifme-fibrcd leaf, Irted largely to FIKST PIPE. Ha\ana for the fimous Havana cigars. This variety is used also for the fillers of a cheaper grade of cigars, AJassachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Ohio mostly raise the Connecticut seed-leaf; although West- varieties of field, Mass., has a cross between the Connecticut and Cuban ; tobacco and Ohio has also the so-called " Baltimore Cuba," and some of ^fown. the stronger, heavier Virginia and Kentucky varieties, which are cut or pressed for chewing, and are exported, (jadsden County, Florida, has alone succeed- ed in raising the Cuban tobacco in all its excellence. It has a narrow leaf, and possesses the peculiar aroma and delicious fragrance that characterize tlie genuine Havana cigar. The northern counties of North Carolina raise particularly fine wrappers, being both light-coloretl and of fine texture. In other parts of the State, coarser, ranker kinds are cultivated. In Maryland two principal varieties are noticeable, — the broad and narrow leaf The former commands the higher price : but the latter yields the greater quantity. Only a little is used for wrap- |>ers ; most of it is used for the fillers of strong cigars, snuff, and as plug and twist for chewing. It is exported largely, es- pecially to France. \V'hen cured, it varies in color from a bright yellow to nutmeg or mahogany. The same is the case with Vir- ginia's product and Kentucky's, which are of coarse texture and great pungency. These three States are the principal exporters of the leaf We have already remarked, that, previous to the Revolution, tobacco was for a long time our most valuable export ; and our export constituted, doubt- less, nearly or quite three-fourths of our production. Our export of 1790, which was 118,460 hogsheads, was not reached again nominally until 1840, although in the interim the quantity contained in a hogshead materially increased. A hogshead of tobacco now averages between 1,200 and 1,450 pounds. Herewith we give a statement of our exports since 1 840 ; — HOGSHEADS. IS4O 119,484 1S4I 147,828 IS42 158,710 1843 94.454 1S44 163,042 1845 147,168 1846 147,998 1847 378,440 1848 130,665 1S49 101,521 ^850 145,729 '851 95,945 ^852 137,097 1853 159,853 1854 126.107 '855 150,213 Exports. '%^ 96 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY HOGSHEADS. 1856 116,962 1857 156,848 1858 127,670 1859 198,846 i860 167,274 IS61 160,816 1862 107,233 1863 111,896 1864 109,905 1865 149)032 POUNDS. 1866 190,826,248 IS67 184,803,065 I86S 206,020,504 1869 181,527,630 1870 185,748,881 I87I 215,667,604 1872 234,936,892 1873 213,995,176 1874 318,097,804 1875 223,901,913 1876 218,310,265 1877 282,386,426 I «;; . Our present export amounts to more than two-thirds of the crop-returns, but probably amounts to scarcely, if any, more than half our real production. Where th '^^^^ value of our tobacco export is upwards of twenty million export goes, dollars. Most of the product goes abroad in the form of leaf- tobacco : only a small proportion of it is manufactured. Some of the raw material comes back to us worked up, though but Most of our little import is of foreign varieties, desired for their pecul- and in what form. little. iar flavors. The great bulk of our export goes to England, France, Holland, and Germany, In the large cities, there are extensive cigar-manufactories. In England, the tobacco from America is chiefly for chewing. Scotland's im- port is largely converted into snuff. It is worth noticing, in connection with our exports of tobacco, that Euro- pean countries impose a very heavy tax upon the American article ; England's Foreign duty ^^^^^ amounting to seventy-five cents a pound, and the average upon to- duty on the bulk of American tobacco imported into all Europe being about fifty cents a pound. In some of those countries the cultivation of the plant is prohibited, in order that the government may get the full benefit of this source of revenue. In 1859 the United States made an unsuccessful attem.pt to secure the repeal of these taxes. Were they once removed, undoubtedly our exports, and consequently our production, would be greatly increased. HOGSHEADS. 116,962 156,848 127,670 198,846 167,274 160,816 107,233 111,896 109,905 149,032 POUNDS. 190,826,248 184,803,065 206,020,504 181,527,630 185,748,881 215,667,604 234.936,892 2 '3-995. 1 76 318,097,804 223,901,913 218,310,265 282,386,426 the crop-returns, real production. )f twenty million the form of leaf- ifactured. Some up, though but i for their pecul- France, Holland, ar-manufactories. Scotland's im- •acco, that Euro- rticle; England's and the average into all Europe ise countries the jrnment may get ted States made Were they once oduction, would OF Tf/E UmTED STATES. 97 Jt is estimated th-^t tu^ , ,. ^ 000,000 pounds r^n . . '""'■^'^ ' production of tobacco to H • tnes that produce it either use 1 r"'"^' °' '^"- ^'^'' ^-n- Wo^ or call for even more, as do F aZ ITr"" "'^P'^'' "^^ ^^-co, -^crn"""- the main resource of Norther^ k::o "e' ''^"^^"^- '^'^^ ^"-^ ^^^ therefore, -^^^^o':^;:Z:J-^ '-'^ -"-" dollars or more to to resnrf tr. • ^^ admission into fornirr^ ^° "s. calculation. ^ '^''' '"^'" ^ development almost bevond I"""*" rj-,, '-'»-^un(.i American Jiie several wavs of usinrr tr.u product. in popular favor Th. ^'^^'^ '" ^^^^s, and cigarettes hav^ err ^^^" '"'' „n;^ ^hesale of ciMrptt^c ,.,^"^^ "^^^ grown c'earettc.. unimportant item in tr.rX , '^arettes, until a year and i h.u -e no,v cTer:,;;'^ "™" '° P-cire'cL'^":'';''°»".^^'''efact "'"ong smokers '. '"""'" "' "'" ^-"^ 0/0!™'^" °^ '^',«"^' ™d. -^Wle 'he gfeate. r: "'' ""' "^ ^ raster of eco„o„r t,' 'T'' " '' ^ 'i*"" ■"« ^igtpri d":™' '^ '"°™ ''^ "- trade r.f; p.^'^ ""l-'" *='^«' '"« Piialitv of H, ''""' ""'«. This ,w. ■"""""'cti.red in smaller from abo^rxiiy^"^' "•"'■'=" «- '« ot: oriri''''r "^ ^^^ «"- Sreat exten/ , ™'^"' "'■■"""i«,„e is „o,v carried '' •■""'°'' exclusively "■-, Se te"rr "T '™'^- ^--'"00,,::;; tr'"' "-"' "> ' -■-"-rs a. those pMc'satT"'' """ =°"' "'"ct che^T, r" V"" '"'' "■"easing ^de ;„' fi " ''" ''"' '" ''•■'ve become grea v ' T ^"•" """"'■ affirm, i„ relatin, ' .T ^^''" '" ""» countrv rf ^'"'>^. "'"'"ed at the "*™..s. be a °e "''™"'"« <^">"™" » ci,,,^^""", "'""'"■-tMrcrs '"Percf'.,; ■ e rcr'"'""-^ '"""-"ents tt e^'f ' '"" " '^ '"y large decrease i 1 "'"? '' ■"••"'=• Statistics „•", "'""""^ "" ^ According: to the Bureau of 98 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Statistics, the total number of cigars and cheroots upon which the internal- revenue tax was paid during the fiscal yeai* ending June 30, 1876, was 1,828,807,396. This is a decrease of nearly 98,000,000 cigars from the year previous. The amount of cigars manufactured and imported in this country during the year 1875 reached nearly 2,000,000,000. The value of the im- ported cigars consumed in the United States during 1876 amounted to ^2,289,712.89, and of snuff to $18,470. -'»! 'i hich the internal- ne 30, 1876, was ars from the year ;cl in this country value of the im- 576 amounted to Of r//£ UNITED STA TES. 99 CHAPTER VIII. GRASS AND HAY. '-S and .e.„c, a^Xtt:" """' '^'^ ">= >vi« i™ ^-'^"^ «>e """ """--^ dying of ,^^J^'' 7' S'"' ..rns „f ;;,,":, """""^■m. as also of kX Th " "'"""'"••'"^ ■I'oice «''"fro,„,l, ,; '"""■'■•■'"'■■/''•-•'•lions of,,,, X ' " " ""'"•■ '"'■K'-ly -^>'e ranks next to whP-if o 'li^tlllanon Of ;i,?l "" f Sland. The Un ; ' t^f "'"-f-Woned, ,vi,h "'*• There re st^;,;"'' !'": ■"-' i^ I-etred a o^''!;,,"'!,^' "'»• f- '-e S nve times as many biish« 104 FND ua TKiA I. ins rORV n fls of grain, were exported from Pliiladelphia alone. In 1801 the total export from tlie whole country was but 392,276 bushels. Its cultivation spread pretty o( generally over the Northern Slates. Heing well adapted to sterile Incraate cultivation. (1 foothold in Buckwheat. soils, and not very exhaustive, it lias retained a good the Mast. Wheat so largely supplanted it, however, that the im rease in the (Top has been very gradual, no real headway having been made at all for nearly forty years. Thus the total product in 1840 was 18,645,567 bushels; in 1850 it had Staiisticiof fallen to 14,188,813; in i860 it had risen to 21,101,380; but in production. 1870 it was down to 16,918,793, at whi( h time Pennsylvania was the large>il producer. New York second, and Illinois third. It still has a good show in New iCngland, but is more largely cultivated in the Western grain States. CJiir total product is not consumed at home, and there is a slight export of it to lOurope. Buckwheat, like rye, is generally a secondary crop in this country. In some i)laces it is grown simply for the honey it gives the bees. The grain is useil chiefly in flour, for pancakes. It was brought to this country by the Dutch West-India Company, an'• home-consumption, and the extension of the volume of the croj) has been very slow. The (luaiuity raised in 1840 was returned at 7,291,74.5 bushels; in 1850 it was 8,956,912; in i860 it was 17,571,818; but in 1870 only 9,821,721, of which New York and Pennsylvania raised fully two-thirds, the former rather more than the latter. The rest was pretty evenly distributed among the Northern States. Pease and beans have been grown in moderate quantity in this country both for the table and for cattle-fodder. Gosnold planted them in 1602, and Pease and the Dutch raised them in 1644; but it is known that the natives beans. cultivated them before the white settlers did. On the South-Atlan- tic coast they soon became jjopular, and from those colonies were exported in moderate quantities before the Revolution. Thus North Carolina exported 10,000 bushels in 1753; South Carolina, 9,16- in 1754; and Savannah, 400 in 1755. The total exports of the two for twenty years prior to 181 7 averaged 90,000 bushels. In 1850 the total product of the country was 9,219,901 bushels; in i860 it was 15,061,995 ; 1/Ut by 1870, like several of the minor grain-crops, it fell off again, the census-returns being 5,746,027. The two kinds of potatoes, Irish and sweet, are said to have originated in this country, although the fact is not established ; and the two varieties are somewhat confused in early accounts. It is said that Raleigh took back the potato to England in 1586 ; and the Spaniards are said to have found the people of Quito eating a tuber, which answers the descrip- tion of the sweet-potato, thirty or forty years before ; and by these explorers Potatoes. O^ ms urn TED STATES. ,, . Krown extensively in N.-w r..r . '^ ""' ' oimtry, tho.iL'h it i em States, from New -""^ Kiigland westward. Nt-Mtlierkin''''' the «»•;.« .0 .lisense. In .g^o'L, „ t '"""' -"^ '" '04.056,044 '""•'''- ™l 4=,O95,o.,0 of sweet I„ ,7 '"•'■>^-^''7 l^uslu* of IrW, „„,„ n'«.ancU,,7o,S2.of,. , '° « produced .4, ,„ ''/""'"'"• ,r.r '/"y.<^24 Of tne alter In tC- .1 "^>»'3,17-47J of the fnr of (lu. r ^ '•'■"P of 187=; down tr. f'q^redations of »"e from imported roots Tl, '^ """ ""^^ cultivated in A„, • Massaclntsetts i„ .6.8 or ,Z ' T ^°'™ '°' homcise „ ""'^^ V-Sinia i„ „48; their ^..^r 'Lei'), " '"^ '" '^■•»' ™' " """• ^870 the product had increased to IP if IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y 25,456,669 pounds. A heavy export-demand between 1850 and i860 rather stimulated the production ; though the inauguration of the system of stretching wires from i)ole to pole, instead of using isolated poles, by Thomas D. Ayls- worth of Herkimer County, New York, and other causes, seemed to confine the industry chiefly to that State. During the latter part of the next decade the crop in the East fared poorly three or four years in succession ; and this gave the Wisconsin farmers a chance, v/hich they handsomely i m - proved. In 1870 New York produced only two-thirds of the total yield, and Wis- consin nearly one- fifth : the rest was distributed among the Northern States, At- tempts have been made recently to cul- tivate hops in the Southern States, but with little success. In California, however, the hop-crop is beginning to assume prominence, both for quantity and quality ; the price being the highest of any hops raised in America. Our exportation has been very uneven. American hops are rather stronger and ranker than those of England and Bavaria, and are not sought for, except Export of when the crops in Europe are short. Thus in 1855 we exported *'°P^' a trifle over four million pounds, whereas during no previous year had we exported much more than a quarter of a million pounds. In 1856 the export was but a trifle over a million, and in 1857 a trifle under a million. During the next twenty years the crop gradually reached and passed the figures of 1855. In 1875 we exported 5,331,950, and in 1876 neady 9,000,000 pounds. Flax, the fibre from which linen is made, grows wild in nearly all countries of the globe, but was probably cultivated first in Egypt. It is very largely grown in the north of Europe ; Russia, Belgium, and I' eland having a wide reputation for the quantity and quality of their pn duct. The plant has other uses too. Its seed yields a valuable oil for painting and burning, — namely, the linseed-oil ; and the refuse oil-cake, as also the ground meal, are highly prized as fodder for cattle. The seed is used FODDER-CITTEK. Flax. O^ rilE UA-fTED STATE.S. medicinally, and in several oth^r « ^- '°^ cnnsylvania raised a sufficiem crop ,0 ex„T' '" ''«' -'«'^"'l .7 9 >*c. to,vee„ ^>e„e,.fi J: ™ ;;^^-;;-^y. 0„i„, I„„ia„, and m1 ,„ resemb g tm,; Ir'Tr' °'' "^i'' «-> ^"d j„te - , , , ^ "t;mp, and used for chenn Kn^ • J"fe» — a coarse India fihr<- ■•""I o,.r i„„«r,a„o„ has al^va^ &'"»•-'>"' f='"en short of o,;:,,"' SSregate a. the „rcse„, .h„e o a ' I ''':■ """""""^ '" ""= .10 ars,, he Department of Agrialrelf'"" thirty ,„(„,„„ J-.=. t" S:T ;"°""«"' ** « t",:™ S-t atte„tio„ to ,hese p,a„,s, 'H-it the India jute ,vas bein,. lirirelj ! ™'/™"d »"": fifteen vears i<-o after removing the fl ^' '"'' ^°""^' ^^at four-fifths of M '"^ '''■>^ i^vijig tJie flax was \vnc;f«ri . . • °^ the tow fihrp i,>a- " Sso t„e total yield of flax was ,,„.. "*""'" ^^Wbuted five-sixths -"'^ ■" '%9' the returns ^en j rf^rr?:'' »" '-^^'3- "u^df^f ./^''''^l'™"* of flax, and 566,86; Census of i860. io8 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY of minor crops. Ramie. bushels of seed; but in 1870 the crop was 27,133,034 pounds of flax, and Distribution iJ30>444 bushels of seed. On the opposite page we give a table showing the distribution of the minor crops thus far treated for 1870. It is not out of place to say something here concerning the production of ramie, — a grass which is now being utilized in India.' More than seventy years ago, attention was first directed to the properties of a fibre whicli to many persons has since been made familiar as the material out of which the fabric known as Chinese or Indian grass-cloth is manufactured. Experiments were soon after made, under the auspices of the British Admiralty, to test the strength of this fibre ; the result of which showed, that, in whatever way the test is applied, the grass is three times stronger than the best Russian hemp, while it is also much lighter. For all the purposes for which hemp is used it was admitted to be very much superior. In consequence of difficulties that arose in the process of preparation, the matter remained a long time in abeyance. It was not until the last Russian war that the subject received fresh notice. International strife has often been the stimulus to new discoveries. When Fr ach ports v/ere blockaded, and French commerce was destroyed, in the days of the first Napoleon, French physicians found a good substitute for ipecacuanha in the root of the violet. Our own civil war stimulated the production of cotton in Egypt, India, and the Pacific islands. The Russian war, cutting off the supply of flax from Western Europe, led to the increased cultivation of jute in India, and to its extended use and application ; at the same time, it turned attention anew to the Indian-grass as another substitute ; and, although it is only recently that any practical result has seemed likely, it promises now to develop into an important source of industry. In addition to the great strength of the fibre, it has a remarkable power of resistance to the influence of moisture. Compared with other fibres, it may almost be said to be indestructible. It is as fine as flax, and presents a glossy lustre more nearly resembling silk. Manufacturers give it an intermediate position between animal and vegetable fibres ; and those who have interested themselves about it appear to consider it as an equal if not superior substitute for flax, and very much superior in every respect to hemp. The chief reason why it has not been sooner brought into use lies in the difficulty that has hitherto been encountered in the preparation. Six years ago the Indian Gov- ernment offered a premium equal to twenty-five thousand dollars for the best machine for separating the fibre from the stems. This was, however, or'y partially successful. Only one machine was sent in, and that only pardy met the requirements. At that time it was thought that only the green stems could be operated upon ; but it has since been shown that this is a mistake. The dried stems afford a fibre equal in strength and durability, and only inferior in • This account of ramie is drawn from The New- York Times, Aug. 17, 1875. 9.' P ,s of flax, and \e distribution production of ; than seventy -rties of a fibre familiar as the 11 grass- cloth is auspices of the [ which showed, times stronger r. For all the much superior. of preparation, )t until the last itional strife has ich ports v/cre days of the first ;cacuanha in the tion of cotton in cutting off the [viltivation of jute ^e time, it turned id, although it is promises now to larkable power of [her fibres, it may 1 presents a glossy I an intermediate lo have interested luperior substitute iThe chief reason lifficulty that has the Indian Gov- dollars for the as, however, or^y [t only partly met Teen stems could 1 a mistake. 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CO ON COVi VI "Ji i.* nD O b -^ bNiIn 00 O vj h) u» - a^4k 4» to 00 Oi -* ON 10 b^vo cnvj Cfi tj COnO ui - 4* C04* OnnO '8^ \S: CNVJ I" VI ** J^ ^ M ^ (0 b 00 " bJ . "b>vj 4k4k M l004kOJUiMWOO 03 •-.OJt-«OJ 00 Wr0O4k0M i-*C<-nUi 'to 4k Ui bNvO -^ UJ vj "^^ Cn "to v| bN ' Ui 4* VI UJ Kj\ Kii sO K>\ -« O UI Q •-• UJ vt 4* 0-'-J\ nC O W M 4k ■-' vj 0s4« t\4k wiOUii-t. tOONOO 10 00 M . MM N M On NO v| ON toco■-^oc^ MOJ4k b 'to b "bo 00 ■ *c oj ^M bo b -r\gN-<0 « ui M 0» M Oj vD W O v| M u> V| 4k "to b Cti VI On On 4. -< VI Ci OO CO -« O On<^ Ln M OU* ON-O O UJ to (Ji 4k to Ui Ui to Ui 4k tO! >-! PI t/) C3 n 08 c n i 3* 8S- o ^ LI ^ c '- 3 3 >. 'I I lO INDUSTRIAL IliSTORY I' % -'\ gloss, and for these the existing machinery for flax and hemp is found to be well adapted ; so that, while the best cloth will probably be made in India, or wherever the plant is grown, the manufacture can be made to succeed wher« ever the stems are imported. It is the knowledge of this fact that has given a new impulse to the discovery. The Indian (Government is encouraging the cultivation on a large scale. Within the last few months a great deal of new machinery for the manufacture has been patented. Practical men are busily at work, and in a short time there is little doubt but that manufactured articles from this fibre will be placed upon the market. It is looked upon already as one of the most useful staples, and as likely to take the place, either as a substitute for or in combination with cotton, flax, hemp, jute, wool, or silk, and to be valuable, also, in the manufacture of paper and for other minor uses. The discovery cannot, however, be regarded as of much value to our people unless the plant can be produced here. If this cannot be done, it will be more likely to benefit the British manufacturer and Indian grower, at some cost to our own. This is, therefore, an important aspect of the question. It is not quite settled whether tlie Indian and the Chinese fil)res are produced by exactly the same plants. If they are (which is most probable), the Chinese product has a little the advantage of the other in the market. This shows that either climate or cultivation has, even there, something to do with the finality of the fibre. The plant grows very freely, however, in India ; and experiments on a small scale indicate that it can be made equally successful in Australia. It also flourishes wherever it has been tried on the coast of the Mediterranean, and some very fair samples of the fibre have been grown in the south of France. With care, it has been grown in Phigland ; but it never can be produced there on any scale for commercial purposes. It is reasonable from this to conclude that there are many parts of the United States where it could be cultivated on a large scale with advantage. Its production in the South might become a new source of wealth, second only, if not superior, to cotton. It would be necessary, in the first instance, to start upon practical information, obtained in India, in regard to the best methods of cultivation. Al)Out this there can be no difficulty ; and, whether or not it be ultimately found that the soil and climate of this country are suitable, the subject is one which eminently deserves the careful consideration of persons who are interested in the maintenance of our manufacturing in- terests. Rice ranks next to wheat as the grain-food of human beings, taking the whole world into consideration, although it forms the staple of the diet of less civilized nations than the wheat-consumers. It is most commonly raised in India and China, although Ceylon and Java produce it in large tjuantities also. It is cultivated, too, in France, Hungary, and other parts of Europe, and in the United States and South America. It is rather a tro])ical plant, although it grows as far north as the Ohio River ; Rice. ^^" 77/^ UmTED STATES. and a wild rice rnvprc fi,^ , * " Ijushels to the acre. Rice In. ., T ^ ^''^ '' y^^'f^s only fifteen or bushels an acre are prodnced. ^ ' '""'^ ""^'^'^ from forty to sixty from Scotland in iSn • th ^^'" ^'■°'" ^he straw were hr. , .- "I i\cw YOTK m venter? ..ch cleanec, fc,,, ,evc„ „„„;' 5 ,7- ""''P'-OMss loaves tl,emi„ -nd,,„„ i, i, „„„, „„„,•'>' in laf /""''.,"""!«« '-'">% " t a, fo„„. ■,.„ comploie ,ho ,voA ° '=a,„„g, ,|,e rice goes ,|„.o„„,, "" pounders like those of n ''"""'^-".iil. Formerly rice V, cleaned Ijv l„„,i ■ ^ ■"" mortars I, 1 ,■ '" P't'^^l'-Pine mortars holding a bushel. |„. „,',,„ ofa„,ro„-,,hodj>estle. N arly ! J- Plantation has one Of ,h?; mill^ for cleaning. 'J'fie climax of our rice-culture \^'i^ reached in the ye,,- rSr. "■^^raised.!,,,,/ '^50, when ■--Hr.ucK. ^'-^ together with less tha^; oooV" ,'"'■ "'"" «°'«"- -"- ' "'^' "^"'"'^ or -860, showing the 113 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY if III ■| !j ! I crop of the previous year, gave a total of only 187,167,032 pounds, of which South Carolina produced 119,100,528, Georgia 52,507,652, North Carolina 7,593,976, Louisiana 6,331,257, and the other States together less than 2,000,- 000. In South Carolina all but 2,765,729 pounds were raised in Georgetown, Colleton, Charleston, and Beaufort Counties, the first-named yielding nearly half of the whole. Nine-tenths of Georgia's yield that year was confined to Chatham, Camden, Mcintosh, and Glynn Counties, the first-named producing full half of the whole. In 1870 the total crop of the country was scarcely a third of what it was twenty years before. It was returned at 73,635,001 pounds, of which quantity South Carolina produced 32,304,825, — less than half, instead of three-quarters of the whole, as in 1850, — Georgia 22,277,380, Louisiana 15,854,012, North Carolina but 2,059,281, and the other States less than 1,000,000 pounds. The effect of the war was to nearly annihilate this industry, labor being Effect of war demoralized, the dams, gates, and mills getting sadly out of repair, upon this and the rice-fields growing up with weeds. Since the war the industry. recuperation has been slow, but sure ; the negroes coming to take a proprietary interest in the cultuie, and Louisiana doing much to extend and develop this branch of agriculture. Prior to the war we exported from a third to a half of our crop, the aver- age for 1850-60 being 60,000,000 pounds a year, valued at nearly $2,000,000. Exports and During and since the war we imported to nearly the same extent, imports. yxxi\X\ about 1870, when the increased home-production cut down the imports very perceptibly. Before concluding this chapter, a word or two is needed in respect to the cultivation of that luscious fruit, the orange. In Florida Nature pro- duces this fruit in greatest perfection, and within a few years the cultivation of oranges there has rapidly developed. It is said that almost everybody in the St. John's River country is engaged in trying to raise the golden fruit. Very few groves are in bearing ; indeed, it has been asserted, upon good authority, that between Jacksonville and Enterprise, a distance of two hundred miles, there are only about two hundred acres of producing trees : but the large profits realized from the old groves has in- duced the settlers to stake every thing upon the venture of rearing orchards of their own. Nine men out of ten are nursing young orchards, and waiting impatiently for them to yield some return for the money and time expended. It takes from six to ten years to bring an orange-tree to bearing. The cost of making a grove is very heavy. In the first place, the land, if on the river, is held at fancy prices. Comparatively little of it is adapted for orange- culture, and a gooci site commands from a hundred dollars to two hundred dollars an acre in its wild state. To clear off the heavy growth of timber, and get the stumps out, costs from fifty dollars to a hundred dollars an acre more. Then the young trees for planting are worth from thirty-five cents to a Oranges. pounds, of which , North Carolina ■ less than 2,000,- d in Georgetown, i yielding nearly was confined to lamed producing ry was scarcely a d at 73,635,001 825, — less than Drgia 22,277,380, the other States istry, labor being :ily out of repair, nee the war the ) coming to take :h to extend and r crop, the aver- ;arly ^2,000,000. the same extent, iction cut down '^n". stand a grov or ' " ""'""■ "^ "'^ •" .e k- ^""^ "^'""S. .",„-' 'I'°"s^n »hi,e tieiicate and healthful i in respect to ia Nature pro- a few years the )ed. It is said gaged in trying indeed, it has and Enterprise, ndred acres of groves has in- earing orchards rds, and waiting time expended. bearing. The land, if on the ited for orange- o two hundred of timber, and an acre more. ive cents to a 114 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY CHAPTER X. NEAT-CATTLE. I I !;!i ; i THE history of neat-cattle raising in this country naturally divides itself into the two epochs when we bred only native cattle, and when we begaii the improvement of our stock by the imi)ortation of foreign breeds. In England, the country which has g'ven more attention than any other to Native the improvement of this class of live-stock, comparatively little cattle. scientific breeding to develop special characteristics was practised until a hundred and fifty years ago ; and none worth mentioning was under- taken in the United States until after the Revolution. The catde which iire commonly termed " native catUe " in this country arc the product of an indiscriminate mixture of several varieties of foreign cattle, — two or three not very distinct Jkitish breeds, Swedish. Dutch, French, and Spanish; and so thoroughly have these original importations been crossed and intermingled, so poorly pronounced were the characteristics of the parent stock, and so modi^ fied were such characteristics, not only by cross-breeding, but also by the hardships of the climate and their owners' neglect in the early colonial days, that our native catUe have come to be a distinct breed by themselves. The first cattle in Massachusetts were the heifers and a bvill brought thither in 1624 by Gov. Edwartl Winslow. Twelve more cows were brought to Cape _.. ^. Ann in iGaO, thirty more in 1620, and a hundred in 16^0. These First impor- ' ■' ^ tations to last were kept at Salem, and were for the " governor and com- jiany of Massachusetts Hay." J'he stock bred from the impor- tation of 1624 was divided \v among the colonists three years later. The breed of these cattle is not known ; but they are spoken of as black, white, and brindle. Several importations of cattle were made by Capt. John Mason into New Hampshire in 1631-33 ; and, as he carried on consid- erable trade with Denmark, his cattle were mostly Danish. They were large, well adapted for working in the yoke, and of a uniformly yellow color. Some of the breed were kept pure until 1820 ; and, though they were crossed more or less with other stock, they gave a prevailing cast to most early New- f'-ngland cattle. Connecticut obtained her first cattle from Massachusetts, though perhaps a few from New York, and a few by direct importation. New England O^- 7-//A crj,vr,:D STATK,. lly divides itself ', and when we foreign breeds, an any other to nparatively little cs was practised ining was under- he cattle which ; product of an two or thn e not panish ; and so intermingled, so c, and so modi- but also by die y colonial days, iselves. I brought thither irought to Cape n 1630. These ^rnor and com- roni the impor- ists three years ■e spoken of as made by Capt. ried on consid- rhey were large, w color. Some e crossed more ost early New- Massachusetts, ortation. ;<-.™i«:":r ,r ir; •• "-"'"- r? • ■•■■■ brought cattle from tlK.ir . ^''^'''''■"^' •^'^"''"ng in Dchvi^.r ^""y '"i- ^^"^ ' ^'"» t-'ncouratrcrMl,, ; ''^"'^'''"g-oxen forty °ther ':^ ^'-^ttle on his p„rcl,asc .t .n "''P^'^.i^^'on and breedin.^ "'°"'"- '" ;^-. '-ought fron. t le We "r'f ' '"'" ^'^^''"'^^ '^-1 ..2 of U ''^'''' ^>y Sir Ralph Lane n "'''"' ^''^'-''■^" ^^^''^ ^i'l-ng wa 1 '' "''" '"'•onU^evonshire In.l HeVtf n'- "'^'^ ^^'^^ ^ hundred t^ \'"''^ ^^^"'''■'^- «- i."Port:;:t' r :rc"T -^ "^^ -«'tn; vi;::;.: rr; '''-'■ ei-% a ra,K,|, vo„ni,„ , "'"'•' "■"<; from l',,.-!;,,,,! :^ '^'- '''= 'mportations, wc-ro „r J '° ""■' "''^^st Indies i„ , . M«ico. a,„, Z ,v ^'"""" ''^-■•'- Theso r , '?,t "''"''' '""' '»'" River are k„„„. .t'"'''''^' ^^*"^' '^'"0, .1.0 „:„„;;""; .»p.«.. t«.,la in .Cos' .;""-'■ »'"' i"'o "'« breed ,„:/"■"•■" ••""■""Is of "«-'-,ere , ,,,,■„„.;:,,;;■" cow . J „r '^'''' ^° ''" ^v'tHout a ' and tliere was in M,.,,, i- , 'r ^"'>^ '^ ^'o-"esti ,^r f f ^-^ ;'-"'^"^' for the ^Vest ^^'"'' ,'"''"''' ^^-'lidi Jed to ■''''"'' '"ft lor sale. But '^^"'^- '■'■"'" fifteen .„d , "''"' ^'°^^" 1x6 IND I 'S TK I A [. HIS TON Y iri I ! I mi\ and only 20,000 ten years later. Maryland had so many, notwithstanding a loss of 25,000 by pestilence, in 1O94 and 1695, ^'^^^ there was left a great plenty. Just before the Revolution, the cattle of the Carolinas and (leorgia, rather small and neglected, were so plenty, that they wea- (lri\en up to Pennsyl- vania to fatten for the but( hers, and sold there for one and two guineas apiece. During the first twenty-five or fifty years of our colonial history, very little shelter or care was taken of the cattle in the winter time. The cows were not milked, there being a common belief that it would kill them Poor care " taken of at that se.ison. No stables were built for them, especially in the them in the j^fijidi^. and South Atlantic States; and they wandered at large. beginning. No special fodder was given them, either ; and they were obliged to pick up what they could on the roadsides and in the fields. Many a farmer lost twenty or thirty head from neglect every spring ; and it is a matter of record that ten thousand head of cattle died in South Carolina, in the year 1 731, simply from hunger and cold. From this same cause, pestilence, or the gradual decline of breeding, a scarcity was again noticeable in New Jersey and New England along toward 1 700. The principal value attached to cattle for a long period of our colonial history was for their hides. 'I'he several assemblies enacted laws to encourage th ^^^^ tanning of leather, to prohibit its importation, and even regulate principal the shoeuiakiiig business. Farmers used to take their hides to a currier, have them tanned and returned, and then let itinerant she makers work them up into foot-gear for the fiimily. Besides^ there were tanners and shoemakers who did an independent business. 0.\en were very extensively used, too, in hauling logs, ploughing, carting stones and farm-produce, and in other ways. Cattle were used almost exclusively for farm-labor in the colonial days, so scarce and costly were horses ; and even in the present generation, in New Fhigland, working-oxen are very numerous. As the settlements grew in size, and cities began to develop, there sprang up Raising ^ demand for catUe for beef. In 1651 the town of Fairfield, cattle for Conn., butchered 100 cattle. In New York, in 1678, 400 a year '^ ■ was the average number slaughtered ; and in 1694 it was 4,0.'"'".. In 1680 beef brought about twopence and a half a pound. The domestic dairy, too, was an important institution. The farmers all made a little butter and cheese for home use, and took a little to the cities to exchange for other merchandise. Butter was quoted at sixpence a pound in Connecticut in 1680. Quite a little cheese-business was built up too. There is a record of 13,000 pounds of cheese having been sold from one farm in Rhode Island Scientific '" 175^5 and on another farm sevcnty-thrce COWS are reported to breeding of havc yielded 10,000 pounds of butter in five months, or about one pound apiece per day. During the last half of the last century, and early in this, the business of breeding cattle on scientific principles developed very rapidly value of (.arly stock cattle in England O^ THE U^;rED ,taTES. ^'" ^'"t''^""'- Among the nuK. "7 since hen, kn.nvM ,7 ' prominent breeds ,i,.„ ""'"■■- ".'■ '.":;;:'. 'xr;;;^ --' :^::c: Tr "-- '" ''"''■" "vll „„, """""-^"^■>l lioms, a ,„,■, ,„ .,"• ,"'" IVvons arc """■'•- -IV. .All. .,'■'"'' "' '"'"«. ^'"'1 aa- „„ l',, '^' '■^'"-"",.s .-,« :;:;:;;';;7;;-"-■ ^.-o-,, ■•">■' .1.C' .>v„\4 ?"'- '"^ ■'-""■•1. an,l .Tossc' , '" "' "'' "'•' '^""c- »n ».«kTa,si„,. f„ ,.","■" "f >'«■■ "'...Ury save ;,:■'■ '""^■'■■■'■^ •"'%'s evam„l •'""-■™ ""rkct .,„,r m, "'■■"""" ." ""■"I .">por.a,io„» ,,.,„; "° ''■^^""-■k- I..divicl„al.s m ,| ^""- "'-•■>■"■..■ '"nin.',| ii, ,■„. „ . ',' "" '" 'S34, I, „.|,i,.|, ,. , "'"''■ occa. ""^ l»o„g|„ ,„ ,'"''" "■•■"' ""■'••slecl abroad ;„,„, ,'""■" ^""'""<- subscrihcd > "'^ "">Pany .h^ee years afte o ta'/ ■"*™'=-^- ''l^ '" organization „.as J25^^<, iiS INP VS TN lA r. ins TOR Y '' >, I . .<, ! 'I. r; {' This plan was imitati-tl afterwards in Kentucky and other sections of the coun- try. Short-iiurns wltl- hroii^^lu into \\ istclicstt-r ("ounty, New Yorlv, as early as 1792 and 1796. The breed was not kept pure long, though their descend- ants are recognizable to-(hiy. Other importations were made into New York in »,■^ shipped to foreign countries from the United States on account of the expense, the risk incurred, and the monopoly of the F^astern markets by luu-opean stock-raisers. Canada, however, has been exporting live- stock to the mother-country for some time, and with such success, that New- York and Philadelphia merchants are now trying the experiment. The ship- ment of live-stock across the ocean has made necessary the construction of apartments on vessels cjuite different from any thing heretofore in use. Porta- ble stalls, in which the cattle are fastened, have been specially made, so arranged as to give room for eating and drinkin^, and to be movable, with the cattle in them, to different parts of the vessel. The stock is thus brought upon deck for several hours each day, and given the benefit of the fresh sea- air. The new arrangement is strictly an American invention, and its friends I 1 If to tliese figures one adds $2,847,447, the v.iliie of salted beef, $4,527,452 for butter, $13,529,978 for cheese, $122,343 'o'' condensed milk, $1,848,555 for hides, $6,513,569 for tallow, and $19,356 for glue, he will find that our bovine product exports amount to about $35,000,000 annually. :lo\vn to thirty- vhich the meat )t as susceptible ^r of the many fresh and bright , prepare their process. They Company and k on a smaller .mple. )ence a pound ; i\v the price of lerefore, caused mbined to stop tlie Prince of ik of England, ■e it fully equal rived from the beef amounted ated 2,719,685 were 6,707,855 >2,793 pounds, Iso undertaken experiment will cattle had not ited States on of the Eastern exporting live- :ess, that New- at. The ship- onstruction of n use. Porta- ially made, so /able, with the thus brought the fresh sea- .nd its friends tter, $13,529,978 for 356 for glue, he will O^ T^fE UmTED STATES. are confident that its intrnrl., .■ '^5 »^"* of cattle were formerlv h '"'''"*• ''"■«'"'<^l' ••<» ,l,o„ ' ' '"'-.and Texa.fo„„:r *'■«;-"' '" S""'" A„,erica, . , ' tX""' •• extract of */;,":'' ,"'■ "■>' °- -'o„/.ce„,i , ', r^'^" °' '^^''-"S "•■nlry. It be-1? ''°"'P'-««I cooked meats k ;' y, ..Kl bid fair ,0 o,„str ; .;, fo ?"",", "*" '" '-"S'-" -.tt: ™ per month are prodncec by it [^ r'"^'^^- -^I'o"' 75o.ooo •"•• 4.000 cattle per week m ii , -American iioiises an.l r. --""inSofco'rned-beefLtt' r' '" """«° f-h' Tr,«:' T" ,'" ■'■>» <--a e;t';"r-'-".--l-g,,,ere :;, """'^'^ - >«..«l,t to process. T|,,. ,,„„ ' ' ' ™°""^'' "isiKction, the meats ,„ ? ' """•■■ '"'i "' immense „ooT "^^ °'" °' ""= "'ea, ar; evposS , ,r'''' '■°'' "'^ "'""? ..KTly i„,°;" :7f f ^^^«- They ha^-e none o th J ^' ''"'^ ^"^^ ^''-■^'^ 'n any '^ Australian method of can- 126 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY 1i!^r *..'.< '* ' 1 III :'(/■ ning differs from the American in this, that the former cooks the meat whole in cans, while the latter cooks it in small pieces in wooden vats, as already described. The Australian cans often present a peculiar appearance after the cooling process, as the sides are sometimes contracted, and look as if they had been subjected to pressure. The extent of the American industry is also shown in the number of employees, the salaries, &c., of a Chicago firm. In one establishment 7,000 men and 150 girls are employed, and the pay-roll is $30,000 a month. The floor of the packing-house covers four acres. The refrigerator will accommodate 3,330,000 pounds. Five boilers, with a capacity of 80,000 pounds, are used for rendering tallow from marrow, and five for furnishing steam for cooking and the elevators. Cooked meats by the Australian method have been known in America for twenty years ; but the process is very imperfect. Owing to its inferiority, the sales of those meats have been poor. The demand for compressed cooked Export of meats, on the contrary, has been so great, that there is a prospec- compressed tive business with governments in supplying them with .his article, meats. j^. j^ j^Qpej that something may be accomplished in the way of supplying the European belligerents. Large invoices are now sent to London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, &c. (lermany and France do not buy them as readily yet as Great Britain ; but the promise is good of a large trade eventu- ally in those countries. " The London Grocer " stated recently, that, during one week, 11,270 cases of packed meat were received at Liverpool from America. Each case contained twelve cans, making a total of 135,240 cans. This, however, is an average estimate, as one house in this country has fre- quently sent out 20,000 cases per week. OF THE UNITED STATES. 127 CHAPTER XI. BUTTER AND CHEESE. THE history of American dairying was a comparatively quiet and unevent- ful one until the middle of the present century, and progress was com- paratively slow in its development until about that time. As we have already remarked in discussing neat-cattle, our stock was of poor quality 3,^^ p^^g. during the last century, and its improvement not fairly inaugurated ressinbe- until 1825-50. The earlier efforts at improvement, too, were 2'""'"^' direct*^d rather to the perfection of our beef than to increase the quantity and (luality of the milk. The importations of foreign breeds were mostly of short- horns until 1850. A little before that time the importation of Ayrshires, Jerseys, and Alderneys, was undertaken. During the next decade the dairy- interest was confined mostly to New England and the Middle States, with a little activity in the North-West. Not until the conception of the modern cheese-factory system, and the demonstration of its marked success, did the West give much attention to the subject. Cheese is altogether the older of the two sister-products of the dairy ; and its first manufacture, more or less crude, began away back in the obscure past. It was a recognized article of food with the Greeks and early T, , , , , r s Cheese. Romans, to whom butter was known only as an omtment for the toilet, not as an article of diet. Even yet, in many parts of Europe, butter is sold by apothecaries as a vegetable oil for medicinal preparations, though not used ex lusively for such purposes by any means. Unsalted butter, too, is used to a great extent by Europeans. The practice of salting it — doubtless intended originally for preserving it, but afterwards resorted to for the taste — seems to be more of an English and American custom. Partly from the nature of the two preparations, and partly because of the greater attention given to cheese-making, this article is found in far greater variety in Europe than is butter ; and many of the delicate and peculiar varieties of foreign r'leese have been unequalled by any American product for flavor, whereas no butter in the world surpasses that of our dairies. Until about 1830 cheese was made in this country by the farmers exclu- Tf ; % 128 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ;F'- 1 ia m A: sively, and generally in their own farmhouses, in small quantities. The Early histo- cheeses were taken to the neighboring village or town, and ex- ry of cheese- changed for groceries or dry-goods, without any thought of the making. trade with large cities, or the export business. If, in the course of the season, the housewife made more than a dozen cheeses of thirty or forty pounds each, she thought she was doing unusually well. However, the First exnor- demand for this i)roduct continually increased among the working- tation. classes at home and abroad ; and our export trade, chiefly with England, began as early as 1 790. Along toward 1830 the profits to be realized from cheese-making, which Progress in ^^^"^ more remunerative than any other branch of agriculture cheese- in thc Middle and lOastern States, began to be realized. In ma ing. Herkimer County, New York, a change began to take place in the methods of manufacture which had been formerly in use. The herds had been milked in the open yards, the curds were worked in tubs, the cheeses squeezed in rude log-presses, and laid away to cure in a corner of the cellar or of some " spare room." Hut now more s)s- tem was employed ; and apartments, ami even sepa- rate buildings, were con- structed on the farm express- ly for this work. A contribu- tor to " Harpers' Magazine " says of this stage of the in- dustry's development, — "The fiice of the county (Herkimer) became dotted with dairy-houses as with corn-cribs. These were, for the most part, simple, unpretentious one-story structures, distinguished from the other out-buildings by closely- battened cracks and protruding stovepipe. The apparatus was simple and rude, and the system of manufacture a family's secret, imparted with wise looks and an oracular phrase. Skill was vested in intuition : it was the maiden's dower, the matron's pride. ... It was during this period of severe a])i)lication and large rewards that Herkimer County achieved that reputation for fancy cheese which is still her traditional right." Cheese prod- '^" '\(\.Q.^ of t'^e distribution of the cheese-production at the uct prior to end of twenty years of this experience may be gathered from the ' ^°' following statement of the cheese production, in pounds, from the census of 1S50 : — Herkimer County. antities. Tlie town, and ex- thought of the in the course es of thirty or However, the ig the working- lie, chiefly with ■making, which of agriculture realized. In take place in I'he herds had in the open Is were worked eeses squeezed resses, and laid in a corner of f some " spare now more sys- iployed ; and ntl even sepa- s, were con- e farm express- :. A contribu- n-s' Magazine " age of the in- )pment, — of the county )ecame dotted luses as with tious one-story igs by closely- apparatus was icret, imparted .tuition : it was leriod of severe that reputation duction at tlu- hered from the pounds, from New 'V'ork Ohio Vermont . Massachusetts <^'')iinccticiit . ^'i-'w naiiijjshire J'cnnsylvaiiia . Afaine Illinois . Michifrai, Other States . Total O/^ Tf/E UmTED STATES. 129 49,741,41,3 -o.«iy,54j «,720„S34 7,oS,S, [42 5.36j,::77 3. '96,563 --505,034 --(34-454 ',-:7f<,:;25 ',011,492 3,366,917 '°5.535.^'93 i'rom this it will he seen n^nf m ,, 'h«yic-l.ed „.|,id, n,aclc over half \ ' ' '"■' ""'>" "'I'" Slate >,e.,ides the il ove «■"« 6.4.564 pound. " """'"" 1»""* «as Indiana, whiel, i cedUej" SHORT-HOR.V Bl'LL, . rt was just at this time that th. r ^-;;^;vide.y imitated, gave ^ tT\ ''''''^ ^^ 'dented, which ^ '••ay be remarked in this ronn . "'"'"'' ^« the business . ;;>■;''"',».» in Europe, 'ti"";:^;;r' "" "-" '- "■■■' --' - --: 13° IND L 'S TRIA f. II IS TOR Y 1 :.!•• There lived in Oneida County, New York, near Rome, a ^'entlenian named Jesse \Viliiams, wiio had acliieved a great reputation for iiis cheeses ; and at that Jesse Wii- time reputation was money, for it brouglit liigher prices for ,S '5-'A|.j'jo 4.072,301 1,885,436 '/^96,783 '■650.997 -7.-I00 256,906 *--7»J«j,8'4„S79 5.734.004 4.'3',309 3.395.074 3,28,S,5,S, 2,792,676 2,32',8or -058,594 ',344,647 •'.'52.590 872,368 39 ',487 2,450,362 '62,927,382 Although reliable dafi nu. ' . =mo.mt was abnormally k J""'"" """""" "' '^^'"■'«<-'- Five year, h, , "l^' export was. I 7,9 . ^^' ^^' ''l"'- 'S^:., i,„f;] ,0,, , Statistics ■t c::r:r^'^-7"''''''^^ »'■ i xrti,ey:r "" "^■^' *■ ^'- r / 132 IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y \k '! ' ♦' I.' potmn^. 1861 32,301,4^8 1862 34,052,678 1863 42,045,054 1864 47.7S''.?-9 1865 53,089,408 1S66 36,411,985 1867 52,352,127 1868 51,097,203 1869 39.'/'0.3'>7 1870 57.-')o,it>7 •,2372 ;G,o83,405 :7.5'-''79 74,400,185 22,915-3^5 22,473.036 17.^44,396 14.455.^-5 12,023,744 11,879,978 11,636,482 9,571,069 9,522,010 8,266,023 7,969.744 6,716,007 6, 5 59.' 61 45.913512 514,092,683 duct of butter n leap. It is larger than iu net annually is md locality in |en adulterated dng-butter are )icer makes of It after. Some [;iuality. New- le in Vermont, the other large lua, Chenango, especially that ^r the Western good a price ; jroved. ;h until withm in 1877 they aggregated 23,150,614, and were worth $4,527,452- This, added to the value of the cheese export, makes $18,057,430. ^^■ithin the past fue years the manufacture of an imitation of butter- called oh'o- III nr:(a rill,', lias attained sufficient prominence to deserve mention in this connection. We have alrt;'dy spoken of tlie attempts to /eplace oieo-marga- the natural oil of cream with other animal fat in making clieese """=• from skim-milk. That practice is resorted to only to a limited extent, and in such cases the suet-fat introduced constitutes only a small proportion of the article produced. The substitution, how '-er, is complete in the manu- facture of artificial butter, inasmuch as this substance is all fat, and not tasein.^ Moreover, the business is carried on to a much greater extent than the i)ro>.iuction of olco-marganne cheese. The idea seems to have originated in England over thirty years ago. In 1S46 one William Palmer took out a patent for "treating fat or fatty matters from beef, mutton, veal, and lamb : " but the product obtained „ . . , . ' ' ' ^ . Origin of It. was (juite unlike butter in color and taste ; it looked more like lard. The first patent taken out in this country was issued in 1871 to H. W. Bradley, and the second to one Peyrouse in the following November. These both employed beef-suet chiefly, and were intended rather for cooking than for use un the table. The next improvement was that embraced by the Paraf patent, in April, 1873. The product of this process is called oleo-margarine, from the supposition that its two elements are oleine and margari.-.e. The so-called margarine, however, is resolvable into stearine and palmitine ; and, besides constituents these, the new product contains butyrine, one of the oils of true of oieo-mar- butter, in a small degree. The manufacture is conducted s^""'"^* secretly, but is said to be cKceedingly cleanly. Its -"rominent features are the extraction of clear fat from clean beef-suet, and chv rning it with milk. No coloring-matter is used, inasmuch as the substance is already orange- hued. It is, of course, salted like ordinary butter. In a jpearance it differs from real butter only in being less waxy, and in taste cl iefly in the absence of flavor. Indeed, t!.e resemblance is so strong, that ^nly experts can dis- tinguish between the two compounds. There are two kinds of oleo-margarine. The first may be called the " original antl genuine." In making it the oil is adulterated with just enough cream to allow of its being churned, the proportion of cream to oil being about one to twenty. The "original and genuine " is made in Two kinds of large factories operating under the Mege patent. Butter-dealers oieo-marga- (iaim to be able to distinguish this article from dairy butter quite '^'"''" readily, lacking as it does the " texture " of the latter. The second kind is that in which tlie oil has been largely adulterated with cream, — perhaps with fitty or sixty per cent of cream. This kind is made by country dairymen, and. it is believed, in considerable quantities ; and to detect its composition baffles the skill of any except the most experienced dealer. 136 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY in Philadel phia. A Philadelphia correspondent of one of the New- York newspapers ^ describes seeing half a ton of "ole " in the QuuKer City, fresh from New York, _.. , and labelled " Philad a Best Print." He says it looked exactly First appear- •' •' anceof'oie" hkc the bcst buttcr coiTiing to that market; but it was made of any thing except pure cream. It tasted a little like butter ; but when one thinks of fat and stearine and suet, and a shade of tallow, what would be his thoughts when spreading it on a piece of bread? It is prepared in long flat rolls of a pound each, a shape so well known by the lovers of butter made in the counties of Pennsylvania, The Produce Exchange are frightened about this new-comer, and have taken up arms agamst it. While they fight, an agent has been appointed, and it will be sold in spite of all opposition. What the proportions of grease exactly are the correspondent did not know : but there is at least a candle of tallow in every pound ; so that, when one eats his penny-dip, he may expect a double portion of '.he Quaker's " light within." The New- York stockholders in the new company say they can, with their present facilities, turn out seventy thou- sand pounds per day. It is intended for the European market ; but the first batch turned up there, perhaps for the sake of getting references. In appearance it cannot be distinguished from the very highest-priced butter ; and, though this is sold for about ten cents per pound less than the best and genuine, it certainly cannot cost more than twelve cents per pound. The success of this latest experiment has led to the manufacture of oleo- margarine in New-York City on a large scale, and the institution of lesser Success of factories under the same patent in other cities. Inasmuch as the the industry, article can be produced so much more cheaply than butter, it proves a formidable rival to the rerJ dairy product ; and the dairymen have secured the enactment of laws in New York and Connecticut, as they doubt- less will in other States before long, requiring oleo-margarine to be sold as such, and not as butter. Upon the first announcement of this industry, popu- lar prejudice rose high against it ; but the new compound is already manufac- tured and consumed to a very great extent, — probably not short of two million pounds annudly. ' Journal of Commerce. OF THE UNITED STATES. m ewspapers ^ New York, ked exactly as made of butter; but a shade of [ bread? well known ["he Produce cen up arms id it will be ;e exactly are ; of tallow in ,ect a double solders in the seventy thou- rket ; but the eferences. In priced butter ; , the best and nd. icture of oleo- itlon of lesser asmuch as the Ithan butter, it dairymen have as they doubt- to be sold as .ndustry, popu- eady manufac- of two million CHAPTER XII. THE HORSE. NOWHERE in the world is the horse prized so highly as in Arabia, and nothing expresses an Arabian's admiration for the animal more clearly than the story told by an Arab concerning his origin. When Abd-el-Kader was questioned on this point by the f>e;ich Government, he Horse f replied, " When God wished to create the horse, he said to the Arabian south wind, ' I wish to form a creature out of thee : be thou con- °'''^'"" densed.' Afterward came the angel Gabriel, and took a handful of that matter, and presented it to God, who formed of it a light-brown or sorrel horse, saying, ' I have called thee Horse. I have created thee an Arab, and I have given thee the color rouenenita (red mixed with black) . I have bound fortune upon the mane which falls over thine eyes. Thou shalt be the lord of all other animals. Men shall follow thee whithersoever thou goest. Good for the pursuit as for flight. Thou shalt fly without wings. Riches shall repose in thy loins, and wealth shall be made by thine intercession.' " Fossil remains prove the existence of the horse in the New as well as in the Old World before the flood. He traversed our soil as the con- Geological temporary of the mastodon. While his race here became ex- *b^ °f horse. tinct, and he was unrepresented in the Western Continent at the time of its dis- covery by Columbus, in the C)ld World he was fortunately preserved. When Columbus made his second journey to the New World, in 1493, he took horses along with him ; but Cabega de Vaca first introduced them into the United States in 1527. Forty- two were imported; but all perished soon after their arrival in Florida. The wild horses found on the plains j^ ,^j^^ of Texas and the Western prairies sprang from a Spanish ancestry, of hon-.o^ by and probably descended from those brought over by De Soto, ° """ "^' which were abandoned when that ill-starred expedition came to an end. In 1 604 a French lawyer, M. Lescarbot, brought over horses to Acadia ; and from these the French, who fixtended their settlements into Canada in 1608, took the horses which probably laid the foundation of what are now known as Canadian ponies, having, no doubt, lost much of their original size in conse- 138 /NZ) US TA'/A L HIS TOR Y \\ ;i Ni 7' %\\ ; Ui 11 quence of the severity of the cHmate and scanty forage. Though degenerated in size, they still show traces of Norman blood, from which they probably sprang. Many improvements have occurred in the horse since his re-appearance m this country. The changes wrought, esi)ecially during the last fifty years, have been marvellous ; yet may they not be regarded as indications only of other Improve- ^^'^^ ^^'" more important improvements, when a still higher degree ments in the of knowledge is acciuirctl respecting the rearing and training of *^°"^' them? It is a striking proof of what may happen to animals under domestication ; and, however great or small may be the quantity of truth con- tained in Darwin's flimous law concerning the origin of animals, no one will deny the magnituile of the changes wrought in the horse in respect to his size, speed, strength, and other c[ualities, since special attention was paid to these matters, nor cjuestion the agency by which these results have been produced. Great attention has been given to this subject tluring the last fifty years, which we shall now proceed briefiy to sketch. TIIK TKOTTIXC-IIORSE. The trotting-horse is very largely the product of American thought and cultivation. Trotting, in most cases, is an accjuired gait ; nor has much atten- tion been paiil to it until within sixty-five years. The ancestry of the trotting- horse, however, goes farther back. Messenger, from which many of the fast horses in this country have descended, was imported into Philadelphia from F^nglantl in .May, i 7S8. Messenger was thorough-bred, and, prior to his importation, ran races on the l-'nglish turf with moderate success ; and without doubt it was the intention ot those who brought htm to this country to make him the sire of horses that should gallop rather than trot. His father, Mambrino, evinced a natural disposition to trot ; and this trait was inherited by many of his progeny. Messenger was trained for the running turf in England; and in 1788 the running horse was popular in certain sections of .\merica, and hence the inference is clear that he was imported. His color was gray, and he was fifteen hands and three inches high, and the colts which were sired by him showed fine form. In Pennsyl- vania, however, — into which State he was first imported, — the legislature passed a law prohibiting racing ; and so the progeny of this famous stallion was trained for the road instead of the track. In the autumn of 1793 Mes- senger left Pennsylvania for New York, where he remained until 1808, when he died of the colic at Oyster P)ay, L.I. As he had long been famous and popular, he was buried with military honors, a volley of musketry being fired over his grave. As the trotting-horse was not flishionable at that period, the record is not very perfect concerning the descendants of this famous horse. " Many of the Messenger. OF rui-: rNiTED states. 139 eratcd abably nee \\\ s, have f other degree ling of s under Ih con- one will his size, to these roduced. rs, which light and ch alten- e trotting- u:h many imported igh-bred, moderate Iht htm to [ther than and this Id for the opular in It he was lee 1 nches 1- Pennsy ileeis hs lature stallion 793 Mc 8, when 5(V Inous am iing fired |)rd is not iny of the CONKSKK.A lUlKSK. :rt ..^J'- z^'i !■ ■J. 140 /JVn as TRIA l. II IS TOR Y earlier horses which won distiiK lion o\\ tlie tnuk — such as Top-Ciallant, Early trot- VcmX Try, and W'iialcbonc — are known to have descended from him. ting-horses. Alxlallali, the son of Mambrin- , and the grandson of Messenger, l)roved to be one of the best irotting-sires that the country has produced. The horse, however, was not much appreciated in liis time. His best daugh- ter, prob; biy, was Lady JJianche, a mare that ac(|uired celebrity on the road and turf, and which lived to a green old age, and literally died in tiie harness. It is claimed, that, with proper lare, she would have trotted very fast. Thirty and forty years ago the art of training and driving had not been reduced to a science as now. Abdallah's best son was the horse now so widely known as Rysdyk's Hambletonian. Through sire and dam. Hambletonian has four direct courses of Messenger blood. As he is a leading i)rogenitor, perhaps a tabulated pedigree will interest the reader. This (jne jjcdigree will illustrate the manner in which the record of eciuine genealogy is kept." m •-\\i WW ";ili ' jl fi i.' \\> [ > (J 1 l\ I m i 111 i Ml i Maiiibiino Rysdyk's I lambletonian ( Messenger. rsai ^ ( Dam ' i Whirligig. ( .Aiiuizoiiia. f I )am ; L i*i I.IHIIJI HIM \ AbchllalJ /l)a a, J ( Saiierkratit. ini ( Miss Slamcrkin. Mr. I'.cll-foiinder. Charles Kent Mare < I llaiiiblctoniaii. ( One I'lyc , ( Messenger. ( Dam by Messenger / ( Dam by Messenger.' By many it is claimed tliat Hambletonian owes his success as a trotling- sire from his strong ini'usion of Messenger blood. He was foaled May 5, Hambieto- 1 J^49, on thc farm of Jonas Seeley, jun., near Chester, Orange "*an. County, N.Y. When five weeks old, Mr. William Rysdyk pur- chased him with his dam for a hundred and twenty-five dollars. Mr. Rysdyk was a poor man then. The horse pr()\ed a mine of wealth. Of late years the extravagant price of five hundred dcllars the season has been paid for his services ; and at this figure his 'ist has always been more than full. His colts have usually commanded large prices ; and by him was sired the celebrated Dexter, whose record is world-wide. In New ICngland thc Morgan horse has a fine rei)utation, and his history is worth giving to our readers. During the last ( cntury a good many English or thorough-bred horses were brought from Virginia into Connecti- cut, and were kept in the vicinity of Hartford : among them were Highlander, King William, and another, called lieautifiil lioy, or True Briton. He was probably thorough-bred, and was stolen, so it is said, from Gen. De Lancey at King's Bridge. For several years hi was kept at Springfield, Mass., and became the sire of Justin M(jrgan, which vas foaled in West Spring- field in 1793, and which, as another writer has truthfully said, '• has had a post- ' Harjiers' Magazine, vol. xlvil. p. 60.,. Morgan. OF Till', ex /TED STATES. 14; lUant, .1 him. enger, luccd. laugh- z road arncss. Thirty d to a jwn as as four ^jerhaps Uistrate cssenger.' trolting- May 5. ( )rangc lyk pur- Rysdyk lie years ll for his IS colt^ ;lebrated |s history Enghsh tonnecti- lem were Briton, hm Gen. Iringfield, It Spring- \\ a post- 142 /Xn [ S TA'/A I. HIS 70A' ) • Mt !r 'ft' il i-\-i !i! '\ v. His iiistory. Description. m luinious fame surpassed by that of no other animal that ever stood in New iMigland." When two years old, lie was taken to Randolph, \'l. Kike most of the stock horses oi '.;s time, especially in the more remote sections, he had to work hard in clearing up new land ; and in this laborious kind of work he exhibited the most wonderful strength and willingness at a pull, and the most remarkable patience at a dead lift, — a characteristic, one would suppose, strongly in contrast with his nervous playfulness at the end of a halter or under the saddle. He would " out-draw, out-walk, out-trot, and out run " any and every horse that was ever matched against him ; and that, too, notwithstanding the fact that nawy of them were mucli larger and heavier animals. Strength and speed, as compared with the horses of his time, and endurance, were characteristics in whi( h he especially excelled. He survived the hardships to which he was almosi constantly subjected for twenty-nine years, and then re':eived a kick from horses in the same ya; which resulted in his {'eath in the year 182 1. He impressed his fine (iu;> ities upon his offsjjring to an miusual degree, as they still appear un([U-:ilion ihly in his descendants. He is described as a small horse, ony about fourteen hands high, and his weight, by estimation, about nine hundred and fifty pounds. He was a beau- tiful dark bay, with scarcely a white hair on his body. His legs were black. His mane and tail were black, coarse, and thick, widi long, straight hair free from curls. He is described as having a good head of medium size, lean and long, with a straight face, broad and good forehead, and fine, small ears set wide apart. He had a very short back, and wide and nuiscula'' loins, but rather a long body, round, and close ribbed up. lie was compact, or, a^ many would say, he was very snugly built ; with a deep, wide chest, and pro- jecting breast-bone ; short, close-jointed legs, wide and thin, but remarkably muscular, and with some long hair about and above the fetlocks, — a pecul- iarity which ne imparted to many of his ofispring. The old Justin Morgan was said to have beni a ver\- fast walker ; but in trotting he had a short, nervous step, a low smooth gait, square and fine He His speed, was uot rciiiarka' ily fast as a trotter, thoUij,ii his speed waS nevjr style, &c. developed as it has been with the greatest assiduity in mt\ny of his descendants. In travelling he raised his feet but slightly, — only enough to clear the inequalities of the ground ; but, I'Otwithstanding this, he had the reputation of being very sure-footed. His style of movement w is lofty, bold. and energetic, full of life and spirit ; but h ; was managed with great ease, aii'I it was said that a k'.dy could drive liim v.-ith perfect safety. He was inucli admired as a parade horse. Couic run Though not what would now be called a very fast trotter, tlu' ^'^'' old Justin Morgan could run at short distances with anv other horse of his time not thorough-bred ; and many an eighty rods accomplishdl t'i OF THE UNITED STATES. 143 li'i y4!:'li %B-^ i ' ', "1 "■f" 1 ^¥: \ > ' '■« ■^■/ i \ • !■. H' if^ '' ,'• ■ 1I '♦r"!i' ^ i?- ifc |;i' 1'.' ' li |lr' 1 . ■• ■u i'lv fj^U , f . ! __ : ,^- 144 INDUSTRfAL HISTORY Black Hawk. Description. J)y him won nis kccptr the stakes, payable at the tavern where the scratch was made in tne cn'rt aciosr. the road as the ])oint from which to start. Ea( h horse nad to "cunic up lo the scratch," and, when the hat fell, to be off as fast as his legs could cariy him. \\\ all such trials, the " little horse " was always sure to win. It is from him that Bulrush Morgan antl the Morrill horses have descended. Another family of horses, to»y well known to be wholly omitted from this description, is the Hlack Hawk. The first one bearing that name was foaled near Portsmouth, N.H., 1833. At the age of four years he was sold as a roadster for the sum of ;il!i50. In 1842 he won a match of a thousanil dollars, trotting live milts over the Cambridge track in sixteen minutes. In the year 1844 Mr. Hill bought and kept him as a stallion at Bridport, Vt., till the time of his death in 1856. His skeleton is preserved in the office of the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, at the State House in Boston. Black Hawk was not quite fifteen hands high, and weighed about a thou- sand pounds. He was remarkably symmetrical and muscular, graced with a beautiful head, neck, and limbs, and when in action, whether in harness or out, of a spirited, nervous, and elegant bearing, which could not fixil to command uni\x'rsal admiration wherever he appeared. He could easily trot his mile in two minutes and forty seconds, even without much training ; and he combined with great speed the perfection of form, the intel- ligence, courage, and endurance sufficient to make him a complete model of a roadster. He possessed the power of transmitting his characteristics to his very numerous offspring in a degree surpassed by no other horse in the country. In the carriage or under the saddle, in the quiet of a country road or on the parade-ground, under whatever circumstances the descendants of Black Hawk a|)pcai, '-.e eye accustomed to observe the characteristics of the horse could hardly fail to detect the relationship. The Black Hawks are much sought after as light carriage and saddle horses. As an evidence of their qualities, as well as the celebrity they have obtained in other parts of the country, it may be stated, that during the fair at St. Louis, c brit f "^ ^^^59» ^'^'^ o"*^ °^ ^'^ ^^ ^'^^ ^^^^ stallions exhibited in the class Black of roadsters were Black Hawks ; and the prizes, of one thousand Hawk's de- fioU^^i-;^ fii^^j; year and of fifteen hundred dollars at the fair there in 1S60, were awarded for the best stallions in this class to sons of old Black Hawk. At the various fairs held in New England — at Springfield, Boston, and elsewhere — the Black Hawks have been very largely represented, and have generally carried off a fiiU proportion of the prizes offered. More than one hundred horses of this stock were entered at the Springfield Horse Show in 1S60, and nearly half of all successful competitors were Black Hawks. Many sons of the old horse are now standing in various i)arts of New England as stock-getters ; and, judging from the reports of State fairs in other parts of ^^ TffE UmTED STATES. the country, it is safe to affirm th-if h, ' '^^ -^ ;^^ «tock of the Unite,, ^^'' ^^^^^^^^^-^^<^-^^..C., i„n..„., »e must now turn our -,h .• -^tec, in America .as ^r.:^^:^^^ ^^ :'''- Hrst pui.i. race ever D..nng a jockeyclub dinner Ik .. ""^ '^ ''Hie ui three •'■ce. IslamI, a„,l (.:„|. „„„,, „f «, I '' I "' ~ "^'J"'' "'"':•"> Jones of , -- - good a» ,1,0 wo U 4' ; r-T" '" '™""- -'" . orsJ ■ :""^' h.» fame was oMablislK.,!. He™ "',1 ' ''"""-■ ''"" -"""Plisl.e, .he fc7 «'»> of these perhaps , he nl e f T''"""' •■""' ^l'>' WiUcr. The' ,^"r"°"°' «- of these Perhaps",he I, ,':;?"""■ ';"" ^"^ "'"- ^ H '"S-lwk Course in Philadelph I T '"""'"" ^" "'« ""«■ "■""■ ■»- horse hi« n->„.;f„ ' *• *'^"''i-' uemp fmni, i_ clubs '"S-lwk Course in Philadelph Z^l "'"'""'"" ^" "'« ""«■ -"'•-»- horse his merits were recognize,!' and, * ""'""'"' '■■■'' " '^^="- """■ "">er won as fine a repuhl ion ■' f " "''"""ff-^Pce.i was developed s *';""» -wspaper ann^r , ,1," : ;; ^ - '""'. ^n OetCer, If . ml" '>« •"..= » horse which could tro a m 1 ' " °' ''"'"=' '» "<' nwre," A ''»I)l)carance. Hq v^J . , u . , '^' -""^^ t'''^ opposite of , ' 'i ^ *»",:." * ::,r:™ -""- •'..>t.v-.wc si^rnr - ^°" ^°"='-' A"«nst, ,S3,'. -'^ '-- «» n-iclen-by Hiranr Wood' u/T This"' ""'"' ;;-^^ni:h;j:::;»i''-;^' -.™^^^^ „a„„,„ „„^ •^'*"-k.a„ds\a!;ding^t«:t„d""' t ''"""^'■' S-^-'* - .r^"'" "' '''' '"■""'^■- ^-- Hi; sS;' ; :;: ; r:: f:^ """■ ^'^ ^'-" - '- 1 rcpared and mounted by a taxi- 146 IND US TRIA I. HIS TOR Y lU J:. : I I Truitee. Tacony. . I'errin of New- York City, who used her as a road-mare. In 1850 she trotted a mat( ii race ; but she did not make her regular appearance on the course until two years later. She made her last turf-performance Sept. 5, 1861, on the i''ashion Course, Long Island. During the eleven years in which she was })rominently before the jjublic she trotted a hufidred and eleven races, ninety-three of which she won. Her winnings netted $113,000. Prominent among her com- petitors were Princess, Ethan Allen, Ocorge M. Patchen, Lancet, Taconv, and Highland Maid. Her best wagon-time, 2.24-^, was made Sept. 2, 1S56, on the Llnion Course, Long Island. Her fastest mile in harness, which for a long while stood at the head of the record, was done at Kalamazoo, Mich.. Oct. 15, 1859. Flora Temple's turf-career was marvellous. She was a mare of obscure breeding, small in stature, being fourteen hands two inches high : and yet she rose to supremacy, and reigned for a number of years (jueen of the course. It would be impossible for us in our short space to recount the glories of all the fiimous trotters in the United States, or even to mention their names. IJesides, as we approach nearer to the present time, there is less need of presenting such a history, as man}' are familiar with it. Ethan Allen. [larness-store. lat her speed ;he turf were L'ppo, Oneida -■mory of the n tlie scenes Tnistee, the His driver ky a liundred in fifty-nine otighly tested cruel ; but it nance. h won many :e ; at whic h Kthan Allen, ,' season was id Tacony, in different dis- W'hile young, 'noss, she did brought with by Mr. Velie rrin of New- . match race : til two years the I'ashion prominently lety-three of 3ng her coni- Tacnny, and :. 2, 1856, on M'hich for a lazoo, Mich.. ' was a niarr inches high : irs (lueen of le glories of 1 to mention present time, miliar with it. mm slo,,, huwi.vcr, to .,.iv ■. „.„', "' '''S' '■•''■ '-u,} w^ °"»'- -'» of ICIun Allen. Th;; Tvo^'^T "' "" ""■" "o'-" 'l«ccncl n.-.mc, and whose career will ,'':"'""""'■ *'>°«-- mo.her .ilso :,ore .h,. »- P« of Robert lion ,e . 1 : Cl" '"'T'' ''o-h-^ " """ «.i'l .0 be "one of ,l,e be , r„'l',;" '""' 'T *^5'°°°- She is """■«"•••■ >'"-"■■■■ l-e,l in ,„e ,„4' ™ '^'^ 'n .he »rl,l." Then .here i, , ., , l-rino Chief. Her.i„„i„Jf^ Xt."*".'" "' '^™"-l'>'. --1.;/,:,^ amounted to S6.,,,5 »,.,*""""'-' "f h" ''areer in ,«. ' "'■""• i» >vhich she trot .d' .1 "'■''•' "'' "' ''"»l'<-'« I'ark L f ^ ' "''°' THE PAClNG-noK.SE. Inuring the latter nirt nr fu i t'.«l .™.l,ority it „,ay he . t „ „ '^ ' ^ '^^'^ ■"-■^ X--- U„o„ rS;. "•"s. s„re.foote' '"K- m which ,l,ey excelled an ^1, H " r" '"' ""•'i'' "atMral ea tthi "«•• origin of this fa„,o„s I ;eed ' ^ ' "'T "'"^' ^''P^'---")' «.cc ', "- pro ably a stallion importe f 1 j ^ ''.^'1" "'^""ct for n,.a .y let, '-;- -ident. or I ^^hrt^Lr^t;?^"', "^ -''>-" fe ^c-^t Punty and j)erfection ; and he im ' » U:i 143 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY was so faithful to his trust as to allow few very superior animals to escape him. This circumstance, together with the improvement of the roads, and the fact that the genuine Narragansett pacer was comparatively useless as a draught- horse, and really good only under the saddle, led to a decline in the interest in br^^eding this class of horses, especially during and after the war of the Revolution, when large numbers of horses were wanted for teaming and trans- portation. The pacer, as a br ed, was wholly neglected, till, in the year 1 800, it was said there was only one animal of the real Narragansett stock to be found in Rhode Island. In 1854, however, the pacer found a splendid representative m Pocahontas, Pocahontas the mother of anoth;r mare bearing the same name, which we a pacer. havc previously described. Notwithstanding her dam was a natu- ral trotter, she perfoiuied very striking feats as a pacer, her best tine being made in 1855, when she paced one mile, to wagon, in 2.1 7|. M% , ( c J }S OF THE UNITED STATES. 149 jcape him. id the fact a draught- :he interest war of the and trans- year 1800, stock to be Pocahontas, e, which we was a natu- t tine being CHAPTER XIII. SHEEP. SHEEP are among the very oldest domestic animals known, though they are found wild in nearly every mountainous country of the world. By some authorities they are thought to be related to the goat, but Early history are far more timid than that animal, from wh'ch they differ, also, in °^ ^^'^ soat. other respects. They are intimately associated with ancient religious rites, and were the symbol of gentleness and innocence. The great wealth of the Israelites and other pastoral nations was in sheep, which were originally raised for their milk and skins, as well as for sacrifice ; but they have been prized in modern times for their wool, fle^h, and fat, in which regards the improvements of breeding have been very marked for the past century and a half. Tlie best breed of these animals for fine wool is the merino, which origi- nated in Spain, and is supposed to have descended from the stock of the patriarchs. They are devoid of wool on the head and necks, and are less fleshy and symmetrical than the choice English breeds. From the Spanish merinoes are derived the famous Saxon, Silesian, and Flem- ish breeds. The witlcly-known establishment for raising sheep, owned by Louis XVI. of France, at Raml)ouillet, was devoted to the propagation of merinoes principally. The prevailing breed in the United States is a more or less pure merino. The Asiatic and African varieties of this animal are of little value. Probably Great Britain giv^s more attention to the raising of sheep for wool and mutton than any other civilized country, breeding in Her breeds are mostly producers of coarse wools, notably the °"^* Leicester or Dishley, the Cheviot, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Dorset varieties. The South-Do^vns have a shorter, finer fleece, and yield good mutton. Sheep were first introduced into thk country at Jamestown. ^"f°d"'=t'°n .. . ^ J J 'of sheep into Va., m 1009. In forty years they hac! increased in numbers the United neady to 3,000. The first importation to Massachusetts was states, in 1633; and for a time they were kept on the islands in Boston Bay, to protect them fiom wolves and bears. In 1652 Charlestown had as many Merinoes. |P ISO INDUSTRIAL HISTORY % m p! V!H! ' as 400 sheep ; and Lynn had several flocks, which weic watched and kept by a common shepherd. Sheep were introduced into the New Netherlands in 1625, and again in 1630 ; but such were the depredations of wild beasts, t!),.t in 1643 there were not more than sixteen in that colony. The Swedes of New Jersey were encouraged to breed sheep, and raise wool to send home, but in 1663 had no more than eighty sheep. LEICESTER RAM. !Im The sheep in this country, in those days, were raw-boned, coarse-woolled animals ; l)ut inasmuch as the mother-country discouraged the exportation of „ , them hitlier. and as the colonists felt the need of producing their Early meas- ' ' " ures for en- owu woollen clotliing, the colonial governments, by addresses to couraging ^j^^, people, bounties for killing wolves, and by other measures, the industry. 1 1 > & J encouraged the importation and raising of sheep. Massachusetts, in 1645, ordered the appointment of agents in every town to ascertain who would buy sheep, and to urge the people to write their friends across the At- lantic to bring sheep with them on emigrating. In 1648 it was ordered that sheep l)e pastured on the common ; and later the selectmen of every town were authorized to superintend the putting of rams to the flocks. In 1654 the Assembly of Massachusetts prohibited the exportation of sheep, and in 1675 of wool. Virginia enacted similar laws. OF THE UNITED STATES. 151 kept by lands in asts, t'l.t ; of New le, but in Gradually, but slowly, sheep multiplied in numbers. A report on American industries, made to the British House of Commons in 1731-32 by the Board of Trade, shows, that, at that time, nearly all American farmers had , , ^ a few sheep, whose wool was spun at home for domestic use. British farm- There was no ex])ort, however, dreat jealousy was felt by the Y^toward • ■" ^ Americans. British, lest we should compete with them in wool-production ; and obstacles were put in the way of our obtaining sheep. Jared Kliot, writ- ing in 1747, says, "A better breed of sheep is what we want. The English breed of Cotswold sheej) cannot be obtained, or at least with great difificulty ; for wool and live animals are contraband goods, which all strangers are pro- hibited from carrying out on pain of having the right hand cut off." ^j-j "^^^^S- *^^^, larse-woolled liortation of Tducing their fiddresses to i>r measures, lassachusetts, Iscertain who Iross the At- |ordered lluit every town U. In 1654 leep, and iu sorTii-nnwN kam. On the breaking-out of the Revolution, the colonists immediately recog- nized the importance of preserving their sheep for jiropagation. The Colo- nial Congress of 1775 voted to discourage killing, and encourage Measures to the breeding, of" sheep. The Pennsylvania Assembly did likewise, foster sheep- -p, , . . r 1, 1 1 ' 1 11 . ^ ■ r raising dur- I he Association of Butcliers voted not to kill sheep, and in 1776 jng Ameri- it is said twenty thousand less sheep were slaughtered than in can Revoiu- 1774. During the siege of Boston, however, in 1 775-76. large Mipl)lies of live-stock, including sheep, were sent from all parts of the colonies iW fi '>; :n\ i r '" 152 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY for the soldiers' food. There must have been more than a miUion of these animals in the country at that time. Little was done in the way of importing choice breeds of sheep into this country until the close of the last century and the early part of this. Men- tion is made by Custis of two Leicester ewes on the csUile of \Vashington, First impor- from wliich, by a Persian ram, were derived the famous Arlington tations. loug-woolled sliecp. Kentucky gave preference to this and other English breeds, which were imported into and still survive in small numbers in the Middle States and those of the Ohio Valley. The merino sheep had a greater rage, and now constitute a larger profjortion of our slock. ANGORA GOAT. In 1793 Willi;.m Foster of Boston brought home from Cadiz, Spain, where he had been staying several years, tliree full-blooded merino-sheep, two ewes, •William ^^^^ '^ rMw. He was seventy-five days on the jxissage ; and the animals were taken sick, and nearly perished ; but a French shep- herd on board the vessel cured them by injections. Mr. Foster says, " Leing about to leave this country for I'^rancc, shortly after my arrival in Boston I presented these slieep to Andrew Cragie of Cambridge, who, not Foster's efforts. OF THE UNITED STATES. 153 f these ilo this Men- ungton, rUnglon id other lumbers p had a -m^ [lin, where two ewes. and the lich shep- llr. Foster Iny arrival who, not knowing their value at that time, ' simply ate them,' as he told me years after when I met him at an auction buying a merino ram for a thousand dollars." * As early as 1785 the newly-organized Society for the Promotion of Agri- culture, in South Carolina, offered a medal to the first person who p^g^jy should keep a flock of merino-sheep in that State ; but there offered by seems to be no record of the prize being taken. South-Caro- ' ° Una Society. Four young merino-rams were sent to this country from Paris in 1801 ; but not more than one survived, and that went to Rosendale Farm, Kingston, N.Y. French merinoes were also imported by William Taintor of Hartford in 1846. The Hon. L^avid Humphreys, tl^ngfro'n, American minister at Madrid, brought home to his farm in Derby, France and Conn., ninety-one Spanish merinoes ir 1802. Seth Adams of °t'^ercoun- Zanesville, O., imported two Spanish ewes in 1801 ; and Chan- cellor Livingston of New York sent home two pairs from abroad the same SOUTH-UOWN EWES. year. In 1808, and later, his shce]) attained a wide reputation. William J;ir\is, our consul at Lisbon, Portugal, s<.Mit a number of Spanish sheep to his home in Wethersfield, Vt., in 1809-11. Just prior to the war of 1812-14, sheei)-raising took a great star in this ' Choice animals have sold as high as ten thousand and fourteen thousand dollars apiece in th country. .1 154 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ': ! m ■•', country, as did also woollen manufactures. After the war there was a brief Siheep- set-back, in coisequence of competition with the finglish markets, raising prior In 1824 a protective tarift' was laid on foreign wools, and sheep- ■** *'"■ raising in Amerira quickly revived. The importation of the Saxon, the Merino, Leicester, South-Down, Cheviot, and Cotswold breeds. Effect of tar- soon follovvcd, and the business rapidly developed. The Saxon iff of 1824. sheep were highly prized for their fine wool, but proved imhardy, and yielded light fleeces ; anil most breeders in New England, after a thor- ough trial, voted them unremunerative. Sheep are subject to many maladies, such as foot-rot, scab, sore throat, and grubs in the licad ; and they suffer to a great extent from the depredations Diseases of of (logs. The commissioner of agriculture, in his rej)ort for 1866, says that returns from one-fourth of the counties in the sheep. country for that year showed tliat about a hundred and thirty thousand shec,) had succumbed to this single destroying influence ; and he estimated tin; number for the whole country to be halt a million annually. THAER's elector AL-ESCURIAL KAM OF 1845. Sheep-rats- Owing to these causes to a slight extent, but more narticuladv ing increas- , ...... ing in the to the better pasturage afforded m the West, there has been for ■West. nearly forty years a westward movement m the centre of sheep- raising. Prior to 1840, when there were about eighteen million sheep in this OF THE UNITED STATES. 155 country, the greater number were owned in the Atlantic States, from Virginia northward, and in the Ohio basin. Since then the business of raising sheep for any thing more than the butcher's demand has sensibly declined in the East ; and the pastures of the Western States are our great wool-producing region. The general tendency of the movement in sheep-culture will appear from the following table, showing the distribution in the principal wool-growing Stales for thirty years past. It may be remarked, however, that some of the Southern States, notably Virginia, suffered from the war severely ; and that the resources of California, now the great wool State of the country, were not developed until some time after the acquisition of that Sta'^e from Mexico. STATES. 1850. i860. 1870. 1875. California I7-3^S 1,088,003 2,768,187 7,290,000 Ohio 3,942,929 3.546,767 4,928,635 3,900,000 'Icxas . 100,530 753.363 714,351 2,826,700 Micliigan 746,435 1,271,743 1,985,906 2,100,000 No'v \'ork 3.453.241 2,617,855 2,181,57s 1,897,700 Pennsylvania . i.S-22.357 1,631,540 1,794,301 1,607,600 Idwa 149,960 259,941 855,493 1,680,500 Wisconsin 124,896 332,954 1,069,282 1,151,100 Illinois . 894,643 769,138 1,568,286 1,258,500 Indiana . 1,122,493 999. '75 i,6i2,6So 1,175,000 Virginia . 1,310,004 1,043,269 922,472 1 1,011,500 Kentucky 1,102,091 938,990 936,765 690,400 Tennessee 811,591 llZ^l^l 826,783 345,100 Vermont 1,014,122 752,201 5^0,347 475,7002 New Mexico . 377.271 830,116 619,438 800,000 2 Other Stalls . 4,733.929 21,723,-0 5,862,903 5.' 13,447 7,594,400 Total 22,471,275 28,477,951 35,804,200 I ii Statistics. The average value of American sheep in 1876 was two dollars and twenty- seven cents, and the aggregate value was estimated at $80,892,683. While ome few coarse-woolled fleeces, especially in England, have been known to weigh twelve or fifteen pounds, the average fleece in this country, in 1850, weighed 2.42 pounds. Improvement in stock, or else giving greater attention to weight than to fineness of wool in sheep-raising, increased the average in i860 to nearly three poimds, and in 1870 to nearly four. Besides the ,vool from our 36,000,000 live sheep, enough more from the slaughtered animals is cbtnined to make our annual wool product about 185,000,000 pounds. This, at thirty-five cents a pound, would amount to $64,750,000. Nearly 10,000,000 sheep are butchered annually, yielding the ' The two Virginias. ' Estimated. f n 156 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ■k I <• '(. farmers a revenue of not far from $25,000,000. Our wool product does not yet meet the demand of home manufactures ; and we are obliged to import over 50,000,000 pounds of raw wool annually, and, in addition to our home manufactures, import nearly $50,000,000 worth of woollen goods although the average is gradually decreasing. .'! \ 'I' 1 ■J* fs OF THE UNITED STATES. 157 CHAPTER XIV. SWINE. THE hog-raising and pork-producing industry of the Urm ' Jtates is one of the most important of our agricultural interest Ai home, pork forms a larger proportion of our food than any other ^rticl ol provision, breadstuffs excepted ; while it is also the article of most e ''nsi"e importance export in the line of food, except wheat. This grows out a ;wo of hog-crop, facts, — the hog is altogether the most prolific breeder of our domestic-food animals, matures soonest, and is the most cheaply fattened ; and we have peculiar facilities for raising the food which produces altogether the best pork ; namely, Indian-corn. Swine were introduced into Hispaniola by Columbus in 1493, and De Soto brought them from the West Indies to Florida in 1538. The Portuguese had left swine ashore in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland as early introduction as 1553. At Jamestown, Va., we hear of them first ^n 1609 ; but of ^wine. they multiplied so fast, that the people were obliged to build i)alisades to keep them out of the town. Plymouth Colony imported swine in 1624, and New Netherlands (now New York) the following year. In the early days the hogs were allowed to run almost wild in the fields and woods, feeding upon beech and hickory nuts, acorns, roots, and other such vegetation. The Indians, in those days, fed extensively on hogs that had grown wild. This wandering, free life tended to make the early stock of this country, especially in the South and West, lean, large-boned, fierce, and swift-footed, — a sort of degeneration toward the wild-boar life from which swine were taken for domestication. Among the choicer breeds that have been known to stock-raisers for the ])ast century are the Chinese, which are small, have slender bones, fatten easily, but are too fat themselves, and are thk./efore crossed with Chinese other species ; the Neapolitan, descended from the best Italian •"'"'*• breeds of two thousand years ; the Berkshire, which yield much lean meat, arc prized fo'" hams and bacon, and, crossed with the Chinese, make splendid hogs ; the short-bodied Essex, which have taken mure prizes in England at stock exhibitions than any other porcine breed ; Berkshire. 158 IND US TA'/A L HIS TOR Y ;, ii » \ ! Suffolk. the Middlesex, long-bodied, heavy growers, often reaching eight or nine hun- dred pounds in eighteen months ; and tlie Suffolk, very symmetri- cal in shape, small and compact, light feeders, and with great tendency to fat. All of these varieties have been popular in this country ; and our best swine are mostly from this jiarentage, more or less crossed. Little attention was given to swine-breeding, with a view to improving our stock in this country, until after the Revolution. Interest was first excited in the subject by the ])resentation to Gen. Washington of a pair of Improve- v / i o i mentsin hogs by the Duke of Bedford, They were of a new breed of his swine- ^^y,^ raising, and called "Woburns" after Woburn Abbey. Parkin- breeding. ° ■' son, the lOnglishman to whom they were intrusted for conveyance. was dishonest enough to sell them on his arrival in this country. They apjjcar to have been a cross between the Chinese anil the large ilnglish native stock, and were fine animals. The breed soon became common in Virginia and the neighboring States ; but of late years it has quite run out. y\ breed known as the " Byfield," originated from Chinese and English stock by Gorham Tarsons of Byfield, Mass., afterwards had a great j)opularity, and became great favor- ites in Ohio. Later the other breeds above mentionctl were imported into this country, and widely disseminated. Comparatively little improvement was effected, therefore, in American stock, until about fifty years ago. The value of the pig for utilizing domestic table-refiise, and the facility with which he fattened on such food, and at almost no expense, led to his very Increase of general keeping by all farmers, and many towns-people and small hog-raising, tenants. The cheapness of bacon created a great demand for it in the old slave States likewise, and the business of furnishing wholesale suj)- plies to that market naturally grew with the development of that section of the country. Inasmuch as the Southern planters gave themselves almost exclu- sively to cotton, tobacco, and sugar culture, and did not raisf food for their families and help, the labor and profit of providing for them naturally fell tn another section of the country ; and the remarkable facilities enjoyed by the West for hog-raising gave tnose States almost a monopoly of the valuable Southern market, a conquest which they followed up by extensions of their trade in other directions. The one great cause to which the development of the pork-industrv in the West is due is the remarkable protluction of corn in that (|uarter, and the dis- „ , ,. , coverv that corn-fed pork is sweeter than mast-fed or swill-fed Relation of - ' corn product pork. There have been times when corn was so ])lenty in the to hog-rais- -yy^^.^j ^j.^.^^ j^. ^^..^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^j^ ^^^^^ ^^,j^^,j.|^ j-^j. j.^^]^ ^j- transporta- tion, it was sold for six cents a bushel, and that only twenty-fnc miles from the Ohio River in Illinois. The formers soon found, that, with such abundant food, it was ciieaper to ])en their hogs, instead of letting them run loose and to fatten them (]uickly for market. Thus hog-raising rapidly increased between fifty and twenty-five years igo in Kentucky and -the three OF rilR r XI TED STATES. 159 nine hun- symmolri- with gi^eat 5 country; irovins our excited in )f a pair of )recd of his ey. I'arkin- convcyance. They aiJ^ear native stock, ginia and the ed known as rham I'arsons e great favor- luiported into irovement was nd the facility led to his very ■^^\c and small demand for it kvholesale sup- section of the almost exclu- ibod for their aturally fell !<• enjoyed by the If the vahiable insions of their industry m the [r, and the dis- ;d or swill-f"^'* |, plenty in the of transporta- hnlv t\Nenty-five' jund that, with lof letting them 1-raising rapitHv I and -the three Slates next north of the Ohio River. Thence it spread westward across the Mississippi. 'I'he rapid ami extensive construction of railroads in those Stales, about tlie miihlle of the present century, of course affordeil an outlet for the grain ; hut it diil likewise for the iK)rk, live and packed ; and so the business staid there. Of the seven or eight million hogs killed every year in this coun- try, about five or six million are killed in the West, and are mostly packed : those killed in the East are mostly for immediate consumption. The pork- packing business of the West is chiefly confined to six cities, which rank in the onler named ; C'hicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Louisville. Liasmuch as Chicago's grain-business is her chief industry, anil l)ork-packing is Cincinnati's leailing interest, the latter city is generally reck- oned the great pork-producing centre of the United States ; indeeil, it was so for a long time. The great bulk of the business is done in the winter-time ; the season opening about Nov. i, and clcjsing early in ^Llrch. Th.' following interesting description of the Cincinnati slaughter-houses, from the pen of Charles Cist, first appeared in one of the newspapers published in that city : — " The slaughter-houses are in the outskirts of the city, fifty by a hundred and thirty feet each in extent, the frames boarded up with mova- Description ble lattice-work at the sides, ordinarily kept open to admit the of siaughter- air, but shut during intense cold, so that the hogs may not be frozen so stiff as not to be cut up to advantage. ICach establishment employs as many as one hundred hands, selected for their strength and activity. "The hogs, being confined in adjoining pens, are driven, about twenty at a time, up an inclined bridge oi)ening into a square room at the lop, just large enough to hold them. As soon as the door is closed a man procegg of enters from an inside door, and with a hammer weighing about oiaughter- two pounds, fixed to a long handle, knocks each hog down by a '"^' single blow between the eyes. In the mean time a second apartment is being filled witii as many more. A couple of men seize the stunned hogs, and drag them through the insiile door to the bleeding-platform. Here each gets a cut in the throat with a sharp-pointed knife, and the blood falls through the lattice lloor. '•After bleeding a minute or two, they are slid off this platform into a scalding-vat, — about twenty feet long, six feet wide, and three feet deep, — kei)t full of water healed l)y steam, the temperature being easily regulated. As the hogs are slid into one end of this vat, they are pushed along slowly 1)\- men standing on each side with small poles, turning them over so as to get a uniform scalding, and moving them onward ; so that each will reach the other end of the vat in a'uout two minutes from the time it entered. Ten hogs are usually passing through this scalding process at the same time, being con- stantly received at one end, and taken out at the other, where there is a con- trivance for lifting them out of the water, two at the same time, by one man i6o IND VS TA'/A I. HIS TOR V P ♦ < operating a lever, which raises them to the scraping-table, five feet wide and twenty-five feet lung, with eight or nine men on each side, and usually an many hogs on it at the same time ; ea( h pair of men performing a separate part of the work of removing the hair and bristles. The first two take off only those bristles which are worth saving for the brush-makers, taking only a double handful from the ba( k of each hog, whic h are deposited in a box or barrel close at hand. The hog slides on to the next two, who, with scrapers, remove the hair from one side, then turn it over to the next two, who scrape the other side ; the next scrape head and legs ; the next shave one side with sharp knives ; the next ..have tlie other; the next do the same to head and legs, 'i'o each pair of men are given twelve seconds to do their part of the work, or i\vc hogs a miiuite, for three or four hours at a time. " When the hog arrives at the end of this table, all shvived smooth, another pair of men put in a gambrel-stick, and swing the hog off on a wheel, which is about ten feet in diameter, revolving on a i)erpendicular shaft extending from the floor to the ceiling, the height of the wheel being about six feet from the floor. Around its outer edge are placed eight large hooks, about four feet apart, on which the hogs are hung to be dressed. "As soon as the hog is swung from the table to one of these hooks, the wheel turns one-eighth of its circuit, and brings the next hook to the table, and carries the hog a distance of four feet, where a couple of men dash it with clean cold water, and scrape it down with knives, to remove any loose hair or dirt that it may have brought along off the table. 'I'hen it moves again, and carries the hog four feet forther, where another man cuts it open in a single- second, and removes the larger intestines, or such as have no fat on them worili saving, and throws them out an open doorway at his side. Another move of four feet carries it to another man, who lifts out the rest of the intestines, — the heart, liver, &c., — and throws them on a table behind him, where four or five men are engaged in separating the tat and oth •• valuable parts. Another move, and a man dashes a bucket of clean water inside, and washes off all the filth and blood. This completes the cleaning ; and each man has to do his part of the work in just twelve seconds, as there are only five hogs hanging on the wheel at the same time ; and this number are removed, and as many more added, every minute. The number of men, not counting the drivers out- side, is fifty ; so that each man, in effect, kills and dresses a hog every ten minutes of working-time, or forty in a day. " At the last move of the wheel a strong fellow shoulders the hog ; and another removes the gambrel-stick, and backs it off to the other part of thii house, where it is hung up for twenty-four hours to cool, on hooks, in rows on each side of the beams, just over a man's head, where there are space and liooks for two thousand hogs, or a full day's work at killing. The next day they are taken off by teams to the packing-houses." The products of pork are the hams and shoulders ; sides for bacon, or pack- .'ft wide and id usually as g a separate two take off akiiig only a in a l)ox or vhh scrapers, , who scrape ne side with to head and r part of the •oth, another kvheel, which ift extending six feet froiti Mt four feet e hooks, the le table, and dash it with oose hair or s again, and in a single them wort 1 1 ler move of 5tines, — the four or five s. Another ;s off all the s to do his hanging on many more drivers out- i every ten hog ; and part of the in rows on space anci e next day ^^' ru,: ^vv/r/;/, sr^^^.^^ '■%' in barrels; rumps and ioul. ,■, ' '^' ^^"n • of which is conver, ' ''''"'' ^'" ^'^ «'h- barrel with .; . '"""- r,,;,::;;r ,;r;::,r '"'/■■■',:'""-^ -" ™' "'™ '" ;.::" '-"• ""r^..T«rca,,e fr„,„ ,„, „„;„ ,-,; '""''•■• ''. ^ l"-"'l"<^e o( Innl. So„„ „„ „ •n fm iziT Tl„. I • 1 ^'^^'""'■"liik nil soil) 'n, ■■ . ■"""- "Mlic ''^"i"' 'S?; it «as .,S,„7;,';„ "^•" "•" ^5,7-'6,8o„: a, ,1,, «,„, ^-.u,,... "ic r,;|,„rt orn.L. No».-V„;i, r. , "iiinry as follows ; — of swine. ^^'»' f'-'n-laiul ^'i'ldlc States ^-nMweseof.,eM.,4;;i •Soutlicrn . . " ' ■ Total . 279.700 ''^■<,).|00 "•j7::,6oo 5M. Soo "'•"j.S.jOO 306,000 '/'79..)00 7.9(^',Ooo 6,6^9 500 6oC),.)oo '0.845,500 25.726,800 I -So,,,^ <-'ncinnati was a frm^t . i "^ ~ — ''^■''' pre-eminence in d ^ ''''^'""^'^ centre as early as rS,c . , ^'^•'"■^nd for pork for "'""^■'^- ^^"^'■"'? the wnr h! '^^' '"'' '°"fi^ 1S65-66 1x66-67 1.S67-6S iS6,S-69 lS69-;o 1S70 1S71-7 7t iS72-' 73 'S73-74 1S74-75 'S75-76 'S76-77 ''/'''5.95s 2.490.791 2.7'Sj,oS4 2.499..S73 -'635-3':: 3.695,25! 4.S3r, 55'i 5.4 '0,394 5.466 >,::oo 5.566,2-6 4.SS0, 5.07 35 '339 i 1 " ■ 1 ■ : 162 /JVD US TRIA L HIS TO k Y In the season of 1876-77 there were slaughtered 1,618,084 hogs in Chicago, 523,576 in Cincinnati, 414,747 in St. Louis, 294,198 in Indianapohs, 225,598 Numbei in Milwaukee, 214,862 in Louisville, 1,781,274 at all other less slaughtered, important points South and West, and 2,336,835 in the Middle and Eastern States; in all, 7,409,174. These cost the packers, first-hand, about fifteen dollars apiece ; which makes the total yield worth to the producers not far from $1 10,000.000, less expense of transportation. Killed, dressed, smoked, tried, or packet!, one-quarter was added to the market value of the product. The marked development of the Western pork raising and packing business Export- is largely due to the steady increase of our export-trade in hog trade. products for the pa::t few years. During the fiscal year ending J;nie 30, 1876, we exported, — '1% i|^, liacon and h.nms 15ari-cllcd pork . Lard . Total . POUNDS. 327,730,172 54,195,118 168,405,839 $39,664,456 5,744,022 22,429,485 550,331,129 ! $67,837,963 w !'!' n This was ten and a half per cent of our total exports ; and it ranks next after cotton, petroleum, and wheat. The great bulk of the lard and bacon go to England and Ireland, which take a small proportion of the barrelled i)ork. Germany, France, and Belgium are our next best foreign customers. I' ,i 1% i I'll OF rilE UNITED STATES. 163 next pork. ; i f ^ 3 * 164 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY CHAPTER XV. HORTICULTURE, NURSERIES, AND FRUIT-RAISING. f?, 1. li.i MM ? :. V THAT branch of the agricultural industry which most closely approaches to fine art is horticulture ; under which term we include ordinary market- Horticulture gardening, landscape-gardening, flower and fruit culture. Fruits a recent and flowers are mosdy luxuries, rather than necessities, and in the pursuit. early days of our history were scarcely thought of by the mass of colonists. Only a few gentlemen of social jjosition, culture, and wealth, gave attention thereto ; and fruits and flowers were introduced more for the gratifi- cation of individual taste and pride than for the general good. Like the development of the taste and pursuit of litc'ature and painting, iiorticulture is one of those civilized avocations to which the human mind turns only after the necessities of life are well provided for: consequently horticulture is of comparatively recent birth and development in this country. To market-gardening it is unnecessary to give especial attention here. The raising of a few kitclien vegetables for domestic use began on a limited scale Market- ill early colonial days ; and, with the growtli of our large cities gardening. sime the Revolution, the business of purveying to the needs of the people has -jJ-T-dually grown up to be a respectable-sized trade aU over the country, in many cases the cultivation of plants for seed being a branch of the business. Landscape-gardening, or the improvement of lands by trees, flowers, shrubbery, patlis, and architecture, has been practised to a marked degree for Landscape- about a ccntury only in England and other foreign countries, gardening. Little attention, therefore, was given to it here until after the Revolution. Taste wps then manifested in the laying out of the grounds of a few prominent gentlemen in and about our large cities. Downing speaks particularly of the elegant arrangement and excellent keeping of the celebrated seats of the Hamilton family, near Philadelphia, which was fixmed for its beauty, in 1805; Judge Peters, near Philadelphia, a little later; Chancellor Living- ston, at Clermont, on liie Hudson ; the Hon. Theodore L. Lyman, nine miles out of Boston ; Beaverwyck, a little norlh of Albany, the home of William P. \\w-- O^- THK UNITED STATES. Van Rensselaer -xy^A fU„ , '^^5 suburbs of that chv "''^"""^^"'-^ -^ the " patroon " of thu , • Island, DaniewS' ''^' '-''^"^^^'^-^^'■^■^J-^^-cs of Vilham H As T '" ^'^^ Col S r P , /'^'•^^^"'■t'^ of Martford, and Innes ii ^'"^''" "" ''^''■^ten ,7 •^- ^•.^'^''•'<'ns at IJrooklinc near I V f^'"'^"".^^' of New Haven • the same vicinage. '' '''■''' '^"^'^on ; and J. i>. Cushing's place in HKDIiE-IKi.M.Mi ^" -ape-gardening. Abour ^^ ^ ^I^'"^ ^'^ P--iples of "^S^^' P'^'Iadelph.a u-nn. a boo,, ,,„,, 'i;^ ^f "^-^'-'I McMahon of --. ^''o>it i84o..\ndreu'r iw.' American (Jardener's r^ . "'" ^vith greater M.f. u ' ''''"^ buildini;s he^^an to ]>n l^ °^°-*" °f . ,' "; ">"ro -„.„„„.,„,„„, „ on »„,,,;'f' "-""""I «>CK.,i« lH.,:,„ ,„ „,, ,';;--■■' ^i-in,i„,. ,„, ,,„, .„; :'; . ™-' ™""» -'I iiu/.flo™,andwalks to the i66 [ND L \S TRIA L HIS TOR Y ''\ \ J' 'M Public parks. undulations and other characteristics of the ground's surface, and so on, took Public possession of a few cultured minds, and spread rapidly. The first cemeteries, prominent city of the dead so laid out was Laurel Hill, near Phila- delphia, the enterprise being successful largely through the taste and persever- ance of John Jay Smith of that city. Other burial-places about that time — the middle of the present century — became famous from an application of the same idea. Almost every one has heard of Mount Auburn, near Boston ; Greenwood, just out of Brooklyn, N.Y. ; Spring (irove, Cincinnati; and the beautiful cemeteries near Pialtimore and New Haven. Within the past twenty- five years the newly-laid-out cemeteries of the country have nearly all been greatly beautified. Still another manifestation of the same taste and culture is the laying out of parks in and about our cities, which shall be more than the old " common " of a New-ICngland town. Perhaps the most important work of this sort undertaken in this country is Central Park, in the upper part of New-York City. It is half a mile wide, and two miles and a half long, and includes what was originally very wild and beautifiil scenery. The land was appropriated to this use by the New- York legislature in 1857, largely through the in- fluence of Downing's writings. The next year, in pursuance of plans submittal by Fred- crick Law Olmstead and Cal- vert Vaux, the improvement of this free park was begun, pnd has been continued at enormous expense even until the present time. By a ju- dicious i)reservation, altera- tion, or utilization of the characteristic features of the land, and by extensive and costly work, an arrangement of lakes, lawns, flower-beds, proves, rocks, glens, caverns, footpaths, driveways, terraces, bridges, chalets, and other ar- chitectural devices, has been perfected, which makes the p V^ct ijPiP of tl". Ki'Mt deligi.iiul public resorts in the world. Llewellyn Park, j.«.;u O.vn^ic, l; J., laid oat by Bauman, a famous Philadelphia botanic gar- dent'-, c''ai!:noi it P.' k near Philadelphia, and Prospect Park near Brooklyn, SNOWIIALL. O^ THE UNITED STATES. are among the more recenf . , '^^ '^7 ^>" ail departments of hortir-r,/f "■■"Low, ,l,e Win, orof ; '°™ '""*' - -,l, a li.t IZ,," " """^er's peace." •1V„I„„ ? ""■ """^^s in ivhosc henr, . , '"S'Wm of I r"'> "'= production and cir,^ „f n """" "«= covenant of «ame characteristics i's ' " r^^^ "^ ^''^^''^''- Something of H ^^^'^'*"'"- \f r . ^ "■■'tJCS IS to be found in fl ■• '-•^"Ulg ot the and iioricui •'^ ';'''' ^°^vers were thought of 1 ^ ^^'■^^°^>' «^ florict.It.re. --• --"..-™a.d3p.jdfort,::X:::r:r Prior t^ 7 , ^' ^°^ accord- i nor to and durino" th*^ i^ . 'f *- of ,l,e last ee , ; „^";:';°", ">* e^-xls. Tow Phne». generally „,n,|«, J,"'' ' '^S-n-ng of thi,, „„„,, bea....ne>«l^. either ,„ade in the t ,rf o, T ""'"^'' «'-'""'--">™ ^ the. "'«' l^y paths, began t .^pe; " """ ^°"- "'"> "-Tc-e L. ■" "- "^-r :?Te~ "^ "-■■^-^ -^ '.on,e ca, e . he pra f , ^^ ^ ut at all common. ^ "'^ ^'"'^ domestic flower No attention to subject before the Revolution. '^'giilar flower- rs, and sepa- i :K 'fO ? 1 68 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY r- It. V - i' '-' iiffi^ if' '' i i'« ' !^!i i- b ll i-l; the larger cities for festal occasions, funerals, and sentimental remembrances, led to the extension of the professional florist's trade all over the country ; so that now scarcely a city or town of fifteen thousand inhabitants is without an establishment of this sort. When the gentlemen of the earlier days began to introduce the choicer and more tender plants to their estates, the greenliouse, for shelter and for Green- forcing plants, was here and there erected, the idea being taken houses. ixom the foreign forcing-houses for fruits. Of necessity, the pro- fessional florist requires a greenhouse at the very outset of his business. Be- tween 1825 and 1850, when landscape-gardening and domestic architecture took such a stride in this country, the erection of conservatories as ornaments to a lawn, as well as permanent shelters for choice plants, came into vogue, both as independent edifices, and as additions to the proprietor's mansion. It was during this period, too, that a literature devoted to flower-culture began to make its appearance. In 1832 Robert Buist of Philadelphia, pro- Literature prictor of the Roseland Nurseries, published a book on this sub- on the sub- ject, which was among the earliest and best publications of the ^^^ ' sort. It reached several editions. During the next decade A. J. Downing adapted to American use Mrs. Loudon's " Ladies' Companion to the Flower-Garden ; " and, still later, Hen- ry Carey Baird got out an American edition of " Fruit, Flower, and Kitchen Gardening," written by Dr. Niell, sec- retary of the Royal Caledonian Horti- cultural Society. These and other American works v>-ere widely dissemi- nated. Agricultural and horticultural journals gave more attention to flow- ers, and the ordinary newspapers re- published extracts bearing upon flori- culture. Within a few years leading florists have got into tlie way of pub- lishing descriptive catalogues of their seeds, bulbs, and plants, together with valuable hints and suggestions con- cerning their cultivation, for gratuitoi'.s distribution, like the almanacs of patent-medicine makers. During all this time there has been a quiet, steady improvement — though not very great or startling in the aggregate — in the methods of propagation and care of flowers. There has been a perceptible improvement in the character of varieties, and a multiplication of species by hybridization and other scientific processes ; and, in addition to the increase SriK.i:.\ I.ANCl-'llATA. Progress. Jn numbers and bei.itv j , ^69 The ,c.„clc„cy ,0 „e"^ r ">'l-"r.a,ion of foreign ,1o«r 1. ;"■■■" """»"• Scarcely.-, |,o„,e is „„' , , . '"•■''' °"'--'» ""'vcts ll,r ' 1, '""'"■'"S '-.c::'C .t\:r-- ---^^^^^^^^^^ ■ '"-r-'^ ^"""■°^- ™prove„,enfof ;;k'r,T"""°"- ^'--Tic," vc t :;': !"" ™-- '^"d \ -'-nal po,„„| ^„ ^, . f °f 'he.e was fo^ecl ° Lr'^'f'"" °' "-' Of "*„ a ; .r,,^^^ ,^".„„„/„„ -;„„ ^^^^^ n„.... i ■ ''°»™"g's book „„..;*.;" ,r""'^ '" "''--h ea ;,!"'•''",'"«''=' "■"•'ins.s Ad a great de^ , "', '^""■■-■'>«^ of Americ " ,?' ""^'"<=''- ■'^'■"«- hut notably in ' T""""^ •" ""aAers l^ ,^ l ''i ^'"" "■''" "'• .l,e fnnV.re es L ' """' ■•'"'' >>«<"„ Ne„ "„t "-. "f ->'' >*'e,,tern -' '-h.g Rod, ™;;" '^'™' "»■"- County ii-.a/^t;'; ''""'™* ™" '-■^^-pt.^iLrar;: "^"- ^™n,;:L -r -■' ;-4 c^>untrv frnm , i ■ , "°^^ something ov<.r n .i ' ■^'^'"I'ijbery, i ' 1 1 I f j--.j:ai^->::»^.a==._ ^,^:^_ ._., ,.^ »*=^--t' ■-■.!.■ ,.l-«,,„ . , .. ^_,, V.,^ ftji' ! \f i^'i'iMi! 'Ui .H i!l! 170 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY The grape is one of the oldest known fruits of the world, though it has had comparatively little prominence in this country imtil within a generation. There are many varieties native that have provetl valuable and popular besides the many choice imported varieties. 'l"he Isabella and Catawba both originated in North Carolina ; the Muscatel, long known as the " Cape," and incorrectly imagined to be an importation from South Africa, was indigenous to Tennsylvania ; the Scui)p(Tnong, at one time thought to pron'ise well for wine-making, is a Carolina grape ; the Sweetwater, wlii('h with the Catawba is widely cultivated in California for wine, and also in the Eastern States, is a native. Texas produces a grape widely known as the Mustang , and there are other varieties almost too numerous to mention. Long after the Revolution, grapes were raised in this country, principally to be eaten fresh, as a dessert fruit. Hardy varieties were grown principally, Recent cui- though a fcw ciioicc foreign kinds were raised under glass. About tureofgrape. ji^^y ^3^ 1850 the growing interest in fruit-culture led to a larger cultivation of hothouse grapes by fanciers and wealt'iy gentlemen. Downing mentions, that, at about this time, thousands of bushels of grapes were raised near New York and Philadelphia for the market, and that large (juantities of the fruit were packed in cotton for preservation during the winter. But it is for wine-making purposes that the grape is to be principally regarded. The (iothic seamen who touched our shores before Columbus's Wine-mav- day called America " Wineland the Good," because of its grapes *"*• and their dreams of its possibilities. Very early in our colonial history, higl> expectations were entertained by emigrants of the wine-making possibilities c* this country; and numerous experiments were made in that direction. Vines were imported to Virginia in 1610, and wine thus produced was sent to England in 161 2. Cov. Winthrop gave attention to the subject in Massachusetts before 1630, at which time, he ownea a fine vineyard ; and in 1634 Governor's Island, in Boston harbor, was rented on condition that the lessee should jilant a vineyard or orchard, and pay a hogshead of wine yearly, — a condition that probably was not fulfilled. Attempts were made to intro- duce wine-grapes into the New Netherlands in 1642 ; but the frost killed them. Grape-culture was especially contemplated by the grantees of the Carolinas ; but it took a poor hold at first. Debware gave some little attention to wine- making in earlv days, and in 1753 a wealthy citizen offered a prize of forty shillings for the best artick' produced. Maryland in 1715 protected her home industry by imposing a tax on imported wine. But all these movements proved virtual iailures, except in North Carolina, where, in 1750, wine-making was quite a prosperous though small industry. We hear little further until 1845, when Downing mentions that the attempts Swiss adven- of Swiss adventurers at Vevay. Ind., to raise grapes and maki" turers. \s'\\\c on a large scale, had failed ; and that Mr. N. Longworth ot" Cincinnati, after experimenting for thirty years with foreign vines from tlic <'^'- rna umrnD statics. ""cyanls i„ .Miss„„j „,,,,,•. '"■ /*^'-' »'«' hear of some smill y'"",""" ^'iiicr instances -irc 't-°S5; NottI, Carolina ,,o.,;r'°'' ''™syl,ania, ,5 ,„o . ,„ , """"g the nexr ell ;^f ' "T"'' '°'S63: ami Ne,v Vol' „ ' '^"f,ucs, ban JJernardino and S,,. rv ^"''^'^ counties • mmelv t «,.,,. -^' -"■' — -no. aji cor:.;j:;;rr;,:;:- :::; ;*. »nci u,e coveio,,,.::::; :°:r;;,^;^, •"'^- '- ^-.e h:c:r - . :;f - M'«.n',s progress, loo, „a. sj, " '*'."« "o--"-'/ elihtfold. ^ ;*■= .;mes ,vl,at i. had ,.ee„ i fc"' ';" ''f'' '" "'^^o being .T'^f ' ' " .;' ^s„,,5, ,„„,^ ;;;::!. 't:;;t "7"-' -■•'• -ear,,,™- ',0,52, i'ennsyvana 07 rr.r . 1 xr ^' '^73. Ohio, 212 or?- tii- • ''eiore very loner k, . . -, "^mands for domestic rnn«.„ .• P^«entwi„e trie. i7- ^' '^ '''^^'' soon be exportin,. „ • '"'^''^"^""ipt'on product of '^^- Ih's is now one of the ,Z7 ^ "" '" '^'^^''^^" <^o""- "'--"'^v- ''^^^"stres. '"Oi't promsinjf of Am^.- ^ ^^ American agricultural 1 1 w,,,. W 172 /A'JJ ( 'S TKIA L //AS- 70 K Y mm i ♦I I'assing now to tlic fruits i-rown in our country, \\\v. apple ranks first among then), because it is the most ct)mmon of all in this country, and the most iise- Eariy his- lul. It is not the oldest in development and culture, however : the toryofappie. grape, the fig, and the jjomegranate flourished in Palestine long before the apple was mentioned in Scripture. And even the.\ as also in the Cireek fables which tell of the golden apples of the gardens of I lesperidcs and of the apple of discord, it is probable that the word "ap[)le" was used in a generic sense, meaning fruit rather than this i)articular variety. In the early -'i"i inuviediately connected with his dwellingdiouse. In the culture of middle ages, too, the monks of luu'ope, from Southern Italy to ^'''''^' the Highlands of Scotland, gave great attention to fruit-culture ; the practice of pruning, setting large flat stones untlerneath the young trees, and some other devices, coming into more or less permanent use. Yet the fact tliat a generation of time, or more, must elapse before the setting out of a yoimg orchard yielded its fiill reward, disc-oiu'aged even those who grew apples for luxury, much more the poor rustic who lived from hand to mouth. The modern inventions of budding and dwarfing have enabled the horticulturist to get a (luicker return for his labor, and they have therefore given a remarkable stimulus to apple-culture. The first record wc have of the cultivated apple in England was the announce- ment that pii)pin-seed, brought from France in 1524, was planted in Sussex. _ , ,,. :\ trifle later, the Lrolden pii)i)in was develoi)ed from this stock, and Early culti- ' a i \ \ 1 ' vation of ap- soon became famous in England. The early colonists found it pie in New aJiiiost impracticable to Ijrinir vountr trees or even scions to .America ; England. ' r^ . ft and, as we had no nati\e apples, they were compelled to rely pretty much on seeds for our first stock. Naturally enough, therefore, t'' introduction "'■ "'"■ ^'^'ri-n sr„r^s. ofthe fruit was rare and sUv v '73 '^39. "ten fair pi,mi„s '- ' , ^'■^•^"'■"'^•'^'■ss, it is a.sserteplcs were cultivated -u' "'"'■^icxclusivelyfor.nler ^''^' "■<->-'« for fruit to bj eaten hein-^ as rare lor a '';"^^ f'-'^e as orange and ^"■^••- tropical plants ate ""-ntheXorth. UKl,cd, final lo Not i.-|,„|.„, I l"<-«'iu ccM.in. „.,.,. , ,„ ,, *' Cuiuvauon i.o«K..,„„;e " '"" ""' >■" '■^■" "- ""!-.» .sou,, , ; ,,';*;■- '\"" v..*, ,.,„.„, f"- '849 indicates ,1,;, "iT""' ""•' '""""i-io,,.,. ,, ^ ', ,-;;-"-»' '- < ",t"'"-"^"" ''-""'"s-,, So,:,. \ : '",;,',■";">';■': -- f-ndd i„ I'"™--" -e i, 1,"", """"■■'■""» ■■ K«l>-. T N V '*"' '" •''^'■- ^m- ^ -"-n e..peaally to winter apple. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) ^c? ^ , s \ 174 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY I Jl!,. about this time, and some slight experiments in connection with trans- Atlantic steam navigation suggested to far-sighteil men the possibility of our doing quite an export business in apjiles. ICven then the American apple was begin- ning to assert its superiority over the F^nglish ; and in the winter of 1858-59 no less than a hundred and twenty thousand barrels of aj)ples. mostly Bald- wins, were exported from Boston alone. Scientific discovery regarding the culture of the apple seemed, moreover, to take a stride about thirty or forty years ago. (Growers began to recognize that varieties which thrived well on tiie granite-bedded soil of New ICngland did not do so well in the soft loam of New Jersey and the Western States, and that the limestone ledges of Cen- tral and Western New York called for still different varieties. Adaptability to place and climate was more carefully studied. Moreover, it began to be imderstood how to improve varieties. Seeds from good fruit had almost inva- riably yielded poor fruit when the new trees got tc bearing; and this poor return, after many years' waiting, was eminently discouraging. I5ut growers not only found that by crossing old varieties, as the Netherlanders did, could be produced new ones even superior to die parent stock, but also that by taking seed from young 'seedlings, and replanting, permanent varieties could be established in four generations. These trees too, as also the dwarfed trees, could be made to yield early in life ; and thus labor and money returned interest upon investment fiir (luicker than of yore. These various influences, with the conseciuent popularity of our fruit abroad and the establishment of fruit-stores and apple-stands in our cities, have of late years rapidly developed our apple-culture, and given our country pre-eminence in the whole world for the superiority of this fruit. It does not come within the scope of this work to give in detail the dis- tribution of the varieties of apples in this country. It may not be out of place, however, to say, that the Rhode-Island greening, the Rox- bury russet, the Baldwin, the gillynowe;, and the Hubbardston nonesuch, are the best-known winter apples, and the early harvest, sweet- bough, the I ^rter, and the Coggswell pearmain, among fall apples, in New England. New Jersey is noted for its sound, tart Swaar ; New York for the Newtown pippin, king, greening, russet, Spitzenberg, and seek-no-farther ; and Michigan for her seek-no-farthers, Northein spys, pippins, and pound sweet- ings. It is generally admitted, that, for flavor, the fruit of New York is the richest ; but the light soils of Michigan and Ohio yield the largest specimens. Owing to the backward state of apple-culture, little had been done in the South iJrevious to the war ; although it is well established, that, were adaptation of varieties to soil and climate studied more, the Oulf States might produce apples abundantly. Since the depression of the war, little activity has been manifested in that section. California is almost the only State west of the Upper-Mississippi and Lower-Missouri Valleys that has gone much into fruit- culture as yet ; and, in that unusually fertile soil and balmy climate, the ai)i)le, like all other fruits of the temperate zone, flourishes exuberantly. Varieties. OF rilE UNITED STATES. J 75 ins-Atlantic our doing was begin- of 1858-59 nostly Bald- garding the lirty or forty Acd well on le soft loam iges of Ccn- laptability to began to be almost in\a- nd this poor But growers :rs did, could also that by arieties could the dwarfed loney returned ^ of our fruit . in our cities, en our country etail the dis- lot be out of ling, the Rox- Hubbardston larvest, sweet- )l)les, in New w York for the o-farther; and pound sweet- :w York is the ;est specimens, n done in the ■ere adaptation might produce tivity has been te west of the inch into fruit- ly climate, the )eranUy. According to the census of 1870 our orchard i)roducts that year amounted in value to $47,335,189, or two and a half times what they did in i860, and six times those of 1850; and, inasmuch as our agricultural and Quamity liorticultural industries have developed more than any other since "°^ raised. tlien, it would be safe to reckon the same products for 1877 — though an off-year in some localities — at not far from ;r!6o,ooo,ooo. Now, as berries and grapes are not included in this estimate, antl as pears, peaches, plums, < herries, and oranges are our only other leading orchard products, it would be reasonable to say that the total annual apple-crop of the country to-day is v.orth $40,000,000. The name of the quince clearly indicates that it grew naturally in the Island of Crete, though it probably did not originate there. It has been found growing wild along the Danube and in France. It was also known at an early day in I'^ngland and Portugal. \\'hen first known, it was more nearly shaped like a ])ear tiian now : indeed, it is distantly related to both pear and apple. The ancients were wont to regard it as a symbol of love and hai)piness; and in the rab- binical writings it is referred to as the forbidden fruit. The fruit has never had a very ex- tensive culture in this country, although highly prized for jel- lies and preserves ; but the stock has been quite gener- ally used for grafting dwarf trees, especially pears. Probably no fruit has been so greatly improved by the horticulturist, nor been the subject of so much study antl experiment, as the pear. Though not a native of this country, it was early cultivated here, not only for the fresh fruit, but also for its juice, which is called " perry," and was often more highly esteemed than cider. There were no less than 442 varieties of this fruit, according to the catalogue of the London Horticultural Society, in 1842 ; but, during the fifty or sixty years prior to that date, much had been done to improve and develoj) the fruit, and form new varieties. Probably more attention was given to this matter by Van Mons, tlie Belgian fruit-culturist, in the early part of this century, than has been given it by any iivi>i;.\N(.i;.\ orASK\. II \\\ 176 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Seckel. Other one man ; and he thd much to start new kinds of pears himself, and to stimulate others to do so, by hybridizing, and experiments with seedlings. Thus it will be readily seen that but few pears raised in this country prior to the Revolution were particularly choice. There was one tree, however, Stuyvesant i)lanted in New-York City, in the dooryard of Peter Stuyvesant, pear tree. when govemor of the old Dutch Colony of New Netherlands, more than two centuries ago, wiiich remained growing, or at least alive, until about 1875 ; when, having died, and become not only unsightly, but an ob- stacle to building, it was cut down, the wood being preserved as relics of an interesting historic age. The fruit was a bon-chretien, and of good quality ; and grafts were obtained for much other stock. lOven more valuable than the fruit of this tree was that of the fiimous Sj( kel pear-tree. The late Bishop White of Pennsylvania narrates, that, when he was a boy, — about 1760, — there was a (lerman cattle-dealer who used to sell to Philadelphians some small but particulady delicious pears ; but from what source he obtained them he would not tell. Not long after, the tract of land belonging to the Holland Land Company, on the Delaware River, just south o^ Philadelphia, was sold in parcels; and " Dutch Jacob," as he was called, bought a section on which stood the tree from which he had procured this fruit. Soon after, the farm was sold to a Mr. Seckel; and ultimately the property became part of Stei)hen (lirard's estate. The tree itself lived until quite recently. From that tree have come the Seckel pears so widely known and prized. Doubtless the tree was a seedling raised by early German settlers ; but, while the Seckel somewhat resembles certain known German varieties, it is distinct from them, and is a strictly American fruit. A less generally known but excellent pear, the Petre so called, was a seedling raised by John Hartram, a well-known Philadelphia horti- culturist, in 1735, from the seed of a butter pear obtained from Lord Petre of l^ngland. Another tree famous for productiveness, and size of its fruit than for the quality of it, was planted by Mrs. Ochiltree, ten miles north of Vincennes, in Ochiltree Illinois, somewhere about 1800. It bore no less than 184 bush- pear tree. gig q[ f^yj^ j^ 1 834, and 140 bushels in 1840 ; at which latter time its trunk was ten feet in circumference, — a remarkable growth for a pear- tree. .Among other American seedling pears, the Bloodgood, an early, high- flavored fall fruit, raised by James Bloodgood, on Long Island, about 1820 or 1830; the Dearborn, originated by the Hon. H. A. S. Dearborn of Boston in iSiS ; and the Bufflim pear of Rhode Island, — are the most prominent. Van Mons produced many kinds of the beurre or butter pears. Tiic Beurre Anjou was introduced to this country about 1840 by Mr. Wilder, presi- dent of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The Barllett, identical with Petre. OF THE UNITED STATES. »77 ielf, and to llings. )untry prior e, however, Stuyvesant, vletherlamls, ; alive, until but an oh- rclics of an ood qviality ; the famous :s, that, when cattle-dealer t particularly 3uld not tell. Company, on parcels ; and itood the tree . sold to a Mr. '.irard's estate. ave come the ,vas a seedlinji A\^i resembles d is a strictly called, was a idelphia horti- obtained from it than for the Vincennes, in lan 184 bush- lich latter time di for a pear- early, high- I about 1820 or of Boston in l-ominent. [r pears. The Wilder, presi- identical with the Williams bon-chrdtien of England, was introduced to this country by Enoch IJartlett of Dorchester, Mass. This has proved one of the most BarUett and popular of dessert pears in the United States. The doyenne,' — other varie- known as the virgaloo (or bungalow) in New York, butter pear *"*' in Pennsylvania, and St. Michel's near Boston — is an old French variety, and was brought here quite early in the century. Within the past twenty-five years the importations have been almost innumerable, the beurrds, Duchesse D'Angoulcme, Flemish beauty, and Vicar of Winkficld, being most prominent. The culture of pears, to be successful, requires careful adaptation to soil and climate. These points, as well as the improvement of varieties, have been closely studied by the nurserymen and horticultural societies ; culture of and since 1830 or 1S40 the fruit has been very widely grown. P'*""' California has been particularly productive of choice pears, and at certain seasons .he Eastern markets depend almost entirely on that section for their supj)'ies. Besides being sold from the street-stands in cities, to be eaten out of hand and for dessert, large quantities of pears are dried or canned for the market. The business is regarded as highly profitable, many trees yie'.ding fifty or sixty dollars' worth of fruit a year, and one tree in New York having a record of an aggregate product worth $3,750. In quantity, and perhaps in lalue, the fruit-crop which ranks next to the apple in this country is the peach. It is also one of our oldest fruits. Peaches originated in Persia, and grow wild in Asiatic Turkey. 'I'hey have been long and widely cultivated in Europe in sheltered spots, and their improvement has received coi ;siderable attention; not, however, so much as the pear, than which the peach 'las much fewer varieties. It is impossible to say whe'i the peach was first brought to this country; but it was pretty generally known in all the Atlantic colonies before the Revo- lution. Northern winters, however, have been rather too much for History of it ; and the principal peach-orchards of the country are now con- **•" pe«ch. fined to New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. It is generally conceded that American peaches, on the whole, are rather better than English ones. There were several varieties known in this country previous to the Revo- lution, and there is a record of the yellow clingstone ha\'ing been taken to New York from South Carolina before the war for independence. ,, . ,. * varieties Most of our best-known varieties have been developed since. The before ana large white clingstone, long popular in New England, was raised in l'"^^ *^f 1805 by David Williamson of New York. The Morris red and Morris white varieties were produced by Robert Morris of Philadelphia nearly a century ago. William Crawford of New Jersey originated the yellow-pulped l)each that bears his name, about 1820. Two kinds of nectarine, raised from l)each-stones by H. Bloomfield of Harvard, Mass., in 18 10, and by T. Lewis Peach. i7« INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Peach- culture at close of last century. i.: :l of Boston about 1815, were cultivated and disseminated by Col. S. G. Perkins of Brookline. This gentleman sent . lecimens of the former to Ixindon in 1821, which attracted great attention. The peach is really the choicest dessert fruit known. In the early part of the century it was very extensively dried for pics and sauce. Downing says that peach-culture in this country reached a climax about the year 1800. At that period the insidious disease called the "yellows" began to destroy the trees gradually. It first manifested itself in Pennsyl- vania. The fruit was carried north, and widely scattered. It was then customary for seedsmen to plant the stones of peaches indis- criminately, and without regard to the quality or health of the trees from which they came. Thus by degrees the malady became constitutional in the young peach-orchards of the North- ern and Eastern States. The difficulty and its cause were not understood ; and the evil operated slowly for twenty or thirty years, all remedies having been tried in vain. This difficulty, and the severity of the Northern winters, had pretty much exterminated the New- England and many of the New- York peach-orchards by 1850; since which time little effort has been made to re- store them. In the region above referred to, now forming the chief centre of pro- duction, there has been a marked de- Marked velopment of peach-culture development within twenty years, largely tur^wUhin'' flue to the development of twenty the canning industry, and years. ^.j^^ gready improved and special facilities for transportation by rail and steamer for this class of freight. From that comparatively limited region peaches are now sent all over the country in immense quantities at a trifling cost, and in a good state of preservation ; and in the height of the season the carrying trade forms a big item in the business of certain freight- lines. Plums are a much less prominent crop in this country. The fruit is derived from the bullace, which, in turn, is the offspring of the wild sloe, anil ROSK-COI.ORED WIGELIA. OF THE UNITED STATES. 179 i. Perkins xjndon in 2St dessert ^ dried for L about the ws " began in Pennsyl- ed. It was iches indis- of the trees titutional in ,f the North- he difficulty irstood ; and or twenty or having been ulty, and the winters, had id the New- lie New-York since which n made to re- referred to, entre of pro- a marked dc- peach-cuUurc years, largely ;velopment of industry, and improved ami ksportation by :lass of freight, [limited region all over the luantities at a I good state of height of the ;ertain freight- The fruit is wild sloe, and is said to have originated in the Caucasus, near the Volga River. It has spread all over F^urope from Norway south, and extended even into Barbary. English catalogues enumerated no less than two hundred and seventy-four varieties a few years since. Plums were known and grown slightly in this country before the Revolu- tion, though not much is heard of them until tlie dawn of the present century. The venerable Cliancellor Livingston was the first to biing to this country the greengage, which was known in France ;is the Reine Clautle, having been named after the v of I'rancis I. From that stock a seedling was developed by Judge liu of Albany, which was called the " Jefferson." It is one of the most bei tiful, delicious, and widely-known plums in this country. Its birth was probably not far from contemporaneous witli that of the Washington ])lum, another spontaneous American product, derived from the greengage. Concerning the Washington plum, it is recorded that the parent-tree grew on Delancey's farm, on the east side of what is now the Howery, in New- York City. A sucker from it was bought from a market-woman by Mr. Holmar, a Chatham-street merchant, in 1818; and from this came the new variety. The Washington plum was soon introduced into luirope, where it has never been equalled. The Lawrence favorite and Columbia plums were also seedlings of green- gage extraction, raised by L. U. Lawrence of Hudson, N.Y. Other less important varieties have been developed in this coimtry ; and numerous foreign varieties, including the common blue ])lum, the damson, and the apricot, have been imported. We have also, in this country, several wild native varieties. Among them are the Chickasaw, peculiar to Mississippi, a wild yellow and red plum to be found along river-sides from Canada to (leorgia and Texas, and a beach-plum that grows on sandy coasts from Massachusi '< to New Jersey, and occasionally farther south. Plums have never been cultivated extensively for the market in this country, but generally by farmers and city residents for domestic Cultivation use, and by fruit-fanciers as a special luxury. The common ••w"**''- varieties are often pitted and dried, and the choicer ones pickled and i)re- scrved. The fruit is also used fresh for dessert to some extent. The cherry is a fruit of Asiatic origin, and was introduced into Italy from Pontus during the Mithridatic war, 70 B.C. Thence it spread all over Europe. Within the past century or two its varieties have multiplied and improved remarkably. There are now over three hundred varieties cultivated. The blackheart variety was early introduced to this country, and seedlings were raised from it without number. The Black Tartarian, one of its Russian descendants, was brought here in 1825, and has proved a great favorite. The early whiteheart was brought here from France by R. Arden, who lived on the Hudson, opposite West Point. It has been i8o INDUSTRIAL HI STL Strawberry. widely cultivated. The bigarreau cherry was brought to the United States by Other varie- William PriiKc of Long Island in 1800. Chancellor Livingston *'••• introduced a white bigarreau, and about 1825 Andrew Parnientier of Brooklyn brought the Napoleon bigarreau from Holland. Daniel IJlood- good of Flushing, L.L, M. 1*. Wilder of Boston, A. J. Downing of Newburgh, N.Y., and Robert Manning of Salem, Mass., brought several new varieties here between 1830 and 1850, The mayduk.;, supposed to be the medoc of France, was among the earliest, most valuable, and most widely-diffused varieties in this country, and many new varieties have been deduced from it. The morello, or Kentish sour red cherry, used chiefly for pies, was raised chiefly in New York along the Hudson, and in New Jersey. The fruit has never been cultivated largely for the market, but chiefly for local and family consumption. Besitles being eaten fresh, the cherry is canned, dried, made into pies, and macerated with brandy or rum for medicinal purposes. The wo' J is also highly prized by cabinet-makers. Strawberries take their name from the old custom of putting straw under- neath the plants to keej) the fruit from touching the ground. The Romans called them " fragraria," on account of their delicious fragrance. They grow wild almost the world over. Little attention was given to their improvement in foreign countries until this century, nnd not much was done by American horticulturists until about 1830. Hovey's seedling, proiluced by a famous Boston seedsman in 1834, was among the very first and most popular of choice American varieties. In 1837 Alex- ander Ross of Hudson, N.Y., developed an improved variety from the Keen (English) strawberry. Thereafter varieties and plants rapidly multiplied, and the culture of this delicious fruit rapidly increased. Within the past ten or fifteen years strawberries have been grown in small garden-plats rather less than formerly, inasmuch as the immense quantities raised by market- gardeners in the Central States, especially on Long Island and in New Jersey and Delaware, and the improved facilities for transportation, have cheapened and made very plenty this delicious early summer fruit in all parts of the country. Raspberries (which are said to have originated on Mount Ida, in the Island of Crete) and blackberries grow wild all over the northern and eastern part of this country. Most of our cultivated berries were introduced from Europe. They have not been very extensively grown in the United States, however, the market being supplied quite as much by the wild fruit as by the improved. Horticulturists have given these berries compara- tivel7 little attention. Oranges grow to a very limited extent in this country, and chiefly in Florida. The fruit is essentially a tropical one, and has been known there from time immemorial. The principal planting and conduct of orange-groves for mercantile purposes is of recent date, under Raspberry. Oranges. OF THE UNITED STATES. i8i ates by /ingston rnienlier I Ulood- iwburgh, varieties Kdoc of yr-cliffiiscd I from it. /as raised fruit has md family ried, made jses. The raw under- he Romans i fragrance, tention was ry, nnd not 3, Hovey's among the 1837 A^*-''^' m the Keen [iUi\)\ied, and past ten or |s rather less by market- tnd in New ■tation, have fruit in all lin the Island ^eastern part introduced [grown in the by the wild les compara- nd chiefly in id has been [planting and date, undet Figi, Ac. the auspices of Northv-rners who went to Florida after the war. Labor and society are as yet so demoralized, that the industry is still in its infancy, Florida oranges are large and sweet, and are highly and justly prized ; and there would seem to be a deal of wealth in store for those who shall systemati- cally supply Northern markets therewith. Some idea of the growth of the fruit-producing business in this country within the past few years may be formed from the census returns of orchard products, which exclude grapes and wine and the various kinds of berries. In 1850 the total value was stated at l!!7,773,i86 ; ten years later, 519,991,885 ; and ten years still later, 547,335,189. This is a more marked increase than in our sugar, tobacco, cotton, or cereals ; and these simple figures contain a significant summary of horticultural history. Besides the fruits named in this chapter, there have been attempts to domesticate others, mostly belonging to warmer climates, — such as the pome- granate, date-palm, fig, olive, lemon, mulberry, almond, and other nut-trees. But such attempts have met with but little success. The mulberry, however, be it remarked, was grown chiefly for the silk indus- try, which proved so sig- nal a failure. Currants and other small fruits have too little a history to entitle them to specific mention. It may be remarked in this connection, that, besides fruit-trees, such economic plants as tea and coffee have been introduced by the horti- cultural branch of the Agricultural Bureau at Washington, Tea and cof. but not with '** p'»"*'- much success. The pres- ent commissioner. Gen. Leduc, is putting forth more vigorous eflbrts than did any of his predecessors to render tea-culture not only possible, but also a profitable industry. COFKRE-H11L1.ER. II i ■? ^ . i \\v BOOK II. MAIvUFACTURES. n \ m CHAPTER I. MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL. EARLY HISTORY. NATURE has fitted the United States to become the centre of a great iron industry by the lavish endowment of her territory witK all the materials required in the production and manuliicture of that superiority valuable metal. Iron, coal, and limestone are found in every part *•' United of our domain ; and, in the region lying east of the Rocky Moun- other coun- tains, the country is so full of them as to present the appearance *''«• '" '*=h. goologically of a gigantic basin filled to the rim with mineral var'e'vof treasures. It is said, by those who have examined the mineral »'«»> orei. resources of other countries, that, were the coal of the rest of the world deposited within the iron rim of this great basin, it would not occupy one- quarter of the area of our own coal-fields. What is true of coal is true of iron, which, by the help of coal, will be utilized still more extensively in the future of the world for the purposes of man. The deposits of the ore in this country exist in such enormous quantity as fairly to stagger the imagination. The ores are more accessible than in England, which now supplies half the iron consumed by the world ; and they exist in close proximity to the coal and limestone used in extracting the metallic iron from them. Their abundance insures to the United States the ability to supply, not only its own people, but the world at large, with all the iron that could be consumed for centuries to come, if it were necessary to do so. There appears to be no other country so fortunately endowed with respect to iron and coal. England, now the resource of Europe and Asia, and once of America, supplies at ])rcsent half the iron and coal of the world ; but her mines are deep and (litticult, and costly to work, while in the United States they lie upon the top of the ground, or near it. Sweden, with an inexhaustible supply of the richest and best ore, has no coal. Russia, Austria, Italy, Algiers, and some of the German States, have ore, but no coal. France is deficient in coal, and only maintains her iron manufacture by importing both coal and iron. Prussia has .85 England. Il 1 86 ^ > Pi ^ INDUSTRIAL HISTORY materials her own needs, but has little surplus. Hrazil has iron, but very little coal, and can only manufacture her ore by burning iier forests in her furnaces, and cannot, therefore, lon^' maintain a competition with a country whose very foundations are planted on beds of coal, if, indeed, she can ever seriously enter into one. Spain has iron and coal ; but they are widely separated, and little has been done to utilize either. The United States, on the other hand, not only enjoys incalculable supplies of the best ores, anil of coal and limestone, but in some States — as in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Alabama, and Kentucky — is able to point to all these materials so close together, that they exist within a radius of a mile and a half of the furnace, all lying on or near the surface of the ground. The mineral deposits of the United States will be more fully described in the book on " Mines and Mining ; " and it need only be said here, that in a country filled with such exhausUess stores of coal and of iron ores of every variety, so convenient of access, nothing except the grossest apathy and ignorance on the part of the people could possibly prevent it, in time, from becoming a leading source of the world's supply of iron and iron maiiufactures ; and that as our people are not ignorant and apathetic, but are eager, intelligent, and enterprising, the desti ly of the country as the seat of a great iron manufacture is assured. Indeed, the industry has already reached magni*i..ent proportions, and not only has now the capacity to produce enough to supply the wants of our own inhabitants, but, within the last two or three years, has begun to furnish a surplus for export. In the world at large the United States now stands second on the list of iron- producing countries, as will appear from the following table of the product of pig-metal, compiled by the American Iron and Steel Association for 1877 from the latest accessible statistics : — Statistics. COUNTRIES. YEAR. IRON, TONS. Great Britain 1875 6,365,462 United States . 1876 1,868,960 Germany 1874 1,660,208 France . 1876 I.449.S37 Belgium . 1875 541,805 Austria . 1875 455.227 Russia . IS74 5 '4.497 Sweden . 1875 350.525 Luxemburg . 1874 246,054 Italy 1872 26,000 Spain 1872 73,000 Norway . 1870 3.975 Mexico . 1876 7,500 Canada . 1876 7,500 Japan 1874 5,000 T'i CF THE UNITED STATES. Z87 ttle surplus. ; by burning competition 1, if, indeed, but they are nited States, est ores, and lia, Alabama, together, that lying on or ed States will \ it need only )f coal and of )t the grossest prevent it, in iron and iron dietic, but are the seat of a [ready reached roduce enough t two or three In the world at Ke list of iron- he product of I for 1877 from ^'<^'f^^-;-.il' T»S ^^^^^^H 0.' r^H '^- ^.^.^;, IRON, TONS. 6,365,462 1,868,960 i,66o,2oS 1,449-537 541,805 455.-7 514.497 350.525 246,054 26,000 73,000 3.975 7.500 7.500 5,000 ."» -W? = i. ":m-^^. IRON AND STEEL MANUFACTURE. 1 88 IND US TRIA L II IS TOR Y CcmNTKIKS. VEAK. IKON, TONS. Switzerland . Turkey . Australasia All other countries . IS72 • • • • 7,500 40,000 10,000 50,000 Total ■ • • • 13,682,750 »(. y production of iron. The first discovery of iron in this country was in the South. Ore was fount! by Raleigh in Carolina ; and, on his return to England, that eminent man _.. reported that this metal formed one of the resources of the beau- Discovery ' and early tiful region referred to. It did not prove a special attraction to emigration at the time ; for iron was not among the things in which the territory of England was deficient, and the world was not then using a hundredth part of the metal which it consumes now, and tl ere was no great demand for it. The steam-engine had not been invented, and very little machinery was in use. Even after the practical settlement of the country by the English race had begun, in 1607, in Virginia, it was a great many years before iron was thought to be of sufficient account to expend any time on its manufacture. Tobacco was a much more profitable product, and for fifteen years was about the only product of the colony ; the men sent over by the London Company to introduce industry themselves turning agriculturists, and raising that valuable plant. That minerals abounded in Virginia was, how- ever, noted at a very early day. In 16 10 "iron oare " was sent to England by the Jamestown Colony, and found to yield an excellent quality of metal. Atten- tion was called to the matter repeatedly. Finally the London Company deter- mined to make use of the ore ; and about 1620 they sent to Virginia, as appears from "A Declaration of the State of Virginia," "out of Sussex, about forty, at] famed to iron workes." These people established in Virginia a forge, or, more properly, what is now called a " bloomary." Reference is made to it by Bev- Manufacture ^^'x* '" ^'^ " History of Virginia," as the " iron work at Falling of iron in Creek, in Jamestown River, where they made proof of good iron irginia. ^^^^ ^^^ brought the whole work so near a perfection, that they writ word to the company in London that they did not doubt but to finish the work, and have plentiful provision of iron for them, by the next Easter ; " namely, in the spring of 1621. Thus iron was actually manufactured from the ore in Virginia as early as 1620. The fuel used was charcoal. In 1621, three of the master-workmen having died, the company sent over Mr. John Berkeley, with his son Maurice and twenty experienced workmen, to carry on the works. Op the 22d of May, 1622, the works were destroyed by the Indians, and the whole company massacred, with the exception of a boy and a girl, who OF THE UNITED STATES. 189 IRON, TONS. 7,500 40,000 10,000 50,000 13,682,750 1th. Ore was t eminent man s of the beau- il attraction to the things in the world was ames now, and been invented, 1 settlement of a, it was a great to expend any ,le product, and men sent over :ig agriculturists, rginia was, how- t to England l)y f metal. Atten- Company deter- ^inia, as appears I, about forty, all forge, or, more ide to it by Bev- |work at Falling ,f of good iron ■ction, that they |but to finish the :aster ; " namely, from the ore in 21, three of the Berkeley, witli on the works. ,e Indians, and tnd a girl, who escaped by hiding. Three hundred and forty-seven of the other settlers were killed besides. This bloody event put an end to the making of iron in Virginia for nearly a hundred years. The business was not resumed until 1 7 1 2, although the rocks of this ancient and well-settled State were known to be full of valuable deposits, and the attention of capitalists in London was from time to time called to the fact. It is one of the most remarkable coincidences in the history of the iron manufacture, that a mob in civilized England destroyed a blast-furnace, erected there by Dud Dudley for the smelting of iron by means Dudley's of coal fuel, almost at the same time that the savages of the woods experiments, burned the little pioneer factory in Virginia. Experiments had been making in England for many years to utilize coal in producing iron. The forests of the kingdom were being destroyed rapidly by the insatiable demands of the forges and blast-furnaces, which then could only be worked with charcoal fuel. In 1619 Dud Dudley had succeeded in making iron with coal by means of his skill in the use of bellows and in coking coal. Iron-masters tried to obtain his secret, and working-men were incited to jealousy of him. He built five separate works, was tricked out of three, and lost one by a flood ; and one was destroyed by a mob. Dudley kept his secret, and it died with him ; and the manufacture of iron with the aid of hard coal was postponed First use of for over a hundred years. It was not until about 1 735 that Darby, '=*''"=• having discovered the process, put it into use, and began making iron with coke regularly. That process and the new blowing-engines then quadrupled the product of iron in England in fifty years. The next attempt at making iron in the colonies was in the North. It was part of the object of colonizing Massachusetts to produce iron. In the journal of the Court of Assistants at London for the meetinc; on March 2, „ , ^ ° ' Manufacture 162S, it is recorded that "also for Mr. Malbon it was propounded, of iron in he having skill in iron-works, and willing to put in twenty-five J*'"' ^"2* pounds in stock, it should be accounted as fifty pounds, and his charges to be borne out and home from New England ; and upon his return, and report what may be done about iron-works, consideration to be had of proceeding therein accordingly, and further recompense if there be cause to entertain him." Three days after, the court made arrangements with Thomas Graves of Gravesend, Kent, "a man experienced in iron-workes," to go out to New England at the expense of the company, and serve the company for six or eight months, provision being made for his staying three years if desirable. i'iie result of the expedition of these two men is not known. It could not have been very satisfactory ; for no furnace-fires appear to have been estab- lished in consequence of it. The Court of Assistants in London got no iioa from this preliminary attempt. Fifteen years later the subject of ivon- making was agitated again, and in 1637 the General Court of Massachusetts 190 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY granted to Abraham Shaw one -half the benefit of any "coles or yron stone w*"' shall bee found in any comon ground w''' is in the countrye's disposing." The first iron made in the colony, however, was not from stony ores, but was taken from the bottom of the peat-bogs and ponds near the coast. These bogs are found all along the eastern coast of the country as far Bog-iron ore. 00 / south as Maryland. Water filtering through the neighboring hills brings down into the ponds large quantities of sesquioxide of iron in solution, and deposits the same at the bottom of the pond, along with vegetable mould, in soft, spongy masses which go by the name of "bog-iron ore." The ore, once taken out, is renewed again by gradual deposit. After the Falling-Creek experiment, the iron-works of the country were supplied for a long period principally with bog-ore. The large furnaces of the present day could not be supplied with it, because it does not exist in sufficient (luantity ; but, for the uses of the early colonists, it supplied pretty nearly every want. The iron cast from it is brittle, but very tliiid when melted, taking every minute mark of the mould ; and is, therefore, still made to the present day in North-west New Jersey and in Mary- land for stove-castings. In 1643 specimens of the bog-ores from the ponds near Lynn were sent to England for trial, and found to be so good, that a " Company of Undertak- ers for the Iron -Works " was immediately formed, with a thousand pounds capital, by John Winthrop, jun., and others. Winthrop came to New England in 1643, with a corps of workmen, to begin the regular manufacture of iron. The company built their furnace on the banks of the Saugus River, within the present limits of Lynn, at a spot which they called Hammersmith, after the place in England from which some of the workmen had come. The General Court of Massachusetts greatly favored this work by grants of three square miles of land wherever the company put up works, and by special privileges and charters. Subscriptions toward the stock were encouraged among the inhabitants. The work was very successful ; and 011 Oct. 14, 1645, the General Court granted to the company a charter "on tlic condition that the inhabitants of this jurisdiction be furnished with barr-iron of all sorts for their use, not exceeding twenty pounds per tunne." In 1648 the Furnace at furnace at Lyun was turning out eight tons of iron a week, and Lynn. appears to have been kept busy for a long time casting cannon, shot, pots, and other hollow-ware, for which the bog-iron is so well adapted. The first article cast was an iron pot ; and this historic and intrinsic treasure was handed t;own for generations in the family of the man who bought it, who happened to be Thomas Hudson, of the same family as the Dutch explorer, Thomas having been the original owner of the lands on the Saugus upon which the foundery stood. The company built another forge about 1648, in the town of Braintreo ; Winthrop. OF THE UmTED STATES. 191 :s or yron countrye's ny ores, but >ast. These )unlry as far liboring hills solution, and lould, in soft, e, once taken ic experiment, incipally with iplied with it, i of the early m it is brittle, lould ; and is, and in Mary- ,ynn were sent ^ of Undertak- ^ith a thousand ers. Winthrop gin the regular banks of the ich they called (f the workmen d this work by put up works, the stock were essful; and on barter " on the ith barr-iron of In 1648 the )n a week, and ;asting cannon, well adapted, [trinsic treasure who bought it, as the Dutch on the Saugus of Braintree ; and in 1652 a forge was established at Raynham (now Taunton) by the two Leonard brothers, Henry and James, from whom have since Braintree descended so many of the well-known iron -masters of the and Taun- ton, country. John Winthrop, jun., went to New London in Connecticut in 1645, and in 1 65 1 obtained a grant of privileges from the Assembly to pirst iron- enable him to make iron there. He did not, however, carry out works in his intention of establishing the business then ; and the first iron- o"n«=*'C"t- works in this colony were erected at New Haven, where they were established by Capt. Thomas Clarke in 1656. Rhode Island made iron at Pawtucket and elsewhere as early as 1675. There were several furnaces and forges in the State, all of them Rhode running wit:i bog-ore taken from the ponds on the border of Bris- 's'and. tol County, Massachusetts. The works at Pawtucket were started by Joseph Jenks, jun., from Lynn. The Indians interfered with their infant enterprises a great deal ; and the iron industry has not, even to this day, reached any special development in the State. The energies of the people were directed at a very early period to cotton spinning and weaving, antl that has since engrossed them almost entirely. Yet Rhode-Island hills contain unlimited quantities of the most important iron ores. Iron ore had been discovered in New Jersey by the Dutch ; and a com- pany of people from Connecticut began the production of metal from it as early as 1664 in Shrewsbury, Monmouth County. Henry Leonard went to Shrewsbury about that year from Lynn, and is said to have set up one of the first furnaces of the provinces. Several bloomary-fires were started in Sussex and Morris Counties in 1685 by immigrants from Eng- land and the northern provinces of this country. The ore was brought to the forges many miles in leathern bags on pack-horses. There is some dispute as to whether the pioneer works in New England, at Lynn, were of the character of a blast-furnace or a bloomary-fire ; but there is no doubt at all, that, during the first fifty years of practical iron- Biast-fur- uiaking in this country, the fiirnaces were, in general, what are called naces and "bloomaries." The blast-furnaces were exceedingly rare. They '''°°'""'"- were in use in England, but not here, except at Lyun (where Mr. Swank believes there was one as early as 1644), and at Shrewsbury, N.J., where one was set up about 1680. These bloomaries were simply an improvement upon the primi- tive mode of making iron direct from the ore, in use in India from the most ancient times, and still employed by the natives of Asia and „ , . f . Early pro- Afnca. The original bloomary was merely a hole in the ground, cess of mak- in which charcoal was burned by the aid of a bellows made '"B'^o" r , • . 1 . Ill , - . described. trom a goat-skm, iron ore being added to the fire m small quan- tities. It is the peculiar property of iron, and the ore quality above all others, which has made it of such extraordinary utility to man, that its particles agglu- 192 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY \ \ !^ \ tinate at a white-heat. In those primitive fires it was found, that, the stone being burned out of the ore, and the iron heated almost to incandescence, the metal gathered together, and settled at the bottom in a glowing and more or less compact lump, or bloom, and might be got out and worked by breaking away the clay. Tliis method of making iron served the world for centuries. It was finally improved in Catalonia, in Spain, and made much more effective ; and the Iron-making works there perfected took the name of Catalan bloomaries, or in Spain. forges, from the province in which they were first set up. The original form, used in the Pyrenees since 1 293, was a furnace two feet high, with a hearth, or crucible, to receive the heated lump of metal, eleven inches deep. The blast was fed to the fire through two openings, called tuyeres, about eleven inches from the bottom. In five hours a hundred and forty pounds of iron could be made. In time the furnace became enlarged, and the hearth was made twenty inches deep : one tuyere was discontinued, and the produc- tion was increased to three hundr::d pounds of metal in five hours. The pro- Process cess was as follows : In the fire-clay hearth a bottom of slag and described. charcoal was laid, and glazed over at a high heat : the hearth was then half filled with charcoal. On the side opposite to the tuyere coarse ore was heaped up to the top of the hearth, and the rest of the space was filled with charcoal. Then the blast was started at a low pressure of about three- quarters of a pound. In six hours the pressure was raised to a pound and a half, and tiie whole of the fire heaped over with fine charcoal and ore, except over the coarse ore. The gas and flame from the fire, meeting with difficulty in escaping through the fine charcoal, were forced principally to find an outlet through the interstice? of the coarse ore, and they gradually reduced it. Tiie melted slag, settling down below the tuyere, was tapped off every hour. At the end of the operation, or in about six hours, the bloom was pried out of the fire, and put under a fourteen-hundred-pound hammer for manufacture. The heat could be so increased as to melt the iron, and run it off to make castings. In the Catalan process, three tons of ore, and two and three-quarters or three tons of charcoal, were consumed to make a ton of iron ; the process being very wasteful, but the metal extremely pure and good. The principal trouble with the Catalan forge was, that the fire had to be re-made after each heat. This objection led to an improvement upon it, Defect of invented by the Germans in Alsace. These people went back to Cntaian the old plan of throwing into the fire alternate layers of fine ore °'^^''' and charcoal, using larger fires, and making the blast continuous. By this means they were able either to run off the melted metal, or pry out the heated bloom, without re-making the fire. The principle and form of both bloomaries were substantially the same, and the product equally good. This was the general style of forge which found its way into America in the mm OF THE UNITED STATES. »93 at, the stone iescence, the and more or [ by breaking It was finally ive ; and the )loomarics, or set up. The two feet high, eleven inches :alled tuyeres, X forty pounds ind the hearth d the produc- irs. The pro- m of slag anil the hearth was !ere coarse ore space was filled af about three- X pound and a ind ore, except with difficulty find an outlet Iduced it. The hour. At the •ied out of the lufacture. The make castings, luarters or three •cess being very fire had to be -ment upon it, le went back to ■yers of fine ore last continuous, metal, or pry :iple and form Iroduct equally America ui the infancy of the iron-manufacture, and by which the manufacture was estab- lished. Professor T. Stcrry Hunt says of it in a recent paper, — t. sterry " This furnace had the great atlvantage, tliat its construction """*• re(|uired but little skill and outlay. A small waterfiill for the blast and ham- mer, a rude hearth with a chinmey, antl a sup|)ly of charcoal and ore, enabled the iron-worker to obtain, as occasion recpiired, a few hundred pounds of iron in a day's time in a condition fitted for the use of the blacksmith ; after which his primitive forge remained idle until there was a further demand. To this day such furnaces are found in the mountains of North Carolina, and Airnish the bar-iron recjuired for the wants of the rural population. . . . Still more worthy of note is it, that this primitive bloomary-furnace, discarded in Kurope, has been improved by American ingenuity, — enlarged, fiti.-'l with a hot blast, water, tuyeres, and other modern appliances, — so that, in the hands of skilled workmen in Northern New York, it affords for certain ores an eco- nomical mode of making a superior malleable iron. A large part of this product is consumed at Pittsburgh for the manufacture of cutlery-steel of excellent quality." Pennsylvania, so marvellously stored with the materials for iron-making, did not begin the manufacture until 171 7, — the year before William Penn's death. I'enn came to the province which was named after him in 1682. pennsyi- He was familiar with the iron-business, and he accordingly soon v*"»"- had furnaces in New Jersey at various places in Sussex. He discovered in time that his own province was rich in minerals ; but it appears that the indus- try was not developed there until the year before his death. The record of the event is found in a letter of Jonathan Dickinson, written in 171 7, in which he says, " This last summer, one Thomas Rutter, a smith who lived not far from (lermantown, hath removed farther up in the country, and of his own strength has set up on making iron. Such it proves to be as is highly set by all the smiths here, who say that the best of Swede's iron doth not exceed it ; and we have heard of others that are going on with the iron-works." A beginning once made, the industry developed with great rapidity. In 1728 four furnaces were in full blast ; one being at Colebrookdale on the Maxatawny Creek, and one being in the present county of Lancaster. By the time of the Revolution many others had been built in Eastern and North-eastern Pennsylvania. These were regular blast-furnaces run with charcoal fuel. Virginia resumed the manufacture of iron about 1715. Col. Alexander Spottswood opened some mines in Spottsylvania County, on the Rappahannock, and put up a blast-furnace there about that year. The owner told „ '■ '^ ' Resumption Col. Byrd in 1 732 that he was the first m America who had erected of iron- a regular furnace, and that " they ran altogether upon bloomaries manufacture in New England and Pennsylvania till his example had made them attempt greater workes." This is believed, by Mr. Swank and others, to be a -nistake, because there was a furnace at Lynn, and another at Shrewsbury, long •94 fND US TRIA I. Ills rOK Y hcfore Col. Spottswood developed hi;; largo and flourishing works. The erec- tion of the Rappahannock fiirnare was, however, an important event in the history of the iron-trade. It certainly led to the hiiiMing of larger works in the North than had been put up previous to that time. Col. Spottswood had four furnaces in 1732 ; the largest being at i'V.'dericksburg, thirteen miles from tlic mine. .\n idea of the sort of work the furnaces ran on at that day may be gathered from the journal of (!ol. Byrd, who says, that at the furnace at Massapony, on tlie Rappahannock, there were cast "backs for chimneys, and- irons, fenders, plates for hearths, pots, skillets, mortars, rollers for gardeners, boxes for cart-wheels, t'tc, which, one with another, could be delivered at jjeople's doors for twenty shillings a ton." ]5y I 735 all the large coast provinces were busily manufacturing i)ig and bar iron and castings, except New York. New York came lagging in the rear of the train, and did not make iron until about i 740. The bcLnn- NewYork. . ^ , . , , , , , , , rung of the UKUistry appears to have been due to the development of the famous jrown hematite doi)osits in Salisbury, Conn., in 1732. No iron of any conseciuence had been found within the limits of the i)rovince itself; and the city of New York had been, up to that time, supplied with iron from the adjoining provinces. In i 740 Philip J.ivingston built the first iron-works of the province on Ancram Creek in Columbia County, obtaining his ore :-om Salisbury in Connecticut, twelve miles away. The works consisted only of a bloomary-forge. In 1751 a blast-furnace was built in Orange County to work up the ores of Sterling Mountain. The celebrated mines in the northern i)art of the State were not opened until 1800. The oldest forge in the Champlain region is said to have been built no earlier than 1801. The iron-manufacture began in New Hampshire about i 750, where several bloomaries were built to make use of the bog-ores. A good deal of iron was made during the Revolution ; but, after that, the business died out. There is to-day only one furnace in New Hamphire ; namely, the one belonging to the rolling-mill at Nashua. Vermont entered upon the industry at the same time as her sister-province, making use of the magnetic and hematite ores in the northern and western parts of the State. Maine had a few bloomary-forges in York County during the Revolution, the war giving an energetic Maine. ..... . , -vt 1 development to this busmess m every part of the country. North North Carolina exported a little iron as early a;; 1728, and during the Carolina. Revolution had a great many bloomaries and forges in operation. In South Carolina the first forge was erected in 1773, •" the north-western South part of the State : it was burned by the Tories during the war. In Kentucky the first works were built in 1791 by government troops, on Slate Creek in Bath County. In Tennessee a blooni- ary was established at Emeryville as early as 1790; and in both that State and Kentucky a large number of works sprang up immediately after, Vermont. Carolina. Kentucky. where several <"■■ T„K CA-ITED STATF.^. anil were operated for mmv „„ ' '" -'■e .he l,„sin,,, „„,J3/ G ' ""'" '"' '"^'^'P" -<>" of ,he North can Revolution. '""^' '^™Wa made no iron ,,ri„r ,„ ,\^ ZZ — .... „, ^^^^^^ ^^^^ llius, bydieniidclieoltii,.,.,-,,!,, , 'akcn a very favorable .start "''"f'"""' «n'"0-. the ,„an„fact„re of iron h.H ■"-<' 'O »p,„yi„« the ,,I,J ;i;r:-,-<'.f-«- -re s.„a,|. all,' y lien, w,.., har.iron, ami to castin " ' '"'"'">' ^''rronn.iin,, '^ f"rnil„re for (ireplace, .".'""'"*-' " f ""'d'.-s "C llollow-ivare „„l '-"'■ 'or e.„„r.. Ito.eler, ;:can "^ , '*r'" f ""-■'^ "' < "."e' iZ '^«M. ""s material into cutlery, tool, „n,l "'■"'!"■■" '° '""nnttcture '"-"■■"• ••« at f,r.,. exi.,t in M, cmnttn; r''"", '°°"' °' ""^ '>'«h" .yp« did "f "'e demands „r „„. ij^^ , f^' P™'"'""" "as .so,„e,that i Se -.l..ce„, century, .teel furnace 'L ..^T'f '"""'^ •"^- "'«''"^' "f X '"•^an to be erectcrl m fi • "'""^^ •»»" slittiiiL' mills anri ..i .• . »'..";a.ere:oiti;:i:;,:;, :^'-;;^^; n,oti,er.co,u,,:r:,ie;,trror England towarti the colonies n ,""'"■ '^ P«"«a' ffelin. exis L » .<.e fact, and ,vere ,mn ^ngly |'oVri''r, "'" «- '^"S«*m™. t r^^l™ of "liose banners they ,vere , t * "■' SO'^nnient under the nrr J? «™.P of flourishing Ld i 5 :o:;"""'."'» "■■'"""-^. - b °a" l-otected by the arms of E^^^^f J^^J'^^- . '^^ '-glishmen tltey :L '■'" l«y had the misfortune to ivt,, T' '"""")■ »Tvice and oth nvi« »velv to ,! '"''"o« Ihe colonists to r„„fi f °' agricultural to agnculture, and to depend en L "^ "'"'' "ttcntion excl,,- d r'th ?"'■'■-"«• Parlia^'e ' ,es r d o,"""" "" '"other-cotunr; for the shadow of gi,a„t,c forests, ^Ip S'jhi^.^ f '"^> "■<' i even tJieir timber to Eng- 196 INDVSTKIAL HISTORY land, and ol)tain from that country, in return, our wooden-wares, chairs, tables, carriages, and wooden bowls. Tlie development of the local industries of Eng- land, and the promotion of the carrying-trade to the colo- nies so as to insure to England a great deal of shipping, were aimed at stei (lily. The growth of industry here was looked upon with impatience ; and when it was seen that the colo- nists refused to be dependent forever, and that they were ? showing great vigor and enter- ,: prise in putting up their own ;. factories and forges, I'arlia- • ment interposed with a regu- 'i lation of the sort above re- \ ferred to. \ The law of 1750 restricted a the iron-making of the colonies J to the production of pig and i bar iron and to castings. Nails > were made in a small way by % the people, in their chimney- * corners, evenings ; a Law of 1750. , ,, , , , .,, and the blacksmiths, still worked away at wrought- iron implements and utensils : but general grov;th was stopped. A large part of the iron made was exported to England, the colonists getting it back again in the cutlery, steel, and other goods they were not permitted to make themselves. The fol- lowing table, which we copy from Scrivenor's " History of the Iron Trade," will show the "Tnntity exported to England, down to the lime of the Revolution, ii> *ons : — 97 ;s, chairs, , wooden )mont of of Kng- woiwn of , t\ic t-oU)- to iMigland \>\)\\\^, were • ["he growlh ^vas looked icnce ; and at the colo- ; dependent they were r and enter- p their own rges, l*arl>a- with a regu- rt above re- 750 restricted )f the colonies 1 of pig a"*^ istings. Nails small way by lieir chimney- rs, evenings ; he blacksmiths, at wrought- and utensils : h was stopped. ]the iron made England, the it back again [teel, and other not permitted [ves. The fol- lich we copy '•History of I' will show the iRevolution, ii> VBAK. 1718 . 1728-21; "7.10 • 1730-3' >73'-32 •732-33 •733 •733-34 •734 •734-35 •735 •739 1740 1741 1742 1743 •744 '745 1746 •747 1748 1750 •75' •752 •753 •754 •755 761 1762 •763 1764 1765 1766 1767 1768 1769 1770 1771 1772 •773 '774 '775 1776 I'Ki-IHDN. Ii«J3 1.725 2.250 2.332 2,404 2.197 2,561 2,4'7 2,275 3.457 2,075 2.985 1.8C1 2,274 1,86 1 2,156 2.'55 2,924 3.210 2,980 2.737 3.244 3.44' 2,766 1,766 2,566 2,554 3.264 2,887 2.953 3.40 • 4.232 5.303 3.724 2.937 3.45' 2,996 3>6 BAH-IRUN. >i S5 • • • 5 S 57 4 196 8a 4 5 5 81 247 270 389 39 122 310 1,059 1,078 '.257 1.325 1,989 1.779 1,716 2,222 965 837 639 916 28 In the same period, there were some slight shipments to Scotland in addition to these. iqH INHUSTKIAI. IIISTOKY ■- iU s\ Condition of Iron-manu- facture at outbreak of Revolution. When tlic colonics Ih'^mm their darin},' experiment of a fight for politi( al indepeiideni e, tin y wer poorly provided will; tlie means for carrying on \ war. Not to menlion their hu k of fa( lories for ( Icjlhing, of ships, of pulihc funds, and private capital, and of a dense population from whic h to recruit an army, the poverty of their resources for making can- non, chains, rifles, swords, and shot, was so great as of itself alone to place them at an enormous disadvantage in the conflict with Dngland. 'I'hey had few or ikj works for the prochu tion of these necessaries of war, and neither suffi( ient ready lapital to l)uild all the < ouiUry needed, nor the skill to produce at once an article of good workmanship. The casting of a ten-pounder cannon was so serious a piece of business with them at that day, that few cared to undertake it. The absolute cutting-off of the supplies from ilngland, upon which the colonies had formerly depended^ however, placed them under the necessity of enlarging their iron-manufactur- ing facilities at once. The people not being able to do this to the ext«.nt re(iuired both by the local wants and the demands of the government, the Policy of Continental Congress took part in the work; and the troops Continental and tile public funds were em])loyed to establish furnaces and ongresa. factories of iron aiid steel in various i)arts of the country. Works were established by Congress in the Housatonu: Valley in Connecticut, in the Highlands of the Hudson, in Northern New Jersey, Kentucky, and wher- ever the ores were rich and the forest dense, and charcoal therefore abun- dant. It is said that the first trials of anthracite for manufacturing purposes were made by Congress at its armory at Carlisle, Penn., in 1775, established in consequence of the Revolutionary war. The combined resoivces of Con- gress and people were only barely sufticient at first to supply the country with the iron it needetl. It took some time to train workmen, and the Tories frequently interfered with proceedings by burning the iron-works. Toward the close of the Revolution the industry gained a good start ; and, had the treaty of peace in 1783 been followed up by a policy favorable to native manufactures, its rise would have been thenceforward rapid. But the Continental Congress had no power to initiate a policy of the proper sort ; and a period of six years followed, during which the country was flooded with cheap manufactures from B^ngland ; and a large number of the na'.ive American furnaces and factories, finding no demand for their iron, ceased to exist. By the previous repression of our industries, JCngland had been enabled to enlarge and develop her own ; and the skill of her workmen, and the large capital of the masters, made it impos- sible for America to compete with her, even in supplying her own needs. The few iron furnaces and founderies which managed to keep alive during the interregnum from 1783 to 1789 scarcely did more than provide for their respective neighborhoods. 1783 to 1789. OF THE UNITED STATES. 199 'or political ryin^ on a 1, of public from whi( h naking lau- itsclf alone Loiillit t with ion of these the country orkniansliip. )usiness with utting-off of ly depended, i-nianufiictur- the extent eminent, the 1 the troops furnaces and ,ntry. Works )nnecticut, in ky, and wher- erefore abun- iring purposes 5, established •rces of Con- country with (I the Tories rks. Toward and, had the ble to native policy of the |e country was lumber of the demand for lession of our Iher own ; and jade it impos- needs. The U during the Ivide for their TIIF. I.I TF.CT OF TAKIFFS. In I 7.S9 the first Congress met under the new Constitution, equipped by the people with power to legislate for the commonweal on a variety of im- portant subjects, whit h, before that, the (leneral (lovernment had been unable to touch. It was a ionveiitiun of the best men of the Kevolu- Early tariff tionary struggle. 'I'he first law passed was one in relation to ofti- ''^'• t ial oaths ; the second, an act for the protection of .American industries and for revenue. By this law a duty was levied upon all importations of iron ; a moderate one, — only five per cent on the home value of iron, and fifty cents per hundred-weight on steel, — but enoiigh to prove a temptation to many fiirnace-men to kindle anew the fires in their deserted stacks, and collect their scattered workmen, and resume the industry (so valuable to the country) which the heavy importations from I-lngland had obliged them to abandon. The duty, not proving large enough, w;';i increased by different Congresses, until in 1812 it re '.ched thirty-two percent and a half on iron (thirty-seven |)er cent if brought in foreign vessels), and two dollars per lunulred-weight on steel. .After the war of 18 12 it was reduced somewhat. Under the pro- tection of this tariff, iron-making was resumed in all the States in which it had previously been carried on. In States and localities wliere increase of no start had yet been made it was begun. Pittsburgh, now the manufac- most important iron ( entre of the country, had yet had no bloomary nor found^'ry ; uid Ohio, with its rich stores of coal and ore, and busy farming-population, had seen no piece of iron laid on a village anvil except that which had been toilsomely brought by wagon from the distant Mast. Hut in 1803 the iron-industry was initiated at Pittsburgh by the building of a foundery, and in Ohio by the erection of a small charcoal- furnace in Poland Township, Mahoning County. Hloomaries, furnaces, roll- ing-mills, and steel-works sprang into being throughout the Union everywhere. The mines of the West and South were opened as the wave of population flowed into the regions surrounding them, and in the older communities in the rear of them branches of the manufacture which had never been attempted on this continent were successfully tried and established. Production began to keep pace with consumption, and a small quantity of crude iron was even supplied for exportation. Were it expedient to do so, the history of iron-making from 1 789 down to 1878 might be divided into eras coinciding with the changes in the principle on which the tariff has been framed. There have been several _. Character of important changes. The tariff was protective until 18 16. In varioua 1816 the du ici were lowered in deference to the wishes of the 'ee's'^^'ve ^ enactments. Iree-traders. In 1824 the protective tariff was again enacted, and, being strengthened in 1828, lasted until 1834. Then a compromise tariff was adopted, by which the duties were gradually lowered. In 1842, again, there 200 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY was a tariff for protection ; Ixit in 1846 free-trade gained the ascendency once more, and tintil 1861 there was httle or no protection. In 1861 the present protective tariff was adopted. These changes brought aboit jcriods of alter- nate depression and prosperity in the iron-industry. '1 here lias l)een such an abundance of land in the country, and the agricultural life, with its owner- ship of a bit of land, has had such fascinations in theory, if not in iacX, to the mass of the people, that wages have always been necessarily high here ; and the iron-masters have not been able to produce either crude or manufactured iron for American c(>nsum])tion in competition with Englishmen, without the protection of an efifi lent duty, ^^'henever the tariff has been lowered, there- fore, the fires have gone out in scores of furnace-stacks and rolling-mills throughout the country, and working-men have been thrown out of employment. Several times, as in 1820, the business has been in a state of ruin. Whenever protection has been again extended, the smoke has again floated from the chimneys of the iron-works, and the business has become prosperous. The influence of the tariff has been so great, that mention of it cannot be omitted. It is preferable, however, to divide the history of iron-making into periods, simply with reference to the progress of invention, and not with reference to tariff changes. Still it may not be uninteresting to the reader to glance over the following table of the changes in the duties, and compare it with the succeeding table of production of iron in the United States : — i.'<; KATKS OI- nilTV FROM 1 789 TO 1 876. f^ I'llMRON. 1789 . 5 per cent. 1790 . 5 per cent. 1792 . 10 per cent. 1794 . 15 per cent. I.S04 . I7i per cent. ISI2 . 32^ per cent. ISI6 . 20 per cent. I8I.S . 50 cents per cwt. 1824 . 50 cents ])er cwt. 1828 . 62 J cents per cwt. 1830 . 62i cents per cwt. .S32 . 50 cents per cwt. to > {.. adual fall to ) 1842 ) 20 per c.Mit. \ IS42 . p) per ton. 1843 . $9 per ton. 5 to 7i per cent. 5 to 7^ per cent. 10 per cent. I cent a i)ouncl. 2 cents a ])ouncl. 45 cts. to $2.50 ])er cwt. 75 cts. to 52.50 per cwt. 90 cts, to #3.36 per cwt. 5 1. 1 2 to $3.92 per cwt. $1.12 to $3.92 per cwt. )?i.i2 to 53.92 per cwt. \ gradual fall to 20 per \ I cent. ) 517 o 556 per ton. $17 to $56 per ton. KAlt.KOAD-llARS. 537 per ton. 25 i)cr cent. free. free. free. $25 per ton. 50 cents per cwt. 75 cents per cwt. 51 ])er cwt. $1 per cwt. $2 per cwt. $\ per cwt. $1 per cwt. $\ per cwt. 51.50 i)er cwt. 51.50 per cwt. 51.50 per cwt. 51.50 per cwt. 51.50 to $2.50 per cwt. 51.50 to 52.50 per cwt. OF THE UNITED STATES. 20I cy once present of alter- en such i owner- ■t, to the ere ; and ufactured ihout the ed, thcre- ilUng-mihs iployment. Whenever I from the rous. The oe omitted, to periods, eference to glance over it with the STEEL. 1 cents per cwt. cents per cwt. $1 per cwt. %\ per cwt. H2 per cwt. %\ per cwt. %\ per cwt. j«,i per cwt. [$1.50 per cwt. U1.50 per cwt. I j^,.50 per cwt. $1.50 per cwt. [50 to $2.50 per i;wt. [50 to $2.50 per cwt. PIG-IKON. VAK-IKON. RAILROAD-BARS. STKKL. 1846 . 30 per cent. 30 per cent. 30 per cent. 30 per cent. IS57 . 24 per cent. 24 per cent. 24 per cent. 24 per cent. i86i . $6 per ton. $15 to $20 per ton. $12 per ton. ($1.50 to $2 per 1 cwt. and upwards, /under 11 cts. a 1862 . $6 per ton. $17 to $25 per ton. $13. 50 per ton. )lb., ij to 2i cts.; ' over, 25 percent. under 1 1 cts. alb.. 1864 . $9 per ton. $22.40 to $39.20 per ton. $13.44 per ton. 2^ to 3 cts. ; over, 3^ cts. and 10 p. , c. ad valorem, under 11 cts. alb., 1865 . Jjg per ton. $22.40 to $39.20 per ton. $15.68 per Ion. 2^ to 3 cts.; over, 3^ cts. and ic p. c. ad valorem, under 1 1 cts. alb.. 1870 . $7 per ton. $22.40 to $39.20 per ton. $15.68 per ton. 2\ to 3 Cts. ; over, 3^ Cts. and 10 p. , c. ad valorem. 1872 . $6.30 per ton. $20.16 to $35.28 per ton. $14.11 perton. \ 10 p. c. less than I in 1864. ««75 • $7 per ton. $22.40 to $32.20 per ton. $15.68 per ton. same as in 1864. Down to 181 6 a discrimination was regularly made in favor of the American carryin trade by levying ten per cent more of duty if the iron were brought in foreign vessels. The figures above given represent the duty on imports in American vessels. The best statistics as to the production of iron in the United States are those compiled by the American Iron and Steel Association, of which Mr. James M. Swank is the author. They are as follows : — PRODUCTION OF PIG-IRON IN GROSS TONS. 1810 54,000 1820 20,000 1828 130,000 1829 . 142,000 1830 165,000 1831 191,000 1832 200,000 1840 315,000 1842 2r'^,000 1846 705,000 1847 800,000 202 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY il %: 1848 1849 1850 1852 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 i860 i86i 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 187 1 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 800,000 650,000 564.75s 500,000 736,218 784,178 883,137 798,157 705,094 840,627 919,770 731.544 787,662 947,604 1. 135.996 931.582 1.350.343 1,461,626 1,603,000 1,916,641 1,865,000 1,911,608 2,854,558 2,868,278 2,689,413 2,266,581 2,093,236 Kl ';' : !l THE ERA OF ANTHRACITE FUEL AND THE HOT BLAST. Down to 1838 the only fuel used to any extent in the manufacture of iron from the ore was charcoal. There were a few coke furnaces in the Introduction country ; but the vast majority of the iron-masters used charcoal ofanthra- bloomarics and furnaces. The furnaces were small (the stack;: seldom over twenty feet high), and producing from two to four tons of iron a day. From a hundred to a hundred and fifty bushels of char- coal and two tons of ore were consumed to the ton of iron produced, the quantity of coal varying according to the hardness of the wood from which the coal had been made, and the skill and experience of the foreman. The profits of the business depended largely on the judgment and success of the Process de- foreman in the use of charcoal. The blast was of cold air, sup- scnbed. plied by two pairs of large bellows worked by water-power, and blown into the furnace, sometimes through hollow green logs placed back from the tuyere opening, so as to be safe from burning. The quality of iron made by these old-fashioned furnaces was exceedingly good. The metal was pure, and of great tenacity and durability of wearing surface, and was of the greatest value for the purposes of steel. Even at the present time, invention has been unable to produce iron of superior quality to that matle D O i5 )0 [8 78 37 57 m )27 770 544 662 ,604 ,996 ,582 >,343 [,626 3,000 6,641 15,000 1,608 54,558 38,278 89.413 66,581 93.236 AST. O/-' 7V/£ UNITED STATES. 203 in the charcoal l)looniaries and furnaces ; and the highest-priced bars at ])resent are still those thus jiroduced. The (juantity which could be made in the old-flxsiiioned furnace was, however, small ; and, as the forests in the mining-regions were consumed, the cost of production even of that small ([uantity increased. Experiments were made for the production of iron with anthracite coal. The country was richly stored with supplies of this valuable fuel ; and its usefulness lor the generation of steam, and for the warming of Early ex- houses, had been (.iemonstrated at a very early day. Could it be periments. burned in the blast-furnaces, a saving of labor and expense, and an increase of production, would certainly follow. One experiment was made as early as 1 8 15 at Harford Furnace in Maryland, the anthracite being mixed with one- half charcoal. In 1826 anthracite was tried in a furnace near Mauch Chunk without success. In 1827 similar experiments, with similar results, were made at a furnace at Kingston, Mass. The experiments were abandoned in a good deal of despair. In 1828 James B. Neilson of Scotland brought out an invention which made it possible to work with anthracite, and immediately revolutionized the iron-making of the world. This was the use of the hot-air blast NeiUor/s in smelting iron. invention. The previous failures with anthracite had been due to the employment of the cold blast. Mr. Neilson applied the hot blast to coke and charcoal furnaces. Its first utility was considered to be the saving of fuel effected by it. On the Clyde a ton of iron had recjuired the combus- tion of eight tons and a half of coal coked. With the hot blast this was reduced to two tons and a half at once. It was an American who conceived the idea of burning anthracite direct by means of the hot blast. In 1833 Dr. (leissenheimer of New York obtained a patent for smelting iron with antliracite and the hot-air blast. His own experiments were unfortunately unsuccessful : but in 1837 some gentlemen from Reading succeetled with the new idea in an old furnace near Mauch Chunk, using eighty per cent of anthracite ; doing so well, in fact, that they at once built a new furnace to carry on the business regularly. They had good luck ; and so had the owner of an anthracite furnace built in 1837 at Pottsville, Penn., and blown in in 1839. This furnace v/as blown by steam-power, and produced forty tons a week of good foundery-iron. A premium of five thousand dollars was given to Mr. William Lyman, its owner, by Nicholas Biddle and others, as the first person who had made pig-iron with anthracite continuously for a hundred days in the United States. This was the beginning of the anthracite iron-business of the country. Tlicrcafter, almost all the new works put up in the iron-regions increase in were built exi)ressly to burn anthracite as fuel. The fiirnaces Production. whiih still continued to burn charcoal were principally in the North ; the coal measures of that region not having been developed, and the forests sup- 204 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY i;l % ,: ijii V,i plying, practically, inexhaustible quantities of the old style of fuel. The his- tory of the blast-furnace since that date has been one principally of growth in size : year by year the stacks grew larger and taller, until, from twenty feet in height and ten in diameter, they have now risen even to ninety feet in height and twenty-five in diameter. In 1855 the yearly production of anthra- cite pig-iron overtook that of charcoal iron, and the latter variety has been steadily falling to the rear ever since. In 1869 the ])roduction of charcoal iron was again passed by that made with bituminous coal and coke. In 1872 tlie product was as follows: Anthracite iron, 1,369,812 net tons; bituminous coal and coke-iron, 984,159 tons; charcoal made, 500,587 tons. The metal made by the hard-coal and hot-blast processes is inferior to that made by the old style of furnace ; but it fulfils the demand of the times for cheap and abundant iron. Blast-furnaces are always located in the vicinity of the supplies of fuel, cither in the coal-mining regions, or along the lines of coal transportation. It is cheaper to bring the ore to the coal than the fuel to the ore, — a fact which is strikingly illustrated by the experience of Michigan, which, with incalculable treasures of ore of the finest finalities, is obliged to send away the principal part of her ore to Ohio and other States having mineral coal, to be made into pig-iron there. Indiana and Illinois, both great iron-making States, are so solely on account of their coal. Their iron ores are scanty, and of bad quality. Blast-furnaces are possible even in the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, and in other cities reached by the railroads of a great coal State. The blast-furnaces of the United States have reached a size and perfection excelled nowhere in the world. There have been great intelligence, and Blast- alacrity of invention, on the part of those engaged in the iron- furnaces. trade in this country ; and, in respect to mechanical appliances, the American fiirnaces have been placed fully on a par with, if not above, the same class of works in other parts of the earth. The blast-furnace is a structure of stone and brick work, from forty to seventy-five and even ninety feet high, enclosing a chimney-like cavity, in Description which the ores, fluxes, and fuel are placed to be smelted. Usually of blast- the stack is composed of a lining of fire-brick of the most refrac- tory character, backed with a less refractory quality, and that with common red brick and stone. Most Western furnaces, and many of the new ones in the East, are, however, substantially an iron cylinder lined with fire- brick. The Philadelphia Furnace, — finished at Philadelphia in 1873, with all the latest improvements, — sixty feet high, is of sixteen-inch fire-blocks, adapted in shape to the contour of the interior, backed by a nine-inch course of ordinary fire-brick. Then a four-inch air-space, filled with loam, is backed with a nine-inch course of red brick. A three-inch air-space, filled with sand, thou occurs, and a four-inch course of red brick ; and the whole is cased with OF THE UNITED STATES. 20I, rhe his- : growth snty feet r feet in f anthra- las been charcoal In 1872 ituminous :he metal de by the ;heap and »s of fuel, sportation. ^^ — a fact vhich, with id away the coal, to be .king States, nty, and of New York, railroads ot tion and perfec iigence, lin the iron- appliances, not above, lorn forty to Le cavity, in ed. Usually [most refrac- |nd that with of the new bd with hrc- I873, with all Icks, adapted |h course of backed with jth sand, then Is cased with ..il! 206 INDUSTRIAL IIISTOKV • !a ^M?-* i \ ti .1 i il » I'll I 1 - boiler-iron a quarter of an inch thick, extending to the top of the stack. The crucible, or hearth, is composed of sixteen-inch fire-blocks. This is a good type of construction. Back of the courses above described common masonry of considerable thickness is generally built to support the stack, if an iron casing is not used. The interior cavity of the furnace is round horizontally, but perpendicularly is very much of the shape of the chimney of an ordinary kerosene lamp. At the open top, in a seventy-five foot stack, it is ten feet in diameter. It gradually grows larger going down for a distance of about fort)' feet, where it reaches a width of about eighteen feet : it remains of this diameter for ten feet more, and then contracts rapidly in the next seventeen feet to eight feet diameter. This sloi)ing portion of the furnace is called the "boshes ; " and it is the part of it which supports the heavy weight of the ores and fuel, filling the stack to its mouth above. At the bottom of all is the hearth, or crucible, where the melted iron and slag collect. This is from five to eiglit feet in diameter, and about the same in height. The extreme widtli of the foundation upon which this mass of masonry rests is from thirty to forty-five feet. In the most modern stacks the masonry is not solid down to this foundation ; 'but that part of it above the hearth rests on an iron ental)- lature, sustained by iron columns planted upon the foundation of the stack. The tiiyhrs for the blast are from three to seven in number, and are cut into the hearth about four feet from the bottom. The air is blown into the furnace at a pressure of from three to four pounds, and heated to a temperature ..f from six hundred to nine hundred degrees. In order that the tuyeres shall not be melted, a current of cold water is kept playing upon tliem constandy. Up towards the top of the stack a number of openings permit the refuse gases from the burning coal below to be drawn off by means of the draught of a tall chimney, instead of escaping through the mouth of the stack itseif. These gases are made, by flues, to play around the cold-air pipes and the boiler which drives the blowing-engines ; and by their combustion they heat the air for the blast, and maintain a high pressure of steam. The quantity of air blown into the furnace under pressure to produce the intense heat needed to reduce the iron ore amounts to fifteen tons or more an hour, and is always of much greater weight than the materials in the stack itself. Formerly the furnaces were built against a hillside or a high bank, like a lime-kiln, for convenience in dumping the ores and fuel into the top of the stack. The more modern plan is to construct an elevator by the side of the furnace, with a platform on top about the throat of it, from which the materials are dumped into the stack from a barrow, or thrown in by hand. A furnace being ready for blowing in, the fire is kindled in the hearth ; and, when well under way, a quantity of ore, coal, and limestone, to dissolve the impurities of the ore, are thrown .from the top. With good ores and hard coal the proportion of the different materials to the ton of iron made is about as follows : iron ore, 2,100 pounds ; coal, 1,700 pounds ; limestone, 400 pounds. OF THE UNITED STATES. ao7 ick. The is a good 11 masonry if an iron orizontally, n ordinary is ten feet e of about lins of this t seventeen ; called the , of the ores Df all is the 'his is from Hie extreme ; from thirty ; solid down .1 iron entab- of the stack, are cut into 3 the furnace mperature -^t 'ens shall not istantly. Up refuse gases light of a tall itseit. These id the boiler heat the air uantity of air at needed to is always oi h bank, like a le top of the the side of ,m which the by hand. hearth ; antl, dissolve the land hard coal |e is about as L 400 pounds. The blast is now turned on at two-pounds pressure. If all goes on well, in twenty-four liours the pressure is increased from four to six pounds. The workmen keep sharp watch of the tuyeres to see that they are bright and clean, anil of the gaseous products of combustion to see that the furnace is working freely and well. Every four hours, ordinarily, the hearth is tapped near the toj) to draw off the melted slag. There is a little hole made for the purpose, which is kept plugged with clay between times. Th's process produces an exceedingly brilliant display. The slag spouts from the little opening made for it with a glare which pains the eye with its intensity. It runs down a rough trough scraped out of the ground, and out through the open door of the shop into the outer air to cool. As the slag gets low in the hearth, the blast escapes with it, carrying a fiery spray from the opening like a piece of fireworks, within the reach of which no man can stand and live. At the proper moment the blast is turned off. The men run up and plug the opening with clay, and the blast is turned on again into the furnace. The melted iron in the hearth is drawn off once in eight hours from a little hole at the bottom of the hearth, which,, as previously explained, is usually kept plugged with clay. The metal remains liquid in the hearth, from the fact, that, unlike water, the hottest metal sinks to the bottom, and thus it is possible to let fifteen or twenty tons of it accumulate without any danger of its chilling. The process of drawing off the iron is even more beautiful than that of taking away the slag. The metal flows out in a bright stream, throwing off dazzling scintilla- tions, as it comes in contact with the oxygen of the air, far surpassing in vigor and beauty any thing produced by the art of man in any other way. The metal flows along the floor of the shop in ch.annels, and runs into the rough moulds, where it hardens into the rough pigs of commerce. These are tested, when cold, by breaking with a sledge-hammer, to ascertain their ijuality, and are then stacked up for transportation to market. The introduction of the hot-air blast and the employment of anthracite as fuel, followed, five or six years afterwards, with the application of bituminous coal to smelting-purposes,. was a timely event for the United States. The country was about entering upon an era of railroad and steamboat building made necessary by the diffusion of our population over the vast area of virgin territory protected by our llag. An extraordinary demand for iron was developing ; and national development would have been seriously retarded if we obliged to depend on foreign lands for our supplies of the metal. air blast and the use of coal as fuel came along, therefore, all in good time for America. The reduction in the expense of smelting which they effected, and the demand for metal, gave an extraordinary impulse to the industry. In the period from 1848 to i860, furnaces, rolling-mills, and iron and steel work?; stuadily multiplied in all parts of the country. It is an interesting fact, that, in that period, iron-making was actively prosecuted in many States in which, Opportune- ness of new methods of producing iron. had been The hot- ao8 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY •\ *, since railroad-building has stopped, it has in part or entirely disappeared. In Tennessee there were in 1855, during that era of activity, seventy-five blooma- ries and forges, seventy-one furnaces, and four rolling-mills ; but at the present time there are only eighteen charcoal and four bituminous coal furnaces, a score of l)loomaries, and the four rolling-mills referred to. Arkansas made iron in 1857, but makes none now. In 1857 North Carolina had fifty blooma- ries and forges, two rolling-mills, and six furnaces, in operation. There are not now in tliat ancient State a dozen active forges and bloomaries. 'i'here are no rolling-mills nor steel-woiks, and only one active furnace. South Caro- lina made iron extensively before the war ; but her fires have all gone out, and her furnace- stacks were in 1876 all deserted. A fresh development was given to the blast-furnace business by the war and the tariff of 186 1. A new era of railroad-building set in ; and such was the Effect of demand for iron, and so high were the prices, and so large the prof- ^"- its, that some of the most brilliant fortunes of the present age were made in the manufacture of the metal. In 1874, 735 furnaces were in operation in the United jtates, besides a number of bloomaries, distributed as follows : — ■ ^.H :iJi W !*■ ANTHRACITE CHARCOAL BIT. AND COKE FUKNACKS. FURNACES. FURNACES. TOTAL. Maine I I New ILimpshire I I Vermont 5 5 Massachusetts I 5 6 Connecticut 9 9 New York . 45 22 67 New Jersey . 16 . . 16 Pennsylvania 152 44 73 269 Maryland . 6 14 8 28 Virginia I 33 34 West Virginia . . . 3 5 8 Georgia 13 2 '5 Alabama ... 20 , , 20 North Carolina 10 2 12 Tennessee . ... 24 3 27 Kentucky . 23 5 28 Ohio . k • . . . 40 62 102 Indiana • 7 7 Illinois • 1 4 . , 5 9 Michigan . • • I 30 3 34 Missouri . 12 9 21 Wisconsin . . 3 II 14 Minnesota . • I , , I Texas . • ... I ■ • I Total • 229 322 184 735 '\. t. sappeared. In ity-five bloomu- t at the present :oal furnaces, a \rkansas made xtl fifty bloonia- an. There are maries. 'I'here . South Caro- I gone out, and by the war and id such was the large the prof- resent age were ;re in operation i as follows : — • COKE CES. TOTAI,. I I 5 6 9 67 i6 n 269 8 28 34 5 8 2 '5 2a 2 12 3 27 5 28 52 102 7 7 5 9 3 34 9 21 • 14 . I • I 4 735 ^^- TifE UXrrED STATES. ""iy new furnaces a. pre™ ,Tr"""'""" "'"'-•■ <^0"".r,-. ^™"'■••5-•"« "'<-• Cambm Iron-Work^ at Tnhn., ^ different States of the NnrtI n' ' »"-y»e„, a,K, spen,::; e ^ ^Z' '"""">''"' ^"^ ^^sX ^ ;»« a„t, ™L, .L*;: :: e:s::r" ?" """""- °" -- ""' ""' 'he rest of ,|,c world ■ Z "' f"^ '" "'eT soil, com- ''•"■"■ llieM„ , ' '""''"Se seventy-fire-ton ?,„„ '*"' °f "•''"K wliici, burns looms from the furnace into'bar ,b"re Z 1 "' " ""'"='"•' '"' "'^sC "™=" inventire genius, and h..n7^iZ'T f '''' ''^•^ "^-g'c ,o.ck greatly developed and improved ; 3IO /x/)rsTh'/.tr ///.syoA'V whiK' in;inv wrw :i|.|ili:m( c^ \\nw hiTii iiitnnliici'd of jiiiri'ly .\nu'ri<';ui origin, ill li;i\i' rstiMiii(lin.iiil\ Niiii]ilirn'(l ;in(| < luMpi'iicd the processes of nianii- w 111 fii lull', ll wiiiilil ri.'(|niri' ;i voliinu- to (lesi rinc ;ill llic iiii|)r()vc'incnts iiitro- ni of hi-> own invention to dispose of provfmcnts. ,|,^. ] „|, ld|r 1 Mrs as the\ lea\e the rolls. As the ii'iMiot bar comes Ironi the rolU it is dis( harL;ed upon a liin' ol' rollers, o\er \vlii( h it niiiN to a scale, on wliic h it is detainecl Ion- enon.nh to \>c wei.nhed. It is then implied aloii.^ the rollers to a ureal p.nr of shears, where it is ( ut into leiiiitlis. the pines fallin,;; into an iioii haskel occiipyin,:;' a pit of water. 'I'lii^. basket, suspended from a lie.nn oxcrhead. is raised to such a heiL;ht. that it rnns by its own \vei,L;lit to the ollua- el 1(1. w ne lure it (oines in contact with an obje( I which tmlatc lies t l)oUoni of till' b.iskel ; and the iron filN to the .yroimd. ready tor pilin;.^ lor tlu' various fiirnai es. The strikin,!.,' of the object wlii< h opens the bottom of the iron basket reserse-^ its diix'c tion, and sends it ba( k on the now fallin,L; beam to the i)it. with the bottom a^ain si'cnre for reloading. Willi this mechanism the piuUlle-iron is drai^ued from tlu' rolls, weiylu'd, ( nt. and laid aside by one man. who handles the prodnt I of sixteen fiirnai es. Statistics of 111 i^^^ ill*-' rullin{^f-mills of the United States numbered 310, numbers. as f( OllOWS Ul wu ^^aine . Veniiniit Mussachusctts Rhode Island Conncctii ut. New ^'(l^k . New Jersey . I'ennsvlvani.i Del M trvlaiul V Mjiinui Uest V Ohio . KeiiLiiekN Tennesse Indiana Illinois Miehinan Missouri \\- (Jeors Alal injinia iS 10 10 iseonsin jania California Total !IO OJ- JJJJ: Li\JJKD srATKa. 1 1 hi g . and their willingness to handle iron and steel for all i)urposes in of Europeans larger mass"s thai ..i America. The leading P^uropean nations in rolling present at the fiiir exhibited a vast variety of articles rolled from a heavy iron. single piece, which could not have been thus made in America then, — such as deeply-dished boiler-heads, steam-domes, tube-sheets, and culinary vessels of every form ; and many other things made purely as tours tie force, to show what could be done, — such as cocked hats, a series of square domes raised from a flat i^late, &c. They displayed l)eanis a hundretl feet long, weighing fifteen hundred pounds, and others of the same length, weighing two tons and a quarter. A single plate, thirty feet long, two feet six inches broad, six inches thick, and weighing eleven tons, was shown from Eng- land. Krupp showed a single steel ingot of forty tons; when in 185 1 an English ingot weighing two tons and a quarter had been deemed an astonisli- ing achievement. Krupp also had on exhibition a fifty-ton steel cannon mounted on a fifteen-ton carriage, and a twenty-five-ton turn-table throwing a solid shot of twelve hundred and twelve pounds and a shell of ten hundred and eighty pounds. These achievements have all been surpassed since then, many of them in America ; but, to the dazzled eyes of the American iron- manufiicturers, they were in 1867 a revelation of marvels as interesting as a tale of Arabian enchantment. OF THE UNlTF.n STATES. a>3 num- s ; \>ut tes for Mr. Hewitt and others s\\v\\\. miuh time while in lliiroiu' (hiring' that exlii- l)ition in studying tiu-se products of European art, and in visitinj; ,j,^j^., the steel-works and rolhng -mills of the great centres of the trade, tionsof as. and tiien (a me back to America with a volume of new ideas, ""^itt •nd otheri. whi( h they have since utilized here to the extraordinary benefit of iheuiselves and the country. CTUKK. allusion ntlv\encc he I'ari^ pie were nd make rtment of and Mr. udy what md other What Mr. ned about proved of ;ssons, and Till". M ANUI ACrUKI'. OI' STI'.I'.L. The most valuable property of iron, next to that of agghitination at a white- heat, and possibly exceeding that, is the cpiality of forming steel. Cast-iron is not pure metallic: iron : it contains iVoin three to five per cent of superiority <:arbon (often [\\ii per c:ent and nine-tenths) chemically combined. <•' ■"=•=' T.y depriving the metal of all except about one-half per cent of its c arbon, the wrought iron of commerce is obtained. Hy restoring to it from three-fourths to one per cent and a Iialf of the carbon, or by reducing the c arbon ot' cast- imu to that minimum, a new cpiality of ircjii is obtained, which we call steel, — a produc:t of tiie higliest value, exceeding all others in elastic ily, tenacity, and JKirdness, acciuiring a special tem])er by ra[)id cM)oling, white, fine-grained, and capable of taking a high polish. It is the true metal for arms. Anciently the Hindoos made steel in small cpiantities by taking their ciiarcoal-made wrought iron, c:ut into small pieces, and ])utliug about a pound of it a time into a crucible, with ten times the cpiantity of wood steei-mak- chopped i\ni2. They put the c-rucible tightly plugged into a fiu- inu by the nace, and heated it intensely for two or three liours. At tlie end '" °°^' of tlie operation tiie steel was found fiised into a cake in the bottom of the c iiu'ibie. From the steel tlius made were fashioned the famous cimeters and blades of the i'last, of such excpiisite edge and temper as to cut a gauze veil lloating in the air without disturbing its movement. It was many ages before steel was made in Western l'!uro])e. When the manufacture of it began there, a new procx'ss was invented. Steel was made by cementation. The process, in use to the i)resent day, consisted Blistered of packing wrought-iron bars in c:harcoal in crucibles, and heating ^*^^'- them from six to ten clays, according tcj the hardness of the product re(iuired. Tlie product thus formed was called " blistered steel," l)ec:ause the bars, when withdrawn, were found covered with blisters. Cast-steel was formed by break- ing these bars, and fiising them ; and shear-steel by tempering the cast-steel, breaking the piecx's, welding tl^Mn at a good heat, and then hammering them iiiitil a more uniform and tenacnous lexture was produc:ed. The business of steel-making was established in America as Early steel- 1 1 i-» 1 • 1 • !• 1 1 • *i ■ 1 • 1 1 makingin early as the Kevolution ; but it did not thrive until witliin the last united thirty years. There was every temptation to make the metal, states. because it was worth in bars from two hundred and fiftv to three hundred iff 1 1 ■in .CA'i ■I <'M 214 /JVD L'S TKIA I. JJJSTOR Y dollars a ton as against an average of from twenty to forty dollars a ton for pig-iron, and from eighty to a hundred dollars for good bar-iron. American iron, too, was exceedingly j)ure and tenacious, and well fitted for steel- making. Hut the business had been from anticjuity shrouded in the deep- est mystery by makers, and it was long before the American Congress gave sufficient protection to those who wished to venture in the business here to encourage them to embark their capital in it. When the business was undertaken, a great deal of money was lost in it, and many attempts were abandoned in despair. 'l"o the energy of a few men, i)rincipally at Pittsburgh, Penn., and the skill of a few native chemists, is due the fact that the business was finally mastered and established. American steel, and the saws, cutlery, tools, and machines made from it, have since become famous the world o\er. As the art is practised in the United States, steel is made by three general processes ; and the product is called respectively jwt or crucible steel, Sie- mens-Martin steel, and Dessemer steel : in the first class, cementation is Three modes '^^'o"-'')' employed. There are also two American methods used, of making the invention of Professor A. K. Katon of New York. One, dis- ^^^^ ■ covered in 1S51, consists in rielting malleable iron in crucibles with a carbonaceous salt, such as ferro-cyanide of potassium, using it alone or with a little* charcoal. The carbonization is rapidly effected ; and the steel, when fused, is cast into moulds. 'J"he other process, discovered in 185C, con- sists in decarbonizing cast-iron by heating it intensely in thin plates in a l)ath of melted carbonate of soda. The plates are then melted and cast. The l)rincipal drawback to the former of these tv.'o processes is, that the crucibles cannot long withstand the intense heat to which they are subjected ; and the ])rincipal objection to all crucible i)rncesses is, that the capacitv of production is limited by the necessarily small size of the pots. A good article is pro- duced, however ; and the 1 n siness is actively prosecuted at thirty cast-stecl establishments in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Connecti steel, Sie- lentation is thods used, . One, dis- in crucibles r it alone or nd the steel, 11 185C, con- es in a bath 1 cast. 'I'he the crucibles .0(1 ; and the ,f production |rticle is pro- rty cast-steel Connecticut. ;s is in tool, 39,000 tons in different [luct in 1876 methr ■ : for lention. 'Hie lir, and enor- Inufacture by uul reported I the Siemens- tea, upon hi> process; b^'t the first person to suggest it, and make an experiment with it, was, according to Mr. Swank, an American. As early as 1851, William Kelly, an Bessemer iron-master at Eddyville, Ky., suggested the possibility of making Process, steel on a large scale by blowing air into and through melted cast-iron, thus burning out its carbon until it was converted into steel, tie made p few trials, and obtained a patent in 185 1. Henry Bessemer secured his first patent for the process in Englantl in 1855. Neither of the two men was able to attain success, however, by the methods he originally adopted ; and it was not until some changes and improveinents had been effected that either accomplished any thing. The jirocess, as employed in this country, is carried on under a combination of the Bessemer and Kelly patents. The [)lant retjuired for the conversion of pig-metal into Bessemer steel is expensive ; and there are now only eleven establishments for it in the United States, — five in Pennsylvania, three in Illinois, and one each in vaiueof New York, Ohio, and Missouri. One of these, in Illinois, is the product, largest in the world. The product, however, is large, amounting now to 540,- 000 tons a year, worth $65,000,000. The cast-iron is melteil, and then drawn out, in five-ton charges, into great pear-shaped converters made of iron lineil with refractory fire-clay. The con- verters are liung on trunnions, and are tipped down to receive the process charge. The melted iron lies in tiie belly of the swelling side of described. the converter until the requisite amount is obtained ; then the converter is swung into an upright position, and at the same moment a blast of air is turned on, the air finding its way into the converter through a number of small hoi , at the bottom, underneath the melted iron. The process now becomes one of the most s[)ectacular in the iron-industry. The air, rushing through llie liijuid iron, pours out of the mouth of the converter in a tremendous flame. At first the silicon is seized upon by the oxygen of the air, the resvilt being slag ; and, while it is burning, the flame is comparatively dull. But immedi- ately the carbon begins to burn, and the flame then increases in volimie anil brilliancy. The surging, splashing mass grows hotter and whiter, and appears to expand and boil. A thick, white, roaring blaze pours 'rom the mouth of the converter, and its iron foundations tremble under ♦ne violent ebullition. There are few such exhibitb. iS of chemical power to be seen in the industrial arts. As the decarbonization goes on, the flame grows thinner and smaller ; and, when it is complete, the light dies out of it. Bessemer originally intended to stop the process at the point where just enough carbon had been left in the metal to make steel, using the spectroscope for the purpose. This was found impracticable ; and the plan now is, to continue the blast until all the carbon is bmned out : the right moment is indicated to the eye by the flame. The converter is then tipped over, and a small charge of melted spiegeleisen, rich in carl)on, u poured in. It diffuses itself instantly through the melted mass in the converter. A flaming re-action takes place ; and then the converter i.s i:l| |l ill 2l6 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ;'■ i emptied with a ladle, vvhirh is, in turn, swung over the ingot moulds. A fire- clay plug is removed by a lever, and the steel runs out pure, white, and shin- ing. The whole operation is brief, and the men remain silent and attentive until it is completed. The use of ferro-manganese for conversion in this process has latterly been introduced, and is increasing. Four-fifths of the Bessemer steel now made Use of ferro- in this country is rolled into railroad iron : it is a leading indus- manganese. fj-y^ ^nd has placed the steel-rail business here ahead of the iron- rail manufacture. The other fifth of the product is devoted chiefly to the puri)oses of machinery. The Siemens-Martin process is not yet extensively used. It affords a valuable product ; but the system last described is at present the favorite. The Siemens- Sicmens-iMartin plan is simply that of the carbonization of wrought Martin iron in an open hearth or reverl)eratory furnace,, by mixing it with process. cast-irou ""nd iron ore. The flame from the furnace is made to pass over a heartli on which the metal is placed, and effei^ts the required chemical transformation. The metal is sometimes supplied with ferro-man- ganese in the jjrocess of conversion into steel. The product of open-hearth steel, which was only 3,000 tons in 1872, amounted in 1876 to 21,490 tons. Since the first crude experiment at iron-making in the forests of Virginia, two hundred and fifty years have flown by on the wings of time ; yet it has ,„ . , , not been until within tlie past five years that the United States Wonderful ' •' extension of have been able to produce iron and steel enough to supply her own wants, either in war or peace. 'J'he railroads of the country have been principally built with rails imported from the continent of Europe. Our fiictories and shops have been equij)ped with foreign-rnade machinery. Tools, telegraph-wire, chains, and manufactured artic.les in general, as well as metal in pigs and ingots, have been brought here from abroad in enormous (juantities from the earliest day. In 1873 the amount imported was valued at fifty-eight million dollars. Thanks to the natural resources of ou; covmtry and the enterprise of oui countrymen, and the influences which have aided them, the United States have now in iron and steel producing capacity fully equal to her wants, and indeed in e.-ccess of it. The importation has been cut down to the iH::ignificant siun of about seven million dollars for the year ending June 30, 1877; and an exportation has begun not only to the less advanced nations of the world, but also to civilized Europe. The United States are at last truly independent of the world for her iron and steel. steel-indus try ' » ' ? iii-ii^: OF THE UNITED STATES. 217 A fire- id shin- ittentive irly been )\v made ig indus- the iron- ly to the affords a rite. 'I'l^^^ jf wrought ing it witli s made to z required ferro-man- )pen-hearth ^90 tons. of Virginia, ; yet it has nited States supply her the country ,e continent reign-iuade articles in It here from the amount the natuial n, and the m iron and Kccss of it. Lbout seven jortation has to civilized ■orkl for her CHAPTER II. IRON AND STEEL MANUFACTURES. IT was one peculiarity of the times in that age of the world when America was first settled, that gold and silver were the most highly prized of metals ; and the abundance of them in any country was regarded as tl. utility of test, not only of its wealth, but of its civilization. Times have ''■°"- changed since then ; and a celebrated writer has pointed out, that, in this latter age of the world, the civilization of a race of men is more clearly indicated by the iron it employs and consumes than by any other power it possesses. Iron has always brought superiority to the race using it in the largest degree for weapons and implements ; but in modern times the fact has become more conspicuous. It is marvellous to look back along the history of the conquests and wars of the past, and to compare the condition of mankind at the present dpy with what it was two hundred years ago, and study the important part played by iron. Eminence and progress appear to have been immediately due fixr more tc the generous use of this valuable metal than to the intelligence of the human race and the power of numbers. Sieam could never have been made the obedient vassal of man, except for this tenacious metal to confine and direct its forces. Famines were never ol)\iatcd until husbandry was made successful 1)y iron implements, and iron railways were laid to insure the free distribution of crops ; and the famines of the present age occur only in those regions into which the railway and the liberal use of this noble metal have not penetrated. The people would still he living in hovels, except for iron to fashion the wooi of the forests, and hind the framework of our homes, ^\'ith a metal no more serviceable than copper, the world would never have risen to the heights of comfort, intelligence, and civilization, it has now attained ; the brilliant roncjuests of the material universe which have characterized the present century could never have taken place. fhe variety of uses to which iron .s now put is remarkable, and there seems to he no limit yet to its employment. Machinery has been invented which will fashion it for any end, in masses of any size, from the hair-spring of a 2l8 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY \ \ J h\ I : m Ml. watch to those magnificent products of constructive art, the locomotive and the iron steamship. Its use is now as boundless as man's desires, and ahno^t Variety of as wide as its own (hffusion throughout nature. Iron is found in uses. every rock : it blooms in the rose and in the maiden's cheek, and the spectroscope detects it in the light of the sun and stars. It may be said fairly to pervade nature, and now also to pervade every department of human activity. It plays some part in the simplest occupations of every-day life : it mints the coin of the people ; it steers our ships ; drawn out into a wire, it sounds the deepest oceans, and carries our messages from continent to conti- nent ; it fights our battles, and wins our daily bread, and carves our gravestones when we are gone ; it maile I'higland mistress of the seas and of commerce ; and it is one of the most efficient causes of the remarkable advance of the Unitetl States during the present century, which is the comment of the scholars and public men of the world. In the application of iron to the uses of humanity, no people have excelled our own countrymen in ingenuity and enterprise. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the growth of some of the principal iron and steel industries which they have established. NAILS. Nail-making is purely an American art ; for, although nails were invented before the white man first cast anchor off these shores, the process of making Nail-making them which has superseded all others wns the product of the Yan- an American kee's brain, and the modern system was 'jUiployed here long before it found its way nito l^urope. Iron nails were sparingly used in antiquity, but they were to some extent in the middle ages ; and their use became general three or four hundred years Early manu- ^S^j whcn England devloped her iron-industries. F^ngland was the factureof great nail-making country of Europe. So large a part ofher popu- lation wr:s employed in the art, that, in later times, sixty thousand persons were employed in nail-making at Birmingham alone. All the nails were made by hand. Tl.e iron was drawn out into rods, the end was heated and formed by hammer on an anvil into a nail, when the rod was re-heated and again hammered. The business, not being so laborious as the majority of those la ivhich men were engaged, was turned over largely to women and children ; and. not being very remu..erative to the workers themselves, the social condition di' the nail-makers of England was one of the dark pictuies ofher industries. In the last century, several attempts were made to save apart of the labor expencUd in nail-making by the use of machinery. William Finch of ^Viml)oo'•ne, Stiil- fordshire, brought out one patent for the use of tilt-hammers, which, by rapid striking, enabled several nails to be made from the rod in one heat. Thomas Clifford invented another plan in 1 790, which aimed at scjueezing a bar of iron OF THE UNITED STATES. 219 lOtivc and nd alui0^l s found in ;heek, and ay be said of human lay life : it ) a wire, it t to conti- gravestoncs commerce ; mce of llie the scholars ave excelled this chapter ;el industries vere invented |ss of makinLi; of the Yan- ■e long before ime extent in Inuulred years Igland was the ofher popu- lixty thousand the nails were Is heated and .ted and again jty of those in hildren; and, condition nt idustries. 1" [bor expended nboonie, Siat- [lich, by rai'"^ •at. Thomas abar of imii into nails by feeding it in between two heavy rollers with proper moulds on their faces. The greater i)art of the nails used continued to be made by hand, however, until American genius released the women and children from suc:h laborious work. The first record we have of nail-making in this country is found in a debate \\\ Congress in 17S9, when the first tariff bill was under discussion. Mr. Madi- son had inserted a duty of one cent a pound on nails and spikes pirst naii- in the bill. Mr. Lee thought tliis was objectionable, as it might be making in a tax on the improvement of estates. Mr. (loodhue assured him '"^■■"=*- that great (juantities of nails were being manufactured in Massacinisetts and i'ennsylvania, and in a little time enough woukl be made to supi)ly all North America. Fisher Ames said this on the subject : " It is a usefid Fisher and accommodating manufacture, which yiekls a clear gain of all Ames, it sells for, except the cost of the material. The. labor employed on it is such as. if not thus employed, would, in many instances, be thrown away. It has become usual for the country- pcoj^le to erect small forges in their chimney-corners ; and in the winter evenings, when little other work can be done, .i,ncat quantities of nails are made, even by children. These people take the rod- iron of the merchant, and return liim nails ; and, in con- se(iuence of this easy mode of barter, the manufacture is pnxhgiously great. Jlut these advantages are not exclusively in the hands of the people of Massachusetts. The business can be prosecuted in a similar manner hy every State exerting similar industry." Tiie duty was allowed to remain in the bill, and afterwards was in- creased. but, even at the time that Fisher Ames described the chimney-corner forges, the mintls of our countrymen were l)usy with the idea of perfecting a machine to make nails, and save all this lal)or by hand. Of the three hun- patents for tiled i)atents which have up to 1878 been granted for machines for n^ii- nail making, twenty-three were issued before the present century. '"^'^^^'''^S' 111 I'Sio the secretary of the treasury reported : — '■Twenty years ago, some men now unknown, then in obscurity, began by 'utting slices out of old hoops, and, by a common vice griping these pieces. FAIKVlIiW N.Ml.-WOKKS. t I H ij \ t^' !'!i-1 220 IND US TRIA L IIIS TOR Y Cut nails. headed them with several strokes of the hammer. By progressive improve- ments shtting-mills were buih, and ;!ic shears and iieading-tools were perfected ; yet much labor and expense were requisite to make nails. In a little time, Jacob Perkins, Jonathan Ellis, antl a few others, put into execution the thought of cutting and of heading nails by water; but, being more intent upon their machinery than upon their pecuniary affairs, they were unable to prosecute the business. At different times other men have spent fortunes in improvements ; and it may be said with truth, that more than a million of dollars have been expended. But at length these joint efforts are crowned with complete suc- cess ; and we are now able to manufacture, at about one-third of the expense that wrought nails can be manuflxctured for, nails which are superior to them for at least three-fourths of the purposes to which nails are applied, and for most of those purposes they are full as good." Jeremiah Jeremiah Wilkinson of Rhode Island is said to have been the Wilkinson, ysx^cn. who headed nails in a vi-^e. When the manufacture of cut nails was first undertaken, wrought nails cost twenty-five cents a pound, and were largely imported. This made their use for fences and houses expensive ; and their cost, the abundance of timber in this country, and the desire of every man to have his own house and barn, proved powerful incentives to inventors to undertake the manufacture of them by macliinery. The new machines did so well, that in 1810 one was perfected which was able to make a hundred nails a minute ; and in 1828 the prcduction was so brisk, that the price was reduced to eight cents a pound. It is now about two cents and a half a poimd. In 1833 the duty on nails was five cents a pound : but the rapidity of manufacture here had brought prices down to five cents a pound, which was the same as the duty ; and in 1S42 the price was two cents below the duty. The American nail-machine is a somewhat complicated affair in detail, but simple in theory. The iron is rolled out into bars wide enough to make Description three Or four strips, each one of which is as wide as the. length of of machine. ^-^^ j^^^j] \^ \^ intended to make. The cutting of the bar into strips is done by the slitting-mill, and is done while the bar is hot, and thus more easily cut. The strips are then taken to tlie nail-machines, of which there are from forty to a hundred in a factory ; in the Wheeling Nail-Works there being one hundred and six, and one hundred and ten in the Belmont Works, also at Wheeling. Each machine works upon one strip or nail-rod at a time, clipping off a piece from the end presented to it, and then another, as the strip i:^ turned over and the end again presented. The strip must be turned over each time a nail is clipped off, because the nail is cut tapering. Each bit as it is cut off is grasped by a powerful vice, which holds it, while an object called the " header " presses up the large end into a head : the nail then drops among its companions below. The process is a rapid one, and a good machine will make- from half a ton to a ton and a half a day. "ill' i! ■!*:«! 'H' .1 : improve- perfected ; little time, he thought upon their osecute the irovements ; have been implete suc- the expense rior to them and for most ave been the ght nails cost lade their use le abundance an to have his undertake the ,o well, that in ^ minute ; and to eight cents 3 the duty on •e had brought duty; and in Iffair in detail, lough to make the. length of bar into strips land thus more Ihich there are is there being [works, also at , time, clipping las the strip is Irned over each Ich bit as it is Inject called the drops among machine will OF THE UNITED STATES. 221 The variety of styles of nail made by machinery now is very large, and it may almost be said that wrought nails are so made now : for manufac- turers have within twenty years begun to anneal cut nails, giving various them a malleable quality ; and these have driven the old style of kinds of wrought nail out of use. The styles now made are cut, wrought, "*' * """ horseshoe, barbed, composition, button, railroad, carpet, coffin, sheathing, galvanized, harness, leather-work, picture, siding, slating, trunk, upholstery, weather-tiling, and screw nails, spikes, brads, and tacks being included in the above. The machine for making railroad-spikes was the invention of Mr. Henry Burden of Troy (who also invented the horseshoe-machine), and has proved both profitable to the inventor and his sons, and useful to the country. The yearly product of nails and spikes in the United States now amounts to over 4,900,000 kegs of one hundred pounds each. The magnificent factories employed in their manufacture — equipped with blast- \ , ... , . . , r , Production. furnaces and puddlmg-ovens, and givmg work often to several hundred men — excite the liveliest feelings of admiration when a comparison is made between them and the little chimney-corner forge of the olden times. CUTLERY. Edge-tools were made in the United States as early as the Revolutionary war ; it being at that time an absolute necessity for the people to provide themselves with such implements by their own efforts. They -^^^^y manu- were of a very clumsy character, however, and not very durable, facture of How slow the progress was may be seen from the absurd daggers * se-too s. and swords which arc preserved to us from the war of 181 2, which were almost as heavy as axes, and which often resembled iron clubs with edges more than specimens of cutlery. The swords too, while frequently possessing the power of being bent double like Damascus blades, seldom possessed that of resuming their original shape upon the pressure being removed. For two hundred years after the first settlement of the country the inhabitants were really dependent upon Europe for their cutlery. Our forests were felled prin- cipally with English axes, the crops cut with English scythes and sickles, the building-arts carried on with chisels and tools from Sheffield, and even the loaf of bread upon the table sliced with an English knife. The (piantity and variety of edge-tools made in the New World were extremely small. About forty-five years ago the attention of New- Englanders was di- rected to the manufacture, both by J:he great success of England, — which had made herself the chief source of supply of cutlery for the „ ' ' ■' -' Prejudice world, — and by the growing demand in America. Steel was against imported from Sheffield, and various mechanics began to fashion An^erican it into the articles required by the wants of our population. The greatest obstacle to the success of these pioneers of the art was the prejudice 323 jxD I '.v TRiA r. Ills roK Y in America against the |)r()(liuts of American shops. Our working-men were intelligent, and knew the value of a good tool, and preferred to get a good tool, even if the cost of it was high. It took many years to convince them that the Americans could make an article as true and serviceable as that whicli was jirodnced at Sheftield. It was really not until the generation of men then li\ing had |)assed off the stage that this prejudice was conciuered. 'i'he feeling of that day 's well illustrated by an incident which Mr. ( Ireeley once related in regu'd to some Connecticut fish-hooks. .\ manufacturer of that State triel growth of metal, and made manufacturers pay the utmost attention to the excellence of the form and finish of their goods. American cut- lery is now finding its way all over the world ; and Sheffield is fiiirly staggered at t' ^ appearance of .American knives, shears, scythes, and planes, in the ware- houses of every large English city. Sheffield is losing its trade in consequence. Canadian cutlery shares the same rei)utation as American. ^ u^ I r-men were ^rct a good vincc ther.i i iluit which f iv.cn iIkmi The fechnj^' )ncc related t Stale tried ct, and sent iicd willi the hooks. The and finally he looks on the another lot of ime back that those on the device of the unconvinced iported. This blic knew the id of late the ni)tless. was the pxccpt the best tention to tlie Umerican cut- (airly staggered Is, In the ware- conseciuence. Edge-tools made of steel. •le - in it. OF THE rxiTHD STATl-S. 2 it, Steel is the material used for all cutting-edges. The [iropcrly of sled which gives it value f(jr this jnirpose is that of being hardcnt I and tempered. Ji is iieated to redness, and then suddenly cooled. If the lieat is high, the steel is soft, but tenacious. If tlie lieat is low, the steel is hard, but brittle. 'Hiis is taken advantage of in tli'- making of different classes of tools. Thus 4,^0 degrees give a i)ale yelidw-color. suit- al)le for lancets, which reciuire a fine edge, and need little stii'n^th ; at 450 ) ij,.;'!"' ; { -i . aa6 IND US TKIA I. Ilia TON Y li-ngth of iH-ndiiliim an of the uUl iikees, who le wootlcn wheels of lis (locks with the -knife, and ilh a horse to peddU' wheels were ,nd sha\)cd prospered assist him. •ih connirv. s ; and he ;o7 a sioi'k n went iiiU' •y, and kiy- ich it is said Thomas '.'v: [by this time ]irp, that the id finally tij five ilollars. 'I'lic i)ublic was greatly benefited by this; but llie manufacturers ( ame to grief, anil many of tlu lu failed. In 1S14 Mr. Terry invented the pillar scroll top case clock, which, being of a little different and more tasty >>iyle than its predecessors, was popular for a while. It sold for fifteen dollars, and netted Mr. Terry a forltme. The next step in advanc e was taken by (!haun< cy Jerome, an apprentice of Mr. Terry, and a very ingenious fellow, who, with the passion for whittling characteristic of the Yankee, had begun to make wooden clocks before he left school. Mr. Jerome, when fairly established in business, employed chauncey a circular-saw in getting out his wood, and was able to produce J«f<»"*- clocks rapidly and cheaply. lie had a great sale all over the Tnited States. Sllll.rZS WATCHMAN S (.LOCK. Tlio clocks ran for one day, and are said to have been good time-keepers. \\\ 1X37 ]\Ir. Jerome proved his ingenuity by I)ringing out the one-day ' lo( k witii metal wheels, — an event which completely revolutionized the whole business. He employed brass at first, because it could be easily Worked. Steel has been introduced only recently. The brass was obtained ill sheets, and machines were invented to stamp from the siieets the eight or ten wheels reciuired by each clo(-k in a single operation. Tliree men could eiit out the works for five hundred clocks in a single day with these machines, iind the cost of the movements was soon reduced to about fifty cents apiece. As the wheels of each clock were exactly those of any other clock, the parts "f one could be interchanged at will with another, or taken from store; which i w\ \:^' :S IND US TRIA I. I/IS TON Y '• if H II vK (I'lir^' was found of vast utility. Wooden clocks wjrc now promptly thrown over- board by all nnkLTs. They had been subject to disarrangement by moist weather, and could not be sent beyond seas to foreign countries with which the I'nited States were engaged in commerce. The metal clocks defied moisture, and could be sent aiivwhere ; and the manufacture of them received an en jrmoiis expansion, 'i'b.e) were si-nt all over the world, and were found by travellers ticking away on every coast and continent, and in nearly e\ ery language under the sun. Machinery was also invented to make the frames of the clocks, and st.Miip out the dials and hands. Mr. Jerome's business increased from the few hunilred a year of his early days to four hundred and forty-four thousand a year in 1S53, and the original '\jst of clocks was brought down to a dollar and twenty-five cents apiece. A good story is "^old of a shipment of wooden clocks to I'jigland in 1841 by ]\Ir. Jerome, which nay be placed with the other Shipment of ^^ovj" of the shipment of a cargo of warming-pans to the West Indies by an enterprising Yankee, and their sale there as sugar-scooi)s. The law of England permitted the customs-officers to seize upon goods imported to the kingdom if they considered them to be undervalued, paving the importer the amount of his valuation, with ten per cent added. ]\lr. Jerome's first cargo was entc^d in England at regular prices ; but the o*'ficer thought the valuation so low, that he seized the clocks, and paid Mr. Jerome his price and ten per cent advance. Not partitailarly afflicted thereby. Mr. Jerome sent over another cargo, v.iiich he sold to the customs-officer in the same way. He then sent a third cargo ; but the second one had been an eye-opener, and Mr. Jerome was permitted to import his goods liimself. The brass clocks had a great sale, and there were in iL- jdges of they lap, 1 welding )rder that mandrel somewhat 1 plate is lid thus a becomes us opera- -lext tube. ader can or twenty Ireal estate mies have (i stoppt^d will con- manvifac- yks, whicli liges to its export w lalone ex- O/'- THE ex/ TED S7'ATES. 233 cepted), for tlie reason that the :;nialler wages and cheaper (•ai)ital of luirope have prevented Americans from entering into competition. iJut, Ameiican when it comes to tlie exportation of objects reciuiring for tlieir 'ocomotive. production a constructive ability and a mechanical skill of the very highest order, our countrymen have shown themselves able to compete us supenor- wiUi and surpass the world, 'i'he fact is exhib't^d in the history of ''y- the locomotive in America. I'ig and bar iron and steel have been among the most insignificant of our exports. Manufacturers abroad have heard that the iron of the Continent rivals in (juality the famous ores of Sweden. \'et what they know about it is from books and travellers : they ha\ e scarce ever seen MOUEKN LOCOMOTIVE. any of it ; for it does not enter into foreign commerce. Rut that sjjlendid ( reation, the .American locomotive, into which this same iron is flishioned, is now known all over the globe, and is freely employed in most of the civilized e would never build another locomotive. But he did, for all that; and, his later attemi)ts beinu extremely successful, the works founded by him are the foremost in the country "E. L Mil- to-day. la 1834 he built a six-wheeled engine for Mr. Miller, for !"•" the South -Carolina Road, call.d The K. L. Miller," with wheels of .solid 1)ell-metai, the purpose of which vas to gain a better arlhesion to the r.v'ls. It is hardly necess.ary to sa^' that die experiment with that metal was nol repeated!. The wheels wore out \ery (]uickiy, and had to be thrown aside. In June, 1834, Mr. Baldwin completed a successful locomotive, called "The L.an- <-aster," for the States Road, which ran out from Philadelpliia to Columbia, and connected there with the canai to the western part of the State. The engine weighed eight tons and a half, and was found to be able to haul nineteen .:/ I OF Tin-: vxiTi-.n states. 2.^7 anccs of luccnicnt md build r-jjowcr. ndcry for H, ran on iladclphia Uown, tlio Like all from thu f Fletcher [eniand tor in partncr- itcd to the ine himsell. to go one Iding \)Cgan lerniantown the hne in fonr wheels, iving-wheels le cylinders troke. 'Hie absvu-dly tall ■, which did nd the pas- iivenient for IS housed in h-ed dollars, and, ha\ inp never buiUl mpts bein,^ the countr}' |r. Miller, for Iwith wheels ,esion to the letal was noi |n aside. In "The l.an- lUnnbia. ami Phe engine Lul nineteen loaded cars at twice die si)eed attained with horses. The State authorities were ureatly pleasetl witii its performances, and ilei ided to convert their railroad at once trom a horse line to a steam line. Mr. Bald- win gained a great (leal ot credit frcjm ••The Lancaster;" and, receiving several orders, he thencetbr- wai'd devoted himself to tlie industry, and luunded the works whicji have since at- tained to such niagni- tude of operation and Wfjrld-wiile reputa- tion. Mr. lialdwin couibinevl the best iiualiliesof theAmeri- '^"^ ™^'- Baldwin's chanil , — improve- nneiitivc ,i;eiiuis of a high t)rder and unllagging perse- verance, (jualilies not ahvays nnited in the same man. He was always iniijnning nis b'c (J motives, and iiiainof the most im- l"'r' 'lit inventions of llie art were Ins own. '" i'S35 he b.ught "lie device from I',. L. "tinier, which aftei ^\ards he threw over- '"'ard. This was a i! i ! \-^ »ss l.\n I \S TA' I A I. ins TON J ■ < '.. i I i . J i ii plan for bringing part of the wcigiit of the tender upon the rear of the engine, thus increasing the pressure upon the driving-wheels, and conse- quently the adhesion of the engine. Mr. Baldwin adopted this device, and paid a hundred dollars per engine for it, and in 1839 bought the patent for nine thousand dollars. lie afterwards i)erfe(:ted plans of his own for accom- l)lishing the same object of greater adhesion in a better way. The Baldwin engines gradually improved in size and style from year to year. Cabins were built upon them for the engineers and firemen. The old style of a single pair of drivers was changed to two pairs, and in 1855 to three pairs; ten-wheeled engines weighing twenty-seven tons being built in that year for several of the leading roads. In 1866 "The Consolidation," weighing forty-five tons, with twelve wheels, and carrying all except five tons of its weight upon the drivers, was built, being the parent of a class of engines of enormous power of that name. Ilead-lights, variable cut-offs, and other features of the modern lo- comotive, were successively introduced liy Mr. Baldwin ; and the works called by his name are now producing types of engines which are not surpassed at the present day. After the original experiments, shops for engine-building were ojK'ned in various parts of the country. In 1833 Long iS: Norris of I'hiladelphia built Recent rapid "^^'^ engine of such unusual tractive power, that it commanded growth of attention in ICngland, and led to the first exportation of .American ustry. locomotives. Several were ordered from the maker for employ- ment on the line between Birmingham and (Uoucestcr. In 1835 engines were built at Lowell, Mass. In 1837 a firm at Paterson, N.J., — Rogers, Ketch- lun, & Crosvenor, — began the business, and founded the works which are now known as the Rogers Locomotive Works. Mr. Rogers was (in 1849) ^1""^' fi""^*^ to employ the link motion in locomotive practice in this country; and he had to encounter the hearty opposition of Mr. Baldwin and others for several years before the utility of the idea was conceded. Mr. Baldwin, after a Ioii.l; fight against the inno ation, yielded to it in 1854, and put it upon his engines. The Rogers Works are also to be credited with the full-s'ircjke pump, and the effectual jacketing of the boiler to prevent radiation. In 1847 the I'aunton Locomotive Factory was established by W. W. Fairbanks, a boiler-maker of Providence, R.I. Shops were also started about that time at Boston, Law- rence, Manchester, and elsewhere ; but most of these soon ceased to do busi- ness, the shops in the Middle States possessing superior advantages for the manufacture. The Messrs. Winans at Baltimore perfected many valuable ideas in locomotive-building, and were the inventors of the camel-back engine, which has obtained some celebrity. Of late years, tlie larger railroads of the country have begun to construct Locomotives locomotives in their own shops. One effect of this has been to built in rail- concentrate the production l)y private comi)anies into fewer hands, ops. .^j^j ^j^^_ manufacture is now principally confined to Paterson and Philadelphia. 'U »,. OF THE UNITED STATES. 239 of the conse- ice, and itent for ■ accom- BaUlwiii )ins were nglc pair i-\vheclc»l ral of the tons, with le drivers, or of that lodcrn lo- 3rks called irpassed at opened in :lphii built onimanded f Anierit-an or employ- 35 engines rers, Ketch- ich are now ^9) the first md he had for several after a lon^ "lis engines, ^-ip, and the lie Taunton ;r-maker of iston, T.aw- Ito do busi- lages for the ny valuable camel-back lo construct lias been K' fewer hand>. xterson and The principal improvements of the last twenty years have bi-en due to the necessity of fitting smoke-stacks with an apparatus to catch the j^ ^^g. sparks ; to the substitution of coal for fuel in place of wood, cans- ments of Uat ing many changes in construction, and the building uf a larger »^«"*y and more powerfid type of engine ; anil the larger use of steel for tires, boilers, and working-jiarts of the machinery. The weight of the locomotive now in use on Ameri( an roads varies from thirty to forty-five tons, two-thirds of the weight being on the drivers. Few of the latter class are used ; but the Danforth Works at I'aterson vveight, have made a few of that weight since 1873 for the Haltiinore and ipeed, econ- Ohio Road. The average cost of locomotives is twelve thousand °"^^' dollars : those of the largest type cost twenty thousand. On the Ncw-Vork Central, the Union I'acific, and other roads where the grades are not severe, a speed of sixty miles is frecjuently attained in travel ; but tho great additional consumption required by that rate of sjieed, and the greater liability to acci- dent, makes it undesirable for the ordinary traffic of the roads. The usual speed of American railway-ex[)ress travel is thirty miles an hour. The average <()st per mile nm is nineteen cents : viz.. for repairs, three cents and seven- tenths ; fuel, five cents and six-tenths ; stores, five-tenths of a cent ; miscella- neous, two cents and five-tenths ; attendance, six cents and fi\e-tenths. If the engine is driven at greater than average speed, the cost may l)e nearly doubled, as the fiiel consumed will vary from sixteen to sixty pounds per mile with the speed. More oil will be reijuired, and the machines will wear faster. The maximum load of a ten-wheeled consolidation engine on a le\el division with which the men may expect to make time is ninety cars, although the engines of the i'ennsylvania Road have freiiuently hauled over one hundred. An ordinary freight-train would consist of about forty cars. A special class of locomotives has come into existence of late, growing out of the needs of the population of large cities for rapid transit between their humes and the scenes of their daily occupations. In New York Dummy- City, the bulk of the business of that great commercial emporium. ="Bine8. and of the manufacturing which is done there, is transacted within a space of three miles from the lower end of the island upo!i which the city stands. The l)o[)ulation, on the other hand, is scattered along for a distance of six miles beyond the business-part of the island, and indeed much farther : and a large share of the men who find employment in its stores, banks, and factories, rather than li\-e so far away fr(Mn their work, now reside across the several risers, in New Jersey and Connecticut, and on Long and Staten Islands ; he( ause, though sometimes a greater number of miles away, they are nearer in point of time, because they have access to the city by steam-cars and steam- ferries. The inhabitants of the island have hitherto depended ])rincipally on horse-cars and stages ; and it frequently takes an hour to go from one's home to his office, and 2'ur j'crsi'i. The same thing is true in principle of all the fl H 2.\0 /XDUS TKIA /. ins 7 OK V l\ ^< i,|! ■' :,• otiu r l;ir'c cities of tlic cuuntry. \\y the natural expansion of the town, the popiiialioii are cuinpeiied to reside at great distances from their places of empioyineiit. riie horse-car ninninf,' on a railway laid tlirougii the centre of the street subserves the purpose of expeditious transportation in cities of moderate si/e ; . I, ., „ I'lii in a Luve trade-centre of. say, five hundred thousand souls, it Appllcntion ^ ^ ' of steum to (locs uot I an STAIT.S. 341 I town, the places of ■ tlic street liiiitc si/c ; iitl souls, it )urse of the lit ihowsand lusincss, antl ■c(l and ntil- i lar^^cr « ily it'cessary the on city rail- 1 of \)r()i)erty. of the street, re rai)i(l ^tyle the inventive tors have not ; he delighted he was on the e to steam on only renilered triumph, 'l'^^' w prevents the liness by steam Is die dummy- I employed witli the \)ioneer in [jf the vertical the car. 1^ Is as (luietly as land that liul^' car passes ai lloubt but this The cxistii\U liey would lose travel on the lin the city of genuine loco- great railways running tlirouj^h liie open t oimtrN Ironi < iiy to ( ity. I'lu-y are ■^in.iii. wi'ij;hn»}{ from five to ten tons otil\, cousUMiin;.,' tlieir own smoke, anil making little noise hesides tiial produt I'd |)y rattling omt liir rails. 'I'hey travel at j,'n.'at speed, .111(1 rt(Ui( e the hour's ir.ivel on the plodding horse-car to fifteen niimites and less. Their s|)ecial pe( iiliarity is, that the boiler and machiiu'ry hang low between the wheels, so as to ri'nder tiu'in steadier iipun the rails, and elfeitu- ally to obviate the d.mgi'r of being ii|)^el. ■|'ra\el iichind one of these beauti- ful engines 011 the iles.iied railways, in a car fitti'ecame the most handsomely-dressed people in the world ; and the city of Milan came in time to dictate the fashions, not only to Italy, but to the north and east of Europe, and even to give its name to the new art of millinery, which thereupon took its rise, and dealt with the decoration of dress. With the new luxury of attire came a great increase in the amount of sewing ; and when, two or three centuries later, the steam-engine was set to work in Europe to drive the loom, and the manufacture of cloth began to be carried on at an enormously increased scale and tliminished cost, and people began to wear twice and thee times as many yartls of cloth as before, sewing was again doubled and tripled, and then gave employment to a special class of thousands of women Increase ot ^^^^ si*"!^ in all large cities. As sev.-'ng was easier work than nail- s.;wing- making, ;.nd was held to be (whether rightfully or not) more women. respectable work than household service, the ranks of the sewing- women soon became overcrowded, the pay became scanty, and the workers encountered great poverty and suffering in t"ying to earn their living. The lines — " O Industry, how rich tliy gifts ! Health, plenty, and content Are blesings all by thee bestowed " — became a bitter mockery to these struggling women ; and Tom Hood wrote one of the most touching poems of modern times to commemorate their privations. The sewing-machine, by which the condition of those who live by ihc needle has been materially improved, and sewing made an agreeable task, is „ . often claimed to be a purely American invention. The United Sewing- ' ^ machine an States has won laurels enough, however, in promoting the welfaie of mankind, to be generous in its claims about the sewing-machine. Tins invention is not American in the sense that the nail-machino. the electric-telegraph, the iron-clad gunboat, and many kindred discoverit's, arc. The idea was originally the thought of an Englishman, Charles F. \\'i'i- senthal, who in 1755 obtained a patent for a crude device to facilitate the process of embroidering ; and a great many experiments were made in tlic kingdom of iMigland toward perfecting the contrivance before Americans directed their attention to the subject. To America belongs simply tlie lionor of producing the first machines which were ever used practically in the sowing of cloth and leather. Weisenthai's invention, which proposed to use a needle pointed at both Ameiican inveniion mm OF THE UNITED STATES. 243 1 not yet upon the uries com- ttire. 'riio The Ilal- l the city of Italy, but to ame to the ;l dealt with tire came a two or three drive the enormously ir twice and doubled and :1s of women rk than nail- ,r not) more ,f the sewing- 1 the workers r living. 'I'be i-n Hood \vrote [lemorate their lo live by the 1-eeable task, is The United kng the welfare kwing-machine. nail-machine, led discoveries. Iharles F. ^Vel- facilitatc ih^' made in lli^' )rc Americans [iiply the honor in the sewing Linted at both ends, with an eye in the middle, to go backward and fonvard through the cloth, was never utilized. In 1 790 Thomas Saint obtained a sainfs in- patent for a machine " for (quilting, stitching, and sewing, making mention, shoes and other articles, by means of t '"jIs and machines." His machine was mostly of wood, witii an overhanging arm, or carrier, into wiiich was inserted a vertical reciprocating needle, and an awl to go before it and punch the hole?. On the top of the arm was a spool for giving out the thread continuously. The stitch was the same as Weisenthal's, and was called the tambour or chain stitch. A loop was formed by thrusting the needle through the cloth or leather. A second thrust carried the bight of thread chrough this loop, making a scc-ond loop, through which, in turn, the needle was thrust to form a third, the first loop being drawn up taut during the third thrust. This variety of stitch is still in use to-day. Saint's idea appears to have been to lighten the labor of heavy sewing : he docs not seem to have thought of the plan of superseding the hand needle for treneral work. In 1804 John Duncan in- ° 11 Duncan. vented a machine to make the tambour-stitch, hooked needles being used below the cloth to catch the loop. In 1807 James Winter patented a device for sewing leather gloves ; the leather being held fast by iron jaws, so tliat ihe hands of the operator were free. About the same time a contrivance was brought out for sewing with needlefuls of thread, the cloth being crimped for tiie operation, and the needle thrust through the crimps horizontally. These machiii'^s met with little attention, and less fdvor. Working-men in that age stood in dread oi la'jor-'^aving inventions, and strenuously tbught against their introduction with all the resources at their ^hem ' ^ command. The first American machine was the invention of the Rev. John Adams Dodge of Monkton, Vt., who took an ingenious mechanic by the name of John Knowles into his confidence, and with his help built a inventiot. practical and efficient machine for sewing the back-stitch. The ^^ Dodge. needle was the same as Weisenthal's, being pointed at both ends, having the eye in the middle, and going entirely through the cloth in both directions. It sewed a perfect seam straight forward ; but would not allow the cloth to be turned, on account of the peculiarities of the feeding-mechanism. The inacliine did good work, and might have been perfected, liad it not been that Mr. Knowles was overwhelmed witli ministerial work (having three churches on his hands at times), and had not the journeymen tailors opposed it bitterly as a violation of their rights. It was never patented, and was soon abandoned. A machine was patented in the United States in 1S26 by Mr. Lye ; Lye. hut its character is not now known, the records of the Patent Office Thimonaier. l)caring on the subjec. having been burnt. The next machine was a French- man's. It was l)rought out in I'rance in 1830 by EartheleiTiy Thinionnier, and was used to a certain extent in the manufacture of army clothing. Its peculi- arities were the arm, continuous thread, flat cloth-plate, and ? t I I Pt 244 /A^D US TNI A I. HIS TOR Y Si. . 6 ' ^ * %. J IS 111 iff**" ill m ■treadle and cord. The invi^ntor had hard hick. Ho made eighty machine^ for sale ; but, even in enlightened France, working-men were hostile to the new idea, and the stock of machines was destroyed b^' a mob. Nothing daunted, Thimonnier made another lot, this time chiefly of metal ; but again they were destroyed by a mob. Tiie inventor patented his machine in tlie United States In 1850, but could not recover from his reverses, and died in pr erty. The wits of American inventors were now fairly at work, and fresh attempts were made to solve the delicate anil intricate problem of a ma(-hine which would relieve woman of the fatigue and wear of all general and Hunt. * '^ contmuous sewing. In 1832 Walter Hunt ot New York, a skilful mechanic, made a machine which did so well, that, in the following year or tv/o, he sold a number of them to different people. He was the first who used two threads. The upper one was carried by a curved needle, with the eye in the point; and the lower one by a shuttle. The machine made the lock-stitch, in which the threads are made to interlock as nearly as may be in the centre of the stuff. He lost an opportunity to make a fortune by neglecting to take out a patent. In 1834 G. A. Arrowsmith bought two or three of the machines, and the right to patent, but did not perfect his patent ; and in 1852, when Hunt bought back the right, the Department at Washington told him that his neglct had made the invention public property, and they could do nothing for hiin. A patent had previously been given to J. J. (Ireenough, who in 1842 had perfected a machine or doing leather and other h.eavy work. It was like W^m- senthal's and Dodge's in having a needle pointed at both ends to go through. and through the fabric. Like Dodge, he never niide more than one machine. In 1843 pa-tents were issued to V>. W. IJean of New- York City for a runnini; stitch, and to Oeorge R. Corlies for a machine similar to Greenough's, with two reciprocating needles, — one to punch the holes, and the other to sew. While these experiments were making, Elias Howe, jun., of Cambridge, Mass., was at work independently upon the problem. After two or three years of study, he believed that he had mastered it; and in 1846 he got a patent for a machine, which, while covering very much the same ground that other men had taken possession of before him, was still so novel in its combinations and forms as to be treated at Washington as a new inven- tion. He used a curved, eye-pointed needle ; a shuttle below the cloth, driven by X vo vibrating mallets ; a peculiar baster-plate to hoUl the cloth, and feed it forward, the ])late being pushed back when it had reached its forward limit, the cloih again fastened to points upon it, anil the plate again fed for- ward ; and a device to give tension to the ujjper thread. It was the parent ot our modern machines, but was not itself a great success. Howe made a tew specimen machines : but they would not sell at first; and, when they did, the people who bought them could not make them work. The tension was not right ; and the thread formed large loops in one j^art of the seam, and was too tight in another. The vertical susj^ension of the cloth from the baster-plate Howe. ■was inconvenient thW .i 24c "-- was . „,:;,::^ -; ;PP-V"c. for .e.adj„.,.„,e„. of ,„e do.h r 'o iiian„fact„re Hc^l . , '■'■""'' "'"' ™"W not him,l f ''^ome. machine It i. ..-,,' '^ ''''' "«t succeed in inc, • '''"'-^>' '^'^^'^ii working. He u-,c • 7 , ^''^"'^^1 forms to insure ,>« ,.. 'defects of maclei?. M '"'''^'^"^' ^^ other men fo T J °'P''°"-^ ""-"^'^ ''!, '^ ^^ '^''^•^■^"\^^ to the country '^''^ ^^^'^'es which '"^^'^-e. Jiie tension of the thron,? -'" «-> .hat ,.,e .an %a." i;'" "-'-'"" of B„.,.o„°^,,^ B„..„„. '"^■^'^o^' chYferent fm ^ ^^' °'''^'^'"^^' ^' Patent to nnk- H , T '^^'" ^"^ ..,' ^'- *^''«"i of Pittsfielfl Ar, '^-^ °^ '"^iterial servirn t s"«l (lie ^l,„i,i ■ ,■ -^ ""'a rotatiivMinnl. i-, ""' "°t- J Ins Mr ,„!;"" "' '"' '"•■"■''""-•• ' '■'""'' «>nPl«cly supor- ';'""='^'=- 'he n.an„i;i,„,rc of this ,1 '"■"''""'-' 'satisfactory to "^■':/ b riTr'f r '- "-^' "-- -.a "':;™;«";-'^ began/ I. " '■"* U,o i'oad „ " """• ^"'"ff "'= first i„ he ' 'r t """! "°"='» '""' 1 4 i! : 246 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY iff' if .- • Ih '■ Will' Grover. of Howe's patent. A new Style of machine was patented in 1851 by William O. Grover of Boston, in company with Mr. leaker, for making a double loop by means of the use of a circular rotary needle. It used no shuttle, worked well, and became very popular from 1854 to 1858, taking the lead in the market during that period. 'I'here were now three companies busily engaged in manufacturing sewing- machines for the general market, — Singer ^: Company, (Irover & I'aker, and Utility of ^Vheeler cV Wilson. 'I'he utility of the new invention had been sewing- recognizcd even by journeymen tailors, and the machine was the mac ine. seusation of the day. AVeary women hailed its advent as a bless- ing, and the sewing-machine became the most charming of gifts. The three companies above named pressed their sales with great energy, and became extremely prosperous. But these companies were all infringing upon the patent Infringement of Mr. Howe. It is true that they had first made his idea useful to mankind; but the patent laws of the United States have been v/isely framed to protect intellectual property, and prevent wealtliy men and corporations from taking advantage of the poverty of the inventive geniuses who fdl our workshops, but wlio do not always i)ossess the means to secure to themselves immediately the profits of their own talents. Mr. Howe sued the several companies, and spent a great deal of money in enforc:ing his claims against them. Having won a test suit in the courts, the companies compromised with him, and entered into a compact, Oct. 10, 1856, which is known as the " Albany agreement." By the terms of this compact, it was stipulated that each of the three companies should pay Mr. Howe five dollars for each machine made (he had previously claimed twenty-five dollars), and that licensees might be permitted to manufacture the several ma.:hines in order to assist in supplying the country with them s])ecdily, and that fifteen dollars should be exacted from the licensees *br each machine. From this latter roy- alty a ten-thousand-dollar fund for the pur]-)ose of enforcing the patents in tlie courts should be accumulated, and the surplus receipts be divided among the four contracting parties, Mr. Howe getting the largest share. Under this agrce- Wheeierand mcnt Operations were resumed, the Wheeler and Wilson macliinc Wilson. taking the lead in the sales from 1858 to 1868, and the Singer machine thereafter. Tne first agreement lasted until i860, up to wiiich time over 130,000 machines had been sold under it, — 55,000 by Wheeler & Wilson, 40,000 by Singer & Company, and 35,000 by Grover & leaker. The agreement was honorably executed : so Howe had no more reason for complaining of these companies. Mr. Howe securing an extension of his patent in i860 for seven years, the Albany agreement was renewed for seven years ; but it was stipulated that Mr. Howe should rccei\c only one dollar for every machine, and that licensees should pay seven dollars. Mr. Howe's income under this arrangement was very large, amounting in one year (1866) to $155,000; hut the expenses of his Invvsuits consumed his estate, and he died in com])an)(i\e poverty. 1 1 \ OF THE UNITED STATES. 247 jrover of ic loop by 10 shuttle, ic lead in ig sewing- r.akcr, and . bad been inc was the as a bless- The three nd became n the patent lea nseful to have been vent wealthy he inventive le means to Mr. Howe enforcing his e companies 356, which is npact, it was five dollars dollars), and nines in order Ifleen dollars |iis latter roy- atents in tlic d among the ller this agrce- llson machine 1(1 the Singer :o which time |eler& Wilson, 'he agreement miplaining ^-^ lit in 1S60 for Is ; but it was ■cry machine, [11c mider thi^ 155.000 ; h'lt conil)aniti\e The number of applications for patents only seemed to increase as time rolled on, and up to the present time more than twelve hundred Number of have been filed in the Patent Office at Washington. They have patents, averaged about fifty a year since 1857. In 185; the Weed machine was invented. The same year James E. A. Clibbs of Millpoint, Va., devised an entirely new machine, whose object was to reduce the cost of these inventions by simplifying the mechanism. Mr. (iibbs had never seen a sewing- machine, but had heard of them through the newspapers. On read- ing about the use li two threads, it occurred to him, that, if sewing could be effected hv a single thread, much of the iron-work of the machine could be dispensed with. He set his wits t(j work, and in the year named brought out his patent for a twisted loop- stitcii, made with a single thread by means of a rotating hook un- derneath the cloui. It was a step in advance, and its value was prompdy recognized. In 1859 James and Charles H. Willcox of Philadelphia obtained control of the patent, and began the manufacture of the Willcox and Gibbs machine, other This is one of the most silent, swift, and easily run of machines, mventors. and has had a large and general sale. Since the date of that patent there have appeared — in 1858 the Empire, since joined with the Remington ; the Slote, or IClliptic, since bought by Wheeler & Wils(Mi ; two Howe machines (Elias and Amasa 15.) ; between i860 and 1864 the American Ihitton-Holc, the /l^tna, and the Domestic; the lieckwith in 1865 ; and the Victor and the Remington, both recent ma- chines. A notable event occurred on tiie 8th of May, 1S77, in the history of the sewing-machine manufacture. At noon of that day the last important patents held by the manufacturer of sewing-machines expired, leaving the Expiration market open for all who wish to compete. The leading makers °f parents. immediately put down their prices from forty to fifty per cent, while others ex- "prcs'-ed the intention of speedily following suit ; sixty-dollar machines being fixed at thirty dollars, and seventy-dollar machines at forty dollars. A. B, ^Vilson's invention, used in the four-acti(..i, rough-surface feeder, was the niost important of the expiring patents ; th others being the vibratory needle SINGER SEWING-MACHINE. II 248 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY lit: and rcciproratin.c: shuttle, and the rotating hook. "I'hcrc are, perhaps, a thousand patents in iurce, and now held by the various nianuflicturers ; bul the above were the last of the "foundation patents," — the patents needful, in making a first-class machine. The Singer, Wheeler & Wilson, (irover & Baker, and Howe companies, are said to have held the monopoly of the Wilson invention ever since 1850, i)ooling the enormous profits of its manu- facture. America, if not the birthplace of the sewing-machine, is, at any rate, now the workshop of its largest manufacture. No other country in the world has Magnitude SO many and such large establishments devoted to this special in- of industry. [Justry. There are now twenty-five factories engaged in making sewing-machines, two of them having branches in Europe ; namely, the Singer and the Howe. The Singer factory at Elizabethport, N. J., is probably the largest of its class in the world. The immense sales of the Singer machine caused the company to outgrow its very spacious (juarters in New- York City ; and it accordingly took its fiight beyond the borders of the city, 11, ■ iK J ! : \ ^i SINGER SEWING-MACHINE COMI'ANY. '\U ■t F'v and erected the magnificent row of brick l)ui]dings by the side of the railroad- track running out of New York to Philadelphia, which are the wo uler of every traveller who sees them. The Wheeler & Wilson and the Howe cslab- lishnients at Bridgeport, Conn., are now both great concerns also. The vigor which has been manifested upon this continent in the development of lhi^ important industry is not confined to the United States alone. Canada, too. has shown true N irthern fire and intelligence in taking up this business. At the Centennial Exhibition at Phiiadcli^hia. in 1 876, Canada was represented there by eleven different manufacturers antl some valual)le mr.>:hines. making a better display than any nation except the United States. The concenis exhibiting were Thomas Piper of Hamilton, Mr. Raymond of Guelph, the »H: ! i! OF THE UNITED STATES. 249 haps, a ^rs ; but cdl'ul in irover & ^ of the ts manu- ratc, now vorkl has pccial in- n making mely, the ; probably :he Singer s in Ncw- )f the city. Ithe vaih-oad- woukv ut Howe cslali- Thc vi;j;"i' li-ient ol" ihi- L'anada, too. lusiness. At represented lines. niaUin;^ [he conce'.n^ louelph, the Gardner Sewing -Machine Company of Hamilton, Wilkie i^^: Osborne of Guelph, W^anzer & Company and the Canada Sewing-Machine Company of Hamilton, James Aurthors of Toronto, (). St. Amand of ()uebec, J. D. Law- lor of Montreal, (). Morrill & Company of Rock Islantl, and the Williams Manufacturing Company of Montreal. There is no record of the number of sewing-macliines made and sold prior to the Albany agreement of 1S56. Since tliat date the record has been preserved. The sales under the compact at Albany, from rSc6 ., ^ , ' t . ' J Number of to i86g, amounted to 1,500,000 machines, divided about a.'i fol- machines lows: Wheeler & Wilson, 4^0,000; Singer, t?o,ooo ; (Irover iS: '"^""f^^- ^ n ' oj > ' tured. Haker, 235,000; Howe, 140,000; Willcox & Gibbs, 105,000; Weed, 70,000; Florence, 60,000; all others, 100,000. From 1S69 to 1S78 the sales have amounted to 4,800,000, making 6,300,000 machines sold by the manuflicturers of the United States, — a product worth $360,000,000 at a reasonable estimate. Since 1869 the manufacture, year by year, has been as follows : — 1869 3--.769 1S70 4^M,254 uSyi 606,094 1872 «5t,236 1S73 667,506 1S74 528,918 187s 5-V5S 1876 525,o'-'o 1877 400,000 (tstini'ited.) 'i'he success which has attended the introduction of the sewini'-machine has been due to tlie thorough, rapid, and easy manner in which it has been made to perform its work. The machine has been im- proved in a thousand ways itself; and various attacinnents have been invented t(. he operated with it, by means of which a variety of special variety of thi.igs, ^,uch as basting, folding the ("lotli for h.enaning, button- ""°^^ '^°"^' holing, ikiz., are now performed in adtlition to the regular work of sewing scams of every character, and degree of strength. Sewing is ,."r- Economy in formed five times as last as by iiand. and die labor materially their use. hglitened. Nothing except the best metal is put into the working parts of the iiKu hines, so that they have great endurance and longevity; and the best taknls of the cabinet-maker have been employed in fitting the macliines with a casing of handsome woods, for the purpose of making them beautiful objects of fiuaiiture, as well as blessings to th.' household. Competition be- tween tlie different companies has also promoted tlie sale of the machines greatly. It has both reduced the cost of the comi)letcd machine, and ameliorated the terms upon which the companies have been willing to deal U'^^ility. 25° INDUSTRIAL HISTORY with their customers. Tiio largest numl)er of those who buy these machines are peopl'; without ca])ital, who are not ahvays able to pay cash for i'^cir pur- chases. In order lo effect sales, and to accommodate their cust lers, the Modes of companies have adoptetl what is call' d " the inslalm hl wlan," by seninethen'. nieaus of which the customer takes a machine, and pn\ for it in instalments from week to week, or month to month, often earni': with iiie machine itr'lf the money to defray the cost of its purchase. In addition to all this lias been the fact of persistent ad- vertising of the different ma- chines. 'The sewing-macliine companies have been the best advertisers in the Advertising. country, excelling even the i)iano and stove makers in the unllagging zeal with which their inventions have been brought before the public eye. Th^ newspapers, the old board fences, the direc- tories, the flagslafis, the roi ks of the field, the trees, and every other contiivance upon which a description of tiic merits of a sewing-mochine can be printed, pas'.ed, or hung, have been pressed into the service, and emblazoned by the manufacturers. The county, state, and mechanical foirs in all parts of the country, and the World's J'^xpositions here and in Europe, have been steadily frequented by the companies ; and their stilfes and competitive disjilays iiave now, for twenty years, formed the steady reliance of managers for one of the attractions of these bazaars of agriculture and industry. Some of the companies arc able to show almost a basketful of bronze, silver, and gold medals won at the different fairs of this and other countries. The world's fairs have been an important means of bringing the machines to the attention of people abroad. The fruit of the displays at those fairs is World's seen in the large exjwrt trade enjoyed by the companies. Tlie ^*'"' numl)er of machines sent out annually now amounts to fmiii 40,000 to 55,000, the custom-house valuation ranging from $1,600,000 to $2,400,000 annually. Tliey go to iMiglanil, France, and (Germany i)rincipally. England distributes them to all the world. Many machines now go direct lo South America and .Australia. WAl;UWEl.l. Sli WING-MACHINE. OF THE UNITED STATES. 2S» FIKE-ARMS. It is one of the peculiar i)henonKna of American life that l! ? nanufacture of wcapoi should reach such a rcmarkahic protici^ia^ in a n untry which abhors war and armies ; which is impatient it" tlie !,fovcrnment keei)s Progress in n. )rc than twenty tiiousand men under arms in times of jjcace ; '""'earms. which once let the standin,^' army run down to eighty-six men ; wiiicii never believes there is going to he a war, and never prepares fur one until it comes ; and whose ordinary current expenditures for all military purpos*..-. tlo nut exceed thirty-five million dollars in any one year. It would be natural to look for tlie highest development in this line in luirope. Several countries tliere spend a hundred uiillion dollars annual! <>»• army jnirposes. The best mechani- cal talent in the army and in the privan wc- hops is kept constantly emi)loyed devising new and destructive weapor '1 •ewards to the successful private inventor are great; tor lie is certaii' "if I'crjgnition from the government, and a large order for arms. In America, nc-vver, the whole business -of war is so foreign to the purposes of our people M\i\ the genius of our institutions, that liule national encouragement is ■ ■.■'■• o inventors. Congress begrudges the smallest appropriation for military experiments ; and inventors must look to luirope and Asia, and the world at large generally, for the markets for the sales of the arms they make, if they bring out any worthy of particular notice. In spile of this lack of home-encouragement to the manufacturers of fire-arms, American weapons for the infantry service are the best that are made to-day. The needle-gun of Prussia won a world-wide fame at Sadowa ; but the Ameri- can Remington is as much its superior as a Colt's revolver to a muzzle-luading hoisc-pistol. 'i'he chassepot of France has proved a weapon of deadly effi- cien( y in recent Europcai. wars; but the American Spencer rifie, with its niag.izine of cartridges in tne stock, firing fifty balls a minute, would enable two companies of American marksmen to annihilate a regiment armed with the cjiassepot in less than three minutes' fire at easy range. American small-arms have long been celebrated ; and there has not been an important war in Europe, from tiie Crimea to the last blootly struggle between Russia and Turkey, in which they have not played a considerable i)art. And then, in the line of heavy ordnance, the Americans have not been a whit behind the rest of the world in a thorough comprehension of the principles which should govern the manufacture and use of ordnance. We have not needed, and conse(iuently have not made, such tremendous guns as Germany and ICngland have proiluced ; bu' American inventors and artillerists have given to the world some of the most valuable ideas in ordnance, which have been utilized by military nations. riic first use of fire-arms was at the battle of Crecy in 1346, First use of where the French were routed in tremendous confusion by means fire-arms. of the astonishment created bv the English cannon. The cannon did little !l fill M^^i: »$' fiVn us TRIA !. INS TON Y of any consequenro. cxropt to roar; but it hroii^lit a new clement into the din of battle, and slriK k consternation into the ranks of tiie {gallant knights of Franct'. Ilu'sc early guns were made of woo''"n staves, bound with wire and iron hoops, and using a stone or a leaden bullet. Pictures of thcni may be seen in l''roissart's " Chronicles of the Middle Ages," in which are pre- served some rare old woodcuts of the olden time, representing battles in which wooden cannon bore a jKUt. It is one of the thousand illustrations whi< h every art supplies of the fact that progress moves in every age with slow and measiurd pace from the old to the new, passing only from the crude to llie better by Ihie shades of variation, that the first iron cannon was made upon identically the same principles as the wooden ones. They were com|)osed ol' iron bars laid together like the staves of a barrel, and bound about with iron wire and h(jo})s. They were afterwards welded together; ami then, the gun being composed of a solid piece of iron, the idea seems to have occurreil to military men for the first time to cast their cannon com]>lete in one operation. CANNON. 1390. It was the explosion of one of these early wrotight-iron cannon v.-hirh caused the death of James II. of Scotland in 1460. The fact is interesting, because it has a parallel in the history of the United States. The idea of making wrouglu- iron guns was never abandoned : and in 1845 Commodore Stockton of the United-States navy caused a gun of that material to l)e made under his suiKTvision. hoping to produce one which would excel any cannon which luul yet been made. The i)iecc weighed seven tons, and carried a ball weighin.L; two hundred and fifty potuitls. It was a great gun for those days. It was calleil "The Peacemaker." After it had been fired three times, a l)rilliaiil company of people in official life at Washington were invited down to the war- ship *' Princeton," lying in the Potomac River, to witness the firing of the gun. Secretary Upshur, who ""cared the effects of the discharge of such a tremendotr^ Oh THK UMTED STATES. =53 piece, got behind tin- niasl for safely. I'lie gun Mew up at the first (hsrharge, kilhiig Mr. IJpsliur, Secretary I lihner. ( 'oniinodore Kennan, Mr. Maxey, and Mr. (Jardner, and injuring Col. lientDU anl iluniui>ii>ing the number of sijuirrels, deer, raccoons, and bears, which depredated upon their corn and wheat anil other crops. Organized Inmting- exjieditions, called " drives," to kill off all the game in some special tract of country, and to meet the armies of squirrels which migrated from place to place, were of constant occurrence. Now, powder and shot were cosily articles in those iKiys, and the colonists could not afford to throw them away : they conseipiently preferred the best and most accurate weapon, on this account alone, if on no other; and the rifle, accordingly, was their familiar and favorite fire-arm. They became as accustomed to it as to the axe. When independence was declared, the colonists were illy provided with military weapons ; but they had their rifles, and they used them in the battles of the Revolution with a deadly effect which has become historic. Some of the fields of that war were won by the use of tl:e rille alone. The slaughter inflicted upon the soldiers of King George in the Revolution was doubtless principally due to the marksmanship of the American pioneers, and not so much to the weapon ; but the weapon got the credit of it chiefly ; and England, in 1 794, adopted it as a i)art of her national armament. In that respect England went a step fiirther than the United States. The rifle was not the official arm here : the government j^referred the smooth borf Napcieon ^^^ ^'^^ army. Napoleon scouted the rifle, because he could not scouted the obtain a rapid fire with it. The same idea prevailed here ; and, '' '■ while the rifle remained the weapon of the ])eople, it was not at once adopted by the goverimicnt. 'i'iie objection was this, — that, in order to make the bullet fit the rifling of the gun, it had to l)e forced into the gun under pressure, and time and labor were consumed in ramming the ball home. In Hall's inven- 1S13 Hall j^roposed a new idea. He suggested that the rifle be *'""• loaded at the breech ; so that the ball and powder, united in one cartridge, might be inserted without delay and trouble, and tiie piece loaded and fired as rapidly as the muzzle-loading smooth bore, and all the advantages of the two styles of weapons be thus secured. Hall also proposed to manufai - ture the locks and other pieces of the guns by machinery, so as to make the parts of the different guns interchangeable. He was emj^loyed at the govern- ment armory at Harper's Ferry to introduce the latter idea, and exi)erinu'nl with the former. The " interchangeable " system of manufacture promised a reduction of expenses, and that was accordingly pressed first ; and it was soon introduced to all the armories of th.e United States. In 1S27 a hundred of Hall's guns, which had been sent to Springfield in 1824, were brought bnik OF THE LXlTEiy STATES. 255 heir 8ub- l)lcs were criplior.s ; I U) Ivnit isoUitc He- ars, which I hunting- il tract of n place to ,.cre costly 11c m away : in, on tliis K'ir familiar ixe. When oviclocl with vised thorn has become of the rillc orgc in llie the Amcric an ot the credit her national States. 'I'lie smooth bon' le could not d here ; and, it was not at t, in order to he gvm under Al home. In It the rifle be limited in one piece loaded le advantages Id to manufac- to make die It the govern- id cxperimcnl re promised a ]; and it wa^ _• a hundred I brought bark Enfleld, to Harper's Ferry, and placed witli a Inmdrcd gims of current make. The whole two himdred were taken apart, the pieces thorougiily mingled, and the guns then remounted from pieci's pii ked np at random. 'I'lie whole two himdred fitted perfectly. This method of manufacture reduced the (osl one- half. It attracted attention abroad, and I'Jiglaiid afterward obtained machine- ry in the United States to introduce the system to iier factory at Knfield. I'rior to 1853, every gun made in I'.ngland was manufactured by hand. America had thus already given two iileas to the world, — the value of the rille, and a new system of manufacture. The latter was of immediate benefit. If war and armies were inevitable, and the people had to pay for them, the cost of weapons might at any rate be reduced ; and Yankee invention showed one important way to do it. The i)ercussion-cap was projjosed by Shaw of Bordentown in 181 7. Hall's idea of a breech-loading rifle did not attract much attention first in the United States. Ploughshares and railroads were of more importance here than machines to kill off regiments of men in the shortest Experiment! possible space of time. France and Ciermany began to experi- ^^ France mcnt with brecch-loailers ; but this insoiicianf, good-natured ^^„y ^'j^,, republic at that time had other things to attend to, and paid so breech-ioad- little attention to arms, that, when it went to war with Mexico in *"" I.S47, it absolutely had to send out troops aimed chiefly with ancient flint- lock smooth bores. A few rifles, and a few of Hall's breech-loading car- bines, were put into the hands of the mounted men ; but the army carried flint-locks, with a few percussion smooth bores of recent make only. The i)rinci[)al weapon of a new type brought out in the Mexican war was a purely American invention, which has not yet been mentioned ; namely, the repeater. Samuel Colt, a seaman, while on a voyage to Calcutta in I1S29, devised a six-barrelled revolver to be used with percus- sion-caps. In 1835 he improved upon this, and ])erfected a six-barrelled rotating breech, the bullets all making their exit therefrom through a single long barrel, as in the modern revolver. There is proof that the idea of a gun w1h( h should have a chambered breech, so as to admit of discharge several times without reloading, was thought of in anticjuily ; but such a ])iecc was impossible until after the invention of the American percussion-cap, and the idea was never utilized until Samuel Colt made his model on board ship on the long voyage to C'alcutta. Patents were issued in r'n!;! nd, iM-ancc, and the United States; and the manufacture of revolvcv:> was carried ^ v. a short time aftLT 1S35 at Paterson, N.J. The first use of the new we.apon was in 1837, when Lieut. -Col. Harney employed a numlur of Colt's carbii m in fighting Indians, to the great astonishment of the latur. who did not understand how a soldier could fire six times without reloading. A iiiousand of them were used in the Mexican war. (bolt's idea was a valirdjlc one ; but he secured no important sale of his weapons in this country until the discovery of gold in I I -i| h \ I! to "> ■ t • 2s6 /.\7;<' A /'A'/./ /. ///.v y'(9A' )' States, of its 'oadiiitr bullet ' 1'.^ I Ilea 1 '' tulmii >ile sho( in the "' these •lied inj U'eiv (||. ";i ■'^f)tci resources OF THE UNITED STATES. '■51 ■or nul a nopular weapon. The large sales brought other manufacturers upon the scene; and the Allen, Derringer, Volcano. Pettingcr, Whitney, „ ::imith and Wesson, Lovell, Rupertus, and other revolvers, were voivers in introduced to the public, one after tiie other, and have all had a Southern states- large distribution. They are made of a wide variety of i)atterns, from the heavy navy revoh-er, firing a half-ounce liullet, to the diminutive vest-pocket piece, with scarce l)ower enough to jienetrate a man's clothing. Suited to all tastes, and a con v e n i e n t means of protection to trav- ellers or to residents in large cities from tlie lawless classes, llicy are jiurchased in large numbers annually by jjcople in all ranks of life. Of late a passion has been manifest- ed among young men and hovs to o\v!i one of these weapons, which, thougli ab- Mirtl in the extreme, has ex- erted a material effect upon the sales of the manufactur- ers of arms. Hall's breech - loading weapons never came into general use. His idea was valuable ; but he could not give it practical foi ni. Prus- sia preceded the I'nited States, thcrefoi.:, in getting a breech-loader into the handn of its army. Dreyse had i)erfected a breech- pmssian in- loading gun in 1S36, in which a long slug-like ventions and bullet was discharged tnrough a rifled barrel ^''P""^"^"*^' 1)\ means of a cartridge done uj^ in pajKM-, and containing a fulminate at its base ; the fulminate being exploded by the shock of a blunt needle entering through a small hole in the breech-plate. In 1841 Prussia put sixty thousand "I these rifles with cast-steel barrels into the hands of her army, one hun- tiird men in each battalion being equipjx-d with them. In 1S4S tlu')- wciv distributed to the whole army. The king called the. in his d(>(ree "a special dispensation of Providence for the strengthening of our national resources," and expressed the ho])e "that the system mav be ke])l secret until i\i» ! I r^iill I 258 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Needle-gun. the great part which it is destinetl to play in history may couple it with the glory of Prussian arms and the extension of empire." The defeat of the Austrians at Sadowa in 1866 gave the needle-gun a great celebrity, and inducetl all the governments of the world to change their mu/./.le-loadcrs and smooth bores for a more modern style of weapon. .\ better gun than the Ziindnadelgewehr of Prussia had, however, been invented in the L'niteil States in 1852 by Sharp of Philadelphia. 'I'he breech-pin in Sharp's this weapon was pulled down below the barrel by using the trigger- weapon, guard as a lever, leaving the barrel open at the breech. The ball- cartridge being inserted, the breech-pin was thrown back to its place by closing the trigger-guard to its i)lace. The sharp upper edge of the breech-pin cut off the paper end of the cartridge, thus leaving the i)ow(ler in the now closed barrel exjjosed to the fire from the percussion-cap. The cap used was not the '■X SHARE'S UIFLK LO.Ml'ANV, liKU)(.i:l'l)H T, CONN. ordinary thiml)le cap, but was the Maynanl primer, in which twenty or lliirtv caps were arranged along a small strip of paper or leather. The strip was coiled up like a watch-spring in the lock; and, each time the ])iecewas cocked, a cap came forward and rested upon the nipple, thus simplifying and shorten- ing the whole operation. The Sharp's rille was an exceedingly powerful ami efficient weapon : it speedily became a favorite with sportsmen, especiail\ upon the pilains, where it frecpiently brought down m\ antelope at the distaiKX' of a mile. Mr. Sharp has had great success with his rifle. The United-Static and luiglish (Governments ordered a large number for the use of their armies, and the weaiion rec-eived the a])])roval of militarv men in several Success of it. of the leading nations. A iarge establishment for the manufacture was erected at liridgeport, ("onn.. and is still one of the leading American l.ic- tories in this dei)artmcnt of industry. Its riiles and pistols appear regularly at Ihe 'i^iinicni Xew 1,', '■eeei\C(i -I . OF THE UNITED STATES. 259 all the world's fairs, and occupy an important place in all competitions. The rifle has been improved of late by the use of the metallic rim fire cartridge, thus dispensing with the use of percussion-caps, and still further simplifying the weapon. The rifle is good for twelve effective shots in fifty seconds. The muzzle-loading rifle was adopted by the United States in 1855. It was called the " Springfield musket," from the armory at which it was brought out. It was ten pounds in weight, had a caliber of .58 of an inch, Springfield and carried a ball weighing five hundred grains. It was almost as '""sket. efficient a piece as the Prussian needle-gun, from the fact that the ball used was llie hollow-base Minie bullet, which could be loaded at the muzzle almost as rapidly as the needle-gun at the breech ; and it had a range of two thousand yards, the smooth bores doing execution at no greater distance than twelve hundred. This was the musket with which the Northern army were chiefly supplied during the war of 186 1. That war, however, gave an immense impetus to the invention and improvement of fire-arms in America. A great many new ideas were brought forward in breech-loaders and repeating-rifles. The government encouraged invention by large orders to private factories, and sujiplicd its troops as fiist as it could with such of the more modern styles of guns as were api)rovcd by proper military authority. The end of the war found tlic muzzle-loader virtually superseded forever. Since then, nothing Muzzle load- exccpt breech-loaders have been issued either to the army or the e" gone by. militia. I'he part borne by different styles of weapons in the war may be s''cii from the fcjllowing statement, prepared by the ordnance department of the army : — Smooth bt)re.s ...... Muzzle-loading rifle?, Uiiitccl-.States pattern Muzzle-loading rilles, foreign Ritles, brccch-loading and repeating . 1,615.346 1,055,862 32,048 lircecii-loading carbines 398,251 Revolvers 376,751 Pistols, muzzle-loading -4.95' The total was 3,966,590, of which 1,158.907 were lost and used up in the war. So much was invention stimulated by the war, that, at the com- petition of 1869, a board of army-officers examined thirty-four invention (lillerent varieties of breech-loading muskets, eight of carbines, stimulated and eight of pistols. ^^ '^^■■■ The new invention? were all the product of private factories. These estab- H-iliinents, scattered about the cotmtry, but 'irincipally located in ■\ew iMigland and New York, where mechanical ingenuity had [^«w"'*""- ° " •' tions the ie( eived its highest development, were many of them of prior product of ''I'l^in, and had been engaged in making sporting-rifles, shot-guns. P"^^*.' . . ^ ^ o I o I o > factories. aiiil pistols. When the war broke out, they simply turned their attention to military weapons. Others of the number came into being with m. lyiii . ,.» ,>i«^ I! 260 /A'Z? l/S TRIA 1. HIS TOR V .M> i'!''( *:■ 4 the war. Tliey have all continued to manufarture both military and sporting arms since the restoration of peace, and find a large sale in supplying the new armament of tiie militia of the several States and the armies of other parts of the world. They take part in all the rifle-competitions in Europe, and crowd every world's fair. Prior to 1861 the reputation of the United States for small-arms was sustained principally by Colt. Sharp, and I'lli Whitney. At the World's Fair of 1873, where the leading American fac- tories were all represented, nineteen concerns were rei)resented, all of them furnishing highly creditable i)roductions. The first of the new class of rifles to come into notice was the Spencer. This remarkable weapon is a strong and serviceable piece, kjailing at the Spencer breech, and holding a magazine of seven cartridges in the stock, "^''- which are thrown forward, one at a time, by a coiled sj)ring, when the breech is opened to receive a new charge. The l)reech-pin is moved down l)elow the barrel by the guard-lever, the empty copper shell of the cartridge last fired being thrown out b' a litde catch in the operation, and a new cartridge then thrown forward into j)lace from the magazine. A fair marksman can discharge the seven sliots with accuracy in twelve seconds, and then refill the magazine from his cartridge-box in about half the time it would take to ram and caj) a muzzle-loading musket. The gun can be used as a single-loader l)y a very simple arrangement, which prevents a cartridge from coming uj) from the magazine. The soldier thus can load from his cartridge-box, and keep the magazine in reserve for a critical moment. The Si)encer is a needle-gun, the firing-pin being in the l)reech-block, and being struck by a hammer, as in the ordinary rifle. Its performances at Vienna, at the competition of 1866, excited wonder The magazine principle has been applied to other American guns, prominently to the Winchester, in which the magazine occupies the place of the ramrod, belov; the barrel, and, being a very long one. enables the marksman to fire twenty shots without reloading. The Winchester rifle is admired in Europe, and has been sold in immense quantity lo the Turkish (Government. It was largely used in tiie late war with Russia. The Snider rifle is better known abroad than in America ; but it is one of the recent American inventions, and loads at the breec' upon an entirely novel principle. The l)recch-plate is fixed in the gun solidly ; but between it and the chamber there is a space the length of the cartridge, into which a solid bolt is fitted to close the chamber, and transmit the recoil to the breecli- l)late. This bolt swings upward, and over to the right, upon a hinge, when the g-n is being loaded, so as to leave an open space in rear of the chanilur for making out the old cartridge, and putting in the new. This style of breedi lu:' ler has been very well like ; and, before the hammer reaches the firing-pin, the plate is locked firmly ts place. The shock of the recoil is transmitted to the shoulder presenter ly the hammer, and is sustained by the heavy pivot on which the hammer ofks back and forth. Nothing so simple and scientific has ever been invented. This gun is in every way the superior of the Prussian needle-gun. The latter is easily disabled by moisture and iliist ; whereas the Remington will \\ irk perfectly while entirely coated with rust (breech-j)late and all), and covered with dust. One of the guns at Vienna ill 1866, chosen at random, was tested by firing two thousand rounds. K was Ifit out on the ground over night ; wTter was poured into it, and it was left wcl ; the whole breech was covered v fu road-dust, and then roughly shaken out ; and the gun was fired from beginning to end of the trial without clean- ing;. It went through the whole test perfectly, the only troul)le occurring ill any time being caused by sand which had got between the sprmg and the I I I ; !k] I : i I' ii I'l !l- ,' i6a IND US TRIA f. n/S TOR Y \ -^^:n iir^!' ■ I'! : m hammer, making it difficult to get the hammer at full cock. Those few grains of sand were taken out, and tlie gun was i)ut to work again without further cleaning of the breech. The average speed of the gun was thirteen rounds a minute, 'i'he gtm has excited the greatest admiration throughout the world since tiiat time. It has been adopted by the United States, England, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and other governments, and is ])robably the most effec- tive single-loading arm of the present day. It is the principal style of rillc which is being put into the hands of the militia of the several States of tliis republic. Its accuracy is so great, that it has enabled American riflemen to Great sue- ^'" ^*^ great matches of Dollymounl in 1876, and (Veedmoor cess of this in 1877, against the best shots of (Ireat Britain. Fulton jjrefers weapon. ^j^^ niuzzle-loading Remington, and with it made a score of 171 out of a possible 180 at the 800, 900, and 1,000 yard ranges at Creedmoor in 1874 ; which is the higiiesl ever known. The Peabody rifle, with a breech-plate dropping below the barrel, operated by the guard-lever, is also a good gun. A part of the 'i'urkish troops were armed with it in the late war. The barrels of American small-arms are generally made of wrought iron, chosen with reference to its tougliness and tenacity ; though of late years makers have begun to use steel to a greater or less extent in combination with iron. At one time bars made from old horseshoe nails were largely used, and the "stub and twist" barrels were considered the toughest and best in the market; but they have been superseded by later ideas in laminated iron and steel. For revolvers, cast-steel alone is used for the chambers and l)arrels. In gun-making, the bars which are to compose the barrels are heated to a white- heat, their edges first having been bevelled, and are then bent by machinery into a barrel, the edges being carefully welded either by machinery or by hand. The barrels are then straightened by machinery. Sometimes the bar is the length of the barrel which it is to make ; but often it is only one-third the length, and is drawn out in welding. The locks, springs, sights, and other small metal parts of the gun, are stamped, bored, and shaped by machinery. There are often eighty different pieces in the construction of the piece, besides the stock and barrel. The production of all of these by machines s])ecially adapted to the jjurpose has brought about an immense reduction in the cost of manufacture, and has added materially to the resources of the republir by insuring a speedy supply of weapons whenever wanted. This system of forging small-arms with swages and dies, and of finishing them with mill- ing machines, was first brought to success in the government armories oi the United States ; but it has since found its way into all the private factories. In the manufacture of cannon the United States has not orcii Cannon. .,,..., pied SO distinguished a position as in reference to small-arms ; nut its artillery has always been of a good (luality. The cannon made during ili'' OF THE UNITED STATES. 263 loicu ; bill g ilv Revolution were all of a small size, adapted for field-service and for use on sliips. A number of founderies were employed in casting them in different parts of the country, but principally in New England, Pennsylvania, and Mary- land, whence the guns were distril)uted to the different i)arts of cannon of the country. They ranged in size from four to thirty-two pounders, Revolution, hut were niosUy of the smaller sizes. A few of them were cast hollow ; but the majority of factories cast them solid, and bored out the caliber by machinery. '[" e factories were prolific ; and Washington had all tiie artillery he wanted during the Revolution, — more, at times, than he could profitably use, in fact, considering the scarcity of powder. The guns were of very simple construc- tion, plain and unornamented, and in this respect bore a marked contrast to the splendidly-decorated pieces employed by our French allies in that war. '["he gun presented by Lafayette, and long owned by a well-known family of Virginia, and now in the Metropolitan Museum at New York, inscribed humor- ously. " Ultima Ratio Regum," and otlierwise, is a striking illustration of the perfection of the arts in France at that day, and the manner in which refine- ment touched and glorified every thing used by the French people in war as well as in i)eace. One gun i' .^d in the Revolution was of wrought-iron staves hound with hoops ; but it a, tiu Kd litde attention. In the war of 181 2 the Uii.'.ed States began to use a better style of cannon of native manufacture. The government permitted its private citizens to nt out ships to cruise against England's commerce, and there was a great demand for long and efficient guns of all calibers for use on shipboard. Some large founderies were started during this war. At Richmond three were established, capable of boring the heaviest ordnance, and of making three hundred pieces a year. One at Pittsburgh, Joseph McClurg's, made the cannon for the battles of Lake F'rie and New Orleans. No long guns for shells had been used until the war of 181 2 in any country: the shell had only been discharged from the mortar and the how- itzer. In 1814 Col. Bomford of the Ordnance Department invent- _j^ manu- ed a long gun for shells, which he called " the Columbiad." It facture of l)ccame a f:ivorite gun with militarv men at once. It was intro- B""8for ° ' shells. 5 11 Parrott. in the war, on the part of the North, fifteen hiuulrcd fickl-guns and twelve hun- (hed siege-guns. The government, being williout the means to produce these readily, depended largely upon private makers ; and iron founders and in- ventors, in turn, stood ready to supply the government with a large mnnber of new guns, which were conceived by them with the first alarm of war. 'I'hree of these ne\v guns i)roved of service, antl became prominent. One was the Parrott, a cast-iron rifled gun, long, and almost straight, but rc-eiiforced at the breech by heavy coils of wrought iron wound around the piece. The first one was cast in 1 86 1 at the West- l^oint Foundery. During the war they were made of all sizes, from the three-inch ten pounder for field-service to a ten-inch gun with a three-hundred-pound shot for ship-siege and coast-service. Another of the new guns was the W'iard, made ° Wiard. at Trenton, N.J., of cast-steel. This metal, as is well known, is the favorite with the Germans, who employ it in small-arms as well as in artillery. Mr. Wiard made guns of this material for the first time in this c:ountry, and secured large orders from the government. He fitted out the Hurnside expe- dition with very nearly its entire armament. The third gun referred to alxjve was the Galling Battery, an automatic machine-gun, with six steel barrels. Cartridges are fed to the battery from a hopper, and are discharged by turning a crank. An incessant and steady fire can be kept up with this battery, and about a hundred cartridges, containing a thousanil missiles, discharged per minute. Its performance is ecpial to that of fifty good riflemen armed with breech-loaders. A hundred batteries of this gun were ordered by the govern- ment from the C'olt's l-'ire-Arms Company. One of them, sent to Paris in i>S67, was the sensation at the World's Fair. It has a large sale abroad since that time. The best material for large guns is iron ; though whether in the form of ritisii iron ship-yard. I'he general applii ,iiion of machinery to the wi>rking of iron has called into e.\istence a special class of establishments devotcil to the inakiiig of iron-working tools and machinery, adding a re- enl'orcement of about filteen hundred shops to _. . , ' Fai Lories for the thousands of those devoted to the manu- making iron- facture of iron anil steel for the ortlinarv pur- ^°['""e ' tools. jioses of life. These fifteen hundred shops em- ploy about a hundred thousand men. Many of them are, in I irt. founderies, and carry on the manufixcture of general iii;u hinery ; but 'hey all make iron-working tools and ma- chiiies as a regular 1\ ature of their business. In general, iron-working machinery may be classified Miiilcr the following head:;, — turning-lathes, borers, drills, I'lancs, shears, rolls, hammers, lies, punches for making IikIcs, screw and bolt cutters, riveting and welding machines, / >^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 "iJ)^ o 268 INL ^S TA'/A I. I//S rOR Y i:,r:, i Planers. (iiii long by twenty-five wide, the plate being carried slowly backward and forward under a sharp cliisel which cuts only one narrow paring at a time from its rough surface. Planers have been made to smooth vertical sur- faces twelve feet long and eight feet high. Lathes are made to turn a piece of work eight feet and a half in diameter, and boring-machines to smooth the itHeriors of steam cylinders of the same size. Drills are made to bore a hole twenty-two inches in diameter through solid iron. At the iron shijj-yards, shears are used to cut up solid iron i)lates two inches thick. Steam hammers are used which strike a fifty-ton IjIow, which could easily be increased to seventy-five tons ; while the hammers are so tractable, that they can be used to crack walnuts. Cranes easily handle whole boilers and pieces of machinery weighing twenty-five tons. Rolling-mills are made of suili power, that at Chester, Penn., iron plates are made six inches thick for tiie armor of men-of-war. Squeezers are often employed in our rolling-mills capable of taking a thousand-pound bloom from the puddling-furnace, and squeezing it into a compact pig of wrought iron in less than a minute, 'i'lie power and size of this variety of machinery appear to be limited only by the demands of the country for its employment. Other machines are noteworthy for their special adaptation to the perform- ance of some process and for their labor-saving qualities. Such are the small Trip- trip-hamnv,Ts, striking from forty to a hundred blows a minute, for hammers. drawing out the tines of a pitchfork from the little chunk of metal two inches long from which the fork is made. Such are also the Inventions countless inventions for stamping, twisting, boring, and shaping of for boring, the wheels, springs, and pieces of metal which enter into watclics. twisting, c. f,rj..jjf,^g^ tools, and small machines of all kinds. Others are the grooving and mortising machines, those for turning the rims of pullevs, for cutting the 'oeth of wheels, for paring and bevelling the edges of boiler-plates, for planing the edges of locomotive frames, for bending carriage-springs, for cutting thv. threads of screws and bolts, &c. The system i)revalent in the best WRENCH. American shops leads to the mi:ltipli< a- tion of this class of machines year by year. Invention is encouraged ; and the workman is given a part of llic benefit of his invention, if he will suggest a machine which will save manu.il labor, and facilitate the operations of the shop. Still another class of machines is remarkable chiefly for accuracy of ,, . . oiieration : these are the ones used in all fine machine-work. Machinery ' for making Before the general application of machinery to iron-working, minute inaccuracies of a hund.-edth part of an inch micrht be detcctoii things. ' ° by a very experienced workman, but no smaller defects than that. Fine machine-work was almost impossible, because mechanism which was OF THE rXlTED STATES. 269 rd and forward I time from its 3th vertical sor- es are made to joring-machincs Drills are made m. At the iron o inches thick. , could easily be ctable, that they )ilers and pieces ; made of such les thick for the our rolling-mills lling-furnace, and a minute. 'Ihe nited only by the n to the perform- uch are the small ilows a minute, for ; litde chunk of ^uch are also the J, and shaping of nter into watches. Others are ihe ms of pullevs, for ^s of boiler-plates, es of locomotive arriage-springs, for screws and bolls, ivalent in the best to the multipliia- jmachines year l>y [-en a part of the will save manual for accuracy ot [le machine-work. to iron-working. Inight be detccuVl defects than thai. lanism which wis below a certain size was sure to be full of inaccuracies, and work badly. All machinery was clumsy. American ingenuity first insured absolute accuracy by the general use of machinery in the making of the small parts of complicated mechunism, and thus made fme and delicate mechanism possible by sup])lyuig the means to detect and measure differences of a ten-thousandth of an inch. The steam-riveting machine is one of the new inventions. It weighs eighteen tons, and con- tains one forging of steam rivet- five tons. It rivets ine-machine. the bolt wiUi a single blow, and dcjes its work so silently and rap- idly as to obviate the fearful din of boiler-shops in general, and greatly reduce the cost of opera- tion. .'\nothcr late invention, and one which carriage-spring makers have been studving ,, . . , ■^ Machine for for twenty years how bending and to construct, is a ma- tampering jprtngs. chine for bending and tempering springs at one opera- tion. It weighs less than a ton. and is a simple, straightforward device for performing a jjrocess luitil now always done by hand. S])ecial machines are now made for most of the oi)erations of locomotive and iron ship and engine building, for car-shops, rolling-mills, cloth and gun shops, the sewing-machine, tool, and other factories, in large numbers. A great many of these machines are sent abroad, makingparts where they give emphatic pleasure, and receive a great deal of of locomo- l)raise on account of the originality of idea, and high constructive *'J.**' '["'^ ' o .' ' o ships, &c. al)ility displayed in their manufacture. It has been pointed out that the construction of iron-working machinery and of machinists' tools underlies all other branches of manuilic- utility of ture. Take any finished product, whatever it may be, and trace such instru- l«a( kward the means by which it has been produced. We shall "'="*^' inevitably reach at length the hammer and the cutting-tool of the lathe, I'lnne. or borer. Upon the efficiency and accuracy of iron-working tools and machines, therefore, depends a great deal more of human progress and comfort than one would imagine upon a su]3erficial examination of what it is that pro- motes ihese things. MIU.ER S-FAI.I.S \ICK. 370 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY and cross- cut saw. iifiiu AXKS AND SAWS. 'I'he hroad-axc and the cross-rut saw are the typical agencies for the Woodaxe working of wood. The former lays low the great tree in the backwoods : the latter cuts it up into logs which can he rafted down stream to market. All the tools which touch it after that, from the saw-mill to the last operation in the shop of the carpenter and joiner, are only modifications of the i)arent cutting and sawing edges. No implement has had such universal use as the axe : it was foremost in war and in peace from the beginning of history until gunpowder was invented. Universal ( lunpowder swept the blood-stained battle-axe from the stage of use of axe. civili/cd wartarc, anil tlic inii)lement became then devoted only to the purposes of peace ; but its use has only increased as time has rolled on. The axe is the indispensable adjunct of i)ioneer life in the woods: it ileared the fields and built the houses of our forefiithers. Wiierever ])()pulati>jii crowds the ])lains, and the waste timber-lands must be reclaimed to make room for man, tlie broad-axe is found swinging in thousands of hands for the conven.ion Kii the wilderness to a place fit for the abode of humanity. Iacu in tiie I'nited .States, where there is plenty of room in the open country and to spare, the axe is still vigorously wielded I)y thirty thousand lumberineii, who are sent into the woods every year to get out the timber for which shi]) ping, building, and manufacture has created such an extraonUnary demand. The axe plavs a ])art on e\ery farm. It lays low an oak or a big majjle when- ever tile farmer wants money, and it gathers the winter's stock of fire-wood when the lal)0''s of the liarvest are over. It enters into the economy of the houseliold under every roof in the whole wide land. Until witiiin fifty years, the axes used in America were imi)orteil. .\ few rude blades were forged at the blacksmith-shoi)s by village greens ; Axes im- ^ 1^00 ported until but the busiuess was of so little account, that it was not thou-ht within fifty ^vorthy of protection by Congress, During the Revolution ami years. ^ ' .» o o the war of 1812, when the United States were cut oil from then- principal source of supply for manuflictures of iron and steel, axes were largelv made by the American blacksmiths ; but the return of peace brought fre-h importations, which checked the industry again. No tax was levied by C'oii- gress on an article of such extended use in the United States, and sc^ indis- pensable to the development of the country. The first axe-shop m the country was started by Samuel W. and 1). C. Collins of Hart ford. Conn., in 1826. They thought that there was a field for the manufac tine of axes here ; and they put up a little stone trip-hammer shop, with a capacity of eight axes a day, and began drawing patterns, and forging and temperiiiL; blades. In 1828 Congress levied a duty of thirty-five per cent on axes to ascist the dawning industry. The Collinses moved to Collinsville, Conn., and opened a large factory, which after some years passed into the hands of a coin- CoIIins. OF THE UNITED STATES. 271 ^encies for the ;at tree in the 1 can be rafted ch it after that. Miter and joiner. was foremost in er was invented, im the stage of i\\ devoted only ne has rolled on. oods: it cleared rever population •lainied t(j make of hands for the humanity. l'.\en C)i)en country and sand hnnbermen. cr for which ship- ordinary demand. big maple when- tock of fire-wdoil ; economy of tlie imported. A tew by village greens ; It was not thought Revolution and ut off from llieir axes were largi-K' ce brought fixdi las levied by C'on- ites, and so indis- |e first axe-shop in . Collins of 11. n I |r the manufaitiirc |p. with a capacity ng and tempering cent on axes to isville. Conn., and hands of a coin- Douglass. WdKKS or Dori.i,. . AXK (.1 MI'ANV, l:\SI 11(11 l.l.ASS, MASS. pany, called Collins & Company. The business has since grown to gigantic proportions and world-wide celebrity. .Vfter the Collinses' shops were opened others were started, the principal ones of which are now the Douglass Axe Company of Kast Douglass, Mass., and the con- cern at Cohoes, N.Y. A numl)er of small factories are scattered through the country : two of them are in New- ark. N.J. The Collins Factory is the largest in the world : it eni- l)loys from four hundred and fifty to five hundred and fifty men, pro- duces two thousand axes, sledge- hammers, anil cast-steel tools a day, and consumes in the course of the year eighteen hundred Ions of iron, three hundred and fifty of cast steel, and seven thou- sand of c-oal. 'The process of axe-making is full of interest ; indeed, is exciting I luring some stages of the manu- fa( lure. The first operation con- sists in ( lippjng from long. Hat bars a half-foot of American iron, which is ipiickly transformed into the poll of an axe. which is merely the head and eye, and al)out half the process of blade ; the balance, or cutting part of the blade, being composed axe-miking. (if nearly a pound of the best Jessop steel, so inlaid with the iron that the tiiol may endure years of grinding, and still retain its fine steel edge. Other kinds in the market can boast of a greater spread of steel surface ; but they aiv entirely innocent of that sort of *• northern iron," as the Prophet Jeremiah terms it, in the centre of the tool, which will enable it to stand the hard usage in store tor it. The real difference between the two metals is finely brought out in the polishing process, in which no amount of furbishing can leave that fine surface on the iron which the steel reatlily takes, and which forms a per- fect mirror in the finished implement. Passing over a variety of intermediate handlings, in which the essential objects obtained are complete welding of the two metals and perfect symmetry m the several patterns made (all of which are accomplished amid the distrac- tions of an army of large and small trip-hammers, whose din at times is well- nigh deafening to an outsider), we reach the tempering-room, where a score or so of men are occupied in bringing the steel to the proper degree of hardness, — a point reipiiring the utmost nicety of attention. Small furnaces arc kept bi'.rning on the iron tables of the workmen (or watolimen, rather ; for about all tiiey du is to keep a keen eye on the color assumed by the iron) ; and, the 373 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY instant the right hue is developed, tlie axe goes into a salt-water bath, whicli fixes the c arboni/ed state of the iron forever, unless again put throuj^ ■ the fiery torture. 'I"he next stage in the progress of the axe toward completion brings us to the grinding and polishing departments. Some idea of the relative importance of this branch of the manufacture may be had from the fact that it costs one hinidred dollars' worth of grindstones daily to bring the axe to the marketable stage, to say nothing of the immense expenditure of emery in polishing after- ward. Huge stones from Nova Scotia and the West lie about the shop-yards, full seven feet in diameter many of them : and in no longer than three weeks' time they are used uj). Many of the men ride on " horses " while grinding, thus enabling them to bring their whole bodily avoirdupois to aid the pro- cess of abrasion ; while the fine dust flics in clouds from the stones in every direction, notwithstanding the stones are all the time completely deluged with water. The men in this section are, from their peculiarly hazardous work, ruled nut of all the life-insurance companies ; since the constant inhalation of the grit and bits of steel thrown off in the process induces the " grinders' consump- tion," as it is rightly termed, from which a premature death is rarely averted. It is said that Americans will not work in these rooms, which are filled by French Canadians, who stop a few years, and then go home to linger a while and die. But sometimes the peril to life is of another kind altogether, arising from the rai)idity with which the stones must be made to revolve. A flaw in thr stone, or possibly a loosening in the clamp holding it upon the shaft, sends the flying fragments furiously hither and thither, — perhaps through the grinder's body, or throws him through the roof. It is but justice to add, however, that sucli casualties hai)pen only at rare intervals. There yet remains the bevelling of the poll of the axe near the eye, which the trade insist upon in their orders, and which was formerly done by the slow process of grinding out on the stones. This is done l)y an iron wheel thirty inches in diameter, its periphery being an inch tire of softest iron. Rcvolvini,' with great velocity, it does the bevelling almost instantly, literally melting that portion of the axe away. The American broad-axe is a handsome blade. It has a thick, flat, liroad iron head, with a cast-steel blade slightly flaring as it approaches the edge, ami American a cresceut-shapcd edge. The eye, or hole for the wooden handle, broad-axe. g^^j^ straight through the head. In this the axe differs from tin.' less convenient Spanish implement, in which the handle is fitted into a loo]) at the back of the blade, on the principle of a plantation hoe. Nearly all the processes of manufacture are carried on by machinery. The head is cut from a bar of iron, the eye punched out, and the head flattened and pressed into shape while hot, by machines made for the purpose. The edge of the Ol' THE CAT 11: 1) SlAThS. ^73 er bath, which It throng ■■ the 11 brings us to Live importvance at it costs one the marketable pohshing after- the sliop-yards. lan three weeks' while grinding, to aid the pro- ■t stones in every fly deluged wilh IS work, ruled out Uition of the gril •inders' consiunp- is rarely averted, lich are filled by to linger a while :ther, arising from e. A flaw in the lie shaft, sends the ugh the grinder's dd, however, iiiat [ar the eye, which [done by the slow iron wheel thirty iron. Revolving trally melting that thick, nat. broad Jhes the edge, and |e wooden handle, differs from the |ted into a looi) at Nearly all the head is cut from [and pressed into rrhe edge of the WORKS OK DOIGLASS AXE COMPANY. head is grooved, and a narrow ])iece of c.ist-steel welded to it at a white- heat. 'I'iie steel is dniwii out to form tiu' l)l;ide in tiie welding-opera tion, the steel being thoroughly smitiied to condense the metal, and render it tough. 'I'iie axe is tempered very hard ; and tiie hardness is then drawn down to what is called a blue temper, when it is ground, polished, the head painted re" .. blow. 'Hie graceful cut of -caster, flnnji ^^^ from over the Uler. with both X the extreme the handle, is lei blow. It i^ that a Yankee ■ill do one-fifth ,rk in the same of time than Ihe direet-hitliiv4 ,^.1-, ox the C'a- •l^o strikes moro ,vcr the head), ,h less fatigiK'- saw followed tlu' lulcrs of Ameri. ;i is-evit saw at fn-t- with a handle at ,crsons, — or el^e ,cans of a haivlle L first of whu h ll, in the al-en-' ,,. was also InuU .(; was loaned lov [oards yearly. IvaH ,tion as earlv a^ Vnulish seUUr>. Another was built at S( ituate. Mass., in 1656, under a stipulation by the authorities that tlie owners should saw for the public before sawing for them- selves, and should have one half the lumber for sawing tlie other half Others were built on the 1 )elaware, by the Dutch and Swedes, before IVnn arrived. .\nu rica was a hundred years in advance of [jigland in the employment of llie sawmill. Ihe lil)erd 1 )ul( hnien employed it in Holland, and introduced it both to Mngland and Americ". ; but there was so much opposition in Kngland, that Parliament prohibited its use, and as late as 1760 a sawmill was de- stroyed by a mob. In America sawmills were a great !)oon, and were gladly welcomed. They soon came into general use throughout the colonies. 'Ihey followed the pioneer everywhere, and formed, with the gristmill, the nu( leus of every settlement and neighborliood. The saw in these mills was a straight blade until about i 790, when circular i)lates were invented. The saws of early times were all imported, large and small. There was both a lack of capital and skill for making them here. The oldest in.stance of an attempt to make saws in the United States is the case of piratsaw* William Rowland of I'liiladelphia in 1802. Other attempts were wereim- niade : they all failed. About f(jrty years ago the manufiicture was ''°' ' finally established by an English mechanic named Henry Disston, who had served an apprenticeship in a shop in Philadelphia, and finally became foreman of it. He was ingenious, and resolved to try to make saws. His Henry early efforts were on a small scale. The plate steel had to be im- disston. ported from England, and was expensive ; and there was a prejudice against American work of this description. Disston managed to get his saws at length into the hands of merchants, and built up a considerable business. All his steel was imported, the precious scraps of it being saved, and sent bac:k to I'lngland to be rolleil into plates again. In 1861 Mr. Disston resolved to cut loose from English steel, if possible, and make his plates himself The tariff of that year gave him protection, and he fitted up his shop for the experiment. 1 le succeeded, and soon became an independent manufacturer. The estab- lisliineiit he built up is now the i)rincipal fictory of its class in America. Other saw- factories have been started, however, and the industry is a large and rapidly-growing one. All sorts of saws are now made. They range in size and power, from the delicate watch-maker's and dentist's tool to Kinds of tile heavy circular plates for wind and steam sawmills, and the "ws. siill larger ones for working the gigantic trees of the Pacific coast. Chain saws for surgeons are also made. At the factory of R. Hoe & Company, in New York, circular saws are produced eighty inches in diameter, and cross- cuts more than ten feet long. American saws are now regularly exported. Shcttield makers ha\'e lost several important markets on account of them wiihin the last five years. Saws are made from ingots of steel, hammered to condense and toughen ^1k; metal, and then rolled out into ivlates. The sheets are slit up into the 2^(} IND us TA' I A A //AS TOKY proper si/c-s ami ^Iiapi's for the (li(Tcrt.'nt saws. The (Mittin^ edges beinj,' ProccMii oi ^,'rnim(l IriH'. till' ti'etli are pimclied out by a (ly-press : the roiij,'li making. iili^'cs ari' then filed down, and the teeth sharpt'iied. 'Ilie blades, heated to redness, are plunj,'ed into a troiij,'h of oil, mixed with tallow, bei>wa\, and rosin, to harden them ; and then the hardness is drawn down to the ri^^ht point by wiping' off only a part of the ( omposition from the blade, and settiii;^ fire to the residue. This is i alli'd " bla/iiif^ off : " it softens the blade to tlir rij^ht point, leavinj; it elastii , and the teeth hard. Tlu saw is then well smithed on an an\ il of polislud steel to j^i\c nnili)rm density to the plate : and tlu blade is then ground away ba< k of the teeth upon grindstones, this thinning of the plate being one of the means resorted to to prevent the saw, in operation, from being clogged with sawdust. The teeth of the saw are generally pointed forward. In the eross-cnt, which is desigiud to cut both ways, no pit given to them either way. In the ciiw nlar saw a tooth has been introdmcd by Mr. Disston, pointing about straight forward, the imder \ya\\. being well (iit aw.iy, its outline strongly resembling that of a fish hook. Its advantages are facility of sharpening, and long wear, without diminishing the diameter of the saw. In all small saws a set is given to the teeili ; that is. they are bent oiit- w.'xrds to right and left alternately. This causes the teeth to make a cut wider than the blade, and so gives the latter free play. .STOVKS. The old-fashioned fireplace will never cease to be loved for the beautiful atmosphere it imparts to a room, and the snug and cheerful effect of an opin Old fash- wood-fire. NVhen stoves were first introduced, a feeling of uii ioned fire- utterablo rcixignancc was felt by all classes toward adopting them : '' *'^*" and they were used for a generation chiefly in s( hoolhouses, court rooms, bar-rooms, shops, and other public and rough ])laces. For the home, nothing except the fireplace would do. The open fire was the true centre of the home-life, and it seemed perfectly impossible to everybody to bring up ;i family around a stove. It was once thought that the fireplace was an insntfi- cient means of warming a house, and the impression had its influence in se( tir- ing the introduction of stoves. Hut it is now understood that the trouble in nM times, which made it possible to see one's breath upon the air sitting by iho fireplace, and find ajjples frozen iipon the table in the centre of the room wluii the fiimily were roasting in the bla/e of the log-fire, was not due to the inetii ciency of the fireplace, but to the bad construction of houses, which alK)wnl the cold air to i)enetrate to the interior in gales. With better built houses tin' huge fireplace of colonial times became too large and too hot, and had to be reduced in size. The convenience of the stove for cooking had more iniln ence on its eventual i)0]Milarity than .all other causes combined. Food \v,b better cooked in the old-fashioned fireplace, but not so conveniently : in lad. Ol- TlIK rXITh.n STATl:S. 277 'Ihc l)Uulcs. )\v, beeswax, to tho ii:J^> . and sctlm:^ l.lacU- l<> »>'^' well hjuillu'il ate ; and tlir IS thinning ol in ()\ierali')n. crally itointed s, no l>il' 1^ '^ en inlrodui ed being well ( ut Advantages are Uameler of llu- ,• are bent o(\t- ake a cut wider tile operation was a very slow and laltorioiis one inilil llie cooking-stove was invented. One of tlie first attempts at a stovi- or closed fireplace was made by (!ardi- nal I'olignac in I'Vance about 1700- I'lie ( ardinal's little treatise on the sub- JKt sliows by its title why I'luroprans < oiiM be easily interested Poiignac'* 111 eviry new style of heating-apparatu i. It was callee^;an in l'roviden< e, K.I., at nearly the sanu' time. It was about this time that 1 )r. I'.lii)halel Nott of I iiiun ( nllrm- hc^an experimenting with stoves. The talented |)resident of the ( olii j^c was a f^reat me< hanical j^iiiius ; and, like I'ranklm. he spent yi-ars of lalxir, and thousands of dollar^, in perfecting,' the hasednirner and other stoM-s. The stove-trade is under a great weij;ht of oltji^atidu lo the old doc tor. who never himself reajjed the harvest of what he had so laboriously .uid wisely sown. Others made fortuni- • fnin\ his idias. The opening of llu' llrie, the (hamplain, and other canals and routes of trans])()rtation, gave an immense impulse to the stove-business by ( heapeniug thi' transportation both of the stoMs and also tlial of coal. The patterns of stoves, too, were improving very fast, and the convenience of cooking-stoves was bi'ginning to be understood. The manufacture of ( ook in i,' stoves I'spe- Cookinc- cially incriMsed with great rapidity. The early patterns in .Mliauy Btovc made were the teu-plate oval stoves, witli the oven above the (ire, ami " ""*'■ a single hole in the top. Tin- saddJt-bag pattern < .uue next, the oven i)eing in the middle, over tlu' lire, and the stove-(<)llar and pipi' o\cr it ; while on either side were oval proje< tions, a bjiler-hole in each, level with the stove-top. 'I'he next pattern was the horse-blcx k st(ne, the rt-ar part being a step higher than the front. ,\ rotary stove was also made, with a moval)le top to bring any parti< ular vessel directly over the fire. Then < ame the parent of the modern cooking-stove, the Buck, for wood and coal, with the fire al)o\e tlu' oven, whi< h carried the fiame around, behind, and below the oven, the opening into the stove-pipe being about on a level with the oven-floor. There have been several hundred modifit ations of this i)attern of cooking-stove. In heating-stoves there have been many changes and improvements, tlu' l)asi'-burning and self-feeding princijjle being applied to the greater number, l)Ut many popular heaters being the ordmary coal-burner, with the draught through the whole mass of coal. In all, there Number of '^''^^'^' ''^'^"'^ nearly a thousand patents issued in this country for patents stoves ; and the manufacture has now become so skilt'ul, and tin; ""' ■ stoves so tight, their conveniences for cooking so perfect, and the blaze of the fires of the |)arlor-stoves, shining out through mica windows, so cheerful, that the fireplace has been jmictically superseded even in couiitn houses, and the stove is in universal use. Magnitude Tlicrc are now about 220 firms and companies engaged i.i of industry. ^^^ industry in the country. They consume from 250.000 to 340,000 tons of jjig-nietal yearly, and employ about 28,000 men, produciiii^ The Buck. Oy THE r XI TED STATES. a 79 if his stovoy,. Dvi-liK torifs tl\i)()iu' buy- mrposi", ;n\ii I ( ity. 'I'Ih- L- sanu' tinu', ■nit)n ColliK^" i-ars of hibor, olluT StOM'S. ; old (l<)v(.-> m stoves I'Spl'- tiins in Alluny I' U»i' i'lrc'. ;in 14,400 29 500,640 2 24,000 I 14,400 7 67,200 I 4,Soo 2 48,000 4= 453,600 6 88,Soo 7 182,400 10 120,000 7 64,800 S 48,000 I 14,400 I 7,200 I 7,200 200 2,6S6,ooo 2 So h\D I -S 7'A' /A I. ins TORY Like the sewing-marhine-maki. rs, the stovc-iiiakers are indebted for part of tluir iKJi)nkirity and large sales to the county fairs of the coun- try, whore they have had numerous and sharp competitions, which advertised them extensively. County fairs. SAFES. The subject of strong-boxes to secure valuable articles and money against fire and theft attracted very little attention in this country until after the rise T'he strong- of the commercial cities upon the coast. The strong-box, pre- ''°''- vious to I S 20, was nothing more than a heavy oaken chest. Its contents wCi ; protected from robbery merely l)y a stout lo('k and the blunder- buss of its owner. Its only security against fire was the address and tiie MARVIN SAFE. Strong muscles of the occupants of the building where a fire broke out. In Europe, where wealth abounded, and the industrial arts had been developiil. the i)eople were scarcely any better off for strong-boxes. A few iron t:ulTeis with complicated locks were in use : but the great majority of those who hail occasion to stow away \alual)les at all depended upon wootlen chests and their own personal vigilrnce for their protection. These chests were often- times gilded, over e\ery inch of the visible surfoce, and decorated with paint- ings, being very showy and costly articles of furniture. They were no \ for part the coun- Dns, which ney against tor the rise ig-box, pro- dicst. lis he bUuvli-'r- jss ami the kke out. Ill tn (Icvclopcil. \f iron cotlcis iiose who had In chests ana were often- [d with paiiit- Ihey were no OF TJIE r XI TED STATES. 2ai)ers, bank-notes, and other ( ontents of the safes. The need of the hour was for something which should not conduct heat. In 1843 Daniel fit/gerald invented the safe witii outer and inner boxes of iron, the space between being either vacant,* or filled with plaster of Paris mixed with water, and ]>oured in. The jjlasler, setting hard, and taking the water into combination, formed an excel'ent protecting material. When subjected to heat, it gave out its water as steam, which is itself a valuable non-conductor ; and the contents of the safes were protected in a maniKr previously unknown, f'itzgerald had a contest over his invention with Mr. Conner, who now came forward to claim the merit of originating that st\le of safe. The courts confirmed the patent to Mr. I'itzgerald, hcnvever, on the ground (.)f equity and sounil public policy, Mr. Conner not having made public his idea, and thus secured the right to it. Knos Wilder becoming associated with i'^itzgerald, the safes were introduced to the market as the "Wilder Patent Salamander Fire-Proof Safes." The patent was transferred to 15. (i. ^^'ilder in 1844. Mr. Silas C. Herring had become Herring. ^ interested in this i)atent in 1841, and had obtainetl the right to make them ; which he still retained after 1844. Herring began in a small way in the cellar of a Water-street store in New \'ork, but soon became the prin- cipal manufacturer of safes in the Cnited States. The business becoming profitable, Roberts >S: Rich began the manufacture of chests with the plaster- of-Paris filling also. 'I'his letl to lawsuits and a compromise, by which both firms were to carry on the manufacture. In 1854 Herring iS: Company virtu- ally abandoned the Wilder patent for one of their own. They had advertised for a better filling than plaster, and promised a thousand dollars' reward lor the discovery. Mr. Spear, a chemist of Philadelphia, found that chalk treated with sulphuric acid, washed and dried, and then rammed into a safe in a fme powder, had superior (pialities to plaster of Paris. It gave u[) its water of combination more slowly and in less (piantity, protecting the safe better, and obviating a dangerous tendency of the Wilder filling, in fires, to fill the sale with steam, and obliterate the precious writing in books and papers, and also, when in ordinary use, to rust the safe by slow evaporation from day to d:i>. Herring tV Company devoted themselves to utilizing this new idea; and 15. C. Wilder, Roberts t\: Rich, and their successors. manufactured under the old patent. Herring took a first premium at the World's Fair in London. It is claimed by the firm, that, since their humhle beginning in 1841, they have made and sold four million safes. There have been a great many improvements in the salamander (]ualities ol safes since i860. The patents have- beeii very numerous. Roberts rin- ■ss becoming It tlie pUtsler- .y which bodi )mi)any vinu- lad advertised ' reward lor (dialk treated riafe in a fine its water ot |fc belter, and ) fill the safe iers, and also, |i day to day. ng this new ,ir successors, mium at the their hmnl'le :r (pialiues ol and their successors, Rich iv: Roff, Roff i*v Stearns, and Steams i"t Marvin, con- tinued to experiment witli tlie Wilder patent ; but an imi)rovement other upon the hydrated plaster whicii they used was at length effected, '"ventors. wherebv the safes were filled with calcined plaster, rammed in dry, with small lumps of alurn scattered through the nniss. Alum contains fitty per cent ot water in combination, which is given off only at a heat of 212' I'ahrenheit. The tendency to rust the safe has been obviated by this arrangement, and the Marvin 'rrue-Slaiulartl safe is now made upon this principle. HERRING SAFK. Among recent inventions are the following : the vise of common salt for filling, a cement filling witli small water-vessels sto])ped with glue or mucilage, clay or concrete simply as non-comluctors, air-spaces containing ^^^^^ recent vessels of water to give otT steam during a fire, the use of non- improve- ments. conducting material between the plates of the door ami the door- casing, and a wall matle in layers, thus, — a wooden inner casing, a layer of felt, a metallic lining, a layer of cement, a water-chamber, a layer of cement, and an external metallic casing. The safes made within the last ten }ears liave been extremely serviceable. In recent great fires in lioston, Chicago, and New York, they have repeatedly brought their contents through unscathed, though hidden in the burning ruins of buildings for two or three days. The 284 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY industry has now liccomc very large. I'actories have been started in Chicago, I'hiladclphia. IJoston. New \'ork, and elsewhere. Safes are manufactured at an average cost of three hundred dollars, and, having been thus popularized, are purchased in immense numbers. None liave ever been imported, except the few strong-boxes brought from France about 1820: on the contrary. HERRING BURGLAR-PROOF SAFE. many are now being exported, especially to South America, France, and Germany. To be fire-proof is not the only quality of a good snfe, nor the only tiling which renders it in such uni\ersal demand. No one wants a safe now Burglar- unless it is at the same time burglar-proof. The first decided stcj) proof locks, i,^ the direction of a box which would defy the adroit thief, whose resources of drills, files, saws, gunpowder, sledge-hammers, wedges, blow-pipes for softening steel, &c., are so varied, wa;j taken by Mr. Lillie of OF THE UNITED STATES. 285 n Chicago, facturccl at opularized, ted, except li contrary. France, and |he only thini; a safe now- decided step adroit tliief, liiers, wedges, Mr. Lillic ot 'I'roy, N.V., wiiu was Herring's early comi)etitor. Mr. I.illie employed thick slabs of chilled cast-iron, pouring cast-iron over wrought-iron Liiiie's ribs in their construction. Safes of this style were largely used invention, by i)anks both for tiieir large vaults and the inner strong-box, which constituted only a single feature of the furniture of its interior. Liiiie's chilled iron is still largely used ; but it has been i)enetrate(l with the drill, and blown up with powder. Herring (S: Company, within the last fifteen years, have adopted the plan of using an external casing of boiler-plate, and an inner casing of steel, filling tlie intermediate space with Franklinite, the hardest of all known ores. This safe has defied the drill-and-file burglars who once penetrated to bank-safes by digging nniler the vault in secret, and oi)erating at leisure on the lloor, or by working in from an adjoining building. 'J'hey have been thrown into despair by the use of l-Vanklinite, and are dri\en to operate solely on the lock and the doors of the safe and vault. The doors and locks having now l)cen made so tight that gunpowder cannot be blown into the crevices and exploded, a safe completely burglar and fire jiroof seems to have been secured. Joseph L. Hall of Cincinnati, who established the business of safe-making in that city in 1848, also brought out a good safe. The coni])any which manu- factures them employs walls of alternate plates of iron, welded iron and steel, and carbonized, decarbonized, and crystal steel, the whole united by bolts from the inside. What new resources the burglars may bring to bear against the strong-box can only be learned by time ; but, for the present, the race of malignants appears to be com[)letely defeated. As the subject of locks will be treated elsewhere, nothing further need be said about tliem. IRON BRIIXiKS. The construction of this class of engineering works of iron and steel is one of the new intlustries of the United States. It has come into being within the last thirty years, and has attained its inii)ortance within the last fifteen. It is now one of the ten or twelve princi- making a pal iron and steel consuming industries of the country. Before the stoppage of railroad-building in 1873 by the panic of that year, 150,000 tons of pig-metal were absorbed annually in the iron-bridge factories. With rare exceptions, all the early long bridges of the country were of wood. The short bridges were generally of wood ; but here and there, on well-traversed rural roads or city streets, bridges were occasionally wood built of stone, with massive arches and rising roadway. In 1810 bridges. there were eight bridges in the country built on the suspension principle, the plank roadway in each l)eing supportetl by two heavy chains hung across the stream, passing over tall stone towers on the shore, and anchoring themselves in a mass of masonry back of the towers. The first of these bridges was built new in- dustry. ill: 2 86 /A7J i/S TRIAL I] IS TOK V Y'U f' n I ' 1 1 l\\\ \"m Toll-bridges. :;»! >'f: in I. So I over Jacob's Creek. A patent for these was obtained by James Finlay in i8o- lic at St. Louis, and is adapted both to railway and ordinary travel. It is coui- St. Louis posed of three spans, — two 502 feet in length, and one of 520 feet. Bridge. — which are crossed by steel tu])ular arches, sujjporting a doulile roadway, one for railway and the other for wagon and foot travel. Mach arch is com]iose(l of cast-steel tubes twelve feet in length, there being four sets of tubes in each arch, — two above to form the upi)er chord, and two below lo form the lower chord, the chords being united vertically by zigzag bracing, and laterally by huge iron rods. The structure is really a double bridge, or two bridges side by side. Each span is accordingly crossed by two arches. Work was begun ujjon this great viaduct in .August, 1S67, under the super- vision of" Capt. James 15. Kads, its originator and engineer ; and the .superstructure was completed in A})ril, 1S74, at a total cost of $12,000,000. The materials used in construction were supjjlied under contract by the Key- stone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Every beam, tube. l);u-. Construction and bolt was fitted to its place with microscopic exactitude Ijeforc of the bridge, jj ]^.ft ^\^q works for the scene of the bridge. The pieis of this work were built by the process employed at St. Joseph, Mo., and afterwards on the East River at New-York City. It is called the pleuro-pneumatic. It was necessary to excavate the bed of the river down to the solid rock, a distance of 119 feet below ordinary high-water line. In order to accomplish this, huge caissons of wooa and iron were built, eighty-two feet long, sixty wide, and twenty-eight feet high when launched, open below like diving-bells. The masonry of die pier was built upon the caisson, so as to be constantly above the surface of the water as the caisson slowly settled down into the water to the mud, and then into the excavation made for it by the workmen in the open air-chamber below. The pressure of air in this chaml)er was fifiy- two feet to the scjuare inch. It was very trying to the workmen ; but this plan of building a pier in deep water proved very efficient and successful. Eads's sand-pump, invented to assist in excavating the bed of the river, has sim e Eads. or Tiir. rNiTF.n states. SQI Chark's, a com- 1 a year. he fiiK'st I Tf \)ro\)cr ;am; ami styles of spans art' on a k-vcl .rack on a oo pounds, jc 'uvb- • the rcpnb- It is I o\n- of 520 feet, ing a ilouhU' Kach an h four sets ot ,wo below lu l.racini^, ami .vlclge, or two rches. ^Vork (ler the supiT- ngineer; ami $12,000,000. \)y the Key- jam, tube. bar. ^ctitude before piers of ilii^ ,iu\ afterwards .neumatic. U solid rock, a to accompli^^^ |eet long, si^^^' X diving-bells. \)e constantly [down into tlv; ly the workmen Vber Nvas fiftv- ; but this pk"^ lessful. Kads'> •iver, has sinr.s/A'/ 1/ ///s roh'Y r-'iSi, w or Till: IXIII-.n STATUS, ■"Ji I (IIH HUTS, ri n .1. ic^ cn- z mail- at prt-s- uviiuy- umil "*-'!■ ; , VI' 1"'''" uiit ui ncry, a in I ilolhcnn.i S O HI >' ich li;'^'' l\n( 'u'li^ '"■'' with hut 'I'lro oM pri'ss nsi'il by tlu' Cirsi |iriiiiiTs was tniTcIy a tahlc, upon whic h tin- typo loiinmj; llu- pa^'c to l)i' pnntitl was laiti, Ikmh;; hound togitlur liy .1 t'raiiK' ami wcduis into what is < alltil a " I'orm." The type was ., '^ ■" Dencriptlon inked liy patting' it with an inking liall, or rnniiin^ an inking oi old presi, roller over it. I'he paper wa^ laul on l.v hand, ami a Hal plate ""^ •""J*' «>' . ' working it. (it wood or iron was broiij^ht down on it by liirniii;; a s( rew. whic h Imninht the type iindir pressure. The Ivirl of Slanhopi- invented an iinprove- im lit upon this, by whii h a lever was used in tiinnettioii with the straiL;lueninj; of the joint bringing ilowii tiie platen. This sort of press \va^ the oiK- used bv the earlv Aineri- i;'n printers. liooks. newspapers, the ^irmoiis and i)amphlets of which there was Mich a |)rodigious number in early 'l;iy>. and all fine work, were printed on liressi-; ,,f this general deseription. The pattern has not gone out of use 1 nMr(islN<.-s I l( K. iMi|.sj!<' if ^3i 1 illliii*lliiM^ ,, ^ 'i^.m M> ,J OF THE UNITED STATES. ";5 11 \i \\ Hoe. \l even yet. It is a convenient style of machine for printing posters, placards, iVc, in small ofifices. The first step ui advance was in 1 790, when the idea of a cylinder press was broached. The original style of machine never came into First cyiin- use ; but the idea was a good one, and it became the theme of ^" press, numerous inventors. A Saxon by the name of Frederick Konig built the first cylinder press to run by steam in 1814 for '' The London Times." This style of press was introduced into the United States in 1830 by Robert Hoe, and Screno Newton his pa-rtner, who built the first press in use in the country. Mr. Hoe imi^roved this press immensely ; and his son, Richard M. Hoe, has added to its capacities still more. The principle of the original cylinder press was to cause the tal)le bearing the form to move horizontally back aiul forth under a large cylinder. This cylinder was supplied with paper, a sheet at a time, the paper being held to the surface of the cylinder with tapes strung taut over it. As the form went under the cylinder, the paper, moving at the same rate of speed, was brought into contact with it with pressure, and an impression taken. The form flew back under the cylinder again, when a depressed part of the surface of the latter was presented to it, to advance again lor another impression. Th's was called technically the single- cylinder press. A number of American inventors improved the machine as well as Hoe, — Campbell, Babcock, and others among the number, — and it has been made capable of printing from two thousand to three thousand ncwsjjapers an hour. In 1830 and 1836 Isaac Adams of Boston patented the press which has always been called by his name, and which has not yet been superseded in value for book-work and fine printing. In this machine the table Adams. holding the form rises and falls vertically through thi action of a jxiwerful toggle-joint below it, making a (piiet and strong impression on the l)ai)iT. The cylinder press was improved by Richard M. Hoe in 1847 ^^ , . in a new and extraordinary way. The t)'iK' was locked uj) in a provements form called a " turtle," from its resemblance to the back of that '" ''^^^ amphibian. The turtle was curved, and was made so that the form could be FRAi-.KUN PRESS. 296 IND US TRIA L HIS TOR V ii'H'fa li \i Ui •m iui fitted to tlie surface of a large cylinder, and made to revolve at any rate of speed without flying off, or parting with its type. Hoe enormously in- creased the capacity of the cylinder press by thi-s in- vention. The paper was presented to the form as the latter revolved upon tlie big cylinder l)y a number of small cylinders, each at- tended by a separate work- man. The feeding cylin- ders have been as high as eight, ten, and twelve in number. The monster Hoc press lately removed from the press-room of " The Tribune " office at Xcw York, to make way foi a more modern machine, was of the ten-cylinder pattern. The twelve-cylinder press would print about four hun- dred ])apers a minute, or twenty-four thousand an hour. 'I'he adoption of the Hoc press by "Tlie London Times" showed its value. The next and last step forward has been the perfection of the web-press. This is an American invention, and is to be credited to William A. Bullock of Philadelphia, who got a patent for it in 1S61, anu patented it in England in 1862. The idea has been taken up abroad by Walter of '"The Tondon Times" and others; but the American inventors slill retain the lead in the construction of the machine. Hoe & Company and Campbell have both perfected web-presses of their own, which are in sonic respects better than Ikillock's. The principle upon which these presses are Hoe and Bui- iii^flc is to feed the paper to the press from a huge roll, or web, lock presses upon whicli there is wound up from three to five miles of paper. Lightning-like shears in the press cut off the sheets from the roll, either before they are printed, as in the Bullock press, or afterwards, as in the others. The forms are stereotyped, and mounted on two large rollers ; those for one side of the newspaper on one roller, and those for the other side of the sheet on the other. The paper goes to one roller, and receives the impression of one set of forms, anil then goes to the other, and is printed on STANSnURY HAND-PRESS. m I,, !i OF THE UNITED STATES. 297 ny rate isly in- j of the thk in- ^er was form as ipon the mim\)er each al- Lte work- ig cylin- ; high as welve in ister Iloe ved from of "'I'he at New vay foi ^< :hinc, was ;r pattern. xler press t four hnn- ininiite, or isand an tion of the le London its vaUie. web-press. A. Bullock patented it abroad by entors still mpany and ■e in some presses arc oil, or web, :s of paper, .s from the -ards, as in ■ge rollers ; other side eceives the printed on the other side, and passes on to the fly, to be delivered to the men who carry the papers to the folding-room. The II oe presses have a capacity of 18,000 impressions with folder an hour, and 25,000 without this attachment. The I'ampbell press has a capacity of 35,000, but is generally op- crated with a fold- ing-machine, which reduces its work to 10,000 an hour. The advantage of this style of press is not so much in the number of impres- sions per hour as in the saving of the original cost of tlie niacliine, and ex- panses of operation. A web-press is well scr\ed by two or three men, while the I'll! style of Hoe press of the same capacity would re- Miiire ten or twelve men. The United States is greatly interested in the progress of tlu' printing-press, because the news- l'M"^r and the book 'i^ivc now become M;^'<^ iK I 29S nvD us trih r. nrs tor y essentials in the life of every intelligent person, and the cheapening of the pro- cesses of making them is of vital importance to the welfare and progress of our beloved coun- try and its inhab- itants. When this Importance cheap- of printing- e n i n g press. ,• can be done by the employ- ment of machinery, instead of by the cheapening of the wages of labor, the progress made is wholesome and sat- isfactory. WIRE. The manufLiclure of wire is a very ancient art ; but the metal originally used was almost ex- clusively eilher gold or silver, and malle- ability was taken ad- vantage of in the production of the wire rather than ductility. The metal was hammered out into thin sheets, and then cut into narrow slips, or slivers, which were after- Ancient wards rounded by hammering. The fabled net of Vulcan was made of such wire. Fabrics were also woven of it ; and a golden garment weighing thirty-six pounds, made from wire of this sort, was found in the tomb of the wife of the Emperor Honorius when opened at Rome in 1544. An allusion is made in the Book of Exodus to the tact that " they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wire," for deco- rating the rich garments of the priests. " The beautifully-twined tassels of solid gold " of the .4!)gis, referred to in the " Iliad ; " the /one which Juno put on to captivate Jupiter, — " All around A huiicirecl tassels hung, mre works of art, All gold, each one a hundred oxen's price ; " and the wonderful head-dress of a profusion of gold chains found by Schlic- tnann at Troy, — were all matle of hammered wire. NEWSI'Al'EK I'ROOK-rKESS. wire-mak ing. OF THE UNITED STATES. 299 of the pro- -)rogress ol ved coun- its inhal)- When this c h e a p- e 5- e n i n g can be the employ- ■ machinery, of \)y ibc ihig Ol the 3f labor, the s made is ame and sat- •y- WIRE. e manufacture j-e is a very It art ; but letal originally was almost ex- ely either gold ^er, and malle- was taken ad- ^e of in the Ihammered out |ich were after- ,of Vulcan was ; and a golden re of this sort, _ when opened [lus to the tatt ire," for deco- [ined tassels of which Juno p"t md by Schlie- It was not until some time after 1300 that wire-drawing became an art. A race of wire-drawers, who made iron wire by hand, and afterwards by water- power, then sprang up in Oermany, and became famous in luirope. Nurem- l)erg was the great centre of the industry. It was introduced vvjre. thence into Mngland about the middle of the fifteenth century, drawing in In the original machine processes the wire was stretched out from "s an slender iron bars by pincers driven by water-power, which came forward and !#; fi:'.J"r 300 /A^D US TRIA L HIS TOR V strings of pianos, and for fences, and is woven by niarliincry for a great variety of purposes. Recent deep-sea soundings have been made witli piano-wire, which have been a huntlred times more satisfactory than any ever l)elbre made with cords and rope, (iold and silver wire for chains, and filigree-work, and lace, are extensively used in the decorative arts ; and platinum wire is Wire for drawn out as fine as a cobweb for the jjurposes of the crossed telescopes. j^^irs in the telescope. The finest wire made is for the telescope. .\n ingot of platinum is surrounded with silver, and the compound wire drawn down to the finest point. The silver is then dissolved with nitric acitl, leaving the microscopic thread of platinum behind. Wire thus made has been as fine as j^iiTjj of an inch. m n WASHBURN & MOEN WIRE-WORKS, WORCESTER, MASS. The process of wire-drawing is simple. I''or ordinary commercial wire, iron rods of tough quality are bent into coils, and put into large tumbling boxes or Process of rotating cylinders, with water and gravel to remove the scale. They wire-draw- are hcatcd and re-rolled until they arc reduced to a coarse wire of '"^' about an eighth of an inch in diameter. They are then passed cold through the draw plate. This is a piece of hardened steel pierced witl". a large number of tapering holes, the smallest part of each hole being on the side from which the wire emerges. The end of the wire, being carried through the largest hole, is attached to a reel, and the rod drawn through with power at the rate of from sixty to two hundred feet a minute, stretching it, and reducing its size. It is then passed through a smaller hole, and the process is repeated until the requisite size of wire is obtained. The wire is often passed through ten, fifteen, thirty, and even more holes, to get it down to the requisite fineness. The continued drawing rendering the wire brittle, it is necessary to anneal it several times during the process of reduction to make it soft. It is heated t variety no-wire, re mailc ec-work, 1 wire is crossed elesco\)e. and wire trie acid, has been 5*^-- 01' THE UNITED STATES. 301 to redness in coils, and allowed to cool gradually in kilns. Twenty-four hours is the usual length of time for cooling f(jr the smaller wires. The scale is removed after each annealing by pickling in dilute oil of vitriol. C'ast-steel wire is made from rods hannnered to a ([uarter-inch diameter l)y the tiit-hanmier. It makes the toughest wire known ; and it will stand a strain of about 200,000 poimds to the scjuare incii against 100,000 Cast-steei |)ounds, which is the strain the best iron wire will endure to the ^""^• s(iuare inch. Spurious gold wire is made by heating copper wire to redness, and exposing it to the fumes of zinc, which converts the exterior of the wire into brass. .Vmerican inventors have brought out a wire with a steel core and copper exterior, which is claimed to have advantages for telegraphy. In 1858 Henry Waterman invented a jjlan for tempering flat steel wire for crinolines (made by drawing, and rolling afterwards), whicii reduced the cost of temper- ing from three dollars to three cents a pound. Previously the wire had been wound into great volute coils, interlaced with iron wire, and in this form exposed to the baths, &c., of the tempering process. Waterman drew the wire through the heating-furnace directly into the hardening bath by machinery. His process is applied to all tempered-steel wire now. Wire-drawing has not received the conspicuous development in the United States to which it is entitled, both because of foreign competition and of the limited uses of \. '.re. Present indications point to an enlargement Deveiop- of the industry on account of the growing applications of wire, ment of in- and the probability of fintling a large market for the .American "^ ''^' article in South .\merica and Australia. If China and Japan would introduce tile telegraph generally, a great impetus would be given to the factories of this <;ountrv. •ial wire, iron [ng boxes or scale. They )arse wire of then passed terced witl". a l)eing on the Irried through [with power at land redurint: Iss is repeated Tssed through [isite nneness. to anneal it It is heated \vater-\viiki:ls. The rugged ranges of mountains and hills, and the generally broken quality of thj surface of the country of all the States lying along the .Atlantic coast of this country, have been to our people a boon of decided value. Causes which lie so far away behind the setting of the stage upon ^^^^^. wliich the incidents of history take place as to be invisible to the power in ])hysical eve, and almost to the mind, ot'ten exercise the most „"''^ ' -^ ' ' ' States. pcjwcrful of influences upon all that occurs. \ large part of the wonderful progress of the .American people in industry and civilization is due to the rugged nature of the territory in which the first colonies of the republic were planted. The speculative philosopher can see in the i)eculiarities of that territory the germs even of .American independence and the free institu- tions which the people set up here after independence had been secured ; for, on a comparison of the different races and countries of history, it is found, diat, in general, the mountains and hills have always been the seat of the greatest human liberty and progress, whereas the plains have been the basis ! • l»i|M^ 30a INDUSTRIAL HISTORY and New England. of whatever indolence and slavery the world has seen. A real connection caif be traced between the free and aggressive spirit of the early colonists of the North and the character of the region they inhabited. lUit the hills were of more immediate value in the intluence they exerted ui)on material progress. They filled the States they permeated with an unparalleled luxuriance of water-power, which was of incalculable value in enabling the i)eoj)le to manu- liicture. and to build mills and fLictories and shops of all kinds, and thus make for themselves those implements and goods which are to every great nation an important source of its culture and power. .\t New-Vork City, and along the flat seacoast of the country, windmills. were employed by the early inhabitants to grind their grain, and saw tiieir „ , .,, lumber ; and those (luaint relics of a bvgone age are still in use Early mills ' ' .no in New York among the people on the New-England coast and the outlying islands of that region. They have no waterfiills, because the country is too flat. In the interior there has been from the beginning, in all the arable States except Illinois, an almost inexhaustible supply of water-power ; and all the heavy machinery of the interior was pro- Water- iK'llcd by it for two hundred years. This water-power has been power in eagerly taken up, and it has given rise to a myriad of flourishing ^^*' cities and villages in different parts of the country. It has been improved by the building of costly dams to regulate the flow of water so that it might not run to waste, and the construction of great storage reservoirs to hoard the accumulations of the wet seasons. A few streams like the Merrimack, the Quinebaug, the Willimantic, the (lenesee, and the Owasco, have become the seat of extraordinary aggregations of capital and labor. Yet so abundant is the republic's endowment of this cheap and serviceable power, that probably not one-half of that which is available in the country is yet harnessed for the service of man. It is only in the East that it is well taken up. Up to within forty years, all the wheels used in the United States for utiliz- ing the power of mill-streams were of wootl. They were huge, heavy, clumsy- Wood structures, twenty, thirty, and forty feet in diameter, — picturcs(]ue wheels. enough when taken together with the red mills by the side of which they hung, and the sparkling waterfalls which they took their power from, but still liable to get out of order, to be choked ' th ice in the winter, anil to waste almost as much power as they saved. They were of four classes. — the undershot, the overshot, the breast-wheel, and the susjjended or tide wheel. The former were very little used, because they utilized only from twenty-five to thirty-three per cent of the force of the stream. They were hung near the fall ; and the water, issuing from the bottom of the dam with great velocity through a floodgate, acted against the floats, or paddles, of the bi.i,' wheel. They were a very crude type of motive-power. The breast-wheel was the undershot, placed in actual contact with the flill. so that about one-quartor of the circumference was acted ui)on directly by the water of the fall. The 01' TIIK rNITKD STATES. 303 :tion vater so that reservoirs to I Merrimack, lave become so abundant hat probably cssed for the Ics for utiliz- l^cavy, clumsy . picturesque the side of their power |in the winter, four classes. Inded or tide Id only fr"ii> (ley were hung im with great les, of the big last-wheel was It one-quarter Ihe fall. 'I'li^' water acted upon this class of wheels l)oth by gravity and momentum. About sixty-five per cent of the power of the water was saved in a wiieel from sixteerj to twenty-five feet in diameter. 'I'he suspended wheel is hung in the current of tiie stream, and is simply an undershot, intended to take advantage of the flow of the tide back antl forth. The overshot was the most powerful of the four classes of wooden wheels. This type is still largely used. 'l"he wneei is supplied with buckets on the circumference instead of paddles, and receives its water through a i)ipe or raceway from above. It may be used with any size of fall from ten to fifty feet high ; and it is said that one is in use in the Isle of Man which has the enormous diameter of seventy-two feet and a half, and a breadtii of six. The disadvantage of the wheel is, that it is always heavily loaded with water, which causes it to bear heavily upon its axle. It is also a slow-moving wheel, and this makes it necessary to multiply gearing in iV.c mill in order to impart speed to the machinery. , No s])ecial ingenuity was required to make these old wooden wheels. Any carpenter conld buikl them. Very few patents were issued in regard to them. About forty years ago there came a demand for an improved water-whceL In densely-i)opulated regions, where mill-streams were crowded with factories, it became important to make every gallon of water which passed over a dam do its share of work, and do as much work as possible. Attention was turned to a wheel invented in France by Benoit Fourneyron in i<'->34, who received six thousand francs from the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts at Paris as a reward for his valuable device. This was the original turbine-wheel,, or, if not absolutely the first and the parent of its class, the first original which was ever in practical use. It was a horizontal wheel placed turbine- at the bottom of the fall, and supplied with water from a perpendicular pipe. The water descended upon a solid circular plate, which was stationary ; the- ui)per surface of it being grooved from the centre to the circumference, the grooves not being straight, like the spokes of a wagon-wheel, but curved, like- a sickle ; so that the water, as it reached the rim of the circular plate, shot out of the grooves at a tangent in twenty or more spouts all round the wheel. The buckets or floats of the wheel were outside the circular disk, and received the spouting water with great violence, and were thus forced to revolve rapidly around the disk, the water flowing outward into the river-bed from the buckets.. The floats, being attached to an annular disk, turned the perpendicular shaft, and transmitted the power to the mill above. Attention was turned to the new idea in the United States about 1843. Public discussion took place ; and in 1844 J^Ir- U. A. Boyden of Boston invented a turbine which was an improvement upon Fourneyron's, and which, with later improvements of its own, has come into extensive use in this country. The- lust one in practical use was put into a cotton-mill in Lowell. It saved seventy-eight per cent of the power of the water. Boyden has made others. since which have saved eighty-two per cent. From 1843 to the present. Boyden. 304 IX I) us TNI A I. I/IS 7 OK V turbine is determined. invention has been active, and more than a thousand patents have been issued at Washint^'ton for new forms of wheels, and new attachments to them. A variety of excxxvhngly effective wheels have been pnxhiced, and the iron tur- bine has now ahnost comijletcly super- seded the great wooden wheel of our forefathers. About twenty-five large am 1 flourishing factories of them have grown up in New ICngland, New \'ork, Teuu- sylvania, Maryland, and tiie AN'est. The power of the turbine is derived from the weight of the column of water How the 'lowing into the wheel, and power of the the Speed of the current. If .sity of securing their houses carefully against nUKC.I.AR-PHOOF I.O'.'I-:. the intrusion of luiauthori/cd persons, and their valuables within the house- hold aL;ainsl even their own domestics. The chanL;e hr.s heen ver\- j^rcal. A hundred years ago the bolt on the outer door, and the 1()( k upon the mu' box of private papers and valuables in the house or upon the strong 1hi\ ai the store, were almost the only barriers erected against jilunder and curinMlv. Number of lo-day. in the large cities, the whole building is placed under 1"< k locks used and key, even to the i)antrv ; and, instead of the two locks ol tlu' nowa ays. q\([c\\ time, a city residence, v.ith its furniture, will now be iiticil with from one to three hundred, and a pulilic building with two or ihice thousand. or THE rxiTF.D states. 307 the lidiise- |v j;rr;U. \ nn tlK' "iif |(1 curioMtv. neks cf lli^' |,w be riu^'.hoot six or eight bolts at once; but they were all of the simple plan above described, and could be easily pic-ked with a bit of ( rooked wi.o in five minutes. 'I'hey were formidable chielly in a|)pearan(e. In r]n,t,Mand, where the greater accumulation of wealth compelled people to pay more attention to lock-making, an idea was brought out by Mr. lln'^ron in 177.S. which added greatly to the security of locks, and which, in Barron's fact, lies at the foundation of all our modern devices for fastening invention. th" doors of safes and treasure-magazines. Darron employed two tumblers, or l;U(hcs, which fell down into the bolt and caught it. and which had to be lifted before the bolt could be moved. In 1788 Joseph Bramah of England M 'Ml I; fflM i 308 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY I ?'■« V Bramah. Newall. invented a lock with several sliders and two barrels, the inner one shooting the bolt. Bramah declared that it was hot within the range of art to i)ick iiis lock, and the contrivance did defy the burglars and locksmiths for over half a century. Many years after the war of 181 2 attention began to be paid to lock- making in this country. The tuml)ler was adopted, and many minor improve- ments effected. How to make a lock which nobody could pick was a problem that well suited the genius of the Yankee, and ap])lications for patents for one device and another began to pour into the city of V\ashington. The first real stir was created in 1841 by Dr. Andrews of Perth Amboy, N.J., who drews's brought out a permutation-lock, in which a number of rings were improve- attached to the key, and suscei)tible of an endless variety of com- ment. . binations. When the bolt is turned, the lock cannot be moved except with exactly the same combinations on the key. The lock had tumblers and a detector, — a device which prevented the tumblers from freeing the bolt if lifted too high. This invention excited great admiration ; but it was picked by Newall of New York, who, in turn, brought out one of his own in 1843, with two sets of tumblers, thus increasing the complicnlion. It wa- thought that the acme of perfection had been reached, and Newall <:onfi(i'ntly offered five hundred dollars to any one who would pick it. His contrivance succumbed, however, to Mr. Pettitt and to William Hall of lioston. who picked it by the smoke-process, — a device of the burglars. .\ smoky flame was blown into the keyhole, leaving a fine deposit of lamp-black on llie tumblers. The key being introduced removed the lamp-black from the parts it touched. By means of a reflector a strong light was thrown into the lock, and the key-marks revealed, aiid the proper shape of the false key thu:' indi- cated. Newall's lock was then impro\ed by devices for keeping the mechanism concealed from view. H. C. Jones of Newark us •(! concentric rings and a curta.'n for this purpose, and Pyes used eccentric rings and a curtain. A. C. Hobbs, an expert American locksmith, a(lo])ted the improved device, calling it the Parantoptic, and got a gold necLil for it at London in 1851. The American lock-makers made :i distinguished sensation at that World's Fair. Hobbs declared that he coulil pick all the locks in lOngland in a few minutes, including the famous liramali. „ ,.,. , His challensre was accepted, and lie was given a ( "hr.bb lock, ;iii Hobbs s '^ ' ^ experiments old patent, and the original lock which first used a detector, to inpickmg experiment ipon. A convict lock-maker ho'i once been offered locks. ' ' 1 , 1 - -1 1 his liberty and a hundred pounds to pick 'this lock, and had failed after three months of trial. Hobbs opened it in a few minutes. The fairness of the experiment being called in question, he renewed the attempt in a ]Miv;ite house in the presence of a mmiber of gentlemen, and succeeded in twenty-live minutes. He thei. went at the Bramah. The manufacturer of it had for years exhibited a lock, with an offer of two hundred guineas to any one who should Jones. /^. joting gc of .irglars ) lock- ipn)ve- iroblem for one real stir .]., who igs wore of com- : movetl mm\)lers the bolt :is picked f his own , plication. d Newall c it. His of Boston. noky flame :k on the the parts the lock, thu- iiiili- [nechanism concentric ntric rin-;s lopted the rold nedal L-s made :i It he ct)uld us I'.ramah. Ibb lock. ;ni detector, to leon offered [\ had fail'-''^ ;he fairne>-' [in a pvivale twenty-five ,ad for y^^^'-^ who shoiikl OF THE UNITED STATES. 309 pick it. The Bramah troubled him ; but, after working at it from July 24 to Aug. 23, he succeeded in unlocking it at last. Hobbs then offered the same reward to whoever should pick tlie Parantoptic. Several of the best of the lOnglish locksmiths accepted, and worked on the lock for thirty days, and failed. The American invention won a conceded supremacy, and the furore over it was immense. The Bank of luigland procuretl one, antl the pattern came into general use in banks and stores in the United States. Even the Parantopti':, however, gave way to American ingenuity in 1855, Linus Yale, jun., who had picked a very successful lock invented by his father, attacked the Parantoptic, and won a victory by the impression process. He had declared for several years, that as long as the key is of a winged form, and rubs an impression on tumblers, it can be picked ; and this event proved it. To obviate this weakness of locks, he had invented in 185 1 one of his own contrivance, which he called "the magic lock." It is believed that tliis one has ne^'er yet been picked. The key and its bits, though apparently of one ))icce, are separable. On the key being introduced to the lock, the bits are taken off by a pin. The key being turned puts in motion a set of wheels, which carry off the bits to a remote part of the lock, out of the reach of picking-tools, where they operate upon the tumblers ; afterwards returning to the handle of :. • _j: .^^^ 3IO INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ''mt wm ■R-t\. W lift' ^ly I V; phia. It is a very ancient maclvne (dating back to the second century Importance before (Hirist at least), is now made in a wide variety of forms, of industry. ^^■^^\ \^ ^f incalculable utility. It was not in very general use among llie colonists of America, because of the cost of pump logs or tubes, fhrough which the water had to be lifted by the piston of the punip. The well was fur- Wood nished with br.ckets, operated by pumps. means of the long well-sweep, or by a counterpoise of some other sort, which made it easy to lift the brimming bucket from the dejnhs of the well, \\ith machinery for boring pump-logs, and with the impor- tation of lead pipe, pumps came into use. They were at fwst, and indeed until witiiiii thirty or forty years, ahva)'s of wood, the \alves alone being of iron 'and leather. About forty years ago manufacturers began to make cast- iron pumps, and these have \irtually super- seded all others for domestic uses. The wooden pump survives only on farms and as ^^ the town-pump on village greens. Sweet and -- tender memories cluster around the well- sweep and the old wooden pump, and the PUM,,, gradual disappearance of both before the bus- ding and unsentimental civilization of the present times causes a feeling of positive regret. The highest type of pump up to the date of the introduction of tlie machine into the water-works systems of cities was the hre-engine. ^\'o had no great mines in this country whose treasures were deluired Fire-engine. . , ^ i • i With floods of water as m the silver p.ountains of Peru, and machines of great power to keep the mines dry were unnecessary ; so that for a long period the fire-engine was the peer of pumps, and a very old- fogy sort of a peer it was too. The pump was mounted upon a huge >vater-tight wagon-box, into which the water was poured by the bucket First ma- comjianies, which stood in line, and passed the buckets along chines: how from the nearest well. "The ])ump was operated by hand-le\eis, constructed. ^^^^^^ ^j^^|^^ ^^ twenty mcn being able to catch hold of tiio levers. The old machines were clumsy and absurd devices. After tlio great fire in New York in 1835 niore attention was given to them, and they were then gready improved. They were fitted with surtion-pipes, which, while en route to and from fires, were carried in the position in which a squirrel carries liis tail, and which at'terwards were made to be detached. and put on at will. The brakes were lengthened, and large brass receivers OF THE UNITED STATES. 3" entury forms, •al use tubes, \c(l by ^•as I'ur- iled by •eep, or :, which bucket ichinery impor- nlo use. il within he valves lOUt I'orty lake easi- ly super- is. 'I'li^ ns aud as Sweet and |lhe wcU- and die c the bns- 111 of the )n of the nie. ^^'^' e deUiged Peru, and so that were put upon the pumps. Some very effective types of fire-engines were procUiced by this means. The l)LSt of cast-iron and cast-steel was ])ut into the workiuLj-parts of the machine, and they were made to work smoothly, and to endure a long period of hard usage. The machine con- tained either two double-acting or four single-acting force-punii)s. They were mostly made in the I'^astern States ; and the larger part of the thirty- five hundred fire-engines in use throughout the Tnitcd States are still of liiis class of hand-jjowcr machines. Thcv are al)le to llu^ow an inch-stteam of water seventy-five feet higli ; but it is very exhausting work lor the men who operate tlie brakes. Simultaneous- ly with the imi)rovemcnt of the hand fire-engine, atten- tion began to be paid to the subject of steam fire- engines. One of the IrUer clajs j-.ad been made in England as early as 1S29; but it was excessively clum- sy ; and, after a few were made, they attracted no more attention for twenty years. But in the United States the idea was taken up and 1 dlized. built .-L steam in Mr. Hodges Hodges. mUMll.K-ACTINr. I'UMr, SUM" OK i-ii;i fire-engine 1 84 1 for the insurance companies of Xew-Vork City, and employed it to good effect on several occasions of fire. Tt was too heavy, however, for rajiid trans- portation from one part of the city to another in emergencies. Cincinnati was tlic first city to make the steam fire-engine a success. A. R. Latta Extent of built one of these engines for the city in 1S53, and two more the modern im- vt-ar following. They were designed to be locomotives, and go by P"'"'^^"'^" ^• tlieir own steam, but were dreadfiilly heavy, weighing about twelve to. is each. These three engines were successfully used as part of tlie fire-apparatus of Cincinnati ; but the attempt to propel them from one i)lace to another with vm bi.: 'r t M I! ^^11'*;* 313 INDUSTRIAL II IS TO A' Y their own power was afterwards abandoned. In 1859 a machine was built in New York, weighing only five thousand pounds, to be drav/n by hand. That then came to be the standard weight of this class of engines, and a great many patterns of them have since then been invented and perfected. Boston^ Philadelphia, Chicago, and other large cities, made experiments with this class of fire-apparatus ; and the result has been that all large communities have now adopted them j^Tmanently, and discarded their old hand-machines. New- York City has thirty-five of the new class. Those at present in use are HYDKAULIC HAM. ! ' drawn by two horses each, and will throw a five-eighths inch jet over a hun dred feet high, sometimes a hundred and thirty feet, "'hey are supplit'd either with piston pumps or rotary pumps ; the latter being a new idea in tliis class of machines, introduced about fifty years ago, and within the last twenty has become exceedingly popular. An animated controversy has raged between the rival makers of steam fire-engines as to the respective- merits of the rotary and the piston principles. A continuous flow, however, is maintained with both. In the best types of engines now made steam is A sr( or hi in al CO in 11 Itiiilt a bu" in tlii^ I the la^t. :rsy bas Pspectivi- Biowover, Isteam is OF THE UNITED STATES. 313 raised in five minutes. The principal factories arc those of the Amoskcag Company, Silsby & Company of Seneca Falls, N.\'., the Paterson Company of Paterson, N.J., and E. A. Straw of Manchester, N.H ; but there are half a dozen other manufacturers. Within the last forty years a change has taken place with regard to pumps in domestic use, and the fire-engine is no longer the peer of pumps. Water- works have been extensively introduced to cities and villages ; and ^ ° ' Pumps for this has led to a double result : lirst the almost total abolition of supplying the common iron pump from households in those cities and vil- ^'t'^s with lages, and the construction of a new class of massive machines of enormous power to take their place, by forcing the water through pijjes and mains, under pressure, to the different houses and buiklings of the community. STUAM-I'UMP. A threat many towns have been able to build reservoirs on the adjacent hills or high lands, at such a height above the place as to insure a heavy pressure in all the water-^oipes of the place by the operation of gravity. But not all oommimities are so happily situated ; and, in order to secure a distribution of tlv.' water, resort is had to powerful forcing-engines. These machines are huilt so massively that they frequently constitute the heaviest machinery in f !tl :t. I it' I m ;^Hl5.i. i 314 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ■ '< OF THE UNITED STATES. 315 operation in a city, and are one of the local wonders of the place. They are cither piston or rotary pumps. The rotary puiups, if driven by water-power, are direct acting ; that is, the shaft of the turbine rises into tlie box of the rotary pump, and forms the axle of the pump, or else gears into the axle. The turbine moves naturally with such velocity, that no special gearing is rc([uired to increase the speed of the pumi). If steam is used, or if a piston- pump is employed with water-power, the machine-room is generally supplied with a heavy fly-wheel, which maintains an eence to the siiilling less value than the coinage. Knglish coin, so as to insure their remaining at home. 'l"he larger coin was the famous pine-tree siiilling. Virginia and the Carolinas also coined pennies. These ventiu'cs were regarded witii great disfavor in England as an infringe- ment on the prerogatives of royalty, and they became siiortdived experiments in consecjuence. Notliing more was done about a mint until 1782, when Robert Morris — the best financier of his day, and who hail more than once helped Washington through a crisis by his advances of hard money to the national treasury — was asked to report a system of coinage, Mr. Morris complied, and g . br h his report formed the theme of debate for a number of years, mcntofmint The foundation of the currency had been for years the Spanish ^^ P'niadei- ^ ■' ' phia. (lollar, and contracts for hard money were always payable in that coin. In order to determine the exact value of the coin, so that no injustice might be done by replacing it with American pieces, careful assays were made iiy Hamilton, and 37 1| grains of pure silver were fixed ui)on as the standard value of the Spanish dollar. The ecpiivalcnt of this in gold was fixed at twenty-seven grains. Several plans of coinage were suggested ; Jefferson's and finally one ])roposed by Jeffersor was ado])ted, and enacted system. April 2, 1792. It conlormed to the decimal notation, and included a golden eagle of 270 grains (fineness 9i6§), a half-eagle of gold, a (|uartcr-eagle, and a (lollar, a silver dollar of 416 grains (fineness 892^), a half-dollar, (juarter- (lollar, dime, and half-dime, and a copper cent of 264 grains. A mint was established at Phila(leli)hia, some very noble devices adopted for the coins, and the striking of metal money began. This first, g.^^ve the Americans a money of their own, and the Spanish and other foreign pieces gratlually disappeared from the i)urses and money-boxes of the peo[)le. They were mostly sent into the mint, and recoined. It took some time, however, to cfllct the change, because the facilities of rapid ai d safe trans]iortation of niDuey from one point of the country to another had not yet been created ; and, the circulation of foreign coins being permitted, merchants and bankers preteiTcd to let matters take their own course without forcing them. Two varieties of the coins authorized by the act of 1792 were worth too much to circulate. Owing to a rise in t . value of copper, it was found that tlic cent had been made too heavy, and was worth more than the hundredth part of the dollar. The weight was accordingly changed, Jan. 14, 1793,10 li , fill ■, 320 /X/)l\S INIAI. mSTON V VII<(,INI\ IIAI.I'I'UNNV. 208 f,'rains. A year or two later it was rcducfd to 168 grains, and remained Difficulty at that standard until discontinued in 1H57. The ^{old dollar and with coino«e its niultiples wcre also too lu'avy. l!y an error in the calculation, **' '^''' twenty-seven grains were erroneously fixed U|)<)n as the ei|uivaleiit of the silver dollar; and gold, though coined to a limited extent, never came into use under the law of 1792. The reason was, that the eagle, while worth more than ten dollars in silver, could only lirculate as ten dollars ; where- as for expcjrtation it would l)ring its true value as 270 grains of bullion of a certain purity. 'I'he gold coin, ac- cordingly, was all sent abroad to pay for foreign purchases ; and the only metal currency of the United States was silver and copper until after 1S34. About that time there was a gold furore in the United States, caused by the discovery of that precious metal in (leorgia and in the mountains of the Creation of Caroliiias. The yield of gold from the mines which were ()|)enul gold-pieces, ^y.^^ never extravagantly large ; but it was sufficient to cause the public men of the United Slates to resolve to restore gold to the circulation of the country. A careful study of the relative values of gold and silver was made, and a ratio of values agreed upon. In order, however, to make Ihe ^i;old dollar cirt'ulate, its weight was not only reduced to the proper i)oint to make it worth exactly the same as the silver dollar, but it was brought just .1 trille below it. 'i'he law of June 2is , make the or ])oinl t*' light just :i ;ing a P'^'' lanil a hall grains was lining gol'l; inch cstab- opcncd to Iht to ii '"'■ vincxpciud aimed mily worth nwro ra\)idly e\- Itimc, K'lallv :cd to 41-!! •h was goiii;^ ,maU cl\augc il half-dollars country was ick to barter nd for small change, the merchants began to issue a sort of fra( tional paper ( iirrenc y, which was extensively usid in large ( ities. In order to affonl llu' people tl»e needed relief, Congress ena( ted a law, l''eb. 21, 1H55, changing the weight of the iialf-(lollar to 192 grains (900 fine), and the smaller coins relatively. 'I'hat gave the peo])le a subsidiary coinage for small business-transactions ; but it linished the silver era of American money at a blow. .Ml the r)ld silver dis- appeartS,44O 5(),707,2::o 6(),.|i2,Si5 26,7()i;,750 1,300,032 '9..I45-438 .S,045.S3S 24,5X1,350 118,869,540 3-1.774.' 2' 27o,S5S if), 1 4 1,786 4,906,946 1,281,850 5,773,090 855,090 912,020 5.304.577 39,926 $983,159,695 208,872,289 12,884,703 $1,204,916,687 %\ While the government exercises the sole right of coining the precious 322 IND us TRIA L HIS TORY ■%i„ iij j7 h lit i i^W i : metals for the purposes of a medium of exchange, and of regulating the . ,. . fineness of the pieces, it does not carry on the process of minting Minting not ' ^ '^ carried on for profit. Cloining was formerly a source of enormous gain to for making a royalty in Europe, when the people were systematically defrauded pront< by the issuj of pieces worth far less than their nominal value, in order that the king might make the difference. In the United States the mint has always been merely a factory where the people can bring their gold and silver and other metal, and, by paying a small charge for the expenses of the operation, have the metal converted into pieces of a given weight and fine- ness. The stamp of the government is merely the certificate of its weight and fineness. Coining has never been carried on by the people, except under the stress of a great necessity, and then only to a limited extent. During the war a vpst number of copper tokens, which passed current as a cent, were coined for busiiess-men ; and, during the early days of gold-mining in the West, private firms established private mints at Denver, Col., and in ^\a\ Fran- cisco. The coins they struck were merely tokens ; and, though they were largely twenty-dollar-pieces, they were always worth more than their face as bullion. The miners resorted to these mints merely as a resource for having their gold-dust converted into convenient form for shipment to the States. l"he process of coining is very simple, and is substantially the same, whether the pieces struck are of gold, silver, copper, or nickel, (.old and Processor silver are brought to the mint in many different forms, — in the coining. /"qj.,^^ ^j- gojd-dust, amalgamated cakes trom the retorts of the stamp-mills, laminated bars, assayed bars, plate, jewelry, and foreign coin. Tlie metal is sent first to be assaytc', where the jiure gold and silver are first extracted, and then severally alloyed in the proportion of nine per cent of pure me'.al to one of alloy. The metal comes to the mint proper in flat bars. It is weighed, tested to ascertain its fineness, and is passed over to the manufacturing department. The bars are then annealed, and rolled at a red- heat into long, thin strips. They are again annealed, and drawn out betwcL-ii steel plates of the hardest sveel to the i^roper thickness for coining. Imjiu the strips thus obtained a machine punches out round planks, or i)lanchets,. of the proper size for coining. The punch cuts out a hundred and sixty a minute. The blanks are collectetl, and the perforated strip sent back to be melted and re-rolled. The blanks are then cleaned, and a few pieces from each lot weighed in delicate balances to ascertain if they are of the proper standaid. In old times, when coins were struck l)y hand on an anvil, pieces differed materially in weight ; and the merchant balanced each one on his finger, and estimated its value, before he took it. Tiie use of machinery has obviated the ancient v.'ide differences in weight ; yet it is impossible to prevent a shadi. dI variation, and tlie mint does not attemj^t to give each piece a mathemati( ally exact value. What is called a ''working tolerance" of weight is allowed. This legal deviation is as follows : - - ill OF THE UNITED STATES.* 323 :ing the minting gain to efraudcd value, in tates the heir gold )enscs ol and fme- its weight ept under )uring the cent, were ing in the '■\^.\^ Fran- they were iciv face as for having States. r the same. Gold and ms, — inthe torts of the coin. 'I'he ^^cr are first per cent ot in flat bars, lovor to the (1 at a red- out between |ning. 1''"-'"^ or planchets,. and sixty a |t back to be jcs from each [per standard, .cces diff^-red lis flnger. aivl obviated tlu' U a sha* 420 I* 192.9 4 96.45 •i 77.16 ■i 38.5X li Pieces which fall below the standard by more than the above variation are called "condemned lights," and are sent back for re-melting. The "heavies" are reduced to the ]iroper point by filing. The others are called "standards." When those of the right weight are sorted out, they are milled in a machine which raises the edge so as to protect the device of the completed coin from wear. The blanks are then cleaned, polished by agitation, and sent to the coining-press. The press is a simple but very massiv*. machine. When d;)iil)le-eagles are coined, it is made capable of administering to the golden blanks a grim thrust of seventy-five tons. The blanks are j)ut into a tid^e, and slip down one by one upon the bed of the press. They rest upon a die mntaining the device of one side of the coin, while a die containu.j the other comes down upon them. The impression of both sides, and the flutin j of the edge to save it from filing, are given all at once. Steel fingers pick tip the stamped coin, and re- move it. The ordinary speed of coinage is from sixty to eighty per minute. A pair of dies lasts ab'jiit two weeks. The operations of the mint are not confined entirely to the coining of .-Xmerican money. A great many commeino- Ir^Kn^n^^ rative and other medals ordered by solely con- ("ongress are struck from time to ^"='1 t°<=°i°- ing money. lime, and there has been some work tor foreign governments performed. At Phila- (leli)hia 12,000,000 nickel pieces were struck in 1876 for Venezuela. The establishment at Philadelphia is the principal one in the country, and has a ;,iii,8i3 659,865,683 534,360,182 $1,882,726,948 This would seem to show that the whole coinage of the United States had been substantially exported ; but fortunately a large part of the export, perhaps $500,000,- Extent of ex- 000, was in bullion, and consequendy po" of coins, the drain upon the coinage was lessened by that amount. Those who have studied Uie sul^j^ct closely believe that about $300,000,000 of the gold and silver of the United States has escaped the melting-pot, and is still extant, and held in the country, and therefore available for circulation. Tlie rest is believed to have been recoined in Europe, or consumed in the arts. THE WASHINGTON HALF-UOLlJ\Ri r4 • "^ m m X'i, 'I 11 Ithe United I, and a new Lindeman. kl Stales up if this ("iii- Itence is slill Iwn. If 1^1^' trade, were JEWELRY. The most ancient use 01' gold and silver was probably for personal adorn- iiunt. The rarity and beauty of the tw ) metals caused them to be prized for this purpose from the very beginning. At first the kings raonopo- ^^^j li/cd gold and silver to them-^c'.cs for table ware, jewels, and the gold and sii- uilding of their arms and palaces ; but the rich discoveries in Africa ^^'' ^""^ °^"*' " ' ' ment. anear by year. Latterly the use of .silver-leaf has been almost supcseded in the arts by the process of silvering called electro-platiig, which is elsewhere described ; but r small amount is stiH consumed. Gold-beating -s one of the most anc'ent of arts. The process is vcr)' simple, and differs from the practice of the olden time principally in the use of the rolling-mill for part of the work. Instead of hammering out tin.' '.cat M OF THE UNITED STATES. 331 ieties are ry pretty, 1 who arc ly articles he United ew of the in the form the gilding lie quan ty r in coinage not pay to e worn out, icils, or the metal in tiic The lavisV. and France, taste, or pni- similar rage TV large. In was passed, lyed only for irincipal one. no need of |nger of using rapidly be- xtion has lat- [h is desired ; silvc. leaves the illuuiinv lig within die Id silver liold luse increases supcseded in is elsewhere l-ocess i-; ^'^0' illy in the use out the leat directly from the ingot, the ingot is now rolled until it is reduced to the thick- ness of a,iff part of an inch before it goes under the hammer, ooid-beatine An ounce of gold will make a strip ten feet long and an inch and an ancient half wide when rolled to the thickness of ji^ pan of an inch. '"" For beating, the delicate strij) is cut up into pieces an inch sqrare. Each piece is laid ui)on a leaf of fine vellum four inches square, and a hundred and fifty of these leaves piled up one above the other, with a few extra pieces of vellum at each end. This i)ile is called a " kutch." It is put into a parchment case, so that the four sides are protected ; and a workman rains iil)on it a shower of blows from a sixteen-pound hammer, turning the pack over end for end occasionally, bending it between the hands so as to make the gold leaves spread readily, and interchanging the different parts of the paek. The hammer has a convex face. In about twenty minutes the little s(iuares are spread to the full size of the vellum. They are then taken out, cut into quarters, and again packed and beaten. They arc once again taken out, ([uartered, and beaten until the original inch-square pieces have been beaten out to 192 times their original size, and the thickness reduced to about TTroVoiT P^i't of an inch. They are often beaten again. The ordinary com- mercial gold-leaf is usually beaten out to y on'orrtT P^rt of an inch ; but the French have reduced it to jgo'giyij part of an inch, spreading out an ounce of gold to cover a surfiice of 160 square feet. Imitation gold-leaf is made hy gilding brass, and rolling and beating it out in the usual way. Silver-leaf, which is very beautiful, cannot be reduced to quite the thinness of gold, but is hammered out to xtrffuijiy P^rt of an inch ; which is thin enougli for this less cusUy metal. Various attempts have been made to substitute a machine for Attempts to hammering gold and silver leaf in place of the hand-process. ^"i^Tm'de New England brought out several de\ices for the purpose, and of manu- exhibited them at the world's fairs. They have not proved '^cture. popular, and have virtually been abandoned. Ciold-leaf is put up for the market in litde books of smooth paper, contain- ii.i.- twenty-five leaves each, which are kept from sticking to the HowgoW- paper bv preparing the latter with chalk or red ochre. The books leaf is put up ' • ' ' '^ for market. arc sold in packages of a dozen. .SILVER TAIil.L-WAUE. There was very little silver- ware to be seen upon the tables of the early colonists of the United States. Such a luxury was beyond the means of all except a very few, and was, besides, inappropriate to the eru of log- colonists cal)ins and leather garments. A few families in New York, i>fary- had but uttie liuid. and Virginia, had silver plate; but they were chiefly ihe ^' ^^■'•^ ^'■"• families of rich planter^,, old Dutch patroons, and royalist governors. A large ^ i 33* FND US TKIA /. INS TON V m\ \\}n. part of the population wen- unable to all'ord even china, which was expen- sive then ; and pewter plates and dishes were often the sole furniture of the table in country houses. A yreat deal of even the small amount of plate hoarded by old families disappeared after 1792. It was sent to the mint, and coined. After the peace of 1815 there came an era of prosperity and speculation, during which there sprang up a demand for objects of luxury and value. C'on- importa- siderable importations of silver plate took place in conseciuence. tions after The plate was generally solid, and always costly. Snuff-boxes and * ''■ candlesticks and other objects were sometimes imported, whi( h were made of the baser metals, and covered with gold or silver leaf by mechani- cal processes ; but usually the ware was solid and substantial, and worth its Expensive- whole weight as bullion. The expense of solid plate made its of solid purchase by the majority of the people very limited ; and, indect', the austere itleas of the days of colonization were still sufficiently universal to make public sentiment unfavorable to the use of much silver ujjon the table. Martin Van lUiren was defeated for re-election as President of the United States in part because he aiUled to the use of silver table-ware the other ness plate SI'UO.NS, &C., IN CASK. 'M aristocratic extravagance of golden teaspoons. The spirit of the times was not partial to ostentation of that sort ; and though silver was admired, yet not 0110 family in a thousand placed an article made of it upon their tables (except. perhaps, a candlestick) from one end of the year to the other. Illock-tin was Use of block- "^^^^ ^^ some extent, and after 1840 britannia-ware came into favor ; tin and bri- but the masses clung to pewter and blue crockery. Silver was so tannia-ware. )-jigj^]y yalued as coin, that it seemed a sinful waste of monev to put it into a dish for the table. The esteem in which silver was hekl at that Ol- Till', ex HE I) UTATES 333 ii 4 cxpen- of thf of platL- nint, anil :culalion, e. Con- set ivicncc. )OXCs and .•d, \vhi( h mcchani- wortli its made its d, indcc('. sufficiently lilvcr ui)on LMit of the L' the other lies was not jt\ not one [ics (except. Ilock-tin was into favor : lilver was so jf moncv to held at that 334 /Nn VS TN I A I. IffS TON Y 'i\A II w day, and the economical ideas whi( Ii prevailed, are illustrated by the incident of a New-Mn^'land whaling captain giving his daughter a \vedding-df)wry of her own weight in silver dollars, which was regarded at the time as an act of un- exampled niiiniricence ; though in these days, if a prosperous father gave his daughter no more than that at her wedding, he would he regarded as a cur- nuidgeon very much in need of the prayers of the faithful. MERlDliN CUTI.KKY CDMI'ANV, MliUIUKN, CONN. ;■•■(, . The origin of the manufacture of silver-ware in the I'nited States is (piiti, within the memory of old silversmiths who are still in the business : it ^XaK^-^ „. . , from' the year 1S42. J'rior to that year, there were no regular Origin of / -t J o manufacture factories of plate in the country. The few silversmiths wiio had of silver- opened shoi)s in the commercial and other cities for the repair nl watches and imported i)late made cups, snuff-boxes, \vat( h rliaiii>, and other small articles, in a desultory way ; but there was no regular maun facture. The few expert workmen of those days had little capital of tluir own. They had only their tools and their skill ; and the usual thing for tluni to do was to go to the jeweller and silver-merchants, and obtain from iIkih orders to make special pieces of plate. 'J'he merchant supplied the ingcil. ni sheet of silver, and the workman hammered it out, and wrought it into tlu' object desired, bringing back to the merchant the finished work and the sur|ilii> scraps of metal, both of which were carefully weighed to see that the workman had not abstracted a part of the raw material. In i(S42 a number of tlie silversmiths of New-York City and other places got together to consult alxmt the interests of their trade. Mr. Clay was agitating at that time for a i)rotective tariff, and the silversmiths regarded the hour as auspicious for an effort to obtain some recognition of their art from the .U'i\- star da wit solii 'ieiii trav for virti steal appt' tariff estal a W; '\ ii OF THE UNITED STATES, J35 nriiU'nt y ol lur t of un- ^avc his s a cur- es is qiuli il daU'^ no ro;j;vil'»v IS who had K' u-i'air "'' U(h-ihain>. ular luaiiii' tal of Uh'11- ng for thcni from thciii AC ini;ol. IT it into ilu' (Uhc suri'lii^ he workman nibcr of th^' (insult about U that linH' the hour a^ rom the ;^"\- iriimfiU of the country. A dclofjation wns acror(hnKly sent to Washington to SCO Mr. Clay. Mr. ("lay asked the men what the prosperity of their business re(|uire(l, and |)roinisctl to do what he ctxild for them. It was a very easy matter to obtain recognition in the hill which was being drawn up, silver-ware hemg so exclusively an article of luxury ; and accordingly, when the act passed iu August of that year, a duty of thirty ])er cent was levied by it upon all importations of gold and silver wares, whether solid or plated. This protec- tidu is said by old silversmiths to have given the industry in this country its fnM decided impetus. Nearly all the shops enlarged their business imiuedi- ately after the law was passed. About this time the art of electro plating came into use ; and this gave a still more remarkable impulse to the industry .n tiie I'nited States by cheapen- ing the cost of silver table-ware, and vastly extending its sale. Eiectro-pint- Marly in the century it had l)een discovered that copper or gold '"s^- held in solution might bi' made to settle ui)on the faces of objects suspended in the solution, and to form ii|)on them a thick film, by passing a current of elertricity through the bath to the object to be gildi-d or coppered. It was- found that the film of metal, once formeil, might be taken off, and used ai a iiiDuld to produce an exact copy of the original object upon which il had heeii deposited. It was then found that metallic objects might be gilded by this process, and made to appear like solid gokl. The invention was at first regarded as a ciuiosity. It was not until about 1S40 that its Regarded as value for the gilding and silvering of articles of common use was « cufos'ty- realized. Numerous experiments were then made with the invention both in the United States and Murope. Professor Silliman suggested that prussiate of potash would hold silver in solution without oxidizing the baser metals. This was a step in advance. Subset piently it was found that the solution of cyanide of potassium would do the work better, and silver-plating then became prat tieable and popular. The idea was taken up by New-I^ngland manufac- turers, and several very important factories of plated ware and cutlery were started to manufacture for the American market. It was found that the most elaborate dinner and tea sets could be produced by the new process, coated with the purest silver to any thickness, for about one-fourth the expense of solid ware ; and Yankee push and enterprise soon foimd a way to create a demand for it in every part of the country. The public taste had begun to < rave elegant table-sets, and the low cost of the new class of goods secured fur them a ready recognition and great favor. Iron forks and knives were virtually banished from the tables of all people of taste, and from hotels and steamboats ; and plated ware and dinner and tea sets made tiieir dumber oi iipp'-'^^fance everywhere. The industry, being protected by a liberal manufac- tariff. has grown up rapidly, and is now firmly established : 260 Lstahlishments are employed in it, giving work to 5,200 hands, and producing a yearly value of $12,000,000 worth of ware. vim L^' i.'! -li 336 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY The earlier silversmiths of the United States made their dinner and tea sets, punch-bowis, goblets, i\;c., by hammering the various dishes from flat sheets of solid metal, shai)ing them upon iron forms called "stakes." The i)rocess of building up all round and oval dishes is still the same in principle, only that the hammer is no longer used, and the iron stake is throw a aside for a block of wood. Su[)- pose the dish be a sugar-bowl, A perfectly round disk is cut from a flat sheet How earlier silversmiths made their wares. CAKK-nASKF.T. of solid silver, weighed, and turned over to a workman, to whom it is charged on the books. 'I'he workman has a block, made in pieces like a hat-blo( k, Modern SO that, if a Certain key be removed, it will fall apart. The block process jg j^^ together and keyed, and put into a lathe touching the llat disk of silver. The block and ihe silver disk arc then made to revolve at great speed. A smooth steel tool is pressed against the disk; and the mallcaMo metal is made to bend down upon the block little by litUe, and grailually en- close it, forming the body of a perfectly symm(;trical and smooth sugar-bowl. without joint or flaw. The top and bottom arc j-iroperly trimmed with a sharp tool, and tlie bow 1 taken from the lathe. It would be impossible now to get and tea us dishes -on forms and oval iiicr is no od. Sup- Hat sheet OF THE UNITED STATES. the wooden l)loclc out of tlie silver howl, were it not that the block is made in pieces. The workman loosens the key which binds the block together, and shakes the pieces out of liie narrow mouth of the sugar-bowl. The bottom of the sugar-bowl is shaped upon an ai)propriate block by the same process, which is called '' spinning up." The handles are cast, and the different parts fastened together by soldering under a blow-pipe. This is in principle the manner in whicli all round and oval (hshes, presentation-pieces, goblets, &c., are made iVom scjlid silver. For convenience the bodies are sometimes made in several parts, so a^. to permit the insertion at different places of a flat striji of decorated metal which has l)een rolled in a machine, and they are then subsecjuently assembled l)y the silversmiths proper, and united by soldering. The soldering is so perfectly done, that the finished article is in fact one piece of soliil work. — as much so as though it had been cast. All scrajis are carefully collected and weighed, and credited to the workman to v.hom they were jrc'-iously charged. Large objects like punch- bowls, and all others of irregular shape, are hammered out by hand from flat sluets of metal, and put together by soldering. Pro- jc( ting ornaments, like monograms, flov/ers, handles, &c,, are freciuently cast solid, and put upon the piece in the usual way ; but by flir the greater part of the decoration is (lone by chasing and engraving. The pattern is drawn in black and white upon sheets of paper. The workman goes all over the inside of the gohlet, teapot, or other l)ioce, whatever it may be, with a delicate hammer, and beats down the metal, so as to raise the large leaves, tlnwcrs, scrolls, i^ic, of the pattern, into relief on the outhide of the piece. The dish is then filled with melted pitch and rosin, which is allowetl to solidify and form a backing, in order that it may not lose its symmetrical shape in the subse(|uent processes. The workman next goes carefiilly over the whole of the surface outside which is to be decorated, and fashions it by indenting and beating down the metal with little chisels and a hammer, so as to leave a clear, sharp-cut pattern raJMil in high relief upon the beaten-down background. The pitch is then rcmo\cd by melting ; and the dish goes on to be smoothed, burnished, frosted, satin -finished, or gilded, as the case may be. for the store. The ornamenta- tion of tlat surfaces is sometimes done by etching. Spoons and forks are iviade by rolling in a machine, the i)attern of the fork or spoon being engraved on tlic surface of the rollers. The edges of surplus m','tal arc removed b)' < lipping and filing, and the article receives its final shape under a die. The handk's of nut-picks and knives, when hollow, are stamped in a die, in halves, iind united by soldering. In the solid-silver shop;: great care is exercised to prt'wiit waste of metal. The v.aste in polishing, clipping, filing, &c., is I'Ki'rr.u-nox. ■A\ ■mm um m^. lyi' ill enormous, amounting in Tiffany's from four hundred to six hur.'^red ounces a week in the process of polishing with leather and cotton alone. All the refuse of the shops, the grease, the dirt of the floor, the water in which the silver is washed, &c., is carefully saved, and sent to the furnace for the ex- traction of the metal. With all the precautions that intelligence can suggest, it is still found that five per cent of the metal weighed out to the workmen is never recovered. VEGETAni.K-DISH. In the factories of plated ware a large part of the work is done by stamps. dies, and presses ; and more of the ware is cast than in the solid-silver shops. The metal forming the basis of the pieces is usually Cierman sihcr Stamping. .... i • \ i • • i • i i (an alloy of nickel, copper, and zuic), brittania, white-metal, and aluminum. Brass and copper are sometimes used for very cheap work, 'i'hc Use of brass Original method of plating the ware with silver was to dissolve the and copper, metal in nitric acid, and precipitate it as a cyanide by < yaiiide of potassium. The precipitate, being washed, was dissolved in a solution of Process of Cyanide of potassium. The object to be silvered was then (on- piating. nected with the negative pole of a powerful battery, dipped in nitric acid, and then suspended in the solution of silver. After a few moments it was taken out and well brushed, and then replaced in the solution. The siher begins to make its a])pearance on the surface ) " the object, and in a few hours has covered every part of it with a uniform dead-white coating of pure metal. The process may lie stopped when the plating has reached the thickiies-- of tissue-paper, or it may be continued until the piece is double or triple jilated. The stronger the current of electricity, the harder will be the plating. ^\ hen taken from the solution, the piece is washed, and then burnished and ^llli^he(l in the ordinary manner. Latterly, plating is carried on by a variation oi this process. The silver is not dissolved antl held in suspension, but is put into the bath of cyanide of potassium in the form of a plate attached to the positive il OF THE UNITED STATES. 339 \ -ife'f ounces Ml the ich the the ex- suggest, orkmen by stamps. ,i\vcr shops- rman siUov mctah and A-ork. 'rii^^ [dissolve the 1)Y cyanide solution of then con- ,-)Ch1 in nitric moments it The silver a few hours l|wre melal. Ithickness of |riple plated, r. When land rini>hed ition of this put into \he the po>itive pole of the battery. The electrical current decomposes the silver, and the dish attached to the negative pole then becomes covered with the dissolved metal as before. I";iectro-gilding is not extensively practised in the manufacture of table- ware, being resorted to more commonly in the production of cheap jewelry, .i is astonishing how far a small (piantity of gold may be made to Eiectro- go in hiding the cheap material;; of which cheap ornaments — pencil- e'lding. cases, thimbles, &c. — are made. The "magnificent" gold ear-rings and other things offered as prizes in the lotteries are frequently manufactured, at a cost of not much more than ten dollars a bushel, from copi)er or some such material, and gilded at an expense of about fifteen cents a piece. Heavy gold plating is, however, sometimes done upon cheaj) watch-cases, and also upon solid-silver ware. The inside of salt-cellars, soup-tureens, '^ou])- ladles, spoons, (S'c, is frequendy gilded ; and. in the case of some very splendid sets of table-ware, the whole surface of the spoons is tluckly coated with the precious metal. The use of solid -gold table-ware is at present limited ill this country to bells and salt- cellars. Its cost bears the same relation to silver as that of silver does to pewter. But the rich color of pure gold is very much adiuiicd, and gilding is therefore demanded to a certain extent. The process is substantially the same as the original method of plating with silver. Within the last ten years the United States have made a great advance in the beauty and originality of styles of silver-ware. Some factories make a hun- dred patterns of tea-sets. The Ciorham Company makes nearly improve- thiee hundred varieties of spoons. Tiie New- York-City factories mentsofiast produce designs which are not surpassed anywhere in Europe. =" y**''^- lliis result is, in part, due to the education of competent designers by the Cooper Institute and other schools of design in the country. It is also attribu- lalilc, in part, to the constant purchase of books of patterns in China, Japan, and all other parts of the world where decoration is made an art, and to the dilii^^ent study of the treasures of antiquity which have been exhumed by the fit holars of the Old World. The growth of wealth and taste in the United Stales has also proved a great stimulus. FRUIT-DISU. ^ction of s dishes uld crush e under ght ; itul >s orua- id the ri- :rc is tor i set ever :he owners red pieces i_lu)wl and [sidence m len created lotting ;i'^d ball contests. &c. The pieces are often in the form of goblets and vases, following the ancient idea of a royal gift, which was generally a valuable cup. Whether adajjted for drinking or the holding of masses of flowers, or whether statuescjue and purely ornamental, they are fashioned very much on the princij)le of a trophy. They exhibit the symbols of yachting, hunting, and athletic sports, and assemble into one piece every thing which is characteristic of the contest for which they arc the victor's rewaril. American silversmiths display great ingenuity in this style of work. C01'I'I,K AM) liK.VSS UTICNSILS. Copper was the first metal wrought into arms and im])lemcnts in the terri- tory which is now the United States, if the testimony of the relics of the days of the Indian occupation, and of the records of the Catholic Early use of missionaries, does not deceive us. 'i"he red metal which underlies copper. (he Slate of Michigan in such priceless de|)osits early caught the eye of the savage .varriors who threaded the forests of the North in the jKirsuit of game and built their camp-fires on every hill. 'l"he stone-hammers of this early nice of men had been employed upon the metal ; and the Jesuit fathers, who niarclied witli the cross of their religion in advance of the soldiers who bore the lilies of I'rance, found great ([uantities of it woru as ornaments and shaped into tools and weajsons by the red heathen whose con\ers!on to ('hristianity they sought. Mad the white man, who succeeded to the occu])ancy of the soil, also inherited the ci\ilization of the red man, it is ])robal)le that he, too, would have expended his art first upon tl.e working of red copper, before attempting til utilize the less attractive and more refractory metal which now claims his more diliLrunt attention ; but the white man brought to America the science and arts of an older and higher civilization, and copper claimed his attention less at the outset than the denser metal. That has not. however, prevented copper from assuming the important rank in the arts of the country to which its '^°" liands, and imxiiuing a valirj of $15,000,000 in fniislied ment of goods annually ; there being of these factories twenty-nine in industry. Connecticut, forty-four in Massachusetts, eighty-five in New York, eighty-one in Pennsylvania, and twenty-one in New Jersey. Ansonia and Waterbury, Conn., became the principal centres of the manufacture. Pure copper is one of the softest of the metals, and is easily roiled into I)lates for use. It is in the Ibnn of plates principally that it is employed in the* arts. Its most imijorlant use is in the sheathing of the bottom Importance ' ° of copper as of wooden ships to protect them from accumulations of barnacles sheathing ^^j^^j shell-fish and the ravages of the bores. 'l"he navigators of for ships. • 1 1 • 1 • the early centuries had great trouble with their ships on account of the fouling of the bottoms. It was finally suggested that the protection of the part of the ship below the load-line with sheetdead would prevent incrustations, and that material was used for a while. In 1761 " Ti.e Alarm," a frigate in the royal navy, was sheeted with copper, which was found to answer the purpose very much better. After a series of years, it was found that pure copper, while protecting the shij), was itself rapidly eaten away by the chi'mical action of salt water, which made its renewal necessary. This was expensive, and shipping-men cast about lor some impro\ement ot the process of sheath- ing. A curious experiment was tried in resjionse to a suggestion by Sir Hum- phry Davy. This was to place strips of iron under the sheets of copper, which would be corroded by the galvan'c action rather than the copi)er. 'Hie inven- tion worked beautifully : the copper was preserved, and money sa\ed. But, c|uite unexpectedly, it was then found that the copper, no longer dissoK Jul; in the sea, became covered with barnacles as badly as the wooden bottoms had been before. So the ship-builders went back to pure co])per. After a while, however, an alloy of copper was invented by mixing with it forty per cent of zinc, which answered the purposes of sheathing admirably. This alloy was a J, , si)ecies of brass. It was called " yellow metal." and still retains Process of ' ■' making thc name, and is now universally used for the coppering of wooden vessels. The metal is very soft, and is rolled cold. It is worked down very gradually and carefully from the ingot, being annealed after each rolling, and cleared of oxide by pickling in a bath of diluted sulphuric acid. Owing to the high price of labor in this country, slieatliin^ has been more expensively made in the United States than abroad uiiiil within a very ^i^w years. Of late the ])rice has been so reduced, that die former large importations of it have gready fallen off, and the sheathing used by American ship-builders is virtually all American-made. The bultj and nails by which copper sheathing is fastened to thc ship are cast solid. Sheet-copper is a very popular material for boilers and cooking-utensils in domestic use. The metal resists the action of the fire better than tin ;iiiu sheet-iron : it is, therefore, applied to the construction of many forms of sheet- copper tlu OF THE UNITED STATES. 343 lUil, t)lviii.^ ill oms bad a while, ■ cent of :)>■ was a 11 retains wooden ,s worked annealed f diluted heatlii'i,;; tad niitil that iIh- Kheathini; The l)')lt.-> lid. Itensils in tin and forms t'f manufixcturing apparatus whieh come into contact with fire ; such as retorts and pipes, vacuum-pans, condensers, and boilers in distilleries, use of cop- sugar refineries, and other factories, 'I'he smaller utensils are per for cook- formed from the sheet-metal by hammcrir;,^ and l)y the process '"e-utensi s. of spinning up, described under the head of " Silver Table-ware," The copper becomes very dense and brittle in the smithing process, and has to be annealed constantly as the work goes on. In boiler-making the plates are either united l)y lapped joints, soldering, or riveting, and sometimes by more than one of these methods. Copper is more extensi\ely used in the form of brass than in its pure state. By admixture with a certain proportion of zinc it gains beauty and (lurabilitv, and is generallv preferred in that form. The best i)ro- Tu»r,fn^r. portion of the metals is two of cojjper to one of zinc, which per in mak- niakes what is called eight-ounce brass; that is, eight ounces of '"b brass, zinc to sixteen of copper in the pound. Sixt jen-omice brass, the two metals bemg eciual, is a beautiful golden alloy, called " prince's metal." Other com- binations are made to produce pinchbeck, INfanheim gold, and other alloys suitable for cheap jewelry, ani ware for gikhng and silvering. Brass is as agreeable a metal to work as i)m-e silver. In thin plates it can be stamped and embossed in any form. It spins up beautifully in a lathe. It can be drawn out into delicate wire ; and is so malleable, that it can he lieaten out almost like gold-leaf itself for the purposes of cheap gilding. The metal is susceptible of a high polish. It does not rust by Advantages e\pos\n-e, and has a great deal of the beauty of gold. It is the of brass. unixersal material of which chandeliers and gas-fixtures are made ; being susceptible of rich coloring, bronzing, and silvering by chemical Things made processes, and of shaping into the most elaborate forms l)y °f brass. stanii»ing and embossing. Brass was at one time the exclusive material out of \vhi( h the works of clocks were made. .Steel works are now beginning to l)e Sheet-brass. used to a verv large extent ; but brass holds its own for all cheap (docks, and indeed is popular in every grade of time-piec;e up to the great m ichines ])ut in the towers of our city halls and churches. Its beauty, and freedom from nist. insure its popularity. ISrass is also extensively consumed in the manu- fa( ture of pins. It is dra\.-n out into wire. It is clipped by machinery into ])ieces of the ridit lentith, which arc ijointed, headetl, and. ' ?! f^ > I Ping a!''--; being tinned by agitation and boiling in a solution of tin. are stuck into papers for the market, all by machines especially invented for the purpose. 'J'he machine for putting them up in pajiers is an American idea, mmm rWW'.-^. ,u . li*.- ■', O >i< r"p' 1 '■ ' ■• ItH'M .' 'i »f ';}.*. ■r, if 1 ' 1$ ife'iil ::•-;? i '*?iiil if Hi 344 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY and saves thousands of dollars of expense annually. A great deal of brass is also consumed in the manufacture of hullons. Our forefathers were fond of brass buttons, and wore them regularly u])on the ubicjuitous blue dressroat. Brass IJrass buttons are still a regular part of the uniform of the aruiy buttons. and navy of the Ignited States, 'liieyare struck from sheets of Hat nietal, and stamped with the national co.it of arms, and with proper letter, ing, to show that they are for govermnent use. Hacks and eyes of cheaper metal aro Mien fastened on by soldc fr. '''■ or' imental v/ork of machiu'jry and miifuvy e ,\: v! 'v use, are made of this beauti- ful and serviceable alloy. lislliNllKODK I'liN'-MANUFACTOKY, CAMDEN, N.J. BKONZI-: WAKl^ AND .S'J'ATUARY. Bronze is the most beautiful of tlic alloys of copper. It has been in ii-c from antiquity. Much of what was called brass among the ancients was in Ancient use reality bronze. It was supposed that the ancients had learned tlu' of bronze. .jj-j- (,f hardening pure co]:)per so as to make the metal serviccalilc for a>es and daggers : it is now believed that this hardened co])])cr was only bronze also. The art of hardening copper is said to be lost : tlic hut is, chemical analysis had resurrected the art. The copper battle-axes found by Dr. Schliemann at Troy have been drilled, and the drillings analyzed. -jr-- en in u-c nls w:!-^ '" earned tin' crvic^'^il'''-' oppcr \v;i^ the fait >\c> louiiii OF THE UNITED STATES. 345 analv/fil- Dedu.ling the sand, the Inllowinj,' was the result in the i.ase of the three weap ' . tested: (i) copper ./5.S, and tin t,'S, \ (2) topper 906, and tin 8; (, ) < I ' pc'- 923, and lin ,4. 'I'liis sliyht addi»'on of tin made the metal a soft bronze which, bein^ compacted l)y good s'.aidiing, proihiced a weapon with a hai'l edge. It is prol)able that the anc'ents did not clearly understand that zinc ud tin were distinct metals; for they used the terms "Ijrass" and "l;ronze" interchani', ah!) . The brazen axes which slew Agamemnon, gave rise to so many glowing epics and dramas among the (Irecian poets, and gave Shakspeare his suggestion for his tragedy of " Hamlet," were properly true bronze. 'Die statue in the harbor at Rhodes, under whose legs passec.l for years the incoming and outgoing boats of that busy island shipping-pc;*-; was also of bronze. Dronze has always been devoted to great uses. First it was the met.' of war; then, when iron began to be wrought into blades and armor, 1 ■,oi /i became the fovorite material for heroic statues. It was costly, but impo.iant it was beautiful, and more enduring than marble ; and the sculptor uses of found great satisfaction, when his conception had been embodied in his cruml)ling clay model, in seeing it rei)roduced immediately and easily in this noble metal, instead of being obliged to await the slow process of cutting the statue from marble, and to run all the attendant risks. After the invention of gunpowder, bronze again became a favorite metal in war. Nap(;leon cm])loyed it in the cannon with which he subdued the whole of Europe. Its strength was only about half that (jf wrought iron ; but its beauty pleased the cultivated French, who loved to ]a\isli u])on every thing \vhi( li belongctl to them --their guns, as well as upon their dress, their build- ings, and all articles of construction — their national fondness for color and for decoration, and the resourt-es of a lively imagination. Tiie metal resisted wear extremely well, and bronze guns were the rage. The Europeans also em|)loyed bronze for commemorative monuments, arches, and statues. The Ja|i;uiese and Chinese have used l)roaze IVom very distant centuries; but their fondness for it had little to do with its use in Europe. The first experiments in modern times to ascertain the mingling propor- tions (if copper and tin were in 1770 at Turin. There the proportion of twelve or fourteen parts of tin to one hundred of copper was fixed upon as the best. The French made many experiments a few years later, composition They decided upon eleven parts of tin as the maximum, and eight °' bronze. as the minimum, to one hundred parts of copper. The French learned to mix in a small percentage of lead and zinc also. At present, one to ten is the standard jjroportion. Alanufltcturers var\' from this standard freely, how- ever, to produce special effects. For a hard bronze, they mix the metals in the proportion of seven to one. For machinery bearings and medals, eight to one is the rule ; for statues, four to one ; for flexible tenacious bolts and nails, twenty to one ; and for speculum metal, two to one. In whatever pro- ^' "m I I I W-i- \m 1 1 •'H m, u i:; ^,1f !J ' 5L. 346 /A'D US TRIA L HIS TOR Y Durability. '.1F» portion the compound is made, bronze is the most durable of metals, except gold and platiiuun. It actpiircs a fine rich color by exposure, which is called "patina;" but it docs not rust. Exposed to the weather, it lasts forever. It has the peculiar property of l)ecoming mal- leable by tempering ; antl it can be given a black, red, brown, green, or silvery patina by oxidation or sulphuri/ation. Up to the present decade the use of l)rc)nze in the United States has been confined to the manufacture of bells, cannon, and statuary. Within tiie last twenty years the country has crossed the threshold of a gciu-ral manufacture of the metal. The last two decades will always be taken as the real beginning of the production of general bronze-ware in the United States. Hitherto bronze has been, as of oM, the heroic iiu,'t;il. It ha^. l)een sacred to arms and statuary, bells being the only form in which it was utilized for any do- mestic pur[)oses. Now it comes more proi^inentjy into po|)ularity in the domestic arts. It retains its rank as the unapproachable material for great statues ; but it is losing ground for use in cannon, in which form it has been extremely popular in the last two wars ; and it is now being made up iiUo a thousand objects lor the decoration and glorification of homes and ( ilies. Since the war of 1861 the government has distributed to the different cities and villages of the country a large number of bronze cannon to be melted uj) into statues, in honor of the victories and heroes of the war, to grace public scpiares and parks ; and factories for manufacturing bronze objects for common use have started up all over the industrial portions of the land. In the Revolutionary war the peaceful old statue of King George, in New- York City, was tumbled down, :md converted to warlike uses by being melted up into good republican bullets. At the present time a change is going on which might be comi)ared to the o\'erthrow of the brazen arms and st:iiiie of Mars, and the melting uj) the warlike material into objects of beauty . nd peaceful luxury. The bronze-manufacturers of the United States, previous to 1861, were lew. and far between. The establishments of the Messrs. Ames at Chicopee, Mass., and of the Meneelys at Troy, N.Y., were the principal ones in the country ; ami there were only a few others sprinkled about here and there in tlie Ivist- ern States. These factories made bells in times of jjcace, and cast caniKjn in times of war. The so-called brass guns used in the Mexican war, in the , strutjgle (jf iS6i-6!5, and in the army on the i)lains in liuhtiiii,' Increase of '^'^ ^ j \ ^-^ • bronze- Indians, were made of bronze. They were cast solid, and bored, manufac- ^^j^j \\{:x{i nearly as strong as iron. They were known as .\.ii»;- tones. . Icons in the armv, to distinguish tlicm from iron and steel nuns. The expense of bronze limited its manufacture to these two articles and to the occasional statues which public gratitude or jirivate liberality caused to be set up in some opulent city. The beauty of bronze caused it, however, to he prized in the arts. For many years manufocturers tried to discover a method tl M OF THE UNITED STATES. 347 except u( h is ealher, ig mal- silvcry IS V)ocn Ihc Uist ufui'turo .•ginning llitiicvU) to arms any do- y in tho for great has been 115) into lul ( ilics. cnt cities )e mehed , to gnu'O )l)jects lor the Uvivl. , in Ne\v- iig melted iroinn un md stauie )L'auly .hmI were tew. bee, Mass.. Intry ; and tlie Ivi.-'l- cannon ni lar, in the im i'lghtini; uid billed, as Nap'!- Istcel guns, and tc. die to l)e >et |:ver, to be a mcilii'd for bronzing other substances, so that the growing refinement of the i)\d)lic taste might be gratified by the purchase of objects \vhi( h should have the appearance of bronze without its cost. Various washes, powders, and alloys were brought out one after the other. A compound of tin. regulus of anti- mony, and lead, was once employed as an imitation bronze. 'I'he manufac turers of fountains, vases for the decoration of grounds, doorstep-statuary, and other metal-work, gave that alloy np for zinc ult is already seen in the factories. Concerns which formerly pro- duced house-hardware of iron, suiii as locks, hinges, latches, metal ornaments, ^:c., have changed over to bronze. All hantlsome houses are now fur- nished, to a large extent, with bronze metal-work and fasten- ings, as far as the doors and wniddws are concerned, the I'^lu-colored bronzes being Iiieferrcd for the purpose. I'uMic buildings and stores lia\c also ado]:)tcd this style of work. The whole world is astonished and deliuhted wiUi the beauty of American bronze hardware, vvhich displays great taste, and originality of pattern. The manufacturers of clocks, inkstands, LAST MOMENTS lUilllNU Till; StLNES. m\ rivr ; iiJii! ' .tliiil n \ih:m 348 /A /> ^ '^^ 7'A /A I. ins TOR I " ro- stinctivc K 1\ Iciuls objtM ts. 1 bron/.is lien, ami \ly mailf. rt. TIk- Ivcs, ami I the noxl ilian iVoin .(.• (ii\ictly id |);iliciU h I t-'ntury, y no iillli'l' 111. 'I'Ihiv |i)l(ir \vhil)er ami nd six t)l liv addin.L; dc of any designs : pectcd ti) \\s are that Company of lite or I yet. rii^' 'ofali.gl^t- Lh. and I" Indred and cost oil'" k'S buil>l :i iut it. i.imcmv-hi;!.!.. HF.I.LS. The stor/ of the bell should always be written by a poet : indeed, the bell has been a favorite theme with the poets of all aj,'es and countries since its invention and iiUrodu( tion to the towers of castles, churches, anil Poetic hi». jfreat buildings. No sound speaks to men with sue h " a various tory of beii». Ianf,'uagc " as the clang of a great bell. It always announces something. ( )n» e ihe bells of a tower were rung to scatter the storms, it being believed that the holy sound would have a subjugating effec t upon the elements ; but that custom has parsed away, and now the bell speaks only to tell something important to liie people living within the sound of its voice. It signalizes the sweetest and most tender incidents in life. It attends us to the grave. It alarms a com- munity to meet a danger. There is always some- thing of melancholy in the voice of a great bell, e\eii on the most joyful occasit)ns, and the sound is always full of symjiathy. A great bell without that trace ol melancholy is worthless. In Murojie it has always Ik'iii the custom to inscribe upon the bell a legend of some sort; and, from among the many in Latin, the following may be taken to show witii how many voices the same iron tongue can speak to the people of a town : — " l''iMu la plan.nii ; fu]j;iiia fran^jd ; sal)l)alii pan^o; I'lxiilo Ic'iitiis; (lissipi) vcntds ; \rM\\ muiilos." In other words, — " I nioiun tlic (Icatlis ; T break tlic liplitnings ; T mark the salibaths ; I arouse the sluw ; I scatter tlie wiiuls ; I appease tlie cruel." And this : — " I.audo I)cum vcruin ; jjlehem voco ; congrego clerum; Defunctos ploro ; i)estcm fugu ; festuni (jue hoiiorr)." That is to say, — " I jiraise tlie true Ckk T call tlie people ; I convoke the clergy; I mourn the deatl ; I tiiLihten the pla,!;ue ; I iionor the feast." Schiller, Tennyson, Edgar A. i'oe, and nearly all the great national poets, have given us a song of the bell. " The Hells of Shandon " shows how uni- versal is tlie love of this powerful mover of the sentiments and feelings. i iic early bells of the United States were all imported from h'aigland, whence ;il US TRIA L HIS TOR V and it was desired to liang a l)ell in as many of the spires -"s possible. So there was something; of a demand for bells, and the ships from England brought all that were ordered. Occasionally one was hung in a state-house also. Among this class was the fixmous bell imported in 1752 for Independence Hall at rhiladelphia ; which, being cracked on trial by a too energetic stroke of tlu- clapper, was recast under the direction of Mr. Isaac Morris of Philadelphia. The new bell was inscribed from Lev. xxv. 10, " Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; " also, " Py order of the Assembly of the Province of Penn. for the State House in Phil. ;" and, " Pass & Stow, Phil., MDCC'LII." After the tariff of 1842, which gave those who chose to take up bell-founding as a regular Inisiness the protection of a duty of thirty- five per ent, a number of small factories were started, some of which after- wards attained celebrity ; among them being that of the Meneely lirothers at Tioy. N.Y., the one at Boston, and that of the Bevin Brothers Manufacturing Com])any of East Hampton, Conn. 'I he l)clls '•hich have been made in the United States have been, so fir. of moderate size, with few exceptions. 'I'he conditions of society here have not bcHU Bells made favorable to the production of in United monstcr tocsins as in some other countries. Royalty and priestcraft have resorted to colossal Ijclls in all ages to impress the common people \\iili the power of their rulers ; and Europe is filled with monster castings of this descri]> tion, the fifty-seven-ton affair at Moscow b"ing the largest ; while imperial China and Ja'\an, with kindred ain,.;, have hung tre- mendous fifteen-foot beik in nearly all liie great cities of their re.;:'ectiv'; emijires. In the United States, where the d>:moc.aiic sp'rit prevails, where pomp and circum- stance are not employed to strengthen the authority o*" Church and State, and all things are gauged by a common rule of beauty and utility, liclls have foinid their use, and have only been made large enough to subserve the war.ts and ])leasures of the people. The largest bell ever made in the country was ( ast at Boston for the City Hall at New York. It weighed twenty-three thousand pounds, was eight feet across at the mouth, six feet hi|;; ^ and -ix inches anil a half thick »here the clapper struck it, A few It air and five ton bells have also been cast ; but tlie majority of those made averai;c a thousand pounds' weight Oiily for churches and city halls, and four huiidn d pounds' weight for factc'-ies. The tone of a Ijell is entirely witliin the control of the manufacturer, bs JArANESi: UHLI.. Size of belli' •\: '^ ()/'■ THE UXITEn STATES 351 "nr. of The been on of sonic :y and )ells in le with rope i-^ cscrip- loscow \\\ and !-■ irc- ill the ^. In oc.-ar.c in mn- tc. and uund r.ts and as cast on-and and -'A c\v four avrvai:'' Mndri-d softness and sweetness can be \aried by using different proportions of copper and tin, and putting in a little lead or silver. Its pitch is varied by ^^^^^ ^^ the size and diameter, h'or instance, tlie bells ringing the first, beii, how third, fifth, and eighth of the scale are cast relative, with dianie- ^ ermine ters of thirty, twenty-four, twenty, and fifteen, and weights of eighty, forty-one, twenty-four, and ten. The ease of graduating the tone has led to the adoption of chimes of bells ; and ( hurches in all the large cities of the country, and in some of the smaller ones, hav : within the last twenty years purchased them, CHUKCll-UELL. and the communities have been nii.'d with the music of " sweet chimes of magic bells." The most ancient c hinie in the country is that in a iiicturesque ruin in the southern part of C'alifiM-nia. It is a relic of the Spanish occupation. 'I'lic Jesuit missionaries from Mexico btiilt a number of massive mission-houses i" ihat part of the country, and hung in them bells brought from Europe. One (it diese structures, being erected in a region occasionally shaken by earth- quakes, was made with a dome ten feet thick, in order that it might resist any pii^sible shock ; and the bells were hung in the arches of a low buttressed wall, 352 IND US TRIA L JUS TOR Y separate from tlie main Imikling. In irony at the calculations of man, an earth- quako crushed the massive central building, and has left the bells hanging in their arched colonnade to the present day. The most interesting chime in the coimtry is that at Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.V. 'I'liere are ten bells, the largest weighing 4,889 pounds, and the smallest 230. They represent the notes of i), (i, A, II, L', I), K, V, V sharp, and (i. The largest of these bells bears various legemls, as follows : '* The gift of Mary, wife of Andrew I ). Whitu, First President of Cornell University, 1869;'" '• (llory to (iod in the highest, and on eartli peace, good will toward men ; " " To tell of Thy loving-kindness early in the morning, and of Thy trutli in the night-season." Also the follow- ing, written for tlie purpose by James Russell Lowell: — " J call, as lly the irrcvocahle lidurs. Futile as air, or strciiisj; as fate, to make \'oiir lives of sand or granite : .-uvful powers, Even as men choose, they cither L,nvc or take." Upon the nine other bells are couplets from Tennyson's "In Mcmoriam," beginning with the smallest, as follows : — ' R'tU'j. out the old, ring in the new ; Ring out the false, ring in the tri"^. Ring out I Ik- grief that sa])s tlie mind ; King in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowlv-dying cause, And ancient forms of jiarlv strife ; Ring in th.e nf)l)lcr motles of life. With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out false pride in jilacc and blood; Ring in the common love of good. Ring out the slander and the spite ; Ring ill the love of truth and right. Ring out the narrowing lust of gold ; Ring out the tiiousand wars oC old. Ring out old sha])cs of foul disease ; Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, '1"1h larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the fiarkncss of the land ; Ring in the Christ that is to be." OF 77/ K UN /TED STATES. 35.5 On this last bell is also the inscriiition, " This chime the gift of Miss Jennie McGraw to the Cornell Univcrsitv, i86S." 1:?^ ■'ii'* i *■»'»' r-W CHIMK OK liKI.l.S. American manufacturers are no* very confident of the value of silver in hells, and they generally prefer clear mixtures of copper and tin. 'I'he pro- portion is. for musical bells, six of copper to one of tin : horse- silver in hells. coppL'r four, tin one ; and large bells, three to one. Cattle- ''^"^• bells are made of iron and copper. They are not inlended to do any thing except make a noise. Steel bells have been experimented with Composition some in England ; but they arc harsh in sound, and not ))opular. °^ ''^"^• .^ few fire-alarm bells have been used in the United States, consisting of a hea\y bar of steel, coiled spirally, and mounted upon a sounding- Fire-alarm board. They have been abolished, however, by the new system ''^"^• of lire-alarm, which provides, not for ringing a great tocsin to agitate the town, but tor ringing a gong in every engine-house by means of \\vi telegraph, and thus giving the alarm only to those who need to know about the existence of a fire. Table-bells are now made of silver, gold, and Cerman silver. Those in tile lorni of a liiUe gong, mounted upon a little slender rod, which, in turn, is supported upon a small pedestal, are the most popular. T3ronze Bronze gongs are made of all sizes, from the terrific monsters shai)ed like eongs. a warrior's shield, which the waiters bang at the railroad eating-houses, to the tiny bell-like bronzes in alarm-clocks and office-annunciators. The casting of hells is so simple a process, that it need not be described. The gong — that 354 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY bell-manu factories. is, the gong of the Chinese sort — is made by forging under a heavy hammer. M K , There are now about tiiirty-five estabhshments in the United Numoer oi ^ States engaged in the prothiction of bells : a portion of their product is sold abroad. The imports of bells have stopped. It is not probable that great bells will ever form a special feature of American life. The tendency of things is not in that direction, (ireat bells Future of are only valuable to alarm a town and the inhabitants of the sur- beiis in U.S. rouuding country. In the days of the hand fire-engine, it was im])ortant that every able-bodied man, in a city where there was any special Value of accumulation of wealth, should be warned whenever any of the great bells, buildings of the place caught fire, so that he might lend his efforts to stay the conllagration. Steam fire-engines, public water-works, and thr telegraph alarm-bell, have superseded the need both of a call to the population of the place and the use of great bells. During the late war, heavy bells were useful to call in the people of the rural towns to hear the news of some great victory or great defeat ; but cannon-firing answered very well in the absence of bells then, and probably will in the future. LEAD-MANUFACTURES. Lead, though the humblest of the metals, has played its part royally in the drama of human life. When gunpowder was in\ented, lead was the one material of which missiles could be made. Its existence dictated the form of weapons, and changed the art of war ; and not only that, but it ilecided the fate of all rude nations, and changed the history of the world. When chemistry brought its resources to bear upon the metal, lead became useful to man in beautifying his dwellings with color ; and, when machinery was ai)plicd toward fashioning it, it was found serviceable for a variety of objects for which no other metal has been able to do ecpially well. Lead was found scattered along the coast of North America, here and there, by the earlier settlers, as will be more fully described elsewhere ; and its manufacture for common purpo:-cs began long before the Rcno- lution. It was chiefly employed for bullets. The metal was obtained at the store, and the huntsman cast his own bullets by hand. In the government armories, balls were made for the use ; but there was httle general manufacture of lead for the niarki.1. :i> wilu r jiiirpose, until after the Revolution. After the peace nt Early use of lead was chiefly for bullets. of the a.iVi for that or cUi) » 1 7S3 the uses u to pres'.Tv..- w ■• > l)ainte\; regarded New EngKin' 'iS ben it- was found ti .it paint not only beautified, but was "i positive utility, .t [rr^l:,'- ^pid, 'iiic, of coloring houses, barns, and other wooden !f.id increased. It was found that oil-paint liad a tendemv 'dc!) dwtiiings from de ay. Very k'w dwellings had hecii tor 'he war. P\I'it was < osdy, it beinp; ill imported; and it was .. \.i>,!v|]y ;..,-,d sinful luxury in most of the colonies, especiallv 111 '■inrici fro 111 The ; l>c-an OF THE UNITED STATES. 355 in the e one rm of" 1 the When ful 10 pphcil which buildings, set in, and the home manufacture of it began. A flictory to make lead-paint was started in Piiiladelphia before i^oo: by 1820 used for there were several in New-York City, and still others west of the P*'"*- Aileghanies and v-'lsewhere in operation. Other factories in Brooklyn, Albany, lioston, Buffalo, and the West, soon followed. Then the manufacture of small shot had been invented. In 1782 a plumber living in Bristol, by the name of Watts, dreamed that he was caught out in a rain-storm, which turned to lead as it fell. This suggested the idea of shot-making. He went up into a cliurch and poured out some melted lead, which fell into water btlow, and became shot. The idea was taken up quite generally. In 1807 E.riyshot- raul lieck built a large ;ihot-towcr on the Schuylkill, a hundred "'a^'ng- and se\eiity feet high, which he thought would supply the whol: Unit' d States. He could not supply the United States, however; and several other factories were built in the country in succeeding years. Four were built at New-York City, with a capacity of over three thousand tons per annum ; and seven were built at St. Louis. Virgin. , Baltimore, and other localities, were ecpiipped with shot-towers also; and the^ have, in fact, sprung u[) all over the country. The census of 1870 showed .^even of then' in active operation, produc ing about five thousand tons of shot annually. Besides these uses of lead, various others were introduced at different periods ; and the United Stav.es have embarked in the manufacture of lead therefor in a greater or less degree. I'iin(ii)al among these uses of lead is its application, either in the fonr of the pure metal or an alloy, to pipe-making, and the manufactr.re of type, emery-wheels, solder, table-ware, sheet-metal, the keys of musical instruments. Babbitt metal for the bearing.) of machinery, &c. Lead derives a great part of its importance from its useful alloys. a coml)ination with antimony it makes a metal good for type, the bearings f machinery, and ornamental metal-work, being white, hard, xheuse capable of a polish, and pioducing a sharper casting. The alloy i-iad as «„ melts more readily than lead, and is harder. With twenty per ^ °^' rent of tin, lead produces pewter. It is harder in the form of an allo\ md more fusible ; a fact whicli is turned to use in the making of solder. ' lix- ing equal parts of tin and lead, and in the production of a metal wii wnich naturalists can take delicate castings. Lead melts, when ])ure, at 635° : but in the form of an alloy composed of lead i. bismuth 2, tin i, it fuses at 201°; wliich is considerably less than that of boiling water. W^ien, therefore, it is desired to form a mould of some delicate tissue or substance which would be destroyed by boiling water, this useful alloy is available for the purpose. I'erhajjs type-founding, next after that of bullet-making, is the 'i.">st amient industry in which the people engaged in producing usciul ari:. les fr"in lead. Type was cast in this country as early as 1735. Type- i He i)ioneer in the art was Christopher Saws (or Sowes), who "^ai^'oS' hcgan printing at C.ermantown, Penn., and cast the type required in his 35^> lA-nUSTNlAI. HISTOR Y ' flfll :k r • 't^ I '^ ' il il %x'- ^r>;i ill ! I »i 1)1 of business, executing tiierewilh, in i 743, the second liible printed in America, il being in tiie (lernian language. Type was cast l)y several printers subse- (Itient to him, including I'Vanklin among others. In 1796 i'.iiiney and Ronaldson of lOdinljurgh established type-founding as a regular business at I'hiladelphia. having a jtretty hard time of it for a few years, l)ut finallv ob- taining State aid, con(|ucring all difficulties, and building u]) a business which was the origin the i)resent great establishment Mackellar, Smiths. \' Jordan. ISe- fore the close of the centiu'v I )avid Ihiuc, also of iMlinburgh. started the business at New- York ("ity. Mr. Bruce was an ingenious man, and invented improvements in the methods of ty]X>-lbunding which developed the business. 'I'he ori- ginal method was to cast each letter by hand, one at a time. .V copper mould was made for the type, the letter being stamped into the lower end of the mould, or matri.x, with a steel die, and the I'KiMiK'^ -iTANii. matrix capable of being opened to take out the letter. The ma- trix was put into a little wooden or iron box having a hopper to admit the melted metal. The workman, hokhng this in his left hand, di]i])e(l enuiiuh metal for a letter from the melting-pot with a small iron ladle. lie poured it in, and gave the matrix a sharp jerk upwards as high as his head to settle the metal into the fmcst lines of the type and to condense it. He then pressed a spring, opened the matrix, shook out the tyjie, closed the box, and went on as before. The average rate of casting was 400 letters an hour. Mr. [)avid Bruce invented an improvement in 181 i by which 500 type could he vast in an hour. In 181 2 a duty of thirty per cent was laid u))on foreign ty[)e, in place of the previous fifteen per cent. This was a great help t>' American makers. Both at Philadelphia and New York the Inisiness soon became im])ortant. In 1813 David and (George Bruce began the first stereo- typing establishment in the United States. In 1831 Mr. David Bruce, juu., patented the only successful type-casting machine which has ever been vent I'rai t\pt- nibl n, (), K 50: n: the ul.l, ina- ihc red il c tlu' rcsscil went Mr. orciiiii SudU been <■;/< /7/A LW'ITED STA'l'ES. 357 made. It was the product of years of rxiterinient and study. It lias tiuirely superseded the little hand-inoul^" Mil !<1SC,M.\C,IIINK. 11. into a i^ipe, and the edges soldered. Large j^ipes arc still made in this way. All attempts to cast lead pipe have proved to be too cumbersome and slow. The method in use is that suggested in 1797 by Bramah, the inventor of the celebrated Lnglish lock of that name, and patented by him. The process was introduced into the United States in 1840 by Talh '*M (• 1 .u OF THE UNITED STATES. 3f>' h this |u ii)al ;h cn- iprotl- lipally Icrally idowii liand : js arc Ic too I97 by lib ^: Brothers, who patented ;in improxeineiU uixiii it in tlie genuine Wuikee way. It consists in pouring lead into a cyliiKhical tavity in a block of ciM-jron, \vhi< h is kept at a heat suftii icnt to niilt lead, and then torcin;,^ the IcmI cit again, under a pressure of two hundred or three hundred ions, with an hydrauli. apparatus, through an annular space the size of the pipe reiiuired. The steel rod, or core, which forms the bore of the l^pe, is fa-' ned to tli- piston, and passes through the cavity containing the lead, anil out tliKMigh the iiole ui the top of the chamber. It rises slowly with the piston, which crowds the melted metal out of the chanii)er through the annular opening above formed b) the (lie and the core. The pipe, as it cools, and rises slowly abo\e the top of the machine, is coiled around a lar;'e drum above. In one [iroccss the piston rises into the chamber of melted nictal : in the other the pisu n descends, die die being in the piston, and the core projecting upwartl through it from the bottom of the chamber. An old method of making lead ))iiJe was to cast a heavy cylinder of lead with a bore of the exact si/e reijuired, and then gradually to work this down under rollers, using a mandrel to keep the bore open. It is nut yet entirely obsolete. I,ead pipe isveiv convenient for domestic jjurposi , because it can be readily bent to any angle rc(iuired. If the water within it freezes, and bursts the pipe, the 1 itter can be easily repaired. The only drawback to utility of lead pipes is, diat the water they distribute through the iiouses '*=*'' P'p** of our cities often corrodes tie lead, and becomes thus impregnated with pni^on. The evil is obviated by keeping the pipes always full of water, and letting the water which has stood in them any length of time flow out before drawing water for cooking or drinking. " l''or ornamental purposes, lead i alloyed with seventy-five per cent of antimony. It makes a hard, white alloy, ca]iable of taking a high polish. It is the material generally usck, is desired, it can be I'liiUed witlnnit encountering the cost of comijosition. Sf!!; , ■ . mi .^■*>^' IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) I 1.0 I.I 1.25 l^|2£ |2.5 ■^ IIIIE 2.0 us lU U4 lii IIIIIM 1.4 V] ^1 ^> ^;j ^> '3^ >' V >^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 I I . and inserting type. It was then planed on the back, and nailed to a wooilen block for the press. 'I'his method has been practised in the United States down to the present day. It is, however, rapidly going ont of use. It long ago disappeared from the large daily newspapcr-oifices, and has been replaced in most of the large publication-houses by another system. \\\ the great newspaper-offices the new method is called the '' papier- ina( he " process. A few hours before the pages come down from 'he type-room the stereotypers begin to [)repare heavy sheets of How the stereotyping paper, in order to make the mould from them. .\ sheet of thin of news- paper! done. tissue-paper is spread out on a smooth iron table. It is brushed P^f"^" '* with some sort of sizing. Another sheet of tissue-j)aper is laid upon it, and brushed smoothly ilown. This, again, is sized, and another sheet laid on. A dozen sheets of tissue-paper are thus put together, forming a moist sheet of thick, heavy paper of extremely fine textiwe. When the forms come down, one of these thick sheets is laiil upon the page, and ham- mered down with a heavy, long-handled brush, the stiff hairs of whic h ilrive the paper into the finest lines of the type. A great deal of the pajjcr is beaten down between the type. I'he heavy indentations in the paper are then smoothly smeared with wet marble-dust, anil another of the tliii k sheets laid on, and cemented to the first one by hammering with the brush. 'I'he form is then slid off upon an iron steam table, and put under a press, where it <|ui( kly dries. The sheet of paper, or papier-mache, is then taken off. It makes a perfect mould, and can be used for the casting of a dozen plates if desired ; and intleed it sometimes is desired, the casting of each recjuiring only two or three minutes, I'he papier-mache matri.x. has another advantage. It can be put into a fiat iron box for the casting of a perfectly fiat plate, or into a .semicircular one, or one describing any segment of a circle, for the production of a curved plate. It is this style of mould which has made possible the use of stereotype-plates upcjn a cylinder, anil, per consecpience, the invention of the perfei ting web-press. It takes about twenty-five minutes to cast three j)lates of the page, counting from the moment tiie original page of type is received in the stereoty[)e-room. IJy the i)laster-ot"- Paris process it would take several hnurs, and tlie plates would be imperfect then ; whereas bv the other process iluy are absolutely correct. This system was the invention of several men, hut was first made practical by Charles Crashe. It was brought out in i C/S TRJA L ins TOR Y duced an engraving by means of it about 1839, and, about 1843, employed it in producing various large borders and engravings for Harper's illustrated books. It has been greatly improved in various details by Wilcox, JMlnier, Ad=im8'8 Lovejoy, (Jay, Knight, and others. I'he jjlan is to oil the jKige process. of lyp^- so that the mould will not adhere, or to cover it with fmely-powdered graphite. \ thick sheet of the best pure yellow beeswax, cast in a shallow box, is brought down ujjon the ])age under heavy hy- drostatic pressure. An exact imi)ression is thus obtained even of the finest engraving. Finely pulverized graphite is then dusted u])on the wax, coating it uniformly in every line and depression, the excess being l)lown awav. \ new way of applying the grajjhite, invented by Silas P. Knight, is to pour a torrent of water, into which the graphite has been stirred, upon the mould. The wax matrix is then attached to the negative wire of a battery, and placed in a solution of sulphate of copper. The graphite serves as a (•ondu(.ting medium, and a film of copper begins to form immediately upon the face of the wax matrix. The mould is generally left in the soiulion over night. In the morning the copper is thick enough to be removed. A little quicker plan than this has been invented by Knight. He takes the wax mould dusted with graphite, and i)owders it with iron-filings. He then pours on a solution of sulphate of copper. The acid leaves the co])i)er, and forms sulphate of iron ; while the copper is deposited in a film. This is afterwards thickened by the electrotype process. The copper plate, when finally obtained, whatever the details of the process, is removed from the was, tinned upon the back, and then laid face do vnwards, when stereot\pe-nietal is bound on it, giving it the thickness of a regular stereotype-plate. It is then triiTimed, planed, and fitted to the press in the usual way. Or only a thin l)ack of stereotype-metal is given to it, and it is mounted upon a wooden block. This plan of making the plates is more leisurely than the other, is a more agreeable method for the workmen, and is adapted to the finer work of books and engravings. The number of impressions which can be taken from electro- type-plates is about three hundred thousand. If printing was the " art preservative " when in its crude infancy, what is it now, when the pages of a book can be cheaply cast in metal, and stored away, for centuries if need be, and then brought out to reproduce the thoughts of a generation of thinkers for the benefit of other ages ? TIN-WARE. Tin is one of the most expensive of common metals, and most serviceal)lc. While the average price of commercial iron is only twenty dollars a ton. tin Utility of costs about three hundred dollars a ton. The metal is as haiid- tin-ware. some as silver, and possesses the properties of incorrosibility, and of remarkable adhesion to iron ; which makes it remarkably useful in the arts. ll! , employed it r's illustrated Icox, I'ilmer. oil the page cover it wilii low beeswax, er heavy liy- of the finest : wax, coaliii}^ blown away. Knight, is to X'd, upon I'ae of a battery, e serves as a icdiately upon 1 the solution be removed, t. He takes n-filings. He es the eo])])er, film. This is r plate, when fi-om the wax, ,'reotype-metal te. It is then ily a thin back ivooden blo( k. icr, is a more work of books from electro- infancy, what al, and stored c the thoughts )st serviceable, ars a ton. tin ll is as hanil- rrosibility, and ul in the arts, OF THE ex, -TED STATES. 365 and would alone have given it great value, even did it not ally so satisfactorily with lead and copper. 'J'in was once used in solid form for dishes for the table and for cooking-utensils, on account of its beauty and incorrosibility. In that form it was ex])ensive When it was foimd. how readily sheet-iron could be plated with it. and thus, for all practical purposes, a sheet of metal obtained answering all the ri'i|uirements of pure tin. but at one-tenth the cost, tin-ware came into general use. 'I'iie restless mind of tiie New-Mngland Yankee, whi( h ever ran in the direc tioii of improving the utensils of every-day life, seized upon the idea of producing dishes and house-ware from tin plates, and his ingenuity and enterprise have made the United States the largest ( onsumer of tin-ware upon tiie face of the earth. In introducing the ware to the public, the Yankees resorted to that im])ortant agency in trade, the roving peddler, who with a wagon loaded with plates, milk-pans, tea-kettles, dippers, (lips, pail., iVc, threaded every highway and lane in the country, and brought his travelling store and its tempting display of ware before the eyes of every housewife in the land. Tin-ware recommended itself not only on account of its beauty, but its lightness antl general convenience. The milk-pan was, before its advent, a heavy earthen article ; the milk and water pail a heavy hiK kel of wood, romantic enough for its association, but dreadfidly tiresome to milkmaids, farmers' boys, and whoever had to carry it to and from the pasture and the well. The di])iK'r was a heavy pewter scoop. All the ware of the household and the cans and pots of the store were clumsy and fatiguing <()Mtrivances. 'I"in-ware brought ease of handling, security against breakage, and beauty. 'I o be loved, it needed o ily to be seen ; and the untiring peddler who went through the land like the missionary of a new gospel of comfort created a veritable revolution by ni..'ans of it. Forty years ago the peddler was the busiest and one of the most prosperous of our countrymen. Since he took to selling tin-ware, however, tin-shops have been opened in every com- munity ; and each city and village now depends for its supply upon its local makers. Farming-towns are still supplied to a great extent by the peddler. The growth of the manufacture of tin-ware is surjirising. Formerly confined to the sterile soil of New England, it has extended all over the republic, and 110 corner of the remotest region is too far in the backwoods not to have been in\aded by it. The number of shops where tin, copper, and sheet-iron ware are made was 6,640 in 1870 ; the number of hands employed was 25,283 ; and the value of the goods produced, $40,636,000. Over 3,400 of the shops were in the Eastern and Middle States. The tin- ware made is not entirely for culinary and pantry use, though it is principally so. A great deal of it consists of gutters for roofs, flues for the distribution of hot air from fur- naces, &c. besides the use of tin for the plating of sheet-iron, the metal is also employed in coating a wide variety of other small iron articles to protect I'lvin from rust. Stirrups, bits, &c., are among the number. )) fl iflT m7;,M-j 366 1^ \t INDUSTRIAL HISTORY TOYS. Tin toys. I'latc tin is now extensively consumed in the manufacture of toys for ciuhlrcn. It is lighter than wood or jjapier-mache', is cheap, and can he easilv fashioned by the use of dies and stamps. The business is of recent development. The largest house in the business is that of Leo Schlesinger & Co., New York. It is an interesting f;tct that i)Iaytliinj,s have become so necessary a part of American life, that the trade in them has suffered die least of all by the hard times. Playthings are a luxury ; but, even if there is retrenchment in the family, the children have to be amused just as much as ever, and playthings are bought for them in scarcely diminished numbers. Ik'sides, there is a growing demand for American toys al)r();ul. Their ingenuity is unequalled. A great (piantity of them now go to ICurope and South America. In the manufacture of toys, the princijjal exi)ensc is the preparation of the dies. These are subjected to long and rough work, and conseiiuenlly must be made of the hardest steel. 'I'hey must be made with great nicety too, so that the different parts of a toy will fit. Some of the plainer toys require only one or two ilies : others require four, six. and even nine. P'rom four to ten weeks are necessary for the making of the dies for a single toy. In working up the tin into a toy, presses arc used. In making a plain and unpretentious horse for every-day use, a sheet of tin is cut into the proper shape, placed in a press, and rounded out in such a manner as lo form one side of the proposed animal. The two sides are next passed through a couple of cutting-machines for the purpose of trimming off the superfluous metal, and are then sent to another part of the building, fitted together in a mould, soldered, and sent to the floor above, where the completed animal assumes a coat of paint, and is turned out for use as a black, white, sorrel, or bay. at the discretion of the painter. The manufacture of a horse is a comparatively simple operation ; but in making a yellow lamb standing on a smooth tin platform, with a painted bell about his neck, the animal passes through fifteen pairs of hands before a])pearing in a finished state. A grou]) rejiresenting a boy leading his horse to a manger is of still more elaborate construction, and goes through at least thirty-five operations before being packed for removal. Of all toy animals the horse is the most i)opular, and ho conseciuently apjjears in nearly every variety of shape and size. The largest and handsomest is the " Dexter," whose graceful form is made of zinc instead of tin. 180,000 " Dexters" are born and arrive at maturity in one factory in New York every year, and nearly 6,000,000 horses of a smaller breed were turned out during the past twelve months. One of the simplest playthings mack- is the putty-blower, well known to every school-teacher in the country. Ahoat 2,880,000 of these infernal machines were put upon the market by this one firm during the year 1S76. The effects of the falling off in the numl)cr ot emigrants to this country during the past few years do not seem to have OF THE IWITKD STA'I'KS. 367 reached toy-land as yet; for last winter nearly 10,000 emigrant-wagons, pro- vided with one horse and two wheels each, were made and sold by one firm. One of the best selling tin toys maniifa( tiircd is the hose-carriage, of which seventy-three different sizes and shapes are made. Kifty kinds of express- wagons, fifty-nine kinds of steam-cars, and twenty-five kinds of lu)rse-< ars, are manufactured. The newest plaything in the market is the livery-stable ; and the swinging cradle immediately preceded it, with an .American eagle at cither end, instead of the guardian angel of tradition and song. One of the most important departments in the toy establishint ; is presided over by young iiKU wiiose inventive minds are constantly enga d in prodiu ing new toys, antl " improvising amendments " \\\>o\\ those already i vogue. .Ml the paints used in toy-making are mixed by the operatives themselves before using, and in the process of painting alone all the larger toys jiass through half a dozen or half a score of hands and brushes. It is estimated that the annual production of a single manufactcry will often aggregate between 40,000,000 and 50,000,000 toys. Tin i)lates are prepaicd simply by dipping the sheets of brightened iron into a bath of melted tin. I % % APPLICATIONS OF ZINC. Zinc is good for a great many things besides the making of brass. It is an important rival of lead in the manufacture of house-paint. It is a popular material for putting under stoves to prevent coals and ashes from importance dropping upon the carpet. It is often made into hot-air flues for °' *'"*=• furnaces in the warming of dwellings. It is also now largely used in architect- ure for orname. al and fire-i)rotection jiurposes. The manufacture of white oxide of zinc for the purposes of paint is a French invention. The process of making the oxide directly from the ore, instead of from the pig-metal, is purelv an .American idea. It ' ° ' ' ' Zinc-paint. ^Tow out of the experiments of Mr. Richard Jones of Philadelphia al)()ut 1849, and was first put into practice by the New-Jersey Zinc Company of New-York City, which was incorporated in 1849, and set about the manu- fu turing of oxide from the ore at Newark, N.J. The company oeveiop- w as \LTy successfiil, and has developed its business, until it has forty ment of furnai OS engaged in the production of zinc-paint. It was followed '" "'*''*'• in the business, a' out 1853, by the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company at bethlcheni, Penn. ; and a third company was established in 1855, called the I'assaic. which put up its works at Communipaw, on New-York harbor. The zinc -i)aint soon recommended itself, from the fact that it was not process ^f poisonous ; and the manufacture of it has become enormous. The manufactur- process of manufacture has one spectacular feature. The ore is ^^^' ground up fine, mixed with coal-dust, and charged into a blazing Aimace in * M .^68 IND US TN I A I. HIS TOR / the prc,)ortion of six hundred pounds of ore to three hundred pounds of roal. 'I'he heat siihliines the /inc. I he vapors rise up through a pipe at the top of the stack. The pipe ends ju.A above the stack, under an inverted fuinicl, wiiich covers it like a hood. A strong current of air is drawn up through this funnel by (lowing apparatus ; and the vapors of the stack are thus carried up through the funnel, mingled with atmosphe ic air which enters at the open base. A very vivid combustion of the zinc takes place within the hood. The metal unites with the oxygen of the air with a pale blue flame, and rusho up into a huge pipe above in the lorm of oxide of /inc. The current of floatiuj^ particles and gases is now carried a long distance through i)ipeh into a tower, where it is partly cooled by dripping water, and thence into another, where tlie air is strained, as it were, by huge flannel bags stretched horizontally acros-, the building. 'I'he oxide collects upon the bags, and is from lime to time shaken off into cotton flues, or teats, which conduct it into receptacles below. It is put into bags and pressed to get out the air, and then ground with l>lanched linseed- oil for market. It is claimed that zinc-paint thus prepared has greater purity, durability, and brilliancy than lead-paint. It makes a valuable pigment. ( er- tainly ; but its most vahiable ([uality is the fact that it is not poisonous, and that, therefore, the workmen may hancile it without suffering from the disease known as painter's colic. A recent application of zinc is to the construction of the cornices of build- ings. On the business-streets of a city, where the walls of the buildings are Zinc of stone or brick, and the roofs sheeted with tin or a gravelly cornices. composition designed to protect it from fire, it has frec]uently been foimd that the buildings often take fire and burn down, when there is a fire across the street, because the cornices are inflammable. The wooden c:ornicc is, therefore, an element of danger to a store. Within the last twenty }ears American builders have been experimenting with cornices made of metal, and they find zinc well adapted to the object. It can be easily stamped or beaten into any pattern desired ; resists fire ; and is, when ;)ainted, indestructible 1)\' the elements. It is so cheap, too, that it has brought handsome cornices within the means of all ; and the invention has really been the means of improving the architectural appearance of our former exceedingly plain business-streets, as well as their security. ill biii OF THE UNITED STATES. 369 )unds (if roal. U tllL" loj) of .•crtccl funnel, |) through this lis canicd n|) s at the open • ic hood. 'I'lu' and rushes ii|i Jilt of lloalini; s into a lowei, llicr, whfic the tally acros-, ilu' time- shaken .■low. It is imt inched linseed- , greater imrity, ,' pigment, ( er- poisonous, and i\\\ the iliseaso irnices of IniiKl- le buildings arc 1 or a gravelly frcciuently been there is a fire •ooden cornice St twenty years of metal, and npcd or beaten [idestructible hy .Isome cornices the means of leedingly plain how first obtained. CHAPTER IV. THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOL. GENKKAL HISTORY OF TIIK WOOLLEN-MANUFACTURE. ONE of the very first cares of the early colonists of America was to obtain an ample supply of materials for clothing. This for many years they hought from the I )utch ships which came across the sea to trade, ^ , , , , . ^ ' ' Saaterials for and from the English at home, paying for their clotii with tar, cloth. ng. hoards, tobacco, hides, and other rude products of the farm and forest. In 1660 a law was passed in England prohibiting the hutch from trading in the colonies, and requiring the colonic to trade only with England direct. This cut off all access to a market in which goods- might be bought cheaper than in England, and led the colonists to think of manufacturing their goods as far as possible for themselves. Nevertheless, the manufacture of woollen came into existence as a public industry very slowly. It was not the desire of the home government that the colonies should manufacture for themselves. It was the constant study of the men who directed the government to find ways in which the colonies might be made useful to the capitalists, traders, and factory-owners of England. Mac- pherson gave expression to the sentiment prevailing in England i^^^^ ^f when he said, "The original intent of planting those colonies ; viz.. English on to he a benefit to their mother-country, to which they owed their ^ ' *" ^"*" 'leing and ])rotection." The way in which it was sought to make them a '■ henefit " was to compel tht;m to sell to England all they had to sell, and buy from her all they had to buy. The first Lord Sheffield expressly said that "the only use" of the colonics was a monopoly of their trade, and the carriage of their produce. Lord Chatham declared that " the British colonists of North America had no rii^ht to manufacture even a nail or a horseshoe." A law of Virginia, passed in 1684, to encourage textile manufactures in that lirovincc, was promptly annulled by England. In 1731 the England's < arriage of woollen goods and hats from one colony to another P°''<:y- was forbidden by law. The exportation of woollen was also forbidden. The 370 INI) ( S / A' /,•/ /. ///S / J.V »■ .THE TWO^APF RCNTIOES 1776, ^ object of ICn^'land's policy was to keep the Americans, a race of farmers and foresters, raismj,' tobacco, suj;ar, indij^o, lump, iVc, and K^''t'"K *'i'> pil< li, rosin, and tiinbiT Ironi llu- Ion ^ts, whit ii tiicy slioiild sell to tlic niotiier-conn try; and to make lliein depend upon l>rilisii l.tdoiiis absoliilcl) lor tin ir cloliiinj;, tools, fiiniitiiic, carriaj;es, and all oiIkt nianiifacture^. This poli* y meant mischief. It ( onld not f;(j on Irrever. No nation (an piodnce a;;ri- ' ullur.il jii'odncts enoii;;h M) as to have a siiITk irnl -.urplus to |)ay for the nun- ul'.K lures it (onsunies. I'he I olonics could not. 'i'liov nr\i'r exported eno".L;h to I'ln.nland to pay for what they l)ou_L;hl of her ; and never could have paid for what ihcy boni^hl at nil, e\( cpl that they sold larL;e (luantities of i)rovisions to the West Indies and other countries in vxcluuij^e for money, in spite of the Lnvi which forbade it. The colonies ^ot jioorer and poorer inider this policy. In 17(10 they bouijht ^'2, 500, 000 worth of .uooils from ICngland, and s(jld to her only ^{'750,000 worth ; and in i77r tlv.y bout^ht about ^4,100,000 worth, and sold only ^i, 350, 000 worth of j;ih)iU. They were nearly ruined by it. 'i'his interference with the freedom of the colonists to trade and manufac- ture led to two results. First they took to wearing leather garments, because Effect of '^'^^'y *'""'l'l rarely afford the imported woollens. 'I"lu; men wore, English for a long period, waisti oats and breeches of Indian-dressed ^kins, po icy. — ,^ custom which survivetl until the Revolution, and made its last appearance historically in the uniforms of the Continental regiments. Tin' women wore leather jerkins and petticoats very largely ; and in some of the colonies the clothing of the bed was almost entirely of leather. The sheets alone were of linen. A second result was, that industry not permitted to flourish in the open air did so in the shade, 'i'he women learned to weave and si)in ; and a large quantity of woollen, hemp, and linen cloth and other goods, was made in the privacy of the household throughout the whole coun- try. Nearly every family wove a part or the whole of its own clothing and blankets ; and many which had skill in the art had many pieces over and ; Ol- riH< UXITI'J^ STATES. .^71 rmcrs and tar, l)il< h. llifr-< oun y lor tlu II fiir:»iiuri', all olhcr , I'his pi)li' rdi of goixU. luul manufac- lents, because he men wore, Idressed ^kins, made its las', [inients. 'Hi" some of till- The sheets permitted to Irncd to weave loth and other t whole conn- elothing and Lees over and above theii own want-, to sell the luercliant. i'lu' law conld not reacli their private factories. In 1730 a factory of woollen hats in Massachusetts was (iedared a iniismcc. and siipprcssfd. Parliament < onlil cluh down tiie ripen- ing fruit whi< ll hunj; in pl.fin Mght on the hrant lies ; liut the million lnids form- in;; in secret under the hark, \\lii< li a favoring time would eventually hring out DOLDI.i:-\(TlNi; (.IG. iiitn Mooin, were heycnd its reach. In 1765 a society wa-, formed in New »lic, and who had presented to Congress the original tariff bill which it had ailcptcd. In 1S09 a woollen-mill was put up in Northern New York, at Oriskany, in Onei- da County ; and others followed it within a {q\s years in that region. In 1812 a large mill, for those days, was started at Middletown, Conn., for the making of fine cloths and cassimeres. Every day thirty or forty yards of broadcloth were made, which would sell from nine to ten dollars a yard by the piece. Small factories for coarse cloths were now getting into operation in all directions throughout the country, but especially in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, ami Connecticut, which were both wool-growing and extremely enterprising Slaks. Blankets were being made in Connecticut in considerable quantities. Super- fine cloths were making at Northampton and elsewhere, which were palrioti( ally claimed to be superior to the imported goods. The wool-supply was not yet sufficient for the needs of the country. But a merino-fever was raging : wool rose to a dollar and a half and two dollars a pound ; heavy importations of sheep were taking place, and farmers giving a degree of attention to brccdinu. incited thereto by the high prices, which jiromised ere long to give the manu- facturers an ample supply of excellent and cheap home grown fleece. The war of 1 8 1 2 gave a fi-esh impulse to manufacturing; and, during those three years in which it was in progress, it was impossible to take up a newspaper without seeing in it some notice of a new woollen-factory whicli had been started, or some new style of American-made woollen-goods which manulac- turers were essaying to make. OF THE I'M TED Sl^ATES. 375 lanufactured and, against :ld of a pro- )0\ver, it was Wool was s until 1804. to thirty per manufacture [ , when '• the I factory was the work was K-nir.chine in s of the wool- as afterwards were started, early as 1S04. i inauguration The census of 1810 reported tliat the manufacture of wool was at that time still mostly in families. The production was roughly valued at $25,608,- r.WKY nUUAl) I.ociM. y-'^'H. Although the spinning-jenny, the power-loom, the nap-cutter, and various ingenious machines, were now in practical use in factories, Household tliis household manufacture appears to have been a thing the manufac- pcoplc wer*^; slov,' to give up. It was a valuable source of income *"''*®" to people of moderate means. Women could then do but few things to I 'I f'tl ' i:> i 376 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY make their time a source of revenue, besides spinning and weaving ; and the generation of men and women of iSio did not relinquish the household manufacture tmlil they had passed off the scene of earthly toil and struggle. This household employment was also prized by public men, for the sake of its influences upon the character of our people. Henry Clay, speaking of the lives of farmers and mechanics, said they tended to " beget a jjcculiarly eager, disinterested love of truth, and exempted them in a good degree froui those sudden impulses to which those who move in the more excitable walks y){ life are more frequently liable, and which, though sometimes leading to great actions, are oftener the prolific source of error." And it was upon people working among the pure associations of family life that these influences exerted their most powerful effect. In the flill of 1814 thirty bales of woollens were sent from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, to Albany, in one shipment ; and one economist of those days, speaking through the columns of a Balti- more newspaper, said of it, — " These cloths, it adds much to our pleasure to learn, were mostly manu- factured in private families, — the plan that of all others we wish may he pursued, as it brings the whole hxbor of the people into active and healthful employment, and is without the many objections to which large establishments are liable. It is astonishing to be informed of the extent to which this industry is applied. Many of the most elegant belles that trip our streets are covered with superb shawls, antl otherwise protected from th.e cold, by the labor of their own hands, — hands that heretofore chiefly held a romance, or touched a piano. These household manufactures are a sort of clear gain to our country, and we particularly exult at the progress they make." Alas for the simplicity of the times of our bright-eyed, dear old grand- mothers ! How many of their daughters who now trip the streets are " covered with superb shawls, and otherwise protected from the cold, by the labor of their own hands "? It is to be feared that too many of them have resumed the romance and the piano. So long did the home-manufacture retain its charm, even after factories were established, that work of the early factories simply wove the yarn tiiat had been spun at the houses in the country round j and, when the maidens and spinsters in the household gave up tlie sjjinning-wheel and hand-loom, they simi)ly did it to go to the factory, and resume work there. After 1816 (-arding-mills, fulling-mills, and woollen-factories increased rapidly in every part of the country. In 1832 the protection to woollen- manufactures, which had been lowered sligluly after the war, uas increased to fifty per cent, and a i^iw years of great prosperity were enjoyed by the trade. Under the descending tariff of 1836, which brought the duties down to twenty-nine per cent in 1842, an era of deij.ession occurred; but in 1842 protection was again decreed by a duty of fortv l)cr cent, which chan.^ed tlie face of things. New vigor was imparled Rapid in- crease of mills after 1816. r; and the household id struggle. le sake of king of the liarly eager, from those ,'alks of life ig to great pon people ; influences of woollens 2 shipment ; i of a lialti- nostly nianu- /ish may be md healthful stablishments this industry are covered the labor of or touched a our country, r old grand- are "covered the labor of lave resumed after f:\ct()rics arn that had maidens and iddoom, tl^y es increased to woollen - the war, was osperity were 1836, which 1842, an era cd by a duiv was imparled OF THE UNITED STATES. 377 to wool-growing and wool-manufacturing, and preparations were made for the erection of woollen-factories in great numbers, especially in New York and Pennsylvania. Every village with a mill-stream aspired to have its woollen- mill, particularly if situated in a pastoral region. Public meetings were held in all such places 10 raise subscrii)tions to the stock of the mills ; corner-stones were laid with impressive puljlic ceremonies, and odes written, beginning, " Hail, ICntcrprisc ! whose rising sun Tiiis day beams foitli its light; " and public dinners were given in connnemoration of the new era in village affairs, at which extraordinary toasts to " Liberty," " PiU)lic Spirit," " Our Own Village," " Our Guests from the Neighboring Towns," &c., were drunk enthusi- astically. It was a period of great excitement, adventure, and public satis- foction. American invention took fire sympathetically during this period, and was stimulated to improve upon the looms and other apparatus then in use, and a great many valuable ideas were patented during that period. P)y 1850 the number of fiictories had increased from about twenty-five in 1810 to 1.559, employing 39,252 hands, and producing $43,207,545 worth of goods. The growth of production year by year had been as follows : — iSio 1S20 1S30 1S40 1S50 In foiindcrie.s .... \ In factories, the family manu- | ( fact'.uesnot being reiJoited, ) In factories In factories In factories ..... ?2 5,608,788 4,413,068 14,528,166 20,696,999 43.207.545 1850. The development of 1850 was chiefly in the Middle States. One-half of the woollen-mills in the country were in the three States of Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio. More than one-third of the whole number were ill New England. A beginning had been made in the prairie States of the AVest, and Virginia was em[)loying no less than a hundred and twenty-one flictories in the art. In the great mountainous and volcanic regions of the Far West, which, according to Judge Kelley, are destined to be the greatest wool-producing country of the world, there was as yet no trace of the woollen-industry. California had neither mills nor sheep. There was not a mill west of the Missouri River, and not one in the States of New Jersey, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi. Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, and -Minnesota. In spite of the une(iual distribution of the industry, the develop- iiK'iit was very satisfactory. It kept pace with population, and it stimulated population ; for it enhanced the profits of agriculture by creating a large home- market for wool, and it brought into the country a large body of cmigrancs to Work in the factories and settle on the public lands. II ?!'* !*;. 373 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Struggles of woollen- manufac- turers. The woollen-manufacture of the United States has had the misfortune to be constantly sul)jccled to alternate chills and fever, owing to causes entirely beyond the control of the mill-owners. It was now to encounter one of its periodic chills. The duties were lowered a trifle after 1846, and in 1857 they had been reduced about one-half what they were in 1842. This brought upon the factories again the almost undiminished force of foreign competition. Their plight was aggravated by the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania mills enlarging thcir capacity to a great extent, and by the erection of a hundred and thirty-eight new mills, many of them of unusual capacity, in different parts of the coun- try ; also by the panic of 1857, which brought about hard times. The total l)roduction of the country had slightly increased by i860; but four hundnd and forty-seven factories which were running in 1S50, and a number of others built during the interim, had closed their doors, discharged their operati\cs, anil ceased to do business. They were mostly small concerns, built to make local markets for the wools of their several counties ; but a large amount of the earnings of the people was invested in them, and the disaster was a serious one. Many of the mills were sold out by the sheriff, to the great loss of the original owners. Of the mills which closed, sixty-five were in Connecticut, a hundred and nine in New York, a hundred and ten in Pennsylvania, and seventy-six in Virginia. It was a blue time for the woollen-industry. CHOMl'TON nOM-WORKS, WORCIiSTEK, MASS. The most enrouraxing feature of this era was the fact, that, though nearly every woollen-mill in tiic country was in straits, the quantity of wool actually Encourage- cousuiv xl was fully maintained ; and the farmers of the country. ments. finding the market for their fleeces unfailing, were encouraged to go on and enlarge their flocks and production. This was a remarkable era of merino-breeding, particulaiiy in the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky, The flocks of that region multiplied extremely fiist from 1850 tu 1S60; and so much attention was paid to the care of the sheep, that the wool OF THE UNITED STATES. 379 produced was of the most admirable quality. It found such a ready sale in tiic general market, that wool-growing in New ICngland received a check on account of it. The flocks of New England actually decreased from iii- mill owners of the North, seeing such a demand for woollens from both the government and the jieople generally, and not caring to keep their own machinery idle, resolved to turn a portion of their establishments to the manu- facture of woollens. They bought expensive machinery, and put it into operation. Operatives were plenty, in consequence of the closing of the cotton-mills; and there was no difficulty in manning every si)inning-jack and loom with competent hands. Every machine was run so as to produce the greatest amount of goods, and in many cases the mills were run night and day. It was an era of great prosperity. The woollen-machinery of the country was more than doubled during the war. After the war there was a folling-off in the woollen-machinery of the coun- try, owing to the restoration of the cotton-supply and the conversion of mills from the woollen to the cotton manufacture. But the South, being bare of or THE i'X/TF.D STATES. 381 .ttemptc(\ uriny the and they munufac- iverc of a Is, tlic iii- mmcdiatc not slow ills of the V malciial. I rose from nd dollars. >I ill-owners was not a lUen-niami- \il activity, goods. A le, and the mi/.ed ret;i- ^\\v^ of the )ods. and a jds for the IS. a .ureat ions hard were built 1 in nearly s for army le cotlon- Xi both tlie their own the manii- ut it into ng of the' ;-jack and rodvice the night and cry of the the c(nm- lon of niill^ ing bare ot goods, became a large buyer from the North at this timi^ ; and this served to stimulate toward tiie building of more new mills, and to jjrevent a decline in the manufacturing capac ity of the country. As the abnormal con- ■yvQo,ij„. sumption of woollen-goods by the goverinnent ceased as suddenly manufactur* almost as the demand for them from this (luarter arose, the wants '"^ since the ' war. of the South prevented the tide from turning against the manufac- turers ; and so they continued to reap a golden harvest. The state of things in II \l\ I \l 1 I'l -1 HUM. 1870 as compared with 1S50 and i860 will show the o.traordinary influence of the tariff and the war. and the subsecpient demand from the South, in putting this important industry once more upon its feet. The figures are taken from the census reports : they refer only to the manufacture of woollen- cknhs, and cloths of mixed wool, cotton, and silk, the carpet and worsted factories not beini: included. I \ \ i II I I I '( r U. i il ili! i 382 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Alal)aina . Arkansas . California . Connecticut Delaware DJNtrict of Columbia Morida . (leorgia . Illinois . Indiana . Iowa Kansas . Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massacluisctt: Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri . New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico . New York North Carolina Ohio . . Oregon . Pennsylvania . Rhode Island . South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont . Virginia . West Virginia . Wisconsin Total 1850. 149 9 I I • • • 3 16 33 I J" 38 119 I 61 41 249 I 130 380 45 4 I 72 121 1. 559 i860. I 84 II 21 79 12 37 I 26 27 134 16 4 II 51 35 140 7 "5 I 270 57 I I 46 45 IS 1,260 1870. '4 ■3 5 108 II I 46 I or) '75 «5 9 '25 107 3' 'S5 54 10 II 156 77 29 I 252 5^ "3 9 457 65 '5 14S 20 15 65 6S 74 64 2,891 The following tabic shows the production in all the States at thr-^e different periods. This includes a space of thirty years, during which time a reniarlc- able change occurred in the ratio of production in several of the States. Massachusetts had the lead in the beginning, and has kept it ever since ; but the production of Pennsylvania, which was $5,321,860 in 1850, had increased to $27,580,586 twenty years later, thus placing her second in the list, the rank which for many years was occupied by New York. OF THE UNITED STATES. Z^i 1S70. 14 •3 S loS II I 109 >75 «5 9 125 107 3' 54 10 II 156 77 -0 I 252 • 52 223 9 457 65 >5 14S 20 IS 65 6S 74 64 2,891 Ahbnnia . Arkansas (l.ilifornia (.'onncclicut . Delaware District of Columbia Florida . (Jcorgia . Illinois . . Indiana . . Iowa Kansas . . Kintucky Louisiana Maine . . Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi . Missouri . . New Hampshire Kcw Jersey New Mexico . New \'()rk North Carolina Ohio Oregon . Tennsylvania . Rhode Island . South Carolina 'i'tnnesscc . Texas . . Utah Vermont . Virc;inia . . West Virginia AVisconsin . Total 1850. $6,465,216 251,000 2,400 SS,75o 206,572 205,582 13,000 318,819 753.300 295,1.10 i2,770,sf'S 90,242 56,000 2,127.745 1,164,446 7,030,604 23.750 1,111,027 5,321,860 2,381,825 6,310 1 5,000 i,579,i6i 841,013 87,992 543,207,545 i860. 5191,474 1 50,000 6,840,220 '53.035 401.1-0 i87,(,i3 649,771 127,640 8.15,226 45,200 1,717,007 605,992 '9.655.7>'^7 139,246 •5^^.507 M3.025 2,601,653 1,085,104 5,870,117 29 1 ,000 825,000 85,000 8,191,675 6,915,205 80,000 S,ioo 08.796 2,938,626 717.827 172,720 1870. 5'89,9';8 78,6(jo 1,102,754 17,371,048 576,067 500 471.523 2.849.249 4.329.7" 1, 6.) 7, 606 '53. '.SO '.3 '2.1 58 30.795 6,398,881 427.596 39,502,542 1,204,86s 219,862 '47.323 '.256,213 8,766,104 1,903,825 2 1 ,000 14,394,786 298,368 3.287,699 505.857 27,580,586 '2,558,117 34,559 696,844 I 52,968 199,600 3.619.459 488,352 475.763 1,250,467 $61,894,986 5155.405.358 hrpc different mc a remark- Df the States. 'cx since ; l)iit lad increased list, the rank In i860 the number of worsted-estabhshments in the country was three: in 1S70 it was 102. The carpet-factories had not changed : there were 213 in i860, and 215 in 1S70. These figures show amazing progress, wonderful The States of the South (exckiding Virginia), which had only progress, thirty-two factories of woollen goods in 1850, and eighty-one in i860, contained i , '4 11* 384 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY m m'-\ ..I i 720 factories in 1870, mostly small concerns, to be sure, and producinp a coarse class of fabrics, but slill busy factories, and afibrding a large Itx al market for tlie fleeces from the plantations and farms. 'There were 497 woollen-factories in the West as compared with 258 in i,'iii.il proji'dors at a priic < oiisidfraMy lower tliaii its origin. il in-^t. ( )\vii)^ to the Ii.imI tiiiK'^, llic imnliK timi ul ilic inilK li.i-^ luni li.'ssi'iR'(l, so as to lij,'hton tlir Itiirik-ii ri'slm^' npwn thriii a> iiiih li as possilik-. I'nikT tlu' iiillii(.'m ».•> of (li'< rtMsid pindiK ikhi ami a lower rale of waj.. tin- iiitiMvst is now alriMtly n-vivinj,'. Iiii|ii)rtatioi)> liavt.' been ( ut down from S50,- 000,000 in 1S72 to Sjf),ooo,ooo in I'^yy. lorei^^n lahrii s are hcinj^ steailily driven out ; and this j^reat market, wherein 45.000.000 of people Imy < lotli^,. provisions, ami all tlu' necessaries and < omforts of life, with iti wondirfn! power of recuperation, is fast brin^'in^ bac k hope and enerj,'y to the hearts of tlu- n.itivi' inanuf.ii tiirer>. 'The industry has a f,'reat future befori' it. and cannot long remain under the < louiU that now surround it. ft i\ if^i ^ ?! ': \ SI'I.NMNd AM) \Vi;.\\IN(.. I'lie wire-toothed cards for combinff out the wool were made by hand in the days of our tbrefathers. and were worked by hand. ()li\i'r j-lvans uf !?„„„.•. 1.^ Maryland, one of the active-minded inventor^ of the Revolution- bvans s im- / ' proved nia- ary eta, invcnteil .1 mac hine to prick tlu' leather, cut. bend, .uid chinery. ^^.^ ^|^^. ^^.^,^|^ j^^ cards, bul (lid not have liie ^^ood fortune to Me it go into practical operation. Sul)se(|uently, mac hi'.ery fur < utting the teedi. whi( h \\e>r to beset in the leather slieets bv hand, was employed at Worcester and elsewh.ere in New England, 'i'he leetli, put up in bags, were given out to families living in the country round about. 'l"he setting of the teeth wa> a fireside occujjation ; and the business employed large numl)ers of the genlle girls of tiiat day. who afterwards be-''l Ihe slivi'i'-^ Irs. wlii' h r)A 77/A r.\7/A7' A/. / /A.V. .^'^7 sci/c ami draw thrin Inrwanl. ami |i,i-.>. ilu in on in anotln i >> i oT rolUr^. wliirh movi' lliiri- linu-> a^ I'asl as ilu' rir>l. .\i a « (Mimmmiihi' o| iIii> iiroci-ss, llu- nuilcil slivers llow from llu' niai iiinc. .unl an- loiKii \\\ .niotlui lar^i' tin < an. in i fresh sliver of three limes the leni^lh of liu' oriKiiKil ".livers. Three of the new cans an' tarried to another frame, ami the slivers p.issed ihroiif^h frisli sets of roller-.; and ihi-. prod-.-. i-. re|ie,iled sometime-, until one ol the slivers from the rardinn-mac hine i-, drawn out lo filiiin hundred times its iinuin.il Irn.nth. altlujuj;h. I>y rea-.()n ui havuii; lucn uk orpor.iUil with so m.nu of it-. I t)m|ianions, it h.is lieen redut rd in hulk onlv to ahout one fourth it,i (irininal si/e. 'riii^ lri'(|nent dr.iwin:^ sirai,nhtens the I'lhres of tlu' wool. ,ind lays them par.illel to one another. Ihe ifk'a is the invention of Rii hard ,\rk- urij,'ht of I'lnj^l.mil. who made a fortime from it. and addi'd ,1-. mm h to the produetive powi'r of I'.njiland as thon).'h the ruunlry had doulile(l h> popnla- iion. Wwr till- drawinj,f is (ompleti'd. two slivir-. ari' uniti'd. ami parsed thron^'h the rovinj; I'ranie. when.' they are dr;nn out so fme th.it they have to be twisted in the Iimp • sli_i,htly to hohl to^elhrr. I'lie roving is now wound njion hobhins. and ( arried to the spinnin;^ ma( him ly. CARUlNG-MAClllNli. Cl.liVKl.AM> M AtlllNK-WOKKS. The ori^unal spinning-jenny of llargreaves of England, invented in 1767, had eight spindles only: the spinning ja(k of to-day has often as many as trom two hundred and forty to three hundred. Thev are mounted ' ' . Spinning. Upon a long frame, bearmg the same n-lation to the machme as the front board of a bureau-drawer to the bureau, which, like the drawer of a gigantic burea i, can be pulled out a distance of ten or more feet from the machine in the spinning process. Tt runs out on wheels which supjjort its ^v(■igllt. The bobbins containing the rovings are placed in a long row in the spinning-frame, and the ends of the soft yarn are carried through thn^e sets of 'I'll n M t1 4 ^,\.J^ 388 IND US TRIA L HIS TORY rollers to the spindles on the frame. The second set of rollers moves twice as fast as the first ; and the third, five or six times as fiist as the sl'( ond. I)y this means it is still fiirther attenuated. The twist is given to it liv the spindles, which revolve with great velocity as the long frame is slowly pulled out from the machine as far as it will go. As the frame is run back again to its place, the twisted yarn is wound up on the spindles automatically, and the maciiine started again, and the process repeated. The twist gi\cn to yarn is from li\e to ten turns in an inch. The yarn is now wound off on reels in hanks five in YAKN Sl'iJi)l.l-;i! AND STAND. hundred and sixty yards long. The numl)er of hanks to ;i pound indicate thi' si/e of the yarn ; ns No. i. \o. 2. and so on. For weaving, the yarns whi( h are to comiiose the warp of the (iolh nr carpet are wound off from the p-'cls upon a long roller in a broad band ol parallel threads the width of the intended i)iece of stuff I'lu' rollers are placed in the loom. A forest of wires, or stout thrtad-, crosses the loom from one side to the other, each one carrving an eve ahinit ,-r' ^1 '" OF THE UNITED STATES. 3«9 tlic middle of its length. The yarns of the warp are passed through the eyes of the harness, as it is called, and thence on to the roller at the front of the loom. The office of the harness is to raise one set of the threads of the warp, and depress another set, so as to leave an opening through which the shuttle can be thrown, carrying the thread of the woof, and, when the shuttle has passed through, to depress the ui)pcr set and raise tiie lower set, thus locking the woof in its place, and opening liie warp anew for another throw of the SHIiARlNG-MAClllNT. shuttle. Tiiis ^s the principle upon which all locjiiis arc made ; but great inge- nuity has been displayed in the management of tin.' jjringiplc, so as to produce not only plain goods by means of the loom, but goods of all sorts of colored patterns, and varieties of surface. Threads of different colors are introduced Tor different parts of the warp ; and a large variety of colors, sometimes eight or ten, are introduced by multiplying the number of sliuttles a' d the apparatus for throwing them. The figures in weaving are produced by the fancy loom, 39" INDCSTK/AL HISTORY su called, liic iiiNcnlion of Mr. William C'ronipton, a nalivc of J'^nglancl, bul living, at the tunc ihc loom was projected, in this country. His patent was taken out in 1837. The looms were fust used, it is believed, in the Middlesex Mills of Lawrence, Mass.. in ICS40. It is ujion this loom that the fancy cassi- nieres and other li^iiured cltjth-fabrics are now woven. SIIAWI.-I.OO.M. After weaving,' the cloth is fulled by washing and poimding in a tank, where it is subjected to the action of heavy iron mallets. It is Piiltinff reduced greatly from its original dimensions, both in length and width, by this ])rocess. It is then dried upon the tenter-frame upon which it 1 OF THE UNITED STATES. 39 > is stretched. Fulling and dyeing complete the cloth, and it then needs only to be llnished to be ready for the market. Made to pass over rollers, it is first scratched by a revolving drum uiJun which are niountetl die heads of the teasel-plant, or by wire teasels ; and it is then shorn by a cutting-machine with spiral blades on a cylinder acting against a straight steel l)lade, which cuts die iiaj) perfectly to an even length. 'I'his helicoidal shearing-machine is an American invention, dating back to iSi j. In the mechanical department of the industry the American mind has been extremely prolific. There is not a machine in the whole tactory, from the i)i( ker and the card to nap-cutter, which has not been altered, , I * Improve- iniproved, anil made to do bettei and faster work than the ments of machines enii)loyed upon other continents. Some of the machines ;'^'^^''"=3" ' •' * inventors. are purely of American invention. The wondeiful J^igelow auto- malic loom, by which figures of any description can be woven into carpets, is the conception of lOrastus V>. Eigelow of Massachusetts, who took out his patent in 1845, and achieved what Kurope had given up as hopeless. I'lnglish machinery was largely imported at one time, especially during the war : but the Kilbourn self-o|)erate(l jack, a home-invention, has superseded many of the vcrv best English mules; and the Sawyer spindle, the outgrowth of a drought at Lowell, which made it necessary to lighten the machinery, lias brought about a revolution in worsteil s|)inning, being lighter, more efficient, and running with ease up to eight thousand revolutions, being at twenty-five per cent higher speed, ■•ilh thirty-three per cent less jjower, than tiie common s|)in(lle. The machinery for a ten-set woollen-mill, all of American make, will cost about $70,000. It will require a hundred-horse-power to drive Cost of it, and 155 hands to tend it. In staple fancy cassimeres its factory, production will be from 1,150 to 1,200 yards a day. « '. : ■ a tank. ■ts. It is ngth and which it HATS. One of the most interesting uses of wool arises from a peculiarity of its structure. The fibres of wool are not smooth like silk and fiax, but they are roughly barbed with minute imbrications like the blades of some useofwool grasses, or the branches of a leather, which can be felt by pulling in making a lock of wool through the fingers. Some woc)ls are less roughly '^^^^' badicd than others, and some fleeces which go by the name of wool — as, for instance, that of the Angora goat — do not possess the quality in any apprecia- ble degree. But real wool has a serrated fibre. This peculiarity renders the shortest kinds of wool available for spinning, because, no matter what the length of the fibre may be, the barbs of the wool interlock when the fibre is twisted, and they convert the fibre into a practical yarn. This pecifliarity has also given rise to a class of fabrics which are not spun at all. By rubbing a 392 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Hat-making one of the earliest colonial industries. lot of wool together in hot water, the interlocking of the fibres takes place in a marked manner ; and the result is the felting of the wool, or a shrinking into a close, compact, thick fabric, which is serviceable for a wide variety of pur- poses. The most popular use of fabric thus made is for the manufacture of hats. The idea, however, is applied to the making of piano-covers, druggets, beaver-cloths, and other heavy coatings ; the wool when made into these goods being delivered from the carding-machine in a broad, thin web, which is doubled and crossed, and otherwise thickened, and then subjected to steam- ing and gentle hammering. Some felt seamless clothing has also been made. Hat-making was one of the very earliest of colonial industries. The wintry storms and general cool climate of North America re(]uired that the covering of the head should be warm ; and so, while the Spaniards of the West Indies were buying and weaving for themselves broad- brimmed hats of straw, the Americans went into the making of head-wear of thick wool. 'I"he industry began in New iMigland : it afterwards extended to the other colonies. In Virginia, in 1662, the colonial authorities offered a i)remiuni of ten jjounds of tobacco (the currency of those days) for every good hat of wool and fur made in tho l)rovince. Hats were made in almost all the colonies; and in 1731 a special committee of Parliament reported that tiie enterprising Yankees were making 10,000 hats yearly, and were actually exporting them, with other things, to the continent of Europe and to the West Indies, — a piece of unparalleled impudence on the part of that underbred people, and quite in defiance of the welfare of the people of England and the navigation laws. So Parlia- ment, in 1732, forbade the Americans to exjjort hats or felts. The manu- facture continued, however, and, indeed, the export toe ; and in 1791 Alexander Hamilton reported the business to be in a thrifty condition. It has been in that condition ever since. It has had a steady development, and has increased in value of total product from ^4,323,000 in 1810, until it has reached the large aggregate of about $30,000,000 at the i)rescnt time. The numl)er of establishments making hats is now about 490, employing 16,500 hands. The hats of the Colonial and Revolutionary era were broad-brimmed affairs, originally with high crowns, but afterward with low crowns barctv Style of rising above the top of the head. In the Revolution it was ilic early hats, fashion to catch up the brim on one side of the head with ,'. cockade and feather, also to catch it up in two or three places, ])roduciii.n the regular military cocked hat and the hat of private gentlemen. 'Ilic cocked hat went out of fashion after the Revolution, and gave i)lace to the soft felt of various forms, and the tall, stiff stove-pipe which still remain^ the dress-hat of gentlemen. The white, bell-crowned, shaggy hat of the dny> succeeding the Revolution has gone into history as the symbolic; hat of Urothtr OF THE UNITED STATES. 393 jDiiathan. When Kossuth visited the country in 185 1 and 1852, the styh of hat he wore — a large, soft felt — became the rage for a while, and was worn for a few years with a feather. At jiresent all sorts of soft and stiff felt hats are worn, varying in their outlines, size, and width of brim, from year to year, in response to the American taste for something new every successive season. In hat-making, the fur of raccoons, beavers, and rabbits, is often mixed witli the wool in small proportions. The right mixture being obtained, it was first felted by a process called " bowing." The bunch of fleece was process of <;Uhcred in front of the operator, and then violently agitated, and hat-making. tossed into the air, by twanging the string of a stiff bow, antl a;iplying the string to the wool. The flying fibres would fall upon the table in a thin, even wcl). This was i)ressed under a cloth, and another layer put on, until the fabric was thick enough for use. It was then put between two cL hs, im- mersed in hot water, and worked into a cone, which was shaped upon a hit-block, and allowed to dry in proper form, when it was r '"led and liiu lied for the store. This was the original process. One man coald make •VoM.i four to six hat-bodies in a day. Tiiis process was quite suflicient for the leisurely days of the eighteenth century ; but, in the more bustling times which succeeded them, it became necessary to increase the speed of manufactm-e, and machines were introduced to form the bodies. The wool was carded in the usual manner, and passed in a thin web from the machine to two revolving cones, placed base to base, over which the web wound in a zigzag manner. When the web was thick enough upon the cone, it was cut off, the two cones (lit apart, and the woolly caps removed ; when the process went on again as before, the removal of the cones being effected with great rapidity. The cones thus formed were treated in the usual manner. Another machine was also made to produce felted hats both of wool and of fur. The fibres were made to fly iiito the air ; and the draught of air passing through a perforated cone of copper or one of wire caused them to settle down upon the cone evenly, in thickness sufficient for a body. These machines cheapened the cost of hats materially, and enabled the manufacturers to make them as light as one ounce if they chose ; whereas, before, a perfect hat-body could not have been made to weigh less than three or four ounces. The stiff, tall silk hat, which weighs about six ounces, is still made chiefly by hand. Its texture is silk plush. It was once made of beavcr-fiir, and was called a beaver in con- se<|uence. The .stiff hat made of brown or light-gray wool is called a cassi- niere. For summer wear, hats are now made largely of woven straw. Large, broad-brimmed affiiirs of cork are made for seaside and country wear, being light and airy, and protecting the head from heat, and the face from the fierce ravs of the sun. m h 1 1 ij B iffil ia dCJihii^Bil H^mm 1 HIH 394 INDUSTRIAL IH STORY CARPETS. The progress of a hundred years in carpets was well shown at the Kxhibi- tion in Pliilailelpliia in 1876. No objects in the fair attracted more attention than the brilHant display of rich, soft American carpets; the opulent Axniinslcr, Improve- ''^'^' down in the Old World only for the feet of emperors and ment in noblcmen, showing its radiant face from the midst of tiie throng, carpets. along with the more humble but still agreeable ingrains, three- plies, Brussels, and tapestry carpets. In 1776 the only carpet made in t!ie United States was the unpretentious rag-carpet, woven with a stout yarn warp, and a woof composed of strips cut from the cast-off clothing of the people. From the hand-made rag-carpet of the farmhouse, to the aristocratic Axinin- ster, woven in intricate anil showy patterns upon a powerful automatic loom, one of the highest products of civilized art, is a hundred years. The fust regular carpet used in this country is said to have been inii)ortc(l by Kidd the pirate. A few carpets were imported, just before the Revoltitiou. Whoim- from (Ireat Britain; but they were too expensive for most people, ported the In 1791 the fu'st car|)et-factory was built in the city of I'liila- first carpet. ^\^\^\.^y^^ 1,^ William Peter Sprague. It was followed not Ion- after by others in the same city ; and Phihulelphia soon became the principal seat of the carpet-industrv of the United States. It has always Carpet in- ' dustry in remained so, and to-day manufiictures about one-half of all the Phiiadei- can)cts i)roduced in the United States. Its factories are verv phia. ' ' numerous, and of enormous size. The city has a very extensi\e hand-loom house-carpet industry also. Up to 1845 carpets were woven, en- Bigeiow's tirely by hand. In that year Mr. K. B. iiigelow patented a power- invention, loom which would make figures that would match, and would weave so rapidly as to increase the production from eight yards a day (the average of hand-labor) to twenty-seven yards a day for two-])Iy carpet. The same machine was found applicable to the weaving of the heavy Brussels carpet also. It was employed on that class of goods, increasing the produc- tion from four to twenty yards a day. This invention diflused new life into the carpet-business of the country. The cost of carpets was so reduced by ii as to bring the goods within the reach of all. The heavy purchases which were made by the people had the legitimate effect of leading to the construction of a large number of new factories and the enlargement of old ones. America is a country of homes. In spite of the emigration of population from one State to another, the .American, wherever found, makes his house a home, and brings into it the charms and gentleness and grace of family-life. In the comfort of a home the carpet i)lays an exceedingly important part. It is absolutely essential to the (piiet and happiness of the home. As soon as its value was discovered, it found its way into every dwelling, from farmhouse to brown-stone front ; and the demand for carpets has therefore been regular, OF THE UNITED STATES. 395 large, and unfailing. The value of the carpet is so ^reat, both on account of its beauty and its capacity for deadening the sound of the footfall, that it has within the last twenty years also invaded schoolhouses, churches, counting- ruouis, railroad-cars, court-houses, and public buildings of the people. Its usL' is now universal. The growth of the manufacture after 1850 is indicated by the indications tollowing statement of the value of products : — °' growth. 1850 ?3,40i,234 1S60 .-....■ 7,>SS7.ii(e they resort to the others, using always the cheaper in the greatest ([uantity. They obtained another idea on the sul)ject of raw materials, however, troni England. It is w 11 known that worn-out clothing of cotton and linen i)i)>- sesses a certain market-value for ])aper-making. Peddlers and small dealers take the clothing which goes technically by the name of "rags " for a few ceiit^ a pound, and sell it to the paper-makers. But what is worn-out woollen-c Imh- ing good for? It has never been utilized for paper-making. It is good for rag- carpets ; but the su])erannuated woollens of forty-five millions of people, such as we have in the United States, would stock the market with more rag-car]K-is in a year than would be consumed in ten or twenty years. In England tiny studied the subject of picking the old woollen-clothing to pieces again, ami spinning the fibre afresh. A machine was finally invented to pull the cloths to ah- . I ■<'"^' 01' THE I'M TED STATES. 397 y the name DUlbreak of late a class t about tlif refinemciil, the resl of y man wlio cr rcgimciUs .ir or five of best fiiniilies rins of gray, iniderclotlics inic were in ey jirc'scntcd tales and of re a disgrace 10 the men. .nil from this times in the n noted tliat equal to the , because the tc day. 'IliL' nufiicturcrs to cncloths. for sujiply of niw and still use rises in I'vice itest (luautiiy. lowever. fioin nd linen l'0>- sniall dealer^ or a few eeiit^ woollen-( loth- good for rag- Ijcople, such ire rag-carpets England they ces again, ami 1 the cloths tu jiieces, and reduce them to the condition of unspun wool. 'Ihe fibre suffered ill the process, and the wool resulting from it was of an exceedingly short staple : but, by reason of the peculiarly serrated and barbed nature of woollen- libre, even this very short staple could be spun into a yarn, especially if it were mixed with a certain proportion of long staple ; which yarn was available for cloths. .^XN^^iNS^V?; SlIOUUY-l'ICKEH. The l^ngiish went into the shoddy -business to an enormous extent. Yorkshire became the warehouse of the cast-off garments and hosiery of all lliiroije. These garments were carefully assorted there, selling „ ' <^ .' ' n Enormous fur from fifty dollars to a hundred and fifty dollars a ton, and use of were converted into shoddy wool by the machinery set up for shoddy by -' •' -^ ' English. the purpose, and sold to the English woollen- manufacturers. The |)utting of shoddy into genuine wool was a clear adulteration of the latter. The completed cloth could be called " all-wool gootls," and sold for tlu' market-value of such goods; yet it was not "all wool " in the right sense ol ilie term, as the defrauded buyer fpiickly found out after putting on a suit III clothes in which shoddy was present in any considerable proportion. The shoddy would shake and ml) out into his underclothing, and irritate his person ; while every pocket and lining would gather balls of loose, gritty wool, whit h would interfere with his enjoyment of the clothing. This was the shoddy working out, as it invariably will work out whenever shoddy goods are worn. But the p]nglish did not care, because the larger part of their woollens were sent abroad ; and they suffered no pangs of conscience as long '^^. 39' IKl) rs TRIA /, I J IS TOK Y %\ *' i \* % \:\,\ !»='■ ; lli as it was somcluHly else's skin which was scratched by the shoddy, and \w\ their own. Since iS6i (and possibly from a little earlier date) shoddy has been wxmV- in the Tnited States. There are only about a dozen mills in the business: these are chielly in the Mast. Shotidv is not nnich nsed in this Use of -^ ' shoddy in coiuitry ; bul it is sonK'wliat. Respectable manufactureis are \riv the United careful about i)UttinL' it into their cloths, because, if thev uaiind States. • '^ a re])utation for usinj; shoddy, it would injure their goods. When- ever the i)rice of wool goes up, howevci'. shoddy comes into dem;md. 'I'hi' material is employed also openly in the manufacture of certain classes of goods. In druggets, table-covers, heavy over-coatings, and various felted goods, it is regularly present, its utilization being justified on the ground thai it saves expense to the human race, and is a means of turning to use what would otherwise be utterly valueless. 'I'he buyer must, however, always judne for himself whether the fine coatings he is looking over in the shop have nut shoddy in them also ; for some manufacturers think a certain percentage of it in their cassimeres does no harm, but too often they outstep the boimds of safety in the proi)ortion used. Shoddy costs usually about ten cents a iiouiid. and wool fift\ . The temptation to use the former is, therefore, strong. Woollen-rags are reduced to shoddy by a cylinder three feet in diame- ter, the .surface of which is studded, like the club of a giant of fable, with steel teeth an inch long, and half an inch apart. The cylinder makes al)()ut the himdred revolutions a minute. The rags fed down upon it are torn a])art h\ tiie speed of the teeth ; all rags which are not reduced to fibre flilling lia( k by their own weight, to be caught and buffeted again. During the war, and up to i86S, shoddy was imported at the rate of from five million to eight million i)ounds a year. The importation is now a i^w hundred thousand i)oimds only. The consumption in the United States has been as high as twenty-five million poimds a year. CLOTHING, The manufacture of clothing grew up from the very humble beginning of shops in the cities strung along the Atlantic seaboard for providing sailors with " Slop- their outfit for voyages. They were called " slop-shops." They shops." WQXQ. part of a very bad system for plundering the tar of the earnings of his voyage while he \vas on shore, still practised to a very great extent in commercial cities by the sailor boarding-house keepers. The idea was and is to lay hold of Jack the moment he comes ashore, board him, lead him into extravagances, supply him with an outfit for the new voy age, get from the ship-master an advance of a month's wages, and, if the tar is not enough in the landlord's debt to consume all the money, then to get him drunk, and put him aboard the ship, with enough " slops," or OF THE rxiTiin states. 399 (Idy, and imi s been 111,11 Ir llu- business; used in tlii^ iiR'is are mtv if tlicy gained 3ods. \\ lun- Icmand. riie lin classes ol various felted L' ground tliat altimore, and elsewhere. The slop-shojjs still exist : Chatham Street still preserves its distinctive reputation. ICvery < ity of any size has its second-hand clothing-stores. Hut the business has grown m) far beyond those pioneer institutions, that one wonders, with tlie arrogant turkey-gobbler of mature years, how it could ever have been hate hed from so insignificant a shell. 'I'he census of 1870 showed that the establishments for manufacturing the clothing of men and boys had increased to 7,.S5iS : they employed ioS,ijS Magnitude iiauds, consumed ;586, 794,000 worth ol materials, paid out of business. $50,745,000 for wages, and created clothing worth, at market prices, the large sum of $148,660,000. 'I'he invention of the sewing-machine about 1850, and its sul)se(|ueiit sale by the tens of thousands, gave a greai impulse to this business by cheapening the goods and imparting rapidity t(j the manufacture. The clothing-establishments and their operatives have been tlie best customers of the sewing-- nchine factories. The war, also, gave an impulse to the business. The unifoMiis for the troojis were bought from the reads - made clothiers chiefly. They, having the facilities and ex])erien( e needed Ibr the production of large quantities of clothing, obtained most of the coiiiracts for the purpose. hosii:ry. This term includes not only stockings, but knit goods for underwear. Tiiis is one of the classes of goods consumed by the great masses of the people, — consumed, in fact, by all, — for which the country was formerly almost entirely dependent upon lOngland, but in regard to whi( h it is now independent of all foreign countries. Parliament forbade the exiiorla- tion of knitting-frames to the colonies of America in order to secure tlu- exportation of the manufactured goods. Nearly all the knit caps, Ikjsc, doublets, &c., which were sold in the general market in that era, were conse- quently imported. The ladies knit for their o\s\\ families ; but few could knit for the general market. 'I'he enterprising State of Virginia offered a premimn of ten pounds of tobacco in 1662 ibr every dozen pairs of woollen or worsted Knit goods. I*""* ■•• -:-"n: Oh THE iNlTED STATES, 401 ir. 'I'his Icupk'. — tuniK'iiy which It cxpoila- [■(•iirc ihc [)S, hose, Ire const - lould knii Ipronii'ini jr worsti'" stockings ; hut this device did httlf toward sui)|)lylng tlie general market witli American-made goods. Little was achieved in that particular direction until the stocking loom was importee unevenly stitched grandmother stocking to the precisely made fal-ric of the machine : so that, complain as bitterly as the grandmothers may, the day of home-made stockings is rapidly going by. The principal centres of the industry are Philadelphia, Penn., and Cohoes, N.Y. r.ICKFORn k-NlTTINC-MACIIINE. ^1 consume, y million ly arc the ut within manufac- n making the form. ; by hand, surpassinj; de abroad, ong, glossy he prodnc- brics ; and IS not only sscssion of irican prod- own prices X dollars a put within having only ut, alas for r occupation [itcd. They in thinking any of them ight. Few, ler stocking as bitterly rapidly going Penn., and OF THE UNITED STAT IS. 403 ning and weaving. CHAPTER V. THE MANUFACTURE OF COTTON. IT is not known when cotton spinning and weaving began in the world ; but the record of it goes back to the earliest ages of which we have any knowl- edge. Probably no better illustration of the antiquity of the ^^^^ ^. . industry can be given 'han the interesting legend of the voyage of cotton spin- Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Ciolden Fleece. Like all those ancient fables, the story about the voyage of Jason rests u])on a basis of f.\ct ; but this fable differs from some of the others in the cir- cumstance that w-e know what the basis of fact probably is. Jason's expedition was simply an attempt to reach India, by way of the Black Sea and some overland route thence, to obtain a quantify of cotton, — a beautiful fleece grow- ing on a tree, which it was reported that India was cultivating, and which produced garments far superior in softness and beauty to those of wool then exclusively worn in the West. The Greeks of that age, with all their intelli- gence, v.'ere more than half pirates ; and Jason's voyage was simply a search for plunder. The cotton-manufacture attained perfection in India at .1 very early date. The cotton was spun by hand, and woven by hand : but the people were inventive, and the mild and moist climate cf the region was favoraljlc to the production of delicate fobrics ; and, when Europeans began to trade with India actively, the natives were already making textures so fairy- like, that tlicy resembled cobwebs when spread upon th^ grass, and were invisible when wet with the clew. From India the cotton-niu.uifacture spread in both directions around the wodd. Thick cotton-cloths began to be used for tents and awnings in Southern Europe about the beginning of the Christian era. The colton-i)lant spread slowly along through the countries in the south of Asia until it finally reached Egypt. The fibre was impo'ted to Italy in the middle ages, and shipments of it reached England about 1640. The fibre was greatly admired in ICuropc, and all the industrial nations of that part of the world fell to manufacturing it upon as large a scale as was consistent with the small supply of the raw material. 'i"he process of Spread of cotton-man- ufacture. 404 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY id manufacture was greatly improved by the invention of a large number of machines. Fro.n ICurope the manufacture extended west to America. Tlie plant, however, was foinid growing wild here when the ICuropeans landed. They did not bring the plant, but only the processes of manufacture. The Indians were already working it up into rude cloths, and pieces of armor, before they came. In America the manufacture reached a perfection never before attained, as far as the production of the classes of goods consumed in large quantities by the population of the continent is concerned. In the year of our Lord 1878 we find the art, which has come down to us from at least thirty centuries ago, practised on this continent — the farthest point westward it can go — upon a scale of which the ancients of the land of its birth never dreamed in their most exalted moments. A thousand great factories are engaged in the business, many of them employing 600 operatives, and ail of them performing all the processes of spinning, weaving, finishing, (Eyeing, and decorating, by the aid of ingenious machines which are driven by the forces of nature, and which work so fast, that, whereas there are only about 136,000 operatives employed in those thousand factories, the product of cloth and hosiery every year is equal to the product of the labor of 40,- 000,000 people working with the simple appliances of the birthplace of the cotton-industry. Such is the development which the manufacture has reached in its journey westward round the world ; and it seems destined to reacli a yet greater development. The industry started upon the journey eastward around the world at an earlier date. It was introduced to China, by a ruler who presided over both China and India, before the Christian era. A native of India reached Japan, the utmost limit of its progress in that direction, as early as 799 A.I\ The manufacture began actively in Japan as early as 1558 A.D., — at least a century earlier than it did in England. It is striking to notice the differences of its subsequent development in the two quarters of the earth, — the East and the West. In 1878 Japan has few if any native cotton-factories which emj/ioy more than thirty or forty workmen. There has been no invention of ma- chinery, and no progT'ess. "^he fibre is spun by hand, and woven by hand. It is ginned, one pod at a time, by passing it between a pair of .. ooden rolKTs an inch in diameter. It is prepared for spinning, not by carding, but by gathering it before the workman, and applying to it the twanging-string of a large bow, which causes the fibres to Ily up, and arrange themselves in falling in a lap. The whole industry stands just where it did a thousand years ago; and the only symptoms of a new order of things in that aiicient realm are pre- sented by the erection of a very fe v American and European cotton-factories, with machinery and power, within the past few years. The older nation borrows from the younger ones the ideas which are necessary to her progress and regeneration. Could there be a more interesting illustration of iiow much farther the sons of Japhet have run in the race of civilization than the OF THE UNITED STATES. 405 sons of Shem since they parted company on the plains of Asia Minor in the (lawn of history? Ancient as is the origin of the manufacture of cotton, the active develop- ment of the industry in Europe and America is of very recent date. In 1770 the consumption of raw cotton in France was only sixteen hundred . ,. . ' •' Active de- tons a year: in England it was only twenty-five hundred tons a vciopmen't of vear. In that, year America sent to Europe her first venture in '"'•"^*''y °f ■' •' ' . recent date. cotton : it was only a ton. In 1 784 eight bales shipped from ("harlesion, S.('., wcic seized in England by the custom-house authorities on the grf1 iiHi r>. 4q6 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY i ' Cartwright. which the spindles were mounted upon a movable frame, which would run cut five or six feet and stretch the thrcatl as it was twisting, and would run in again in order to jjermit the thread to be wound upon the spindles. The mule-spinner was able to carry a hundrec'. and thirty spindles instead of eight ; and in 1790, when water-power was ajiplied to it, it carried four hundred spin- dles. Improvements were made in carding in that era also, aiul in 1785 the Rev. Dr. Cartwright invented the i^ower loom. It was just at this time that the steam-engine was being invented. Kngland was greatly agitated by this remarkable machine, and the business of the cotton- manufacture at once assumed a vast importance in the eyes of English states- men. The various discoveries were kei)t as secret as possible. None of the new machines were allowed to go out of the country, especially to America ; and England tried in every way to maintain a monopoly of her discoveriLs. It is due to that fact that the Beverly mill, started in Massachusetts in 17H7, contained none of the improved machinery in use in luigland. Samuel Slater was the first man that brought to America a knowledge of tiiat machinery and its use. In partnership with Almy & llrown, Slater put up at Providence, in 1790, the whole set of new machines used and invented by Arkwright for the spinning of cotton, which he made from recollection with his own hands. 'I'his was the real beginning of the cotton-manufacture in the United States. In 1793 the three men built a new mill at Pawtucket. Neidier of the two mills had more than seventy-two si)indles. The beginnings of an attempt to practise so important an industry in regular factories could not fail to attract the attention of the Congress of tiic United States when that body organized under the Constitution. In order that Congress might be fully informed in regard to this sul)ject, Alexander Hamilton obtained the facts of the situation as it then existed, and in Decem- ber, 1 791, made the following mention of the industry in his famous report to Congress on manufactures : — •' Manufactories of cotton-goods not long since established at Bevcdy, Mass., and at Providence in the State of Rhode Island, and conducted with a perseverance corresponding with the patriotic motives which began them, seem Early goods to have overcome the first obstacles to success, producing cordu- produced. ^oys, velverets, fustians, jeans, and other similar articles, of a quality which will bear a comparison with the like articles brought from Manchester. The one at Providence has the merit of being the first in introducing into the United States the celeorated cotton-mill [meaning the spinning-mule], wliich not only furnishes materials for that manufactory itself, but for the supply of f)rivate families for household manufacture. Other manufactories of the same material, as regular businesses, have also been begun at different places in the State of Connecticut, but all upon a smaller scale than those al)ove mentioned. Some essays are also making in the printing and staining of cotton-goods. There are several small establishments of this kind already on foot." 1* «. OF THE UNITED STATES. 407 The variety and extent ""°"-'"a'>- ' ulacture. In another part of the report Hamilton says, — " Tliere is sometliing in the texture of this material [cotton] which adapts it in a peculiar degree to the application of machines. . . . This veiy im- portant circumstance recommends the fabrics of cotton in a more „ .,, , 1 Hamilton's ])articular manner to a country in which a defect of hands con- report on stitutes the greatest obstacle to success. of the uses to which the manuilictures of this article are applica- l)lc is another powerful argument in its favor. And the faculty of the United States to produce the raw material in abundance, and of a quality, which, though alleged to be inferior to some that is produced in other cjuarters, is, nevertheless, capable of bemg used with ad\antage in many fabrics, and is ]irt)l)ably susceptible of being carried, by a more experienced culture, to a much greater perfection, suggests an additional and a very cogent induce- ment to the vigorous pursuit of the cotton branch in its several subdivisions. How much has been already done has been stated in a preceding jiart of this report. In addition to this, it may be announced that a society is forming with a capital which is expected to be extended to at least half a million of dollars ; on behalf of which measures are already in train for prosecuting, on a large scale, the making and printing of cotton-goods." Hamilton advocated protection for the new industry. He thought the dul)' of three cents a pound on the raw material should be repealed, because very little cotton was being raised in this country. Hamilton Hamilton's believed, evidently, that very little would ever be raised here, advocacy of He thought hemp-raising should be protected, but said, " Cotton p''°'^'^*'°"- has not the same pretensions with hemp to form an exception to the general rule. Not being, like hemp, a universal production of the country, it affords less assurance of an adequate internal supply ; but the chief objection arises from the doubts which are entertained concerning the quality of the national cotton." Hamilton advised a bounty of one cent a pound on cloth exi)orted, and one cent more if the cotton used was American grown. The suggestions of the secretary were not, however, carried out. The duty on raw cotton was retained, as also a duty of seven per cent and a half on manufactures, enacted in 1790. The American cotton was a great deal better than Hamilton was aware of, and there was no need of following his suggestions. It will have been obser\'ed that Slater's original enterprise was for the spinning of cotton merely. The Beverly mill wove ; but Slater's did not. The weaving of that day was done with sufficient speed and character of economy in i)rivate families. The household was the factory Slater's of 1790. No public need really existed for setting up factories ^"'^''P'''^^- fur performing whrt could as well be done by the family fireside ; and the only thing for which there existed a positive want was the means for pro- ducing, on a large scale, a cheap and abundant supply of yar-i. Slater's venture went no further, therefore, at first, than the spinning of cotton-yam IJ iihi II i iii !:ii 1 'i M '«rij m*^ 1 1':^ ri il 408 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY for distribution to the families of the ncighl)orhood, to be woven by them into the cloth they needed for themselves, or which they desired to sell. Within four years from the time of building Samuel Slater's little old wooden mill, however, the cotton-business took a tremendous start. England had done much for the business by originating machines for working up the fleece of the cotton-plant into yarn and doth. The United States were now lo do more for the cotton-manufacture than Arkwright or Crompton ever dreamed Whitney's of, and all by one simple invention. In 1792 P^li ^^'hitney of cotton-gin. Massachusetts, who liad gone to Georgia as a private tutor, was one day a guest in the lamily of Mrs. Gen. Greene. During the day mention was made of the desirableness of the creation of some machine for sepa- rating from the fleece of the cotton-plant the seed which filled it. Whitney was an inventive fellow ; and, with true Yankee zeal, he undertook pri\ ately to solve the problem of ginning cotton. He obtained some cotton from Savannah, and had -oon invented his famous saw-gin. The first gin was a cylinder studded with rows of stout wire tetth, which caught the cotton, and drew it through a wire grating. The lint passed through the grating ; but llic seeds, being too large to go through, were torn off, and separated from the fibre. Wliitney soon afterwards employed circular saws instead of wire tcedi, as being stronger and more serviceable. Even his first imperfect gin did good service, and satisfied the planters of Georgia, who were invited in to see it work ; and his later one brought with it the assurance that cotton-planting might now become one of the most profitable branches of agriculture into which the planters of the South could go. Whitney took out his patent in 1793, and began the manufacture of gins with a partner by the name of Miller. He had bad luck, however. He was taken ill in 1794, and in 1795 his shop was destroyed by fire. Furthermore, his gin was too important to the public to permit the latter to wait for the inventor to build on a scale large enough to supply the general market ; and, almost from the beginning, a large number of mechanics in New ICngland and elsewhere made the gins in large nunil)crs, and sold them in competition with the patentee. Whitney had great troul)le in the courts with these infringers upon his rights, and about all he got for his invention was a grant of fifty thousand dollars from the State of SouUi Caro- lina as a reward for his discovery. But if Whitney gained only the empty fame of his invention, without the substantial rewards to which he was entitled, the United States at any rate profited by it exceedingly. A furore of cotton- planting took place ; and so great was the increase of production resultiii;^ from the introduction of the gin, that, whereas only 138,328 pounds of cotton were exported from the United States in 1792, the amount exported in 1795 was more than 6,000,000 pounds. A proportionate increase took \\'Xcq. in tlie (quantity of cotton sent to the Northern States for manufacture. Samuel Salter's good luck, and the cheapening of cotton by the invention of the gin, led to a great extension of factory-spinning in the Northern States OF TlfE UNITED STATES. 409 lem into HI: it"! M 4IO INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Z '' ip i'*f Rapid exten sion of cot- ton-manu- factures in the North. immediately. Factories were built on the large and powerful mill-streams of Eastern C'oiniecticut, at different places in Massachusetts, and elsewhere in New I'^ngland and the Middle States. 'I'hey were for tlie spinning of cotton-yarn, and were neighborhood affairs, designed to supply the farmers and citizens of their respective counties with their material for the weaving of cloth. The girls and young men who found employment in these factories were of the best blood of New ICngland. From a report made by Mr. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury in 1810, it appeai-s, that, at the close of 1809, there had been erected Condition of "^ ^"^^ United States eighty-seven cotton-factories, sixty-two of industry in which wcrc in operation, and twenty-five of which would probably ' '°* be completed and ready to go to work in 18 10. Of the sixty-two, forty-eight were driven by the power of waterfalls, and fourteen by horse-power. They employed thirty-one thousand spindles : the whole eighty-.seven would employ eighty thousand spindles. It is an interesting fact, as we have seen, that, before the cotton-gin was invented, hemp was considered in the United States a more important plant than cotton. Hemp was absolutely necessary for the supply of the siiipping with cordage ; and so great was the interest felt in it, that t!ie pi'otection accorded to textile agriculture by Congress was extended more to hemp than to cotton. By 1 790 the superior importance of cotton was realized, and Congress gave to that plant and its manufactures new and zealous attention. There was little need of recognizing raw cotton itself in the tariff, as none Congres- °^ ^hc raw material was at all likely to be imported, notwith- siona) legis- standing Hamilton's alarm : yet Congress gave it a protection of ation. three cents a pound, which was increased to six cents in 181 2; and, in order to secure the largest-home market for it possible, the manufac- ture of the fleece was encouraged by a duty of twelve and a half per cent in 1794, which was increased to seventeen and a half in 1804, and to thirty five per cent in 181 2. This high duty on the manufactured cloth was needed, because England was now sending to the United States large (piantities of the cotton-cloth made from our own fleeces by steam-power ; and it was held, that, if cotton-cloth was to be consumed in large cjuantity in the United States, it would be better to encourage its manufiicture here, in order that our own people might derive the profits of manufacture, and save the transportation- charges to and from Europe. If the tariff increased the selling-prices of cotton and cotton-goods in the United States, it probably did not do so to any greater extent than those prices would l)e enhanced under a lower tariff by transportation-charges to and from Europe ; and the tariff, at any rate, secured the profits of a large portion of the manufacture to our own countrvmen. Up to the time of the war of 181 2 there had been no factories in the United States for weaving cotton-cloth, except the pioneer enterprise at OF THE UNITED STATES. 411 Beverly, Mass., then defunct. The factories were all for spinning yarn. Mr. Francis C. Lowell of IJoston now conceived tiie plan of start iig Francis c. a Victory for weaving, in whicli the work should not be d( ;ie Lowell, slowly and laboriously by hand as in the household nianul. dure, but by water-power. Mr. Lowell got back to the United States from a visit to Lu- rope — which he had spent largely in inspecting the cotton-factories — just as this country was going to war with iMigland for ilic i)rote( tion of the freedom of our commerce anil of the rights of nationality. Mr. Lowell had neither models nor machines to start liis factory with, — nothing, in fact, except his recollection and Yankee wit. He formed a i)artnership with Patrick S. Jackson, his brother-in-law ; and the two men went to work to devise a power-loom. They made a number of experiments, and finally hit upon a machine which they thought woukl work. I'aul Moody, an expert mechanic whom they took into their employ, built a loom for them iV(jm their i)lans ; and in 1813 the firm put up a little mill at Waltham, Mass., and began manufactur- ing. They had a full set of machinery for spinning and weaving. The number of spindles was 1,700. This mill is claimed anil Ijclieved to have been the first cotton-factory in the world which performed all the operations of converting the cotton-lint into cloth under the same roof. Hithe '^ both in Lngland and America, spinning and weaving had been carried on sepa- rate establishments. Mr. Lowell had a great deal of trouble at first with his looms. They were right in principle, but crude in detail ; and it was several years before Moody, Jackson, and himself could devise and find out the various contrivances needed to perfect their plan of manufacturing, and make it a success. Their perseverance overcame all obstacles, however ; and they prospered in their enterprise. The concern enlarged its business in 1S22 by buying the whole power of the Merrimack River at the place where the city of Lowell now stands, and by building there a large mill, for which a joint-stock company was formed among the capitalists of the State. This act gave birth both to the city of Lowell and to the magnificent development of the cotton- manufacture by power to which this country has since attained. The building of cotton-factories became one of the passions of the age. There was a great deal of idle capital in the country ; and the success of Slater, Lowell, and others, stimulated its investment in this industry. An immense impetus was given to the manufacture ; and, in twenty years from the beginning of the war of 181 2, the cotton-industry had grown to four times its previous stature. Nine-tenths of the new factories built were put up in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. That was not the part of the United Factories States in which the manufacture could have been carried on to the t>"''t •" ^^^ best advantage. The climate was dry and cold, entailing a large ^^^ York, expense in warming and steaming the air of the mills. Wages and Penn- were high in that part of the country. The factories were situated ^^ vama. many hundreds of miles away from the cotton-growing regions, entailing another :i Itm t\\,A [l-^ ^1 f . liu i: t 1 i ■ i fi- tvt 412 /AD US TKIA L II IS TOK V large expense for l)aling, pressing, hooping, and transporting the cotton to the mill, and for iin])a(:king it, freeing it from its lioops and bagging, and picking it up loose again, after it hail erosseil the threshold of the mill. 'The distance of the factories from the cotton-fields also brought loss of interest, and waste of the cotton in transportation and handling. The better l)lace for the factories would have been in the Southern States themselves. There the climate was mild, the wages of free labor were low, baling, hoop- ing, and iiressing would have been almost entirely avoided, and transporta- tion would have been only a nominal charge. The water-power of the Soiiih was as abundant and cheap, too, as that of the North. In the North, CAUUlN(;-.M.\CmNU. MASOM MACIIINIi-WOlJKS. however, the population was denser, the climate was more invigorating, and the spirit of industry had taken possession of the people. 'Jlie States of the North were under the necessity of undertaking to carry on manufac- tures, because agriculture was less remunerative with them than in the South, and the genius of the peo^jle was favorable to employments which called for the exercise of great ingenuity, technical skill, and executive ability. The South preferred the charms and independence of the agreeable agricultural life. Accordingly, in 1831, of the 795 cotton-mills which had then been built in the United States, and were in active and profitable operation, 508 were in New I'vUgland alone, and 738 of the whole numl)er were in New England and the Middle States. The situation in 1831 was as follows : — NO. 01' FACTORIBS. Maine S New IIain]5shire ........... 40 MasracIuistU.s ........... 250 3tion to iiig, and Lhc mill, loss of ic bcUcr L'msL'lvcs. ig, hoop- ansporta- hc South le Noiih, ivisoraling, The States 11 manufac- thc Soulbf hich called jility. Tht-^ agricultural been luiilt 08 were iu u,L;land and F PACTORIBS. S 40 OF THE UNITED STATES. 413 Kliodc Island 116 Connecticut 94 New \'<)rk t , .112 I'ciinsylvania 67 New Jersey 51 Maryland 23 Delaware 10 Virginia 7 Other States 17 ''""'•d 79S The largest actual development of the industry since 1831 has still been in the Northern and luastern States. The largest proportionrte building of factories, however, has been in the South, whose future as a great ^ cotton-manufacturing district is now well assured. ment of The growth of the cotton-factories in number, after tire war '""^"^^'y ° since 1831. of 1S12, would be one of the most marvellous incidents in his- tory, were it not for the fact that their multii)lication did not really represent an actual growth in cotton spinning and weaving in this country. It must not be forgotten that the cotton-manufacture was being carried on upon a < onsiderable scale throughout the length and breadth of the land _ ,. ° ° Continuation in the homes of the peoi^le when factory-weaving was introduced of domestic to the country by Mr. Lowell. It was estimated by Mr. Gallatin, ""anu'^^- that, in 18 10, at least two-thirds of the clothing and of the house and table cloths consumed in the United States were still the product of family manufactures, which were then in a flourishing state. During the next twenty years the principal part of this family weaving and spinning was transferred to the factories, and this transfer was of itself sufficient to create a great fiictory-industry. The growth from 18 10 to 1831 was chiefly due to the factory and the power-loom taking the place of the home-j. mufacture and the hand-loom. The growth after 1831 was the legitimate product of the increase of population in the United States in numbers and wealth, and the brger consumption of cotton-goods which followed their reduction in price. The following are the statistics A growth : — 1S09 iSio 1S20 183 1 iSto 1S6. 1870 10.-; 79S 1,240 1,074 1,091 956 sri ndi.es. 31,000 90,800 250,572 1,246,503 2,284,631 4,052,000 .235-727 7.132,415 OrEHATlVliS. 4,000 57,466 72,119 97,956 122,028 135.369 COITON fSIil), I.N rOUNUS. 3,600,000 9,945,609 77,757,3'6 132,^35,856 276,074,100 437,905,036 409,900,806 VDS. CLOTH MADE. 230,461,990 398,507,568 828,222,300 1,148,252,406 1,137,518,330 $40,614,984 5'. '02,359 76,032,578 98,585,269 140,706,291 \- : Jiii :^ 414 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Decline in price of cottons. Of course it is understood, that, like all statistics which cover so vast a field as this, tiicsc figures, tliougii compilccl by tlic government, do not aspire to al)S(jlute accui'acj'. 'I'lvjy are simply remarkably close approximations to the truth, and are to be taken as valuable indications of it. 'I'he manufacture is doubtless, in each year referred to, somewhat larger than above set forth. The fall in the price of cotton-cloth after factory-weaving began was some- thing remarkable. In 1815, when cotton-cloth was still woven chiefly by hand, — the family weaver making only twenty-five throws of the .shuttle per minute, r.nd finishing only four yards of cloth a day, — the price of ordinary cloth for sheetings was forty cents a yard. In 1822 it had fiUlen to twenty-two cents, and in 1829 to eight cents anil a lialf. In 1850, when the factory-manufiicture had completely abolished the old-time system, when the power-loom was in full operation, — throwing the shuttle from a hundred and forty to two hundred times a minute, and one person, tending three or four looms, would weave from ninety to a hundred and sixty yards of cloth a day, — the price of cloth for sheetings was reduced to seven cents a yard as the result of machine-labor. This reduction of price was interrupted by the war and the infiation of the currency resulting from the war ; but market-values have again fallen to where they were before tiie war, so that the reduction of price is seen to be permanent. That this change of price is due chiefly to the employment of machinery, and not so much to a fall in the price of cotton, is evident by a comparison of the prices of cotton and of cloth. The following figures will illustrate the point : — ; 1816 1819 1826 1829 1843 184s 1850 18SS i860 1870 1872 1878 TKlCr. OF IIKAVY siir.miNtis A VAKI), IN CliNTS. 30 21 13 8i 6J 7 I '°! '3j 7i rmci'. oKi'niNT- Kl) CAl.lCn 01- THE CX/T/:/) srATIiS. •MS Hy iS6o the cotton-manufartiiro had ronrhcd an intcrosfinp; and Hatisfjictory staf^f of dc'vclopnunt. Nearly all llic hraiK Iks of tnatuifac lure wire practised here, and six-scvenllis of the (loth and cotton-^^oods lioiij^U by our Production people were made in our own mills. 'I'he production was $115,- '" ••O"- 000,000 worth of Roods yearly. The importation was about ^125,000,000. 'I'he latter consisted almost entirely of the fuur classes of sheetings, calicoes, '"'1?!' i 11 I u~'-":i:rrta!ii:;iiiii;.:;i!L (ilNGllA.M-LOOM. lawns, (Sec. The American clotiis, of snch kinds as were made, excelled those produced by English mills on account of their heavier (piality and their freedom from starch. They contained more honest cotton to the poimd of cloth than the English goods. They were, for this reason, in great demand in China, India, and Japan ; and there was an exportation of them amounting to $6,000,- 000 and $7,000,000 yearly. There was every prospect that the American m§M \ I 416 /A'n us TKIA L HIS TOR Y war upon industry. mills would soon be able completely to supply the home-market with our own manufactures of cotton, and in a few years more would be ready to undertake to work up f(ir the world at large the enormous quantities of cotton which were sent abroad yearly in a raw state, amounting to five-sixths of the whole crop. The war which broke out in 1861 affected the cotton-interests of the country in an extraortlinary manner. The cotton-growing region and the EffLctof cotton-manufacturing region were separated from each other, and the former of the two was also substantially cut off from the world at large'. The South could with difficulty dispose of its cotton : it could send little North, antl scarce an)' abroad. The result w.^s, that tlie acreage of cotton planted in the South fell off enormously. The planters began to raise food-crops instead. The cotton-manufi^ctures of the South increased somewhat ; but the (Victories were by no means able to stay the decline of cotton-planting. The North, on the other hand, deprived of its supply of fibre, was at its wits' c -Is to know what to do for raw material. A cotton-famine set in, during wnich the price of the raw material rose from eleven cents to a dollar and seventy-six cents a pound, A large proportion of the mills were obliged to discontinue operations : the remainder were obliged to resort to the unprecedented measure of importing raw cotton from foreign countries; and they did, for four j-ears, imjjort an average of 25,000,000 pounds a year from India, Egypt, and Brazil. This raw material they made to go as far as possible by mixing in with it flax and other vegetable fibres, luid by producing to a larger extent than before goods whereof part of the material entering into them was wool. A great many of the fiictories transferred their attention entirely from cotton-goods to woollen-goods. Were it not for the fact that the South, which had been one of the largest markets in this country for imported cotton-goods, was cut off from receiving regular importations durmg this period, the cotton-famine in th'^ North would have led to the importation v>f at least $50,000,000 worth of cotton goods a year while the warwa.; pendiiit;. What the importations into the South actually were cannot be stated ; but into the North they were only $60,000,000 during the whole four years of the WcU-. Besides the embarrassment and loss which the war inflicted upon the factories of the North, it brought a still greater disaster, with reference to cotton, \\\w\\ the South. It not only cut off the sale of 5190,000,000 of raw cotton yearly to the countries of Euroi)e, and of $40,000,000 to the North, but it developed the cotton-growing of rival regions of the earth. India, I'^gypt, and Bra/il reaped a rich harvest from the failure of the American cotton-crops from 1861 to 1865. At the end of the war the South found itself both with litde cotton to sell, and with a powerfiil competition on its hands with the other cotton- countries. The cotton-interests of the South have recuperated since the war, however, in the most marvellous and unexpected manner, copsidering the utter prostration and ruin which had overtaken them. The crop of 1865-66 was I 1 our own undertake ton which the whole its of the n and tlie other, and I the world ts cotton : iS, that the ic planters the South stay the ivcd of its laterial. A rose from )portion of ;rc obliged om foreign 25,000,000 ey maile to fibres, iMid he material ferrcd their "or the fact country for ions during hnportation a:; pending. :\ ; but into of the war. he factories atton, upon 3tton yeady : developed and IJra/il from 1 86 1 ittle cotton her cotton- ce the war, ig the utter 65-66 was O/' THE UNITED STATES. already half a crop ; and so muci. progress was made in replanting, that, in 1875-76, the crop was as large as it ever had been in the most favorable year before the war. The competition of Brazil, Kgypt, and India, vanished like the dew before the sun ; and ten years have placed the j^lanters of the South in exactly the same position in referen-'e to the world's supjjly that they occupied before the war. Part of this result '-.is doul)tless due to the ready demands of the Northern mills, which were the Inst to e.xtend to the South the helping hand which lifted that section to its feet again. The North itself has also regained all it lost daring the war: it has nure than regained it. By 1870 production its j)r()duct of cotton-r^anufactures was larger than ever before '" '^7°. known in history. It was manufacturing more cotton-goods than were pro- du<:eil in the whole country in i860; that is to say, $160,000,0 jo worth as against $115,000,000 worth in the whole L'nited States in i860. It had again exported $6,000,000 worth of goods in a year. It was making a large variety of fine goods which had never been attempted before the war ; and, while it had reduced the impor- ialions to only $18,- 000,000 a year, it was doing so well, that it had almost reached the point of being able to repay the favors of England by sending American cotton-goods to her. This extraordinary re- cuperation is one of the marvels of the age. It is an indication of the inherent vigor and '•itality of the .\merican people, which promises well for the fiiture of our nationality. The extent and distribution of the cotton-manufacture in 1870 are described in the following table, taken from the census-report of that year. Extent and Massachusetts was far ahead of every other State. Rhode Island distribution, came next ; yet only two-fifths as many spindles were in operation in the latter State as in the former. LOOM. MASON MACHINE-WORKS. €■11: '\%>\\ 4i8 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY t'^AhM\'r. i>P!*-a.# ( 11 '» t. i , %■ NUMBER OF KACTOKIES. Sl'INUI.ES. 28,046 Ol'ERATlVES. VAU'E OF PROUICTS. Alabama 13 1,032 $1,088,767 Arkansas . 2 1,125 17 22,562 Connecticut III 597, '42 I2,OS6 14,026,334 Delaware 6 29,534 726 1,060,898 (Jeorgia . 34 85,602 2,846 3,648,973 Illinois 5 1,856 98 279,000 Indiana . 4 17,360 503 778,047 Iowa I 6 7,000 Kentucky 5 7,734 269 498,960 Louisiana 4 13,084 246 251,550 Maine 23 459.772 9,439 11,844,181 Maryland . 22 89,112 2,860 4,852,808 Massachusetts . 191 2,619,541 43,512 59.493.153 Mississippi 5 3,526 265 234.445 Missouri . 3 16,715 361 798,050 New Hampshire 36 749,843 12,542 16,999,672 New Jersey 27 200,580 3,154 4.015,768 New York 81 492,573 9,144 11,178,211 North Carolina 33 39,877 1,453 1,345,052 Ohio 7 23,240 462 681,835 Pennsylvania . '38 434,246 12,730 17,490,080 Kliode Island . 139 1,043,242 16,745 22,049,203 South Carolina 12 34,940 1,123 1,529,937 Tennessee 28 27,923 890 941,542 Texas 4 8,878 291 374,598 Utah 3 1,020 16 16,803 Vermont . 8 28,768 451 546.5 '0 Virginia . II 77,116 1,741 135,369 1,435,800 Totals 956 7,132,415 $177,489,739 The relation of wages and materials to product, &c., in 1870, was as follows : — Raw materials Mill-supplies . $100,826,264 10,910,672 $111,736,936 Wages 39,044,132 Product 177.489,739 Capital invested 140,706,291 The characterisi;ic staple products of the American mills ar<" now hc.ny sheetings, fine sheetings, serviceable drillings, shirtings (espo- productof cially the blue-striped kind), and domestic flannels. Jeans were American among the earliest goods made. The strong drillings are said '•' have been introduced in 1827, and the substantial and blue-striped shirtings in 1828. The drillings have not varied a thread since they were OF THE UNITED STATES. 419 .I'E OK DIXTS. ,088,767 22,562 ,026,334 ,060,898 ,648,973 279,000 778,047 7,000 498,960 -5', 550 1,844,181 4,852,808 9,493, '53 234.445 798,050 6,999,672 4,015,768 [1,178,211 1,345-052 681,835 17,490,080 22,049,203 1,529.937 94 '.542 374.59!^ 16,803 546,510 1,435,800 77,4«9.739 o, was as I36 32 39 91 ()\v hca\y gs (espc- cans were re said ''> uL'-stripcd they were first introduced. All these heavy cottons were soon made in sui)erior style, and were heavily exported. One of the native cloths of the United States was invented in 1835 by Mr. James Johnson, and took the name of the domett flannel. Mr. Johnson was under the necessity of using up a lot of cotton warp which had been made for a satinet-mill which had })roved unremunera- tive. He produced a cloth from this warp, by using a filling of wool, which met with favor ; and its manufacture lias since been carried on upon a very large scale. Calicoes are also a characteristic American product, and were one of the earliest attempted : they were being made in 1824 at the rate of sixty thousand yards a week. Sail-duck was also made at a very early date. Recent progress had added to the list a large number of the finer goods and fabrics, such as delaines, alpacas, the finer prints and ginghams, cambrics, &c. 'J'he weights of some of the standard fabrics are as follows : coarse shirting and sheeting, two yards and eight-tenths to the pound ; fine bleached shirting and sheeting, three yards and four-tenths to six yards to the jjound ; standard drill- ings, two yards and three-fourths to the pound ; fine drillings, three yards and four-tenths to six yards to the pound ; print- cloths, seven yards to the pound ; flannels (yard wide), %ur to seven yards to the pound ; and ginghams (thirty- two inches wide), three to six yards to the pound. Cottonades weigh from tour to twelve ounces to the yard ; cassim.eres, from six to fourteen ounces to the yard ; and jeans, from three to six ounces. Every mill makes many (liffe;ent styl'^s of its goods : sometimes the number ranges as high as two hundred and three hundred. In regard to the machinery in use in the .American cotton-factories, and the processes of spinning and weaving, it may be said that the mills in the older States are organized upon the most approved principle;, of Kind of tiic art, and are supplied with the best machinery in the world, machinery Spinning machines and looms are freciuently of I'lnglish pattern, ^'"^ °^^ ' and sometimes of English make. On the whole, however, the machinery is generally of American patterns and make. The manufacturers have found it desiral)le to buy American looms and mules, because of the fact that they were lightly built. American iron is better than the English, and tougher. The Tn mpton, Knowles, and other looms made in this country, are so much I'^lUer, in consequence of the ({uality of the iron, that they are frecpiently run at a saving of fifty per cent of the power, — an important consideration, whether the power be water or steam. In the spinning-frames there have been many important y\merican improvements. One of thein, the ring-s{)indle, was invented by a pupil of Slater named Jenks, a,. ' has now nearly superseded all other kinds of spindles in this cotintry. The use of it has increased the capacity of the mills, and led to the production of better yarn. The Excelsior spindle, invented by Mr. Sawyer at Lowell, is an improvement upon Jenks's. It 's used with a ring ; but it is lighter, saves a great deal of power, and works iu a remarkable velocity. The machinery of the .American mills, in fact, is ! \.\ y ■il ^1■r^:|^ mm 420 /ND (/S TRIA L HIS TOR \ ' • considered, on the whole, to l)e better now than that of the Knghsh mills. All the improvements are American, showing the intelligence of our workmen, and possibly, also, the beneficial effect of our i)atent-law system. Raw cotton is divided into three classes. The long-staple (or Sea- Island) cotton is remarkable for the length and beauty of its fibre, and the ciassifica- delicacy of tiie thread which can be spun from it. This long tion of staple is generally used for the warp of the cloth ; that is, for the threads which run lengthwise of it. The medium sta|)le, whi( h comprises the vast bulk of the cotton raised in the United States, is shorter, but softer and silkier. It is used for the weft, or threa;-l'ICKliU. When a liale of cotton reaches the mill, the first thing done with it is to oi)en it, and clean and loosen the fibres. Machines are necessary for this. Process of bccausc the circumstance that the cotton-factories have been in cotton-man- the past SO far from the cotton-fields has made necessary tlu' u acture. i);iijng and packing of the cotton under enormous pressure for convenient transjjortation ; and it therefore comes to tlie mill too matted to Cleaning, go at once to the carding-machine. The cotton is cleaned ami picking, &c. picked up loose in an o])ener and a s])reader. These were tor nierly separate machines ; but the tendency is now to liave the two ])rocesses ])erformed in one operation. The cotton is either pulled apart by toolheil cylinders, or beaten with blunt knives, while a current of air blows throuf,'h it, and it comes from the s])rea(ler in the form of a lap, or great, ihic k. fluffy sheet of fibre, cleaned, and in good condition for carding. The lap i-' wound upoii a large roller as it comes slowly forth from the spreader, and i- then f^arried to the carding-room. ho Ot^ THE UNITED STATES. 421 Carding. Drawing. The card, as has already l)een explained in the chapter on " Woollen Manufactures," is a broad cylinder, every inch of the surface of which is covered with wire teeth, and which revolves in contact with two smaller cards. The laj), being delivered to the card, is taken up by the large cylinder, and slowly combed out, between it and the small cylinders, into a gauzy film, which is then combed from the card by the action of the doffer. The cotton leaves the cuid in a roll, and flows on to a pair of rollers, which press and stretch the roll slightly, and let it drop into a tin can. The cotton then forms what is called a " sliver." Sometimes the cotton is carded twice. There is more or less variety in the forms of the carding-machines, according to the nature of the product of the mill. A thread-mill, for instance, has a different style of cards from the print-cloth mill. The cards are almost exclusively of American make, a..d are lighter l)uilt, can run faster and cheaper, and do better work, than the F2nglish cards. The slivers, when they come from the cards, are taken to the drawing- frames. Two or three of them are fed between a pair of rollers together, and pass thence on to a second and a third pair, and sometimes to a fourth pair, each pair revolving faster than its jjredecessor. The slivers are, by this process, united and stretched out into a new sliver oiie-tliird or one-fourth the size of the united three. Tiiis drawing-process arranges the fibres of the cotton, and la}s them parallel with each other. The process is repeated a great numl)er of times, the certainty of a perfect thread or yarn increasing with each doubling and drawing of the slivers. ( )ne of tlie original slivers, as it comes from the cards, is frequently elongated, in: drawing, to thirty-two thousand times its length. The delicate sliver resulting frcini this continual stretching is finally taken to the roving-frame, and drawn OIK c more, and given a slight twist. The natural interlocking of the fibres would not be sufficient now to make the loose yarn hold together without assistance ; and the sliver is accordingly slightly spun, and then forms what is called a " roving." The roving, being wound upon a bobbin, is then spun iiilo yarn for weaving, or threa,-I.OO.M, MASON IMACHINE-WOKKS. and they soon wore out. Mr. l?erl;ins of Newburyport gjve the Irasincss a vastly improved position by inventing the steel die. The pattern is engraved upon a steel roller, which is then hardened as much as nossible. The patlcni is then tra.isferred to a soft steel roller by pressure, and thence to the co])pLT roller by the same meaiis. In this manner, 1 d^,sign once engra\ed can be I'rraltiplied upon copper rollers inexpensively to any extent. Before 1S45 only a few colors were employed in printing. Four was the usual number. Ma- chine^; are now in us'^ which api)ly twenty colors. Each roller prints one color; and the cloth passes slo\.ly through the big machine in which they are placed, going from one to the other until it has received the whole of the design, 'i'ht; printing is effected at the rate of 12,000 to 16,000 yards a ry}ri OF T/fE UN /TED S7ATES. 425 '.lay. The colors are fixeil by mordants. Of the total miinber of otton- factories in operation in the Unitetl States in 1S70, forty-two were print-works. These iactories had 240 printing-machines, employed ^,894 hands, and pro- diiced 453,809,000 yards of calicoes and 27,710,000 yards of delaines, worth ,^53,800,000. 'I'he works were dislributetl as follows : Iowa, one ; Maine, one; Massachusetts, eleven; New Hampshire, three; New Jersey, live; New York, four; Pennsylvanii\ seven ; Rhode Island, nine ; West Virginia, one. In the thread mills, particularly in the great concern at ^Villimantic, Conn., the long-staple cotton finds its most cordial customers. So much are the long fibres of the long staple valued for thread-making, that they are Thread- subjected to a special combing-jirocess in the threail-mills to free "^aWng. them from the shorter stai)le, of which there is always a certain quantity in the lleece. ("otton-thread was first spun in i 794. Previous to that date, sewing- thread was made of fiax. It is said that Mrs. Samuel Slater, not. ng the fine- ness and evenness of some yarn which she was spinning from Sea- Island cotton, suggested the idea that this staple would do for sewing-thread. The idea was taken u[) by Mr. Slater, and the first cotton-thread was made in his pioneer- mill at I'awtucket. In thread-making, the slivers of cotton are " drawn " to several billion times their original length. A great deal of the cotton-yarn made in the United States is now con- \crted into hosiery by the aid of machinery. There are now in the United States about two hundred and fifty mills devoted to the ."ixljrication of hosiery. ( )f the total number, sixty are in New York, seventy-five in Pennsylvania, thirty in New Hampshire, thirty Tive in Massachusetts, and fifteen in Connecticut. Their product is in cotton and woollen hose (i)lain and striped), shirts, drawers, i (kets, oj)era-hoods, scarts. and shawls. There is little hand-knitting in the hiisiery-business now, except in Nev/ Hampshire. The Shakers at I'^nneld knit the legs and feet of their hose upon cinuilar machines, and send out the hose tu have the heels and toes knit in by hand with stronger and more serviceable yarn. In consecpience of the extent to which their business has grown, it is laid that there is more hand-knitting in New Hampshire now than there was Mxtv vears asio. In the United States it is usual to build houses for the working-people of the mills in the vicinity of the several establishments, which are turned over to tl)ein for occupancy at a low rent. This circumstance has given Homes of I'irth to a vast number of pretty villages in New I'Jigland and the the opera- Nuriu, deriving their existence solely from the mills of the place **^^^" and the waterfalls which drive them. The occupants of these villages were criginally people '"rom the farms in the adjacent townships, — intelligent, cheer- ful, and excellent \ eople. At the present time, the population of the factory- ^illages is more largely composed of people of foreign birth. During and just ■liter the late war, when skilled operatives were so scarce as almost to l)e worth #Ht , If 5! • M f!'t',! *», I I. \ 426 Mv; d/.s' y A-Z/i /, ///s y (m- k their. weight in gold, manufacturers who put up new mills were ol)lige(l to sen { \S TNI A I. HIS I OK Y (Irailually the ciiltiirc and manufacturt' of silk extended lliroii^h Asia Minor and luirope, althoiigii euntined for many ecnturies lo liic liy/antine Progreisof I'lnipire. The products of Damascus soon became lamous. 'i'lu' theindustry. industry attained prominence in Nortliern Italy in about the tiiir- teenth century of the Clirislian era. tiie \elvets of (lenoa havinj,' a world- wide reputation. Silk growing, spiiming, and weaving obtained a very little foothold in I'" ranee until the < lose of the sixteenth century. It is now the greatest silk-manufacturing country of the civili/ed world, its produ< ts beiiij; choicer, if not more copious, than those- of China. Japan, and India. TIk' raw silk of China, however, is scarcely surpassed by any grown in lairope. From France, within the past two or three centuries, silk-culture has extended into I'lngland and (lermany and other parts of Europe, and to America. MI.KWdUM. Two of the best-known hobbies of James Stuart, the first of that S( ottish royal famil\' who sat on the Fnglish throne, were his intense detestation of Colonialslik- tobacco, and his desire to build u]) the infant silk-manufactures of culture. Great IJritain. Accordingly, no sooner was the first colony e>t;il)- lished in Virginia than he employed his administration to promote the cul- ture of silk in America, and uproot that of the Nicotian weed. lie did no* care to ilevelop the manufacturing-industry on this side of the Atlautii . bni merely to secure a supply of cocoons, to be soaked, reeled, spim, and wmtii by British industry. As early as i6oilk worm eggs, and reciuired of the London Company, which managed the affiiis of the colony, that it force the i)lanters to engage in this new enterprise. A fine of a hundred pomids of tcjbacco was in 1623 exacted of everv planter who ilid not cultivate at least ten mulberry-trees to every lumdred acres of his estate. Under these influences some headway was made, lint it was nitlur unprofitable business, and not to be compared with tobacco-raising ; am., ^vluii Cromwell succeeimsi-lf exclusively to silk-growing. It dots not appear that anyone ever took advantage of these proffers, whit h were withdrawn in 1666; and tlioiigii the industry still lingered along for many years, — and it is even said that silk was sent from X'irginia to England, from which Charles I. or Charles II. had a robe made, — yet hy degrees the business died out. Waistt oats. lKindker( hiefs. and e\en gowns, of native silk, were known in the colony until near die time of the Kevolution ; hut they were rare, and, whatever sentiment thire may have Ween < linging to them, of inferior ([uality. 'I'lu'v were fu//y ami lustreless. (Juile a specialty was made of silk-culture in the mu( h younger colony of (li'orgia. In 1 7^52 the (olonial government started a large nursery plantation of miilherry-trccs, and granted land to settlers on condition that a hundred of these Jiould lie planted to every ten at res cleared, 'frees, seed, and t'ggs were sent over by the colonial trustees ; and in othiT ways the industry was fos- tered. The liritish Parlianunt. in 17.1^. exiinpted raw silk from Cu'orgia and Carolina from duty, and a bounty was offered {ox its ]>rodu< tion. .\n l'',pisco- jKil clergyman versed in the delicate and tlifficult operation of reeling the silk from cocoons, and a native of Piedmont, Italy, was sent over to teach the |H()]i]e of this colony how to perform it ; and Signor Ortolengi, an Italian gentleman, was likewise engageil in 1749 to teach the deorgians silk-culture. Suhsecjuently the London Society for the I'lncouragement of .Arts. Manufac- tures, and Commerce, ofiered a premium of threepence a piece on coiooiis (or about three shillings a pound) for all that were taken to Ortolengi's '"filature" at Savannah. As early as 1735 silk was exporti'(l ; the amoiml not exceeding eight pounds, however. In 1 759, the ( ulminating yi'ar of the (leorgia silk-industry, ten thousand pounds were exported ; which is about as much as was produced in this whole country in nS^o and 1.S60, and more than two and a half times as much as the protluct of 1S70. A lire in the Savannah filature destroyed eight thousand pounds in 175.S. 'I'lie production and expor- tation thereafter de( reased. In 1 790 the only shipment subseciucnt to the Revolution was made, and this amounted to only two hundred pounds. For the next forty years very little silk was grown in that State. Nearly as much attention was given to this industry in South Carolina as in Ceorgia in that early day. The (]uantity produced was much less, but the • luality excellent. — ecjual even to the best Italian silk. In 1755 a distin- guished laily, named Mrs. Pinckney. took with her from this colony to lOngland silk which she had manufactured into three dresses, one of which was pre- sented to the mother of the infant King (leorge III., and another to Lord Cliesterfield : she reserved to herself the third. The Carolinian silk-business began to decline simultaneously with the Georgian ; but in the settlement of New I'ordeaux, on the Savannah River, seventy miles above Augusta, much sewing-silk was manufactured and sold in the neighboring counties, during the Revolution, bv the French residents. 430 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY The fourth colony to engage in silk-culture, and about the only one to any notable extent in New England, was Connecticut. Mulberry-trees from Cultivation Long Island were planted In 1755 at New Haven and Mansfield of silk in (the latter then in Windham County, Init now of Tolland County), Connecticut, ^^^j silk-worm eggs were introduced in 1762. The following year. Dr. Stii-s, afterwards president of Yale College, secured an act of the Assem- bly granting a bounty of ten shillings on every hundred mulberry-trees planted, and of threepence i)er ounce on raw silk. These ])ounties resulted in developing the culture of the trees vciy substantially, and the offer was withdrawn some years later. A small bounty on manufactures of home-raised raw silk was then granted. In i 763 a half-ounce of mulberry-seed was sent to every town in the colony for distribution. Dr. Stiles was a great enthusiast on the subject of silk-growing, and made many valuable experiments and observations from 1763 to 1790, which he recorded in a huge manuscripi diary, bound with a silken cord, and still preserved at Yale College. The domestic culture of silk became (juite general in the colony prior to the Revolution, and still existed in some sections mtil 1825. Small groves of white mulberry-trees, a ul rude cocooneries, cared for by women, are remeni- bered by persons v,'ven now living. It is especially notable, however, that the town of Mansfiel.l was the great centre of silk-production in this coloiiv : and Mr. .\. T. Lilly even goes so far as to say ;hat " Mansfield seems to have been the only place where raising silk became a l":xed industry." This applies more particularly, however, to the })eriod l)etween 18 10 and 1844. Mans- field, nevertheless, deserves the credit of being the first silk-manufacturing centre of this country, — a fact to which we shall presently recur. Mr. I.illv estimates that the people of Mansfield received as much as fifty thousand dollars a year in barter for their silk from 1820 to 1830. Dr. Aspinwall of New Haven, who was the first to im]wrt mulberry-trees and silk-worms into Connecticut, introduced them into Pennsylvania in 1767 or 1768. In 1770 Susanna Wright of Columbia, Lancaster County, made Pennsyi- a piece of mantua sixty yards long from home-raised cocoons ; vaniiv, ^^,-^1 jj-^jy (\q\\-^ was afterwards worn as a court-dress by the ()ueen of (ireat liritain. A piece of similar goods, made by Crace Fisher, was sub- sequently presented by Cov. Dickinson to the celebrated Catherine Macanlay. A filature was erected in Philadelphia in 1 769, and twenty-three hundred pounds of cocoons were brought there the next vear to be reeled. I he filature was built by subscription and at the inspiration of the .\ineri( in Philosophical Society, which was aroused by Benjamin Franklin, then tlu' colony's agent in London. Toward the close of the last century, and in the early part of this, silk New York ^^nlture was undertaken to a limited extent in New York, New and other Jersey. Delaware, near Jialtimore, Maryland, Illinois, Massachu- states. 'n^w.'-,, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, with but little success in the three States last named. I)e( ca w 11 nil for do Sll| th. ly one to •eos from MansfiL'hl County), k'ing year, le Asscm- )erry-trct's s resultL-(l offer was )mc-raisc(l I was scnl enthusiast iients and -nanuscript eye. 'l"hc "ior to the groves ot re renieni- :r, that the lis colony ; ns to have 'his ai)i)lics 44. Mans- nufacturiiig Mr. l.illv V thousand ilbcrry-trecs lia in 1767 unty, made (1 cocoons : ,' the ()ueen er. was sul)- e Macaulav. ee hunihcd eeled 'I'he e American in. then the of this, silk- York, New , ^hissacliu- little success OF THE UNITED STATES. 431 The Revolution nearly annihilated the production in this country by cutting off the export trade. ]5ut private domestic manufacture p,„ still created a demand ; and after the war was over a slight re- Revolution vival and expansion were experienced in the production, Ohio, "P°" ^^^ Kentucky, and Tennessee also engaging therein. However, the ueneral decline which had been discernible before the war now continued slowly, and by 1825 silk-culture had almost entirely died out in the United States. .\ famous period in this industry was the so-called Morus iiiultiaxulis mania. The favorite variety of the nuilberry-tree among luiropean silk- growers is the white, or Afonis alba. American experimenters, Morus liowever, among the first of whom was (lideon B. Smith, who muiticauiis inii)orted a specimen in 1826, began to advocate the marvellous '"""'*• merits of the Morus muiticauiis, and to instigate a revival of silk-growing. C'learly the most important preliminary step in this direction was the cultiva- tion of mulberry-trees, which were propagated by slips. So successful were the agitators, that the agricultural classes of nearly the whole country, espe- 'ially of the North, were excited on the subject; and by 1834 or 1835 a denmnd was created for young trees or slips, which soon rose in value from three or four dollars a himdred to twenty-five, fifty, a hundred, two hundred, and even fi^'e hundred dollars per hundred. One enthusiast bought a dozen cuttings, not more than two feet long, nor thicker than a pipe-stem, for twenty- five dollars, and said he valued them at sixty dollars. In the furore that ensued, nurserymen and unscrupulous agents even went so tar a? to sell slips of entirely different stock for mulberry, and at fabulous prices. A story is told of a Long-Island nurseryman who resorted to a bold and shrewd artifice to build up his trade. He drove to New York, and took the steame.- to New- port. He drove to the first nursery there, and asked eagerly, " Have you any muiticauiis trees?" — "A few," was the reply. "I will give you fifty cents aj)iece for all you have," said the Long-Islander. The nurseryn^an thought a minute : " If Mr. is willing to give that price for them, it is l)ecause he thinks they are worth more." So he answered, " I don't think I want to sell what few I have." — " Very well," was the reply: "I presume I can get them for that." (Xf he went, and visited every other nurseryman wl'io was known to have mulberry -trees in Newport, Providence, Boston, ^\orcester, Springfield, Northampton, and elsewhere. He did not buy a single tree ; but he forced the price up from twenty-five cents to over a dollar in a single week, and thus improved his own market wonderfiilly. So enor- mous were his sales, that the utmost art could not propagate trees fast enough I'll' the trade; and in 1838-39 he sent an agent with eighty thousand dollars cash in hand to France to buy young trees for him. J^ut, before the supply could be had, the speculative bubble burst. I'.xcitement throughout the ( ountry became over-strained in 1839, and a sudden re-action took place. id ':'i \ i ! I 1* * 'ii' I 432 IND US TKfA L HIS TOR Y L». I !, If ^ There was no furtlier demand fc r the multicaulis ; and, when the enterprising Long-Islander's supply c:anie from France, he was obliged to sell it tor peu- bnish at the rate of a dollar a hundred. Numerous other speculators were bankrupted in the same way. This spirit of speculation proved hurtful to those seci'r-is where silk- growing had been already c;arried on successfully ; for it created su( h a demand for the trees, that raisers could not afford to feed their worms. A single tree was often worlji niorr than the whole probable ])r()(lu(l of silk that ,-;eason to the owner. Mr. Lilly mentions two trees of onlv a single year's growth, in Xonh W'md- Jiam, Conn., that sold at au( lion, in August, 1.S42, for a hundred and six and a hundred dollars respe('ti\ civ : and the rest were withdrawn from sale because the biddin."; was noi sufficiently spirited. The iiiii//ii;ii//is mania completely checked the adiuil silk-production for a time ; and tlicr. in 1844 a general blight killed m<»l of the trees in the countrv. and very effectually put an end to the business. There were, however, prior to this time, a {c\\ gentlemen of single- hearted devotion to the country's industrial interests, who had ac live- ly engaged in and encouraged a re- vival of silk-culture. Among tln-sc was the Hon. Peter S. I)u])onceau of Philadelphia. After much agita- tion of the sul)ject, and having employed a Frenchman named D'Homeniiie. Duponceau "''^^^ versed both in producing and manufacturing raw silk, lie of Phiia- ne;irly obtained an ai)])ropriation from Congress of forty thousand dollars wherewith to found a normal filature, or school ft)r teaching the delicate ami difficult art of reeling silk. Failing in this, Ik founded such an institution at private expense, built cocooneries, went into the business to considerable extent, carried on extensive correspondence with other parts of the country on the subject, and did much to disseminata' CUCOCINS (.nMI'lJ-.TKI). OF THE UNITED STATES. 433 valual)lc information. His efforts resulted in financial failure in 1837. Mr. Duponceau is on record as having expressed the very decided opinion, that we Americans should keep on trying to make silk-growing a success before trying to manufLicture, even if we had to wait twenty years. But the country has not followed his advice. Another gentleman distinguished by his earnest efforts and wide influence in this realm of industry was the late Jonathan H. Cobb of Dedham, Mass. Though not as wealthy as Mr. Duponceau, he was nearly as Jonathan H. iictive. Interest having become aroused afresh in Massachusetts ^°''''- in 1830, the legislature authorized the governor to appoint him to prepare a manual on silk-growing for distribution among the agricultural classes. He did the work ably, and the book ran through many editions. He engaged, too, extensively in the culture himself, and in lecturing thereupon. In 1835 he engagetl in an enterprise for manufacturing at Dedham, and his mill turned out two hundred pounds of sewing-silk a week. He also co-operated with <'hristopher Colt of Hartford, and others in the Connecticut Silk Company, Avhose works were in the latter city. This latter failed in 1840. His losses jiaralyzed his activity a while : but in 1843 he started up his old mill at Ded- ham, under the management of C, Colt, jun. ; but a fire destroyed the estab- lishment in 1845, and thereafter Judge Cobb had no more to do with the business with which he had been more or less identified for forty years. For more than quarter of a century after the bursting of the viulticaulis bubble, little raw silk was produced in the United States. The census-returns \Y\\. down the yield of 1850 at a trifle over 10,000 pounds, — Decline in e(iuivalcnt to about 120,000 cocoons, and worth, perhaps, $40,000. siik-cuiture. The yield of i860 is returned at about 11,000 pounds, and that of 1S70 at less than 4,000. Within a few years, however, there has been something of a revival in the production, to a slight extent in Louisiana, but very conspicu- ously in Southern California. In the South there has been no ability manifested to reel the little silk produced, and no market for the cocoons. New Orleans abounds in mul- berry-trees planted nearly a century ago by the French, and the siik-industry trees are haunted by a wild insect whose cocoons are plentiful. '" ^"^^ South. I'roin 1S71 to 1S74 an Italian named Roca nipdc a business of rearing silk- worms in that city, and ship])ing eggs and cocoons to Italy. l"'or the last- mentioned year his invoices amounted to ten thousand dollars, and his silk was adjudgctl at Milan superior to any produced thereabouts. Ilcsides, three <'rops of cocoons were obtained from the American market, and but two from the Italian. It is thus demonstrated, that, though the climate there is a trifle d in 1S32 caused the old oil-mill to be put in order for silk-manufacturing. Machinery w;;; constructed after designs by Nathan Rixford, the Mansfield inventor. Mr. 1839. .now II there )\vn as ^■ork, oring- (hvavd OF THE UNITED STATES. 437 Whitmarsh, by his enthusiasm and activity, not only excited the neighborhood, but secured tlic co-operation of several gentlemen from Middletown, Conn., in his enterprise, among them Augustus and Samuel Russell, who had founded a large American shipping-house in Cliina. These gentlemen now organized the N'or.iiampton Silk ("ompany, and in i]- lapse of the inullicaitlis bulible ruined the company ; and, when winter came, Mr. Whitn.arsh iiad neither cash nor credit enough to buy a barrel of flour. The company eventually paid all its debts, amounting to a hundred thousand dollars ; and Air. Whitmarsh went to Jamaica, where he made fresh ventures, that were but partially successful. Shortly before his death, in 1875, he seriously contemplated undertaking new ones in California. When Mr. Whitmarsh left, the Northampton Com])any secured the services of Capt. Joseph Conant, who had l):en associated with several Mansfield enterprises since 1827; but, when bankruptcy ensued in 1840.1110 company sold out. Capt. Conant, S. L. Hill, Ceorge W. IJenson, and William Adams, were the ])urchasers. The new cor[)oration took the l'"!orcncc propcrt\', and organized a "community" of interest and participation in work. This proved a failure; and in 1844 the pro])erty again changed hands, and Mr Hill, who had secured the partnership of a Northampton capitalist, S. L. Hinckley, obtained control. Tiie establishment was now denominated the " Nonotuck Steam- Mill," and hrs done a prosperous business in sewing-silk and twist ever since. Their " Corticelli " brand is widely famous. Conant built tlie Conant Mill .:. Conantville, Conn., in 1852; and he and his family were instrumental in founding several ether enterprises. New and successful ventures have since been made at Florence, Northampton, and Ilolyoke, Mass. This brief narration gi\es one an idea of the vicissitudes tliat have attended the progress of the silk-industry in this country. Another similar story is tha. of the Connecticut Silk-Manufitcturing Compa- ny, incorporated at Hartford in 1835, which received a bonus of about eleven thousand dollars net from a bank charter. It was managed by Christoj^her Colt and J. H. Hayden. It colla];)sed in i8j8, cU'ter sinking its entire caj)ital. iiie latter gentleman then went into ])artnershir with Mr. Haskell, who furnished the capital ; and they established, under tlic firm-name of J. H. Hayden & Company, a silk-mill at Windsor Locks, near Hartford, which con- tinues prosperous to this day. Conantville. ' ■ I I'L i if i' >m ■I!' 438 /JV£> crs TRIA L II IS TOR Y One of the most successful undertakings in this department of inchi-.try is that of the Cheney IJrotiiers of South Manchester, Conn. 'I'iie fami was one of brigiit, industrious, enterprising farmer-hoys. Se' and Joiin became artists, and left Ikmuc ; .lO did two ot'^eii. who Ml of thr luul Cheney Brothers, South Man- engaged in mercantile ijursuits in Providence Chester. ° ° been more less familiar with the culture of mull)erry-trcL'j uing their boyhood , and in January, 1.S3S, \Vard, Rush, Frank .'nd Raljjli started tl Mor: '^eb Silk-Mi!!s in their nati\ c town, where for four or five years p-,i-.i ilr: V Mad bien raising silk-worn^s and i)roducing some silk. The mills s iQi; '>':-f.! for a brief period, during which Ward, Rush, and Frank went to Bui: igton, ">' T., to engage in the nursery and cocoonery business. They also published a Magazine, called "The Silk-Crower's Manual," from July, 1838, to July, 1840. Other members of the family cultivated mulberry-trees in Florida, Ceorgia, and Ohio. The imilticaulis collapse hurt them financially; and so the brothers went back to South Manchester in 1841, and rc-opeued the mill. Putting in new machinery, they began with the manufa( ture of .sewing-silk, gradually extending their business to ribbons and handkerchiefs. T'hey used imported raw silk almost exclusively, as the American silk was too poorly reeled to be serviceable, and too scanty in supply. Soon ...1 attempt was made to manufacture broad goods, ox dress-goods ; their first experiments being made with pierced cocoons, floss, silk-waste, and such material as could not be reeled. This was carded and spun, and used for filling, by machinery made expressly for the purpose. The product was a substantial but lustreless goods, which found a good market. Five years of patient ingenuity and perseverance were needed to perfect this apparatus and insure success. This spun silk was woven into pongees and handkerchiefs at first, au'I then into foulards, ribbons, and broad goods. In 1S54 a new mill was built at Hartford, and put in charge of Charles Cheney, who had come home from Ohio in 1847. Until the breaking-out of the late civil war, and the imposition of the heavy tariff of 1861 upon foreign silk-goods, the Cheney TJrothers could not compete successfully with imported articles. The acts oi" iS^r and 1846 ha years later, Hamil . Mention has been made already of to France to visit the prin'.ipal sver-loom to silk-weaving at Philadelphia in of his work at this period was the-»paratus for carding and s[)inning silk for Palace Exhibition in New York in's latter was an important advance in creased, i)rospercd, and excited liv*. Ralph Cheney, in 1S38, a friction- employing four hundred or five huncnat value and extendeil use. Mr. thousand pounds of raw silk a week, — of silk at Middletown. Conn., in America. ''n silk. L. 1). IJrown, formerly This is the foundation of the Paterson ; Middletown, invented valua- was but a villaire of seven thousand inhabitanthKo that the thread was cut and flourishing city. Then John Ryle was a poor^cars past the Danforth scarcely a friend ; he has since won a national rtcn making a machine 1852 he bought a ' rge piece of property near Passaic ud valuable than is it by the arts of landscape-gardening and architecture, and & Holland of peojjle of the town as a free puljlic j^ark. Shortly afterward -..Minesses in mayor of Paterson. In 1854 he built the Murray Mill, then one o. and best-e(]uipped establishments in the country. ict of Mil irli ^JiAt^ mi mm 438 INDUSTRIAL insrOKY Tariff. One of the most surressful uiitlcrtakini^'s in tliis department; that of the Clieney I'.iulhers of South Maiidiester, Conn. Tit one of l)ri,L;ht, inihistrioiis, enterprising f'"nicr-lKi5n Cheney Brothers, John became artists, and lell home ; so ilid tv South Man- ^jniram-d in mercantile i^ursiiils in i'rovidence. \\ Chester. ° " ^ ■ , , - 1, been more less fiiniiliar witii tlie culture ot mulber. ;.i^|^ »u ;x^>. tiieir boyhood ; and in January, I'SjS, Ward, Rush, Frank, andTIp^" ' ''V|''^^X the Mount-Nebo Silk-Mills in their native town, where for foij\':iF''^' '*'*''' ^' ])ast they hail been raising silk-woriMs and producing some si*?: soon closed for a brief period, during which Ward, Rush, anl- to liurlington, N.J., to engage in the nursery and cocoonery bjf? also published a magazine, called "The Silk-(lrower's Man 1838, to July, 1840. (Jther members of tiie family cullivale in Florida, (leorgia, and Ohio. 'I'he iiiiilticai(lis collai)se hur and so the brothers went back to South Manchester in i the mill. Putting in new maciiinery, they began with • sewing-silk, gradually extending their business to ribbon They nsed imported raw silk almost exclusively, as the /| poorly reeled to be serviceable, and too scanty in sup was made to manufacture broad goods, or dress-good: being made with pierced cocoons, floss, silk-waste, ar not be reeled. This was carded and spun, and us made expressly for the purpose. The pnjduct was goods, which fonnd a good market. Five year perseverance were needed to perfect this apparati spun silk was woven into pongees and handke" foulards, ribbons, and broad goods. In 1S54 and put in charge of Charles 1847. Until the breaking-ont o heavy tariff of 1861 upon for compete successfully and 1846 had left protection. But, with the re grew ; and the Cheney silks h; The Cheneys have been pi only do they pay their h of their operatives, pro* nished a fine pubhc 'jjij to the erection pered in bn' and natir>,,iilii!iii T' "" /I - V. OF THE UNITED STATES. 441 For nearly twelve years Rylc was without local competition. In 1851-52 Joiiu Hcnson, formerly a ('otton-manutacturcr, started a small silk-mill in I'aterson. Three years later, Hamil iS: Uooth bei^'an business with twenty operatives, and gradually developed their business (their establishment, the I'assaic Silk-Works, confminj,' itself for fifteen years simply to '•throwing" silk) ; and soon other small factories were started, some of which were the foundations of great enterprises. Having thus sketched the foundations of the silk-industry, we ])ause to consider some of the causes that gave it development, and hastily to outline its fuller dimensions. One agency that stimulated manuflxcture from iSio to 1S40 was the culture of the raw material in tins country; l)ut since the last-named date we have been dependent chiefly upon the foreign supply. Another agency was the invention of maciiinery by Americans. The Reasons why manu- Hauks brothers used rude machinery with their water-power, (acture hs Nathan Rixford invented many useful devices, the most valuable ""cceeded in ■' this country. of which was Uir.t for reeling silk. IJefore the processes of doubling, spinning, or dyeing, arc performed, the fibre from half a dozen cocoons needs to be combined in a single thread. As some cocoons contain but three hundred and others thirteen hundred feet of filament, and as this is of spider-web delicacy, the work of combining parallel libres, and attaching the successive ones smoothly and perfectly, is a very difficuli one. Rixford's Rixford's reels were a great advance on our old ones, and were inventions. sent to China, with samples of thread, for use and imitation by the nati\es who supplied our manufacturers with raw material after 1S40; and, though it was hard v»-ork to secure their introductii^n. they finally came into wide use, and facilitated American manufacture. Mention has been made already of Horstmann's application of the power-loom to silk-weaving at Philadelphia in i.Sjjj, and to the Cheney Brothers' aj)paratus lor carding and spimiing silk for filling which could not be reeled. This latter was an important advance in the business. Rixford also invented for Ralph Cheney, in iSjjS, a friction- roller for use in spinning, which was of great value and extended use. Mr. M. lleininway, who began the manufacture of silk at Middletown. Conn., in 1.S49, was the first to substitute s])ool for skein silk. L. 1). Urown, formerly of (iurleyville, but afterwards of Conantville and Middletown, invented valua- ble a[)paratus for spooling silk and weighing it ; so that the thread was cut when the spool contained an ounce. For many years past the Danforth Locomotive and Machine Company of Paterson has been making a machine for '• throwing " or spinning silk, which is more useful and valuable than is manuflictured anywhere else in the world. Messrs. Atwood c^' Holland of Willimantic use a stretching-machine, which reduces the une\('nnesses in knotty Chinese silk to the smoothness of the finest Italian product. The enthusiasm, far-sightedness, persevering energy, and business-tact of u !', r! h I I! K iciti 44^ INDUSTKIAI. IJLsrORV W tlK' pioneers in the silk-business, in the face of faihire. ridicule, and many otluT adversities, have done every thinj,' to establish the industry, and win others tiuTeto. Dr. liciijamin Franklin, Dr. Stiles of New Haven, Dr. .AspiMw.ill of that city, Mr. Duponceau of I'luladilpliia. judge Cobb of Dedhani, Rodiify and Horatio Hanks, the Atwoods and ( onants, the l-illys and others of Maus- field, Samuel Whitniarsh, (Christopher Colt. |. H. Hayden, and John Kyle, are among the individuals to whom the success of silk-mamifacture in Amerii a is i'hiefly due. .Association for the exchange of information and ideas, and lor co-operation in promoting the common interest, has proved helpful in this a-. in other industries. I'aterson had a local organization of this sort in bS^S. re-organized in iS;.' ; and in the last-named year a national organization was effected, which has since had an annual meeting every spring. 'l"he proiec tivc tariffs which were enacted shortly after the war of 1812-15 did something to encourage manufacturing; but they were nearly all removed in 1831. 'IIil' threats of civil war in 1.S59 depressed the business considerably; but tin.' imposition of the tariff of 186 1 gave fresh encouragement by checking the importation of foreign goods. Within the past three or four years the law lias been so evaded, that large (piantities of dress-goods have been put on thr market in New York which had escaped payment (jf the duty ; and no lillle embarrassment has ensued. By 1830 there had been only three or four short-lived ventures in Mans- field, Conn., one in Baltimore, an. J>, Tilt of boston, who began making silk trimmings tor dresses in 1834, and, after doing a good business many years, went to Paterson in 1862, where he organizeil the Phuinix Silk Manufocturing Company. From 184010 1861, besides the three or four surviving organizations and the three or four more built upon the ruins of old ones already named, there were upwards of a hundred new enterprises undertaken in lloston, the 184010 1861. ' ' Connecticut Valley, various small villages of ICastern Connectimt, New-York City, Paterson, and I'liilatlelphia. IShiny of these were small, and for the manufacture of only sewing-silk and twist. Several, especially iii the cities, made dress, coach, upholsterers', and undertakers' trimmings. 'Die Cheneys and Ryle were almost the only ones that made broad goods. Since 1861 there have been a large number of new establishments started : but a larger number of old ones have suspended. In i860 there were 139 f! i 01 77/ K UNITED STATES, 443 i86i to 1870, n'tiinK'(l in the ci-nsiis, i-in|»lt)yin{j 5,435 Iiniids and 52,926, ().So capital, witli an aj^j^rc^'atc production of 56,607,71 1. In 1H70 tlicrL- wen- Init ci^'iity-ninc rctiirni'd (principally in ('onnc( ticiit, New N'ork, and New Jersey), enipioyin^^ 6,(^)49 hands and 56,231,130 ( apital, witii a total l)io(hictiun of 512,210,662. It was (hiring this era that some of the men iKiw most prominent in the hiisiness — the Dales, the lieldens, and odicrs — i^labiished themselves. Since 1870 tile inchistry has develoi)ed still farther. Onr total production has increased to upwards of 525,000,000 a year. I'Vom 1X50 to 1X60 our imports of silk-goods averaged 527,000.000 a year, and in 1S60 proKre»» anunmted to 534.330,321. During the next decade, owing to the "'"ce 1870. high tariff, they averaged but 517,500,000 a year; but in 1S71 they rose to 533,899,710. Since then they have steadily fallen of!'. In 1.S75 they aggre- gated but 523,168,1 I S, and in 1877 about 521,000.000. Thus it will be seen that we arc gradually driving the foreign product from our markets. More than that, wc are now exporting nearly 5ioo,ooo worth cjf sewing-silk a year. ( )ur products have taken many premiums, and received high en- comiums from the juries of fairs, — local, state, national, and internationiil. — ■ within the past { STATES. 440 Anil They makcr^i' icy Nv^'"-' n. — i'> tcr I'onil and in '•The ihtown ; c Ni-'W- c(l in \\\'- (hu'c oi c. Wc^t )pu\U Uu the cigh- ,s)lvaniii ; and leather was exported thence to lMiro|)e in 17;;!. In that colony, too, nimh was made of deer-skin for clothing; and Logan, thL' famous Mingo chief was long actively engaged in dressing them for sale to the whites. Down '"n the Carolinas and (leorgia cattle were exceedingly abundant, especially a small breed which were allowed to run wild. lUit little attempt was made to utilize their hides. Live cattle were shipped to the West Indie:: and to Pennsylvania : raw hides were likewise sent. Until very near the time of the Revolution few attempts were made to manufacture shoes, a pair of which were worth as much as an ox. .\ little Icatlier was made in the coast- r'jgi(jn ; but it v/as exported. In Iced, from 1745 to 17O0, the two Carolinas exported quite a large amount of tanned leather and dressed deer-skins. In the br.ck country, where tan-bark was pk'ity and imported goods rare, the colonists made some few shoes for themselves. The greater number of the inJKibitants of those colonies obtained their shoes cither from those fixrther north and east, or from (ireat Britain. Toward the middle of tiie eighteentli century, north of Virginia, every new luv 1 \\"\ its tannery almost immediately after the first settlement ; and shoe- inak rs and saddlers soon followed. In 1731, when, at the solicita- tions A jealous London manufacturers antl merchants, Parliament in°d"usJ° by ordered the British Board of Trade to in(|uive .'nto the condition middle of of manufacturers in this country, they found the Americans almost ^'g*^'""**^ ■' ' ^ century. completely supplied with shoes of their own manufactiire. The loc.'l shoemakers in most towns did something toward meeting the home ad been tanned by the local tanner. Itinerant cobblers also went Irom house ." li ise. Massachusetts manulactured a surplus of shoes, which weiit to the other colonies and to the West Indies. When, in 1764, Englan attempted to levy duties on American imports, and the colonists resented ii refusing to buy British goods as far as i)ossible, a special stimulus was gi\ to .shoe and leather production where before less attention had been given dureto. During the Revolution the sui> of hides was greatly reduced, and the amount of labor that was free to tar tiem and make shoes was also lessened liy the demands of the militai vice: consetiuently a great Effect of scarcity of both leather and shoes characterized that period. The Revolution. army suffered great privations. When the British forces landed at West Ches- ter. \.Y., in October of 1776, the Colonial C.ovcrnment caused such hides as < oiild be collected to be removed to places of concealment in the Highlands. The (ommissary department of the Continental army, i\artly from incom])e- leiK e and partly from limited resources, found it impossible to obtain shoes enough for the soldiers. It was si^'cd to Congress, in December of 1776. that one-third of the army at Ticondcroga had to ])crform duty without shoes. <>nly nine hundred ])airs were sent thither on a re([uisition to sui)i)ly o\er twelve \ \\ 'mm3 (I ■ M ^H'h mM '■%! J i 11 ')':' ' I *f ! 450 IXDCSTRIAL HISTORY Principal seats of industry during the last century m\. thousantl men. TIic army was then authorized to impress shoes and other supplies where they coukl be found. During the operations in New Jersey that winter, many of our solcUers " were without shoes, marching over frozen ground, which so gashed their naked feet, tliat each step was marked wiUi blood." 'I"he following autumn it was discovered, that near Lancaster, I'cnu., greater (juantities of leather than were ever before known there were in store. Much leather was to be had at \'orktown in exchange for green hides ; but shoemakers to manufacture it were exceedingly scarce. On the restoration of peace, tanning and shoemaking rapidly revived ; but Effect of '•'^*'" ''i^'"'-'<'''^te inllux of foreign goods soon depressed them again peace in re- until a tariff could be imposed. Virginia resorted to such protec- stonngthe ^j^j^ j,^ i 788, and I'ougress, under the ucw ( "oustitutioii, ill I 78(1. industry. . ' . • ■> 1 > The principal seats of siioe and leather manufacture, says liishop. in the last century and l)eginning of this, were in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, though Maryland and Delaware also made a considerable amount. South Carolina had tanned some excellent leadier before the Revolution ; but after the war the Southern States gave little altenti(jn thereto, or to sh()enlakilll,^ buying from the North. As the Western country was gradually settled, cattle-raising, tanning, and a small amount of shoemaking. kept pa( e witli the movement ; and though that section has been dependent on New England and the Middle States, to some extent, for shoes, it has not called for more unmanufactured leather than it could itself produce, inasmuch as catlle- raising has been a prominent industrv of that section. It is asserted that Morocco leather of fair quality was made in Charles- town, Mass., as early as ryyo. by the subse(|uently famous Lord 'I'imothy Manufacture Dexter and others ; and the manufacture was resumed there in of morocco. 1756. The art of making {'urkey and Morocco leathers from goat and sheep skins was not understood in London until about 1 7CS3, — the year of peace. The Pennsylvania Societ\' for the Lncouragement of Manufactures and irseful Arts instituted an inquiry in 1787, and found that two persons in Philadeli)hia had attemi)ted the imitation with tolerable success. Sheep-skins have been rendered less valuable for the past fifty years by the introduction of merino breeds, in which improved fleeces are offset by poorer pelts. The morocco-business, however, has been a specialty of the Philadeli)hia leather- business to a greater extent than it has in any other part of the Union. In i860 it employed over thirty large factories. 1.600 hands, and more than ^500,000 of capital, with sales to the amount of i>2, 000,000. These figures might now be safely increased fifty per cent. Indeed, our exports alone of this class of leather exceed Si. 000, 000 annually. \\'ithin the present century, too. calf or kip skins have come into general use ; whereas in Revolutionary and pre-Revolutionary days they were unknown on this side of the Atlantic. Calf-skins. kim the .111(1 iN()o. ffc. OF THE UNITED STATES. 451 'If! Hi A m's i 1 ' n^ ■''4i iar i ll:'i' lark's- unthy iv in 11 goat year Ictuvcs )iis in |i--knis )n i)t The latlK-r- 11. In than ne ol" conic lioniiry Soon after the Revohition, our ilomcstic supply of hides proved iiisuffieient for our tanners' needs, and importation began ( hietly tVoni South America and the British Ivist Indies. 'The immense development of cattle- importatioa breeding in this country, and the annexation of Texas, have not °^ hides, kept pace with our demands ; and the imi)ortation of hides has steadily in- creased, with but slight tluctuations. In 1S5S we im[)orted $9,719,083 worth, or about 1,075,000 hides. In 1877 our iui])ortations, exceeding those of the pre- vi' is year by a half, amoimted to over ^.000,000 hides, valued at about $18,000,- 000. Thirty years ago, when the I'lrie Rail- road was o[)ened, most of these hides came to \ew-York City, and were sent out along the southern tier of counties in that State for tanning ; then they came back in the form of leather, and were mostly sent to New i'aigland. I'he imported hides, it will be borne in niiml. form only a portion ,~. Mie whole Icathcr-proiUu't. Thus, in 1 '' ; y, when 3.4(>:;,')ii sides or half hide? »,-ere tanned 's solf leather, and ^^,78r,868 skins were laiUK'tl and curried for upper lealhcr, our importation was jtrobably less than i.(K)o,- 000 sides and skins. In 1870 there were ''"'■7''''''^>75- bides (17.577.404 side>) and ').664.i48 skins tanned, ol" which less than j;, 000. 000 hides and skins were imported. I'he tbilowing table will gi\-e some idea (jf the ^;rowtli of the leather-producing indtistry \\\ the l/nited States of late years-. It will be observed that there has been a tendency toward centiMli/ing the business, the big establishments dri\-ing the little ones out of business as the ini|)r(nements in the art increased. It should be noted, also, that certain kinds of leather are estimated twice over in the census-returns, from which the tbilowing figures are taken. The dressers of skins, the morocc "-makers, " and the manufacturers of patent-leather, arc included in the table. i-(i(ir-ini-; MACiiiNii. YliAH. N(1. OF ESTATES. NO. OF HANDS EMIUJVKI). CAIMTM. INVESllil). I^40. 1S5O. I S()0 , IS70. 8,2:19 6,686 5,188 7.569 25.595 26,246 35.-43 515,650,929 •=2.774.795 3(),02 5.620 61,124,812 VAl IK OF I'K()Ull.TION. $20,919,110 43,457-'^,»S 75,698.747 '57,237.597 Ktmm\ 'h VM ^ss^ii^ mm ''■•'Mi ':«':r.> 45-' /A7J US TKIA I. If IS TOK Y 'I'lu' ii)i|)r()vt'infnts in the nianuf.icttire of Icatlu-r, says Uishop, have Ir'i'ii very numerous, and mostly orij^inated within the j)resent century. 'I"lie\' ha\i' been both mechanical and chemical, of foreiijfn and native oriuin. Improve- " 'i^'"- ments in I 1k ir adojjtion has been attended by a marked influence in the pro- manufacture „rt^.ssive improvement of the iiualitv and (luantitv of the iiroduf t of leather. ^ ' . ' in the enlargement of the operations intlividually and in the aggre- gate, and in a proportionate increase in the jirofits ; while the price of leather. compared with the raw material, has been reduced. The principal of these are the several mechanical appliances for softening, fulling, rolling, aid split- ting^ skins and hides, and for grinding bark (some of whii h were \er\- early introduced), and others for washing, glazing, and fmishing leather, 'i'he appli- cation of water-power, and especially of steam, in many of the ojjerations, and of hot water in others ; the extraction antl application of tannin in cone en- trated solutions and by hydraulic ])ressure ; the greater subdixision of labor in large establishments, attended by more skilful manipulation in the processes of tanning, currying, and fmishing leather, — have all greatly iiMluenced the eiono- my of leather-manufacture. Il^ ])rofits have been much augmented bv the '' sweating " and other oj)erations, whereby the gelatine and muscular fibre of the skin is more com])letely exposed to the tannic acid, and the weight of leather increased, and also by the \arious utilizing in\'entions which have a])[)ro|)riated all the refuse materials to some useful i)urpose in the arts. The manutaclures of articles iVoni leather in this country, iiK ludiiig boots and shoes, saddlery and b.arness. trunks. \alisLs, and satchels, belling and hose, „ , , gloves and pocket-l)0(jks, and omitting whiijs, carriages, cards. Value of f^ ' i-i 1 c< • manufac- and book-biiidlng, aggregated over $2,30,000,000 ; and of thai amount $181,644,090 represents the boot and shoe industry, and 5.32,709,981 the saddlery and harness business. Thus it will he seen that more than three-fourtns of the leather-manut'at ture is in bo()t> .uid shoes. As we have already jjointed out. and as tiie reader is aware, the knight of St. Crispin who makes boots and sh(jes for hnal custom, antl who generally Knights of combines with that Ijranch of the trade the more ignoble de])art- st. Crispin, nieiit of repairing, is to be found in nearly every town and village in the c:ountry. More fretiuently than not, his establishment is combined with a shop for the sale of shoes ])m'chase(l ready made from some large niami- fai turer. This class of shoemakers retjuire no f\irther mention. Our chiel , interest centres in the wholesale manufacturers. The census-return of 23.42S establishments and 5181,644,090 of products in 1870 includes some ot the little establishments. 'I'hose making over 55,000 worth of goods apiece are set (U)wn as 3,151, and producing 5146,704,000 worth of boots and shoes. It is with them that we are concerned chietly. Krom the very first, IMassachusetts has had the lead in this great industn. • Thick hill'-: ;ire soinutiincs >plit into as many as five layers, each of which is dressed for upper leailiei tured articles ar Sll 1)11 01 I uei stn the iiiii de, li.a- '4.< SllK Ihe 1h)() has led OF THE UNITED STATES. 453 1(1 village iiicd Willi ro niami- )ur ( lii^'l . if 23.4-^ ic oi iIh' )iccc av^' ,hocs. It industry- ici le.ulioi. Tiic towns in the neighborhood of Boston attracted masons, caqjenters, and other workmen, in the winter-season, when work was dull, to ., Massachu- inirsiie shoemaking, which was always a resource. As early as setts leads 1635 Lynn had a shoemaker. Fifteen years later she made more t'^'" '" ' UvMol 1 1 Wk (1 ' ■■>}! *'^:!I 454 IND US TK/A I. HIS TON Y Marblehead, Danvers, Haverhill, and other places in Essex, were early engaged in the nianuracture of women's shoes; and there was in lyS.S a con- siderable manufacture of men's shoes at Rea(hng, near Lynn. Boston, (^tiincy, and many other towns in the vicinity, engaged in tlie shoe- manufacture after tlie Revolution, as (hi also Worcester and (Jtlier towns of that county. i'hiladel])hia and New-York cities have also been famous for nearly a century for the (juality of their shoes, and the States of which they are ihu Phiiadei- business capitals have also developed the wholesale manufacture J^^'^' in other towns. 'Hie following table gives the distribution of the industry, showing only establishments whose annual product exceeds fi\i' thousand dollars, and only those States being named j)articularly whi( h have over a hundred such establishments : — STATE. NIIMP.ICK (>!■■ NIMUKK OF CAni AT. VAI.l'l': f>F ESTATES. IIANIJS. INVKSTEU. I'KDDlcnoN. Massachusetts .... 1.123 51,167 5i9.M^.f>45 5.S6,565,4i5 N'-w ^'l)rk .... 341 11,409 4,^72,966 i7,Si;„04S I'ciiiisvlvania .... 335 ^.330 4.240,523 ii,oo2,i;S; New llamp.sliire 7.S 2,777 919.435 4,7,Sc,oJO Maine «.S 2,105 677,300 3.15 221 New Jersey .... 67 1,990 777,900 2,,S;,0,.122 Ohio 164 2,026 790,025 2,S()(),So3 Missouri 1S2 960 505,2(i0 2,;,6;„70i Illinois ..... ss 1,274 1,527,44s 2,21)^, I j6 Other States .... 6vSS 9.664 91.702 4.05').577 ?37.5i9.oi'i i3,02S,7i7 Total .... 3.' 5' ?i46,704,o.X) It might be added to this, that Connecticut with only thirty eight eslaMish- c nnecticut ii''<-'ii^^' '^'if^ Maryland with sixty-eight, each i)rod\iced very nearly and other $2,000,000 in i.^^jo; ("alifornia produced over Si, 500,000 ; and tales. Wisconsin and Indiana, each a trille over $1,000,000. Thirty years ago the sales of Massachusetts' enormous surplus to the other sections of the Union and for the ft)reign trade were mostly in the ,. , , hands of New-^'ork merchants, to whom the Ncw-l-lngland jiro- Mode of ' manufactur- (lucers either sold or consigned their goods. (Iradually this ingand svstem changed, pardy owinu; to a chanLa> in the svstem of niaiiu- selling. • o 1 y ,-. o ' r 1 I facture. 'I'he muiiber of skilled workmen that came from abroad became so great as to fill most of the (le])artments into which the boot-trade became divided, — as crimi)ing, bottoming, heeling, and finishing; and the ])ay of the work-peo])le by the piece or the pair enal)les each to control his own time, working when he ])leases. These sometimes club their work, and appoint an agent to sell : others, by . onomy, save their pay, and emplo) a noii and w; year qui( ]"•<)) this in OF THE ViVlTKD STATES. 455 few men whose work they direr.t. These, in tlie cities, are called "garret liosses." When they succx-ed in estahlisiiing a trade, they conduct the nianti- factory by a foreman, and open an office in the city, where they sell their wares, and purchase stuck for manui.icture. 'I'he materials are in this luanner better ])iirchased ; and as the seller i.s iiimself the manufacturer, cominj^ in <()ntact with buyers from all secli(»ns, he becomes conversant with the styles adajjted to all lo* alities, and the manufacture is by far the better conducted iiir it. The advantages of tins systi ni have made Boston, of late years, the grand centre of such operations, and havt' drawn thither the jobbers fn^m New York, Philadelphia, Haltimore, C'incumati, St. Louis, i^c., until ISoston has become the lar_;est siioe-markct of the world. We have alrt.idy spoken of the impr. i\cmentji in the beauty and other (|ualitie-; of America shoes about tlic middle of the eighteenth century. Thev continueil to be manifest from tliat time on. .ind were, in , Improve- later years, due to Yankee ingenuity and taste, and not to mere ments in iuutation. A few lane v boots are evei\ vet imported from Paris, "yieofman- • ufacture. and our exports are chiefly of the ))iainer gr.adcs ; yet as dainty and durable a boot can be made in this country as anywhere on the glol)e. The improvement it. the (lualily of oiu- shoes is in a large measure w /A Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 « & W ;\ \ 6^ ^- -^^ 9.^ s> I* 45^'' //, ' ') US TRIA I. ins TOR V I'dWKK-KOI.l.KK, half the large shoc-fartories of the country. In the other half the shoes are pegged by machinery. There are. however, some establishments which use both kinds of niaciiinery ; Init the business is so divided up, that most manufacturers make either one kind or the other exclusively. It is almost incredible, to one who has not seen it done, that shoes can be sewed by machines ; but tlie idea of a machine which both makes and drives pegs instantaneously, and so rapidly that a whole shoe can be ])egged inside of ten seconds, is still more marvellous. The idea has been realized, nevertheless, and has been in successful operation for some fifteen or twenty years. Tiie charac- teristic feature of it is a narrow rib- bon of white wood, a hundred or more feet long, reeled upon the machine. This ribbon is of the thickness of a peg : its width is just the length of a peg. One edge has, by machinery, been pared sharp ; and the grain of the wood runs straight across the ribbon. The operator of the l)egging-machine has a basketful of shoes or boots brought him, each with the uppers and soles properly adjusted, and tacked to a last. Upon applying them, one at a time, to the machine, he causes a strong awl, kept just so far from the c.lge of the sole by an adjustable gauge, to pierce a sci'ies of holes in tlv" leather : simultaneously a sharp knife splits enough wood from the end of the ribbon for a peg ; the point of the peg is guided to the hole just made by th.e awl ; and, while that instrument is making its next punc- ture, the new-made peg l)eside it is forced (low, into place. Uoth operations go on with the rai)idity of a sewing-machine needle, and the shoe has only to be guided and turned while the process goes on. Machines have been in\ente(l for smoothing the rough soles after pegging, for making lasts, and for other departments of the shoe-manufacture, doing away with the necessity of any particular skill on the part of the workmen, lessening the cost of labor, but immensely magnifying the total pro(hu:tion. That our shoe-manufactures have increased from $54,000,000 in 1850 to :" the raw material. 'I'he makers could, of course, have used raw < otton Lack of raw and raw flax, both of which were al)undant, and would have made material. remarkably good papers, owing to the length of the fibres; but the excessive price of the paper would either have caused a literary famine in the land, or given the luiropeans absolute control of our markets. Shortly after the panic of 1837, when prices were down and the cotton-crop large, the raw fibre of cotton was used to some extent, but not much ; and manufacturers have never, as a rule, considered bale cotton one of their available resources for raw material. Their main dependence has always been upon cotton and linen rags. In 1804, in order to encourage invention to pay some attention to the subject of raw fibres suitable for paper-making, the American Comj)any of Booksellers offered gold and silver medals for the greatest (|uantities and best (jualities of paper made from materials other than cotton and linen rags ; but at the same time the comi)any used its best eflbrts to promote the saving of rags among the families of the country, as being more likely to be productive of good. The newspapers seconded the effort to induce people to save rags by frecpient agitation of the subject. The Yankee peddler did more in this direction, however, than all other agencies combined, by carrying about the country in his big wagon a tempting array of bright new tinware, new l)rooms, (Sic, antl offering to exchange them for good rags, whic h he, on the return from his expedition, sold for cash to the i)aper-manutacturers. In the very large cities the demand for paper material afterwards gave rise to a distinct race of people called rag-women and rag-men. who went about the streets from early dawn to sunset with iron hooks, collecting all the rags and scraps of papers they could find in the ash-barrels and gutters, and selling tlieni to paper-makers. The ready market for rags soon led every i)rudent housewite to keep a rag-bag, into which all the chippings and worn-out cottons and linens might go ; and the system of collecting the rags was soon well organized. Notwithstanding all this, the consumption of paper in the United States was enormously in excess of the production of rags, and always has been. The war of 1 86 1 promoted the consumption enormously. The consequence has been, that the United States has always had to import rags. In 1845 the importa- tion had grown to 9,000,000 pounds a year ; in 1855 it was 40,000,000 pounils ; in 1872 it was over 150.000,000 pounds. It is only since 1873 that the im])or- tation has begun to fall off. owing to the discovery of other raw materials ; but the (quantity of foreign rags consumed is still 75,000,000 pounds a year. Rag-saving. Oh THE UMTED STATES, 4(^1 < I terials rags. The imported rags come mainly from Italy. Tiie governments in the north of Muroiic do not favor the exportation of rags, especially those of linen. At various times, France, Holland, Spain, Portugal, and importation Belgium have absolutely prohibited it. Those from the south of °' '"b*' Jlurope have been held to be the best, however, being whiter and finer. The great scarcity and growing price of rags have led to numerous experi- ments during the last hundred and fifty years, with a view to utilizing other raw materials. Just before our Revolutionary war there was great „ ^ ,., .. ■' • " Substitution anxiety in Ihirope in respect to the supply of rags; and nearly of otht a- every grass, i)lant, and tree, which showed its head above the sur- fa( e of the earth, was made a subject of the devouring attention of naturalists and manufacturers, with a view to ascertaining its capabilities lv>r jiaper-making. In 1772 a book was printed in (lermany containing leaves of jK'per made out of sixty different materials, among which were shavings, saw- dust, thistles, cabbage-stalks, nettles, the cones of jMne-trees, and the bark of several trees. About i 7.S0 paper was made from wood in (lermany. None of the vegetable fibres of Kun pe were, however, found to be available, — either because of their scarcity, or the lack of a jiroper knowledge of how to reduce tiiem, — except the esjjarto-grass of Spain. This grass, so fibrous as to be available for other purposes than paper-making, produced an excellent pulp, and was easily reduced. It became a valuable addition to the resources of the industry. Its ([uantity being limited, experiments continued with other libres. .Straw was tried, and wood again; and at length, in 1854, .Mellier invented a plan for treating straw, under a pressure of eighty degrees, with caustic alkali, which cleared the fibre of silica and gum, and brought it into the industry as an available material for the cheaper tpialities of news and printing paper. A chemical process for treating wood made dut material available the same year. The manufacture of paper from wood, stn> and hemi), began in the United Stales, in conse(iuence of these discoveries, about the year 1861, at San Lorenzo, Cal., and in 1S65 at Manayunk, IVnn. The three materials are now very largely used, straw most of all. It may be mentioned as a curious t:ircumstance, that, about fifty years ago, the idea was started of using the ( otton or linen wrappers for paper-making in which the mummie.>5 of Egypt are swathed. The export of these cloths actually began for this purpose, and would have continued, except that Mehemet Ali wished to monopolize them for his own use in paper-making in I'^gypt. A great change has been wrought in '.he manufacture of i)aper by the employment of machinery in place of the old hand-processes. The ])rincipal machine now used in paper-making is the Kourdrinicr invention, improve- The world is indebted to Louis Robert of France for this remarka- mem of ma- ble apparatus. It was brought into use in 1 799, and Robert making received both a patent and a jiremium of eight thousand francs paper. Irom the French (Government.. Leger Ditlot carried it to England in 1802, 462 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY and the Founlrinicrs perfected it. After 1S20 some of these machines were brought to the United States; and about 1S30 I'heljjs & Hpofford of Windham, Conn., I»egan to make a rival machine, called the "Cylinder Machine," for the trade. N(;t long afterward. Howe i\: (loddard of Worcester, Mass., began to make the Kourdrinier machine. The aj^jlicalion of |h .ver to the manufacture was a welcome idea to .Americans. Labor was high lure, and the cost of hand-moulded paper excessive. 'Hie idea of emi)loying mac hines was taken up joyfully. The ma( hinists perfected the cylinder and I'ourdrinicr inventi(Mis, and contrived a large variety of other mechanical ex|)edienls for use in the mills; and the improved processes made more rapid progress here than they did in eitiierT-" ranee or I'lngland, which originated them. While those two countries continued to use the hand-moulds on an immense sc ale, and still do employ them, the L'nited States directed their whole effort to devel- oping machinery which should make the best ipialities of paper automatically as well as they were made in luuope by the other pro( (.ss. The greatest strides have Ih'imi made since iiS6i. Tlie success has been so great, that American machine-made papers are competing successfully at home and abroad with those cast in the hand-moulds. Under the old system, a pile of a hundred and twenty sheets of pa])er. formed by hand, consumed two weeks in the making and fmishing : now Paper- ^'^'^' ^^'•^'•'k is all (lone in less than tour minutes. 'I'he milky pulii. making ()repared by grinding, l)leaching. and washing, flows from a < is- described. .1 1 r 1 1 • . . 1 • tern down upon one end of a long machine stretc lung across a large room, which is a combination of endless aprons, gangs of hea\y rollers arranged perpendicularly one o\er tiie other, cog-wheels, and steam heating-pii)es. The pulp falls upon a leatiier apron, and flows in a liitK cascade upon an endless wire-cloth, over which the web of paper is formed. 'I'iie size of the stream is regulated according to the thickness of the paper. The wire-cloth is constantly vibrating from side to side. The motion spreads the pulp evenly over the cloth as it would be done by the shaking motion in the hanil-process : it also aids the felting of the i)arti( les of flbre. and the drainage of the water through the wire-cloth. The greater part of the water having (hsappeared, and left a moist web on the cloth as it slowly travels away from the leather apron, the web is tak'.'u up through a pair of rollers covered with flannel, which give it a slight pressure, scpieezing out some of the remaining moisture, and condensing the web. The web goes through between a second pair of wet press-rolls, and is then taken up l)y an endless felt apron, which carries it to a fresh set of rolls, which scpieeze it more severely, and leave the paper stron^j and dry enough to go on without the support of the aprons. It travels along now between pressing-njlls anfl over the surface of steel cylinders heated by steam, anil, after ])assing over about thirty or forty feet of heated surface, reaches the end of its journey, and is wound up tightly on a large roller, — an endless sheet of paper. The machine ■:■■■ l 1 ' ' J ■ ' , , K,_: N foreign jjapcrs to the total amount ronsiiined was really smaller than ever. Tne importations soon fell away again, lielgium (eased to send us her cheap news and book papers, wliic h had been consumed in New Wnk to a large extent. The orders for the I'Venc h and Mnglisii writing, ledger, fancy, and tissue i)apers, began to stop ; and after 1871, the year of greatest im|)ortation, consumption of foreign papers dwindled rapidly away, until it rea( hed tlu' very insignificant figure of 511,17813 in the whole year of 1S77, the total production of this country being about j»6o,ooo,ooo worth a year. One London house, which ten years ago sent ^'30,000 worth of paper to this country, had ceased to pay any attention to this trade. While this extraordinary change was taking place, an export of .American papers sprang up, Hefore the war there had been an exjjort to South .\merica ; but it was discontinued in 18O1. It was resumed after the war. It grew so Exportation fast, that it rose from 53.777 '" ^^^9 *" 593.S,ooo in 1877. of paper. Ameriiaii manufacturers discovered in i86y, wiiat they had not really l)een consc'iously aware of before, that their machine-made papers were of as good a ([uality as the foreign hand-made, and that they could comi)ete in foreign markets for their sale. They organized in 1877 for (oii- certed action in pushing the export of paper. Forty-one firms unileil in a movement to send agents to England and to South .Amer'ca to see what ( ould he done; and they succeeded, not only in selling their |)apers of all kinds in South America, but also in England, in competition wiih the local manufac- turers of that kingdom. Their writing-papers were fcund to withstand th<: moist climate of England better than the ICnglish-made, American bank-note, bond, news, book, and writing papers now go to South America freely. Tlie writing, ledger, and plate papers go to England. The thin manilas gc; all over the world. Wrapping-papers go to the West Indies. The range and amount of the sales is rapidly increasing, and the United States is now fairly in the field for producing a part of the world's supply of paper. In 1872 there were 812 paper-mills in the United States, principally in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. They employed 22,000 jx'oplc. Number of and produced 317,637 tons of paper, or a little over 1,000 tons a mills. ^\^y^ ([•^Q value of the same being $66,500,000. Of the total ])io(l- uct Massachusetts made one-third. Since 1872 about eighty mills have been added. It is believed that there are now no hand-made paper establishments in the country. Machinery drove them all out of existence. Two lingered along until within a very few years, — one in Massachusetts, and one in Penn- sylvania, — when they, too, "folded their tents, and silently stole away." E 1 use f Paper-hangings were first offered for sale in America in 1737 ; paper-hang- but they were little used, except in families of wealth, before 1 750. Their use was regarded as sinful luxury and ostentation. White- washed walls began to be regarded as something less than of the highest beauty and moral worth only about the time of the Revolution : those ings in the colonies. OF T/fE UNITED STATES. 4^>5 who could afford them then bought the Knglisli and French hangings, and put them in their houses. 'I'hey were so costly, that they were not pasted upon the walls, hut were merely hung upon them, or placed against them, attacheil to frames. Ihey were fre(|uently moved from house to house, imported 'I'heir manufacture was begun upon a small scale in 1763; and from by 17.S7 there were small factories in Moston, New Jersey, and "«'■»• JVnnsylvania. 'I'he paper for ihcm was fabric.ited from the coarsest and iheapest rags, and even from woollen stuff. It was made in sheets thirty inches long, which were pasted together neatly in strips lont: ^. •^ 10 J \ f^ First manu- cnough to reach from tloortcxeiling ; and the pattern was stamped facturet in ui)on them with wooden blocks bv hand. In 17X0 lohnCarncs 'J""*'' ol Delaware, who had been consul at Lyons, resolved to enter upon the manufacture of paper-hangings on a larger scale than had been conunon in the ' oimtry. lie associated himself with Hurrell C'arnes and two French work- men by the names of Le CoUay and Chardon, and they went into business at riiiladelphia extensively. The hangings prochu ed by these early makers were of a very (heap description ; but they sufficed to introduce color and form into tile decoration of houses, and were very extensively bought by the peo|)le. Hoston was producing 24,000 pieces yearly by 1794. I5y 1810 four establish- ments in the vicinity of I'hilad'lphia were producing 140,000 pieces yearly, worth ^97,41 7 ; and Providence as making 8,000 jjieces, worth S8,ooo, yearly. The best papers were, of course, imported from France and Fngland, where the arts of design and decoration found rich i)atrons, and had been practised for generations. People of fashion we;e in the habit of import,, putting none except French and Fnglish i)apers on their walls, at tions least in their best rooms. The American makers, for fifty years after the Revolution, aspired to do little excejit to suj)ply the mass of the people with cheap hangings. The prettiest of the jjapers they made were in imitation of the foreign styles ; but a part of their goods were in original styles, and were frecpiently extremely imi(iue. The writer has a sample of a ])a])er made at Albany in 18 12 by Barnard & Steele, which was called ..The battle "the battle of Lake l^rie " paper. It had pictures in black and of r.aice gray, on a white ground, representing in a vague and ideal sort of "" p^p""' way three scenes in that Himous naval conflict. The pi :tures were about two feet apart, and a wall papered with the hanging must have been a bewildering object to look at. Patriotic scenes were common, the pattern deriving its interest solely from association of ideas, and not from its material beauty. Another cjueer paper much in use in those early days was the " rainbow paper," invented about 1830 by the sons of John 15. Howell at Philadelphia. Fnormous fern-leaves covered the surfiicc of the jiaper, the hues of which shaded from dark brown at one end to light yellow at the other, wiiile the grounds shaded from light blue to dark blue. This shading of grounds and l)atterns soon became verv common. continued. 466 tND VS TUFA I. /lis TO A' Y All the printing was done by hand, with a wooden Mork twenty inrhcs «f|uari' anil three in( hes thi( k. 'I'hc ( olor was first spread upon a blanket. M> de of 1 lie hlurk was laid on the blanket to receive its < olor, and wan printing. ^|^^.n applied to the strip of wall-paper, metal i)ins at the < orner markinj; places on the strip to guide the printer in applying future colors. Pressure was applied to the block by a treadle operated by the printer's foot. After each impression the strip of paper was pushed along, and a new impres- sion made, until the hanging had receivcil its piinting from one end to the other. If the pattern was in more than one color, the paper was htmg up to y dii'^ting it on. I(y our present pro( ess cnc n)a« iiine can tui'n unt in one day troni three thousand to live thousand rolls of hanj{inns printed in any number of color-, from one to twenty : by tl-.e old |>ro« ess this work would have em- ployed a man and a boy for a year and a half, 'i'he beauty of the papers and their ( heapness continually im|)rovi;d with this application of machinery. Colored j^rounds were (generally introduced in place of tla- (old white grounds, and richer, darker, and prettier patterns. Some hand printing,' of the more costly pa|)ers has still continued to be done ; but Aineric an machinery is steadily enc roac hinj^ on the territory of hand-work, and, for all except the papers costing from three dollars to eight dollars a roll, the work is so well done, that experienced judges cannot tell which is machine-made and which hand-made. In l""rancc and Kngland the manufacturers ding to the hand- ])roc esses ; they regard the product as clearer in print. Yet, within the last three yeai"s, .American makers have taken English patterns and printed them by machine, and sent the papers bac k to I'ingland, where they defied dis- crimination from the others by the most experienced eye. The fact that the large cities of the United States are the best customers of the paper-hanging makers has led them to assemble their factories of late years near those centres of population. Formerly the factories Location of were scattered through New Mngland and the Middle States in '•<='<"'«»• the rural cities and villages, where water-power was plenty, or taxes light : now the concern of J. R. liigelow & Company at iJoslon is the only one in New I'jigland ; and the most prosperous and largcs* concerns in addition to I'.igelow's are centred in New York, llrooklyn, and riiiladelphia. One advan- tage of having large fac;tories in a city is, that the jieople of the place can go to the factory, select a pattern, and have enough of the hanging made in any si)ecial c:olor or tone to match their carpets and furniture. In i860 there were twenty-six paper-hanging factories in the United States, making $1,037,- 600 worth of hangings a year. The business has increased in amomit ; but the number of factories has dec rcased. There were in 1S70 only fifteen fac- tories ; but they produced J"2, 200,000 wortli of hangings : since then the l)ro(luction has increased nearly $1,000,000 worth. There is in paper-hangings, as in silver and gokl ware, architecture, and decoration generally, a need of distinctive American styles. American flowers and leaves are largely used in the c:lieaper paper ; but in the costly style in kinds, by which the art of decorating i)aper-hangings must be pap*"- judged, there is still the same imitation of foreign patterns which was common a iumdred years ago. Manufacturers copy the French and l^nglish ideas habitually. Two manufacturers in New York are trying to introduce their own designs in expensive paper; but their inspiration is still the fo. cign decora- tions. One concern, that of Leissner & Louis, devotes itself largely to making patterns in the anticjue styles, producing papers in the Egyptian, Persian, ''■ ' •:%», 468 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Greek, Pompeiian, or any other style to order. There is great need of eman- cipation from the influence of the ideas ot the Old World, and the con- trivance of designs in a pure American spirit. Not only are the styles of pajjcr constantly changing, but the tastes of people also change concerning their use. Only a few years ago it was gener- ally believed that many kinds of wall-paper were unhealthy, because of the Painted vs. poisouous ingredients put into the coloring-materials ; while the paper waUs. paste ustd in sticking papers to the wall attracted moisture, making rooms damper than ihey would otherwise be. Accordingly, a perioil of gen- eral wall-scraping was inaugurated. Having been thoroughly cleaned of old paper and paste, walls were painted ; it being everywhere admitted that the colors adopted were healthy, as well as more pleasing to the eye. But, now taste is setting once more in the opposite direction, colored walls are being re-covered witli paper, the most stylish mode of putting it on being to use three shades, — the lightest shade for the middle or body of the wall, a darker shade for the top, and a still darker for the bottom. By and by we shall doubtless hear of another change, made as suddenly as this ; and perhaps wall-papers may be discarded altogether. The importation of foreign hangmgs has been at times very large, but never so large as since the war. In iSj/ it amounted to $982,000 worth : since then it has fallen to almost nothing. A large export has sprung up in its place, especially to South America, Canada, and the West InliU ■•1 ral 'J . it 1 ^H s 1 ■Hif li :ii HBlii 1- B ^^nfllli II 1 1 1 f i i i if-- 1 1 and unexpectedly created. It was necessary to start new factories to meet the requirements of the times. By 1870 there were thirty-three powder-factories in full operation in the United States, fifteen of them being in Pennsylvania, Factories f've in New York, three in C.'ahfornia, two in Connecticut, and two In 1870. jn Ohio. One of those in Connecticut was that of the Hazard Powder Company of Hazardville, a celebrated concern : another was the Laflin & Rand concern of New-York City. In a country like the United States there must always be a great demand for powerful explosives. We have few -)r no wars of jealousy and concpiest Need of to fight ; but we have a million railroads, canals, and streets which powder. must be laid out on direct and level routes, regardless of rocks and mountains ; and they could never be laid out and built, with any regard to levels and straight lines, without the aid of powerful explosives to shatter the rocks, and remove them from the way. We have a million mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron, and quarries of stone, to work, whose treasures would be almost inaccessible, except for the agency of gunpowder and nitro- glycerine. There are reefs and rocks to be cleared out of the harbors ; there are guns to be fired on occasions of public holiday ; there are fireworks to be burned at festivals, and rockets and mortars to be fired by life-saving crews. Leaving aside the whole subject of the demands of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia regiments of the several States, the legitimate demands of the engineering works, the mines, and amusements of our people, are still sufficient of themselves to create a necessity for a large manufacture of gunpowder and explosives. Not long since, a blast was fired in a limestone quarry of the Glendon Iron Company, at I'^aston, Penn., which contained a charge of twelve thousand pounds of mortar-powder, displacing sixty thousand tons of rock. The legiti.iiate demands of the United States now amount to over twenty million pounds of powder annually. The manu- facture is larger than that, however, because there is an export of gun- powder to Europe and South America constantly, both in the form of cartridges, and loose in kegs. The export trade is irregular, and depends largely on the progress of hostilities abroad : but, whenever there is war, there is always a demand for American powder ; and, as the monarchies of Europe or the nations of Asia are in a quarrel about half of the time, there is very seldom a year in which more or less of our powder does not go abroad. About half the powder used in the Crimean war is said to have been bought in America : a great deal of that which the Turks used in the late war was certainly bought here. Crunpowder is made of three ingredients, — charcoal, nitre, and sulphur, — Powder, in proportions which vary slightly, according to the use to which how made, jj^g powder is to be devoted. The ingredients are combined by weight. The following are four of thv. more common proportions, the recipes being for a hundred pounds of powder each : — OF THE UNITED STATES. 47» Atomic theory United-States military Sporting . Blasting . NITRB. CHARCOAL. SULPHUR. 74.64 ns^ 11.85 76 14 10 78 12 10 62 18 20 The nitre is reduced in quantity for blasting-powder in order to cheapen the cost and lessen the rapidity of combustion. For most purposes of blast- ing, a sustained and increasing push is better than a sudden and terrific shock, A strong and cheap blasting-powder is also made by using nitrate of soda instead of nitrate of potassa or nitre. The ingredients are mixed in the very highest state of purity. The sulphur and nitre are carefully and ^on- scientiously refined before the mixing takes place. It is desired that the powder shall burn away completely, without rcsidiumi or ash ; and it will not do this if impurities are present. The charcoal is obtained from slender willow-shoots, or from poplar, in the United States. The trees are generally cultivated by the owners of the factories. In Europe the alder is used, and in Russia the white-birch. The wood is charred in red-hot iron cylinders, and ground when cold by rolling in a barrel with zinc balls. The ingredients are all reduced to powder : they are then mixed in the proper quantities, and sent to the grinding-mill in quantities of about fifty pounds at a time. The incorporation of the ingredients is a very important matter, and the grinding, is therefore, very carefully attended to. It takes place in a circular trough of cast-iron,' in which cast-irqn wheels of three or four tons' weight follow each other slowly around in a circle, crushing the powder under them as they pass along. The powder is kept moistened throughout the operation. After grinding, the powder is subjected to heavy pressure between copper plates, and is thus reduced to a cake. It is then broken up into grains, either by mallets or toothed rollers, glazed by rolling in barrels so as to enable the grains the better to resist moisture, dried, sifted, and cleaned of dust. The relative proportion of the ingredients causes the powder to burn slowly or rapidly. This idea was taken advantage of by Gen. j ^j^^ ^j Rodman, U.S.A., in 1856, in order to produce a powder suited powder, to large cannon. He conducted a series of experiments with "^ow deter- powders, and was the first in the world to produce an explosive suited to modern artillery. His powders were made in two forms. One, called the " mammoth," was in irregular grains, from six-tenths to Rodman. nuie-tenths of an inch m diameter : the other, called the " per- forated cake," was in hexagonal or cylindrical grains, perforated with six or ten holes. Gen, Rodman gained slow combustion by these varieties of pow- der, and consequently greater initial velocity at the mouth of the gun, with 472 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY l(iuiji;i;-iixi'i.osioN, OF THE UNITED STATES. 473 less recoil. The heavy guns used in the war of 1861 were supplied with the Rodman powder. It is related, that in many cases, when light bat- teries or infantry regiments were deployed in front of the heavy guns, on lower ground, but close to them, the men of the latter were sometimes hit and wounded with kernels of the powder which had not been burned. Rodman's idea was adopted in Europe as soon as it became known. The English pebble and pellet powders, and the Russian prismatic, are the out- growth of it. The power of gunpowder is enormous. Water expands seventeen hundred times in becoming steam ; but gunpowder expands into a greater volume of gases, and \ts tension is enormously promoted by the heat gener- Power of ated in combustion. One early experimenter in this country con- gunpowder, fined twenty-eight grains of powder in a cylindrical space which it exactly filled : when fired, it burst a piece of iron which would have resisted a strain of four hundred thousand pounds. A mortar loaded with one-twentieth of an ounce of powder, and having a twenty-four-pounder cannon laid on top of it, was burst by the explosion, and the cannon lifted. Various experimenters have arrived at different results in testing the pressure of gunpowder before being relieved by expansion, the product of force ranging from seven to 662 tons' pressure to the square inch. The average force of gunpowder is rated at forty tons to the square inch. Within the last sixty years a number of other explosives have been added to the list with gunpowder, some of which have been extremely useful in engineering. The first was discovered in 1832 in Euroi)e by other expio- Braconnet, who found that starch dissolved in nitric acid, and pre- ^'^'*- cipitated with water, becomes explosive by concussion. Braconnet called his new powder xyloidine. Shortly afterward Pclouse treated paper and cotton and linen fabrics with nitric acid, and got an equally explosive product, which he called pyroxyline. The new substance was so destructive, that a peaceful old stocking treated with nitric acid became so incen- diary and energetic as to be able to blow up a house. In 1846 Schonbein made gun-cotton by the use of nitric and sulphuric acid, and great attention was paid to the new product all over the world. (lun-cotton has since been made to some extent in two forms. In one, long-staple cotton is . ' Gun-cotton. subjected to the action of one part of nitric and three of sulphuric acid, and put through a long series of washings in water and dryings, and ])oil- ing in alkaline solutions. The staple is twisted into ropes, or woven into cloth, for use. In the other, or English process, the staple is beaten into pulp, as in paper-making, after being treated with nitric and sulphuric acids, and is com- pressed into small white cubes or cylinders, while moist, under a pressure of four or five tons. Gun-cotton for experimental purposes has been made on a very small scale in this country. It was tried at the government engineer- ing-works at Hell Gate, in New- York harbor, previous to the demolition of the Pyroxyline. 474 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Dynamite. reef there ; but it has always been found too violent and uncertain in its action, and too expensive, for practical use. A whole world of explosives has grown out of the discovery of gun-cotton. Schultze-powder was soon invented ; which was nothing more than wood Nitro- reduced to large grains, and treated with acids. Nitro-glycerine glycerine. ^^g discovered in 1847, and first applied to engineering in 1864, in Sweden. The simplicity of manufacture and extraordinary power of this agent soon made it popular. It is prepared by introducing glycerine, drop by drop, into nitric and sulphuric acids. It is a terrible explosive, producing three and a half times as much gas, and twice as much heat, as gunpowder, and is never safe to handle except when frozen. It congeals at forty or forty- five degrees, and is then perfectly safe ; but, when liquid, it explodes with slight concussion ; and its power is so great, that a can which has contained it, but has been emptied, will, when thrown on the ground, explode with violence sufficient to destroy life. When not confined, it burns with difficulty on the application of a match. Since 1865 it has been extensively used in the United States for blasting in the excavation of railroad tunnels, reefs, &c. It is easily made in the vicinity of the works. Dynamite, or giant-powder, dualine, Vulcan-powder, lithofractem, and other explosives, are produced by causing nitro-glycerine to be absorbed by some inert and porous solid. The silicious infusorial earth found in Hanover, called " kieselguhr," is the best which has been found for the purpose. It is not so dangerous to handle in this form, and is yet slightly slower in combustion, and hence more serviceable. Nitro-glycerine and all of its compounds are exj^loded in blasting by a fulminate of mercury contained in a copper capsule, and usually ignited , by an electric spark from a battery at a safe distance from the mine. One of the explosives with which the United-States engineers experimented at Hell Gate was called " vigorite." It was made of coal-tar by the action of nitric and sulphuric acids. The idea was to get a cheaper explosive than nitro- glycerine, if possible ; the cost of blowing up the reef there being large, and a reduction of expense being desirable. The engineers had to fall back, however, on nitro-glycerine — that is to say, its compounds — at last, as being, all things considered, preferable to all other agents. Twenty-six tons of the material were used, distributed in cartridges in 4,462 holes in the rock. Dynamite was principally used ; but some of the cartridges were of dualine and Vulcan-powder also. The brilliant effects produced by the burning of gunpowder at night, es- pecially in conjunction with the metals, and other substances having a colored Fireworks flame, caused the new combustible to be seized upon at once in and colored Europe to add to the attractions of the royal fetes. In Portugal, '"^ **■ France, Spain, Italy, and England, in the ages succeeding the invention of gunpowder, public carnivals for the entertainment of the people, or royal festivities in honor of distinguished guests, were extremely common, OF THE UNITED STATES. 475 and were of the most extraordinary description. The travels of the kings through their own realms were also attended by public displays, and a regular feature of the night performances soon came to be the burning of fireworks and colored lights. In America, cannon-firing, bonfires, the ringing of the bells, and public parades and speeches, were, for a long time, the sole elements of a public festival, especially of those of a political character. John Adams predicted that the Fourth of July would always be celebrated with demonstrations of that character. Fireworks were not greatly used in the republic for some time after the Fourth-of-July celebrations began. Ship-masters disliked to take them on shipboard in Europe and bring them here, owing to their dangerous character ; and they were too costly, and in too little demand, to be manu- factured here. After 1816 they were manufactured on a small scale; and they are now made in moderate ciuantities every year, as Fourth of July approaches, in response to the demand for them for the festivities on that occasion. Their public use is confined entirely to that anniversary, the custom being to have the display on the night of July 3 along with the bonfires, the parades and speeches coming on the day after. Fifty years ago, when fire- works were first coming into general use, the displays were conducted by private enterprise. They were ei^ier the patriotic demonstration of private citizens, or were the speculation of some ingenious business-man, who would put up a high board fence around the garden adjoining his public-house, and exhibit his wheels and snakes and Roman candles and rockets to the admir- ing gaze of the people at a shilling or twenty-five cents a head. As the cities of the country have grown in size, it has been deemed fit that the celebration of so important an event as the anniversary of national independence should in all respects be carried on by the community at large. So, for twenty years or more, the annual displays of fireworks have taken place at the public expense in the various cities of the country, except here and there where demagogues and two-cent politicians in the city councils have refused to vote the necessary funds on the plea of economy for the sake of the dear people. There is an obvious propriety in having the displays take place under official supervision. Not only are they likely to be more splendid, but they are certain to be less productive of accident, and damage to property. The great accumulations of wealth in cities, in the form of buildings, have made caution and official super- vision desirable. The materials used in pyrotechny are gunpowder (or various mixtures of nitre, charcoal, and sulphur), and various metals, salts, and substances for pro- ducing brilliant colors. The powder used is of a low grade of Manufacture explosive power, and is intended merely to burn with brilliant "' fireworks, sparks, instead of exploding. In rockets alone is there any explosion. In wheels, rockets, and Roman candles, the powder is so confined as to give propelling power. Rockets were originally used in war. The Congreves formed a great feature at the siege of Copenhagen in 1807, and at the battle 476 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY of Leipsic. The French were routed on the latter field by a volley of Con- greves. Rockets are now used on the sea as a signal of distress, and a heavy variety is employed on shore to carry a line to a stranded ship. 'I'hey are good for a dis- tance of eigiu hundrcil yards, or nearly half a mile. The rockets of the present day for festival use are often very powerful, and ascend in the air from a thousand to twelve hundred feet : at their highest point they burst, and throw out a volley of colored stars, or a cluster of snakes. Within two or three years the parachute-rocket has been invented, which throws out one, two, or three large stars, each with a parachute, which sustains them while they float off slowly on the breeze, burning red, tlien white, then blue, and oftentimes other colors. An immense variety of wheels is made, with showers of sparks of different forms, and flames of the different colors of the rainbow : they range from the little whizzing pin-wheel three inches in diameter, a boy's plaything, up to the huge wheel six feet across, which flings out a circle ROCKETS. of flame and scintillations twenty feet in diameter. Roman can- dles have been in use from the beginning, throwing anywhere from two to eight balls, one after the other. Within the last few years volcanoes have been introduced, shooting out a tor- rent of balls for several seconds ; and quite recently the bomb, which, being set upon the ground, throws up a hollow ball straight into the air to the height of five hundred feet, which, exploding, also throws out a shower of balls. The fire- cracker, the delight of the boys, introduced to this country from China, forms no part of the public displays ; but it does form a considerable feature in the sales of the dealers in fire- works. Its use has been regulated by law since the disastrous Eviiconse- ten-million-dollar fire at Portland, Me., and the quences of large number of small fires, which resulted from rewor s. j.|^^ careless use of this noisy plaything. Fourth of July, though, is a hollow mockery to the boys without the fire-cracker ; and they still consume it enormously. A great feature of the public shows is the set pieces, in which a spread eagle, or a portrait of W^ishington, or " Independence," or some other motto, is depicted in lines of fire. 'I'he fancy of the makers has free play in the con- ROMAN CANDLE. OF THE UNITED STATES. 477 on- .'avy line 'atcr produces under the no change on the juice, and can be used to wash it without dimin- '""=''<'*'=°p'- ishing its volume. Alcohol does not change the globules, but causes groups of needle-shaped crystals to appear. The juice is dried by the natives of South America over a fire, when it becomes black with the smoke. Process of It is dried on moulds of clay, in the sba] e of boots or bottles, couecting it. on wooden lasts (imported for the purpose from the United Statfis, and mounted on the end of sticks), and on paddles. The moulds, or paddles, are dippped into the juice and dried, and dipped again and again, until the ^J^ in United States. 482 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY required thickness is obtained. The clay mould is broken or washed out after use. Sometimes the gum is coagulated by solar heat. A film forms over the surface, which is removed as fast as it forms, until the whole of the juice has hartlened. The several sheets are then pressed together with the hands into rolls and masses. The gum is then light colored. In Nicaragua the caoutchouc is coagulated with the juice of the bejuca-vine. The mass is pressed into cakes by hand, and rolled into a sheet with a wooden roller. The sheets are called '' tortillas," and are two feet wide by two inches thick. When once coagulated, the caoutchouc can nevi r be restored to its original condition of a sap. The purest rubber of commerce comes from Para and Amazonas. It is in bottles and thick plates. The gum from Carthagena is in large black lumps or sheets weighing a hundred pounds. The MastTndia gum is in light and dark reddish masses, and is mingled with bits of wood and bark, leaves, gravel, &c. Inilia-rubber was first brought to the attention of the people of the I'nitrd States in the form of erasers of pencil-marks (brought from England), and First use of ^°°" afterward in the form cf clumsy water-proof shoes, which the India-rubber traders imported from Para along with the other produce of that tropical region. These shoes continued to be imported down to within thirty years ago. The substance ditl not foil to attract attention. A great many experiments were made to determine what could be cione with it. Shortly after Mackintosh got started in Scotland, some water-proofing of cloth was done here with rubber, the solvents used being turpentine, naphtha, benzole, and caoutchoucine ; the latter being i)roduced by evaporating rubber at a heat of 600°, and condensing the vapor. Means were also found to work rubber into a thread ; in which form it was spun into tissues of extraordinary elasticity with silk, cotton, wool, pnd flax, and be- came rapidly the universal material for suspenders, garters, &c. In those early years of the manufacture, however, only pure rubber was used ; and in this form the material was found liable to rapid deterioration. It became rigid and inflexible in cold weather, and soft and inert in hot weather. It was very soluble. Whenever it was touched by oil or grease it would dissolve, and it could not even resist perspiration. Though useful for overshoes, it was so soft as to soon wear out. It lost its elasticity by use, had an unpleas- ant odor, and was so adhesive, that two surfaces of rubber applied to each other were always sure to stick. Time would fail to tell the tribulations which befell the early manufacturers of India-rubber in the United States in their efforts to cure the defects of this valuable but then intractable material. They could not master the substance. The public at length acquired distaste for its use; and several factories which had been stn.ted in Boston, South Boston, Chelsea, Woburn, and Framingham, Mass., and on Staten Island and at Troy, N.Y., with capitals of fiity thousand dollars to five hun- dred thousand dollars, failed in the business. In 1840 it looked decidedly OF THE UNITED STATES. 483 as though the applications of India-rubber were destined to be confined to water-proof cloth and erasers. The exportation of the gum from Para at that time r.mounted to only 800,000 pounds a year, owing to the small demand for it ; and nearly all of that went to (Ireat ISritain. It has since risen to about 15,000,000 pounds annually from Para alone. Just at the moment of supreme despair in the industry, two Americans hit upon separate though kindred discoveries, which comjjletely changed the whole aspect of affairs, and made the manufacture of India-rubber one of the great pursuits of the age. In iH^.S Charles (loodye : of Massa- Goodyear chusetts became accpiainted with Nathaniel Hayward, who had and Hay- been the foreman of the Kagle Comi)any at Woburn, wliere the ^*' latter had made use of sulphur by impregnating the solvent with it. From him Mr. (ioodyear first became acquainted with the properties of sulphur as a drier of gum-clastic, (loodyear bought Hay ward's claim for the use of sulphur, and made it the basis of his patent of Feb. 24, 1839, by which he hoped to make the manuf;Tcture of rubber-goods successful. He made a lot of goods with sulphur, but found, alas ! that they, too, soon decomposed, just as all the manufactures of rubber had done before them. Goodyear, who had spent nearly twenty years in a diligent study of the properties of rubber, was at his wits' end to know what to do. But he did not gi\'e up the battle. While experimenting one day, the idea occurred to him to try the effect of extreme heat upon India-rubber. The stuff would melt at a low heat : what would it do at a high heat? He touched a piece of it containing sulphur to the stove. To his surprise, he found that it charred like leather. This was. something new. He tried it again, with the same result ; and the inference came like a Hash, that, if the heat was s 'pped at the right point, the rubber might be divested of its adhesive ([ualities, and liability to rapid deterioration, and made hard and dry. He put some rubber into boiling sulphur, and found that it did not melt, as it would have done when exposed to a low heat, but that it again charred like leather. On heating another piece before the fire, he found, between the part which charred and the part unaffected by the fire, a portion which was hard, but not charred. Tlie discovery was complete. It only remained to perfect a few details ; and Goodyear soon introduced to the public his elastic, non-adhesive, vulcanized India-rubber, — a substance as different from the pure gum as gold from copper. This was the foundation of the modern industry. In his subsetiucnt manufacture Goodyear soon learned to incorporate a variety of substances .ith his raw material in order to save the latter as much as possiljle ; and, as now made, his rubber is prepared with one part of sulphur, fourteen of whiting, two and a half of white-lead, and two of litharge, to sixteen of rubber, and exposed to a temperature from 265° to 270° Fahrenheit for several hours. The next step in the line of progress was the invention of har«l rubber, or vulcanite. There is some dispute about priority in this discovery ; but Professor 484 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY C. F. Chandler awards the palm to Austin G. Day of Connecticut. The dis- invention of covery is claimed by Nelson (ioodyear, who filed a caveat Dec. 31, vulcanite. 1849, and obtained a patent iMay 6, 185 1, for a hard, inflexible compound composed of rubber, sulphur, magnesia, &c. The material obtained by this process was useful for certain ])urposes ; but it was too brittle to be of great value. Day obtained his patent, Aug. 10, 1858, for a compound comjjosed of two parts of rubber to one of sulphur, which, when heated from 275° to 300° Fahrenheit, became hard, flexible, and elastic. This product suj^erseded the other, and is the vulcanite of commerce. It came into rapid and extensive use, and is one of the valuable materials of the modern arts. Day afterwards invented a modification of vulcanite, which he called " kesite," and applied it to the coating of telegraph-wires. These discoveries made a great change in the India-rubber manufacture of the United States. It having become apparent that there was now some hope Effect of •f°'" ^^ industry. Congress took cognizance of it in 1842 for tiie these first time, and gave it the protection of a thirty-per-cent duty on discoveries, importations of manufactures in the comprehensive Clay tariff. A number of companies were soon formed under (ioodyear's patents in Con- necticut, New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere. The progress was very rapid, and in 1850 rubber-goods were made in the United States to the value of ^83,024,335. In i860 the manufacture had become centred in fewer and larger establishments, and the product was $5,642,700, In 1870 there were fifty-six factories in operation, employing 6,025 people, and making $14,566,- 374 worth of goods annually. Of the fifty-six factories, ten were in New York, twelve in New Jersey, thirteen in Connecticut, and sixteen in Massachusetts. Since that time there has been a large increase. The extent of it cannot be accurately stated ; but it is somewhere about fifty per cent. The import of gum, mostly from South America, is now from 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 pounds a year. The ability of the United States to import and manufacture the crude article seems limited only by the capacity of the natives of the Amazon to collect and export it. The crude gum costs us at this time forty cents a pound. During the first twenty years after Goodyear's discovery the export of rubber-goods from the United States was considerable, amounting to $1,000,000 worth a year on the average. Since i860 Europe has gone into the manufacture very largely upon (loodyear's plan, and the exportations since then have only been $200,000 or $300,000 worth a year. If the exports are ever increased again, it will only be by means of superior and cheaper processes of manufacture and new inventions. The processes of manufacture are peculiar. The gum in its crude state is extraordinarily elastic and tenacious ; and it can only be worked, therefore, with the most powerful machinery. The cakes and sheets are first cleaned by being cut up in a mill into small pieces, under water, by means of knives and iron teeth. The resistance of the rubber generates heat enough to make the "'^■^■■'sUfl'^'' OF THE L'N/TED STATES. 485 manuiac- turc. water boil. It is then again ground, cut, pressed, and treated in various ways, and finally compressed into a cake by being subjected to process of enormous pressure in cast-iron moulds under a screw. Its adhe- siveness asserts itself, and unites the mass perfectly. It is left in the mould for several days. In some mills the cleaned pieces of gum are rolled by machinery into sheets, in which shape the gum is conveniently adapted for conversion into thread for weaving. The sheets are sliced into thread by means of sharp knives, which are kept constantly wet to prevent them from sticking. The machine for this purpose was invented in Kuropc by Ratlier in 1826. The fibres of thread, as they are reeled off, are stretched to six or eight times their original length by hand. Being moistened and cooled in the operation, they are deprived of elasticity, and can then be woven readily into webs and tissues of any degree of fineness. This stretch- ing of the rubber-threads has been carried so far, that they have been elon- gated to 16.625 times their original length. A pound of caoutchouc makes from eight thousand to thirty-two thousand yards of thread. When the woven tissue is finislicd it is pressed with a hot iron, and the rubber immediately regains its elasticity. Threads are sometimes made from vulcanized rubber. Th.ey constitute the warp of the tissue, and are kept stretched by weights. Sometimes thread is made by reducing the gum to a paste by maceration with some solvent, and by forcing it through a line of small holes. The threads are carried off through the air six hundred or seven hundred feet by a web, during which process the solvent evaporates, and the thread becomes dry and hard. The threads are then deposited in a receiving-cup. The thick sheets into which the gum is rolled after the process of cleansing are usually laid away in the warehouse for several months to come. Being then brought back to the factory, the rubber is mixed with various materials which the manufacturers find they can advantageously incorporate into it. The mixing-machines are very powerful. They are great hollow revolving cylinders heated by steam. The sheets are rolled slowly between them, and, as they soften with the heat, are supi)licd with the white-lead, sulphur, and other materials, by means of a brush. The cylinders knead these substances together, the rubber giving out a series of pistol-shot explosions meanwhile, owing to the bursting-out of the heated air confined in the sheets. Pieces of refuse rubber or of fabrics of rubber and cloth can be kneaded into the mass during this process. The rubber comes from this machine in a thick, soft, sticky sheet. It then goes to the calendering-machinc, where the process is substantially repeated, and the sheet rolled out into a thin mat. The mixture can then be incorporated into cloth or canvas by rolling, or by the aid of solvents. In the manufacture of belting, cotton-duck of double strength is impregnated with the soft, sticky rubber fresh from the mixing-rolls, and is then calendered into perfectly smooth sheets. The cloth is then taken to the belting-room, where it is laid out on tables, and cut into strips of the proper 486 IND US TRIA r. HIS TOR Y widths. If extra strength is desired, two or more strips are placed together, and united by rolhng. The belting is then sent to be steamed in a chamber made for the purpose, and in eight or ten hours is thoroughly vulcanized. Belting thus made has greater strength than leather, and adheres to the drum with a tenacity which prevents slip|)ing. In the making of hose a different process is emi)loyed. A long iron tube of the right diameter is covered with a sheet of rubber : this is then covered with webs of stout cloth woven for the purpose. When a sufficient number of folds have been applied, an outside covering of pure rul)l)er is put on, cementing the whole fiibric. The pipes, with the hose still on them, are then placed in the steam-heater, and the hose is vulcanized. Very stout hose is thus made : it is far supe- rior to leather, and will stand a pressure from three hundred and seventy- five pounds to four hundred and thirty-five pounds to the square inch. The cloth can be preserved from the re-action of the rubber by means of carbolic acid. In the making of overshoes the cloth is first prepared by mixing, rolling, and calendering, and is then cut up and fashioned into shoes of the desired Overshoes, patterns. The joints are united by means of rubber ; and the how made. sticky shoe, being lined with flannel, stamped, and otherwise finished, is then sent off to be vulcanized. The manufacture of shoes and boots is one of the largest branches of the business. One of the useful applications is for the valves of steam-engines and for steam-packing. Rubber preserves its elasticity when exposed to steam, and consequently follows the expansion and contraction of the cylinder and metal parts of the engine perfectly ; so that the fitting is always exact. Valves of five feet in diameter are often made from rubber. Car-springs, and springs for coaches and carriages, are now made of rubber very largely indeed. The substance never loses its elas- ticity (thanks to Goodyear), and the springs last a long time. It answers also for door-mats, for paving, and for bed-springs. The hardened rubber, or vulcanite, is fast supplanting bone, shell, and _ ivory for its greater beauty, .md the ease with which it can be Supremacy } tn j i of rubber moulded into any form. Its only rival is gutta-percha, a kindred product of the creamy sap of another tropical tree. This latter substance was discovered in 1842, and it is now largely imported from South America and other tropical regions for the same uses to which Gutta- vulcanite is applied. It is very serviceal)le for speaking-tubes, percha. fancy articles, dentists' tools, &c., and for the insulation of tele- graph-wire. Gutta-percha was first applied to the purposes of insulation by Samuel J. Armstong of New York. Machinery was built to coat wires with it in 1848; and the first wire in the world thus prepared was laid across the Hudson River in 1849, at Fort Lee. The idea was carried to England, and used in the construction of the Atlantic cables. It is said that this original Application of India-rub- ber to valves of steam- engines. over bone, shell, &c. OF THE UNITED STATES. 487 machinery was also carried over then. Gutta-percha and vulcanite are both prepared by the same process for use in the arts. There has been a vast amount of litigation among the inventors and manu- facturers of India-rubber and gutta-percha. An invention which clearly works for the good of mankind is eagerly seized upon by those who have j^. . ^^j^^ capital, as likely to be the source of great fortunes to those who over india- employ it in the manufacture. Those who have experimented in a ^^'^^" '"■ ' . -^ '^ ventions. certain direction, and invested their all in mills, machinery, and goods, are strongly temi'ted to the piracy of inventions when they observe a more fortunate contemporary hit upon a better way than that they have them- selves followed ; and the consetiuence of it all is, that a lucky inventor often finds himself obliged to fight long and hard to maintain his right to profit by the property created by the activity and ingenuity of his own brain. Good- year was one of these men. The litigation in which he became involved was enormous. It is gratifying to record the fact that the inventor of this priceless product of vulcanized rubber was able to maintain his rights, and to profit by them ; and that is more than can be said of all inventors. I I 488 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY to manufac tures. CHAPTER XI. CHEMICAL MANUFACTURES. THE mechanical department of manufacture is the one which alone catches the attention of the untechnical observer. To his eye ninety Application "^^"^ hundredths of all the processes of industry appear to be of chemistry the mechanical manipulation of raw materials, and the applica- tion of heat and force to effect changes of form and condition. But furnaces and machinery do not cover the ground so exclu- sively as that. Chemistry plays a more important part in industry than ap- pears upon the surface of things. It is, in fact, the very atmosphere of life in which industry breathes and exists : it is at least the twin-brother of machinery. Not a metal in the bowels of the earth, not a mineral (except common clay), not a textile fibre, and scarce a vegetable or animal substance, which is fobri- cated for any human purpose, reaches its final state of a perfected protluct without having been subjected to one or more chemical processes which are absolutely necessary for its manufacture. Every metal must be prepared for working up by being first refined. Cotton, wool, silk, flax, and hemp must be bleached, fermented, purified, or stained, or subjected to all four processes. Leather, rubber, soap, and various kinds of food, must be deprived of the liability to decay. Wooden buildings, ships, carriages, and cars must be pro- tected from the corrosion of the elements. Salt and sugar must be purified. Sand and clay are required to be converted into durable and serviceable dishes. None of these things can be accomplished by mechanical means alone. Chem- istry is called in to participate in the achievement of them all ; and crude and barbaric indeed would the triumphs of man over the forces of nature still be, were it not for the help of this powerful art to second his efforts. It has been well said that to take away chemistry from industry would be like taking away gravitation from the universe. The result would be chaos. The manufacture of chemicals in the United States began as early as 1 793, when John Harrison started his factory of sulphuric acid and lead-paint in the city of Philadelphia. It was carried on, however, to a very limited extent in- deed, for more than sixty years. The genius of our civilization was not favor- OF THE UNITED STATES. 489 Manufac- ture of suU pKuric acid byjohn Har- rison. able to the patient study, and quiet, persistent experiment in the laboratory, which are required of those who engage in this department of effort. The taste of Americans was for mechanical invention, and for the bustle and excitement of active pursuits. Neither science nor literature could flourish in a marked degree among a people with such propensities ; and accordingly, during the last and for the first half of the present century, tlie chemical industry made slow progress. Lead and zinc paints, sulphuric and nitric acids, dyes and saleratus, the most ordinary and necessary of chemical materials, were made here and there in P^astern cities on a small scale ; and they comprised about all the manufactures of this class which were produced. Congress endeavored at times to encour- age the industry by imposing a duty on manufactured chemicals, and by providing that the raw materials — sulphur, nitrate of soda, dye-woods, crude saltpetre, argols, &c. — should be admitted free. The professors in charge of the scientific departments at Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Hamilton, and other Eastern colleges, did something towards turning attention to the matter also by their researches in regard to the minerals, alkalies, and salts progress of the different portions of the territory of the United States. It within has only been within the last thirty years, however, that the manu- "^ ^ years, facture of chemicals can be said to have attained any eminence whatever in the United States ; and probably one-half, if not more, of the establishments now in existence, or at least of the branches of the industry now pursued, are the creation of the tariff of 1S61. Industrial chemistry has had its largest development in France and Eng- land, where general manufacturing has also attained its largest growth ; and Germany has also made marvellous strides in this field of progress. Develop- In France alone the annual production of chemicals has now '"•'"* °'' •"- 111 1 r K T-.1-1/-1- dustrial reached the great value of $250,000,000. By the side of this chemistry in giant development the chemical manufacture of the United States France and seems mere boy's play, amounting, as it did in 1870, only to "^ ^" $19,417,000 of chemicals, dyes, and drugs, and $5,800,000 of fertilizers. Nevertheless, the progress of the last twenty years in the United States has been striking. The manufacturers have ventured to undertake something besides the staple products of sulphuric acid, soda, vegetable dies, and medi- cines ; and they have, within the period named, entered upon the production of a large variety of the rarer chemicals, and have evidently planted the founda- tions of a great industry. In 1870 there were 301 chemical factories in the United States, concentrated chiefly in the vicinity of the large Eastern cities, and 125 factories of fertilizers, these latter being largely in the Southern States. A large part of the raw materials consumed by the American chemical factories is imported from Europe and South America, although it is a fact that they might be obtained from our own soil. There are enormous supplies of alkalies, for instance, on the plains and in the mountains of the Far West, 490 INDUSTRIAL mSTONY and all the materials that a chemist coukl wish for the production of sul- importation phuric acid (that most necessary and extensively made of chemi- of raw cals) in the valley of the Mississippi. Salt and lime exist in the materia s. United States in unparalleled abundance ; sour oranges go to waste in Florida every year by the thousands of bushels : yet the crude chemicals which are obtained from these things, and large quantities of the manuliictured, as well as a great quantity of these very raw materials besides, are imported yearly from abroad. 'I'he extent to which this importation has grown may be seen by the statistics of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877. The imports were as follows : — Argols, Ihs 9,025,542 Medicinal barks, lbs 1,976,016 Camphor (crude), lbs 1,022,565 Chloride of lime, or bleaching-powder, lbs 47,642.133 Cochineal, lbs. 1,324,165 Cutch and terra-japonica, lbs. 22,992,973 Dye-woods, cwt 1,195,079 Gums, lbs 9.'^73i5i5 Indigo, lbs 1,504,783 Madder, lbs 3,178,988 Sulphur (crude), tons 43.443 " (refined), cwt -9>039 Salt, lbs 901,209,894 Nitrate of potash (saltpetre), lbs 13,846,670 Soda, nitrate of, lbs 54,208,334 " bicarbonate, lbs 4,298,906 " carbonate, lbs 217,360,808 " caustic, lbs 36,000,895 " other salts of, lbs 507. 3^f Chemicals, dyes, drugs, and medicines, n. e. s., dols. . . 8,816,804 In all, our purchases amounted to about $25,000,000 worth of drugs, dyes, and chemicals ; and yet $20,000,000 could have been produced from the materials which exist in unlimited abundance in our own soil. This flict points to the possibilities of the increase of the industry in the United States, when the manner of extracting the acids, alkalies, and salts of commerce, from American minerals, is better understood. The most important of the products of the Ciiemical factories is sulphuric acid. It is one of the oldest known of acids, having been in use among Sulphuric the proto-chcmists of ancient Arabia. Professor Chandler calls ^"^'''" it one of the pillars of science, on account of the number and the value of the uses to which it is now applied. It is used to convert com- mon salt into soda, and hence lies at the foundation of the glass and soap industries. It is the necessary agent by means of which nitric and hydro- chloric acids are obtained, the two solvents upon which the refining of gold and silver, and electro-plating and photography, depend. It is employed in OF THE UNITED STATES. 491 the production of alum, ammonia, nearly all the ven-etablc acids and alkaloids, the aniline colors, ultramarine, the chrome compounds, blea<:hing-i)o\vder, chloroform, ether, phosphorus, and fertilizers, anuntry be overrun with wood, yet they have all their wooden-ware from England, — their cabinets, chairs, tables, stools, chests, boxes, cart-wheels, and all other things, even so much as their bowls and birchen brooms, — to the eternal reproach of their laziness." It was not to be expected, however, that so free and active-minded a ""eople as the Americans, living in such an invigor- ating climate, would long continue to send their raw products abroad to be mr.nufactured, after they had freed themselves from that great obstacle to industry, a tyrannical government, -aid after they had so fairly subjugated the soil as to have an abundance of food ; and accordingly we find that they > ■ i- «4 . ... . J i i 1 ; 498 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY began to manufacture their raw products largely lor themselves after their independence, and " the eternal reproach " was quickly wiped out. It has already been related what the Americans have done in manufacturing their crude metals. The history of manufacturing the more important vegetable and mineral products of the United States has been nearly completed. A few more pages, however, are needed to finish this portion of our work. While seeking to make this chapter as brief and at the same time as complete as possible, it is to be hoped that no important fact relating to the development of the industries herein considered has been omitted. LUMPIiK. The business of lumbering is one which the European settlers on this continent were obliged to begin before any other. Two necessities faced Lumbering ^^em when they landed, — the neen of shelter from the weather, among the and cleared land whereon to cultivate food. Nearly the whole CO cms s. country was covered with vast and ancient forests : these yielded the material for houses and barns, but rendered the work of preparing the soil for tillage highly laborious. But there were energy, courage, and enthusiasm in the hardy Anglo-Saxon stock which occupied the country from Nova Scotia to Florida, and scarcely less in the Dutchmen and Swedes who broke the line of English settlements for a time from the Hudson to the 1 )elaware River ; so that the axe and saw were ^'igorously plied from the very first occupation of America. The early dwellings were of logs, imitated ever since by pioneers in new sections of the country ; and the few boards and shingles used were hewn out with an admirable dexterity. Forts for defence against the hostile Indians, bridges across the streams along which the first settlements were planted, docks for the little shipping which afforded communication with the Old World, logs for corduroy roads over poor spots in the needed highways, and firewood for cooking and comfort, all called for further labor; and later — much later than should have been the case — there was some demand for material for cattle- pens and barns. A rare and timely jnece of good fortune for the American colonists was the invention of the saw-mill, which first made its appearance in this coimtry in 1633, or shortly before, preceding the first establishment of it in the mother-country many years. Although the saw was known in P^gypt in the time of jNIoses, yet a mill in which it was ojjcrated by machine- ry was scarcely known in F,uro])e before the discovery of America. Germany had saw-mills in the fourth century ; the Island of Madeira, in 1420 ; Nor- way, not till 1530; France, as early as 1555 ; and iOnglanci, not until 1663. This last-named mill was torn down to gratify a hostile popular prejudice. P'ears of like demonstration prevented the erection of another in 1700, and the populace destroyed one as late as 1767. Prior to the introduction of tlie Saw-mUl. li I OF rilK UNITED STATES. 499 ;as the itry in )f it in own in liinc- ■iinany Xor- 1663. saw-mill, planks were hewed out or sawed by hand ; which explains the jjreva- lence of clay floors and the scarcity of plank floors in ICurojJt' in tlie olden time. Saw-mills located on son\e eligible stream, and run by water-power, were erected at a very early date \n the first colonies, and thereafter made their appearance in each new colony and settlement which afforded the motive- power : indeed, the location of many settlements was determined by the presence of a good mill-stream. The first saw-mill that is known to have been erected in New England was on Salmon- Falls River, near First saw- the present city of Portsmui.t'\ N.Ii. ; and it was built there soon '"'"• after the land w.is granted in 1631 to Mason and (lorges, the great i)ro- prietarics of that region. It is known to have been in operation in 1635, and might have been up a year or two at that time. It is asserted that a saw-mill was in existence in Massachusetts as early as 1633 ; but no evidenc:e of it exists, although one was proposed for the colony in a letter of instruc- tions sent to CjOv. Kndicott in 1629. A patent for an improvement in saw- mills was granted Joseph Jenks of -Lynn in 1648; but it is impossible to find any recortl of a saw-mrll in Massachusetts before the one built in Scituate in 1656, and burned by the Indians in 1676. Another existed, near Duxbury, as early as 1664. Worcester had one in 1684 ; and Groton, in Middlesex, in 1686. Neither Vermont nor Rhode Island appears to have had any saw-mills before the Revolution. The younger Winthroj), afterwards governor of Con- necticut, brought a millwright to New London, and put up a saw-mill in 1651. The superintendent, John Elderkin, was for thirty-five years the principal con- tractor for the buikling of meeting-houses, dwellings, bridges, ^;c., in Eastern Connecticut. Two more were built near Hartford in 167 1 an-.l 1680. Several more were constructed in tiie colony within the next 'i^w years. Saw-mills operated by wind instead of by water were erected by the Dutch on Manhat- t;i.!i Island as early as 1633. These were the first on this continent, but were very unprofitable, according to provincial documents. Others were soon built in the vicinity, however, and up the river, near Albany. The Catskill region, and several points on the east side of the Hudson, followed these examples. I'he French had saw-mills near Ticonderoga in the early part of the eighteenth century. West Jersey led the eastern side in the erection of saw-mills. The first one on the Delaware was put up in 1682. .Amboy built her first ones in 1683. They rapidly multiplied in that colony, however. The Dutch and Swedes anticipated William IVnn in this direction. Delaware had a sawmill in 1658, another in 1662, and a third in 1O78. IVnn fotiiid saw-mills in Pennsylvania in 1683 already in operation. They were long scarce near Philadelphia, however ; and not one was to be found in the adjacent county of Hucks as late as 1731. Thev'multiplied in the int -ior, though, especiall)- where the Germans settled. There is no record of Maryland's first ;,aw-mill ; but she had corn-mills run by water as early as i'')39. Virginia made \s, more numerous than in any otiier one locality in the United States. The principal lumber of Maine and the North-West is the white or soft pine, with considerable spruce and hemlock : the hard pine comes chiefly from North Carolina, Ceorgia, I'lorida, and Alabama. The Dismal Swamp in Virginia is also (juue a producer of pine, spruce, and hemlock. Ohio and Michigan yield considerable black-walnut, cherry, ash, and white-oak, although these woods are also found elsewhere. Louisiana and Mississippi are also coming to be large lumber-producers. The Pacific coast and Rocky-Mountain region abounds in a sort of fir, or red-wood, which is very serviceal)le : this is the principal lumber of Oregon. The city of Chicago is now the greatest lumber- mart of the w'orld, her supplies coming' chiell}- from the shores of Dake Michi- gan. It might be remarked in this connection, that Chicago and other lumber- markets now send to the pioneer, all prepared for use, much of the building- material needed by him. Indeed, to such a degree of jjerfcction is this science 5^4 INDUSTRIAL HIS 7 OK Y n' II Ii carried, that thousands of ready-made houses are sold and shipped to their destinations every year ; the timber lieing so cut and numbered, that a skilful carpenter, provided with the proper accompanying designs, can easily erect the proposeil edifice in a very short space of time. We have already spoken of the magnitude of the lumbering- business carried on by individuals ami separate companies ; yet it is not generally Description realized ; nor is the exciting, laborious, and almost romantic ex])e- of industry, fience ot the lumbermen. Every fall the mill-owner or contractor arranges for a winter's campaign in the woods. If the land be his own. lie provides equipments and supplies for the men himself; or, if the land lie another's, he arranges with the proprietor to cut the wood for so much a thousand feet, or so much per tree. An eligible neighborhood, where there are plenty of trees, and a stream of water near by, with perhaps a more or less sloping bank, is selected ; and thither a gang of able-bodied woodsmen are despatched ere snow flies. Rude log-huts called "camps" are erected, with wooden chimneys, and beds of hemlock-boughs ; and here they stay for the season. The staple of their diet is salt pork and rum. At night, cards, story-telling, and general hilarity, beside a blazing fire, form a marked contrast to the hard toil of the day and the loneliness and cheerlcssness of a forest- winter. Such adventures, too, as the encountering of wolves and catamounts. the occasional skating upon a frozen river, and the sharp competition through the day ■ Ith neighboring gangs of workmen, lend excitement to this wild, strange life. Through the day the toil is of the hardest. The trees are cut, stripped of their branches, sawed with great cross-cut two-hand saws into logs of the desirable size, and hauled into convenient localities for drawing to the water-side. Then, by means of a chain, a skid, and an ox-team, the logs arc loaded upon huge sleds, — sometimes only one end of the log being placed upon the bob, — and are hauled down to the river and emptied in, the ice- crust serving to keep them from floating off. l''ach owner's logs are properly marked in order to distinguish them, inasmuch as a number of different con- tractors are at work often on the same stream. This is the case especially in such great lumber-regions as the Kennebec, the Penobscot, Saginaw River, Green Ray, and Rum River (Minn.). The season begins in December, and generally ends in March. Every thing depends on the snow. Sometimes this is so deep, that the oxen cannot break paths ; and again there is so little, that it has to be scraped up at nightfall, and made into a road to be used only at night ; for even the winter sun and the mildness of day would so soften the bed, that the sleds would cue it all up and destroy it. Much of the work of hewing, sawing, loading, and hauling, is done in the stormiest and coldest of weather. From the time when operations °ase in the woods, until the rivers open, there is generally a season of about two months. Few of the hands stay in the woods during this period, although a few are needed to keej) watch against OF THE UNITED STATES. 505 thefts. When spring comes, the logs are floated down stream in an immense mass called a " drive." Generally this branch of the work is carried on by a different set of men from those who cut the logs. Here, again, great skill and muscle are required, and great excitement is afforded. The logs are accumulated by millions ; the streams are swollen and rapid ; and the scene resembles an immense herd of furious cattle, such is the confusion, and leai)ing of logs upon one another. Every now and then occurs a "jam," where two or more logs in the van catch against obstructions on opposite shores, become locked, and so check the progress of the whole drive, which now piles itself up like an ice-pack. At this juncture some bold and dexterous " driver " runs out upon the floating mass, (juickly finds by his practised eye where the diffi- culty is, and pries the obstructing logs apart with his pole ; then the whole drive gives way with a tremendous rush, the foremost logs shooting away like rockets, and the heap in the rear suddenly subsiding. Only with the utmost agility is the adventurer able to reach the shore. A whole gang of men is engaged in this labor, and it takes several days to reach their destination : accordingly a cook accompanies them on a raft with their clothing and provisions, and ministers to them as in the logging-camp. Finally the dam is reached where the mills are located. Here a "boom," or series of logs bound together with strong chains, and sometimes stayed by great piers, catches the drive, from the confusion of which the jjropcrty of different owners is laboriously and tediously separated. Then, througii tiie summer and fall, the logs are forced through the mills, and converted into lumber. The following description of a mill and mill-site in the Saginaw region, where salt-boiling is carried on in connection with the sawing of lumber, as is elsewhere described, will afford an excellent idea of the magni- . . " Description tude of this business, not only in Michigan, but in all the other of miii and principal lumber-regions already designated, just as the description salt-works given above applies equally to all winter operations in the North. Says a writer in "The New-York Tribune," of an establishment at Bay City, — " The mill, salt-works, and other buildings, cover a very large area. The river-front and slips, from wliich the lumber, lath, shingles, and salt can be l^laced on steam and sailing vessels, are a mile and a (piarter in extent. The motive-powers of the saw-mill and other works are one engine of 760 horse power, and four smaller engines used for various purposes. There are 225 men employed in and about the mill, salt-works, and yard. There iiave been 265,000 feet of lumber sawed in the mill in one day of eleven and a (juar- ter working-hours. The capacity of the mill is from 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 feet of lumber when the machinery is running on ordinary time, from May to November ; but the results can be doubled in busy seasons when the men are employed night and day. In this, as in all other large mills, ga. g-saws are used in addition to the large circular-saws. The gang-saws are set upright in ill '■ Ll 506 INDUS TRIAL HISTORY Displace- ment of manual labor by machinery frames. There are two pairs of gang-saws in this mill : the largest of those contains fifty-four saws. The large circular-saws are used in producing timber of varying widths, the log being adjusted by machinery, so that any thickness can be ol)tained. The furnaces are fed with sawdust, which is carried by means of endless belts from l)el()w the saws to the mouths of the long row of furnaces. All of it, however, is not needed for this purpose ; and the surplus, together with a considerable amount of other refuse, is conveyed by simple machinery to an opening, into which it is being continually discharged when the machinery of the mill is in motion. This oi)ening leads to a large furnace, twelve or fifteen feet in diameter, into whicli the refuse is thrown and con- sumed. It was constructed for tiiis pui-jjose alone." WOOD-WORKINti MACIIINKRV. Touring the last fifty years mechanical labor has taken the place of manual labor, in the sawing up and shaping of wood, to an extraordinary extent. Tin- greatest progress has been made in the United States, wliere ma- chines have been al)solutely necessary to supplement the limited amount of human labor which manufacturers have been able to command, and where there has been a general impression, among workmen and emi)loyers alike, that all the country need-^ to obviate debt, taxes, and bad weather, and to make the men handsome and the women lovelier, and give everybody a thousand dollars in tiie bank, is tlu' use of i)lenty of machinery and a liberal issue of patent-rights. The spirit with which new machines iiave been received in the United States has been very difierent from that which formerly prevailed in Europe, and is still mani- fested tiiere from time to time. The result is a larger use of mechanical inventions, and a corresponding improvement in the position of working-men, who, from manual laborers, have risen to be directors of machines, and masters of shops. Since 1S67 one of the most interesting departments in every one of the world's fairs has been that in which American wood-working machinery has been exhibited. The first show which attracted special attention American .... ,, - , , , ., . . r <> fi i wood-work- ^™^ '^'^ Vm\^ \w 1867. .At the exhibitions of i Isome and ank, is the The spirit has been still mani- nechanical king-men. 1(1 masters )ne of the hinory lias 1 attention 1855, and 1 1 86 7 the id-working vas a veri- li specially 3se people Industrial ines : and id. that, in :adership, or that she is at least about to lose it. 'I"he healthy, yoimg. trans-.\tlantii m f machine iias proved useful in turning out wood for patterns ; and it has been adopted by the brass, silver, and gold smiths in the "spinning-up " of flat sheets of metal into hollow-ware, in which process a block of a cert.iin shape and a flat disk of metal are put into the lathe, and the metal is maile to lie down upon and take the sha[)e of the block by |)ressing it with a smooth steel tool, both revolving rapidly tiuring the process. Planing-machines were introduced at a very early day. They are of two kinds. In one style cutting-blades are mounted upon a cylinder, and the plank or strip of wood to be ])laned is passed through between pianing- the planer and a heavy roller, which are fixed the rif,ht distance machines, ajiart by means of screws : in the other style the cutting-tools are chisels, mounted at right angles upon two spokes of iron, and made to revolve in a circle at enormous speed. These machines are made to plane horizontally or vertically, and to deal with wood across the grain, with knotty wooil, and l)lanks and beams of all descriptions. The sash, blind, and door, and the hand-plane industries have given rise to a variety of machines for cutting out mortises, tenons, grooves, slots, and I'l.ANEK AND M AIL IIIN(.-.M ACIMSK. iii iiM V 510 /AD USTRIA 1. ins TOR Y Machinery for making sashes, blinds, and doors. joints of all kinds. 'I'lie work is generally done in these machines by means of chisels and saws. This I'.lass of machines has multiplied very last since 1861, and has concentrated in factories a large amount of work which was formerly carried on by hand, and scattered far a'ld wide among small shops. It h;is also greatly lessened the art of production. The machines are all very simple, though frequently ^ ery ingenious, and work with great precision. 'J'he framing, sl-.ap- ing. and panelling of windows, doors, and blinds, is now done entirely by maciiine- ry ; and the a])pli(a- tion of mechanical la- bor in this industn hp' gone so far, that even the wire staples which fasten the rod of the window -liliiid tt) the slats are all dri\en by machine, and with incredible speed. If a ukk liiiie were invented to Ijrush on 'he L,M-eei\ paint to the wiiidbw- ])lin(l. sash, or door, there would be nothing more to do in the construction of those objects which could be done by machine. That a de\ice of that character could be made is apparent both by the aid of the ■i.iassisted reason. and from the fact that laigland ex- hibited a painting- machine at I'hila- deli)hia in 1S76. li was, in fact, her only wood-working machine shown. One of the comjiaratively recent in- ventions is a set of machines for making Barrel- ^'^^' diflercnt parts of I)ar- making- rcls. Ill thcsc the staves machines. i , , ^ • ■ .^ i are sawed out, bent, jomted, and prepared for the barrel, with scarce- ly the aid of any hand-tool v '.atevcr. The heads of the barrels and the wooden hoops are also shaped by a])pro- Carvingand pHatc inventions. There are also now in nse machines for carving, engraving. engraving and i)ortrait engines, lathes for mtung and boring spools, box-mortisin^- machines, stair jointers, liub-boxing-machiiK's. c>^rk- iMi-IN'CII I'l.ANI'.Ii. Mol'LUl^^;-^; AC iriNK. :s Dy means Itiplicil very rgc amount cattcrcd far csscncd the pie, though LUiing, slui])- :)anclUni,f of doors, and now done ly niachinc- the a])pH(a- xhanical la- liis inihistrv so far, that wire staples ten the rod indow-Mind lats are all maehiiie. 1 incredible a machine vented to 'he L;"reen the wiiidT)\v- construction vice of that isted reason. by appro- s for carving, and boring vines. c.>rk- OF THE UNITED STATES. 511 cutters, shingle and lath saws, a variety of apparatus for benfling wood for carriages, &c., and shoe-peggers. The latter are often matle so as to drive a peg into the shoe tlie moment it is made from a ribbon of hard wood, coiled up 'ike a spring in the machine, and fed forward as it is wanted. Pegs are also made by the bushel by means of it, antl supplied to the .'.ade for hand- l)egging. It is said that shoe-pegs are made on such a scale in Connecticut, and so cheaply, that they are sometimes sold for oats, — a legend which will do now to be placed on the shelf with the kindred tale of the foitunes made by ' "onnecticut peddlers in retailing wooden machip' made nutmegs. :\ great deal of machinery is also used in cutting out and jointing wooden Toy-making 'oys and automatons, such as snakes, clog-dancers, dolls, furni- "machinery. *,nre, mechanical playthings, wooden i)ipes, tenpins, boats, puzzU s, blocks, &c. I'Vance formerly had almost a monoi)oly of the manufacture of toys, and her ingenuity in devising new ideas is still unexcelled. But her toys have been nearly all hantl-made, and Auicrican machine-made wooden toys are i)ro\ing a tbrniidable rival to the product of her factories. They have become so witiiin the last ten years. Wood is one of the raw products which enter into the manufacturing industries, whose cost is generally so small, compared with the labor expended ujion it, that it does not usually form any material part of the cost Extensive of the article made from it. Houses and bridges which contain a use of wood great deal of lumber are, of course, exceptions. Usually the cost '" "' '"^' of wooden-ware is attributable chiefly to the wages of the men employed in its manufacture. Nine-tenths of the selling-price of carriages, toys, ships, luntiture, the minor parts of a house, brackets, picture-frames, (S:c., Houses and is labor. This being the case, and labor being so high in this tji^'dges. country, the public necessity for an extensive employmer' of time and labor saving machinery in the manufacture of wood is apparent. L Migress has given ■irotection to the making of wooden-ware by a heavy tariff, steadily wooden- maintainetl ; but, without the aid of machinery to cheapen pro iuc- ware. tion, it is doubtful whether half the manufacturers of wooc' in this country These establishments employed steam-engines, wind-mills, and water- wheels which had a capacity of 850,000 horse power ; and it is estimated, moderately, that the number of wood-working machines in operation in the factories and mills was 120,000. Ten years ago it was estimated that the total number o*^ wood-working machines in France was only ro,ooo. The difference is partly explained by the circumstance that America is a great for- esting country, and not only obtains from her own woodlands, and works up in her own shops, all the common timber she consumes, but a vast amount of lumber is sawed and planed for exportation ; whereas France is obliged to import a large amount of timber which comes to her already prepared for consumption. Allowing for this difference in the foresting products of the two coiu'.tries, the comparison in the amount of wood-working machinery employed by each is still remarkable. A comparison equally favorable to the Americans could be made with every other country in the world. To build the machinery required by the American shops devoted to wood-working, and supply tliat which is required to replace the worn-out and antiquated, calls for the services of several hundred machine-shops and the labor of thousands of our countrymen. OF Tf/E UN/ TED STATES. 513 vood-work- re the fol- FACTORIIiS. ,076 '74 .049 ,900 '73 [,901 ^7 i,96o 302 70 M13 5.8 '7 'S 340 25 1,605 762 26 64 23 3'6'3 65 269 733 and water- cstiniated, itiou in the id that the ),ooo. The a great for- d works up amount of obhged to repared for icts of the machinery able to the To build orking, and ;d, calls for ousands of FURNlTUKi;. The furniture -industry had no definite beginning, as did some of the other trades of the country ; though, like the mushroom which came in one night through a tar-walk, it had a definite rted the form admirably; and so well did they perform their purp(jse, that nine- lenths of the heav- ily upholstered and draped chairs of the ^hah;. present era of fash- i()iial)le art are far less comfortable and healthfiil to the occupant an the ipiaint liickory chairs which come down to lis in anc lent homes from a hundred years ago. The tables were simple, but heavy. They generally had hinged leaves in order to economize the space of the apartment when not in use. Sometimes they were made so that the whole top revolved on a hinge, and couki be turned up perpendicularly, and the table pushed up close against the wall. Oftentimes the tables were hinged to the wall of tlie room, so as to turn '!%*. y. a II' t 5>4 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY up flat against it when not in use, the leg of the table hanging down against it when thus raised, but swinging down into its proper position when the table was lowered. The bedsteads were often as strongly built as a house. There was no grudging of material in them. The four posts were huge and high, and the sides and the head-boards almost as thick as the side of a ship. A framework was built over them for the curtains of the bed. Less fur- niture was used in that age than at present, and the wants of the colonists were amply supi)lied by this desultory manufacture in the carpenter-shops. Besides, for more than a hundred years, a great deal of furniture was im- ported from luirope. Mahogany furniture, which was then very much in fashion, was almost exclusively imported. After the Revolutionary war, ornamental woods were Mahogany f r c e 1 y imported furniture. from the West Indies and South America. Carpenters then began to make mahogany furniture, as well as that of the more com- mon woods. The wood was generally worked up solid. The chairs, bedsteads, cabi- nets, cJK'sts, and tables into which it was fashioned, were all made by hand ; and the workmen lavished upon tlicm an amount of loving carving and decoration which showed ^ that their hearts were in the work. Pieces of this mas- sive old furniture are still preserved in many old families as heirlooms: and when they stray into the general market, as they occasionally do, they are eagerly snapped up by wealthy flimilies at fabulous prices. There was not very much of it made, however, owing to its cost and the limited demand for it. It was hard to make it, also, in competition with the iMU-opean makers ; for France, England, and Oermany had great factories employed in this class of manufactures, and furniture could be turned out at very much less cost than here. The industry first began to differentiate itself from the general carpenter- Furniture- business in 1812. Congress imposed a tax of thirty per cent upon making in all imported articles of furniture, and maintained a duty of about that weight, by the way, under all siibsetpient tariffs, free or protec- tive, steadily. The two or three years of war following 181 2 were an additional OF THE UNITED STATES. s»s against it the table t. Tliere and high, jf a ship. Less fur- colonists iter-shops. : was im- much in olutionary jods were imported the West America, began to mi tare, as iiore corn- wood was up solid, ads, cabi- al)les into ned, were and tlie )on them ,g carving 1 showed •re in the this nias- onis : anF.uAriv|i.>. VAI.UH OF I'KDDl'Cr. 22,010 $17,663,000 27,016 .-.,6;, 2, 000 53.-')^ 69,082,000 S7>09i 75'539'00o Within the last twenty years the business has become subdivided greatly. Very few makers now attempt to j^roduce all the articles needed to eiiuijj a house for occupancy. In the thickly-wooded districts many fac- Recent sub- tories confme themselves simply to getting out furniture in the division of rough by means of machinery, sending it to the large cities to be fmished for the market. There are now so many special styles of chairs made, — office, dining-room, cane-seat, wicker, camp, upholstered, bent- wood, .nnd Ill'l 5'6 IND US TKIA I. Ills TOR V SO oil, — tluU large numbers of" makers devote themselves to one specially in chairs. Some factories make a specialty of sofas, some of ottomans, others of tete-a-tetes and divans. There are a large number who make special styles of tables, — dining, ironing, card, billiard, extension, library, carved, inlaid, anil centre tables. .Some make bedsteads alone ; though the common plan is now to make bedroom-' (irniture in sets, the sets including a bed, bureau, com mode, washstand, table, and three or four chairs. One class of makers n(nv confine themselves to gilded or enamelled furniture ; others to solid, carved, and inlaid sets. 'I'he most fashionable makers keep a corps of designers, and make sots for parlor, bedroom, dining-room, &c., to order, often taking the measure of a room, and adapting the pieces to it. It is only within the last ten or fifteen years that American makers ha\c begun to pay any especial attentioii to a foreign trade. As furniture is a class Cultivation *^^ products into the making of which art ideas largely enter, and or foreign the artistic is the special field in which Americans have been '""'^ ^ ^' behind the rest of the world, the furniture-dealers have been afraid to venture into the foreign markets. At the Paris I'^xhibition in 1867 the United States were represented by so insignificant a disjjlay of furniture, that the visitor would not have known that they were rejiiesented at all. 'I'he display consisted of a i^w^ camp-chairs, a few rocking-chairs, an inlaid table fron\ Wisconsin, and a laurel-wood door from California. Our manufacturers have gained confidence since 1867. In 1876 they were represented at I'hiladeb phia most creditably : they made a splendid and showy display. In all com- mon furniture their styles were original, and their workmanship of superior description. In elegant furniture their carving, finish, gilding, iS:c., were all that could be desired, and were hilly equal to those of foreign makers. That exhibition was a great encouragement to American makers, and they are now exporting their goods. The one weak point in American furniture is the lack of originality of jiat- tern in the more artistic pieces. Every thing is borrowed from the ideas of Lack of the French or the English. Whatever happens for the time to be originality. popular abroad — whether it is the style of '^ Louis XIV.," the "Louis XV." i)attcrns, the "renaissance," the "rococo," the •" (^ueen .\nne,'' the "Eastlake." or what not — is copied immediately and slavishly by the American designers. This fact is both a source of regret to their countrymen, and is the reason why so much costly fiirniture has always been imported. No admirable American style has been developed ; and buyers of artistic fiirniture depend on Europe for their styles, and prefer, when possible, to buy the fiirniture really made in the workshops which set the style, rather than the imitation by the American workman. Nothing remains to be desired ir. the way of common furniture ; but, in the line of artistic furniture, every thing is to be desired. A gleam of the dawn of a better order of things was seen at the Philadelphia Exhibition in two or three ])ieces, bedsteads all of them, which were carved in OF THE U/vjjED STATES. CI1 cially ill i, others al styles , inlaid, , plan is lu, vxm\ :ers now , carved, lers, and king the :ers have s a class nter, and ave been ,'en afraid 1867 the I, that the e disijlay able from rers have i'hiladeb all com- f superior were all rs. Thai are now ty of l>at~ ideas of nie to be IV.," the Ume,'' the American and is the admirable e depend ture really on by the common :;sired. A iladelphia d in n carve a truly American style, deriving its inspiration from a study of the plants of our own soil, and from a study of / merican ideas. One was carved with the symbolic ornaments of the lily, the poppy, and the Virginia creeper. Here was a suggestion of an American style. When the idea shall have been devel- oped, and American pattern-makers shall fill their licads with ideas taken from the suggestions of our own beloved land and reproduce them in their furni- ture, they will occupy a position inferior to none among civilized nations. STARCH. When Mr. Tilden, after his defeat for the Presidency in 1877, got back from his subsefju'^nt trip to Europe, he made a speech from his residence in (Ira- mercy Park, New-York City, of which the newspapers made a ' Uses of corn. great deal of fun. He alluded to the variety of products in this country which are not yet manufactured and utilized for the foreign trade to the extent of which they are capable. " Kspecially cereals," he said. He then went on to specify Indian-corn, which can be prepared in so ' many delicious forms for human food." Acting on the suggestion that Europe needs to be civilized, and life there made joyous by imp?icing to its people a knowl- edge of the mysteries of cooking this succulent grain into pudding, corn-cake, mush, &c., Mr. Abram S. Hewitt of New York proposed in Congress that a corn-kitchen should be established at Paris at the Exhibition of 1878, in order to create a demand in Europe for Indian-corn by showing the natives how to ( 00k it. This, in turn, made sport for the newspapers, and the sky was dark- ened with the clouds of lurid paragraphs and bad jokes which filled the air. In spite of thp American propensity for looking at the funny side of every thing, there was a great deal of truth in Mr. Tilden's remarks. The United States do not yet utilize their grains for export to the extent of which they are capable, and there is a vast field here open for profitable effort. The success of one single branch of the manufacture of cereals is indicative of what may yet be done in other directions. Corn-starch is purely an American invention. Its l)irth dates from 1842. Previous to that year, all the starch known to commerce was made from wheat, barley, rice, and potatoes, princ .pally from the first and last named, corn-starch I'otato-starch was introduced into the United States in 1802 by John an American Hiddis of Pennsylvania : and a large number of factories were built '"^^"*'°"- to make the article, especially in the cotton-factory districts, the factories being their i)rincipal customers. A number of wheat-starch factories were also built. Abroad wheat was the principal material used. The consumption of starch made from it was enormous, especially in England and France, whose ( (;tton- factories took a large part of the whole product. In 1842 Thomas Thomas Kingsford, while superintending the wheat-starch factory of W. Kingsford. Colgate & C'ompauy in New Jersey, made experiments with com. and satisfied -41 i ) • I. 5'« /NDCS TKIA I. HIS TOR Y himself that corn-starrh would be a l)etter commereial article in some resjjec ts than any other. In 1S4S a factory was built for him at Oswego, N.V., by gentlemen living in the c'ty of Aui)urn in the same State, the location being selected on account of the ease of obtaining large shipments of corn from the West at Oswego by an all-water route, and on account of the nearness of Oswego to the large commercial ni:i'.R. One of the forms in whiih the grains and fruits, and other raw products of the United States are utilized for commerce is in the i-ianufacture of stimulat- ing beverages. Mr. Tilden did not refer to this class of manufactures when he commended the idea of bringing the things which can be made out of the OF THE UNITED STATES. 5«9 <:i'R'als of the land to the attention of foreign nations. There has been ample s of goods. Cordage and bagging are made from the same classes of coarse vegetable- Materials fibres, — flax, hemp, and jute. Cotton is sometimes used for small used. ropcj. and generally for twine. Rope-making was one of the earliest mechanical pursuits of the colo- nists of America ; they being impelled to exert their skill in that direction l)y the need of rigging for their ships, and of nets and lines for their fishing-boats. Virginia raised a great deal of hemp and flax in the early years of the province; and after 1629 New England raised hemp also. A sort of wild hemp grew in ihc latter district, from which the Indians made nets and lines ; but this was not what the white man cultivated. Hemji-seed was obtained from England and Holland, and ';he domestic plant was tie one cultivated. By 1641 a rope- walk had l)een startetl in Boston by John Harrison. In 1662 John Heyman Rope- laking an early pursuit. >" .•• ; clotli or t is finally nufactured n only be r of inter- e fond of the largest .erial from c.onsump- No great g out with rd of Iier, ojjcs. No af cordage d niocing the peojile seen that irniture of theatre ui v bi'.ildii^g, ry awning, he use of I piece of schoolboy, strates the do not all pe in our unientality vegetable- [1 for small the colo- t direction 1 lines for icnip and [629 New ew in the is was not gland and 1 a rope- Heyman OF THE UNITED STATES. 525 was authorized to make cordage at C'harlestown. This industry was, unac- countably, not opposed by Parliament : and, there being no weight upon its practice, it was taken up rapidly by Connecticut and other colonies. By i69 526 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY i i^ attenuated. The sliver then goes to the spinning-machine, in which it is stilt further '' drawn," and twisted into a yarn. The yarn is then reeled for twisting into a rope. John (lood of Brooklyn has invented a plan by means of whic i. the yarn is passed tiirough a tube before reeling, and made smootiier. The yarns are graded in size, according to the number that will just fill a half-inch tube, or make one strand of a three-inch rope. No. 40 is for fine rope. No. 20 for cables. The yarns, being reeled, are now tarred, if destined for rigging. I)y being drawn through tar heated to 220°. When they come out of tiie tar they pass between rollers, or through small holes, so that the sui)erfluons tar may be i^ressed out. The yarns are now twisted into a rope in a long building called a rope-walk, which is generally about 1,200 feet long. (The govern- ment walk at Boston is 1,360 leet long.) A number of bobbins, containing 300 flithoms of yarn each, are put into a frame at one en(' of the walk, and the yarns are " hauled down " into strands. Three or more yarns pass into a tube, which compresses and moulds them into a strand ; and the three stran(l^ of the rope, emerging simultaneously from as many tubes, are drawn along the rope-walk by another machine the full length of the buikling. I'lach strand is now separately and simultaneously twistetl until it is hard, and then the three are allowed to come together and close up into a rope. .\ suitablv-shaped triangular wedge is placed between the strands to prevent them from closing up too fast, and the whole process goes on slowlv under the jjcrsonal inspection of a workman. The process is the same, whethcx' the rojic be large or small, or tarred or white. Since 1S27, when ro])e-factories were started in A\ heeling Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Louisville, the machinery has been ])ro])elle(l liy steam, and a stronger twist has been given to rope, and its strength increased. The breaking-strain of hemp ro])e was about 9,200 pounds to the scjuarc inch when made by the old processes : the breaking-strain has risen as high as 15.000 potmds of late. Twine is spun from cotton and flax by the ordinary processes of spinning, the fibre being carded, drawn, twisted, and reeled by appropi iate machinery. In 1870 there were in the United States 20T factories of i ordage and Number of twinc, employing 3,700 men and boys, and turning out work worth rope-facto- S9.000.000 aunuallv. The factories were scattered all over the nes in i 70. country : but the large nvijority were in the I'.ast. Those on the Atlantic seaboard were largely supplied with imported hemp ; those in the interior, entirelv with the native article. Wire rope is now beginning to supplant hemp for ships and hoisting- apparatus and many mechanical purposes. It is probable that it will soon take the place of hemp for all purposes where great strength and light weight are desired, as in heavy rigging, cables, e*vc. For the finer <]ualities of bagging, such as for grain and flour sacks, cottmi and flax are principally used : for the coarser sorts, hemp and jute are the favorite materials. Jute is a grass growing seven or eight feet high, the Wire rope. ^tei.^^ h it is still for twisting IS of whici. )tlicr. The a half-iiK h e rope, No. for rigging, t of the tar erfluons tar )ng building "he govern - , containing alk, and the pass into a iree strands ,'n along the ch strand is en the Uirce tably-shajicd from closing x\ inspection •ge or small, n ^Vhceling propelled hy 1 increased. s(iuarc inch as high a^ the ordinary d reeled In ordage and t work worth all over the Those on those in the nd hoisting- )al)le that it where great :c. lacks, cottdii jut'^ are the et high, the OF THE UNITED STATES. 527 |)eculiar product of India, which was unknown to Europe until 1830, and first became known to the civilized world from the fact that it constituted Jute. the materials of which the gunny-bags were made in which Indian produce was exported. Attention being attracted to the fibre, it was exported to lOngland ; and the city of Dundee in Scotland developed a great manufac- ture of it into gunny-cloth. Scotland is still the principal seat of the industry ; hut the United States has since i860 taken to the manufacture of jute bagging also, and now imports sixty thousand tons of jute-butts annually for the purpose. The bagging is useful for putting up the cotton and wool crops. The total valv;e of the raw jute imported is about $2,500,000, and the bagging jute-raising made from it $4,500,000. Attention has latterly been drawn to in United the possibility of raising jute in the United States. Experiments *^*^^" ha\e been made with success in Louisiana ; yet it is doubtful whether it is wise to encourage this crop. Half or more of the flax-crop of the useofref- United States is thrown away by the farmers after the seed is use flax for thrashed from it, the flax being raised only for the seed. A better ^^smg- bagging can be made from that refuse flax, or the flax-tow, than from jute- hutts, as there can Le also from hemp-tow. It would be more patriotic and prudent to encourage the utilization of hemp and flax for c-oarse bagging than to expend any effort on native jute. It is interesting to note that the long- decayed industry of whale -fishing has revived with the jute-manufacture, a great deal of Oil being consumed in that business. Since i860 the manufacture of bags of paper has been added to the industry, and now occupies a very distinguished position, 'i'he idea of the inventors was to create something which would answer the purpose of flour-sacks, which, owing to the scarcity of cotton, were very expensive. They employed for the purpose thick manila paper, and succeeded admirably. About forty factories are now devoted to the industry ; and they are producing bags of all sizes and strength, from the little package-bag in whi< h the customer takes home a pound of candy to the huge sack holding one or two hundreil-weight of flour. To flax, hemp, jute, antl cotton-bagging, there are now devoted about eighty factories, producing about $15,000,000 worth of gootls. SOAP. The French, the sunniest and most polite people in the world, love to believe that nearly every thing which ameliorates life, and renders social inter- course pleasant, was invented among themselves. They claim the g^^ ^j origin of soap, of course. The south of France has always had French an abundance of olive-oil and soda. The writers say, that, away °'''^'"" back in the twelfth century, a fisherman's wife at Savona, who had wanned some soda lye in an earthen jar which had formerly held olive-oil, discovered Paper bags. 'i%% 528 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY \ I* in the jar a new substance, which attracted attention on account of its utility, and led to the establishment of regular factories for its manufacture. Fruin the name of the village, the new substance was called savon, — a word which survives in Saxon in the adjective saponaceous. It is certain that soap was made at Marseilles in the twelfth century, and that that city has ever since been the principal centre of its manufacture in the world at large. In 1860 30,000 workmen were employed there in that one industry, and the product was over 60,000 tons. The use of soai) spread from Marseilles all onlt France, and thence all over luu-ope anil to the rest of mankind. The maim facture has always been a prolific source of pros})erity for that great maritime city, both because it added largely to the commerce of the port, and because it gave employment to so large a proportion of its own population. The soaps were perfumed, and were of exijuisite delicacy and beauty. In 1877 the manufacturers of Marseilles awoke to find that the sales of their famous products were falling off in an alarming manner. Nortli America, which formerly took so large a quantity of the goods, no longer soap-manu- was buying them. The South-American demand began to fall off. factures in Europe itself was not so large a consumer. Upon investigation, it was I'vjund that the trouble was due to several causes ; and one of them was the fact that the United States had ceased to be a buyer, and not only that, but that she was actually exporting from 5,000 to 10,000 tons of common and perfumed soaps every year to the countries formerly supplied hv France. The matter was considered of so serious conse([uence, that tin- attention of the government of France was called to the matter. Nothing', however, has been done which could stop the American competition ; and the consequence is, that the ancient city of Marseilles appears to be doomed to see a portion of her industry permanently go from her to the New World. Soaps and candles, which weie always made at the same factory, were imported to the United States in considerable quantities until Importation , , .„ ... of soap into about 1824, when the tariff was so arranged as to give an imi)ctus United jq t]-,(_. hoiiie-manufacture. Up to that time the only varieties made here were the common soft-soap — which was then, as now, largely a household manufacture — and the common laundry and toilet soaps. Higher grades were attempted after 1824, and made on so large a scale, that Tariff of the foreign article was virtually excluded from this market. 'Ihr '^^*- tariff of 1864 gave another impetus to manufacture by raising the duty from about three cents to ten cents a pound. Since 1864 the American factories have been making the very highest class of perfumed and deiicati- s^oaps, as well as the more common grades ; and they have, as already stated, not only been able fully to supply the home-market, but to extend their sale.-^ successfully to foreign markets. Three of the American houses have attained to a great reputation within the last fifteen years; namely, those of Enoch Morgan's Sons, B. T. Babbitt iv OF THE UNITED STATES. 529 its utility, re. From vord wliich L suap was ever since In i.Srx) lie product IS all (ALT rhe nianu It maritiuu' lid because The soajjs le sales ot' th America, , no longer n to fall olT. .'stigation, it and one of 'er, and not 00 tons of iujjplied !)>' :e, that the Nothing, n ; and llie doomed to World, ictory, were ntities luitil an impetus ily varieties len, as now, toilet soaps. 1 scale, thai arket. 'riir 1 raising the le .Vmerican md delicate cady state tation within '. I^abbitt \- Adverti: Company, and Colgate & Company, all of New- York City. The first-named invented the article called sapolio, in which a fine white pow- g^^^ der is incorporated, which renders the soap useful for removing American dirt from the hands, and from furniture, wood-work, oil-cloth, &c., '"^""fac- turers. by rubbing. Colgate and Babbitt have made themselves known for specialties of their own. All three have employed indefatigably that great resource of the energetic business-man in the present age, — the system of advertising, — and in this respect have been imitated by Higgins and other Western makers. One secret of success in trade is first to have a good thing to sell, and then to let fhe whole world know it. The ])eddler travelling along every country street, and knocking at every urban door, was the mainstay of earlier merchari.' of small goods who wanted to diffuse their wares over the country. Since the multiplication of newspapers, and the enormous increase of travel, printed and painted advertisements have been the resource of those who have a new thing to sell, and want to impress its virtues upon the minds of the people. The soap-manufacturers have filled the newsi)a])ers of the land with their notices. They have frequented all the fairs, from the World's Expositions down along the whole line to the annual county displays of cattle and bed-(iuilts at them r'l ; and have hung up big pla- cards to catch the eye, and inform the mind. They have sent out an army of men with brushes and i)ots of colored paints, who ha\'e covered all the availa- ble board fences and barns and conspicuous rocks with huge inscriptions and signs proclaiming the names and virtues of their soaj^s. They have made it almost impossible for the American citizen to sit down in the retirement of his own home, or to go out into the open air, without seeing something that reminded him of the very excellent character of the latest brand of soap, and how happy he would be, and how rich he would probably get, if he only bought that style of soap very largely. Great ingenuity has been displayed by different makers in preparing their newspaper advertisements. Sometimes these cards are printed as ])aragraphs of reading-matter, and are frequently sparkling models of wit, beauty, and brevity. Higgins has used the pictorial pa])ers largely, and filled them with imaginary pictures in which a box of his soajj constitutes by turns a camp-chair for llismarck, an iron-clad for the American navy, a coach drawn by a four-in-hand of dogs, a target for a rifle- shoot, &c. The ingenuity of those who have advertised by pnrngraphs is so great as to be worthy of illustration. Here arc a few samples of the style of thing they have resorted to, the paragraphs being technically called at the newspaper-offices "reading advertisements." The samples have been taken at random from the actual paragraphs of these enterprising firms. " Shaks]:)eare says, ' Care is no cure, but rather corrosive, for things that are not to be remedied.' We cannot associate care and corrosion, howe\er, with 's Toilet-Soap ; for it saves care, and is deliciously emoliicit. Tiiis new toilet-soap is the highest achievement of a well-known manu' xturer for .^.X::hi»i i;i ■ i ill li* \i: ii 530 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY its pcirfect purity, and pleasant re-action on the skin, combined with a sweet natural odor." " Poets and essayists have delighted in the supreme delights of country life, and its accompaniments of health, and peace of mind. But body and mine, require the help of regular habits and cleanly habits. Why not, then. sing the praises of 's Toilet-Soap? The purest of all toilet-soaps (for none but the finest vegetable-oils enter into it), and exhaling a delicate violet- odor, it needs only to be tried to become a household necessity." 'According to Voltaire, perfection is attained only by slow degrees and the hand of time. This is peculiarly the case with inventions and dis- coveries. For instance, has been forty years in applying and perfecting his chemical science : therefore we have his "new toilet-soap, — an article for the toilet and bath-room that cannot be overpraised for its excellences. As a test, it is found to be the most admirable in the world for the delicate skin of babes." " Old Fuller, the excellent preacher, says, ' If thou wouldst please the ladies, endeavor to make them pleased with themselves.' You can help to do this by recommending them to use that superb toilet-articl?, 's soap. Nothing can ecpial its excellences : for the purest oils only are used, and thi- resources of science are artistically and scieniifically lavished upon it ; and a delicate fragrance is the result." This exaggerated style of advertising is amusing in many respects; but it requires men of wit and scholarship to pen their paragraphs ; and, as an investment of money, they have proved very remunerative. Xone , ?M : -Jsp 'nding thj heavy pestle from that, so that ... could ■ •: ?; •. rnted ivith less expenditure of labor. 'Ilu; was, however so i, i ;>'.:' hiced, and finally the gristmill run by water-power ; and the _^ _.. ,-.-=^ - .^--: settlers gladly allowrd the grindstone to mi- ])ersede the laborious pestle and mortar, which it did immedi- ately. The floiiriiig- mills were a great (ou- venience to the ])eo- ])le ; and they have been an institution ol such positive necessi- ty, that they have iiinl- tiplied in all ])arts ol the country as fa>t a-^ tjie ]K)pulation. Twenty years a^o the largest flouring State in the country for the supply of the general market was New York. This was due to the abundance of water-power in that State, and the large number of canals and railroads available for collecting the grain and distrib- peri'oHty'of ^'t'^K ^'^c flour. The grain came largely from the farms ot the New York as State itself, but also, in part, from the West. The city of Roches- a flour-mak- ^^^ ^^^^ ^|^^ princi])al Centre of manufacture, owing to the luxu- mg State. • ' . . - riant water-power of the famous (lenesee River. The cities ol Baltimore and Richmond also becarne famous milling-centres. .'\t the latter Baltimore ''^^'^ placcs a large part of the surplus grain of the South was con- and Rich- centratcd for conversion into Hour, and distribution to market. '"°"'^' Since 1850 the manufacturing-centre for the general market has moved backward. 'I'he great flour-cities of the country are now in the heart GAI.I.EOn l-l.OUK-Mll.l.s. gn OF 77//-: UN /TED STA7'7:S. 533 of the grain-regions of tht West. Ix)iiisville, St. Louis, (Jhicago, MiniTcupoiis, .. I'aiil, Milvauiijc, rolcdo, &c., are now the flour-cities pap- excellence ; and ii is from their mills that the barrelled product conies which is distrihuttd hrjugh the Ider States, and sent abi ad, bearing the enthusiastic brands of "Old' lory," "(lilt Kdge," " Sea- Foam," "Red Letter," " I'eer- Names of less," "Monarch, I'he Pride of the liorder," " Hallelujah," and '"^*"'>''- so on. How ap- / the milling-interest has develope?. 534 /JV/) f/S TK I A [. nrs TOR J ' a very few years a new process has been invented, whi<'li promises to revolu- tionize the iuisiness of griniHng. The plan is to let the grain flow into a hollow cylinder, within which a forest of iron spokes, mounted upon the a\i.. of the cylinder, is revolving with great velocity. The grain is struck in tin- air, and reduced hy collision rather than l)y grinding. Another and better knt)wn " new process " is the invention of Mr. Lacroix of Faribault. Minn., and dates from 1872. The plan is to let the stones revolve slower, so as to grind the grain more coarsely. The flour is bolted upon very large bolting- cloths with the aid of an exhaust draught of air and of brushes, which prevents the cloth from clogging. It is claimed that eight or ten per cent more flour is gained by this i)rocess. 'I"he exports of flour are now 3,900,000 l)arrels yearly, and of meal 445.000 barrels. The ex|)orls of botii ought to be largely increased. I'aigiand griuiU our grain, and derives a jjrofltable trade by sending it as flour and meal to South /\merica and other non-food-producing countries. We ought to grind that grain ourselves, and obtain the ])rofit of the manufacture. We might aKo grind sonu' portion of tlie 1 15,000,000 l)ushels of grain sent abroad every year in the kernel. The Southern flour is the best for export, because it has the (|uality of standing the moist ocean-voyage better than other flours. Richmond, lialli- more, and St. ],ouis supply the bulk of the flour for export. idea of America .MU.SICAt. INS'1'KL'MI':NT.S. In distant lOurojje the ])e()ple expect very little of tiu' I'nited States in an art point of view. They look upon the country as half-savage yet. I'hey Euiopean think everybody carries a revolver, and drinks a great deal of whiskey straight, and can go out of town into the country any day. in any part thereof, and kill a wild Indian or a ram pant buffalo within a few miles of the city. They look upon the I'nited Slates somewhat as they do upon Siberia, whose only value to I'lurope con-ists in its producing savage dogs of great si/e and beauty ; or as a barbaric country, from which it is absolutely out of the (juestion to expect any product of genius and high artistic culture. It was therefore possible in 1S75 for an i'lnglish clergy- man, the Rev. H. R. Ilaweis, to write his charming book on " Musi< and Morals," in which he discussed mur,ic and musical instruments in all their phases, historical and otherwise, an^S t() rcvolii- low into a M llic a\i., ink in tlic and iK'ttiT Ilk, Minn., er, so as to ge boltinji- h prevents more Hour eal 445,000 ami grini!^ 1(1 meal to it to uriml niiglit aUo I'vcry ) far ( nullity of nond, Ikilti- •d States ill ytt. Thoy eat (leal of country any or a ram- 'nited States insists in its ountry, iVoni genius and ^iisli i-lergy- ' Music and in all dieir to the exist- id the book ;rican piano. present age I'e been de- both of the h. tone, bril- liancy, durability, and all the other desirable qualities of the piano. Hroafl- wood (whose pianos often cost 56,ooo in London in 1851), Erard, ("oUard, and I'leycl have all failed to surpass tlie American makers. 'I"he American cabinet- organ is superior in all respects, and has a world-wide sale. It has been discovered of late years that New- York City possesses a violin-maker, (le- miinder, whose work ranks with the best which is produced in the ancient capitals of the Old World. It is a singular comment on the lack of candor and fairness in the English mind, that the protluction of such remarkable in- stnunents in America was not alluded to in any manner in the book above referred to, which professed to be stanilard on the subject of which it treated. The human fainily is fond of music, and the variety of musical instruments in use is large. Every nation contributes its ciuota to the vast multitude of contrivances for producing musical sounds. Wild countries have pondness of eccentric creations of bamboo and hide, horn trumpets which can man for be heard, three miles, and violins, ornamented with tusks and inen's '""""^• heads, which produce shrieks of noise that would make an American's hair stand on end. From this class of instnanents, uj) to the melodious organs, violins, pianos, and brass horns in use in civilized regions, there is a wide interval ; but it is filled with a myriad of inventions of all degrees' of originality and jierfection. The piano, which stands near the head of the list of perfect instruments, is comparatively a recent invention, dating back no farther than 1760. It had ancestors which resembled it somewhat, however, in the (|ueer old psaltery and dulcimer (boxes across which strings were stretched), the clavicitherium (with a keyboard, the strings being plucked witii ([uills), the clavicymbal, the virginal, the spinet, and the harpsichord. The harpsichord was the instrument in use by our great-grandmothers. It was the first one of the series in which the strings were struck by a hammer. Prior to 1760 the strings had been plucked with a (juill. A few specimens of the harpsichord are still extant among the older families of the country. One made for Charles Carroll was exhil)ited in Philadelphia in 1876. The expense of the larger musical instruments prevented many people from owning them in this (-ountry until after the manutacture began here. A great inany violins and accordions, which cost little, were owned by the people, and helped solace the loneliness of the farms, and the lack of popular amusements in hoiTies in the cities. Jefferson was an accomplished musician with the first-named instrument. P)Ut harpsichords and jiianos were seldom seen. A few were imported by merchants tor sale in the cities; and great musicians who came over here to give concerts generally brought pianos with them, which they generallv leli behind when they returned to Europe : but, on the whole, the instrument was as rare as a])])ointments to positions in the President's cabinet. It was, moreover, even as late as 1825, still a thin-toned, feeble instrument. It v.as made with a frame entirely of wood, and could not stand our climate. -^XSiiiSi ' til). f- ■ 536 INDUSTRIAL HISTOKY In J822 Jonas t'hickering of Uoston, a young and intelligent mechanic with a lovL' of music, began to experiment at piano-making. His first instru- jonai ment was offered for sale in April, 1823. Chit;kering began, .Chickering. almost from the very outset, with pianos which were a long stride ahead of the lOuropean instruments in purity and resonance of tone, and in the length of time they would remain in tune. He made the entire frames of his pianos of iron instead of wood, and introduced the cir( ular stales, arch wrest-planks, and tuning-blocks. 'I'he iron frames were a great improve- ment. 'l"he strings of \\ piano pull enormously ; and, unless the frame is per- fectly rigid and unyielding (which the wooden frame never was), the piano will get out of tune rapidly, and soon wear out. The pull of the strings of LlllCKEUlNc; I'lANd, a modern grand piano is between eleven and twelve tons. The iron frame was improved by other makers, and was soon adopted generally botii in America and Europe. Alpheus Babcock of Philadelphia got a patent in Conrad 1 825 for an oblong frame, the shape of which caused it to resist '^^y^''- the tension better. Conrad Meyer of Philadelphia, in 1833, made s(|uare pianos witii full iron frames substantially like those now used by American makers. There were other makers in the business in the early part of the century : among them were Stodart, (^sl)orn, and Thurston ; Stodart. perhaps, being Early piano- the most jjopular. All the makers displayed great ingenuity in makers. increasing the richness and brilliancy of tone of their pianos ; and they were rewarded, in the ])rosperous times following 1825, by the large demand which grew nj) for their instruments. Competition between them OF THE UNITED STATES. 537 , l)eing luity in s ; ami ! large 1 them rtdured prices, and the sales soon increased to several thousand a year. The sale has since been constantly extending. Chickering took the lead after a while, an'. i II. I ,11 i Irifi 538 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY qiiality of her pianos ; and she has the three largest factories in the world. She can well sustain the neglect of Haweis in " Music and Morals " with equanimity, in view of these facts. Within the last two years, one of the New- York factories (that of Joseph P. Hale) has begun to do business cii a scale which promises to put its sales Joseph p. ahead of ihat of the houses of both Chickering and Steinway. Hale. ]yji- Hale, a Massachusetts man by birth, began piano-making in New York in i860, after having first accumulated a fortune in the crockery and real-estate trades in Worcester, Mass. His purpose was to cheai)en tlie selling-cost of the pinno. He w;.ntetl "the people," as contrasted with the ipper ten thousand, to have a piano which would be both good, and cheap enougli for them to afford. He entered upon the manufiicture on a largo scale, and by 187.3 had a factory in New- York City capable of building sixty pianos a week. He has recently undertaken to increase the capacity of hi-, factory to a hundred and fifty pianos a week ; which would be three times greatei than that of any other factory in the world, and would supply one- fifth of the trade of the continent. Mr. Hale's operations made a givat sensation in the piano-trade in 1877. In 1870 there were 156 piano-factories in the United States, employing Number of 4,200 people, and producing 24,306 pianos worth $8,330,000. factone:.. T\\c number of factories does not increase ; but the production has now nearly doubled. An instrument which is contesting for the palm of popular favor with the piano is the sweet-voiced cabinet-organ, whose gentle and sympathetic tones Cahs.et- are far better adapted to the (piiet and repose of the family life organ. \\\d,\\ the more l)rilliant but less gracious piano ; :n fact, it mii^hl have been said that the contest is ended in favor of the cabinet-orffiiii. were it not for the fact that its larger sale is jjartly due to its cheaper price, ami that the recent reduction in the price of pianos leaves the contest for llie ulti- mate largest sale still an unsettled question. 'i'he cabinet-organ is an American invention : it sprang from so humble an origin as the accordion. 't is a reed-instrument, the tones being pro- AnAmerican duced, not with the aid of pipes, but bv the vibrations of a thin invention. i^^,.jp ^f brass iVom half an inch to several inches in length, fas- tened at one entl over an aperture in a metal plate througli which a current of air is forced or drawn. The original ])alent was issued to Aaron M. I'easiey. in 1818, for what he called '"an im])rovement ip. organs." 'c first the reed- O' ;an was simjily an accordion, or la])-melodeon : and it was m that form that rnanunaci.-.rers. for a long ])erio(l, imjiroved and sold it. It was enlarged l>y different makers, strength'. ;ied in power, and Hnally improved in lone by curving the reeds into an S. It became po])ular for accompaniments to church-music about 1840. In 1846 Jeremiah Carhart, then of Dufdilo, invented the modern "■ meiodeon " by fitting to the reed-organ a pair of U),000. OF THE UNITED STATES. 539 exliaust-bellows and a regular key-board. It was provided that the air in this instrument should he drawn inward through the reeds, rather than blown outward. The change improved the tone, prevented the reeds from sticking, secured a prompt response whenever a key was touched, and brought with it many other advantages. Mr. Carhart. and Prince & Company, made four- octave melodeons on this plan for two or three years, and then increased their scope to five octaves. Many changes of detail were made in the arrange- ment of the interior ajjpa- ratus from year to year, and the tone and working of the instrument were improved. The machine still lacked the perfect sweetness which it ought to have had. Emmons In 1S49 Km- Hamlin. mons Hamlin, a young man in the employ of Prince (N: Company ^f Buffalo, hit upon the ha])- py idea of giving a slight twist to the curved reeds. The change eliminr.icd all harsliuess fn.Mu tin.- tone of the reeds, and made them soft and musical. It led, also, to experi- ments in the direction i)f giving different i|ualilies of voice to reeds bv al- terations in their si/e ;md I'orm, which have >iiice proved successful. Prince vV C()ni[)any innnediatelv adopted all the new ideas in their melodeons. and presented to the i)u!)lic a class of instnnncnts which instantly became a powerful rival to the piano. Said Sjienser in a retired nook of an ancient palace. Playing alone, careless, on her licuvenly virginals." CAIllNKT-OiidAN. '■'■*, 't^ ( I [J Ml ■■siii; > il' 1 il y ft' I: 540 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY If the ancient virginal, with its fiiint, thin voice, could have filled the poet's head with d/eams, what would not the divine, assuaging strains of the sweet melodeon, now brought to perfection, have done in that direction ! In 1854 Mr. Hamlin formeil a partnership with Mr. Henry Mason, son of Dr. Lowell Mason the composer, and began the manufacture of reed-organs Progress of upo'i ^ large scale in Boston. The firm first presented to the the manu- public their organ-harmonium, with four sets of reeds and two man- facture. ^^.^j^ ^^ keys. In 1 86 1 they brought out the school-harmonimn, in 1862 the cabinet-organ. They have since constantly develoj)ed the re- sources, sweetness, and scope of their instruments, until they stand absolutely at the head of manufacturers of reed-organs in the world at large. They are not, however, the only American makers who excel the French, German, and English makers : many others do that, and among them the B. Shoninger Organ Company of New Haven, Conn. ; the Quaker-City Organ Companv, Philadelphia ; Peloubet, Telton, & Company of New York ; the Benham Organ Company of Indianapolis ; the Clough & Warren Organ Company of Detroit, Mich. ; and the Taylor & Farley Organ Company of \\'orcester, Mass. It is believed that these makers all build upon the exhaust or American plan ; and their instruments are certainly superior, in sweetness, variety, and rapidity of execution, to European organs, — a fact which is recognized by the large foreign sale of their organs. They receive orders from every continent in the world, and send abroad about $600,000 worth of instruments annual!)-. The manufacture in the United .States is now being carried on in about Number of scvcnty-fivc establishments. In 1870 the production had already establish- reached 32,000 instruments a year, which was a good ways ahead ""^^ ^' of the manufacture of pianos. It cannot at ])resent be less than 50,000 a year. In the building of pipe-organs for cliurches the Unitetl States have made some progress. They are able n(«v to depend \ipon their own factories for all that they need in this class of musical instruments. I'he principal makers are Hook & Hastings of Boston, and Oeorge Jardine iv Son of New York. About 700 clnnrh-organs are made every year. The manufacture of brass horns and trumpets, violins, banjos, guitars. drums, cymbals, xylophones, gongs, accordions, tambourines, and all othc, Manufacture ''i^truments, both for serious and comic use, is now conducted of brass u))on a large scale. The industry is in a very healthy state. instruments. r,,i i • i ^ i c \ i -i i i- • i' I he liighest class of brass and silver pieces, and 01 violins, is being attempted, and reasonable success has been attained by a 'i^w makers. Oemiinder of New York, especially, has done well in violins. The manutac- ture now amounts to about $2,500,000 worth yearly. There is a fondness tor European instruments of these smaller kinds, however, which our makers have not yet conquered ; and $700,000 worth of them are imported yearly. Tlie triumph which the piano an haiacter of the chemicals used. In England, where matcli-niaking i sed to be carried on largely at home, the poor ])eoi)le engaged in \. -vere i;,n-er free iron the fiimcN. .\t night their very clothing vas iau i''Ous ni '!;c day-tiiiT white xapors were continually rising fn m the'ii, Amr:if-ii mgenuit). bv introducing the use of machines, lias made the busiifjps vc-v diircrtMit sort *)i an occupation : and it is now as healthfiil as the inaioMv '^i ^viilL's. Qu Mi.ity of [ r.L.:.', boras consi.n;. J . match- making. OF THE UNITED STATES. 543 Among the matches now made are several for special uses, — the parlor- match, for instance, which uses no sulphur, and is thus free from the choking fumes of bulphur ; the smoker's match, which blazes strongly, and various can be used to light a cigar in the wind or rain ; and the wax kinds of match, which burns a long time, and is an elegant affair for '"**'^ **' dainty uses. GLASS-WARE AND J'OTTEKY. The first glass-factory in the United States was started in Virginia almost immediately after the founding of the first settlement. It is so!d that the very first cargo sent l)ack to England contained " trials " of glass n.ade ^. r . , . First glass- ill Virginia. There is very little on record about that original factory in establishment ; but it appears, at any rate, that it stood in the ^"''='^ \vo(xls, about a mile fiom Jamestown, and that a portion of its product was in the form of glass beads to be used in the trade with the Indians. In 1621 a fund was '•"bscribod to establish a factory especially for ulass beads. Italian workmen v, ,Te sent over to get the works in operation. Whether one or more factories wc "e in operation in 1632 is not known; but one certainly was. It was broken up, however, in that year, by the Indians, who in\aded the colony, and destroyed factories, the crops, and the settlers, indiscriminately. The glass-bead business was not again resumed in Virginia ibr more than a hundred and fifty years. The next essay by the colon 'sts was in Missachu/etts. Glass bottles, table- ware, and window-glass were universally wanted, and the coloniNts were not satisfied with the slow and costly business of tretting them from ^, ■' 00 Glass-mak Muropt. Factories were accordingly started at Hraintree at a very inginMas- cadv date, and at Salem in 16^0 : they were encouraged by the "^^chnsetts ^ ■• J J olony. goNcrnment of the colony of Massachusetts, and appear to havt thrived for a long period. The one at Braintree remained in Oj until the dme of the Revolution. Philadelphia had a glass-h An old map of New- York City shows that there were two gl; that place as early as 1732. During the Revolutionary war vv; made in New Jersey ; but it was a very inferior article. After the I'Kuiufacture of glass v/as encouraged both bv die nation i; 1)V several of the state governments, as beinii one of the back- ment of in A;u(i industries of the countrv. Ten i)er cent duty was levied ^ustry after ' •' Revolution- ui)on all imported glass-ware by the former. In 1788 the legis- ary war by lature of New York loaned three thousand pounds for eight vcnrs "^^ states ^ and nation. to the proprietors of a glass-factory near Alliany, and about 1S03 .Massachusetts voted a bounty to a fiictory in Boston for every tible of window- i^Hass made. The manufacture was encouraged in Connecticut, ^ aryland, and Virginia ; and all of these States had small factories in operation before the beginning of the present century. The business began at Pittsliurgh, Penn., ion nearly e in 1683. -factories at )w-glass was c Revolution ! Encourage- {■■i ^IPP 544 IND US TKIA I. HIS TO K ) ' |i I'l %\ i w-'i! ■ , i in 1796, with the cstablishmLMit of bottle and crown glass works by (Ilmi. O'Hara. This factory met with great success ; and it is in operation even ;it Success of ^'^^ present day, under the ownership of Thomas Wightmaii \- factory at Company, though, of course, so enlarged and changed as to jjossess Pittsburgh. ^1^1^, ^1^^. ^^^j|^ ,^|^^j ^^^^ ^]^^. body, of the original works. Pittsburgh became the principal glass-making city of the cotuitry in a very Ww years. den. O'Hara's success inspired others to go into the business, and the war of 181 2 operated to provide still further inducements by raising the jjrices of glass-ware ; and, as Pittsburgh was sufificiently remote from the coast ami frontier to be safe from the operations of the war, by 18 14 there were five glass-furnaces in blast in that city, making bottles, window-glass, and table- ware. One of them was the flint-glass-works of Blakewell iv: Comjxany, the pioneer of its class in .America. This concern imported its workmen ; il made sets of table-ware for two presidents, and also produced a sjjlendid vase which was subsequently presented to Lafayette. The United States were designated by nature as a glass-making country. The land is stored in every part with sand, limestone, and disintegrated quartz- Favorabie •'"^-^ "^ *'''•-' ^'^'^^ quality ; and there has always been an abundance of cheap fuel. Only one of the materials entering into the com- position of glass is not present in this country in al)undance : that is soda, which constitutes twenty per cent of the weight of glass. This can be obtained, however, as cheaply as it can be in luigland, Belgium, and France ; and the jiossession of the odier materials is a qualifi- cation for the business such as 'i. \i i;'f.-: J 41111 546 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY of a blovv-pipc, and acquires its first form by the operation of the lungs and hands of the workman. Window-glass is made by blowing the lump into tables or cylinders. The sand, carbonate of soda, manganese, and arsenic, which compose th.e glass, are first melted down in eight or ten pots arranged in a large circular dome, in the centre of which is the fire. It takes about forty-eight hours to perfect the fusion. When the bubbles are all gone, and the dross has been skimmed oi^, a workman dips the end of a blow-pipe five feet long, with a diameter ran^Mug from one-fourth inch to one inch, into the melted glass, and takes up a lumj) of it : he blows tiiis into a large flat globe. A boy affixes to the globe opposite \W pipe an iron rod with the aid of a lit- tle melted glass, and ti.e blow -pipe and the nose of tiie globe are then sc])a- rated from the glol)e by the application of a piece of c:old iron. The globe held by the iron rod is then put into the furna( e, and ra])idly revolved. It softens, and finally opens out with a llaj) into a flat dish, whic h is then kept revolv- ing until it is cold. It is next sent to the an- nealing - furnace, and its brittleness removed by annealing ; and it is then cut up for the market with a diamond-point. The other process of making window-glass is to blow a lump of melted material out into a cylinder, which is done by holding the blow-pi])e alternately over the head, and then down below the platform on which the workman stands. In the hitter position it elongates into a cylinder. The cylinder being put into the oven, the heated air within bursts out the entl opposite to the blow-pii)e. The latter end is cut off with a hot iron as soon as the cylinder is cool. The cylinder is then slit once lengthwise, and laid in an oven, where it softens, o[)ens, and flattens down, the workman assisting the DECANTliUS. OF THE UNITED STATES. 547 Plate-glass. ojicration by working a block of wood over it attached to the end of a rotl. 'I'hc plate is then sent off to be annealed. The distortions which are pro- duceil by looking throngh window-glass come from the fact, that, the inner and outer surfaces of the cylinder being of different lengths, the flattening produces in the glass undulations called cockles. Kottles and hollow-ware arc blown (jut from a lump of melted material, and shaped in moulds of brass or iron, which open and shut on a hinge, and are worked by the foot. IMate-glass is cast upon an iron slal), at the Bottles and sides of which are placctl bars i)f iron of the intended thickness hoUow- of the plate. .An iron or copi)er roller rests upon these bars, and IS then rolled over the surface of the melted glass, pressing before it the super- fluous material, and giving the plate a uniform thickness. The edges of the plate are trimmed when it is cool, and the plate is then annealed. Flint-glass for table-ware is ground after pressing by means of sand and emery wheels. The sharp edges so often noticed are produced in tliis way. All glass has to be ground and polished by apparatus specially fitted up for the purpose. Colored glass for stained windows, lanterns, t\:c., is matle by mixing into the melting-pot oxide of gold for red, oxide of coi)per for blue, oxide of manganese for amethyst, iron ore and manganese for orange, copper anil iron for green, and other metals for other colors. The color may be produced in the body of the glass itself, or only on the surface : if on the surface, it is produced by dipping the lump of clear glass into a i)ot of colored material, when some of the latter clings to the whole surface, and remains permanent in every stage of the subsecjuent processes. The silvering of glass for mirrors is a simple operation. Tin-foil is spread over a stone table, and tpiicksilver i)oured thinly over it. The jilate of glass is slid slowly upon the table, pushing the quicksilver before it, the object being to ])revent any air getting under the glass. The sui^erfluous metal is then draA-n off, and the plate weighted down foi several hours. It is then taken up, the tin-foil adher- ing, and exposed to the air. back uppermost, for several days, until the amalgam is perfectly hard. The Siemens reverberatory gas-furnace has been adopted in the glass- manufacture, as well as in the iron and steel business. — more largely abroad, however, than in America. It is now considered essential in the c, „„, ,„ ' oiemens re- making of the higher qualities of glass. The ordinary Airnace, verberating with its melting-pots arranged around an open fire-box. is certain ^^^' "''"^'^^■ to injure the glass by bringing coal-dust, suljjhur, i\:c., into contact witli the melting-materials. This is all obviated by the Siemens furnace ; and the enlargement of the plate and fine glass business in this country can only proceed wi' h the aid of this style of furnace. Potter}' vas one of the earliest manufactures of the colonists. The T,on- don companies sent over potters to all the colonies, and the Dutch did the saiue for their settlements at the mouth of the Hudson. The colonists ^^i: f«ii ; ii* ' ill I 548 IND US TKIA I. Ills TOR Y ;r';:^i'->' \\\ l^f' ■ I'M;:! ANCIENT rolIKJiV -)VO. could not get on without jars, jugs, mugs, and fartlicn dishes ; and every dis- trict of the couutrv hail its own pottery. Alexander Hamilton reported in 1790 that the business was Manufacture t H l' i V i n g . It 'waS of pottery by o n e o f t h e I'e \v coloniiits. 1 1 r ' I brandies ol indus- try whie(t, and animal patterns, according to the taste of the day. This brani of manufac- ture partakes of the character ol line art. and it is not one in which American artisans have yet won anv distinguished success. What will be the result when the excellent schools of design in Massachusetts and New York have done their work a little more thoroughly, need not be referred to here ; but it may be said I '• t'l IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // 1.0 Uilli 12.5 140 I.I ■ 2.2 U IK 11-25 III 1.4 1 2.0 WJ4 ^^ /J / Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4S03 '%'■ 4i l/.A t ^ 55° INDUSTRIAL HISTORY tliat there is ample room in the United States for a large corps of native- American decorators. The taste of the people for choice table-ware has outriirk the ability of the native factoiies to gratify it. Decorated cliina is now the attiibute of the rich. It ought to be within the reach of all the people ; but it never will be until there are more decorators, — a great many more, — and until all the manufactories can afford to emplo)- them. The decorators are at pres- ent principally men of foreign l)irth and training. The very l)esi class are native artists, who occasionally lay aside the easel to illuminate a jar, a vase, a placpie, or some other object of clay, for a friend or for the market. As before said, it is only the rich that can afford to en- gage the senices of either class. It is not strange that the I'nitcd States should not yet be great in china and porcelain ware, when we reflect that attention to the industry only began about sixty years ago ; while, on the other hand, the jtonelain countries par (\\ccllcur<' of the world have practised the art of moulding and decorating this ware for a period of from three hundred to a thousand years. The best that can be saitl of the art as it exists in this country at the ])resent day is, that it promises well for the future. It most < ertainly iloes that. PORCRI.AIN CfP. c;luk. The most arid soils sometimes best repay cultivation ; and things the most useless and valueless in life often turn (nit to be, in the hands of those wlio From what know their peculiar (lualities, articles of priceless merit. It is from it is made. refuse that some of the most necessar}' and excellent commodities of the age are obtained. Cdue is one of these commodities. It is made from the trimmings and clipjiings of hides, which are removed during the process of curryinr and tanning. Those scraps are not only useless for any other pur- pose than glue-making, bu., were ihey not available for some such purpose, they would be absolutely unpleasant to have on hand. They would be hard til dispose of, and, unless speedily rem.oved, would be a source of disease and danger. As it is, howe\er, science has put them to use for the produc- tion of an article which society could not now get along without ; for glue is of universal convenience. It enters into the binding of the books we take up every day ; it cements the furniture which we use every hour of our lives; it renders writing-paper capable of taking ink without blurring ; it makes turpentine and petroleum barrels tight ; it joins the violin ; and, in flict. performs a thousand services of the most necessary and interesting description. Were it not for the fact that this article can be made from refuse cuttings of hide which are of no intrinsic value whatever, it would be so costly, that books, paper, furniture, anil all objects into the Utility. i '/ 4. •f O/'' THE UNITED STATES. 551 of native- has outrun s now thf 5lc ; Init if. -and u: it.il re at pros- ing, 'i'iic ionally lay placjuc, or le market, brd to cn- rangc that china and on to tliL' while, on orld have d of from of the art s well fur the most those wl'io It is from inmodities uade from le process other pur- i purpose, l1 be hard if disease e produc- for glue ng of the which we aking ink ; it joins necessary :]e can be whatever, into the construction of which it enters, would be so much more expensive, that the increased price might suffice to turn the scale adversely when one was deciding whether to buy those articles or not. In glue-making, the cuttings of hide, when fresh, are put into a strong solution of lime in order to remove the hair, fat, and bits of meat, clinging to them, and to dispose the cuttings to melt readily upon the appli- procggg ^f cation of heat. When sufficiently treated, the scraps are taken giue- out of tiie lime-water, and washed and dried, 'i'he latter process *"" '"^" is performed in the most thorough manner ; and, in order that there may be perfect desiccation, the scrajis are generally stored for a long period of time. \\\ the spring and fall the scraps are put into the melting-pot in bags of netting, and boiled with rain-water. 'The gelatinous substance in them dis- solves readily into liipiid glue. The glue is drawn off, strained, and allowed to cool and settle ; and, when it becomes hard like jelly, it is sliced into sheets, and spread upon nets to dry. Drying recjuires two or three weeks. The sheets are ready for the store when perfectly dry, though they are usually stored away in lofts for a while before they are marketed. The climate of America is very fa\oral)le to glue-making, on account of its dryness. In moist countries, like England, the drying is not so perfectly and beautifully done. There are now about seventy glue-factories in the United States. Phila- delphia is the principal centre of the trade, although Chicago and St. Louis iiave latterly attained some importance in it. The Philadelphia factories are very large. A purely American variety of glue was invented by Mr. Spaulding. It was called '* Spaulding's Prepared (Hue," and under that name was extensively advertised and sold, not only \\\ the United Stales, but in F^urope ,.g ^^jj_ and other parts of the world. It was made in a li(iuid form, ing's and had the (juality of hardening when applied to the cementa- ^"''""^ tion of two surfaces. Sold in bottles of small size, its con- venience secured for it great popularity. Various preparations of this sort are now in the market. An ounce of nitric acid to the pound of dry ghie, or three parts of acetic acid to one of dry glue, i)reserves the glue in liquid form. One of the most important uses of glue is for the making of sand and emery paper, — an industry which is carrieil on freciuently, if not generally, in the glue-tactories themselves. The sheets of paper ;„" aking used are made from okl rojjc so as to be very tough, or from sand and nianila-.lbre direct. Sand-paper and emery-paper are largely *^"^ used in all factories in which wood is fashioned for jjopular use, and in many other shops besides. They are comparatively recent inventions, and are of great service to manufacturers. 552 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY VKNKKKINd. use of veneering. The ancient forests of IJra/il and other parts of South America contain enough trees of rare nn«l beautiful cabinet-woods to give the whole human race furniture of solid woods. lUit these forests cannot be utilized at present, and will not be brought into the market for many generations ; and cabinet Economy in ^^''ods of great beauty arc, therefore, rare in the general market. an(4 costly, rather than abundant and cheap, as they might be. About fifty years ago the cost of cabinet-woods was so great, that three logs of mahogany sold for five thousand dollars apiece in London. 'I'he expense of all i\\\^ cabinet-woods, and the actual scarcity of some varie- ties, led to the art of sawing up beautiful logs into thin sheets, and of covcriiig furniture, doors, picture-frames, chests, eVc, made of ( heaper woods, with these sheets of the rarer timber, so as to produce the same effect as though the articles were made of solid cabinet-woods, and thus to gain the appearance, without the cost, of solid wood. It was an application to cabinet-work of the idea of plating an inferior substance with a superior, which has also bieii utilized in silver-smithing, glass-making, and other industrial arts. Singulailv enough, after veneering had been invented and practised for this object, it was found that the practice had a great nuTit of its own in strengthening the wood veneered by preventing it from splitting and cracking, and in enabling the workman to produvx' a number of panels, i\:c., of exactly the same graining of wood. Its utility for all these general purposes has led to its general and increasing employment. The woods which are sawed up for veneering are rose-wood, mahogau)-, ebony, sandal-wood, satin-wood, bird's-eye-maple, French maple, tulip-wood, Kinds of and a large variety of the South-American cabinet-woods, whose woods used. ,-,ames are so strange and unjironounceable, that it would not be desirable to reproduce them here. The best ])ortions of the tree for sawing are those where tlie branches form, because the twisted and gnarled arrange- ment of the fibres of the tree in those parts of the trunk produces a wide variety of interesting forms in the graining of the wood, and deci)ens the color, and renders the wood more close antl compact. The \eneers are sawed out very thin ; but the thinness varies with the value and (itiality of the Thickness of wood, from an eighth to a hundredth of an inch. Saws of great veneering. precision, running in gangs, arc used. Sometimes a diiferent l)roccss is used, the veneers being cut off in a broad jieel by a turning- lathe. This, however, is more generally resorted to in cutting sheets of bone and ivory. The veneers arc sent to the cabinet-maker rough, because the rough face Treatment of assists in glueing them down. They are fastened on simply with veneers. good gluc ; the only care necessary being this, that they nuist be worked down so thoroughly as to expel the air from below them. 'I'hey are OF THE UNITED STATES. 553 t.lampcd down uiUil cool and dry. Tlic outer surface of the veneering is then polishcil, and treated exactly as though the arti( le were made of sohd cabinet-wood. Undoubtedly a pure taste would dictate a preference for a black-walnut or common maple article of furniture whicii was made of solid wood, and was exactly what it repiescnted to be, than a much more splendid and showy artide, apparently of bird's-eye-maple or rosewood, which, in reality, was veneered. Hut veneering is not necessarily a cheat, and it has too many valuable uses to be dispensed with altogether. For instance, who would want a piano to be of solid rosewood ? \\\\q could afford to buy one of solid wood ? CAKKIAC.KS AND CARS. The forests of the 'Jnited States, once so magnificent, are now being swept away with a ra|)i''.ity which has alarmed our statesmen, and has made the sub- ject of replanting the devastated fields a cpiestion of vital impor- Destruction tance. The demands upon the timber-growth of the country are ""ofest*. enormous. Wood is wanted for millions of dwellings, for fences, furnit'ire. sliipping, railroad-ties, fuel, telegraph-poles, machinery, boxes, for exportation to foreign countries, and a thousand other objects ; and, instead of the de- mand falling off as timber grows scarce, it i i the fact, that in many cases the demand is constantly increasing. The recpiirements of the car and carriage factories, for instance, are increasing every year. In the days of our great-grand f;ithers, the occasional ancient coacl , and the heavy lumber-wagon in which the freight-transportation of the coun ry was carried on. were almost the only vehicles that rolled along the road^. The people did contrast be- not own private carriages themselves. WIum they travelled, they tween the took to the coach, or rode on horseback, tho latter being the more "'''*" """^ " present time. customary plan. The jjurchase of a private carriage was such a rarity, that such an act was sufficient to stamj) a man as an aristocrat, and was very likely to create a prejudice against him. So that in those days, although the jjcople fairly lived under the branches of boundless and a])i)arcntly inex haustible forests, and though timber was as cheap as dirt, the amount of wood cut for carriage-building was so slight as to make no perce])tible impression upon the forests whatever. Hut now things have greatly <-hange(l. Within the hundred years just gone by an era of railroad-building and carriage-owning has come in, and during the last fifty years carriages and cars have been build- ing in increasing numbers year by year. Now, in 1S78. the demand ui)on the forests of the country for the stuff with which to build these vehi( les is some- tiling enormous and alarming. I'pon the railroads of the liiited States there now roll 350,000 cars, and upon the highways and streets 15,000,000 carriages, stages, trucks, anfl carts. To replace the old and sup])ly the demand for new vehicles of these several classes, it is estimated that the country now requires 1 i Ir' t i 554 /A'/? f/S TRIA r. ///S 70 A' Y the growth of 500,000 acres of timber annuiilly. These figures show better tb.-in any tiling else can the enormous development reached by this special industry in the United States. The earliest efforts of the people of America at carriage-making were put forth in the direction of building rude carts and wagons without springs for First efforts "^'-' '" teaming goods to and from the mill, from the farms to in carriage- town, and vicc vcrsit, and from city to city. The wheels for thcrie malting. vehicles were all, or nearly all, imported, until the Revolutionary war ; at which date the colonists, for the first time, fell to making them gener- ally for themselves. 'I'he few private carriages of that clay, one of whi< h Importation was owued by Washington, were imported. They were heavy, of carriages, toach-like affairs, drawn by six horses, and adapted to travelling on the bad roads of that period. With the better times which came after the WINUSOU UAC.ON. Revolution, and particularly after the war of 181 2, the carpenters turned their hands to something besides heavy wagons, and especially to a new style of vehicles (namely, stage-coaches) for which there then grew uj) a great dciuand. Stage-coaches were unknown in the United States until after the Revolution. There were only 1,905 miles of best roads in the country in 1791, and the mail was carried in heavy wagons. Lines of stages were started to run in every direction, however, after 1791, in the coast States ; and the requirements of the companies, recorded l)y a heavy tariff of forty-five per cent, soon gave carriage-building a great impetus in all i)arts of the country. Very little was done for the imiM-ovement of the ordinary freighting or Conestoga wagon for a long period ; but tiie models and arrangements of the coach were things which touched the people closely, and this class of carriages received a great X, OF THE UNITED STATES. 555 (leal of attention accordingly. Woods were sought for to compose the axles, wheels, and body, whi(h were, at the same time, the toughest and lightest. The scats were carefully cushioned. Mvcry part of the vehicle was carefully studied and improved ; and the whole coach was made light, strong, comforta- ble, and serviceable to a degree which had never been known before. One 556 IND US Th'/A I. Ills TO A' V factory started at Troy, N.Y., al)oiit the year 1815, became famous in the manufacture of a style of coach which was far supe- rior to the ancient models of Kngland, J.nd which s(>oii came into general use in this country u n d e r tlie name "Troy of the coach." "Troy coach." The stage- coaches of the pres- ent day are still mainly of this jjai- tern, developed at 'i'roy, N. Y. An- other firm, at Con- " Concord cord, wagon." j»^T PI became famous for another style of coach, adapted to summer travel. It had the three scats and the boot of the regular stage ; Init it had a wagon-body, and a light canvas top. It took tlie name of the " Con- cord wagon," anfl is still known by that name wherever manufactured. About 1830 still another style of coach was intro- duced, which took the name of " om- nibus." It was an extremely long vehicle, a sort of ark, with two seats running longitudinally of the coach. Invented in France in 1827, it was OF rifK UX/TKP STATES. 557 introduced to New York in 1830, and was cmi)I()ycd to run on rej^ular routes in that and other cities for th<" a' < onimodation of people going up and down ami about town. These omnibuses are made very introduction much smaller now than formerly, hut are still run in most large i» the cities. Their value lies in the fact that they are more exclusive *"""' "** than the street-car, and they su|)ply the fa( ilities for city tra\el without injuring the streets through which they run by the laying of an iron track. After 1830 the business of carriage-buikling developed very rapidly, and many new ideas were introduced. The elliptical spring, invented in 1825, began to be employed. Smiths began to make the tires of their wheels in solid rings, and to shrink them on by cooling, instead of '.'' ''. , o ' /ft' velupmentoi making them in pieces, breaking joints with the fellies. Hickory carriage- came into general use for wheels and frames on account of its •'"'•'■'"k "^ since 1830. Strength and lightness. Machinery was invented to make the spokes, hubs, tops, the small metal-work, and other parts of wagons and car- riages, by the thousand and tens of thousands. New styles of wagons were con- trived, adapted to speci.il needs. The business developed remarkably fast ; and improvement followed improvement so rapidly, especially in the construction of pleasure-carriages, that particular builds of wagon became antitpiated in less than ten years, and were superseded by something else, lighter, handsomer, stronger, and cheaper. Hundreds of new factories were starteil, and hundreds of ingenious brains were set to work devising new ideas in pattern, build, and materials. The general tendency of all improvements was to c heai en the cost of carriages, and make them lighter and stronger. The reduced cost, and the improved roads and growing wealth of the t ountry, brought about a lively demand for the products of the factories ; and by 1850 the manufacture and sale of carriages were enormous. The American patterns were very much admired in ICurope. They were largely copied in luirope, and heavy orders were sent here for the carriages themselves. The factories have always shown a readiness to change the styles of their work, and to pass from one thing to another, according as fashions or the circumstances of the times have changed. Some of the factories shifted to the business of making railroad and street cars when railroads came into being, and discontinued the wagon-branch of the business altogether. Many of them took to making army-wagons during the war. lOxpress-wagons were taken up by many of them at one period, and there has been a long rivalry between the factories for the production of the wagon which should ( arry the largest number of tons of goods with the least draught upon the horses. Some of this class of goods are now made to carry five tons of goods. Children's carriages have been added to the business of many firms. Some factories now make from three hundred to five hundred styles of carriages. Large numbers of the different styles of American wagons are now exported to the different parts of the world ; and America, which once was 1 I If 11^ J! ' Ml' II' Pf (|i(lv 55« iND US Th'/A L HJH TO A' Y l)c'h()l27,000 IS70 H.S47 .Soo,ooo 54.02S 65,502,000 1873 IJ.5CO 1, 000,000 75,000 100,000,000 The business of building railroad and street cars has all grown up siiK e 1830. It has centred principally in the Middle States, owing to the necessity Railroad and <>f pr(jxiniity to the iron and coal regions. There are now a hun •treetcars. ^\J^.^\ .jp,i tluje fai tories in operation in the United States and Canada, six of them being in (.'anda. An average of sixty thousand cars are built yearly, the majority being freight- ars of the four-wheeled and eight- wheeled types. The passenger-cars corstitute less than one-twentieth of the whole number built, though, jjerhaps, hdlf the total value of cars built. These cars are of the eight-wheeled and twehe-wheeled types. The early railroad- cars of the United States were merely slight modifications of the ordinary stage- coach. As soon as it was seen that thi new style of travelling was to be an established thing, however, the railroad-car proper was immediately invented. .'\t first the car was merely in i)rinci])Ie several stage-bodies joined together, the seats lu'lng arranged in compartments, and the conductor climbing along from one compartment to the others on a foot-board outside. This style of car was the common basis from whit h the .American and the l-lnglish car of the jjreseiU day has been developed. The l-'.nglish people, however, improved ujion this ancient sort of car, merely to make it larger and more comfortable, retaining the compartment system on account of its aristocratic, exclusiveness. The Americans, on the other hand, improved upon the parent vehicle, not only to render it larger and better, but to make it more democratic. The car was elongated, the doors ])laced at the two ends, and a row of scats jilaced on each side of the car ; the aisle for the conductors and passengers being in the ( entre. and the whole interior of the car being free from comi)artments and partitions. Down to the time of the war. the American cars were still somewhat crude affairs They frequently leaked during rain-storms, and the dust from the locomotive and ground 'bund its way into the interior through the cracks at the windows. The cars were poorly ventilated, and the seats were uncomfortable. Since i860 tlie cars have been so improved as to be luxuriously comfortable, 'i'he m OF THE UMTEl) STATES. 559 interiors have been heautifiod with rare w.»o> d/^ TA'/A /, ///5 70 A' r y^f^^ ROMAN VESSEL. America after that of house-building. The beginning was as early as 1607, "The wherj the I'opham colonists in Maine built a thirty-ton vessel Virginia." called " The Virginia," which subsecjuently made several voyages across the Atlantic. Though the Atlantic has, since that date, been crossed in more diminutive craft than "The Virginia," a voyage in so small a vessel now would be considered little short of madness. No ves- sel like that could be put into ocean-trade now. and \)ay. " The Virginia " was a busy litde ship during its ex- istence. It came to .America with the dates and Somers expedition in 1609, and traded back and forth along the coast and to England for many years quite diligently. When Lord Delaware arrived at I'oint Comfort in Virginia, in the summer of 16 10, he found the craft there along with tiiree other vessels, " The Discovery," " The Deliverance," and " The Patience," which had been sent over by the London Company. The second vessel built in America of which there is any record was a Dutch yacht called "The Onrest," which was constructed on the Hudson "The River, by .Vdrian Rlok, in 1614. This yacht is antedated only by Onrest." "The Virginia." It used to be a saying, that no matter wiiere an English ship sailed, or in whatever part of the world an ICnglishman kinded, a Dutchman and a Dutch ship were sure to have been there ahead of them. This pioneer yacht of North America fulfilled the old saying with respect to a large part of New England; for in 1614, six years before the arrival of the English colonists in Massachusetts, Adrian Blok, making a voyage through Hell Gate and Long-Island Sound, had discovered Block Island, and Inspected the coast as far as Cape Cod. In 16 16 he had explored the whole coast from Nova Scotia to Virginia. The same year that the ancient Knickerbockers had thus established the naval art on the Hudson River, Capt. John Smith landed in Maine, I i 111 ■I i 5 ■"% ^^h^'^^l^': m 572 INDUSTRIAL II IS TORY time in history, and every country which had any active trade wliatcvcr witli the new re},'i()ns of the earth was obliged to build a new and larger cl;'ss of merchant-vessels for the service. 'I'he colonists in .\meri< a hiiill for the trans-oceanic trade from the start : hence the size of their ships became large rapidly. Mention is made of one, about 1643, which was still larger than three hundred tons. In 1652 an event occurred which assisted ship-builut by 1812 earlier faults had been corrected, and " Alliance." \i \^.^'^-.»^,, or> riiK I'MTEn siates. 575 576 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY 'II J i w- 3 ,"' 1 i( '■• t) 1 JiJi'" " 1 11 1 IJ... the ships of the United States were the handsomest and swiftest in the world. 'I'here was great compensation in that, wlien peace came, for tlie years (jf ri;,k and loss which had preceded. The second advantage above referred lo was more immediately the result of the brilliant victories of the wa. of 1S12. Upon the return of peace the United States demanded that her ships should be permitted to sail the seas unmolested, and that they should be received in European ports upon the same footing as the ships of "the most favored nations ; " or, in other words, that navigation should be conducted on a basis of exact reciprocity. The prestige which this country had gained in that war prompted England to accede to the demand at once ; and the other nations of the world entered into treaties of maritime reciprocity soon after, or else passed laws which had the same effect. It had been customary in Europe to tax American ships entering port a heavier tonnage duty than native ships. We had returned the compliment in 1 789 by taxing foreign ships entering our ports fifty cents a ton, and American ships only six cents a ton. These discriminating duties were repealed in 181 5 with respect to England, and during the next twen'^v years with respect to most other maritime powers ; and trade was placed upon an equal and reciprocal footing. The good effects Superiority ^^^'"^ ^°^'^ Seen. American ships, being swifter, stancher, and of American better managed than those of any other commercial nation, got ^ '''^" possession immediately of almost the entire foreign commerce of this country, and the shipping and carrying trade of the country increased very fast. Our grain, cotton, timber, tobacco, rice, naval stores, hides, pro- visions, and other crude products, began to go abroad in very large quantities ; and the wants of this growing country made it. necessary to bring to our shore from Europe immense cargoes of cloths, clothing, iron-manufactures, steel, chemicals, &c., and tens of thousands of emigrants. American ships obtained the principal part of the carrying ; and, as commerce and travel increased, shipping increased too. The only locality which was at all famous for its ship building south of New- Ship. build- ^^'"^ ^'^y* '" t'''^ ^^""'y P^^^ of this century, was the Chesapeake ing at Chesa- Bay. The schooners and ships of this region were among the pea e ay. handsomest and swiftest flying our flag or any other. They took the name of " clippers ; " and, though the beautiful models upon which they were constructed were soon adopted all along the coast, the Balti- more clippers were thought slightly superior to all others, and were regarded far and wide as having attained the acme of the ship-building art. The lines of packets which were started after 181 5 to ply from New York, Boston, and other cities, to the European ports, and which continued to run until about the time of the war of 1861, were of the clipper-model; and, in fact, all American ships were built of that pattern, except a few of large capacity, constructed expressly to carry cotton, which were organized solely with a view to cargo-room, and had queer hulls bulging below the water-line. " Clipper*." OF THE UNITED STATES. 577 The performances of the clippers have been remarkable. The Liver[)ool packets from New York and Boston (varying from six hundred to nine hundred tons' burden) used to make the trip across the sea regularly from twelve to twenty days. As early as 1825 the ship "Oliver Ellsworth" ran from New York to Liverpool in thirteen days. " The Independence," one of whose sailing-days was March 5, which annually took out the President's message, once made the run across the ocean in nine days, showing a speetl which is rarely exceeded at the present time by an ocean-steamer. " The Flying Scud" of the Australian packet-line from New- York City (1,703 tons' burden) was accustomed to make the whole voyage to Australia in seventy-six days with a cargo, and in 1S54 once ran four hundred and forty-nine nautical miles in twenty-four hours (over eighteen miles an hour). No modern steamer can beat that : the clipper-schooners alone have beaten this time. " The Clipper City" (a hundred and eighty-five tons), a fast-sailing lumber-vessel, built in 1854 for the trade of Lake Michigan, ran regularly eighteen knots an hour, and has been known to make the astonishing speed of twenty knots. These are not exceptional cases : they are merely instances of the speed of the fast- sailing ships of the United States. About 1830 there began to be a perceptible increase in the size of the ships of the country, owing to the large coasting-trade which was springing up. The exchange of products between different parts of the ship-buiid- seaboard was becoming very large. Cotton, rice, sugar, and to- '"£ '" '^3°* bacco were coming North : cloths, iron and steel manufactures, carriages,, tools, fertilizers, India-goods, &c., were going South. Barks and ships were, in consequence, built for the trade, varying between five hundred and eight hundred tons' burden, in plnce of the hundred and fifty and increase in three hundred ton schooners- and brigs. The foreign trade was ®"*- at the same time becoming very heavy, and thousand-ton merchantmen began to make their appearance. When gold was discovered in California, and the famous stampede of that and the suljsequent five or ten years began, shipping took another step forward ; and huge clipper freight-ships of a special class were built for the long voyage around Cape Horn to the new regions on the Pacific, to which the whole world was rushing. By 1850 sixteen- hundred-ton vessels were employed in the California trade ; and the tonnage of the vessels increased year by year, until (in 1878) there are sailing-ships ])lying to San Francisco from New York of twenty-five hundred tons' burden. One gigantic clipper, called "The Ocean King" (a four-master, owned in Boston), is of four thousand' tons burden: another, "The Great Republic," is of the same size. The Californiamen, in flict, now figure in the American merchant marine very much as the East-Indiamen have always done in the English marine : they are the great ships of the sailing-fleet. This trade, being a part of the coasting-trade of the United States, is expressly reserved to our flag. ..«i«fei4*iWi4j f £1 S7S IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y }5y 1 86 1 the shipping of the United States had reached a, very interesting development. Beginning in 1783 with about a hundred thousand tons of ships, — few of which were more than three hundred tons' burden, and the vast majority of which were under a hundred, — the national wealth in ships increased (luite steadily, in spite of all disadvantages, until in 1861 the total tonnage of the country had reached the enormous figure of 5,539,813. I'lngland alone exceeded us. The American shipping comprised the finest and largest under sail afloat, and the assortment of types they included was perhaps the most extensive under the sun. The special wants of different parts of the coast and of different trades had given rise to different classes of vessels : among the number were the Gloucester fishing-boat ; the Block- Island double-enders ; the New-England sharpy, flat-bottomed and cat-rigged : the Long-Island and Hudson-river sloops ; the clipper brigs, barks, and ships ; the " kettle-bottomed " cotton-ships ; the Boston ice-ship, for the Panama and South-American trade ; the lumber-schooner, carrying the most of its load on deck ] the fishing-dory ; and the pleasure-yacht, the appearance of whose model in English waters in 1S51, in "The America," built at New York, revolutionized pleasure-boating immediately. The war of 1861 caused a decrease in our shipping. In the first place it threw about a million tons of shipping out of employment, owing to the blockade of the South- *l'*Ui^^'j' ,1! ul r interesting md tons of md the vast th in ships n 1 86 1 the f 5>539'8i;v d the finest nchuled was of dilTerent cal-ngged OF THE UNITED STATES. 579 cm ports, and 'led to the sale or lease of the ships to the government, and tlie destruction of a large proportion of them in the war. Then 1 , . . , r ■ Effect r f Confederate cruisers began to capture our ships in the foreign ute war trade and whale-fisheries, and burn them. Maritime ventures be- "p°" s*^'P- 11- f 1 I building. came so hazardous in consequence of the captures, that our merchants were afraid to sail their ships upon the open sea any longer under the American flag; and, finding a ready market for them in England, they sold a great part of them to Englishmen and others, the sales amounting to 774,652 tons, the transfers during the four years of the war exceeding the sales to foreigners for forty years preceding. A large part of the tonnage in the foreign trade was recalled, and put into coasting. The war was a terrible blow to our carrying-trade ; and, although it is now thirteen years since the war ended, we have not yet recovered the ground lost during that struggle. We are getting it back slowly ; but it will be several years yet before the merchant marine of the United States stands where it did in 1861. The following table of selected years will show the growth statistics of and changes which have taken place since 1 789, the first year in growth and which the tabulation of accurate statistics began : — ^ anges. 17S9 1790 •795 I Sod iS;o 1S13 IS. 5 iSjo 1S25 .S;,o 1S40 IS 50 1S60 iS6i 1S65 1S66 TS70 1S76 TONNAGK Ri:(,IS- TKKICI) I'Oli THK I-OHEIGN ThAin;. i-3.'593 346.^54 529,47 [ 667,107 981,019 672,700 854,295 5«3-657 ' 667,40s 537.563 ' 762,838 1,439,694 --379.396 2,496,894 1,518,350 1,387.756 1,448,846 '5.59''' ..I'j'.'i 1,592,821 T 375-995 France . 3.'S5>S 725.0^3 Spain 2,915 557.3-0 (Ircecc . 2,121 426,925 Holland . M43 399.903 Sweden . 2,121 399. 1 jS Russia . '.785 391,95s Austria . 9>*^3 33'^6S4 Denmark •.34S i8S,95S Portugal . 456 107,016 South America 273 59.45^ Central America 153 59-944 Turkey . 305 48,209 lielgium . 55 23.344 Asia 42 16,019 Africa (l^iberia) 3 454 Total 58,208 i5.553.'^'-'^ English eminence has grown up, in part, from the employment in her trade of iron sailing-vessels, which she found she could build cheaper than she could wooden ones. No iron sailing-ships have been built in the United States, except one only, "The Iron Age," constructed at Wilmington, Del., about ten years ago. ^lliW.. OF THE UXITED STATES. 583 s of Paris, it sscls of tlie TONS. 5.807,375 2,390,521 1,410,903 1,292,076 37 5,9';S 725,0-13 557,320 426,925 399-903 399,i2'S 39 ',95''^ 33''^,6-S4 188,958 107,016 59,45*5 59-944 48,209 23,344 16,019 454 i5,553>''5y''5 in her trade an she could lited States, 1., about ten CHAPTER II. STEAMBOATS. ONE of the most imposing spectacles of this or any other age is the cahii and impressive manner in which lOngHsh writers claim " the glory of having introduced steam-navigation to the attention of the world," Fulton and and the coolness with which they say that tiiis invention — having, ^'"=''- like daylight, fresh air, and other objects of great utility, been born in Eng- land — finally left its inventors " to irradiate the names of others who reaped the benefit of their labors," the most prominent of the "irradiated" being l'"ulton. The first liritish steamboat splashed its way around a lake at 1 )alwin- ston, for the first time, in the middle of October, i 788, the event accruing to the great edification of the fiirm-hands of the regions adjacent, who came down to see a boat "driven by smoke" at the rate of four miles an hour. Vet experiments hud then been making with steamboats in America for thirty- eight years ; and in 1785, three years before the first English boat was tried, John Fitch had navigated the Schuylkill in a shallop, with a paddle-wheel at the stern, driven by steam ; and in 1786 he had made eight miles an hour with a second and new steamboat on the Delaware. The idea of propelling boats by some mechanical device even was not at all new with ICngland. The ancient PZgyptians had galleys which were worked by paddle-wheels propelled by oxen, the power being transmitteil somewhat on the principle employed in a modern threshing-machine. The Romans had the same style of craft to carry corn and soldiers to Sicily in the days of the commonwealth. It was proposed at l?erne to work vessels on the iluck-principle, by constructing two tremendous web-feet, which should open and shut like uml)rellas, and be operated by steam. One ingenious luiropean had also proposed to propel boats by firing big cannon from the stern, it being ascertained by experiment that a moderate-sized ship might be driven at the extraordinary velocity of ten miles a day with thirty barrels of gunpowder. In the romantic tale of " Amadis of Gaul " the unknown author had described a fiery vessel rushing over the ocean with the speed of the wind, in a way which really answered very well as a prediction and as a description of a modern Mississippi-river steamboat m^$, ^%^i^M*'> \va^ heforc tiie adoption of the FecK'ral Constitution, and while patents were issued only by the several States; so that l''itc:h had to apply to such of them as he thought would give him a favorable hearing each by itself. Pennsylvania gave him a fourteen-years' j)atent in 1787; and Delaware, New York, and \'irginia followed her example. In 1787 Ramsey brought out an invention ibr moving steamboats by means of a ])ump, water being drawn in at the l)ow, and expelled violently at the stern. This was the plan of Dr. .Mian in Mngland also, that gentleman believing tliat tlie boat would be rapidly propelled ; " thereby imitating \ery accurately what llie Author of Nature has shown us in the swimming of fishes, who proceed by protru.;ion with their tails." Rumsey tried his plan on the I'otomac, and then took it to I'lngland, where it worked well on the Thames, making four miles an hour. The inventor died in 1793, before he had reajjcd any substan- tial reward for his invention. Tlie next invention was by Fitch, and was nothing less than the ocean-i)ropeller, — a contrivance which most people yet believe to be an English affair, and which tlie English themselves, in their large and comprehensive way, definitely claim to be the originators of. The craft maile use of for Fitch's experiment with a propeller was a common long- boat eighteen feet in length. The boiler was a ten or twelve gallon pitch's iron-pot, with a thick plank lid firmly fastened down upon it. The invention steam-cylinders were of wood, barrel-shaiied outside, and firmly ^^"^'''''e''- lioo[)ed. The connecting-rods, beam, and crank were of ecjually simple con- struction. 'I'he propeller was a regular iron screw, the blade, or flange, taking three turns around the shaft. A\'ith this device Fitch made six miles an iiour, the sheet of water on which it was tried being Collect Pond, ninety feet deep, which covered the ground where the Tombs now stands in New-York City, and a large area in the vicinity. The boat was afterwards abandoned on the banks of the pond, and allowetl to decay. The tlate of the experiment is stated as i 796. In 1S04 Mr. Stevens of Hoboken, N.J.. made a number of trips on the Hudson River with a small steamboat propelled by a wheel at the stern. He afterwards did a great many valuable things in the way of perfecting the steam-engine. So far there had been nothing done, except in trying experiments. Fitch, ill 1 790, had run a boat between I'hiladelphia and Purlington to carry pas- sengers, which was operatee in 1786 to perfect his mechanical education, and push his fortune. Fulton made a great many curious experiments in locomotion in I'^urope, one of them -^>:^.'JS I ill If I 1 1- . it -• 586 liXDUSTRlAl. IIISTOKY \'X'\^ l)cing an attempt to blow up the I''nglish ships Ijlockading Bu'st in 1801, with a suhmarino torpedo, in behalf of Napoleon. He reiuained inuler water four hours and a half; and would have blown up an Mnglish seventy-four, except that she nioveil out of the way just in time to avoid him. He did not, in the end, blow up a siiip. He afterwards tried to sell to the English a patent to blow up the French; without success, however. In 1803 Fulton launched a steamboat on the Seine below I'aris, in behalf of himself and Chancellor Livingston, our minister to l'"rance, the latter of whom had taken great interest in Fulton's e\i)eriments. This pioneer boat of Fulton's met willi an astonishing mishap. The builder had miscalculated the strength of the vessel ; and, when the machinery was :>• • ^^tta,^ placed in the centre, she broke in two in the middle, and the whole concern went to the bottom. John Scott Russell, vice-president of the Society of Arts for Scotland in 1S41, who relates this incident, says, "'I'he shatlereil vessel was raised, and was found to be almost entirely broken up. How achnirable are the les- sons inculcated by a thorough fiiilure ! The American steam- boats have ever since been distinguished by the excel- lence of the strong and light framing by which their slender vessels are enabled to bear the weight and strain of their large and powerful engines." Fulton, nothing daunt- ed, fished out his machinery from the mud of the Seine, and in the fall of the same year placed it in another vessel, sixty-six feet long and eight feet wide. The vessel had paddle-wheels, but moved sc slowly (only three miles an hour) as to be thought at first a failure ; but Livingston and Fulton both learned from it valuable lessons, and they prepared to carry the benefit of their discoveries back to their native land immediately. They at once ordered an engine to be built by Bolton and Watt, to be forwarded to New York, to begin practical steam-navigation in American waters. Li\ing- ston got a patent from New- York State for the right to navigate its waters "The by steam for twenty years; and in 1807 "The Clermont" was Clermont." launched, under Fulton's direction, on the F^ast River at New York. She was of a hundred and sixty tons' burden, and was supplied with side paddle-wheels. A more astonished crowd of human beings had never collected on the shore of Manhattan Island since the days when the open- I-II.TON S mUTIiri.ACli, .,-{'S? OF THE UNITED STATES. 5.^7 moiitlicd red man saw Hcndridc Eludson sail up the bay, and cast anchor off slujro, tluin were assembled the da)' " 'I'he ClermiMit" made its first trial-trip. Everybody had said the experiment would fail. The boat had been called " Fulton's I'olly ; " and the whole scheme had been the standing,' joke of the town. "The Clermont" had not gone a hundred yards from shore, however, before the multitude which was looking on became a prey to the li\elie>t surprise and admiration, which almost deepened to alarm as they heard the racket of her machinery and the terrific splashing of the water, and saw the fire and smoke pouring out of her chinmey. The boat "Walked tlic waters like a thing of life," and left the overwhelmed spectators behind her at a speed of five miles an hour. She made that first trip to Albany, against tlie current, in thirty-two iiours, scaring the boatmen and iarmers along the Hudson dreadfiilly, especiallv at night, by her roaring and her fires. This vessel made regular trips to and from Albany, and was joined in 1X07 by a second boat, built by the same owners, called "The Car of Neptune," and later by a third, called "'ihe Par- agon." The two latter were of three htmdred and three himdred and fifty tons respectively. Steam-navigation was now a success, complete, practical, and triimiphant ; and the achievement took |)lace in the New \\'orld, and through the energy and genius of Americans alone. It was not imtil 181 2 that "The ...j.,,g comet Comet of the Clyde," the first trading steam-vessel of I';uro])e, was of the launched, and taken out for a trial-trip. John Scott Russell con- ^ *' gratulates America upon the benefits arising from l'"ulton's enterprise, and says, " Although America, in common with the rest of tiie world, will look to this country as the source from which she derived this benefit, yet wt; heartily join," &c. Really America must be excused. R. L. Stevens of Hoboken, who had already perfected a practicable steamboat, would have accomplished steam-navigation before Henry bell did on the Clyde in 1S12, had Fulton done nothing about the matter ; and even if Fulton was, in fact, jirecedcd by the people on ])alwinston Lake, and if he really jjrofited by their experi- ments, it was his own peculiar and original genius vhich accomi)lished what they could not, and that was something for which he was not indebted to F'nglish inventors. The navigation of the Hudson, though patented to Fulton and Li\ ing- ston, was thrown open to the public, by a compromise, in 18 15. Other people wished to build steamboats, and iniblic sentiment was un- „ . „.. „ ' ' ' ' Navigation favorable to the monopolizing of the water-courses of the cotm- of the Hud- try by anybody. Fulton at first claimed the monopoly of the son thrown ^Vestern rivers ; but his claim was disputed, and carried to the courts, and beaten; so that, after 1S15, the rivers of the country were as free I H \\ ;WU.ifu»4JiJl 588 IND VS TRIA I. II /S TOR Y 1 i,bur,L,'h to Louisville in seventy hours : she then made several trips to ('incimi.iti, and in December went to New Orleans, and was there \i\\\. into llie trade betwciii that city and Natchez. She was wrecked on a sna;; in 1S14. This boat paid for half her cost the first year. The second boat was "The Comet," built at l'ittsburjj;h in iSi 5 by Mr. I). l''rench, whi( h found her way to New Orleans ii^i 1S14, and, after two trips to Natchez, went out of existence, her machiiu'iy being taken out and i)ut into a cotton-mill. The third boat was "The Vesuvius," also built at Pittsburgh by l'"ulton for a ( ompany. 'I'his vessel was of three hundred and forty tons. She went to New Orleans with the others, and was burned in i.St6. None of these boats had been able to ascend the Mississippi River. They went down stream well enough. " 'i'he Vesuvius " had trieil to return, but failed. 'I'he ascent was not accomplished until 1815. when "The Enterprise," a small boat of only seventy tons' burdi.'n, with a single wheel at the stern, for the first time made the voyage up the rivers from New Orleans to Cincinnati, arriving there in twenty-eight da)s. She readied Louisville in twenty-five days, and stopped there in order to piriiiit a i)ul)lit; dinner to be given in honor of the event. The first steamer in the coasting-traile was built by the Stevenses at Hoboken, while Kult(jn still had a monopoly of the Hudson, and was run by the outside route to Philadelphia. There now remained only one field for the American steamboat-men to coniincr : that was the home of old Neptune himself, — the open ocean. The stcamboa.- <^russing of the Atlantic was altogether a different matter from a ing across, voyage along the coast and np and down a great river. American builders and merchants hesitated to altemjit the midertaking for many years. At length, however, the experiment was tried. A \essel called "The Savannah," three hundred and eighty tons' burden, ship-rigged, with Crossing horizontal engine anil paddle-wheels, was built at Corlear's Hook, N.Y., by Crocker tS: l'"iikitt, for a company of genllenu'n. who ])roposed to send her across the ocean for sale to the Lmpemr of Russia. She sailed from New- York City in 1S19 for Savannah, (la., making the trip in seven days, four of them under steam. From Savannah she went direct to Liverpool, making the voyage in twenty-two days, during fourteen of which she was under steam, moving the rest of the time under sail. Ller arrival in Great Britain created a great commotion. When about entering St. Ceorge's C'hannel, off the city of Cork, the commander of the of "The Savannah \ i iyiil or 77/ A' UNITED STATES. 589 Tkitish lloft, seeing,' a Iuij,'o cloud of smoke rising from the vessel aiid < ()veriii(,' llic sky, scut off two cutters iiiunediitcly to save lier passeiiyers and ( rcw from tiie destruc ti()i: whi< l\ he supposed was threateuiuj,' theuj. 'I'he steauar paid 110 attention to the cutters; anil tlic I'.nj^Iishmen. exasperated hei ausc tiieir benevolence was not accejjted, rowid furiously alonj,'side several times, and fired several guns across the steamer's how, and finally hove her to and boarded her. Tlie officers, finding tli.it the steamer was all right, finally kl her go, and she bore away. At I.iserpool her arrival ( reated a tremendous sensation. ;\s she ( anie up the harbor with sails furled and the Amerii an colors Hying the piers were thronged with people, who greeted the siiii) with enthusiastii. cheers. A great many persons of distinction visited lur. She filially went on to St. Petersburg. She was an objee t of great curit)sityat every port at which she stopped, but was not sold as expected ; and accordingly she set sail for home. 'I'he King of Sweden offeretl Si 00,000 for her, pay- able in hemp and iron delivered in the I'niteil States; but the cash was wanted, and the offer was not atceiiied. 'The ship ran home from Norway in twenty-two days. Her machinery was then taken out, and she bee ame a sailer. She subse(iuently went ashore on Long Island, and was completely wrecked. The owners of the vessel are said to have lost over 550,000 by their voyage to l'!urope. The trouble with "The Savannah" was, that her engines were imperfect. They consumed so much coal, that the ship could not carry enough fuel for the voyage, and there was no room for cargo whate\er. It was about twenty years before the steam-engine was so perfected as to make ocean navigation profitable ; and, when that time arrived, the I'.nglish were the fi'"st to take advantage of it; the jjioneer ships, "The Sirius " and "The Great Western," entering New-York harbor almost together on the 23d of April, 1838. The honor of the first crossing of the Atlantic remains with our own countrymen ; but the credit of estal)lishing vessels in trade ^ . ^r h belongs to the English. The Royal Mail (or Cunard) steamers ment of began running from Halifax to Boston in 1S40. anil they have never ceased to run to the present day. Other lines were after- wards started, and at the present time Mngland has about a hundred and twenty-five steamers running to the I'nited States. The Mills line to Bremen (.American) was started in 1847, ami the Collins line to Liv- Growth of crpool in 1850, as also the Garrison line to Brazil in 1S65, — all other lines, from New- York City. The Pacific Mail line to China was started in 1865 also. When 1865 came, however, haigland had a hundred and twenty steamers running to this country, and had virtually monopolized the steamship traffic, her lines being supported by the patronage of the government. (Jur own lines to Europe had been withdrawn. The only line we have to I'',uroi)e to-day is that of the American Company of Philadelpiiia, which employs four three-thousand-ton steamers in the trade. In 1 818 the first steamboat was built for the trade of the Great Lakes, thea first line of steamers. \ 1 590 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY '"""'"^ii'*;i beginning to be considerable. It was "The Walk in the Water," named after a celebrated Indian chief in Michigan. She was built at Black Rock, N.Y., on the Niagara River, her engines being brought up from New- York City by sloops to Albany, and thence despatched by six and eight horse teams over- land to the Niagara River. The different parts of the engine arrived from Albany in fifteen to twenty-five days' time. " The AN'alk in the Water " was brig-rigged, and of three hundred and sixty tons' burden. Being lost in a gale in 182 1, she was replaced by " The Superior." The owner of the two boats was Dr. I. B. Stuart of Albany. As trade on the lakes increased, more steamers were put into the business by other people at all the large ports. These were the beginnings of steamboating in America. They have been described with great minuteness, because the United States was the pioneer country of the world in utilizing the power of steam in the prac- America the •' o i i pioneer in tical transportation of freight and passengers, and the history of early efforts is thus especially interesting ; and also >because in the beginnings of an enterprise is infolded its whole subsequent his- tory, just as truly as every characteristic of a tree is outlined and predicted in the little sprout that has just poked its way out of the soil. No enterprise can be understood unless its origin is known. If the origin be thoroughly c:omprehended, the intermediate steps by which the enterprise attains its final development are of small account : they are merely a repetition of the steps first taken. Steam was put to service upon the water in this country about thirty years before it was employed in traffic overland; and it played a most important part in the development of the country, and in cementing to- jteam- boating Importance of steam- navigation to this country. gether its various communities. It brought the distant territories in the North-West and at the nioui'i of the Mississippi River at once into immediate and patriotic relations with the okler com- munities, and was the means of building up a thriving exchange of coi imodities, and unity of sentiment, between them. The same was true of the different parts of the Atlantic coast. In the settlement of the West and South the steamboat greatly assisted ; and so well adapted was this new agency to the work of threading the chain of lakes, and to overcoming the vast distances of the great rivers, that by 1835 the building of steamboats in the West liad become \ery large, and by 1856 there were more than a thou- sand of this style of craft actively engaged in the traffic of that portion of our domain. The steam-tonnage of the Mississippi-river Valley at that time eijualled the magnificent steam-ton. lage of the whole enii)ire of (^reat Brila'n. About 1850 the old-style steamboat of the West and North, ranging from two hundred to tour huntlred tons in size, began to be found inadecjuate to the wants of trade because of its small size. The builders then began to enter upon the construction of larger craft ; and they enlarged their vessels year by year, until the latter have, in 1878, attained a size, in the trade of the Missis- \m^' OF THE UNITED STATES. 59^ sippi at least, equal to that of the colossal trans-Atlantic steamers. One of these huge Western boats will be referred to hereafter. On the coast a steam-packet was running between New York and Philadel- phia as early as 1814, and a regular line was plying from New York to CMiarles- ton as early as 1832. After 1S30 the wiiole coast b-^came alive ^ , . ,. . with steamboats. Lines were started in Long-Island Sound to ply ment of coast in the routes to Boston, Hartford, and other New-lCngland cities. ''"^^ °' steamboats. the steamers connectmg at proper points with stage-lines on the mainland, just as they now do with railroad-lines. Lines were started in Chesapeake Bay, in the waters of Virginia, and in every large river leading from the interior of the Southern States to the coast. The coasting-steamers finally crept as flxr to the southwanl as to Savannah, to which point a line began running about 1848. \\\ 1848 steamers began running between Charleston and Havana in Cuba, under the patronage of our government. The greatest coasting-line of all was authorized to be established by the Act of Congress of March 3, 1847, in order to flicilitate intercourse between the Fastern States and our newly-accjuired territor;':^s on the Pacific Ocean. We had just obtained all that vast territory lying west of the Ro^rky Mountains by cession from Mexico. With the existing inadecjuate means of transportation, that region was practically as far away from the Atlantic centres of ])opulation as though it had been buried in the interior of the continent of Asia. In order to settle tnis new territory, it was necessary to have steamers ; and so Congress aathorized lines to be started in the same patriotic spirit in which it afterwards originated the Pacific railroads. Two companies were formed. — the Uniteil- States Mail, to run from New York to Aspinwall on the Isthmus of Panama, a distance of .^,000 miles ; and the Pacific Mail, to run from Panama on the Pacific, 3,300 miles, to San Francisco. The pioneer steamer, '"The pacific Mail ^'alifoinia," 1,058 tons, left New- York City Oct. 5, 1848, being steamship followed within a month by the ''Panama" and "Oregon," 1,087 "'"P^"^' and 1,099 tons, all three steaming for the Pacific by way of Cape Horn. The first steamer of the other line to i)ly to Asi)inwall, "'J"he Falcon," 891 tons, left New York in December of the same year. This line touched at New Orleans en route by contract. It is seldom in the history of the world tha*: a great agency for the performance of a specific work is created so opi-ortunely as were these two lines. While '• Tiu California" was peacefiillv wending its way across the tropical seas eii route for its distant ser\ice, and its officeis were wondering what on earth they would find at Panama to carry to California, the exciting story came to the Fastern States tliat gold had been discovered in tiie Sacramento Valley in extraordinary ([uantities. The officers of the two steam- ship lines at New York were at once besieged widi applications for passage to California. "The Falcon " went out loaded ; and when ''The California" came into the harbor of Panama to get advices from home, before going on northward, she foi'nd a multitude of eager gold-bcekers there awaiting her li imvi 592 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY arrival, and she went on her way loaded down to the water's edge with passengers and freight. Her consorts had the same experience. Both steam- ship lines were a magnificent success from the start; and they themselves did more to build up our cjiipire on the Pacific rapidly than a thousand sailing- vessels slowly working their way around Cape Horn could have done. Ijy 1 85 1 there were nine large steamers in the Atlantic line (one, "The Illinois," being of 2,123 tons' burden), and six in the Pacific line, one of the fleet, '''I'hc Golden (iate," being of 2,068 tons' burden. The two lines consolidated into one in 1865, and then sent out steamers to China. Since the foundation t)f this great enterprise other coasting steam-lines have been started, and the number of them now is legion. They ply on all parts of the three coasts, and between all principal commercial cities. The growth of steam-tonnage in the United States will be shown by Statistics of the following table, the figures beginning in 1823, because the steam-ton- stcam-tonnage was then first recorded separately : — TONNAGE. IS23 24,879 1830 64,472 1840 202,309 1850 525.434 i860 867,937 1870 1,075.095 1876 1,172,372 The distribution of th's tonnage in 1876 was as follows : — NUMBER. TONNAGE. Atlantic and Gulf coasts 2,081 665,879 Pacific coast . 270 78,439 Northern lakes . 921 201,742 Western rivers 1,048 226,312 Total 4.320 I. '72,372 The principal troul)le of the early builders of steamboats in this country was in devising a proper way of transmitting the power of the steam-engine to Difficulties ^'^^' water. Fitch tried paddle-whcr;ls, a bank of oars, and a screw- of early propeller. Rumsey tried a jet oi water. Subsequent inventors tried a vast variety of d.nices. One was an endless chain carrying a long row of paddles to play in the water at the sides of the boat or under- neath the flilse keel. Another was the side-fan or duck-foot propeller : boats were supplied with a whole set of fins on each side. Another plan was the «^-^.-,tiJ,ysJ|.^ I ■' > US TR I A L HIS TOR Y ing merchant-ships of every class. At the dose of the war, pig-iron was fifty-eigiit (h)lkirs a ton; by 1868 it had dropped to thirty-eight dollar^ a ton. 'l"he general advantages of iron nierehant-ships having (hsposed the mercantile community toward tliat ty|)e of vessels, orders were tivjn giviu for the construction of several ; and the art has ever since been practised on a continually-growing scale. Since 1868 nearly all of the steamships built for (he coasting-trade of the United States, all of those for the foreign tradr, and many for sound, river, and lake navigation, have been built of inm. It is evident, that, in all these trades, iron hulls must eventually supersede those (jf the more perishable material. They are lighter, and last twii c as long. American iron has superior (lualities for the purpose ; it permits the use of lighter frames and plating. The years 1873 and 1873 constituted a new era in the history of this The years industry. The I'ennsylvania Railroad had resolved to establish a 1872-73- hue of first-class ocean-steamships to run from Philadelphia in Liverpool, to ft)rm the sea-division of its line of communication betwcni the fruitful and i)opulous interior of the United States and lun-onc. American ' ' ' line of Its interest in the matter induced a number of merchants of Phila- steamers to jlL-jphia to or^aui/c a comi)any to build a line of American ii 11 Europe. ' '^ ' •' Steamers to run Irom that tity m competition with tne foreign lines from New York. The railroad company became a stockholder, ai.d guaran- teed the bonds of the new organization to the amount of $1,500,000. Under this arrangement, proposals from builders were asked for. William Uramp i\; Sons of Philadelphia, a firm whose yard had been established in 1830, were the successful bidders. They agreed to lay the keels of four iron steamships of 3,016 tons' burden, 355 feet long, to draw twenty feet six incnes in fresh water, capable of carrying 920 passengers and a full cargo, at a speed of eleven knots and a half per hour, with a consumption of forty tons of coal per day, for $2,080,000. The firm comprised men of long experience ; but they fortified themselves before beginning the ships by an examination ot' the yards on the River Clyde in England and the best specimens of foreiL;n steam-shipping. They resolved to build four ships which should in evriy respect excel those of foreign construction employed in the traffic of the Atlantic, and they did build them in a thorough manner. " The Pennsyl- vania " was launched Aug. 15, 1872; "The Ohio," Oct. 30, 1872; "The Indiana," March 25, 1873; and "The Illinois," June 15, 1873. The line went into operation in July, 1873. This is now the only line of steamships carrying the American flag across the Atlantic. Its captains are under positive orders never to incur risk for the sake of making a quick passage. — a policy followed liy the Cunard line, the oldest in the Atlantic trade, and successfid in an eminent degree in inspiring the confidence of the travelling community. The ohips have, nevertheless, made better average time than the foreign steamers running out of the same port. The passage to Liverpool I 1) (-iron was ry of tliis establish a Uclphia lo K'tWf I II . I']iir()|n.'. of I'liila- rican ir n cign liiiis d gtianm- Undn- Cramp A; S30, were iteamsliips s in fresh si)eed of IS of coal :ncc; hut nation of if foreign in every fie of the Pennsyl- 2; "'J he The line eamships re nnder issage, — ade, and travelh'iig than the Liiverpool O/- TIIK IWITED STATES. 599 averages eleven flays nine hours. More favorable rates of insurance have been granted to these steamships than to any others in the Atlantic service, two t 'unarders alone excepted. The vessels have been a success ' .oth financially and mechanically. While the American line was building, two iron steamships of large size were constructing at the yard of Joiin Koach (S: Son, a short distance helow tlie city, — the largest works of the kind in the coiuitry. These were "The City of Peking " and " 'I'iie City of Tokio." ordered shlps^Jor*"" by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for its transT'acific service Pacific Mail to Japan and China. They were to be the largest iron merchant- ^teamship • ' ■' " Company. steamers in tiie ocean carrying-trade of the world. '' 'i'iie (Ireat Eastern " was the only iron vessel which excelled tliein in si/.e ; but that vessel was a commercial failure, and was not actively employed in trade. The build- ing of these two vessels excited that extraordinarv interest in the United States "— .■.>^^^iieir^->s tak line. which daring enterprise, and any effort for the supremacy of the national flag ai sea, have always aroused. The launching of "The City of Peking" in March, 1S74, was made the occasion of a great celebration, which was attended b\' a delegation from both houses of Congress, and by merchants from the leading cities of the counlrv. "•The City (jf Tokio " was launched soon afterwards. Both ships have since been ein])loycd with eminent success in the trade (A the Pacific. They each carry over 5,000 tons of freight and 1,650 passengers, and are crack ships in every respect. They are 423 feet long. " The City of Peking" made the fastest trip ever made across the Pacific in 1S75, burning forty-five tons of coal a day ; while the vessels of the Occidental and Oriental line, which run in competition with her, owned anfl built in England, burn sixty tons a day, running on schedule time. These vessels have engines of 5,000 horse power, and are driven ordinarily at a speed of fifteen knots and a half per hour. They can run to Hong Kong from San Francisco in twenty- two days. ! »: :.{ 'IH 1 I ?"l ! H m ..j'i'i , „. .*; m m 'iii:, built since 1866 600 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY These ships placed upon the building of iron incrrhant-stcamcrs in the United Stales the final stamp of success, and they initiated tiie era of large MaBniflcence ^''^'"riers running at great speed with a small consumption of coal. of new Since they were unilertaken, the number of wooden steamers for steamers. ^|^^, coasting and foreign trade built in this country might almost be counted on one's fingers. No one now builds of any thing e.xccpl iron for those trades. Some magnificent vessels of the river type of steamer, of wood, jiave been pnxhiced for the traflic tlnough Long- Island Scjund between New York and the cities of New Mngland. liut this is not coasting-navigation projjcr : it is more like river-navigation. The hulls of some of these vessels are of iron, however. The class of steamship which has been building for the coasting-trade is unlike any other in use in the world. It has the beautifiil bow and run which Ships for the ^^''^^''-' ''^l^^'-'^y^ characterized American vessels. Hull, frame, and coasting- generally bodi decks, arc of iron. 'I'hey are fitted with scrcw- ^^^ '■ jiropellers, water-tight bulkheads, comi)ound engines, and two masts, though sometimes three, and range from 1,800 to 2,500 tons' burden. „ . . Tliey are of light draught, so as to enter Southern harbors witii Number of -' '^ " ' iron vessels facility; and some of the recent vessels built at Chester contain tanks, to be filled with sea-water and enii)tied, to assist them over the bars when needed. Tlie number of iron vessels built for American owners since 1866 was, in June, 1877, as near as can be computed, 250. They ranked as follows : — Less than 100 tons 57 From 100 to 500 tons "j-x, From 500 to 1,000 tons 40 P'roni 1,000 to 2,000 tons 61 From 2,000 to 3,000 tons 9 From 3,000 to 4,000 tons . 8 Over 5,000 tons 2 The total tonnage June 30, 1877, was 191,490. Of the whole number, only three were sailing-craft. In addition to the above, a number of small iron steamboats were built, and exported to South America to run on the Amazon and other rivers. Iron ship-building keeps naturally in the vicinity of the iron and coal mines : it is leaving Boston, New York, and other cities distant therefrom, Location of and Concentrating on the Delaware. While the business is des- business. tined to reach such proportions eventually as to require the open- ing of iron shipyards in all parts of the country, particularly on the Missis- sippi River and the \\'estern lakes, there are at present only four firms of prominence in the business, and not over ten in all. The oldest is that of William Cramp & Sons at Philadelphia. This yard was established in 1830 : it '^|jj»^..^ OF THE UNITED STATES. 60 1 was engaged in Iniilding of wood until 1860, when it construrted "The New Ironsides" ant] a niunber of ironclads, and has been engrossed with iron-work ever since. Since completing the iron steamers for the American line to I'iiirope, it has produced six iron colliers for the Reading Railroad, of 1,200 tons' capacity each, and 224 feet long; "'l"he Columbus," an iron screw vessel of 1,850 tons for the coasting-trade, the larj^'est which in 1874 had then been built for that service ; and a number of other coasters and tugs, besides doing a large amount of government re[)airing. 'l"he works vvill emi)loy 12,000 men. At Wilmington are situated tlie yards of the Harlan iV Hollingsworth Company, and Pusey, Jones, & Company. 'I'he former concern is also e.xten- sively engaged in the manufacture of railroad-cars, arid employs 1,000 men. It has built several of the Pacific mail-steamers, and some of the finest boats on the coast. The latter firm has made a sj)ecialty of work for the South- American rivers. The principal firm of iron ship-builders is John Roach & Son of Chester, Penn. Over $2,000,000 has been invested by Miis concern in shops and machinery ; and the most powerful mechanical appliances in the country are to be seen at the yard at Chester and the engine-works in New York. Over $15,000,000 has been paid out by the firm, from 1872 to the present time, for wages and materials ; and thirty-five iron ocean-steamers have l)een built, besides extensively repairing and overhauling the government iron- clads. Thirteen iron steamers were built by this yard in 1877, from 1,800 to 2,500 tons' burden, to ply in the trade to Southern ports, the Wes^ Indies, and Brazil. The firm employ 1,800 men. Tiie Penn Iron-Works at Philadeljihia have also been engaged in building iron ships for several years. In addition to these, the Reading Railroad Company has invested a large amount of capital in shops at Port Richmond on the Delaware for the purpose of buildmg iron colliers for its large distribution of coal to points on the coast. The intention is to have a fleet of fifty iron colliers. Fourteen of these have been built t the other shipyards on the Delaware. They range from 525 to 1,500 tons' burden. The boats which are to be built in the future will belong to the larger class. At Buffalo the construction of iron tonnage for the trade to the West has been going on for five years. A number of lar':e and stanch propellers have been built for the Anchor line of teamers plying between I'>ie and the Western cities in the grain, provision, and passenger traffic, which are in all respects superior vessels. In 1872 13,000 tons were built at Buffalo, and 20,000 tons in 1874. The past year, f>nly two tugs have been produced. A yard has also been opened at Wyandotte Mich., and one at New Orleans. It is believed that iron hulls will eventually replace the old-fashioned style in the general business of the Ohio, Mississippi, and other great Western streams. Experience has shown the wisdom of changing to iron. Future of In a wooder /essel of 3,000 tons' burden, 500 tons of freight- "■°" vessels, room are sac.ificed by the thicker beams and shell of the vessel. A ship of the same outward size built of iron carries 500 tons more freight. Besides I , iU, 4, ^.iiuyl ' 6oa IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y fir \\\\\ this ^Tcat ndvantaRC, another is j^ained from the fart that the iron ship lasts so nuich loD^^Tr. Those now l)ein^' produced by tiie American yards secure tlir rating of A i lor twenty years, and are liable, at the end of twenty years, to In- useful for ten years Kjnger at least. A gootl stanch ship will last the men ham until he is ready to retire from business, antl turn over the affairs of his house to a younger generation. Iron vessels have now been tried for fifty years, under all cirrimistances of storm and tempests, collisions with ici-, stranding on tlie coast, and accidents of every description. 'I'hey have constantly slioun their superiority, and have saved to theii owners millions of dollars whu li would have been lost in wooden vessels subjected to the same trials. 'I'Irsc facts have rendered them popular with the commercial world. No one now thinks of building of wood for the open sea< any more than of hunting buff.iK) witli pop-guns. The fall in the price of iron since the war is giving a great stimulus lu tins business. It has a brilliant future before it. 'US' iWH|i| h^hmi^ f m \ \}X--\ m^^H^^HB c •'< jii':'' I^I^^^hUhjIV^h nffiH^MULugi jlili ' ■'''; i ^jj^Mfw \'-l^\ •MIBtom \\X^ :> HmIm^ iI HHuHf I :,,;-'| Im ^^1 ^Hl mm Ol- rill: IMTKD STATES. Ooj C'lIAI'Ti.K IV. \ \ (AX A IS. Til I'l project of iiniliiij,' thf dillfiuiU parts of our conmion domain with artificial water-ways occurred very distinctly to tlie minds of the states- men of the Revolutionary period, who, not beinj; so embarrassed Condition of as the public men of the present day with current ([uestions of e»riy roads- vast and immediate importance, had more time to think of tiie future, and tin- directions which ^^!lOuld be ^(iven to development and public effort. The wagon-roads of the country in Revolutionary days were in a shockin,!,^ (ondi- tion. None of them were what would be called good roads at the prestnt day; and the majority were in a dreadful state, full of ruts .md pit-holes where the track was dry, and corduroyecl with trunks of large trees wherever the trac k was wet. V M Eri" Tsnal. Mr. Morris had suggested tlie union of the cliain of Great Lakes with the Effect of Hudson River, and in 1812 he again advocated it. De Witt war of i8i2 Clinton of New York, one of the most vahial)le men of his day, upon the ^^qj^ ^j^j^ \^\^Qr^ ^nd brought the leacHng men of his State to lend subject. ' him their support m pushuig it. lo dig a canal all the way from Albany to Lake lOrie was a pretty formidable undertaking : *he State of New Yor'; accordingly invited the Federal Ciovernmcnt to assist in the enterprise. The canal was as desirable on national grounds as on any <)< her. The proposition met with a rebuff, however ; and then the Empire State iesolved to bu'ld the canal herself. Surveyors were sent out to locate a line for it, and on the 4th of July, 181 7, ground was broken for a canal by De Witt Clinton, >vho was then governor of the State. The canal (363 miles long) was built in eight years, at an original cost of $7,143,789. The completion of the work in 1825 was the occasion of great public rejoicing. A boat loaded with distinguished guests started from Lake Erie, fi'-st taking on board some of the water of the lake. Its progress to the Hr .'.son River was attended by a con- stant succession of public demonstrations of the most enthusiastic character. When the boat had reached the Hudson River, and Lake Lrie was for- mally wedded to that stream by pouring the waters of the lake into the river, the event was signalized by the firing of a gun ; and the nevs was carried all the way back to Buffalo the same day by the sound of signal-guns, which were Champiain ready for the event all along the line, and which passed the news Canal. along westward by firing a i-.alute. The same year that the I'.rie Canal was begun, ground was also broken in New-York State for a canal from Lake Champiain to the Hudson, sixty-three miles in length. This work was completed in 1823. The cjnstruction of these two water-ways was attended with the most interesting consequences. Even before they were completed, their value had become clearly apparent. Itoats were placed upon the Erie Canal aj fast as the different levels were ready for use, and set to work in active transportation. They were small affairs compared with those of the present day, being about fifty or sixty tons' burden, the modern canal-boat being a hundred and eighty or two hun- dred tons. Small as they were, they reduced the cost of transportation immediately to one-tenth what it had been before. A ton of freiglit by land from Buffalo to Albany cost at that time a hundred dollars. When the canal was opened its entire length, the cost of freight fell from fifteen to twenty- five dollars a ton, according to the class of article carried ; and the time of transit, from twenty to eight days. Wheat at that time was worth only thirty-three dollars a ton in Western New York, and it diil not pay to send it by land to New York. When sent to market at all, it was floated down the Susquehanna to Baltimore, as being the cheapest and best market. The canal changed that. It now became possible to send to market a wide vari- Effect of canals in cheapening transpoita- tion. \ li OF THE UNITED SJA'r^s. 605 ety of agricultural produce, — fruit, grain, vegetables, &c., — which, before the canal was built, eitlier had no value at all, or which could not l)e disposed of to such good advantage. It is claimed by the market (or original promoter^ of the iOrie Canal who lived to see its bene- vast quan- ficial effects experienced by the peoi)le of t'e country, that *'*''? °' ' •' ' ' ^ prodi'ce. that work, costing less than $8,000,000, and paying its whole cost of construction in a very few years, added $100,000,000 to the value of the farms of New York by opening up good and ready markets for their products. The canal had another result. It made New-York City the commercial metropolis of the ountry. An old letter, written by a resident of Newport, R.I., in that age, has lately been discovered, which speaks of New- York City, and says, " If we do not look out. New York will get ahead of us." Newport was then one of the principal seaports of the country : it had once been the first. New York certainly did " get ahead of us " after the ICrie Canal was built. It got ahead of every other y^^^^ j^ ^^_ commercial city on the coast. Freight, which had previously fected New- gone overland from Ohio and the West to Pittsburgh, and thence °^^ "*' to Philadelphia, costing $120 a ton between the two cities named, now went to New York by way of the Hudson River and P'rie Canal and the lakes. Manufactures and groceries returned to the West by the same route, and New York became a flourishing and growing emporium immediately. The l'>ie Canal was enlarged in 1835, so as to permit the passage of boats of a hundred tons' burden ; and the result was a stiP. further reduction of the cost of freight- ing, expansion of traffic, and an increase of the general benefits conferred by the canal. The Champlain Canal had an effect ujjon the farms and towns lying along Lake Champlain, in Vermont and New York, kindred in character to that above described in respect to the Erie Canal. It brought into the market lands and produce which before had been w v ••thless, and was a great blessing to all concerned. The effect of the example of New-York Stxte was magical. All th -; old projects in New F.ngland, Pennsylvania, and ' ne South, for water-ways from point to 1 tint in the domains of the several States, and to unite the people of one State with those of another, bloomed again into „ . . „ 11 ' o construction being, as though the naked woods and sear hillsides had felt the of the Erie breath of a celestial spring. Tiie consecpienccs of the building t"j 1^"' '"" of the Erie Canal were foreseen by everybody before the work was building of completed ; and public men did not wait to hear the firing of the ^'miiar un- ' ' ' ° dertakings. guns over the achievement of l)e Witt Clinton's great idea before they set about planning similar works for the good of their own States. It took several years of agitation before much was accomplished ; but the stimulus afforded by the building of the Erie Canal succeeded in bringing about tiie execution of a great many important works. No less than twenty branch canals were planned at once in New-York State. Among those projectetl in How the .-aAituj^Ji ■■ m, \PM"fl iimi .* m 11)'' ■ '^^* B^P t lill'^'fj 6c6 INDUSTRIAL I U STORY Other States were one from Boston to the Connecticut River ; one from Worcester to Providence, "on whicn," it was said, "there would be a mighty transpoaation," it Ijcing estimated that "a hundred tons of cheese and seven- ty-five tons of pork would annually find an outlet in it ; " a canal from Balti- more to Pittsburgh ; others from Long-Island Sound across the State of Maryland, and from the Ohio River to Lake Erie ; and yet others in Virginia and Pennsylvania. It was a i)eriod of great excitement and public effort ; and time would fail to tell of the brilliant and extensive schemes which filled the minds of all the people at that time, and whose merits were the constant theme of popular discussion. Some of these works were never built, as the capital could not be commanded to construct them. Many of them were, however, completeil, to the great benefit of the several States. Pennsyhania was one of the first in the field in practical work. She resolved to build a canal to the western part of the State for the double pur- Karrisburgh P^^'^ ^^ gi^'ing an impetus to the agricultural and manufacturing and Pitts- interests of her own State, and also in order to secure to the city burgh Canal, ^j- Philadelphia a share of the trade with the West. A line of communication from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was accordingly planned, and undertaken at the State's expense. The project was agitated for several years before the people at large could be brought to the point of sustaining a route of such magnitude; and it was not until 1826, therefore, that ground was finally broken for a canal; but earth was turned at Harrisburgh July 4, 1826, and the work was thereafter prosecuted with vigor. A good canal was in operation from Columbia on the Susquehanna to Pittsburgh by 1836, the route being interrupted at HoUidaysburgh with a portage-road of thirty-six miles to Johnstown, which did not prove fatal to the value of the canal. Other water-ways were planned in other parts of the State, — local affairs for coal and grain transportation, — and many of them were built during this period. The canal-route from the West was pieced out at the eastern end by a railroad from Columbia to Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania thus had her through-route to the West. It reduced the cost of freight from Pittsburgh to the Delaware River frcm a hundred and twenty dollars a ton to thirty dollars ; and, though the city never got back the trade which New York had taken from her. she gained by the new works immensely. These works were afterward sold to the Penn- sylvania Railroad. Ohio was building two canals at the same period. — one from Portsmouth on the Ohio to Cleveland, which was finished in 1833 ; the other from Cincinn; li to Lake Erie, which was finished in 1843. Massachusetts orilered survej's for a water-way west from Boston in 1825, and the engineers did a good deal of i)reliminary work in examining the Massachu- ground out toward the Connecticut River ; but nothing was ever setts. accomplished by Massachusetts in this class of public works. Public attention was distracted to another style of transportation-route, — the 'li'lij OF THE UNITED STATES. C07 River project. railroad ; and tlie energies of the State were diverted from canal-building, and applied to the work of constructing railroads. One of the ancient projects had been for a canal from Baltimore west to the Ohio River. Washington, Charles Carroll, and other eminent men of the Revolution, had favored this idea, and had talked about it a great „ , . ' ' <^ Baltimore deal. It had slumbered for forty years, owing to the scarcity of and ohio- means of the young republic ; and only when tlie Erie Canal had been begun was Maryland aroused to a new and realizing sense of the value of the idea. Congress was finally induced to vote $1,000,000 for a canal from Ceorgetown to Pittsburgh ; and Virginia and Maryland, as well as the cities of Washington and Alexandria, having subscribed $1,250,000 more, the work was put under way in 1828, Charles Carroll and John Q. Adams turning the first earth. The canal was very hard to build, and did not uiake that rapid progress which its projectors desired. It was not until 1850 that the work reached Cumberland, Md. ; and when it arrived at that city it stopped. It had cost $16,000,000. Surveys have been recently made with a view to going on with it to Pittsburgh. It will undoubtedly be carried on to that city at some time or other. The Farmington Canal in Connecticut was built during this period of excitement, the Dismal-Swamp Canal in Virginia, and a number Farmington of other short local affairs in different parts of the country. All Canai. these enterprises repaid their cost to the public a hundred times over. After the first speculative era of canal-building had passed by, a number of other important canals were opened by different States, whicli still, like the Erie and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canals, play a part in the Building of general transportation-business of the country. One was the other canals, canal from Lake Michigan at the city of Chicago to the Illinois River, a dis- tance of 102 miles, which was completed in 1852. Another was wabash and the Wabash and Erie Canal, projected by the State of Indiana, ^"^ Canals. which, after many reverses and stoppages, was finished about 1850, and was the means of creating another connection between the trade of the lakes and the streams of the Mississippi Valley. Another great route which has not been fully utili ;ed even yet was across the State of Virginia. The idea was to connect Kie. Kanawha River, a branch of the Ohio, with the James River leading iiuo the sea. Over five million dollars was spent in trying to connect these two rivers ; but the work was not finished, and still remains uncompleted. Congress has aided in pushing tills work, and it will probably be finished during the next decade. It will open the shortest poss .^ water-route to the sea from the grain States of the West, and especially the central States of the Mississippi Valley ; and there is not the shadow of a doubt but that it will have a great traffic, and will probably change Richmond into a great commercial emporium. Railroad-building has since 1835 largely diverted the energies of the country from the construction of canals ; but experiment has only 'tlte l\ ..uy„iu^ I*. .:i ;i '.f-i 60S INDUSTRIAL HISTORY %i W%:^: demonstrated the wonderful value and imperative necessity of such canals Effect of ^^ those wliich have l)een particularly mentioned. Wherever llicy railroads are built, they nre the cheapest route for the transaction of a upon canals. ]^^,,^^.y frcight-tratiic, and by their cheapness they exercise a regu- lating inlluence of the most wliolesome tlescription upon the cost of trans- portation on tlie railroads. It is noA- hekl by the statesmen of the country that tiie building of the Erie Canal was the wisest and most far-seeing enterprise of tiie age. It has Wisdom of ''■''^ '^ permanent and indelible mark upon the face of the republic building Erie of the Unitctl States in the great communities it has (Uiv( tiy assisted to build uj) at the West, anil in the jHipulous metropolis it created at the mouth of the Hudson River. None of the canals which lurve been built to compete wiUi it liave yet succeeiled in regaining for their States what was lost to ihem when the I'aie Canal went into operation. This water- route is still the most important artilicial one of its class in the country, and is only eipialled by the Welland Canal in Canada, which is its closest rival. It is now proposed to make the Mrie Canal a tree route, open without tolls to ail who may wish to navigate it. If the lanal is really made free, it will retain its position as the most popular water-route to the sea from theCreat West. The Mississippi River will divert from it all the trade flowing to South America and Mexico ; but for the North-West it will be the only water highway to tiie ocean. » !!■ Wa Ol- THE UNITED STATES. 609 CIlyM'Ti: R V. '11 IK kisiiI':rii;s. Venice. INTIMA'ri'",r,Y roniiL'ctcd witli llic subjects of shipping and transportation is tiiat (jf the fisiieries. A large part of the tonnage of all prosperous mari- time nations is employed in the catching of (jcean-fish, and it has frecjuently happened that a nation has owed all its maritime jjrosperity to the schooling in navigation wliich its peo[)le acping-interests of the several States. The men brought up on the coast where cod, mackerel, and whales have abounded, ha\e supplied our trading-marine with the best sailors it has ever had ; and it was that class I ■ij do IND I 'S TKIA r. HIS 7\ M' ) ' W> E of wcb-footcd men — who hail learned fearlessly to encounter all the perils of the sea and comiuer them, and who always sailed their ships in the heaviest weather, and " never struck a .jpsail as lon^; as there was a mast to lly it from" — that won for our republic its na\al triumphs in iiSi2. They are to-day still the most \aluable element in the personnel of our wiiole maritime ! i ? c.itabiishment. Their ships ha\-e ever been the pu:;neers and reconnoitring l)ariies of our trading-marine. They have explored every corner of the earth, and always been first in the field. The first time the American flag was ever seen in I''ngland was at the head of a whaling-ship which entered the Thames. The early voyagers along the coast o'" North America remarked the abuii- ilance offish in the vicinitv of the shore from the verv start. ^Vhales were very f^ I: OF THE rxlTED STATES. 6ii numerous ; and great shoals of them, of the largest and best kinds, ranie along- side of the ships of the discoverers, and played sportively in tlie billows, some- times to the great consternation of the seamen, whose vessels were not very large, and who dreaded being rim into by the big fellows and sunk. I'lvcn before the settlement of the continent by the English began, the mariners of ICurope, having learned that there was an abundance of fish in America, flocked out with their vessels to the Hanks from all parts of tlie Old World. It was not an uniuual sight, as early as r6oo, to see six hundred or seven hun- dred vessels off tU ' coasts of New Kngland taking fish. The ( ity of liristol in England ac([uired great prosperity from these new discoveries. Her ])eoplc soon learneil to send out boats to America, and their profits made a sensation in shii)i)ing-circles in ICngland kindred to a modern gold stampede or an oil excitement. Whole fleets were sent out to rea]) a part of the new harvest. 'I'liese boats were of about a hundred Ions' burden. 'I'hey took back to i'lng- land loads that were worth three thousand pounds, of which two thousand pounds was ])ure gain. Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian ships fre- quentetl the Hanks, along with the others, for a long jjcricd of time. It is said that one of the main ideas in founding settlements in Massa- chusetts was to build u]) a colony of fishermen. There is no doiibl but that the utilization of the fislieries entered into the ])lans of the origi- nators of the colony. The cha.ter of Massachusetts contains a clause, saying. "Wee have given and graimted . . . all fishes — royal fishes, whales, balan, stur^^eons, and other fishes, of wluit ^° ""^ °f ^ ' nshermen. kinde or nature soever, that sliall at any tyme hereafier ])e taken in or within tlie saide seas or waters, or any of them, by the said '' . . . [the grantees being here named], ''or by any ]ierson or jiersons whatsoever there inhabiting." To take advantage of tlie lislieries was one of the first enterprises of the colonists, and it was to assist tliem in doing so lliat the conipaiu' in Loudon sent over shii)wriglits to build vessels on the coasts of Massachusetts, ^\']lales llien swam along within sight of land, in sucli num- bers, that, eveii if there had been no ])remedilated purjiose witli resi)ect to the fisheries in sending the colonists to the barren coast of New England, the settlers woulh, is dro|>pcd until it touches tiie bottom: it is then hauleil up slightly, so that with every lurch of the boat it will clear the bottom. A l)ite is signil'ied by a slight jerk. The line is then hauled in rapidly, hand t)ver hand, the fish unhocjked, and the hook bailed and thrown out again. When the fish bite freely, three hooks (an be um(I on the same line ; and, in fact, they are generally u^^ed. The crew of the boat range themselves along the gunwale on both sides, and often are kept in a state of incessant action by the eagerness of the ("ish. ;\t night the fish are (leaned and salted down. Mackerel-fisiiing is more exciting, because the fish are gamy, and they dash madly about in the water when hooked. 'I he mai kerel swim in shoals; and, when they are biting, there is always a scene of great activity and exc'i 'inent on board the boat. The rapidity with whi(h se\eral barrelfuls of fish can be taken from the w.Uer is wonderful. Tlie cleaning and packing in salt are performed when the fish are slack ; that is, when tln'v are not biting well, or .it night. Tln'se fi>li h.ue sometimes bi en ( anL;lu wiih nets ; but the process is (hflicuh and iiiisalisfactory, and the fishenneii L;e!ierallv prefer the line. The v.iliie ol" the prodiu t (;f coil and mackerel fisheries is about .Scj.ooo.ooo a ye.ir. A ready market is alway:-. found for the l'i>h. and those who are engaged in the business lia\e only the competition ol' ihe Canadians to fear. .\:- ii'ueral rule. the\' hold tlieir own a''am>t iheir Northern neighliors. The stale of tilings existing ju^l at present. houe\er, is unfavorable to them. be( market was thrown oni ause, under the treatv of iH- the IniU ■d-M,iK •n to the Canadian rishenneii in e.\ch;inL;e lor the ri:;hl. on our i)ari, to I'lsli within the three-mile limit. he Canadians g.iined iiiort than tiiey lost by this; and. although the Ilalifax Commission in iNyy adjudged that the lulled Stales ought to ])av S5. 500. 000 tor the suiierior advantages she gaineil by that treaty, the decision was cleaiiv unjust, and it has so increased the odds against our fishermen, that steps were taken b\ Congress in May, 1878, to have the fishery-clause of tlu' trt'at\- abrogateit. One branch of the fisheries — -which, however, is realK an in-shori' affair, and has never needed any special prolecting care from the go\ennnent — is Oyster- business. th c ovster-business. The onlv leijislalion which has been 1 leei leil has been to ])re\ent tlie o\-sternien from infringing on ea( h other's ri; rhts This s])ecies of ocean-inhabitant urows naturally in the cool waters along the Northern coast, and attains a si/e. and delicacy of flavor, une(|ualled anywhere in the world. The waters of Virginia and Maryland and of Long- uorite practice in tb.e it Xorlli by th Island Sound are the fa\-orite haunts of the oNster. A f trade is to breed the oyster in V ir^ini a or Maryland, and br mi the sloop-load, and plant it in the vicinity of Xew-\'ork Cit V, and on tlie 1.011 li I OF THE VNITKl) STATES, '"7 Mil Inland and Coiincctic ut coasts, wlicrc it fatlctiM. Ilallimoif ami NcwXoik City arc the principal centres of the oyslcr-biisiiicss. In both places inillii)n:> of dollars' worth of the bivalve are i)iit up annually in < ans and kej,'s, and distribut- ed by railroad A. _ " Z-^-^ •" to all parts of ^— — ^ -^ '^^-"^ the United dvsnins dsi, iwn, ami ihki-k \i-.aki oiii. States and Canada. Of late years, oysters have been seiu to luiropc from those cities ; and the business is becoming considerable, now thai the stcanuTs have Wcw jiro- vitled with the facilities for keeping the oysters (ool ni r,>iilr a. I,(lb^ters are ( anned fur the general ni.uket, ;nid ;)re now eNpurled in considenible ([uanlities. as well as i)\>lers. ( )ne l)ran( h of the l)usiiies> not w\ men- tioned has now grown so kirge as to t.ike it^ place anions the >taple resources of the comilry. altiioULih the inhabit.'mts of the regions where it is engaged in mo^t simerely wish that it had ne\er become a staple resource, and that the fish would swim away to some hitherto unheard of (juarter of the globe, and never, ne\fr come back. This is the (niching of porgies and bony fish for fertili/ing-pnrposes. These little fi>hes swim in immense shf)als. numbering; millions of fish. Tliev are cauyhl in net> in the S(jund. and along the northern coasts generally. The shoals are often s(; large as to tow. against tlie wind, the net and the schooni'r iVom whi( li it has been carried out ; and they sometimes carry awnv the nets. Uut. if the shoal is not too large, it can be handled. The fish are valued for their oil. whi( h is extracted by proper processes, and also because their remains can then be OYSTERS nudwiM; re '<^i' ilr Ik [If* n. y>^ m^ 6iS INDUSTRIAL HISTORY converted into guano for the benefit of the farms. The estabhshments where this manufocture is carried on waft a fragrance upon the breeze which does not remind one of hehotrope or the East Indies. Two kinds of fish which were remarkably abundant when the country was new were the shad and the sahiion. These fish have ahaiost disappeared Disappear- ^^*^'" ^onii. locahties, and they are scarce in all. The attention of ance of shad the goN'ernment of the United States was called several years ago and salmon. ^^ ^j^^ subjcct of the artificial propagation of these and other fish. Experiments werj making under Seth (Jrecn, in New- York State, for the breed- Art-ficiai '"S of millions of lake and river fishes, and the placing of them propaga- in lakes and streams to repopulate the waters which had thus *'°"" b'cn almost emptied of their game by local anglers and spearmen. Other States were giving attention to the subject ; and the United States were invited to consider the state of the coast-fisheries, and the propriety of propa- gating shad, salmon, &c., to replenish impoverished waters. A law was jiassed Feb. 9, 187 1, for the creation of a fish commissioner, and Professor Spencer F. Baird was appointed by the President to that office. Since that diilc, extensive and minute investigations hr.ve been in progress to gain a prelimi- nary idea of the character of the coast and of its food fishes. Professor Baird spent the summer of 18 71, with his assistants, at Wood's Hole on Cape Cod, the summer of 1872 at Eastport, Me., that of 1S73 at Portland, Me., 1874 at Noank, Conn., and 1875 at Wood's Hole again. No work was done on the coast in 1876, owing to Professor Baird's presence at the Centennial Exhibition to take charge of the general display of hatching-apparatus and methods of fish-culture ; but research has since been resumed. The studies of the commissioner were attended with valual)le results, and led to the prac- tical botching of shad and salmon for distribution to the waters of the several States and Territories. Up to 1877, over 26,000,000 shad, 7,500,000 salmon, and r., 6 70,000 white-fish, had been hatched, and placed in the watf,rs of the Unit.'d States North and South, and on the Pacific, under the supervision of the commissioner. The work is still going on, and on an increasing scale, supplemented by the active efforts of fish commissioners in a number of the States. It promises 10 yiekl valuable results in a 'ie and ecjual policy will recjuire its farther extension to the West, for tlu- i)ur])(jse of accommodating the i)0[)ulous and flourishing counties on the soutluTu boundary, and connecting them with our own commercial metropolis." The State l)uilt the railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia (eighly-two miles), and the portage road from Hollidaysburgh to Johnstown, so that they w^xt ready for use in 1832. It also built a canal from Johnstown to Pittsburgh, the total cost of all these works being twelve million dollars. This gave Philadelphia a route through to the West, and enabled her to meet die c(jm])etition of other cities. While these works were in progress, a number of small roads in the ' Riv Ji'r m OF THE UNITED STATES. 62' SchuylkUl mining-rogion were l)tii!(ling through private enterprise, and one from I'liiiad 'phi.i to (Icnnantown was chartered in 1.S31. ANOlllIK \li;\V <)1' JACKS NAKKOWS. Boston's first idea was to construct a canal tliroui^h the State to tlic Hudson River to connect witii the Erie Canal, and thus secure an uninterrupted water- 628 JND US TNI A L Ills TON Y |l-r route to the most distant rt'L,'ions of llic West. IJiit in June, 1825, (luw Lin- Massachu- coln, in Speaking upon the matter to the lei,'islature, saiie C"anal to build railroads connecting Alb.inv with Lake lOrie, and besieged their own legislature with statements in regard to the benefits to Massachusetts of a railway to connect with the New-\(irk roads and canal. In 1S30 companies were chartered to build railroads from Boston to Providence and Lowell ; and finally, in 1831, a beginning was made in the work of building westwardly, by a charter to a company to constru( t a road to Worcester; which was immediately organized, and the road built and opened by July 4, 1835. The Western Railroad (Corporation was char- tered in 1833 'to build from Worcester to the Hudson. The work was con- sidered to be of such public utility, that the State lent to the company at different times State scrip for sums which amounted in the end to four milli(jn dollars. While those lines were building, a communication was being created across the State of New Jersey by the Camden and ,\mboy Rail- New Jersey. ^ j j j road, between the cities of New York and Philadelphia. The road was begun in 1831, and finished in 1834. At the same time several short lines were building in New-York State, — among them being the Utica and Schenectady, chartered in 1833, and the Other lines Albany and Syracuse, chartered in 1834, — with the design of stini- buiit in New ulatiug the construction of other connecting railroads, which should °'^''' eventually give the State a complete through line from Albany to Lake Erie. It is an interesting fact, that even in that early period, in 1830, — in fact, when there were only twenty-three miles of railroad in operation on this whole continent, — the great project of a railroad from the State of New York to the Mississippi River at St. Louis had been conceived l)y De Witt Clinton, and publicly advocated in a little pamphlet, of which only a lew rare copies are now preserved. The road was to be about a thousand miles long, and to cost fifteen million dollars. It was too vast a project, however, for the resources, and even the needs, of that age ; and the only real outcome of the proposition was the beginning of a chain of railroads through New- York State to Lake I']rie, above noted. In the two lines above referred to, Boston capital was invested ; for it was foreseen, that, if the new agency for transportation fulfilled the expectations of its advocates, the disadvantages of Boston's geo- graphical ])osition would be annihilated, and the fiiture all-rail route to the West would be of great advantage to her. Besides the two lines above men- tioned in New- York State as then building, there were also the Ithaca and ^ ! 01- J HE CXITKI) SIATES. 629 Oswego, the Canandaigiia Railway, a liiu' tVoin the Iludsdii to nu'ct llic Wi'sIlth Railroad of Massachusetts, and a lew other small loial lines. The science ot' building and operating railroads was not well understood during the fust ten years of their exi^^tt'nce, and many wild anil erroneous notions were entertained in regard to them. Roads were planned to be buill on routes run- science of nuiLT over mounlanis and \ales that a riiilroad - ,1^!: 1 111 ,• 111 building very stage-coa( h would nave lound it hard to i,„,,t,rfect pass. One of the very early (barters cimint' fust granted in New-York State was for a rail- road from Catskill to Ithaca direct. This was in 1828; and, in the ten years following, applications were made at Albany for charters for about a hundred and forty different companies, of which number only twenty-one overbuilt the roads respectively projected by them. It was not known for many years whether to treat the locomotive as a toy i>r a machine. Morses were doing so well on all the railroads in operation, that it was su])i)osed they would not be superseded. On the IJaltimore and Ohio Road a -^ single horse would draw a hundred barrels of iloiu- ?- loaded upon four cars at a speed of seven miles an o hour. I'lxperiments were making with locomotives '' at Philadelphia and West Point, and several of these machines were imported from England to test their abilities. Put even as late as 1832, when Mr. Paid- win of Philadelphia had produced his first engine, '"The Ironsides," for the (iermantown road, anil it had attained a speed of thirty miles an hour, its utility was so much in doubt, that the ibilowing ad- vertisement appeared in a Pliiladelphia iiewspaptT : ''Notice. — The locomotive-engine (built by M. \V. lialdwin of this city) will ileparL daily, Il'/icii tlic -icraf/icr is /tii/-, with a train of ])assenger-cars. On rainy days, lunsc's 7ui// In- af/ailicil.''' Tin' engine was treated merely as a ciiriositw The ])n)blem of the locomoti\-e was solved in 1N34 b\' "The Lancaster" of Mr. I'aldwin's make, and l'eniis\l\ania resohcd to adopt tliat sort of m()li\-e-i)ower for her niilroad to Columbi.i. Put even then there were manv thinijs about an em;ine not understood : and c(;nstant experiment and ex])enditure of money had to be resorted to before the ren ;i- site knowledge was obtained. In order to flicilitate the building of railroads, the States at first extended a y^;:p=* .. \i V •II i'll** 630 IND I 'S TKIA I. INS TON V to the companies l)iiil(lint; iluin direct aid eitlicr from the public treasury, or CrantinKof !»>' a loan of tlic public credit, 'i'hcrc was a generous glow (it public aid. interest in thcni in the public mind. The patriots never gatinKd for a l''()urth-()f July ct'lebration or a i>u!.lic (hnner witiiout drinking a he.ulv tcjasl lu inlenial inipnjveinents. The pajters weie full of rhapsodies upon d:e march of the new idea ; and orators in jjubhc assemldages, and in tlie ciipiiols of the state and nation, fell that they had well earned iIk' publi( gratitude If*; 11*1 >6 ■ INTEKIOU OF SLracrlNG-CAK. by the ardor of their advorncy of railroads, canals, and military roads. Such being the state of the public mind, every railroad enterprise wisely con- ceived and prudently conducted found it easy to obtain State aid Ui ; u( h reasonable amount as would enable its promoters to accomi)lish their work. Mar}'land was the first State in the country to grant legislative aid to railroads. In 1828 the sum of $500,000 was granted to the I'altimore and Ohio line; and in 1855 the State subscribed 53,000.000 to the stock of the company, and the cily of Baltimore $3,000,000 more. Massachusetts loaned $4,000,000 OF THE IWiTII) srATI'S, ^Mi to the liostoii and .\ll)any line. New York fDlhiwed her example by loaning small sums to the (lilTerent companies l)iiil(linj,' the chain of roads otit to I„ike I'lrio, — a step which tlie panic, of i8_^7 made necessary in i)art, since it dis- cotiraf^ed tlie investment of private capital. Pennsylvania went so far as to Itiiild her fn-st rail-route from Pliiladclphia to Colmnbia with its branches, and the canal route on to Pittsi)urgh, at her own expense. The wealthy State of Virginia constructed the lilue- Ridge Railroad on her own account, and INTERIOR OF I'ASSENCiKU-CAK. sul)se(iuently subscribed to the stock of several lines; while Kentucky loaned her credit for railroad-building repeatedly. South Carol'.u.) ioniicd $100,000 to her first road. The object of these proceedings, was. in the main, simply to assist private enterprise ; and the total amount of aid urau^^ed was a very small part of the total capital invested, being probably less tii; a ten i)er ce; . The works were, in the main, left to private enterprise. During this decade several railroads were projc* ted in Canada and the Hntish Provinces. The CIreat Western Railway took its origin in one of these i ■ \\. KM ? ^■Hi'i' 1.* f^ lji;m'i'N,. S'^ ('3^ IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y projects, — tlic London and Ciore Railroail Company, wliich was cl\artcre(l Railroads in in 1S34. Nothing was ever tlone with that cliartcr ; and the 1 )lan Canada and was iv-organized in 1845 as the (Ireat Western Company, in order to provide lor a road Irom the Niagara to Lake Huron, and thus British Prov- inces. secure an all-rail route from the West, throuiih Canada and tl le United States, to the seaboard at IJoston. The road was built under this latter charter. A line from St. Andrew's in New Urunswic k to (hiebec was pro- posed in 1835, and the home government set apart ^'10,000 to maze ilu' surveys for it through what was then a ])erfe('t wilderness. One-lifth of the sum was expended, and fiuther e,\])enditures were then slopped unlil the l)ou.Kla'-y-questioii with America could be settled. \\'oi-k on the road was resumed in 1847. The Lrie antl Niagara Ccjmpan)- was also chartered in 1835. Ra|)id transit was a subject as much talked about in those carl; davs as in these more modern times, when a net-work of railroad-lines and telegraj)!!- „ , . , wires traverses the countrv in everv direction, and transportation Great inter- - - ' est displayed and travel engage in an eager race against time. Lines of mail- in subject of toaches were arranged ti) run in connection widi steapmoats, and rapid transit. . " c ery fresh victory o'.er time and space wa- heralded in the ])ubHc prints with enthusiasm. \w 1821 it was announced as a specini'.'n of raj)id travelling, that the distance i)etween New York and Providence had been traversed in twenty-fne hours by steamlujat and stage. \\\ 1824 it recpiired seventy-one hours and a half to go from Uoston to Washington ; antl that was cpiick time too, the usual lime being about eighty hours. It retpiired nineteen days to go from Philadelphia to Nau hez, and twenty- four days to go to New Orleans. When Paltimore was brought within fiftv- four iiours of Saratoga Springs, it was regarded as a great achievement. Tl-icse specimens of rapid travelling \\..re due to the improvement of the wagon-roads and the employment of ^team (^n the rivers. They stinuilateil travel greatly ; and in 1825 it was aim )un( ed a^ a gratifying and remarkable event, that, during the lM)urth-of-Jaly celebration at Philadelphia that year, three hunilred \('w-\'orkers were said to liave been in the city ; and in New- York State as manv as forlv coac'^-loads of passengers were then arriving every day at Albanv bv the grent turnpike running out to llu' western part of the State, .\fter 1832 this class of iii'ins disappeared from the columns of the newspa]>ers. and a new vnrietv a]i])e;ired. Rapid travelling by rail became tile exciting topic then, ami astonishing runs from one ci^y to another over tlie new slvle of road were recorded m the prir' : in place of the exploits of (he mail-coaches. Lvcn with cars drawn by horses, lime was at once reduced one-h;df from the best achievements of ihe stages, and, as soon as locomotives began to be used, to one-fourth and Ic^s. Wonder and curiosity filled the public' miral at the ])erformances of the new servant of man. The l)apers never tired of talking about them. Crowds llocked to the railroads o/-- THE iwrn-.n stajes. ^3.5 l.KWI'^Ti'N NAKEOWS, I'KNN. y 1 1 w l:i,' 634 INDUSTRIAL njsroRY to see the locomotives go by ; and hundreds of people went travelling who till now had had a horror of the long, rougli, fatiguing voyages by stage. 'I'lie locomotive was hailed by all travellers with delight. It did not reduce the cost of travel materially ; but it inc:reased the speed, and it gave an unwonted stimulus to travel and business-operations wherever it ran. Railroad-travelling has now so improved, that, in 1875, the run from New York to San Francisco was made in three days and a half; which was about the length of time it formerly tcjok to go from IJoston to Washington. The reduction in the cost of transportation by railroads was enormous, No line twenty miles long was constructed anywhere without enabling farmers to send their cider, i)otatoes, apples, cheese, and produce generally, to town at from a half to a (juarter of what it had cost them previously. It enabled formers to sell vast iiuantil'es of produce, which, before that, would not pay the cost of transportation. Freight from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was — by the railroad to t!olumbia, and the canal thence to the city last named — reduced from a hundred dollars to thirty dollars a ton. It was calculated in Marylantl, from the experience of the first few sections of the road building out to the Ohio, that, when the line reached Cumberland, the freight ujjon coal, then several dollars a ton, would l;e reduced to one cent ; and in vSouth Carolina the railroad to the interior was found to enable the planters to send their ctjtton to the seaport at a few ents a bale, when it had previously cost them from three to four dollars to get it down by the rough and swampy wagon- roads. The reduction in the expense of transportation by means of railroad'j is not the only benefit conferred by them. Py their creation it became practicable to cultivate the soil far away from rivers and lakes, and which to-day would be lying in native, untamed wildness except for these mighty agents of civilization. The railroads long ago surpassed the rivers in importance as highways, render- ing it possible to accpiire from every inch of the national domain whatever riches it may possess. These achievements of the railroads and the performances of the locomo- tives, after 1834, finally demonstrated the value of this new a .;cncy of transpor- Superiority tation. Its Superior speed, cheapness, and comfort were fully of railroads. pi-Qveil, and, in foct, surpassed all prediction ; and there was great confidence that the defects of the roads and tracks and rolling-stock would be corrected just as fast as inventors gave their attention to them. A passion for railroad-building accordingly set in. A vast number of compani<\> were formed in all the older States to open up rail-communication between all the thickly-settled regions (^f the country ; and, as fast as population advanced westward, the locomotive followed it clo'-ely, and united the cities of the new States *o their sisters in the Fast with 'he iron bands of civilization. How rapid has been the progress will a])iK\"- from the following table, showing the mileage of railway-construction in the United States since 1830 : — I OF THE UxXITED STATES. 635 -" 1 MII.KSIN j ANNl'AI. INC KFASE YEAK. OI'KIJATION. 1 Ol- MlLKACili. I.S3O • ■ • 1 23 • • . . 1S3I 95 72 IS32 . 229 '34 ^'^ll ■ 380 151 .S34 . ^^y. 253 ''^S5 ■ 1 ,098 465 .S3f, . '•-73 •75 ly.")? • 1 ,497 224 1.S3.S . ',9'3 416 1S39 . 2,302 389 1840 2,818 5'6 1S41 3,535 717 1S42 . 4,026 491 i'S43 4,185 '59 1S44 4.377 192 "S45 4.633 256 .S46 4,930 297 1S47 5,598 668 1S4S 5,996 398 1849 7,365 1,369 1850 9,021 1,656 1851 10,982 1,961 1 1] 52 1 2,908 1,926 i«S3 15,360 2,452 1854 16,720 1,360 185s 18,374 1,654 1S56 22,016 3.642 1857 ■ : 24,503 2,487 1858 26,968 2,465 '859 . ; 28,789 1,821 i860 30,635 1,846 1 86 1 • \ 3',-86 65' 1S62 32,120 834 1863 33. '70 1,050 1864 33,908 738 1865 35,085 1,117 1866 36,827 1.74? 1867 39.276 2,449 1868 42.255 2.979 1869 47,208 4.953 1870 52,898 5.690 187 1 (0,568 7.670 1872 < 6,735 6,167 •873 70,840 4.105 1S74 72.741 1 .901 187 s 74,658 '.917 1876 . • ; 77.470 1 2,812 ^H - • ill 41' i^ '"iri ■«|.H 636 /A'D [ S TKIA L HIS 7 OA' Y To the total mileage for 1S76 should also be addetl the mileage of Canada, Miles built which is 4,929, because those railways suljstantially belong to and during fifty form ail integral part of the Anieriran system of rail\va\-com- ^^""^^^ munication. In fifty years 82,443 miles of railroad were built and put \\\ practical operation ; or, computing the length of track upon iiiXliMAldM VIADUCT. tncse roads, — counting in sidings, double and rM'%U-;N T IM- Kci.MlS (IWNKI) AND roNTHULl.'iD. ;r2 77.470 .Mii.i-:> (ii-- KOAU. i.dCdMivnvKs 1,000 167 940 '-5 Sro '97 1S9 37 yiS 260 '.'^37 77' S.5^5 ■.667 1,601 7'^7 -^5 ■■* 5.9-'^3 2.^47 1,107 7<'- i,(>)9 2SS 5S4 2 '■570 116 '•353 162 4S4 y~ 2,306 3'S i.73'S 1S4 1 ,0 14 '3- 539 '5- 2,0^5 1S4 4,6t.- 1,740 4,003 7y,S 7.2S5 1,645 '.475 299 1,645 '3' 7S8 2< 3. '46 54 3.939 15 2,707 2' 3.395 49' 2,020 1 ;; 2,23s .!' 1,150 u 957 30 -75 4 5'5 31 459 .... 6S0 33 1.9 '9 So 251 14 279 .... no 9 1 ,03s 16S 22S 15,618 LA us. (I"-! (i|- KOAU AM) l;i.)l U'MENT. 2,S|I ^^4 5.3 '4.005 2,72s 23.7'4.X59 3.03''< 33.5''<5.33S 2()[ 6, 1 29,023 4.'\?3 52,912,022 i7,S4i 124,6-5,669 ) 1 , 1 (jS 421,503.301 -3.''^.v^ i46,7()5,oi6 35 5,027,202 97,667 386,89 i,,s 60 i9.37^> 100,973,120 5.-52 '"^9.774.065 5 1 63,000 '.434 37.023,418 r ,SiiS 37.295. '23 2S2 17,420,000 4. ^'4 3 62,038,201 -,442 70,641,120 ^r:>^i 27.302,035 2,2So 48.198,667 3.552 79.037.900 3S.225 373.944.3«f5 16,514 194,496,511 4',i2S 415.777.140 5.0j-~ 76,655,260 1,649 29,555,822 307 14,881,400 16,304 228,458,579 3.25' 106,352,984 6,404 111,728,249 12,569 139,866,082 4.039 79.754.596 4,oSo 92.523.557 728 19.57^^.755 574 30,694,150 74 12,700,000 573 8,217,000 713 4,650,000 2,9aj) 64,705,()()(> 23' 7,361,664 171 6,000,000 3.227 115,214,588 4.401 142,630,283 399.924 5^4.087,253,225 ill m i ^HH fe iffjlp^ 1 p lifei il?" s^lfrn ;Vr''w^ i ■ mm Si )m iKivBli' ' 1 ' '■flpl HP - Wai W'^ & I WW <~:.>\" Hsm* ■ 6j8 /Av>> t speakers ot' the day were engaged to awaken the iiitc r(..-,t of all sui)>lantial citi/ens in the piililic and pri\ate advantages o|' ihc road-,. Suhscriptions to the stoi k of the coinpauies look the lorin, theiviore. of x jiopiilar ino\c'nieiit ; and it was the eliaracteri.'ilie ci the carlv railroad-cuni- panies, that a \ast nninherof small sums saved In industry ami frugalit) wc ir imesled in them. 'I'lie Slate legislatures aided many of them, as ue iia\e seen, by grants of ciecht and money. .A part of the capital to build the mids xvas also obtained in Loudon, whither the agents of tlie principal liuci wci-e sent. e\en in the very infancy of their resp')cti\e enterprises, to see wlial cculd be done in the wa\' of borrowing money. ;\s railroad-extension became a l)opular ////v'/v. borrowing capital in London became a habit; ;md the rouit h;is been, that, in the course of these fifty years, a sum of mcjiiey, estiniaircl at not less than S400.ooo.ooo, has been obtained in b'ngland and I'airope for the building of our American r;iilroads. A largo part of the money thus in\este(l by foreign ca|»it;ilir,ts w.is tnnismitted to the I'nited States in the form of railroad-iron. The manulacture of rails was in its infancy in this counlrv ; and England supplied us, until about five years ago, with nearly all the rails laid down here. LoconK)lives and cars we Imilt ourselves ; but we did not Importation h;i\ c tlic factories to make iron rails. From 1840 to 1S77 there of rails. were impt)rted from i'lngland 5.200,000 tons of rails, being a larg; proportion of the whole ciuantity used. 'Hie cost of the rails imported was s ) iiething over $200,000,000, the j^rice per ton being at times excessive. In 1S64 it ran up one month to a hmnlred and fifty-four dollars per tun, though sinking back next year to eighty-three dollars, and running down in 1876 to forty dollars a ton, which is more nearly their legitimate value. I 'art of the capit;il for building the roads in the new States of the West was con- tributed outright by the (Jeneral ("lovernment of Washington in the form of large grants of the public lands, by the pledge of which the companies were enabled to raise millions of money which they could not have otherwise secured. This policy of land-grants began in 1850. The State of Illinois li;i(l ])rojected a grand system of canals and niilroads in 1837, one feature of whic h was to be a rail-route from Chicago to Cairo through the central iiorlion of the State. The Central Roatl was begun, and S3, 500,000 spent upc;n it I)y the State, when bankruptcy overtook the enterprise, and work was stopped. Congres- '^'^ '''^5"- Cougross, ill a liberal and wise spirit, granted to the St;ite of Illinois everv alternate section of the public lands on eac h side of tlie projected road aivl its branches, six sections in width, to assist in carrying it forward to completion, — a grant which comprised 2,595,000 ;tcres of land, an area larger than the State t)f Connecticut. Tlie same law made grants of the same description to Alabaniii ami Mississipiii for the exten- sional grants ()/■ THE V XI TED STATES. 641 the gross earnings an- nually thereafter. The com]) any t(xjk the lands, briilt the road with them, and prosed the wisdom (jf the new policy of the go"'ern- ment by paying to the State nearly $500,000 per annum ever afterwards as its share of the gross earn- ings of the road, and by doubling the \alue of the previously unsold govern- niciit-lands in the State of Illinois. Those lands had been previously held at BKIDGE. — tONKWAl.O CUKF.K. 1 WA m m n : » I' 1 l\ 642 IND US TKIA L II IS TOR V "lii':isil a dollar and twenty- five cents per acre, and could not lind buyers. After the building of the Illinois ('entral Railroad, they all sold for two dollars and fifty cents per acre, and the government realized $9,000,000 for lands which had been valueless before they fell the niagit: breat!^ of the locomotive. This policy of tlie government was based upon the idea first, of developing the fertile lands of the West by affording the facilities for aiul inviting immigra- tion ; and, secondly, upon the idea of enhancing the value of its own lands by the process of settlement. So completely was all anticipation realized, that jjopular sentiment strongly favoied the granting of lands to railroads; and it is a remarkable fact, that the people have been more willing to make land donations than the companies have been to accept them, as appeals hum the .-y&- <«s^ TKAl K AND TRACK-TANK. circumstance that over 4,000,000 of acr' s have been given up by the com panies, and sin-rendered to the government. These gifts, however, have ])eeu so badiv al)used in many cases, that public sentiment within a (c\v years Ins undergone a radical change in respect to the recipients, and a marked disin- Mii-liig.-iii . Michigrin (Res.; Wisconsin DATB OF GRANT, Sept. 30, Sept. 30, Sept. iu, Auk. II, Au«. u, Sci)t. 20, M.iy June Jnne Juni; Jnne Jnnc M.iy Miy M.iy M.iy Jnni; June Ki'l), July Kel). Jnly !•■.•!,. .Fn!y J»ly Jnnc Jnne "K!.. July Inlv .\I„y inne .\l.,y lune M..y Jnne .\I.iv May May May Jane June June June June Jun< Jnne March July Jnne Jiuic '7. 3. 3. 3. 3> 3. '?. '7. '7. >7. 3. y. a3, y. 23, 9. 23, 4. 850 S50 850 856 80 851) 85(, 856 856 856 856 856 8-Vi iV 85I' 85f, 8t.'j 853 S(ji) 3S3 866 8un 852 Ssi! 353 8u(i 866 850 S64 856 8(^4 S56 864 856 S56 864 81.4 856 8;t) 836 S64 8=6 856 COMI'AKV. Illinois Central Mobile anil Cliiiaiin Mobile and ( )liio k iver Vi kslnirK and M' 1 1 lian tjlilf ,inil Ship Island Mobile and ( )lno Kiver Alabani.i and l''londa Selnia, Roni.', and Ualtun C>>>a and Tennessee , . . . . Ml ilc anil Oiraril .M.ib.ima and Cliatl.uiooKa South ai J North Alab.una I'lorida Railroad Florida and Alabama f'ensai;ola ami f leoruia Florida, Atlantic, ami ( lull' I cnual North Ixmisiana and Texas New Orleans, < tpelousas, and C't Western (.'airo and Fulton Cairo kmI |''ult(iii .MeiinMi. and Little R/>.>. Meniplii^, anil I.illle Rn. k I.illle Rock .md l''iirt Siuiili,. Tittle Roik ,iiid Fort '' lith Iron .\loui Mill ITnmilial am! St. Joseph T,ii ifh Old S(mih-wi;st T.i.uuh I liro .Old T'lilton t '.iiro and Fulton St. Tonis Old Iron .Mountain T.iulinmou .Old .Missouri River , llurliii'^tnii ;iiid .Missouri River Chicago, Rock Island., and I'.h if;,- (-'hii:a.i;o, Rock Island, .uul riMli, Cedir Rajiiils and Mi , ourl Rive: Cedar Rapids and .Missouri River Iowa Falls and Sioii.x City Dubiiqiie ,ind Sioiix City McCrenor and Mi- inri River Sionx City and St ' ml Detroit ind Milw.uikee Port Huron and .Milwaukee Jackson, Lansing, and Saginaw Flint and I'ere .Maripiette Craiul Rajiids and Indi.ina < !r,\nd Ra|iiils and Indian,! .Marquette, I lounliton, and DiUon.inon II ly de N'oquet Chii ,ii.'o ,ind N'orth-western West Wisconsin Wisconsin Railroad F,irni Mon. Land Co., KtTIMATKn I NltMnitn op ACKICS IN MM- ACUI'.S IAl|...sr• n■S (11- TIIK jUU III' TO J1J,N8 (iKANI. 30, 1875, 2.595.01,1 1,004,640 404,8110 625,800' ,'io,4c«j 4iy,52o' 481,920 it2,48oi h j ),88ot 897,920 57^ 'HJO 44-^^4a i63,«.)S>i ' i,j'i8,72,>i tiio,88o 017,840 1,160,667 1 ,040,000 4.3.646 365.5.!y 550.523 458,77' ,''' 4.000 1 .744 1 ,161,2;; 219, '.'f. 2 1S2.713 I 261, iSi 1 2,,R, 739 I 226, 163 1 ,530,000 524, 8rX) 335,4-0 312,384 1,052,469 586,828 629,182 53i,8'J.5^8 3';4.523 457.4''>7 67.784 5"4.I45 55-Myi> 436,720 881,1^84 105.1.88 1,275,21a 37.583 353.211 7iy.'y3 1,115,408 194,524 127.233 14,606 550,520 33''|.'y6 5yy.o3i i,i6r,2o4 4.017 292,085 97,227 482,254 161,37a 782,230 348,896 683,023 473,606 137.57a 396,838 30,998 6,428 742,900 512.529 629,182 217.434 4: ■'■707 128,000 517,908 796,912 39.929 I > No evidence of the construction of any part of these roads having been filed in the General Land Office, the grants are presumed to have lapsed; but the land.s have not been restored, and Congress has not yet taken action in the matter. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. « ^ 1.0 I.I 1.25 ^n A ^' * '/ /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14S80 (716) 873-4503 v.. 644 /.VZJ L'S TKIA L HIS TOR Y STATES. DATI! OF GKANT. Wisconsin jlMC 3. I 856 1 M.'y 5. ■ 864 1 June 3, 8,6 i .\I.iy 5, 8..4 Minnesota Marih 3, S-,7 ( M.ircli 3, S-,7 Mar.;li 3, 87. M.ir.h 3, ^^^7 Manli 3, S-.7 March 3, 8 .7 May 5. 81.4 Ji'ly 4. 8(>ii July 4. 8(.t> Kansas Mar.h 3. 8"3 March 3, 863 March 3, 3i>3 July 25, 3(Ml July 25, S(i6 July 25, 81.(1 Corporations .... July I, 8f)6 July I, i8r,2 July I, i8(Vj March 3, iSfk^ July I, iSOl! July 1, 1862 May 6, 1870 July 2, 1864 July 2, 1864 J"ly >3. 1861. July 25. i86(-. July 2^, 1866 July 27, 1866 July 27, t866 March 3, 187, March 2, 1867 May 4, .870 March 3, 1871 March 3, 1871 KsriMATKl) NlMllKR OK ACKKS IN MM- Adds 1A1 l-.NT- ITS 01-- TIIK KIJ II' TO JINIl (.HANI. I 30, 1875. .St. Cr.ii.v ami I.akc Superior , .ind liranch to Hay lie li I \ St. Croix and ?,ake Su|ieii(ir .lu.l I'iluuIi < to HayCieM > Chicayo aui]i|ii Southern M inuesnia Maslinus ami l).ikot.i I.cavenwortli, Lawrence, anil (I.ilvestoM .. Missouri, Kansas, and I'e.vas Atchison, Topeka, ami Sani.i I'e Missouri River, I'oit Scdit, and Cull St. Joseph and Denver Ciiy Missouri River, Kort Scoti, uul Culf Union Pacific Central I'.r.unh (I'niou I'.icifi. ) Kansas I'.n ific 1 )enver I'ai ific Central P.icific Central Pacific Hurlinijlon ami Missouri River Sioux City and I'ai ific Northern P.ic.ifii Pl.icerville and S.n ramento V.dley Oregon I'.ranch (( Vnlr.d P.icific) (^rejjon and California Atlantic and Pa .if-: Southern Pacific Southern Pacific Stockton and Coppcropolis Oregon Central Tex.is Pai ific New Orleans, Baton Rouge, ami Vicksburg, Total, deductirn; the lands reverted. 5-M.r'4 318,737 5=4,718 565,000' 3'S,74o fnK).flOO 54''. 322 1 ,8lK),f K 3yS.8''5 i,-vtS,..38 1.2.17,443 i,47S.'.i» 522, './2S P.CKKI.mKJ 78o.2.,I f'4.!,4-,! 17,^,058 1,410,000 l,'<.xj,748- I,OIO,fK«) ',2.^5'''> 920,O.MJ 743.24" 73i;,(KKi 2'''i,.!y4 5^0,CXK> i6i^,.yi I 8 1 ;,489 12,CKK),(.XX) i,844,.'>7 245, "66 iSi,,453. 6,000,000 5'J<>.55S I ,rxK>,400 49.8H 8,CXX1,000 376.977 1,000,100 387,630. 2,44i,6c«:) 2,374,oyo (io,cxx:) 40,596 47,o,fxK) 630,717 200,CXX) 3,000,0(K> 494, o5» 3,5cx),cxio 2J''',.S25 42,,fXV3 iS.'KXa.CXKI 3.Six),ooo ao8,544.»63 38,052,530 if. As the estimated (]iiantity (if lands contained in the grants is somewliat Total more than the (luantity wliich the companies will realize from them, ainount of owing to previous settlement, cs])ecially in Kansas, Minnesota ^'^""*' Iowa, and Arkansas, the total grant is estimated in reality as amount- ing only to 183,216,733 acres, worth $52,575,000. The government also aided ' No evidence of the construction of any part of these roads having heen filed in the General Land OfTice,. the grants are presumed to have lapsed; but the lauds have not been restored, and Congress has not yet takcih action in the matter. **4a«^^' OF Tirr. rxiTED states. 64s ft|] 6j6 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY in the construct'on of the Pacific railroads, as enterprises of great national utility, by issuing to them bonds to run for thirty years, payable from a sinking- fund established by the conii)anies ; the bonds being issued to the companies, Government as fast as they finished the different sections of their roads, at the loans. r-ite of ;^ 1 6,000 a mile on the j)lains, $48,000 a mile through the mountain-ranges, and $33,000 a mile between tiie ranges. The following table exhibits the amount of the loans to the different projects : — RAILWAY. Central I'acific . Kansas I'acific . Union I'acific Union Pacific, Central Hranch Western Pacific . Sioux City and Pacific Total .... AI'TIIORIZISr, ACTS. July I, 1S62, and July 2, 1S64. PRINCU'AL. $25,885,120 6,303,000 27,236,512 1,600,000 1,970,560 1,628,320 $64,623,512 to amount invested. The contribution of the government, therefore, toward the capital needed Ratio of aid for creating the railroad-system of the United States, was $144,- 000,000. Large as is this sum, it is only one and three-fifths per cent of the whole amount of capital invested. That part of it which consisted in land-grants has been repaid to the government by the increased value of its other lands. Another plan resorted to, after railroad-enterprises attained a magnitude which rendered inadequate the old and simple method of raising the capital Issue of for them from the savings of the people in the localities through bonds. which they run, was the issue of bonds by towns and cities. A very large number of the short lines of the country were built by means of ci^pital raised in this way. Some of these bonds have not been paid ; but the object of their issue was secured, and the roads constructed, and added to the permanent wealth of the country. The fifteen years just before the civil war was a period of great activity in railroad-building. It was seen that the growth of cities and the marketing of Fifteen surplus products of farm, plantation, forest, and mine, were de- years prior pendent on the construction of these avenues of communication, tocwi war. ^ great many important lines were projected and built in that fifteen years, among them being the Mrie Railroad, the Hudson-river, the Pennsylvania, the Illinois Central, and many others. Connecting links were finished, so as to open an all-rail route from Boston to New Orleans, and from Chicago and St. Louis to all the princijjal cities on the Atlantic coast ; so that the pine-woods and myriad factories of New England were united to the OF THE UNITED STATES 647 cotton-fields and cane-brakes of the South, and the waving wheat and ( orn fields of the West to the wharves and fleets of stately ships upon the ocean- coasts. 'I'he locomotive sped through every i)art of the country. Regions wiiich before were impenetrable wildernesses became gardens ; and millions of human beings came from Europe to populate them, and find in the midst of them a competence and independence which they had never known in the previous part of their lives. Old 'ities received a new birth, and new ones sprang up in magical fashion all o-.tr the country. New industries were jjlanted by the exigencies of the roads. There was plenty of work every- where ; and the wealth of the country developed in a manner that astonished the Old World, and formed the theme of admiring comment of statesmen and writers everywhere. In the early years of railway-traffic the transportation-system of the country presented the aspect merely of a confiision of disconnected and independent roads, managed without regard to any conmion purpose, and with consoUda- < ery little respect for the wishes of patrons living beyond the ter- tion of rail- mini of the several roads. The New-York Central route was ^°^ '" composed of twelve distinct corporations antl lines between Albany and Lake Erie ; and for twenty or thirty years there was not a trunk-line anywhere in the country, in the modern sense of the term. Every little line of fifty miles of track was managed in delightfully autocratic style ; and the only concern of its officers was to collect the charges for the transportation of freight over their line, what became of the freight after it had passed on — whether it was lost or plundered, or stood for weeks on a siiling — being of no earthly interest to them whatever. The shipment of freight to any distance by rail was thus attended by all sorts of delays, vexations, and losses. This was a discourage- ment to trade, and thus both the roads and the public suffered by it. Out of this state of things arose several measures looking toward unity and harmony in the railway-system of the country, among them being the consolidation of connecting-lines into single companies, the lease of connecting-routes by powerful companies, — so as to secure trunk-lines from the seaboard to the productive regions of the interior, and between interior points, — and the for- mation of fast-freight and express companies. The growth of the trunk-lines and the rapid-despatch companies will be separately mentioned. Massachusetts was one of the very first States to discover the need of a railroad the whole length of the State, and connecting at Albany with the ICrie Canal. Dr. Phelps anil Daniel Webster were early and earnest advocates of the measure. Two routes for a railroad were sur- setts the first veycil at State expense — one through the Northern, and one state to through the Southern countries — in 1827 and the two succeed- ".', ^ °"^ o ' railroad. ing years. The Boston and Worcester Railroad Corporation was chartered, June 23, 1831, to build the first part of the road, — forty-three miles and a half; which task was completed July 3, 1S35. 'i'he road earned a r.4,s IXD ( 'S TRIA I. HIS TOR Y I litllf ovlt tiMi ]K'r rent on its original capital of ^i.ooo.ooo iroiii the ;:tart. Ill Mar( li, iS_5^^, tlic WcsttTii kaiiioatl Curporation was chartcrt'd to build Boston and '""^' ''"'"" ^VoiTcstiT to till' lliulsou RivLT, with a capital of i!2,ooo,- Aibany ooo. 'I'Ik' coinpaiiy (liy persevering efforts, the W'estt'rn Kai%-oad ("oriK)ration secured its capital by subston and Worcester Road ( laiming an undue share of the through rate. A conllict on tliis subject was ( arried on with acrimony for more tiian twenty years, and was never settled until in 1S6.S the two roads were consolidatec' into cne com|)any as the I'.o^^ton and Albany Railroad Company. In 1.S71 the Albany and West-Stockbridge Comi)any, in New-\'ork Stale, was (onsoli- (lated with the corporation, thus pultinj^ the route from Albany mider one management and ownership. 'I'he combined capital of the three companies was 527,325.000. At».\lbany this road connects with the New- York Central and the lOrie-canal routes to the West, and the Albany and Susipiehanna route to the coal-mines. It has brought about a great change in the ancient currents of trade. Now Hour and grain c:oming down the ICrie Canal go no longer, as of yore, down the Hudson and up the Sound, whence, in due course of lime, they reach Boston l)y doui)ling around Cape Cod. All these things now go direct, and reach lioston in ten hours from Albany, against the six or seven days' transit of the old fri^i/z/r. .At Boston the road has a grain- elevator with a capacity of 1,000,000 bushels, coal-pockets, warehouses, and other terminal facilities, which are not excelled in any seaport of the United Slates. Freight is supplied to three weekly lines of steamers to Mngland. The Boston and .Albany Road has repaid its entire debt to the State of Massa- chusetts, and is one of the prosperous enterprises of the country. Another connecting link between the New-I'.ngland seaboard and the New-York transportation routes to the West was comi)leted in 1S75 on the line through the northern counties of the State talked of in 1827 : Hoosac-tun- this is die Hoosac-tunnel Fast Freight Line. It is composed of "^' Railroad, a combination of railroads, and affords to the public a choice of routes between Albany and Boston. The component parts of the line are the iMtchburg Railroad from Boston to Creenlield (a hundred and six miles), the Troy and Cireenfield Railroad and Iloosac Tunnel to the Vermont State line (forty-four miles), and thj 'lYoy and Boston Railroad to Troy (forty-one miles). The Troy and Cireenfield Road with the tunnel were l)uilt by the State at a cost of $20,- 000,000, and are still owned by the Commonwealth. The tunnel was opened for the first train Feb. 9, 1S75. The capacities of this route are not yet hilly developed ; but it is expected to reduce the cost of transportation to Boston, and thus increase the trade of that ])ort. The beginnings of railway enterprise in New-York State have already been noted. Two great trunk-lines to the West have been constructed through that commonwealth since the humble commencement made between New-York the then little old towns of Schenectady and Albany. I"^)r tlie Central, northern route fourteen charters were granted; though in 1852 the number of 650 LXnUSTNlAL INS TORY roads Iiad been reduced to twelve by the consolidation of the Auburn and Rodifstcr with tiic Auburn and Syracuse, and tlie Tonawanda with the Attica and lUiftak) Companies. 'I'liis chain of railroads was built economically and honestly. 'I"hc first of them, those betsveen Auburn and Albany, were built originally to be operated by horse-power, and were so operated at first ; but engines were soon put upon them all, the first ones being imported from Eng- land for the purpose. Nature hail marked out the destiny of this ( hain (jf roads as one single route from Lake !''rie to the Hudson; but they were o[)erated as distinct lines until 1X5^5, when an ac:t of the legislature, passed in April, authorized their consolidation. The prudence with whi( h they had been built, and the populous and productive nature of the regions they traversed and ta[)pcd, are exhibited by the following table, showing the value of llie roads at the time of the consolidation : — NAME OF KOAD, STdCKS AND CONVliKTIIll.K llONDS. $I,62t,SOO 4,500,000 3,300,000 5,608,700 3,000,000 2,155,100 565,000 354,260 67 5,000 I 50,000 1,575,000 650,000 l-RKMII'M 111- TIIK STDLK (I'liK CEN!). Albany and Schcncct.idy Utica and Schenectady Syracuse and Utica Rochester and Syracuse lUiffalo anil Rochester Rochester, Lockport, and Niagara Falls . lUiffalo and Niagara Falls Niagara Falls and Lcwiston l^uffalo and Lockport Rochester and Lake Ontario Mohawk Valley Troy and Schenectady 17 5S 50 30 40 2S 25 25 55 Total of stocks and convertible bonds $24,154,860 The terms of consolidation were, that the stock of the new comi^any, to be called "The New-York Central," should ecjual the aggregate of the stock of the Terms of individual companies., and that, for the premium which the stock consoiida- then commanded, six-per-cent bonds of the new organization *'""■ should be issued to the holders. The total amount of bonds issued under this arrangement was $8,894,500. The debts of the comi)anies amounted to about $2,800,000 ; so that the total liabilities of the new comi)any were $35,836,796. The average cost per track was $44,485 a mile. Earnings amounted in 1857 to $8,000,000, or $14,000 a mile. The distance from Albany to liuffalo was shortened to 29S miles. Another link in the New-York Central route was completed in 1S51, being the Hudson-river Railroad to New-York City, 142 miles long, chartered in May, 1846, and built at a cost %((*»*-' J OF THE UNITED STATES. ^5« 1 and Auica y .111(1 I'llilt ; I)iii I'liK- 111 (if H'd ill llCCll crsfd )f llic of 511,328,990 "r .<7S/)7.v III iSr..} the road llll into tlir (ontrol of ilic New- York Central, and in iSjo was purinaiRiitly ( onsolidati^l with it. It was agreed that the caiiital of the new < oik ern should be .^sj;.- „ , oeo.ooo. The st()( k lieiiii,' at a ineniiuni, however, the conipany nver Paii- (oiiceived tlie idea of tiirnini; the fa( t to advantage l»y giving a '°"'*' representative vahie to the iiK teasiwl worth of tlie roao to wl i( ii the |ireniium was due by issuing eight-per-cenl terlificates, ( onvertible iiitcj ( (Jinniun sto( k y^ at tlie option of the holder. Of these certificates ^>u;,->- $44428.300 were issued, tlitis virtually increasing the 7*j,^v~\^ stock by a stroke of the pen to $S9,4jS.300. The '*'^^.^ corporation has since laid another double track be- tween Albany and Huffalo at a cost of .^25,000,000, paid for by the issue of bonds, thus securing a four-track road the length of New-York State ; and has leased the New-York and Harlem Railroad, thus securing four tracks to the city of New York, without the necessity of laying the additional two upon the costly route along the banks of the Hudson. The road's western connections are the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern and the Canada Southern. It is operated jointly with those lines for Western business, and it carries freight in- discriminately both ways both for IJoston and New York. Its New Mngland connections are the Boston and Albany and the Hoosac-tunnel route to C$2 IMJi S TKIA I. lUSlOK Y Boston. Scvcnt) |Kr < rut of its castwanl-lxjiind fri-i^^ht j,'()i's to Now l".ii^;laiiil. 'I'lu' pritK ipiil < lianu itristif oltlif lnisiiii'ss of tin- Nfw-N'ork Central is its iMUjr- nujiis |)assciif,'cr and loc allV(.if,'lit tratlic. It transports over 7,000.000 ))as^rii. Kers a year, and in i(S76 < arried 6.Soo,ooo tons ot fni^ht. 'I'lu- cost of Ini^lit lias been reduced to lluee flollars a ton from liiilTalo to Albany. It will Ix; recollected that the coit was a hnndrcd dollars a ton \\\ the days of wagoning. INlcl.N lllU'or, I'lITSlll-UCII. The Erie-railway route was ])lanned as early as 1825, the State of New York orderi'ig a survey for it in that year. The public interes'. in a railway Erie Rail- through the southern counties of the State was very great, and '■°'"^- a nunil)er of ])ul)li(: conventions were held in regard to it. A company was chartered to build the road in 1832, the capital to be :>io,ooo.- 000 ; and Dc Witt Clinton, jun., made a survey for it. This road was built Ol- Till: LXITHI) STATES, ''5.J iiiiiirr (lislu'artciiiiii; cinMim^tanci's. Tin- rc^icMi it traverse* 1 wns i'X(i's>ivi'ly rii;;,i;<.'(l. .iinl allonlcil an cxtri'iiu'ly •^mall aiiiouiit itl loi al Iticiiicss to ihi- liiu*. No payiii;^ lralti( < onld he (aik'i li-d until it wa> ( oinidi'ted tliioii.nh tii Lake laic. 'I'lic j,'ri'at lire in New \oik pivvintcMl many of tlie sltx klmhlers Ironi payinfi for their ^iKirts. 'I'lic paim ul' iS^; intervened, and < ri|i|iKd ollur Mien. 'I'lie line was laid ont \vill» su< h poor jutlf,'m>'iit in pla« es, that the work jiad to he aliandoneil as useless. Thi- State loaned S,?,'"'". <><><• to tlu' '■ 1,505 miles of roadway, not counting in double tracks or sidings ; and 4,324 miles of road are either directly controlled by or operated in its interest : in all, 5,829 miles, representing a cai)ital of $398,267,000. 'I'hesc lines ])ass <>54 IS'liUS TKIA I. HIS TOR Y through eleven States, and extenyl\.uiia Railro.ul Company for ;?7.5oo,- 000 (ihey cost $12,000,000), and rail communicalion from Philadelphia to Pilt.->biu\i;h then bicame continuous and efficient. 1 )uring the late war, the Penn- sylvania Road made enormous ])rorits : and vecogui/ing the fact that the business it was then doing was accidental, and could not be sustainci! except by the extension of its lines lo the \\'e.-vl, it devoted a part of its earn- ings to building the Phila(lel[)hia and I'.rie Road, and the completion of various branch lines in the Stale which would bring traffic to the main stem. In iSO^ the comi)any assumed control of the chain of roads constituting the Pittsburgh, i''ort Wayne, and Chicago route to Chicago as lessee f(;r nine hundred and ninety-nine years. The same year it secured a line under its own control to Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis by lease. It leased the Northern C'cntral in 1S70, thus gaining connections with Pallimore and with Canandaigua, N.Y. ; and in 1S71 it secured control of the united railroads of New Jersey, thus gelling a direct line to New York. The company now owns twenty-two branches, and controls branches and extensions by lease. Its policy has been dictated by such sound judgment, tliat no part of this vast network of lines is a burden upon the company, or any thing except a useful tributary to its WAlKJi-lANK. OF T//F. I' N I IE I) STATES. <^55 b»i!-incss. Its capital stock is now about 55.^000,000, and its total liabilities about Si I '■',000,000. I'hc company has a KrJiinclcvator at llallin»<»rf, two a.t I'liiladclphia, and two at Kric, iVrui. ; and at New Vo:k it has millions of hed fnjm that port a line of four American iron steamships to l,iverpt)ol by giiaraulccing JS 1, 500,000 of its Ixjnds. I'his line operates at present tiie only American steamships engaged in trans-Atlantic trade. The I'enn.iylvania Company is in MUNCV MOUNTAIN, NICAK IlKl.l.KIOS I K. all respects a colossal organization ; and, whatever may lie said of the danger of permitting so vast a moneyed power to grow up in this republic, it can at least be said that its operations hr.vc i)een of incalculal^le utilicy to commerce and the country. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, though begun in 1S28, was not finished through to the Ohio River at Wheeling, a distance of 379 miles, ^ , ,ietion until Jan. i, 1853. Litigation with the canal running parallel to it, of the Baiti- and the opposition of other conflicting interests, had made great ^oi'e and delays. The cost of the road and eiiuipment was $23,600,000, After the war, the company leased a number of connecting roads in order tn 656 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY vM secure the unity of operation and establishment of through rates which the other great companies had been striving for. In 1866 a connection to CoUmibus, O. was leaseil, and in 1869 another running to SancUisky. In 1870 the ^^'in(;hL■st(Jr :>nd Slraslnu-gii Road was leased, thus securing tiie business of the Shenandcjaii Valley in Virginia, and paving the way for ol)taining a share of the trade of North Carolina. A connection through to Chicago was secured by alliance with other roads in 1S74, and another recently to St. Louis. The liabilities (.A the road now amount to about $56,000,000. The interest of the city of Balti- more in stock and bonds is $10,500,000. The road is wisely managed, and has a large business in coal, petroleum, grain, and general traffic. Its terminal facilities on Locust Point in Baltimore are not approached in any other sea- port of the country, except at Boston : they comprise grain-elevators, coal- shoots, warehouses, oil-yards, and wharves, and are the rendezvous of innumerable sailing and steam vessels, and the de'pot of the ocean Sicam- lines to luirope. During the freight war between the railroad-lines in 1865 the company established its own steamship communication with luiglantl, but lost $758,000 in the venture, and soon withdrew the steamers. The road has a great future before it. Another system of railroads leading from the West to the seaboard has grown up north of the Cireat Lakes and St. Lawrence River with'n the last Grand Trunk twenty years, and is termed the " Crand Trunk of Canada." of Canada. 'j^|^g Grand Trunk Railway Company was chartered in 1852, with a capital of ;^3,ooo,ooo, to build a road from Toronto to Montreal. In 1853 a number of other companies consolidated with this organization, upon an agreement by the latter to carry out the contracts they had made. These contracts included the builduig of roads from Toronto to Sarnia on Lake Huron, from Point Levi to Richmond, and from Quebec to Trois Pistoles, ana also for building the great Victoria Bridge at Montreal. These works were completed at a cost of ;^2 1,000,000. At the same time the company leased for nine hundred and ninety-nine years the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Road of Maine, extending from Portland to Island Pond, N.H., near the Canada bor- der. This system of railways did not at first secure so large a share of the through business from the Western granaries as was expected ; but an exten- sion from Port Sarnia to Chicago has recently been effected, the line has been prudently managed, and the route has become an important part of the Ameri- can system of railways. The Grand Trunk has secured a connection to Boston by way of the Central Vermont Railroad, and now competes actively with the through lines centring at that port. Thus, out of a confusion of disconnected railways, operated without regard Competition ^° ^^^'^ interests of each other or the public, there have grown up among rail- five great Compact and united systems leading from the great roads. trade-centres of the interior to the seaboard. The transportation abilities of each of these five routes have never b( en fully taxed. It is esti- 1.1 / OF THF. CXI TED STATES. 657 '"'SRi*-- m LlliLVWAKli WAlJik-'.Al'. 658 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY mated that tlie tonnage of each might be tripled. The fact that no one of the five hnes has carried as much freigiit as it has been capable of doing has led to sharp railroad wars within the last five years, some of which were waged at great loss to the lines, freight being carried at less than cost. Various com- pacts have been made to harmonize the differences of the lines, and agree what the rates shall be for through freight over each, but without permanent success. Compacts have only been made to be broken. How nearly matched the different routes are, with reference to the fimdamcntal matter of distance from the West to Liverpool, may be seen from the following statement : — FROM CHICAGO. MILKS. FROM SKAl'DKT TO I.IVliRI'OOI.. Grand Trunk to Montreal .... 842 Grand Trunk to IJoston I. '43 2.936 N.Y. Cent, and Boston and Albany to Boston, 1,020 -.936 New-York Central route to New York . 976 3.0 '3 Erie route to New York 95S 3.0 '3 Pennsylvania Railroad route to New York . 912 3.013 Pennsylvania Railroad route to Philadelphia. 822 3,200 Pennsylvania Railroad route to ]5altiniore 800 l^ll^ Baltimore and Ohio R.R. route to Baltimore, 840 Z>ZZ^ 4.079 3.956 3.9S9 3.971 3.925 4,022 4,138 4,178 Value of traffic be- tween the West and Atlantic sea board. It is estimated that the through traffic between the West and the Atlantic seaboard now amounts to eight million tons annually. That por- tion of it which is grain is brought to the coast at an average cost of twelve cents a bushel from Chicago, the total cost from Chicago to Liverpool being about thirty-four cents a bushel. This amazing reduction is the effect of the consolidation of through routes, and competition between them. Unity, as we have seen, grew up first between the lines running to the North-Atlantic seaboard. Trade set the most heavily in that direction, and the four years of war prevented for a time an alliance between Great lines , ,. . . , , r xt < o 1 t» established the liiics constituting the through routes from JNorth to South. Init since the since the war several tru.ik-lincs have been formed, tra\crsing the country in that direction. It is expected that these will bear an important part in the future in the trade with the coast of the Gulf, from which a large part of the commerce with Mexico and South America will be carried on. The principal of these lines are the following : — 1. The St. Louis and Iron-Mountain Railroad, with connections running into the State of Texas. 2. The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad. -jkXl ''■ tiv«*'J«M4 one of the ng has led J waged at rious coin- and agree permanent [o\v nearly ital matter ; following 4.079 3.956 3.9S9 3.971 3.925 4,022 4,138 4,178 le Atlantic That por- erage cost m Chicago is amazing ■outes, and ing to the ction, and e between )uth. But icrsing the 11 bear an rom which be carried IS running OF Tllli UNITED STATES. 659 3. The New Orleans, St. Louis, and Chicago Railroad, connecting at Cairo, 111., with the Illinois Central. 4. The Mobile and Ohio Railroad, running also to Cairo. 5. The Louisville, Nashville, and (Ireat Southern Railroad. 6. Three series of lines running from Washington through Virginia, by different routes, to the South and Scnith-West ; which may be designated as the Virginia and Tennessee Route, the Atlanta and Richmond Air-line, and the coast-line running through Weldon, N.C., to Savannah, and connecting with all the Southern States. These important highways of commerce have great capacity, and thus all exert a regulating influence on freight-rates between the South and North. I'lie trip from Boston to New Orleans can now be made by rail, by Economy of the lines leading in that direction, in three days. In the olden ""aiiroads. time, before the days of the locomotive, the trip recjuired twenty-four days. What a marvellous change in fifty years ! The express-business really took its rise in the days of stage-coaches, or at least before the railway-system had grown beyond its early infancy. It grew out of the robberies of stage-coaches, and of a practice, still com- Yt\%^ of mon in all the new parts of the country, of forwarding packages of Express money and valuables by i)assengers travelling by stage. Before the o™?*"'*'- establishment of the railroads, merchants and banks employed members of the legislature, and other trustworthy citizens, in their journeys to New York, Boston, Albany, and other large cities, to take with them, and deliver to their correspondents, the remittances which they did not dare put into the United- States mail-bags for fear of robbery. On the Western plains, down to within ten years, many a passenger has had his fare paid to the States from the mining-regions, in consideration of his carrying with him in the coach, and delivering to the railways on the Missouri, the bars of gold and silver which there was no other method of transmitting to the States so cheaply and safely. In 1840 this irregular practice took the form of a legitimate business through the efforts of Mr. Alvin Adams of Boston, the founder of the Adams Express Company. There was then no railroad to New York ; and Mr. Adams began carrying letters and parcels to New York by stage, to Allyn's Point, Conn., and thence by steamboat to the metropolis. He was a man of singularly ngaging manners and manly character, and he soon won sucii confidence that he gained a very large i)atronage. In a short time the business grew so large, that he ceased to travel liiniself. and engaged messengers to make the tiii)s to New York for him. Then boxes and buntlles began to be sent, and a man with a wheelbarrow was hired to do the collecting and distributing in ("on- necticut. Then a wagon was hired for the same purpose. Tiiis latter was so important a step, that there was much meditation about it in advance, before Mr. Adams decided u])on it. \\'hen the New- York and New-Haven Railroad was completed, the company offered to give Mr. Adams a car for carrying .fi« :• •■;'■ 660 liYD I 'S TK/A L niS TDK Y If* . I lit money and valuable packaijcs for 51.700 a nionlh. 'I'lic olTer was accciJtcd with fear and trembling, but proved a success from the start. i'Yom this beginning the business grew up, until Mr. Adams had agencies in every i)art of Adams ^'^''' <'<""itry from San l-'rancisco to Jioston. The Adams l'",x])ress Express Company was then formed with a caj)ital of $1,000,000, and has onipany. ^^,^^^ since transacted a colossal business. In New- York State the express-business took its rise almost simultaneously with the start in New I'lngland, the i)ioneer in the work l)eing Mr. Henry Wells of Aurora, XA'. It began in the same way, Mr. Wells travelling, however, by rail, and carrving ^g„g_ his bundles with him in the car. 'The express-comjjany of Wells. Fargo, & Fargo, i\: Company, which he organized, has had as extensive a ompany. ramification over the country as that of Mr. .Adams. It was followed by other companies in tlifferent i)arts of the country; and the insti- tution now forms so intimate and necessary a part of ihe transjjortation- Inisiness of the country, that no railroad, however short or local, is now without its special accommodations for express-packages. The companies are an adjunct of the railroad-system of the country. They rarely own cars of their own ; l)ut they perform the service to the public which they have been called into existence to discharge by contracts with the different connecting-lines, which secure the rapiil and uninterrujjted transmission of i)ackages, regardless of the conflicts of interest of the different roads, and the obstacles they throw in each other's way in the transaction of ordinary business. The fast-freight system is only the application of this idea to the transmis- sion of ordinary commercial freight. This system has grown up entirely Fast-freight within the last fifteen years. The necessity for fost-freight com- system. panies did not arise from the dangers of robbery of the cars, but from the detentions of freight in all parts of the country, owing to the discord- ance of interests among connecting and competing lines. Despatch and safety could not be secured without the creation of some responsible agency distinct from the railroads themselves, with which, on the one hand, the public could deal direct, and which, on the other hand, would secure that concert of action among the roads, as tar as freight was concerned, which the roads could not achieve themselves. The experience of the e.xpress-companies showed how these desirable ends could be secured. The first form of fast-freight transmission was introduced by the Great- Western Despatch Company on what is known as the private line system. The company furnished its own cars, made contracts witli the various conne* t- ing railroads, paying the roads specific sums for the privileges granted, and then established its own freight-agencies in the various cities. Tiie dreal Western was cpiickly followed by the Merchants' Despatch, the Union, the National, the Star, the Diamond, Cdobe, Empire, and various other lines, running over all the great routes of the country. There is scarcely a great railroad in the United States now over which two or three or more of tiiese OF THE UNITED STATES. 66 1 lines do not run. The private lines offered great advantages to tlir ])\il)li( : tliey insured safety and speed, and reduced tiie cost of traiisijortatiou. About 1870, however, tlie railroad-companies began to find tiial tliis new system was not so profitable to them as it was to the jjublic. The I'ast-freiu'lit lines not only absorbed the entire ))rofits of the through traffic, but often COATKSVILI.Ii IlEilUlii;, I'KNNSYLVANIA, proved a weight upon the roads themselves by tak- ing from them all the pay- ing business. This led to the establishment of an- other form of fast-freight- ing, called the " co-oper- ative," established by the roads themselves. Each connecting railway between principal points supplied a quota of cars toward the common equipment of a co-operative line. This class of lines took the designation of parti( ular colors ; and we have now. in conse(iuence, the Orange, lilue, Red, White, I'urple, and other lir.js. The private lines are gradually being superseded by the latter class. The Pennsylvania Railroad has assumed the management of tiie Star, Union, and Empire lines ; and the same ten- dency is visible in other i)arts of the country. The fast-freight system has '■^^iii*JiU4i|' 663 IND US TRJA L HIS TOR Y ii been of vast benefit to the commercial community, and is now a iier nianent feature of railway-transportation : it employs 60,000 cars. The Empire Line, the largest of the lines, has 4,500 cars ; the Red Line, 4,000 ■ the White, 3,000 ; and the ]>lue, 4,000. We now come to speak of a step in railroad construction which gave to our system of internal transportation a world-wide importance : this was Pacific the buikling of a railway across the plains and through the moun- Raiiroad. tain-ranges of the Far West to connect the seaboard of the llast with that of the distant Pacific. Since railways were invented, the world has been running to short cuts and rapitl transit. The slow and leisurely mctiiods of our ancestors are being gradually laid upon the shelf. The world moves faster than of old, and nothing satisfies now except the most rapid movement of commerce and travel which it is possible to bring about. When the route to India byway of the Cape of C.ood Hojje was discovered, the merchants of Portugal and tlie Netherlands were content if their big, bluff-bowed ships came back from their voyages of trade in two years from the time they left port at home. For three hundred and fifty years, trade was transacted chiefly by that circuitous and tedious route. When California was settled, and the discovery of priceless depos- its of gold was made, merchants were long content to trade by way of tlie long route around Cape Horn, their ships returning only at the expiration of a year. 'I'he age became impa- tient at the pace at which trade was moving. The Panama Railroad was built, Panama shortening the trip to California many months ; and then the Suez Railroad. Canal was opened, shortening the voyage from China to eighty days. But there was yet much to do in abbreviating the route to Asia. From New- York City to Panama, and thence to Canton, is 11,850 miles : from Eng- land to Canton b} the same route is 14,630 miles, or half the circumference of the earth. Rut were there a railroad across the American continent in as direct a line from New York as could conveniently be built, the trip from that metropolis to Canton would be only 10,845 miles long, and from Eng- land to New York, and thence to Canton, 13,845 miles; the distance from England to Canton by way of the Suez Canal being 12,000 miles. There had been, for several years, talk about a railway to the Pacific. The war accelerated the national impulse in favor of such a work by showing the need of an inland route to California, and facilities for the rapid transpor- 6. i'JkiUii'^h^fsmi FIRST OFFICE, CENTRAL rACIFIC RAILROAD. OF THE UNITED STATES. 663 t.ation of troops to those far-away western portions of our domain. In July, 1862, two companies were incorporated by Congress to build the road. The Union Pacific was to begin at Omaha, and go westward : the Central Pa( il'ic, starting at San Francisco, was to build out to meet it. The Act of 1.S62, and a subsecjuent one passed in 1864, granted to the companies a right of way two hundred feet wide through the public domain, and twenty sections of land per mile, and, in addition to this, a loan of government credit to the amount of $16,000 per mile on the prairies, $32,000 per mile between the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadas, and $48,000 per mile for a distance SNOW-SHEDS. of a hundred and fifty miles across each of those two ranges. Work began in 1863. The Central Pacific consolidated with the Western Pacific Railroad out to San Jose, the San Francisco, Oakland, and Alameda Company, the San Joaquin Valley, and the California and Oregon Companies. The work was prosecuted on both ends of the line with great energy, attracting the attention and admiration of the whole civilized world. In 1868 three hund'od and fifty miles had been completed on the Union Pacific, and track-laying was going on at the rate of a mile a day. In May, 1869, the two roads met at Ogden, Utah, and an all-rail line existed from the Adantic to the Pacific Oceans. The last spike driven was made of gold ; and the event, telegraphed instantly to all II ? f ! i 664 IXDUSTRIAI. insrOKY OF THE UNITED STATES, parts of the Union, was the orrasion of public- rejoicing and excitement every- where. Flags were exhibited, cannonTired, and meetings of public congratu- lation iield, to celebrate the com])Ietion of the great natiiMial work. There is a great future before these roads. 'I'hey have been successful in obtaining a siiare of the commerce from Asia ])otli for I'niled-StiUes acct)unt Future of and for iMirojJean. Connecting with the steamshi])s at San I-'ran- these roads, (isco, they luive shortened the transit from Yokohama to New York an average of a hundred and sixty days to thirty ; and they are bringing into the States east of the Mississippi River now, in large (juantity, the teas anil other commodities wliicii formerly took tlie slowf --outL's via I'anama or Cape Horn. To lOngland they ileliver teas, put on board the Atlantic steamers at New York, in forty ilays, which England cannot obtain in less than a hundred and twenty by steamer viA the Suez Canal. This through business will doubt- less be shared in the future by comi)eting I'acific railways ; but the country along the Union and Central Roads is being rapidly developed through the agency of the roads themselves, and will give them in the future a local tratitic which will more than replace the falling-off in the through business. The total volume of the through commerce will, however, be largely increa^icd when the three new Pacific railways now ])rojected are completed. Northern Competition ivill reduce tl e transportation-charges, and lead to an Pacific. expansion of trade. The three roads referred to are the Nortliern Pacific, chartered in July, 1864, with a land-grant and a loan, which now has over five hundred miles of road in operation west from Duluth on Lake Supe- rior ; the Canadian Pacific, organized in 1873, with a capital of $10,000,000, a grant of 50,000,000 acres along the main line, and a subsidy of $30,000,000 ; Texas and the southern route to Pacific, which is building by two corn- Pacific, panics, — the Texas and Pacific from the ICast, and the Southern Pacific from the West, — each company having a land-grant from Congress, and the latter the enormous one of 60,000,000 acres from the State of Texas. This latter route is well under way, and should be finished in two or three years. BOOK IV. MINES AND MINING, AND OIL. 1 vail l)ro vcr; of i thir two has ma( star tra\ we rial pre dis( tag chi pet use bef ear All set tin fou chap'iI':r 1. M!NIiN(i. GENKKAL HISTORY. THE place which the mining-in(histries of a country dcscn'c to hold among the pursuits of a nation is not to be estimated by the market- value of the product as comjjared with the market-value of other importance products of lal)or ; for, if it were, mining would be entitled to a of mineraJ very insignificant rank. We manufacture every year to the extent p''°'*"'=*'- of nearly six billion dollars ; we market our agricultural products for some- thing like three billion ; while the total yield of all our mines does not sell for two hundred million. The development of agriculture and manufacturing has been peculiarly dependent upon the use of metals, the implements and machinery necessary thereto being made almost entirely from mineral sub- stances. In other regards — in building, illuminating, transportation, printing, travel, and human intercourse — we are so utterly dependent u])on metals, that we may truly say they have been the means, far more than any thing else mate- rial, of the world's civilization. Thus viewed, American mining-industry attains pre-eminent importance. Nevertheless, owing to the tardiness with which we discovered the extent of our mineral resources and to some other disadvan- tages, the development of these interests was greatly retarded, and belongs chiefly to the last half-century of the country's history. By the aborigines a little was known of the existence and value of copper, petroleum, and silver, on this continent ; and the former two were Aborigines used in the region now included within the United States ages ignorant of before the white man set foot on the American continent. *"' " *" The hope of finding mineral treasure was one of the incentives that led the early colonists hither, and they were quite diligent in searching for metals. All along the Atlantic coast, almost immediately after the first search for settlements, discoveries were made of silver, lead, copper, iron, metais by tin, antimony, coal, and other valuable minerals ; but they were ^° °"'^ *' found generally in small (juantities ; and, in competition with foreign produc- 667 1 1 60S /X/XS/h'/.t/. ///.S/OKY II tion, the workiu),' of mines was ffcviucntly foiinil imri-iniimTativi'. Then, too, the presence and hostility of Iiidiins made s\n\\ enterprises dan^'eroiis. Iron ore was sent to l'.nL;l.iin! Irom ni-ar Jamestown in 160.S, the year alter Virginia was first permanently settled ; and in 1O20 a hundred and tilty skilled work- nten were sent to the colony to erect and operate ironworks. An In(han massacre two years later, liowever, put a discouraging,' end to proceechngs. Another discouragement grew out of such blunders as tlie supposed (hscovery of gold in Virginia by ('apt. John Smith. .A shii)load of the glittering dust was sent to I'aigland, and there pronounced to be nothing but iron pyrites. 1 lowever, tile plucky (olonists persevered in spite of all depressions and Early effort! obstacles, and made very creditable beginnings. Iron-mining was in mining. resumed permanently in Virginia in 1715. The metal was found in Massachusetts in 162S and later, ami a com|)any was formed to work it xw 1643. Rhode Island, ("onnecticut. New \'ork, and IVimsylvania followed suit. I'enn had discovered iron as early as 1OS5 ; but no forges are mentioned on his grants earlier than 1719-20. Lead-mining began in Missouri, then belong- ing to France, in 1720 ; and the old Southampton silver-lead mi .e was opened in Massachusetts in 1765. Copper-mining is first heard of in Connecticut, the Simsbury mines being worked as early as i 709 ; but they were abandoned as unprofitable about the middle of that century. The Schuyler mine, near Ik'lleville, N.J. , was (Uscovered in i 719, and is historic as the scene of the building of the first steam-engine in America in 1793-94. I'he Lake Superior copper was first mined by the whites in 1771, and in small (|uantities. In the early colonial days the settlers used wood for fiiel, and charcoal for t'>e forge and smelting-works. Coal, howeve»-, was found in Rhode Island in 1768, and mined for usj. The great bituminous seam near Pittsburgh, i'enn., was struck in 1784. I'revious to this time coal was Hnuid in (piantities in Virginia; and canals were cut, connecting parallel rivers to facilitate its transportation. By 1789 cpiite an e.xport trade with adjacent colonies had been built up. At numerous other points along the Atlantic seaboard these and other metals were found i)rior to the Revolution. Smelting-works and forges were erected to reduce the ores, some of which, however, were exported. The home government discouraged the manufacture of metals in this country, though, at that period ; which was a damper upon mining-industry. In the following chapters we trace more in detail the steps in the history of each branch of mining in this country. Suffice it here to say, that, from the Effect of humble beginnings just mentioned, but slow advances were made Revolution- for several decades. The Revolutionary war, by cutting off sup- ary war. ^jj^^ j-^^^^^ England, and creating a special demand for iron and copper ordnance and lead bullets, as well as other metal for domestic and other implements, gave a peculiar stimulus to mining, although the army so drained the country of men as to leave few for such occupations. It was not until a quarter of the present century had passed that we see any •'■1^6" 670 IND US TKIA L 11 IS TOR Y \- fi \\\ ¥:% marked strides in the mining-business. In 1820 attempts were made to \\<\\ Mining since anthracite coal with charcoal in iron-smelting : but the experiment '^^5' was not successful until 1 831, when the hot-blast was invented; then both the coal and iron industry took a tremendous start. In 1835 lead- niining received a wonderful impetus in Missouri and Iowa from new dis- coveries. Copper-mining was revived along Lake Superior about 1842, and made a sudden jump. The California gold-fever of 1849 was the beginning of the search and procurement of that metal on a considerable scale. Petro- leum came prominently into notice for the first time in August, 1859, when the Drake well struck oil ; and the Comstock lode was discovered in Nevada that same year, and laid the foundation of our present silver-mining business. These are the points from which the present development of our miaeral resources dates. A review of the history of mining during this important period shows that our operations have been characterized by intense excitement and magnified Speculative speculation, by gross blunders and by great waste. Says Kimball, character of [It] " is an instructive narrative of fluctuating fortune, ranginj; mining. through all the intermittent vicissitudes of prosperity and stagna- tion, of factitious inflations and calamitous recoils, of blind delusion and credulity, of stolid unbelief, of highest popularity, and general distrust." The possibility of making a great deal of money in a short time always crazes people ; and the discovery of large deposits of metal, both the baser and the precious, affords just such inviting possibilities to the workman and to the capitalist. And so, in the case of each of the great discoveries of lead, copper, gold, oil, and silver, a large proportion of the country's population has been rendered frantic. An immense rush has set in toward the centre of inter- est ; fortunes large and small, often augmented by exten;. /e borrowing from credulous friends and relatives, have been invested in land-claims, and stock companies to work them ; towns and villages have sprung up almost in a day, like Jonah's gourd. The hopes of but few out of many would be realized ; disappointment and ruin ensued ; and not only were poverty, sickness, and death often the result, but whole towns of the mushroom type have been almost as suddenly wiped out of existence. In this mad rush of greed and excitement, otlier blunders besides those of investing in unprofitable lands have been made. Furnaces for smelting have been located without due regard for getting fuel ; costly machinery for crushing ore has been bought, and forwarded to the scene of action, without knowing whether ore woukl ))c found at all, or whether the apparr ais was suited to the kind of ore discovered ; new ])iocesses for extracting metal have been resorted to, without reliable information as to their value ; and other such ruinous mistakes have liecn committed by frenzied speculators. There has also been an enormous wasce of valuable minerals in couse- quence of this same impetuous desire for wealth. In the lead-regions of the OF THE UNITED STATES. 671 Waste. Mississippi Valley argentiferous galena is quite common, and often the lead is entirely wasted in the extraction of the little silver. In the coal-regions, especially before the organization of the present large companies and their combination in monopoly, only the richer measures would be worked, leaving a large quantity of inferior yet valuable coal on liigher levels to be lost by caving. Such recklessness in handling was practised, that from a third to a half of the product was lost. The same state of things has been found in the silver country. Mines have been neglected as soon as the rich surface-deposits were procured, and the accumulation of water and rubbish have made it next to impossible to work what were really paying shafts. But a re-action has set in of late years in these regards, and this extravagance is steadily lessening. The two great causes, which, after the discovery of our great resources and the passion for wealth, have stimulated American mining, are the govern- ment's general policy of encouragement, and the advancement in principal mechanic and natural science. Under the old English laws the causes of im- crown was entitled to the gold and silver found on government p""'"'^""" • lands, and a certain pr* portion of other minerals. But in this country, although legislation has been very slight until recently, and the gold and silver miners of the Pacific coast were ruled only by self-made regulations, the government has favored the free occupation and investigation of the rocks for minerals, and facilitated the chea;^ purchase and lease of mining-lands, ^'here has been a protective tariff, loo, on foreign metals at times, the heavie:-.t having been since 1861 ; and this has greatly promoted the development of our iron, copper, coal, and other minerals. Among the most serviceable inventions in practical mining and metallurgy for the past ten or fifteen years are the California stamp-mill for crushing quartz, the mercury amalgamation process for grid, the pan process for silver, the hydraulic process of gold-mining in alluvial rcir'ons, the application of new explosives to rocks, new methods of drilling, new blast-furnaces, and new methods of converting iron into steel. Our independent schools in mining and engineering date from 1865. Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, speaking in 1875 of their rapid increase in number, said, " Many of them compare favorably in theoretical instruction at Mining- least, and several of them in the apparatus of instruction, with the schools, famous schools of the Old World. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston, the School of Mines of Columbia College at New York, the Shef- field Scientific School of Yale College at New Haven, the Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, the Pardee Scientific Department of Lafayette Ci^l- lege at Easton, the excellent school at Rutgers College under the direction of Professor Cook, the new Scientific Department of the College of New Jersey, the School of Mining and Metallurgy of Lehigh University at Uethleheni, the School of Mining and Practical Geology of Harvard University at Carnl.i'dge, 6 -J 2 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY the Scientific Department of the University of Pennsyh-ania at Philadelphia, the School of Mines of Michigan University at Ann Arbor, the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy at RoUa, the Polytechnic Departmeni of Washington University at St. Louis, and the similar department of the Univer- sity of California at Oakland, and perhaps some which I have omitted to name, — this is a list of schools for instruction in the sciences involved in mining and metallurgical practice of which we need not be ashamed." Other agencies for the advancement of science in this class of industry National ^''^ ^^^ ajipointmcnt and reports of a national commissioner of commis- mining-statistics since 1866, the organization of the American aionerof Institute of Mining Engineers in 1870, and thi publication of mining. o o i > i periodicals especially devoted to such subjects, the most prominent of these being " The American Mining and Engineering Journal." The following table, made up from the census of 1870, shows the value of the principal mineral products of this country that year: the figures for 1878- would doubtless raise the total very nearly fifty million dollars more : — Coal $73,524,992 Iron ore 13,204,138 Gold (placer-mined) 7,266,613 Gold (hydraulic-miiied) 2,508,531 Quartz (40 per cent gold and 60 per cent silver) . . . 16,677,508 Copper 5,201,312 Petroleum 19,304,224 Lead 736,004 Zinc 788,880 Cinnabar 817,700 Nickel 24,000 Asphaltum 450,000 Peat 8,200 Quarrying (including marble and slate) .... 12,086,892 Total $152,598,994 *i|ljk^WHwli^: OF THE UNITED STATES. 673 CHAPTER II. GOLD. Drake. ALTHOUGH some specimens of gold were collected in North Carolina and Virginia previous to the R'''ing miners for wages became tonnuon m the pI.K fr-(hL;^ings. Pla(er-g(jld, it is sujjposed, is nothing Imt loose jxjrtions which have lucii (hsintegrated from rocks by tl)e operatic«js of nature, and is only a very sni ail portion of the gold nut j\'\ . yet gathered. \V lu' n '^ Mnrchison wroli' his Plocer-gold, Work Upon what it iH. 11,^. r„, ks of the Silurian age, he declared that gold veins were ronhned chieflv to the sihuian nx ks, ami that the (luanlity ( apa- Me of extraction fioui them at no distant day would be exhausted. The gold-l)earing nx ks in the I'lal Mountains in .Australia, and to a considerable extent in California, belong to the Silurian period. If "we cast our eyes to the countries watered by the Pactolus of Ovid, to the Phrygia and Thrace of tlie (Ireeks. to the Alps and golden Tagus of the Romans, to the l!t)hemia of the middle ages, to tracts in Britain which were worked in old times, and have cither been long abandoned or are now scarcely at all productive, or to those chains in America and Aus- traha, which, previously unscarched. have in our times ]iroved so rich," — in all these lands gold has been imi)arte(l abundantly Ko only the siUn'ian or the associated eruptive rocks. Vet it has been conclusively proved, since the tiiiK when the first edition of Murchison's " Siluria " was published, that gold abounds in rocks of every geological age. The explorations of Trask and Whitney in California in 1853 and 1854, and subsequently the discovery of FI.U.ME NEAK SMARTVII.I.li, CAI . Oh THE UNITED STATES. 683 scrondary fossils in the main belt of f;olr from the rock, the large merchandise that is carried on to supply so large a population, the new enterprises in the form of spacious docks, new hotels, founderies, stamp-mills, smelting-works, — without receiving a deep impression, especially if he possess an observing mind. '.\or is this all. As these developments began to assume sucli pro portions, some of the corporations, and a few of the enterprising citizens of the place, in order to facilitate the commerce, appropriated thirty-five thousand dollars from their treasuries and pockets to open the harbor known as Portage Entry, fourteen miles below the villages of Houghton and Han« Develop- ment of industry in Michigan. OF THE UNITED STATES. 701 cock, which are located near tlie mines, and on what is known in common- place as Pertage Lake ; so that steamers of the largest class, with a full freight, have been ei.abled to cross the bar, run up to the mines, discharge their cargo, and receive the copper. Previous to this improvement, tugs anil scows were used to transport the freight to and from the steamers, which dropped their ancliors in the lake outside the * entry,' to the docks at the mines, at a cost of two dollars per ton. When the lake was rough, as was often the case, steamers could not discharge or receive freight. 'I'his difficulty is now obviated, and the expense saved, while the business has much greater despatch. . . . At the other points on the copper range — Magle Harbor, Eagle Ri\er, and Ontona- gon — the development was much earlier than at Portage Lake, and Hrst gave prominence and importance to the country. The celebrated Cliff mine, wliose annual product for over ten years has exceeded fifteen hunilred tons, was opened in 1845. I'""^ Copper- Falls, Central, and other mines in the same district, known as Keweenaw Point, were opened at a later day. The equally famous Minnesota mine, in wnat is known as the Ontonagon district, and whose product the lasi year was twenty-one hundred and eighty tons, was opened in 1S48. The National and Rockland, whose products are now large, were opened some years after. It was the early opening of these mines, and their success under all the disadvantages which the country suffered at an early day, and the working of many others in the same districts, which have not yet been as successful, tliat for many years gave business and interest to the country ; and now that other points, with the light and facility which existed, have bounded into being with wonderful de\elopment, it in no way detracts from those whose entire success gave birth to all that has followed." Mcat of Michigan's copper is metallic, embedded in quartz; but in 1846 a vem of black oxitle was discovered, which was exhausted after twenty tons were taken out. It was exceedingly rich, and had mucli to do with the sensa- tion of that period. It now remains to consider the progress made by the copper-mining indus- try of the country as a whole for the past few years, and note in what other regions besides this the business is carried on. As we have already remarked, the United Sta'jes produced but fifty tons of copper in 1830, a hundred in 1840, and six hundred and fifty in 1850. During the two decades thus included, tlie product of the whole world had statistics re- increased from 25,500 to 54,700 tons. In 1S53 we produced 2,000 latingto out of the whole 55,700 tons. Our product for 1866 was 10,790 ^'^° tons. The census-returns for 1070 put the total value of our copper-product at $5,201,312, which, at $400 a on, makes about 13.000 tons ; wh.ch is, per- haps, an under-estimatc as to quantity. Dr. Raymond estimat.;s that the copper-product of the country in 1875 was 15,625 tons. In 1870 the census accredited four-fifths of the whole country's yield to Michigan ; and, of the ''■*f»*IWWI|pt»!P' •J02 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ■-^ ' ^ — - SFPARATING COPPER KOCKS. three counties that monopoHzed that State's supply, — Hougliton, Keweenaw, and Ontonajron, — the lirsl-named produced three-([uarters of it. It should be noted in this connection, that competition with the Lal^c- Superior region ot America has seriously cut down the liritish production. .\t the close of the last century, and from that time to 1S65, Great Lritain was the greatest producer of copper in the world. In 1864 her yield was 14,247 tons, the joint contribution of 196 mines. The next year 203 mines aggre- gated only 11,888 tons, and their product is diminishing. In 1865 the United States produced 8,472 tons, in ^piie of peculiar disadvantages that are estimated to offset 3.000 more tons; and in 1866 we had raised our figure to 10.790. Chili has of late )ears come to be the great ri\al of great Britain and the United States, having produced 12,500 tons in 1S50, and 14,000 in 1S53. The blockade of the Chilian ports in 1S66 by Spain cut off this supply, and gave a temporary stimulus to American and British production ; but the cessation of hostilities a few months later was followed by a corresponding re-action. In 1 86 1, in the midst of the Washoe fever, copper was found in Calaveras County, ('al., in sufficient cjuantities to create a great sensation, and to incite Discovery of '''• ^^'arcli for similar deposits all along the Sierra Nevada. The copper in rcsult was to dcvclop a belt of copper lodes all the way from a 1 ornia. Southern California up into Oregon. Nevada and Arizona wcio also found to contain the metal. Few of the mines begun proved remunera- tive, however. Says Kimball, '• Work was energetically begun in many dis- tricts, and soon sufficient was accomplished to demonstrate the extent of the copper-resources of California and neighboring territories to be nowhere equalled, and at the same time the premature character of an extensive copper -industry in interior sections of the country neither supplied with mineral coal, nor ready means of transportation. The Copperopolis (Cala- veras County, ('al.) mines, which had been the first to attract attention, sustained the high opinions which had been formed of their capabilities ; though, up to this time (1867), the Union appears to be the only mine that has yielded profit, it having done so from the first on a scale hitherto unknown in copper-mining, notwithstanding the many commercial obstacles it has at present to encounter." The census of 1870 gave the following returns of the copper-production of the country for the year, by value : — i^m OF THE UNITED STATES, 703 \ n. At liii was 11 ^\)\W Kit are more raised las of -' great L'nited 3o Ions he Ji'ts in supply, ilus to iction ; itics a Michigan . Vermont . Tennessee , North Carolina Maryland . Nevada . Virginia Pennsylvania Arizona Total • • • • • • • • • • • • ^4,3' 2, T 67 35S-«45 310,000 96,000 7 1 ,000 30,000 8,000 7,Soo 7,000 $5,201,312 As the price was then about four hundred dollars a ton, or less, it is a simjile matter to reduce these figures to tons. The census commissioner remarks, however, that his estimates are not altogether trustworthy. It will be observed, f- " instance, that he omits California altogether ; and other accounts indicate that Calaveras County in that State alone yields as much as either Vermont or Tennessee. Vermont's production, nearly a thousand tons annu- ally, is confined to Orange County in that State ; Tennessee's, to Polk County ; North Carolina's, to Chatham ; Maryland's, to Carroll and Frederick ; Ne- vada's, to Humboldt ; Pennsylvania's, to Berks and Lebanon ; Virginia's, to Louisa ; and Arizona's, to Yuma and Mohave. Our production of copper exceeds our needs at the present time by nearly one-half, as will appear from the following statement of our exports antl im- ports for I S 7 7 : — EXPORTS. IMPORTS. Ore Pigs, bars, &c Manufactured articles. $'59,550 2,295,711 226,059 $70,912 163,104 363,250 Total Balance of exports 7alue of our production, about . $2,681,320 $596,266 $2,085,054 6,000,000 The little ore wc import is mostly smelted at Boston, Bergen Point (near New York), and Baltimore. lUih 704 INDUSTRIAL ]JISTORY CHAPTER VI. J: \ \i COAL. W- THE discovery, mining, and transportation of coal is one of the most interesting as well as instructive chapters in American industrial history. Importance As coal is the product of some of the grandest growths and trans- of r.cai. formations in the natural world, so does it play an ecpially important part in modern industries and civilization. Its history is crowded with interest from that far-off time when gigantic coal-ferns grew in the greatest profusion, and during the steaming and fiery period when this enormous growtli was decaying, and transforming into fuel, to our time, when the product is col- lected, transported, and brought to our doors, to serve a highly useful purpose. A single fact will reveal its importance ; namely, tliat the /alue of the coal mined in the United States is equal to that of all the gold, silver, and iron Coal-mining pi"oduced in the country. The colonists were amply suppUed with inthecoio- fuel from the forests; and it was not until 1750 that coal was discovered near Richmond, Va. Not much was done in the way of coal-mining until after the Revolution, when it was exported to Philadel- phia, New York, and Boston : indeed, the demand at these ports for Virginia coal continued until thirty years ago. Perhaps some of our readers will be surprised to learn how short is tlie history of anthracite-coal mining in Pennsylvania. It is true, the existence Discovery of anthracite coal. of coal there was known long before the close of tlie last century. To fix the date more definitely, it was in the year 1791 when Philip Gunter discovered it. He was a hunter, and lived on the eastern side of the mountain drained by the Lehigh River. On tlic day of this great discovery, which must certainly be reckoned among the greatest ever made on tliis continent, lie had spent the hours in the woods without finding any game. Mis heart was dei)ressed (so the story goes) ; for he had left his wife and children in the morning with a scanty breakfast, and both he and they were in sore need of food. As night drew on he was still several miles from home, on the summit of Sharp Mountain. As rain was falling, and darkness approaching, iie quickened his steps ; but, as he was OF THE I 'A/ 7 '/■:/) SV'ATF.S. 70s 1 .f-ii.' ,u;:p'ng along through the woods, he stumbled ()\ct the roots of a tree, and fell near cnyugh to a large black stone for him to recognize its color, lie had heard of such a thing as stont-coal, and he thought that this must be a speci- men. Giving it a few days after to Col. Jacob Weirs, who then lived near the present site of Mauch Chunk, it was forwarded to Philadelphia; and in due lime it was learned thac Cunter's sail huntingday was not fruitless, after all : for he had really disc(jvjred coal. Soon after, several thousand acres of land in that vicinity were piu-chased at a very low figure, as it was not regarded valuable; and the Lehigh Coal Mine Company was fori. .'d. containing among other members Robert Morris, the famous finaiK ier 01 the Kexoliition. Four laborers were employed in the beginning in mining coal : yet these soo.'. proved loo many; for where was the market? Of . oal ^. ^ ^ ' -' First at- there was an abundance: but where the customers? and how tempt to could it be brought to them? There were no roatls ; and the "1'"^ a"- " thracite. river ran a wild career, and would not suffer the intrusion of any kind of boat for a momein. .\fler a short lime the mine was suspended. In I 79 coa""''"'^""^ t the rocks, and die ( inri'nt rushed over her; while the boatmen mana,i;ed to L;et to the shore as best the\ could, leaving their treasure-, to their unkindly late. Of the six Ijoals. ()nlv two reached Philadelphia : and thest' were ni'arlv shaken t.i pie( es. Hut. when the market was reached throu,L;ii >u< h ,L;real perils, ihe ( jr^o mi'l with a very slow sale, and mo^l of the piu'c haso were >impl\ for tri;il. I'mally, the municipal authorities l)on,nht a (|uaiUily to feed an engine. Failure to which was then in use pumping water to supply the ( it\ : but it is >'<•■" coal, said that all their attempt.-; to liurn it prosed unavailing. "■ I )i.sgusti'il w ith what they e.stcemed a iiuisaiK f, liu\ ( aused whal remained of it to be brokiai lip. and scattered over the tool walks of the grounds. .Xnd heii' and ihu^ ingloriously terminated, lor a jieiiod of seveiitet'U _\\vun thence ensuing, the operatio"- of the I.ehigh (oal .Mine ('om])an\." .Sin h is the history of the early mcjsement to open the great authra( ite coal ix'gion of i'ennsybania. and find a mnrket for this now highlv-pri/ed fuel. In iSio coal was found in the \icinit^ of I'oltsville, whicli ws tested 1)\- the blacksmiths there, who pro\ed .ible to ignite it. It seems ihnost unbe- lievable to us in these tlays thai there should ever have 1)een any oisccvery of doubt about the burning-fiualities of coal ; yet in truth, during the coal at e.irly part of tiiis century, this was the greatest difficulty in the o"«viiie. way of introducing it into market. In 181 7 ("ol. (leorge Shoemaker loaded several wagons with c(jal froni Pottsvillc, aiu' sent it to I^hiladelphia. lint they had not forgotten their experience with the coal from I high Early effort Valley. Still he was able to sell considerable (]uantities by guar- to sell it. anteeing to all who insisted upon it that the ''stones'" would burn. Some, however, who bought, failed to ignite them, and their indignation was kindled. Their friends tormented them for their exhibition of folly, and the clouds began to grow black around the colonel's head. Writs were issued for his arrest, and he beat a retreat. V- ; pursuing a circuitous path, he was able to reach his home without falling into the clutches of the law-officers of the town. .Among other [)urchasers was the I'airmount \ail-\\'orks. A whole morning was spent by the proprietor and his men in trying to light the stone, but without success. .Ml sorts of experiments were tried : it was raked, poked, and blown upon with huge blowers, but all in \ain. iMually, the men, disheartened and desperate, shut the furnace-door, and went off to dinner. .All the while they are gone, we imagine we can hear them talking about those black stones which would not burn, and how the pro|)rietor had l)een imposed upon, and oisj-overy of had thrown away his money ; how their forenoon had been wasti'd ; true method and what would have been -accomplished liad they gone on their o^'enifng regular track, and not attempted to try uncertainties. But, w!;on tlu'V come baik. imagine their consternatii. 1 in beholding the f.irnace-door t I Ji . Id ■ '1 M W m P! H Sh 1 1^ 11! |> 1 ijl ii i'K ^; It 708 /A'/J l/S 7'A'/A J. Ills TOl! J Vr.."-!;*,.. tOAL-MlMlNO ANU COKK-liUKNiNlj. Oh 77/ r-. CXITF.n STATES. 709 rfas apiK)inte(l to examine and report its characteristic: features, 'i'he grade w;i^i very great (about a hundred feet to the mile), so that loatled cars moved by their own gravity; while they were drawn back by mules, which were favored with a free ride in the other direction. It is recorded that they enjoyed their ride exceedingly, expressing their approbation of the arrangement by all the tokens which long-eared animals are capable of using. They learned to regard the privilege of riding down as an inalienable right, and no earthl\ pretext could intluce them to go on tbcjt. While the affairs of the company operating in the Lehigh regiciii were going on swimmingly, the coal-deposits in Schuylkill ("ounty were not neg- Coai-mining l<-'<'tcHl. In 1822 1 ,500 toiis were shi])i)e(l over the S(liu\lkill Ca- in Schuyikin nal ; and four years later, when the canal had been thonMighly region. repaired, i 7,000 tons were sent to market ; and the amount swelled to 60,000 tons the year following. As the coal-tratle was now thoroughly established, stoves and hearth-grates adajjled for such fuel were made ; and the public, very slow at first in using it, had become excited. The coal region was explored, and lands which had long been regarded as worthless found eager purchasers at fancy prices. Towns were laid out, roads were built over mountains and along their steep sides, railroads and canals were [H-ojecled, new mines were opened ; in short, the fever of s])eculation set in almost as strongly as it did in California when the gold-discoveries were blazoned abroad. It is said that within a ])eriod of six months frcjin the outbreak of the specu- lative movement, which continued active for nearly three years, five million dollars had been invesi^J in the coal-lands in Schuylkill County. Tracts which were purchased in 1827 for five hundred dollars were sold two years culation afterward for sixteen thousand. This fact will show to what height had been carried. spet The mode of conducting mining-operations in this coal-field was (luitd OF THE UNITED STATES. 7i» different from those in tin- I,t.'hij,'h rc'nion. ThtTc a single company mineci all the ( oal ; while in the Sciiiiylixill region ;i large number of operators 1 • .1 1 ■ I. ■ . .1 . I .• Mode of con- were engaged \\\ the biisniess. ll is true tluil a « oiiple ol concerns jmnn- were organized, possessed of a consiilerahle amount of capital ; mining in liut there were many beside who leased their lands, and who pro- ^'='^">'"*"' (liiced only small ([uantities compareil with the output of the present day. The expensive, wasteful, and slow niotle of mining can Ik* comprehended from the single fact, that the same number of master colliers were recpiired to produce a hundred thousand tons as are now engaged in pro- ducing forty times that ([uantity. Still it was not to be expected that this new industry would be economically ( )ndu( led in the beginning. Perfection in mining, like i)erfection in every other pursuit, was to couu- only by manifold experiment. 'The leases of the operators usually covered a " run " upon the out-crop, or strike of the vein, of from fifty t(j seventy yards, with an allowance of sufficient space to perform the necessary outside functions o'' i mine con- ducted on strictly ancient principles. Tiic |)its varieil from tl. y to forty feet in depth, and the coal wa;; hoisted in wooden buckets by means of a rope and windlass. The same "machinery" drained the mine of water, unless the iiillux was extraordina.y ; in which emergency its abandonment became a matter of necessity. A few of tiie more enterprising operators — such as had a "run" of one or two hundred yards on the vein — erected gins, and raised their coal and water by horse-power. Tiiese, however, were the Napo- leons and Civisars of the trade, who thought nothing of shipping two or three thousand tons per annum. Mvery thing proceeded cheerfully and satisfactorily until 1830, when the market became suddenly and unex[)ectetlly overstcjcked. The increased production was frightful, — 63,000 tons over the ])revious year. Prices fell to a ruinous figure. The paper of the siiippers was ])rotcsted, and many of the mines were discontinued. The implements employed in mining were converted into cash, and more than one operator lied from the region to some other which afforded a safe immunity from im|)risonment for debts. Among other conseiiuences, there was a large diminution in production during the following year. Two years later the business revived, and the shii)meiits exceeded 209,000 tons; which was more than double the (piantity mined during Revival of the previous year. In the same year, many marked improve- t^usiness. ments were effected in the mining and trans])ortation of this " stone " fuel. coal-mi\i:ks. Miners are exclusively foreigners, who come chiefly from I'.ngland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and dermany. There is nothing peculiar about their appear- ance, except that, when at work, a lamp is attached to the side of their cap, and they are usually besmeared with coal and mud. They are a healthy class Hr|. I; iMi'> ' f: (NDUSTK/AL Hi STONY \i of people : and, though their life is one of unusual peril and gloom, they rarely Nationality abandon it for any other pursuit. In the West, during du.ll sea- arid habits sons, efforts have bcjn made to employ them in farming, but willi miners. ^^^^ success. They prefer to live below ground, amid the darkness, dirt, and danger of the coal-regions, to a life above in the sweetness of sun light, and surrounded with greater excitement. So much for the force of habit. Indeed, they have become so accustomed to their toil, and to the positions often necessary for them to assume in the course of their daily tasks, that jjain ful as these would be, especially after a few moments, to other people, niiner> are often seen even in their hours of leisure occupying them. One may go into a saloon where miners are in the habit of congregating during the even ing, and he will see perhaps half a dozen, or twice or thrice that number, sitting; around in the form of a circle on the floor, their legs bent under them ; and there they will sit for hours engaged in social conversation. The miner has acquired the reputation of being a lawless man, whose liand is against every one outside of hie own class ; but this is an altogether one Bravery of sidcd view. They are quite as industrious and law-abiding as other miners. workmen ; and though many of them are cjuite ignorant, and steeped in prejudice, yet they possess many noble (lualities, and constantly are performing deeds in the way of rescuing their imperilled brethren which testify in the strongest manner to their sympathy and iicroism. As their work is amid constant danger, they are schooled in bravery ; and eery now and then an instance occurs of devotion to the suffering, and heroism displayed in their rescue, which is thrilling. Who does not remember the account repuile*.! in Rescue of "The Ncw-York Tribune" last year? One evening, as the men miners in were On the point of leaving work in a mine in Wales, the roar of * "■ rushing water was heard, and the galleries and tunnels suddenly began to fill. The water had broken through from an abandoned and flooded mine, and of course rose in the main shaft and the lateral workings until it found its level. Most of the men made their escape ; but when the roll was called tourtccn were missing. An exploring-party went down to look for them. They tbund all the galleries within a few hundred yards of the bottom filled to the roof; but a knocking heard behind a wall of coal indicated that some of the missing men were imprisoned alive in a gallery which sloped upward, its mouth being under water. The wall was several yards thick. Volunteers went at it with their picks. The prisoners worked from within. In a few hours they could hear one another's voices. But, the moment a hole was broken through, the confined air, kept under great pressure l)y the rising water, burst out with a terrific explosion, and one of the imprisoned miners was shot into the opening as if he had been blown from a gun. He was taken out dead. Four others in the chamber with him were rescued uninjured. Knockings, however, were, heard f.irther on ; and it appeared that other mi;:sing men were in a similar but still worse predicament. — shut into a chamber of compressed air. It is with rarely 11 sea- with kness. f suiv haljit. sitioiis paiii lay no even 'ittinir and was em. to of its ent K7 ers -re. OF r//E (IN /TED S7\'ITF.S. 7^3 i W ii lit lii mi 7'4 Ih'DUS TRIA r. ins TOR V 4 the efforts to releas'> this second party that the chief interest of the story begins. The wall l)ehiii(l wiiich they were confined was in a heading thai was flooded, and nothing could be done with the pick until the water had hrcn Extra^rdi- puuiped out. Divcrs first attempted the perilous feat of reachin- nary en ry the opening from the main shaft through half a mile of water, ami displayed. jj. ^^^^ afterward ascertained that one of the men within liad tried to escape in the same way. 'I'his, however, was impossible. It was not until the fifth day that the volunteers were able to begin digging. The distam . to be cut was a hundred and twenty feet. The work went on day and night with an eagerne. s that seemed like desi)eration ; and yet it was so slow ! Cut ting through the solid coal in a gallery not more than three feet high, wlurc the water, only kept down by constant pumping, threatened every moment to rise and ingulf them, with trouble from gas, and the danger of another explo- sion of air always before them, the rescue-|)arties took their lives in their haixl whenever they went into the mine ; and their wives followed them with sad eyes as they entered the shaft, iloubting if they would come up alive. The ho])e of saving their comrailes, shut up so long without food, was at best but a forlorn one. To reduce the danger from the sudden liberation of the air, — danger not ouly of a violent explosion, but of a sudden rise of the water in the chamber as soon as the ])ressure should be relieved, — air-tight doors were constructed in the cutting, and an air-pump was set in operation to establi.ili an eciuilibrium on both sides of the wall. A week after the accident, voices were heard ; and the working-party were cheered by a faint cry, " Kee[) to the right side ; you are nearly through." The next day the work had matle sui h progress, that an iron tube was forced eight feet through the barrier of coal, and an attempt was made, but witlunit success, to introduce milk through it to the fainishmg prisoners. 'I'he miners learned then that there were five of thei;- comrades in the chamber, all alive, but two of them nearly exhausted. At night there remained only eighteen inches to be cut away, and the excitement rose to tever-heat. .\n enormous assemblage of ])eoiile surrounded the mouih of the mine ; physicians were in readiness ; a temporary hospital was prepared ; and a house near by was put in order for the sufferers, if haply they should be got out alive. The state of the work was discussed in Parliament, and bulle- tins were flashed at short intervals to the farthest ends of the kingdtjni. I'ul, just when it seemed that a few strokes of the pick might complete the labor, an eruption of gas took place, and the working-party had to run for their lives. In time, however, the air was renewed, and the work went on. The afternoon of the tenth day a hole was knocked in, and one of the cutting-party entered the cavern. .Ml was still. In their weak condition, the agitation of the moment made the im]jrisoned men speechless. The rescuer felt about, and, not finding any one, shouted, " Don't be afraid ! " The answer came, " All right, we are not afraid ; " and then a pair of rough arms were thrown about his neck. Tlv lit-' slorv hat was ^<1 lice 11 <-■achin^ t<.'r. and ad trii'd ot until istiUK (■ or ri/R UX/TED STATES. 7' 3 I r W l¥4i |( i: i r OLLISKIN Ol" -n r.S IN A MIAl i ''M . -11 I! ■ u n 716 /A'D I 'S Th'/A I. H/S TOR } ' first to be taken out was a boy named Huglics : and it is related that when the car came to the surface, and the long suspense was over, the vast crowd of spectators " did not cheer, nor use any of the orcHnary means of showing enthusiasm ; all seemed too serious for that." Miners usually receive a certain sum per ton for mining coal ; but for several years disagreements between them and their employers in respect to Difficulty wages have been numerous, leading, in some instances, to vcrv in adjusting serious conscqucnccs. It is not an easy matter to ascertain the ^°^"" exact truth concerning these controversies ; but, if the account which we shall now proceed to give does not perfectly square with the facts, it is not because we have failed to make many intjuiries, nor through indiffer- ence to present correctly so important a page of our history. When prices rose during the war, including the price if coal, it is affirmed upon good authority that miners, notwithstanding the greatly enhanced cost of Advance of l'^''"g> received no higher wages without first making a demand, wages dur- and then following it up with a strike, or a threat of that nature, ingt e war. ^^ operators were making large profits, they were \ery unwilling to suspend operations ; and so the demands of the miners were complied with, and wages were several times advanced. I'roduction in a few years enormously increased ; and duri .g the spring of 1868 the coal-market was glutted, and prices went down as low as they were Strikes dur- in 1 844, with the single exception of a short neriod at the outbreak ing 1868. (^,f- ^]^g \y,^r. Had the coal-mining business been in the hands of a few operators, as it was ten years before, the market would have been obliged to suspend production ; but the business was now carried on chiefly by five companies, which had a large amount of ca])ital invested, and which could not suspend operations. It was deemed necessary, however, to reduce the wages of the miners. The latter contended that a reduction of their wages would not prevent the glut of coal ; tiiat as long as all the companies continued to work every mine, and to open new ones, there would be an incessant glut, anut the "ompanies were determined ; and the history of i86S was a succession of strikes, suspen- sions, agreements, resumptions, and again suspension, accompanied by violent fluctuations in i)rice, and at one time an advance to the very highest figures cf war times. The following year (1869) things grew worse. The winter had been mild, and there was an accumulation of more than seven hundred thousand tons ot The strike coal belonging to the five principal companies. After vain efforts of 1869. among themselves to agree upon a reduction of the supply, the miners, with great shrewdness, offered a voluntary susjiension of thirty days to enable the companies to work off their accuinulated sto( k:-.. The offer wa? Oh THE i^NlTF.n STATES. V7 accepted ; and. und(.r pretence- of this so-called strike, the companies increased the freight-charges over tJicir roads nearly onedialf. ran up the price of coal to very high figures, and reaped a small fortune from the suspension. When the thirty days had expired, the companies exi)ected the men to go to work at the old wages : but the men declared, not without an appearance of justice, that, if the market-price of coal was to depend upon their suspending and resuming work, they were certainly entitled to some portion of the advantages of their aition; and they demanded, that, if coal advanced beyond that price, their t.i^vo were to advance in proportion. — on precisely die same jjrinciple as that which the companies had invariably enforced in reducing wages the moment UK" selling-price of coal declineil. This was called the " basis system." the supposed lowest price of coal being taken as the basis of wages. The com- panies at first were unwilling to accede to this proposition ; but, after a long struggle, several of them submitted. Others have refused to this day, prefer- ring to i)ay the men higher wages rather than recognize the hated basis. l'"or the ne.xl three years no very serious strikes occurred, although grum- hl'iigs were heard, and occasionally there was an outbreak. No very general disturbances arose, however, until the close of 1874. As the year strike of was drawing to a close, another strike was inaugurated, against ■^74' the advice of the Labor Union which had been formed, and without the faintest realization of the long and bitter contest which was to come i)efore even a short-lived peace was secureil. It will be remembered that this was not long after the ])anic, when nearly c\ery kind of business was depressed, and when prices were tending down- ward, with no probability of^ a recovery. NotwithstandinL, this commence- vcry clear outlook, the miners demanded an increase of wages; ment of and, the demand being refused, a strike took place. The strike, lu)\vever, in the beginning, was not regarded as serious, although at an early day the workmen were informed that not only would th.^ir demands not be acceded to, but that wages would be reduced. This was not, however, believed, and ni;;iters remained ([uiet; good humor, in the first instance, prevailing. The strike was inaugurated at a time when the great body of workmen expected to he idle ; navigation had closed ; the winter stock of coal of the East and South had been laid in : it was the period of limited demand, of what is termed " dead work," in preparation for the coming season. As. however, the attitude of the Coal Exchange was firm, very early came annoyances in the refusal of the men to allow even sufficient coal to be mined for the use of the fiirnaces ii!i the line of the road and for the locomotives of the railroad companies. In the mean time the general business and manufacturing interests of the < ountry were still more depressed. l>y the latter ])art of February, 1875, all hopes of even a partial re\ival of lousiness in the spring had died out. Many of the large manufacturing and Iron establishments of the country, which had ijtruggled through the past year on the accumulated capital resulting from H' !' 'I ill Ikii^' I >l 'Xi I ill OF THE UN! TED STATES. 719 seasons of prosperity, cithc-r totally stopped work, or ran on iKilf-tinu' ; whilst the area of the anthracite coal-market had somewhat extended, the use^ were being curtailed, and a Irxge flilling-off in the demand during the ( oniing year was felt to be a certain i)rospect. The facilities for mining coal creale'd a supply largely in excess of the demand ; and the fact was perfectly understood, that no combination of the coal-mining companies would enable coal-operators to run on full time, and maintain prices of ccnil or wages. "As a ( ()nse(|uence, in the beginning of March, 1S-5. when the jjolicy of the coal-operators was fully developed, the struggle began in earnest, the o|)Lrators maintaining that the reduction of wages was to them - ' ^ '^ urowing in- a matter of necessity; whilst the Labor I'nion remained firm in tensity of the demand that at least the prices of the preceding year should '^"■''*^' be maintained. The stock of money act umulated by very many of the work- men was now exhausted, and a call was made on kindred associations for assistance. These associations sympathized with the struggles of the miners and laborers ; but they had their own interests to guard, and in most instances had themselves yielded to the pressure of the times. The response was, tlierefore, made with a necessarily sparing hand." Many were willing to go to work, l)Ut feared the Molly, whose history will soon be sketched. " Intense feeling began to manifest itself on both sides. The Labor LTnion yielded the ] ' ■ -. on, so far as the ^L'.estion crisis of reduction was concerned, but, as a question upon which its reached, existence was involved, demanded to have a voice in the settlement of the basis of wages. A number of coal-operators were willing to commence ivork on these terms ; but the great coal-mining companies, with the entire approval of many inc'ividual operators, refused to treat with the Labor Union at all. l{y the action of the great carrying companies in the regulation of freights this policy was enforced." At length, in June, 1875, the miners yielded. This was the most severe defeat the mi lers had experienced. "Most of the 'labor-strikes' previously inaugurated had been local in their character ; in some instances. Defeat of the confined to particular collieries ; in others, to districts ; and again, ""^ers. i'l others, to the coal-shipments by particular lines of railway. In none of these contests had the men suffered overwhelming defeat : they had not alwavs, it is true, obtained their full demands ; but the result had generally lieen a compromise, in which their powc was acknowledged, and the out- rages coinmitted either by unruly members of the Lniion, or indirectly result- ing therefrom, were, to a certain extent, c-ondoned." But in this, the longest and most expensive strike to miners as well as to oper-'ors, the former were < lirripdied to succumb. Yet it had been begun cona..ry to the advice of many of the leaders ; for they saw with the eye of a prophet the whirlwind thu was to co'iie. With declining markets and an over-production of coal, what could thi,' miner expect beside lower wages, unless it were no wage* at all? ;;7;f¥ '-'1 l! i'1 iiikii % •JiO IND US TRIA I. HIS TOR Y lllIC MOI.LV MACiUIKKS. Th IS 11 I ' 1 1 1 '''^ ^liM*^'" lol a lovely or ^ngagnig i.iit'iin' : yci no pursuit is witliout it-, .arlvcr side; ami, if the history of c:oal-mining be shaded more leasily than nost of our numerous in(: istries, it must he remeiii Why a c. 11- sideration of the Mollies hcred hat most of the workers in it li\e a dark, sunless lift and IS ncces&ar' It is (juile in keepir.g with the industry itself for terrible ineideiii lo aiise 'ncrem. sad and teml* The record of the Molly Maguire in this country is very brief, but very li'. I'lie SI,. ii'iN to which he belongs is neither new nor recently known ; for it had its birth long ago m the Emerald Isle, and many an im i dent of thrilling interest has bt Record of Mollies in this country of brief duration. )een walled to our shore. These we hav- not space to relate : !;>■ sides, the cup of their i..,:,- deeds, notwithstanding their short ex- istence in the anthracite regioi '" Pennsylvania, was long ago filled lo overflowing. All of our readers have heard of the famous Ribbonmen of Ireland, Ribbonmen whose deeds fill SO large of Ireland. ^ gp,^^.^. j,^ jj^^. ;,„,ials of crime in that country. The society was organized to maintain the rights of tenants, which the landlord, according to general belief, sought co crush out. He was regarded, not as the rightful owner of the land, but as a usurper, who, if possible, was to be extirpated from the soil. Time, instead of burying this belief, only strengthened it ; while the breach between the two classes was still further widened by differences in religion and education, and the rank and poisonous growth of prejudice. *• Under the influence of such prejudice and feelings," says a writer who hns thoroughly studied the subject, '' a certain unwritten code of laws, or ' tenant rights,' came into being, by which the tenant claimed to possess his leasehold estate, without, under any circumstances, the right of disp' ssession existing in the landlord. The landlord might be desirous of improving his estate, or rent be largely in arrears : nevertheless, any action on his part in maintenance of his right of property, was, under the Ribbon code, to be resisted to the death, lint not only upon the landlord did the Ribbonmen exercise their deadly veii- J.\MliS KEUKU;.\N. OF THE UMJED STATES. 721 out it. more i-'mciu It vrrv < (-'iitly ;',:;■() ill ilK i lltTL'St o our hav. ir ...i:i- ort ^'x- or • ■♦' llc'd u. geance : other tenants entering upon tlic possession oi" tiic disputed \ - perty were, ecjually with the hndlords and land-agents, the victims of murderous and generally fatal z cks. I'his society sprang into existence in the early part of the present t;'"iti .y, maintained its imhallowed existence for many years, and only receivef' tinanent check upon the execution of llodgens and 15run, convicted of conspiracy to murder Patrick iMcArdle, at C'arrickmacross, in 1.S52." Such, in brief, is the history of the rise of this world-famous society. How long it was after their appearance in the anthracite regions before they obtained control of the Ancient Order of Hibernians is not known ; but the history of this association under the new rc;^iine deserves Ancient notice, for it has ueen very imperfectly imderstood by the jiublic. Order of I'rcvious to its capture by the Mollies, this society had borne an "'•'""'""»• honorable record for its many deeds of disinterested benevolence. It was because of its good name that the Mollies were so desirous of getting control of it ; for they hoi)ed, under the guise of its fair reputation, to do many things which could not be easily done in any other manner. It is unnecessary to describe here iiow the Mollies executed their design : suffice it to say, that in due time this order was completely under their baneful control, and in its name a series of outrages were com:.iitted which the entire land vividly but sadly remembers. It iias been (piestioned, however, whether any organiza- tions belonging to this order existing l)eyond the anthracite regions were drawn into the fatal net. Doubtless assistance, in the way of contributing money to defend the Mollies when their crimes were exposed and they were brought for trial, was rendered by many members who resided elsewhere ; but certainly it has never appeared that any society in an organi/x-d capacity furnished such assistance. It was contributed personally, not in a corporate or organized way ; and therefore there is no reason for charging the societies belonging to this order, lying beyond those direcll) imj)licated, as guilty of sympathizing with the Molly Maguires, or furnishing any assistance. The sins of members individually are not to be visited u])on the organizations themselves ; for, if they are, what church or other social organization can plead innocence? The conquest of the Labor Unions ere long by the Mollies was as easy and successful as the sid)jcction of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Yet the public generally have formed a wTong idea of these Labor Unions, Labor on account of the presence and activity of the Mollies amongst Unions, them ; just as the worthy fame of the Hibernian Society was blasted by the conduct of the Mollies, who in an evil hour, and when no wrong was sus- pected, came in and stealthily took jwssession of the organization. It may be thought singular how so small a number, comj^arcd with all the miners, were able to effect this result ; and hence many have believed that the Mollies were far more numerous, even in the beginning, than they were in fact, or else that very many of the miners were in sympathy with them. Either alternative is without much foundation, as we shall endeavor to prove before concluding this chapter. 722 IND US TKIA I. I//S TOR V •fe "m Wrong impression respecting their ignorance. Let it be remcml)crcd that the coal-workers, though for the most part foreigners, are not so densely ignorant as to be unable to perceive their rights, and comprehend tiieir surroundings. I'hough possess- ing less education than the average American, they are neither so ignorant nor lawless as many suppose them to be ; and one who is well qualified to judge declares that none rejoice more earnestly than they in the belief that a reign of terror is over, and that law and order will rule once more. Keeping this point in sight, we proceed to note that the Labor Unions arose as a defence to the demands of capital, which was massing itself to Object of control the entire anthra- " Labor citc-rcgion. When almost the whole field was ab- sorbed by five companies, representing an enormous amount of capital, and capable of dictating any terms it pleased to the workmen, so long as they continued in their old ways, was it not about time for them to do some- thing to meet this niigiity power which hung over them like a thunder-cloud, and which grew blacker every mo- ment? We do not see how any one can blame them for combining. If they did wrong, it was not in taking this step, but in subsequent ones. At first they Not to be '^^'■^ "° hostile intentions against life or capital : it was only to pro- biamed for tcct themselvcs, and prevent future aggression. Unluckily they had com ining. ^_^^^ been going long before the Mollies stole in, and announced their xmwelcome i^resence. Under their evil sway the Unions made new demands, founded harsher rules for the government of members, and extended Their de- '^'"'■- '^ powcr over the miners who held aloof from the organization, mands and Thus they went on until they demanded of the mining-companies powers. ^j^^^ j^^ ^^^^^^ should be employed or discharged without the sanc- tion of the Union. To this demand others were added of hardly less impe- rious nature. The manner and hours of working, and the superintendents and bosses, were regarded as under their control. Moreover, they claimed the right to determine the rates of wages, and times of payment, and other equally extravagant and surprising demands. Says Mr. Dewees, "Some of these acts are attributable to the circumstances which gave them the power, and others to the pernicious influence of the band of criminals who foisted themselves among them. Whilst it is an act of simple justice to the leaders MANUS KULL. OF THE UN/ 77': J) STAI'IiS. 723 of the Laltor Union to a( knowk-dj^c, tliat, as a general rule, the tni'; inter- est:, of the workinj^-nien, frtjin their stand-point, were sougiU to be obtained pcac eably anti through compromise, and whilst, in such eflbrts, they had the approval of the great body of the society, unreasonable demands were pressed tliiough the influence, and granted through fear, of the Molly Magtiirc. " Under the influence of organi/ation and of general prosi)erity," continues Mr. Dewees, " the Mollies increased in numbers and in power. Throughout the coal-regions they completely controlled the organi/ation known Aimiofthe iis the A. O. H., or Ancient Order of Hibernians, and, using that MoiUeg. order as a cloak, endeavored to increase still further their ininibers and their inlliience, on the pretext that the order was chartered by the legislature for legal and proper purposes as a benev- DJcnt association. The ambition of the leaders among them, many of whom deserted labor and the mines for the more congenial and influential jiositions of small tavern and saloon keepers, kept pace with their increased [lower. They sought not only to (ontrol tlu; mosements of the Labor I'nion, to inspire whole coal-mining interests with a fear of their displeas- ure, but also to have a potent voice in politics." Tiieir more especial am- bition was to control the affairs of tlie touiishi]), and control the collection and expenditure of the public funds. Possessed of but little taxable projjerty themselves, it was of immense imi)or- tance to them to get hoKl of the pii])lic purse, and be able to empty and rejjlenish it according to their own will and pleasure. As they were successful in an eminent degree in their designs, the history of their management is but little more than a repetition of the man- Doings of agement of the Tweed ring on a smaller though not less frightful doilies, scale. Large sums were assessed to repair roads which needed only a small outlay for this purpose ; and even the school-funds were [)erverted, though it is believed the misapplication was not as extensive. They almost succeeded, in Schuylkill County, in electing as associate judge a notorious Molly who has since been convicted of crime. Both of the great political parties bid for their support, and the rewards demanded and received were neither few nor small, " Rumors of a vote to be given on account of a pardon to be extended THOMAS p. [TSIIER. ■■"■■^i^mmmmmm' 724 /A/)l'.S TNI A I. Ills TON Y m their operations. ITS" to Home offi'ndor or ofTi'iidcrs whom no |)i'tjury could siivi- iVuin the niosIuM of the law have Ijccii coniinon ; and sucli |):irdoii, followinf; ([iiickly after tlu' result of an election lias become known, has f,'iven those niiuors a force aixl effect they would not otherwise possess." The effect of such an accession of power to an orf^anization so irrespon- sible, corrupt, ami desperate, may be easily imaj^ineil. Nor is it difficult to trace the devastating effects of the or- ganization u|)on the property, ,i};us, Effect of *'"•' '-'^■'-''^ 'i^*-'^' •'' diose who dwelt in the co.il- rej^ions. " 'l"he owiut oI prochictive coal lands," says I )ewees, *' wearied by the continual strugf^K' between his tenants and the men, whereby his income was seriously im- paired, was glad to sell his lands at a moderate figure in comparison with their true value ; whilst the owner of unproductive lands, borne down by taxes, and seeing no hope in the fu- ture, was glad, at a com])aratively small price, to dispose of property that was becoming an intolerable bin- den. The control and management of the mines, the manner of their work- ing, the right to employ and discharge hands, were passing away from the owners, and were fast resting in, not the Lal)or Union i)i-oper, but the ],abur Union under the direction of the Molly Maguires." The time had come for the great comj)anies to make a determined effort to rescue their property. After a long period of suffering, and Prosecution . . of Mollies by another of preparation, the blow was struck which delivered them railroad- of -^,-, enemy whose history, though short, had been truly terrible, and whose long catalogue of misdeeds the public have read and remember with horror. Two causes ^^ "^^X ^''^ ^^^^' '*^''<-'f^ ^''^^ it was possible for any organization of success of in this late age, in a county of Pennsylvania, — whose courts were Monies. supposed to be alwa-^ open, and where the law never failed of execution through lack of force, — to continue such hellish work for so long a period. Two causes conspired in a remarkable degree to aid them in their dark and bloody work, the absence of either of which would have proved fatal to their plans. The first was secrecy. It is difficult, perhaps, for many to realize how thoroughly this idea is engraved into the texture of the Irish race. To inform of a crime, in many instances, is regarded a wrong as PATKIIK llKSIl'.K. Secrecy. 01- rirn UNirri^ status. 735 h'l f(ro;U as the crime itself; and to sik h an i.xUni lias this Iti-linf,' li ( liaracter. In llu' plottinj^s of tiic Mollies a large ninnher were en^^aj^ed, yet tiie utmost secrecy was preserved ; and llieir ways and movements would have been unknown to this day, for aii^lit we know, had not a detcc live been sent among them. I'rom the begin- ning to the end of their feariiil < areer they kept their own sf( rets imtil secrecy would no Icjnger avail any thing. It is a wonderful trail of character whi( b they have exhibited, nor could it havi; bloomed so perfei tly on American soil (luring the short period the organization has existed. This trait is the product of many years of education, — education of a fearful sort, in which tyranny and revenge were the twin stimulating fore es. The other cause is the secrecy afforded by nature for executing their designs. Vast forests lie in close proximity to the villages, to which the Mollies (onld flee and Cmd sure protection. It was not possible to fill the secrecy woods with police; and a hunt there after the law-breaker would afforded by have proved a fruitless undertaking. 'Thus a shelter was afforded "■*""• fur the criminal, ;;o secure as to stimulate him in executing his lawless [iiirposcs. In this chapter we have paid less attention to the Molly-Maguire move- ment (as that is known to all) tiian to underlying causes of it, _, , , ^ . singularity as well as the machinery employed to accomplish their designs, of Moiiy- It is a singular blur upon the industrial history of the United "^^KU're movement. .States, and one which will not soon be forgotten. LATER HLSTOKY. Having traced the history of mining and transporting coal to 1.S30. let us take up the thread at that point, and follow it until the present time. The anthracite-coal fields of Pennsylvania, which embrace nearly all Er-ent of lliat kind of coal known in the world, lie in three basins, or coa'-fic'ds- \alleys, which are called the southern, middle, and northern coal-fields. Though tlie total area is only 472 miles, the coal is of .such great average thickness, varying from fifty to a lumdretl feet, that the entire region is esti- mated to contain 26,361,070,000 tons; from which amount, after deductirg (iiie-half for waste in mining and breaking the coal for market, and for other losses occasioned by faults and irregularities in the beds, 13,180,538,000 tons •iie left. Subtracting from this amount the 206,666,325 tons mined between 1820 Mul 1870, there is still remaining a sufficient supply, allowing consump- tion to go on at the rate of 25,000,000 tons per year, to last for 525 years. Ts VIS in the southern or Schuylkill region that mining-operations of any i!iiiioi:.mce first began. In 1833 a charter was granted for build- Reading ing a railroad from Philadelphia to Reading ; and a year or two Raii^ad. later il was empowered to extend its road farther, so as to pierce the anthra- 'mmmmmmm^i k If; 726 INDLTS TRIAL I/ISlOh' Y ilii OF THE UNITED STATES. 727 cite-coal regions of Schuylkill County. The road was completed in 1842, and was fifty-eight miles in length ; but it has stretched itself out, by building addi- tions and leasing other roads, until it has found its way into every valley of the southern and middle coal-fiekls, and in the year 1870 operated 1,168 miles of single-track railroad, of which 466 miles were located in the coal-regions. The Delaware and Hutlson Canal Company was chartered as early as March, 1823, to run from Rondout on the Hudson to Honesdale on the Delaware River ; from which point the northern or Wilkes- ^^^^ Hudson barre coal-field was entered by the addition of a short railroad Canai extending to Carbondale. Aljout a quarter of a century later the °™P3"y- Pennsylvania Coal Company was formed, being comiioscd, either wholly or nearly so, of stockholders and directors of the Hudson and Dela- pennsyi. ware Canal Compary. To this new concern was leased a portion vania Goal of the coal-lands owned by the present organization upon condi- °'"p^">'- tion that the coal mined shoultl be always transported over its line to Rondout. A itw years later, however, when the F.rie Railroad was in fiill operation, and the organization of the Pennsylvania Coal Company had somewhat changed, it began shipping coal over the new route to Jersey City , . . o ' » 1 1 c J . / Lawsuit be- and other points. This action of theirs gave rise to a famous tween Deia- iawsuit between the two comiianies, which lasted for a long time, ^^''f ^"'^ ' ' t^ ' Hudson and was conducted with a great deal of ability as well as bitterness. andPennsyi- The president of the coal company studied law, so it is said, for ^^"'^ '-°^' Company. the very purpose of takmg an active part in the defence of the suit, and was, in fact, the cliief counsel in defending the company from its enemies. In the end the Pennsylvania Coal Company won their cause, whicl' virtually ended the agreement ; and since that time it has transported coal over the Erie Railway without any further interference by the rival concern. The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company was not simjily a carrier of coal, but mined it also, having purchased large tracts in the begin- Miner smd ning, and added more from time to time, according to the judg- transporter r -^ of coal. ment of its managers. In 1853 two other railroads were chartered, which also engaged in the business of mining coal, as well as in transi:)orting it, — the Dela- ,. , ^ ' 1 o ' iJelaware, ware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, which entered the north- LacUawan- ern coal-field at Scranton ; and the Lehigh-Vallev Railroad, which "^' ^"'^ '^ • Western. confined its operations to the middle coal-field. .Although it was simply a carrier of coal in the beginning, a union was effected with the Beaver-Meadow Railroad, which was also a minvr : and thus the fifth great mining-concern was engaged in this great and rapidly-growing industry. The year previous, however, the New-Jersey Central Railroad, concerning which so much has been heard ui' late, was chartered to extend New-jersey from the sea-coast to P'aston, Penn., on the Delaware River. Central. Ai, first it was simply a transporter of coal ; but, not content with doing this, it H '4 l-!;ti1. W:f I: '^ ;M. M 728 /jVD us TA I a L I//S TOR Y 1.7 \ '■' was possessed with a more ambitious aim, and accordingly leased the Lehi<'h Canal and the Lehigh and Susciuehanna Railroad Company, together wiih ilic mines which these concerns were operating, and, in addition, the Wilkehhario Coal Comjiany, which was chartered in March, 1849. These si\ ^ln!es°dhief t;oi"P!-^i'>ics havc been the chief miners and transporters of ainlua- miners and cite coal for several years, although other concerns have also transporters ,^-,i,-,(,,i .^,-)j transported considerable (luantities. The chief intcitst of coal. ' . ' of anthracite-coal mining, however, centres around the railroad corporations above mentioned, which united the business of mining with thai of transporting coal. Until within a very few years, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company had been uniformly prosperous. Its affairs have always been conducted hv a , . . . conservative board of tlirectors ; and with its short, easv, and cheau tory of Del- mode of getting coal to tide-water, for years it yielded rich returns, aware and j^j^j ,^jj ^f jj^. .^ff^jj-g y^-Q,[(^ highly prosperous. But, when other Hudson. a J I L railroads undertook to mine as well as to transport coal, chis con- cern also believed ii was necessary, in order to retain its markets, to lease and build railroads ; and, accordingly, the Albany antl Suscjuehanna Railroad was leased, and other roads extending northward to Whitehall and Rutland, while a railroad was built from the former point to Montreal. This was a bold push, and the experiment has not yet proved successful ; but it is too early to pro- nounce final judgment upon the scheme. The new policy has its friends and its enemies ; and a much longer space is required to determine whether it will fulfil the anticipations of its projectors, or continue a burden from which relief in some way must ultimately be sought. Concerning the New-Jersey Central, its history is fresh in the public ear ; for its terrible collapse occurred only a short time ago. For several years after its plans were developed, it was successful. Enormous quantities toty^of New- °^ ^°^^ wQve. mined ar.d transported ; its stock rose very high, and Jersey was regarded so secure, that large numbers of persons along the ^""^^ ■ line of the road invested in it. in some cases, all they possessed ; trust-funds were put into it ; and it was supposed to be one of the most profitable concerns of the day. I'ut the company saw its unlucky hour, and collapsed, scattering ruin and misery far and wide. The immediate causes of this sudden decline will be soon given. The history of the Reading Railroad is, perhaps, the most astonishing of all the railroads concerned in mining coal. h\ the beginning it was simply a carrier, 'he mining of coal being done by a large number of operators, who, for Later his- ^^^^ most part, leased the privilege of mining, as we have previous- toryofRead- ly described. But, like the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com- ing Railroad. p^,,y^ it fgij. impelled to unite the two branches of mining and transporting coal : so another company, called the Reading Coal and Iron Company, which was really the same thing as the railroad itself, was organized. OF THE I'M TED STATES. 729 Lehiuii ith the :hl)aiTc -'■sc six mthra^ L' als(j ntcivst lilroad 1 that il)anv l)v a -turns, other i con- c and cl was while push. princiiially to engage in tlie business of mining th.is fuel. At uncc it began the iiurchase of coal-lantls, and this policy was continued until large tracts were ac(iuired. New mines were opened in every direction, raiU'oads were hiiilt and leased, and large tracts in the anthracite-coal fiel(' were purchased. Pretty nearly the entire antiiracite-coal field is now owned by the live com- panies which have been already described. The Northern Central Railroad of Pennsylvania owns some coal-land in the Shamokin Valley, which lies in the middle coal-field ; and, as Pennsyiva- this company is leased to the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, it "'^ Central. may be reckoned as the sixth largest concern engaged in the business. While the Reading Railroad was merely a transporter of coa), its dividends for many years were regularly earned and paid ; but. with a change of policy (whether necessary or not is a (luestion lying outside of our prov- Effect of iiice), the outlay forth(} extension of roads and leases, the purchase "'="' policy, of coal-lands, and the opening of new collieries, were attended with enormous expense. Then the strikes occurred which we have already described, and the |)rices of coal began to decline ; and the railroads which were engaged in this business of mining coal saw that it was necessary to do something in oixler to continue the payment of dividends. The jiroduction of coal had enormously increased, and so had their expenses : what, then, was to be (kme ? It was finally determined to form a combination for the purpose of limiting the production of coal, the amount which each of the five companies should furnish, and the rates for selling the same. This seemed a bold combina- measure, and was strenuously opposed by many of the newspapers ; *'°"- but the companies saw no other mode of relief. Such a coml)ination was no new thing ; for long ago English mine-owners united for the purpose of fixing the price of coal. This modern combination, which was formed in 1873, had only a short life ; though, during the three years in which it held together, it had a very remarka- ble history. Great as the necessity for its existence seemed to be short life of among those who entered into it. they were constantly violating it combina- in one way and another, each being anxious to dispose of more coat than was permitted by the agreement. All sorts of schemes were de- vised for escaping from it ; while, of course, each concern strenu- Evasion of uusly maintained that the others should maintain the compact agreement, inviolate. All the railroad-companies transported more or less coal for private operators ; and, as the cpiantity which they were allowed to mine was i.ot fixed in the stipulation, in some cases their product enormously increased, although it was generally believeil that the railroad-companies themselves were carrying and selling their own coal under other names. Then rates were cut, and \arious expedients were resorted to by the several companies to increase their sales beyond the limit fixed l)y agreement. ii hi ;5i 730 IND US 7'A' /A I ins TOR Y One of the new ])hases wliieh ai)i)eare(l in llir luisiness was the (utliii',' om of the middlemen, in threat measure, by the Keading Raihoad ('()ni|)aiu. It Waron sold cor' by retail, as well as in largtT (luanlities, at l'hila(lc|]ihi,i middlemen. .,,^,1 other places, and sought, so far as iiossihle. to brini; (ousuuki , into ihreet communicatit)n with themselves, thus saviiiLj the proi'il-, oi iju' middlemen. This caused some ill fecUng among them, as one ma\ readiK STAnLE IN A MINK. imagine wiio knows any thing about human nature ; and they succeC' :d in investiga- procuring an in\estigalion. bv order of the legislature of the St.ue tionofRead- of Pennsylvania, into some of the doings of the Reading K. fil- ing Railroad ' . . ' by legisia- I'oad, particularly their mode of selling coal. The comp aiy *"''^- emerged from the i-i(]Uft of men not l;eio.;f.,uig to the society) were at work for less than the regulation i)rices. ■|'hereui)on, in order to beat them with their own weapons, the Union men i)roi)oscd to the operators to work for one cent and a half per bushel. I'heir intention, of course, wis to starve out the non-l'nionists ; but the operators, failing to discover how their interest.>i would be liromoted by the adoption of a crushing-out policy of this kind. refused to accede. The Union men then (|uit work, and remained idle for a fortnight or so ; when, (ailing to carry their ])oint. they returned to work at two cents a bushel. 'The Western coal-miner lias lu'en more fortunate in obtaining and retain- ing higher ])riccs for his work llian his fellow-laborer in the anthra- cite regions. Yet. since this strike occurred, several reductions „'l " '■' wages have been made ; though it is probable that in every case these received by were necessary in order to sa\e operators from a loss. Heavy as "'=''" •' ' •' coal-miner. the decline in wages has been, those operating mines in many cases have lost much. Concerning other strikes among the miners, as we shall < onsider them in another place, it is unnecessary to say more here. The devel- r 1 ■. ■ • I • 1 1 1-1 Bituminous opmcnt of bituminous-mines has never involved so much risk ^^^ anthra- and large pre])aratory outlay as anthracite-mining, and produc- cite-coai- tion has kept more nearly apace with the wants of the people : '"'"'"s com- conseciuently no great panics r collapses have occurred ; and the history of the bu-.iness. as .. whole, has been peaceful, and fairly pros- perous. It is true that ilisturbances in some localities have arisen from strikes antl other difficulties with the miners ; but, for the most part, these have been short, and no severe losses Ivivc followed in their train. It is more dit^kult to colktt statistics concerning the production of ^: "y \-}m2 rm- 734 fND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y bituminous coal than anthracite, on acrount of the much larger number of mines, and varied regulations of the different States ; but we will Statistics. , , , ,11- e 1 • , close the chapter by adding a few, which at once sliow the importance of this branch of coal-production : — i STATE. Pennsylvania Maryland . West Virginia Ohio . Kast Kentucky Tennessee . Alabama Micliii^an . Indiana Illinois West Kentucky Iowa . Missouri Nebraska . Kansas Arkansas . Texas . Virginia North Carolina Massachusetts Rhode Island 7,800,356 2.345. '53 6o«,878 2,5-7.2^5 35-4SS '33.4>!i 1 1 ,000 28,150 437.«70 2,624,163 1 1 5,094 263,487 62 1 ,930 1,425 32,938 6t,8o3 14,000 nous coal during thf The above table represents the production of bitum year 1S69: the production of anthracite for the same year was 16,375,678 tons. YEAR. TONS. 1870 17,819,700 1871 17. 379.355 1872 22,084,083 1873 22,880,921 1874 21,667,386 1875 20,643,509 1876 19,000,000 1877 23,000 OF THE UNITED STATES. 735 CHAFFER VII. IRON. * TIII'lRl'] is no known variety of iron ore entering into the commercial and industrial transactions of the world, no matter how fiimous or rare, which does not have its exact counterpart in the United States. The cele- brated ores of Sweden, which supply to England the best iron variety of she makes, have an exact facsimile in those of Central North °''*'' Carolina; while New York and other States possess ores substantially resem- bling them in great abundance. The eeiualty famous blackband iron of Scotland is duplicated in Ohio, Virginia, and Alabama ; the titaniferous ores of Norway lie in great beds of incalculable richness and value in Northern New York and Virginia; the spathic ores for steel-making (carbonates) are abundant in Connecticut and New York ; and the manganiferous varieties, so (lesiral)le for the manufacture of spiegeleisen (consumed in the ISessemer stccl-works), exist in Missouri and elsewhere in all luxuriance. The whole Lake-Superiot region abounds in hematites and magnetic ores of the richest character, and Missouri contains deposits unequalled in extent and purity in the most celebrated regions of other parts of the world. Hog-iron ores are scattered all along the northern .\tlantic seacoast. Not only in (juantity, but in variety, the iron of America is the most remarkable in the world ; and when we consider that its quantity is so enormous that it cannot be exhausted for centuries to come, nor the fuel recpiircd in its manufactures, it will be seen how favored a part of the earth is diis republic. Its people, with sucli sup- plies of iron to manufacture, are certain to be rich, strong, free, and aggressive, even if there were nothing in the character of the race to make them so. The first iron-mining in the United States was done in Virginia by the early colonists of Jamestown. The little band of white men who emerged trum the ship which had brought them from England, like the Early iron- animals from Noah's ark, to populate and occupy a new and -nining in strange world, kept their eyes wide open and their wits about "^^' them when they took up their residence in Virginia ; and they were soon aware of all the resources of the region of which they had taken possession. John ^K^ ^m^w 736 INfy VS TRIA I ms TOR Y Hi Smith, havfiig reliirned from his voyage up the Chickahoniiny Riwr, \vhi( h !„. had thoii;4ht was a water-way lead i ml; to the I'acific Ocean, settled dnwn »o the conviction tiiat the N'irginia (.'olony would have to depend for its future wealth on the riMiiuces of Virginia alone, and not on those of India; aiu, liu \ , ) ^.■aff//J^^ ^zJ:3f^:''^ ^^-, IKCIN-MINIC. I ■'" '.-in if*-'-'" set about with his people to labor truly to get a living in that part of die world to which it had pleased God to call tlnm. One of the first discoveries which was made created a great excitement in the colony, which took the form of what would be calletl in the Territories in these times a gold "stampede." <;/• tiH'] UiXiTf'.n states. 737 vliii h h(. 'If)\Vll to 'j^ future ■iiiii he Iron pyrites had l)een found ; and the excited colonists, who imnK'(Hatcly saw themselves roiling; in wealth in their mind's eye, sent a ship- The gold lo;uI of it to lOnj^land. 'This was the first iron mining in America, "»t«mpede." (iluoin followed the discovery of the true characttT of those yellow crystals ; but thai did not prevent Virj,'inia fnun being the lirst coh^ny, after all, to begin iron-mining seriously. The bog-ortrs and brown hematite.-, of the vicinity were soon brought to liglit ; and in [60S a <|uantity of them was sent to England, and seventeen tons of good merchant-iron extracted therefrom. In 1620 iron- works were erected to utilize these ores. In 1 703 the bog-ores of Massachu- setts were put to use ; and, for a century at least after that date, the spongy iron crusts from the bottoms of the bogs all along the whole North-.\liantic cu.ist were tal^en out freely, and converted int r \S TKIA L HIS TOR Y easily picked out of the shales in which they exist. The spathic ore is a < ar bonate. I'he mine in Roxhury, C'onn., to whicli alUision has been made, is ot this variety. It contains sixty i)er cent of the protoxide of iron, thirty-six ni carbonic acid, and some nianLjanese, hme, and magnesia. The bog-ores form at the bottom of ])onds or in sandy loam, being depos- ited bv chalybeate waters. They formerly were worked to a laru'c Bog-ores. ' . , , , ,. ', ^ extent m the coast States, but attract little attention now. c\( i)ii in \Visconsin, where they are found in extraordinary abundance in Wood, Portage, and Juneau Counties. As for the distribution of the iron ores of the United States, it would lie far easier to tell where iron does not exist than to set forth where it docs. Tlu- Distribution great magnetic iron-range of North Anierica begins in Maine, and of ores. courses thence southward through the coast States in a mas>ivc rampart until it terminates in an abutment ui)on the (lulf of Mexico. In this range the magnetic, specular, red hematite, and limonite (brown hematite) ores are found in close proximity to each other, and in masses which set ngurc> at defiance, and absolutely overwhelm the imagination. In rcnnsyhania ihc magnetic and specular ores about entirely disappear from the range, though tlu y are present in it, and are occasionally worked. They re-ai)pear after ])a-.sing the border of the State, however, and are found in every commonwealili 1\ in,:; between Pennsylvania and the (lulf, including Kentucky and Tennessee. A-, though Providence had designed that this republic should present a front of iron to the foreigner in every direction from which a foe might invade our soil, the immense metallic deposits of the Atlantic States repeat themselves in the Lake-Superior region in the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Missouri, extending as fiir south as into Arkansas. The ores are magnetic, s])ecular. and hematite. Farther westward, in the Rocky Mountains, and in Oregon and California, these ores have been discovered in inexhaustible beds ; and in the Territory of Utah a dejiosit has been recently brought to light in the southern jiart of the Territory, which presents an iron scowl toward Mexico, and whicli is, perhaps, the richest discovery of iron yet made on this continent. Twenty- eight moimtains, the smallest the size of the famous Iron Mountain of Mis- souri, stand in a group, absolutely laden with the richest forms of the ore ; and China, Japan, India, and Mexico could draw their supplies of iron and steel from that group of peaks alone for ages. Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, lying within the iron rampart which seems to rear its head upon every border of the republic, contain no important bodies of iron ore. Indiana and Iowa contain carbonates and bog-ores which are workable ; but Illinois has very little iron of any character, and that little so contaminated with sulphur as to be worthless. All exce])t Iowa are great iron-working States ; but they get their ores from Michigan and Missouri. Ohio receives about five hundred thousand tons from Michigan. The jjosition of these three States as iron-manufixcturing regions is due to their beds of coal, it being found as a rule that it is cheaper OF THE UMTED STATES. 741 to tnnsport the ore to the coal, and that consecitiently the great coal States are nioir likely to he filled with hlast-fiirnaces and rollinginills than those which have iron. l)iit no fuel, and are distant from the coal-nieasiires of the conntry. The carbonates appear all to lie within the basin surrounded by the lu'ignetic iron range. They are ai)undant in ivistern Kentucky, in the Ilanging-Kock region of Oiiio, and in Central I'einisylvania ; and they exist in West Virginia, ('(innecticut, and Indiana, 'i'hc fossil ores are found in Western New York, IViuisylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Wisconsin. Titaniferous mm is found in large (juantities in Northern New York, and also in North (.■:iiolina, Virginia, Vermont, Rhode Island, i'ennsylvania, and probably else- where ; while the manganiferous (jres, so valuable for the puri)oses of Messemer sUxl-making, exist in (k-orgia, Missouri. Maryland. New Jersey, Arkansas, and M.iine. J'iKukband veins are found in Muhlenburgh ("(nnuy and on the east fork of the Little Sandy, in Kentucky , in Tuscarawas County, O., where the IKON-m MPS. largest supply in the country is fotmd and worked ; and in small rpiantities in Virginia. Alabama, and I'ennsylvania. The last ore of any account, the first one worked in this cotmtry (namely, that taken from the bogs), was once worked extensively in Delaware, where, between 1S14 and \'^\\, about three hundred thousand tons were taken out. i'lxtensive deposits are found under a black mould near Cleorgetown : but thev are nei,'le( ted now, and there is not a blast- furnace in the State. Hog-ores are found in all the northern coast States, though they are no longer worked, and also in Indiana and Wisconsin. In some of the States of the Union the deposits are of such enormous extent, and so interesting in character, that they deserve special mention. New-York State has long been celebrated for its mines, especially for those of magnetic and specular ores in the wild region lying between I,ake Cliamplain and Lake CJntario. Not only has New York supplied Lake-cham- Iier own furnaces from these mines, but also those of other States ; p'*'" "6'°"- and she has also furnished all the rolling-mills east of the Alleghanies from 742 INDUSTKIAI. JllSrOHY \\\ them with the matorial for fettling or lining the plates of the 'Middling-furnare. So i:r!|H>rtant are these ores to the iron-makers of the coimliy, that iIkv i oii- tract for them ivr deposits are in Essex and Clinton ("ounties, where they occ iir in vast clilVs .iinl ledges, in masses and veins, as black oxides, also as a red powilcr, and in sti 1 1- bright crystalline masses. West of Port Henry are beds of great purity, uuw the property of the I'ort Henry Iron Company, wliere the ore is sixty titt thick, and is worked in an excavation a himdred feet deep, and from a himdred to three hundred feet wide. This ore, mixed with pliosphale (A lime, makes an excellent fertilizer ; and it is a curicMis fact, that works were on( e built at this mine to manufacture fertilizers, to the neglect of the iron, hnmense deijo^its occur also in Franklin, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, and Warren Counties, all in that region ; but they have been scarcely touched as yet. In Warren Couuiy there is a bed of magnetic ore at least eight hundred feet thick. Work ujioii it began some time ago, but was abandoned for the reason that titanic acid was found present in i* in considerable (piantities, and the furnace-men did in it know how to treat the ore. The same is true of other de])osits of this region Titanic acid has been a great terror of the furnace-men of the United Slates , and they have hitherto neglected ores containing it, notwithstanding the fat t that the pig-iron made from them is worth twice as much in the market as other iron. The celebrated titanic ores of Norway have beon suecesstully worked in England ; and the product brings a price three times as great a>, any other iron, owing to the circumstance, that, when worked into armor-plates, the iron will sustain a terrible strain, ecpial to a himdred thousand poimds to the s(iuare inch. The strongest cast-iron ever tested in America stood no more than fifty thousand pounds' strain. It is believed that the titanic ores of New York will now no longer be neglected. Sheffield capital has, it is said, been attracted to the region within the last five years ; and the ores will i)rol)al)Iy be mined ere long, on a large scale, for steel-making. Iron-men claim that the working of titanic ores constitutes to-day one of the most inviting fields for the employment of capital. In Southern New York, near the mouth of the Hudson River, magnetic ores exist in Putnam, Orange, and Westchester Counties, and red and brown hematites in ('ohmibia and Dutchess Counties, in astonishing abundance. The Stirling mines of Orange County were discov- ered in 1750 by Lord Stirling, who owned them. The iron was sent to Eng- land, and was noted for its strength and i)olish. Rhode Island, without a single blast-fiirnace, and almost wholly given up to cotton spinning and weaving, contains more iron, in ])roportion to her popula- Rhode tion, than any State in the Union. The principal deposit is at Island. Cumberland Mountain, which is one great bed of iron. The ores of the State are magnetic and red hematite. As early as the French war in 1755, the colony worked the Cumberland mine, mixing the ore with hematite OF THE UNITED STATES. 743 from Cranston, R.I., and rastinj,' cunion therefrom to he used in haille against the French and IncHans. In iSoo cannon were again cast frt)m these ores, at till' \illage of Hope, by Mr. John lirown, who had a contract witii llie govern- iiH'iit. and who cast his guns hollow. One, perhaps more, of these old gmis, is still in existence. Rhode Island entirely neglects her mines, owing to the la( k of coal; but her lines of coal steamers from Philadelphia ought now to siii)i>ly her with the means for wcjrking these deposits. The industrial produc- tion of the State could be easily doubled by the mining of iron. IVnnsylvania contains more than one-third of the blast-furnaces, and proiiuces fully one-half of the pig-iron, of the L'nited States. Never' 'less, without her priceless mines of coal, she would scarcely be a great pen 'iva- iron-manufacturing State. She is surjjassed in wealth of iron ore "'"• hy at least fifteen other States in the Union, and is obliged to import hunt reds of thousands of tons of ore annually from New York, Michigan, and New Jersey, in order to work her own iron successfully. Magnetic ores are rare in Pennsylvania, and form no great jxirt of tlie product of the State. The prin- cipal dependence of the furnaces, as far as local ores are concerned, is >ipon the brown hematites, or limonites, which are found in limidcss (piantities throughout the eastern, south-eastern, and central portions of the State. Fossil ores are found in Central Pennsylvania and the Hroad-'Iop region of the southern part of the State in great abundance ; but the ores are lean, and the iron of this great State is principally made from the brown hematites mixed with the magnetites of other regions. Discoveries of iron are being made every year by the Pennsylvanians. It is an interesting fact, as showing the former imperfect state of information about iron in this country, that the old Cumberland furnace, built in 1790 at Dickinson in Cumberland County, had great difificulty in its early years to obtain ore. Most of what the furnace consumed was taken from mines mile away, and hauled over bad roads af a great expense of trouble and time. Ri nt investigations have disclosed the fact that the furnace was itself actually planted upon a bed of ore of vast extent, of the existence of which no one had had any knowledge. The New-Jersey mines have yielded as much as 670,000 tons of ore in a year, that being the case in 1S73 ; but never has there been a production of pig-iron of over 150,000 tons therefrom, and the production at ])resent is only about 30,000 tons a year. This result is due to the exportation of the greater part of the ores to Pennsylvania, where they are consumed by the great furnace-companies of the Lehigh coal-region in admix- ture with the Lehigh hematites. The f^res are almost entirely magnetic oxides, with some specular peroxides and limonites. They lie in the counties of Sussex, Passaic, Morris, and Warren, covering an area of four hundred square miles, and show no signs of exhaustion, though some of them have been worked for a century and a half. The Franklinitc magnetic ore of the Wallkill Mountain is remarkably curious and refractory. It is a black ore containing sixty-six New Jersey. '«,« M ''■\ 744 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY per ccnl of peroxide of iron, sixteen per cent of zinc, and seventeen per rent of red oxide of nianj^anese. It siii>plies an iron of wonderful streiiglh and hardness, and is greatly used in the construction of burglar-proof safer,. The two Virginias are l)oth full of iron. They produce little in the luanu- fiictured form yet, being fourth-class States in that respect ; but their future is The Vir- a great one. The colonial manufacture was of bog ores and brown ginias. hematites near the .sea. Tiie great deposits of the Vi/ginias wen.- not then known : they have, in fact, only been brought to light of late year^. I'isery effort at examination now reveals fresh iron in some part of the State. As far as discovery has gone up to the present time, it indicates the existim c of th^ most valuable ileposits of magnetic and red oxides, and rich bruwu hematites, all along the eastern slope of the IJlue Ridge, especially along tin- James-River Valley near Lynchburg. In this iron belt the metal is foiuid in such quality, that in 1871 it was bringing fifty-five dollars a ton in I'hiiadd phia ; while Lehigh iron was selling for thirty-five and forty dollars. Iliowu oxides and carbonates are also found in the .Appalachian coal-fields. The oivs are lean, but al)undant. In West Virginia so much of the country is still nnikr timber, that its resources with respect to iron are ill understoo'l ; but rich red and brown hematites certainly exist in Putnam, (liles, Craig, Monroe, .\lle ghany, Mercer, and Tazewell Counties. The State has an al.nmdance of timber and coal for working them. The great magnetic injn-range which we have so far been following goes on through Tennessee. Kentucky, and North Carolina, endowing each of those States with an immense wealth of ore, and ends at the Cult" of Kentucky, Tennessee, ^fexico in the magnificent dejiosits of the State of Alabama. and North Alabama is still a virgin region ; but so huge are her stor^js of iron Carolina. i i < • i i i- i- and coal, so near together do tlie iron, coal, anil limestone lie, and so near are they all to the sea, that it is supposed that to this State the world may look for its fiiture supply of cheap pig-metal. Iron can be m.ule in Alabama, and transported to Kngland and sold there, with more jjrofit than the same grade of metal can be made for in the kingdom. Capital could l)e more judiciously invested in the mines of this young and aspiring State tliau o!i lands in any other part of the world. The ores are the red hematites and the fossiliferous. The latter of these extends from a point near Pratt's I'Yriy in Pibb County to the upper end of Wills's \'alley in I)e Kalb County: on the west it runs np to Murphree's Valley. The veins often " pinch " to one foot in thickness; but sometimes they are six, ten, fifteen, and thirty feet in thi( k- ness. The hematites occur in enormous beds in the northern part of the State. In the Red-Mountain region the stratum is of solid ore thirty feet thick, yielding about fifty i)ei cent of metallic iron of the very finest descri])- ticn. The ore is the red hematite, soft, and remarkably dry. A common laborer, with a pick and crowbar, can get out a ton of it in a few hours. The brown hematites yield about fifty or sixty per cent of metallic iron. It is OF THE rXlTF.D STATES. 745 claiiiK'd that pig-iron can be produced in Alabama at twelve dollars a ton, the cost 111 Pennsylvania being twenty dollars a ton. The Lake-Superior iron-mines were first opened nboiit 1.S46. 'I'hc first .riaU ot" their ores in tlie Mast were at the old Sharpsville (Penn.) luriuue in 1S54. In 1S56 the shipments of Lake-Superior ores by Laslern Lake-Supe- fiirn.ites iiad fairly begun, and amounted to 7,000 tons: siiu e "or region, then the shii)menls have grown tu over 1,000,000 tons a year. Michigan and LIT IN IKON" Mdl'NTAIN. ^\'isconsin produced u^o.ooo tons of pii^r.jron in 1S7:;. but now make only about 150,000 tons. I''i\e->i\tlis of the ore ])roduced is exported to ( )liio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and odicr States. Only two classes of ores have been found in the Lake-Su|)erior region, and they the richest and best : they are the rich hematites, containing about seventy per cent of metallic iron, and the magnetic oxides, yielding, when nearly pure, seventy-two per ( ent. A number of varieties of these ores are recognized as the si)ecular, the slate, the soft red-and-brown, and the fine-grained and steely ores : they all occur in enormous beds, lying in the ridges running along the southern sln)re of Lake 746 IND I 'S TKIA I. INS TON Y Superior, and off soiithcrly into Wisconsin. It is rfjiortcd Ity the pcolo;,'i>ts that this iron was i)rol)ahly dissolved out of the pre-existing strata hy i hiiim il agency, and deported hy filtration in great horizontal heds, \vhi( h were alti.r- wards i-xposed to heat and pressure, and then upturned in folds and displ.u ( d. I{y sul)se(|uent erosion the tops of the ore-beds were removed, giving to the folds the appearance of fissure-veins. The largest hematite deposits are nr:ir Negaunee and Ishpening and at Cascade. Near Negaunee tlie de|)osits m- iens-shaped, and one or two of then- have been worked out. That re-inii has sent 1,500,000 tons of hard and soft hematite ore to market since iNvi. 'I'he ore of the Cascade region is a hard slate. In the vicinity of IIuinJMjMt and of Smith Mountain, eight miles therefrom in a southerly direction, are iho largest mines of magnetic and specular ore now being worked in tiie Si.Ui . At IIumbf)ldt a timnel has been driven into the mountain to get access to liie magnetic and specular ores of the \\'ashington mine, which lie in four seams between strata of talcose, schist, and (piartzite. The tunnel is 450 Urt long, and cost Si, 000, 000. At Smith Moimtain the richness and purity of the specular ore are unparalleled. The deposit lies against the north face of the ridge. Upon entering the openuigs of the mine the visitor is confronted with a face of ore as glittering and si)lendid as metallic silver, whose beautv is unblemished by seams of rock or inferior ores but whose texture is as uniform as refined metal. (Jther rich mines are found to th.e westward of Smith Mduii- tain, in the vicinity of Lake Michigamme, ard also near L'Ance. They (ou- stitute what are called the mines of the Man^uette District, — a region wlii( h contains the largest deposits of rich iron on.'s in the world. Northern \\ is- consin contains deposits of the magnetic oxides similar to those in Northern Michigan : they are foimd principally in the Pinokee range. The State lias also brown hematites, fossiliferous ores, and bog-ores. The only other region that need be referred to in detail is Missouri. The deposits of this State all lie south of the Missouri River, with the single unim- portant exception of the red hematite beds of Callaway County. The celebrated Iron Mountain is the largest single deposit of ore in the known world which is being worketl. It may yet find a rival in tlie iron-peaks of Utah ; but at present it stands without a peer. Deposits arc frequent all through the southern portion of Missouri, extending also into Arkansas. Pilot Knob, Shepherd Mountain, Cedar Hill, and Buford Mountain. are among the great beds. The great mines are all being actively developed. The ore is sent out of the State almost entirely to be smelted, the export amounting to 400,000 tons annually. The principal species of ore are the specular, red hematite, and limonite. The oldest and richest deposits are in the iron-bearing porphyries, — a geological formation which is regarded as being of the same great age as those of Michigan, New Jersey, and Sweden. They exist in all sorts of shapes, veins, beds, and jackets, some very regular, and others broken and irregular. At Iron Mountain there are bedy of specular Missouri. OF THE UX/TED STATES. 747 ore on the surface from four to twenty feet thick, and, within the mountain, masses of ore with decomposed porpiiyry between. The ore is nearly a jiuro peroxide, containing seventy per ( ent of metallic iron. 'I'here are 2,000.000 tons of it in this deposit. Magnetic particles are scattered through the moun- tain. At lUiford Mountain the ori' is rich in manganese. 'I'hi' I'ilot-Knob, Ikiiton-Creek, and Simmons-Mountain mines are of specular ore, an;. and other ores, are found in that neighborhood and at the W'heatley and I'erkionien mines in Pennsylvania, 'i'iie one county abo\e specified, and Northamptnn County, I'enn., are tiie only two in that section that are profitably engagid i i the proiluction of the metal. We have already sjioken of the lead-deposits of Wythe County, Va. : zinc is also found there to a limited extent. The famous Davidson mines of North Carolina abound in tiiis metal, and they are credited with an even greater product than those of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Large deposits of zinc arc known to exist in Eastern Tennessee. One locality spoken of is at Mossy Creek, a little north-east of Knoxville : ;'nd another is about forty miles from that city, at Powell's River. Campbell CA)uiity. As yet, however, this resource has not been developed. .\ lead-mining region in .\rkansas, including Lawrence, Marion, and Independence Counties, is said to show the same very favorable indications, but without their having been turned to account. Zinc is obtained in small quantities from Iowa and Lafayette Counties, Wis. ; and might also be procured, probably, from the Rocky-Mountain range. While this uset"ul metal is by no means rare or of recent discovery in tliis country, its systematic and profitable production dates back only a few years. American zinc, or spelter, is of a better (piality for some jjurposes, notably gal- vanic batteries, than the foreign article ; and we now produce some $800,000 Oh TIN-: rxlTKD STATES. 74'; vtorth annually, which is cnrxiKli f<»r our homc-ronsiimptinn : \vc import only 1 vcrv ^niall quantity ; but the t harac:tcr of the ort-s was sue h, that , ■ . ' lt» produc- ihc iiutal could not easily be extracted. In 1838 experiments tion proftta- Mri' made with New-Jersey ore at the L'nited-J-tates Assay Oflice. '»'«o"iy'" 1111 I . . recent timet. /inc was ol)tanie(l ; bnt the process cost more than the product, 11(1 this announc (.incnt <|uite dis(OMra},'ed operations for over ten years. In iS^() the New-Jersi'y /inc ("oinpany (jpeiicd mines on Stirling Hill, near uiiii li the Passaic ("()nii»any afterward sunk shafts. The New-Jersey Company iinr taken out the fmest specimens of /inc ore the world ever New-jeney Mu. In 1.S51 they sent to the (Ireut I'lvhibition in London a Company. Miiylc mass wi.ighing 16,400 pounds, wiiic h attracted great attention. The Irmklinite which a( ( (Miipanied this rich ore, however, proved a great em- ii,iriM>sment ; and, after much exjjenditure, labor was temporarily abandoned. Tlu' New-Jersey C'ompany afterward worked mines in the Sau<'on Valley, north (if Iriedensville, I'enn. ; near whi( h the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Com- |i.iin also began operations simultaneously in 1853. For this latter corporation .1 Mr. Hoofstetter erected a smelting-furnace, and made costly experiments in 1S3C) ; but these also proved failures. Subsetjuently Josejjh Wharton of iIk; iViiiisylvania and Lehigh Company, and Samuel Wetherill of Hethlehem, where the company's furnaces are located, hit upon a new idea. Neither of them met with encouraging success at first ; but finally the obstacles were all overcome, and work ])rogressed finely thereafter. The Saucon mine was the first to get under way again, about 1858-59; and the Lehigh was put on a paying basis in i86o. Success here soon encouraged it elsewhere ; but these mines, those of New Jersey, and those of Davidson County, N.C., furnish all init about one-fortieth of the country's i)roduct. The manufacture of jiaint from white oxide of zinc as a substitute for lead- \m\\\ was conducted profitably by the three corporations above named before they could realize any thing from their efforts to produce metallic zinc. The New-Jersey Comi)any was organized in 1849, and its siKccss led to the formation of the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Company in i'\S^; and the two, in like manner, induced the organization of the Passaic ('(imi)any in 1856. The discovery of tlie possibility of economically utilizing the red oxide for this purpose was made in Kurope ; but the process now in extensive use was invented by Richard Jones of Philadelphia in 1850. Tin is found in small Vtm(5«5)nrajBW;i« 754 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ,^, hi A \ ii CHAPTER IX. QUARRYING. MINERALOGISTS are accustomed to discriminate between the deposits of metals and stone by applying the term "veins" to the former, ami ^. . . "beds" to the latter. Our rocks, being mostly of sedimentary Distinction ' o / between formation, lie in horizontal strata, except where the same have mine and \)QQXi upheaved into mountains by the gigantic subterranean forces quarry. ' j o a of nature. But metals are usually found in cracks or fissures run- ning more or less perpendicularly through the stone formations, the deposits having been made by injection of molten matter from below, or by infiltration and accretion brought about by the circulation of metal freighted curients of water at a time when the rocks were submerged. This distinction between veins and beds is carried still further by the application of the word '* mine " to the excavation for metals and carboniferous deposits, and of " quarry " to that made for the removal of stone. It needs no explanation to show that quarrying could not have been carried on in this country until stone was needed for building and paving Colonists did P^^poses, or for such art and minor mechanical uses as tlie rarer not engage stoncs are put to. But, as a matter of fact, quarries were not in quarrying. Qpgj-jgj wx)!0\ long after the need was felt. Of course the earl)' settler found the log-cabin, the corduroy road, and the wooden bridge, sufficient for his requirements ; and loose stone enough for foundation-walls could easily be gathered on the surface of the earth. Yet, even after the desirability of more handsome and durable building-material for public edifices in the colonial cities was keenly appreciated, the ample resources which nature had afforded in this country were slighted, and brick and stone were imported by the Dutch and English settlers from the Old World. Thus we find the colonists of New Netherlands, afterwards New York, putting yellow brick on their list of non-dutiable imports in 1648; and such buildings in Boston as are described as being " fairly set forth with brick, tile, slate, and stone," were thus provided only with foreign products. Isolated instances of quarrying are known to have occurred in the last century ; but they were rare. The edifice known as " as being bui tree, Mass. (Iranite found in lei ries that we anil work b fame of the markets, — (afterwards Custom He structed of the Atlantic whole bloc the (^uinc) was a hor in 1S27. Other .\fter Mair its granite, also been < choicer spi an» t^'»j«i....ii'i northern part, near Lake Chaniplain, they become more variej,'ate(l and rn h in hue. I'he peculiar variety known as " serpentine " is also very plenty in 'lu' (Ireen-Mcuntain State. Serpentine and verd-anticpie were hewn out in slabs for fircj)la(;es at Milford, Conn., before 1820, and taken to New Haven, New York, and elsewhere. Such other marble as is found in New England is of an inferior (juality. That (|uarried near Thomaston, Me., is nothing more than limestone ; but the gray and clouded tints have led to its wide use for mantles. (ilenn's Kails, N.Y., is also noted for a limestone that passes for marble, biiiii,' black, and (juite highly prized ; it takes a good jwlish. 'I'he pillars of (liran! College came from Berkshire, Mass., which ranks next after Wrniont in reputation. The marble-belt extends from New Kngland through New York. IViin sylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia. Tennessee, ami Extent of the Carolinas, to Ceorgia and Alabama. The material of whi( li marble-bed. ^Y^^. United-States Sub-Treasury of New York was built came from the P^ast-Chester (]u.:rries, and the main jiortion of Cirard College is fmm Pennsylvania marble. (Jhester County in that State yields a fine (juality ot' serpentine also. Brecciated or v'eined marble is found on the Maryland sidi- of the Potomac, at the Point of Rocks. This, and some of the variegated and high-c:olored varieties obtained near Knoxville, Tenn., nearly eijiial that of Vermont. The Potomac and Tennessee marbles were used more or K^s in the new Capitol and other jjublic buildings at \\'ashington. Cood inarMes in the South and West are of exceptional occurrence. The Rocky Moun- tains, though, contain a vast abundance and variety. Slate was known to exist in this coimtry to a slight extent in colonial day>. It was then largely used for gravestones, and to some extent for roofing, tiie>, and school-purposes, lint most of otir supi)lies came from Wales. Even in the present century it has been cpiite common for ships to go out from the United States with cargoes of cotton, and bring back slate in return. It is stated by one authority that a company was formed to work a slate-cjuarry in Northampton County, Penn., as early as 1805 ; but anotlier says no quarry was opened there until 1826, when James M. Porter and Samuel Taylor engaged in the business, obtaining their supply from Kittan- ninny Moimtain. But the former statement seems to have been applied to roofing-slate, and the latter to the manufacture of slates for schools. From 1826 the business developed rai)idly, the village of Slateford being an out- growth of it, and large rafts being employed to float the products down tlic Schuylkill to Philadelphia. By i860 the industry had reached the capacity of twenty thousand cases of slates, valued at ten dollars a case, annually ; and in 1854 three hundred thousand feet of lumber were consumed in making slate- frames alone. In 1839 quarries were opened on the Piscataquis River, forty miles north Slate. Grinc Michigar drafton, from Hi and our Silex, 01 Lanesbo OF THE UNITED STATES. 759 of Bangor, Me. ; but poor transportation facilities prevented the product reach- ing a market easily. V'eimont began to yield perceptibly in 1852. Caslleton and I'oultney in Rutland County, and (luilfurd, Windham County, are the chief points of production in that State. New York's (juarries are confined to Washington County, near the Vermont line. Maryland has a limited supply from Harford County. The Huron Mountains, north of Manpiette, Mich., also contain slate ; and fine beds are said to exist in Pike County, (la. ; but thev have not been developed. nURR MILLSTONE. Grindstones, millstones, and whetstones are quarried in New York, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other States. Mica is found at Acworth and (Irafton, N.H., and near Salt Lake : but our chief supply comes Grindstones from Havwood, Yancey, Mitchell, and Macon Counties, N.C. ; millstones, and our product is so large, that we can afford to export it. Silex, or quartz, for the finer varieties of glass, is obtained chiefly from Lanesborough, Mass., and Stonington, Conn. 760 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY CHAFFER X. SALT. SALT is the one great mineral which enters into the diet of mankind, and to so wide an extent, that it is called one of t' c necessaries of life. It is Use of salt known, however, that the American Indians never used it uiiUl by Indians, ^f^g^ ^j^gy learned the habit from the whites.' Their meat was cured by smoke and drying, or "jerked ; " and for seasoning they sometimes used the ash of certain plants. The craving for salt, nevertheless, seems to be natural to many wild and domesticated animals, the deer of this country having been hunted more freciuently at the " salt licks," about which they rendezvoused, than elsewhere. The first white men who settled on this continent derived their supplies of salt from the old country ; but the great distance of this source, and tlie Salt in the expense of the commodity, soon stimulated effort to make it for colonies. themsclves. As the reader is well aware, the principal uses of salt are for the table, the dairy, preserving meat, and curing fish. The last-named was the more prominent need of the early colonial days, inasmuch as our fisheries were among the first and foremost of our industries. Accordingly there was a great demand for the coarser grades of salt, especially in New England, at the very earliest period of our history. How soon the manufacture of salt first began here is not positively known ; but there are references to salt-worl-.s on (^ape Charles, Va., a^ early as 1620 in the colonial records ; and to such an extent was the business carried on, that. Ways of ^y '^^'S2>y this colouy was exporting salt to New England. Salt is obtaining ob'.r.ined in three different ways, — from solid beds of the mineral, from springs or wells which have their origin in otherwise inacces- sible salt-beds, and from the ocean, which may have acquired its saline prop- ' The Peruvians made and ate salt when Pizano made his famous conquest of their country, and Dc Soto found the P'lorida Indians making salt from springs near the banks of the Arkansas River. They employed earthen pans in the manufacture, and moulds, which turned out small squ.are cakes, which they traded for furs and mantles. Long before the manufacture of salt was begun by the whites, it was brought by the Indians of Westti-n New York to Quebec and Albany, with their furs, for trade, from the Onondaga Springs, which was their source of supply. OF THE UNITED STATES. 761 ertiu's by dissolving great deposits of tliis substance, or have retained it from th».' iLiys of the creation. Owing Ijoth to tiie precedents of the manufiuture in the Old WoritI, and to the fact tiiut as yet neither salt-springs nor rock-salt had been found in this country, the first attempts made uy the American culoiiists were with sea-water, which was collected in ponds and vats, and subjected to artificial heat. Doubtless these first salt-works of Virginia were of this kind. Tiie first beginnings in New FCngland were made in 1621. In that year a company erected salt-works on the present site of Portsmouth, N.H. ; anil in 1622 a salt-maker was sent over to Boston by the London proprie- „ ^ ' ' Erection of tors to begin this important manufacture. This individual appears sait-worut to have made great boasts of what he would accomplish, and yet " P°f*«- ° 1 » / mouth. to have treated the art as a peculiar mystery for the sake of blind- ing those who were employed to assist him. Thus the colony was led to incur the expense of erecting a storehouse for salt before any had been manufac- tured. In 1623 he was sent with his pans to Cape .Ann, so as to be nearer the seat of the fisiieries ; but, before summer was over, he burned the works, thereby spoiling most of his pans. This and other early enterprises were under the control of the government ; a fact whicli has many parallels in history. The greatness of Venice was, in a measure, due to her monopolizing the salt-manufacture of her domain ; and for a time that of Rome was under governmental regulation. The famous salt-manufacture of Syracuse, N.Y., and of that neighborhood, is partly under the State's auspices, inasmuch as the government reserves its right to the springs, and sells the salt water to the manufacturers. After the transfer of the authority over Massachusetts from London to Boston, this indu'-^'-y appears to have been put on a plane with all others, and to have been conducted by private enterprise. This was the case with the salt-works founded at Salem in 1636. The Colonial (iovernment encouraged activity and ingenuity in this direction by granting especial privi- lei,'es to inventors of new methods. We find the Assembly of Connecticut doing the same thing. The younger Winthrop was authorized in 1647-48 to take land for the establishment of salt-works at Pequod (New London) and elsewhere, and the State commissioners were authorized to buy two hundred tons a year of him at the rate of three shillings a bushel. Mow far he availed himself of these concessions does not appear. French people landed at the mouth of the Raritan River, N.J., in 1631, who began salt-making there. The Swetlish Covernment instructetl the gov- ernor of its colony on the Delaware to engage in salt-making in sait-making 1642. In the Dutch colony on the Delaware, a New Castle, salt at mouth was made to such an extent in 1657, that shipping stopped there for supplies. In what is now New York attempts to make salt were begun quite early by the Dutch ; but as early as 1649 it was charged against the pro- prietary West-India Company's servants in the New Netherlands, that they had i I if ill Isis 762 IND US TRIA I. I/IS TOR Y t^M wasted the public money in fruitless attcMupts to manufacture salt and ..tlur commodities. By the middle of the sevente' Mth century l-'ren* h n.ission.irii's had discovered the saline spring's in Ononda^M County, N.V., and ruiudr-, u\' them had reached the Dutch settlements; but the settlers made no atlrmiit for nearly a century and a half to utilize this resource. We have already im 11 tioned the early attempts in Virj^inia. That colony still further encouranci] tlu industry by jjrohibiting tlie importation of foreign salt after 16.S3. 'Ilif New sir Nathan- Netherlands had im|)osed a heavy tariff on the importation |nn^' let Johnson. j)i.fore. Sir Nathaniel Johuson, governor of tiu' Leeward 1^1. imK. took up his residence in South Carolina in 1689, and, besides rice, wine, ami silk, gave some attention to the production of salt. He named the place on Sewee May, where he conducted his operations, the "Salt I'onds." Colmiiil legislation encouraged the industry in 1725. Without further detail, it may be remarked that the business of making sill from ocean-water was carried on, with more or less governmental em ouiam.- Sait impor- ment, in all the Atlantic colonies jirior to the Revolution. ( )nl\ ,1 tations. small proportion of what was needed, however, was proiliu cd al home; and a heavy importation was carried on, mostly as ballast in the ships returning from Spain and the wine islands. It was also obtained from tiu' West Indies, although our salt-trade with Turk's Island and the neighluniiii; manufacturing localities has been nujslly of a later period. We also importid Knglisli (Liverpool) salt somewhat betbre the Revolution. Foreign salt wis prized more higiily tiian that obtained from Tortugas, as the latter impaired the (piality of the fish cured with it ; and, in order to sustain the i|ualily aii'l reputation of the fish-exports, NLissachusetts declared in 1670 that no M\ cured with Tortugas salt should be merchantable. So small was the accumu- lation, and so irregular the sui)ply, of salt in those days, that the arrival of a cargo of salt greatly depressed the price. Thus (iov. Winthrop writes in 1646, "There arrived yesterday a Dutch ship of three hundred tons, with two hundretl and fifty tons of salt, sent by Mr. Onge of Lisbon, so as salt was abated in a few hours from thirty-six to sixteen a hogshead." During the Revolution salt was very scarce and costly in this country, owing to the check put ujwn conmierce, to the withdrawal of men from the Salt-making P^^hs of productive industry to military pursuits, and to the occa- duringthe sional destruction of salt-works, A number of these were de- evoiution. gt^oyed in New Jersey by British troops during the war. A special guard of a hundred men was applied for to protect salt-works in Cape-May County in 1777; and Congress urged upon the colonics, that they eadi encourage salt-manufacturing. Salt ran as high as six dollars a bushel during most of the Revolution, and even as high as eight, and was always in demand : indeed, at times, it formed a sort of currency. The following anecdote is related of those dark days. During the encamp- ment at Morristown, N.J., in 1 780, provisions were exceedingly scarce ; and I , .niinontal mo| ;iy a lni>'*^^"' rnM\^\\ even fl ,,,.icssary to pf ■ oursc, atthei| Mr." said -Mrs (icn. Washin; Mtiuns ; tor 11 ,,,• the gentleiJ ,,li'. Korwhj the order. Wasliington i| rhoinpson. ti ^v,iy, when tin already for tl» Muh as to ii Always darke mc for bartei' She had soh c\ehange for With a fc close of the heat. As ea ( husells of n ai;e(l the for method, was ,ea-water to thi> device, nearly ten reiiuired frt to make a along the b Harwich, C ful in 1774 was formed salt-works - a vat one 1 stnuted n afterwards, war " Som met with was succe on Cape OF THE UNITED SIATES. 763 (ontinontal monoy so (Icjjrcciated, that four inontlis' pay of a private would not iiiiy ii bushel of wheat for his family. The ordinary army rations were poor cnDiiKh L'ven for the rank and file ; but, as is always customary, it was th()U(,'ht iiatssary to provide the offi( ers with something more (leli( ate, pun based, of uiiirsc, at their private expense. " We have nothing but the rations to cook, Mr," said Mrs. I'hompson, a very worthy Irish-woman and housekeeper, to (iiii. Washington one day. "Well, .Mrs. Thompson, you must then cook the ritidiis ; for I have not a farthing to j.,ive you." — " If you please, sir, let one ul' the gentlemen give me an order for six bushels of salt." — "Six bushels of sail : l''orwhat?" — "'I'o preserve the fresh beef, sir." One of the aides gave i!ii' nrder. The next day his I';x;:ellen<:y's table was remarkably well pn/vioed. Washington misunderstood the source of this bounty, and, sending for Mrs. ThDinpson, told her that she should not have expended her own money in this way. when there was nf) chance of her being repaid. '• I owe you too much already for the debt to be increased ; and our situation is not, at this moujent, .siidi as to induce very strong hopes." — "Dear sir," said the lady, "it is ahv:i\s darkest just before daylight; and I hope \jur J'.xcellency will forgive nil' tor bartering the salt for other necessaries which are now on the table." i^\\^ had sold the salt to the country-peoi)le, at eight dollars a bushel, in exchange for |)rovisions. With a few slight exceptions, all the salt made in this country until near the close of the last century was obtained by boiling, or evaporation by arlifH ial heat. .\s early as 167 1, however, there had been talk in Massa- How «ait (lubctls of making salt " by the sun ; " an device, the salt water being condensed by natural evaporation in ponds to nearly ten times its natural strength, and then being boiled in kettles. It feiiuired from two hundred and fifty to three hundred gallons of sea-water to make a l)iishel of salt. The discovery of particles of salt on clam-shells along the beach suggested the idea of solar eva])oration to the salt-boilers at Harwich, Cape Cod, and led to experiments which were l)iit jiartially success- ful 111 1774 and the few years immediately thereafter. At length a i)artnership was formed, in which John Sears, a sailor, was the leader, and which erected salt-works on this principle at Dennis, P>arnstable County. They constructed a vat one hundred feet by ten in size, with a level floor and a curiously con- structed roof. At first the sea-water was conveyed thereto by buckets ; but afterwards, in 1790, a pump was obtained from the stranded British ship-of- war " Somerset," and a windmill erected tc work tb*^ pump. The establishment met with great ridicule, and was long known as "John Sears's Folly;" but it was successful, and led to the establishment of a large number of similar works on Cape Cod, Cape Ann, near New Bedford, and elsewhere. This industry 764 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY Im v\ * was carried on extensively during the first (luarter or third of this century, lii;t since 1830 has decUned. A few years ago. however, there were to he seen sume of tliese old windmills still* stantling. The discovery of richer salines than ocean-water very naturally destroyed the more costly and laborious ciiur- prises. A great revolution in salt-manufacture was wrought l)y the utilization of tiir valuable salt-springs of Onondaga Countv, NA'., to which we hiuc Utilizing » u <^ salt-springs already referred, 'j'hese were known very early to tiie In(li,ui>. in Onondaga Pathcr Lalleiiiant is the first white who is recorded as lia\ in' County. .... r , , T ■ 1 • "" Visited them. Le Moyne, > Jesuit, mentions tiiem in 165^5. in 1770 Onondaga salt was well known in (Quebec and .Albany, whither tlic Indians brought it. The whites first made salt there in 1787; in which vcar. or the following one, the Oneida Indians cetled tiie lands to the State. Leases were then granted to manufacturers, who sunk wells, anil went to puniii ing from the rich salines beneath. But the State reserved the control ol this mineral production to itself, and soon took charge of the pumping. It still maintains the management of this work, and supplies the water to consumers, who pay the State a tax on the salt produced. At one time the duty was twelve cents on a bushel of fifty-six pounds ; then it was reduced to six cents, and then to one : but to such an extent has the business developed, tliat tli;- State has thus obtained an enormous revenue. At first the system of sdlar evaporation adopted on Cape Cod was employed ; l)ut now seven-eighths n\ the salt produ(~ed at Syracaise, Salina. and the adjacent centres of nianufactuie, are obtained by boiling. Here, as with the sea-water, expedients have been devised for separating the other mineral substances, such as I'4)som and (ilauber salts, from the article manufltctured for the market. In 17S9 the product from the Onondaga springs was about five hundred or six hundred buslicls, and the price, anywhere within sixty miles, was rethu ed Extent of to half a dollar a bushel, — a remarkal)le reduction. In 1.S59. the production, culminating date of production in this region, the annual produt t was 7,5 2i._^^55 bushels, which cost the manufacturers to make about six cents a bushel. To such dimensions has the business grown, that whole '/illages of vats anil brick "blocks" for containing the kettles have sprung u]) around Syracuse The commerce in salt, and sup]ilies for the salt-makers, has done much to ])ay the cxj^ense of constructing the I'a'ie C'anal and the railroads of that section. An interesting story is told in connection with the early develoiiment of the Onondaga salines. Towards the close of the last century the I'Y'deral (iovernment let contracts for the supply of the United-States troo, s with provisions at Oswego. At this time (Jen. James O'Hara, an enterprising and weM-informed citizen of Pittsburgh, Penn., undertook a contract, believing that he could execute it at less cost from that basis of supply, in consideration of certain advantages which he at first concealed, than any one could from the '.').v OF THE CM TED STATES. 1(^S Mohawk River, whose head-waters were not far I'rom Oswego. A(■(:or(lill^ly, lie e^tablislied a hue of coniiniinn alion hv raits ii|) the Alleghany and french (reek from I'ittsburgh, a wagon-portage across to f.rie on the lake of that iiaiiu', a hoaldine to illack Rock near iUiffalo, ano'her boat to carry still nearer Niagara, a wagon-portage around the falls, and a third boat-line theiu e throiigii Lake ( )ntario to ( )swego. Vessels were built on Lakes V.\\v and ( )ntario expressly for this business. It was a part of ()'Ilara's contract that he shouM retain his barrels when their contents were con.unned. 'I'hese barrels he then filled with salt, which he caused to be brought from Syracuse in wagons, and re-shipped them over the same route by which they came from I'ittsburgh. At this time Pittsbm-gh had obtainetl her salt from Philadelphia by i)a( k-horses, which came in trains across the monntanis. The business of sui^plyiug all these settlements west of the Alleghanies, and down the Ohio River, centred at this ])oinl ; and salt brought eight dollars a bushel. Hut O'llarawas now able to deliver it at Pittsburgh for half tha price, and make a handsome prolit ; and. as he had a monopoly of the Onondaga supply, he could destroy all com- petition. Capital was soon invested in trade with Syracuse, however ; and in a few vears the price was brought down to twelve dollars a barrel of five bushels. A k'w years later, the development of the \'irginia and Western I'ennsylvania salines still further reiluced the pri< e. - tv 766 IND US TKIA L HIS TOR Y M There are numerous other valuable salt-deposits in this country, the princ i pal ones being in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. West Other salt- Virginia, while yet the new State of that name was includetl witlni) deposits. the original limits of the old one, was famous for salt-wells aloii- the line of the Great Kanawha River. Attention was drawn to the springs 1)\ seeing the deer visit them. The early wells were bored only thirty feet dtfi) ; but subse(iuently a depth of seven hundred or eight hundred feet hccanie common, while even fifteen hundred has been attained, (las was obtaiiad from these wells, which was burned to heat the kettles ; but this practice has since been discontinued. In 1829 this region produced at the rate of 1,000,- 000 bushels annually; and by the outbreak of the war the product had reached nearly 3,000,000, and formed the principal part of the salt manufac- tured in Virginia. The amount has since been increased to nearly Virginia. , ^ . . 5,000,000; and from its separation, until recently, West Virginia ranked next after New York as a salt-producing State. The other salt-deposits of that vicinity are in the south-western part of old Virginia, in Smyth and Washington Counties, along the north fork of the Holston. Here there are beds of rock-salt ; but no wells that are available are f( iiid outside a very limited locality. This one product, and the plaster-banks, give almost ex- clusive business to the branch railroad of the Virginia and Tennessee line penetrating that section. Prior to the war it had developed its product to something like 300,000 bushels a year ; but since that period its yield has lieen inconsiderable, the census of 1870 returning but 2,063 bushels. Pennsylvania has a considerable salt district along the Alleghany, Kiskiniinc- tas, and Beaver Rivers. Wells were first sunk here in 181 2 to the depth of Pennsyi- two hundred feet; and in 1829 salt was produced there at the rate vania. Qf twenty or twenty-five cents a bushel, while farther west it (d^t at least fifty. In 1850 the annual production was over 900,000 bushels, ami at that time Pennsylvania ranked third as a salt-producing State. Since then Ohio and Michigan have stepped in ahead of her. Ohio's salt-springs are mostly in the southern and south-eastern parts of that State, along the Muskingum, Hocking, and Scioto Rivers, and on the Ohio River at Pomeroy, opposite the mouth of the Great Kanawha. The first attempts in that State to make salt were in 1 798. at the " Old Scioto Salt-U'orks " in Jackson County. The wells were only thirty feet deep ; and six or eight hundred gallons of the brine were needed to make a bushel of the salt, which was dark and poor. But even this article bro'iL^ht three or four dollars a bushel as late as 1808. Until after 1850, when the total product was about 500,000 bushels, the development of the business was slow ; but the wells, which were then but four hundred or five hundred feet deep, were sunk to a depth of twelve hundred, where much stronger brine was obtained, and the business so improved, that by 1857 the estimated product of the State was nearly three times that of 1850. In 1870 it had reached Ohio. I' I i I almost 3,000, -rom these we ,,ilt was boilec iL't'ii the basi^ Illinois, whicl ilso ahounde reputation fo -cvcral other ( )iie of th oi Saginaw C first settlers, aianufacturin oifering a boi gave a slight sivty-nine fee 23,000 bushe had been in: ami Michigai lias outstripp of 1S60, whi( York's produ the success c the salt-boilii lumber-distri the furnaces surplus steal fuel is entire duced more The anni 20,000,000 I New York ai 000 ; and t is hut abou over 18,000 which went OF THE UNITED STATES. 767 almost 3,000,000 bushels. The heavy carburetted hydrogen gas which comes from these wells has been extensively used for heating the kettles in which the salt was boiled. The Wabash salines, well known in early colonial days, have been the basis of (juite a little salt-making industry in Indiana and other Illinois, which has now declined. Kentucky and Tennessee have states. also abounded in salt-licks and working-wells. Kentucky has had (juite a reputation for her salt in times past. Missouri, Minnesota, Arkansas, and several other States, have also salt-springs of slight value. One of the most remarkable developments in this industry has been that d Saginaw County, Mich. The salt-licks of the dter were well known to the first settlers, and in 1838 unsuccessful attempts were made at saginaw manufacturing salt there. The legislature passed a law in 1859 region. offering a bounty of ten cents a bushel on the salt produced in the State. This pnx' a slight impetus to the manufacture. A well was sunk six hundred and 3i\ty-ninc feet in East Saginaw, and in the last six months of i860 a yield of .'3,000 bushels of excellent salt was obtained. Prior to this time the product JKul been insignificant; but in 1870 it amounted to nearly 4,000,000 bushels, ami Michigan then ranked next after New York and Virginia. Since then she iias outstripped both ; and though she has not yet reached New York's figures uf 1S60, which were upwards of 7,000,000, the competition has cut down New York's product to less than 5,000,000 bushels annually. The great secret of the success of the Michigan salt-makers is the economy secured by combining the salt-boiling business with lumbering. The salt-wells abound in the great lumber-districts around Saginaw Bay. The saw-mills are run by steam, and the furnaces fed by saw-dust. The wells are pumped by engines, and the surplus steam is used to carry on the evaporating process. Thus the item of fuel is entirely saved in the expenses of production, and salt can thus be pro- duced more cheaply than anywhere else in the country. The annual product of salt in the United States at the present time is about 20,000,000 bushels ; of which Michigan produces about 6,000,000 ; ' ' , , . Annual prod- New York and West Virgmia, each, 4,500,000 ; Ohio, nearly 3,000,- uct in the 000 ; and the other States, something over 2,000,000. Yet this is but about half of our consumption; for we imported in 1877 over 18,000,000 bushels. A mere trifle, less than 75,000 bushels, — most of which went to Canada, — was exported. United States. II I' ^ % It >l IK' It ii f. i 768 /at; c/s tria l his tor y CHAPTER XL li i a I . '*i '!»; Ill ): PETROLEUM. ALTHOUGH petroleum is one of tlic oldest mineral products of which mankind is known to have made use. the business which it has niwii to the peoi)le of the Initeil States is the most recent of all our Youth and . . , • t • 1 i ■ 1 eminence promuicnt uidustries. It IS less than twenty years since the pro- of "^= duction of petroleum in large enough quantities for it to s,ip|ilant us ry. ^^^^ candles, spirit-hmps, i-perm-oil, and rosin and coal gas, as the popular means of illumination : and yet our coal and iron are the only two mineral products which this country now yields in larger measure of value ; and, except cotton and cereals, it is our most valuable article of export. Bitumen and naphtha, two forms of this same hydro-carbon deposit, were found in other parts of the world in the earliest historic period. IJiluuKii, or asphaltum, was used as a cement in building ancient Babylon. The cerements of Egyptian mummies were smeared with it. that the corpses might be the better preserved ; and it is the presence of that substance, dried to a rosin, which makes the mummy such excellent fuel in the Orient. The Scriptures make frequent refer- ence to the rock giving out fountains and rivers of oil ; and inasmuch as Jacob is said to have been embalmed, and as embalming undoubtedly meant being wrapped after the manner of the Egyptian dead, there is excellent reason to believe that rock-oil ^vas known not only in the days of Job and Moses, but even before the time when Israel served the Pharaohs, thirty- six centuries ago. Indeed, we may trace its appearance still farther ba( k. . . ,^ The Tower of Babel was erected over four thousand years atH), Asphaltum y o used in the and its buildcrs used " slime for mortar." In the ruins of Chal- Tower of dean edifices near Bagdad, known to have been contemporaneous Babel. 01 i with the Tower of Babel, there have been found pieces of reed cemented with asphalt. However, when one remembers that geology proves the carboniferous age of the world's formation to be millions of years before our day ; that the era which saw the production of the bitumen of Egypt, the asphalt of Mesopotamia, and the coal and oil of Pennsylvania, was all one. — Antiquity of the discov- ery and use of hydro- carbons. OF THE LNITED STATES. 769 the interval between its discovery and use by tliose who lived about the Lower Nik' and the people of the United States is but as a day. The bitumen used by tlic Assyrians came from slime-pits near the River I^, a tributary of the I'luplirates It was also found in very ancient vvidedis- tiiius near the Caspian Sea, and the product of Hakoo still con- tribution of 111HRS to supply all Persia with the means of illumination. The '^e deposits. oil there is liglit-colored and very choice. Asphaltum, only another form of the same substance, has been foimd about the shores of the Dead Sea. whith is supposed to cover the ancient cities of Sodom and (Jomorrah. In India and Hurniah petroleum has been in use as a medicine, and for illiiiiiinating-purposes, no one knows how long ; the excavation of wells and jiits in the Rangoon District for procuring the oil, its collection, transjjorta- tioii, and sale, amounting to (|uitc an industry. Hurmah and the liakoo District rank next to America as producers. In China the people have found this same treasure in the form of gas rather than oil, and have .j.^^ ^^^_ borod artesian wells without number, simply to get this product weiis in as a means of light and heai. Some of these wells have been bored fifteen hundred and two thousand feet deep, and the machinery by which the work is performed is very curious and crude. When the cavity where the gas is confined is finally reached, an explosion of terrific violence oftLMi occurs, and the orifice of the well is with the utmost difficulty secured, esi)ccially if the escaping gas takes fire. Mgr. Imbert, a Catholic missionary in China, thus describes one of these catastrophes : — " The flame, which was about twenty feet high, flitted about without burn- ing any thing. P'oui men volunteered to risk their lives in endeavoring tO' arrest it. They cast a large stone on the mouth of the well ; but Description it was instantly hurled for into the air. Three of the men were of burning- burned, and the fourth escaped only by a miracle. Neither water ^' ' nor earth would extinguish the flames ; until at length, after two weeks o( incessant toil, a sufficient quantity of water was conveyed to the adjacent heights, where it was collected in a little lake, and suddenly let loose on the well in one volume with success." This gas is conveyed long distances by bamboo pipes, and is used for lighting salt-mines and to heat furnaces, the extremities of the pipes being tipped with metal to prevent their being burned ; although the gas- Economiz- flame does not usually adhere to the tip, as in the case of our >"Keas. artificial illuminating-gas, but hovers about it at a short distance. In Java antl Japan the oil which yields this gas is found in small quantities. There is little record of any form of coal, petroleum, or natural gas, being found in Africa, elsewhere than in F^gypt ; but they have been Distribution found plentifully in Europe, — though not together, it may be re- of oil in marked. Wales, the great coal-producing region of Great Brit- "■'•'p^' ain, does not yield petroleum, although the burning-well at Wigan, Lancashire, "^ tuiiimMgm Bgq I ', ;i ! j'l *' I ■ i 1 1 770 IND I \S I A' /A 1. inSTOR ) ' American aborigines is in ;i coal-region. I-'rancc, l!clj,Miini, NortliLTn Italy, ami IIiinL;;uy liavt- yieldctl either oil or gas, or both, in comparatively insignifK'anl iiuainiiits, for over two centuries ; but little el'lorl has been niaile to secure the pu^^ihlt- deposits below by any thing like nioilern appliances. Very recently sonielhing has been done in S(,Hith (lernian_\-, and near the Volga in Russia, to utili/c the oil-deposits that have been discovered there ; but as yel no elTecl upon the world's supply or the world's market has been wrought. Just at the close of the last century, petroleum was (liscovereroduction. Extent of Colnr less petroleum has been found in Nevada, near a place called oi'-ri^ei llku k Rock, where there are two springs, from which llcjws colorless oil, a,i:,L;regating from eighty to ninety gallons daily. In Colorado, six miles north of Canon City, there are oil-bearing rocks, from which an excellent ([ualily of pitrolcum is obtained at a depth of from two hundred to four hundred feet. Ill tiie Tulare Valley in California, fifteen miles west of Tulare Lake, there are liLln)leum-si)rings which were first discovered by a government surveying- party in 1.S54. The oil from these springs is of the heavy lubricating variety, ami is much more valuable than the burning-oil produced in Western I'enn- syhania, and is similar to that of West Virginia. In Los Angeles County, Cal.. in the township of San Fernando, a refinery for petroleum was cstab- li>hed about four years ago l)y a stock company. At this ])lace there are five inodiicing-wells, each about a hundred and forty feet deep, giving an aggre- L'aic daily product of crude oil of from forty to fifty barrels. There are also wells at V :ntura, and a refinery, turning out twenty barrels of refined oil daily. At Wheeler's Canon, sixty-se\en miles from Ventura, there are oil-wells ; and a pipe-line is being laid from the former to the latter place. In the Cumber- land Valley, in Kentucky, there is an extensive region of country underlaid with coal-bearing rocks. In boring for salt in 1829 on Little Renox Creek, anout half a mile from I'ig Renox Creek, in Cumberland County, oil was struck ; and the well called the ' Creat American ' well continued to flow daily fur a considerable period, producing a thousand barrels of crude i)etro]eum. Recent borings in Cumberlanil County have resulted in obtaining oil in large quantities. The oil-bearing rocks are said by Professor Owen to extend into 'I'eunessee." To this it may be added, that oil has also been struck in Ohio, and in 1866 there were some six or seven hundred wells in 'I'rumbuU County. At I'omeroy, Meigs County, still later, highly productive wells have been bored. I'hcre has been some boring in Alleghany County, N.Y., l)ut with little result. Indeed, at points innumerable throughout the countr\', attempts have been in ide to strike oil ; l)ut, except at those here s[)ecined, these enterprises have b ■en mostly failures. The report we have above qtioted continues : '• In Western Pennsylvania the oil-district commences at Ldinburg, about twelve miles north of St. INtL'rsburg, in Clarion County, and extends to a ])()iiit about two miles south of St. Jo. in P>utler County, being nearly forty miles long, and \-arying from twcntv to several hundred rods in width. The southiTii extremitv of this belt ni ■ I ;; i. ! '""^mmmmm :< ii '1 '4 772 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY has proved to be the most prolific portion of the present oil-pro(hicing terri- tory, including a distance of about seven miles on the line of the belt. At Parker's Landing, about fifteen miles from St. Jo, the oil-belt crosses beiicaih the bed of the Alleghany River. " A new oil-region has been somewhat developed in McKean and Bradford Counties, in North-western Pennsylvania, in the territory between the Phila- delphia and Erie Railway and the Atlantic and (keat-Western. The wuiu of facilities for transporting oil has checkeil production." Until between 1850 and i860 the finding of oil in this country was scandy ever viewed otherwise than with indifference or annoyance. Its appearance in insi nifi ^^^ salt-springs of Ohio and elsewhere proved very detriiueiual cance of the to the interests of the salt-boilers, and on that account the sight oil-industry ^^^^ smell of it wcre detested. Yet so early as the comuienco- until 1859. -' ment of this century it was collected for market in ^Vestern Penn- sylvania. Wherever the oil would manifest itself by bubbling up with water through the soil, pits were dug, and the two liquids allowed to accumulate ; and then blankets were thrown upon the surface of the oil (which floated on the water), soaked with the greasy mineral, and then wrung out into tubs. A Mr. Gary, one of the more enterprising of the early settlers along Oil Creek, is reported to have collected or purchased cargoes of this oil from his neigh- bors, put it into five-gallon kegs, slung one on each side of a horse, and thus conveyed it to Pittsburgh, a distance of seventy or eighty miles ; and it is related, that, at a later period, " Gen. Hayes, who settled in Franklin (Venango County) in the year 1803, . . . purchased at one time the entire product of the region, amounting to sixteen barrels, which he sold in Pittsburgh for about a dollar per gallon." These two incidents serve admirably to illustrate the diminutive proportions of the petroleum-industry of America during the first half of the present century. The true beginning of the great era of petroleum-development in this country, and indeed of the world, was Aug. 28, 1859 ; when an artesian well. sunk on the lands of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, near Drake well, Titusvillc, struck a vein of hydrogen gas mingled with oil. We and its gj^j^jj |-,^yg more to say presently of this organization, its previous experiments, and its employment of Col. E. L. Drake to under- take this enterprise. This well was sunk to a depth of sixty-nine feet and a half, where a cavity was struck, and the d il immediately sunk more than a foot. Previously the natural oil was obtained by pumping from salt-wells, or from pits, as above described ; the processes being slow and laborious, and the product small. But here was a vein of oil struck in such quantity, that it rose in the well to within five inches of the earth's surface, and yielded four hundred gallons of oil a day, unmingled with water. This unparalleled and splendid success opened up to people's imagina- tions the most tremendous possibilities. Excitement ran high. Attention was direct prod I l';\er> nuns raiiii incroi soon cxtrai was A OF THE UNITED STATES. 773 luring terri- lit-' belt. At is<-'S beneath nd Hradfoid 1 tlif I'hila- 'he want of was Sfai( ely )l)earaii(e in detriniental nt tile sight commenee- stern I'enn- ) with water icciimulate ; 1 floated on tubs. A Oil Creek, 1 his neigh- e, and thus ; and it is 1 (Venango product of h for about ustrate the ig the first ?nt in this esian well, pany, near oil. We s previous to under- eet and a re than a t-wells, or rious, and ty, that it ■Ided four imagina- ition was n M directed to the locality, and to the new mode of i)rocuring this abundant nroiluct. Knterprise was stimulated to a remarkable degree. _ . ' * " Excitement i;\eryl)ody wanted to buy land, and to bore. I'ropjrty rose im- pro.iuced inensely in value for miles around : the field of operations was ^^ ^^'^ discovery. rapidly extended down Oil Creek and Alleghany River, and nu- merous wells were sunk. Few of them paid, however ; and a slight re-action soon set in. It should be remarked, that as yet pumps were necessary to extract the oil; and hence the year of 1859, with its great accomplishments, was rather a period of promise than of realization. The great element of success in the oil-industry was the use of the artesian well ; but a better application of the principle was necessary. In i860 some one conceived the idea of sinking wells to a greater depth than Deeper weii» formerly, believing that the more jn-oductive veins were deeper reach richer down. Accordingly wells were bored to the third stratum of sand- ^"pp''^^- rock, alternately piercing shales and other deposits, and going to the depth of sc\eral hundred feet. The result of this experiment was startling. An accumu- lation of oil and gas was struck, which was under such heavy internid pressure that the boring-apparatus was hurled from the whole length of the bore, and the contents of the vein gushed forth in a torrent of great impetuosity. These wells were tubed and secured with great difficulty, and the science of managing thcin necessarily attained great development in a short time. The quantity of oil now obtained was vastly increased, some wells flowing as much as three thousand or four thousand barrels a day for a long time. This yield was not steadily maintained, however, the quantity and force of the discharge lessening gradually, — sometimes suddenly and unaccountably when oil was struck near by. — until pumping became necessary in the course of a few weeks or months ; and, finally, wells that had made their owners a huge fortune would become unproductive. Old wells were known, though, sometimes to recover some of their former productiveness. From the year i860 the development of the petroleum-industry was so rapid and vast as to be without a parallel in American history, all things considered. Though the oil-lands proper were contained within a small geo- ^^^ sudden graphical area, the influence of the excitement and greed of gain and vast de- thereby aroused extended all over the country, and even to foreign veioprnentof •' J ' o lYte industry. lauds. Companies were formed to bore for oil in thousands of places where traces of petroleum had been noticed for years previous. Land that was theretofore, and even then, worthless, brought fabulous prices. In the oil-region itself it was next to impossible to buy land. The business of getting out and refining oil grew like Jonah's gourd. Derricks, tall, strange, but useful, sprang up by the thousand. Cities, even, came into being almost in a day. Huge fortunes were made in weeks. There was a new class of shoddy aris- tocracy created by the wealth produced by petroleum. The ignorant but \ucky, the low but shrewd, suddenly became immensely rich. New branches 774 IND US rU/A I. Ills I OK V !l W ' iHifj of industry essential to tht- operations of the oil-iiUcrcst — iinproNcd mmji^ apparatus and processes, railroad extensions, new kind-> of ( ars, pipel.iu,, oiM)oals, tanks, refineries, l)arrel-fa(tt)ries, lamp-factories, ship-lmildini;, (n .|,. erati\e or^^nii/ations of producers, transporters, refniers. and exporters — unc re(|uire(l to meet the exorbitant and pressing demands of the petroleum-tniHu. Ilankin,:;, insurance, and other interests, were re(|uued to enlarge their fa< ilitu>. 'I'he arteries of domestic trade and transportation were maile to iiul-^atc ui;ii imnatural life and \ igor, and (;ur whole businei:^-^) >lein was iiuickeiied iiiio abnormal activity. Our foreign comujerce was rapidly extended, pelroKiim leaping to the third rank among our exports inside of fitteen years. But the lowering of prices in conse(iuence of increased proilu( lion ruiiud many owners of small wells. Speculators l)OUght land at high i)ri( e-, wIikIi proved good for nothing. Money was lavished on derricks and l)oring-iin|iK' nients and labor, which never returned the adventurers one single cent ; ami, as the money was often borrowed, the chain of in(Uvidual disaster sonntiiius had several links. The world hears mostly of men's successes, and little nf their failures ; but along the pathway of the petroleum-interest '^ progress are strewn a host of wrecks of fortime. It is necessary that one know something aboiit tlic experiments which had .fbeen made to produce artificial illuminating-oil before he can fully understand Early exper- '^"^^^ ^ "'• 1^™'^'-' taiiie to bore for natural oil, and also hcnv the way iments in was opened for promptly utilizing these newly-discovered ])i()du(t^. refining oil. x'- i .i . • i i- i ■ i- i i iN''arly tiiree centuries ago coal gas was discovered in rai^land. though it was not used until about 1792. The exjieriments connected with il-- manuflicture yielded also \arious natural oils, and Swiss and French chemists set themselves to utilizing these. Mr. James Voung of Ikuhgate, Scotland, took out a patent for distilling oil from coal in 1S50, and later got one out in the United States, nhich ex[)ired in 1S71, The product of the first distillatini) was a dark, crude oil, which it was necessary to refine before using. < )ur word "petroleum" means rock-oil, and a[)plies more particularly to the nalnial product distilled from carboniferous shales in Nature's laboratory by the inner heat of the earth. The artificial product from distilling coal is krn>\\;i ■'.^ "kerosene." The crude oil in each case, however, is very much the same in composition, as are also the refined oils from the two sources. The Kerosene Oil Company founded the first ilistillery and refinery in thi-. country, on Young's system, at Newtown Creek, L.I., in 1854. They utili/ed First refine- biluminous coal. The business rapidly extendetl, esi)ecially m ryin United Ohio, where soft coals abound; and in i860 there were no le>s tates. ^]^,^^^ twenty-five refineries in that State alone, six in Kentucky, one in St. Louis, eight or ten in Virginia, ten in Pennsylvania. ^\\n niiiir,! i<<-'^ \Wl!( h ■iii,:,'-iiii).k. ■(-■HI ; ;iii,I, •'^onu'iiiins 1 littK- u\ i',t.;''t.'>s ;irr vliifli li;i,! n!" ln'.iltli, i)rl)()(i(| ,|f fiirnil. Mr. J Vfii;in-i) ofniviiltv, 'i. and the 'lii'i'il man tllCIKl' til 1. jun., tile iK'tioliimi f'lif,' thcni '"K-Oils. ;i inc. 'Ilu' oils, siK'h 'ic pctro- lanu' with ists tllCR- i a 111 in I tlu'ii thoy ii.sylvani;\ and sail' ntinued ; Jt done, ider the inductor .'Hnicnts iondent how to dt-rivi' it, the work of carryiiij,'^ it from thi* point of prodnction to the |)l;irL's of (Diwiinptioii, or at least to the f,'reat centres of distribution, is tlie most essen- tial tcMture of the interest ; and tliis is pecuharly true of petrolenm. I'iif two modes of conveyance utilized at first in the oil-region of I'ennsylvania were horse -power and barges. A i)arrel of oil weighs about three lumdred and sixty pounds, and seven or cij,'ht of these made a loaade the occasions highly excit- iiiLj and dangerous. The adoption of this expedient to carry down the oil- barges, in fleets of about two hundred at a time, led to even gr*cater casualties and adventure than ever. The i)rice which the shippers paid the owners of the ^'^ TVe/^ /. ///S TO A' Y But the railroad companies were soon alive to the imperfection of lioise and boat trans;H)rtation. All the existing lines in Western Pennsylvania rap- idly made extensicjns, and numerous local roads were buill li\ a.'w Railroads. ^ 1 1 1 -i • corporations. By 1867 the wliole oii-region was covefed ^.iih .i network of railroads; and from this circumscribed area many threads of (om- munication reached out toward Ohio, Lake Erie, Buffixlo, Olean, PhilaiK Ipiii:!. Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. The many new towns and villages built up bv tin oil-interest had the most perfect railroad-connection with the outside wdru!. The oil, whether pumped or spouting, was (Hscharged into elevated shcLt imi! tanks of enormous capacity ; from these were extended pipes of greaki- m less length to the branch railroad-tracks ; and platform-cars bearing tanks cjt from forty to fifty barrels' capacity were thus very easily freighted. The \\\m- ing-interest was then developed rapidly at great distances from the produi ini; region ; but it was confined principally to a few cities either on the Atlantic seaboard or on Lake I^rie. A still greater step in oil-transportation was taken when the constrm tion of long pipe-lines from the oil-region to large cities was undertaken, lion pipes of two inches diameter, closely jointed, are laid in shallow Pipcs> trenches, generally along the railroad-lines. As tne cold cannot affect them, they work as well in winter as in summer. Gravitation nsuall\- causes the oil to flow through them with sufficient rapidity, although pumping- engines are sometimes employed. The pipe companies receipt for the araount taken into their pipes from the tanks, as shown by the gauges, and agree to deliver the registered quantity at the terminus of their line, often hundreds of miles away. This being the cheapest method of transportation, producers arc forced to utilize it, or lose money. As the pipe-lines have been bought \\\) and concentrated by a few persons, the transportation of crude petrokuni from the place where it is produced to the place where it is refined and marketed is in the hands of a monopoly, who are thus able to control the markets of the world ; and, as the refining and exporting have likewise been centralized and allied with the pipe-line interest, the production and price of oil are completely controlled by the " ring." Before proceeding briefly to state the development the oil-interest has attained, and to consider the probable future of the production, it nia\- be Loss of oil by ^marked, that few industries of the country have been and are fire and affected by catastrophe so easily and suddenly as the petroleum. Fire and flood have done damage at one time or another to petroleum in large (piantities. and not only wrought the ruin of jM-oprietors and speculators,, but have decidedly affected die general market. A cruih of oil- boats in an ice-gorge in December, 1862, at Oil City, robbed the owners of over ^ifty thousand barrels of oil, and involved a loss, real and contingent, of five hundred thousand dollars. ISefore the event, the ice-blockade in the river and the scarcity of oil at Pittsburgh put the price up to thirty-one and thirty-two "■f if OF THE UNITED STATES. 779 onstniriion l l's tria l his tor y *; i* W'":' man party were encouraged to continue their contest for the establishment of private banks of issue, but without success. The system of money-lending adopted by Massachusetts soon foiuid favot in other colonies, nearly all of which had tried the experiment l)i.(oi\- iho Extension breaking-out of the Revolution. Benjamin Franklin heartily aj)- of the proved the plan ; which, by the way, proved decidedly prolUahlo system. ^^ ^j^^ colonies which embarked in it. So long as the sec mitv taken was ample, of course the taxpayers incurred no risk ; yet there was con- stant danger of loans being based upon insufficient security. This syslcin. a,» also that devised by Colman, was tried with occasional variation ; but all ol" these experiments proved somewhat inefficient and short-lived. The first institution worthy of the name of a bank, organized in this coun^ try, was founded, not with any purpose of enriching those connected therewith Bank of "°'' ^^ facilitating ordinary trade, but of patriotically assisting tha North infant republic of the United States to achieve its national indc- America. pendence. At a meeting of citizens held in Philadc'phia June 17, 1 780, it was resolved to open a " security subscrii)tion to the amount of three hundred thousand pounds, Pennsylvania currency, real money," the same to be used in purchasing necessary supplies for \\'ashington's army. At this time the soldiers were in extreme need, and on the verge of mutiny ; and the Federal Government was unable to make the requisite provision for the emergency, although it was expected to re-imburse the subscribers ultimately. Thomas Paine, the distinguished free-thinker, and at that time clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, was active in promoting the scheme, and enclosed five hundred dollars toward making up the fund to Blair McClenaghan, who, as also Robert Morris, subscribed two hundred pounds in hard money. F'our days later the matter was brought up in the Continental Congress, which then met in Philadelphia, and a committee was appointed to confer with the inspectors and directors of the proposed institution. Subsequently the committee reported a series of resolutions, which were unanimously adopted, appreciatively recognizing the inten- tion of the associators, accepting their patriotic offer, and pledging repayment. The eminent financier and patriot, Robert Morris, then superintendent of finance, devised, in the spring of 1781, the system on which the bank should operate ; and, on the 26th of May, Congress approved it. In ris's connec- December the institution was by that body formally chartered as tion there- t^e Bank of North .America, with a capital limited to 10,000,000 Spanish silver-milled dollars. The amount of capital paid in by -he individual stockholders did not, however, exceed $85,000. The superin- tendent of finance, to encourage the undertaking, subscnued $250,000 to the stock on behalf of the government ; but the national finances were so far exhausted, that the bank was subsecjuently obliged to release $200,000 of che Congres- sional pro- ceedings relative thereto. OF THE UNITED STATES. 7«5 lishmcni of bef(j (^iv the ' prolltahie "-' !'t."!' t Again : in c(l specie L'niled St: some $9,o( a hundred in some ([lie nee. 776, whicl sold at fi loan of $i .at par; a (ciit, yiel( should be the gover less than important first and ^ 1.S17. (Jn Oi on the 14 Means Ct all the e\ and stron This and and in Ja United S years, an< the bill. On t which Wi (lovernn upon th( incorpor by him. Ihe cap by the { interest 'I'he ren one-fou: ^ 0/ Tlf!: UNITED STATES. 789 I'lodils of this currency wrrc in fractions of a dollar, from six cents upward. Much of this being irredeemable, it passed for a great deal less than its fa( e. Ajjain : in September, 1814, all of the banks south of New Knglarid suspend- ed s[)ecie payments. This also depreciated their notes. Furthermore, the I'niled States, which had not yet established treasure- vaults of its own, had M)ine i?l9,ooo,ooo on deposit with the sus[jended banks, whit h nijmbered about a iiiuidred, and from which it could not recover its money for many years ; 111 some cases, never. The government's own credit suffered in conse- (|iiLiice. During 1813 and 1814 it issued stocks to the amount of $42,269,- 776, which were to run twelve years at six per cent, but which had to be sold at fifteen per cent discount. On Feb. 24, 1815, the war being over, a loan of 588,856,960, running for nine years at seven per cent, was negotiated ,,it par; and yet another loan of 59,745,745 for only nine months, at six per (cnt, yieldctl the following year only ninety -five per cent of its face. It should be borne in mind, too, that, even while selling these bonds below i)ar, the government was obliged to receive paper money, which was worth much less than its own flice ; so that its loss was double. These were the most important results of the State-bank system during the interval between the first and second banks of the United States, — from March 4, 181 1, to Jan. 7, iSi 7. On Oct. 6, 1 8 14, Mr. Dallas was appointed secretary of the treasury ; and on the 14th of the same month, in response to an inquiry from the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives, he reviewed Another vain all the evils just recounted in an elaborate and earnest argument, attempt at and strongly recommended the organization of a national bank. ''^^'^" • This and the experience of the country revolutionized sentiment in Congress ; and in January, 1815, that body granted a new charter to the old liank of the United States. But Mr. Madison, who had then been President nearly six years, and who had opposed the establishment of the original bank, vetoed the bill. SECOND I5ANK OI' THE UNITED STATES. On the loth of April, 1816, a bill was . [)[)roved by President Madison, which was the second and last charter of the bank granted by the (leneral (iovernment. The plan proposed by Mr. Dallas was modelled Re-estab- upon the charter of the first United-States Bank, and the act of lishment. incorporation as finally passed did not dii t materially from the i)lan proposed by him. The charter was limited to twenty years, expiring on March 3, 1836. I'he capital was fixed at $35,000,000, $7,000,000 of which was to be subscribed by the government, payable in coin, or in stock of the United States bearing interest at five per cent, an" redeemable at the pleasure of the government. The remaining stock was to be subscribed for by individuals and corporations, one-fourth being i)ayable in coin, and three-fourths in coin or in the funded 790 IND CS TKIA I. HIS rOH Y debt of the United States. I''ive of the directors were to l)e appoinletl by the President ; and all of them were re(|uired to be resident-citi/ens of the t'nitid States, and to serve without compensation. Th e anviunt of indebted iicss exclusive of deposits, was not to exceed the capital of the bank. Tlu' directors were empowered to establish branches ; and the notes of the l)ank payable on demand, were receivable in all payments to the United Stales. The penalty for refusing to pay its notes or deposits in coin, on demand, w.w twelve per cent i)er aiuuim until fully paid. I'lie bank was reiniired to give the necessary facilities, without charge, for transferring the fimds of the go\ eriunent to tlifferent portions of the Union, and for negotiating piililic loans. The moneys of the government were to be deposited in the bank and its branches, unless the secretary of the treasury should otherwise direct. Nd notes were to be issued of a less denomination than five dt>llars, and all notes smaller than a hundred dollars were to be made payable on demand, riu- bank was not, directly nor indirectly, to deal in any thing exce])l bills ot exchange, gold or silver bullion, goods pledged for money lent, or in the sale of goods really and truly pledged for loans, or of the proceeds of its lands. No other bank was to be established by authority of C'ongress during tlie continuance of the corporation, except such as might be organized in the District of Colimibia with an aggregate cajiital not exceeding 56,000,000; and, in consideration of all the grants of the charter, the bank was to i)ay to the Uniled States a bonus of $1,500,000 in three annual instalments. The bank went into operation Jan. 7, iSi 7. This i)eriod was particularly critical. Property had depreciated ; the con- traction of State-bank circulation was rapidly going on, and bank-failures wcmv Grave diffi- frec]uent and numerous. Individual and corporate business-enter cutties sur- prises Were still languishing in consequence of the war and cur- mounted. j.^.j^^y ^,^j|^ .|.|^j^ j^^,^^j^. up-hill work for the new United-States Bank. Its managers were still further embarrasseil by an attack on them in Congress. In November, 1818, a conunittee was appointed to investigate its affairs, which, in December, reported that it hatl violated its charter in four instances, and in February, itSig, recommended a repeal of the same. This assault failed, however, as the resolution did not pass. In the last-named year, the bank, feeling the responsibility of its influence upon the business of the country, made an herculean effort. It imported seven millions of specie from ICurope in order to restore soundness to the currency. This enterprise cost it half a million ; and, owing to the mismanagement of the IJallimorc branch, over three millions were lost outright. Yet the bank and the business of the country eventually recovered. Popular industry and governmental finance prospered from 1820 to 1835. In tliis interval the national debt was paid, and the stock of the bank rose in the market until it commanded a premium of twenty per cent. " Long before the election of (ien. Jackson," says Mr. Tarton, " the l)ank ai)peared to have lived down all opposition. In I't the prcsidci It mcntionc jupcrs, can not die nioH In 1831 twenty-five profit realii following si ^'k^...J^ 'I jj 1,(111 OF THE UNITED STATES. 791 IK' the presidential campaign of 1824 it was not so much as mentioned, nor was It mcnlioned in tliat of i.SjK. In all the political pan)i)hlc'ts, voliuncs, news- papers, campaign- papers, burlescpies, and caricatures of those years, there is not the most distant allusion to the bank as a political issue." Ill 1837, when the Federal charter expired, the hank's stock stood at tttcnty-five per cent premium, and the institution was making money. The profit realized by the government in the mean time will be seen from the following statement : — Uomis |);ii(l l)y the l)iiiik to tlic United States .... $1,500,000 00 DiviticiuU paid by the l)aiik to tlic United States . . , 7,118,416 29 I'rocceds of stocks sold and other moneys paid l)y the bank to the United States y,4J.j,75o 78 Total I''ive-pcr-cent stock issued i)y the United States for its subscription to the stock of tlu bank . $7,000,000 Interest paid on tlic same from issue to redemption, 4,950,000 '>« Profit $18,043,167 C7 11,950,000 00 $6,093,167 07 Andrew Jackson came to the presidency March 4, 1829, and soon began a crusade against the bank. In his message to Congress the following winter he advised a consideration of the constitutional objections to re- . . •' Andrew chartering the institution. Agitation, mild at first, gradually in- jacUson creased. In July, 18^2, CoiiLrress granted a renewal of the "i^'^s'' war •' •" ^ '^ ^ on the bank. charter, and President Jackson vetoed the bill. A few months later an intention was manifested of removing from the bank all the govern- ment deposits. In .he winter of 1832-33 the House passed a resolution declaring that these moneys were safe where they were. But the election of the previous fall had insured a Democratic House to succeed this one. After his second inauguration in 1S33, therefore, the President ordered his new secretary of the treasury, Mr. Duane, to remove the deposits, and distribute them among certain State banks. That gentleman declined to do so, and was therefore displaced by the President, who appointed Attorney-den. Taney his successor. Mr. Taney executed the mandate of his sujierior, and gave his reasons therefor to the new Congress on its meeting in December. The Senate, by a vote of twenty-six to twenty, censured the President for what it termed a usurpation of authority, and voted, tweuiy-eight to eighteen, that the moneys had been safe where they were. The House, on the other hand, approved the President's course, declared that tlie Bank of the United States ought not to be rechartered, resolved that the State banks be continued as depositories, and authorized the investigation of the bank and its branches. Mr. Taney announced, that, while the new deposits would go to the State banks selected as depositories, those already in the United-States Bank would . ni '> :li 79 J fiWDUSTRIAL H (STORY cnly be removed gradually. Its managers, however, although it had s[)(.(;ic Results of enough in its vaults to meet a demand from the govemnxnt in removing the full, made a pretence of fear of a sudden attack from thu tuas- deposits. ^jj.y ^lepartment, and created an artificial stringency in the (oju market. Meanwhile the State banks rapidly increased their issues of ])aper. thr increas'; being from $61,000,000 in 1830 to $149,000,000 in 1837. Wlicrcas in 1830 a committee of die Senate had reported that " r.^e country is in tlu' enjoMiient of a uniform national currency (notes of the Bank of the rnitcil States), not only sound and uniform in itself, but perfectly adrjpted to all ihr pui poses of the government and the community, and more sound and uni- form than that possessed of any other country," yet, but seven years after this (on the loth of May, 1837), all the banks then in operation, with tliu mammoth United-States Bank of Pennsylvania among them, went into suspen- sion as if by common consent, or, as Col. Benton has it, " with a coik crt and punctuality of action which announced arrangement and determination '.uch as attend revolts and insurrections in other c iiitries ;" and he Jcclaios that " the prime mover and master manager of the suspension was the Hank af.the United States, then rotten to the core, and tottering to its fall, jut strong enough to carry others with it, and seeking to hide its own downfall in the crash of a general catastrophe." This allegation derives soniv^ su|)i)ort froni the report of the committee of the stockholders, made in January, 1841, after the lailure of the bank. They say, "The origin of the course of poluy which has conducted to the present situation of the affairs of the institution dates beyond the period of the recharter by the State." Favored by the importation of $2C.ooo,ooo of specie, the New-England and New-York banks resumed in 1838 ; but the Philadelphia banks made three unsuccessful attempts before they finally accomplished resumption in February, 1841. llut betwoLMi 1837 and 1843 they had contracted their circulation from $149,000,000 to ^58,000,000. The managers of the United-States Bank did not wind up its aflairs when the expiration of its charter drew near, but secured a new charter from the State of Pennsylvania, which was issued Feb. 18, 1836, only thir- of the' Unit- ^^'-"'^ *-^'^y^ bcforc the old one expired. Under this title it j^ro- ed-states cecdcd to tlo busiucss as before. The new charter, however was obtained on contlition of assisting in State improvements, canals, railroads, navigation companies, and turnpike-roads, to the extent of about $5,000,000. Col. Benton regards this pledge as a form of bribery, in addition to which he attributes the grant of the charter to personal corruption of the legislature by the managers of the bank. The State never received its bonus. however. The bank, as \\zs. been seen, suspended specie payments as often as other State institutions, and finally succumbed to trials which other banks. more prudently managed, survived. It made an assignment of certain securi- ties, on May i. 1841, to secure 5,000,000 of post-notes which other banks had 4 OF THE UNITED STATES. 793 taken in exchange for its demand- notes. The second assignmei'it was made June 7, 1 84 1, to secure its notes and deposits, "among which were notes and deposits of the late Bank of the United States, incorporated by Congress ; " so that it appears to have been, up to 1 841, using its old issues. The third and final assignment, made on Sept. 4, 1841, covered all its remaining property, — "to provide for the payment of sundry persons and bodies coi )orate which the bank is at present unable to pay." Nicholas liiddle had been the president of the bank from January, 1823, to March, 1839, when he resigned, leaving the institution, as he said, " pros- perous." The shares, however, were sold at that tim^ at iii, instead of 125 as in 1837, and were quoted in April, 1843, after its failure, at \\. 'I'he liquidation of the bank is briefly stated in a letter to the national comptroller by Thomas Robins, I'^scp, j)rcsiilent of the Philadelphia National Bank, who is believed to be the only survivor of its numerous assignees. He says, " All the circulating-notes of the Bank of the United States, together with the deposits, were paid in full, principal and interest ; and the accounts of tiie assignees wore finally settled in 1856. There were no funds, and no divi- dend was paid to the stockholders of the bank : the whole $28,000,000 was a total loss to them. The 7,000,000 of stock held by the United States previ- ous to the institution becoming a State bank was paid in full to the government ; so that the United States lost nothing by the bank." With this experience in hanking the government was long content. The exigency of a civil war twenty years later reijuired a fiscal agency between the United-States Government and the people of the country and of the world, by which the former's loans could be rapidly negotiated. ^^^ present hi the earlier days, the Bank of the United States had performed nationai- ihis work : later, the syndicate of New- York bankers have acconi- phslied it. But in 1861 the old expedient was too unpopuhr, and the new one \vas not yet devised, if, indeed, it were practicable. Accorti. igly, Mr. Salmon I\ Chase, then secretary of the treasury, proposed to enact a \. eneral law pro- viding for the conversion of State banks all over the country i ito " National " banks; the transformation being flicilitatcd by taxing the old 1 anks, and grant- ing;- special immunities and privileges to the new ones. The j[)ject of the law was to effect the sale of government bonds extensively. This was lirought about by requiring the banks to invest their capital in these bonds, and deposit tlum at Washington as security for their circulation, w'.iich nas allowed to cMiual only ninety per cent of the bonds so deposited. This gave the goverii- nicnt ready money, and at the same time secured a uniform paper currency, which was everywhere receivable, and equal to government notes or " green- backs." The proposition did not meet with favor at first, however. A bill was prepared, in accordance with the secretary's wishes, by the Ways and Means Committee, in December, 1861 ; but such was tiie objection to it, that it was laid aside for a time : indeed, it was not resuscitated until February, bank system. I 794 IND US TRIA L ///S TOR Y i 1863, when the Finance Committee of the Senate reported it to that hmlv Ten clays later it passed by a vote of twe; .y-three to twenty-one ; and ci'^lu days afterward the House concurred, seventy-eight to sixty-four. Within ;t week the President had approved the measure, and it went into immediate; operation. This system has continued ever since, with no material moclifua- tion, and is as nearly perfect as a banking-system can be. The security of ilie SALMON F. CHASE. notes already referred to, their uniformity throughout the whole country, and the rigid system of (luarterly statements, of reserves to meet a demand, and of governmental inspection, account for the popularity with which the national banks have been regarded. STATF. liAXKS. MASSACHUSETTS. We turn now to survey briefly banking under State auspices. Without examining in detail tiie Iiistory of each particular State, it will suffK c The second "^ j i j local bank in to notc the coui'se of events in some of the representative sections the United ^f jj^^ countrv. We have already noted the failure of Colnian's StEites. ' ■' efforts early in the eighteenth century. But Massachusetts kept the subject in mind, and was, therefore, peculiarly susceptible to the intln I m ^«u.u4..,W>^ ountry, and md, aiul of he national . Without will sufUvc ve sections f Coliiian's isetts kept the inlln- OF THE UNITED STATES. 795 ente of Pennsylvania's example. Already mention has been made of the Hank of North America, which w"s opened in Philadelphia in March, 1782. The success of this institution led, two years later, to the organization of the Massa- chusetts Bank, which received its charter from the legislature on Feb. 7, 1784. This was the first local bank established in that State, and the second in the L'nited States. Its capital was limited to $300,000, of which $253,500 had been paid in when it commenced business on July 5 of that year. During the ninety-two years which have elapsed since this bank was estab- lished, it has passed but two dividends ; the first instance occurring at the close of the war of 181 2, and the second during the financial crisis of successor 1836. But, when the bank was converted into a national associa- theexperi- lion, it compensated for these omissions by declaring an extra divi- """"'' (lend of ten per cent. Up to June i, 1874, a period of ninety years, the ratio of its losses to the total amount loaned was but four-hundredths of uiic per cent. In the eighty years of its existence as a State bank, from 1784 to 1864, the whole amount of circulating notes issued by it was $4,674,177, of which the amount lost, or not presented for redemption, was $22,111, or not (juite half of one per cent. No further bank-charter was granted by this State until 1792, in which year the Union Bank was organized, with a specie capital of $1,200,000, of which ,<4oo,ooo was subscribed by the State. During this interval the currency was in bad condition. Small bills had nearly driven tjon^'"^" specie out of circulation, when, in 1792, the legislature prohibited ordered, and anv further issue of notes of a less denomination than five dollars, ^f"^'' ^^'^'^ prohibited. Pi()\ision was made for legislative examinations of the Union Bank, and it was made the depository of the funds of the commonwealth. It was also required to loan not exceeding $100,000 to th(! State at five-per-cent interest, and provisions of a similar nature appeared in most of the charters subsequently granted. In 1795 Massachusetts incorporated her third l)ank, the Nantucket, with a capital of $40,000 ; and in the same year the Merrimack, at Xewburyport, was established. The prohibition against the issue ot small bills was waived in tlie case of tliese banks, each of them being allowed to issue notes as small as two dollaiS. It should be borne in mint', that the science of banking was, at this period ii , T**^»w.*LitabiP^-' successful. Its exclusive management was finally assumed by the Snfkilk Bank ; which bank compelled the redemption at par in Boston of the ikjIls of the New-England banks by a system of assorting and returning the notes to the place of issue, and its operations were continued down to the estab- lishment of the national-bank system. The amount of New-England l)ank- notes redeemed at the Suffolk Bank from 1841 to 1857 was as follows in millions of dollars : — DATE. MILLIONS. 184I 109 •842 105 1844 126 I04S ' • • ' • • • ' • • • • 'M? 1846 . . . . . . . . . . . , .141 1847 165 I040 ••••■••••• ^^ • • (78 1^49 ............. igr) 1850 .f.. I. ..•..., 220 1851 243 '^52 245 1S53 . 288 1^54 231 'S55 341 •856 397 '857 37''' The first really comprehensive banking law of Massachusetts was passed in 1829, under which new banks were required to have fifty per cent of their Newiegisia- Capital boua fidc paid in specie before commencing business. It tion for also prohibited loans to shareholders until their subscriptions were security. entirely paid in, and limited the amount of loans on pledges of its own stock to fifty per cent of the capital. The limit of circulating-notes was increased to twenty-five per cent in excess of the paid-in capital ; and debts due to or from any bank, exclusive of deposits, were restricted to twice the amount of such capital, the directors being held personally liable for any excess. On Jan. i, 1837, there had been organized in all a hundred and thirty-eight banks, with an authorized capital of $40,830,000. Of this num- ber, four had never gone into operation ; while, of the remaining hundred and thirty-four, no less than thirty-two had either failed, or had forfeited or sur- rendered their charters, in consequence of the financial panic of that year. The nominal capital of the banks that failed was $5,500,000 : their liabilities were $11,283,960, of which $3,133,129 was for circi'.lation, and $1,577,738 for deposits. The loss to their shareholders was estimated at $2,500,000, and to the public at $750,000 more; making a total loss of about $3,250,000, or nearly thirty per cent of their entire indebtedness. During the fifty-two years from 1784 to 1836 ten banks only had failed o; discontinued, the total losses to OF THE UNITED STATES. 799 141 '65 17S 199 220 243 245 288 231 341 397 37(S IS passed in ent of Uieir •usiness. It iptioiis wore l)le(lgcs of ilating- notes apital ; ami cd to twice able for any iindred and f this iinni- undrcd and ted or sur- f that year. :ir liabilities 5 77,73^^ ("*"■ ooo, and to '50,000. or y-t\vo years :al losses to their shareholders and the public probably not exceeding a third of a million of dollars. One of the results of this crisis was the adoption by Massachusetts of a system of official examinations of the banks through the agency of a board of bank-commissioners, who were required to make annual examinations of every bank, and special ones whenever reciuested by the governor of the State. A free banking law was passed -a 185 1, very similar in its provisions to that of the State of New York (to which we shall jjresently refer) ; but not more than seven banks were ever organized under it, the system of chartered banks, which had so long prevailed, mainly occupying the field down to the time of the national banking system. Upon the establishment of p^^^ ^^^y_ the latter system, the State did much to facilitate the conversion >ng law of of State into National banks ; and the first institution to avail itself *^^*' i)f this privilege was the Safety Fund Bank of Boston in 1863, under the title of "The First National Bank of Boston." The conversions progressed so rapidly, that in October, 1865, but a single bank remained doing business under a State charter. At the latter date, of the hundred and eighty-three State banks which existed in 1863, four had been discontinued, and a hundred and seventy-eight had become national banks. A writer in "Hunt's Merchants' Magazine" for 1840 has comi)iled the statistics of the dividends paid by the Massachusetts banks in the last half of each of the thirty-two years from 1808 to 1839 inclusive. As the profits of State in 1813 imposed an annual tax of one percent on bank Massachu- < apital, the writer mentioned separates the whole time into two ^^"^ *" ^' pcriocls, and finds, that,, for the five years ending with 1812, the average semi- annual dividends paid by all the banks was three dollars and seventy-two cents upon each hundred dollars of capital ; while, for the twenty-seven years which followed the imposition of the bank-tax, the average semi-annual rate was two dollars and ninety-six cents per hundred. Taking the whole period of thirty- two years together, the semi-annual average was about three and one-tenth per cent. Assuming that the dividends paid in the first half of these years did not differ materially from those paitl in the last half, the average annual divi- dends on capital were, for the first five years, seven and forty-five hundredths l)er cent ; for the succeeding twenty-seven years, live and ninety-three hun- dredths per cent ; and, for the ^\ hole period, six and seventeen hundredths per cent ; or at the rate of about six and one-sixth per cent per annum for the whole period. The average annual ratio of dividends to capital of the national banks of Massachusetts from 1870 to 1876 was nine and six-tenths per cent, and the ratio of dividends to capital and surplus for the same period was seven and six-tenths per cent. NEW YORK. The Bank of New York began business in 1 784 under articles of associa- ,S 8oo IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y I, i.5f..' lU m i tion drawn by Alexander Hamilton, who was a member of its first board of Bank of directors. This bank was chartered by the legislature on Muk i, New York. 31, 1 79 1, and was the first bank in the State organized under Icj^is- lative sanction, and the third bank in the United States. It was organi/.cil with a capital of ;r»900,ooo, in shares of $500 each. The State subsctiuciilly subscribed for a hundred shares, making the capital $950,000 ; and tlic bank commenced business on May 2, 1791. In 1832 the capital wa.; increased to $1,000,000 by a State subscription of $50,000, $15,000 of which was ibr the use of common sciiools, $20,000 for Union College, and $15,000 for llamilton College. On May i, ICS52, it was re-organized as a free bank under the gen- eral laws of the State, with a caj/lai of $2,000,000. On Jan. 6, iSdj, it beca.ne a national bank, the capital havi.-ig previously been increased to $3,000,000. During its seventy-four years of existence as a State l)ank it paid a hundred and sixty-two divitlends, varying in amount from three to five per cent semi-annually, averaging a little more than eight per ce t per annum, and amounting in all to over six limes its caj.i'al. Since it bjcamc a national bank, dividends have been fleclared at the rate of ten per cent per annum. The gross losses duri"g th history of i.he bank amount to about $750.000 ; having never exceeded oie-ciuarter to one-half of one per cent of (a])ilal during any single year, except during the intervals from 1S37 to i75o.ooo; ji •nt of capital to 184?, and ty at the time vast influence er laws. The ■al year? men only with the luse they w ere re Federalists, perience, and charter for a ^e the corpo- 'idly, ;"ul the any in 1 -c, in 1792 the ' Federalists. R'^publicans. f New-York :hat city was armers' near Federalists. Jge of hold- the charter Republican- ^WJ^ir^nrjTjuj^ WASIIINGTO.S- ll.\I.I-U01.I.AR. Democratic legislaairc. A clause was contained in the original hill, granting the corporation the c.vclusive right to the Syracuse salt-springs on condition of ^3,000 a year l)eing paid the State for the first ten years, $3,500 the next ten, and 54,000 annually for the nc.\t ten ; but this was stricken out before enact- ment. The same year (1803) the Feileralist interest sought a charter for the Merchants' JJank of New-York ("ity, but was refused. A fresh application for a charter was then made in 1804, business having been started and continued under articles of asso- ciation ; but not only was this denied, but a re- straining act was passed, especially designed to stop their further proceedings. Indeed, not only were the DeniocTats connected with .\aron lUur's institution desirous of maintaining that and the Manhattan Hank as monopolies, but they thought it very presuming in the Federalists to ask a Democratic legislature to give them any favors. However, the petition was renewed ; and after very hot del)ates and a violent altercation, in which two senators, both having the title of judge, came to actual fisticuffs within the senatorial precincts, the bill of incorporation passed the Senate by a majority of three votes. This unnatural obstruction which partisanship placed upon legislation led, very naturally, to the use of corrupt means to secure charters. There was no particular contest after the one just mentioned until 181 2, when Bribery in application was made for a charter for the Bank of .America with a bank legisia- capital of $6,000,000. \Ve have already stated how the Bank of *'°"" llie United States paid both the Federal Government and the State of Pennsyl- vania bonuses for a charter. It was proposed to give New-York State S600,- 000 for this Bank-of-AuKrica charter ; but it was demanded that r.o other bank be chartered for twenty years. To catch votes, it was also pro\ided that immense loans were to be made the State to build canals, and to the farmers. lUit it was furthermore evident that actual bribery was resorted to in both houses of the legislalm-e ; and when the Assembly had voted, fifty-eight to thir- ty-nine, to give the charter, and it was apparent that the Senate would concur, Gov. Tompkins prorogued the legislature. Later, a greatly modified charter was granted instead. A clause was inserted in the Gonstitution of 1S21, which rccpiired the assent of two-thii'ls of both branches of the legislature in order to incorporate a moneyed institution. The oiiU' effect of the restrictive clause was to increase the e\il by rendering necessary a more extendetl s)'stem of corruption. Already reference has been made *o the restraining law of 1S04. This \\as nominally to secure the public interes*^ by preventing the circu- xherestrain- lation of an unsound currency; but it is believed that it was en- '"si^w. acted in the interest of existing monopolies. It prohibited any person, under n 9 . .. -4 rt'Pt 802 IND US TKIA L HIS TOR Y FinST UNITIiU-STATKS DOLLAK. a penalty of a llioiisand dollars, from siihsirihing to or becoming a nicnilier of any association for the purpose of receiving ileposits, or of transacting any other l)iisiness which incorporated banks may or do transact by virtue of tlu jr acts of incorporation. This law prohibited associations of persons from duing a banking-business ; but individuals and incorporated institutions subsequcnlly issued bills in denominations as low as six, twelve, twenty-five, fifty, and seventy-five cents. To prevent the furtli.r issue by irresjKjnsible persons of curreiK y m the similitude of bank-notes, which had bcioinr a great evil at liie close of the war of iSi.;, the Restraining Act of i8i8was i)assed ; whii h provided that no person, assot iation of persons. or body corporate, except such bodies corponitr as were exi)ressly authorized by law, should kcc]) any office for the purpose of receiving deiiosits, or discounting notes or bills, or lor issuing any evidence of debt to be loaned or put in cin u- lation as money. This law remained upon the statute-books for thirty-two years, and. aftir various unsuccessful attempts, was finally repealed in 1837, — one year bcfort- the passage of the free banking law. From 1 79 1, when the Bank of New York was incorporated, until the declaration of war with Great Britain in 1812, nineteen banks were char- Progress in tcred, with an aggregate capital of $18,215,000. Ten of tluni banking. ^>^^\\ exist, and are institutions of high rank. Between 181 2 and 1829 twenty-four more were chartered, with a capital of $25,105,000, of which $13,770,000 was for banks in New- York City. As yet thpre had been no legislation looking to the security of bank circu- lation, so little had the science of banking developed. But in 1829, when the Safety-fund charters of some forty banks were about to expire, Gov. Van banks. Burcn recommended the passr^e of a law, which was enacted in April of that year, providing a system of insurance of bank-notes basiMJ upon a custom pre/alent among Chinese merchants. The law provided that all new or rechartered banks should pay an annual tax of one-half of one per cent on their capital stock until three per cent had been paid in, ami the fund should be used by the State treasurer to redeem the notes and pay the debts of insolvent banks. If the fund became imjxaircd at any time, nev/ contributions were to be made to bring it up to a normal size. The law allowed the issue of notes to twice the amount of the capital, and loans to two and a half times the amount of capital. This safety- fund law did not accomplish its purpose. In 1841-42 eleven banks failed, whose capital was $3,150,000; their liabilities, which the State had to meet, amounted to $2,558,933. These eleven baiiks had contributed but $86,274 to the safety I OF THE UNITED STATES. 803 fund; and even down to Sept. 30, 184S, all of the safety- fund banks had (ontrihiited l)iit ;^ 1,876,063. The State issued six-per-cent stuc:k to make 111) ^'"-" deficiency, and was partly re-inibiirsed by new contributions from the hunks. The law was amended, however, in 1842, so that the safety-fiuul i)c( ame a security for circulating-notes only, and no other debts. The law of 1829 also provided that there should be three commissioners to examine the banks, and ri'port annually tc; the legislature on the condition of tiiose institutions, 'i'he law provided that one conunissioner Bank com- sliould be appointed by the (lovernor and Senate, one by the m'ss>oners. hanks of the southern part of tiie State, and one by the rem';ining banks, iliil in 1837 tiie (lovernor antl Senate were authorized to select them all; and, this power being abused for political ends, the work of examination was in 1843 taken from the commissioners, whose ofifice was abolished, and given to the comptroller. In 1851 the present office of bank superintendent was created instead. Already we have mentioned how "jiolitics affected the procurement of charters in tiie early days ; the [)rivilege of banking being a rich one, and hence regarded as part of the spol's of office. This was also More poiiti- the case with the safety-fund banks, wliose stock was sold mostly '^"' abuses, to political friends and favorites of the agents selected for that business. 'I'his j)roduced an immense deal of discord and animosity in business, social, and political circles, and much corruption. The office of bank commissioner was also made a political prize, and was sought for by men utterly incapable of ])erforming its delicate judicial duties. It was the re-action in public senti- ment against this state of affairs, Init more particularly against the grant of special privileges, which led to the enactment of the general banking law. The tree banking system of New York was authorized in 1838. Its two great features were, that it opened the privileges of banking, on certain con- ditions, to all persons alike ; and it provided much better security Free bank- for the redemption of notes than had yet been provided. The ing system, system of deposits with the comptroller for security was the one on which the national banks of a later date were based. It was originally that all banking associations, on depositing stock of the State of New York or of the United States, or any State stock whicii should be, or be made, equal to a fivc-per-cent stock, or bc^nds and mortgages on improved and produc- tive real estate, worth, exclusive of the buildings thereon, double the amount secured by the mortgage, and bearing interest at not less than six per cent per annum, should receive from the comptroller of the State an eeiual amount of circulating-notes. Previous to the year 1843 twenty-nine of these banks, with an aggregate circulation of $1,233,374, had failed; and their securities, consisting of stocks and bonds and mortgages amounting to $1,555,338, were sold for $953,371. entailing a loss of $601,966. The avails of the securities were sufficient to pay but seventy-four per cent of the circulation y\\ ii i<04 lNin:STRIAL II/HTOI^Y alone. The losses to tlic bill-holders occurred only hi the case of those nauk, which had deposited State stocks other than those of New York, 'i'lu 1 n> was thereupon so auH.nded as to txthide all stocks, except those issued hy the State of New York, and to re(|uii'e those to be made ecjual to a Iim - per-cent stock. An amendment in 1.S48 retiuired that the stocks dep();,itc(l should bear six per cent interest instead of live ; and that llic bonds and mortgages should bear interest at seven per cent, and should be on piu- ductive property, and for an amount not exceeding two-fifths of the value ol the lanil covered by them. Subsecpieiilly, on .April 10, I.S49, the law was ag.iin so amended as to retpiire that at least one-half of the securities so deposited should consist of New- York-State stocks, and that not more ihaii one-half should be in the stocks of the Uniteil States ; the securities in all cases to be, or to be made, ecjual to a stock producing an interest of six |)er cent per annum, and to be taken at a rate not above their par value, and al not more than their market-value. Two other interesting features of the later Slate-bank legislation in New York were the re([uiren' ;ut that the banks redeem their notes at some agency Redemption in Ncw York, Albany, or Troy, and that stockholders shcnild he and liability, individually liable for the obligations of the bank to the cMeiit of their shares. The latter i)rovision was incor[)oraled into the ( Jonslitulion of 1846. The former was a law of 1840, which allowed a discount of one- half of one percent on redemption: in 1851 the discount was reduced to one-fourth of one per cent. The New- York-City banks, however, soon inaugurated the Suffolk-Hank system already described, and divided the dis- count between themselves and the redemption agency. Such banks as did not provide for redemption were forced to close up. ^iill OHIO. Ohio's first banking institution, incorporated in 1803, five months after the State's admission to the Union, was called "Tlie Miami I'^xporting t'ompany." First Its purpose was to build up trade in that new section of country. ventures. \^^ capital was $500,000, ill shares of a hundred dollars eadi, to be paid for with five dollars cash, and the rest in produce and mannfacluies, subject to the ai)proval of the president and directors. It subse{[uently issued bills, redeeming them with bank-notes; but it was obliged to close up after a few years. 'I"he first bank in the State was that at Marietta, with a capital of $100,000, chartered in 1808. Another was chartered at Chillicothe the same year, and four more between that time and 1816; in which year six chaitcis were granted new banks, and the old ones were rcchartercd. ICleven nioic had been chartered by 1S32 ; but, with tv.'o or three exceptions of double that amount, $100,000 was the nominal capital of all these banks. The interest on loans was restricted to six per cent by law. 01' THE UNITED STATES. «o5 In 1833 the F'ranklin Rink of Cinrinnali was chartorcd with a capital (if ital was sent into adjoining States. An attempt was even made to tax the two branches of the United-Stales Hank at Cincinnati and Chillicothe in 1819. The State imposed a tax of ^50,000 on each, should they continue to do business after Sept. 15 of that year. The bank apiilied for an injunction against the auditor, and secured it from the United-States Circuit Court ; states hut that officer, on the pretence that he had not been properly served with the notice, seized $98,000 at the Chillicothe banking- house, and turneil it over to the State treasurer. The Circuit Court ordered its return, however; and in 1824 the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed this decision. The Act of 1845, establisliing the State Bank, required, that, in order to create a safety-fund, an amount equal to ten per centum of the circulation of each of the branches should be paid to the I'joard of Control, Thesafety- which was authorized to invest the same either in stocks of the ^""'' system. State or of the United States, or in bonds secured by mortgages on unen- <'umbered real estate of at least twice the value of the amount secured thereby, which should be payable on demand to the State Bank of Ohio ; and each branch was entitled to receive the interest accruing on the' stocks and bonds in which its portion of the safety-fund was invested. In case of failure, the stock;; nd bonds of the insolvent bank were first to be applied to the redemption of its outstanding notes before any part of the safety-fimd belong- ing to the other branches should be so applied. The State was divided into twelve districts, and a portion of the capital of the State Bank was allotted to each. Sixty-three branches in all were authorized, with charters to continue Taxing the United- Bank's branches. pi 1 73711 idi'» h \ 806 nVD us TRIA L HIS TOR Y Rlc^|H ilHl Bii^ii UpM Ki^ wis Pm 1:1 m wm< W>M P:^5'.(;|:||l fc;dl-ii m ill ii!f if:.llri^ ''inii^ hjIb ed of other banks. until 1866. Five banks previously chartered were authorized, upon certain conditions, to avail themselves of the privileges of the act. The brandies were under the supervision of a lioard of Control, consisting of one repre- sentative from each branch, which was to furnish all the circulating-notes. Thes^ were limited by the charter to "double the amount of capital on the first J? 1 00,000 ; 150 per cen*^ on the second $100,000 or part thereof, and 1 25 per cent on the third $ioo,joo or part thereof." There were thirty-six of these branches in operation in 1856, with a capital of $4,034,524, and cin il- lation of $7,112,320. At that date the Ohio Life and Trust Company was the only bank created p/ior to 1845 still in existence. The law of 1845 '^'^^ authoiized the establishment of other banks than „ ^ the State Bank and branches ; but such indeiicndent institutions Further se- ■" '■ curity exact- werc recpiired to deposit with the State as security, not simply cjne- tenth of the amount of issue, but an equal amount. In i(S56 there were n'ne of such independent banks, with a combined capital of $587,500, and a cir.ulation of $893,839. Thus far the banks had been especially chartered. A general Inv was passed in 185 1, allowing any association to engage in the business of banking Free on substantially the same conditions as the independent banks banking. jugj mentioned, — the deposit of State and Unired-States stocks to the full amount of the issue. Most of the banks so organized were f ircetl by taxation to go into liquidation. In April, 1856, an act was passed incorporating the State Bank of Ohio and other banks, similar in its general provisions to the Act of 1845, the Charter charters to continue until May, 1877. The act, however, con- renewed, tained a personal-liability clause, and it also prohibited the C.eneral Assembly " from imposing any greater tax upon property employed in banking under this act uian is or may be imposed upon the property of individuals." In 1835 there were, in all, thirty-four banks in operation in Ohio, having a capital of $5,819,000; in 1837 there were thirty-three banks, with ^ capital Summary of of $9,247,0^^0; and in 1840 there were thirty-seven banks, with a history. iox^X Capital of $10,000,000. On the ist of January, 1845, but eight banks were in operation, with an aggregate capital of $2,171,807. In 1855 there were fifty-one banks, whose capital amounted to a little more than $6,000,00'-'. In 1856 thirty-six of the banks which had been organized in the State had failed, their notes being entirely worthless ; while eighteen others were in process of liquidation, their notes being cjuoted at fifty to seventy-five cents on the dollar. There were fifty-six banks in existence in the State in 1863, with ai) aggregate capital of $5,674,000, of which number seven were independent banks, with a capital of $350,000, and thirteen were free lianks, with a capital of $1,270,000. The State Bank of Ohio, with tliirty-six branches, had a capUal of $4,054,000; loans, $8,653,000; deposits, $5,631,000; circu- lation, $';, 246,000 ; and specie, $:!,2 17,000; together with a safety-fund of ;?8i4,8oo invested in bonds and mortgages. OF THE UNITED STATES. 807 n certain branches K' re pre - ng- notes. I on the and 125 ty-six of md cinii- )any was nks than istitulion,-, ip]y one- In 1856 conilfined w was f haiikini,' -nt l)anks stocks to forced by :: of Ohio 1845, tliL' ver, con- e C.eneral 1 bankiiii,' dnals." o, having c capital :s, with a 845, l)Ut 807. In lore than mized in Ml others cnty-five State in Til were e hanks, ranches, ; circu- fund of 1*'>«""?\V;!'"^» PINE-TREE SHILLING. INDIANA. Banking in Indiana under State laws has been chiefly conducted by the State Bank and its branches. In 1820 the State had but t\\o banks. The State Bank was incorporated in 1834 with ten branches, afterwards increased ^ ^ to thirteen : these were made mutually liable for each other's debts, bank the The only tax laid was twelve and a half cents on each share, for "^"^'^^ '"''''■ ance. educational purposes. The parent bank kept the plates and unsigned notes of the branches, issuing the latter only at the rate of twice the capital stock paid up. Most of the capi- tal came from out of the State ; although the State Government subscribed to a million, and also lent its credit to other shareholders to the extent of half of their subscription, taking mortgages on real estate for security. The State Bank 01 Indiana and its branches were managed with rare ability. They began business at a trying period, just before the crisis of 1837, which bankrupted so many institutions in the West and South. The Excellent Bank of Indiana suspended specie payments from 1838 to 1S41; manage- in which latter year it held $1,127,518 in specie, had a circulation "^^ of $2,960,414, and deposits amounting to $317,890. So well was the institution managed, that the stockholders received dividends averaging from twelve to fourteen per cent annually for twenty years. In 1854 the charter expired; but it was renewed, with a capital of $6,000,000, and fifteen or twenty branches. During the crisis of 1857 it did not suspend, though it contracted its issues prudently. In 1861 it called in most of its notes, but re-issued them the next year to buy coin. The new Constitution of 185 1 forbade the organization of any more banks except under a general law. Such a one was enacted in 1852, which pro- vided that United-States stocks, or stocks of the several States, General including those of Indiana (then worth about ninety-five per t>anking law. cent), should be deposited with the auditor as security tor circulating-notes, the stocks to be made etp'.al to one bearing six-per-cent interest. The law did not require a board of directors, nor that the stockholders should be citizens of the State. In October, 1S54, there were eighty-four of these banks; and the returns of sixty-seven of them at that date exhibit $7,425,000 of circula- tion, with a total authorized capital of $32,900,000. The oppressive tax-law of Ohio having driven capital from ihat State, it was to a consideral)le extent invested in the free banks of Indiana. In 1856, of ninety-four free banks, fifty-one had suspended, and their notes were selling at from twenty-five to seventy-five per cent discount in Cincinnati. ut'- J- 8o8 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ILLINOIS, I '*<'■';." I'' The record of State banking in Illinois is not quite so bright as tb i; of Indiana in the eaiiier history of the two States. The first bank was startLd ii) Disastrous Illinois in 1813, five years before it was emancipated from Teriito- beginnings. j-jai government to the dignity of a State. It was located at Siiaw- neetown, and the whole Territory then had but fifteen hundred inhabitants. A regular charter was not given it until 1816, when it was incorporated for twenty years, with a nominal capital of $300,000. Large government deposits were given it, and it gready extended its credits; but in 1821 it suspended specie payments, and did little business until 1835. The legislature ihcu revived it by granting a new charter which should run until 1857, increasing the capital to $1,400,000, and subscribing for the increase on behalf of the State, authorizing the issue of stocks therefor. The second venture was a State bank, the Constitution of 181 8 ordering that only such a one should be chartered. The act of incorporation created Anunsuc- ^ Bank of Illinois in 182 1, with a capital of $500,000, to run ten cessfui State years, to be owned by the State, and managed by the legislattire. *" ■ $3,000,000 were directed to be issued and loaned on mortgages, with notes for one year at six-per-cent interest, and in sums not exceeding 1,000 dollars to each individual; the notes to be renewed on payment of ten per cent of the principal annually. The ci xulating-notes of the bank were receivable for taxes, and for all debts due to the State or the bank. These notes were soon thereafter quoted at seventy-five cents on the dollar, thta at fifty cents, and finally at twenty-five cents ; when they ceased to circulate alto- gether. Members of the legislature received their compensation in depre- ciated currency at its market-value, which the State was compelled to redeem at par; and a loan of $100,000 received in these notes at par was paid out at fifty cents on the dollar. We have already referred to the revival of the Shawneetown Bank in 1835. Simultaneously a new State bank was chartered. Its capital was at first fixed Worse luck at $1,500,000, but was increased to $2,000,000, and subscribed for next time. ijy jj-jg State. It was required to take up the $100,000 loan above mentioned, but was allowed fifty days for the redemption of its own bills. IJiit this institution was shortly compelled to suspend payment, and in 1841 it went into liquidation. In the same year an act was passed to preserve its ciiarter, which had been forfeited, provided it would pay $200,000 of the State del)t ; l)ut in 1S43 two acts were passed, — one to diminish the State debt and put the State Bank in lifpiidation, and the other to reduce the public debt by a million of dollars and to put the Bank of Illinois at Shawneetown in liquidation. The stock of these banks subscribed for by individuals was lost, and about $90,000 belonging to depositors and bill-holders remained unpaid, as well as $46,909 belonging to the government. The State took possession of its bonds held fi W S thi; of t Started iij 11 Territo- at Shaw- I liabitants. crated for '! t deposits iispondei! lire tlien ncreasing alf of the ordering ■» created » run ten gislatiire. lortgages, xceeth'ng It of ten ink were . Tliese , then at ate alto- n depre- ) redeem paid out in 1S35. rst fixed -ibed for n abo\e Is. ]!iit it went : cliarter, 2 debt; put the milh'on . I1ie 590,000 46,909 Is held OF THE UNITED STATES. 809 by them, amounting to $3,050,000 ; and, by direction of the governor, they were cancelled, and burned, in the presence of the legislature, in the capital square of Springfield. During the year 1S43 a general banking law, similar in its provisions to the free l-anking law of the State of Indiana, was passed. The report of the bank commissioners for 1S61 states, that, in 1857, the bank circulation a general of the State amounted to $5,500,000, which was secured by $6,500- banking law. 000 of the bonds of various States, of which amount $4,500,000 were Missouri sixes. In 1861 the amount of Missouri bonds had been reduced to $3,026,- 000, and the circulation increased from $5,500,000 to $12,300,000. About three-fourths of the securities then held by the auditor were the bonds of the Southern States. KENTUCKY. The Bank of Kentucky was incorporated in 1804, twelve years after the admission of the State, with a capital of $1,000,000. Forty new jhe first banks were incorporated in 181 7, with an aggregate capital of few banks $10,000,000 ; but no provision was made for the redemption " ^°°^ ^' of their notes in specie. They issued large amounts of notes, and many of them failed >.vithin a year of their establishment. For relief, the legislature, in 1820, chartered the Bank of the Common- wealth of Kentucky, with a capital of $3,000,000, pledging the public faith for the redemption of its circulation, and setting aside certain lands a stay-law south of the Tennessee River for a guaranty fund. If a creditor '°'' ""ciief. refused to take these notes in payment of a debt, the debtor was allowed by law two years in which to pay it. This feature of the law was at first declared to be unconstitutional ; but a new court was appointed, which reversed the decision. As a consequence, the notes of the bank soon became worth but fifty cents on a dollar. A very bitter contest ensued between the new court and old court parties, lasting five years, and ending in the repeal of the stay- law or replevin act. The bank's circulation was suppressed and finally destroyed by authority of the legislature. This bank was conducted under State auspices, the legislature selecting its president and directors, its dividends accruing to the State, and notes being issued to the extent of $3,000,000. On the plea that these' were other consti- bills of credit, and that the State had no right to issue such tutionai under the Constitution, a debtor of the bank who had obtained a 1"^^*'°"^- loan in this currency refiised to pay ; but the Supreme Court of the United States held that the notes of the bank were not bills of credit in the meaning of the Constitution. In 1834 there were established the Bank of Kentucky, with a capital of {55,000,000, the Northern Bank of Kentucky, capital $3,000,000, and the Bank of Louisville, with a capital of $5,000,000; all of which were in existence in I'll ■1^ ! ■■'J 8io INDUSTRIAL HISTORY l'"'l-A^-tf' )S- :^ successful ventures. 1856, with an aggregate capital of 57,030,000. All of these banks susijcml- Remaining ed payment in 1837, and resumed in 1842, with an ag^Mvi,'ale history. circulation, at the latter date, of $2,800,000. This ainuunl was increased by subsecjuent issues, until in 1850 it had reached $6,683,000. 'I'he Southern Bank of Kentucky went into operation in 185J willi a capital of $1,300,000, and charters were also subsequently granted to four other hanks with large capitals. Twenty-seven Kentucky banks failed in 1854; Ijm in 1856 there were thirty-four banks and branches still in operation in the State with an aggregate capital of $11,730,000, and with a circulation of ahout $13,300,000. TENNESSEE. The Nashville Bank was incorporated by the Tennessee legislature in Several un- 1807, with a Capital at first limited to $200,000, and aftiiwanis raised to $400,000. Several branches were authorized ; hut tluy soon closed with loss to all parties. Another bank, the FarniLMs' and Mechanics', was started in Nashville in 18 19 with $400,000 ; but it hcranie insolvent within a year. In 181 1 the Bank of the State of Tennessee was chartered and started at Knoxville Its capital was $400,000, and nine branches were authoii/ed. Two State But in 1820 the State Bank of Tennessee was incorporated at banks. Nashville, with a capital of $1,000,000. The State fiuicls were to be deposited at the bank, which was authorized to sell $250,000 of six-per- cent State stocks to l)e used as capital. It created agencies to loan money in every county, according to its wealth and population, in sums not exceeding $500 to any one person. The loans were to be made un a credit of tweho months, and be secured by mortgage on real or personal projierty worth douljle their amount. The proceeds of Hiawassee lands and other funds wi-re pledged for the redemptio.i of the circulation, which was guaranteed l)y the State, and which was issued to the amount of $1,000,000 ; but it was so(jn at a discount of ten per cent below the value of United-States bank-notes. I'he bank was under the suj^ervisory control of directors elected by the legislature. Six years after it commenced operations, it had an available capital of about $500,000, chiefly derived from the sales of lands. The bank was finally closed in 1832, with considerable loss to the State. Previous to the passage of the act under which it was established, Gen. Jackson addressed to the legislature a memorial denouncing its provisions, and declaring the proposed act to he in violation of the Constitution of the United States. Judge White of Tennessee, in a speech in the Senate of the United States on March 24, 1838, stated, that, "in 1820, there were two State banks in operation in Tennessee having the same name, and that laws were passed to force into circulation paper money, an>,l to prevent levies of execution, unless cr;nlitors would agree to receive irredeemable bank-paper. OF THE UNITED STATES. 8ii Nearly all the other banks started for some years were large ones with branches. The Union Bank at Nashville was incorporated in 1832, with five branches, and a capital of $3,000,000, one-third of which belonged The other to the State, The Planters' Dank in the same city, with six ''^nks. branches and $2,000,000 capital, of which the State subscril)ed a part, was iiKorporated the following year. The next mstitution was tlie Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Memphis, chartered in 1835, with a capital of $600,000. It failed in 1847, greatly to the loss of its bill-holders. The place of the old State Bank, unpopular and unsuccessful, was taken in 1838 by the incorporation of a new Bank of Tennessee at Nashville, with an actual capital of $3,226,000, the nominal capital being $5,000,- one more 000. The capital was made up from the assets of the old State ^*^"^ ''^"''• Bank, and by the sale of $1,000,000 of State bond's. It had several branches, which were under the direction of the parent institution. In 1849 'ts capital was reduced to $2,250,000. Three other banks were incorporated, with an aggregate capital of $1,100,000, within the next three years, A free banking law was passed in 1852, authorizing the organization of banks upon a deposit of bonds of the State equal to the amount of their capital. MISSISSIPPI, When Mississippi came into the Union in 181 7 she had but one bank, and no more were chartered until 1830. Meaniniie, however, the one oank capital of this one was raised from $100,000 to $950,600. 1817-30. In the last-named year the Planters' Bank of Mississippi was started with a capital of $3,000,000. Two-thirds of this was subscribed by the State, which issued six-per-cent bonds therefor, on which a premium of $250,- a large and 000 was realized. This was made a sinking-fund, and the State's prospv:rous dividends were devoted to paying the interest on its bonds. The '"s*'*"*'°"- bank paid ten per cent annually ; and the State sinking-fund steadily grew until September, 1839, when it amounted to $800,000. The State then transferred its stock to the Mississippi Railroad Company ; but the sinking-fund was subsequently lost almost entirely. In 1837 the number of banks in the State had increased to eighteen, with an aggregate capital of $13,000,000, more than $5,000,000 of increase of circulation, and more than $24,000,000 of loans. business. In 1838 the Mississippi Union Bank was chartered, with a capital of $15,- 500.000, to be " raised by means of loans to be obtained by the directors of the institution." The State authorized the issue of $15,000,000 of a huge guaranteed bonds which were to be loaned to the bank. $5,000,000 institution, were issued in 1838, and were sold to the United-States Bank of Pennsylvania, The next lot of $5,000,000 were issued in 1839. The following year, however, the first steps were taken by th"; State I; ^ , iTiiii, (I ': '»'• '■>'■ l|u was an extremely perilous affair, and something like insurance i was necessary to give security and expansion to commerce. 'I'lic jlarcc- lonians made their port the greatest on the Mediterranean in courM; nf time by their insurance and other regulations. Marine-insurance thus \u\v^ ji,,'. ceded all other forms of the business. It was soon adopted by all commercial I nations. The next branch of i*- t' be introduced was life-insorance. TM p. t of the Inisiness "w o' f V is very m;nter of commer< e. Mariners of the Lite- -ad\ . : .< , e st exposed to capture, that they came, in time, to insuranre. stiprlai ■ "'.u ' e freighters in whose behalf they undirtook a voyage, that, if ca[)ti;. ,:, die ■ hould be ransomed. There are traces of thi:, in records at Rouen of 1361, anil the practice became quite genera! in after- years in Spain. Pilgrims to the Holy Land made the same arrangement. Out of this practice grew life-insurance proper. It is interesting to observe that there was against life-insurance a most violent prejudice from the very beginning in (Continental Europe. It seemed to be setting a premium upon murder to insure a man's life, and society was in altogether too lawless a conilition in that age to make it judicious to create extra inducements for killing, (ienoa in 1588 enacted that "securities, bonds, or wagers, may not be made, without the license of the senate, upon the life of the pope, nor upon the life of the emperor, nor upon the life of kings, car(linal>, dukes, princes, bishops, nor upon the life of other lords or persons in con- stituted dignities ecclesiastical or secular." Decrees were made forbiddin:,' life-insurance positively in Amsterdam in 159C, in Rotterdam in 1604 ami 1635, '^'^^'^ ''^ France in 1681. The opposition to it in France is only relax- ing at this day. The business was not established in England until i;o6, when the Amicable Society was started. After that, however, the idea became popular. The Royal Exchange and the London Assurance Companies were started in the time of (leorge I. to insure lives ; the Equitable was started in 1762; and the business soon gained a more vigorous foothold in that king- dom than in any other part of the world, this being due to the greatcr security to life in that free and wisely-governed country. The only otlici country in the world in which life-insurance has since that age attained any great stature is the United States. The facts will be more particularly ,st*. forth hereafter. Fire-insurance came upon the scene next, and accident-insurance last of all. Somewhat the same feeling was entertained in regaid to fa-e-insuranco Fire- at first as with respect to life. In 1609, it is related, an ingen- insurance. j^^^ person Suggested to Count .-Vnthony Cunther von ()ldenl)i.irg, that, as a new species of finance, he might guarantee his subjects nipinst the loss of their houses by fire on condition that they would pay to him a specified sum annually, according to the value of their houses. The count •it.l m m OF THE U XI TED STATES. 815 (lid not object to the formation of a c:omi)any for do in 1; a thing Hkf that; hut iic said for himself that lie doubted if it could be by him " honorably, in and irreproachfuily ins''tutcd without tempting Providence, \vith(jut KIREMEN AT WORK. iiv iirring the censure of neighbors, and without disgracing one's name and di'Miity." The .Luidy count continued : "(iod has, without such means, pre- served and blessed for many centuries the ancient house of Oldenburg ; and 8i6 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ■ I. , ii mi' he will still be present with me tiirouf;h his mercy, and protect my subjects from destructive fires." 'I'iie plan docs not api)car to have been agitated again in Kurope until after the great fire in London in 1666, when it w.u innncdiately brouglit up. The agitation which tiie subject excited tlicn was remarkable. We have never had any thing like it in America, as far as purely business-themes are concerned, unless it w."s the silver-dollar agita- tion of nS77; and that was corni)arablc to tlie lire-insurance furore in England only in intensity, not in duration. After the fire of 1666, then; ensued in lOngland six years of hot discussion and pamphleteering. It was proposed that the city corporation should insure the houses of the town. The city did finally insure a great many houses ; but in 1682 the CcjinuKjn Council became frightened, and backed out, and cancelled the contracts. In 1696 the Iland-in-IIainl Fire Office, a private company, was started to do what the cor])oration did not want to do ; and in 1706 the Sun I'iie Ofiicc was started. The business Mien became systematized and practical, and rapidly attained very large proportions. The London Assurance was incor- porated in 1720, and is still in existence, and doing a gigantic business. The Hand-in- Hand Company is the only one of the earlier period now- surviving. Accident-insurance has all grown up within die present century, and is Accident- merely a once minor detail of the business, which has now grown insurance. ^^ 't^\\c\\ proportions as to be able to stand alone. Before proceeding to dei)ict the origin, adventures, and development of the insurance-business in America, a few words will be proper in regard to Principles of the principles upon which this extraordinary variety of commen ial insurance. speculation is founded. The general principles are the same in all branches of insurance. A large proportion of the losses and deaths which take place in die world are the result of the crime or misconduct of indi- viduals. This was more true of the middle ages, when the governments were feeble ; but it is also true to a certain extent now. In order to reduce losses and deaths from crime and negligence to the lowest jiossiblc point, govern- ments have been instituted, whose duty it is to assist by every means in their power the efforts of individuals to |)rotect themselves and their property, to support a police for the purposes of prevention, and to maintain courts and prisons for tlie puri)oscs of punishment. \ good governmem imparts vast secu- rity to jiroperty and life ; but, in sjjile of all tliat governments can do, losses and deaths still occur, flales l)low' in from the sea which the signal-service flags did not predict in time, and the coast is strewn with wrecked shipr?; conflagrations break out in cities, and on steamboats and railroad-trains; collisions, explosions, the iall of buildings and bridges, and other unfore-ecn events, occur ; and sickness carries away prematurely those in tiic soundest health. Few men are so rich tliat they will not feel heavily the weight of the loss of a mill or a house by fire, or a ship by wreck. The majority of families m OF THE UNITED STATES. 817 in the world are not so well provided with funds that they ran endure without financial suffering the loss of the life of the men who are their main stay and support, and the consecjuent termination of their main income. Before the days of insurance, most men would have l)een impoverished by the loss of their buildings by fire ; and a large ])roportion of the (iimilies of lawyers, military and naval officers, professional men, artisl.s, and meclianics, would have been (iootncd to suffering by the death of the head of the family, whose income, of course, would terminate with his life. In early times, in New- York City, a man who was burnt out was generally forced to make an appeal to the public for ( ontributions of money to set him on his feet again. Insurance obviates this distress by death, and loss of [)roperty by fire and accident, which is sure to fall on a large number of individuals every year, by distributing the loss in each case among a great many people, instead of allowing it in each case to fall with all its weight upon one. It is found that losses by fire, wreck, acci- dent, and death, obey certain laws. Take ten thousand houses in a sjjecial part of the country, for instance, and watch how many of them burn up, year by year, for a period of twenty years. If an average of ten houses burn up every year, it can pretty safely be taken for granted that ten houses will con- tinue to burn up every year regularly, circumstances remaining the same. Now, a company will be found which will aim to insure ten thousand houses a year. As it will have to pay on an average for ten houses consumed by fire annually, it assesses upon the ten thousand the value of ten houses a year ; and each owner of a house pays in to the company his ten-thousandth part thereof annually : so that the loss of the ten burned houses does not fall on the ten men who own them, but on the whole ten thousand. Every man is willing to pay his insignificant contribution every year for the protection and security it gi\es him ; and, when his turn comes to be visited with calamity, his burtlen is taken up by the other ten thousand men upon whom it is distributed, and lifted from his shoulders. That, in substance, is the principle of fire-insurance. It is expressed the most perfectly in the so-called mutual-insurance companies. But it is upon this same principle that the joint-stock companies are founded also. It is the same with life, marine, and accident as with fire insurance. 'liiL' average number of deaths and casualties every year is ascertained by oliservation and experience, and the business then organized on the same theory as before. Now for the story of the progress of insurance in the United States. It is an instructive one in many respects, and a melancholy one in others. It certainly is an. important one, as will be seen when one reflects progress of that the people of the United States are now paying annually the insurance, sum of $150,000,000 at least for the protection and security which insurance gives them ; and that, in return for this large payment, the companies are guaranteeing to the people indemnity against loss to the amount of $10,000,- 000,000. f i u.r llllH Il '^hj.. 8iS INDUSTRIAL II iS TON Y MA KINK. ^ -» (-1 m. Marine-insurance appears to have been tlic first branch of the business which engaged attention in America, just as it had been the first in prattirc in Marine- ^'^^' ^^'*' ^^o^ld. 'I'hc colonies were pre-eminently commercial, and iniurancein folt the need of marine-assurance from the beginning of ilujr the colonies. |),,^i„^.^^ activity. At first they took out their policies in I'.nghmd ; but, even before the Revolutionary war, there was talk about the l)ii-,inf-,s among the colonies themselves. In 1721 an advertisement appeared in a newspaper in Philadelphia, as follows : — " Assurances from losses happeni.ipf at sea, \:c., being found to !)e very niiK h for the ease and benefit of the mere hants and traders in general ; and whereas Colonial ad- the merchants of the city of Philadelphia and other parts liavo vertisement. lJ^.^.,l obliged to send to London for such assuran('e, which has not only been tedious and troublesome, but even very precarious, fortiie remedyint,' of which an office of public insurance on vessels, goods, and merchandise, will, on Monday next, i)e opened by John Kopson, at his house in tlio IliLjh Street, where all persons inclining to be insured may api)ly ; and care shall he taken by the said J. Copson that the assurers or underwriters shall be persons of undoubted worth and reputation, and of considerable integrity in this city and province." In 1725 Francis Rawle of Philadelphia suggested that there should be a marine-insurance office under the sanction of the colonial legislature. His Francis pamphlet on the subject is said to have been the first work which Rawle. \y.^j; issued from Franklin's press. Neither Kopson nor Rawle accomplished any thing, however ; and Mr. F'owler, a writer on insurance, says, that, for seventy years afterward, the traders of Piiiladelphia continued *o seek their insurance abroad. In New-York City a marine-insurance office was opened at last in the year 1759, Kefeltas and Siarpe being the clerks. A rival office was opened the same year, with Anthony van Dam for clerk ; and in 1778 the New Insurance Office was opened. These were all for marine-insur- ance. The underwriters were simply wealthy men of the city. F'ach man subscribed his name for the sum he agreed to pay in case of loss of the ship or cargo. Insurance was thus carried on by individual underwriters in the commercial cities for a few years, until, very near the beginning of the present century, the business assumed a more organized character. Several companies were being formed for fire and life insurance, and tlic , idea was apiilied to the marine branch of the business also. In Formation of ' ' first marine 1 794 the first two marine companies in the United States were companies at fomied in Philadelphia, the city which was really the birthplace of Philadelphia. , , , . \. ^ j ] l the whole msurance system of this country. These were chartered companies, and were called "The President and Directors of the Insurance Company of North America," and "The Insurance Company of the State -•kuinJAiu* OF THE UMTEl'> STATES. 819 (il IViinsylvania." 'I'licsc two <()m|»anic's, founded in a city whi( li has hccn hy no means the greatest of tlie seaports of the country, have made the proudest record of any Anieric an inaritiiuc companies. They luive weathered every gale of tlie century, and are still doing iiusiness to-day on an enormous s(alc. Boston was second in the field. The Massa( hiisetts l''ire and Marine Company was forme C/S TRIA L L . S TON V coasts and in the West Intlics l)y intcnticm. Vessels were deliberately scuttled at sea, or run ashore in collusion with wreckers, in order to secure the insunuice on them. Others were run into some jiort in the West Indies, and condeiniuil ; ships of the most worthless description being abandoned to the conipaiiiis at enormous prices. The wreckers added to the evil by decoying honest ^iiips ashore with false lights. 'I'l'.is state of things continued for seven or ei"iu years. The frauds were finally discovered, and many a merchant of rc|)iiia. tion was ruined by the exposure ; but the practice was not stoi)ped until tin companies had been subjected to a fearful strain. Marine conii)anies were established in the following States in tlu' \.aiN named, the companies being the first of any kind in those States, and giiKialU doing a lire as well as a marine business : — Ahibama Illinois . Indiana Mississippi Missouri Texas . Montgoniciy-County Tiisurancc ("ompanv Alton Marine ami P'irc ..... Lawrencehurgh Ins'irance Company Mississii)])i Insurance (.'ompany (at Vicksburg) Protection Insurance t'onipany (at Natchez) . Missouri Mutual Fire and Marine and others . JSrazonia Insurance C'(jmpanv .... 1S32 iS ;, 'f^37 Although the number of companies increased during this decade between 1830 and 1 840 in consequence of the wonderful growth of commerce, the vear From 1830 to 1840 found the companies in a state of very uncertain pros- ^^*°- parity. Several of the more recently-organized companies were compelleil to wind up their affairs. All the other concerns were losing niouev • and this department of the business seemed to be in danger, for a second time, of being blotted out. The losses of ships by wreck had become so iiumerous once more as to set at defiance al! previous calculations of the law of averages; and there seemed to be nothing in view for the companies, exicpl to re-adjust the whole system of marine underwriting, or to go out of business. That which brought aboe.t this condition of things, however, was not the action of the elements ; but it was once more the avarice and misconduct of man, against which the law of ave ge is of no avail. The wreckers at different pomts on the coast, particidarly at Key \\'est, were again at work : and they followed uj) their trade with such hardihood as to enter the principal ports of the United States, and attempt deliberately to bribe ship-captains lo cast away their vessels. In too many cases they sue ,eded. Merchants were cither ;'ctively or j^assively engaged m the commissio.i of these frauds. There vas little popular sympathy with the comi)anie; The consequence of il all was, that one-third of all the losses of the companies from 1820 to 1S40 i> estimated to have be^n the result of the corruption and ungratefiil malice ot those wiiom marine -'nsurance was established to benefit and protect. The "; !'llll OF THE UNITED STATES. S.M ■ly scutlled 1^-' insur.incL' 'nd'jiiiiu'il ; Jiiipaiiits at IDIlCSl >hi|,s -11 or ri-hi 'd umil ihi 11 thr \r,ir> I'l .uvni-iallv IS;: iS • companies now began to withdraw from the marine-business, and to extend tlieir fire-risks ; and in a few years the former branch of the business would idc l)clwrcn rce, the yrar erlain jji-ds- ipanics were sing iiionov • or a sccuiid become so i of the law mies. cx( e])l of business, .vas not t!ie sconduct of wreckers at in at work ; he prin(ii)al -captains ;o ■clianls were lids, 'i'here ice of it all to I.S40 IS III malice of otect. I'lie have l^ecome extiiu 1. had it not been for the exposure of the frauds and the prosecution (;f offenders. In 1844 tlie Philadelphia companies organized a 822 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY I-; e \'^\* y. ... V*' f , board of marine undenvriters for their own protection ; and, l)y its action stability and confidencx" were once more finally imparted to the business. The marine concerns which were opened in the West after 1832 were tor the taking of risks njjon vessels engaged in lake and river transportation. .. . That business became very large after 1850. There were ten or Marine- ^ ^ ^ insurance twclvc hundred vesscls on the Northern lakes, mosUy sailini; ( rati, companies ^^j^j a^^Qiit as many more on the Western rivers, which, in turn in the West. -^ . / , .., were mostly steam-vessels. The insurmg of these vessels calkil for the existence of numerous companies, which were duly formed, and (lid business on a large scale. There was a fault, however, in the system uij(jii which these companies went to work. Competition led them to take risks without much regard to the goodness of the vessels. Ship-builders, fmdiiiL; that slighUy-built vessels secured as large a policy at as low a risk as stout ones, put less and less timber and iron into their work ; and a class of weak vessels was thereupon created in the trade of the lakes, which could not buffet tiie storms, and which in a blow were almost sure to be wrecked, unless they l;ap pened to be safe in harbor at the time the storm broke out. The grand jury of Northern Ohio made a report in 1855, Mr. C. C. Hine says, in which tliev stated, that, while there were only 1,190 vessels afloat on the lakes at the end of 1854, the wrecks of that and the six previous years had amounted to 1,560 in number. The state of things was so serious as to require ])iil)lir attention. The evil was finally remedied in 1855 by the formation of the lake Underwriters' Association, which prescribed rules as to how vessels should bo built, and which agreed to take no risks except upon vessels which came .'[) to their requirements. This gave a new life to the business ; and, while the companies began now to make money under the new order of things, the public also came to be benefited by it through the greater security to life and proi)erty. The war of 1S61 formed another era in the marine-insurance business ot' the country. For the first two years of the war, the companies on the Effect of Northern seaboard made a great deal of money. They all raised late war. ^y^^ rates of insurance ; and one New- York company, whose reeeipt of premiums was only $6,000,000 in 1S60, took in 5 10,000,000 in 1863, with American navigation all the while declining. If the first two years v.ere j.iros- perous, however, the following two were not. The cruisers which slipped out of the por's of England to prey upon the American ships changed the fa( e o\ things materially. During tlie last two years of the war, the companies neadv all lost heavily ; and one of them, "The Columbian." failed outright in spite ol' its gains, because of a loss of $1,000,000 on ships destroyed by the unexpected cruisers. The end of the war found the business very much reduced in amount ; and it has not yet recovered the proportions it enjoyed before llKit struggle began, simply because there are fewer shii)s and cargoes to ]^n>te(i. The ocean-tonnage of the United States is even now only about one-half what OF THE UNITED STATES. 823 y 't-i ;ii:tion, -' \\i-"iv (or ■^'isporialion. \\'«-'re ten or sailin,i,r-, raft, ich, ill inni, '■essels ,-ali,,i it-'cl, and ,]|,| pystem upon fo take risks [klers, fmijin- ^s stout ones, weak \esseK ut buffet tile -ss tliey l;ap. 2 grand jnrv 1 wliich thrv at llic end imouiued to -quire ])ubli(: 1 of the J ake els should be ich came .ip id, wliile the f things, the K to life and business of iiies on tlic ey all rai:,ei! hose reeeipi I 1S63, ^\''!i s Were pros- slipped out the face of lilies nearly t in spite of uiiexpecteii reduced in before lli;;! to jinilet I. >hair what It was before the war. The single feature of the situation which was encoura- i;ing was, that no new marine companies had been started, and that those still doing business were generally in a sound condition, and could be relied ui)on to give a good guaranty of indemnity in case of loss to such ships as they admitted to their books. Connected with the losses of the war of 1861 are the facts concerning the Geneva award. The claims of the United States against Great Britain were presented in gross, and covered both the losses of private citizens and those of the insurance companies. 'I'he award was $15,000,000. Of this sum, however, the Congress of the United States has permitted only a part to be distributed. Although the losses of the insurance companies formed a part of the ground of our claims against Great Britain, the companies have been refused a participation in the distribution of the award, — an injustice against -.vhich they still protest, and which they are trying to have corrected. The marine-insurance companies have been beneficial to the United States in more ways than one. 'J'he security they impart to the commercial ventures of our merchants is their most valuable office ; yet they do much Benefits of more than that for the comfort and material well-being of our peo- companies. ])le. They prescribe rules and a standard by which shi])s must be built in order to secure the most advantageoiij rates of insurance ; and, as it is cheai^er in the long-run for an honest merchant to have his insurance as low as possi- ble, he accordingly finds himself obliged to build a good ship. This of itself is a means of prevention against loss by wreck and accident ; and, it is hardly necessary to say, it also ''enders voyaging vastly more safe to the people of the ship, and persons bound across the sea on the pursuits of pleasure or business. There is an absence of exact statistics in regard to the development of the marine-insurance business, because there is as yet no central authority to which all the companies report. Most of the marine companies combine a fire -business with their marine operations, unci the returns of the two branches of the business are not kept separate. It is esti- mated, however, that the marine companies of the United States now have outstanding risks to the amount of $400,000,000. Of this large sum, $186,- 000,000 are at the port of New York, and perhaps $100,000,000 at the port of boston. FIRE. It is stated by the insurance authorities that not a single building in America was covered by a policy of fire-insurance before the year 1752. In that year the first fire-insurance company was organized, in imita- „ ^ I y o ' Organization tion of similar companies in London, by a number of citizens of of irst fire- statistics. It was called "The Philadelphia Contribution^hip '"'"^ance company. for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire." Benjamin I'hiladelphia. 'or the Insu i'"rankUn was the president of the company. This concern was organized '!■! ' ! ?»; ni jftit'lf -,: 824 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ;» ■'' \ 5 •:.:■*■ fii -Ii* ■Slit 1 1 'Ik : I .. «Li 'i -J fc * 11. "^ 1, t somewhat upon the principle of a mutual society. The man who wished to have his house insured deposited a sum of money, the interest u[)un \viii( h belonged to the company. The man making such a deposit became a niciib ber of the company. J.osses and expenses were paid out of the deposits and the interest arising therefrom, and at the end of seven years the account was balanced with each member. The policy ran for seven years ; and each im,iii- ber was liable to the amount of his deposit, and half as much more. A ^xid deal of infoimation has been preserved in relation to this pioneer of Ameri; an fire-insurance companies, possibly because so much of it is of a (juaint ( har- acter. It seems, according to Mr. C. C. Hine, the editor of " The Insuram c Monitor " at New York, that, instead of appropriating the two-shilling lines laitl on absentees at the monthly meetings of the company to the use of the company, the contributors spent them in putting up milestones on the roads leading into Philadelphia. They dotted the roads with these stones for twriuy miles around. In 1783 the house of one of the contributors caught fire from a burning shade-tree; and the company thereupon refused to take risks on houses with shade-trees around them, except at enormous rates. This led to dissatisfaction ; and the second fire-company in America was finally started in consequence of it, called "The Mutual Assurance Company for the Insur- ance of Houses from Loss by Fire," dating its origin from i 784. This new- company took for its symbol and trade-mark the "green tree," and ac(:e])ted risks on houses surrounded by shade-trees. The symbol of the "Contribuliun- ship " was the badge of two clasped hands, — the same as that adopted 1)y the pioneer Hand-in-Hand Society of London. Like the London company, the pioneer in Philadelphia is sdll in existence, and doing business. The subject of insurance was agitated in New- York City in 1770, 1784, and 1785; but nothing appears to have been done in the way of forming Insurance in companies, Owing to the bad financial condition of the times. New York. jj^^. return o*" peace and the establishment of a strong national government appear to have given new life to all business-enterprises, and then in 1787 New York's first company was started. The Mutual Assurance Company was inmiediately formed for the local uses of the city. The same year the Baltimore Fire-insurance Company was incorporated. The new Na- tional CiO\-ernment having fairly got into rinining-order, charters -.^'ere applied for in various States, and by 1800 nineteen fire-insurance companies were doing business in the United States. Some had the right to do a marine- business, and some had inland privileges also. They were the following : — '752. Philadelphia Contributionsliip. (Fire.) 17S4. Mutual Assurance. Philadelphia. (Fire.) i;8-/ r.'u! IV95. Paltimor Fire. (Fire.) :;'\j :.iA i')>. ^[ut'|.l Assurance, New York. (Fire.) 170-1. I'altimore T"';'iital)le. (P'ire.) (•794. Norwich Mutu. 1, Norwicii, Conn. (Fire.) OF THE UNITED STATES. 825 1794. Insurance Company of North America, Philadelphia. (All.) 1794. Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. (All.) 1794. Mutual Assurance Company, Richmond, V'a. (Fire.) 1795. r'aryland Insurance, Baltimore. (Fire and Marine.) 1795. Massachusetts P'ire and Marine, Boston. (Fire and Marine.) 1797. New-IIaven Insurance Company, New Ilavcn, Conn. 1797. Charleston Mutual, Charleston, South Carolina. (Fire.) 1798. Georgetown Mutual, (leorgctown, Maryland. (Fire.) 1798. Massachusetts Mutual, Boston. (Fire.) 1798. New-York Insurance Company, New Vork. (All.) 1798. United Insurance Company, New Vork. (.Ml.) 1799. New-Hampshire Insurance Company, Portsmouth, N.II. (Fire.^ 1799. Providence Washington, Providence, R.I. (Fire.) Most of these companies are still in existence, though not all with their original names. The Mutual Assurance of New York, for insiance, retained that name only until 1846, when it was re-organized as the Knickerbocker, and under that title is still a llourishing concern. In addition to the above, tliere was a private concern at Hartforel, Conn., as early as 1 793 ; but all record of it has been lost e.xcepi a Mngle policy, which has been foimd to indicate that the company once e. isted. The Union Mutual was formed in Philadelphia in 1803 ; the Eagle Fire, in Xew York, in 1806; and the .Albany, at Albany, N.Y., in 181 1. Other com- panies were also the outgrowth of those times ; but th'; three which have been named are the only ones which have led a connected existence to the present time, and are still extant. The' old Norwich Fire (Nor*vich, Conn.) was incorporated in 1803, but was crushed in 1871 by the Cl.i'-ago fire. One of the features of fire-insurance at that early day was the (.pening of nt'tices in the principal cities of the country by London companii>. Many peoijle preferred to insure with the London offices, because they p |y ^p. possessed so much larger capital. The Phcenix had an office in New York as early as 1805. When the troubles which led to th( 'var of 181 2 took place, however, the hostility felt in this countrv toward England caused the State of New York to pass a law ex- cluding the foreign companies from doing business within her • 1809, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and .South Carolina did the same • latter State, which was more friendly to English interests, re .i. hihition the following year. \\\ 18 10 fire-insurance was established on a small scale in a little New- iaigland city, which was destined in a few years to become fa' nous for its insurance-interests, and to have erected upon its principal strict- „. ,. ' 111 Rise of in- a number of buildings, devoted to the occupancy of insuraiK c surance companies, finer than anv business-structures in the country, ex- ^^on^pa"'"'" ^ ' . . ■" Hartford. copt those in tlie great metropjolitan communities. It was in th n \car that the Hartford I'ire- Insurance Company was incorporated at Hartford, ranee of don com- ies nthe lited .ates. itory. \x\ diough the d the pro- liB'l 826 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY I r'l^^i - - 1 m^ -,i (J«-' ^ Conn., with a capital of $150,000. This enterprise was a timid venture, and for several years was a plant so tender, that one good fire would have snnlVcil it out of existence prematurely. The total income of the comjjany tor ilu first year was only 54,498. Its expenses were five hundred and thirty doilais only ; three hundred dollars going to pay the salary of the only eniplo) c. tlu- secretary, and thirty dollars being expended for rent and fire-wood. \\\ iS:o the income had only risen to $10,102 a year; but after that tlie businchs of the company began to grow, and the corporation soon became a great ( 011- cern, with a national reputation, taking risks amounting to tens (jf uiillions annually, and with an income which grew in time to exceed two millioiis. This, like most of the eariy companies, was a joint-stock concern. Tlu: capital was small at the start, — only $150,000; and, though now 5 1,000, 000, was increased to $300,000 only in 1854. On the other hand, the risks were large, amounting in 1854 to over $10,000,000. But the ])olicies were well placed, and in 1S54 the losses annually were only about $300,000; and the premiums, being adapted to the losses, gave the company an income of $500,000 a year, without touching the capital. Thus the losses were all ])ai(l from the premiums, and a handsome surplus left for distribution in the torni of dividends, or for investment as a surj^lus fund. The success of the li.ut- ford Fire, and the safety of this form of business, led to the formation ofnther companies. The .Etna came first, appearing in 1819 ; and then the Protec- tion. The Hartford-County Mutual came along in 1831, the Phoenix in 1854. Such has been the growth since 1810, that, in spite of the losses caused by the great fires of recent years and other depressing causes, the city of Hartford has in the year 1878 ten insurance companies in full operation, having an income of $11,000,000 annually, and insuring property to the amount of $680,000,000. The growth of the Hartford companies was in large part due to a causi', which, being taken advantage of afterward by other companies, brought aJHnit Causes of '^^ expansion of the whole business of insurance. Until the .i'.tna their Started in 1819, the business of the several companies had been growt . almost entirely of a local character. Each concern was as inu( ii circumscribed by the limits of the neighborhood it was in as the town^lr'> cider-mill and the early county tlouring-mill. The .Tiltna appears to hav, conceived the idea of creaung a network of distant agencies, and obtaininu business in all parts of the eouiitry. Possibly the practice of New-l'.nulinil manufacturers in sending out peddlers suggested the idea; but, whether it d.ii or not, the /Etna adopted the agency-system, and soon built up an enormous and prosperous business. The Hartford Fire adopted the system also, and in the course of twenty years the p/ractice became common with all large and aspiring companies. The city which invented it, of course, profited by it the first, and proportionately the most. Every thing went swimmingly with the companies up to the year iS;,;. fc.-i \' ■ OF rilE UNITED STATES. 827 \i-'ntiirc, and lany i,,,- i],,. 'lii'ty dollar, iiipKnc, thr • l>y i.Sjo iHisinch-, 1,1 ^rcai ((111 of iriiili.iii, wu inillioii,, ic-crn. I'll, 5l,000,(K)<), !<-' risks U(.-i\' -s were Well 00; and till- incdiiK' (jf 'Vc-Tc all paid in the form of the Hart lion of other the l'roie( - -nix in 1S54. )sses caused the city of 11 operation, )crty to the to a cause, ought about til the .I'tna 's had been as as inu( ii K' town.dr'i .irs to hav, d ohtaininy ew-luigland lether it did 1 cnornious Use, and in I large -xwA d hy it the year 1S55. The coiiiputalion of the average miniber of losses in the year and the adjust- ment of premiums tiiereto was effectively done, and tlie companies Great fire had themselves alone to blame if they did not make money. °' '^35- They did make money, and new and rival organizations were continually coming into the field to reap a part of the golden harvest they were gathering. Ill i(S35 the first severe blow was struck at the insurance interest by the great fire in the city of New York on tiie night of Dec. 16. By noon of Dec. 1 7, 'iwi hundred and twenty-nine stores and forty-one other buildings in that city, sduth of Wall Street, were burned , the ground, and left in smoking ruins, and $15,000,000 worth of pro[)erty l)ad been consumed. This totally imex- piH ted and overwhelming visitation vviped out of existence every one of the fire-insurance companies of New-York City (twenty-six in number) except the North River, the (Greenwich, and the liowery, .\11 of their $9,450,000 of (ai)ital which could l;c made available, together with $3,000,000 placed by them in Boston and elsewhere, was consumed in paying the losses. They jiaid over every cent of money they could realize from their assets ; and twenty- three companies either wound up their affairs entirely, or Ijegan business again with capital freshly sub- s( ribed, and upon an .^^ >-..at -^ -- entirely new foundation. This calamity produced a sensation in the United States more extraordina- ry even than the greater fire at Chicago in I1S71, for the reason that fire- insurance was new in this country : and from the experience of the pre- ceding twenty years, and the brilliant success of a few notable companies, ])ublic confidence in the companies had become excited to a degree which has never been paralleled in the history of the I nited States. Insurance had come to be considered so safe, that the courts li ul been in the habit of directing explicitly that trust-funds and savings siiould be invested in the stock of the companies. The best men of the day had given the weight of their sanction to these investments, and widows ind orphans had put large sums of their money into the stocks of these < omijanies in order to dei)Osit it where it would certainly be secure and remu- HAKTl-OKU FlUli-INSL'KANCE CO.MI'ANV. u- \ li i Wmi' 828 INDUSTRIAL lllSTOKY 1 l»lii^ nerative. The re-action after the fire of 1S35 was ronsequently (Ircadfiil. 'I'he wliolc country stood aghast. I'ubhc confulcnco in tlic joint-st()( k . nni- panies was prutoiindly shaken; and so miicli did (■a[)itahsts distrust ilmn, that new companies could not l)e f(jrmt;(l fast enougii to re-insuic iIk- property which iiad l)cen dei)rive(l of protection by the faihu-e of the N\\v- York societies. 'I'he danger of concentrating the risks of a -onipany in < iiics was made apparent, and altogether a new aspect was given to the wholf business. Uliat httle faith in tlie stock-system was left after tlie lire of iS^- w.k badly shattered bv the New-York .ire of 1X45, when four hiuidixil Fire of 1845. , . ' . , , . . , and iitty buikhngs ui the busmess-c -ntre ot tlie city were {ieslnnril, and $6,000,000 of pr()|)erty lost, — an incident which brought about a fivsli ioi of insurance bankruptcies. The fi> ' of 1S35 (anil incidentally that of 1845) had two important coiisc- Conse- ([uences : one was the improvement of the apparatus in use for quences of extinguishing fires; the other was the formation of a vast niini- these fires. j^^^^. ^j- ,^^^,^^^.^l fire-insurance companies 'n all parts of the ( ountiy. With relerence to the first matter, it may be said that 't was through the iulln- Fire- ence of the companies that attention was now drawn to the sulijc(t apparatus. gf ^team firc-cngines, to that of paid fire departments, and to tlie need of city water-works. The insurance companies of New \'ork L'a\e an Fire- order in 1840 to have a steam fux'-engine Iniilt, and one was built engines. |,y \\y Hodges, and tested, in behalf of the companies ; ami inventors, 'hen being set to work at the subject, soon had practical steam fire- engines in operation in various parts of the coimtry. The ("roton water was introduced to New York in 1S42. I'aitl fire departments in the principal ( ilies Paid fire de- were slower of introiluction ; l)ut they came along ill a few yeai>, partments. m-,j niostly through the efforts of the companies. By 1862 all large cities had them except New York, and the system was introduced there in 1865. liesides using their inOuence to secure these things, the underwriters did one thing more. In 1839 the companies in New York organized and employed a paid fire patrol, which has ever since been in active and successful operation, and has been of incalculable benefit for the preser\ation of property. Boston, Philadeli)hia, CMiicago, and other cities, organized similar patrols in imitation of New York. Their cost is a mere fraction of the value of the property whiih would be destroyed without the agency of their services. The celebrated London Corps was organized by ("apt. Shaw of the Fire Brigade of that metropolis, after witnessing the performances of the Insurance Patrol of New York. The underwriters also effected a salutary change in tin' combustible character of buildings, by their action in regard to rates of insur- ance, &c. The second immediate effect of the fire of 1835 was the formation of a large number of mutual insurance companies. There had been some discoii- Oh THE I'XITF.n STATES. 839 'Ircadfiil. 'tock .1111). 'list tlniii, IllMllC lin- Ihr N\w- !>■ in ( iti(.-s tlif \\ii,,le 11" hllllillrd • IcslroNfi], fant coiisc- in use lor vast uuni- L' rouiitl'V. the iiillii- tlU' SIlhJLTt uid to ilii,. k L'iUc an c was liiiih mics ; and steam liiv- watcr was cipal ( itics few years, S X862 all iced there itlerwriteis iiized and successful "property, patrols in uc of the ces. The rigade of CO Patrol jc in the of insur- tion of a e discon- tent in the public mind at the jr more of d, as tl r^c It' localities gly. Local ated. New s one of the wscs. 'I'lie lonopoly ci" ;s began i» public than id to alTord 's, and the ninimiini of ;?specially in ennsylvania. was passed )ly designed the (leLiys tatc " thini,s der the law 1 and village icies of the )romisetl to tion, specu- ; large, and •m to carrv OF THE UNITED STATES. 831 (lilt deliberately-planned schemes of oppression and wrong. The story is the sanic, in its general outline, in each of the States of Pennsylvania, New York, ;in(l .Massachusetts. Hut the wildest swindling was in New V'ork. In that State, the law of 1849, which formed the pattern for the insurance legislation of other St.ites, provided that mutual companies in New- York and Kings (bounties niiist not start without a hundred applicants, nor with less than $300,000 in marine premiums, or $200,000 in fire i)remiums, for which notes must have licen already given. lOlsewhcre in the State, ouiy iSioo.OMi in notes were rciiiiired. Any number of persons not less than thirteen might incorporate. What followed in New- York State after that law is so well told in the report 111 James M. Cook, comptroller of the State in the year 1854, that the nords of the report are copied herewith : — "One of the fundamental errors of the law of 1849 was '■'' '^'^^ method (if aggregating the original capital, by iilacing no reasonable limit to the jinount of each of the notes forming it. Any mutual company _. . ^, (lAild l)e formed out of the county of Kings or New York by thir- law, evil teen persons giving premium notes to the amount of jS 100,000, "=°"''- tnd actually commence the business of insurance without a dollar 111 money, even while the property actually insured 'uder the bogus notes was of less value than the notes represented. These notes could be withdrawn by the makt'rs as fast as they could get bona fide premium notes froi , insurers who actually desired insurance on their jjropcrty. Thus the original capital, as it was termed, would disappear exactly in the ratio that agents could cajole real risks to supply its place. This defect is reiiicdicd by the law of 1853, hy the wholesome provisions of its sixth section. "A greater and mcjre serious difificulty grew out of this apparent and sometimes real necessity of quickly obtaining policies to supply the place of the original notes. Connected with this process prevailed a prac- -^^^^^ j^ tice at war with all sound business-transactions: I mean the modeof pay- practice of paying both officers and agents by the policy, instead '"^° of fixed salaries. Let me describe the results flowing from this method of husiness. Competition reduced the amount for which the note should have lucn taken ; and, for the same reason, the cash percentage .vas, of course, too small for the risk. Business increased with the reduction of the cost of insurance, both in the amount received in notes and in cash payments. A^jents redoubled their activity, as the measure of their pay depended, not i>n the qualities, but on the number, of the notes they obtained ; not ctw the kind of buildings, or the amount insured thereon ; a farm was as good for their purpose and for their profit as a modern fire-proof store. Salaries increased ftn the officers with such magical celerity, that time was flying almost too fast to even sign policies. Soon losses came, as come they will ; and the money received to-day was paid for the losses of yesterday. The happy Paul of to-day paid the percentage upon his premium note which was to insure his :if*=i % M !!■ I It, nkm "1*1 !i ri^ih' IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) /. 4/ 1.0 I.I 2.0 Ui ttt 140 1.8 1.25 1.4 16 II _ = « 6" ► V] <^ ^ /2 ^ 7 7J r Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 <^^^' i/^ «32 JA'D US TNI A r. JUS TOR Y property for five years, without the remote suspicion that he was to he the sorrowful Peter of a comparative to-morrow. ' All went merry as a marria"c- bell.' Soon everybody within their control in the respective beats of ai;Liu> was insured ; new fields and new agents were sought : but distance lent no enchantment to the view presented by the agents, or perliaps a new am,. petition was created by some envious neighbor. The numl)er of poIi( ics began to fall off; the receipts of cash on premium notes for the percent ai^f became 'small by degrees, and beautifully less;' property would burn up; and the managers began to doubt the pohcy of taking any but farni-iisks. The summit level of folly, spurred on by avarice, had been reached; and. as the ascent was with the speed and splendor of the rocket, the cksdnt. as a matter of course, was like the stick that guided it upward. Tax uijon tax followed in quick succession upon their premium notes, amid the niiit tered curses of those who were compelled to pay them. Credit or standing as a company only existed as the snow of last winter, — a matter of rcnicni- brance. " This was sometimes followed by a spasmodic effort to prolong existence. A flaming handbill in large letters is posted, announcing that " this company takes none but farm-risks," or that it has separate classes of risks, with a grand sum total of the amount of tlieir premium notes, and exhibiting a large amount of moneys in the hands of the agents and in the course of trans- mission to it. Under this state of things, the agents, with the sagacity pecul- iar to their class, retire in disgust from the employ of the company; ami while they sing pa;ans to some younger brother in whose employ they arc. and who is destined to the same foolish and unpitied fiite, they freely coni- mer.t upon and express their doubts as to the management and honesty of the ^^Ider one. The beginning of the end has come. Exeunt oiiiiifs of the managers of the company. The curtain falls ; and a receiver, ippoinled by the court, makes his bow before the astonished audience, and gives notice that the farce of folly, avarice, and mischief has ended, and that the tragedv of collecting a sufificient percentage on the notes to pay the liabilities of the company will soon begin." The picture is faithful to the life. The companies in New York adopted the mixed premium and stock-note plan, and pushed a reckless regency i)iisi Number of ucss in different parts of the country. In less than ten years ot failures. jj^g passage of the law, five-sixths of the companies formed undei- it went down, entailing a loss of ^2,000,000 on the community. Of the fortv two organized from 1849 to 1853, thirty-three were swindles, and failed out rageously. By 1859 there were left in New-York State only twenty-eight ot the sixty-two mutuals doing business in 1853 ; and of the twenty-eight the majority had been organized under special charters prior to 1846, and had adhered stricUy to the mutual plan. By i860 only seven of the nearly sixty mutuals formed under the law of 1849 still survived in New-York State. OF THE UNITED STATES. ^2>h Twcnty-onc mutuals failed in I'cnnsylvania from 1S53 to 1.S60, owing to the saiiK' causes ; tluit is to say, an erroneous plan of doing business, and the deliberate swindling of speculators who organized the companies for liie sake of Luge salaries and i)lunder. In Massachusetts the mutual companies which wrre formed from 1844 to iSOo were nearly every one of them closed by the Liitcr year through the action of the courts, or by consolidation with better coiKerns. Pennsylvania was the < hampion State of the intentionally bogus companies ; l)ul scarce any State in the iNorth was free from them. «fAj,!rfpii, H-\^ \ Z^^lJ/i STKAM IlIiE-IiNGINU. Statistics. It is difficult to obtain exact statistics concerning the fire-insurance busi- iiL'ss in ihe United States, owing to the al^sence of laws in many of the States recpiiring reports ; but the situation in 1S60 in the New- luigland and Middle States, including a hundred and forty com- |Miiies in the South and West, was as follows : 41 7 companies ; capital, $40,- 000,000 ; cash ])remiums ])aid every year, $25,000,000 ; fire-risks, $3,300,000,- 001). After 1S60 the l)usiness was conducted more ])ru(lcntly throughout the tountry, owing to tiie enactment of judicious laws, and the establishment of State su])ervision of the companies in New York ar.d Massachusetts. The insurance department of the latter was founded in 1S54 ; that of New York, in I a l^i 1 j i„i 834 /JVD US TRIA L niS TOR Y 1859. In imitation of those two States, Connecticut established a (lopartmoiit in 1866; Ohio, in 1867; Iowa and California, in 1S68; Illinois and .\li>M)uri. in 1869; Wisconsin and Kentucky, in 1870; and Michigan, in 1871. 'I'ln; wild-cat companies have been nearly driven out of existence by these suc( js- sive enactments and the action taken under them. From i860 to the present time the growth of fire-insurance has Wvw generally sounti, though marked by extraordinary features. The nunilRi of Fircinsur- b'lildiiigs ill the country — which was only 3,3^*2.337 in 1X50, irM ance since 4,969,692 in i860 — had increased in 1870 to 7,042,8?^ in -iijic of the devastation of the four-years' war. Compctiliim and tln' mutual system had reduced the cost of insurance ; and the protection (irdw,!!- ings, stores, and factories, by policies of insurance, had become nni\cr-;il. There were causes at work which compelled the companies to exercise men prudence ; sui h as the increasing use of jietroleum for lam|)s and for li.Lihtiiu; fires in stoves, the lawlessness engendered by the war, and the tenipiaiion lo burn heavily-insuretl property for the sake of securing the insnran( '•. Hut these dangers were, on the whole, offset by the general adoption of steam liri'- engincs and paid fire dei)artments throughout the coimtry, and the ,i;eiier,il erection of fire-proof buildings. When the war was approaching a dose, ihe prospects of the fire-insurance business were bright, and the companies were hopeful and happy. With the burning of Charleston, S.C.. and the loss of $7,ooo,ooc of property thereupon, and the destruction of other Southern ( ities in that last year of the war, there began a series of losses by fire in this eonntrv such as had never been seen on the face of the earth. During the year endiiiL,' May I, 1865, over ^50,000,000 of property was burned in the United St,;te., mostly in the South of course, only $5,000,000 of it being in the North. This loss fell generally on the English companies and on a few Southern companies, many of the latter being crushed by their losses. On July 4, 1866, a fire broke out in the city of Portland, Me., caused by a boy's fire-cracker, whii h burned out $10,000,000 worth of property in the business quarter of the ( ity. This was a heavy blow to the New-Mngland companies; but il was an '"airy nothing" compared with the experience of 1S71, 1872, and 1873. l''roni iSr/j the daily rec'.rd of losses became so large, that, in the country at large, the companies were called upon annually to make good losses amounting to $10,000,000 or more. This was sufficiently serious ; but in 1871 came the shock of a great calamity. On Oct. 7 of tiiat year one of the most destructive fires which had ever occurred in Chicago had broken out and been subihieil. On Sunday evening, Oct. 8, a barn caught fire (owing, it was said at ihc time, to the kicking over of a milk-pail and a lamp by a cow) at the jum timi of I)e Koven and Jefferson Streets, in an inflammable part of the city ; and. at the end of two days, more property had been consumed than in the historic London fire of 1666. In London 13,000 buildings were burned, covering 500 acres; and the loss was $50,000,000. In Chicago 17,450 buildings were OF THE UNITED STATES. 835 burned, covering a tract about four miles long by one wide, an area of 2,124 acres, and wortli with their contents, at a moderate calculation, ;$ 160,000,000. Thi-, was a (juarter of f he total actual valuation of the real and personal property of, the city, which in 187 1 was only $620,000,000. 'I'he fire rendi,'red 98,500 puople iiomeless, 50,000 of them leaving the city within a few weeks ; and 250 lives were lost. On the burned property tiiere was ;f;98,ooo,ooo of insurance, ,»;2 ^.000,000 of it being by New-York companies. The total loss was dis- tributed among two hunilred comi)anies, of whom sixty-four failed in conse- (Hunce of their losses, i^leven of the companies were in Chicago, sixteen in New York, five in Hartford, five in Providence, four in Eoston, three in San Francisco, and ihe rest scattered all over the country. Only about $49,000,000 were realized by the policy-holders. Chicago's actual loss, including loss of business and depreciation of property, was estimated at fully $150,000,000. Two fires in IJoston followed tl.i:, calamity. One began Nov. 9, 1872, and in thirty-six hours destroyed 750 buildings, worth, with their contents, $80,000,000 (the wares in them being valued at $60,000,000), upon which there was an insurance of $56,000,000. Fourteen lives were lost by the fire. In Boston the fire was remarkable, because it swept away a large number of imposing granite edifices which had been deemed absolutely fire-proof. A larger pro- ])orti()n of the insurance was [)aid in the case of this fire, and again there \va^ a wiping-out of companies. .Another fire occurred in Boston in 1S73, (k^lrcjyiug property worth $1,500,000, insured for $1, 100,000. Thirty-two companies closed their doors in conse(;uence of the Bos'.on fires, twenty-six being Massachusetts companies, and twenty-two of the latter number being^ joint-stock concerns, leaving only eleven joint-stock companies in Massa- cliusctts. These great calamities have been succeeded cv-er since by a num- ber of smaller ones in other parts of the country. Two or three million-dollar fires have taken place in New York, and one or two in Chicago. One in Pittsburgh was more disastrous, and the number of small fires swells the yearly aggregate now to about $10,000,000. Tliis is an extraordinary record ; and, shouUl t!ie history of the next twenty years present a similar picture of destruction, it will become a problem, whether fire-insurance can continue to jirospcr. It is confidently believed, however, that the calamities of Chicago, Boston, New York, and Pittsburgh, have now called such attention to the subjects of the architecture of cities, watcr- sup[)ly, patrols, and fire-apparatus, that the chances o( any other great city being entirely or even partially destroyed by fire during this generation are Very much diminished. In 1876 the fire-insurance companies of the United States had increased to eight hundred and fifty-one, including thirty-four foreign com- Companies panics doing business here. From the following table no idea is '" ^^^^• piincd of the comparative importance of the insurance interest in the various States ; as Connecticut, for example, transacted more business than several other > J \ ij m m I 1 mm 836 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY States which had a much larger list of companies. They were distributed as follows : — Alal)ama 11 California 7 Cunnccticut 31 Delaware 4 District of Columbia it Geor^^ia • .... 6 Illinois 9 Iiuliana 5 Iowa 7 Kansas 2 Kentucky 13 Louisiana 17 Maine 42 Maryland iK Massachusetts 85 Michigan 40 Minnesota 2 Mississippi 1 Missouri 29 New Hampshire 37 New York 121 North Carolina 2 Ohio 5S Pennsylvania 177 Rhode Island 24 South Carolina i Tennessee 13 Texas 7 Vermont 6 Virginia 16 West Virginia 6 Wisconsin 9 Foreign 34 Total S51 The risks assumed by these companies amount to something over Si 0,000,- 000,000, the people of the United States paying for this protection a siiin variously estimated from $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 yearly. This is indeed a very heavy tax to pay in order to be secure from the conseciuences of one's own negligence, or the accidents or wrong-doing of others ; but human nature is such a poor thing, that no man is regarded as prudent now-a-days who does not carry a proper amount of insurance upon his houses, barns, factories, shi])s, or merchandise. It is a very rare thing to see a structure of any sort, ])os- sessing much value, tliat is not, in part at least, insured ; though occasionally an insurance-fund is accumulated by companies out of which they reinibnrse themselves whenever losses arise. The following was the business done by a few of the principal companies in 1875 • — '•■.fl OF THE UNITED STATES. 837 COMPANY. 1819 /Ktiia (Hartford) . ,u.v S Agricultural Insurance Co. | "1 I (Watcrtown, N.V.) . ) 1S5: Continental (Hartford) . 1820 K ire Association (I'hihulclpliia) i8;f) Franklin Fire (I'liiladclphia) . 1S59 (Icrmania (New York) . 1S50 (lien's Fall.s((;icn's Falls, N.V.) 185:: Hanover (New York) iSio Hartford (Hartford) iSjj lloinc (.\cw \'ork) . I Insurance Co. of North | I America (Philadelphia) ' iS49iNiagara (New \'ork) 1S25 Pennsylvania (Philaddpiiia) . 185.4 Pha'nix (Hartford) i8()7 XVatertown (\Vat< rtown, ?toii( al cniioMiv^ althonyh its benefits are really valuable, and are shared by a uinnljer of |n( pli'. The examjjle of I'ennsylvania was f< and vania granting .Annuities." It had a capital of ;r!5oo,ooo, and ln-an company. Jjusincss in I Si 3, using the mortality-tables of Dr. Pri( e, wIikIi were then in use in England. This table passed out of use long ago ; bni it may be interesting to (piote it here for comparison with the one now in use, which will be cited farther on. It is as follows : — Uirth 5 • 10 . >5 • 20 . 25 . 30 • 35 • 40 . 45 • 5° • 55 • 60 . 65 . 70 . 75 • This tal)le was based upon the observation of the average length of life of ten thousand people. It gave an excessive mortality-rate, however, even lor OF 77//': CNITED STATES. 839 K Kii,L;lan(l ; and an experience (^{ about twenty years ( .jnvinced the company in riiiladelplua that it was excessive also for tiie Unileil Slates. The company thcK-lore reduced its premium rates in iS^i.and af,Min in iS^^y. Reduction ilu' lirst tables of vital statistics in America made nj) for insurance- °' '^"'"• imrposes were prei)ared by the I'hiladelphia concern for its own use from the uidrtality-reporls ftf the city. In I'Sjo tiiere became apparent a ])erceptible impuKe toward tlu' forma- tion of regular companies for life-insuran( e. Si)me of the U\^: companies had joined a limited life-business with their other privileges: but the lota! business was a mere thistle-blow in the air to the clo;;ds above, compared with the lm>iness which could be developed by regular lite companies ; and in 1X30 the regular comi)anies began t(j make their 83oandata ' ' '-' later date, incorporated in 1S22, revived its life-privileges. \\\ I'hiladelphia the (iirard Life and Trust was chartered in 1836, the (Uobe ],ife and Trust in 1838, and the Otld l'"eilows' Life and l''ire in 1.S40. Then, in the West, there was incorporated in 1840 the Ohio Life and Trust of C'incimiati ; in the South, the Southern Life and Trust of Mobile in 1836, and the ()( can Mutual Marine and Life in New Orleans in 1835. The premium-rales of these com- panies were about the same as the mutual rates now in vogue. Life-insurance was scarcely imderstood in the United States when the majority of these com- ])anies began business. If the ancient prejudice was gone, the principles upon which life-insurance was based were not, at any rate, well understood. These companies had to educate the public. 'I'hey did it well, and established the business in i)ermanent favor in the Tnited States. J'.y 1840 the beneficent results of the business were so well understood, that the State of .New York passed a law by which the l)enefit of the policy was secured to the wife, free from the claims of her husband's creditors. The imjjortance of that law was seen at a glance. It was soon adopted in other States. It gave a great lift to the whole business of life-insurance. Within seven years after 1840 five great companies began business in this countrv, introducing a new era in life-insurance. The first \.o ap[)ear was the New- York Mutual. It wps chartered April 12, 1842, wilii thirty- period of six of the most prominent merchants of New- York City as the '^'♦°' ill! orporators. .\spinwall being the name at the head of the list. There was no guaranty-capital ; but the law recpiired that the (ompany should not lirgin business until it had received applications for $500,000 of inr^urance. In order to make a sure thing of it, the c()mj)any waited eight months, until the applications had amounted to over $700,000; and on Feb. i, 1843, it threw open its doors for business. It was the first mutual life company in the United Slates, and it has been the most substantial and successfiil. In 1844 the New- Kngland Mutual was started in lioston. It had been chartered in 1835 ; but i !4 IfUi 840 ixnrsTRiAr j/istokv owing to the monopoly enjoyed liy the Massachusetts Hospital and Liti- (\)\\\. pany. ( liartered in 1S25, it had not tlioiight fit to l)e;,'in Imsiness helori' tlir year stated. In 1.S41 the NaiililiH Company of New York was (liartered. wuli fire and marine privileges. It (liN Fate of ''^''''' '^^ disappeared in five years. In 1847 six comi)anies wnc various formed; but only one, tlv.' I'enn Mutual of Philadelphia, now companies. j;,|i\ives. Five companies were started in 1848 : three of tlum were in Philadelphia, and they soon disappeared: two of them — the riiioii Mutual of Maine, and th.e National of Vermont — were successful. In iS.j; three companies started in Louisiana, and one each in North Carolina, Nrw Jersey, and Connecticut; but they soon dissolved. In 1850 twelve more \\\iv chartered, — two of them in the South, and two in the West. Seven of thnn soon failed, reinsured in other companies, and went out of sight. 'Ihe oilu r five, all in the luist, survived. The situation in 1850 was as follows ; — COMIWII.i. Connecticut (> I'cnnss l\ani;i i :; Marvl.uul Louisiana ............ .j New Jersey 3 Ohio 'z Kentucky 2 New "/ork 5 Massnciuisctts 3 Vermont i Nuitii Carolina , . . . ! Georgia I Maine . i Foreign 3 Total 47 Of ih bciiiK the j-'durtei'ii next five panies th came up oil the Imildings ini-'s and (iinipany over six hv them OF THE CMTtlO STATES. 841 Of this ntinihcr twenty oij^lit have since rloscd or withdrawn, throe of them iK'iii^' the roreij,'n coniiMniis. Ilu- year 1^50 w.is very priilifif in coniiMnies. l-'diirteen were started, and al)()iit as many more sprang; up in the Their faie next five years. The comiJetition en;;tndered liy liu'^e new loni »ince 1850. p.iMies threw llie whole lU Id of life-insurance into (onniiotion. Companii's canie up hke niu^lirooms year after year, and suddenly appeared Mode of iio- (111 the princi|)al streets of cities, with j^ilded sif,'ns, and showy 'ng bu»ines«. liiiildin^s paved in colored tiles, ami ornamented with frescos and hron/e rail- inus and statuary, with porters in unilorm to re(eise tlie visitor; one New-N'ork company hiring a gigantic colored c.x-meniher ol the South-Carolina legislature, over six feet high, to act in that ( apacity. .\n army of agents was employed by them to flood the country, and besiege the wealthy to take out policies on NEW-Y(lHK I.II-IC-ISSUKANCB COMPANY. their lives ; and all the agents were sujiplied with printed hooks for their ])rjvate contemplation, entitled ■• A l'"cw Practical Suggestions." or some similar name, containing such instructions as these : '•There must be hard, pcisistert work." '-Talk life-insurance on its merits. Never let any man who has an income go without showing him that his life has a monev \aliie" (a whole cha])ter being given to the work of showing the agent how to put the case to a man). " 'i'alk large amounts ; but there are many wealthy men whose families would not suffer in case of their death : these are the men who can best alford to ])ay a ])remium ; they can i)ay for a handsome insurance, and not feel it." " Don't make too large promises about dividends." And so on, until the t " 842 iNDUSTNlA /. J//S TOK V " I'ractical Siif,'ni-sti()ns" have covered every iiicli of the fitld. Thr ( oinpaiiit s, in fact, liad discovered tliat Uu-rc was money in hfe-insiiraiK e ; and tlu-y lir;,Mii a systematic effort to swill ilic |iiisiiic-.s of takin;^ risks to tlie utmost |l(l-,,lll^■ point, in order to reali/.e tlurelroin a ninnlter of enormous salaries to offic 1 in, and the use of the surplus funds of the business for s|)eculation. I'mdeui .n\<\ honest companies did mu«h durinj; this perioil to i-lahorate laliK-. of inori.iliiv statistics (the New-\'ork Mutual pre eminently), and to |tut the l)Usiness otiu 1 wisi- on a solid hasis : but the fever of sp»'( ulation burned in the veins ol li.ili the existinj.5 < ompanies ; and the iiusiness was pushed at a reckless raU . .unl on imsoimd and ruinous principles. liy 1S60 the withdrawals of coiDpinns had been as numerous as their nuilliplK alion, and in i.S()0 only lui iii\ \\s,, of which there is any rerord were doinj; business in the United States. I li(i>e twenty two had outstandin.i,' insurances to the amount of ^^iSo.ooo.ooo on Co, 000 citizens, their ri7,ooo,ooo a year. With the war, life insurant e received a new imjjetus. A new ni of feverish competition, speeuhitit)n, showy companies, and ruin, bigan. In 1X04 Effector the jiolicies had increased to 5400,000,000. In the next tour ^"- years seventy new (:om])anies sprang up, and insurances ran up to $1,600,000,000. Life companies were the especial feature of the teudeiiiy of enterprise in the West. /MI the offices were run on the highjjressure system. Mr. Hine says, •'Solicitors extolled the merits of their owit ami depreciated those of rival companies in almost every town and village in tiu- country, aided by pamphlets, periodicals, and prosj)ectuses, picturing in iiiag- nifieent figures the attractive features of the new philanthropy. Railroads and the national debt were about the only things deemed worthy of (oni- parison with such a business. ICxcessive outlays and defective man;'genu'nt were alike concealed by the enormous volume of new business whi( h i\a ry enterprising office was able to report at the end of successive years; and the suggestions of speculative re-action and a ])ossible collapse were unheeded in the rich harvest that was being reaped." The experience of the mutii.il fire corporations in the speculative days of their history has already been ivlaud. The wild schemes of the fire mutuals were now more than paralleled liv tlir life mutuals, and wildcat companies were formed and jjresented to the ]mMic eye in a manner which forcibly calls to mind the company so keenly satirized by Dickens in "Martin Chuzzlewit." One would imagine, on readin.i^ Dickens's description, that the satire was levelled at the l)ul)ble concerns of America. The jiortrait is lifelike, and may be reproduced here : — "'I'he .Vnglo-lJengalee Disinterested Loan and Life-Insurance ("onipauy started into existence one morning, not an infant institution, but a growu-np company, running alone at a great pace, and doing business right and left ; with a ' branch ' in a first floor over a tailor's at the west end of the town, and main offices in a new street in the c ity, comjjrising the tipjier i)art of a spacious house resplendent in stucco and jilate glass, with wire blinds in all JIM OF 11/ E UNITED STATES, «43 till' windows, and ' Anglo- Hcn{,'alcc ' workrd into tho pattern of every our of thfin. On tlu- door-post was painted aj;ain in large letters, 'Offices ol die NnL'lo-liiiiLMki' I )i>^interested l,(ian and Mle-IiiiiinuK e ( '(,iii|)aiiv ; ' . , „ " " ' - AmkIo Hen- and oil the door was a large brass plate willi tlie sauu' niitriptioii, uaUi- Dinin- .iKvivs kept very bright, as courting iiniiiiry, staring the « iiy out ""«»""' ' ... <-> I y o . Loan and (if I oiinteiiance alter olhce-hours on working--in»ur- Ioiil; on Sundays, and looking holder thaij the hank. Wiiliin, die «'":<• Com- ()lti( es were lu'wly plastered, newly painteurchaser pays the price, and his family is entitled to the vTinount insured whenever he dies." In taking life-risks, two tables are now used by the American companies. They are called the American-Experience, and the Actuaries' or Combined-Experience tables. The former Tables used is the product of the Mutual of New York. They differ from each in insuring other by a mere fraction only, and are to all intents and purposes substantially the san'u;. The following will illustrate the Combined-Experience table : — 846 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY AGE. 10 >5 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 99 Nt'.MnKR OK LIVES. NUMBER OP DEAI'IIS KKOM PRECEUlNi; YEAR. EXI'KCTATIONS 01- LlKli. 100,000 96,636 93.268 89.835 86,292 82,581 78,653 74.435 69.517 63,649 55.973 46,754 35.837 24,100 13,290 S.417 i.3'9 89 4S.36 44.96 41.49 3^'-l3 30..S7 27.28 23.69 20.18 16.S6 '3-77 10.97 8-54 6.4S 4.7S 3-36 2. 11 1. 12 •50 The following are a few figures relative to the fliilure of life-insurance com- panies in the United States. The total number of failures has been one hun- statistics of clrccl and fifteen companies, eighty-three of the number having failures. bccn chartered since i860, and seventy-one of the eighty-three since 1865. The years and the States in which the failures occurred were as follows : — YEAR. 1840 2 185I 2 1852 5 1853 S 1855 2 1S56 4 1857 4 i86i I 1S62 2 1863 2 1864 I 1865 2 1866 2 1867 2 1868 5 1869 8 49 YEAR. 1840-6 1870 187 I 1873 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 STAT! Alaba Calik Connc Distri Dclav Gcorc Indiai Illino Kcnti Louis MiuiK Michi Mary Missc New New Novtl Ohio Pcnn Rhoc Sout Teni Texr Virg It was Cincinnati first great Mutual of rame tuml wood-choi: cutting aw then start! company ^ hands of brand-ne\^ OF THE UNITED STATES. 847 YEAR. 1840-69 49 1870 6 1871 8 1872 14 1873 17 1874 5 1875 9 1876 7 1877 2 Total 115 STATE. Alabama 2 Calit'urnia I Connecticut 7 District of Columbia I Delaware 3 Georgia 2 Indiana I Illinois II Kentucky 2 Louisiana ...4 Minnesota i Michigan I Maryland 2 Missouri 8 New York 31 New Jersey 6 North Carolina 2 Ohio 6 Pennsylvania 12 Rhode Island i South Carolina 3 Tennessee 6 Texas i "Virginia i Total . lis It was the disgraceful failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company of Cincinnati as a bank which is said to have started the panic of 1S57. The first great failure after that date was that of the Great Western Mutual of New York in 1870. From 1870 on, the companies oh'io Li°e rame tumbling down like a row of trees in the woods which the and Trust wood-chopper had prepared for a grand combination crash by ^^""P^^y'" cutting away the trunks so that they were all just ready to fall, and then starting them so that each one should fall against its neighbor. One company would be closed by the attorney-general, and its affairs put into tlic hands of a receiver. Its policy-holders would be re-insured in some other brand-new and equally weak company, which would go down in turn, often in 848 IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y the; very sn me year. Each failure wps worse than the preceding ; and when Failures in 1876 and 1877 were readied, and the Continental, the Si-c urity, 1876-77- the American Popular, anil the Atlantic Mutual went thnvii, an examination of their affairs revealed a shamelessness of corruption, and (i^pth of inefficiency, in the management of the first three, which shocked the moral sense of the American people, and led every man to ask the (|U(,-,tion of his neighbor, '* Well, who is there in the community that we can nini now?" The Continental had ^^5 1,000,000 of insurances, the American Popu- lar 510,000,000, and the Security ^20,000, 000, when t'ley went down. The following is the business which is now being done uy the best of the „ . now existing comiianies : the old Mutual of New York beiuL: nut Business o i ' o i'^" done by at the head of the list, — a place it deserves, not hnlf so much present t^^^^^^ ^j^^. magnitude of its colossal business as from the excclicni c companies. and soundness of its management and the substantial foundation upon which it stands (the figures being for Jan. i, 1S76) : — Q u NAMIi. ASSKTS. INCOME. I'.WMF.NTS TO roi.icv- llULUEKS, Nl'Mni'.R OF POLICIES. HISKS. 1847'Mutiial of New York . . $78,534,000 $20,400,000 512,674,000 92.393 $305,057,000 1850 .i:tna (Ilartfoid) . . . 21,822,000 5,526,000 3,453,000 56,743 <( 1, 154,000 1850 Charter Oak (Hartford) . 13,314,000 4,448,000 2,096,000 26,481 58.71)11.000 1S46 J Connecticut Mutual | 1 (Hartford) . . . .i 43,410,000 9,8 18,000 6,206,000 66,209 185,076,000 1859 Kquitable (\ew \ ork) . 28,585,000 9,571,000 5-335.000 48,700 178,632,000 1S45 i Mutual IJenefit (Xcw- ) 1 ark, X.J.) . . . .f 31,300,000 6,751,000 5,526,000 43.015 13.1,104,000 1S30 N'ew York (New York) . 30,505,000 7,944,000 4,131,000 44,461 126,132,000 1857 \ Xortli-westcrn -Mutual | 1 (Milwaukee, Wis.) . \ 17,044,000 4,053,000 2,004,000 36,428 67,12.1,000 1S51 riioenix .Mutual (Ilartfoid) 10,133,000 3,298,000 1,934,000 30,281 60,247,000 The (iermania, Globe, Home, Manhattan, Life Association of .Aniorii a, Knickerbocker, John Hancock, New-I'2ngland Mutual, Pennsylvania, Pro\i- dence Life and Trust, Union Mutual, and Union Central, do a large business, and have risks outstanding amounting to from $20,000,000 to $60,000,000. ACCIDENT. This is the last of the four departments of the insurance-business. It is _ ,. , the creation of the s'agle mind of one man, — Mr. Tames G. l!at- Creation of ^ ' .. terson of Hartford, C'onn, who, while abroad, had noticed the workings of accident-insurance in luirope, and who, upon his re- turn, organized the Travellers' Lisurance Company of Hartford lor introducing the business to this country. His company was chartered in June, accident- insurance companies OF THE UNITED STATES. 849 1863. It took some time to get it into operation, and the first contract was made upon the street. In March, 1864, Mr. Batterson happened to meet Mr. James Bolter in front of the post-office at Hartford ; and the latter asked him, " What will you take to insure me for $5,000 if I get killed by accident in going from here to my house on Buckingham Street?" — "Two cents," replied Mr. Batterson. " Agreed ; here is your money," said Mr. Bolter. This was the first insurance for accident in America. The two cents thus earned were preserved by Mr. Batterson, and are still exhibited in a frame. The first written policy was issued to Mr. Batterson himself for $5,000 in April, 1864. In two years the success of the Travellers' was assured. The American mind is quick to seize upon new ideas of this sort, and in 1865 and 1866 eleven new companies of various kinds to do a casualty business success of were organized and in operation in New York. They all soon the enter- retired, however, leaving the field to the Travellers'. By the end '"^'*"' of 1865, so rapidly did the business of the latter grow under the good management of its president and founder, that it had 27,000 policies in force, with an income of $500,000, and risks amounting to $85,000,000. In 1866 seven of the accident-insurance companies consolidated, and formed the Railway Passengers' Assurance Company of Hartford. Mr. Bat- terson became president of that also ; and the two concerns, the Railway Passengers' and the Travellers', have since attained a national reputation and a great business. The former confines itself chiefly to the general accident business ; while the latter has a life business also, its risks now amounting to over $90,000,000. To the casualty business a Plate Glass company was added in New York in 1870. Other cities have since formed similar organizations. They have met with moderate success. .J\ 850 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY CHAPTER III. COMMERCE. COMMERCE relates to the exchange of products; transportation, to the moving of them : and, having ah-eady considered the latter sul)- ject, we shall now confine ourselves strictly to Hie former, although the two are often treated as identical. divided by R"volution. ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. The history of the foreign commerce of the United States is very sharph' Commerce divided by the Revolution into two periods, inasmuch as the laws regulating it were radically changed by that event. ^Ve shall lir.-^t proceed to sketch the colonial policy inaugurated by Great Uritaiii, which was prolific in mistakes, and which finally led to the war of separation between the colonies and the mother-councry. Great Britain was not slow in declaring her intention to make the colonics Great Brit- ^^ profitable to herself as possible. To accomplish this, she ain's coio- adopted a policy which recjuired the colonies to buy of her, ine- nia policy, i^pective of competing markets ; and forbade their engaging in pur- suits which in any way conflicted with the interests of English manufacturers. Let us briefly glance at the manner in which these ideas were executetl. One of the earliest industries^ in which the colonies engaged was that ' In the second voyage of Capt. Newport to the (Virginia) colony in the latter part of 160S the compniiy sent out in the ship — which brought also a crown for the sachem Powhat.m, and orders for his " crownntioii" — eight Poles and Germans to m.ike pitch, tar, glass, mills, and soap-ashes; which, had the country been peopled, would h.ave done well, bu. proved only a burden and hindcrancc to the rest. A coloni.il historian says, " Nr> sooner were they landed, but the president dispersed as many as were able, some to make glass, and others fi>r pitch, tar, and soap-ashes. Leaving them at the port under the council's care and oversight, he himself cairita thirty about five miles down the river to learn to cut down trees, make clapboards, and lie in the woods." Tl-.e council in Ix)ndon, complaining that no gold and silver was sent, wrote an angry letter to the president, threatening, that if the expenses, two thousand pounds, were not defr.iyed by the ship's return, they should lie deserted. To this Capt. Smith returned " a plain and scholarly answer " by the ship, which was ni leiuih despatched with the trials of pitch, tar, glass, frankincense, and soap-ashes, with what wainscot and clap!' .ird could be provided. This cargo, of the v.iluc of which wo are not informed, appears to have been the first exiort made from the British colonies to a foreign coiuitn,-, with the exception of a lo.ad of sassafras gathered iie.ir Cape Cod in 1608, and consisted almost exclusively of manufactured articles, in the strict sense of the term. OF THE UNITED STATES. 85« In the reign of Charles '"5 "''^" °' ° Charles II. of ship-building. The rivers were lined with abundant forests : water-power OS readily utilized, and this industry proved very successful from ship-buiid- tlie beginning. In New Kngland especially, and afterward in New »"«• York and l*hila(leli)hia, ships of two hundred and three hundred tons were Ixiilt, which were loaded with lumber, fish, live-stock, and other Early articles, and then sailed for the West Indies, where the cargoes voyages. were exchanged for sugars, which were taken to England in the same vessels, and there sold. Not unfrecjuently the shijis themselves \yere disposed of in the mother-country ; for, as timber was so i)lentiful, they could be made more cheaply at that time on this side of the Atlantic than anywhere else. Thus the business of ship-building, the trade with the West Indies, and the sale of ships, ((instituted prominent features of a very lucrative business. Other vessels, laden with spars and timber, proceeded directly to Uritish ports, as well as those of other European countries, where ships and cargoes were often sold in the same manner. The commerce of the colonies with the West Indies early attracted the attention of (Ireat iJritain. Scarcely had twenty-five years passed since the settlement of New England before a series of trade relii-h proved injurious to both New Jersey and New York. Notwithstanding the obvious defects in the system, ii was continued; and in 1714 duties and other restrictions were imposed on the exportation of some commodities «iien they were shipped to neighboring provinces. Indeed, the system was contini'ed with considerable vigor ("nil the time of the Revolution. ''I ' '. !' M :■: 852 INDUSTRIAl. lllSrOKY tion, or maniiracture of iMiropc, sliall be imported into tlic Hritish plantalit.tis l)ut such as are laden and put on hoard in lOngland, Wales, or IJerwii k-ii|M)ii. Tweed, and in ICnglish-built shipping, whereof the master and three-fourth-, (jf the crew are ICnglish." The effect of this would be to compel thr (oloims to buy, as the former did to sell, in the l-jiglish markets exclusively. I'.ut these laws were very little regarded by the colonies, with the exception df Virginia, where they excited remonstrance and almost rebellion, and wvxv not, until a later period, enforced upon them. The i)rimary objcc t of the , monopoly was to prevent the commercial rivals of England from supplanll^^ her in the colonial trade ; although the deeper object, as we shall vt rv soon see, was to put most of the trade into the possession c>f I'.iinLiinl alone. lOven at that early date, there were those who feared that the prosptrit) of the colonies would pave the way to independence. Saitl one writer o{ that independ- day, "The colonies are beginning to carry on trade: tluy will ence feared, jj^f^p jj^. q^j. formidable rivals. They are already setting up manu- factures : they will soon set uj) for independence." 'J'he " Discourse on Trade," by Sir Josiah C.iild, before (pioted, thus expresses the prevailing opinion of this class : " New Kngland is the most prejudicial plantation to this kingdom. Of all American plantations, his Majesty has none so apt t'oi the building of shipping as New lOngland, nor none so admirably (pialified for the breeding of seamen, not only by reason of the natural industry of that people, but principally by reason of their cod anil mackerel fisheries; and in my poor opinion there is nothing more prejudicial, and in prospect more dangerous, to any mother-kingdom, than the increase of shipping in her colonies, planta- tions, or provinces." It was only by an evasion or relaxation of the laws, says Bishop, wh-ch was connived at by the revenue officials, that the colonies were ever enabled to pay Evasion of ^or ^'^^ enomious amount of British manufactures and luiropean laws neces- merchandise annually received from Kngland ; which, at the be- sary in order ...,.,, , i /' to continue gnuimg of the eighteenth century, amounted to nearly ;£,40o,ooo, purchases of and, toward the close of the provincial period, ^3,500,000. or "^ °" ■ nearly one-fourth of the English export trade of those ])erioils. None of the colonies north of Maryland ever had balances in their favor, but were, on the contrary, much in arrear. The obligations could only be met by circuitous trade, carried on, in contravention of the trade acts, with foreign countries, whence they derived most of their specie and remittances suital)le for returns to their English creditors. By this illicit traffic English commerce was as much benefited, probably, as that of the colonies. Lord Sheftield admits, that, between the years 1770 and 1773, the colonies must, by this cir- cuitous trade, have remitted to England upward of ^^30,000,000 in pa) mcnt of goods taken from her, over and above their remittances in produce and fish. Ships built for sale, as has already been remarked, constituted an important OF THE UNITED STATES. «53 m^ element in this foreign colonial trade, the value of which was usually remitted in specie, or bills of exchange on London. Let us look across the sea for a moment, and learn how the English over there carried on commert e with the colonies. Joshua (Jea, in a work upon the "'IVade and Navigation of (Ireat Britain," which appeared in 1729, says, "We have a great many young men who are bred to ""^ ^"K" ' ' ' ^ J ] ^ land carried the sea, and have friends to support them. If they cannot get on commerce cni[)loyment at home, they go to New I'lngland and the Northern "^'"^ ^^^ / ^ ^ " colonies. colonies with a cargo of goods, which they sell there at a great Ijfofit, and with the produce build ; .'lip, and i)urchase a loading of lumber, and sail for Portugal or the Straits, (S:c., and, after disposing of their cargoes there, frecjuentiy fly from i)ort to port in the Mediterranean till they have cleared so much money as will pay in a good part for the first cost of the ( argo carried out by them, and then, perhaps, sell their ships, come home, take uj) another cargo from their employers, and so go back and build another siiip. liy this means, multitudes of seamen are brought up ; and, upon a war, the nation is better provided with a greater number of sailors than hath heretofore been known. Kere the master becomes merchant also, and many of them gain by this lumbc-trade great estates, and a vast treasure is therel)y yearly bror.giit into the 1 ingdom in a way new and unknown to our forefathers ; for indeed it is gaining the timber-trade heretofore carried on l)y the Dutch and Suedes, our plantations being nearer the inarkets of Portugal and Spain than theirs are." Notwithstanding the historic trade acts of (Ireat lincain, which were •lesigncd to cripple colonial commerce, it was actively carried on in the man- ner described, especially with the West Indies and the mother- country. It is proof of a pretty lax administration of the laws in ^./^ ^^ "^^^ those days; but there were a great many merchants ''iterested withstand- in making: these exchanges, from whom the ])olicv of Mii.;land, if '"^*''° ^ n n ' 1 - .-^ ' acts. rigidly enforced, would have evoked bitter ojjposition. Probably the government was well aware of the fact, and consetiuently was more willing to acquiesce in the infraction of the laws than if they had been in jjcrfect harmony with the sentiment of the time. So exchanges went or. To the West Indies were carried lumber of all kinds, fish of an inferior (lu.ilily, — the better sorts going to the Roman Catholic countries of luu-o])e, — beef, pork, butter, horses, poultry, other live-stock, tobacco, flour, bread, cider and ap[)les, cabbages, and (inions ; for which was received, in return, molasses, besides silver and gold, which metals were transmitted to ( treat Britain to pay for the commodities j)ur- < based there. While no gold and silver mines were known in America, the Spanish settlers in the West Indies were rich in the precious metals which they were receiving from Mexico and Peru ; and from this source the colonists received something like an adequate supply to discharge their obligations to the mother-country. But for this illicit trade, the colonies would soon have !' ■I).: S)i - «S4 INDUSTKIA!. IflSTORY been drained of their supply of the precious metals, and the I')ni][lish inor, chants would have found only a poor market for their wares in .\iii(.ri(a. America had only a small siip|)ly of the articles which the people «;! (in, it Britain wanted in return for their commodities. Fish, tobacco, and ships were the chief exports, besides gold and silver, to that country; and iIksc alone would have gone only a little way in payment for the goods w.uiiid of her. It may not be out of place to describe, in this connection, the fisheric-, r.f the colonial period.' In those early times, cod, salmon, mackerel, stiii-c n, Colonial and other kinds of fish, were abundant along the coast and in tlio flsheriei. rivers, and large numbers of men were employed in catc hini,', curing, and packing diem. Hut the New-IOnglanders also fretiueiUcd ihc famous Hanks of Newfoundland, as far as the coast of Labrador, where eiior. mous quantities were caught. ' Indeed, those waters are scarcely less abundant to this day. Besides their own catch, the colonists used to buy of the New- foundland fishermen, paying therefor in rum of New-l-Jiglanil manutartuiv, and also in other things coming from either the colonies or the West Indies. The following statistics will give the reailer an idea of the quantity of the warming fluid which was sent to the provinces of Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Newfoundland, for the four years preceding the Revolution : — 1770. 1771. 1772. '773- West-India rum (gallons) New-England rum (gallons) . 52,712 590,748 36,873 550,514 47.736 520.525 568,261 50.7 if' 608,0:5 Total .... 643,460 5S7.387 658,741 The fish obtained by both capture and purchase were properly prepared for market, and sent to the various ports of Europe. The choicer (lualities were sent to Southern Europe, and the proceeds were remitted in l)ills (tf exchange to luigland to pay for merchandise consumed in America. A tew of the best fish, however, also found a market in Great Britain ; while the iiitl'- rior sorts went to the West Indies, and were eaten as a relish to the planiains and yams which constituted the staple diet of the slaves. After the peace of 1763 with France, the whale-fishery, which theretofore had not been an important industry, developed rai)idly ; and the seas between Whale- New England and Labrador were vexed with a goodly nunil)cr of fishery. vessels engaged in the hazardous but exciting undertaking. As the tariff on oil and bone was reduced at this time, a new impetus was thereby given to this industry; so that, before the year 1775, '"nore than a hundred and sixty vessels were thus profital)ly employed. The oil and whalebone wero OF THE UNITED STATES. 855 shipped chiefly to Cireat Hritain ; while candles were made of the spermaceti, wiiH h were also exported thitiicr. The most unremitting attention was given to every thng likely to yield any profit, and so thoroughly wide-awake were the colonists as to obtain the appel- lation of " the Dutchmen of America." Their prosperity was cauieof liusely watched from the other side of the water ; and as their commerciti trade diminished with (Ireat Hritain, and increased more with other P'^P^'^y' countries, in spite of custom-houses and watchmeii, while manufactures at home were growing, the IJritish House of Commons in 1731 institute*! through the Hoard of Trade an intpiiry witli respect to liie laws made, manu- llu tiires set up, or trade carried on, detrimental to tiie trade, navigation, or manufactures of (ireat IJritain. Among other facts reported were the follow- ing, which will doubtless interest the reader, as they throw much light upon the character of the colonists at that time, the extent of their trade, the progress of home manufacture, and how laws which were designed to oppress the colo- nics and enrich the merchants of Cireat Britain had been turned with deadly effect upon those who had made them : — " The Governor of Massachusetts iiay informed us, that, in some parts of this province, the inhabitants worked up their wool and flax into an ordinary coarse cloth for their own use, but did not export any ; that the greatest part of the woollen and the linen clothing worn in this province was imported from (Ireat Britain, and sometimes from Ireland, but, considering the excessive jjrice of labor in New iMigland, the merchants could afford what was imported chea|)er than what was made in that country ; that there were also a few hat-makers in the maritime towns, and that the greater part of the leather used in that country was manufacture among themselves ; that there had been for many years some iron-works in that province, which hail afforded the jieopic iron for some of their necessary occasions, but that the iron imjjorted from (Ireat Britain was esteemed much the best, and used wholly by the shipping, and that the works of that province were not able to supply one-twentieth part of what was necessary to the use of the country. They had no manufactures in the province of New York that deserved mentioning (their trade consisted chiefly of furs, whalebone, oil, pitch, tar, and provisions); no inanuHicturcs in New jersey that deserved mentioning, their trade being chiefly in provisions shipped from New York and Pennsylvania. The chief trade of Pennsylvania lay in the exportation of provisions and lumber ; their clothing, and utensils for their houses, being all imported from Great Britain. By further ndviccs from New Hampshire, the woollen manufacture appears to have decreased ; the common lands on which the sheep used to feed being now appropriated, and the people almost wholly clothed with woollen from Great Britain. The manufac- ture of flax into linen, some coarser, some finer, daily increased by the great resort of j^eople from Ireland thither, who are well skilled in that business ; and the chief trade of this province continued, as for many years past, in the I! I ill' J 856 INP I 'S TRIA I. ins TOR Y exportation of naval stores, lumber, and fisli. I?y later arrounts from Massa- chusetts iJay in New i;nj;lan(l, the Ass^ml)!/ have voted a bounty of tlnrty shillings for every piece of du( k or ranvas made in the province. Sonu' other manufactures are carrieii on there, as brown Hollands for women's wear, which lessen the importation of calicoes an'- honored in the East as in the West. His ships navigated every sea, and em- ployed hundreds of hardy men. The skilful and bold seamen who com- manded his ships were not of the later class of " dandy captaiiis," who came in with the "liners;" but it was his saying, that the best captains would sail with a load of fish to the West Indies, hang up a stocking in the cabin, put therein the hard dollars as they sold the fish, and pay out from it as they bought the rum, molasses, and sugar, tie up the balance, and hand it in at the counting-room on their return home in lieu of all accounts. The honesty and judgment of their proceedings were beyond question, and the problem of tiie profits between the fish sent and the cargo and stocking returned was for the clerks to solve. The genius for plotting long and intricate voyages lelonged to the head of the house. New York, in John Jacob Astor, had a still more extensive operator. He first projected the enterprises to the north- west coast, and laid out with profound skill schemes which it took ten years to ripen ; and his name was known throughout the world. Philadelphia had an exponent of her commercial power in Stephen Girard, whose en- Stephen terprises belonged to the same period of large operations and bold Girard. conduct. Girard's ships were actively engaged in commerce with the West Indies at the time of the revolution in San Domingo, and carried away many rich refugees. His wealth received large accessions from the property placed on board by those who could not escape. The Patersons of Baltimore led the commerce of that city : and behind these leading names, which are asso- ciated in history with vast fortunes, came a crowd of lesser ones ; for the mer- cantile intellect was as busy in this country at that time as was military, political, and literary genius throughout tlie world. The internal agency that led to the national self-assertion and this bold individual enterprise was doubtless the enthusiasm of independ- ence. Already the colonists were a commercial jicople : triumph over England inspired them to greater ventures ; freedom and success stimulated further action ; and the imposition of a tariff, )^gf|."^ ^°"^' the organization of a bureau of commercial statistics, and the establishment of our currency on a sound basis, awakened confidence in our commercial strength at home and abroad. Another impulse was given to our commerce by the sudden development of the cotton production at the commencement of this century, Effect of which we have elsewhere described at some length. The invention cotton pro- of the cotton-gin gave a sudden development to this industry, and gave us a new and valuable commodity for export. In 1 790 we exported Effect of independ- ence in stim- 862 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY lft Embarrass ments of SE Anglo- French 'M^w conflict. but $42,285 worth of cotton : in 1807 the amount was valued at $14,23^,000. Later, still vaster dimensions were attained. But, in the last year here < iU'il, our cotton alone formed nearly one-third of the value of our total export, it might be mentioned in this place, that just previous to this time the South lia,} become greatly dei)ressed, business-wise ; for her blacks had not been aMc to earn their own living. Hence in 1808, some years after the evil began to he first felt, the further importation of slaves was prohibited by an anicndiiK'nt to the F'ederal Constitution ; anil, as the vessels engaged in this traffic wore chiefly of New-England ownership, the check was not fully enjoyed by the commercial interest. Other events, however, at that time, distractetl alteiition, and prevented any expression of resentment. A cause external to American politics and enterprise also gave new stiiiiu- lus to American commerce soon after the Revolution. The ambition of thr great Napoleon led to war between I'higland and France at the Napoleon. , ^ , . , , 1 1 1 1 ■ • close of the eighteenth century, and thus the shii)ping ot both nations was unsafe at sea. The carrying-trade was therefore assumed by the navigators of this country, who brought much of the West Indies antl other produce designed ultimately for Europe, and much of the exciiange freight, to our shores en route. The stoppage of production in Europe on account ot" a general war created a greater demand for American food-products and manu- factures, antl thus increased our domestic export trade. An interesting trian- gular exchange of credits occurred at this time. England had large credits in this country at that time on account of certain shipments of manufactures : the United States was acquiring large credits in France on account of ship- ments of produce. England had no direct trade-relations with France. l)ut wanted to transfer money to the Continent for political uses ; and so bought these American credits in France, taking them in payment of our debts to lier. While, on the whole, the Anglo-French conflict was advantageous to u-. at first, it had its embarrassments and was afterwards disastrous in its influence upon our commerce. In 1793, England, jealous of seeming benefits derived by France from this arrangement, domineeringly forbade American vessels to carry food to any port occupied by French troops. She also exercised the right of impressing Ameri- can seamen into her own navy. Under these and other orders .Americans were robbed of much property, and war was threatened ; but matters were smoothed over by a treaty negotiated by Mr. Jay, by which the sum of ten million dollars war, awarded us. This enraged France, whi( h began to seize our ships ; but Napoleon put a stop to such proceedings in 1800. But further embarrassments ensued. England declared all of luirope, from the Elbe to Brest, in a state of blockade, thus prohibiting Amerii an ships from entering there. Napoleon retaliated with the Berlin decree of November in that year, prohibiting all intercourse with the British island-. Both sides issued further and more comprehensive edicts of the same insane OF THE UNITED STATES. 863 h ii 864 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY sort ; and finally, in 1807, to avoid war, the United-States (lovernment laid an embargo upon commerce; altogether. So violent was the re-action in Ameri- can commercial circles, that our government was forced to modify very essentially this action next year, substituting non-intercourse laws for the first enactment. Still our commerce was sadly crippled, and was long in recovering,' from the effects of this blow. It is an interesting fact in this connection, that, in 1803, Jerome JJonaparte, brother of the great Corsican, married into the Paterson family of ^Jaltimore, already spoken of as eminent in comnicree. The Paterson interest, through Jerome, was successful in gaining stealthv admission to French ports for what was, after all, much-coveted liroduee. This, however, was chiefly before the embargo of 1807. This was the culmination of a long period of remarkable commercial activity and prosperity. An immediate and remarkable decline ensued. Before considering the latter, therefore, it is worth while to briefly review Embargo. the former. The treaty of peace which acknowledged American independence was signed in 1 783, The loose confederation of States was succeeded by the present union under the new constitution in 1789. I'Yom the following year our commercial statistics date. The embargo occurretl in 1807. The following table shows the development of our commerce in the interval, and the check put upon it by this enactment, and the delay in recuperation : — YEAR. TONNAGE. DOMESTIC EXPORTS. FOREIGN EXPORTS. TOTAL EXPORTS. IMPOKTS. 1790 474.374 $19,666,000 )!5S39.is6 $20,205,156 $23,000,000 1807 1,268,548 48,669,592 59,643,558 108,343,150 138,500,000 I80S 1,247,596 9.433.546 12,997,414 22,430,960 56,990,000 I815 1,368,127 45.974.403 6,583.350 52.557.753 113,041,274 i8i6 1,372,218 64,781,896 17,138,556 81,920,452 147,103,700 These international complications led at length to war with England, whicli lasted from 181 2 to 1815. The result of that war, it will be remembered, was ^ ^ ^ the establishment of the principle, that England had no rigiit to with Great board our merchant-vessels, and claim our seamen for her citizens ; Britain, and ^^^^ ^^^ ,^^^^ j.j^g merchant-marine of a neutral nation, in time of its effect. war, might go where it pleased without molestation. It is a well- known fact that this triumph was accomplished chiefly by the American navy : and it is worth remembering that that navy was greaUy strengthened by the influx thereto of hardy sailors from our now paralyzed merchant-marine. .\t first it was feared that the magnificent British navy would destroy ours in almost no time, and Congress was determined to send the government ships up the rivers for refuge ; but, at the earnest solicitation of the naval officers themselves, OF THE UNITED STATES. they were permitted to go to sea. "The astonishment in Europe," says Kettell, "the (hsmay in England, and delight in the United States, could scarcxMy be equalled, when the encounter on the seas resulted in the unprecedented spec- tacle of a series of triumphs over the tyrant of the ocean. In the short period of twenty years a power hail arisen that was thenceforth to ];now no master upon the ocean, and submit to no insults ; and this j)ower had been 1)0111 of cgmmerce." War had paralyzed all other industries as well as commerce. Agricultural produce, finding no outlet, accumulated in warehouses ; ships lay idle at the wharves ; property dei^reciated ; and credits became overstrained, y^u jn^ug. Something like a panic ensued upon the declaration of peace; tries para- bul general business soon recuperated, owing to the improvement ^^^ ^ ''* brought about by the escape of penned-up agricultural produce, the establish- ment of the Bank of the United States, and the imposition of a tariff on the heavy importations that followed the war. Several important changes now took place in our various industries. That department of agriculture which producx'd food was depressed, because no longer called upon by Europe for such large supplies : indeed, our foreign trade in food did not again develop for thirty years, Cottbn was called for more than ever at home and abroad, and its culture rapidly developed. In 1818 fully forty per cent of 873,854,000 worth of exports were of raw cotton, or more than double what tliey were in 1807, 'L'he conuiiercial interest of New England, which had opposed the war, and lud been prostrated thereby, was discouraged by the frilling off in the foreign tiemand for food-prcKlucts, and still more by the resumption of their own carrying-trade by the other countries. It will be discovered, from the table which we shall presently give, that this latter branch of American industry never regained the dimensions of the period just before the embargo. Accordingly, capital was willulrawn from the shipping-interest, and put into manufactures, which were protracted hy the increasing tariffs of i8r6, 1818, 1819, 1824, and 182S, These, in turn, checked the importation of foreign goods after the first rush consequent upon the peace of 1S15. The combineil effect of all these causes was to reduce our imports, lessen our re-exports, increase our domestic exports, keep the balance of trade very nearly even, and induce a period of unusually ([uict, even trade, whose proportions were rather less than those of the period pre- ceding the embargo of 1808, This latter fact can be perceived from a comparison of the following figures with the precedhig table : Average exi)ortd of domestic produce for each of the years 1821-30, S53, 610,502 ; average Ibreign, $22,964,383; total average export per year, $76,574,885; average import, $79,863,340, A notable feature of the commerce of the era of which we are now speak- ing was the endeavor of Great IJritain to control it by more peaceful means, but not less certainly than before, by making her ports the great point of V\ "!' M I I ,>- 866 I. WD rs TR lA L HIS TOR V m exchange between the United States and such other countries as Uadud Warehouse willi Iier. This was largely elTocted by the " warehouse system." system. "Inducements were held out," says Kettell, "by fixciliii<.s of entry, and advances on merchandise, to attract thither the produce of all nations ; because, under such circumstances, not only did iJrilish maiiiifac- turers have within their reach the raw materials of all manufactures, but trading;. vessels had in those ample warehouses every variety of goods to make up an assorted cargo for any voyage in the world, and make of them the medium of selling British goods. Thus all the new countries of America, Africa, and .\of/in^' wheat from Russia. In 1831 the high tariff on imported manufiictured goods was greatly reduced. It was then discovered, that, in the movement of capital after the war of 181 2-15, more was invested in domestic manufactures than was wise. There was over-production, and pernicious competition even at home. The reduction of the tariff let in a flood of foreign goods at lower prices, and still further paralyzed the manufacturing industry; so that this class of our exports fell off. By consulting the table which wc shall give a few pages hence, the reader will see how abnormal was the excess of imports over our exports during the decade 1831-40. In the year 1836 alone this excess amounted to upwards of $61,000,000, which was twice the balance of trade against us during the whole ten years prior to 1830. As a further indi- cation of the demoralized condition of business, it may be remarked, that the increase in imports was chiefly in articles of luxury, — silks, wines, &c. ; yet in the mean time we were doing less remunerative labor to pay for such things than usual. Thus, while the imports of silk rose from less than $6,000,000 in 1831 to $23,000,000 in 1S36, and silks, wines, spirits, and sugar, from $13,550,- 000 to $41,850,000 in the same period, the export of flour and other pro- visions fell from $28,000,000 to barely more than $14,000,000. At this period our credit was remarkably good in London ; and not only was merchandise sent here on credit, but capital was loaned to start banks in the West wherewith to promote land speculation. The crops were good in England, money was plenty, and capitalists felt liberal ; besides, the large fire in New York in 1835 — which destroyed $18,000,000 worth of goods, and created a special demand from abroad to that extent — was regarded as a piece of good fortune for the British merchant, rather than otherwise. One cause that operated to blind ii* <:l (!'; 868 IND US TRIA I. ins TOK V our eyes to the coming collapse was the over-estimate of the value of our exports. 'I'he course of business at that time reciuireil shipments of Aincrii an pro(kice, mostly cotton, to firms abroad, who made advanc es on the coiisiL;n- nient at a certain ratio less than the fa<:es of the invoice. The produce afin- wards sold for the account of the owner, and not infrecpiently did not luini,' the amount of the advances. Thus, if cotton were shipped at sixteen cents a j)ound, and twelve cents were advanced, the amount realized might be only eleven cents. I lence the real exports of the country w<;re not always nica.>,- ured by the export value. The grand crash came in 1837. Like all such crises in this and otlur countries, it took even the business-men two or three years to fully understand Causes not how it cauic about, and the jn'ople even longer. At length it was understood, reali/cd that while speculation in land or any thing else, ainpli; credits from home and foreign capitalists, and plenty of banks-bills based niioii credit, gave a tenijKJrary and artificial prosperity to a nation, the only basis of rial wealth was labor in the production of something to sell, and enough of it not only to supply our own consumption, but also to send abroad to pay for what we bought there. Accordingly, personal and mercantile credits came to an end, individuals and merchants stopped running in debt, and the country applied itself to productive industry. The effect is clearly discerned in tho statistics given in our next ta])le. Our imports for the decade ending 1S50 were slightly less than for the previous ten years, and otir exports vastly niotv ; and iiie balance of trade against us was cut down from $260,75^^,1 54 to 17,219,199 for the two periods, In Uie years 1813, 1821, 1825, and 1827, owing in some cases to abnormal influences, our exports had exceeded our imports, but only to a slight extent. In 1825 the excess was a littlr over ^3,000,000, which was more than in any of the other years here named, but in 1840 the country had so well mastered the teachings of the recent ])anii: and hard times, that our exports exceeded our imports by $25,000,000. We could not keep up this advantage, however. Tiirice during the next (lc( ade did our exports exceed our imports : in 1842 the difference was $4,589,447, in 1844 it was $2,765,011, and in 1847 it was $12,102,984. Yet in the other years we ran behind enough to wipe this all out, and remain $7,219,199 in debt to Europe ; which, however, as we have already remarked, was a vast reduction compared with the previous ten years. A force which tended to ecjualize trade at this time was the Irish famine of 1846. In 1842 the British Government removed the prohibition upon inipor- irish famine tations of American cattle and provisions, and reduced the duties of 1846. Q,-j corn, which were fmally abolished in 1849. Under the iptlu- ence of the former enactments the export of dairy products, bacon, barrelled pork and beef, and grain, began to grow. But, when the tremenuous demand of 1846 came, a wonderful impetus was given to food production and export, and a development imparted to the agricultural interests of this country wliich OF THE UNITED STATES. 869 has since steadily rontinued. Our exports rose from 5 106,000,000 in 1841 to ^150,000,000 in 1848 ; and the gain was priiu ipally in food, which constituted onc-lialf of the vahie of the exports of 1847. The Irisii were led at tiiis time to adopt f;orn instead of potatoes for the staple of their diet. From this and otiier like causes, American produce obtained a permanent foothold in the foreign market ; and, although a slight subsidence in the trade ensued shortly, the growth -soon increased, and then kept up steadily anil ra[)i(lly to the present day, its dimensions rivalling those of our huge cotton export. 'I'he heavy export of produce and its quick cash sales in 1847 brought us a specie import of $24,121,289, — a receipt never before paralleled in our history. This enlivened business wonderfully. But the French importation revolution next year, turning upon property-rights, depressed the "' tpecie. home-market in France, and, by lowering prices, induced a heavy temporary export to this country, which soon absorbed our extra cash. This Tariff of movement was facilitated by a reduction in our tariff in 1846. '^<*- Inasmuch as business was then on a sound basis in this country, no harm was experienced in consequence. The next remarkable feature of American commerce was the heavy export of gold bullion resulting from the discovery of mineral wealth in California. Our cotton and food exports had already risen into prominence. Export of As yet, petroleum was comparatively unknown , and American buUion. manuflictures, while steadily growing in proportions ^ and gaining a better place in our own markets, were advancing but slowly in competition with those of England in the other emporiums of the world. In 1848 gold was found near Capt. Sutter's fort in California. Although the influx of adventurers quickly attained large dimensions, the product of the precious metal did not amount to much until 1850, when it was about $9,000,000. This steadily increased, and our total export of bullion for the following decade was $507,000,000. The gold furore here and in Australia stimulated the transpor- tation to both regions of immense quantities of food, clothing, machinery, and other commodities, thus stimulating both our import and export trade ; the former, however, more than the latter. In 1847, for the eighth time in our riistory, our exports exceeded our imports. This v/as the case again in 1851. But the heavy importation of goods for the California trade, and the slight relaxation of industry for purposes of gold-seeking and land speculation, turned the balance heavily against us for the next three years ; and though the scales turned again in our favor during the next five years, yet the whole decade left us indebted to the Old World nearly $11,000,000.'' i: i. 1 The total value of our manufactures caught up with that of agricultural production, and passed it for- ever in the race shortly before 1850. * Only thrice since 1854 ^^'^ 'h^ balance of trade been againsi this country. It is noteworthy, that whereas, prior to 1850, the balance of British trade was in favor of that kingdom, it has since been increasingly the other way. The imports and exports of France are almost identical. •i] 870 /A//) f/S TA'/A r. HIS TON Y It is unnecessary to point out licre tlic causes of the panic of 181,/, or to show its general resemblance to the one twenty years before. It is iiiuii^h to say here that it was preceded by heavy foreign credits, and l.v Panic of 1857. ' ,■ .■ 11 1 . the extensive investmeiU ot tc»reif,'n capital in the railroads cit ihc Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, whic:ii were called for by the sudden agricultural development of that region, and to build wiiich inunense (luantilies of rails were imported from lOngland. 'I'he general effect of that panic upon our commerce was to slightly diminish our exports, and largely lessen our imports, tin; following year; but that was about all. An attendant circumstance, if not one cause, of the panic of 1857, was the failure of the Louisiana sugar-( rop, which caused us to import $55,000,000 worth of that commodity, or five times the amount imported in 1S50. It will be seen by the following table, that while it took the coimtry full ten years to learn the lessons of the [)anic of 1837, and to recover from the eHt( ts of it, the interval from 1S50 to i860 was one of remarkable prosperity. Our total trade with foreign lands during the decade immediately preceding our civil war was more than during the twenty years prior to 1851. VEAK. DOMKSTIC FOIIEIGN TOTAL IMl'OKTS. DAI.ANi i: OK liXl'OKTS. liXl'OKTS. KXI'UKTS. ;f484,968,938 TH-\UK. I79I-I80O 5293,634,645 ;?i9i,344,293 $591,845,454 $106,876,516 I80I-IO . 383,401,077 372,536,294 755-937.37' 927.Cj('3.5oo 171,726,121; 181 1-20 . 462,701,288 127,190,714 589,892,002 688,120,347 98,228,145 1821-30 . 536,104,918 229,643,834 765.74S.752 798,633.427 30.,)55.''^^^' 1831-40 . 892,889,909 1 99.4 5 '.994 1,092,351,903 1,302,476,084 260,753,154 1841-50 . 1,131,458,801 129,105,782 1,260,564,583 1,267,783,782 7.219,199 1851-60 . 2,766,799,881 226,950,036 2.9'.. , .5.9'7 3,004,591,285 10,841,368 In estimating the influence of our civil war upon American commerce, it needs to be remembered that commerce and transportation are not identic al. Effect of civil ^Vhile it was unsafe to ship goods under the American flag while war upon the rebel cruisers were afloat, there was no interference with such commerce. tf^dc as was carried on in foreign bottoms. The rebel cruisers depredated upon our fishing-fleets, especially our whalers ; but still greater damage was done to this latter branch of industry by the marvellous and sudden development of our petroleum product just before and during the war. We may attribute to the war, then, the diminution of our exports of fish and oil. The real harm done to commerce by this internecine conflict was the Effect upon lessening of actual production and the impairment of our credit, production The former effect was most marked in the stoppage of cotton- culture, and consequently of cotton-exports. This is the princi])al explanation of the falling-off of domestic exports noticeable in the table which e OF THE UNITED STATES. 871 we shall shortly give. The < aptiirc of New Orleans opened up a small siijiply of the stored crop of i860, \vhi( h now began to lind its way to market. I'he great bulk of the hidden cotton, though, was not obtaineil until 1H05 ; and it lij;iired in the exports of the following year. For four or five years after the war, cotton-culture recuperated slowly; but since 1870 it has figured as promi- P'litly among our exports as before the war. 'I'hc impairment of credit, and C(Mise(|uent high pri( es, lessened importation ; but, when the Rebellion was supnressed, confidence in the ability of American merchants to pay recovered, ami imi)ortation increased. The total dimensions of our trade from 1861 to 1S65 inclusive was much less than iVom 1856 to i860 inclusive: but the balance of trade was even more in our favor during the war-period than during the corresponding interval before ; so that the people of the ( ountry, in the capacity of i)rivate persons, more than paid luirope for what she sold us by their labor. Two notable features of the war-period of our history were the sudden development of our petroleum-industry, and the discovery and produ( tion of the famous Comstoc:k lode, each of which is treated at length in _ , ' '' Develop- other departments of this book; but we mention them here to ment of say that the two products formed a consi)ic lous part of our exi)orts P'="°'e"'n- ' ^ ' * ' industry. during the era of which we are now speaking. Gold had fallen off in production and export ; and, shortly after the war, silver lessened gradu- ally also. The petroleum-export, however, has steadily increased. Two influences growing out of the war exerted a peculiarly stimulating effect on production, ami so increased our trade immediately upon the termi- nation of hostilities. One was the imposition of a heavy tariff on imports, which promoted manufacturing ; and the other was the invention, manufacture, and extensive use of labor-saving machinery for both agricultural and manufacturing purposes. These facilities were needed to Replace the men called off by the army and navy. When the sursivors came back, the new flicilities enabled the country to hugely augment its pro- duction in all departments of industry. The effect was to greatly increase our export of food of all kinds, slightly increase our export of manufactures, and lessen our importation of the latter. The panic of 1873 and consequent period of "hard times " were brought on by chiefly the same causes as induced the panics of 1837 and 1857. I-'irst, there was an immense over-production of manufactured goods ; Panic of second, agricultural activity had led to the construction of new '^73- railroads, notably the Northern Pacific, which were not really needed ; third, credits were vastly overstrained for personal luxury and indulgence, commer- cial extension, and speculation in oil-lands, mining-storks, and railroad-build- ing ; fourth, an inflated paper currency had imparted false values to property, which now began to shrink. That usual prelude to a panic, a remarkable excess of imports over exports, was noticeable in 1872 In 1S71 we exported War-tariff. i I*! 872 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY $50,000,000 more than we imported : in 1872 we imported $68,000,000 more than we exported. So much for causes. The effect of the panic at home was to check manufacturing, lessen credits, reduce consumption by promoting per- conal and individual economy, lower prices, stay importation, and facilitate export. Hence, on the whole, our foreign commerce has been enlarged sine e the panic ; but, as the surplusage of manufactured products has been worked off, the export trade has slightly diminished, and importation begun to revive. This and several other facts referred to in the last page or two will appear from the following table : — ^ W\ DOMESTIC FOREIGN TOTAL YEAR. EXl'ORTS. EXPORTS. EXPORTS. IMPORTS. BALANCE. I860I . $373,189,274 )iS26,933,022 $400,122,296 $362,166,254 $37,956,042 I86I 228,699,486 20,645,427 249,344,913 286,598,135 37,253,2222 1862 213,069,519 8,147,771 222,217,290 205,771,729 14,445.461 1863 305,884,998 26,123,584 332,008,582 252,919,920 79,089,662 1864 320,035,199 20,256,940 341,292,739 329,562,89s 11,729,844 1865 306,306,758 30,390,365 336,697,123 234,434,167 2,262,956 1866 550,684,277 14,742,117 565,426,394 445,512,158 1 19,914,236 1867 438,577.312 20,611,508 459.188,820 417,831,571 41,357,249 1868 454,301,713 22,601,126 476,902,839 371,624,808 105,278,031 1869 413,961,115 25.173,414 439.134.529 437,314,25s 1,820,274 1870 499,092,143 30,427,159 529,519,302 462,377,587 67, -41.715 187 1 562,518,651 28,459,899 591.978,550 541,493,708 50,484,842 1872 549,219,718 22,769,749 571,989,467 640,338,766 68,349,2992 1873 649,132,563 28,149,511 677,282,074 663,617,147 13,664,927 1874 693,039-054 23.780,338 716,819,392 595,861,248 120,958,144 187s 559,237,638 22,432,724 581,690,362 553.906,153 27,784,209 18768 ^>^^ 5,545,352 23,3".S38 708,856,890 461,818,499 247,038,391 18773 671,632,366 23,618,923 695,251,289 504,013,000 191,238,289 The necessity for finding an outlet for our excessive stock of domestic manufactures has led to much enterprise in the ,vay of reaching foreign markets formerly occupied almost exclusively by Europe. To India, China, and Brazil especially, within the past four years, extensive exportation of American goods has been effected. This is particularly the case with cotton-cloths ; although, besides tliese, we have been able to stop the sale of other foreign articles in our own markets, and compete successfully in other pa'-is of the world. Paper of all grades, from the finest stationery to the coaisest wrappings and pasteboard, now goes Necessity of finding new outlets for trade. m^^ • The figures here given for i860 and the next sixteen ye.irs are for the fiscal years ending June 30, not the calendar years ending Dec. 31. The calendar year i860 shows a balance of trade against us of thirty -four million five hundred thousand t'.ollars, which here ei.ters into the statement of the fiscal year i86i. ' B.-\lance against us. The other balances here given are in our favor. * Calendar, not fiscal year. '■'^i OF THE UNITED STATES. 873 abroad. Agricultural implements go in vast quantities to Europe and else- where. This movement is still further aided by the efforts of the State Depart- ment at Washington, under President Hayes, to utilize the consular service in finding out what American commodities might find a better market in each quarter of the globe where our nation is represented. We can give this chap- ter no more fitting conclusion, perhaps, than the following analysis ^f our export trade for 1875, which appeared in " The New- York Times : " — The value of our foreign exports can be expressed by nine figures ; but the character of that branch of our commerce, — the articles, quantities, and values embraced, — and its world-wide diffusiveness, cannot fail to vaiue of interest and instruct those not in the habit of making their own e«P«>"s. generalizations from confusing statistical tables. The entire value of merchan- dise exported from the United States during the last fiscal year, computed in national currency, was $693,039,054. The gold valuation of the same was 15652,913,445 ; which is greater than the valuation of our foreign imports for the same period by over $5 7,000,000, and the balance of trade is consequently in our favor by that amount. Many of the articles enumerated in the list of exports which are grown or manufactured in the United States are also found in the list of articles imported from abroad. The simple statement of this fact should suffice to show the folly of Americans sending their money abroad for articles which may be purchased at much lower prices, and of equally good quality, at our own mar. ifactories. As the Ur^ited States furnish the principal market for the sale of British merchandise, so Great Britain and her dependencies offer xhe principal markets for our exported productions. We sent to the markets of Quantit that nation during the last fisc year merchandise to the value of shipped to §440,945,870; which is nearly two-thirds of the entire value of all our exports for that period. Of that amount there was shipped direct to England $308,876,292, and to Ireland and Scotland 564,690,2:6. The value of merchandise received last year from Great Britain was $255,- 180,597 gold. Next to Great Britain, Germany is our best customer, $64, 344,- 622 being our receipts for her purchases. To France and her dependencies we shipped $50,485,045 worth of mercliandlse, of which France received directly over $50,000,000 worth. Spain and her colonies paid us $33,505,549, of which there was from the mother-country $11,6/1.3,715, and from Cuba * ■ j597,98i. To Belgium we sent merchandise valued at $20,197,515 ; to the Netherlands, $15,156,309 ; Pvussia, $10,284,803 ; Italy, $8,378,666; Tur- key, $2,549,493; Denmark, $2,430,791; Norway and Sweden, $2,385,088; China, $1,629,1 '.5 ; Japan, $1,808,107 ; Brazil, $7,562,852; United States of Colombia, $5,123,845; Mexico, $4,073,679; Hayti, $4,265,686; C'hili, $2,730,617; Peru, $2,518,494; Argentine Republic, $2,478,513; Venezuela, $2,384, 1 39. The countries named are the largest markets for Oie sale and consumption of our productions. The countries which purchased least from \arious countries. ;::|| 874 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY BiiKfl i us are Greece, 532,668 ; Liberia, 5i 23,463 ; San Domingo, ^5 14,633 ; and the Sandwich Islands, $623,280. If cotton is no longer called king, it is still the largest and most valualjle article of export, and brought to this country last year $211,223,580. In Shipments exchange for that large sum of money we exported 2,903,075 of cotton. bales, or 1,358,602,303 pounds. Of that quantity England alono received over 875,000,000 pounds, and paid us $136,952,187. From France we received for the same staple $27,187,222; from Germany, $17,250,000 ; Russia, $8,479,481; Spain, $8,266,178; Ireland, $3,855,303; the Nctlicr- lands, $2,779,265 ; Italy, $1,974,114. In cotton-fabrics we exported 17,872,- 22 yards, valued at $2,350,000. It will surprise many readers to learn that ' . jgland received of those fabrics 1,145,786 yards, valued at $132,857. lira/.il, however, bought most of our exported cotton-fabrics, the yards nvmibcring 2,236,950, of which the value was $291,674. France, which taxes us so heavily for fabrics of her own manufacture, bought only $8,000 of our cot.'on- fabrics ; while Germany patronized ns in that line of goods to the value of $46,000. The Chinese consumed of our cotton-fabrics 1,749,440 yards, paying us $204,354 ; which is a sum equal to twice the amount we paid China for fire- Cotton- crackers. Chili took 1,680,960 yards, and sent us, to pay for fabrics. them, $2 10,970 ; while Mexico bought 1,363,9x5 yards for $15.8,- 366. The remainder of that class of fabrics went to Asiatic and South-Ameri- can countries, the British East Indies receiving nearly $75,000 worth. The other exported articles manufactured from cotton, and not enumerated above, are valued at $745,850. Our total receipts for exported raw cotton and manu- factures of cotton foot up $215,089,081. Our imported manufactures of cot- ton for the year were valued at less than $25,000,000. Breadstuffs are next to cotton in valuation of exports, amounting to $161,- 198,864. These were consigned to nearly every nation on the globe, the only The starving European countries not receiving them being Austria, Denmark, Greece, Norv/ay and Sweden, and Turkey. Of wheat we exported 71,039,928 busheb, valued at $101,421,459; wheat-flour, 4,094,- 094 barrels, valued at $29,258,094; Indian-corn, 34,434,606 bushels, valued at $24,769,951. England receives most of our breadstuffs. 43,128,552 bushels of wheat, 1,307,286 barrels of wheat-flour, and 10,299,183 bushels of Indian-corn, went to her markets last year. Scotland received 3,903,630 bushels of wheat, 353,495 barrels flour, and 2,235,026 bushels corn ; while Ireland received 17,609,837 bushels wheat, 43,203 bane's flour, and i3,7''>4,- 814 bushels corn, which was more than one-third cfthe entire quantity of com exported during the year. France took 2,223,366 Lashels wheat, 7,260 barrels flour, and 452,951 bushels corn ; and Goimany bought 886,485 bushels wheal, 21,960 barrels flour, and 825,620 bushels corn. France bought three times as mucli flour as Germany ; while Germany miUions fed. Breadstuffs. OF THE UNITED STATES. 875 bought three times as much wheat as France, and twice as much corn. In the same time Ireland consumed six limes as much of our wheat as both France and Germany, thirteen times as much corn as both these countries, six times as much flour as France, and twice as much as Germany. Belgium received 3,709,694 bushels wheat, 72,401 barrels flour, and 84,798 bushels corn; Neth- erlands, 3,160,435 bushels vviieat, :.'6,389 barrels flour, and 51,718 bushels corn. Of barley we exported 320,399 bushels, valued at $210,738; oats, 812,873 bushels, valued at $383,762 ; rye, 1,564,484 bushels, valued at $1,568,362. Of Indian-corn meal we shipped 387,807 barrels, worth $1,529,399 ; and rye- flour, 59,820 barrels, worth $388,313. We also 'jxported 1 1,142,429 pounds of bread and biscuit, worth $6:-''/.i97, th^^ greater part of which is consumed ill the British West Indies. Belgium and Germany consumed about two-thirds of the rye exported, and Cuba more than one-half of the rye-llour. Canoda and die West Indies bought most of the Indian-corn meal ; while the British West-India islands, Honduras, and Guiana consumed over seven of the eleven million pounds of bread and biscuit exported. Peru received 135,193 bushels of barley, being over one-third of the entire quantity exported ; Eng- land took over 79,000 bushels; and 24,752 bushels went to British Australasia. One half of all the oats exported went to Canada ; the other half going to the West Indies, Central and South America, and Eastern Asia. The value of provisions other than breadstuffs exported was $78,317,087. Bacon and hams, beef, butter, cheese, eggs, lard, pork, fish, and vegetables are embraced under this head, and were distributed over the whole Q^con beef world. Bacon and ham lead the list ; 347,405,405 being the num- and other ber of pounds, and $33,383,908 the valuation. The beef was p''°^'^'°"^- valued at $2,956,676, and the 4,367,983 pounds of butter at $1,092,381 ; which is just $100,000 more than enough to pay for the sardines we imported from. Europe last year. We distributed abroad 90,611,077 pounds of cheese, which brought us $11,898,995. It may be stated here, by way c" comparison, that we paid last year for butter and cheese imported $1,354,495 gold. Eng- land is the largest consumer of our cheese, nearly 70,000,000 pounds having been the amount sent her. Ccmiany bought over 10,000,000 pounds, and ScoUand nearly 9,000,000. China and Japan each took about 29,000 pounds, and 14,000 pounds went to the Sandwich Islands. The West Indies consumed the greater portion of the remainder. Germany bought from us 64,436,920 pounds of lard; England, 33,581,107 pounds; Belgium, 28,174,335 pounds; Cuba, 22,186,472 pounds; France, 9,937,387 pounds; Scotland, 9,429,771 pounds, rhe entire quantity of lard exported was 205,527.471 pounds, valued at $19,308,019. Ireland, Russia, and Turkey are the only European countries which did not nurchase lard from the United States. Of pork we exported 70,482,379 pounds, worth $5,808,712. About one-third of the pork went to Europe. Of the West-India islands, Hayti bought 10,976,705 pounds, and Porto Rico 2,476,262 pounds. For onions exported we received $52,000, and for potatoes $471,332. 876 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY For green and dried fruits we received ;^994,i63. The dried apples ex- ported weighed 4,234,736 pounds, the valuation being $294,893. Of this Dried and • article Germany bought 2,811,915 pounds, or more than half of green fruits, all that was exported; the Netherlands bought 489,612 pounds; Australia, 226,332; England, 209,389; France, 59,358; Japan, 21,644; China, 2,371. Of green apples we sent abroad 123,533 barrels, worth $204,- 312, Of these England received 36,814 barrels ; Scotland, 27,085 ; Germany. 2,427; Sandwich Islands, 2,109; Liberia, 1,286; Australia, 300; Russia, 29; Mexico, 6,547 ; and Cuba, 4,729. For fruit other than apples we received $211,308, and for canned fruits $283,649. For iron, and manufactures of iron, we received $9,578,694, and for steel ;?4, 1 19,344. Machinery was shipped to almost every nation in the world; Iron, steel, bringing us, in return, $3,357,909. For our machinery Germany machinery, paid $908,883; England, $197,134; Scotland, $84,724; France, and tools. $17,773; Belgium, $28,532; Japan, $99,295; China, $7,228; British East Indies, $2,079; Cuba, $559,679; Mexico, $383,006; Peru, $229,564; Canada, $270,000; United States of Colombia, $208,669. We sent abroad seventy-nine locomotives, valued at $1,147,366. Of these Russia took fourteen ; Cuba, twelve ; Chili, nineteen ; Brazil, thirteen ; Canada, nine ; Argentine Republic, four ; Mexico and the Central- American States, each three ; and Peru, two. For the forty-eight stationary stearn-engines exported were paid us $74,749 : all these, except one sent to Liberia, were purchased by neighboring American countries. American sto^'es to the value of $102,398 were pretty well distributed among foreign nations, England even purchasing to the extent of $1,000. Of manufactures of steel we sold abroad edge-tools to the value of $941,016 ; cutlery, $47,162 ; files and, saws, $21,496 ; muskets, pistols, and rifles, $2,340,138 ; other manufactures of steel, $225,457. Most of our cutlery went to Canada and to countries south of the United States. England took $906 worth; France, $510; Germany, $483. For edge-tools Germany paid us $34,836 ; England, $19,425 ; France bought none. Our best market for edge-tools was the United States of Colombia, where we sold $324,121. Australia bought from us to Uie value of $122,945 ; Mexico, $113,- 697; Canada, $97,171 ; Brazil, $75, 2vi2. Austraha sent us for files and saws $4,852; Mexico, $2,812; Cuba, $2,547; Canada, $6,667; England, S703. For fire-arms England paid us $774,598 ; Germany, $288,719 ; France, $1,750 ; Turkey, $169,960; Cuba, $496,426 ; Argentine Republic, $239,192 ; Mexico, $113,846. The total value of agricultural implements sent abroad was $3,089,753. These are classified as follows : Sixty-three fanning-mills, valued at $2,645 '> Agricultural horsc-powers, fifty-nine, valued at $30,685 ; mowers and reajxTs, implements. 16,139, valued at $1,797,130; ploughs and cultivators, 17,639. valued at $236,203 ; other implements valued at $1,023,090. All the fannuig- mills went to Canada ; Chili bought all the horse-powers except one, which OF THE UNITED STATES. 877 was sent to Scotland; Oermany purchased 9,613 mowers and reapers, more than ^ne-half of all exportetl, for which she paiil $1,167,323 ; Kngland bought 3,838; France, 1,030; Sweden and Norway, 462; Russia, 187; C'hili, 171; Scotland, 146; Argentine Republic, 292; Canada, 293; Netherlands, 52; Australia, 12 : the rest were scattered over the West Indies and South America. More than one-half of all the ploughs and cultivators exported went to the British possessions in Africa, the exact number being 10,504 : Chili took 2.423; Argentine Rei)ablie, 1,938; Peru, 593; Uruguay, 697; Brazil, 237; Mexico, 132 ; Cuba, 274. (Jnly eighty-five were sent to I'lurojje, of which j'iiigland received eighty-tiiree, and France two. The Sandwich Islands bought thirteen; Australia, sixty-two; Japan, two. The miscellaneous implements were pretty widely distributed. About $300,000 worth went to Europe, and the rest to the West Indies, and to Central and South America. We exported last year books to the value of $584,950. The records of the exports show that readers of American books are to be found in all ])arts of the world. For books we received from I'.ngland $95,688; and American from Canada, who was our largest purchaser of books, $138,189. books. Germany paid for our books $26,515; France, $7,515; Brazil, $82,222; the United States of Colombia, $77,809 ; Japan, $32,664 ; the Argentine Rei)ublic, $23,821; Cuba, $23,779; Mexico, $16,207; Australia, $14,268; China, $8,758: Sandwich Islands, $4,627. Other countries purchased in amounts ranging from $100 up to the lowest sum specified above. The coal exported reached 763,402 tons, valued at $3,823,750 ; all of wliich, except about 2,000 tons, went to American countries. F'or ^tand aloof. It has not, however, been suggested by any one that the union is ever composed of the inferior order of workmen, though it may not invariably be composed of the superior. In some trades, and those requiring the greatest skill, it seems to be admitted that the union contains the great bulk of the most skilled men, as the engineers, the iron-founders, the painters, glass-makers, printers, ship-builders, and others." ^ Respecting the right to form these associations, it is just as evident that laborers have the right to combine in order to get their dues as masters have Right to '■^ resist an advance of wages. As long ago as when Adam Smith form these wrote, he said that " masters are always and everywhere in a sort associations. ^^^ ^^^^^ -^^^^^ constant and uniform combination not to raise the wages of labor above their actual rate. To violate this combination is every- where a most unpopular action, and a sort of reproach to a master among his neighbors and eciuals." This is rather too highly colored to represent the truth in the United States ; yet the statement is partially true even in respect to employers in this country. The reason for combining is to form a reserve-fund, by means of wliich workmen seek to put themselves upon an equal plane with the capitalist in Reasons for bargaining for wages. The latter, having such a fund, occupies a combining, vautage-ground in respect to the workman ; for the capitalist is a combination himself. Workmen, in combining, seek only to get what ca])i- talists already possess ; namely, a reserve-force, so that they can bargain lor > Messrs. Hughes and Harrison, Dissenting Report, p. 33. OF THE UNITED STATES. 883 their labor upon favorable terms. It seems impossible to frame an argimient for jireventing the sons of toil from doing this, unless the olil-fashioned luid txploileil idea be maintained, diat workmen are bondmen to the capitalists, who, conse(iuently, have the sole right to determine the rewards of labor. In [•'ranee, where the notion still lingers, we hear now and then of efforts U) regu- late the price of labor by law. but in no other country. Kn."dom to labor is as universally recognizeil as any other right. All have their choice to work separately, or unite and form a partnership or other organization, if they like. It was a long period before workmen in I-'ngland were permitted to form these societies, so strongly intrenched were capitalists in the legislation of the realm. In 1 799 the following act of Parliament showed the j-g^i ^^^^ willingness of that body to legislate against the coml)iiiation of relating to workmen : " Contracts entered into for obtaining an advance of * *^ ^" '"'" wages, for altering the usual time for working, or for decreasing the ([uantity of work (excepting such contract be made between a master and his journey- man), or preventing any person employing whomsoever he may think proper in his trade, or for controlling the conduct, or any way affecting any person or persons carrying on any manuflxcture or business in the conduct or man- agement thereof, shall be declared illegal, null, and void." This statute illustrates how workmen were regarded in that day. Not until 1827 did Parliament repeal all statutes prohibiting workmen from combining. I'ntil then, employers and Parliament had taken it for granted they alone could regulate wages. In France the law permitting workmen to combine was not tlecreeil imtil 1864. Prior to that period the " Penal Code " contained the most rigorous stipulations against combinations of workmen. They were characterized as misdemeanors, and the promoters of them were punished with from two to five years' imprisonment. It is fair to state that the combination of employers for the purpose of unjustly depressing wages was also declared to be illegal, though the punishment inflicted was less severe. In the several states constituting the (German Empire various laws were in force relating to the rights of workmen until 1867, when a new enactment went into operation throughout the empi.e, declaring that "all prohibitions and penal provisions directed against persons engaged in industry, trade, assistants, journeymen, or factory-operatives, on the ground of iheir co-o|)er- ating and uniting for the purpose of obtaining more flivorable wages and conditions of labor, more especially b) means of strikes or discharge of work- men, are repealed;" thus guaranteeing to the industrial classes the right to form trade-union associations. In the United States workmen have no just reason to complain ; for they have always stood upon *' z same footing with capitalists, and have enjoyed the unquestioned right tr form trade-union societies. It is true, in colonial times, the price of labor was sometimes regulated by law ; but so were the "I 'iirn I il: ,h 'I «84 INDUSTHIAl. mSTOKY trade- unions prices of every thing whirh were exchanged. I,al)or was never singled oni h the only tiling reciniring State regulation. The rights of tiie laborer luui; been as jealously guarded as the rights of those for whom he has toiled. Noi until very recently has the old doctrine been revived, that the State has a right to control the price of labor. (Jov. iJrovvn of (Jeorgia, in an annual message to the legislature of that State, did remark that " labor must be controlled by law." 'I'here is no occasion for fearing the re-establishment of this dor trine on republican soil. Liberty to contract for labor is a right too deeply groiunkd to be crushed out by the action of (lov. Brown, or by any one else holding a similar opinion. All this by way of clearing the field for intiuiring into the purpose of trade unions and the soimdness of their methods. Their purpose is twofold ; first, that of an ordinary friendly or benefit society, — namely, to afford relief to the members of the union when incapa- Object of citated from work by accident or sickness, to provide a sum for the fimeral-cxpenses of members and their wives, and sometimes to grant superannuation allowances to members disabled by old age ; second, that of a trade so::iety, — namely, to watch over and promote the interests of the working-classes in the several trades, and esi)erially to pro- tect them against the imdue advantage which the command of a large capit.il is supposed to give the employers of labor. Many societies exist having only one object in view. Some are purely friendly societies : others arc organizations for promoting the interests of mem- bers in their various trades, without any reference to their social welfare. I'or years, in all the countries of Europe, societies of the former description have flourished, while trade-unions are of recent creation. Thus we have seen that workmen in France were not permitted to combine in order to raise th(! ratr of wages until 1867; but they have helped each other in an organized way during sickness and old age, and provided for burial, and done other huniaiiL' acts, for a long period. And this applies as truly to many other countries as to France. It has been found desirable generally to unite the two purposes ; and in tliii form most trade-unions exist, especially in the United States. Considerable opposition to them as thus constituted has been manifested, be Arguments ' ' for and causc pcrsons who are friendly to purely benefit organizations, and against unit- j^og^iig to those Organized for purposes of trade, oppose socie- ties combining this double purpose. No enemies to friendly so- cieties have appeared ; for their purpose is a most noble one, and the good they have done is incalculable. The amount yearly distributed to sick members, and expended for burial and other like pur[)oses, is an eloquent testimony to the character of these institutions ; but, in uniting the two objects, trade-unions taint the sensibilities of some people, who are moved on this account to compass their destruction. ing two p poses in trade- unions. OF T//E UNITED STATES. 885 Much can be advanced in favor of and against this coupling of ends. Did tiicy remain separate, friendly societies would have the sanction and support of all ; for their usefulness none will dispute. Hesides, they would j;row ill ninnbers, and swell their income. 'I'housands who would not join trailc- unions aiming to affect the price of wages only would gladly join sot ieties of a frieiully nature. A great many workmen beyond the pale of unionism are likely to remain outside, who are desirous of joining their fellow-workers in alleviating ilistress, and, consecpiently, of laying the foundation for receiving aid in return. Moreover, benevolent men live everywhere who would willingly join friendly organizations, and contribute moral and fmancial assistance. On the other hand, trade-unions are dignified and ennobled by superadding a friendly and humane purpose to that of a trade society, 'riiough they intlict much evil, the enmity against them is somewhat softened when the good they do is remembered. Hut we cannot agree with Mr. Morrier, that the strength of the English system depends upon the two-edged purpose to which the funds of trade- unions may be applied. Doubtless they are stronger when created in this manner ; but their vitality depends upon something more ^lub- stantial than this. Nor is any moral i)rinciple viol.ited in bestowing this double function upon the society. Provided the members know what they are giving their money for, — whether sickness, burial, strikes, or any thing else, — tiiere is no oppor- tunity for practising fraud ; and they probably do know, both by personal incjuiry and by experience, how unions employ their funils. Mr. Morrier is. hardly fair in saying they are raised for purposes of peace, but are applicable to the purposes of war. It is known before they are given for what purposes they may be used. No deception is necessary, nor is it practised, in raising funds for these so^'cties. Whenever a society unites both purposes, it is evident that a separation of funds for any particular object is quite impracticable. The cry is heard every now and then that a division of die resources for friendly and trade objects ought to be made. It comes from some one who eitlier does not understand the nature of the organization, or is so keen as to see, that, by providing several funds, collision would oftener arise among the members respecting their ai)propriation, ending, perhaps, in disimion. 'I'his will appear clearly when the nature of the organization is more fully explained. Its income is derived from members, who pay a certain sum weekly, monthly, or annually, according to its rules. This sum, as remarked, is devoted to several purposes. One purpose is to provide some- j^^^^ thing for sick members during their illness ; another is termed deriving and an accident-benefit, which consists of a sum given to those who sp':"'''"^ " income. lose their tools ; while a third is a burial-fund. Resides these, some of the richer unions have additional funds for reading-rooms, libraries, donations, and charitable subscriptions. M- f'4 8S6 IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y First trade- union in United States. The !)enef>ts conf'irred often extend much farther. One of the most fre quent and costly objects of donation is to members out of work. Thi;, is occasionally so large as to maintain all the workmen of a trade during a period of disaster. During the year 1867 the engineeni of Great Britain spent almost three hundred thousand dollars in this manner, and the iron-founders nearly two-thirds of that sum. The great service thus rendered in keeping a large number of working-men and their families from the cold field of pauper'sm no one will question. The ea/liest germ of a trade-union in the United States appeared in I'hila delphia soon after the beginning of this century. In 1806 a remarl-.able trial aro.'-e from the efforts of several mem1>ers of such an association to prevent, by violent and unlawful methods, others from working. Eight persons were indicted ; and in the indictment they were charged for not being content to work at the usual prices, but for contriving to increase and augment them, and endeavoring to prevent, by threats, menaces, and other unlawful means, other artificers from vvorking at t.ie usual rate, and uniting into a club or combination tO make and ordain unlawful and arbitrary rules to govern those engaged in their trade, and unjustly exact great 3ums of money by means thereof. Eminent counsel were engaged on both sides. The account of the trial here given is taken from " Lippincott's Magazine," ' which says that the evidence showed in the clea'-est manner that a system of frightful thraldom had been put in force. A witness named Harrison stated, that, when he reached the United States in 1 794, lie found this system of terrorism prevalent. He went to .vork for a Mr. Bedford, and presently got a hint, that, if he did not join the association of journeynicn shoemakers, he was liable to be "scabbed ;" which meant that men would not work in the same shop no- l;)oard or lodge in the same hor.:,e with him, nor would they work tor the same e'lij^luyer. The case of this man seemed exceptionally hard. He made shoes exclusively ; and, when " a turn-out canie to raise the wages on boots," he remonstrated, pleading that shoes did not enter into the question, and urging that he had a sick wife and a large family. But it wa^ all to no purpose. He then resolved that he would turn a '' scab," unknown to the association, and continue his work. But, having a neighbor whom it was impossible for him to deceive, he went to him, and said that he knew his cir- cumstances, and that his family must perish, or go to "the bettei'ing-house," unless he continued to work. This neighbor, Swain, replied that he knew his condition was desperate, but that a man had better make any sacrifice thai; turn a "scab" at that time. He presently informed against him, and Mr. BedfDid (his employer) was warned that he must discharge his "scabs." He refiisid. saying, that, "let the consequence be what it might, we should sink or swini together." However, one Saturday night, when all but Harrison i.nd a nun named Logan had left him, Bedford's resolution gave way ; and he exclainiciJ, ' March number, 1876. "I don't I wish yo to set th Bedford's must ha\ removed had Mr. might ha\ gave him to his per V/niia of this dc ened, an( more of ( the foregc In th artificial the mater but depei the operf exposes i welfare, are in ind here on c dieted frc the measi tion tend are preve their wiv< The , wages ; " costs of : After experime probably conditioi much as prices, very diff( earlier pi ism in tl" and pov obtain h OF THE UNITED STATES. 887 " I don't know what the devil I am to do ! They will ruin me in tlie end. I wish you would go to the body and pay a fine, if not very large, in order to set the shop free once more." The fine offered was refused, and Mr. Bedford's shop remained " under scab " for a year. Still Mr. Bedford, who must have been a very plucky fellow, would not give Harrison up, but removed in 1802 to Trenton. Harrison stated, that although he could not, iiad Mr. Bedford given him up, have got work anywhere else, and Ihat he might have ground him down to any terms, yet he (Bedford) very nobly always gave him full price. At length, by paying a fine, Harrison became reconciled to his persecutors, and Bedford's shop was once more free. V.^'lliam Forgrave said that " the name of a ' scab ' is \ .-.y dangerous : men of this description have been hurt when out at night. ' He had been threat- ened, and joined the association from fear of personal injury. A vast deal more of evidence was given, and eloquent speeches delivered by counsel ; but tlie foregoing gives the sum and substance of the case. In the course of the summing-up, Recorder Levy said, " To make an artificial regulation is not to regard the excellence of the work or quality of the material, but to fix a positive and arbitrary price, governed by no standard, but dependent on the will of the few who are interested. . . . What, then, is the operation of this kind of conduct upon the commerce of the city? It exposes it to inconveniences, if not to ruin : therefore it is against the public welfare. How does it operate upon the defendants? We see that those who are in indigent circumstances, and who have families to maintain, have declared here on oath that it was impossible for them to hold out. They were inter- dicted from all employment in future if they did not cont- lue to persevere in the measures taken by the journeymen shoemakers. Does not such a regula- tion tend to involve necessitous men in the commission of crimes? If they are prevented working for six weeks, it might lead them to procure support for their wives and children by burglary, larceny, or highway robber) " The jury found the defendants "guilty of a combination to -aise their wages ;" and the court sentenced them to pay a fine of eight dollars -.ach, with costs of suit, and to stand committed till paid. After this early attempt at rnionism, nothing more was heard of any similar experiment for fifty years ; though this long period of repose vas not due probably so much to the result of this early venture as to other conditions. There was no need of creating trade-unions, inas- much as every person found instant employment at favorable prices. Across the ocean the conciiiion of the working-man was very different, and he sought to combine with his fellows at a much earlier period in order to secure higher wages and other advantages. Union- ism in this country attracted no attention until after i860, when its presence and power were first felt in the mining regions. Workmen there sought to obtain higher wages ; and, in order to succeed in this end, they formed them- Later his- tory of trade- uni:>.is in United States. Ill JMI^ 888 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY selves into unions, believing that they would be more likely to achieve success than if they dealt with their masters single-handed. As wages rapidly ad- vanced, the miners naturally ascribed the result tc the power of unionism ; and forthwith other unions were formed of men engaged in a great variety of pursuits. Generally speaking, wages were advanced in every trade ; and the members of these associations were swift to conclude, that, as the wages of miners had rapidly risen, it was due to the resistless power of their associa- tions. They never stopped to think that the pay of thousands of men wlio were not members of any sort of a union was also increased; that the wai^ci of household servants went up to a high figure, although no combination existed among them for this purpose. The day-laborers — whether employed ~iXi the farm, or engaged in working upon the streets, or working here and tiiere as they could find employment — all reaped higher rewards for their toil, although combinations amongst them were never dreamed of, and were indeed impossible. Whether we are right in our deductions or not, trade-unions rose as I)y magic, and sorcad themselves over every part of the country. In the larger Rapid r'lies, like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago, they growth. made their power most potently felt, and held numerous meetings, at which their principles and beliefs generally received an enthusiastic airing. Communism found many an advocate among them ; and, next to their belief in unionism in general, this doctrine has struck the deepest root in the mind of the average working-man. It is not indigenous, but purely a foreign importa- tion : yet the plant has been carefully nursed ; and, however unwelco.ne it may be to many, communism has here found a iruitful soil. Besides holding meetings, public as well as private, and discussing their situation, and, to some extent, their principles and beliefs, it cannot be said that unionism, accomplished very much in the way of securing higher wages during the first stage of its existence, if the advance ir wages to which we have referred were due to other causes than combinations among workmen. It is fair to say, however, that workmen tlieni- selvcs ascribed the rise of wages which occurred about the time of the forma- tion of their luv'ons, or soon after, to their existence. These two facts, how- ever, none will deny, — that many unions were formed between i860 and 1865 ; and, during that period, wages rapidly rose. This created the impression among the working-men that their unions were the cause of their success ; and they were led to embark in a new experiment, a brief history of which we will lay before the reader in the next chapter. Success of trade- unions. IT was a the en Their reasc ture and ment ; anc ed conside many regai one thougl contracts f the measuri pay for eigl sponding w would occi! The lav and the eff( reduced th employ al 1 formity wit which was the matter, tion of tw( cxperience( nay, desiro the men d this demar workb- of I inanufactur wh.en work )unng OF THE UNITED STATES. 88g w \ i2f their I CHAPTER II. EIGHT-HOUR MOVEMENT. IT was about 1867 when the agitation began among the working-classes for the enactment of laws prescribing eight hours as a legal day of labor. Their reason for this law was, that more time was needed for cul- object of the tiire and pleasure than they enjoyed under the former arrange- '*^' ment ; and the request to them seemed not only reasonable, but they manifest- ed considerable surprise if any one differed from them. On the other hand, many regarded the measure of no importance from any point of view, as no one thought of making the law compulsory, so as to prevent the making of contracts for a longer or shorter period of service. The chief opponents to the measure were those who feared the working-men would demand ten hours' pay for eight hours' work ; and that, if a reduction in pay were made corre- sponding with the reduction in service, strikes and other untoward difficulties would occur. The law was enacted in most of the States and by the Federal Government, and the effect thereof soon began to appear. At first the Federal Government reduced the number of hours during which the workmen in its Law every- employ al the navy-yards and other places were engaged in con- where formity with the law, yet continued to pay them the old rates ; ^^^''^ ' which was a great victory for the laborers. But there was no uniformity about the matter. In some trades the day w;.s reduced to eight hours, and a reduc- tion of twenty per cent was made in their wages. Whene\'er tliis result was experienced from the working r>f the law, workmen were generally willing, nay, desirous, of returning to the former terms of employment. In some cases tlie men demanded a reduction of hours without a reduc:tion of pay ; and tliis demand resulted in strikes, the most important of which occurred at the work^ of Messrs. Brewster & Company of New York, the fomous carriage- manufacturers. Four-fifths of the men struck, and remained idle two weeks, wlien work was resumed without any concession on the part of the em- ployers. During the year 1872 the movement reached its height ; and in all the large l^« 890 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY cities and important centres of industry there were frequent meetings among Movement the working-men, at whicli the subjected was agitated, and strikes, ■tits height, and prosecutions for violating the law, were threatened. In most of such gatherings it appeared clearly enough that the chief aim of the friends of the law was to get the same pay for eight hours' work as for ten ; which, of course, was an addition of twenty per cent to the cost of labor, — an advance which employers very generally were unwilling to pay. The clouds of tlv,' impending panic were beginning to form : some trades had already experienced a slackened demand, and this large advance was not regarded as warranted by the future prospects of business anywhere. In some cases employers were unwilling to have their laborers do less than ten hours' work per day, whatever might be the amount of wages paid them. Said a member of the firm of Steinway & Company, the famous piano-forte manufacturers, in reply to the question, "Would you agree to the eight-hour system, provided the men did not ask for ten hours' pay ■p 1) (( No : we would not agree to any thing less than ten hours, whether they wanted eight hours' pay or not." Many other employers similarly situated, or who were unwilling to reduce their production, entertained a similar opinion. Thus opposition between employer and em- ployed increased : the meetings of the latter class multiplied, at which the denunciation of employers became more frequent and violent. Everywhere strikes were threatened, and many actually broke out. In 1873 a panic swept Collapse of over the land. Many factories, furnaces, and shops were closed, movement, j^j^j thousands were thrown out of employment. The strife soon was to get work upon the best terms possible, and the cry for eight hours for a day's work ceased almost as suddenly as the cry was raised. was ascrib( would hav( these instil hour movei zations am with greatc them ; anc strikes : ne ill many ca been forme its cause. Strikes, Jacquerie 1 get an ad\ struck to r lirassey, " 1 strike in 18 in 1865, an tile United a cotton-m struck to r£ struck on One thous struck agai N.J., were ih-ed and f more to th( cordwainer ft- OF THE UNITED STATES. 89 X js p.rnong d strikes, In most le friends which, of 1 advance :1s of th'j perienccd ranted by yers were , whatever e firm of •ly to the men did thing less ;any other roduction, and eni- kvhich the vcrywhere inic swept re closed, strife soon lOurs for a § t f' i: CHAPTER III. LATER HISTORY OF TRADE-UNIONS. WE now pass on to the third stage in the history of trade-unions and of employment of labor in this country. The eight-hour movement was ascribed to the influence of these unions ; yet it i)robably ^^j^j ^^ would have taken place, just the same as strikes would, even if oftrade- these institutions had never been created. Perhaps the eight- ""'°"'- hour movement rose more speedily in consequence of the existence of organi- zations among the laboring-men, and it may be that measure^ were pushed with greater force and confidence by reason of the solidarity existing among them ; and the same thing may be said of the working-men in respect to strikes : nevertheless, these have occurred where no unions were known ; and in many cases, as we shall show before concluding this chapter, unions have been formed on the edge of a strike, and as a consequence of it, ratiier than as its cause. Strikes, which in the fourteenth century had their counterpart in the Jacquerie riots, are the last argument to which working-men resort in order to get an advance of wages. In England, workmen have oftener Result of struck to resist a fall than to secure a rise of wages. Says Mr. strikes. Brassey, " Resistance to a proposed reduction was the cause of the engineers' strike in 1852, of the strike at Preston in 1853, of the strike in the iron-tr^de in 1865, and of the strike of the colliers at Wigen in 1868." The strikes in the United States have generally sprung from a similar cause. The weavers at a cotton-mill in New York, having had their wages reduced three cents a yard, struck to regain the old price. The sounding-board makers in a piano-factory struck on account of a threatened reduction of ten per cent in their wages. One thousand operatives employed in a carpet-manufactory in. New York struck against a similar proposed reduction. The potterymen of Trenton, N.J., were on a strike which lasted several months, causing a loss of three hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars to the employers and of fifty thousand dollars more to themselves, determined to accept no reduction for their labor. The cordwainers of New York struck for a period of nine months against a pro- 892 INDUSTRIAL HISTORY posed reduction of twenty per cent ; and other instances might be noted. What Mr. Brassey has observed concerning ICnglisli strikes apphes to all those men- tioned : " Masters had found it necessary, in consequence of the depressed state of trade, to reduce the rate of wages; but the men, ignoring the circum- stances of the trade, and looking only to what they believed to be a der'rada- tion of their position as workmen, refused to accept the reduction." This remark is emphatically true of the strikes which have occurred in the United States since the panic of 1873, Profits have greatly declined ; prices in gen- eral have been heavily shrinking ; and a reduction of wages in most cases was regarded as absolutely necessary. The reduction of wages, however, has been followed by strikes everywhere of varying degrees of duration, loss, anil vio- lence. During the period when strikes were ordered to secure an advance of wages, victory crowned the measure ; but the strikes of later years to resist a fall of wages have rarely met 'vith success. It would require altogether too much space to recount the story of the more recent strikes which have occurred in the United States; and we shall, Recent therefore, allude to only a few of them. Two very notable strikes strikes. arose among the operatives of the cotton-mills at Fall River to resist reductions in wages, in which several thousands of employees partici- pated. The factories had been losing money in the manufacture and sale of goods, and a reduction of wages was absolutely necessary in order to continue the business. The operatives deemed the reductions too large ; and, while they were willing to work for less, they thought the employers demanded x larger reduction than was necessary to secure them against loss in the manu- facture of their goods. When the first reduction was ordered, it was hoped that it would be the last : but, as the prices of manufactured goods continued to decline, a second reduction soon became necessary ; and it was this which gave rise to the chief opposition among the operatives. All their efforts, how- ever, to prevent a reduction, were unavailirig ; and, what was still worse for them in the end, the most active opponents to ihe reduction were prohibited from working in the factories. A list of them was prepared, and circulated among the mills ; and the regulation was rigidly enforced. Not long after, a strike occurred in the Wamsutta Mills at New Bedford on account of a reduction of wages, which ended in the same way as the previous strikes at Fall Ri\ cr. As wages were rapidly reduced in almost all trades, strikes broke out almost daily in all parts of the country. Even the rice-fields of the South were swept with the wave of discontent; and the strikes of the worknig-men threatened. at one time, the ruin of the crop. Thus one strike succeeded another, until a climax was readied in the sum- mer of 1877, when the workmen employed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Railroad- struck for the retention of the wages they were at that time rccoiv- strikes. i,-,g^ |j^,(- which the company had proposed to reduce. The com- pany announced, that, on the \ 6th of July, their resolution would go into effect ; and, for s heard amo who were broke forth not only in a total sus other men mined not engines an lion to resi l)lied with lawlessness mobs form The goveri unable to to the Pre aid in resi (lays the tr struck, an( The attem and by the the strike, stock anil freight witl company 1 out ; thouj <;ers had a Gen. I his troops (iuard wa 2ist, the (Ired and two GaUii De'pot in to open t guns, the cars. Fo column I crowd, th hill. The side of tb so formec An at OF THE UNITED STATES. 893 ed. What hose nicii- dcprossc'd :ic circtim- a (Ifgrada- )n." This :hc United es in gcii- ; cases was , has been i, anil vio- n advance ' rs to resist ary of the >■ I wc shall, k )le strikes f River to £ :s partici- | nd sale of t 3 contniue ' and, while manded a the manu- kas hoped continued ^ this which orts, now- ■.^ e for them « )ited from ed among r, a strike reduction ''all River. lut almost 'ere swept ireatened. the sum- Railroail le receiv- rhe corn- to effect j and, for several days previous to the event, muttcrings of discontent were heard among the conductors, brakenien, and firemen, especially among those who were employed in running freight-trains. On the day fixed the slurni broke forth. The employees who conducted the freight-trains refiised to work, not only in Baltimore, but throughout the line of the road. There was at once a total suspension of transportation. The company endeavored to i)rocure other men to run the trains : but it was sc on found that the strikers were deter- mined not to allow them to move ; aid they dragged the crews from the engines and cars, extinguished the fires, .-^nd openly avowed their determina- tion to resist by force the passage of freight-trains until the company had com- plied with their demand lor rescinding the order reducing their wages. The lawlessness and violence of the strikers rapidly increased, while sympathetic mobs formed at the various points where the strikers were the most numerous. The governor soon found that the State militia which had been calletl out were unable to cope with so formidable an insurrection : so application was made to the President, who immediately responded to the call, and sent troops to aid in restoring order. 'I'he wave rapidly swept northward ; and within two (lays the train-hands of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburg also Pittsburgh struck, and stopped the movement of all trains cast and west. '■'°*- The attempts of the municipal and county authorities to restore traffic failed ; and by the evening of the 20th of July, three days after the- commencement of the strike, a large number of trains, containing thousrinds of head of live- stock and merchandise, were massed at Pittsburgh, iwery effort to move freight with the aid of the workmen who remained in the faithfiil employ of the company proved unavailing. In the mean time, the State troops were ordered out ; though, three days after the riot began, only six hundred men and offi- cers had assembled for duty. Gen. Pearson, who commanded at Pittsburgh, fearing that the majority of his troops were in sympathy with the strikers, the first division of the National (iuard was ordered to join him. At two o'clock in the afternoon of the 2ist, the first detachment of the Philadelphia division, numbering six hun- dred and fifty men, under command of Gen. Brinton, bringing with 'it two Gatling guns and a large quantity of ammunition, arrived at the Union Depot in Pittsburgh. After a short delay, to feed the soldiers, the movement to open the road began. Preceded b\ the sheriff, and carrying the Gatling guns, the troops were marched down the tracks, between the lines of freight- cars. For some distance the road was comparatively clear ; but, as the column approached Twenty-eighth Street, it met a constantly-increasing crowd, through which it forced its way into the dense mass at the foot of the hill. The lines pressed the crowd slowly and with difficulty back on either side of the road, until that portion of the tracks enclosed by tlie hollow square so formed was clear. An attenijjt of the sheriff to arrest some ringleaders who had been prom- '-■'■m 894 /JVn as TKIA L HIS TOR y m inent in the previous outrages raised a commotion, during which stones were thrown by the mob. The troops were ordered to charge bayonets, and, in doing so, came in immediate contact witii the pressing and excited mass. Several pistol-sho>.., were fired, and a volley of stones thrown from the crowd. from those on the hillside, as well as others; and violent attempts were made t(j wrest the muskets from the soldiers. Having been wedged in anion"- a surging body of rioters growing more and more aggressive, many of whom were attempting to crowd the soldiers from the ranks or wrench the muskots from their hands, and as a few moments more would have broken the ranks, and involved the individual soldiers in irextricabL' and helpless confusion among their foes, the soldiers fi.ed. Under the circmnstances, they did riLrlu to resist the atten\pt to disarm or overpower them. A soldier is stationed or commanded to move as a soldier, and has the undoubted right, in the excdi- tion of his order, to prevent himself from being forced from hi? post, or dis- armed. As soon as relieved of the pressure, the commands of i.. e officers at once stopped the firing. From proximity to the crowd, the firing was wild and high a.s well as desultory, and ^nok effect principally upon the hill. Panic-stricken, the crowd upon die hillside and adjacent streets, and imme- diately surrounding the soldier.-;, scattered in all directions, carrying with it many of the Pittsburgh soldiers ; and the main body of the rioters fell bac k along the track. In the M/'/i'e fifteen or twenty soldiers were wounded, the majority with pistol-balls, and a nimiber of the mob killed and wounded. At this time the troops were imdoubtedly masters of the situation ; and .1 determined advance in all directions, and co-operation of the civil autiiorities, would have driven away every vestige of the mob, and, by activity and care, might have prevented it from re-assembling. As it was, though unskilfully executed, the movement produced the result intended ; but, though offered a guard for each one, the railway officials were unable to move their trams, from the impossibility of finding engineers and crews who were willing to man them at that tmi-^. The troops held their ground an hour or two, during M'hich time the rioters gradually returned, and collected about in scjuads. Abc.it six o'clock the troops were withdrawn, and place 1 wholly within th round-houses and adjacent buildings. Mo pickets or guards were left o.itside. From this time on the troons M'cre kept on the defensive, which cave tiic mol-. a great and fatal advantage. The mob, ra])idly increasing in numbers ami boldness after dark, broke into various gun-stores and armor'cs, armin"' them- selves ; and a desultory firing was kept up during d)e night, without e.Vect upon the soldiers, and with considerable loss to the rioters. From that time on- ward, fo" several days, the rioters were master., of the situation. The military were tojally inadequate to quell them : indeed, he next day they felt obliged to withdraw into the open country. As no engineers could be found to run trains, u enforcements could proceed only at a slow rate • so the insurrection gained strong headwav. Mnalh-. disregarding all law, and consideration lor private pro cars, engin( I'ennsylvan in suppress these rendi manifested serve at a showed an had spent centring at all parts of In the I'hiladelph by the gre burgh, thr Dauphin C of the citi; (listurbanc road-bridg freight-trai tion, Gen. National C street- fight injured m( above fifty subsequen drawn ; b United-St: In the ing excite the roads a large bo and facto which coi and a nv rapidly gr and detei ortlered t of Angus of troop; Novenibt drawn. easily suj tones wen- t^, and, ill iti-'d iiiasx the crowd, were 111,1(1, ■ 1 anionj,' a r of whom ic miiskcis the ranks, <-onfiisi()ii y (h(I rin;ht ationcd or tlie exc( II- 'Ost, or dis- offirors at was wild n the hill. :iik1 imiiip- inpf with it s fell back [unded, the ided. ion ; and i authorities, ' and care, unskilfully gh offered heir trains, ng to man t>*' TI/E UN /TED STATES. 895 private property, the rioters began the wholesale destruction of property — cars, engnics, freight, and buildings — belonging to or in the possession of the I'ennsylvania Railroad Company. The government was called upon to aid ill suppressing the insurrection ; but only a few troops were in the East, though these rendered x'ery effective service. While several of the State organizations manifested much sympathy with the strikers, and in many cases refused to serve at all, the national troops came promptly to the rescue, and never -iiowed any signs of wavering. In a few days, however, the riot at Pittsburgh. iiad spent its force ; and on Monday, the 30th of July, the railroad companies ( entring at that point resumed business, and communication was opened with all parts of the country. In the mean time the disturbances spread rapidly over the State. In Philadelphia, by the courage and activity of the mayor and police, supported by the great body of the citizens and the press, and in Harris- burgh, through the coolness and promptness of the sheriff of riot"to other Dauphin County and the mayor of the city, and the public spirit places in and of the citizens, who responded to the call of the authorities, the °^^ °^ '^^ disturbances were speedily quelled. In Reading the costly rail- road-bridge over the Schuylkill was burned on the evening of the 2 2d, and freight-trains stopped. The Sheriff of Berks County proving unequal to the situa- tion, Gen. Reeder, with two hundred and fifteen muskets of the Fourth Infiintry, National (iuard of Pennsylvania, was sent there by (len. Bolton ; and in a severe street-fight after dark, on the 23d, — in which many of his command were injured more or less severely with stones, and eleven of the crowd killed, and above fifty wounded, — the rioters were dispersed. These troops, having been subsequently demoralized by the action of the Sixteenth Regiment, were with- drawn ; but the next day (the 24th), upon the arrival of a detachment of Tnited-States troops under Col. Hamilton, the road was re-opened. In the middle coal-field of Luzerne County, the miners, under the prevail- ing excitement, struck on the 25th of July, and all trains were stopped upon the roads runnhig through that region. At Scranton, on the ist of August, a large body of men, endeavoring to drive the workmen from the railroad-shops and factories, were courageously dispersed by the mayor and his posse, m which conflict that officer was severely injured, and three of the rioters killed and a number wounded. As the trouble was serious and threatening, aiul rapidly growing beyond the control of the mayor and his small force, brave and determined as they were, the first division, under Gen. Brinton, was ordered to that region, followed immediately with other forces ; and on the 31! of August the railroads were once more put into regular operation. A body of troops, regular and militia, were stationed Miere until the early part of November, when, all fears of any disturbances bei.ig removed, they were with- drawn. Slight outbreaks which had occurred in various other places had been easily suppressed eitlier by the local authorities or the presence of the United- i . k I til I, 1-; ■(( i 896 IND US TRIA L /IIS TOR Y States or State troops; and before the micklle of August all the railroads throughout the State were running on schedule time, and by the early part of November all manifestations of lawlessness hail disap|)eared. It was in Pennsylvania, and csi)ecially at Pittsburgh, that the riot rose to its greatest height, was the most destructive, and was least easily (juelled. On the 2ist of July the wave rolled into tlie State of New York, and was first felt along the line of the New-York and l'>ie Railroad. Shortly after, trains were stopped on the New-York Central Road, and large and excited crowds of mk". gathered at Albany, Syracuse, Buffalo, Hornellsvillc, Corning, lOlmira ; while llu peace of the city of New York even was seriously threatened. The governor ordered the entire force of the National Guard to hold itself ready to move ;u a moment's notice, and several regiments were ortlered to various parts of the State. The prompt action of the governor, and the discipline and efficiency manifested by the troops, had the good effect of speedily subduing the disturb ance ; and, within a week, order was restored throughout the State. But little commotion was experienced in New lOngland, and no trains wen- interrupted by rioters. In the West, however, serious delays occurred, thuuyh nowhere was such violence practised as in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Man)' trains were stopped. In some cases, the reduction of wages which had been pro[)osed did not take place ; and overtures of one sort and another were made satisflxctory to the railroad employees, and thus their anger was appeased. Having originated among this class of working-men for the most part, the rioting extended no farther ; though, in Pittsburgh, others, to some extent, participated. They were aggrieved over the reduction of their wages, ami thought that various changes in the arrangement of the railroads ought to be made before calling upon them to accept any lower compensation for their services. Their reipiests having been refused, and their reason becoming dethroned, they j ursuetl a wild course, which proved, perhaps, more in- jurious to them than to any other class of people. It was one of those wild, thoughtless movements which every now and then break out when least ex- pected, and which give a great jar to society ; out this last blaze went tlown as suddenly as it arose, because it did not spring from any fuel which could burn long. It was only a flash, terrible for the moment, blinding, bewildering, and frightening many, yet leaving no dangerous residuum. There are persons who tremble over the possible recurrence of these scenes; yet the public is so alive to the danger, on the one hand, and those who indulged in them must W so convinced of their folly, on the other, that the repetition of this singular outbreak is not likely soon to occur. The consequences of striking ofttimes have not been very carefully < 011 Effects of sidered before engaging in them, otherwise many of these occar- strikes upon rcnces nevcr would have happened. In Antwerp there were ai business. ^^^ ^^^^^^ nearly fifty establishments devoted to the manufacture of cigars, and employing about ten thousand workmen and apprentices. During \he summ fictting a (tiring a ( so that tl restmied It had rec had been where wlu Ww years r strikes ofL^^anizati the wage greatest 1 OF rilE UNITED STATES. .S(;7 I .' railroads irly pan of iot rose to cllcd. On as first fell trains wcro 'ds of IIK". ; while tin- e governor move at arts of the cfificicncy he disturl)- trains were ed, though ia. Many had been other were appeased. t jjart, the me extent, vages, and ight to be 1 for their Ijeconiinj,' more in- those wild, 1 least ex- it down as oidd bnrn lering, and arsons will) iblic is so m mnst In- is singular efully coii- ese occur- •e were at ifactnre of I. During the summer of 187 1 all the operatives instituted a strike for the purpose of {letting a reduction of working hours, though not of wages ; and also of pro- curing a discharge of the apprentices. Means were furnished to the operatives ; so that the strike was prolonged for four months and a half, when work was resinned. In the mean time, what had happened to the Antwerp cigar-trade? It had received a serious blow from which it has never recovered. Those who had been accustomed to obtain a supply of cigars from this (juarter went else- where when their demamis could not be fulfilled, and have never returned. A few years ago a strike occurred in the State of Nevada, which led to tin' same disastrous conclusion. In the silver-mines of Grass Valley, three hundred ("ornish miners who were receiving four dollars a day struck upon the intro- duction of a new kind of blasting-powder which was found to effect a consid- erable saving of labor. They insisted upon following the Cornish system of mining : the result was, that the mines were closed forever. 'I'he pottery- men of Trenton, N.J., by indulging in a strike which entailed a direct loss of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars upon their employers, and fifty thousand dollars upon themselves, crippled the business so severely, that it has not yet recovered ; and, while the loss has been keenly felt by the proprietors, the workmen have been the greatest losers. With the sharp com- petition now raging in every kind of business, it is sensitive even to the slightest shock ; and, when so violent an interruption occurs as a strike, the conse- (piences not infreipiently are severe and lasting. The foregoing illustrations are only a few of the many which may be given. Terrible as strikes often are, they cannot always be laid at the door of trade- unions. Many entertain tlie opposite opinion ; and it is desirable to present the truth upon this jjoint as clearly as possible, even if considerable space be rccpiired for the purpose. All the members of the Trade- unj'onJnoj Unions Commission were in accord on this point concerning lOng- always re- lish strikes, and the language used in the leading and dissenting sp°"^' '^ f*"" > o o o o strikes. reports is almost the same. To quote from the chief one : '•' It dues not appear to be borne out by the evidence that the disposition to strike on the part of the workmen is in itself the creation of unionism, or that the frequency of strikes increases in proportion to the strength of the union. It is, indeed, affirmed by the leaders of unions, that the effect of the established societies is to diminish the frequency, and certainly the disorder, of strikes, ami to guarantee a regularity of wages and hours, rather than to engage in constant endeavors to improve them." This evitlcnce throws into bold relief a good feature of trade-unions. Admitted ui)on the best authority that they are not the authors r ■! 1 1 , Richest of strikes, the strongest, richest, and most extcndid of these ur.ionshave organizations hp.ve had the fewest strikes nn'i disputes ; while fcwc;;t the wages of their members and their hours of labor show the greatest permanence. Tlie Society of l^ngineers, of which Mr. Allan is sccre- 1. 1 ■' 'i r \ •^!;.v 89S INDUSTRIAL HISTORY tary, is very numerous, embracing the prin(;ii)al portion of the workmen engaged in that business in (Ireat Britain. At one time the society had ;i reserve-l'imd of seven lum(h-ed and fifty thousand dollai-s. So great is their power, that Mr. 15eyer, a partner in one of the largest iron-fotmderies iu lOnglanil, represented liimseh' as wholly in the control of the union. I5iit their wages, notwithstanding their power, have been scarcely raised for twenty- five years, except by the voluntary act of their masters. 'I'he feeblest unions — those just struggling into existence perhaps, or \vhi( h have the least control over their members — oftenest indulge in strikes. Not _ . , infreciuently unions are formed when the spirit for strikincr is rifi- ; unions btrikc and, conseciueully, they are charged with instituting strikes wlii(h most fre- wouKl havc happened whether unions existed or not. When men qucntly. are dissatisfied with their wages, they can easily subscribe a suiall fund for the purpose of striking, and create a union which is not intended to exist beyond the occasion giving it birth. The proceedings of such bodies ought not in justice to be charged to the regularly-constituted union. It is said of the ICnglish tailors' r.nd iron-workers' unions, that they " never possessed the power or the i)ermancnt character of such societies as the Amalgamated Engineers and Amalgamated Carpenters ; " and these are the trades in whi( h the loudest complaints are heard of the frequency of strikes. Numerous strikes and lockouts have occurred in the coal-mining districts of \Vales and Derbyshire; but no unions have flourished in those regions. Tn the United States most of the unions are young, hardly in working-order, having no accu- mulated funds, the discipline exercised being exceedingly lax ; the machine in every way bearing evidence of hasty and rude construction. While they ha\e wrought mischiefs which cannot be excuscil, yet wc may, in a spirit of fairness, believe that many of these wouUl not have arisen had the unions been in longer and more perfect ojicration. During the years 1875 and 1S76 many unions were created in the United States during strikes, or with special reference to them. The societies grew out of a striking disposition, but not the strikes from the creation of the unions. Nevertiieless, the hated trade-unions arc unjustly accused of originat- ing grave evils which would have happened in any event, As these organiza- tions grow older and more stable, and select more capable leaders, they will be managed with greater wisdom, and capital will havc less cause to fear iIkih, It is (luestioned whether the diminished frequency of strikes among jiower- ful unions arises less from want of disposition to strike on the part of the nieni- Dostroirrcr '^^'""^ \\\'^\\ from the fact that their organization is so powerful, as. iu unions abuse most cascs, to obtain the concession demanded without recourse their power ? ^^ ^|^j^ mcasurc. Perhaps this is so ; but surely it will not be denied that the Trade-Unions Commission, who raised this query, did not glean a scintilla of evidence upon the point in their most thorough and in every way credital)lc investigation. We can comprehend what influence these poucrtui OF THE UNITED STATES, «99 better gufiied. or'^ani/alions could exert if they cliosc, and liow masters had better submit ID itu'ir demands, tiu)U','l» declaiin;^' tliein wrong, tiiaii go tliroiigli tiie painful lUKAMtainty of a strike. [\\ srveral instances, masters liave conR-ssed iIrmh- sclves wiliiiii tiie power of trade-uuions : if tiiis he true, tiiey could ol)tain new concessions widioiit a conflict of any kind. Possibly, if several of the socie- ties were lesa strong, they might not have received sonje of the benefits which have come to them i)eaceably, and perhaps none at all. Let us not forget, though, that there is no evideiu e ou ihe subject; and in the absence of this the question is purely s[)eculative, and cannot receive a definitive answer. 'I'he reason why the richer and more powerful unions moderate the dispo- sition f(jr strikes is not merely to conserve their funds, nor Ix'cause they oi)taiu concessions by reason of their power, bi;' because they are more ^ •' ' ' •' Stronger wisely conducted than the newer and smaller organizations. The unions are government of each branch f)f the union is vested in a committee and local secretary elected from time to time by the membc.s; while the government of the whole society is commonly vested in a general or executive council elected by the branches, and a general secretary elected by universal suffrage of the entire organization. Uolh the executive council and the committee of the several branches are re([uired to govern them- selves according to established rules; and, when these do not exist, they must rely upon their judgment, subject to an apj)eal to the general body. Instituting and conducting strikes is the most important function of every well-organized union's council. It is ihesc councils which have toned down the disposition of workmen so much in regard to strikes; for, gener- ally, the best men are selected for these places, — men of the most intelli- gence, and who are tiie best ca[)able of ascertaining the condition and profits of the business in wliich workmen are LMupiojed. These leaders, from their superior knowledge and capability to [\\v{ out the true condition of busi- ness, can judge better than the members; and henci; it is that strikes among the larger and more wisely-conductetl unions are diminishing. And this we regard as a very hopeful feature of trade- unions. One thing tlie toiling c:lasses need is correct information concerning tlie business in wliicji tiiey are engaged, Tliey imagine tlieir em[)loyers are getting very ricli oftentimes, when they are running at a lois, though keeping the fact concealed. 'ihe strikes wliich occurreil in tlie cotton-mills of New ICnglaiul during 1875 arc unanswerable proof of this remark. Most of them had earned no profits for several months; yet the operatives in several cases unwisely demanded an increase of wages. Had they kno\-'i any thing about the condition of trade, they would have comprehended t!:C folly of asking for an advance when employers were keeping them l)usy at a loss. * Personal knowledge or wise leadership would have saved them from a contest with their employers which was sure to end in the laborers' defeat. They were the dupes of ignorant and wild leaders. i 900 IND US TRIA L HIS TOR Y instead of wise and temperate ones ; and behold the result ! Every one wha knew any thing about the condition of the cotton-trade was certain the .strilic.-i would end in failure ; for, in fact, the owners were (luite as willing to have the men unemployed as not. PrejudicL- and ill feeling between employed and employer help kindle the laboring-man's imagination respecting the profits accruing l/om his labor. Now the leaders of vmions are in a situation to learn more perfectly the exact nature of things, and this is vdiy they advise- more peaceful measures. Here a streak of light issues from these organizations, especially since tlie establishment of boards of arbitration and conciliation for the settlement of How unions differences between men and masters. Members having coiifi- aid concilia- dencc in their councils are able to submit questions to third parties for settlement. They could do what would be impossible v.ero they unorganized. Should all the men in a shop strike, and the attci^iiJt be made to leave the differences between them and their masters to sunie person for arbitration, ii.e diffi'.ulty would be in organizing the workmen for consultation ; and even were a temporary organization formed, and rei)rcsc'i- tatives selected from it to confer Viith their employer, they would not commnnd such confidence as those vlio were recognized as leaders, and thoroughly knowing the condition of business. It is asserted that these very councils foment strikes when they ought not. Being paid officers, they regard it as part of their duty, it is said, to ad\ ise Do councils Striking occasionally. This is thought to be dieir occupation foment They are chosen to wage war, not to maintain peace, 'i'iicse notions are erroneous. Only a very few persons connected wiili trade-unions receive any pecuniary reward ; nor do they constantly agitate for higher wages and other benefits. This we suppose they do, in some cases ; yet it is quite clear, that, in general, the tendency of their advice and counsel is to moderate the striking disposition of those under their direction and control. Strikes began long before trade-unions were ever thought of: they are inci- dentul to coUeclin'.; men in masses as they have been collected l)y the ercctic^n of foctories. The union doer, give an increased power of striking: it can deal a hauler blow ; but, instead of giving it, an increased sense of order, suhonli- nation, and reflection, is exhibited. Does any one OF THE UNITED STATES. 903 of trade-unions. Very likely they ought to disband ; perhaps there is no excuse for llieir existence : but it must be remembered that these are not the thoughts of unionists themselves. They believe in the necessity of organization in order to secure and preserve their rights ; and as long as they do, thougli many more u'sasters may befall them, and severer ones than those which they have yet experienced, trade-unions will probably live, and perhaps thrive even the more because of their defeats. f i \ i .• •, % % II BOOK VII. wfw.tiafcwAiifiimiwiii THE INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. <*<^ IT is pi to the of tlic Ur connected not been i nc\vsi).ipji ni:in'.i facta of the woi taken plac lament th: ent tale, occupied duces 80, over 200, of $250,0 annually, have bus) Her intlu developm ployed, related wi admiratio Dominioi At pn to the pe industry ' easiest a: train a v: &c., who blc. Th i m^ ^V;- THE INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. IT is proposed in this book to make a brief general statement in regard to the industries of the nation wiiich is growing up on the northern border of the United States, and with wliich tliis country is intimately importance connected l)y ties of race, language, trade, and destiny. It has of Canadian not hccn unusual of late years to observe laments in tlie Canadian newspapers to ihe effect tiiat Canada has no industries. Certain branches of manufacturing which are carried on extensively in America and in other parts of the work! ar'> r.ot yet practised in ("anada, and general development has not taken place as rapidly as south of the St. Lawrence. Noting tiiis fact, writers lament that Canada has no industries. The government statistics tell a differ- ent talc. Surely a land richly endowed by nature, and happy in being occupied by a free, intelligent, and active-minded race, which already pro- duces 80,000,000 bushels of grain yearly, 15,000,000 gallons of ])etroleum, over 200,000,000 cul)ic feet of lumber, 800,000 tons of coal, and a value of $250,000,000 in general manufactures, whose fisheries yield $12,000,000 annually, and which exports in a f;xir year $89,000,000 worth of goods, must have busy and proP.table industries. Such is, indeed, the case witii Canada. Her industries arc numerous and varied, have attained a most satisfactory development, and I're fully sufficient to keep her population profitably em- ployed. The story concerning th'.'m is interesting, and will now be succincUy related with a pen which wiii not a' any rate fiiil in its task from any lack of admiration for what has been accomplished by the spirited people of the Dominion. THE FISHERIES. At present the fisheries constitute the greatest individual source of wealth to the people of Canada. Not only do they employ more men in profitable industry than any other pursuit except farming, and not only do they form the easiest and least ex])ensivc of occui)ations, but they carry in their Magnitude of train a variety of other industries, like ship building, transportation, ^^'^ fisheries. &r., whose prosperity they insure. T'ley are, besides, practically inexhausti- ble. The Gulf Stream, flowing northward near tiie Am.erican coast, is met in 907 ■ y 908 THE INDUSTRIES OF CA^/ADA. I' tall \\\>\ vicinity of Newfoundlaml l)y currents from tlic pohu basin ; and by ilm deposits which take place at tlic meeting of the opposing waters are formed vast submarine islanils, or " l)anks," whose shallow waters are the feeding- grounds of immense siioals of migratory fish which resort thither annually. The reproductive powers of some of the varieties, the cod i)articularly, arc very great ; and there is a probable impossibility that these species can ever be destroyed by human means. 'I'hc wiiole sea is their breeding-ground. 'I'lu-se li^ih are not found on tlie banks p!ou - : they visit the (iulf of St. i.awrctK , and the siiores of all the •■ ".•itimv . lovi^ ces of Caiiada, in 'uilimited nuinl)eis . i.nd tl.e (luantity 'i .liem ;,'•■'! be .aken forages appears to depenil only on the efforts tiiat will be pi' 1 "ii the purpose, 'I'his remark refers more particularly to the cod, mack,: \, anc' ' 'iring. Certain of the inshore varie- ties, migratory and otherwise, such as uit salmon, shad, smelt, and lobster, have shown a susceptibilty to decrease with excessive fishing; but they still exist in enormous numbers, and their capture engages the services of thousands of men annually. These latter fisheries the (lovernment of the Dijminion is taking steps to restore by breeding and by prolecti\e laws ; and they show such a capability of responding to fostering measures, that they, too, may he termed practically inexhaustible, llesides the salt-sea fisheries, there are others in the interior, upon the lakes and rivers, which are very profitable in their way, and employ a great many men. The people of the maritime provinces arc peculiarly fitted by origin aiul training to turn to account the advantages of their geographical situation. Early de- '^^"^^ early French, Spanish, and Portuguese navigators of tliese veiopmentof coasts, all discovered the plcntiiulness of the fish in the neighbor- ustry. jj^^ ^^^.^^^ ^^^ ^Y^^ unlimited abundance of the herds of walrus ;iiiil seals which swarmed on the islands of the (lulf of St. Lawrence. As early as the first i)art of the fit'teenth century they were aware of the great sources of wealth which surrounded these shores. The reports they made to their respec- tive governments brought whole fleets of fishing-vessels to their waters : ami in i)rocess of time the hardy adventurers, instead of coming out in the spring and going back in the fall, as they were wont to do at first, went ashore, and settled permanently on the fishing islands and coasts. This was particularly the case with the French, who swarmed to this region from the Norman, l]as(iue, and Breton seaports in great numbers, and became permnncnt resi- dents of the country. The most extensive fisheries of the early times were Disappear- ^'''•-^ walrus, scal, and cod ; but, when the former two had nearly ance of the disappeared, the setUers fell back upon cod, herring, and mackerel. wa rus. (^Ji-eat Ilritain finally contributed her quota to the population of the maritime provinces from her own fishing-ports ; and thus the country was taken possession of by a body of energetic men, who, though of diiTcrmt nationalities, were one in their love for the sea and the past training \\lii< ii fitted them for the cultivation of the rich fishing-grounds which they had 1 unic over here c\en de ;>u lion al begaii '■ of all th( r lUit, wl- e a ver; co nevc'lheles will be. The „. the Canadi lows ; the table, as 1 r ])endent of y' i Gaspe . lion., .cnturc Labrador fy-"" Magdalen Is Aii'icosti Isl ■■^ St. lawrcna i' Nova Scoti.-'. % New lirunsw 1 I'riiicc luhva t; Ontario . Manitoba ■t; liritish Colli Total Ncwfoundla It is w suits have 1873, the net year b limes : on and active growing d in the rn;i powerfiil ; fresh fish in barrels THE INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. 909 and over here to enjoy. Agriculture was for a long period neglected, and, in fact, even (ie j'ised. 'i'he wIkjU' populat'jn was sustained by tli<.' lisheries and naviga- tion ;il . 'I'his state of ihings clui:.ged after a .vhile : ft.rtlic more far-sighted begaii ♦■ le U' the land, and raise grain aiul cattle, in order to take advantage of all th( resources c*" their situation; and the\ lound tiieir profit in so doing. Hut, wl '.'e this hange has continued to go on until agriculture has received :i ver; considerable development in the maritime provinces, fishing lias, nove'-lheless, always b -'in 1' .• main-stay of the people, and apparently always uill he. 'The government report for the year 1S77 shows die magnitude to which the Canadian fisheries have now attainetl. The figures are as fol- statistics lows ; the statistics for Newfcjundland for 1874 being added to the '<"" '874- table, as properly belonging tiiere, although the island is still politically inde- pendent of the Dominion : — DISTKICTS. BOATS. VAI-im OF IIOATS. I'lSIIICH.MEN. SIIOKEMEN. VAi. r . 1' ";t. (laspc .... 2,970 j52i3,ooo 3.306 1,674 % 1 6, 309 lion., .cnture . r.iii 204,000 '.455 247 -■■-'5 Labrador 1,865 4 1 6,000 2.795 1,281 954,285 Maj;clalcn Islands . /67 252,000 1,500 597 366,170 Amicosti Island . 375 29,000 416 n7 '35-352 St. lawrcncc River 1,840 2 1 ,000 3,061 . a • ■ 362,314 Nova Scoti.a . 11,064 1,504,000 ^S.-'^SQ .... 5.527.'^58 New Brunswick 3.710 285,000 8,307 .... 2.133.236 Prince I'^chvard Island . 1,486 77,000 4,285 .... 763.035 Ontario .... 1,267 68,000 j^^'^n .... 43''i.223 Manitoba .... 24,023 British Columbia . 161 26,616 1 1 ,000 444 55.295 7-5 .+ ,661 S''^3.432 Total 53.080,000 $12,034,952 Newfoundland • 1 2,000 32,000 9,000,000 It is worthy of remark, that, whereas manufacturing and many other pur- suits have been obliged to ciulail production since the fiush times prior to 1873, the fisheries of Canada have steadily increased their prod- increase of net year by year. There has been no falling-off owing to the hard product times: on the contrary, the market for fish becomes more eager ^'"'■'^ ' '3" •md active every year ; and the larger catch is merely tlie response to a growing demand. The completion of the Intercolonial Railroad Effect of in the maritime provinces within the last few years has l)een a inteicoionia! powerful auxiliary to the fishermen. Tlie difiiculty of distributing fi-esh fish in former years compelled the fishing-people to salt down their catch in barrels, or preserve it by canning, in order to save it, and get it to a 'it LI li s I \ ■^7' ■'31. I'l 910 THE /A'DUSTK/ES OF CANADA. market. Ry the opening of the Intercolonial Railroad they an; now enabled to transmit salmon, cod, halibut, lobsters, and (jther fish, fresh, and paelu.'d in ice, from the shores of the Oulf of St. Lawrence and other fishing-coasts to market in a ^^\s hours, and at greatly reduced prices. This has rendered ihf trade more prolitable by reducing the expense of transportation, and has led to its expansion by bringing th.e catch into the centres of population in a per- fectly fresh state. The same results may be expected when the parts of Canada more distant from the sea-coast are better united therewith by the future railroails of the Dominion. 'I'here will be an enlargement of the market for fisii, and a consecpient increased activity among the i)ursuit of the treasures of the fishin;; banks and coasts; there will be less canning and salting, and more packin ' in ice (something of this sort being already seen in the abandonment of can- ning and salting establishments in New Brunswick) ; and there will be ni(;rc boat-building, more freighting by rail and ship, more training of hardy seamen for the merchant-marine, and a largci body of non-agricultural people to pur- chase the produce of the farms. Statistics The following table will show the character and yield of the for 1877. different fisheries of the Dominion (Newfoundland being omitteil), the figures being for the year 1877 : — FISH. Codfish Herrings Miickcrcl Haddock Salmon Alcwivcs, Ijbls. ........ SnK'lts, ll)s I,()l)stcrs, ])rcscrvcd, lljs. Oysters, l)l)ls Fish .Tnd clams for bait and manure, bljls. . Fish-oils, galls Seal-skins, pieces Pollack, cwt Hake, cwt Halibut . Trout Whitc-fisli Shad Whale-oil, galls Cod-oil, galls. All other fish and products, including fresh and salt water varieties, the catch in each case never exceed- ing ;?6o,ooo OUANTITIES CAUGHT. 'So '3 2,2G6,:o2 8,085,569 29,S6S 222,379 466,579 20,312 58,7.(6 77.454 1.3.7 1 iJ 225,129 VAl-LH. 1,522,091 i,667,Si5 475.:-- 855,687 67,298 I35''>7- i,2i:,S;5 f;s,7c., 195.7-4 30.3.-713 4.3.9' 5 205,61 1 271,090 4'^-, J- 173-499 210,(1:5 £0,250 6,N5S 112,514 79S'4'9 i5i 2,03-1,95' It'. At Ni r.ilmon, 1 the caicii 107 vessc of these vi Cod-fi provinces shore in > of St. Lav aS well as boats nea paratively Newfound American' built large avoided b understan along the been filtir of their a the whole periods o these varii shore in found eit other. S cry-office! grounds, ciated b) for the abiuulanc ble living more an: than cou United i: that is, u in the gii market ture of ( been lac in the bi The of bait, THE INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. 911 VAI.LH. i,5:;;,or;i i,C67,.St5 475.r-2 S55,6S7 67,29s '.)5''>72 195.7-I 30,).-7fJ co5,(ji I 271.090 1 •-". - -< > H' •, J- '7:.i'i9 b'o,:-" 1 1-0'- 1 Cod-fishing. At Ncwfoiindhiiid the principal fisheries arc of cod, seal, herring, and ri-ilmon, ranli( al of boats. causes, operate to make the shore-fisheries uncertain ; and. when the coil arc scarce, the fishermen are restrained from pushing out to the banks, where they might always load their vessels, by the small size and frail character of their boats. It is also held, in some of the iirovinces, that great injury has been done by the United-States fishermen by their over-eager pursuit of mackerel, which has Trawl- served at times for bait, and by the American practice of trawl- fishing, fishing offshore, which secures to the Americans the best and largest cod, and otherwise injures the cod-fishery for the C'anadians. 'I'iie ■^' t T//K //^Di'STK/KS OF CAAADA. 9'3 trawl or hiiltow I'lshinj^ is carried on by a Ion;; ropi- l)Uoyi'iuess ha.s been already exhibited in the figures for 1873. In 1877 they fitted out twenty-four steamers manned b\ 4,000 men. and thirty- six .sailing vessels with 2,658 men, and despati'hed them all to the ice-fields. 'I'hey had great success, taking 412,000 seals, whose pelts sold from a dollar and twenty-five cents to a dollar and fifty cents, and whose oil sold for forty-five cents a gallon. They were taken chiefiy in the neighborhood of Newfoundland, where the captains said they saw thirty seals to one in (Green- land. The outfit for these sealing-voyages is very expensi\e. It includes houses, stores, trying apparatus, \:c,, on the land ; craft with nets, harness, lead, anchors, guns, boats, (!vc., and provisions for the men. The cost of steamers is greater than that of sailing-vessels ; but there is a gre Aer certainty of success, because the vessel can poke its way around among the ice-fioes, regardless of wind and tide. Half the carg< goes tvi the owners, the other half to the ship's crew ; the captain taking half of that half, or a ([uarter of the whole. One of the steamers sent out in 1877 got a cargo worth i^i 20,000. The Newfound- land (lovernment does not permit steamers to sail for the ice-fields before the loth of March, this rcTulation l)eing designed to prevent too great a slaugh- ter of the seal. I'rom the islands of the gulf sealing is carried on from shore by nets, bv a few schooners from forty to eighty tons' burden which seek r| I. i 916 TfU'. INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. the floating ice in the gulf, and by kiUing the game on the ice grounded ne:u shore. (Ireat danger attends the latter practice. 'Die sight of a field of ice covered with these valuable animals, whose slaughter is so easily effected by a blow on the nose, and whose furs are so precious, throws the fishermen on shore into a fever of reckless excitement ; and they rush at the chance of gain, forgetful of the fragility of the links which h(jld the field of ice to the shore. A change of tide or wind is apt to loosen the field, and carry it off to deej) water ; and the deatii of the hunter, who is too far away to regain the shore, is almost an absolute certainty. A great many lives have l)een lost bv impru- dence in this direction. Five seals are taken on the ice, however, to one caught in the nets; and the temptation to go out n])on the fioating fields is one which no true (Canadian ever neglects. Very little attention was ])aid to the lobslcr-lisjicry in Canada tmtil llu- grounds where that crustacean is caught on the American coast began to be Lobster- exhausted. The great fisheries took up all the time of the Cana- fishing. (bans ; and this rare and delicate shell-fish, so highly ])ri/e(l in the States, was c-aught by them only to a small extent. When the Maine and Massachusetts coasts had become almost depopulated of the lobster, the lirnis engaged in canning repaired to the adjoining coast of Nova Scotia, unwilling to give up a business which was exceedingly profitable, and for whose prodin is there was a lively demand in American families. l>y 1S76 there had been Canning- forty-seven canning-factories brought into o])eration in Nova factories. Scotia (.American anfl Canadian) between Cape vSable and Sambro alone ; and others were in profitable o])eration on lYince i'.dward Island. along the Hay of I'^undy, and on other fishing-coasts. l'".xcessive fishing soon reduced the number and size of the loltsters, until it required, on an a\erage. two lobsters and a half to produce meat enough to fill a pound can, the crude fish weighing only from two to four i)Oun.)s. About six or se\en years ago the packers thought of taking a look at the gulf coasts, and, to their delight, found certain ])ortions of them swarming with shell-fish. No Cana- dian had yet taken advantage of this mine of wealth, whic:h would yield such large profits to the first companies which should undertake the business. There was a clear field for enterprise ; and an .Xmerican firm opened a canning- estaolishment in 1874 at Carlcton on the Bay des ('haleurs, while a Halifax concern started another at the Magdalen Islands. Other firms soon fi)llowe(l. and there was a furore in the business. The profits made for die first two or three years were dazzling. The fish were large, often weighing from ten to fourteen |)ounds, — a noble size compared with those of the puny lobsters on the American and Nova-Scotia coasts. Inconsiderate fishing, however, com- pletely ruiu'd the grounds at Carleton, Maria, Bonaventure, New Richmond, and other places ; and the same thing followed which had ])reviously taken place \\\ Nova Scotia, — canning-establishments had to be abandoned, and the •firms had to move to new waters. 1S69 1870 1S72 1873 1874 1S75 1876 1877 fc. ■ ' ■*iittW iti:ff i W *ww«fe?fra''iJ'"'i^ THE INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. 917 m. In 1874 no less than 216,432 pounds of lobsters were canned at Carleton and iVIaria; but only 9,315 pounds at the latter place in 1875, and in 1877 none at Carleton. The factory at the latter place was completely given up. At the Magdalen Islands the Halifax concern opened establishments which rivalled in size the largest anywhere on the North-Atlantic coasts. It caught very large lobsters at first, and made enormous profits. The fish were tou eagerly pursued, however ; and the catch of 240,000 lobsters in Decrease in 1876 yielded only 124,000 pounds of meat. In 1877 the firm's quantity, three establishments caught 692,760 lobsters; but the smaller size of the fish resulted in a product of only 227,104 pounds of canned meat; the large catch and the reduced size of the lobsters indicating a probal)le extinction of the fishery at an early day, unl'^ss measures are taken to give the grounds a rest, or protect the bpccies from incoilsiderate fishing. The eagerness with which the lobster has been and is fished in Canada is shown by the yearly increase of the catch after the Americans first resorted to the Nova-Scotian coast, by the decrease caused by excessive fishing, and by the revival of the business after the catch began in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The figures are as follows : — 1S69 1870 1S71 1872 ,■> 1874 •^75 - 1876 1877 rouNus (in cans). 61,000 591,500 1,130,000 3-565.863 4,864,998 S,047.957 6,514,380 S.373.o8« 8,090,569 #15.275 92,575 282,500 882,633 1,214,749 2,011,989 1,638,659 795,082 1,213,085 There is no doubt but that the development of the business of lobster- canning in Canada has been due to the ruin of the New-England Decline of grounds by the Americans : but it is easy to foresee a rapid decline '"tJ^stry, '-' •' ' ^ , _ unless the in the industry in the early future, unless inconsiderate fishing is government restrained by the action of the government. interferes. It was formerly the custom to chronicle a yearly decline of the fisheries (jf the various British ])rovinces in America. Since 1869 the increase in annals of the business show a yearly increase consequent upon the fisheries o[jening of new markets on shore vid the Intercolonial Railway, ^'"'^^ ^ and the ready market which has been found for Canadian fisli ai)roa(l. The yearly product has nearly trebled since 1869, as will be seen by examining the following \ery interesting figures : — Si I m ,.i' 'VI 918 r//E lA'DUSTK/ES OF CA/VAD/l. '869 $4,37(^.526 1S70 6,577,391 1871 7.S73.I99 1872 (;,570,ri6 '«73 10,547,402 1874 ii,6Si,.SS6 i«7S 'o,35o.3«S 1S76 1 1,012,302 i''<77 1^.034-952 Tlie yearly export has grown very large. It amounted to $7,000,402 from Canada, antl about the same from Newfoundland. The purchasers were the United States, South America, the West fndies, and Europe. The (iovernment of the Dominion is taking intelligent and energetic action for the ini])rovement of die fresh-water fisheries of Canada, some of which have Action of become nearly extinct by the unceasing spoliation of many gen- Dominion erations of men. It lias now seven public establishments for the overnment. ,^^j.jy^ reproduction of fish ; namely, at Newcastle and Sandwic li (Ontario), Tadousac, Gaspe Ikisin. and Restigouche ((Quebec), IJedtbnl in Nova Scotia, and Miramichi in New Brunswick. These Iiatching-houses are the means of placing about ft)urteen million young salmon, while-lish, and sea-trout in the rivers and lakes annually. The system, though well organized, is in its infancy. The results of its work are already gratifying ; wlial will they not be in the future, when the work of the present produces its full effect, and the system is expanded and developed? h Tiir. r.inini:K-TKAi)E. The magnificent forests of CanacUi have long been the admiration of trav- ellers and tiie pride of the people of the Provinces. They originally clollied „ , , nearly Uie whole surface of the country ; and thouyh now cleared Extent and -' J ■ a magnificence away to a great extent along the Creat Lakes and in the more of Canadian ihiekly-settled regions of the country, yet they rear their heads in forests. ■' " J ' J . unbroken majesty in the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa and in the northern portion of the Pro\ince of Ontario, and cover liuiidre is of thousands of S(iuare miles of territory. Prior to 1759, when Canada, witl. its litde population of sixty- five thousand souls, was transferretl from the tlag of Kr-Mice to that of Kngland, the primeval forests of this region had lianllv felt \[v -"ttle'-'s a-e. Fishing, and the piu'suit of forest-animals for their furs, were abou i'. on!) 1 ccupations of the inhabitants. Occasionally a few sjiips were built, i^ii the idea of felling the trees of the forests so as to clear up the !n;i I a- vo ti.ir.s]- in it to dista.it lands where timber was scarce, never enii-iid r'- "he.ids o: t.'. peo))lt.. The entire exportation o'i the country at that tJi'o unfimVi'l ally to £1.-415 a year, chiefly in furs and fish. -After the Ilngl.-' fi; . w-, unfMrled over the Provinces, the infiux of population 1^ A froni iv thr r//E INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. 919 caused some attention to be paid to timber-cutting; and after 1800 tl^e scarcity of timber in I'higland and in tlie West Indies led to the loatiing of ships with the nroducts of the forests, and the transportation Exportation of them in considerable ciuantities to those parts of the earth. °' timber. The trade became active in 1809, 1810, and 18:1, owing to the duties levied by England upon timber from the countries of the lialtic. Those duties were imposed for the benefit of the British provinces in America ; and the jieople of the latter took advantage of them, building a great many ships f(jr the purpose, and freighting timber to the mother-country actively. The war of 181 2 checked the business temporarily. The ships of the Provinces were in danger of capture by American privateers if ever they put out to i-ea ; but, after the war, Canada was rewarded for her loyalty to I'^ngland by regulations which permittetl her timber, grain, and provisions to enjoy certain advantages in the trade to the British West Indies and the mother-country whicii were not \ \ •i i I I: STEAMSHIP. — ALLAN LINE. accorded to those of tin' I'liiled States. The trade became active ;\i; and has remained so ever sin'c. die market for Canadian lumber widci _ year by year, extending to South .\merica and elsewhere, until the fore^>l ■ oi the ProvincL-s became one of their principal sources of wealth. In 1842 ■' • duties c timber in England were changed. Baltic timber had been taxei iluty of fifty-five shillings a load, and Canadian timber ten shillings. Ii ■ _■. at the time England was remodelling her whole commefcial system, h duty on Baltic timber was reduced to thirty shillings, and thai on Canadian to one shilling. The change alarmed the lumbermen of Canadj. who Effect of feared the ruin of their business. It turned out to be a great helji -^wer duties, to them, however; and, in place of ruining the market for Canadian lumber. it stimulaved the market instead. The lowering of the duties cheapened the selling-price of lumber, and caused a greatly-increased coiisum:'! )n ; and the difference of duty in fiivor of Canada gave the timber from that region ll .li! k 920 T//E IXDUSTRIES OF CANADA. the preference in the market. In 1872-73 the exportation had reached the enormous figures of $28,586,816 in one year. Within the last five years the sales of Canadian lumber have fallen off considerably. This is due chiefly to the general stagnation of business tlie world over, but partly to the abroga- tion of the reciprocity treaty. The depression in the business can be consid- ered only as te:nporary. The exportation still remains at the very high figure of $20,000,000 a year. There is no means for stating accurately the present production of forestry- statistics of products in Canada ; but the timber cut and sawed into lumber production, cannot be less than 320,000,000 cubic feet in quantity. In 1870, according to the census, the production was as follows : — CrniC KEET OK SQUAKE I'lNE. CUniC PEET 0|- SQl-AUK OAK. CUIUC FEET OF TAMARACK. Nl'MDER OF I'lNE LOGS. NUMBER OF OTHER I.OOS. CrniC FEET OF MISCELLANEOUS TIMBER. Ontario . Quebec . New Brunswick Nova Scotia . 16,315,901 9.223.575 391.059 260,658 3.144.554 53.635 7.360 96,494 1,223,444 3,994,878 360,825 116,816 5,713.204 5.01 1.532 1,214,485 477,187 1,255,090 3,628,72c 3.533.'52 897,595 10,590,943 10,414,710 2,192,608 3,088,003 Total 26,191,193 3.302,043 5.695.963 12,416,408 9.314.557 26,290,264 hi' To which are to be added 1,939,000 cubic feet of maple, and 1,832,000 of elm. The standard log is twelve feet long and twenty-one inches in diameter. The above figures would make the product for 1870 about 412,945,903 feet. The production was one-third larger in 1873; but it has since fallen slightly below the figures for 1870. The principal trees are the magnificent white-pine (which often grows to a height of two hundred feet, and affords a square log sixty feet long and twenty Varieties of inches in diameter), the red-pine, the white-oak, tamarack, elm, timber. bcach, walnut, cedar, maple, bird's-eye and curled maple, and ash. The sugar-maple is a prominent feature of Canadian woodlands ; but it is too valuable a tree for its sugar to be felled for its timber. A cluster of sugar- maples is a valuable addition to a farm ; and so much is this tree prized and utilized in Canada, that the product of sugar from it in Canada in 1871 amounted to 17,267,000 pounds. A single tree yields two or three pounds in a spring ; and a single farmer will often make 2,000 pounds of it, worth ten to thirteen cents a pound. The timber- districts are all owned by the government. How.ightto '-^he nii.nufacturers obtain the right to cut timber by purchasing a cut timber is " berth," or " limit," at public auction, getting possession in this manner of a tract of land at a cost of a dollar to a dollar and fifty cents per square mile. He becomes the tenant of the government at a fixed rate, and, in addition, pays a slight duty per cubic foot of squared timber cut, V' 3.t and on eif square ; ; brush, or Tuml)^ St. LawreJ large lumll difere, sevj lumber in I The Ciatiij employ i,| 000,000 great ex])d to the pr accumulat Hay is pu a long (lis at a very peas for s it is of th take noth to the car ble of cc through tl To comp( left in tht .iides of importani ratus. l kettles ar In this c leisure h spin lonj (.iod-feai accumul into, ant up from The posed, who wai clears tl worthies ers. T the for( r "1 ' \\ J V4:-T*: THE INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. 931 and on each standard log. About twenty-five j)er cent of the timber cut is square ; about forty per cent is in logs ; and thirty-five per cent is under- brush, or useless or damaged wood. Lumbering is carried on at present chiefly in the valleys of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence, the operations being on the largest scale in the former. The large lumber-factories of the Ottawa, especially those of the Chau- Lumber- difere, severally get out from 25,000,000 to 40,000,000 feet of factories, lumber in a year, and employ 800 men and 300 teams throughout the year. 'I'he (iatineau Mills at Chelsea have " li'-^its " covering 1,700 stjuare miles, and employ 1,000 men in winter and 500 1,, summer, i)roducing 35,- oatineau 000,000 feet of lumber annually. The business is carried on at ^iiis. great expense. Men, horses, and oxen have to be transported into the forest to the proper point tor operations, and camps built for them, and material accumulated for their support during the long season of felling and hauling. Hay is purchased as near to the camps as possible ; but, as it has to be hauled a long distance into the forest to reach the camps, it is never obtained except at a very costly rate. The supplies for the men consist of salt pork and beef, peas for soup, tea, flour, potatoes, beans, and onions. The fare is simple ; but it is of the best (juality, because the men are fastidious, and will ^^^^ ^^^ take nothing that is inferior. Spirits are seldom if ever introduce I imps of to the camps. The camps consist of log and board shanties ca^ \- ' ' ' ^'■"""• ble of containing from twenty-five to fifty men apiece. The only opening through the walls is the doorway. There are no windows, and no chimney. To compensate for the lack of these architectural features, a large opening is left in the roof, which is chimney, window, and ventilator all in one. Three sides of the shanty are occupied b) sleeping-berths, and the fourth by that miportant and much-respected personage the cook, with his tables and appa- ratus. The fire is built in the middle of the floor, a la mode Alaskan ; and the kettles are susi)ended over it from the iron crane in the opening in the roof. In this airy and healthy style of house the hardy wood-choppers pass their leisure hours between the inter\als of work. They smoke, reatl, play cards, spin long yarns, and comport themselves in the most rational, law-abiding, and (.jod-fearing manner possible. When the camps have been pre[)are(l, the stores accumulated, the roads cut down to the river or some stream emptying there- into, anil all made ready for work, the regiments of wood-choppers are brought up from the settlements, and work begins. The land is not cleared entirely of timber, as is popularly sup- oniy the best posed. There is no object in doing that. It is only the farmer, trees are who wants a field devoid of shade and of roots, who completely clears the soil. The choppers select only the best trees. The small ones are as worthless to them for timber as freshly-hatched goslings for feath- Renewal of ers. They pass the small trees by; and the ^:^n^■equence is, that forests, the forests renew themselves every fifteen years. The danger of an exhatis- I. 31 '.< J 11! 922 THE IMHSTRIES 01- CAAA/)A. tion of the timbcr-stipply is not. therefore, so great as is supposed. 'Die de- structive fires which sweep tlirough these jirimeval groves in dry seasons threaten the tinil)er-supply to a i'ar greater extent than does wood-chopping. When the trees are felled, the logs are marked with a brand, or sla>li, peculiar to tiie manufacturer who is working the " limit." They are thru hauled down to the river, and set afloat. They float down stream (if in the Ottawa) to the Chaudiere. where they are caught hy ,i hooni stretched across the river, and guided into ways leading to the saw-mill- of their respective owners. A common sight in the lumber-regions is to sec a huge raft of logs securely bound together, sometin:es containing a hundred an! fifty thousand . the logs are sent down in confused rafts, or drives, being carried d(jwn iVom die heart ot' tlic v-o^-ls by the sjiring freshet, which follows tiie melting of the snow. In the>e iiisLjices the logs come down stream in terrific fashion, tliousands upon tlmn sands at a time, tumbling and turning upon one another at the rapids, getting jammed here and there into tremendous masses, reiiuiring the des])erate efforts of the m(?!i to lil)erate them again with their iron-shod poles, and then shooting down st". 'mi again with the roar and rush of a cavalry charge, until they reach some i 'oad, calm sheet of water, where they sla( ken their ])a(e, and submit to be caught by a boom, and directed peacefiilly here and there io die respective saw-mills to which they belong. These great tbrests, which were formerly esteemed only as the haunts of game which were jn-ized for their fiir, and were threaded onl)' by in Nova Scotia, and in tlu' vicinity of Lake Superior. In the first-mentioned region, magnetic ore fif ilu best (juality is found in all the mountains on the north sitle of the river. The proportion of magnetic oxide in the ore is aboui ninety-three per cent, and the yielited by the volcanic forces of the early ages of the world. In Nova Scotia the Production production of iron ore is from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand of iron ore in tons yearly, it being consumed almost entirely in the blast-fiirnaces ova Scotia, ^j- ^y^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ '-xk^kA company at Londonderry. Notwithstanding the great resources of Canada in res[)ect to iron, the manufacturers still con- tinue to import a large part of their i)ig-iron, rather than make it at home. The whole iron-industry, in flu.t, is only in the very first stages of development. About twenty blast-fiirnaces, a few forges, two rolling-mills, and two steel-works, substantially comprise the iron-enterprises of Canada; and in 1S77 only halt of these establislunents were in operation. Recently mining-operations have The Snow- been begun energetically at the Snowdon mine, in Ontario ; the don mine. intention of the proprietor, Mr. Myles of Ontario, being to take out thirty thousand tons in 1878, and smelt the ore at Port Hope. He has a t ontract with an American firm for the purpose. Silver ores are found in the Province of Quebec, and have l)een worked for many years. Recently, still richer ores have been fouml in the Lake-Superior region, 'i'hey have yielded wonderfiil res' ^ The Silver. region is 1 rtilh a view was found eied ye.irly now known nor. uliicli ureat war o and gold . I 111- rebellii iie repoiU Isliiiid , '■oast lor s Ihc ( ity 1(1 in the IV of 111,. h sick' oi is about iiK-tallic lias 111 > roronlo, !<-' iv^'ion U' mini . l)f taki'M laiicL- in ipon the ulicrcvcr incd off s of injii p.sc'iU arc (inicwhal "actiirinir, g. 'I'ln\ as iron ; It'pOMtcd ;otia the housaiiil furna( cs .standing till con- t homo, opmcnt. ■1- works, nly half ns have io ; the to take .' has a 925 region is now being carefully surveyed by the officers of the government, with a view to ascertain more fully it> capabilities.. ( ".old, which, up to 1.S70, was found almost exclusiveh in Nova Scotia (the few oimces gath Gold. ered yearly in Ontario and (Quebec hardly deserving mention), is now known to exist in large ([uantities in this same region n irth of Lake Supe- rior, which is so rich in all the metals, that il would almost seem as if. in some L;ieal war of the Titans against heaven, the gods iiad rained mounta ns of iron .md gold and silver and copper upon this region in the effort to > stenninate 111'- rebellious giants who inhabited it, I'Ateiisive tracts of gold-bearing (iiuirt/ ire reported. Within T'c ba^in of the Nipigon. a . hundred and r.e\enly ci)iiHl'i;.\'i|.:i) i;oi.i)-i,)iAiir/, w.wi ki i.y. miles long and eiglitv miles broad, the upper copper-bearing series obtains II-. greatest develo])meii t. Distinct belts of the nxk extend aloiiL the line of the lake to Thunder l]av and I'oikI du l-ac : and in oiu Copper. ( these, called the Lake-Shebandowan band, the gold-bearing ro( k is found, re re])oited at Cross Lake, on the Red-i\.i\er route. Rich hearmLr \eins a co])per-regions are re])orteil sti await the pick and gunpowder. artlier to ihi. west. Th ese mines nearlv a 11 Amonu' the other mineral resources of Canada are zinc, cobalt, z inc and inaiiLianese. yvpsuni. granite, sandstone, marbles of e\ery imagi- other metals. and i)ciroleuin. A magnilicent tlisi)lay of specimens of liable colcjr, si ^^5i^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I ■^ 1^ 12.2 !■■ s I u CJui. ■^ iy£ 11-25 i 1.4 I 1.8 1.6 V] ^ /A O ^P. '^m J> ^^ / /A W w Photographic Sdences Corporation ^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MStO (716) 873-4503 926 THE INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. these and all other metals and minerals of Canada was made at the Philadel- statitticsof phia Kxhil)ition in 1876. The following is a statement, from the production, census of 1871, of the iuw mineral product of Canada for the year. the principal items alone being given : — IRON ORE, THUS. 30,726 y2,ooi 3,070 3.566 COPPER ORE, TONS. COAL, TONS. PEAT, TONS. COLD, OZ. SILVER, OZ. PYRITES, TONS. MAN- GANESE, TONS. CVPSl'M, TONS. PETRO- LEUM, GALLS. STONK FOR DKKSSINC, CUmc FT. < >nt.irio . (Quebec . N. Urims- wick . . N. Scolia, 1.934 11,3:6 50 '3.50J 657,506 M.597 160 •5 199 34' •9.33« 69,197 SOO 2,300 475 160 4.230 13.659 96,544 ".969.435 2,093.7" i,674.:.''J 810,552 628,171 Total . 129,363 «3.3»o 671,008 14.772 22,941 69,197 2,800 635 "4.433 •2.969.435 5."if'.7'/' What a pity that by the side of this modest statement cannot be j)]a< (.(1 the figures of the mineral product jf Canada a hundred years hence, when the mining-industry of the region will have grown from the scjuads ot" Future de- , ... , ... veiopments the sccttcrcd recruiting-sergeants to a grand army plaiitint; it^ of mineral banners on all the fortresses of trade, and by its achievements win ning the applause and respect of the whole world ! Of course, the figures for 1877 ^"^^ somewhat better for all the classes of product mentioneil. except petroleum ; but they do not change the embryonic character of the intlustry, and would not make a comparison with the product of a hundred years hence any less interesting. With reference to petroleum, it may be said that the product is falling off, owing to the exhaustion of the wells. The manufacture in the fiscal year of 1872-73 was still 12,168,406 gallons : but in 1874-75 it was only 4,009,663 ; and in 1875-76, 4,838,215. FARMING. Trie vast territories of the Dominion of Canada, stretching nortliward from the United States, and comprising an area larger than that of the United Extent of States leaving out Alaska, and not much smaller than that ot' territory. Europc, is popularly regarded, by most people who reside beyond their borders, as delivered over to the austerities of a barren soil and an inhospitable climate. The old stories that used to circulate in Europe and elsewhere about the Canadian winters have turned millions of people, seekini; a home in the New World, away from the regions north of the lakes to the broad and fertile States lying south of them. The Canadians, it was supposed, would have to dress in furs, and live l)y timber-cutting, trapping, ai d fishing. There never was a more idle fiction. No doubt a large part of the territories of the Dominion in the extreme north are characterized by long and dread- ful winters, short summers, and imfniitful soils : but, on the other hand, the THE IXDUSTRIES OF CANADA. 927 fac has been repeatedly rerogni/ed in debates in the American Congress, th- Canada is, in tliat rc-)|)ct t, no worse off than the L'nited States, whose dry ad burning plains in the Far West appear almost beyond the power of man to eclaim ; whereas these same plains, upon passing into Canada, change their character. The Rocky Mountains, being less elevated, and having a narrower base, admit the passage of ( louds fnjm the Pacific Ocean ; and the fertilizing showers descend upon that happy region which are withheld from the plains in America. At the same tune, the isothermal line of 60° for summer — which, in the eastern provinces, is no farther north than about the forty- eighth parallel — rises on the Canadian plains to the ^)ixty-flrst parallel. The ASADIAN KOKSn. soil is rich ; and thus, for a distance of twelve hundred miles northward from the boundary of the United States, there stretch vast ])lains, upon wiiicb wheat, barley, the grasses, and many root-crojis, will thrive bounteously. Ifi Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime provinces, the land and ( limate are well y^^j ^^^^ suited to agriculture ; and fiirms are seen in every part of the in- capable of habited portions of the Provinces, as fertile, thrifty, and well kept as anywhere on the continent. With the exce|)tion of Labrador and the extreme north, the whole territory of Canada is equipped with rich lands and a pleasant climate. Its agricultural capacity is simply enormous, and the value of the tmoccupied regions is incakulable. Agriculture began to be practised in Can.^/hi on a liberal scale about the i 928 THR INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. time of the war for American independence. That war caused an influx f BeginnifiK of jjopulation from the States which had formed the American Unioi •gricuiture. ^^j^j^ ,^jj ),jjg ^^^,^.^ already stated, the population of Canada wcr rewarded for their loyalty to the king, both during that war and the one of Immigration r8i2, b) special privileges in supplying the West Indies and Kng- iniBya. jj^p^j ^yjti^ grain, provisions, and lumber. This was a great en- couragement to farming both in the maritime and upper provinces. Afur CANADIAN MOW IN(.-M AflllNi;. i8i2, considerable immigration to Canada took place. The whole jjopulatinn Population °^ ^''^ region had been, in 1790, only about 200,000 ; but in 1S25 what are now the Provinces of (Ontario and Quebec alone had 637,000, The country after that filled up very fast. In 1871 the population of Canada was 3,602,321, it being di.stributed as follows : — of country in 1790. Ontario . Quebec . Nova Scotia . New Brunswick Manitoba British Columbia Prince Edward Island Total 1,620,851 1,191,516 387,800 285,594 ".593 10,586 94,021 3,602,321 Increase of A very large proportion of the incomers to Ontario and Que- farmers. jj^p \s(t\\\, immediately into farming, and agriculture was inspired with fresh life in all of the Provinces. In 1854 occurred an event which was Reciprocity ^ great stimulus to this interest. A treaty of reciprocity with treaty of America was entered into, being signed by the Earl of P'lgin for * ^' Canada, on the 5th of June of that year. This opened to ('anadiaii farmers a market for their produce such as they had never known. A dc- THE INDUSTRIES OF CA.XADA. 9-9 mand for barley suddenly sprang up, and the cultivation of that grain spread rapidly throughout the grain-growing counties. Darley almost excluded wheat from among the list of Canadian crops. 'I"he wheat-crop of 1856 The bariey- had been a foilure, and farmers were discouraged with the idea "^"^"p- of planting it. They raised barley instead, buying wheat and Hour irom the United States. The war of 1861 in the United States then broke out, and the era of high prices began. The treaty was abrogated in 18O6. Ixit Abrogution the high prices continued; and until 1873, when the fmar.c i d of treaty in crash took place, or, in other words, for a period of nearly twcn'"^" years, Canadian farmers had the benefit of the most lucrali\e market in the world, for the sale of their barley, wheat, dairy-produce, and other goods. During that period agricultural cxiiibitions were insti- farmersfrr" tut"d. Dairy-flirming, with its concomitants of butter and cheese twenty years factories, was developed. Ontario went largely into the pork- p^"'=^<^'"8 packing business. So profitable did farming become, that farms rose to the value of a himdred dollars an acre. Since 1873 it has been found necessary to seek a larger market for the surjjlus produce of Canada in South America, luirope, and the Indies. The market has been ^^^^^ found, however ; and Canada has no more difficulty in disposing progress of her grain and provisions than before, though the prevalent ^'"'^^ * ^^' depression of prices prevents her from obtaining the bounteous profits 01 the era of war and reciprocicy. One of her best customers is Mngland. It is regretted that ther? are no later returns than those of 1871 in regard to the total product of this interest. The figures for that year, statistics however, serve to give a far idea of what the farmers of Canada '^°'' '^^i- are iloing. They are as ^;llows : — c ^ a 22,133,958 15,116,262 3.044.134 2,190,099 Ji £5 1,804,476 1,225,646 344.793 443.732 5 Ontario QucIk-'C New I'mnswick . Nova Scotia M>23J>339 2,038,076 204,911 227,497 16,723,872 9.461,233 1,668,208 '0.547 296,050 547,600 585,153 458,970 1,676,078 23,792 1,231,091 33,987 234,157 \ 3,148,467 17,138,534 603,356 18,068,323 27,658 6,562,355 23,349; 5,560,973 6,247,44» 10,497,418 380,004 151,190 Total . 11,406,038 42,480,453 1,064,358 3,726,484 3,802,830 47,33o,'87 3,818,641 •7.276,054. A few later figures are the following : In 1875 the splendid wheat-crop of that year made the production for the fiscal year ending June wheat-crop 30, 1876, as much as 26,834,680 bushels, of which 8,600,000 '<"■ '875- bushels were exported in fiour and grain. The pork-packing of 1876 was 244,742 head, making about 38,000 barrels of jwrk. In regard to dairy-produce, Canada now fully supplies her own market 930 THE nXDUSTRJES OF CANADA. Townships on the bonkr of the U? I'ted States buy a small quantity of Ameri- Dairy-prod- can biittcT and chccsc ; but the whole quantity of bolli will not «"=«• exceed 250,000 pounds, and is too insignificant almost for men- tion. On the other hanil, the export of both of these articles is now very large, showing how admirably the interest has been developed, and what a FAKM-SCENB. large surplus Canada produces beyond the demands of her own consumption. The increase of the ex])()rt of cheese has been due to the attention paid to the factory-system. The exportation has been as follows : — YEAR. 1S69 1870 187I 1S72 'R73 1S74 1875 1876 ntTTER CHEESE (l'(ltNI)S). (pounds). 10,853,268 4-503.370 12,259,887 5,827,782 I 5,439.266 8,271,439 19,068,348 16,424,025 15,208,633 19,483,211 12,233,046 24,050,982 9,268,044 32,342,030 12,392,367 35,024.090 THE INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. 931 The export price of butter lias remained at an average from nineteen to twenty-one cents anil a half; and that of cheese, from eleven to twelve cents and a (luarter. The principal development of the factory system in Canada dates from 187 1. The success of a few factories \vlu(h iiad been tried led to the rapid building of a large number of others. The system everywhere introduction met with the support and encouragement of farn^ers, who soon of the fac- came to discover, that by clubbing toirether, and building a factory ^""^^ system, to which the milk could be sent ft- :onversion into cheese, they could save themselves the expenditure of much ue and labor, and get in return, perhaps, a better (piality of cheese than if they ul made it themselves. The Province of Ontario has been the most active in the building of factories ; and its yearly conventions of factory-men, farmers, and scientists, interested in cheese and butter making, are among the most valuable and interesting of the meetings which take place in the province. Canadian cheese has, by means of the attention paid to its manufacture, now attained a reputation in the commerce of the world which is imsurpassed. .At the Philadelphia lv\hibition it made a decidetl sensation, and the demand for it in luirope is increasing every year. The total exportation of farm-products from Canada now, in- Farm- eluding live cattle and horses, meats, and wool, amounts to the P'^o^ucts* very large sum of $30,000,000 to $35,000,000 annually. M.VNUI'ACTURING. With reference to general manuflicturing, it may be said that the Canadian provinces have had essentially the same experience as all agricultural and m. itime states since the world began. The i)eople have followed the pursuits which required the least expenditure of toil, and those which the natural re- sources of the country suggested the most directly ; and these were, in Canada, fishing, lumbering, and iiirming. Some parts of the Dominion are still only one stej) removed from this original and natural condition of things, in which the large body of the population are sustained by open-air pursuits. The most extreme instance is the case of Newfoundland, which has no manufac- tures except those sim|>le and necessary arts of carpentry, blacksmithing, &c., without which the fishery-business could not be carried on. It has no general manufacturing whatever. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick occupy the first terrce above the position of exclusively agricultural, fishing, mining, and timber-cutting provinces. They are supplied with nearly all the ordinary shops tor the manuflicture of carriages, boots and shoes, clothing, machinery, iron-work, furniture, and other articles of general consumption, which the Provinces recpiire ; and they have, besides, a cotton-factory or two, iron and steel rolling-mills, large ship-yards, and other establishments, the operation of which re(iuires large capital, and great manual skill on the part of the working- 93' THE INDUSTRIES OF C.liXADA. iTi'-n. Tlic two more (k'nscly-settlcd Provinces of Ontario and Qoebec ara also well siii)i)lied with the bhops neetled for the i)roduction of Province! of . ' ' ^ _ ' • Ontario and articles (jf cuuinion use. Tliey have in addition made a consider- Quei- ; ^l,l^. ad\ ance into the field of general nianufaiuinnL', and have (arthot advanced in ""^^' •^""x '^'''' l''*-' foiMulalions of that wliicli will become, following manufactur- the growth of the country, a great and thriving national industry. '" 'Ihey have cotton and woollen factories, chemical-works, distil- leries, machine-sho[)s, locomotive-works, great carriage and agricultural-imple- ment factories, and many other of the higher and more important classes of estahlish- nients. They have not factories enough yet fully to supply their own market with cloth, manufuc tured iron and steel, cutlery, fiincy-gf)ods, glassware, railway-material, and many other things which their high civiliza- tion demands ; but neither has their neigh- bor the United States, which is far more populous, and has far more capital. The Canadians are ambitious, and are not con- Annuai im- tent with the situation, when they portation. reflect that they are obliged to import about $70,000,000 of manufactured goods every year t(j supply the deficiencies of their own production. They are anxious for a policy which shall bring about a more rapid pe'opieto building-up of their own factory-interests. Their spirit in regard promote do- to the matter is that which always moves a free, intelligent, pro- gressive race ; yet it must be said that the development thus far is ((jmmendable, and will compare favorably with that of any other agricultural people. The following table shows the degree of development which the industries of Canada had obtained in 1871, the year of the census : — TURIUNE-WHEEL. incstic man- ufactures. CAMTAL. liMPLOVEES. WAcns. RAW MATERIAL. PRODUCT. ()nt.irio . Quebec . New ISninswick Nov.! Scotia . 537.874,010 28,071,868 5.9/6,176 6,041,966 87,281 66,714 18,352 '5-595 187,942 $21,415,710 12,389,673 3,869,360 3,176,266 540,851,009 $65,114,804 44.555.025 9,431,760 5,806,257 $1 14,706,799 77,205,182 17,367,687 12,338,105 Tot.-il . 577,964,020 $124,907,846 $221,617,773 The product increased considerably during the three years following the census. THE INDUSTRIES OF CANADA. 933 Among the larjjeit items in the list of manufactures in 1871 were the following : — NUMIIEK OF rACTOKIl:S, nouts and shoes . . . . Furnitiire Carriages KIdiir Machinery and castings . Leather Ships Spirits Ale and beer Woollen cloth Woollen cloth (home-made), about Sawed lumber Chemicals Engines Paper Ropes and cordage . . . . Musical instruments Carding and fulling 4,191 854 2,636 2.2y5 430 1,142 252 20 '3/ 270 5-54 650 KMI-LOVKICS. IS.7I9 4,36() 4.992 7/'53 4.-07 0,046 467 9>S 4.453 3S.6SJ 1,224 VAi.UK or PKUUUCT. J 1 6, 1 33,638 3,5.So,(;78 4.S49,234 39. '3 5.9 '9 7.3-5.53" 9,iS4,932 4,432,262 4.09-.537 2,i4i.::29 5.507.549 7,ooo,coo 30,256,247 816,250 1,044,000 1,071,651 769,000 622,162 2.253.794 The period of active development of general manuflictiiring be/jan in 1855 with tiie reciprocity treaty ; but was not due to that treaty, however, except in part. The years of 1 8;:; and 18156 were those in which the Cirand „ . . ' ■' ^ -^ -" Beginning of Trunk Railway was building, — a road wiiich it cost a hundred and period of ac- five million dollars to get into complete operation. The enormous t>ve develop- ment. sums spent by the (Irand 'i'runk Company among the people, the employment it gave to all the spare labor of Canada, the heavy importation of working-people from the Old World to assist in constructing the road, and the shops built to sui)ply the road with material, gave a tremendous stimulus to every business-interest in Canada. In 1859 the protection princi- Tariff of pie was infused into the tariff of Canada by Mr. (lalt ; and after ''*59' 1861 the farmers of Canada became extremely prosperous by reason of the large prices they were obtaining for their produce in America under the reci- procity treaty, tlvs enabling them to become good customers in the purchase of manufactured wares. These things all assisted Canadian industry. Facto- ries sprang up throughout the Provinces like magic ; and the period was one of universal activity, bustle, and prosperity. In 1866 the reciprocity treaty was abrogated. This, in its nature, was a blow at Canadian interests. It certainly was so regarded north of the St. Lawrence and the lakes. It cut off the ready and profitable market the farmers had for so long enjoyed, and placed them 934 THE IMiCSTRlES OF CANADA. CORLISS BNOINR. manufac- tures under great ilisadvantiJgcs for the sale of their proihice. It is well known that whatever seriously affects the LjIl. /^jM^ farming eonuniinity (luickly rc-a< ts jIl ^I^IW^ upon every other occupation in the ' ■ ■'^^^■H^ coii.'itry. 'i'he ill effec t of the aliro- * — — ». :JAi^^^^l^l- gation of the treaty was, however, averted by prompt action on the l)art of the i)eopl'- of the Dominion. \\ ith true northern vigor they set on foot ( ompensatory measures, and in- dustry and agriculture continued to thrive side hy side. \\ iiat was done is referred to by Sir l-'.dward Thornton, in his " Memorandum of Commercial Relations " submitted to the govern- ment at Washington in April, 18^4, as follows : — "'Hk- industry of Canada had been largely attracted to the supply of the American market with commodities for home consumption as well as for foreign exportation; and the repeal in 1866 of the reciprocity piaycu in " treaty, uncler which so vast a trade had grown up, rendered im- buiiding up peratively necessary prompt measures to open new markets for tlie sale of C anadian i)roducti These measures were at once taken. Under the influence of the formal notice given by the United States, in 1865, of tluir intention to terminate die treaty, confederation of the Provinces, then undei discussion, was hurried up, and became a fait accompli within fifteen months after the repeal, 'i'he Intercolonial Railway was at once undertaken, at a cost of over twenty million dollars, at the national expense, to secure tlirect communication to and from the Atlantic Ocean at Halifax and St. John on Canadian soil. Commissioners were despatched to the IJritish and other West-India islands, and to the South-.Xmerican States, to promote the extension of direct trade between them and the Dominion. The enlarge- ment of the canals, and the improvement of the navigation of the lakes and the River St. Lawrence, the construction of the Bay-Vertc Canal to connect the waters of the Bay of Fundy and the St. Lawrence, the subsidizing of ocean and river steamship lines, and the promotion of the great ship-building and fishery interests, all received a new and vigorous impulse." The building of the Intercolonial Railroad was alone, for a time, a great compensation for the repeal of the reciprocity treaty. At one time, in 1871, c nstr there were employed in the construction of it 133,694 men and tion of 11,960 boys, 29,426 horses, and 324 oxen. The huge sums disbursed in Canada for the labor of creating this road and its l)lant did much to atone for the loss of free markets in America. Another cause o])erated concurrendy with those above mentioned to sustain Canadian industry during this period. The state of affairs in America, imder the influence of a heavy internal taxation, a protective tariff, and the specula- Intercolonial Ra'lroad. yy/A /A/J( S/A'/ZiS OF VAX A PA. 935 tivc prices which grew out of the war, gave to Canaila what Mr. Thomas Wiiitc, jun., calls "an absolute, c'lilirc, and complete protection of all the industries of the country." In onler to intluce the maritime proviiu es to unite in the confederation, the protective duties introduced by Mr. Gait were lowered almost to a free-trade basis, — to a low-tariff basis, at any rate. Hut the high cost of labor and materials in the United States saved Canada from American competition ; and so her industries went on expanding and thriving in spile of the repeal of 1866, which seemed so much against her. Since 1873, manufacturing ir. Canada has encountered the same re-action as it has in other parts of the world. The collapse of speculation and unset- tling of the markets have, however, been met with the same pluck Manufactur- and energy which characterized the Canadians in previous crises, ing intereau Manufacturers have reduced expenses and ])r()(lucti()n to give the • "*" ' '3' markets a chance to rec uperate, and they have been exceedingly wide-awake in the mailer of opening up new fields for the sale of their wares. They were present at the I'hiladelpiiia I'Lxhibition in force, and made a display of goods which attracted marked attention. Their whole exhibit of agricultural tools was bought by the .Australian commissioners for transporlalion to .Australia. This was followed up by the Canadians sending a ship or two to Sydney Sydney direct, loadeil with goods for the great Exhibition there, Kxhibition. and for sale. They made a better show in that Exhibition than the Americans did, and they have been active ever since in working up that market. They have also p.-^id fresh attention to South-Amerit:an and Indian markets, and are leaving no stone unturned to find a jjlace where Canadian goods can be intro- duced, and their sale made to yield a profit. When business revives, they will be in a most admirable posi;ion to catch its first and best fruits. One of the most characteristic of Canadian industries is ship-building. The practice of the art by that people is historic, it having come down from the earliest times. The bulk of the buikling is done in the mari- ship- time provinces and on the (iulf of St. Lawrence, where the facili- t>u>'ding. ties for it are better than in any other part of the country, and where the fisheries make constant demands upon the yards. In 187 1 the distribution of the yards was as f Hows : — Ontario . Quebec . New Brunswick :* Nova Scotia . Total NU.V.IIER OP SHIP-VAKDS. '9 43 78 113 252 WORKMEN. 2,164 >.3C'4 2,058 6,046 VALUE OP PRODUCT. $359.2 '2 i.35'.4i6 1,086,714 1,634,920 $4,432,262 s. „. 9J6 THE JM)VSTNll:S OF C AX AD A. In 1877 the number of vessels I)iiilt in Canada was 50S, of which 365 were launched in New Mrunswit k, Nova Scotia, and Prince lulward Inland. This shipN built refers simply to vessels larf^e enouj^h to l)e registered. 'I'here were In «877. |,niii ii, addilioi. a large number of small boats for fishing-i)uriK)se!i alongshore, the prothu lion o*" which may have been as many as 2,000, there being built four of these independent small boats on an average to one of the registered craft. The figures for Newfotmdiand are not at hand. Of the 508 vc; sets built in 1H77, 1 10 were sold to foreigners. The Canadian ships are gi'ncraily built of soft wood, --that is, s|)ruie, hackmatack, and pine, — in dislin< lion from oak, the latter wood being the more connnon wood in Ameri- can ships. 'I'hey are good sailers, an