Class E-V?^ Book ,feS &> GepyrigM 10 COEflUGHT DEPOSm JOsm [/ // J//';,!, / z rm iiiiwa Mi OUR COUNTRY'S WEALTH AND INFLUENCE. SHOWN BY TRACING IN HISTORICAL FORM FROM YEAR TO YEAR AND DECADE TO DECADE, FROM 1620 TO 1880, THE RAPID INCREASE OF POPULATION, AND PROGRESS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR VAST NATURAL AND INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES, INCLUDING TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTA- TION, LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY IN ALL BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY, EXTENSIVE MANUFACTURING INTERESTS, INVENTIONS WITHOUT NUMBER, MINING, INTERNAL TRADE, AGRICULTURE, SCLENTIFIC DI8COVERLES, GROWTH OF GREAT COMMERCIAL CENTERS, TELEGRAPH, TELEPHONE, ELECTRIC LIGHT, AND OTHER GREAT WEALTH-PRODUC- ING INTERESTS, ALSO OUR SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION, FROM THE COMMON SCHOOL TO THE HIGHEST LITERARY AND SCIEN- TIFIC INSTITUTIONS, WITH VALUABLE MISCELLANEOUS AND TABULAR STATISTICS, GIVING NUMBERS, AMOUNTS, DATES, ETC. DEMONSTRATING THAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED A POSITION OF EQUALITY WITH THE FOREMOST NATIONS OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD IN ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF INDEPENDENT NATIONAL EXISTENCE. BY Eminent Literary and Scientific Writers, -who have made their Respective Subjects a Special Study. EDUCATION, by Henry Barnard, LL.D. Illustrated with Four Hundred Instructive Engravings by Eminent ^rtists. v EDITED BY L. R Brockett, A. M., M. D., Associate Editor of JOHNSON'S CYCLOPEDIAS. Author of Numerous other Valuable Work9. ■ -3»«»»»- HARTFORD, CONN.; Published by L. Stebbins. 1882. &&° THIS ENGRAVING SHOWS THE BEST gigl* at §aitfe |lote <£ngra&htij in ik tim a! % gmcrtntit JetoMott. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by L. STEBBINS, AND SAMUEL. J BURR, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. PREFACE. The subjects embraced in this volume are of the deepest interest to every American citizen, and to the students of history, political economy, and national progress, of every nation on the globe. They furnish the materials for a more wonderful chapter in the world's his- tory than has ever yet been written. A people, in 1783, numbering less than three millions, of different nation- alities, poor, oppressed by a heavy debt, just emerging from a ruinous war of seven years' duration, without national or much private capital, with no manu- factures of importance, unskilled in agriculture, their commerce nearly ruined by the war, without mineral wealth, and with scanty means of education, with nothing, in short, but brave hearts, strong arms, ready wit, and an, indomitable love of liberty, have, in a hundred years, made greater pro- gress in agriculture, manufactures, the arts, in commerce, mining, educa- tion, and material prosperity and luxury, than any other nation on the surface of the earth has ever made in a thousand years. To-day, in pop- ulation, wealth, influence, intelligence, and social position, they are the peers of any nation on the globe, and the superiors of most. What Great Britain, France, and Germany have attained through the painful experiences and v-icissitudes of fifteen hundred years, they have easily equaled or surpassed in a single century, and as yet they have hardly passed the infantile stage of their development. What remains for them to accomplish in the next cen- tury, when their fifty millions shall have become four hundred millions; when the arable lands are all under plow, when every village of prairie or hillside or valley has its vast manufactories, and its commerce whitens every sea ; when at eventide the electric light glows from every portion of the horizon, and makes the light of one day as the light of seven clays ; and the beneficent effects of education and a pure literature are universal, — we can only conjec- ture. In attempting to chronicle the grand results already accomplished, the pub- lisher has sought the advice of many eminent scholars and publicists. It lias been a work of years to garner all these histories of our past national pro- gress, and the most careful watchfulness and assiduous labor to bring the rec- ord as nearly as possible to the present moment. In this work he has employed many of the ablest writers of the country, and in its final colloca- tion and revision has availed himself of the services of a cyclopa?dist who has been for twenty-six years engaged in these labors, and has attained the high- est reputation for accuracy and carefulness in his researches. The subject of VI PREFACE. education has been committed to Hon. Henry Barnard, whose lifelong devo- tion to that cause and whose numerous writings on educational topics are known all over the world. Other subjects have been treated by eminent experts, and the whole brought up to 1881 or 1882 by the careful and critical labor of the editor. As it stands, the work will be invaluable to the farmer, the merchant, the banker, the scholar, the manufacturer, the mine owner, the professional man, the traveler, and the citizen of wealth and leisure, and not less so to the engineer, the machinist, the artisan, and the household which desires to know something of the land in which we dwell, — its rapid progress in the past, its glorious present, and its grand promise for the future. If we are supposed to be a little enthusiastic on the subject, we are privi- leged to say that the solid merit of the work is endorsed by a large number of the best judges in the country. A few words in relation to the expense of getting up this work. The public have no conception of the outlay on a work of this kind. Probably most people would think two or three thousand dollars an extravagant sum, and will be much surprised to learn that it required twenty thousand dollars, in- cluding the drawing and engraving of the illustrations, yet it will exceed rather than fall short of it. There are comparatively few farms or stocks of goods in country stores that involved so large an outlay as this book has required. L. S. CONTENTS. Improvements m travel and transportation, • Table showing miles of railroads by States, built each year from 1830-1881, . Early roads — Post roads — Macadam — National, Mail Service from 1791-1880, Charcoal roads, . Turnpike companies, Macadam roads. . The Cumberland road, . Coasters — Steamboats — Canals, Sloop experiment, for passengers only, Increase of tonnage in coasting trade, Increase in speed of steamboats on the North River from 1811- 1870, .... Early steamboat days on Western rivers, Time of flatboats on the Mississippi from New Orleans to St Louis, 1,300 miles, 120 days, Time of steamers in 1880, 2$ days, Increase of steam tonnage on Western waters from 1842-1880, Cost ol all state canals up to 1867, Increase in tonnage on lakes from 1841-1880, Wheat received from lake ports in 1860, Cost of Ohio canals, ..... Financial results of the New York Canals from their com mencement to 1870, Canals for transportation of coal, Railroads — Land grants — Extent and cost, Early experiments in the construction of railroads — rolling stock, etc., ...... Dates of building the ^several railroads now embraced in the N. Y. Central, First successful American locomotive run, Building and cost of various lines of railroads, Land grants for internal improvement, . ♦Railways of the World in 1877 in each country, giving the area, population, and miles in railroad, Statement of Government debt, June 30, 1881, PAGE. 31 32 34 36 37 38 << 39 40 41 43 45 47 « 48 50 m 51 53 62 67 << 69 72 ♦United States, 1880. VU Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE. Increase in transportation of coal from 1830-1880, . . 78 Increase in transportation of cotton from 1841-1880, . . " Increased agricultural productions, the result of railroads^ . 81 Chicago as a railroad center, . . . . .82 Table showing miles of railroad constructed each year from 1830-1880, ......." Number of miles of railroad — cost — cost per mile — of the vari- ous countries of the World, . . . .85 Steam, . . . . . . " . . 91 History of the steam engine, . . . . " First steam engine constructed in America, . . " Experiments of Robert Fulton, Ohver Evans, Watt, Stephenson, and others, ....... 92 Steamboats, . . . . . . .95 Various experiments in construction of steamboats, . .104 Locomotives, . . . . . . .109 First locomotive built in U. S., . . . . .111 Numerous experiments in constructing locomotives, . . 113 Stationary engines in great variety, . . . .116 Steam pumps — description, . . . . .126 Miscellaneous uses of steam, . . . . .131 Improvements in steam production and use, . . .136 High-pressure and low-pressure engines, . . .139 Compound engine, . . . . . .141 The horse-power, . . . . . " Some peculiar engines, . . . . . 1 42 Machine tools, . . . . . . .144 Description of Corliss engine, . . . . " Conclusion, . . . . . . .151 Cotton Manufactures, . . . . . .155 Progress of cotton manufacture from 1781-1860, .' . " Various inventions of machinery for its manufacture, . . 156 Cotton imported into Great Britain from 1775-1789, . .158 Manufacture in America — Spinning — Progress, . . .161 Number of cotton establishments in 1 1 states — their products in 1831, ....... 164 Cotton manufactures of United States per census 1870, . 166 Inventions — Mode of manufacture — Printing — aggregate, . 169 Cotton manufacture in the United States from 1809-1880, . 175 Paper — Its manufacture, . . . . . .176 Materials — Progress, . . ■ . . . " Importation of rags into United States from 1846-1880, . 177 A book containing sixty specimens of paper, made of as many different materials, . . . . . .178 Great variety of stock used, . . . . .179 Water mark, ....... 180 CONTENTS. IX Inventions — Manufacture, Name and size of paper, Bleaching process, Statistics of manufacture, Number of mills, production, value, etc., Woolen manufactures, Progress of manufacture from 1810-1880, Carding — weaving — felting, Description of manufacture of various cloths, qualities of wool used, process of dyeing, etc., Carpet manufacture, Table showing number of mills, hands employed, capital invested, cost of raw material, number of yards, value of product, 1860-1870-1880, ..... Clothing trade — total manufacture— shoddy, The clothing business of both sexes in 1870, . Statistics of wool manufacture and importation, 1840 to 1880, Imports of cloths and cassimeres into the United States from 1840 to 1880, ..... Leather, ...... Tanning — Boots and shoes, .... Leather manufacture of United States in 1870, . Hides — tanning — leather, etc., .... Hides brought into New York in a year, Process of tanning, ..... Time required in tanning, .... Quantity and value of hides imported from 1850 to 1880, Machinery employed in manufacture of boots and shoes, Leather and manufactures of leather in Massachusetts in 1878 Importation of gloves in 1880, . Fire arms, ..... Colt's revolvers — Sharp's rifles — Dahlgren's guns, The Merill, Greene, Maynard, Ballard, Spencer, and Henry rifles, The Armstrong, Whitworth, Blakely, Lancaster, Krupp, Parrott, and other guns, Cutlery — edge tools — files and saws, Value of importations, . Statistics of production, Furs and fur trade, Table showing values of various kinds of furs, Hats, ..... Great variety of styles and process of manufacture — materials used — hands employed — value of products, etc., Individual industries, . Building and building material, . Number and value of dwellings in the United States, PAGE. 181 182 183 184 187 189 191 199 203 204 205 206 207 211 212 213 214 217 218 220 222 225 230 ti 232 236 246 248 249 250 253 260 262 265 << 266 CONTENTS. PAGE. Number of persons to each house, . . . .267 Materials used in the construction of buildings, . . .269 Ship building, . . . . . . .274 Carriages and coaches, ......" Horse-cars and railway cars, . . . . .275 Sleeping and drawing-room cars, . . . .276 Statistics of manufacture, . . . . .283 American clocks, . . . . . . .284 History of their manufacture, improvements made, etc., . " American watches, . . . . . .286 History of early watch -making, . . . . " "Watch manufacture by machinery, . . . .292 Electro-plating, . . . . . . .296 Fisheries, ....... 300 The herring, salmon, halibut, cod, and mackerel fishery, . 302 The oyster trade, . . . . . .307 Fish culture, . . . . . . .311 Ice, 312 Description of ice business, its magnitude, process of gathering, etc., 315 Pins, ........ 319 Machinery for manufacture, . . » . .320 Refined Sugar, . . . . . . .321 Process of refining and magnitude of the business, . . 322 Candies, ........ 323 Silk, . . . . . . . " Great increase in American manufacture, . . . 324 Fire-proof Safes and Safe Locks, . . . . .327 "Wilder, Herring, Lillie, and other safes, . . .331 Glass Manufacture, . . . . . .332 The materials used and process of manufacturing various kinds of glass, ....... 334 India Rubber and its Manufacture, .... 345 Table of statistics, . . . . . .351 Sewing Machines, . . . . . .352 The early experiments in its invention, . - . " The Howe, Wheeler & Wilson, Grover & Baker, Wilcox & Gibbs, Home, Domestic, Singer, and numerous other machines, 355-365 Musical Instruments, 368 Piano, church, and parlor organs, reed instruments, etc., 369 Flour Mills, . 373 Statistics of Production, . 374 Furniture, . 376 Its manufacture, . . 377 Iron, . . 381 Production of iron from 1828 to 1880, . . 383 Materials employed in its manufacture, . tt CONTENTS. XI Distribution of the ores, Iron manufacture, "Wrought iron — Bessemer steel, . The process of its manufacture, . Steel, .... Cast steel, Blast furnaces per States, Table of production, Manufacture of railway rails, Copper, .... New Jersey, Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, Colorado, Michigan and other mines, .... Production of Lake Superior mines from 1853 to 1878 Copper smelting, .... Useful applications of copper, . Gold, ...... Where found, ..... Gold mines in California and Rocky Mountains region, Placer and quartz mining, The process of separating the gold from quartz, Total gold and silver production for years 1880 and 1881, Coinage of United States mint and branches, Lead, ..... Location of lead mines — smelting of the ore, Shipments of lead from the upper Mississippi from 1821 to 1879 Importation of lead, Useful applications of lead. Manufacture of white lead, Location of white lead works, . Zinc, .... Where the ore is obtained, Metallurgic Treatment and Uses, European Manufacture, . Zinc paint, Imports and exports from 1859 to 1880, Platinum, Nature of the metal — where found, Iridium and osmium, Mercury, . ... How obtained, amount of production, where found, etc Metallurgic treatment and useful applications, . Silver, cobalt, nickel, chromium, tin, The Comstock lode and other productive mines, Cobalt in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Lake Superior region, . PAGE. 378 395 401 «( 412 413 414 417 418 419 420 424 429 431 434 435 440 445 447 450 457 460 461 464 466 470 474 475 475 476 477 479 481 484 485 (i 488 « 489 492 494 495 497 Xll CONTENTS. 1881, Nickel in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina, .... Chrome — its use in paints, dyes, etc., Manganese, .... Tin — where obtained and useful applications, Coal, ..... Varieties of coal, Supposed origin, component parts, etc., . Geological and geographical distribution, Amount of available coal, Extent of coal fields in the several States, Relative amount of coal in the several great coal fields in Europe - and America, Anthracite coal — its production from 1819 to Transportation of coal to market, Coal-mining, .... Illuminating Gas, The number of gas companies and capital stock, the process of manufacture, Hydro-carbon gas, Gas for steamboats and railroad cars, Gas for fuel, .... Coal oil and petroleum, History and method of the manufacture, Petroleum or rock oil, Its existence in various foreign countries, Pennsylvania oil regions, Method of sinking the wells, Cost of boring oil wells, Conducting the oil to market through pipes, Oil production from 1862 to 1881, and exports Land settlement — internal trade, . Purchase of Louisiana, . Exports to New Orleans in four years before it was annexed, Sales of land and population of new states, Five routes from the Atlantic to Chicago in 1850, Miles and cost of railroad in eastern, middle, southern, and west em states from 1828 to 1880, Miles of railroad, population, bushels of corn, bushels of wheat in 1850, 1870, 1880, .... Annual sales of land by the government from 1821 to 1880, . Imports into Buffalo by lake and railroad from 1850 to 1870 Imports and exports in 1881, .... Shipments of flour and wheat and other grains from 1838 to 1880, ....... of the same, 498 it 499 500 501 502 it 509 514 514 517 it 518 529 530 536 a 537 t< 538 543 544 547 549 550 551 553 554 (i 555 556 558 559 560 562 563 CONTENTS. Xlll Shipments of pork, provisions, cut meats, lard, beef, wool and lumber from 1861 to 1880, . . . .564 Population, valuation, annual manufacturing products in 1860, 1870, 1880, of Buffalo, Oswego, Cleveland, Detroit, Chi- cago, and Milwaukee, . . . . . " River cities — Atlantic cities, . . . . .566 Population, value of manufactures of Pittsburg, at various peri- ods from 1816 to 1880, ....." Population, imports, manufactures, and exports of Cincinnati, at various dates from 1800 to 1880, . . . 567 Dates of settlement, incorporation, population, valuation, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis, ......" Table showing the progress of New Orleans from 1804 to 1881, 568 Progress in population, imports, exports, from 1790 to 1880, of Charleston and Baltimore, . . . . .570 Population, imports, exports, total valuation from 1684 to 1880, of Philadelphia, . . . . . .571 Population, imports, exports, valuation from 1684 to 1881, of Boston, ....... 572 New York, telegraph, express, gold, . . . « Population, imports, exports, valuation from 1684 to 1880, of New York, ....... 573 Exports of the leading articles of domestic produce from five Atlantic cities, and from the whole Union, in 1880, . 574 Wholesale and retail trade of prominent New York houses, . 582 Imports of certain goods into the five great Atlantic ports, and also total imports into the Union, in 1880, . . 586 The exchange per year in the New York 'clearing-house, 1S69- 1880, ....... 589 Imports, foreign exports, total imports and exports at various dates, from 1860 to 1881, . . . . .591 Banks, . ....... 594 Bills of credit — government issues — United States bank, . " Establishing the old United States bank — its business opera- tions, ....... 597 State banks, Suffolk system, safety fund, free banks, New Eng- land banks, ....... 599 New York banks, ...... 600 Pennsylvania banks, Maryland banks, . . . . . .601 New Jersey banks, Delaware banks, Ohio banks, Indiana banks, . . . . . . .602 Illinois banks, XIV CONTENTS. Michigan banks, . Iowa banks, "Wisconsin banks, Minnesota banks, Nebraska banks, Kentucky banks, Tennessee banks, Arkansas banks, Mississippi banks, Missouri banks, . Louisiana banks, Alabama banks, . Virginia banks, . North Carolina banks, South Carolina banks, Georgia banks, . The District of Columbia banks Florida banks, . ■ . Banks of all the United States — total of imports and exports — population at various dates from IV 91 to 1863, Banks of the United States — clearing-houses — private banking, Table of national banks — the date of organization, number of banks, capital, circulation from October, 1863, to October, 1881, ....... Comparative statement of national banks for eleven years, Amount of money in circulation on the first of November, 1881, Number of State banks and trust companies — private bankers — savings banks — with the average amount of their capital, deposits, and investments for the six months ending May 31, 1881, ....... United States mint, ...... Proportion of alloy in gold coins in 1792, 1834, 1837, . United States coinage from 1793 to 1881, Gold and silver of domestic production deposited at the mints and assay offices from their organization to the year ending June 30, 1881, ...... Emigration, ....... Naturalization laws, ...... The number of alien passengers arrived in the United States from foreign countries, from the commencement of the government to the 31st of December, 1881, European migration — French and German — new trade, Efforts of Germany to suppress migration, Decrease of population in Ireland from 1821 to 1881, Ship regulations for emigrants, . Emigrants landing in New York, PAGE. 602 603 604 604 605 608 609 610 612 615 617 618 620 621 622 624 625 626 630 CONTENTS. XV Number of passengers that arrived in each year in the United States from England, Ireland, Scotland, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, and Norway, with the total from all countries, ....... 634 The foreign population in each State and Territory in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880, with the ratio to 100,000 natives in each in 1870 and 1880, . . . . .635 The number of native citizens and foreign visitors (not emi- grants) arriving from abroad, . . . .636 Telegraphs — their origin and progress, . . . .638 History of its invention, ..... 639 Magnitude of its operations, ..... 645 Telephones and phonographs, ..... 646 Their invention and uses, . . . . .647 The electric light, . . . . . . .651 Its success, ....... 652 Electric locomotion, . . . . . .655 The signal service, ...... 657 History of its operation, and practical use, . . .659 Agriculture, ....... 666 Hardships of the early settlers, . . . . .667 The mode of Indian farming, ..... 668; They teach the settlers how to raise corn, . . " Their mode of storing corn, . . . . . " Their surprise at the first sight of a ship, . . .671 Limited means of education and general information, . . 672 Associative and legislative efforts, . . . .675 Farm implements, . . . . . .677 Their rude construction, ..... 678 The value of the improvements in ploughs estimated to be $11,000,000 per year, ..... 681 The harrows, cultivators, seed-sowers, mowers and reapers, • 687 Trial threshing machine at the Paris exhibition, . . 693 Progress in the raising of stock, .... 694 Early importation of animals, . . . . " Importation of improved breeds — the Short horns, Herefords, Devons, Ayrshires, Jerseys, Holsteins, etc., . . 700 The average number of pounds of butter per cow, in different States, ...... 708 The average number of pounds of cheese per cow in different States, ....... ll Number of cows per head to population — average value of cows in the different States, . . . . " Horses, ........ 709 Inferiority of the horses first imported, . . . .710 Improved breeds of horses, adapted to various uses, . . 715 2 XVI CONTENTS. Number and value of horses, Sheep, .... First sheep imported, in 1609, destruction by wolves and dogs only sixteen sheep in the whole colony in 1 643, The magnitude of the sheep and wool interests in the various States, Swine — the pork business, The great improvement in breeds, Hogs packed in Cincinnati at various dates from 1848 to 1880 Ditto in Chicago from 1853 to 1880, The number and value of stock in 1850, 1870, 1880, . Products of the soil, ..... Indian Corn — its cultivation and production in various States, Exports of Indian corn and meal in different years from 1851 to 1880, Wheat, .... Its production in the colonies, Exports of wheat and flour from the United States at certain dates from 1791 to 1880, with values at the later dates The wheat-producing regions, transportation and commerce in the article, ...... Production of other grains, rye, oats, barley, and buckwheat, The potato, The grass and hay crop, The culture of fruit in great variety, Culture of tobacco, Culture of hops, . Culture of flax and hemp, Culture of silk, . Bee culture, Poultry and eggs, The lumber business, Description of the lumber business from the trees in the forest to the ultimate use of the lumber in its various applications Receipts of lumber at Chicago at various dates from 1847 to 1878. Progress of agricultural literature, Prospects of agriculture in this country, Population of cities, its ratio to the entire population, number of persons to the square mile, area of settlement, value of agricultural products, . Dates of admission of the States, population and valuation, area in square miles, etc., . . . . . Population of United States, general nativity and foreign parentage, . . . ... Cities of the United States having more than 10,000 inhabit- ants in 1880, ...... PAGE. 716 719 720 722 724 « 729 <( 730 732 735 736 737 739 741 742 << 745 751 755 796 759 760 « 767 768 776 779 784 785 787 788 788 CONTENTS. XVU Cotton Culture, ....... First mention of cotton by Herodotus about 450 B. C. It is a native of the East Indies, and possibly also of Africa and America, . The early cultivation in this country, Invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, Its cultivation in the days of slave labor, Its cultivation since the emancipation of the slaves, Sugar Cultivation and Consumption, The importation, production, and consumption of sugar and molasses in the United States from 1790 to 1880, . Sugar from other sources, .... Maple sugar, ...... Beet sugar, ...... Sugar from the canes or stalks of corn and sorghum, . Stewart's experiments with corn and sorghum, . Glucose and glucose sugar, .... Commerce of the United States, .... Colonial trade, imperial restrictions, emancipation of inhabitants, Amount and value of agricultural products and manufactures at different dates, ..... An account of the value of the exports in 1770, Exports to, imports from, Great Britain from 1784 to 1790, Imports and exports of the United States and tonnage in the foreign trade from 1790 to 1807, . Tonnage, domestic exports, foreign exports, total exports, total imports from 1808 to 1820, Changed interests, manufactures, course of trade, speculation revulsion, etc., ..... Exports and imports of specie, etc., from 1821 to 1830, . Course of trade from 1830 to 184 0, Imports and exports of silk, wines, spirits, sugar, flour, and provisions from 1831 to 1840, Bankrupt law, English free trade, Speculative years between 1850 and 1860, Annual value of agricultural products and manufacturing in dustry, ...... Corn, wheat, and pork exported to Great Britain, from 1840 to 1880, ...... Exports of specified articles from 1790 to 1880, Slips, tonnage, navigation laws, .... Number and tonnage of vessels built in the several provinces in the year 1771, ..... Tonnage of the United States, at various dates from 1789 to 1880, ...... Steamship line between the United States and Europe since 1840, ...... PAGE. 792 793 << 794 795 800 802 803 (< 804 806 807 811 813 815 817 819 820 822 823 828 830 832 833 836 837 838 839 xvin CONTENTS. American vessels in the home trade, Comparison of the American and foreign tonnage entering the ports of the United States from 1856 to 1880, National exports, United States, Great Britain, France, at various dates from 1800 to 1880, Education and educational institutions. Educational development in the colonial period, Earliest efforts of King James the I to establish educational institutions, ..... Town action in behalf of schools in New England, Colonial legislation and action in the different colonies, Virginia, Massachusetts, Ehode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, . Results at the close of our colonial history, Revolutionary and transitional period, . The opinions of the following gentlemen on the importance of education — George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Rush, John Jay, De Witt Clinton, Chancellor Kent, Daniel Webster, State and National action, about 1810, States New Hampshire, . " Vermont, . " Massachusetts, " Maine, " Rhode Island, Historical and statistical data of the United States, School-houses, studies, books, and teachers, as they were, Views of the following gentlemen in relation to schools of the period : Noah Webster, . Heman Humphrey, D.D., Hon. Joseph T. Buckingham, Rev. Eliphalet Nott, Peter Parley (S. G. Goodrich), PAGE. 841 843 845 847 849 a 850 852 u 853 854 855 856 n 857 it 858 t< u 859 860 863 866 867 867 868 871 873 875 r CONTENTS. XIX PAGE. Horace Bushnell, D.D., ..... . 881 Williani Darlington, M.D., LL.D., 882 Schools in Philadelphia, ..... . 883 School holiday in Georgia, .... 885 Progressive development of schools and other institutions o. E public instruction, ..... 895 Elementary instruction in states, . 896 Alabama, ...... u Arkansas, . 897 California, . 898 Connecticut, . 899 Delaware, . 900 Florida, . . 903 Georgia, . U Illinois, . . 904 Indiana, . . 906 Iowa, . 907 Kansas, . 908 Kentucky, . 909 Louisiana, . 910 Maine, . 911 Maryland, . 912 Massachusetts, 913 Michigan, . 923 Minnesota, 924 Mississippi, . 925 Missouri, << Nebraska, 926 Nevada, 927 New Hampshire, a New Jersey, 929 New York, 930 North Carolina, 934 Ohio, 937 Oregon, . 938 Pennsylvania, 939 Ehode Island, 941 South Carolina, 944 Tennessee, 946 Texas, << Vermont, 947 Virginia, 948 "West Virginia, . 949 Wisconsin, 950 Table — population, taxable property, schools, illiteracy, etc., 951 Secondary instru< Jtion, . 952 XX CONTENTS. Academy life in Philadelphia about 1860, Public high schools — Endowed academies, 'Academies out of New England, Female seminaries and colleges, Colleges of superior instruction, Condition of American colleges about 1800, Establishment of Dartmouth College, College studies and discipline about 1800, Professional and special education, Military academy at West Point, United States naval academy, . State, incorporated, and private schools, Military tactics in state scientific schools, Theological schools or seminaries, Law schools, Medical schools, . Normal schools and teachers' institutes. Teachers' institutes and associations, Schools of applied sciences, Agricultural schools and colleges, Commercial schools or business colleges, Scientific schools proper, Orphan asylums and schools, Schools and colleges for Indians, Schools for the Africans and freedmen, Church and denominational schools, Schools for deaf mutes, . Schools and institutions for the instruction of the blind, Institutions for the education and training of idiots and imbeciles Hospitals and asylums for the insane, Preventative and reformatory schools and instructions, . Supplementary instruction, .... The book — The living voice — Occupation and libraries, . Societies for the advancement of science, education, and literature Educational associations, Educational periodicals and reports, School books and school apparatus, American text books printed prior to 1800, School apparatus, School architecture, School houses as they were, School-houses as they should be, Benefactors of education, The Horn-book, The New England Primer, "Webster's Spelling Book, PAG?:. 956 959 i. 960 962 a 971 974 980 981 982 u 983 • it 984 a 985 987 989 990 991 992 993 996 997 1003 1006 1008 1009 1013 ti 1022 1024 1028 1030 1031 1032 1035 n 1037 1046 1046 1048 1049 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Portrait of Prof. Morse. (Steel Plate.) ^ Frontispiece. Prof. Morse. Flat-boat, Steamboat, ..... First Locomotive, .... Modern Train, ..... Emigrating from Connecticut to Eastern Ohio in 1805, Emigrating at the present time from Connecticut to Iowa, "j* Map of the United States, 4 Map of North America, . First Steamboat built to carry passengers, First Propeller ever built, Oliver Evans' Orukter Amphibolos, Second Experimental Boat of John Fitch, Machinery of Fulton's First Steamboat, . The North River of Clermont, . The Steamer Adriatic, . Marine Engine, .... Riveting the Boilers, Bending and Cutting Engines, . Cutting Engine, .... Casting the Cylinders, . Stationary Engine, Sections of Engine, Baxter Steam Engine, Front View, Sectional View, .... Portable Steam Engine, . The Amoskeag Double Plunger Steam Fire Engine, The Amoskeag Self-propelling Steam Fire Engine, Hamilton's Independent Air-pump and Condenser, The Colt Disc Engine, The Corliss Engine, The Horse Power, Hand Loom, Power Loom, Spinning by Hand, Mule Spinner, Lyall's Great Textile Exhibit at the Centennial, Williinantic Linen Company's Exhibit, . PAGE. 42 42 54 a 56 57 60 61 99 100 101 105 it 106 117 118 123 u 124 127 140 143 146 147 159 a 160 a 167 168 XX11 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. Making Paper by Hand, . . . • .185 Fourdrinier Paper Machine, Engine, . Hand Carding, . . . . . . .188 Iron Frame Finisher Card Machine, . . . .193 Crompton's Improved Fancy Loom, . . . .194 Marble's Gig or Cloth-napping Machine, Cotton -shearing Machine, . . . . .197 Marble's Improved Perpetual Shearing Machine, . .198 Iron Frame Double-acting Brusher, The Murkland Ingrain Carpet Loom, . . . .201 Over the Beam, . . . • . . . 223 Hide-Splitting Machine, Unhairing the Hide, Tan-Yard, "Wax-end Sewing Machine, ..... 224 Pegging Machine, Pegging Boots by Hand, Colt's New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol, . 229 Colt's Army Pistol, Colt's New Breech-loaders, 30 Calibre, . . .230 38 Calibre, The Krupp Gun, . . . . . .239 The Gatling Gun, The Bison, or American Buffalo, . . . .255 Polar Bear, ....... 256 Black Bear, Fox, ........ 257 Otter, Beavers. . Musk Rat, ....... 258 American Sable, . Getting out Floor-boards by hand, . . . .271 Wood worth Planing Machine, Wagon, 1810, ....... 279 Wagon, 1820, . Thorough-brace, . First Elliptic Springs, Jagger, . Gazelle, . Cricket, . French Dog-cart, Doctor's Phaeton, . . . . . .280 Full-top Carriage, Champion, Prince of Wales, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XX111 PAGE. Amorican Sodable Rock-a-way, . . . . .280 Sensible Buggy, . . 281 Deep-side Box Buggy, . u Victoria Phaeton, << York Wagon, . 282 English Square Phaeton, u C Spring Victoria, tt First Clocks Used by Country People, . 287 Hour Glass, a Sun Dial, tt Cheap House Clocks, it Mantel Clock, Glass Cover, . 288 Mantel Clock, Bronze Case and Statuarj r , it Mantel Clock, a The Train Room, . 289 Elgin Machine Shops, 290 Setting up the Watches, u The Caster, . 296 Ice Pitcher, tt Combination Ice- Water Set, . 297 Cod Fishery, , 303 Whale Fishery, . 304 Food Fishes of the Sea, . 309 Trout Fishing, .... 313 Ice Harvesting, . 317 Marking and Cutting, tt Sawing and Barring-Off, tt Canaling to the Ice-House, 318 The Elevators, . u Packing away the Ice, . tt Silk-Spinning Frame, 325 Silk Reel Mill, . it Herring's Patent Triple Champion, Bankers' Safe, 329 Fire-proof Safe with Inside Bankers' Chest a Buffet Side- Board Safe, ..... 330 House Safe, Door Open, . K House Safe, Door Closed, a Manufacture of Glass Bottles, . 337 Goblet Makers, .... 338 Press for Moulding Goblets, tt Manufacture of Window Glass, . 339 The Great Calender Machine, 349 Cutting Rubber into Slabs, tt Ficus Elastica, . . tt Machine for Washing India Rubber, 350 India Rubber Grinding Mill, 2 a XXIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Sewing by Hand, Sewing by Machine, Overstrung Scale for Grand Pianos, Overstrung Scale for Square Grand Pianos The Centennial Organ, . Styles of Furniture Fifty to One Hundred Years Ago, Modern Styles of Furniture, Kitchen of 1770, Kitchen of 1870, Fashions of 1776, " " 1780, « " 1785, " « 1795, " " 1797, " " 1800, " " 1805, " '" 1812, » " 1815, « " 1818, " « 1820, " " 1825, « " 1828, " " 1833, " " 1840, " " 1844, " « 1850, " " 1860, " " 1868-9, Mining Camp, Chestnut Hill Mine, American Iron "Works, . Smelting Pig Iron, Forges at Chalons, Flattening Machine, The Rolling Mill, Forges and Trip Hammers, Steam Hammer, Puddling, Casting Pig Iron, Blast Furnace, . Casting Steel Ingots, Hydraulic Mining, Tunneling at Table Mountain, Larger Rocker, . Stamps for Crushing Gold, Yosemite VaJley, PAGE. 352 280 366 367 371 379 379 390 397 398 399 400 409 410 415 441 442 443 444 453 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXV Father of the Forest, Gold Mining in California, Prospecter in California Gold Mines, Chinese in California Gold Mines, Scotch Hearth Furnace, Process of Working Platinum, . New Almaden Quicksilver Mine, Baltimore Company's Mine, Wilkesbarre, Pa., Map of the Anthracite Regions of Pa., The Great Open Quarry of the Lehigh, Map Showing the Coal Strata, . Map Showing the Coal Veins, . Mount Pisgah Plain, Mauch Chunk, Pa., Colliery Slope and Breaker at Tuscarora, Pa., Descending into the Mine, Fire-damp Explosion, Inundation, Breaking of Props and Caving In, Undermining Coal, Breaking Off and Loading Coal, Drawing Out Coal, Oil Wells of Pa., Prospecting Drill, Prospecting Drill Without Boiler, Academy of Design, New York, Cooper Institute, New City Hall, New York, New York Stock Exchange, Governor Stuyvesant's Mansion, New York, First Class Dwelling in Exchange Place, 1690, A. T. Stewart's Residence, View of Broad Street, New York, 1796, Interior of a Carpet House, Interior of a Dry Goods House, . Interior View of United States Senate Chamber, Interior of the Mint, Philadelphia, Coining Room, . Interior View of the Mint, Philadelphia, Adjusting Room, Irish Emigrants, Just Arrived in New York, Irishmen in the Common Council, New York, Telegraph Illustrations, . Stock Reporting and Private Line Telegraph, Phonograph Instruments, Indian Encampment, The Farm, .... Life in New England in 1770, . PAGE. 454 455 456 << 467 486 491 503 E04-5 506 512 513 515 516 519 520 521 522 523 548 549 (i 577 u 578 << 579 K 11 580 583 « 613 (i 614 a 631 u 641 543 649 664 665 669 XXVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Deer, Golden Plover . Partridges, Wild Turkeys, . Canvas-back Duck, Quail, Farming Tools in Use in 1790, . Farming Tools of the Present Time, Highlander Plow, King or Sulky Plow, The Deere Gang Plow, . Charter Oak Swivel Plow, Cider and Wind Mill, . Seed Drill, Well's Seed Sower, Common Side-hill or Swivel Plow, Eagle Self-sharpener, A Deep Tiller Plow, Threshing machine, Threshing by Hand, Hay-tedder, Wood's Harvester, Combined with Locke's Self Old-fashioned Way of Reaping, Excelsior Mower, Milch Cow, Short Horn Bull, Jenny, . Devon Bull, Ayrshire Bull, . Percheron Stallion, Perch eron Mare, Clydesdale Horses, Petersham Morgan, Trotting Childers, Cotswold Sheep, Improved Kentucky Southdowns, Southern Pine Woods Hog, Western Beech Nut Hog, Improved Essex, Improved Suffolk, Berkshire Hog, . Slaughtering Hogs, The Marsh Windmill with Graduating The Marsh Windmill, . Making Ready for Cultivation, . Crank, PAGE. 673 674 Binder, 679 673 679 u 680 689 a 690 691 « 692 701 a 702 703 704 711 << 712 713 714 717 718 725 «< 726 727 728 733 734 747 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXV11 Cultivation of Small Fruits, Gathering Hops, Fan-tail Pigeon, . "White Cochins, . Light Brahmas, . Black Hamhurgs, Dark Brahmas, . Buff Cochins, Partridge Cochins, S. P. Hamburgs, "White Leghorns, Brown Leghorns, Black Spanish, . Black Leghorns, Plymouth Rocks, Brown Red Games, B. B. Red Games, Silver and Yellow Duck Wing Games, S. S. Hamburgs, Golden or Silver S. Polish, Houdans, Bremen Geese, Pekin Ducks, Aylesbury Ducks Rouen Ducks, Guinea Fowl, Saw-mill, Bronze Turkeys, Hauling Logs, Sawing Off Logs Floating Logs, The Jam, Loading the Ship, Lumberman's Cabin, Products of the Forests, Turpentine and Rosin, a u << « << " " Sub-Tropical Trees of the United States, Illustrations from Thomas's Farmers' Almanac, Hauling Cotton to Market, Cotton Press, Cotton Picking, . Gathering the Cane, Clipper Ship, Emigrant Ship, . Chicago City University, Norwich Free Academy, PAGE. 747 757 760 761 762 763 766 767 769 770 773 774 777 781 791 792 797 798 825 826 901 902 XXV111 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Was, Interior View of a School-house in 1770, Interior View of a School-house in 1870, Contraband Schools, .... Founding of Dartmouth College, 1769, . Yale College in 1764, . Alphabet of the Deaf and Dumb (26 engravings), Austin City Library, Exterior, . Interior, ...... First Map Engraved in the United States in Raised Letters Map of the Present Time in Raised Letters, Gentlemen Engaged in the Fine Arts, . Women Engaged in the Fine Arts, Apparatus and Equipment of the District School As It Specimens of the Apparatus of the School As It Is, Desk and Settee Combined, Desk and Settee Independent, Principal's Desk, Assistant Teacher's Desk, Timbey's Globe Time-piece, The Abacus or Numeral Frame, Eureka Wall Slates, Hammond Black-board Support, The New School Globe, . New Crayon Holder, The Assembly School Desk and School house — As They Were, School-house — As They Are, Brown School-house, Hartford, Conn., Packer Collegiate Institute, Garden Front, . Interior of Chapel, The Horn Book, Portrait of John Hancock, Burning of John Rogers at the Stake, New England Primer Illustrations, The Boy that Stole Apples, The Country Maid and Her Milk-pail, The Cat and the Rat, The Fox and the Swallow, . The Fox and the Bramble, The Partial Judge, The Bear and the Two Friends, The Two Dogs, . Settees, TACK. 915 916 970 975 1001 1015 1016 1025 1026 1033 it 1034 1035 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1046 1047 1048 1049 1050 1051 1052 RAILROADS — MILEAGE. ■*. •« R : coS. £3_ g ■* HJ (O g 9 cq 3 -n — _ " ■^ — — 2 : 00 c2 ^tcu: ^r- EG y H X id © © "* d -X) © © © © ^ t » CO©* 5 SSs - © =* 3*° - M | co-^asto a -• i CO --op -» 'SV.TZZ •"" « -c © x --^ni. I © ins^is. " = g = £ ; = ""' I .rt _ to n en JP © © C r- • ~ © ; " -i m a «* o Vi 3s : IS £?=s |s ss§ s : fi?- = ■ — © ^ os >-: t- g (C X I rt •- -* ? J '— — r " ~ ~ Z. v — ~ r> io os c* !■ - m t: I * *■] ?j © >— © — ~ -r m — — . r i — — — — \z ~ ~-C ■?» © — 8»**jBwO^<0g*'"wW O Niflt-f* I ' $ •§"§" 1 ' "» s . . .° $ ■ £ ■= - ? r - 5 a Se* 3 5 s S Sa;>a«iS is *l»£aape 5 ci^ = S5i5^Si?2 = c3£z '£ P«i**-<»jeS&-<5 J y = zls2 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. CHAPTER I. EARLY ROADS— POST ROADS— MACADAM- NATIONAL. Or all the marvels that have marked the present century, those which manifest them- selves in the development of the means of locomotion and transportation are among the most wonderful. With the emancipation of the states from their colonial condition, and the formation of a federal government, a most extraordinary activity seems to have been imparted to the inventive faculties of the American people, and to which side soever we direct our attention, we find that all the great and useful creations of genius take date from that auspicious event. The art of transportation has, as it were, been created. Not that our fathers were not possessed of the means of transportation by land or water, but those means were so im- measurably below those now in use, that it may be fairly claimed that a new art has been created. When our fathers landed on these shores, it is easily understood that they found no roads, or carriages, or other means of moving from one place to another. In- deed, the countries they had left were at that time but poorly provided with such means, as compared with what they have at present. The first attempts to exchange the prod- ucts of labor, which mark the nascent com- merce of a people emerging from barba- rism, are developed through manual labor, and the application of the strength of ani- mals in a rude and imperfect way. The peddler with his pack, and progressively his pack-horse, are the instruments of intercourse in an infant society. From village to vil- lage, pathways are formed, wheel -carriages are invented to gather the fruits of harvests, and they wear their own paths upon the sur- face of the soil, and finally the road is con- structed, more or less perfect, as a means of transport between places more or less dis- tant. In such a state of affairs the roads are very imperfect, and the carriages of the rudest description. It is conceivable that the first step from the pack-horse and its pathway, to the two-wheeled cart and a road was a very great advance — nearly as much as from the road to the railway. And this improvement has by no means been of so distant a date as at first we might imagine. Not only is the construction of good roads of very recent date, but up to 1860 a very large portion of the world called civilized was without them. Certain parts of Eu- rope, the French colony of Algiers, and the United States, alone possessed them. Until within the past twenty-five years, Russia, with more than 72 millions of in- habitants, Italy, with 27 millions, and Spain, with 23 millions, were almost wholly without any good roads. The diligences of Spain and Italy were dragged over the hills and through the valleys, by rough and detestable highways, while in Russia travel was only possible in winter on sledges. Now they have some good roads, and Russia has about 14,000 miles of railroad; Italy, 6,000, and Spain, 5,000. The condition of affairs in this country before the construction of roads is evident to the hardy pioneers of the western fron- tier, and has been at times common to every part of the country. The first settlers on arriving here, it is certain, found no roads, and were not skilled in following an Indian trail. They built their houses upon the summits of hills, as well to avoid the mias- mata of swamps as to get notice of the ap- proach of hostile savages. The connection between these houses was by foot-paths that became horse tracks, and with the progress of events were enlarged into wagon roads. These, ultimately fenced in, became the high- ways, running irregularly over the face of the country, as they were prolonged by settle- ments. The science of road making never iruided their direction, nor would farmers EARLY ROADS — POST ROADS MACADAM NATIONAL. 33 permit the squareness of their fields to give place to the straightness of roads. These highways were made in the general idea of making the passage of a vehicle between any two given points possible, and various expedients were resorted to, to overcome ob- stacles at the smallest expense. The plough turned up the sides, and the scraper drew the earth to the summit, which was levelled off to be hardened by travel. The reduction of hills or the filling in of swamps was not resorted to in new settlements, but the lat- ter were mostly made passable by laying down logs across the track, and parallel with each other. This (corduroy's road was better than a swamp, but offered so great resistance that a far less load could be drawn over it than over a smooth, level road. The roads of the whole country took their character from their location, and transportation in each district was more or less difficult, according to circumstan- ces. The best roads of the day were such as would now nowhere be tolerated; as a general thing, the water-courses, so abun- dant in this country, were the main arte- ries, and most roads were directed toward these, or in the neighborhood of a large city they converged upon it as a common centre. The number of even these roads at the date of the formation of the government was not large, nor was their quality to be admired. The streams and water-courses were well supplied with small craft, that delivered goods and produce between distant points, but where the route left the water, the transportation became difficult and expen- sive. The war and its success had deeply stirred the public mind, and imparted full activity to the independent genius and en- terprise of the people. Those 3,0u0,000 of souis occupied, as it were, but a foothold on this immense continent, to the ultimate possession of the whole of which they al- ready looked forward. The means of trans- portation were the first object and desire that presented themselves to thinking men. Steam, as a power of locomotion, was un- known, and the science of road making- little developed. Canals, therefore, pre- sented themselves almost simultaneously to leading men in various sections. General Washington had, before he attained his twenty-first year, crossed the mountains and given his careful attention as an engineer to the subject of canals, more particularly the connection of the Chesapeake with the Ohio river. At a subsequent period he received the thanks of the Virginia House for his report on the results of his examination of the valley of the Ohio. And the war had no sooner closed than we find him, in 1784, pre- siding at a commission sitting at Annapolis, on behalf of Maryland and Virginia, to con- sider the improvement of the navigation of the Potomac, which improvement ultimate- ly, in after years, became a canal to Pittsburo-. General Washington, as an engineer, always took an active interest in works of internal improvement. When the Dismal Swamp canal, connecting the Chesapeake, at Nor- folk, Va., with Edenton, Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, a distance of 28 miles, through the vast Dismal Swamp, wasproject- ed and executed at the expense of individuals with some government aid, he took some of the stock. One certificate of this stock, originally issued to him for £300, or 81,000, was sold in 1825, at auction, in Alexandria, for $12,100, to Judge Washington. Penn- sylvania, nearly at the same time, appointed commissioners to explore routes for connect- ing the Delaware with the lakes. They reported in favor of the Juniata, partly by canal and partly by river. The result was a charter of the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Company, in 1789, and the Delaware and Schuylkill in the following year, with $400,- 000 capital. In New York the active mind, of Gouverneur Morris had already projected the Erie canal. In Massachusetts, the Mid- dlesex canal, 30 miles, was authorized in 1789, and completed in 1804. In South. Carolina the Santee canal was finished in 1802. These, with many other events, show the activity of the public mind at the date of the birth of the Union, in relation tc means of transportation. It will be re- membered, however, that the people were then few in number. They were heavily in debt. Their productions were hjnall and trade limited. There was no surplus capital to carry out those magnificent ideas, which were in advance of the times. The natural watiT-courses of the country ran through the finest farms and delivered most of the produce upon noble bays, which were well provided with ships to transport it abroad for sale. This natural traffic absorbed all the commercial capital of the country, but it was so profitable that in the course of a few years it supplied accumulations for other objects, and it was left for a few years later to witness the prosecution of great en- 34 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. terprises. The roads of the country were in a terrible state, however, and since the new constitution had empowered Congress to establish post-offices and post-roads for the conveyance of the mails, it became its duty to look to the roads, and this was the first practical bond of union between the states. A systematic connection of every town in the whole thirteen states, by state routes under one organization, completed the means of communication and established passenger routes. The statistics of the post-office afford a very good indication of the progress of that kind of transportation : — MAIL SERVICE. No. of Miles By stupes. Sulkies and horses. Steam. Rail. Annual. post offices post roads. Miles. Miles. Miles. Miles. Miles. 1791 . 89 1,905 89,650 756,818 846.468 1811. . 2,403 37,031 2,534,102 3,058,960 5,592,652 1833 8.450 115,176 17,693,839 8,531,909 628,737 26,854,485 1859 27,977 260,052 23,448,398 27,021,658 4,569,962 27,268,384 86,308,402 1868 26,481 216,928 45,540,587 3,797,560 34,886.178 84,224,325 1880 42,989 343,888 76,070,995 5,668,538 96,497,46.3 178,236,796 This table gives the transportation of the mail in the first year of its operation; in 1811, when steamboats began to run; in 1833, when railroads began to claim a share ; and in the past year, when all these means have been more fully developed in all sec- tions of the country. There are thus three distinct periods of transportation: 1790 to 1810 were 20 years of common roads and sail vessels; from 1810 to 1830 were 20 years of canals and steamboat progress ; and since 1830 there have been 50 years of rail- road progress, which has produced immense results, throwing an entire net-work over the surface of the country between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, and superseding other means of transportation. It is to be ob- served that in the first year of the opera- tions of the post-office department, there were but 1,905 miles of post-roads, and ■that on these, nine-tenths of the service was on horseback the stage service being very .small; but as the roads were improved up to 1811, the stage service came nearly to equal the horse service. From that date . steam began to take the mails that ran on or ■near watercourses, and subsequently to 1830 the railroads began to compete with the stages on land ; since that time the stage service has increased but six millions, while in the previous 20 years it had increased over fifteen millions of miles. The extension of post routes has "been in 90 years, it appears, nearly 342,000 miles in the whole country, and the federal government has taken an active part in the extension of roads. The most important work of this kind undertaken was the Cumberland or national route across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to St. Louis. For this purpose, lai'ge annual appropriations were made by Congress. Other roads in many directions were projected, particularly from Washing- ton to New Orleans ; and in the frontier states, numerous roads were constructed bv the troops under the direction of the war department. It was thus that the federal government imitated imperial Rome, which in the days of its power clearly understood that that power was to be maintained only by the rap- id march of its legions. From the " eternal city," noble causeways ran to the remotest corners of the then known world. These were military routes simply, and intelli- gence was conveyed upon them from sta- tion to station with great rapidity. On the fall of the empire, those noble works, instead of being preserved were de- molished by small states, as a means of preventing invasion. Nevertheless, those Roman roads remained the best roads in England down to the present century. What is called Ermine street connected Lon- don with Carlisle, in Cumberland. Another is known as Watling street. Apart from those old works, the roads of England were no better than those of this country up to the present century. In this respect there is great difference between the works of the Romans and those of the United States. Those old Roman roads had no competitors. During 1,400 years they continued the best means of conveyance. The United States roads, on the other hand, were hardly done before the inventive spirit of the age set up a successful rival in the giant railway, which has become the trunk road. The French government, under the empire, saw the necessity of roads, and began a system for Europe. The noble way over the Sim- plon was the first of these. With the fall of the empire that system became confined to France, but has since been vigorously pushed — 820,000,000 per annum was ex- pended for many years in their construction. EARLY ROADS POST ROAD8 MACADAM NATIONAL. 35 There were in 1815, 3,000 leagues of "roy- al" roads, and these had increased to 10,000 in 1850. 2,000 leagues of departmental, or county roads had, in the same time, increas- ed to 12,100, and town roads were extended by 15,000 leagues. These extended means of communication have imparted to French prosperity much of its strength. In the United States the impulse given to road building by the federal government was taken up by the several states, if not direct- ly at the public expense, yet by laws which compel inhabitants to work on the local roads. These regulations are different in different states. The essential features of all the laws are nearly the same as in the state of New York, where the directing power is in " commissioners of highways," who are chosen in each town. Under these over- seers are also chosen. The commissioners direct as to the grade of the road, general shape, drainage, etc. The overseers sum- mon the persons who are to work, see that they do actually work, collect fines and com- mutation money. Every person owning land, and every male over twenty-one years, is as- sessed to work. The whole number of days' work shall be at least three times the num- ber of inhabitants in each town. Under this system the roads are never very good. The commissioners work gratuitously, and skill, labor, and time are never to be had for that price. The overseers, being changed every year, are never experienced in the undertak- ing. The men they summon go to it as a half holiday, and the work the overseer sets them at is pretty sure to be that which most bene- fits his own place. The money subscribed is not expended in the best manner. These are all circumstances which do not favor the construction of such roads as will greatly reduce the cost of transportation. In the laying out of the road in this way, a passa- ble track is the most aimed at. To admit vehicles, the track must be cleared of wood by the ax-men, swamps must be overlaid with materials, rivers bridged, and the route laid around hills in order to avoid the difficulties of ascent. These are the maiu points to make a road practica- ble. It is very soon discovered that trans- portation on a bad road is much more ex- pensive than on a good, and efforts are ac- cordingly made by the most enterprising to improve the bad roads. The first step is to make the- roads in such a manner as to ac- commodate the greatest number of people, and at the same time allow the largest loads to be drawn by horses. The better the road the larger will be the load that a team, or two horses, can draw at a given speed, and of course, the cheaper the transportation. It is to be understood, however, that the road must be equally good for the whole distance that a load is to be drawn, since if there is a space where great difficulties are to be en- countered, the load must be gauged to meet that difficulty, no matter how good may be the remainder of the road. If a highroad leading through one township is not kept up, it neutralizes the public spirit of those ad- joining ; hence the necessity of a general system to insure continuous cheap transpor- tation. To effect this, science has devoted its attention, but with little effect in the man- ner that country roads are made and kept in repair. The requisites of a road are: 1st, straightness, because straight lines are the shortest ; 2d, it should be as level as possible, because every ascent causes a loss of power. Thus, if a horse draws on an or- dinary level road two tons, and comes to an ascent of one foot in every twenty, he can- not ascend, because, in addition to the draught, he must lift up 200 pounds, or one- twentieth of the whole weight through the whole neight. To make the road level, and save this labor and expense, the road must wind round the hill. There is little lost by this, because generally it is no further round than over. To prove this, cut an egg in half longitudinally, and set it upon the table ; the line which goes round the base is the same as that which goes over the top. The half of an apple or any similar body will give the same result. Even if it were longer, it is better to go round, since the horse can do the last and not the other. The road should never be less than a rod wide, to allow two vehicles to pass. The surface of the road must be as smooth and hard as possible, in order to overcome as much as possible the resistance offered by sinking in, which is very serious, because the depression creates little hills before the wheels. Thus, if a wheel four feet in diameter sinks in one inch, to overcome the resistance thus offered one-seventh of the load would require to be lifted up over it. The harder the road, the less the resistance from this source. The greater the number of stones, hard substan- ces, and inequalities there are to be encoun- tered, the greater the resistance from colli- sion. The resistance of friction is propor- 36 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. tional to the roughness of the road, and the extremes of this may be illustrated by a car- riage wheel on gravel and a rail wheel. The loss of power on a road, or in other words, the cost of transportation, is increased in proportion to the increase of these resist- ances, and inversely as they are diminished. To overcome them many improvements have been gradually adopted, such as earth, gravel, broken stone, stone pavements, wood, and railroads. In marshy forests charcoal roads are made. Timber from 6 to 18 inches thick is cut, 24 feet long, and piled up lengthwise in the centre of the road in such a manner that the pile will be about 1 2 feet high. This is cov- ered with earth, taken from ditches on either side. When the wood is charred, the coal is raked down to the widthof 10 feet, with a depth of two feet in the centre and one at the side. Such a road becomes very compact, and free from dust. Such a one in Michigan cost $660 per mile. In the older states mostly plank roads were at one time favorites, and many hun- dreds of miles were constructed at a cost of $1,250 per mile. This plan has been gen- erally abandoned. The roads not kept up are a nuisance, and many have been com- plained of, and removed as such. Gravel roads have sometimes been made with the gravel from the shores of rivers, but the resistance offered by these roads is con- siderable. The modes of road making here alluded to, are those which are prevalent mostly in the country districts, and where the work is performed as a tax. These answer for cross roads ; but the great thoroughfares were taken in hand either by the state or by au- thorized companies. Turnpike companies were chartered by most of the states, with the intention that they should construct roads having all the requisites of the best routes, and they were authorized to make a charge to those who use them. These, like most corporations, were subject to abuse ; and the people were com- pelled to pay tolls when they had gained noth- ing in the way of easier transportation. New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and other states, authorized a number of companies which answered a purpose before railroads. The New York turnpike laws enact that ve- hicles having tires six inches wide shall pay half tolls, those with nine inches, one quar- ter, and those 12 inches, none at all. These enactments were designed to encourage the use of broad tires, as being less destructive to roads, but where the road is well made, as on the Macadam plan, the breadth of the tire has no effect ; on the other hand, the horses' feet do the most damage. It has been calculated that a set of tires will, in average weather, on a macadamized road, run 2,700 miles, but that a set of shoes will bear only 200 miles travel. The Macadam road, invented by a Scotch gentleman of that name, was introduced in 1820. The principle is simply that stones broken into angular fragments not over a certain size, say that of a pigeon's egg, will, under the pressure of wheels, combine into a compact mass, excluding all water, and, therefore, not subject to the action of frost, and be as solid as the original stone. These have proved to be the best roads, an- swering most of the conditions, and, there- fore, allowing of transportation at the small- est cost. Good, well-made pavements, as used in cities, are better, since they give lit- tle resistance, and afford a foothold to the horses. In order to understand the differ- ence in value of these roads, it may be re- marked that a machine has been invented called a dynamometer. It resembles a spring balance ; one end is connected with the car- riage, and the other with the horses, and the power they exert is shown by the index. By such an instrument it was determined that, on a gravel and earth road, the resist- ance to draught of one ton was 147 lbs. ; on a Macadam road, 65 lbs. ; on a good pave- ment, 33 lbs. ; and on a rail track, 8 lbs. Whence it appears that a horse can draw three times as much on a Macadam road as on an earth road ; on a pavement, four and a half times as much ; on a railway, eighteen times as much. These figures indicate the gradual advance made in the power of transportation, since the roads, under the action of the state and federal government, and of the enterprising towns and cities, gradually improved from mere wagon ways to well-constructed roads in those sections where land carriage was most used. While individuals, companies, and states thus contributed to the improvement of roads, the federal government entered the field with greater vigor. There were two motives for the construc- tion of roads and internal improvements by the federal government. The first was to facilitate the mails ; and the second was to EARLY ROADS — POST ROADS MACADAM — NATIONAL. 37 facilitate communication. It was obvious that the new and infant states had little means to expend in the construction of roads that were to be more or less for the general benefit. The government, therefore, in organizing new states upon the national territory, made provision for the construc- tion of roads out of the proceeds of the pub- lic lands sold within each state. The gov- ernment everywhere constructed numerous roads, and after the war of 1812, when its finances began to be easy, it employed the French General Bernard and a corps of en- gineers in the construction of fortifications and roads. Among these engineers was Capt. Poussin. This gentleman went back to France, carrying with him the republican ideas here collected. He there propagated them with such effect that he was, in 1848, when the Revolution chased the last Bourbon from the throne, attached to the Paris Na- tional, the republican newspaper, and be- came, in consequence, ambassador of the provisional government to the United States in 1849. Thus, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, returning to the scene of his early labors. When the state of Ohio was admitted into the Union, there were very few roads there, and the federal government was the chief pro- prietor of the land. It was agreed, therefore, that two per cent, of the proceeds of the land sold should be applied to the making of a road leading to the state. The same condi- tion was made when Indiana, Illinois, Mis- souri, Mississippi, and Alabama were ad- mitted, and the road was commenced. A turnpike road from Baltimore, 170 miles to Wheeling, was laid out, and a similar road from Washington, 150 miles to Cumberland was constructed. From that point the Cum- berland road runs 135 miles to the cast bank of the Ohio ; of this distance, 85 miles are in Pennsylvania, 35 in Maryland, and 15 in Vir- ginia. This was extended west 80 miles to Zanesville, and so through the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, to St. Louis. The road has cost the government over $3,500,- 000. Its effect upon transportation was very great. Before its construction it re- quired, to go from Baltimore to Wheeling, 8 days. This was reduced to 3 days. The figures were the same for the length of travel from Washington to Wheeling. Its influence upon the country through which it ran was great. Villages multiplied in its neighborhood, and the value of property was much enhanced. The city of Wheeling was particularly influenced by it. In the year 1828 it forwarded to Baltimore over that road 3,500,000 lbs. or 1,750 tons of prod- uce, by over 1,000 wagons. Anticipations were then indulged that a small reduction in the cost of transport would bring 100,000 tons of Ohio produce over the road to Bal- timore. They did not then foresee that the reduction in cost would be brought about only by rails to Baltimore. The Cumberland road by no means monop- olized the attention of Congress, but roads were constructed in most of the states under the war department, and in the new states the army was employed in making them. Some 800 miles were thus made in Arkansas. We may allude to a few of these roads, as that to Mars Hill, Maine ; Detroit to Fort Gra- tiot, Michigan ; do. to Saginaw bay ; do. to Chicago ; Laplaisance bay to the Chicago road; Fort Howard and Fort Ciawford ; road to Chattahoochee ; canal survevs in Florida ; road to Apalachicola; Pensacola liav to Pittsburg, Miss.; road from Jackson to Ful- ton, Mississippi; Memphis to Little Rock; Green bay to Winnebago. These few names of roads spreading from Maine to Arkan- sas and Florida will give an idea of the ex- tended works of the government, which also embraced removing obstructions of rivers and improving river navigation. A grand system of internal improvements was thus developed, until its growing magnitude made it a political issue, and the whole system came to an end under the Maysville road veto of General Jackson. The principle was adopted by one party, that the federal gov- ernment had no power to construct any hut strictly national works, or not any that were entirely within a single state. The system thus came to a violent end, after an expendi- ture of some $30,000,000, but not until rail- roads had begun already to supersede canals and roa Is. The federal government had thus lent a powerful hand to the eztensiou of highways. The great thoroughfares that it had laid open had facilitated migration and settlement, and wherever these had taken place, local roads multiplied, until we find that in the year 1880 there were 343, 8S8 miles of post-road in the Union. The mails of the government were given out by contract to the highest bidder for four years' service. The whole mail sen ice was divided into sections, north, east, west, and south, each being let for four years, but 38 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. every year one of those fell due. The contractors agreed to deliver the mails on certain routes in a given time, for a certain amount of money. The mail money was generally depended upon for the expenses of running the vehicles, and such passengers as could be carried by the same conveyance afforded a profit. Thus the system for the circulation of letters and newspapers became the machinery for the circulation of the peo- ple. These accommodations were, however, far from being luxurious at a distance from the great cities. In these, indeed, the staging was conducted in a style approaching the splendid. The eastern stages running into Boston, and penetrating into every part of New England, were celebrated for their quality and style, as were those of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and most other large cities that were the centres of traffic, as well as post service. The dif- ferent " lines" ran such opposition, as re- duced the fare and promoted speed. The dandy " turn-out" being ready at the hour, well dressed, polite, smart drivers received the "ribbons" with gloved hands, and the " team" went through with a skill that could get the best time out of the nature of the road. As the traveller receded from the great centres, he found the "teams" worse, and the roads to match. The mails ran fewer times in the week, the vehicle dwindled from the easy coach to the covered spring wagon, to the open wagon without springs, ultimately to the horse, and finally perhaps to a man's back, and the traveller's accommodation diminished in proportion. CHAPTER II. CO ASTERS— STE A MBO ATS— CANALS. In the neighborhood of the water-courses the traveller was better accommodated by the coasting vessels. The early settlements of the country had been, as a matter of course, upon the coast and on the numerous streams with which the country is supplied. The roads had extended back, more or less, into the country from these settlements, where the freights accumulated at the landings, whence they were carried by water for interchange with other towns, or, as the country grew, to be exported abroad. The wagon charge for freight was always so high as to absorb the value of the produce at moderate distances, and travelling was most- ly upon horses, unless water conveyances could be availed of. This was the common mode for long journeys on all the rivers. The following advertisement, from a New York paper early in the present century, gives an idea of the style of travelling in the youth of men now not old. " Sloop Experiment — for passengers only. — Elias Bunker informs his friends and the public, that he has commenced running a sloop of about 110 tons burthen, between the cities of Hudson and New York, for the purpose of carrying -passengers only. The owners of this vessel, being desirous to ren- der the passage as short, convenient, and agreeable as possible, have not only taken care to furnish her with the best Beds, Bed- ding, Liquors, Provisions, &c, but they have been at very great expense and trouble in procuring materials, and building her on the best construction for sailing, and for the ac- commodation of ladies and gentlemen travel- ling on business ox for pleasure. " Merchants and others residing in the northern, eastern, or western counties, will find a great convenience in being able to cal- culate (at home) the precise time they can sail from Hudson and New York, without be- ing under the necessity of taking tht ir beds and bedding, and those in New York may so calculate their business as to be certain of comfortable accommodations up the riv- er." This was evidently no common luxury that Capt. Bunker proffered to an admiring pub- lic. They were no longer required to "take up their beds and walk." Ladies and gen- tlemen travelling for pleasure could now be supplied with bedding, as well as other lux- uries, on board a hundred ton sloop, and depend upon the time of her leaving. The wary Elias did not commit himself to the time of her arrival, however. Long experi- ence had made him cautious on that point. However, to be certain of leaving was some- thing, since the taking of a passage had been only a preliminary step to a voyage. The completing of the freight, the waiting for a wind, and the notification by means of a black man to be on board at an appointed hour, were now to be dispensed with. This was a great blessing, a good way in advance of the navigation 150 years previous, when permission was granted to a sloop to go from New Amsterdam (New York) to Fort Or- ange (Albany), provided she did not carry COASTERS — STEAMBOATS — CANALS. 39 more than six passengers. This was the mode of reaching most of the large cities. From any point of the eastern coast the best mode of reaching Boston was by the lumber or other coasters. In these the passengers, male and female, were stowed away in a few berths in the cabin, or sprawled around upon the uncarpeted floor. Sometimes these ves- sels, when the freight earnings were eked out by a fair number of passengers, as from Ban- gor, Portland, or other cities, were raised to the dignity of a "packet," when a few ex- tra berths were decorated with a red bomba- zette frill of rather a scanty style. In the rainy seasons, spring and fall, these were al- most the only modes of travelling. It may be suppossd that passengers were not very abundant. The vessels, however, improved in size and accommodation, and the number of passengers even in the early railroad days conveyed by them was, perhaps, as large as ever. The speed of these vessels was not great, and the uncertainty of arrival such as now would by no means suit ideas of busi- ness. In those seasons of the year when the roads were generally good, the stages would make four miles per hour and arrive in fair time. Such arrangements did not permit frequent visits for the purchase of goods, and most business was done fall and spring, when the goods followed the water-courses as far as possible, and then paid from 15 to 30 cents per ton per mile, according to the difficulties of the route. Even the mail charge was from §\ to 25 cents per single let- ter, or a letter on one piece of paper, being 18£ cents for any distance between 150 and 400 miles — envelopes, of course, were not used. Those charges were continued down to 1845, when the reduction took place. The tonnage employed in the coasting irade had increased from 68,607 in 1789, to 420,362 in 1812. Inasmuch as but little change had taken place in the speed and build of the vessels, the increase indicates the progress of business. In 18u7 the en- terprising sloop owners who, like Captain Bunker, had conceived the idea of furnish- ed berths for the accommodation of the pub- lic, were struck aghast at the success of Ful- ton's "Clermont" — named after the country seat of Chancellor Livingston — steaming up the river at the rate of four miles an hour un- der all circumstances. The conservative inter- ests were loud in demonstrating the utter ruin that was to overtake river craft, the occupa- tion of boatmen, and, consequently, the na- vy, "the country's right arm of defence," by means of this great innovator. Never- theless, the spark of genius had kindled the flame of invention, and tne public were be- coming absorbed in it. Each new steamer ex- ceeded the previous ones in build and style, and the machinery underwent as rapid im- provement. As usual, however, the public were slow to be convinced. It was admit- ted, when it could no longer be denied, that steam would answer for the river, but it was held to be idle to attempt the Sound naviga- tion in those new-fangled concerns. This problem was decided in the Fulton by Capt. Bunker, possibly our enterprising friend of the sloop. The " Hell-gate" passage was, in those days, an object of terror. An Eng- lish frigate had been lost there in the old war, and there were not a few who still held the idea that " the devil only could beat those English who had beat the Dutch." The East River rushing up the Sound at par- ticular times of tide poured a tremendous t flood between Ward's and Long Islands. The passage narrowed to a few yards, and the tide rushed past the "hog's back " and the "gridiron," turned at right angles, and formed a foaming whirlpool around the "pot-rock," which, even with the surface of the water, was fatal to any vessel that touched it. Through that " gate of Hell " the steamer was to pass, and the operation was described by a passenger ao follows: — " I remember the long-agitated question, whether steamboats could be made capable of sea navigation, or so constructed as to trav- erse our sounds, bays, and coasts in safety. This question was put to rest by the enter- prise and skill of Capt. Bunker. In the Fulton, constructed, I am told, with a view to crossing the Atlantic, he undertook the navigation of Long Island Sound, an arm of the sea in which the most severe tempests are often encountered. During a season of no extra- ordinary moderation, including the two equi- noctial piles, ('apt. B. lost but a single trip. Another doubt remained to be removed. It was supposed impossible to pass the celebrat- ed passage of Hell-gate against the tide, at the strength of the current. This was re- served for Capt. Biroker to remove, and I happened to be on board at the time of the DOvel and interesting experiment, returning southward from New Hampshire. A num- ber of respectable passengers witnessed the performance. It was in the boat Connecti- cut, built with all the strength to be obtained 40 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. and careful workmanship. The machinist (McQueen) was accompanying his engine to prove its powers, with careful and ingenious assistants, ami some of the owners were on board also. The first attempt to pass the point of greatest pressure of the contracted stream was unsuccessful, and the boat was compelled to retreat into an eddy and in- crease her steam. With renovated power the effort was repeated, every man fixed im- movable at his post, the passengers properly stationed in different parts of the boat, the engineers employing their utmost diligence to force the passage. They were again de- feated by the supposed resistless stream, and again retreated, racked, strained, and shiver- ing, from the contest. After a short pause and fresh preparation,* it was resolved by the parties concerned to make a third endeavor, and test the strength of the machinery by the greatest trial it could ever be expected to bear. After a severe struggle, in which a weaker vessel would have been disjointed and torn to pieces, the headstrong current yielded to the giant power of steam, and the triumph of art over nature was effected. A few moments of greater breathless anxiety I scarcely ever witnessed. Mechanical sci- ence achieved a victory over elementary force, and overcame an obstacle heretofore deemed in this manner altogether insur- mountable. The courage and perseverance of Capt. B. were so conspicuous on this occasion, that I can never forget the impres- sion made on all present. We have since found it as easy to traverse our sea-board, navigate the Mississippi, and cross the At- lantic, as it was to find America after Colum- bus had broken the egg.^ To those who now so frequently make that dire passage without knowing it, this animated description must afford surprise as well as amusement. It is suggestive, not so much of the temerity of the " bold naviga- tors" of that day, as of the feeble nature of the boats then built. The passage, to be sure, has now been deprived of most of its " horrors" by the removal of the pot-rock, which has been broken by gunpowder blasts to a depth which leaves it no longer dangerous. The noble steamers of the pres- ent day pass through at all times of tide, without apparently feeling the current, in- stead of butting at it three times "strained and shivering." The steamboat-, after per- forming this feat, passed up the Connecticut nverfor the first time to Middletown. The North River boats continued to improve, and the time of the Clermont — .36 hours to Albany — was, in 1820, reduced by the Par- agon to 20 hours. In 1823, however, the time from New York to Providence, 200 miles, was 20 hours, and the stage to Boston completed the route, 40 miles, in 6 hours more, making 26 hours. At that date steam- ers were multiplying on all the Atlantic rivers and bays, on the western rivers and the lakes. In 1819 the first steamer crossed the Atlantic from Savannah, Ga., to England. In 1825 the Chief Justice Marshall reduced the time to Albany to 14 h. 30 m. The progress in speed may be seen by the following : — 1811, Clermont's time to Albany, 4 ms. per h., 36 lis. 1820, Paragon, " " 20 L825, Chief Justice Marshall, " 14.30 1840, Knickerbocker, " 9 'S3 I860, average time 18 miles per hour, 8 1870, " " 21 " " " 7 With the opening of the Erie canal in 1825, the quantity of goods going and com- ing much increased the demand for trans- portation, and barges in tow of steamers be- gan a new era in that business. That goods could be carried west on the canal, and so by continuous water-courses on the lakes and their affluents, induced more passengers by the same route. In 1841 the improved method of propelling by screw was introdu- ced by the patent of Capt. Ericsson. The iron screw steamer R. F. Stockton, of 72 tons, came from Liverpool under the command of Capt. Crane, ami became a tug on the liari- tan canal. Those steamers now gradually gained ground in public favor. The speed was long not so great as that of the paddle wheels. This has been gradually overcome by improved models ami forms of screw, until in the month of October, 1860, two propellers of 100 feet length were launched for the North River trade, and made time 18 miles per hour, being the fastest boats for their length afloat. This class of vessels are now exclusively used in the European trade. The settlers who had crossed the moun- tains in the early times of the government had located mostly on the great streams, within easy reach of the means of conveying the surplus to points of sale. They were not provided with vessels of a very expensive construction ; and flat boats were the chief means of descending the streams. Theso vessels, designed only to go down stream, were composed of such material as, after COASTERS STEAMBOATS— CANALS. 41 having served the purpose of transporting produce, could be broken up at the place of destination, and sold as lumber. These were improved into keel boats, for the pur- pose of ascending the streams, and in either case were propelled by long poles in the hands of the boatmen. These, standing on the gunwale at the extreme bow of the boat, thrust the pole into the mud, and setting the shoulder against the top, push- ed the boat forward with the feet in walking toward the stern, which reached, they drew up the pole, walked back, and repeated the movement. In this laborious mode of travel, all the merchandise sent from the east, via New Orleans, reached its destina- tion. It required four months to travel thus from New Orleans to St. Louis — a distance of 1,500 miles, and the cost of the goods, it may well be supposed, was enhanced by the proc- ess ; while, on the other hand, the produce sent down realized but little. Thus, between the cheapness of the produce and the clear- ness of merchandise received in exchange, the settler realized but little for his labor. It is easy to conceive how great a blessing was steam on those waters, to enable the weary men to stem the ceaseless, downward flow of the mighty currents. In 1811 that blessing made its appearance at Pittsburg in the shape of a steamboat, built by Fulton, and which had a considerable success. The general progress was, however, slow, for the reason, among others, that, as in all such cases, there was a large capital invested in river craft, which would depreciate in value in face of the new power, and there was not much capital to embark all at once in steam. It was aiso the case that ChancellorLiving- ston, the partner of Fulton, claimed a mo- nopoly of the lower Mississippi trade, and put a restraint for some years upon steam in that region. So great a power could not, how- ever, but force its way. With the construc- tion of the Enterprise, in 1815, St. Louis was reached in 25 days from New Orleans, and public enthusiasm was aroused. There were, however, up to 1817, still but twelve boats upon the western waters, of an aggregate ton- nage of 2,335 tons. The time to Pittsburg was 54 days, of which 36 days was running time. These passages caused much excitement, and a bold merchant predicted that the rate of freight, between New Orleans and St. Louis would fall to $3.50 per 100 lbs., but he was regarded as visionary, or what they would now call in Wall-street language a " bear" in freights. His sanguine nature would probably have been surprised could the veil of time have been so lifted as to permit him to see 60 years ahead — the boats of the pres- ent day making money at 12 cts. per 100 lbs., and carrying it in three days, instead of 25. The Monongahela and Ohio Steam- boat Company claimed patronage because their new crack boats could go nine miles an hour ! But they were in advance of the times ; that speed was thought to be dangerous, even if possible. Those people are now, however, not quite satisfied unless the speed is equal to 25 miles in still water. The war had given a new impulse to settle- ments west ; the more so that steam now so much facilitated travel, and freights multi- plied in proportion. Thus reciprocally the improved means of travel induced more lo- comotion, and increased traffic more de- mand for vessels. The multiplying boats and more rapid passages still found a suffi- ciency of business, and even the old river craft were kept in requisition for tow boats. Cincinnati began to build barges of 100 tons to go to New Orleans in tow of steamers ; and the Etna made the passage down in fifteen days, reflecting great glory on the com- mercial enterprise of that city, and its citizens became elated. A Cincinnati writer of 1817 estimates the territory drained commercially by that city at 10,000 square miles, and re- marks : " Supposing this settled by 40,000 families, and that each farm would give two tons annual surplus for exportation, there would be 80,000 tons to send to New Orleans, or freight for 800 boats of 100 tons each." The writer apologizes for the extravagance of this estimate. Commercial enterprise began to seek new routes. In 1823 three keel boats in tow passed 450 miles up the Wabash river. It was not until 1826 that the first steamer ran up the Alleghany river. In the same year the ship Illinois reached St. Louis from New York, via New Orleans, 3,000 miles, in twenty-nine days and a half, and the first steamer ran up the Susquehanna to Tioga. The opening of the Erie canal, in 1825, caused a great change in travel, Thus the journey from New York to Pittsburg was accomplished by canal, with only eight days staging, and thence down the river to New Orleans. In 1824 the passage up from New Orleans to New York, via Pittsburg, was made in 24 days, at an expense of §90. The passage from Natchez to Philadelphia, 2,000 miles, was equal to 17 days. In 42 COASTERS — STEAMBOATS - CANALS. 43 the same year a remarkable voyage was pro- | jected from Charleston to Green Bay. It was a sloop of six tons, with six passengers, and it reached Rochester in 15 days from Charleston. The passage of a gentleman from Detroit to Washington and back in 16 days was regarded as a miracle. The remarkable progress of steam upon che Mississippi may be estimated most readily by a table of the passages at different periods, as follows : — NEW ORLEANS TO ST. LOUIS— 1,300 MILES. Prior to steam , 120 days. 1815, Steamer Enterprise 25 " 1823, " average passages 12 " 1826, " General Brown 9 " 12 hours. 1828, " " 9 "4 " 1860, " running time 3 " 1880, " " " 2i " The time between New Orleans and St. Louis was thus diminished under the various improvements suggested by experience in the form and mode of running steamers. A boat of 350 tons when fitted out will now cost some $50,000, and will carry 500 tons down stream, or 1,500 bales of cotton on deck. Twenty years ago the freight of cotton down from Memphis was $ 2 per bale, and below Natchez $1 per bale. The charge for freight up from New Orleans to Natchez was 75 cts. per 100 lbs. As the business increased, larger boats were built. Of these the Eclipse was the type. She car- ried 1,200 tons, but was too large to pay; and boats were then constructed of a less dimension. The Mississippi boats are large flat-bottomed boats, drawing from 15 to 50 inches of water. The speed depends upon the circumstances of the channel. That of the Memphis, recently built for the St. Louis and Memphis trade, is 18 miles in still water per hour. With light draught and great pressure, a speed equal to 24 miles in still water has been attained. The Al- to oua ran between Alton and St. Louis, 25 miles, in one hour and forty-five minutes, and in one hour down; average down and up, one hour and twenty -five minutes. Eighteen miles is said to be the time of the western boats. Those rivers flow with gen- tle currents in mostly shallow water; and there have been various changes in the fashion of the boats. The stern-wheel boat, we believe, is peculiar to those rivers. Instead of having two wheels paddling, one on each side, one wheel, 20 feet in diameter, is placed directly at the stern, athwart ships, and by its revolutions pushes the boat ahead. These boats are not remarkable for their speed, but answer in narrow and shallow streams. The regular steamers have their main decks within four or five feet of the water, and the guards overhanging the bow give them the appearance of a New York ferry-boat. The paddle wheels are generally much further aft than in the eastern steamers. The after part of the main deck is devoted to freight. Above the main deck from 10 to 18 feet is the saloon deck, which extends nearly over the whole of the main deck. The saloon is surrounded with state-rooms, which open into it, as well as on to a promenade which goes entirely round the outside of the boat. The saloon is from 150 to 250 feet long. Above this deck is a promenade deck, upon which is a long tier of state-rooms, and this, in its turn, is surmounted by another prome- nade deck, which has the pilot-house at its front, and which is usually 50 feet from the water. But formerly, when there was no restraint upon reckless steam pressure, or the explosive qualities of the boiler, its height, as well as that of the decks, was very uncertain. The " crack boats" ate now built from 300 to 400 feet, with 36 to 40 feet beam, eight feet hold, and draught of water, light two feet, and loaded four feet. These steamers are now free from those reckless races which formerly so endangered life, when the safety-valve was fastened down, the furnace stuffed with tar and pitch, and the captain, rifle in hand, ready to shoot down the pilot of the opposing boat at the critical moment when the least devia tion in steering would lose him the race. Those barbarous times have passed with the frontier manners of the passengers. Their sporting, drinking, gambling, fighting, have given place to business, temperance, pru- dence, and refinement, while wealth rolls up in the cities as a result of the speedy and cheapened transportation which the steam- ers have effected. The increase of steam tonnage on those waters, has been as follows : — 1842 1851 1860 1868 1880 New Orleans ..28,153 34,736 70,072 68,085 30,113 St. Louis 14,7>5 31.834 55.515 86,185 111. '.175 Cincinnati 12,025 24,709 2-3.136 60.311 Pittsburg 10,107 16,948 42.-174 63,768 189,088 Louisville 4.618 15,181 29.037 28,lu6 17.750 Nashville 3,810 3.578 5.263 .. 3,621 Wheeling 2,595 7,191 11,545 20.717 48,419 Vlckflburg 038 .. 8,896 3.-136 Memphis 450 6,148 18,418 n».7so Oalena and above .. .. 5,849 25,708 14,748 Evansville .. .. .. 6.404 Cairo .. .. 7,888 Omaha . . . . . . 6.8S7 Total tons 76,033 135,560 249,039 351,671 405;600 44 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. It is a matter of course that while the speed of these vessels has increased in the manner indicated, their efficiency for traffic has progressed in the same ratio. In the 25 days that were formerly required to go from New Orleans to St. Louis, a steamer of the present day will make eight passages, and will cany more freight. Hence, the number of tons does not indicate the growth of the trade. If the number of tons is three times greater, the business is 30 times larger. The effect of the great reduction in the freight on goods may be illustrated by a single example. Thus, in 1815 cotton cloth was 30 cts. per yard, and 100 yards weighed '25 lbs., which would consequently be worth $30. The transportation of this at that time from New Orleans to St. Louis would cost $5, or 17 per cent, of the cost. The same quantity of cloth is now worth $9.00, and the transportation from New Orleans to St. Louis 25 cents, or 2| per cent. Tiie re- ceipts and shipments by river, between St. Louis and New Orleans in 1879, were 1,366,- 000 tons. The 1 8 or 2 other river ports sent and received at least twice as much more. The war of 1812, by interrupting trade on the Atlantic, had induced a large migration to the west, when steam was opportunely developed to facilitate trade and traffic at the same time. The return of peace found a large population west of the mountains in the full tide of prosperity, and in the Atlan- tic states great excitement in regard to steam, with multiplying manufactures, which sought a market in the growing west. Under such circumstances the old canal projects for opening up the communication were revived in full force, the more so that the war had nearly destroyed the usual water communica- tion. Instead of transporting merchandise in sloops and schooners along the coast, now no longer safe from the enemy, recourse was had t<> wagons over roads not the best in the world. This was necessarily very slow and costly. The traffic between New York and Philadelphia, for instance, was carried on in a Conestoga wagon, drawn by four horses, and that which covered the distance of 90 miles in three days was known as "the flying machine," and the value of goods at either end of the round showed great fluctuations, enhanced by the expense. This extra expense for the whole coast alone, it was asserted, would have paid the whole cost of a system of internal navigation from Maine to Georgia. It was then that the enterprises to which the great minds of the Revolution had given birth at the peace of 1783 began to be realized, and two objects were sought, viz. : a safe inland water com- munication along the whole Atlantic border, to operate in case of war, and another to connect the waters of the west with the east, and the public began to regard with more favor the project of uniting the lakes to the Hudson river. Mr. Morris, who had suggested it at the close of the Revolu- tion, wrote an able report in its favor in 1812, when the war gave new interest to it. The undertaking was formidable, and New York applied to the federal government and other states for aid, but her application was met with jeers and ridicule. The result was the determination of the state to under- take it alone, when the return of peace allowed of more facility for its execution ; accordingly, on the 4th of July, 1817, the Erie canal was commenced with great cere- mony, Governor De Witt Clinton turning the first earth, and it was completed Octo- ber, 1825. The event was celebrated with the greatest pomp along the whole line, and in the city of New York. The canal is 363 miles long, 40 feet wide at top, 4 feet deep, and the capacity of boats, 80 tons. The original cost was $7,143,789, or $19,679 per mile. This immense work gave the long-wished-for communication between the great lakes and the tide waters of the Atlantic. In the same year, viz., October, 1817, a canal connecting the waters of Lake Champlain with the Erie canal some miles from Albany was commenced. This Erie and Lake Champlain or Northern canal is 63 miles long, and was completed at the close of 1823, at a cost of $1,257,604, or $19,862 per mile. Both of these canals were subsequently enlarged (the Erie sev- eral times), and the cost was greatly en- hanced. Other canal projects, most of them under the plausible plea of being feeders of the Erie canal, were forced through the state legislature, and liberal appropriations made for their construction. Most of these were built between 1825 and 1837. None of them have proved perma- nently successful, and they have been a constant drain upon the income of the Erie canal. The Chenango canal and several others have been abandoned, and the land which they held sold. The following table shows the original COASTERS — STEAMBOATS CANALS. Cost of construction and enlargement of all the state canals, as it stood in 1867. There has been no considerable enlargement since that time, though there have been some expenses charged to construction account. Canals. Cost. Erie and Cbaniplain $46,018,234.19 Oswego 3,490,949 24 Cayuga and Seneca 1,520,542.59 Chemung 1,273,261.86 Crooked Lake 333,277.27 Chenango 2.782.12-1.19 Black River 3,224.779.65 Genesee Valley 5,827,813.72 Oneida Lake 64,837.68 Baldwinsville 23,566.14 Oneida River Improvement 146,994 02 Seneca River towing path 1,488.33 Cayuga Inlet 2,968.16 Total $64,710,836.94 The great success of the Erie, as we have said, roused the emulation of other states, and during the five years succeeding the opening of the Erie the air was filled with canal projects, only to name which would occupy much space. We may mention some of the most extraordinary, however : a canal from Boston to Narragansett bay ; Long Island to Canada, via the Connecticut river ; Boston to the Connecticut river ; a canal over Cape Cod ; Providence to Worcester ; a ship canal across Central America. These projects only indicate the extraordinary ac- tivity that the Erie success had imparted to the public mind. Those which were evidently the most needed for present and future com- merce, were immediately undertaken. The Chesapeake and Ohio, to connect the waters that the name designates; the Ohio canal, to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio river ; the Farmington canal, in Connecticut, afterward used for a railroad site ; the Chesapeake and Delaware, to connect those waters, were all ready, and broke ground July 4, 1825, three months before the Erie was finally completed. These works, with many others, which we shall take up in their order, were pushed to completion, under various diffi- culties, inasmuch as that they required a large amount of money, but they had an immense influence upon traffic, and called into requisition an amount of engineering skill which had never before been demanded in the country, and various success has attend- ed the construction. The object of a canal is, of course, to float boats that contain merchandise, between two points, in order to reduce the expense of the transportation. The canal is therefore constructed with some regard to the amount of business that will be required of it. The channel must be excavated on the level soil, carried over gaps and rivers by embankments that will hold the water, and it must be fed by abundant streams. The channel is excavated with the two sides sloping at the same angle, which varies with the nature of the soil. The base of the slope is commonly to the height as 5 to 4. The bottom of the canal is generally the breadth of two boats upon the deck, in order that they may pass. The depth of water in the canal should be at least one foot more than the draught of the boats. The tow- path is about two feet above the level of the water, and about ten feet wide. When the canal runs through a sandy soil, or one that does not easily retain water, the bottom is "puddled." This process is to mix clay well with gravel and put it on in successive layers of two or three inches thick. When a new layer is put on, the old one is roughed up to make both adhere well. When re- pairs are needed, they are generally done at the time the water is let out for the winter. The bed of the canal is so laid as to give a gentle current to the water. The levels are the distances between the locks, and each level, proceeding downward, has a less elevation than the preceding one. In a hilly country these locks are frequent, and in some cases are continued for a distance, like steps up and down a declivity. Thus the Erie canal, on leaving Lake Erie at Lock- port, descends 60 feet to the Genesee river. To perform this, ten double locks built in masonry are required, but the canal has also one level of 63 miles without a lock. The lock is a chamber built of timber or masonry, as large as possible for the size of the canal. The boats must not exceed what can be admitted to the locks. The top of the lock is above the surface of the water, and its bottom is level with that of the next lower level. Each end of the chamber is closed by heavy swinging doors, which open in the middle against the direc- tion of the current. The doors being a little broader than the lock, they meet in the mid- dle at an angle, and the weight of the water presses them together. When a boat going up the canal comes to a lock, it passes be- tween the open gates, which close behind f it. The water is then let in from the upper gates, until the lock being full, the boat floats to the upper level, generally about 10 feet rise, but sometimes 18 feet. It passes out, and another boat being ready to go 46 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. down takes its place, when, the upper gates being closed, the water is let off below and the boat lowers with it to the lower level. A lock full of water is thus dis- charged. It follows that a large supply of Water must be had to replace what thus passes off, in addition to leakage and evap- oration. The engineer of the Erie canal calculated the loss by leakage was 100 cubic feet per minute. For supply, reser- voirs are often constructed. Canal branches, called feeders, are made to bring water from distant sources. Steam power is also used to raise water to the required level. This is the case with the Illinois and Michigan canal ; the waters of Lake Michigan being pumped up to the summit level. In some cases inclined planes are substituted for locks. In these cases the boats run upon trucks, which are then, by the power of steam, dragged up the plane to the higher level. In the Morris canal, of New Jersey, these have a slope of one in 21. These are the general features of all the canals, but the influence they have upon transportation de- pends, of course, in some degree, upon the localities and the capacities of the work. Boats are commonly towed upon a canal by horses. A single horse can draw upon a good road a ton at a speed of 2& or 3 miles per hour, and can draw as easily 70 tons upon a canal at the same speed. The difference in cost is immense. Instead of 24 cents a ton for one mile land carriage, the Erie canal charges 6 mills per ton per mile, or one-fortieth part of the expense. The freights charged are distinct from the state tolls. It is obvious that where the boats are of greater capacity, allowing of a larger quantity to be passed down at the same passage, the cost of transportation is much diminished. Thus the Delaware and Hudson canal had a capacity for 50 ton boats, and coal was carried 108 miles for $1. The enlargement of the canal so as to admit boats of 100 tons reduced the cost 65 cents, but some of the boats carry 148 tons at proportionate rates. When the routes of the canals of other states threat- ened to affect the business of the New York canal, the reduction of the cost by means g of enlargement was the means resorted to to retain the trade, and the enlargement has been prosecuted at great expense. The principle of the enlargement was based upon the fact that as the canal is abundantly supplied with water, the only limit to its capacity would be the time required to pass boats at the locks. It was calculated that 26,000 boats can be locked each way in a season. The old canal boats were about 70 tons, hence the utmost capacity of the canal would be 3,640,000 tons; but by the enlargement the boats were to be of 224 tons burden, hence the tonnage would be 11,648,000 tons, if the quantity moving each way was the same, but the down freight is as four to one of the up, which reduces the capacity to Y,230,000 tons. Before the canal was built, the expense of transportation from Buffalo to New York was 1 100 per ton ! and the time 20 days. A ton of wheat in New York was then worth about $33, hence the transportation was three times the value of the wheat, six times the value of corn, and twelve times the value of oats. As a consequence, the wheat of western New York at that time went down the Susquehanna to Baltimore as the cheap- est and best market, as the lumber of the head waters of that river now goes. When the canal was opened, the freight down was about $14 per ton, more or less, according to the character of the freight. This has gradually been reduced, and in 1850, when the railroads for the first time were allowed to carry freight, it was $3 to $7 from Buffalo to New York. By the enlargement the rates have been reduced to $1.75 per ton between Albany and Buffalo. Since the permission of railroads to carry freight, however, the business of canals is more con- fined to those heavy freights furnished by the raw produce of the country, lumber par- ticularly. Those coarse and bulky articles that are of low money value as compared with their weight will continue to move up- on canals, but the lighter and more costly, as well as those pressed for time, will be carried exclusively by rails. These latter have some disadvantages, however, as in the case of flour, the motion of the railroad causing it to waste, an objection not urged against canal travel. The total length of the five great lakes is 1,555 miles, and the area 98,000 square miles, and they are estimated to drain an area of 365,515 square miles. That vast tract of waters was a waste as far as transportation went until the year 1797, when the first American schooner was launched. The craft increased to some extent for the small commerce that engaged the settlers when there was no outlet either to the Atlantic COASTERS — STEAMBOATS CANALS. 47 or to the south. In 1816, however, a steamer was built on Lake Ontario, and in 1819 the Walk-in-thc- Water, 340 tons, was launched at Buffalo. The most of the trade, However, consisted in the operations of the Indian traders, carrying westward supplies and trinkets for the trade, and returning with furs and peltries. On the opening of the Erie canal, in 1825, a new state of things presented itself. Western New York threw off" its frontier aspect, and put on an air of civilization, since it became a receiver of western produce and exporter of goods. The steam tonnage multiplied to transport the growing produce of the west. In 1822 the Superior was launched, another steamer in 1824, two in 1825, and three in 1826. One of. these made the first voyage upon Lake Michigan, in 1826, on a pleasure excursion. It was not until 1832 that business called them thither, and then one reached Chicago, in the employ of the government, to carry supplies for the Black Hawk war. From that time the steamer tonnage has increased as follows: — Custom Distri cts. | 1841 Now York Lake Ports. Erie, Pa Cuyahoga, Ohio — Sandusky Miami.. ." Detroit, Mich Huron Superior Michigan, &c Chicago Milwaukee Duluth Total 6,773 1,855 ' 887 2,053 2,813 14,381 1850 25,090 «,418 1,745 10,469 1,746 6,691 652 58,711 1808 50,-273 10,100 40,264 432 10.849 10.939 14 >,801 05,170 18,353 29,473 70,426 9,950 16,981 155 212.045 The 11 boats running in 1833, carried to and from Buffalo 61,485 passengers, and the fares with the freight amounted to $229,- 212. Those were the years of the great land speculations, and crowds of passengers went west on that errand. Three trips were made a year to the upper lakes. The trips to Chicago from Buffalo occupied 25 days to go and return. In 1841 the time required for a first-class steamer was 10 days from Buffalo to Detroit and back. This was reduced in 1851 to 3 days, and 5 for propellers. In 1834 the lake commerce was controlled by an association, owning 18 boats. This association was kept up to 1841, when the number of boats had increased to 48. The opening of the Ohio canals had poured upon the lakes a large amount of produce. The 50() miles of canal then completed, opened up the grain coun- try to the lakes. In 1835, Ohio exported by the lakes 543,815 bushels of wheat; in 1840, -8,800,000 bushels; and in 1850, 12,193,202 bushels, which paid $500,000 freight and charges. In 1860, the wheat received from lake ports was: — From Ohio 2.856.210 bushels. " Indiana 3.219,225 «« Michigan, '. 2.117.9-.0 " Illinois 12,195,195 " " Wisconsin, 6,447,766 " New York, 130,667 Total, 25,967,039 " In 1880, the amount of wheat exported from these lake ports, beside that retained for home consumption, was 156,977,669 bushels. The successive opening of the Ohio canals in 1833, the Illinois canal in 1848, and the Indiana canal in 1851, all added constantly to the amount of produce to be transported, and since the last-mentioned date the rail roads have opened new regions of country, and increased the lake trade. It is to be borne in mind that the size of the vessels, their great speed when under way, and the great- er dispatch in loading and unloading by steam, not only for motion, but for labor at the dock, enable the same quantity of ton- nage to do ten times the business that it formerly could do. In the lake trade the sailing vessels and the large canal boats still exceed in tonnage the steamers, there be- ing 352,092 tons of the former to 253,01 1 of the latter. The side or paddle wheel steamers, have, since 1855, been giving place to the propellers, and the latter are now generally preferred. In 1843 the first lake propeller, the Hercules, was launched -at Cleveland, 275 tons, the screw of Erics- son's patent. In 1851 the propellers had increased to 52, with a tonnage amounting to 15,729. In 1880 there were 910, tonnage 205,045. These boats had, at first, far less speed than the paddles, but they have gained in public opinion, not only upon the lakes, but in the Atlantic bays and rivers, until re- cent improvements have made them equal to the paddle-wheels in speed. These vessels have already monopolized the European, as well as the internal trade. Previous to the opening of the Erie canal, in 1825, the commerce of the lakes was nec- essarily local, since there were no markets east or west. The produce raised in the coun- try bordering the lakes descended the streams that ran into them, and found interchange with other lake ports. The opening of the canal immediately gave an eastern current to produce of all descriptions, and much had ac- 48 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. cumulated in anticipation of the event, and goods returned in great quantities. In the month of May, 1825, 837 boats, carrying 4, 1 22 tons of goods, left Albany for Buffalo, paying $22,000 tolls. The lumber from western New York and the lake borders being now marketable where before it was valueless, a motive for clearing land was imparted, and the new canal received on its bosom from all sections of the lake shore the lumber brought by multiply- ing vessels. The lumber that found tide water before had been that which in south- ern New York and in Pennsylvania skirted the natural water-courses, and being cut and hauled, was rafted down to Philadelphia and Baltimore. The New England streams de- livered the lumber in the same manner. The opening of the canal brought into com- petition the vast and hitherto untouched resources of the west, and the same remark applies to all farm produce. The fanners of New England were undersold at their own doors, by produce from western New York. The potatoes that had been quick of sale at 75 cents, were supplanted by the best " che- nangos" at 374 cents, and the competition was felt in corn, flour, and most articles. The effect of this was to turn the attention of that hard-working and thrifty race of men, the farmers of New England, to the western country, where the soil was so much more profitable. At that date commenced the interchange of inhabitants, which has drawn off so many New England fanners, replacing them with manufacturers from abroad. In order to show the extent of this operation, we tate from the census of 1870 the figures showing the nativities of the whole people of the United States. Thus there were in the whole Union 11,614,101 persons who were born in the New Eng- land and Middle States. Of these, 8,800,- 367 lived in the states where they were born. The remainder, 2,813,734 were liv- ing mostly west, but in their place there were living in the New England and Middle States, 3,628,182 persons who were born in foreign countries. These latter worked in the mills and manufactories, while as many northern persons who had migrated west were agriculturists attracted thither by the fertile lands made available by the means of transportation. The lakes were now con- nected with tide water, but the whole sys- tem of western rivers with a southern course bad no northern connection. The state of Ohio determined to make the connection, by means of a canal from Portsmouth, on the Ohio, to Cleveland, on Lake Erie. On the 4th July, 1825, the first spade was put into the ground, and in 1833 the first boat passed through from lake to river, 307 miles. The whole interior of Ohio was thus opened to cither the northern or the south-« erii market ; and the state authorized turn- pikes and other roads to feed the canal, on the borders of which trade grew rapidly. There are several branches of the Ohio canal', one, the Hocking, goes to Athens, and an- other to Columbus. The highest level of the Ohio canal is 305 feet above the lake, and 499 feet above the Ohio river. Another canal, the Miami, was also commenced in 1825 to connect Cincinnati with Lake Erie. In 1829 it had been opened to Dayton, 85 miles, but it was not completed until 1843, when it connected, 130 miles, with the Wabash canal, which joins Lake Erie at Toledo, making 215 miles from Cincinnati to Lake Erie. All the Ohio canals are as follows : — L £"f th ' Cost. Miles. Ohiocanal 340 $4,695,202 69 .Miami 85 1,020,000 00 " extension 130 3,667,440 82 Muskingum 92 1,628,028 29 Hocking... 56 975,481 01 Wabash and Erie 91 3,009.923 29 Wallionding 25 607,268 99 Total 819 $15,603,345 09 ' Subsequent additions and slackwatcr im- provements have made the whole number of miles of canal 996, and the cost over 20 mill- ion dollars. By these canals and others in In- diana, Illinois, and Kentucky, the states east of the Mississippi river have water communi- cation with New York city. The enlarge- ment of these canals to admit steamers of 600 tons will greatly facilitate commerce. The state of Pennsylvania next under- took the great work of forming a connec- tion between the Delaware and the Ohio. The project which had been formed at the close of the last century was now resumed ; and in 1826 a law was passed to construct the work at the expense of the state, and, July 4th, 1826, the first earth was turned at Harrisburg, and in 1834 it was opened for use. The line consisted of a railroad, 82 miles, from Philadelphia to Columbia, cost $3,330,127 ; a canal from Columbia, 172 miles, to Hollidaysburg, cost $4,594,146; COASTERS STEAMBOATS CANALS. 49 a portage railroad across the mountain from Hollidaysburg to Johnstown, 36 miles, cost $1,634,357 ; and a canal from Johns- town to Pittsburg, 105 miles, cost $2,823,- 192 — making 395 miles, at a cost of $12,- 381,822. Thus the Ohio at Pittsburg was now connected with Philadelphia, by a route much less than from Buffalo to New York. There were seven branch canals made to feed this. The . aggregate length was 314 miles, and the cost $6,471,994. Every part of the state was now more or less in communica- tion with the great outlets east and west. There were, besides, three private canals, viz.: the Schuylkill, 108 miles; the Lehigh, 85 miles ; and the Union, 82 miles, which connected the great coal fields with tide water. We have shown that Washington pre- sided, at the close of the Revolution, at a meeting for the improvement of the Poto- mac. The ideas then suggested ripened into a project for a canal. The cession of a portion of Maryland and of Virginia to fofm the District of Columbia as a seat of gov- ernment led to the national desire to connect it with the west. This was done, as we have seen, by the National or Cumberland road to Wheeling. But in 1820 the canal from Georgetown to Pittsburg was projected, Congress voting $1,000,000. Washington City issued bonds for a like sum. George- town and Alexandria each subscribed $250,000, Maryland $500,000, and Virginia $250,000, and 6,084 shares of $100 each were taken by individuals, making altogether $3,854,400. As the work was to run through four territories, it required a charter from Con- gress, Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and July 4th (Fourth of July is a great day for canals), 1828, John Q. Adams and Charles Carroll turned the first earth. In 1834, 104 miles had been completed. The work was finally carried 191 miles to Cumberland in 1840, at an expense of some $1 6,000,000. It will not probably be carried further, never having answered ex- pectations, although of late it has had busi- ness from the Cumberland coal regions. Thus of the three great projects for con- necting the eastern and western waters, only two were carried out. But, following the example of Ohio, both Indiana and Illinois determined to make a connection across their respective states, between the rivers on the south and the lakes on the north. But they were some years later than Ohio, since they were younger and weaker states. In 1836, under the spur of the speculative fever, Indiana enacted a bill authorizing a system of internal improvements. This embraced the Wabash and Erie canal, to run from Evansville on the Ohio to the Ohio state line, where it was to follow down the valley of the Maumee, taking up the Miami canal in its course, and entering the Erie Lake at Toledo. Second, the White Water canal, to connect the National or Cumberland road at Cambridge, with Lawrenceburg on the Ohio, 76 miles. Third, the White River canal, to connect Indianapolis with Evansville on the Ohio, 190 miles, and to^ prolong it from Indianapolis to Peru on the Wabash canal. There were also to be some Macadam roads and turnpikes. These works were to cost $10,000,000. The Wabash canal was begun in 1835, and in 1840, 90 miles were finished. The great revulsion then, brought all to a stand, and some ten years elapsed before the work was completed through the aid of a loan obtained on pledge of lands granted by Congress in aid of this work. The state of Illinois undertook a far more extensive system of public improvements. As early as 1810 a project was put forward, under the excitement of Fulton's great suc- cess, to connect New Orleans with Buffalo in 32 days by steam, by way of Chicago. The waters o 1 ' the Illinois and the lakes were in high floods nearly blended. In 1823 a board of commissioners was appointed to report on the route and the cost. A grant of land was obtained from Congress in 1829 in aid. This was every alternate section of land", 10 miles on each side of the canal, in its whole length. Not until 1835 was an act passed to authorize the canal, in common with many other works, railroads or others, in a general system of internal improvements, which were to cost $12,000,000, and there had been sold of the lands granted by Con- gress $1,395,911. The canal was to connect Chicago, at the foot of Lake Michigan, with the Illinois river, 102 miles. It was prosecuted with more or less vigor until the finances and credit of the state were ruined by the revulsion of 1837-9. The work then lay unfinished until in 1843, by means of a pledge of the unsol I lands of the canal, a sum of $1,600,000 was oorrowed, and the work completed in 1852. The sales, of the laud sufficed to pay off the new loan- and some of the arrears. 50 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. We have thus sketched the great main tions, and may state their original cost as canal avenues that connect important sec- 1 follows : — Miles. Expenditure. Erie canal Hudson river to lakes 363 $7,143,789 Pennsylvania canal . .Delaware and Ohio 395 12,381,822 Ohio " ..Ohio river and Lake Erie 307 4,695,824 " .. " " " 178 3,750,000 " .. " " " 379 7,101,000 " ..Lake Michigan with Illinois river. . .102 8,654,337 Total. . 1,724 $43,726,772 Miami Indiana Illinois "Width, feet. 40 40 40 40 60 60 No. of Locks. 84 200 152 102 102 2 The financial results of the New York canals may be thus stated in the aggregate of receipts and revenues from the com- mencement of the works to Sept. 30, 1870: Keceipts. Expenditures. Gross Tolls. ..$113,795,543.05 Construction.. $71,858,067.21 Loans 56,331,755,29 Repairs 33,658,150.00 Other Items. 46,969,815.84LoansandInt. 87,574,788.68 Other Items... 21,262,667.01 Total $217,097,114.78 $214,353,672.91 The change of policy in the canal man- agement has made a great change with- in the last six years in the canal receipts. In 1880, the net receipts from tolls were about $900,000. With the contem- plated enlargement and the use of steam to propel and tug the canal boats, a new and powerful impulse will be given to the trans- portation of heavy and bulky goods to and from the West. By their construction a vast capital was added to the national wealth, and a great value bestowed upon land not before very marketable. While this has been done by state means, a great number of other canals have been erected, jointly by public aid and private enterprise. The most impor- tant of these was the Delaware and Raritan canal, connecting those two rivers. The work was completed in 1827, shortening the dis- tance 16 miles between Philadelphia and New- York, and packet propellers run regularly through it between the two cities. It is also the main source of supply of coal for New York. The state of Virginia early embarked in improvements, particularly in the James river, which is navigable to Richmond for vessels of 120 tons, the tide reaching there; above Richmond a series of short canals in- tended to connect the river with the Kan- awha, where it is navigable 70 miles from its moutlr on the Ohio. This project was un- dertaken by the James River and Kanawha Company, and was completed in the form of a canal, 147 miles, at a cost of $5,020,050. There are many other works of public utility in Virginia, under the control of a board of pvfblic works, chartered in 1816. There are a number of other canals in several states, as the Blackstone, of Massachusetts ; the Ogee- chee, of South Carolina, connecting Charles- ton with the Santee, cost $650,667, and many other improvements in a number of states. The Morris and Essex canal, of New Jersey, 101 miles, was completed in 1831. It had banking powers connected with it, and of all the public works in the country was the basis of the most stupendous stock speculation. Its liabilities were at one time near $10,000,000, and it was sold out in 1845 for a sum less than $3,000,000; its business is at present prosperous. It is one of the works that were erected to develop the great coal business of Pennsylvania. The discovery of that important mineral takes date about the year 1820, and the canals that were built to bring the coal down may be enumerated as follows : — Length. Miles. Schuvlkill navigation Pennsylvania 108 Lehigh canal. Susquehanna North Branch " '• upper •. . " Union " Delaware and Hudson New York. Morris canal New Jersey. 85 , 41 , 73 , 94 , 82 ,108 .102 Total canals 693 Cost $2,500,196 4,455,099 897,160 1,590,379 4,500.000 5,000,000 9,100,000 3,612,000 $31,654,834 "idth. Locks. 36 120 60 40 40 40 36 75 32 81 12 90 18 29 planes, 22 The expenditure of large sums of money i struction promoted a local demand for prod- ;a!ong the routes of these works for their con- 1 uce, and aided in the settlement of the RAILROADS LAND GRANTS — EXTENT AND COST. 51 country through which they ran, and from the improvement of which their future freightings were to be derived, and there is little matter of surprise that the first years of their operation should be of large promise. The cost of transporting a ton of merchandise from Buffalo to Albany, which had been $100, and the time twenty days, was at once reduced to $20, and the time to eight days. While yet they were being con- ! etructed, however, a new agent of transpor- tation had risen, which was to overshadow , their importance, and reduce them to a second rank. The rejoicing for the com- pletion of the Erie had hardly died away, be- fore the locomotive began to throw its shadow on the future. The " astonishing speed" of steamboats and stages was about to dwindle into an intolerable tedium. The capacities of railroads had begun to be dis- cussed, and the discussion rapidly elicited ' action, which did not cease to extend itself, until the whole country has become covered with rails. When railroads began to be con- structed, however, both vehicles, sailing- vessels, and steamers had made considerable progress in speed, and the connections of travel had come to be made with more regard to dispatch. It is amusing to look back at some of the accounts of the wonders of the canals after the opening. Thus, in 1823 it is stated — " Canals ! A sloop, called the Gleaner, has arrived at New York from St. Albans, in the state of Vermont, with a cargo consisting of 1,200 bushels of wheat and other articles. She will carry sixty tons of merchandise, and does not appear to have had any difficulty in passing through the northern canal. It is supposed that she will safely navigate the Hudson, and she is designed as a regular packet between St. Albans and the city of New York. Look at the map! An uninter- rupted sloop navigation from one place to the other ! " When the Green Mountain vessel arrived at New York, the veteran artillery were order- ed out, and she was saluted from the battery. " In 1824. " Internal Improvement. It is stated in one of the New York papers that a barrel of flour can be transported from Albany to New York, a distance of 150 miles, for 12^ cents, and that one individual ©ffers to do it for seven cents." In 1825. "March of Intellect with Tower. — It is no fairy tale, that flour, man- ufactured on Lake Erie, has been profitably sold in Ncwbern, North Carolina, for §5.50 per barrel. This flour was transported from the lake to Albany, through the Grand canal ; thence down the North River to New York; and thence, by sea, t<> Xewbcrn. The cost of transportation from the lakes to New- bern was less than $1.50 per barrel, while that between Raleigh and Newbern (not more than 120 miles) is generally two dollars." In 1826. "The following, from the Pitts- burg Gazette, shows the importance of canals. Mr. Foster has published in the Greensburgh Gazette a statement furnished him by a merchant of Meadville, showing the amount which the merchant paid for the transpor- tation of his goods this fall from Philadelphia, by xoay of New York, the canal, and Erie, to the town of Meadville. The whole cost per hundred pounds was $1.20i! We ar° now paying three dollars per hundred for carriage in wagons from Philadelphia to this city /" These extracts afford — in contrasting not only the routes, but the prices, with those before their use and those which now exist — much room for reflection. It may be re- marked that the Caroline, burnt in the em- ploy of the Canada rebels in 1839, at Schlos- ser, and sent over the falls of Niagara, V» as built in South Carolina, and had passed up the canals to her destination. CHAPTER III. RAILROADS— LAND GRANTS— EXTENT AND COST. The excitement in relation to canals and steamboats was yet at its zenith, when the air began to be filled with rumors of the new application of steam to land carriages and to railroads. There were many inven- tions and patents at home and abroad in re- lation to carriages propelled upon common roads by steam, but these seem never to have attained much success, although attempts to perfect them are still made with great perse- verance. On the other hand, the use of rail- roads from small beginnings has reached a magnitude which overshadows the wildest imaginings of the most sanguine. In 1825 descriptions came across the water of the great success of the Darlington railroad, which was opened to supply London with coal, and which had passenger cars moved by steam at the rate of seven miles per hour. 52 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. The most animated controversy sprang up in relation to the possibility of such roads in England, and was shared in to some extent on this side of the Atlantic. With the nat- ional energy of character, the idea had no sooner become disseminated than it was acted upon. The construction of railroads in America is usually ascribed to the emu- lation excited by the success of the Liverpool and Manchester railway. This appears not to have been the case, however, since some of the most 'important works in this country were projected and commenced before the Liverpool and Manchester road was built. The act of Parliament for the construction of that road was passed in 1826, and the road itself was finished and opened in September, 1830, 31 miles long; but the Massachusetts Quincy road, three miles from Quincy to Ne- ponset, was opened in 1827, and a great celebration was held in consequence. The celebrated Mauch Chunk railroad of Penn- sylvania was begun in 1826, and finished in the following year. On that road the horses which draw up the empty coal wagons are sent down on the cars which descend by their own gravity. This contrivance was borrowed by the Mauch Chunk road from the Darlington road, similarly situated, in England. It is to be remarked that both the Quincy and the Mauch Chunk roads were horse roads ; the locomotive was not at first introduced. In 1S28, twelve miles of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad were completed, two years before the Manchester road was opened. In the same year, 1828, the South Carolina road, from Charleston to Hamburg, w r as surveyed, and in Massachusetts the city of Boston voted the construction of a road from that city to the Hudson at Albany. The first portion of that road, however, Boston to Worcester, 44 miles, was not opened until 1835. The second road finish- ed in the United States was the Richmond, Va., road, thirteen miles to Chesterfield, in 1831, and in the same year that running from New Orleans, five miles to Lake Pont- chartrain, was opened. Thus roads were well adopted in public opinion here before the great success of the Manchester road was known, but which gave an undoubted impulse to the fever. During the excitement in relation to "rail" roads, a writer in a Providence paper thus satirized the condition of the Connecticut roads. He claimed the invention of the cheapest " rail" roads, and proved it thus : " Only one English engine alone costs $2,000, which sum the whole of our apparatus does not much exceed, as figures will prove ; for 700 good chestnut rails at $3, amounts to only $21, and it ought to be remembered that this is all the expense we are at, and the inference is con- clusive in our favor. We place our rails fifty to the mile by the side of the road, to pry out the wheels when they get stuck, and hoist behind when wanted." The public were, however, no longer to be satisfied with this kind of "rail" road. They em- barked in the new enterprise with such vigor, that in 1836 two hundred companies had been organized, and l,0l)3i miles were opened in eleven states. These were highly speculative years, however, and the revulsion brought matters to a stand. It was at once apparent to the commercial mind that if railroads would perform what was promised for them, geographical position was no longer important to a city. In other words, that railroads would bring Boston into as intimate connection with every part of the interior as New York could be. The large water communication that enabled New York by means of steamboats to concentrate trade from all quarters, could not now com- pete with the rails that would confer as great advantages upon Boston. Indeed, Bos- ton had now availed herself of steam power. Up to 1828 she owned no steamers. The Benjamin Franklin, built in that year, was the first, and her steam tonnage is now but 9,998 tons. When she bought her first steamboat, however, she was laying out those railroad connections that she has since push- ed so vigorously, and they have paid an enormous interest, if not directly to the builders, at least to the general interests of the city. It is to be remarked that the national government expended, as we have seen, largely in the construction of highways, the clearing out of rivers, and the improvement of harbors. The. people have by individual taxes mostly constructed the earth roads of this country. The canals have, however, with a few exceptions, been state works, built by the proceeds of state loans, with the aid of lands donated by the federal govern- ment. These lands were made marketable and valuable by the action of the canals in aid of which they were granted. The rail- roads of the country have been, as a whole, built on a different plan, viz., by corporations, or chartered companies of individuals. These RAILROADS LAND GRANTS EXTENT AND COST. 53 associations have not, however, themselves subscribed the whole of the money, probably not more than half, but they have found it to their interest to borrow the money on mort- gage of the works. The great object of the companies has not been so much to derive a direct profit from the investment, as to cause the construction of a highway, which should by its operation increase business, enhance the value of property, and swell the floating capital of the country by making available con- siderable productions of industry, which before were not marketable, since the influence of a railroad in a new district is perhaps, if not to create, at least to bring into the general stock more capital than is absorbed in its construction. Thus in the last forty years, four thou- sand millions of dollars have been spent in the construction of roads, and yet capital is pro- portionally more abundant now than before this vast expenditure, and land has, in railroad localities, increased by a money value greater than the cost of the roads ! We have seen that before the operation of canals, land transportation was, and is now remote from ^these works, one cent per mile per hundred. If a barrel of flour is then worth in market five dollars, a transportation of 300 miles would cost more than its whole value ; but by rail it may be carried from Chicago to New York for sixty cents. Thus railroads give circulation to all the surplus capital that is created by labor within their circle. It is on this principle that may be explained the immense prosperity that has been seen to at- tend the enormous expenditure for railroads, particularly during the last ten years. The construction of the Massachusetts Western railway, from Boston to the Hudson river, was one of the most important and fi- nancially successful of all the railroads of the country. New York had constructed her great canal, as it were making Albany basin a part of Lake Erie. Boston now grasped the idea of a railroad that should make Al- bany basin with its affluents a part of Boston harbor. It is to be borne in mind, however, that when that road was undertaken, railroad building was a new art ; the mode of laying the track, the form, and even the model of rails were problems. The form of wheels to run on the rails, the mode of setting the car on the wheels, were all unknown com- pared with the knowledge on the subject which the construction of 90,000 miles of roads in this country has since accumulated. The state of knowledge at that time may be seen in the following extract from " Wood on Railroads" in 1825 : — " Nothing can do more harm to the adop- tion of railroads than the promulgation of such nonsense as that we shall see locomotive engines travelling at the rate of twelve miles per hour." Such was engineering knowledge at the time Boston voted to build a connection 200 miles to Albany. Since that day how much has been learned in relation to the charac- teristics of roads 1 The great advantage of railroads is that they practically diminish distances between places in proportion to the speed attained. The rapidity of motion and power of traction de- pend upon the diminution of friction. This was sought in common roads, Macadam roads, and canals, but has approached perfection in railroads. The essential attributes are two smooth surfaces for wheels to run on. These being made of iron or steel are narrow as possible to lessen the cost; and to keep the wheels upon the rails, have flanges upon the inner rim of the wheel. The form of iron or steel rails has undergone many changes, as experience suggested improvements. The mode of laying these has also varied. The building of a railroad includes " the road bed," somewhat like a common road, and the superstructure, which embraces rails, sup- ports, ties, etc. The main operations in the construction of the road bed consist in the " excavations, tunnels, embankments, ballast- ing, bridges, and viaducts." These operations are required to give the necessary levelness and straightness to roads, both of which are requisite, not only as ele- ments of speed, but of economy. The straightest road is the shortest; but when the road is done, the expense of keeping up the earth-work is nearly nothing, while, on the other hand, the annual expense required to keep up the perishable superstructure is very great and proportionate to the length of the road. Hence true economy requires a greater outlay to make the road straight, in order to avoid permanent cause of ex- pense. Common roads may be lengthened to advantage, in order to avoid an ascent. In railroads this is avoided by tunnels through the obstacle when it is too high to excavate at what it would cost to tunnel. This is not, however, the only reason for straightening, since the frequency of curves greatly increases the danger of railroads. RAILROADS LAND GRANTS— EXTENT AND COST. 55 When a car in motion enters upon a curve, it has a tendency to continue its straight course, and this is overcome by the resist- ance of the flanges of the wheel against the rail, and by the firmness of the outer rail. This resistance is always felt in the rocking motion of the cars, and is increased by the shortness of the curve. A pair of wheels is fastened to an axle and turns with it, the outer wheel moving on a curve much faster than the inner one, which would slide, under such circumstances, if both were of the same diameter, sufficiently to make up the differ- ence. This is obviated by making the wheels conical, or of a larger diameter next to the flange than on the outside. The ef- fect of this is that the wheels having some play between the rails, the outer wheel, forced against the rail, runs on a larger di- ameter than the inner one, thus compensat- ing the speed. Further, to overcome the centrifugal force, the outer rail is made higher than the inner one, so that the weight of the car gives it a tendency to slide toward the inner one in opposition to the centrif- ugal force. The excavations in loose earth require to be supported at the sides by re- taining walls, and to be drained by ditches and cross drains. In making a tunnel the centre of the road is set with great accuracy on the sur- face of the ground by an instrument, and shafts are sunk at proper levels along this line. The excavations are then made by " drifts" from shaft to shaft, and to the open ends of the tunnel. The material excavated is raised through the shafts, which serve for ventila- tion when the tunnel is finished. The em- bankments require great care to insure their solidity. "When the materials for filling are at hand, they are usually made at their full height at one end, and then temporary rails permit the approach of wagons to be emptied over the head of the embankment. The progress of the work depends upon the speed with which these succeed each other. When the track passes through a country like a wooded swamp, where the materials for filling are not at hand, resort is had to trusses. Piles of a diameter of 1 5 inches are driven, so as to form lines of the width of the railroad ; transverse ties are fastened across the tops, and, with proper supports, longitudinal timbers arc laid across the piles to carry the rails. The tops of embank- ments and the bottoms of excavations are made about two feet below the intended or " formation level" of the road, and have there a convex surface like an. ordinary road. This space of two feet is filled up with por- ous material, broken stones, gravel, etc. This is called " ballast," and through it the rains pass freely, and the frosts of winter do not so much affect it. On this " ballast" the sleepers are laid. Many roads are not prop- erly ballasted, and are, therefore, unsafe. Bridges are difficult of construction, and have sometimes been made of iron. This was the case with the Erie railroad, when an accident occurred, because the iron, resting upon stone piers, contracted by the cold so as to drop off its support. When the road bed is complete, the su- perstructure is put on. This is now done by cross sleepers. The best of these are second- growth chestnut, 7 feet long, and 8 by 12 inches. These are laid upon the ballast. The iron rails are laid upon these, but in some cases longitudinal timbers are first laid down, and upon these the iron rails are laid. The iron rails have undergone many im- provements. At first, a simple flat iron rail was spiked down to these timbers. These rails would often get loose, and the end ris- ing form a " snake head," and the wheel catching under, throw it up with great force' and danger to passengers. These roads were ridiculed as " hoops tacked to a lath." Va- rious forms and weights of rail were adopted as experience directed ; that now the favorite is called the T rail ; the shape is like that letter inverted. There must be a certain breadth of rail for the wheel to run on, and depth for strength. The smallest rails will weigh 36 lbs. to the running yard. The Massachusetts roads use 60 lbs. to the yard ; the New York roads, 70 to 75 lbs. to the yard. The rail is not fastened directly to the timber, but is held in chairs, which are spiked to the cross sleepers. The chair is of cast or wrought iron, and will weigh 20 to 30 lbs. They are made in one piece, so as to receive the ends of two rails, which are fastened by wedges of iron or wood, driven between them and the chair, without inter- fering with the longitudinal expansion and contraction of the rails. The proper breadth of rails apart, or the width of the track, has been matter of much discussion. There were three gauges in use, to which a fourth has been added of late years. The common gauge on the eastern roads was 4 ft. 84 in., on the west- ern roads, 4 ft. 10 in. The Erie road and some others, in imitation of it, were of a hi. * n 58 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. six-foot gauge, and were very pleasant; but the expense of their maintenance of this gauge was so great that most roads have abandoned it, and the main line of the Erie is now 4 ft. 81 in. Many of the western roads recently built, or now building, in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and Mexico, are built on what is known as the narrow gauge, three feet between the rails. Most of these are single track roads. The power on railroads is mostly steam, but horses, stationary engines, condensed air and electricity are sometimes used. The first really successful locomotive was built in 1814, which drew 30 tons 6 miles per hour; improvements have since been made until 90 miles per hour is attained. The power of an engine depends upon the quantity of steam it can generate in a given time. Each revolution of the wheels corresponds to a double stroke of each piston, or four cylin- derfuls of steam. The utmost heating surface is therefore required, and this is obtained by tubular boilers. Wheels, 7 feet in diameter, pass over 22 feet in each complete revolu- tion. To go 25 miles per hour, therefore, they must revolve five times in a second, and each piston must make 10 strokes in the same time. This minute division of time is accurately made by this ponderous machine. This rapid exhaustion of steam causes a greater demand for fuel in proportion to the speed. The power of an engine to draw loads depends upon the pressure of steam, which is usually 50 to 60 lbs. to the square inch ; but the adhesion of the engine to the rails must be great, otherwise the wheel would slip round. For this reason the wheels were first made with cogs to hold in the rail, but it was found that the weight of the engine was sufficient on level roads. The adhesion of iron upon iron is one-eighth of the weight, but in wet and freezing weath- er it is greatly reduced, and it lessens with the increase of the slope of the road, or ascending grade. Thus, if an engine will draw 389 tons on a level, it will draw but one-fourth of the amount up a grade 50 ft. to the mile. The average cost of locomotive power is not far from 50 cents per mile run, which includes fuel, oil, wages, repairs, wear and tear, etc. These expenses are, of course, lessened by levelness and straightness, since where these are perfect, more is carried for the same money, than on common roads. A great draw-back upon the cheapness of rail transportation is the weight of the rolling stock. The cars and engines usually are to the paying freight as 10 to 6. Various means have been proposed to lessen the burden of this expense, and recently with some success. It is evident from this slight sketch of the principles of railroad construction that the characteristics of a road, in relation to curves, grades, etc., have much to do with the economy with which it can be run, and its ca- pacity to compete successfully with rival lines. The city of Bdston was, as we have said, one of the earliest to understand the advan- tages that were to be drawn from railroads in overcoming the disadvantages of its posi- tion in relation to the west, and the Western railroad has been the instrument by which she made the great states west of New York subservient to her interests. The charter of that road is dated March 15, 1833. The road runs from Worcester, 44 miles west of Boston, to the Massachusetts state line, and thence 38^ miles over the Albany and West Stockbridge railroad, leased and operated by the Western road, into Albany, 200 miles from Boston. The first train of passengers that left Boston was on April 7, 1834, for Davis' Tavern, Newton, to which place the Worcester road was then opened. It was completed to Worcester July 3, 1835. The Western road, in continuation, was opened to Springfield Oct. 1, 1839, ten days before the United States Bank finally failed, and it reached Greenbush Dec. 21, 1841, thus es- tablishing the route from Boston to the Al- bany basin in seven hours. It there con- nects with the New York Central road, which carries the line 229 miles to Roches- ter, whence, by the Lockport division of the Central road, 77 miles, it connects at Suspension bridge with the Great Western Canada road, and thence with the Michigan Central, the Illinois Central, and the Ohio and Mississippi roads to New. Orleans. By this route Boston and St. Louis, 1,365 miles distant, are connected in 64 hours. From Buffalo the line connects south of the lakes with all the net-work of Ohio and other roads. Every portion of the country is thus brought into connection with Boston. The Boston and Albany road has a double track for its entire length, of very heavy iron. Its length, including branches, is 241 miles. It crosses the Connecticut at Spring- field by a fine bridge, 1,264 feet long, and has run a track across the Hudson river bridge at Albany, so passengers can go to Chicago or Omaha from Boston without RAILROADS LAND GRANTS EXTENT AND COST. 59 changing cars. The grades on this road in western Massachusetts are very steep for more than 18 miles, ranging from 60 to 80 feet to the mile. For some years after its completion no road in the United States, except the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio, had such heavy grades; some of the western roads have a grade of 1 86 feet to the mile. The cost of the road and equip- ment was $15,750,960, but its property, in- cluding lands, is now valued at $22,636,- 550, its shares, in 1870, being held above 140 dollars. Its capital stock outstanding is $14,934,100 at par value, and its out- standing bonds $3,442,520. Its gross earn- ings, in 1869, were $6,074,605, and the net earnings, $1,198,432. The distance be- tween Boston and Albany, in a direct line, is about 150 miles, and but for the passage of the Hoosic mountains the railroad pas- sage between the two cities might be short- ened to at least 160 miles by railroads now in progress. To accomplish this, the state was for many years engaged in boring a gigantic tunnel through these mountains. This tunnel passes through the Hoosic mountains; it is about 4| miles in length, wide enough for two trains to pass each other without any danger of collision, and is driven through very hard and dense rock. It has a shaft near the center rising to the top of the mountain, 1,028 feet, which aids in ventilating it. It was 22 years in building, and cost about $13,000,- 000. Its western portal is about 37 miles east of Albany, but the route from the western exit to Troy is very circuitous and is 54 miles in length. It has now come un- der the substantial control of the N. Y. Central and Hudson River railway, and the project of running a line direct from Albany to North Adams has been aban- Idoned for the present at least. The road and the tunnel have not realized the hopes of their projectors, and have not materially shortened the line between Boston and the West. Boston is now connected with the Hud- son River by numerous lines, some of them all rail, others part rail and part steamer. Like all the rest of New England, Massa- chusetts is now gridironed with railroads, and the 6,031 miles which traverse that section have greatly fostered the industry and wealth of the eastern states. While, not- withstanding the competition, the immense traffic has made most of the routes profitable. In New York the question of railroads had been very early discussed. A publica- tion of Colonel Stevens, of Hoboken, in 1812, advocated a railway instead of a canal to the lakes ; but his proposition was op- posed by Chancellor Livingston on grounds which indicate very odd ideas of the nature of the works. The first regular application to the legislature for a railroad charter seems to have been made by Stephen Van Rensselaer and others in 1826, for power to construct one between the Hudson and the Mohawk, and they received the grant for the reason that no railroads were then in the country at all, and that, as the petitioners were willing to make the experiment at their own cost, it was a good opportunity to per- mit it. The surveys for the road were not made until 1830, and the road was opened in September, 1831, and three cars, with twenty passengers in each, were drawn to Schenectady in 46 minutes by an American engine of 3^ tons. Meantime, the charters of the Harlem and the Saratoga and Schen- ectady had been granted. The opening of the Mohawk road caused much excitement. A road from the Hudson to the lakes was agitated, and applications were made to the legislature of 1832 for 49 roads, of which 27 charters were granted, and of these six have been constructed, viz. : the Brooklyn and Jamaica, Hudson and Berkshire, Erie, Rensselaer and Saratoga, Tonawanda, Water- town and Rome. In 1833, six railroads were chartered ; of these the F/tica and Schenectady, Whitehall and Rutland, and Buffalo and Black Rock were constructed. In 1834, ten railroads were chartered, and of these five were constructed : the Auburn and Syracuse, Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Long Island, Lockport and Niagara, and the Saratoga and Washington. In 1836, 43 railroads were chartered, seven of which were built : the Albany and West Stock- bridge, Attica and Buffalo, Auburn and Koch- ester, Lewiston, Schenectady and Troy, Skan- eateles, and Syracuse and Utica. In 1837, 14 railroads were chartered, but none of them have been constructed. In 1838, the state authorized a loan of its credit to the extent of $3,000,000 to the Erie railroad, and of $100,000 to the Catskill and Canajoharie, and of $250,000 to the Ithaca and Owego ; also, $200,000 to the Auburn and Syracuse. In 1839, the Oswego and Syracuse railroad was chartered; and the city of Albany lent $400,000 to the Albany and West Stock- 62 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. bridge road. In 1840, acts were passed in the legislature to loan the credit of the state to the extent of $3, 478, 000 to six roads, and provision was made for a sinking fund to he paid into the treasury by the railroad com- panies, except the Erie. In 1841, the city of Albany was authorized to invest $350,- 000 in the Albany and West Stockbridge road. The Erie railroad, having defaulted on its interest, was advertised for sale by the comptroller, but the sale did not take place. This was not the case with the Ithaca and Owego, which was sold for $4,500, and the Catskill and Canajoharie for $11,600. The loss to the state was $1,026,327. In 1844, the several railroads from Albany to Buffalo were, for the first time, permitted to transport freight on the closing of the canal, by paying the state the same toll as the canal would have paid. In 1846, the Hud- son River and the New York and New Ha- ven were chartered. In 1847, the seven roads making the line from Albany to the lakes were required to lay down an iron rail of 56 lbs. to the yard. They were like- wise authorized to carry freight all the year by paying canal tolls ; and all the railroads were made liable for damages in case of death by neglect of the companies' agents. In 1848, the general railroad law was passed. The law provides, however, that the legisla- ture shall decide whether the " public utility " of the road justifies the taking of private prop- erty. This was removed in 1849. Thus, from 1826 to 1850, 151 charters were grant- ed, and of these 30 have been carried into effect. "We observe that the line from Albany to Buffalo was composed of seven distinct companies, finished at different times. Most of these were restricted as to fares. The Mohawk and Hudson — or Al- bany and Schenectady — was not restrained. The others were, as in the following table composing the line now known as the Cen- tral railroad : — Maxi- mum _a . Char- Open- fare %°S Cost, tered. ed. per g^ mile. ,j" Albany and Schenectady .1826 1SS1 .. IT $1,711,412 Utica and Schenectady... .1833 1836 .4 TS 4.143.918 Syracuse and Utica 1836 1S39 .4 53 2,490,083 Auburn and Syracuse 1834 1839 .5 26 1.011,000 Auburn and Rochester 1336 1841 .4 78 4,210.101 Tonawanda 1832 1S42 .4 43* 1,216.820 Attica and Buffalo 1836 1842 .3 81* 906,918 Total 327 $15,690,249 These companies were in 1850 allowed to carry freight without the imposition of the canal tolls, and in ] 853 were all con- solidated in a single company — the New York Central. When this project of con- solidating was under consideration, the stocks rose rapidly to high premiums, and the prin- ciple of consolidation was to create scrip stock to the amount of the aggregate pre- miums, and divide this pro rata among the stockholders of all the companies. That scrip, to the amount of about $8,100,000, now figures as a part of the cost of the rosd. The road was straightened so that the di- rect line was only 298 miles from Albany to Buffalo, but the other lines and routes added to it make the whole 594 miles. The capital stock of the company, Sept. 30, 1868, was $28,- 780,000 and there was an indebtedness of $1 1,526,000, mostly in bonds. The total earn- ings of the road in 1854, the year of the con- solidation, were $5,918,332. From this sum they had risen, in 1857, to $8,027,259, but re- ceded to $6,200,000 in 1859. From 1865 to 1868 inclusive, they averaged $14,350,000 per annum. In 1869 it was consolidated with the Hudson River railroad, declaring the same year a stock dividend (watering the stock) to the amount of nearly 24 millions, and the capital of the consolidated road was called 75 million dollars, though its cost had been less than 45 millions. Eleven years later, the capital was further watered so as to be stated at $89,428,300, and the funded debt at $40,418,508 more, while the cost of road and equipment was stated at $137,757,152. The New York Central (from Albany to Buffalo), has four tracks, and the whole line is laid with steel rails. Its gross receipts are from 28 to 30 millions of dollars, and its net earnings from 10 to 11 millions, enabling it to pay an 8 per cent, dividend on its enormously watered stock. The stock is quoted at about 145. The great southern tier of counties bor- dering on northern Pennsylvania, were for ten years after the completion of the N. Y. Central without means of communication with markets, except by common roads. The face of the country was too rugged to per- mit of a canal, but in 1825 the state legis- lature ordered the survey of a state road from Lake Erie to the Hudson river. Sev- eral conventions were held during the four years ending with 1830 in relation to the road. The railroad fever had gained ground meantime, and finally, in 1832, a charter for a railroad was granted, RAILROADS LAND GRANTS EXTENT AND COST. 63 with a capital of $10,000,000. The survey ■was made by De Witt Clinton, Jr., but the legislature required that 11,000,000 of the capital should be subscribed before the work was commenced. This was subscribed, and E. Lord chosen president in 1833. A new survey was made at the expense of the state, and the report made on it in 1835, when a reorganization of the company took place, with J. G. King president. The subscrip- tion of capital now reached $2,362,100. The work was commenced by putting 40 miles along the Delaware river under con- tract. The great fire of December, 1835, incapacitated many of the subscribers from paying up, and work was suspended. In January, 1836, the legislature loaned its credit for $3,000,000, but the stock could not then be negotiated. Some work was done along the line, however, by local sub- scription. In 1840 — Mr. Lord again presi- dent — the loan act was amended so as to be available, and the company purchased its iron. The terms of the loan permitted the state officer to deliver to the com- pany $100,000 of state stock whenever he should have evidence that the company had expended an equal amount; the state stock not to be sold under par. The company then paid its contractors with time drafts. The receipts for these drafts furnished the evidence of the company's expenditure, on which the state officer issued the stock to the company, which then borrowed on it the money to take up the drafts, and the lenders of the money sold the state stock in the state for what it would bring — some lots as low as 80. The work thus done was in detached lots, as the interest of certain par- ties prompted the expenditure. As soon as the last issue was made by the state the company stopped, and the state assumed the interest on the $3,000,000 issued to it. In 1842 the company assigned, and its af- fairs fluctuated until 1844, when Mr. Loder was elected president. In 1845 the state surrendered its lien of $3,000,000 upon the road, and authorized the individual stock to be cut down one-half by holders giving up two shares and taking one new one. A new subscription of $3,000,000 was obtained, and the work commenced anew. Much of the old work was useless ; and at this day, when the passenger approaches Dunkirk, he sees, stretching out far away to the right, like an immense army of grim warriors, the piles that were driven originally for the road, at great expense, and then abandoned. From the year 1 845 the road began to grow. Start- ing from Piermont, on the North River, 20 miles above the city, it reached Otisville, 62 miles, in October, 1846. The route was altered, and reached Binghamton, 139 miles, in December, 1848, at a cost of $9,- 802,433, allowing $1,458,000 for half the old stock, after the release of the state lien. In June, 1849, 22 miles more to Owego were opened ; in October 364; miles were added to Elmira ; and it finally reached the lake at Dunkirk, May, 1851. This was a single track, and it was found almost impos- sible to work it ; consequently they put a second track under contract on portions of the road. It was now found that the loca- tion of the road at Piermont, to be reached by ste*amboat, would not answer. The com- pany then made an arrangement with the Paterson and Ramapo road to allow the Erie to come into Jersey City. The Erie railroad being a wide gauge, 6 feet, and the Paterson road 4 feet 8 inches, it became necessary to lay another rail outside the track, to permit the Erie cars to come over that road, and the Erie cars reached Jer- sey City in November, 1853. It is remark- able in relation to this road, that it has de- pended upon the telegraph to such an extent that it could scarcely be operated without it. It gives constant information of the where- abouts of the trains and the condition of the track, so that the superintendent, wherever he may be, keeps up a constant communica- tion with all the stations. The whole length of the road is 460 miles ; 486 miles double track and sidings. The maximum grade of the road is 60 feet to the mile for 8 miles, and there is one of 57 feet to the mile. The cost of the road was greatly enhanced by the mode of raising money for its construction, by a constant series of loans, for which were issued first mortgage bonds, second mort- gage bonds, bonds convertible in stock in 1862, bonds convertible in 1871, income bonds, unsecured bonds, and other debts, for very few of which the face was obtained, many of them being disposed of at a large discount. By these means the debts of the company ran iip to $25,260,000, and the cap- ital, $10,000,000, was in February, 1857, by a dividend of 10 per cent, in stock, money alleged to have been earned and sunk in the Long Dock, raised to the sum of $1 1,000,000. This load of debt exceeded the ability of the company, and it went finally into the hands 64 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. of a receiver. The length of the road at that time was 446 miles, with a branch of 19 miles from Chester Junction to New- burgh, 460 miles in all. It leased of other companies, 95 miles, consequently operated 560 miles. It had in 1868, 371 locomo- tives, 187 passenger cars, 300 emigrant and baggage cars, and 5,856 freight cars. The management of the road was never characterized by any marked financial abil- ity, and in August, 1857, in consequence of the great cost of constructing the Bergen tunnel, and other financial blunders, it de- faulted on its interest, and its stock was wiped out. The unsecured bonds and the later mortgages were capitalized into a stock known thenceforth as the Erie rail- way, and the coupons of the first, second, and third mortgages were extended. For a time it seemed likely to prosper, as its business was large and apparently profit- able ; but it had fallen into the hands of reckless and dishonest speculators, who sought only their own profit. Previous to the reorganization in 1859 its stock was sold at $5 or less per share. The stock of the new organization was, at first, nearly par, but under the management of Fisk and Gould it was down till it was as low or lower than the first stock, and passed into the hands of receivers in 1873, and after some years was reorganized in 1879, as the N. Y., Lake Erie and Western Railroad Co. Its common stock now stands at about 45 or 46; its preferred stock at 61 or 62. Previous to the completion of the reorgani- zation its capital stock was stated (Jan. 1, 1880) at $83,247,000; its funded and float- ing debt was $75,391,973. The total cost of road and equipment was stated at $158,- 035,707, a very large portion of which had been squandered. It does not as yet pay any dividends. Its receipts in 1879 were $18,613,109, and its expenses $10,644,000, showing net earnings of $7,049,084. It operated 1,829| miles of track in New York. The Camden and Amboy railroad and Delaware and Raritan Canal Co., of New Jersey, is one of the oldest passenger roads, having been chartered in February, 1830, with the canal privilege. The last is 43 miles from Bordentown to New Brunswick; and the former, South Amboy to Camden, New Jersey, 63 miles. The Camden and Amboy road was opened to Camden in 1834. In 1831 the company gave the state 1,000 shares of stock, and a new act was passed, consolidating the canal and railroad companies; fares not to exceed $3 between New York and Philadelphia. In the fol- lowing year 1,000 shares more were convey- ed to the state. In 1837 the road was per- mitted to extend to New Brunswick; fares limited to 5 cents per mile. In 1842 the transit duties on the road were fixed at ten cents per ton for freight, and one-half of all above $3 charged for passengers. In 1843 a quasi union was effected between this road and the New Jersey railroad, extend- ing from New York to New Brunswick, by which a through line was established. Both roads have been very profitable. On the expiration of the contract between the State of New Jersey and these railroads, they were leased as the United Railroad Companies of New Jersey, on long time, by the Pennsylvania Central Railroad Co. These roads constitute the New Jersey Di- vision of the Penn. Central R. R. Co. The New Jersey Central road extends from the foot of Liberty street, New York city, to Easton, on the Delaware; and by its close connections with the Baltimore and Ohio, the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago,the Lehigh Valley (a coairoad) etc., it forms one of the best through routes to the West. Its cost was reported in 1874, including its branches and leased lines, as $56,000,000 in stocks and bonds, but in that year it defaulted on its interest and was put into the hands of a receiver. During the present year, 1881, it has resumed its position as a sound and valuable road. The great Pennsylvania line of improve- ments, from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, com- menced 4th July, 1826, and completed in March, 1830, comprised 82 miles of railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia, and 36 miles of portage road from Hollidayburgto Johnstown; this consisted of a series of in- clined planes, which were worked by sta- tionary engines. This 118 miles of railroad was prolonged by 278 miles of canal, and the cost of the whole to the state was over $12,000,000. The citizens of Philadelphia felt the need of works better adapted to the growing wants of that great city; and a new railroad was proposed from Harris- burg to Pittsburg, 250 miles. The route is fa- vorable, except for the mountain division, where the summit is crossed 2, 200 feet above tide water, requiring gradients 95 feet to the mile. These are but little in excess of those RAILROADS — LAND GRANTS EXTENT AND COST. 65 of the Massachusetts lines, which are worked to advantage. This work was opened through, November 15, 18-32, at a cost of $7,978,000, It proved very successful, and up to Novem- ber, 1855, its profits, over interest on capital, were, in accordance with its charter, credited to construction account, and it has since paid 6 per cent The state line of public works did not succeed financially, and the state de- termined to sell it. After repeated offerings it was finally purchased by and transferred to the Pennsylvania railrord in 1857 for 17,500,000, which was met by an issue of the 5 per cent, bonds of the company to the state, payable, $100,000 per annum until 1890, and the balance, $4,300,000, in four equal instalments annually thereafter. When the road took possession of the state works, the canals were found to be in a dilapidated condition, and the railroad needed repairs, which required assessments. The route then became continuous by rail from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, 366 miles. It had 486 miles of double track and sidings. The original cost of the road was $29,761,533, but aid granted to other lines which are subsidiary to it, made its capital, Jan., 1880, $68,890,200, its bonds, $80,267,756, and its floating debt, $14,631,161. A part of the cost is com- posed of $8,816,050 advanced to the Pitts- burg, Fort "Wayne, and Chicago railroad, which prolongs the Pennsylvania road to the latter city. That road was composed of three roads, viz: the Ohio and Pennsylva- nia, the Ohio and Indiana, and the Port Wayne and Chicago roads. These were con- solidated into one company in 1856, and the line completed from Pittsburg to Chicago in 1859, 468 miles, at a cost of $39,553,586, of which $27,043,586 was capital, and $15,- 510,000 bonds. To assist the completion of this road, the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany took up the rails on the 36 miles of port- age road, which it had bought of the state, and which was of no use, as it run parallel to its own road, and gave them to the Pittsburg road to complete its extension from Ply- mouth into Chicago. For this iron and the expense of taking up and moving, the Pitts- burg road gave its first mortgage bonds for $650,000. The business of the Pennsylva- nia road, connecting Philadelphia with Chi- cago and the whole net- work of railroads be- tween and beyond those cities is very profit- able. Its gross earnings, in 1879 were $21,- 743,628, and its net earnings $9,992,008. We have stated that a portion of the great 5 Baltimore and Ohio railroad was finished two years before the opening of the Manchester road in England. The company received two charters : one from the state of Mary- land, February, 1827, and the other from the state of Virginia in the following March, with authority to construct a road from Bal- timore to the Ohio river. The capital au- thorized was $5,000,000, and the company entitled to organize on the payment of $1,000,000. The company was so organized in April of the same year, and with the aid of several officers of the United States top- ographical corps, the road was partly located in the same summer. July 4th, ground was broken by Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, and the portion of the road to Ellicott's Mills was put under contract. The capital of the company, at the close of 1828, reached $4,000,000, of which three-fourths was taken by individuals, $500,000 by the city of Bal- timore, and $500,000 by the state of Mary- land. The road was gradually extended to the Point of Rocks in 1832. Here arose an obstacle of right of way. The Chesapeake canal had appropriated the narrow gorge through the mountain, and several years of negotiation elapsed before the difficulty was finally settled by the legislature. In 1833 the Washington branch was chartered, on the condition that at least 25 cents per pas- senger should be paid to the state. The Baltimore and Ohio Company contributed $1,016,800 toward the construction, and it was opened 30 miles to Washington, August 25, 1 835. The road had then no locomotives, horse power being used. The company of- fered $4,000 for a locomotive of American manufacture to burn coal. One was invented by Phineas Davis and accepted. It ran 15 miles per hour on short curves and 30 miles on a straight line. The rails were fiat bars laid on stone foundations, which soon gave way to longitudinal timbers with improved rails. The road reached Harper's Ferry in 1834, and the state subscribed $3,200,000 for the extension to Wheeling. In 1888 the state of Virginia extended the time for con- struction through its territory and subscribed $1,058,420. The road was then completed to Cumberland in 1842, but nothing further was done until 1847. Virginia again ex- tended the time, and in 1^49 state bonds granted to the company furnished means for pushing the road to completion in 1853. The city of Baltimore then furnished $5,000,000, which was expended in protecting tunnels, 66 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. double track, etc. There is one tunnel of 4,137 feet, and the length of all the tunnels is 12,804 feet. A charter for the Parkersburg branch was granted in 1851. The work began De- cember, 1852, and was completed May 1, 1857. The road was built jointly by the city of Baltimore and the Baltimore and Ohio Company. The former gave $1,500,000 first mortgage bonds, and the latter $1,- 000,000 of its second mortgage bonds, and has since advanced $1,795,326. The road is operated by the Baltimore Company under a contract for five } r ears, at a rent of 40 per cent, of the gross earnings. The capital of the main line of the Bal- timore and Ohio Railroad was originally $17,802,000, and its funded debt $9,343,- 681. In Jan., 18S0, the capital had been increased to $19,792,566, the bonds to $29,386,875, and the floating debt to $1,- 421,260, a total of $50,600,701. Its two branches, the "Washington and the Park- ersburg, cost together, $10,018,000 more, making in all over $60,000,000. Recently it has leased and formed connections with several other roads which give it access to Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis and the Pa- cific States, and also to New York city. It has always been largely engaged in the coal traffic, carrying from 525,000 to 550,- 000 tons annually. It has also developed within the past few years a vast trade in breadstuffs, especially corn and provisions. As the great centre of canned goods of all kinds, fish, oysters, meats, and fruits, its west bound traffic is always very heavy. It pays regularly an 8 per cent, dividend. Its gross earnings in 1879 were $9,809,533, and the net earnings $4,750,909. The Virginia Central railroad (195 miles), was originally chartered, in 1836, as the Louisa railroad, with a capital of $300,000, and in 1837 the board of public works was authorized to subscribe on behalf of the state $120,000. In December, 1837, twenty- three miles of the road were opened. It was further extended in the following year, and in 1S40 the road reached Gordonsville. Under new privileges, granted in 1848, the work was resumed, and reached Charlottes- ville in May, 1850, but in that year the name of the road was changed to the Vir- ginia Central railroad. There were then seventy miles in operation, and extensions at both ends were proceeded with ; of these, in 1851, twenty -three miles were completed, bringing the road into Richmond. In 1857 the road was opened to Jackson's river, 195 miles, at a cost of $5,372,910, of which $3,- 132,445 was paid up stock, $1,878,493 state aid, and $351,972 floating debt. It was one of the best built roads in the state, and for three years did a good business. During the war it was greatly injured, but in 1866 was thoroughly repaired and put in good running order at a heavy expense. In IS 68 the facilities which it offered for becoming a trunk road from Norfolk to the west, at- tracted attention, its name was changed to the "Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad," and northern capital intei'ested in it. Hunting- ton, on the Ohio, is its western terminus, and from thence it has connections now nearly completed with Cincinnati and Lou- isville, which will make it one of the trunk roads ; its connections with the Norfolk, now in rapid progress, will enable it to ship freight direct to Europe to great advantage. The road has cost about 22 millions. In 1873 it failed and was put into the hands of a receiver, but it has been reorganized (in 1879), and is now prospering. Its stock, bonds, and debts are $51,805, 1 13. In the summer of 1881 its managers se- cured a connection for this road with Mem- phis, and west of the Mississippi with the Texas and Southern Pacific. It thus be- comes one of the great trunk roads to the Pacific, and has the advantage of a nearly direct route never obstructed by snow. It will doubtless secure a large share of the Southern traffic. In casting the eye upon a railroad map, the line from Bangor, Maine, to New Or- leans, 1,996 miles, is found to be composed of eighteen grand links; one of the largest of these is that which connects Lynchburg, Va., with Bristol, Tenn., 204 miles. This was called the Virginia and Tennessee. It was opened in 1854. In 1870 this road was consolidated with the Naples and Peters- burg and South Side railroads, under the name of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad, with authority to complete the Virginia and Kentucky division from Bris- tol to Cumberland Gap. This road has now formed such connections with other roads as to form the most direct route to Knox- ville, Tenn.. to Mobile, and New Orleans. Its stock, bonds, and debts are about $21,- 581,006. The South Carolina road was one of the AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 67 first projected in the country. The city of Charleston early saw the advantage and importance of the work, which was com- menced in 1830, and opened in 1833. Its main trunk extends from Charleston to Hamburg, on the Savannah river opposite Augusta, Ga., 136 miles, with branches to Columbia and Camden, S. C. The track was originally a trestle-work, on which was laid a thin fiat rail. Some of the swamps and rivers were crossed at an elevation of fifty feet. On this road the first successful American locomotive was run. It was called the " Best Friend," and was built under the supervision of E. L. Miller, of South Carolina. It was introduced by Ho- ratio Allen, and ran in 1830, when there were but eight miles of road out of Charles- ton. The South Carolina road cost $11,- 526,231, of which $5,819,265 is capital, and the remainder bonded debt. The road owes most of its business to the transporta- tion of cotton, and it pays 1 per cent, reg- ularly. Its stock is above par. The pro- ject of connecting Charleston with Cincin- nati was early entertained, and in 1836 a grant was obtained from South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, for the purpose of constructing a road thi*ough Columbia, Knoxville, and Danville to Covington, opposite Cincinnati. This enterprise was swamped in 1837 by the crisis, when the road was partially con- structed to Columbia. This has since been completed by means of the Spartansburg and Union, and the Cumberland Gap and Charleston railroads, except a short gap between Asheville, N. C, and Wolf Creek, which is now in course of construction. Georgia has more miles of railroad com- pleted, and more in progress, than any other southern state. Atlanta, Macon, Augusta, Savannah, and Millen are all im- portant railroad centers. There were, in Jan., 1880, 2,516 miles of completed rail- way in the state, and at least 600 miles more in progress. The most important roads are: The Georgia, extending from Atlanta to Augusta, having a length, with its three branches, of 257 miles, and costing $5,- 808,000; the Georgia Central, from Macon to Savannah, with leased lines, 660 miles, costing $12,126,827 ; the Macon and Augusta, and Macon and Brunswick, which are severally 62 miles, and 1 74 miles, and together cost $8,491,541; the Atlantic and Gulf, with the Florida branch, 347 miles in length, and costing §8,181,000 ; the Western and Atlantic, 138 miles in length, from Atlanta to Chattanooga, costing $5,- 000,000, and the Southwestern and its branches, 325 miles in length, now perma- nently leased to the Georgia Central, which has assumed all its liabilities. Several of the lately finished railways are also of con- siderable importance, especially the Georgia Air Line, from Atlanta toward Richmond, the Brunswick and Albany, and the Athens and Clayton, intended to connect Savan- nah with Cincinnati. The entire cost of railroads already built in Georgia, up to Jan. 1, 1880, was about $80,000,000. In Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas, their fine rivers, navigable for steamboats, have made railroads almost unnecessary. But whenever they are built, and can obtain a freight of cotton, they are sure to pay. This product is not like corn, or wheat, or even flour, worth one, two, or three cents a pound, but eight, ten, or twelve cents, and can there- fore afford to pay the cost of transportation. Up to the period of the completion of the Union and Central Pacific railroad, the Illi- nois Central railway was the most remarka- ble of American roads in the extent of its line, and its mode of construction, under a single corporation. In 1837, when the population of the state of Illinois was less than 200,000 souls, and these agri- culturists scattered over the great state, they undertook with singular boldness a system of internal improvement by canal and railroad, which would involve an expenditure of at least $15,000,000. Among these was the Central railroad, which was to extend from Cairo, at the junction of theOhioand Mississippi rivers, longitudinally through the state, to Galena, at its northern extremity on the Mississippi river, making a line of 457^ miles, which should be the base of a triangle of which the great river formed the other two sides. This road was to cross the Illinois river at the commencement of navigation, or where it meets the canal coming from Chicago. Other roads were projected to cross the state, intersecting the Central road. The Central road was undertaken, and about 83,500,000 spent upon it, when bankruptcy overtook the state, and the road rapidly deteriorated. The progress of the work on the canal, with the funds borrow- ed on pledge of the land granted by the federal government, had been of great benefit to the state, and had enabled the federal gov- ernment to sell most of its lands on the canal and irreat water-courses, in fact, all within reacii of market. There remained, 68 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. however, some 15,000,000 acres of the rich- est land in the heart of the state, for which there was no sale, because it was not acces- sible to market. Experiencing, however, the great results from the canal grant, which not only laid open great tracts to market, but by local expenditure in construction, brought settlers and money upon the vacant lands, it decided upon a similar grant to the state in aid of the Central railroad. Accord- ingly, in September, 1850, Congress made a grant of lands to the state of Illinois of every alternate section, six sections in width, on each side of the road and its branches, and if any land so situated should be taken up, then any vacant land elsewhere might be selected in room of it, within fifteen miles of the line of the road. The same law con- ferred upon the states of Alabama and Mis- sissippi similar grants for the extension of the road from Cairo to Mobile city. In the following February the state of Illinois incorporated the Illinois Central Railroad Company, with a capital of $1,000,000, to be extended to an amount not exceeding the cost of the road. The company on its organization was to pay over to the state treasury $200,000, and receive from the state the entire grant of lands made by the federal government, together with all that remained of the old Central road, right of way, eto. The company was to have fifty miles com- pleted within two years, under forfeit of the $200,000 deposited, and which was 'to be re- turned to the company on the completion of the fifty miles within the time. The road was to run from Cairo to the western end of the Illinois canal, and thence branch to Galena on the river, and to Chicago on the lake. The company was to pay to the state annually five per cent, on the gross income of the road. These were the leading items of the grant, and the conditions were all carried out. The location and survey of the route showed the company entitled to 2,595,000 acres of land to be selected by the company. This vast tract of land, amount- ing to an area larger than the whole state of Connecticut, was all to be selected from good farming lands, not an acre of waste in the whole, but all of the richest prairie soil, of the same character as that in the neigh- borhood of St. Louis, which for two hundred years had given to fresh settlers annual crops, without in any degree deteriorating appar- ently. These lands of the company were appropriated, 2,000,000 acres, valued at $18,150,000, as a security for $17,000,000 of construction bonds; 250,000 acres were added to the interest fund to meet any de- ficiency of means from other sources ap- propriated to interest on the construction bonds ; and 345,000 acres were held in reserve, but were finally the basis of$3,000,- 000 " free land bonds," issued and redeemed by conversion into company stock. The 2,000,000 acres were placed in the hands of trustees, who alone have power to give title to purchasers, and wdio are required, when- ever the funds accumulate to the amount of a bond, to buy and cancel it. No land can be sold, unless bonds to the same amount are cancelled. It was estimated that the bonds thus issued would build the road, and leave the entire work free of cost to the stockholders. It was found requisite, how- ever, to create 170,000 shares, representing $17,000,000 capital. On this instalments have from time to time been called in. The $200,000 deposited with the state was as- sessed $20 on 10,000 shares, and the amount has since been increased to $25,277,270, on which 80 per cent, has been called, making $20,800,000. In April, 1852, $4,000,000 of the 7 per cent, construction bonds were is- sued at par, and the subscribers to this loan had the privilege of subscribing ten shares of stock for each $1,000 bond. The company purchased their iron, 72,000 tons, in 1852, when it was very low, or less than half the price to which it rose soon after, when the railroad fever developed itself. In October, 1852, the whole line was put under contract, in divisions, and 10,000 men were employed at an expense of $3,700,000 per annum, at work along the line, twelve hours per day, stretching a great highway through fertile plains never before opened, conferring value on them, wealth to the farmers, and strength to the state. As the work progressed, it en- countered difficulties from cholera, and the demand for labor which the growing railroad mania caused. The road was opened in 1854, and its earnings for its first year, 1855, were $1,532,118. It had sold, in 1872, 2,215,000 acres of its lands for 24,540,090 dollars, leaving 379,210 acres unsold, most- ly desirable lands, in the Central and Southern parts of the State. Most of these have since been sold, and the entire amount reached from its land sales, exceeds $30,- 000,000. Its main line is 707 miles in length, and it has over 400 miles of leased lines in Iowa, all of which it has since pur- AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. GO chased. Its capital stock is $29,000,000, and its bonds in 1880, most of them since redeemed from its land sales, were $12,- 100,000. In 1880 and in 1881 it was ex- tending its Sioux City line into Dakota and up the James or Dakota River Valley. Its financial condition is excellent. At Cairo, the southern terminus of the road, the cars make direct connections with the Mobile and Ohio, and New Orleans, St. Louis and Chicago railroads for Memphis, Natchez, Vicksburg, New Orleans, Mobile, and other southern cities. In Chicago the company's facilities for receiving and for- warding freight are unsurpassed. Sleep- ing cars are run on all its night passenger trains. State or Corpora- tion. Ohio Indiana Illinois Missouri Alabama Mississippi Louisiana Michigan Arkansas Florida Iowa Wisconsin California Minnesota Oregon Kansas Nevada Nebraska Pacific R. Rs. &c. Wajjon Roads. Wisconsin Michigan Oregon Total. Grants for Internal Im provem'tln- cludi'gState Canals 1,243,001.77 1,609,861.61 533.2H3.73 500,000.00 500,000.0(1 £00,000.00 500,000.00 1,250,000.00 500,000.00 5O0,00i).(K) 1,333,079.90 1,183,728.42 500,000.00 500.000.00 500,000.00 500,000.00 500,000.00 500,000.00 Acres Certi- fied up to 1880. 1,828,005.02 2.830,571.76 935.158.13 1,072,405.49 3,229,033 09 2.381,650.63 1,760,468.39 4,623,173.46 2,807,783.88 7.279,484.15 3,872,191.21 Acres Grant- ed. 2,595,053.00 3,745,16,1.21 3,729,120.00 2.062.240.00 3,178,720.00 4,931,361.16 4,804,871.14 2,360,114.00 7.207.S37.98 3.758 436.07 3.520,000.00 9,913,495.95 4,700,000.00 6,870,000.00 10,435,048.08151,144,766.00 302,930.36 221,013.35 777,096.76 13,153,155.43;46,951,066f 214,031.807.07 The most marvelous result of this great work was manifest in the report of the United States land commissioner. The lands through which the road ran had been offered on an average of 15 years at $1.25 per acre, without finding a buyer. All those lands were withdrawn while the company made its selections. When that was done, the lands were again brought into market, in June, 1852, and these in the next twelve months sold in Illinois 298,861 acres for cash, at $2.50 per acre, and $2,509,120 for land warrants. The sales were double the quantity sold in all the states in the pre- vious year. The whole interest of the gov- ernment in Illinois was speedily closed out. For lands which had been valueless to it before the completion of the road, it real- ized over $9,000,000. This was the effect of transportation upon those lands. The first land grants of the government were in aid of canals (included in the grants for internal improvements.) We give above, also, the grants to railroads up to July, 1880. Of these 607,741.76 acre shave been declared forfeited by Congress. The land grant of the federal government to Alabama for the Mobile and Ohio road was to the extent of 1,1 20,000 acres, and it became the basis of a sinking fund for the aid granted to the states of Tennessee, Mis- sissippi, and Alabama. The road extends from Mobile bay, in a line nearly due north, to the mouth of the Ohio river, opposite Cairo, a distance of 506 miles. Thence by the Illinois Central it connects with Dun- leith, on the upper Mississippi, 928 miles, and also with Chicago and the eastern lines. The road was commenced in 1851, and was nearly completed before the war. It is now doing a prosperous business and has cost $21,730,715. The Mobile and Ohio is not by any means the only railroad line to the Gulf and to the S. E., as well as S. W. portion of the United States. East of the Mississippi there are three rival routes to the Gulf, viz., the combination of several railways known as the New Orleans, St. Louis and Chicago, which is, on the whole, the most direct to New Orleans; the combination known as the Louisville, Nashville, and Great South- ern, whose direct termini are Chicago and Pensacola, but which, through branch rail- roads reaches Mobile and New Orleans on the S. West, and Atlanta, Jacksonville, Savannah and Charleston in the S. E., and later still, the Cincinnati Southern, which is connected to the north with Michigan, and by other roads, with Chicago, and has formed connections southward from Chat- tanooga with Brunswick, Ga., Savannah, and Charleston. These combination roads are only in alliance for the purposes of traffic and not a consolidation under a sin- gle head. West of the Mississippi there are two principal lines, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, both connecting with the Gulf as well as with other points by other roads, of which the International and Great Northern, and the Houston and Texas Central were the principal. Recently it is reported that all of these roads have been consolidated with others in the grand scheme which Jay Gould and his associates 70 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. have been arranging for the control of the railroads of the southwest, and of Mexico. What are to be the amounts of stock and bonded indebtedness of the consolidated roads, have not yet transpired, but they must be very large, as the reports of the cost of the four roads named, Jan. 1, 1880, were as follows: International and Great Northern $18,489,202 Houston and Texas Central 80,919.687 Missouri , Kansas and Texas 47,210,332 St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern 51,043,893 Totals $147,663,014 It should be observed that the Interna- tional and Great Northern, and perhaps also the Houston and Texas Central are ex- pected to make close connection with the Mexican railways extending to the City of Mexico and the Pacific Coast in Mexico. Still farther west, in Arizona, the Atchi- son, Topeka, and Santa Fe, and the Denver and Rio Grande are finding access to the Pacific Ocean at Guaymas and other ports on the Gulf of California, and at San Diego, Los Angeles and other ports on the Pacific. The State of Michigan, in 1836, con- templated the construction of three railroads to cross the state: the Southern, from Monroe to New Buffalo; the Central, from Detroit to St. Joseph; and the Northern, from Huron to Grand River. For these roads a state debt of $5,000,000 was con- tracted; and, in 1838, 28 miles of the Cen- tral road had been put in operation, which was extended to 146 miles, at a cost of $2,- 238,289, and the Southern road, 68 miles, at a cost of $1,125,590, when the state failed and repudiated its debt. As a step toward recovery, a bill was passed, at the suggestion of Mr. Charles Butler, of New York, called the "Butler act," by which the state sold the Central road to a Boston company for $2,000,000 of its own bonds, and the Southern road for $5,000,000 to another company. Little was done, how- ever, until 1849, when Mr. Butler and oth- ers reorganized the Southern company, and the road was pushed to completion. As it approached the Indiana line, an old Indi- ana state charter was purchased, enabling the company to carry their work through that state to the Illinois line, whence, under the general law of that state, it was pushed on to Chicago. The distance from Monroe, on Lake Michigan, to Chicago, is 246 miles, and the work was completed for $50,000,- 000, or $20,000 per mile in running order, the level nature of the country being very favorable to the construction of railroads. The work was eminently successful, but be- came involved through its connection with lateral jobs, which covered it with liabili- ties greater than its business, large as it was, could carry. In 1857 it became so much embarrassed, as to bo obliged to re- organize, and was subsequently consolidat- ed with the Lake Shore railroad. It has now a length, including one branch of 1,176.8 miles; its cost for road and equip- ment is set down at $89,926,308 of which $50,000,000 is represented by stock and $39,926,308 by debt. Its gross earnings for the year ending Dec. 31, 1879, were $15,271,492, and the net earnings $6,- 336,968. It is now run in close connection with the N. Y. Central railroad, and its stock is about par. It has, for two or three years past, made from 6^ to 8 per cent, dividends. The Michigan Central reached the lake in May, 1849, and was also pushed to com- pletion, going around the head of Lake Michigan, where the Illinois Central put out a hand to meet it. The length of the line is 803.7 miles, Detroit to Chicago. The cost of this road was $35,350, 0S3. The road was laid with T rail, and is very prosperous. The capital of the company is $18,738,204 and the debt $13,691,000. The road is an important link in the line of connection between Boston and the western country. The state of Tennessee has an important system of railroads extending to aU sec- tions of the state. The state guarantees $8,000 per mile for the purchase of iron and equipment, upon the condition that the companies prepare the road-bed and defray the charges of construction. The state re- tains a lien upon the whole property. The roads were well built, and for a time pros- perous, but since the war have fallen into difficulties, and the state has attempted to scale and repudiate its indebtedness for them. The state of Missouri had done little to- ward the construction of roads until the session of 1851, when it was agreed to lend its aid to two great lines; the Pacific road, commencing at St. Louis and running across the state, on the south side of the Missouri river, and the Hannibal and St. Joseph road, extending 206 miles across the state from river to river, connecting the two cities named. This last had also a land RAILROADS LAND GRANTS EXTENT AND COST. 71 grant of 600,000 acres, made the basis for $5,000,000 of the company's bonds. The state subsequently enlarged its plan, and agreed to issue $24,000,000 of its bonds in aid of the railroads. The panic of 1857 and the war troubles prevented the pay- ment of interest on these bonds, either by the railroads or the state, for some years. In 1867, the state resumed payment and the railroads began a new career of pros- perity. The most important roads are the Hannibal and St. Joseph, and branches, 292 miles long; the Pacific of Missouri, 421.6 miles long; the St. Louis and San Francisco, 392.4 miles in length; the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, 684 miles in length, and the Kansas City, St. Joseph, &c, 254 miles in length. The state has 3,998 miles of completed road, and 450 more in progress. Over $133,- 121,871 was expended on these roads up to Jan., 1880. The Pacific road had cost $16,- 595,048, of which $15,123,000 was bonded debt. The great railroad bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis has materially ben- efited the railroad lines. The Michigan Central reached the lake in May, 1849, and was also pushed to com- pletion, going round the foot of Lake Michi- gan, where the Illinois Central put out a hand to meet it. The connection is thus 284 miles, Detroit to Chicago. The cost of this road was $15,951,936. The road was laid with T rail, and was very prosperous. The capital of the company is $11,197,348, and the debt $5,153,489. The road is an important Hide in the line of connection between Boston and the western country. The state of Tennessee has an important system of railroads extending to all sec- tions of the state. The state guarantees $8,000 per mile for the purchase of iron and equipment, upon the condition that the com- panies prepare the road-bed and defray the charges of construction. The state retains a lien upon the whole property. The roads have been well built. The state of Missouri had done little toward the construction of roads until the session of 1851, when it agreed to lend its aid to two great lines ; the Pacific road, commencing at St. Louis and running across the state, on the south side of the Missouri river, and the Hannibal and St. Joseph road, extending 206 miles across the state from river to river, connecting the two cities named. This last had also a land grant of 600,000 acres, made the basis for $5,000,- 000 of the company's bonds. The state subsequently enlarged its plan, and agreed to issue $24,000,000 of its bonds in aid of the railroads. The panic of 1857 and the war troubles prevented the payment of in- terest on these bonds, either by the railroads or the state, for some years. In 1867, the state resumed payment and the railroads be- gan a new career of prosperity. The most important roads are the Hannibal and St. Joseph, and branches, 278 miles long; the Pacific of Missouri, 283 miles long, and the Southwest Pacific, 327 miles in length. The state has 1,827 miles of completed road, and 1,450 more in progress. Over $88,000,- 000 have been expended on these roads thus far. The Pacific road has cost $13,- 906,000, of which $7,550,375 is bonded debt. The great railroad bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis will materially ben- efit the railroad lines. RAILROADS MILEAGE LIABILITIES. RAILWAYS OF THE WORLD, Jan. 1, 1877. Continent and Country. Nortii America. United States of America,* Dominion of Canada, 1877, Uniled States of Mexico,. Total North America,.. Central America and West Indies. Honduras, Costa Rica, t oloinbia (Panama), Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica, Barbadoes, Total C. A. and W. I.,.. Soutii America. Colombia Venezuela, Guiana (British), Brazil Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentine Republic, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Total South America,. EuRors. Great Britain and Ireland France, Spain, Portugal, Italy,. Switzerland Austria-Hungary, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Russia, Roumania, Turkey, Greece Total Europe, Asia. Turkey (Asia Minor), India (British), Ceylon, Philippine Islande, Java China, Japan, Total Asia Africa. Egypt Tunis, Algeria Cape Colony, Mauritius, Total Africa, Australasia. Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland South Australia , Western Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Tahiti, Total Australasia Area. Sq. miles 3,580.24; 3,483,955 829,91(5 7,891,110 47.090 26,040 27,346 48.489 3,860 6,400 166 159.396 320,750 403.276 76,000 3,288,000 56.700 73,538 838.600 503,380 473,560 126,060 6,159,864 3,924,641 660,870 909.834 24.454 120.000 51.336 1,531,953 156,604 3,458,051 606.340 43 500 258.306 181, 9-} 708 1.089,416 88.198 323.437 669,520 383,328 978.000 26.215 102.000 2,000 2,572,698 Population. 50,152,866 5.169,789 8,133,719 63,456,374 351,800 165,000 226,000 1,370,211 452,916 401,317 31.719 2,998,963 2,851,858 1,784.194 152,700 10,196,328 300,000 440,000 1,877,500 3.374,000 1,600,000 2,300,000 24,876,580 33,895,023 36.905,788 16,681,719 4.367,882 27.769,465 2,776,035 37,739,407 42,727,260 5.253.821 3,940,024 2.013,257 6,303.395 78.281.447 3.621,749 8,315,000 1,461,201 312,052 493 16,050,000 191,065,445 2,401,066 5,000.000 18.125 269 405 213,152 32,794,89' 670.649,S29 6 252,000 2,000,000 2,416,22-. 496.381 316 012 11.480.648 2,400,458 Miles of K'y in op- erate. 94.622 5,219 378 100,219 66 29 49 459 21 34 6 664 43 39 68 1,357 47 231 1,466 1,238 38 691 5,218 16.872 12,722 4,112 902 5,028 1,211 10,954 18.229 2.278 1,260 893 2,966 13,702 891 997 7 93,024 279 7.152 209 279 290 10 41 8,266 1,013 92 401 136 66 1. 697 501 452 301 69 45 412 21 2.498 RECAPITULATION. North America, Cen. Am. and W. Indies., South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, Railroads of the World, Count ties wholly without Railroads, ., The World with Rail- roads and without, ,894,110 109,396 ,159,864 924,641 ,458,051 ,089,446 ,572,698 258,206 077,304 1,335,510 63,456,374 8,998,963 24,876,580 312,052.493 670,i0,000 Total $1,580,229,600 The debt hearing no interest will probably beabout 422,000.000 $2,002,229,600 Less probably more than of cash in the Treasury 200.00il.000 So that we may reasonably expect the debt on the 1st "of Octoberto be below 1,800 millions. The Annual Interest March 1. 1881, was.. . .$76,845,937.50 The Annual Interest Oct. 1, 1881, will be .. . 61,434.775.00 Making an annual saving of interest of $15,411,164.50 RAILROADS MILEAGE. 73 The earliest of the larger railroads in the East had, for the utmost limit of their ambition, at first, the idea of reaching Lake Erie, the Ohio Kiver, or in the Southern Atlantic States the Alleghany range. It was a long time before they attained these points — and meantime, though other roads, some of them built, it is true, with eastern capital, had stretched across the prairies to Chicago and St. Louis, they were run in connection with the Eastern roads, but apparently without any thought of consol- idation. In 1850, twenty miles of railroad, extending from Chicago toward Milwaukee were built, but there was not a mile of railroad then or till five years later beyond the Mississippi except 38 miles along the west bank of that river from St. Louis northward. In 1860 "Wisconsin had 905 miles of railroad extending northward, northwestward, and westward from the lake. Iowa and Missouri had begun to build railways westward to the Missouri river, the former having 655 miles built but only a part of it in operation that year, and the latter 817 miles built but not more than 500 miles in operation. Not much progress was made in these two states till the close of the war, and there was none elsewhere beyond the Mississippi. In July, 1862, in the midst of the great civil war, the feeling which had led to the sending out of several exploring expeditions to find a practicable railroad to bind California and the Pacific states and territories more closely to the Union, culminated in an act of Congress chartering the Pacific railroad. There were some defects in the charter and no company was formed till October, 1863, when the Union Pacific and soon after the Central Pacific was organized. By the charter the capital stock of the entire route was to be $100,000,000, and the govern- ment granted them a roadway of 200 feet on each side of the track, and alternate sections of land for twenty miles on each side of the road; and in addition its bonds, maturing in 30 years, bearing six percent, payable in gold, for $16,000 per mile for the plain, $32,000 per mile for the steeper grades, and $48,000 per mile for the deep cuttings and tunneling. They were, more- over, authorized to issue their own bonds to an equal amount with these government bonds, at the same rate, and these lands were to be a first mortgage (the govern- ment bonds being a second mortgage) on the road. With these ample resources the two companies began at their respective ends to build the road in 1865; the Union Pacific commencing at Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific, at Sacramento, California. The Central Pacific built 742 miles, much of it through the mountains, and the Union Pacific 1,032 miles. The junction of the two reads was effected May 15, 1869, and regular daily passenger trains were run each way, as well as numerous freight trains. Since that date the two roads have built several branches — the Union Pacific in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado, and has obtained the control of the Kansas Pacific and Central branch of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific of the Utah and Northern and Utah Southern, several short lines in Nevada, the Western, Oregon and Pacific, and South- ern Pacific, and some of the Pacific coast lines. The mileage of the Union Pacific Jan. 1, 1880, aside from branches, was 1,042.4 miles; and of the Central Pacific at the same date, including some of its branches, 1,213.1 miles. Both roads have greatly extended their mileage since that date. It is difficult to say exactly what has been the cost of these two roads. They were built under great difficulties at a time when everything was high and when men who took great risks expected to be well paid for it; it was moreover a time of gigantic frauds, and it is more than sus- pected that these two roads had their share of them. The Credit Molilier and other speculations were a disgrace to the nation and especially to those men in high station who participated in them. The reports of these roads for the year ending Jan. 1, 1880, give the following figures: Union Pacific, cost of road and equipments. $114,403,812 Central Pacific and branches, cost of road and equipments • 168,2 8 5.681 Together $267,779,848 This is far too much; but the roads were needed, and are now honestly managed. The Government loans to them have been to June 30, 1881, about $63,000,000 of principal, and $36,300,000 unpaid interest Both roads are doing well. The gross earnings of the Union Pacific in the calen- dar year 1879, were $13,201,077; of the Central Pacific, for the same year, $17,- 153,163. The latter has now. in its South- ern Pacific road, owned by the Central Pa- cific, recrossed the continent and provided a second Trans-Continental road, not only 74 RAILROADS MILEAGE. to Galveston and other Gulf ports, but through its connections to the Mississippi river and the Atlantic. The rapid con- struction of the Union and Central Pacific railroads led to three great results: 1. The closer union and eventual consolidation of the eastern lines with the roads leading to Chicago and St. Louis. 2. The construc- tion and consolidation of roads from those cities to points further west, and in the first instance to a concentration of different routes from those cities and others of the Mississippi Valley upon Omaha and Coun- cil Bluffs, and a little later upon St. Joseph and Kansas City, which also became ter- mini of the Union and Kansas Pacific; and 3, to the projection and speedy construc- tion of other lines to the Pacific Coast. Let us take up these results in their or- der. The great trunk roads of the eastern states in 1869 were: 1. The Portland and Boston lines, which, while maintaining a quas j'-connection with the New York Cen- tral and the Lake Shore, had also a more northern and somewhat shorter route by the Portland and Ogdensburgh, the Grand Trunk, Kome, Watertown and Ogdens- burgh, Great Western, and Canada South- ern to Detroit and thence by the Michigan Central to Chicago. These lines are mostly owned and controlled now in Boston. 2. The N. Y. Central and Hudson Biver, which had also its choice of two routes, viz., by Niagara Palls to the Canada Southern and Michigan Central, and by Buffalo, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern road to Chicago. Circumstances led it to prefer the latter, and the Lake Shore road is now virtually owned by the New York Central. 3. The Erie (now N. Y. Lake Erie and Western) which travers- ing New York by several routes had two lines of connection with Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, viz., by the Atlantic and Great Western either to Cleveland and To- ledo, and thence by other roads or by the same road to Dayton and thence to Cin- cinnati, or to Indianapolis and St. Louis, and by Hornellsville and Buffalo, and by Dunkirk, and by rail or steamer, thence to Cleveland or Cincinnati. The Erie railway makes close connections with these roads, but we believe does not own all of them. 4. The Pennsylvania road, which very early acquired the exclusive control of the Pitts- burgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago, and now owns it. This railway has also control of other lines from Fort Wayne to St. Louis. 5. The Baltimore and Ohio, which has built and owns a very direct line to Chi- cago, and through the Mississippi and Ohio and other roads which it controls has a very direct and short route to Cincinnati and St. Louis. Two other roads are now nearly prepar- ed to enter the lists with those already mentioned as trunk lines; viz., the Chesa- peake and Ohio, already mentioned, which having its eastern terminus at Norfolk has nearly completed its lines to Cincinnati and Louisville, from which points there will be ready and close communication with both Chicago and St. Louis; and the new routes now constructing via the N. J. Central, and Delaware, Lackawana and Western, from Binghamton to Buffalo, and that on the west side of the Hudson and parallel with the N. Y. Central to the same point to be connected with Boston on the east and with Jay Gould's Wabash system on the west. The second result to be noticed was the consolidation and concentration of differ- ent routes from Chicago, St. Louis and other cities of the Mississippi Valley upon points farther west, and primarily upon Council Bluffs or Omaha, and a little later upon St. Joseph and Kansas City, all three being in some sense eastern termini of the Union Pacific railroad. Some of these consolidations are gigantic in their extent. The "Chicago and Northwestern" railway owns and operates more miles of railroad than the Union and Central Pacific com- bined. In March, 1881, it had 2,974.5 miles of its own road in operation, and was building with great rapidity 445 miles more. It has now (August, 1881,) over 3,000 miles in operation besides leased lines. Its business is enormous. Its rail- way lines cost in May, 1880, over $82,000,- 000. They have almost doubled since. Its gross earnings for the year ending May 31, 1880, were $17,349,349. They have great- ly increased within the past year; more- over, it pays a six per cent, dividend which is more than some of those gigantic con- cerns are able to do. Two of its rivals are nearly equal to the Chicago and Northwestern in the extent and magnitude of their operations; the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul had, Jan. 1, 1880, 2,231 miles of railway which it owned and operated, and has since largely increased the number. The cost of its RAILBOADS MILEAGE. 75 lines and equipment, at that time, was $72,748,873; its gross earnings were $10,- 012,820 for the year 1879. It makes a dividend of 7 per cent, on its preferred stock. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railway had, Jan. 1, 1880, 1,857.3 miles of its own track, and partly owned railroads having over GOO miles more. This road (the C, B. & Q. of the stock market a few years ago), cost, with its equipment, $78,- 361,721. Its gross earnings for the year 1879 were $14,817,105, and it pays an 8 per cent, dividend. Another of these gi- gantic combinations is the "Wabash," whose present title is, we believe, '" The Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific." A year and a half ago it had 1,302 miles of track which it owned and operated ; its cost was reckoned at $75,000,000. Its extent and cost, its stocks and bonds, and its gross earnings, to-day, no man knoweth, not even Jay Gould. It may yet absorb half the railway property on the continent, and having overrun Mexico as well as the Unit- ed States, may fling a suspension bridge to the Sandwich Islands or even to Australia. Who knows ? The third result we proposed to notice was the projection and construction of other railways to the Pacific Coast. The Northern Pacific was projected before the completion of the Union and Central Pa- cific, and made good progress until 1873, when it went down in the financial disaster of that year. In 1878 it began to recover and had fully regained its position in 1880. It has been constructing its road from both ends with great rapidity, and a syndicate of bankers took its bonds to the extent of $50,000,000 to secure its completion, in the winter of 1880-81. In May or June, 1881, it passed into the control of the Or- egon Railway and Navigation Company, a wealthy and powerful corporation who owned the steamship lines between San Francisco and the ports of Oregon and Washington Territory, and who were al- ready constructing railway lines along the Columbia river and at other points. The 1,004 miles already completed in June, 1881, cost, for road and equipment, about $120,- 000,000, and were represented by $91,- 312.588 capital stock, $21,586,800 of bond- ed and $1,446,038 of floating debt. The railway is rich in valuable lands. Its earn- ings in its unfinished state are, of course, not large, $2,994,519 in 1880-81; but they will be much larger now, and when com- pleted the road cannot fail of becoming ex- cellent property. The Missouri Pacific, with which the Kansas Pacific has recently been consol- idated, extends from St. Louis to Denver, Colorado, but will probably eventually go west to the Pacific Coast in connection with some of the Colorado roads — possibly the Denver and Rio Grande. Its line to Denver is very direct. The Atchison, Topexa and Santa Fe railway is one of the most remarkable rail- way enterprises of our time. It had a con- siderable land grant in Kansas, but at a time when most railway enterprises were at a stand still, its stockholders and man- agers, most of them Boston men, moved forward directly into the desert, with no considerable town in prospect till they should reach Santa Fe, a thousand miles away. Population followed them and their lands sold well. In Colorado they found a fast increasing population, but they turn- ed southward and having reached Santa Fe, they started for the Pacific. They pro- pose to reach the Ocean by several differ- ent routes. One branch has reached El Paso and will perhaps be continued to the City of Mexico, or possibly reach the Gulf of Mexico through Texas. Another has already reached Tucson, Arizona, and is going to Guaymas, Mexico, on the Gulf of California. At Tucson the railway con- nects at present with the Southern Pacific and conveys passengers to Southern Cali- fornia to Los Angeles, or for that matter to San Francisco. Still another branch strikes due west from Santa Fc under the charter of the old Atlantic and Pacific rail- way, crosses Arizona a little north of the 35th parallel, and spanning the Colorado river by a bridge 400 feet above the stream, will strike the Pacific coast probably at Santa Barbara. The railway will prob- ably complete 1,200 miles of railway in the two year's 1880-1882. The Texas Pacific after a long and hard fought struggle will probably unite with the Southern Pacific at or near El Paso, and thus reach the Pa- cific coast. There are yet other proposed railways to the Pacific coast, two or three of them traversing Mexico — and the Denver and Rio Grande and the St. Louis and San Francisco may eventually find their way thither. That there is danger in multiply- 78 RAILROADS MILEAGE. ing too rapidly these expensive investments where there is no local traffic to support them is evident. Within the last two years more than two thousand millions of dol- lars, a sum larger than our national debt has been locked up permanently in road bed, timbers, track, and buildings and equipments, for railroads, mostly in the extreme west. We are a young nation to stand such an enormous drain. It is true that nearly 750 millions of it is European capital; but when capitalists abroad find, as many of them will, that these invest- ments yield no dividend, they will be bit- terly disappointed and hostile to us as a nation; and meantime our own losses will be greater than we can endure.' Within the past four or five years, and still more strikingly since 1879, there have been attempted, and partly, at least, con- summated the most gigantic railway com- binations known to human history. Men of unbounded ambition and audacity have sought, not only to control and consolidate routes across the continent, a distance of perhaps 3,000 miles, or, with the feeders which pour traffic into them, of perhaps 6,000 or 8,000 miles, but have engaged in a strife with each other for the control under a single leadership of all the routes to the Pacific, and the steamship lines with which they are connected. At the present time, of the ten or eleven routes to the Pa- cific, completed or in progress, (including the Canadian Pacific and three or four traversing the Republic of Mexico,) one man — Jay Gould — virtually controls five, and makes his power felt on all the subsi- diary and ancillary lines connected with them. Another man has just obtained the control of one, and that one destined to be the most powerful of the whole. An- other, a Californian railway king, controls two and possibly three; while Boston cap- ital, in the person of one of its most enter- prizing citizens, owns and energizes a rail- way which, erelong, will touch the Pacific at five or six points, and probably the Gulf of Mexico at one or two. If human life were longer and human vigor and energy capable of being extended into a second century of existence, we might be warrant- ed in expecting that some Napoleon or Alexander of the railway would succeed in bringing under his control not only the 100,000 miles of completed railway, but all that is projected on our continent, and wielding the 7,000 or 8,000 millions which are represented in its construction and equipment, make himself the owner and controller of our Congresses, the Dictator to our Presidents, the absolute autocrat of all the nationalities which inhabit the new world. Such things might be, had not God in his mercy put a limit now, as in the time of the deluge, to individual hu- man activities. Still, among the potencies for evil, which are within the reach of these railway po- tentates, is a joining of their forces, and a combination of their capacities for oppres- sion in one gigantic, colossal association, a monopoly such as had never before been dreamed of, but one which could make its power felt, and felt oppressively, by every inhabitant of our land. Not only would all commerce and all travel be at its mercy, but the grain, the flour, the provisions we consume, the raw material of the clothing we wear, whether of cotton, linen, wool or silk, and the manufactures of these as well, the gold and silver, the copper, lead, zinc and iron, which enter into all the business of life; all we eat, drink, or wear, all our books and newspapers, all our public and private edifices, and worse still, all our legislation would be at the mercy, and by the grace of this vast monopoly, with which there could be no hope of competition, and from which there could be no escape. The rich and poor alike would be its slaves, and writhe as they might, under its iron grasp, their fate would be as inexorable as the forces of nature. From such a monopoly, there may be now a way of escape. Twenty years hence there will not be. The peril is imminent, the danger is real, and should be considered by every wise and thought- ful man, ere it is too late. RAILROADS GRANTS MILEAGE. 77 We have not included in this brief re- sume of the railroads of the country the following classes: 1st. Those extensive lines now in course of construction in Mex- ico, by American companies and with American capital; there are nearly 6,000 miles of these now in progress, mostly nar- row gauge roads, but it is impossible at present to form any estimate of their cost or mileage, or of their prospects of success. 2. The city or horse railroads. These are now in operation in every city or large town in the United States, but we have found it utterly impossible to obtain any satisfactory recent reports in regard to them. Those of the State of New York exceed one hun- dred in number, and their stock and fund- ed and floating debts amount to over $60,- 000,000. A very moderate estimate of the stock and debts of all these roads in the country would be $250,000,000. 3. The elevated and rapid transit railways. But a very few of these are yet in operation; but these few have been financially success- ful and are but the precursors of many more. There may be $50,000,000 or $60,- 000,000 invested in them up to Aug., 1881. But leaving these three classes of railroads out of the account altogether, the expendi- ture of $5,450,795,963 for railways and their equipment in the short space of fifty years, and more than half of it within the last ten — a sum equal to the united public debts of Great Britain and the United States at the present time, and one whose vastness exceeds our power of computation — is a fact without a precedent in the world's financial history. That some of these roads are not worth, to-day, half what they cost, is probably true; but even the poorest of them has much more than paid for itself in bringing the products of agri- culture and manufactures to market at rates far below those which were necessary when there were no means of transit except by poor wagon or country roads, or trails which could only be traversed by pack- horses or mules. The usual price for car- rying grain to market by wagon was 40 cents a ton per mile traveled. (They charge a higher rate than that, over the rough wagon roads of Colorado, now.) At that rate, when the price of Indian corn was 75 cents at the nearest market, 125 miles distant, the farmer was obliged to pay 50 cents a bushel to the teamster, and from ten to fifteen cents a bushel for charges for handling and commissions. The bushel of corn brought him from ten to fifteen cents, not nearly enough to pay the cost of cultivation. At a distance exceeding 125 miles, he could not afford to send it to mar- ket, and must either feed it. (though with almost the same difficulty in regard to his swine and cattle) or burn it in the place of coal. Wheat, which, in favorable years, if of the best quality, brought $1.50 per bushel, could be transported 250 miles and leave him from 22 to 25 cents a bushel for his wheat. How is it now ? The farmer in Northern Montana and Dakota can send his wheat four hundred miles to the steamer at Duluth, on Lake Superior, for fifteen cents a bushel, or 750 miles to Chicago or Milwaukee for thirteen cents, or to New York, 1,500 miles, for 35 cents, or a bar- rel of flour for 75 cents, and though the price of the wheat is now not more than $1.25 to $1.35 in New York, it nets him 90 cents to a dollar a bushel 1,500 miles away. The same proportion exists with regard to other grains, provisions, mining products, &c, &c, and thus the railroad accomplishes three beneficent results; it enables the merchant to draw his supplies from a much larger area than was possible with wagon roads only; it cheapens the price of food products by competition, yet it enables the producer to receive a better remuneration for his labor. The railroads of the country may be gen- erally classified, as to their freight, under four heads: coal roads, that is, those which bring principally coal to the sea board, tak- ing miscellaneous freight on their return westward ; cotton roads, mostly in the south, whose principal outward bound freight is cotton; grain or, as they are sometimes called, granger roads, which carry eastward grain, farm products, provisions, and live cattle and sheep, and return laden with manufactured goods, machinery, &c, &c, and mining roads, which bring ores, iron, zinc, lead, copper, and the precious metals and their ores eastward for reduction or manufacture. The principal coal roads in the east are the Philadelphia and Reading, the Schuyl- kill Canal, Lehigh Valley, Delaware, Lack- awanna and Western, Shamnkin Valley, Central New Jersey, United R. R. of New Jersey, Pennsylvania coal, Delaware and Hudson Canal R. R., Huntington and Broad Top Mountain, Pennsylvania, and Clear- 78 RAILROADS GRANTS MILEAGE. field, Pa. These roads have capital, stocks and bonds to the amount of over 450 mil- lion dollars — and transport annually about 45 million tons of coal. The Baltimore and Ohio Kailway, the Chesapeake and Ohio, and many of the Ohio, Indiana, Illi- nois, Kentucky, Missouri, and Iowa roads are also to a great extent coal roads. The entire amount of coal marketed in 1880 was 69,200,934 tons of 2,240 pounds each. The following table shows the rapid increase in the production and demand for coal in the past 60 years, and especially in the last de- cade: Coal of all descriptions sent to Tons. market from 1820 to 1830, 636,903 From 1830 to 1840 5,377,540 From 1840 to 1850 15,094,132 From 1850 to 1860, 46,139,090 From 1860 to 1870, 161,050,916 From 1870-to 1880, 502,460,000 Total, 730, 759,256 The production of the last decade was considerably more than double that of the whole previous fifty years. During most of the last decade the prices of coal have ruled low, though in the early part of it and previously they were high enough. Perhaps for the whole sixty years $4 per ton as the price at the receiving ports would not be more than the average rate. This would make the value of the coal pro- duction of the sixty years $2,923,037,024. So large a portion of the cotton produced is partly or wholly transported by water carriage, that it is not possible to give with any approach to accuracy the amount car- ried by railroads in any given year. The following table is, however, of interest as showing the relation of the multiplication of railroads to the increase of the cotton crop during the last forty years. The number of miles of road was that in opera- tion each year in the ten principal cotton states : Cotton Crops, Bales. 1,634,945 1,683,574 2,378,875 2,030,401 2,394,503 2,100,537 1,778,651 2,347,634 2,728,596 2,096,706 2,355,257 3,015,029 3,262,882 Miles of Road. 662 791 848 932 1841, 1842, 1843 1844 1845, 1,109 1846 1,169 1847, 1,303 1848, 1,319 1849, 1,415 1850, 1,415 1851 1,560 1852 2,010 1853, 2,515 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861- 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 3,040 3,362 3,809 4,165 4,751 5,552 5,914 70, 9,693 10,833 11,309 12,460 12,638 12,778 13,335 13,645 14,136 14.685 15,720 2,930,027 2,847,339 a, 527,845 2,939,519 3,113,962 3,851,481 4,675,770 16,301,063 4,352,317 2,974,351 3,930,508 4,170,388 3,832,991 4,609,288 4,485,423 4,811,265 5,073,531 5,761,252 Totals 15,720 149,465,910 The cost of these 15,720 miles of railroad did not probably exceed 786 million dol- lars; while the value of the cotton trans- ported for greater or less distances on the railroads, and much of which could not probably have been brought to market ex- cept at a loss had not these railroads been built — was, reckoning the price at $50 per bale, which is a low average for the 40 years — $7,473,295,500, or nearly ten times the cost of the railroads. So large a portion of our grain and pro- vision products are transported by water that it is not easy to make any estimate or comparison between the cost of the grain or granger roads and the amount of these products which they transport. And yet, when we consider the great number of the roads, and the number and length of the trains, and know that when the greater part of the grain crop is coming into the markets, every depot and warehouse is fill- ed almost to bursting with the grain and flour, and notwithstanding the utmost ef- forts of the railroad trains to reduce the quantity by the shipment of long and heavily laden extra trains, these receptacles con- tinue to be filled to overflowing for many months, we shall find that the magnitude of their business is even greater than that of the coal or cotton roads. The influence of these roads in develop- ing the agriculture of tfce new states and territories is great, almost beyond belief. Of the 1,773 million bushels of Indian corn, the 460 million bushels of wheat, the 407 million bushels of oats, and the other cereals produced in 1 880, it is within bounds to say that not one fourth would have been grown had not the railroads pushed their RAILROADS GRANTS MILEAGE. way everywhere, often in advance of the population, and in order to induce settle- ment, had furnished the people from the first crop with such cheap and easy trans- portation, thus bringing the market to their very doors. It is not yet twenty-five years since on the prairies of eastern Kan- sas and Nebraska, corn was worth so much less than ten cents a bushel that it could not be sent to market, and after the swine had consumed all they could the residue was burned instead of coal as being much the cheaper fuel. In western Kansas and Nebraska, where railroad transportation is not so easy, corn is still low, worth from 18 to 25 cts. a bushel, but at this price it pays when used for fattening swine. The advance in its price to 25, 35, and 40 cents a bushel is due wholly to the facilities of transportation furnished by the railroads. The same thing is true to a still greater extent of the live stock and provision trade. For centuries the boast of England has been, " The roast heef of Old England, And the Old English roast beef." But our vast pasture grounds of the most succulent and nutritious grasses, and the low price of grain has enabled us to put live steers on the Liverpool and Glas- gow markets, well fatted, weighing from 1,600 to 1,800 pounds for $100 and make a handsome profit on them. The quality of the beef is equal if not superior to any in their markets, and the price altogether below what is the cost of production of similar animals there. We have sent also to them in refrigerator steamers immense quantities of fresh beef and other meats of excellent quality and at low prices, and provisions in the ordinary meaning of the word, mess pork, mess beef, hams, bacon, canned meats, lard, butter, cheese, etc., at such prices as have almost annihilated farming there, and this very year (1881) many thousands of English, Scotch, and Irish farmers are emigrating to this coun- try to raise grain and keep live stock where these products can be raised at a profit and not at a loss. There are now many centers of this grain and provision trade; foremost among them is Chicago, but St. Louis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Dubuque, Davenport, Peoria, and farther south, Cincinnati. Louisville, Indianapolis, and in New York, Buffalo, Rochester, and Oswego are also largely en- gaged in the business. Milwaukee con- tests with Chicago the supremacy in the grain trade. The growth of this business in Chicago is shown comparatively, so far as railroad traffic is concerned. In 1860 the entire gross earnings of the railroads centering at Chicago were $15,297,155 ; in 1868, they were $73,952,838. In 1879, many of these roads had consolidated, so that the number of trunk roads centering in the city was less than in 1868, but they were connected through a wider territory and brought a larger tribute to the city, though Milwaukee and St. Louis had drawn off what they could, yet on the 31st of De- cember, 1879, the gross earnings of the trunk railroads having their termini in Chicago (not counting the smaller roads) was $120,656,185, eight times as much as it was nineteen years before. The mining or mineral roads have in- creased in their business perhaps more rap- idly than any others. They have to a very large extent penetrated into regions here- tofore wholly uninhabited, and in many cases the miner has only preceded them by a few weeks or months, and sometimes has actually followed their trail. The Atchi- son, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Denver and Kio Grande, and the Denver, South Park and Pacific have been the most adventur- ous roads in this pioneer work, though the Union and Central Pacific, the South- ern Pacific, the Western Pacific, the Utah and Northern, the Utah Central, the L^tah Southern, The Northern Pacific, in its Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Divi- sions, and some of the Oregon and Califor- nia, and Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's lines, the Northwestern and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul in their lines penetrating across Dakota to the Black Hills, have engaged in it with great zeal. Most of these lines are so recently constructed, and the country they have opened is so new that it is yet too soon to give any definite statistics of their business, but they are already finding ample employ- ment in transporting refractory ores of gold, silver, copper, zinc, and rarer metals to the reduction works, and iron and coal from those western mines to all sections of the west, and their return freights of tim- ber, lumber, machinery, provisions, dry goods, and miners' tools, are equally heavy. 80 RAILROADS — LAND GRANTS EXTENT AND COST. The expenditure of this vast sum for rail- ways within a period of little more than forty years, and more than half of it within the last ten — an expenditure amounting to over one hundred dollars for each inhabitant of the average population of the United States, during that period — is without a precedent in the world's history. Had this been accom- plished in a country as old and rich as En- gland, and where capital had accumulated and was constantly seeking avenues of invest- ment, it would still have been wonderful, but it has been done in a country whose whole valuation of real and personal estate in 1860 tvas, by the most liberal tables, only $16,- 519,616,068, and less than half this was per- sonal property, so that the cost of the rail- roads of the United States up to 1870, is about three-sevenths of the entire personal property of the United States in 1860. That there has been a vast increase in our national wealth within the past ten years, no one can doubt, and this increase undoubtedly makes the present valuation of personal property sixteen or seventeen thousand millions of dol- lars, but even this is only five or six times the cost of the railroads. That many of them are not worth to-day what they cost, perhaps not the half of it, is undoubtedly true, but, on the other hand, a considerable number are worth nearly double their cost, and will con- tinue to increase in value. We might be led to suppose, reasoning from analogy, that so great an absorption of capital in the construction and equipment of railroads would have rendered it scarce for other purposes ; but, owing to the fact that the railroads in this country have for the most part been the pioneer influences in de- veloping the settlement, and stimulating the production of crops, manufactures, and min- ing products, capital has not only not been rendered more scarce by their construction, but has been greatly increased, and is con- stantly becoming more plentiful. Prior to 1860, there were but seven railroads in the United States with a capital stock of ten million dollars or more, and not one with twenty millions ; now there are fifty which have cost more than ten millions, and fifteen ranging between twenty and one hundred millions. Our railroad indebtedness, like our national bonds, is, much of it, held in Europe. The stock and bonds of the Boston and Al- bany, the Erie, Atlantic and Great Western, Lake Shore, Ohio and Mississippi, Illinois Central, Chicago and Northwestern, Kansas Pacific, Union Pacific, Central Pacific, the leading Southern roads, and some others, are very largely held in Europe, and some of them are entirely controlled by foreign influ- ences. It is partly on this account that hith- erto foreign and especially English rails have been so largely used for their construction, often to the very great detriment of the roads. From 1840 to 1857, 3,004,130 tons of rails were imported from Great Britain, at a cost of about 8150,000,000, paid for, to a consid- erable extent, in railroad bonds, at prices considerably below par. From 1857 to 1869, (both inclusive,) 1,717,222 tons more were imported, at a cost of somewhat more than $75,000,000. Within a few years past, it has been found that steel rails possess great advantages over iron, and they are beginning to be extensively adopted, the great roads laying them as fast as they can without dis- turbing their traffic. Over 50,000 tons of these rails were laid in 1869, of which 35,000 tons were foreign, and between 15,000 and 16,0(10 tons American. It is estimated that not far from 90,000 tons will be laid in 1870, of which probably two-thirds will be Amer- ican steel, the best qualities of which are worth from $100 to $120 per ton. The most important single article of freight transported by the railroads is coal ; several very exten- sive railroads, particularly the Philadelphia and Beading, the Philadelphia and Erie, the I)elaware and Lackawanna, the Lehigh Val- lep, the Lehigh and Susquehanna, Lacka- wanna and Bloomsburg, the Morris and Essex, the New Jersey Central, and the Baltimore and Ohio, are almost wholly supported by this traffic, while many others do a very large coal business. The employment of coal as fuel, though known some years before, was not attempted to any great extent prior to 1820. The following table shows how great- ly it has been developed since that time, and particularly within the past ten years. There has been, it will be noticed, an increase of more than three hundred per cent, in each successive decade. Though there will be no such increase in the future in the anthracite coal production, the bituminous and semi- bituminous coals will develop even more rap- idly for many years to come. Coal of all descriptions sent to market Tons. from 1820 to 1830, 636.903 From 1830 to 1840 5.377,540 From 1840 to 1850, 15,094,132 From 1850 to 1860, 46,139,096 From 1860 to 1870, 161,050,916 Total tons, 228,299~256 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 1 This, at an average value of $5, gives $1,141,490,280. The investment in rail- roads and canals to transport to market the 18,308,316 tons of coal forwarded in 1869, is not less than $300,000,000. It is true that only about three-fourths of the traffic of these railroads and canals is coal, but nine-tenths of the remaining one-fourth has grown out of the coal development and transportation. Under the supposition that the coal trans- ported pays the interest on this investment, which is (at six per cent.) 118,000,000, then the 18,30S,316 tons transported in 1869, at a value of $91,500,000, paid 98 cents per ton, or 19.5 per ct., thus making the clear value of the coal sent to market from those fields, $73,500,000. This includes the product of all the coal fields east of the Alleghanies, and also the coal products of the upper Ohio Valley. It is estimated that there were 10,000,000 tons of bituminous and semi-anthracite coals sent to market from the Mississippi Valley and Rocky Mountain coal fields the same Miles of Cotton crop, road. Dales. 1841 662 1,634,945 1842 791 1,683,574 1843 848 2,378,875 1844 932 2,030,401 1845 1,109 2,394,503 1846 1,169 2,100,537 1847 1,303 1,778,651 1848 1,319 "2,347,634 1849 1,415 2,728,596 1850 1,415 2,096,706 Total 21,174,422 The value of the 5,914 miles of roads built was not far from $150,000,000, but the value of the cotton produced and brought to market was in the twenty years $2,900,000,- 000. The increase in the value during the last ten years over the former decade was $800,000,000. The war so far changed the current of affairs that the 10,000 miles of completed railways in the south are now, and will be for years to come, engaged in a more general but not less profitable traffic, in which, however, cotton and sugar will be very heavy items. In the western country the results are still more marked, since a country which was a wilderness has, under the influence of rail- roads opening the way, become the source of immense wealth. This influence upon the grain business of Chicago is seen in the following table, which shows the number of miles in operation in Illinois and Wisconsin, 6 year. The annual sale of coal from all these fields is, in round numbers, $140,000,000, and this sum is added to the floating capital of the country as a consequence of the -S450,- 000,000 invested in these railroads and canals. In other words, the cost of construction is repaid in three years nearly, and a perpetu- ally increasing fund flows down for the pro- motion of trade, since coal is as much a pur- chasing power for goods as gold. AVhat those roads have done for coal, have the southern roads done for cotton. Formerly the water-courses were the only means of transportation ; and when they were dry or shallow, cotton accumulated at the landings until the next flood. The iron arms now stretch out in all directions, and not only is all the cotton grown added to the market- able value, but new lands are brought into action. The effect of railroads upon cotton is seen in the following table, which shows the miles of railroad open in ten cotton states, and the quantity of cotton produced : — Miles of road. 1851 1,560 1852 2,010 1853 2,515 1854 3,040 1855 T,362 1856 3,809 1857 4,165 1858 4,751 1859 5,552 1860 5,914 Cotton crop. Bales. 2,355,257 3,015,029 3.262,882 2,930,027 2,847,339 3,527,845 2,939.519 3.113,962 3,851,481 4,675,770 32,519,111 in each year, and the bushels of grain re- ceived in Chicago for corresponding years : — Miles of railroad. Grain receipts. Illinois. Wisconsin. Bushels. 1841 22 . . 10,000 1852 148 20 5,87:U41 1853 296 50 6.412,181 1854 1,200 200 lJ.n::2.:i20 1855 1,884 240 l «;,<;::::. 7 <>0 1856 2,241 285 21,583,221 1857 2,571 559 18,032,678 1858 2,678 793 20,035,166 1859 2,774 838 21,736,147 1860 2,811 951 40,000,000 1868 4,708 1,451 72,356,982 The cost of the Illinois and Wisconsin railroads (to which should be added 823 miles of Minnesota roads, as tributary to Chicago as the others,) to July, 1868, had been $305, 7 78,265. Since its settlement the government has sold over 20 millions of acres of land in Illinois, and the canals, rail- 82 RAILROADS LAJ*D GRANTS EXTENT AND COST. roads and state, about 4 millions more. Aside from the large quantities of grain sent directly to St. Louis, New Orleans, Louis- ville, and Cincinnati, and the live stock ship- ments over these roads, the cut meats, but- ter, lard, and lumber, 1830 23 .. 1856 22,016 3,647 1831 95 72 1857 24,503 2,647 1832 229 134 1858 26,968 2,465 1833 380 151 1859 28,789 1,821 1834 633 253 1860 30,635 1,846 1S35 1,098 465 1861 31,286 651 1836 1,273 175 1862 32,120 834 1837 1,497 224 1863 &3.170 1,050 1838 1,913 416 1864 33,908 738 1839 2,302 389 1865 35,085 1,177 1840 2,818 516 1866 36.827 1,742 1841 3,535 717 1867 39,276 2,449 1842 4,026 491 1868 42,255 2.979 1843 4,185 159 1869 47,208 4,953 1844 4,377 192 1870 52,898 5,690 1845 4,633 256 1871 60.568 7,670 1846 4,930 297 1872 66.735 6,167 1847 5,598 668 1873 70,683 3,948 1848 5,996 398 1874 72,623 1,940 1849 7,365 1,369 1875 74,096 1,713 1850 9,021 1,656 1876 76,808 2,712 1851 10,928 1,961 1877 79,089 2,281 1852 12,908 1,926 1878 81.776 2.687 1853 15 360 2,452 1879 86,497 4,721 1854 16.720 1,360 1880 94,622 7,207 1855 18,374 1,654 The increase in mileage in 1881, will certainly exceed 10,000 miles, and may reach that amount on the lines west of the Mississippi river. One third, and possibly more of the whole increase of the year will be narrow gauge roads. The estimated cost of construction and equipment, or what is substantially the same thing, of capital and funded debt, of these 93 704 miles of railroad in operation in 1880 was $58,130 per mile, or for the whole, $5,- 450,795,963. The immense length of continued rail now enables an individual to travel from one extremity of the Union to the other without fatigue ; not only are the distances shortened, but every appliance for comfort makes the journey, even to invalids, com- modious. Among these are the palace cars of Pullman, Wagner and others, which are of three kinds: drawing room cars, with easy chairs, sofa, tete-a-tetes, and lounges; dining room cars, with kitchen attached, in which meals equal to those of the best ho- tels are served regularly, and most numer- ous of all, sleeping cars, furnished with excellent beds and toilet appliances, where the weary traveler can sleep as quietly as on his bed at home. These cars are all hung on rubber and the best steel springs, and are without any jolting or unpleasant motion at their greatest speed. The rail cars do not go the less rapidly that the passengers are well accommodated. There have been TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 83 many instances not only of berths provided but of births taking place in the cars. Such an event happened on the Long Island cars, which were going at the speed of 40 miles per hour, and a grave difficulty sprung up as to where ihe young gentleman was bom, a problem not easily solved,, when towns were passed at the rate of a mile in 90 seconds. We have seen that the passenger of the present day does not occupy much time in performing long distances, and that these passages are by no means costly as compared with the inconvenient mode of locomo:ion in the olden time. Thirty-five years since it was recorded as a marvel that a gentleman made the distance from Chicago to Albany in 154 hours, or 6 days and 10 hours, and 24 days from New Orleans to Baltimore was consid- ered as a matter of wonder. Now, 75 hours from New York to New Orleans is the usual mail time, and Chicago and New York are but 29 hours apart. A passenger now goes from Bangor to New Orleans in less time than was allowed, forty years ago, from Boston to New York. Since the completion of the Pacific railway, the time between New York and San Francisco has been re- duced to six days; distance 3,344 miles, over 558 miles a day. It is instructive to look back at the changes the means of locomotion have wrought in the views of passengers. At the close of the last century enterprising con- tractors advertised as follows: — "Philadelphia Stage-Waggon & New York Stage- Boat, performs their Stages twice a Week. John Bjtler, with his wag- gon, sets out on Mondays from his House, at the Sign of the Death of the Fox, in Strawberry-ally, and drives the same day to Trenton Ferry, when Francis Ilolman meets him, and proceeds on Tuesday to Bruns- wick, and the passengers and goods being shifted into the waggon of Isaac Fitzran- dolph's the same day, where Ruben Fitz- randolph, with a boat well suited, will receive them, and take them to New York that night. John Butler returning to Philadelphia on Tuesday with the passengers and goods delivered to him by Francis Ilolman, will again set out for Trenton Ferry on Thurs- day, and Francis Holman, &c, will carry his passengers and goods, with the same ex- pedition as above to New York."- By this remarkably ingenious plan and diction of John Butler, everybody got to his journey's end in the course of time ; "with the same expedition as above," that is, it appears, fiom Monday morning to Tuesday night, if Ruben Fitzrandoiph's boat did not get aground or becalmed, or weather-bound, or driven off, in either of which cases the time of ariival was dubious. But honest John " with his waggon," was soon " cut out." Tho:-e H Yankees," immor- talized by Knickerbocker, came down fiom the north and innovated even upon so ad- mirable an arrangement as was hei e devised in the tap-room of the " Death of the Fox," Strawberry-ally, under the administration of Jefferson. Ruben's boat with its vicissitudes was abandoned, notwithstanding the attrac- lions of the " Kill van Kull " passage, and a land route through adopted. The attractions of this route were set forth as follows : — "For Philadelphia and Baltimore — Swiftsure Mail Stage. — A new line has removed from No. 2 Courtlandt street to No. 1 1 6 Broadway, and is now running between New York and Philadelphia, thiough a beautiful country, and on tbe short and pleasant road through Newark, Springfield, Scotch Plains, Bound Brook, Someiset, Arnwell, Coryell's Ferry, Cross Road, Crooket Billet, and Jenkintown to Philadel- phia. " To start from New York every day at 1 o'clock, A. m. (Sundays excepted,) lodge at Somerset, and arrive at Philadelphia next day afternoon. The Swiftsure is the only opposition stage from this city to Philadel- phia and Baltimore." There does not appear to have been much time saved by this new plan, any further than that the vicissitudes of the boats were exchanged for those of muddy roads. Spring coaches had, however, supplanted honest John Butler's wagon, since travelers had become more dainty. A i'ew years more brought steam into compe'ition for the use of travelers, and the number multiplied to such an extent, that, on the occasion of the great semi centennial jubilee anniversary of the National Independence, held July 4, 1825, it was recorded in The Philadelphia Gazette, that 300 New Yorkers were said to have been in Philadelphia. There wen' passengers enough to fill 35 coaches! Great doings, that, in the traveling way! What would Francis Ilolman have done with the crowd between Brunswick and Trenton ? Traveling had clearly outgrown his arrange- ments. Well, 35 years more passed on. and railroad connections being constructed, the 84 RAILROADS — LAND GRANTS — EXTENT AND COST. papers of the day contained a new adver- tisement of a trip to Philadelphia. It was no longer ''John Butler and his wagon," but that "John Brougham with his com- pany" would perform as usual in the even- ing at the New York theatre, then proceed by the cars to Philadelphia, and perform at the theatre there in the same evening, and return to New York to sleep. Thus two performances were had in two cities 90 miles apart, and the passage made both ways in the same evening by rail. The " limited trains " on the rival railroads be- tween Philadelphia and New York now (in 1880-81) make the distance (90 miles) in 14; hours, and have made it in 1.05. The influence of these great improve- ments in travel has been in an eminent de- gree to consolidate population in cities, and these grow the more readily that the dis- tance within which perishable food can be brought to market is so much increased by rapidity of travel. The elements of growth of a city are supplies of food, fuel, and water. Unless these are abundant and cheap, the disadvantages thence arising will counterbalance the geographical and commer- cial advantages of a city. To supply food the circle of country about the city which supplies market-gardens, dairies, etc., must be fertile and accessible. The width of this ring, or, in other words, the area thus devoted, is determined by the speed with which the produce can be transported. The distance of its extreme limits must not be greater than will permit the products to reach the centre in time for use; any improvement that enables a larger space to be gone over in the same time increases the area of dwell- ings and market-lands. The area thus commanded increases as the square of the distances. Thus, if the speed is doubled, the area is four times as large, if it is tripled, the area adapted to city supplies is nine times as great, consequently there will be nine times as much milk, butter, vegetables, food, and produce as before. Now, by railroads and steamships, the supplies of early vegetables and small fruits are brought from Bermuda, St. Augustine, Savannah, Charleston, Nor- folk, the whole eastern shore region, southern New Jersey, Pittsburg, central and western New York, New England, and even from California. The effect of this on distant but accessible farms is important. If wheat is worth $1.00 in the city, and it cost 25 cents to get it there from a eertain farming district, the producer will get 75 cents only. If the cost of transportation be reduced to 10 cents, then there is 15 cents to be divided between the city consumer and the producer. Another very important development oi railroads has been for city service. It is now nearly 40 years since, the city of New York having spread over a greater surface of ground than it was convenient to walk over, lines of omnibusses were started to run on the great thoroughfares, to carry passen- gers. The price was, at first, 12£ cents for a ride any distance on the line. This was gradually reduced to 6 cents. , The small cars of the Harlem railroad, which then ex- tended only up to Westchester county, be- gan to carry passengers up as far as Forty- Second street, and in that vicinity, about 1838, but for twelve years after, that was the only road, perhaps, in the United States, car- rying passengers from one part of the city to another in small cars drawn by horses. From 1850 to 1852 there began to be considerable interest in this mode of transit, and the Sixth Avenue, and soon after the Third Avenue line was established. There are now (1881) more than one hundred of these lines in the state of New York alone, which have cost over 60 million dollars and earn over 25 million dollars annually. These roads have an aggregate extent of more than 4,000 miles, and carry more than 600 mil- lion passengers in a year. Recently, in our largest cities, there is complaint that this mode of transportation is not sufficiently rapid, and the use of dummy engines, underground tunnel, or arcade railroads, or steam driven roads not crossing the streets on their level, elevated railways in which the cars shouid be drawn by stationary engines, &c, &c, have been tried, to remedy the difficulty. The ele- vated railways and the tunnel roads have proved the most successful of these plans Thus while the railroads favor the settle- ment of cities, by concentrating in them a large manufacturing and commercial pop- ulation, which can draw cheap food from every section of the Union, they distribute that city population cheaply and speedily, enabling them to occupy a much greater territory, and at the same time concentrate the manufacturing operations in a manner to facilitate the greatest production of commodities which are required by the producers of food. Railroads here serve a very different TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 85 purpose, and exert a much greater influence in the development of a country, than they do in the densely populated countries of Europe. In Europe, by facilitating travel, they yield a fair though not generally a large profit as investments. Their average cost per mile is much greater than here, but they do, to a limited degree, increase traffic and promote more constant inter- course of the people. Here the railroad is the pioneer of civilization. It plows its way through the dense forest, the unbroken prairie, or the waterless and almost desert lands, and at every mile of its onward pro- gress, a village springs up, farms are laid out, orchards planted, the fields wave with the golden grain, and presently mines, manufactories, schools, churches and col- leges, are called into existence, all along the line. These enterprises all pay from the start, and increase the national wealth in an almost incredible degree. In September, 1859, the gross income of 257 railroads (all or nearly all then in existence) in the United States, was $111,203,245 for freight and passengers, or about $4.00 per head for each inhabitant. In January, 1868, a little more than eight years later, 373 rail- roads reported a gross income of $327,547,- 725, or more than $8,50 to each inhabitant. The reports of 1870 would undoubtedly add not less than twenty-five per cent, to this great aggregate. The number of miles of railroad completed in the United States, up to June, 1869, was almost half the length of railroads in the world. In 1859, the United States had 28,789 miles of railroad, and the entire globe (including the U. S.) 57,653. In January, 1869, the railroads of the world in operation were as follows : — Miles. United States 48,860 Canada 2,37ri Culm 43] Jumaicii 10 Argentine Republic 427 C.ilumbia 4!) Brazil 410 Peru 128 Chili 350 England and Wales I0,0:i7 Scotland 2,282 Ireland 1,928 Bpain 4.372 Franca 9.515 Miles. Belgium 1,301 Holland 659 Denmark 220 Norway and Sweden .... 800 Russia nnd Pidnnd 3. 1117 Prussia and N. Germany. 5,764 South Germany 2,861 Austria nnd Hungary- •. 4,517 Switzerland 890 Italy 3.153 Turkey 22(1 Egypt r»70 British India 5,000 Auatra la 850 Total railroads of the world 111,186 It is difficult to arrive with any considera- ble exactness at the cost of railroads in for- eign countries. The following table is an approximation, except in the United States, Great Britain, and a few other European states where the figures are official, for the beginning of 1869 : — Miles. Cost. Cost per mile. United States 48,S60 $2,212,413,000 945.380 Great Britain 14,247 2,511,314,435 176.250 France 9,515 1,773,400,000 188.690 Prussia and N. Germnnv. . . 5.764 380,434,000 66,000 Austria and S. Germany... 7,388 4911.000,1100 71.000 Belgium 1,301 118,911,100 91,400 British America 2,385 119,050,000 50.000 Cuba 431 19,395.000 45.000 Columbia 49 7 3. r .0.000 150.000 South America 888 62,160,000 70,0(0 Russia 3,107 285.030,000 90,000 Sweden and Norway 800 72.000,000 90,000 Switzerland 820 73,800.000 90.00(1 Itnlv 3,153 315,300.000 100.000 Spain 4,372 304.488.785 70,00(1 Turkey 220 20.400 000 120,000 Africa 670 80,400,000 120,000 India 5,000 371,730,220 75,000 Australia 850 63,750,000 75.0C0 Other small States 880 61,000,000 70,000 111,187 $9,430,116,840 $92,681 The estimated amount of these items in 1851 was: Miles of railroad, 48,114, cost, $3,823,200,814, cost per mile, $79,000. The greatest extension of the railroad system has in all cases been in the countries to which there is the greatest immigration. British America, South America, India, Australia, Russia, Italy, Spain, and Egypt, are the foreign countries which have increased their railroads most rapidly. With most of these countries (we may perhaps except Australia, India and Russia) there is a limit which must, in a few years, be reached beyond which the construction of railroads will not be profitable. With the United States, on the contrary, there is no conceivable limit (unless some better method of locomotion should be devised,) to the construction of railroads. Our vast territory, with its rapid- ly increasing population, is constantly re- quiring new routes to bring produce, coal, metals, or manufactures to market, and to transport, the tens of millions of passengers and immigrants who must rely on them for transportation to their homes or their busi- ness. We arc already adding 7,745 miles a year to our railroads, and shall soon increase to 10,000 miles a year. "We have purposely delayed the consider- ation of our railroad routes to the Pacific coast to the close of this article, both be- cause we regard them as in some measure dissevered from the more local railroad routes and because their vastness will be 86 RAILROADS LAND GRANTS EXTENT AND COST SHIP CANALS. more easily comprehended if they stand by themselves. The accession of California to onr territo- ry and the speedily following discovery of gold there, led necessarily to the improve- ment of the routes for reaching there. The long and perilous journey around Cape Horn was too tedious for our enterprising, impa- tient gold-hunters. The Panama railroad across the isthmus of that name, was com- menced in 1850 and completed in 1855, at a cost of $7,500,000, which subsequent ad- ditions and purchases have increased to $8,- 000,000. It is about 49 miles in length, and its gross earnings have ranged from $1,- 300,000"to $2,000,000. This shortened the voyage to San Francisco, to about three weeks. But other routes were demanded, which should abridge the time of transit still more. The Nicaragua and the Tehuantepec routes were tried with but partial success ; repeated explorations were made to ascer- tain the practicability of a ship canal across some portion of the isthmus, which connect North and South America, but thus far, without practical result. Between 1852 and 1861 several exploring expeditions were sent out to ascertain the best route across the continent within the bounds of our own ter- ritory, and their costly reports were publish- ed by the government. The feeling that it was indispensable that the Pacific states should be bound to the east by a continuous railroad, which had been gaining strength, was quickened into greater activity by the war ; and while in the midst of the desperate struggle, in July, 1862, Congress passed an act chartering the Pacific railroad. There were some defects in the charter, and no company was formed till October, 1863, when the Union Pacific and soon after the Central Pacific was organized. By the charter the capital stock of the entire route was to be $100,000,000, and the government granted them a roadway of 200 feet on each side of the track, and alternate sections of land for twenty miles on each side of the road; and in addition its bonds, maturing in 30 years, bearing six per cent, payable in gold, for $16,000 per mile for the plain, $32,000 per mile for the steeper grades, and $-18,000 per mile for the deep cuttings and tunneling. They were, moreover, authorized to issue their own bonds to an equal amount with these government bonds, at the same rate, and these lands were to be a first mort- gage (the government bonds being a second mortgage) on the road. With these ample resources the two companies began at their respective ends to build the road in 1865; the Union Pacific commencing at Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific, at Sacra- mento, California. The Central Pacific built 742 miles, much of it through the mountains, and the Union Pacific 1,032 miles The junction of the two roads was effected Ma}' 15, 1869, and regular daily passenger trains are run each way, as well as numerous freight trains. It is difficult to ascertain what has been the cost of these roads. The bonds issued for the Union Pacific were $58,656,000. aside from its land grant bonds, and its entire cost is put down by the com- pany for road and equipment as $82,445,01 2. That full payments on subscribed stock have not been called for is evident. The Central Pacific has issued $45,578,000 of bonds, and computes the cost of its road at about 62 million dollars ; while the Western Pacific, extending from Sacramento to San Francisco, has also received its bonds, and has cost about 15 millions more, making the aggregate cost of these lines, aside from their hinds," about $160,000,000. This is too much, even for the grandest enterprise ever undertaken by human hands, but it is to be remembered that it was begun in the midst of a great war and driven to its completion under the pressure of great difficulties. But three routes across the continent are as much required as one ; and the Northern Pacific, extending from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Puget's Sound, Washington territory, with branches to southern Idaho and Mon- tana, is already under contract, under the energetic management of Messrs. Jay Cooke & Co.; while there are two southern routes, one the Kansas Pacific, and the other, a road from Memphis along the 32d parallel; but both, terminating in San Diego, Califor- nia, are pushing westward. If a ship canal, either across the isthmus of Darien, the isth- mus of Panama, or that of Tehuantepec, shall be found practicable, the construction of that also is in the near future, and by these various routes the great trade of east- ern Asia is destined to find its way through our continent, as the most direct route, both to America and Europe. The northwest passage, of which Columbus dreamed so long, has been at last discovered in a way of which Columbus never dreamed, and the continent he discovered will be the market for the vast commerce of Cathay. VIEWS ON THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD. To the irregularities PPOSITE AUBURN. Hue is the very extensive em- bei The tunneling required has been of small extent. _ The pecul , f*jf^ . - engravin g S have bee, ployment of trestle bridging, and it is with thejiew of dhs . tog n on £ ( .., ^ chosen, Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, being examples ?^*^&*£%J^ of solid rock, and which is deep and 800 feet long through cemented gravel and sand, of the consistency N0 n _ TR ESTLE AND TRUSS BRIDGE, CLIPPER RAVINE, (100 feet high.) NO. III. — BLOOMER CUT, (63 feet deep, 800 feet long.) only to be moved by blasting. The trestle bridging has been all constructed as strongly as possible, and of the beal obtainable material The ties, stringers and caps are of the best quality pine (that from Pu- get'a Sound, nearly equal to oak,) and the posts, braces, sills and piles of red-wood. The main posts, 12 inches square, are placed perpendicularly, let into a sill of the same dimensions with mortice and tenon. immediately under the bearing of the track stringers. Outside the main posts, two posts. 12 in. by 12 in., extend down, with a run of 1 foot in 3 inches, to the sill to which they are tenoned, beside being bolted at the top to the main posts with inch bolts and cast-iron washers. The sills rest on piles on stone foundations. Piles, when used, are driven so as to come directly under the main posts and braces. The posts are capped with a timber 12 inches square and 9 feet long, into which the posts are tenoned and pinned. Upon the caps rest corbels 12 inches square and 9 feet long, and upon them are laid the sti'iug- NO. IV. — LONG UAVIXE, HOWE TRUSS BB (115 feet high.) NO. V. — TRESTLE AT SECRETTOWN, (1,000 feet long, 50 feet to 90 feet high.) ers, 12 in. by 15 in., secured by iron bolts passing down through them to the corbels. The caps are notched 1 inch to receive the corbels. The cross ties, or sleepers, are securely fastened to the stringers, and upon the sleepers are laid the rails in the ordinary manner. The "bents" or frames are placed at intervals of 15 feet from center to center. Trestling thus constructed is said to last from eight to fifteen years. When necessary it can be renewed at small cost, or filled with earthen embankment by trans- porting material on cars at far less cost and trouble than would have been incurred in constructing an embankment at first. It now takes three weeks or more to reach San Francisco via Panama, from New York. By railroad, the journey can be made in about five days. NO. VL — FIRST TRESTLE IN CLIPPER RAVTNE. STEAM. BY JOHN" C. MERRIAM, CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. HISTORY OF STEAM ENGINE. One hundred years ago, a harmless vapor arose with the morning sun, and floated o'er our heads, remarked by the artist, poet, or philosopher, but almost unheeded by the mechanic, and only regarded by the mariner as a prognosticator of the wind. How is it to-day ? From myriad towering columns, o'er which the tierce fire-king his sombre mantle flings, gushes, in mimic clouds, the quick breath of our new-born Titan. The ancient rocks echo to his shrill voice, and tremble as he rushes by. He troubles the waters, and rides on their crest defiant. O'er hill and dale, and lake and river, is his white flag unfurled, pro- claiming peace to all nations. From the pine of the frozen north, to the palmetto of the sunny south, his twin track tunnels the mountain, belts the prairie, and spans the flood. Mightiest of kings is this son of fire ! proudest of monarchs is this genius of the lamp and the fountain ! In an article like this, it is not neces- sary that we should dwell upon the ge- nius of James Watt — abler pens have awarded him the fame he so richly deserves, and a proud monument in Westminster Ab- bey tells the passing stranger that it was NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME, WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS FLOURISH \ BUT To show T'lAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNED TO HONOR THOSE WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE, THAT THE KINO, HIS MIN18TERS, AND MANY OF TnE NOBLES AND COMMONERS 01 THE REALM RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO JAMES WATT, VI"), DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL HKMI'S, EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH, TO THIS IMPROVEMENT OF THE STEAM-ENGINE, ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY, INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN. AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE 4M.ONO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE, AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD. 91 What greater praise could be awarded to him than this? How could his unrivalled genius be more concisely expressed, or clearly acknowledged ? and yet, at that time, they had but begun to see the stupendous results of his inventions. To realize the in- ventive mind of James Watt, it requires careful study, and thorough mechanical knowledge, even at this late day ; and when •we consider that with him all was compara- tively novel, we pause in astonishment at a mind so fertile in mechanical devices. England, ever true and grateful to her own genius, has fitly honored her greatest in- ventor, while America has suffered genius as great to die, unrewarded in life, and forgot- ten in the grave ; but she has not neglected to profit by their inventions ; and it is our purpose to show, in this article, how great have been the results. The first steam engine of which we have any knowledge in America was at the Schuyler copper mine, Passaic, N. J. It was, more properly speaking, an atmos- pheric engine, and was imported from Eng- land in 1736, and put up by a Mr. I lorn- blower. The first engine that was con- structed in America was built by Christopher Colles for a distillery in Philadelphia ; the machine was, however, very defective. It was built in October, 1772, and was, like the other, an engine upon Newcomen's plan. Thus it will be seen that it is less than a hundred years since America took her first lessons in a science that was destined to work such a revolution in the whole world; and her birth, as a nation, may be considered as cotemporary with that of the steam en- gine. In 1 787, John Fitch, of Connecticut, built, in Philadelphia, the firsl condensing engine, and this without the aid of Watt's experiments — for it was only in the year 1780 that the latter patented, and made public, his most important improvements; and we have every reason to believe that Fitch was at first ignorant of them. With 92 the assistance of common blacksmiths, he constructed a low-pressure engine, and, more than this, applied the motor to a steam- boat. Then came the experiments and suc- cess of Robert Fulton, a man whom we have not forgotten to honor; .the improvements of Stevens, to whom we owe our great suc- cess in river navigation, and the energy and perseverance of Oliver Evans, the first, to apply the principles of the high-pres mre, or non-condensing engine, to common use, and to demonstrate its advantages not only for the stationary engine, but also its adapta- bility to carriages on common roads ; from which we may date the invention of the lo- comotive engine, for it was only the experi- ence of Stephenson in tram-roads that led him, at a much later day, to the invention of the latter, and Watt's engines would never have become applicable thereto, on account of their great size. In spite of the difficulties under which a young nation labored, from the want of an accumulated capital, we took a start from the first introduction of the locomotive en- gine, that has astonished the world; and have grown a race of civil engineers that, with a limited amount of money, have pro- duced effects wonderful even to themselves. Well may Americans be proud of the results of their inventive genius. To the general reader these events have come to be a mat- ter of course, and steam, with its thousands of detailed improvements, is looked upon as something wonderful, but inexplicable ; the mass of people understanding little or nothing of its nature. We propose, then, to explain, as simply as possible, the cause of this great effect, and, dropping technicalities, to give the great public a concise idea of steam, and the steam engine, before proceeding to the results of its use. When Watt constructed his first engines, he used them to replace horses in the mines, and, in order to give some idea of their value, he reckoned his engines as at so many horses' power ; and the power of a horse was computed from the effect produced by a horse raising a weight to a certain height in a given time : this he computed as 33,000 lbs., raised, in one minute, to the height of one foot. The following description, from S. Holland, chief engineer of the English navy, concisely shows the manner of obtain- ing the horse-power of a steam engine : — " Work is a term in mechanics of recent origin, but of great utility ; it means a com- pound of force (or pressure) and motion. Work is said to be performed when a pres- sure is exerted upon a body, and the body is thereby moved through space. The unit of a pressure is one pound, the unit of space one foot, and work is measured by a ' foot- pound' as a unit. Thus, if a pressure of so many pounds be exerted through a space of so many feet, the number of pounds is mul- tiplied into the number of feet, and the prod- uct is the number of foot-pounds of work ; hence, if the stroke of a steam engine be seven feet, and the pressure on each square inch of the piston be 22 pounds, the work done at each single stroke, for each square inch of the piston, will be 7 multiplied by 22, equal to 154 foot-pounds. Power con- tains another element in addition to those contained in work. It implies the ability to do so much work in a certain period of time ; and, in order to have a proper idea of it, a unit of measure is also employed. This unit is called a ' horse-power,' and is equal to 33,000 pounds raised through a space of one foot in one minute ; it is the execution of 33,000 foot-pounds of work in one minute. To find the horse-power of a steam engine is to find the number of pounds pressure on the piston in square inches, and to multiply this by the number of feet travelled by the piston per minute, which gives the work ; then this is divided by 33,000 pounds, and the quotient is the horse-power, which is usually abbreviated II. P. As the pressure is always indicated by the square inch, the number of square inches in the area of the piston has to be found. This is done by squaring the diam- eter of the piston, and multiplying this by the decimal, -7854." The horse-power of an engine is always calculated with the steam in the boiler at a moderate pressure, and, consequently, if the steam is kept at a higher pressure, it will be capable of more work, and the engine will be of a greater effectual horse-power than the one given. Hence the terms real and nominal horse-power. The term horse- power is, in reality, of itself nominal, as Watt, in order to have his engines give satisfaction, added some twenty-five per cent, to the real work of the best horses in Corn- wall. Having thus given an explanation of this term concisely, that it may be re- membered, we will endeavor to instruct the general reader as to some other terms not always understood, although constantly made use of in conversation. 93 Engines are divided into two kinds : low and high-pressure, or condensing and non- condensing. The low-pressure engine was, in the main, invented by James Watt ; and its peculiarity consists in the fact that, while the steam is entering upon one side of the piston, the steam upon the other side is con- densed, and forms a vacuum that adds to the power of the engine from twelve to four- teen pounds to the square inch. Thus, with steam at the pressure of twenty-five pounds only, we have an effective force of nearly forty. The low-pressure engine has the ad- vantage of not carrying so much steam, and, consequently, is less dangerous. From the fact, however, that it is much more compli- cated and expensive, it is not often used on land, unless for large engines, and its size prevents its adaptation to locomotion. The high-pressure engine was invented by Leopold and Trevithick, • subsequent to the other. Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, was the first to advocate its use, and, in fact, to practically apply it. Engines of this descrip- tion discharge the steam, after using it, into the air, and have, consequently, the resist- ance of the atmosphere to contend with ; they are, however, much cheaper, and with properly built boilers are not necessarily more dangerous. All our locomotives are upon this principle, and the draft of the fur- naces is accelerated by the rush of the waste or exhaust steam, as it passes into the chim- ney. The pressure of steam used in our high- pressure engines, averages more than in any other country ; from eighty to one hundred pounds per square inch being the common average. In order to prevent an amount of steam from accumulating to a higher pres- sure than this, the safety valve is placed upon the boiler, so constructed that, when the pressure rises above the point desired, it will open the valve, and allow the surplus to escape. Over-weighting this valve, or not taking proper care of it, and allowing it to rust into its seat, are fruitful sources of boiler explosions. No engineer should run an engine without trying his valve at least once a day. It is important that the water in the boiler should always be at about the same height ; not full, as in that case water is apt to pass over into the cylinders, and the en- gine is said to be flooded ; nor too low, for the heat of the furnace would melt the flues, if they were not covered with water. Vari- ous automatic contrivances have been in- vented to keep the water at the true level ; but their liability to get out of order has pre- vented their use, and engineers unite in the opinion that man's judgment alone is com- parative security. To assist the competent engineer, there are several devices. The most common are the three gauge-cocks, placed, the one above the other, at some three inches apart — the centre one being the desired level ; by trying these cocks, the ex- act height can be readily seen. Other water gauges have been in use, some of them since the earliest engines were constructed, upon the principle that a float upon the water will indicate, by means of a rod, its exact height. A glass tube, connected above and below the water line, is much used in our steamers. In order to determine the steam pressure at any point below that at which it raises the safety valve, various steam gauges have been in use from time to time ; the most common in steamboats is called the syphon gauge, and works upon the principle of balancing a column of mercury in a syphon tube. With- in the last ten years the spring gauge has come into general use in locomotive and other engines; they occupy but little room, and, if occasionally tested, answer every pur- pose of the more cumbersome syphon. With the exception of the Bourdon (French) and Schaeffer (Prussian), all the spring gauges in use in the United States, some thirty in number, are American inventions, and both of the foreign gauges have been improved upon, and are made in a superior manner here. The passage between the boiler and the cylinder was at first opened and closed by means of a cock ; the slide valve, modifica- tions of which arc now universally used, was the invention of Murray, of Leeds, England, in 1810. The piston was at first packed with hemp, saturated with grease; the brass rings, now used, were invented by Murdock & Aiken, of Glasgow, in the year 1813. The paddle-wheel between two boats was first used by William Symington, in Scot- land ; but the side wheel, as now used, to- gether with the screw propeller, were both made use of in the models by John Fitch. His first steamboat, however, was worked by cars, or paddles, after the same manner as an Indian uses them. The first boat that car- ried passengers, built by John Fitch in 1789, was propelled by a set of paddles at the stern. The North River, of Clermont — Ful- ton's first passenger boat — was driven by the 94 present form of side wheel ; she made a successful trip in the year 1807. One of the greatest improvements of steamboats with regard to speed was made by Robert L. Stevens, who added the false bow to a boat constructed by him in 1815. She attained the speed of 1 5 miles per hour, a great improvement over the North River (which only made four miles per hour), but seeming very slow at the present date, as contrasted with the time made at a trial trip of the Daniel Drew, in 1860, which was 22 miles per hour against the tide. It is quite curious to follow the various improvements that have been made upon the steam engine, and to see how the present simple apparatus was settled upon. It re- quired years of experiment before the crank was adopted, notwithstanding that the same device had been in use in the common foot- lathe for several centuries. It was finally adopted by Picard ; but, after his invention, Watt patented a much more complicated method of transmitting the reciprocating into the rotary motion. This was called the sun and planet motion, and went out of use only after repeated trials with the crank. It is true that the latter was patented ; and the fact that Mr. Watt wished to avoid another patent, had much to do with this persistent trial of an inferior device. In the use of the locomotive engine, also, it was only after years of experiment that it was realized that the traction of the wheel upon the rail was sufficient to propel the carriage not only upon a level, but also up a very steep grade. On the line of the Pennsylvania railroad, beyond the town of Altoona, the track has an ascending grade over the mountains of over 100 feet to the mile, yet a passenger train of six or seven cars, with the assistance of two locomotives, surmounts the grade at a speed of nearly thirty miles per hour, and this, too, upon a road that lies coiled upon the side of the mountain like a huge serpent. So short are its curves, that the locomotive is quite visible from the fourth car during many parts of the ascent. No other nation in the world can show so great a triumph of civil engineering as this. The first road that was constructed at this place was work- ed by stationary engines, and the cars were drawn up by ropes and chains. This was a copy of European engineering ; but Amer- ican genius is destined always to rise supe- rior to imitation, and it is, in fact, only when it so rises, and trusts to its own gigantic plans, that the true power of American char- acter shows itself. The stolid English en- gineer imitates the Egyptians and the Ro- mans, and piles stone upon stone, and iron upon iron. The American imitates nature, with whose great Avorks he is in constant communion, and, like the spider, constructs a bridge light in appearance, but sufficiently strong to withstand the tempest and the storm, and bear with an easy vibration, double, nay, triple, the load put upon it. Only an appreciation of the grandeur of such a fall as that of Niagara, could fit a man to construct the bridge that spans its river. But to return to the improvements in the steam engine itself. When we look at the combination of them, as at present in use, we cannot but feel the wonderful genius therein displayed. It is but a few years since the steam engine, although vastly su- perior to horse power, was a. cumbersome and expensive machine both to construct and repair ; and although it is at present far from being perfect, yet the difference in its first cost, and the amount of fuel it uses for the same effect, is astonishing. Stand and look at some of our immense stationary en- gines, and see how noiselessly and steadily they turn the ponderous wheel ! One would think a child's power could stop it. Then pass on, and on, through the groaning mill, and see the labor of thousands of men per- formed by this untiring giant. It is only after seeing the work he accomplishes, you can realize his strength. Stand upon the western prairie at night. The moon silvers a twin track that glistens far into the dark- ness ; soon you hear a distant hum that grows upon the ear, and detect a faint spark that brightens as you gaze; anon the sound increases, and the eye of the iron horse over- powers the moon's pale gleam ; he sees you, and screams his shrill warning. Who can help starting as he rushes by, or not feel as though steam itself were personified. Mark the groaning train, with its living freight, tearing madly through the darkness, bearing absent friends to the loved at home, or per- haps good news from the beloved afar. Again, stand upon the Battery, at New York, and watch the almost countless fleet of steamships, steamboats, propellers, and tugs; some moving steadily toward the Narrows, as though conscious and proud of a power that can span the ocean in so short a time ; others plashing and dashing madly 95 about, or clinging to some gigantic ship, and tugging manfully at its side, when old Boreas has left it helpless ; others, again, in holiday attire, bearing a happy throng over the glad waters, and tuning the voice of this giant slave into fitting melody for the joyous hour. Ilere comes the Sound steamer, a floating palace fitted up in almost regal ele- gance, drawing but little water, and yet a staunch sea-boat, large, and, to the foreign ship-builder, apparently top-heavy, yet last as the racehorse, and frequently tried by the stoutest gales. Up and down both rivers ply the ever busy ferry-boats — movable bridges, ever crowded with passengers. Did Fulton's wildest dreams ever picture a scene like this ? Did John Fitch ever imagine a triumph so wonderful ? Yet it is all the work of steam ; and to them we owe, in part, the bands by which we hold this half- tamed Titan. Not only are these steamers propelled by steam, but his aid is called in both to load and unload them, and, in the hour of danger, steam works at the pumps with untiring hands. Not alone in the large manufactory, the gallant steamer, and the rushing car, does the vapor of water show its strength and usefulness, but thickly strewn about our cities and villages, delving in the mines, driving the rattling press, it helps all trades, and multiplies the power of man a thousand fold. Cities have sprung up under its magic touch, and everywhere we see traces of the king of motors — steam. And to whom are we indebted for all this improvement, this immense power ? Mainly to the American inventor, and our patent laws. It is not too much to say that one- third of the patents issued at the United States Patent Office for the last thirty years related either directly to the steam engine, or to machines intended to be driven by it ; nearly all of them patented by citizens of the United States. The use of steam ex- pansively Avas an English invention, but it is doubtful whether it was profitably used until improved upon in America. American loco- motives have borne off the palm wherever they have been brought into contact with those of other nations. In ocean steamers we may be second, but the reason is plain : foreign builders have the assistance of rich and powerful governments, while our own success is entirely due to private enterprise, with a limited amount of capital. As for steamboats for rivers and lakes, to which our immense inland navigation has turned the attention of our mechanics, we are far ahead of our rivals. The Yangtsze and Peiho, built for the Chinese coast, have never been equalled by England, as is suffi- ciently plain from the following China over- land trade report, written by one of their own countrymen : — " Steamboat builders in England, and Scot- land, too, are certainly the most adroit ' shavers' living. They turn out so many miserable botches, that really we think a very great majority of the community would, were they ' going into steam,' resort to the United States. As far as river naviga- tion is concerned, our attempts to com- pete with Jonathan are simply absurd, as those who own English river steamers here at present, must, ere this, have discover- ed to their cost. But, even in sea-going steamers, ' if the proof of the pudding be in the eating,' we should wish to know where the British steamers are, which are as swift, as safe, as commodious, as serviceable, or as economical in expenditure of fuel, as the Yangtsze or the Peiho ? We maintain that every boat sent out here from England or Scotland, on China account, whether for coast or the river, has either been a misera- ble failure, or a glutton for fuel. We do not make one exception. We do not like to mention names, as we are averse to depre- ciate people's property, but we confidently leave it to every unfortunate sufferer to say whether or not we are correct in our state- ment. " AYc, of course, except the P. & O. Company, as they seem to have a secret plan of constructing boilers, which makes them last as long as the boat; that is, for an indefinite period. We declare one never hears of any thing occurring to one of the company's boilers, nor any of their boats being laid up to have a new one, or the old one mended. " We will take, for instance, the Chevy Chase, which vessel, wc believe, cost on the Clyde about three times the sum that the Yangtsze cost at New York. Now the Yangtsze has been running nearly three years hard upon the coast, making unprecedented! v swift passages, and never was docked until the other day. The Chevy Chase will not carry so much as the Yangtsze, nor has she as good accommodation ; but she burns twice as much coal, and, in a race between this and Shanghai, would be sparingly backed. She is about as strong again and as heavy 96 STEAM. again as there is the slightest occasion for ; and has clearly twice as much power as she can bear, for the weight of it sinks her. She is a very shallow craft, and her deck is so near the bottom, which contains an enor- mous mass of iron, that compasses will not act, and it becomes dangerous to run her in thick weather. She will bring grief to the hearth, but never grist to the mill ; and the sooner she is altered the better. She should be made into a screw propeller, and a suitable vessel built for the valuable and powerful machinery now fitted in her. Having spoken thus, in general terms, of the steam-engine, it may not be amiss to give a description of the simplest form thereof, by describing its component parts in terms easy to be understood and remembered. A steam-engine consists, then, of a cylinder, closed at both ends, having fitted to it a pis- ton, whose rod passes out at one end through a steam-tight hole, called a stuffing-box. The piston consists of a skeleton, technically called a spider, having three brass rings made thin enough to yield to the inequali- ties of the cylinder as it wears, and forced against it by springs resting upon the spider, and held in place by a plate commonly called a follower. The steam is admitted to the cylinder on the side, at each end, through what are called the ports ; the two ends of the ports are brought near each other at the point where they enter the steam-chest — a small box near the centre of the cylinder. These ports are alternately opened to the boiler and the atmosphere, by a sliding valve that obtains its motion from what is called the eccentric, which is placed upon the main shaft. The piston-rod is fastened, at the external end, to a cross-head, which communicates its motion to the crank-rod, and through it to the main shaft. In sta- tionary engines, working by a single cylin- der, it is evident there will be two points at which the rod has no power over the crank; these points are called dead centres, and to overcome them the momentum of the balance-wheel is used. In the locomotive, two cylinders being used, they are set quartering (at right angles with each other,) and the one overcomes the dead centre of the other. In the marine engine the motion of the wheel is continued by the action of the water, as the boat advances, and, conse- quently, no balance is required. If, after a part of the steam has entered the cylinder, the induction valve be closed, the expansion of the steam would continue the stroke of the piston until the pressure became the same as that of the external air, or until the piston had reached the end of its stroke. Thus, if the pressure of the steam was eighty pounds per square inch in the boiler, and the valve was closed after the piston had made one quarter of its stroke, it is evident that the pressure would con- stantly decrease up to the end of that stroke, and that the average pressure would be less than the pressure in the boiler, but at the end of the stroke there would be but very little waste steam ; in other words, the pressure remaining in the cylinder would not be in so great an excess over the atmos- pheric pressure as if the steam had followed the piston throughout its entire stroke. Ta show this more plainly, it must not be for- gotten that steam at eighty pounds pressure is, in reality, steam at ninety-five pounds to the square inch, working against fifteen pounds (the atmospheric pressure,) or a difference of pressure of eighty pounds ; there- fore, at the end of the stroke, the ninety-five pounds would have become twenty-three and three-quarters of pressure working against fifteen pounds atmospheric, or a difference of eight and three-quarters of pressure; so that, when the cylinder was opened by its exhaust to the air, there would be only eight and three-quarters of a pound to the square inch thrown out into the air, and thus wasted, while you have had an aver* age of sixty-seven pounds to the square inch throughout the stroke of the piston, working against fifteen pounds of atmospheric, or an actual difference of pressure of fifty-two pounds. Had you used fifty-two pounds of indicated pressure, following the full stroke of the piston, it is evident you would have thrown into the air the contents of the cylin- der at that pressure, instead of at eight and three-quarters, as by the cut-off. This is, in brief, the theory of the cut-off; but, like many other improvements, it has been car- ried to an extreme, and has thus become a positive evil. In order to realize this, notice carefully the following; If steam, at thirty pounds per inch, as indicated, be used in a cylinder, cutting off at one-quarter stroke, what will be the pressure at the end of the stroke ? Thirty is, as before shown, forty- five against fifteen : at the end of the stroke it will then be eleven and one-quarter against fifteen, or a back pressure of three and three- quarter pounds. Many people, who have STEAM. 97 found fault with cut-offs, have overlooked this. In explaining the cut-off, we have not taken into consideration the condensation of the steam from its expansion ; and this is, of itself, a very important item of loss, as is also its increased friction ; so that the actual gain from the use of a cut-off is not as great as it would theoretically appear. The whole subject of cut-offs and the use of steam expansively, was, in 1862-1865, put to the test of careful experiment both in England and the United States, and the theory of Mr. B. F. Isherwood, at that time chief engineer of the U. S. Navy, " That the maximum gain with any possible cut-off, in the saving of fuel, •or the increase of work, could not exceed 18 per cent.," was completely exploded. Mr. Isherwood claimed this as his discovery, and during the whole war had been constructing the marine engines of the Navy without any regard to the carrying out of the principles of expansion. A. series of careful experi- ments, with different engines, and under the supervision of experienced engineers, es- tablished the fact that with engines of pro- per construction, the increase of work was in the ratio of not less than 27 revolutions by using the cut-off, and working the steam ex- pansively, to 20 revolutions without it, and that the saving of fuel was at least in the ratio of six tons with the cut-off, to seven without it. Some engines and some forms of cut-off did much better than this, one or two increasing the speed over 100 per cent, and saving more than 30 per cent, of the fuel ; but with average marine engines the lowest result attained was that stated above. Having thus stated some of the most im- portant parts of a steam engine, we will now speak of some of its accessories. In order to give a uniformity of speed to the machin- ery driven by a steam engine, no matter how much the work it has to do may vary, the governor was invented : it consists, in its simplest form, of two balls revolving around an upright shaft, and suspended from its top by rods ; if revolved with great rapid- ity, these balls are carried by their centrif- ugal motion to the greatest circumference that their rods will allow them ; if moved slowly, they will assume their smallest cir- cumference, and, by these motions, close or open the throttle, or, in the improved en- gines, vary the cut-off: thus controlling the speed of the engine, and keeping it always at nearly the same velocity. In order to keep the boiler filled with water to the requisite level, one or more pumps are placed in connection with it, of a capacity to supply it, if only working part of the time. These pumps should always be provided with a 2^t-cock, which, when open- ed, will show whether the pump is doing its duty, as the valves of any pump are liable to become clogged and useless. On the loco- motive engine the casual observer will notice that the engineer frequently tries these cocks, which arc placed upon the side of the en- gine, and, in fact, that he sometimes tries them to the detriment of dandified-looking individuals, who approach too close to the iron steed. The pet-cocks are not, how- ever, as much used as they should be, and, in fact, are very frequently left out altogether in the construction of the stationary engine. The safety valve, as at present in use, has a great many faults : it was originally the in- vention of Denis Papin, of France, and was constructed by him in his experiments with what was called Papin's steam digester — a machine for dissolving bones, etc. It con- sisted, as at first constructed, of a small round plate covering a hole, and held in its place by a weight suspended from a lever, whose fulcrum rested upon the plate. But little improvement has been made upon this simple device ; it is now tapered, to fit a counter-sunk hole, and possesses the advan- tage of being more difficult to calculate. But one of its chief faults is in the fact that the point of contact between the lever and valve is so large, that its wear creates a constantly varying leverage. This could be obviated by making the point of contact a knife-edge instead of a half-inch pin. Another disad- vantage in the common safety valve is the fact that the engineer has the power of weighting it to an unlimited extent. We have seen this difficulty obviated by an American invention. The weight is sus- pended in the boiler directly from the valve, and consists of the greatest weight the boiler should ever be allowed to carry. The lever is now so applied, that its tendency is to always lighten the valve, so that the more it is weighted the less steam can be carried. 98 STEAM. CHAPTER II. STEAMBOATS. In looking over English works upon steam, we cannot help noticing the truth of Dr. Lardner's remarks : " England has been so dazzled by the splendor of her own achieve- ments in the creation of a new art of trans- port by land and water within the last thirty years, as to become in a measure insensible to all that has been accomplished in the same interval and in the same department of the arts elsewhere." Not content with the praise other nations have ever been willing to give her for the invention of the steam engine, she also wishes to rob John Fitch of the only reward we can now give him for a life devoted to the steamboat. It is true that her arguments are aided to this end by the writings of some Americans who have endeavored to prove Fulton as the first practical steam navigator, thereby putting the date of this invention some twenty years later. But the time is fast approaching when the true inventor will be acknowledged by his countrymen, and the man who proph- esied so truly that " this will be the mode of crossing the Atlantic in time, whether I shall bring it to perfection or not ; steam- boats will be preferred to all other convey- ances, and they will be particularly useful in the navigation of the Ohio and the Mis- sissippi. The day will come when some more 'potent man will get fame and riches for my invention " — when this man, we say, will be honored as he should be by the millions who enjoy the fruits of his genius ; when our school-books will place his name in connec- tion with that of Fulton, and his biography will be found in every library ; when his grave and the tomb of Washington will not bring a blush to the American cheek. Ami are you not to blame, reader? Have you ever read the life of John Fitch, the American Watt — a life that remained sealed 'for thirty years by his own request, and now teaches a lesson of perseverance, under trials that few ever have to encounter ? If not, it is a duty you owe your country and j'oursclf to read it at once, and thus add another name to the tablets of your memory, already fcascribed with those of Franklin, Fulton, and Morse. The extent to which steam navigation has improved our country, is scarcely realized even by those who have travelled over it the most. The Hudson river, from the first voyage of the North River, Fulton's steam- boat, up to the present time, has re- mained at the head of all competitors in river navigation. We had then two trips per week, each consuming from thirty to thirty-six hours ; we have now four passen- ger boats per day over the entire route, and many making short trips, besides those used for towing barges and canal boats ; the pas- senger boats making the entire trip of one hundred and fifty miles in from ten to twelve hours. The increased prosperity of New York, growing out of this immense traffic by steamboats alone, is very great, but even this is small when compared with the navigation of the Mississippi and the other western rivers. In 1856 there were over one thousand steamboats and propellers on the western waters, costing not less than nineteen millions of dollars, and of a carry- ing capacity of four hundred and forty-three thousand tons. Of these boats, the smallest was the Major Darien, of ten tons, built at Freedom in 1852; and the largest was the Eclipse, of one thousand one hundred and seventeen tons, built at New Albany the same year. Thus, on the western waters, in the short space of forty-five years, steam created a business that absorbed nineteen millions of dollars in steamboats alone. Up to the year 1811, the only regular meth- od of transportation had been by means of flat boats, which consumed three or four months in the passage from New Orleans to Pittsburg. The price of passage was then one hundred and sixty dollars ; freight, six dol- lars and seventy -five cents per hundred pounds. The introduction of steam has re- duced the price of passage between these two cities to thirty dollars, and merchandise is carried the whole distance for a price which may be regarded as merely nominal, Besides this great saving of time and money effected by steam navigation on these waters, the comparative safety of steam conveyance is an item which especially deserves our notice. Before the steam dispensation be- gan, travellers and merchants were obliged to trust their lives and property to the barge- men, many of whom were suspected, with very good reason, to be in confederacy with the land robbers who infested the shores of the Ohio, and the pirates who resorted to the islands of the Mississippi. These partic- ulars being understood, we are prepared to estimate the value and importance of the THE FIRST SI'EAMBJAT EVER BfflLT TO CARRY PASSENGERS. Constructed by John Fitch, and finished April 16th, 1789. Cylinder eighteen inches in diameter, speed eight miles per hour in smopth water. The following year this boat was run to Burlington regularly as a passenger boat. THE FIRST PROPELLER EVER BUILT. Constructed by John Fitch, and experimented with by him on the Collect pond. New York city. The boiler was a twelve gallon pot, with a bit of truck-plank fastened by an iron bar placed transversely. This was hi the year 1796. f OLIVER EVANS OKUKTKK AMPH1LVLOS. Thirty feet long and twelve broad. Cylinder five inches in diameter with a nineteen inch stroke. Constructed by Oliver Evans about the year 1804. THE SECOND EXPERIMENTAL BOAT OF JOHN FITCH. Finished in May, 1787, and run at the rate of four miles per hour on the Delaware. Cylinder twelve inches in diameter, stroke three feet. TIIE MACHINERY OF FULTON 'S FIRST STEAMBOAT. Imported from England where it was constructed in 1805. Wheels fifteen feet in diameter, cylinder twenty-four inches in diameter, four feet stroke. THE NOBTH KiVl.ll, OF CLERMONT. Robert Fulton's first steamboat as she appeared after being lengthened in 1808. She was launched In 1807, and was run as a regular packet between New York and Albany. Speed four miles per hour, length 133 feet, beam 18 feet, depth 8 feet, tonnage 160. STEAMBOATS. 103 services which the steam engine has rendered to the commerce and prosperity of the west- ern states. In 1811, Messrs. Fulton and Livingston, having established a ship-yard at Pittsburg foi the purpose of introducing steam navi- gation on the western waters, built an exper- imental boat for this service — and this was the first steamboat that ever floated on the western rivers, [t was furnished with astern wheel and two masts — for Mr. Fulton be- lieved, at that time, that the occasional use of sails would be indispensable. This first western steamboat was called the Orleans; her capacity was one hundred tons. In the winter of 1812, she made her first trip from Pittsburg to New Orleans in fourteen days. The first appearance of this vessel on the Ohio river produced, as the reader may sup- pose, not a little excitement and admiration. A steamboat at that day was, to common observers, as great a wonder as a navigable balloon would be at the present. The banks of the river, in some places, were thronged with spectators, gazing in speechless aston- ishment at the puffing and smoking phe- nomenon. . The average speed of this boat was only about three miles per hour. Be- fore her ability to move through the water without the assistance of sails or oars had been fully exemplified, comparatively few persons believed that she could possibly be made to answer any purpose of real utility. In fact, she had made several voyages before the general prejudice began to subside, and for some months, many of the river mer- chants preferred the old mode of transporta- tion, with all its risks, delays, and extra ex- pense, rather than make use of such a con- trivance as a steamboat, which, to their ap- prehensions, appeared too marvellous and miraculous for the business of every-day life. How slow are the masses of mankind to adopt improvements, even when they ap- peal- to be must obvious and unquestionable ! The second steamboat of the west, was a diminutive vessel called the Comet. She was rated at twenty-five tons. Daniel D. Smith was the owner, and I). French the builder of this boat. Her machinery was on a plan for which French had obtained a patent in iso'.t. she went t<> Louisville in the summer of L 81 8, and descended to New Orleans in the Bpring of 1814. She after- ward made two voyages to Natchez, and was then sold, taken to pieces, and the en- gine was put up in a cotton factory. The 7 Vesuvius was the next ; she was built by Mr. Fulton, at Pittsburg, for a company, the several members of which resided at New York, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. She sailed under the command of Captain Frank Ogden, for New Orleans, in the spring of 1814. Prom New Orleans, she started for Louisville, in July of the same year, but was grounded on a sand-bar, seven hundred miles up the Mississippi, where she remain- ed until the 3d of December following, when, being floated oft' by the tide, she re- turned to New Orleans. In 1815-16, she made regular trips for several months, from New ( Means to Natchez, under the command of Captain Clement. This gentleman was soon after succeeded by Captain John I). Hart, and while approaching New Orleans, with a valuable cargo on board, she took tire and burned to the water's edge. After being submerged for several months, her hulk was raised and re-fitted. She was afterward in the Louisville trade, and was condemned in 1819. In 1818, the first steamboat was built for Lake Erie and the upper lakes, at Black Rock, on the Niagara river, for the late Dr. I. B. Stuart, of Albany, N. V., by Noah Brown, of New York city. She w as a very handsome vessel, 360 tons burden, brig rig- ged, and her engine, on the plan of a Boulton and Watt square engine, was made by Rob~ ert McQueen, at the corner of Centre and Duane streets, New York city; her cylinder was 40 inches diameter, 4 feet stroke. The materials for making the boiler were sent from New York, and the boiler was made at Black Rock — it feet diameter, 24 feet long —a circular boiler, with one return flue, called a kidney flue, seldom, if ever, carry- ing more than nine inches of steam. This steamer was called the Walk-in-t he-Water, after a celebrated Indian chief in Mich- igan. Her engines were transported from New Fork to Albany by sloops, and from Albany to Buffalo by large six and eight horse Pennsylvania teams. Some of the engine was delivered in fifteen days time, and some was on the road about twenty-five days. The trip from Flack Rock, or Buffalo, to Detroit, consumed about forty hours in good weather, using thirty-six to forty cords of wood the trip. The price of passage in the main cabin was eighteen dollars; from Buf- falo to Erie (l'enn.), six dollars; to Cleve- land, twelve dollars ; to Sandusky (Ohio), 104 STEAM. fifteen dollars; to Detroit, eighteen dollars. The strength of the rapids at the head of the Niagara river, between Buffalo and Black Rock, was so great, that besides the power of the engine, the steamer had to (have the aid of eight yoke of oxen to get her up on to the lake, a distance of about two and one-half miles. In those days, the pas- senger and freighting business was so small, that one dividend only was made to the owners for the first three years from the earnings of the steamer. In 1821, in the fall, the steamer was totally lost in a terrible gale. On the coming winter, a new steamer was built at Buffalo, by Mr. Noah Brown of New York — a very strong, brig-rigged vessel. She was called the Superior, flush decks fore and aft ; the first steamer, the Walk-in-the-Wa- ter, having had a high quarter or poop deck. Compare the time and expense of travel- ling in those days with the present time ! Mr. Calhoun (now living), the engineer of the Walk-in-the- Water, says, "Every two years I used to return to New York from Buffalo in the fall, and in the spring from New York to Buffalo. I have been three and four days, by stage, to Albany; never less than three days, and sometimes near five days ; the stage fare was ten dollars to Albany. From Albany to Buffalo, I have been ten days in getting through ; the short- est time was eight days; the stage fare through, was twenty-one dollars. How is it noio ? My usual expense in going to Buf- falo from Albany was thirty dollars, includ- ing meals and sleeping." Such facts show the advantages we have obtained from the use of steam in our river navigation. The boats that then plied upon the Hud- son river, would not be sufficient to carry the passengers' baggage of the present day. The first boat was only 160 tons, while the New World, built in 1847, was of 1400. The latter has made the trip from New York to Albany in seven hours and fifteen min- utes, including nine landings of say five minutes each ; the actual running time being six hours and twenty minutes ; dis- tance, one hundred and fifty miles — per- formed by the North River in thirty-six hours. The application of the steam engine to navigation, has been successful by three methods only : the side wheel, the stern wheel, and the propeller. The side wheel was known to the ancients, and was used in connection with a windlass, turned by men, as a means of propulsion, by the Romans, in their war galleys. It was first partially applied to steam navigation by Robert Ful- ton, but since his day it has undergone vast improvement. As at first constructed, it consisted of a double-spoked water-wheel, suspended by a shaft with no outside bear- ing, which shaft, being of cast iron, was very liable to break. The outside bearing and guard were subsequently invented b} Fulton, as appears from his specification of patent. The wheels being totally uncovered, were found to throw water upon deck, and a dash-board was put up to prevent it, which was in time - replaced by the present wheel- house. The paddle was next surrounded with a circular brace, or rim, as at present in use. In Fulton's first boat, the wheels could, at will, be disconnected from the en- gine, but this plan went out of use in order to simplify the machinery, after the crank shaft was adopted, connected directly with the engine. Various side wheels have been patented, that are so constructed as to prevent the lift of water as the bucket rises there- from. One on the Richard Stockton ap- pears to work well, but their complication, cost, and liability to get out of repair, have prevented their general introduction. The stern wheel was first thought of by Jonathan Hull, of England, in 1736, as suf- ficiently appears from drawings thereof pub- lished by him ; but it certainly was first practically applied by Robert Fulton, in the steamboat Orleans, of which we have al- ready spoken. This wheel is now in almost universal use on our western rivers, as it is peculiarly adapted to boats drawing but lit- tle water. The wheel is suspended at the stern, and is sometimes covered with a wheel-house, but more frequently entirely exposed. The propeller was first applied to a small steamboat built by John Fitch, and experi- mented with by him under the patronage of Chancellor Livingston, on the Collect Pond in New York. The propeller was a screw or worm. Great improvements have, how ever, been made in the screw, and to the English we are indebted for some of the most important. Captain Ericsson deserves great credit for his improvements in this respect. The improvements in the screw propellers since 1860, have secured its almost universal use in all sea-going ships, and par- ticularly in war steamers. The new vessels, both armed and unprotected, of the British MACHINERY OP A STEAM-SHIP— PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE. MARINE ENGINE. RIVETING THE BOIl.KKS. BENDING AND CUTTING ENGINES. CASTING THE CYLINDERS. STEAMBOATS. 107 and American navies, are all propelled by the screw, and so universal has its use be- come in the merchant service, that of the oeean steamers now (1870) sailing from the port of New York, somewhat more than 200 in number, but one or two have paddle- wheels. The Pacific mail steamers, the Liv- erpool and Great Western Steamship Com- pany's ships, and those of the Hamburg and Bremen lines, are fine specimens of the screw steamship, in their roominess, comfort and elegance. It was at first objected to the propellers that they rolled more than the paddle-wheel steamers, and that there was an unpleasant vibration from the rapid revo- lution of the heavy screw on a shaft extend- ing half the ship's length. They were, also, at first considerably slower than the paddle- wheels. These objections have been almost wholly obviated ; the speed of a screw steamer of fine lines is fully equal if not su- perior to that of the best paddle-wheel. They have repeatedly crossed the Atlantic in a little more than eight days, and by some improvements in construction, both of the ships and the screws, the rolling and the vi- bratiou is greatly diminished. The advant- ages of the propeller were, that in a heavy sea it was always submerged, whatever the condition of the ship's lading, while the pad- dle-wheels would be out of water on one side or too deep on the other; the paddles were, also, more exposed to danger of break- age, and when the wind was ahead greatly impeded the speed of the ship. The paddle- wheel steamers, also, consumed on an aver- age nearly double the fuel required for the propellers. In war-ships the propeller had the advantage of having its motive power out of harm's way, and of having an unob- structed broadside for firing upon the enemy. The monitors devised by Captain Ericsson, which were propelled by screws, though for the most part intended for coast and harbor defense and offensive warfare only upon forts, ~ **' £* ^ •= - w if — - a 'JielHigij x x - ~ 8 o S £ _ 5 £• 1 3 i ! 1! I 5 ■! I?- 2 .5f t* 3 [« — »| 8 S""5S »o*as "'• ~ « x •: 1 1 b o i « | a J ► | » ■§ 1 s * „ M I* llilillt 6 ill 11" all £*!• ^ &s ll^m* i" u* STATIONARY ENGINES. 119 engine, which is, in turn, a perfect copy of an old pump taken from Serviere's collection. It may be thus described : two cog-wheels fitted accurately to each other are inclosed in a case ; each cog is grooved and fitted with packing, bringing it into steam-tight contact with the circumference and sides of the case. The axles of the cog-wheels are continued through the sides of the case, and geared together at each end to prevent friction upon the centre cogs ; now, if re- volved, each cog will act as a piston, but as the cogs in contact in the centre lap each other, the piston surface at each extreme of the case will be just double that of the centre, and this surplus of force gives mo- tion to the two axles. The pump of which this engine is a copy was invented as long ago as the sixteenth century. A patent was obtained in England in 1825 by Mr. J. Eve, an American. Within a cylindrical case a hollow drum was so con- structed as to fit closely to the case ; floats, or pistons, were cast upon its periphery, and packed to fit the cylinder ; on one side of the main cylinder was a small recess filled with a small drum, that revolved in contact with the main drum, this small drum having a segment removed to receive each piston as it passed, and having its diameter so pro- portioned to the main drum as to revolve once between the passage of each piston or float. Other rotary engines, on a plan anal- ogous to the above, differing only in the manner of opening the valve, have been in- vented, and copied from the ancients, some of which are exceedingly complicated, but they have always been unsuccessful in prac- tice, principally from the fact that it is ex- ceedingly difficult to pack them. If they could overcome this fault without adding friction, the rotary engine would be very valuable on account of the small space it occupies. The demand for stationary engines, from one horse power upward, during the last twenty-five years, has been so great that now almost any machine shop is prepared to build them, and of course, while such is the case, thousands of engines are annually built that would better bear the name of steam eaters than steam engines. In some of the small engines that flood the market, the first principles of steam are practically ignored, and there are at this moment running in the United States engines that consume more coal to do the work of ten horses than a properly-constructed one would use to do the work of twenty. As an instance of the truth of this statement, we will take the engines built by Messrs. Corliss print, he had the cloth ironed out by one of his family, and used a parsley leaf for a pattern. The method was to cut the pattern upon blocks of sycamore, like an ordinary wood engraving. On the back of the blo*k was a handle. The color was contained in a vessel, over which was stretched a woollen cloth, in contact with the liquid. To this the surface of the block was 158 ORIGIN HAND WORK INVENTIONS. applied, and it was then laid upon the white cloth ironed out, and struck with a mallet ; the figure was thus impressed. The block was then applied in a fresh place ; so that a piece of calico twenty-eight yards, required 448 applications of the block. To make more delicate figures, copper plates were employed, with the press used for copper- plate printing. The copper-plate method was quite as slow as the block method. In 1785, cylinder printing was invented. A pol- ished copper cylinder, three feet in length and four inches in diameter, is engraved with the figure on its whole surface. It is then placed in the press, and as it revolves, the lower part passes through the coloring matter, which is scraped from the surface as it rises by a steel blade nicely adjusted lengthwise. This blade is called the " doc- tor." The cloth passes between this roller and a large cylinder, and receives the im- pression by a continuous motion. Thus, two or three minutes now sufficed to do what required before 448 applications. Al- most any number of these cylinders may be used at the same time in the same press, and with different colors. Thus a five cyl- inder press will do what would have required 2,240 applications by the block ; in other words, a man and a boy could now do what before would have required 200 men and boys. An American invention here made an important change in the printing. Mr. Jacob Perkins, of Massachusetts, invented the proc- ess of transferring an engraving from a very small steel cylinder to the copper. Before this, the whole of the copper cylinder required to be engraved, at great expense, and when done would print about 1,500 pieces of cloth before it was worn out. By the new mode, a steel cylinder three inches long and one in diameter, is prepared by being softened that it may be easily cut. The pattern to be engraved is so arranged and made to agree with the circumference of the copper cylinder, as to join and appear con- tinuous when repeated. When this is cut upon the steel it is hardened, and then, by great pressure against another soft cylinder, the figure is made on it in relief, or raised upon its surface. This being hardened, transfers by pressure the design upon the whole of the copper cylinder. The engrav- ing is thus multiplied fifty-four times, and may be renewed at short notice when the cylinder is worn. This was a most impor- tant step in advance. When many colors are required in the same pattern, portions of it are engraved upon separate dies, and the number of colors may be multiplied by add- ing cylinders. We have thus sketched the state of affairs down to about the period of the introduc- tion of the manufacture into the United States, which was about the period of the formation of the government. The imports of the raw material into Great Britain at that time, will show the rapidity with which the trade developed itself. COTTON IMPORTED INTO GREAT BRITAIN. 1775.. .4,705,589 lbs. 1786.. .19,900,000 lbs. 1781.. .5,198,777 " 1789.. .32,576,023 " The cotton was derived as follows in 1786: British West Indies, 5,800,000 lbs.; French and Spanish do., 5,500,000 lbs. ; Dutch do., 1,600,000 lbs.; Portuguese do., 2,000,000 lbs. ; Turkey, 5,000,000^1bs. The United States contributed nothing. They did not then grow cotton. The American invention of the cotton gin was more important than all the inventions we have described, for the reason that without it, and the American supply of cotton made possible by it, all the ingenuity of the English would have failed for want of ma- terial to work on. The sources of supply above mentioned have not increased in ca- pacity. England has derived some cotton from India, but not so much in the raw state as she sends thither in goods, and the United States alone keep her mills in mo- tion. While they have done this they have also developed the manufacture in a mar- vellous manner. We will here enumerate the dates of the above described inventions, in order to show that it was in the midst of the excitement they produced, that the manufacture was transported to America. Hargreaves' jenny 1767 Arkwright's rollers 1 769 Cromptou's mule 1784 Feeding for carder 1772 Doffer " " 1773 Cartwright's loom 1785 Water power used 1790 Cylinder printing 1785 Dressing machine 1802 It was at the period so prolific in inven- tions, and when the use of cotton had so in- creased in England, that the manufacture was commenced in the United States. The first mill was at Beverly, Mass. It had a capital of £90,000, and was organized in 1787, for the manufacture of corduroys and HAND LOOM. POWER LOOM. ONE GIRL ATTENDS FOUR. ,|i|i||i|i lP^Miiiifflflgf SPINNING BY HAND WITH A SINGLE SPINDLE. THE MULE SPINNER IS GENERALLY DRAWN OUT AUTOMATICALLY RY STEAM OR WATER POWER. COTTON MANUFACTURES. 161 bed ticks. The capital was swallowed up in fifteen years. The machines were very rude, inasmuch as the new inventions in England were then unknown here. CHAPTER II. MANUFACTURE IN AMERICA— SPINNING- PROGRESS. Samuel Slater was an apprentice to Jedidiah Strutt, the partner of. Arkwright. He served his time, and when of age de- parted for America, where he arrived in 1789. In the following year, he entered into partnership with Almey and Brown to start a factory at Pawtucket. Here, then, were put up, in the best manner, the whole series of machines patented and used by Arkwright for spinning cotton. There had been previous attempts at the spinning of cotton by water power, and some rude ma- chines were in existence for spinning the rolls prepared by hand, in private families ; but the machines that had been invented in England for the purpose were entirely un- known here until put up by Slater. Those ma- chines were so perfect that, although put up in 1790, they continued to be used forty years, up to 1830, when they formed part of an establishment of two thousand spindles, which long existed in Pawtucket under the name of the " old mill." Slater's business was prosperous, and he amassed a large for- tune. He died in 1834. His son and heirs still carry on the business. It is to be re- marked that his business was confined to the spinning of cotton. The business, of course, spread as soon as it was found to be profitable ; but, up to the war of 1812, the New England interests were commercial, and when the war broke out there was an im- mense rise in the value of goods, which gave to all existing spinning interests a great advantage. Cotton cloth sold at forty cents per yard ; and Slater held almost a monop- oly of the supply of yarn to make it. Mr. Slater had, in 1807, in connection with his brother John, who brought over important knowledge of the recent improvements in machinery, erected a mill at Slatersville, near Smithfield, R I. Mr. Slater established a Sunday school for his operatives, and this is supposed to have been the first in New Eng- land. It will be observed that Mr. J. Slater got his mill into operation at the same period that the federal government was organized under the new constitution, a most auspicious event. The manufacture did not fail to attract the attention of the new government, and Alex- ander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, in his famous report of 1791, remarks: — "The manufacture of cotton goods not long since established at Beverly, in Massachu- setts, and at Providence, Rhode Island, seems to have overcome the first obstacles to suc- cess ; producing corduroys, velverets, fustians, jeans, and other similar articles, of a qual- ity 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 celebrated cotton mill, which not only furnishes material for the factory itself, but for the supply of private families for household manufacture. " Other manufactories of the same material, as regular businesses, have also been begun in the state of Connecticut, but all upon a smaller scale than those 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." The same report proposes, as an aid to the factories, to remove the duty of three cents per pound on the import of raw cotton, and to extend the duty of seven and a naif per cent, to all cotton goods. It also remarks that cotton has not the same pretension as hemp to protection, as it is not a production of the country, and affords less assurance of an adequate supply. These few facts afford an idea of the notions then entertained of that cotton which has since overshadowed all other interests. The old mill of Samuel Slater, Esq., the first building erected in America for the manufacture of cotton yarns, is a venerable wood-built structure, two stories in height, bearing numerous evidences of its antiquity, having been erected in 1793. Two spinning fiamcs, the first in the mill, are still there, and are decided curiosities in their way. It is almost incredible to believe that this old building, time-worn and weather-browned, was the first to spread its sheltering roof over the young pupil of Arkwright, and that those dwarf frames, rusty and mildewed with inactivity, are the pioneer machines of that immense branch of our national industry — the manufacture of cotton goods. It may be 162 MANUFACTURE IN AMERICA SPINNING PROGRESS. remarked that down to 1828 the exportation of machines of all kinds, and also wool, was strictly prohibited in England, for fear other nations should benefit by English mechanic- al genius, of which they supposed they had a monopoly ; when, however, they found that the balance of genius was on this side of the pond, they liberally removed the prohibition. Mr. Slater, the father of American cotton manufactures, was so closely watched at the English custom-house, that he could not smuggle over a drawing or pattern. He had, however, acquired a full knowledge of the Arkwright principle of spinning, and from recollection, and with his own hands, made three cards and twenty-two spindles, and put them in motion in the building of a clothier, by the water-wheel of an old fulling- mill. Eighty-eight years have since elapsed, and the business has in that period increased beyond all precedent in the history of manu- factures. Our rivers and wild waterfalls, that then flowed and murmured in solitude, are now propelling thousands of mill-wheels, and millions of shuttles and spindles. In the business, hundreds of fortunes have been made, thousands of citizens earn a subsist- ence and find constant employment, while millions are clothed in different portions of the globe. A wonderful revolution has that old mill produced on the shores of the new world. When Gen. Jackson visited the mill, and complimented Slater on his having been the first : " Yes," he replied, " here I gave out the psalm, which is now sung by millions." The machines for the spinning of cotton thence spread into several states, and con- tinued to attract capital. The extent to which this was carried became evident in 1810, from the facts collected by the secre- tary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin, Esq. The manufactures of cotton and wool were then principally confined to families ; and Mr. Gallatin thought it probable that about two-thirds of the clothing (including hosiery), of the house and table linen worn and used by the inhabitants of the United States, not residing in cities, was the product of family manufactures. The number of cotton mills returned to the secretary, which were erect- ed at the close of the year 1809, was eighty- seven, sixty-two of which (forty-eight water and fourteen horse-mills) were in operation, and worked at that time 31,000 spindles. The other twenty -five, it was supposed, would be in operation in the course of the year 1810, and, with the former, would probably work eighty thousand spindles at the com- mencement of the year 1811. He estimated the amount of capital that would be em- ployed in these mills at 14,800,000, the cotton used 3,600,000 lbs., the yarn spun at 2,880,000 lbs., valued at $3,240,000, the men employed 500, and the women and boys 3,500. By the returns of the marshals of the census of 1810, the number of cotton fac- tories was 168, with 90,000 spindles; but from most of the states no returns were made of the quantity of cotton used and the yarn spun. Massachusetts had 54, most of them, no doubt, small, having in the whole only 19,448 spindles, consuming but 838,- 348 pounds of cotton, and their produce valued at $931,916. Rhode Island had 26 factories, with 21,030 spindles, and Connect- icut 14, with 11,883 spindles. These were for the supply of yarn to be used in hand looms exclusively. In this position of affairs the war took place ; but just on its eve Mr. Francis C. Lowell, of Boston, returned from Europe, where he had inspected the great improve- ments in machines for cotton manufacturing, and had formed the project of establishing the manufacture in this country- He as- sociated with himself in the enterprise his brother-in-law, Patrick S. Jackson, and they set about it. The country was then at war with England, and there was no possibility of getting either models or machines thence, nor even drawings. The memory of Mr. Lowell was all that was to be depended upon for the structure of the machinery, the materials used in the construction, even the tools of the machine shop. The first object to be accomplished was to procure a power loom. To obtain one from England was, of course, impracticable ; and although there were many patents for such machines in our Patent Office, not one had yet exhibited suf- ficient merit to be adopted into use. Under these circumstances but one resource re- mained — to invent one themselves — and this these earnest men at once set about. Unacquainted as they were with machinery in practice, they dared, nevertheless, to at- tempt the solution of a problem that had baffled the most ingenious mechanicians. In England, the power loom had been invented by a clergyman, and why not here by a mer- chant ? After numerous experiments and failures, they at last succeeded, in the COTTON MANUFACTURES. 163 autumn of 1812, in producing a model which they thought so well of as to be willing to make preparations for putting up a mill for the weaving of cotton cloth. It was now necessary to procure the assistance of a practical mechanic, to aid in the construction of the machinery, and the friends had the good fortune to secure the services of Mr. Paul Moody, afterward so well known as the head of the machine shop at Lowell. They found, as might naturally be expected, many defects in their model loom ; but these were gradually remedied. The project hitherto had been exclusively for a weaving mill, to do by power what had before been done by hand looms. But it was ascertain- ed on inquiry that it would be more eco- nomical to spin the twist than to buy it, and they put up a mill for about 1,700 spindles, which was completed late in 1813. It will probably strike the reader with some astonishment to be told that this mill, still in operation at Waltham, was probably the first one in the world that combined all the operations necessary for converting the raw cotton into finished cloth. Such, however, is the fact, as far as we are informed on the subject. The mills in this country — Slater's, for example, in Rhode Island — were spin- ning mills only ; and in England, though the power loom had been introduced, it was used in separate establishments, by persons who bought, as the hand weavers had always done, their twist of the spinners. Great dif- ficulty was at first experienced at Waltham, for the want of a proper preparation (sizing) of the warps. They procured from England a drawing of Horrocks' dressing machine, which, with some essential improvements, they adopted, producing the dresser now in use at Lowell and elsewhere. No method was, however, indicated in this drawing of winding the threads from the bobbins on to the beam ; to supply this deficiency, the macnine called the warper was invented, and there was now no further difficulty in weaving by power looms. The " double speeder," answering to the fly frame for spin- ning roving, was then added. Mr. Moody then invented the machine called the filling throstle, for winding the thread for weft from the bobbin on to the quills for the shuttle. The manufacture, as far as machinery went, was now on a permanent basis. The dif- ficulty that presented itself was in opera- tives. There was here no such pauper class as that from which the English mills were sup- 10 plied, and the factories were to be recruited from respectable families. By the erection of boarding-houses, at the expense and under the control of the factory ; putting at the head of them matrons of tried character, and allowing no boarders to be received except the female operatives of the mill; by strin- gent regulations for the government of these houses — by all these precautions, they gained the confidence of the rural population, who were no longer afraid to trust their daughters in a manufacturing town. A supply was thus obtained, of respectable girls; and these, from pride of character, as well as from prin- ciple, took great care to exclude all othors. It was soon found that apprenticeship in a factory entailed no degradation of character, and was no impediment to a respectable con- nection in marriage. A factory girl was no longer condemned to pursue that vocation for life; she would retire, in herturn, to assume the higher and more appropriate responsibilities of her sex ; and it soon came to be consid- ered that a few years in a mill were an honor- able mode of securing a dower. The busi- ness could thus be conducted without any per- manent manufacturing population. The oper- atives no longer formed a separate caste, pur- suing a sedentary employment, from parent to child, intheheated rooms of a factory, but were recruited in a circulating current from the healthy and virtuous population of the country. The success which these mills met with of course prompted their extension. In 1821, Mr. Ezra Worther, who had formerly been a partner with Mr. Moody, and who had applied to Mr. Jackson for employment, suggested that the Pawtucket canal, at Chelmsford, would afford a fine location for large manufacturing establishments, and that probably a privilege might be purchased of its proprietors. To Mr. Jackson's mind the hint suggested a much more stupendous pro- ject — nothing less than to possess himself of the whole power of the Merrimac river at that place. Aware of the necessity of se- crecy of action, to secure this property at any reasonable price, he undertook it single- handed. It was necessary to purchase not only the stock in the canal, but all the farms on both sides of the river, which controlled the water-power, or which might be neces- sarv for the future extension of the business. Such was the .beginning of Lowell, since so world-renowned. A new company, the Mer- rimac, was immediately established under the direction of Kirk Boott ; Esq. 164 MANUFACTURE IN AMERICA SPINNING PROGRESS. The establishment of the Lowell mills took place at a time when the occurrence of war had diverted the capital of New England from commerce, and it eagerly sought new modes of investment. These were presented in the promising prospects of the newly in- vented machine manufactures. The cotton growth of the south had become large before the war, and that event caused an immense accumulation of stock that sunk the price to the lowest point, and by so doing, offered an abundance of raw material at rates merely nominal compared with what the English manufacturers had been paying. This gave a great advantage to the new enterprise', and Congress aided it by the establishment of protective duties. The minimum cotton duty was invented for the purpose. The rate was nominally ad valorem, but the price was fixed at a minimum, on which the duty was cast — hence the duty was in effect spe- cific. Thus, the abundant raw material, the low price of cotton, and the protection of the government, all combined to give breadth to the newly awakened manufacturing fe- ver. The capital that crowded into it, soon, as a matter of course, overdid the business, and distress followed, which was sought to be relieved by a still higher tariff in 1 824. That seemed, however, to add but fuel to the flame; and in 1828, still higher rates were demanded. We may compane these tariffs : cotton goods not dyed were to be valued at twenty -five cents per square yard, and pay twenty-five per cent, duty, or six and a quar- ter cents per yard ; goods printed or dyed were to pay nine cents per square yard ; fus- tians, moleskins, etc., were to pay twenty-five •cents per square yard ; woollens were charged twenty-five per cent, in 1816, thirty-three ;and a half per cent, in 1824, and forty-five per cent, in 1828. Under all these circum- stances, the manufacture could not fail to grow rapidly, and of course to bring on dis- tress as the result. In 1831, the tariff excite- ment had reached such a pitch that the most •disastrous political results were anticipated. It was then that the committee of the con- vention collected information of the existing manufactures. They reported the table which we annex. The returns are for the eleven states where manufactures were well devel- oped ; some twenty to thirty other mills were also reported, but so imperfectly that the returns were rejected. The table is very ■valuable — -as follows : — ^ t fe- re o ■ o £■ '■ - z — 2 S 1 52. >o .p .» ~s c t i 3 S g g d I C » 3 » » = s ■ •>"">T2 S« 2"* "3 ~-i ' ££■« »"3 r-a "3 §"e i = 3 " 2^ 2. S.S: k ft*< ft * a c 5 "2 : = Si oS.- — I — i oct?t»o O O O © OM O C**HOO)frH OJO'OlOOI'Ji*. to i- 1 © © © a> c ~ ■' tJ» — i -* 4*. — — > q © 4~ o • gocjiw — ©©© — .* -} © to 4- © *> —i co © c © ©to H-C0-4rf*©©©tOtOC0© © CO © P"< pi 01 w-» -•« ►d 5°/°' ice. p s wto^ *. 001 to 00 ■— u- i cc onyi O O CIO . UCIO^OO 4>O30O B ooco 0—100 3 soo* 0000 "i. ^ 10 z h^"0O B 5" O 4>- ■ a £. Ui — O Z. — 1 JJOOOjS- w^j-jPS^j, toi^ 9> ^J= i»5° J= 2 2 ooo tn CO as 00 ojocji 0"-i o?3 o — o ooooaases^as oo — 1 4^ ^ oooooooooo>o 10 .— .^ J* 2. _ © *. © 'g'od cote 00 CO V — s tOOO OS -J. • ^- CMC CO r; » K p ^jc — . — » 00 to — 4 5 C? 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C — «0 is So to to O JC JO -^ COOOOOCOC4*. 5T CiOooou«occnX3J — to - -" X S -1 to • c * -1." to 010 — OOIOO-* 00 o o to O /3 O Cl< cr co c to o -ji CO CO tO ^ O O COTTON MANUFACTURES. 105 Such had been the immense growth of the manufacture in ten years from the time the Lowell mills were started, when but little machine cloth was made; but in 1831, there was made, it appears, 230,461,990 yards, or nearly twenty yards per head for all the people. It is obvious that this large and sudden production of cloth could have found vent only by supplanting the work of families and hand looms, and of course by pressing hard upon the spinners of yarn. The New England mills were mostly carried on as one concern, spinning and manufacturing together. This, however, was not the case with the mills in the mid- dle or the new states. The mills there were mostly employed in spinning only, as were the first New England mills. The yarns were produced for sale to hand looms. The census of 1840 gave the number of mills in the whole country at 1,240, and the number of spindles at 2,284,631. consum- ing 132,835,856 lbs. of cotton; jand the manufacture had continued to spread into the southern and western states. That was still hand weaving, which yet obtained in many parts of the older states of the Union. Thus, while in Pennsylvania the capital invested amounted to about one- seventh of that of Massachusetts, the quan- tity of cotton consumed was one-fifth; the value of the raw material, not quite one- fourth; number of operatives (male and female), one-fourth; value of products, rather more than one-fourth; the number of pounds of yarn spun and sold as yarn was above thirty times greater in Pennsyl- vania than in Massachusetts. This, to a certain extent, gave a key to the differen- ces in the modes of manufacture in the two states. There could be no doubt, however, that domestic weaving was gradually giv- ing way, and those manufacturers, espec- ially in Pennsylvania, who formerly did a piosperous business as spinners only, now found that the eastern states supplied the piece goods at a rate so little above the cost of the yarn, that it was not worth the while of the farmer to continue this prim- itive custom of weaving his own cloth. Thus the domestic loom had begun to fol- low the spinning wheel of the early settlers, and those manufacturers who, a few years since spun yarn only, gradually introduced the power loom as the only means of sus- taining their position in the market. This was illustrated by the Eagle Cotton Mill, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Formerly, the proprietors spun yarn only, and did a suc- cessful trade; but, by a return which they made, it appeared that in six establish- ments under their direction they had intro- duced already 540 looms to the 26,000 spindles, and were manufacturing sheeting at the rate of 6,000,000 yards per annum, together with twilled cotton bags, batting, and yarns, and this in order to make the latter pay, by consuming the surplus yarns themselves. In the Penn Cotton Mill, Pittsburg, the more modern system has be- come the rule of the establishment, and with 7,000 spindles and 207 looms, 2,730,- 000 yards of shirtings were produced annu- ally, besides 240,000 lbs. weight of colored yarns for cotton warps and cotton rope. At two establishments in Richmond, Vir- ginia, the consumption of the yarn in the manufacture of piece goods v a ; the rule. Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina were quoted as those in which the greater progress had been made, while Virginia, South Carolina, and Alabama were the next. In Tennessee, spinning would ap- pear to be the rule and manufacturing the exception; in Georgia and North Carolina, equal attention is paid to both; while in Virginia, South Carolina, and Alabama, the manufacture of the piece goods was de- cidedly more extensively carried on than spinning; but slave labor was largely used, with free whites as overseers and instruc- tors. The males were heads of depart- ments, machinists, dressers, etc., and the females were spinners and weavers. The latter were chiefly adults, though children from twelve to fifteen were employed. The average hours of work here were twelve, but varied a little with the season, very full time being the rule. The James River Mill produced a large weight of work for the extent of its machinery. The goods manufactured were coarse cottons, and av- eraged about two and one-half yards to the pound, shirtings, twenty-eight inches wide (osnaburgs), summer pantaloons for slaves, and bagging for export to the Brazils for sugar bags, running about three yards to the pound. Bagging of a lighter character for grain, and thirty-six inch osnaburgs, two yards to the pound, were also product » : . The Manchester Company manufactured sheetings, shirtings, and yarns, and employ- ed about 325 operatives; the children being of the same average age as at the James 166 MANUFACTURE IN AMERICA SPINNING PROGRESS. River Mill. Mr. Whitehead, of Virginia, in 1853, perfected a patent speeder. Its advantages are a greater speed, a more even roving, and a bobbin of any desirable size, which never becomes spongy in the winding. In Maryland, however, there were twenty-four establishments in 1850, chiefly engaged in the manufacture of piece goods, such as drillings, sheetings, ducks, osnaburgs, and bagging. The yarns pro- duced for domestic purposes bore but a small proportion to those manufactured in- to cloth, and these were chiefly sold within the state for tne home weaving of mixed fabrics of wool and cotton, forming coarse linseys. If the illustrations given show the early progress and position' of this manu- facture in the United State?, so far as dai- ly-recurring improvements and ever-in- creasing wants have permitted it to remain in its original form, the manufacturing towns of Lowell, Manchester, and Law- rence, strikingly demonstrate the results of the energy and enterprise of the manufac- turers of New England. At Lowell, Mass., the cotton m muf acture was developed in a form which has been a theme for many writers on the economy and social bearing of the factory system; and the plans so successfully put into operation here and carried on since 1822 have led to the erec- tion of large establishments, with their at- tendant boarding-houses, at Manchester, and Nashua, N. H., and at Lawrence, and Holyoke, Mass. The falls of the Pawtucket on the Merrimac river and the Pawtucket canal, which had previously been used only for the purpose of navigation and connect- ing the river above and below the falls by means of locks, presented to the original projectors of Lowell a site for the solution of an important problem, not only in American industry, but to a great extent in that of Europe itself. This was the com- bination of great natural advantages with a large and well-directed capital, resulting in extensive and systematic operations for the realization of a legitimate profit, while the social position of the operative classes was sedulously cared for, and their moral and intellectual elevation promoted and secured. The census of 1870 gave figures that show the extent of the manufacture as it existed at that date, in all the states. Those figures are as follows: — COTTON MANUFACTURES OF THE UNITED STATES PER CENSUS OF 1870. States. No of Establish- ments. Capital. Cost of Raw Material. Male Hands. Female Hands. Cost of Labor. Value of Products. 23 36 8 194 142 111 81 143 29 6 22 "7 4 5 3 3 5 11 33 12 34 "l3 4 4 5 2 28 1 $9,839,685 13,332,710 670,000 44,832,375 18,885.300 12,710.700 8,511.336 12.575,821 2.671.500 1,165.000 2,734.250 $6,746,780 12,318,867 292.269 37.485,086 13.325.938 8,818.661 6,990,626 10,759.473 2,007,408 704,733 3,409,426 2.606 3,752 125 13.713 5.697 4.443 2,748 3,881 798 225 6S8 216 119 26 10 107 77 921 232 289 1,147 301 123 184 78 8 252 3 6.833 8,790 326 29,883 11.213 7,643 6,604 8.882 2,629 501 2,172 246 385 72 6 254 192 820 1,119 834 1,699 729 123 107 187 9 638 3 $2,565,197 3,989,853 125.000 13.612,925 5 210,333 3,246,783 2.026.131 3,610 534 1,018,751 190,0(59 671,933 $11,842,781 New Hampshire, 16,999,072 546.510 59,679,123 22,139.203 14,026.344 ' 11,177,251 17.565,028 4,078.768 1,060,898 4.852,808 Indiana, 555,700 651,500 151,000 42.000 489,200 405.000 1,128,000 1,030,900 1.337,000 3,433,265 493,704 542.875 177,525 7,051 481 ,745 375,1148 937.820 963,809 761 .469 2,504,758 ' 1,064.865 161,485 216,519 123,568 13,780 595,789 4,950 113520 113.200 25 5 6,309 120,300 67,951 229.750 1S2,! 51 257.G80 611,868 679,885 778,047 279.000 16,803 798,050 498,960 1,135,800 1,845,059 1.529.937 3,618,973 931.000 592.000 496.000 751,600 13.000 970.650 1,500 216,679 60.600 68,211 61,833 4,100 175,156 275 1,088,768 251.550 314.598 234,445 22.662 941.542 7,000 969 1,091 $140,907 892 98,5C5,269 $111,976,716 57,285,534 42,957 46,859 92,866 75.169 $39,103,383 23,940,168 $177,903,687 Total in 1860, 115,681,774 —122 +$42,322,623 +$54,691,182 —3,902 +17,637 +$15,163,215 + $62,221,913 Fig. 1. — LYALL'S PATENT POSITIVE MOTION POWER LOOM — COMI'LETE. Fig. 4. — SHOWING MOTION OF SHUTTLE^ WJm. COTTON MANUFACTURES. 169 CHAPTER III. INVENTIONS— MODE OF MANUFAC- TURE—PRINTING—AGGREGATE. The past decade (1870-1880) has been remarkable for the improvements and new processes introduced into all departments of the cotton manufacture. Among these are, in spinning, the Clement and Goggin attachments, both of which combine the principle of the gin with that of the spin- ning mule, and use the seed cotton instead of the ginned cotton. It does not seem to be fully settled yet that these attachments are of universal val- ue, even in the cotton states, but, as they are coming into somewhat extensive use there, it may be well to state, in the words of one of the owners of the Clement attach- ment, Mr. F. E. Whitfield, of Corinth, Miss., what the process is, what it costs, and what is claimed for it: "To convert an old into a new-process cotton mill, little else is necessary than to get a cleanser of seed cotton, capacity from 6,000 to 10,000 pounds seed cotton per day, cost from $75 to $100, and to substitute an attachment, costing about $175, for the lickerin and feed rollers on each card ; this is easily and quickly done, and no other piece of machinery is changed. Now let us see what are the advantages, savings, etc , of the Clement attachment. The seed cotton is first passed through the cleanser, which removes all dirt, dust, and most of the motes, trash, etc. ; it is then carried by a revolving apron directly into the breast of the attachment at the rate of from f to 2 pounds of seed cotton per minute, where the lint is all removed from the seed ; the filaments, not being permitted to fly or leave the machinery, are passed through the moters of the attachment, where all trash, motes, and other extraneous matter not removed by the cleanser or saws, are combed out, and the filaments delivered to the card, passing through which they fall either into a revolving can (if only one card is used), or (where three or more are used) into the ordinary railway trough, whence, passing through the usual machin- ery, it is converted into yarns of any num- ber. "First. — It is claimed and practically demonstrated by every new process mill, that the attachment dispenses with nearly one-half the buildings, motive power, ma- chinery, and operatives, hitherto necessary to convert any given amount of seed cot- ton into yarn in any specific time. " Second. — That the card is made to do four times as much work, using seed cot- ton and the same amount of motive power, as it did by the old process, using lint cot- ton after it had passed through six or eight different machines. " Third. — That it removes all lint from the seed (estimated by oil men as 6 or 8 per cent, of the cotton), saves the waste in the lint room of the gin and picker room of the factory; also saves some waste in the other factory rooms, on account of the superior strength of the sliver, rove, and thread. " Fourth. — That it produces stronger sli- ver, rove, and thread, the latter of any numbers, more sheeney, and 50 per cent, stronger than yarns made of bladed cotton, thereby enabling operatives to attend more machinery, and each machine to do more work, especially in the spinning and weav- ing room. "Fifth. — That it saves the ginning, bal- ing bagging, and ties, amounting to $5.50 per bale." It may be added that the cleansing of the seed from the lint not only saves a con- siderable amount of excellent cotton, but greatly facilitates the work of the cotton seed oil mills, and enables them to produce a better quality of oil cake, and at a lower rate. Other improvements have been made in the spinning frames, by which greater perfection in the threads is secured, as well as a greatly increased production. Machines for combing the cotton, in or- der to obtain fibers of uniform length, have been introduced, especially in the cot- ton thread manufacture, and the cotton thread made in this country is now ac- counted superior to that imported. The drawing frames have been greatly improved, preventing waste, and produc- ing finer and better yarns, stronger, and in much greater quantity from the machines. The substitution of the "slasher," an English invention, for the "dresser," in the preparation of the warp for sizing or starch- ing it before weaving it, is pronounced 1 y Mr. Edward Atkinson the most marked single change in cotton machinery which has occurred within his experience. " The dresser was operated in a room at a constant heat of 100° to 110°, and in an atmosphere 170 INVENTIONS MODE OF MANUFACTURE PRINTING AGGREGATE. saturated with the steam given oil by sour starch; one machine, attended by one man, was needed for every forty or fifty looms. The slasher is operated in a cool, well-ven- tilated room, and one machine, attended by one man with a boy to aid him, will serve 2 j ) to 350 looms, the number varying with the description of the fabric." Wo have already alluded to the double adjustable ring, in connection with, the Sawyer and New Rabbeth spindles, and the Draper filling spinner, as producing a revolution in doing away with the mule spinners, which so long held the ground in cotton spinning. Tha improvements in looms both for plain and figured weaving, and for all widths, have been equally remarkable. There are very many of these, all possess- ing strong claims, but perhaps for some purposes, especially on the narrower goods, the Earnshaw needle loom, perfected by Greenleaf, has as great merit as any, and advantages over most. For the widest goods there are several excellent looms, among which Lyali's patent positive mo- tion power loom is perhaps the best. The bleaching, dyeing, and calico and delaine printing processes have also made great advance during the past ten or fif- teen years; so great that in all these de- partments American goods compete favor- ably with any in the world, and our printed goods, as well as our bleached and un- bleached cloths are sold in Manchester, and preferred to the English in China, India, and Brazil. But it is not alone in the manufacture of the cotton fiber that the cotton plant fur- nishes material for the world's industry. The cotton seed, long regarded as a waste product, or at most indifferently rotted for a manure, is now pressed for its oil, which is superior in quality to linseed oil, and for many purposes to olive oil, and for which the demand far exceeds the supply. The oil cake, left after the expression of the oil, is also in great demand for the feeding of cattle, milch cows, and sheep, while the hulls, which can be separated before press- ing, form an admirable paper stock or palp, and are likewise in request for the packing of the pistons of steam engines. The stalks of the cotton are also of great value for paper stock. Mr. Edward Atkinson grows eloquent communication to the A. Y. Herald, in August, 1880, he says, "The value of the seed is yet an unknown quantity. It may seem almost the work of a visionary to compute it. If we make G,000,U00 bales of cotton fiber in a year (we made at least 6,500,000 in 1880), the weight of cotton seed that will remain after enough has been set aside for the next year's planting will be 3,000,000 tons. If the whole of this seed be treated as a small portion is now treated, this seed will give the following results: about 90,000,000 gallons of oil, about 1,300,000 tons of oil cake or meal, about 1,500,000 tons of hulls, from which there is every reason to suppose, from ex- periments here and actual use elsewhere, that 750,000 tons of paper may be made. Otherwise, these hulls ground into meal with the oil cake will leave as food for stock 2,800,000 tons in all. Each ton of this ground meal will carry at least five sheep six months ; the rest of the year they would have ample food from the annual grasses that are the pest of the cotton plan- ter, or from corn fodder, cowpeas, or other refuse or alternate crops. The waste of the cotton gin and oil press, with other waste of the cotton farm, will therefore suf- fice for not less than 14,000,000 to 20,000,- 000 sheep, probably for double that num- ber. These sheep folded upon the cotton field would so fertilize the soil as to double the crop of cotton on any given acre of up- lands; the manure of animals fed on cot- ton seed meal being richer than that from any other known variety of food." While the manufacture has thus spread over the face of the Union, the pioneer mills, or those which are erected in new localities, are generally employed in the spinning of yarn of coarse soi'ts; the old mills gradually spinning finer yarn, and at- taching weaving and printing to their op- erations. In the whole period, however, of the past seventy years, continued im- provements have been made in machines and in power. Those mills that came into operation with fresh capital and the new- est machines, had always advantages over those which still worked the old machines. The introduction of steam as a motor also favored the introduction of mills into lo- calities that were not provided with water, and many persons contended that steam was cheaper and better even where water over the uses of the cotton seed. In a power existed. The latter was improved j COTTON MANUFACTURE'S. 171 in its turn by the introduction of turbine wheels, which are a steady and sufficient power. The streams of New England were by art made to contribute in a won- derful manner to the work of factories. The works at Holyoke, Mass., are a singu- lar instance of genius and enterprise. In the machines themselves, the greatest im- provements have been continually made, in this country, as well as abroad. The card-sticking machine, the steel die of Per kins, ring spindle of Jenks, the improved throstle of M 'Cully, the tube-frame, the patent size of Mallerd, of Lowell, are among the most important of a crowd of inven- tions that have been made by American mechanics. The ring spindle of Mr. Jenks is very curious, and is producing important results. That gentleman was a pupil of Slater, and had an establishment for the manufacture of cotton machinery near Philadelphia, since 1810. On the starting of the Lowell mills, Mr. Moody invented a number of machines, viz., a loom, a fill- ing frame, a double speeder, a governor, and also what is called the " dead spindle," in distinction to the "live spindle," which was the English invention. The dead spin- dle is mostly used in Lowell. Mr. Jenks' ring spindle, however, superseded both, as it was found to produce more and better yarn. The spindle of this improved frame has no fly, but has a small steel ring, called a traveler, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, with a slit for the insertion of the thread, which is wound by the ring traveling around the bobbin, being held in its horizontal plane, during its circuit, by an iron ring loosely embraced by its lower end and fastened upon the traversing rail, being sufficiently large to allow the head of the bobbin, as well as the traveler, to pass through without touching. This plan of spindle may be driven 8,000 revolutions per minute with perfect security when spin- ning coarse yarn, and when producing the finer numbers, 10,000 revolutions per min- ute is not an extraordinary speed for it to attain. Since 1870, and between that date and 1878, the double adjustable ring has been perfected, and is used in connection with the Sawyer and New Rabbeth spin- dle in all the new mills. This is a great advance on Jenks' original ring spindle in speed and perfection of yarn. The Draper filling spinner, invented in 1877, will at no distant day banish the mule completely from the field. The manufacture, as at present con- ducted, is a most beautiful and complicated art. The raw material is divided into long staple, medium staple, and short staple. The staple means simply the length of the fiber, and it is characteristic of the origin of the article. The first or long staple is used for the warps, or the longitudinal threads of a cloth. These threads must be ['made of long staple; no other kind of cot- ton will spin into the fine numbers. The medium staple is used for the ''weft," or cross threads of tissues. It is softer and silkier than the long staple, and fills up the fabric better. The long staple will not an- swer for this purpose. The quantity of cot- ton in the weft of cloth is from two to five times as much as that in the warp. The short staple is used for weft, but it is harsher and more like wool, and after wash- ing or bleaching it makes the cloth meagre and thin. It is mixed with the medium staple in small proportions. This last and almost, when alone, useless sort is that which comes from India, and the first or long staple is "sea island," raised on our southern coast. The medium staple, or that which is required for the great bulk of the manufactures, is alone found in the United States. It is that kind called "uplands," bowed Georgia, or New Orleans. The quality is a result of climate and soil. The cotton having reached the mill, it is requisite that all of the same staple, but of different qualities, should be well mixed, to 172 INVENTIONS MODE OF MANUFACTURE PRINTING AGGREGATE. give as uniform a character as possible to the cloth. To attain this, the contents of a bale are spread out upon the floor, and upon it another is scattered, and so on until a huge pile, called a " bing," has been raised; a rake is then used to scrape down from the sides, thus mixing the whole as the cotton is required for the mill. This cotton is matted together and filled with dirt, sometimes by design to increase the weight fraudulently. It must, therefore, first of all be cleaned and the fibres loosened. For this purpose several machines are used. The favorite is a patent AVilley, which is composed of two iron axles on a level with each other, each having four stout steel teeth. The teeth of both axles mesh together as they revolve, and also the fixed teeth attached to the inner casing of the box which contains them. These axles revolve 1,600 times in a minute, opening out the fibres and beating out the dirt from the cotton, which is blown through a tube by a revolving fan. The second machine through which the cotton passes is the spreading machine, the object of which is to perfect the clean- ing and loosening of the fibres. The cot- ton being carefully weighed and spread upon the feeding apron, passes in between a pair of rollers, where it meets the action of blunt knives revolving 1,700 times in a minute. The cotton coming from this ma- chine is flattened into a filmy sheet of uni- form thickness, and wound upon a roller. It is of the greatest importance tha* this feed- ing should be done evenly, as otherwise the " lap," as it winds upon the roller, will have thin and thick places, which will run through the subsequent manufacture. The laps that come from the spreader ■wound on rollers, are now to go through the third process, that of carding. The machine for this purpose we have described. It re- ceives the end of the lap from the roller of the spreader, and by its operation combs out and straightens the cotton into a delicate fleece, which the " doffer" delivers through a funnel, whence it is drawn com- pressed, elongated, and consolidated by a pair of rollers, that drop it into a tin can. To the observer it appears like a stream of cream running into the tin can. For very fine yarns, this process is repeated with finer cards. The first carding is then called breaking. The fourth process for the cotton is the drawing. Hitherto the cotton has passed only through male hands ; with the drawing it passes into those of females. The slivers, as they arc dropped into the tin can from the carding machine, are exceedingly tender and loose, and the fibres are not yet arranged in the position proper for the manufacture of smooth yarn. This is to be perfected by the rollers of the drawing frame ; some frames have three pairs of rollers and others four. The distance between the pairs of rollers is such that the longest fibre of cotton will not reach from the centre of one roller to that of another pair. This prevents breaking the fibres, but the rollers must not be too far apart, lest the cotton separate in unequal thicknesses. The " doubling," by which the end of a new sliver is laid on the middle of one running in, equalizes the sliver. The more it is doubled and drawn, the more per- fect is the yarn, and this doubling is done sometimes 32,000 times. The fifth operation is the roving, or first spinning process. The slivers un- der the action of the drawing frame be- come so thin and tender they will no longer hold together without a twist, and many machines are used for the purpose of imparting it, under the names of slubbin, fly frame, belt speeder, tube frame, and others. The operation is performed one or more times, according to the fineness of the yarn desired. The cans which receive the slivers from the drawing frames are placed upon revolving wheels, and the sliver passes from these to the flv frame. This came into use in 1817. In this frame the spindles are set vertically in one or two rows at equal distances apart, each passing through a bobbin, which is loosely attached to it, and which has a play equal to its length up and down on the spindle ; at the top of the spin- dle is suspended a fly with two dependent legs, one solid, and the other hollow. The roving enters this by an eye immediately above the top of the spindle, and passing down the hollow leg attaches to the bobbin. The revolving spindle carries the fly with it, spinning and winding the roving at the same time. At this point enters a very nice calculation. The roller on which the roving is wound delivers it with the exact speed of the spindle, but as tne size of the bobbin on the latter increases, it going at the same speed would take up the yarn faster than the roller would deliver it, and would strain it too much. This is avoided by a contrivance which varies the speed of the bobbin to >"fiet COTTON MANUFACTURES. 173 the circumstances. The rovings having re- ceived this twist, are now to be spun into yarn, and this is done either by the throstle or the mule spinner. The difference in the motion and structure of these machines is not great. The former is similar to the bobbin and fly frame. The roving being unwound from the bobbin is elongated between three pairs of rollers, and is then spun and wound upon a bobbin as before. The greatest differ- ence in these machines is in the spindles. The oldest is the live spindle, and the dead spindle is that invented at Lowell, and that which has been most used here. The ring spindle of Jenks is fast superseding both. The thread being spun by any of these means is wound upon bobbins, and these are then set in a frame in such a manner that the threads can be wound off from them on to a large six-sided reel. This, one and a half yards in circumference, makes 560 revolutions, giving the length of a " hank ;" many hanks are wound on the reel at the same time, and when these are removed and weighed they give the number of the yarn. The coarsest yarn weighs half a pound to the hank, or 840 yards ; common quality gives ten to forty hanks to the pound. The finest seldom exceeds 300 hanks to the pound. Previous to 1840 no yarn finer than 350' w r as made in England ; at the World's Fair there was some exhibited 600, and some muslin for a dress for the queen was made of 460 yarn. This exceeds the " fairy tissues" of the east, mentioned in the fore part of this article. Thus machinery has overtaken east- ern hand art. It has been stated that yarn has been spun 900, and one specimen of No. 2,150, or 1,026 miles for a pound of cotton! The finest yarns are singed by being run through a gas flame ; they are then passed over a brush and run through a hole in a piece of brass just large enough to admit the yarn. Any inequality then stops the yarn and is immediately remedied. Upon most of the machines, throstles, and feeders there are clocks, which, wound up once a week, mark the quantity of work that each ma- chine does. From this register the account is transferred to a board which hangs in sight of all the operatives, and from which the monthly wages are ascertained. The yarn being spun, the filling is- now ready for the weaver, but the warp goes to the dressing-room. Here the yarn is warped off from the spools on to the section beams. This is considered hard work, since it re- quires unremitting attention to reconnect the threads that are constantly breaking. The yarn now upon the beams undergoes " dressing," or the application of the size before mentioned, and the friction of the brushes. The beams containing the dressed yarn go to the weaving-room, which usually is a large mill containing one hundred and fifty girls, and some six hundred looms. From this room the woven fabric goes to the cloth-room, where it is trimmed, measured, folded, and recorded, and either baled for market or sent to the print-works. The print-works are a most interesting portion of the manufacture. The cloth re- ceived from the manufactory is covered with a fine nap, which, if printed, would rise up and give the colored parts a pepper-and-salt look. To get rid of this, the cloth is singed ; not as the cook singes a fowl, by a blaze, but by running the cloth over a half-cylinder of copper, heated red hot. The cloth is passed over dry, and repassed; after which it is moistened by wet rollers, to extinguish any shreds which might happen to be on fire. This singeing process always excites the wonder of the beholder, who is not a little astonished that the cloth is not injured. The next process is to bleach the cloth. On the success of this depends all the after- work. A good white is not only the soul of a print, but without it no good and bril- liant color can be dyed. The greatest diffi- culty is to remove every trace of grease and oil, imparted by the spinner and weaver. The cloth is, therefore, put into big tubs, holding five hundred pieces, and steeped in warm water some hours. It is then washed in the dash-wheel, and subjected to the follow- ing operations, which convert the oil to soap, and remove with it the coloring matter : — 1. Boiled by steam in a creamy lime. 2. Washed in the dash-wheel. 3. Boiled in alkali by steam. 4. Washed in the dash-wheel. 5. Steeped in bleaching-powder solution some hours. 6. Steeped in oil vitriol and water, about the strength of lemon juice. 7. Washed in the dash-wheel. S. Squeezed between rollers. 9. Mangled and dried in air, or in warm rooms built for this purpose. The cloth is now perfectly white, and loses not so much in weight ami strength as by the old process of grass bleaching. The bleached cloth is now printed with one or 174 INVENTIONS MODE OF MANUFACTURE PRINTING AGGREGATE. more colors. Four to six colors only could be applied by the printing machine up to 1845 ; if more were wanted, they were, until recently, introduced by hand, with blocks, after the other colors were finished. By a Boston invention, patented in 1851, twelve colors may now be printed. The improve- ment consists in the mode of applying pres- sure to the print rollers. A yielding pres- sure of several tons is given to each roller. The frame is also so constructed that any one of the rollers may be removed from the ma- chine without disturbing the others. The machine weighs ten tons, and is ten feet high. This huge machine is so nicely ad- justed that the cloth, while passing through it at the rate of a mile per hour, receives twelve colors each with the utmost precision. Ordinary machines will print 300 pieces, or 12,000 yards, per day, while, by the old hand process, it would have required 192,- 646 applications of the block. The figure, or design, is engraved on a copper roller, each color having a separate roller. The color which the beholder sees imprinted, as he watches the process, is not the color that is to be, when the print is finished. The color which he sees is, with the exception of brown, or blue, or black occasionally, fugitive. It is merely what is called " sightening" — that is, a color imparted to the paste, or " thickening," which is imprinted by the roller to enable the machine printer to judge of the perfectness of the work. The paste, or thicketiing, contains the mordant — that is, the peculiar substance which, combining chemically with the cloth, enables it to dye a peculiar color, according to the nature of the mordant and dye-wood. The cloth dyes only where the mordant is applied — that is, on the printed figure only. The mordants generally used are alum and copperas, each of which is first changed to acetate of alu- mina or iron — that is, the color-maker takes away the oil of vitriol from the alum and copperas, and substitutes vinegar in its place. Sometimes the iron liquor, as it is called, is made by dissolving iron turnings in pyrolig- neous or wood acid. The preparation of color, and the thickening it with flour, starch, gum, etc., is a distinct branch, carried on in the color shop of the print-works. It may be added, that with madder, iron dyes black and purple, according to its strength ; alum dyes red of various shades; and a mixture of the two dyes chocolate. So that out of the same dye-kettle come various colors, according to the mordant, and these colors are all fast. The cloth having been printed and dried, is " aged," during which a chemical combi- nation takes place between the mordant and the cloth. Ordinarily, this occurs in two or three weeks by a natural affinity of the cotton fibre and mordant, but by certain agents, this chemical change is hastened and perfectly effected in two or three days ; yet as this process goes on in conjunction with the others, the visitor sees only the folding up and winding into rolls of the piece of cloth, though all the time this change is going on. The cloth is then passed, by means of rollers, through a boiling hot solu- tion of phosphate of soda, to render insolu- ble any uncombined mordant, and to wet the cloth evenly. It is then washed in the dash-wheel, and after this, to remove the thickening, passed for twenty or thirty min- utes through bran or meal and water, quite hot, washed, and it is now ready for dyeing. The dye-woods used are madder, bark, or logwood — the last only for mourning prints, or black and white. The dye-wood is put into large wooden vats, with a portion of water, and then the pieces of cloth, sixteen in each vat, are introduced over a winch, moved by water power. Steam is then admitted, the goods turned through and through, round and round, gradually heat- ing the water, till at the end of two hours it rises near to boiling, and the mordanted cloth is perfectly dyed. It is taken out, rinsed, and washed in the dash-wheel. The cloth after this is passed, by means of a winch, either through hot water and bran or through hot soap, for half an hour, washed, and then again put through these operations, again washed, and then rinsed through a hot solution of chloride of soda, washed again, squeezed, and dried in either air or in warm rooms. Sometimes they are mangled with some stiffening, and so are finished. The visitor of print works will see a great number of men busily employed dipping wooden frames, on which are Btretched pieces of cloth, printed with a brown figure, into deep vats, filled with a green- blue liquor. The cloth comes out with a greenish hue, and immediately grows blue in the air on all parts, except where the brown figure was. That resists, or throws off the blue vat. Now, the blue vat contains a solu- tion of indigo in lime water. Indigo is one of the most insoluble substances in water ; COTTON MANUFACTURES. 175 but by means of copperas and lime, the oxygen of the indigo is abstracted by the iron ; it then becomes greenish and is dis- solved by the lime-water. Exposed to air, it again absorbs oxygen and becomes blue. It is during this change from green to blue that it becomes chemically united to the cloth. The brown figure resists, because it is a preparation of copper, which yields its oxygen to the indigo on the figure while in the vat. The figure becomes covered with blue indigo in the vat ; it forms then no affinity with the cloth, and consequently after the copper has been removed by a weak acid, the brown spot or figure remains white, and so is produced the blue ground with white figures. The whole is a most exquisite chemical process from beginning to end, equalled only by the process for China blue, where blue figures are raised on a white ground. This is done by printing on the figure with fine ground indigo thickened with paste, and then by alternate immer- sions in lime water and copperas liquor, the indigo is dissolved and fixed on the spots where printed, by a play of chemical affini- ties similar to those described in blue dip- ping. Black and white, and red or chocolate and white, are made by passing the cloth through red or iron liquor, or their mixture, and after squeezing, while the cloth is open and flat, that is dried in hot flues. Every part of the cloth is thus imbued with mor- dant. The process is termed " pading." It is then printed with citric acid (lemon juice) thickened with roasted starch. This acid discharges the mordant, and conse- quently, when dyed as usual, the discharged figures are left white. Logwood is the dye for black, and madder is the dye for reds and chocolates. The designing of patterns is a distinct branch of art. Usually, one or more designers are employed in each estab- lishment. In the year 1840, there were thirty-six cotton-printing establishments in the United States. These were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. They printed 100,112,000 yards, at a value of $11,667,512. Th ferment and rot by soaking and stirring in water. By these means the fibres became loosened, and sufficiently soft to be reduced to pulp in the large wooden stampers. The vats were now supplanted by engines. These aroarranged in pairs. That which first receives the rags is called the washer, working the rags coarsely, while a stream of water runs through them. The contents of this vat, when ready, is called half stuff, and is lex oft' into the other engine, which is on a lower level, and this beats or grinds the whole into pulp for making paper. From the date of the Revolution untd the year 1820, there was very little improvement in the mode of making paper by machinery. The number of mills increased in proportion to the demand for material for newspapers and book-making. This grew in such a man- ner, that by the year 1810 the ordinary sup- plies of material for paper making began to fail, and rags from Europe were imported in greater quantities for that purpose. The principal supplies of rags in the United States came from the economy of families, purchased by ragmen who called — some- times paying money, and at others exchang- ing tinware and other commodities. It is only of late years, and that in the large cities, that the European chiffonniers, or rag- pickers, have made their appearance. These are now to be seen, male and female, with the early dawn, armed with a bag and a long iron hook, watching the opening and sweep- ing out of stores, to pick up every shred of rag or paper, and following the gutters the live-long day, thrusting the iron hook into filth of all descriptions to fish out matter for the paper maker. This they rinse in the nearest puddle, and deposit in their bag. Many of them earn a fair living at this unpromising occupation. Nevertheless, the supply is \ ery inadequate, and large importations are re- sorted to. The quantity of imports is as fol- lows : — IMPORTATION OF RAGS INTO THE UNITED STATES. Rags imported. Of which Value Per lb. lbs. from Italy. ' Ct6. 1846, 9,897,706 8,002,865 $385,020 3.89 1848, 17,014,587 13,803.036 686,186 3.6S 1850, 20,696,875 15,861,266 747.157 3.61 1851, 26,094,701 18,518,678 908,876 3.46 1854, 32,615.753 84,240,999 1,007,886 3.69 1S57, 44,582,080 27.317.580 1,448,186 3.27 1S60, 43,300,000 80,810,000 1,448,400 3.27 1862, 5,(188,449 7,667,708 241.738 2.69 1869, 75,617.849 20,662,880 2,800,619 3.71 1872,* 168,467,488 80,382,481 6.007,738 3.91 1875,* 124.573,243 87.688,096 4,77(1,715 3.87 1877,* 198,978,667 15.172.785 3,916.799 3.16 1879,* 121.s94.109 i:i.87:i.7-.'9 8,196,848 2.62 1880,* 243,920,964 25,327,121 7,037,197 2.88 It may be remarked that the export of linen rags is strictly prohibited from Hol- land, Belgium, France, Spain, and Portu- gal. The import from Italy has ranged from 20 to 70 per cent. The rags thence derived are mostly linen which has been * Including other paper stock imported. r MATERIALS — PROGRESS. used for outer garments, and which have become whitened by exposure to sun and air. That circumstance formerly gave them a value which they have lost since the improvements in bleaching all descrip- tions. The linen rags from the north of Europe are stronger and darker. The quantity of rags used in the United States in 1850 was, according to the value re- ported in the census, nearly 200,000,000 lbs., and 20,696,875 lbs. were imported in that year. The importation in 1880 was more than ten times this amount. There have been apprehensions that the supply of available paper stock would, within a few years, be so far inadequate to supply the demand that the cost of paper would be gi-eatly enhanced. Rags proved insufficient as long ago as 1862 or 1863, and resort was had to other materials. But these apprehensions seem to have been groundless, for the lack of rags has led to the utilization of other materials, and though paper and pulp are now used for a thousand purposes not then dreamed of, the supply seems to be adequate, and the manufacturers of some classes of papers have been compelled to restrict the produc- tion in order not to glut the market. There was a scarcity and consequent high prices during the war, but prices are not now ma- terially higher than they were twenty years ago. A book written in Germany by M. Schaffer, so long ago as 1772, contains sixty specimens of paper made of as many different materials. Many of these mate- rials are of no practical value, because they cannot be procured in large quantities and at a cheap rate ; but there have been added to the catalogue: straw, which, after many years of experiment to retain the tenacity of the fiber, while depriving it of most of its silicious particles, is the principal source of supply for news and the cheaper book papers; wood pulp, which is also largely used, and considerable quantities imported ; hop-bind, licorice root, the stalks of several species of mallow, the husks of Indian corn, the broken and unbroken stalks and fibrous covering of the flax and hemp, es- pecially of the former, when raised for the seed; the stalks of the cotton plant, and the hulls or outer covering of the cot- ton seed, which has been found to be ad- mirably adapted for making some qualities of paper; the canes, brakes, and giant rushes of the Carolina coast; the tulc rush of California; the okra plant; the esparto, or Spanish grass, now so largely used in Great Britain, but not imported here to any practical extent; the bagasse, or crushed stalks of Indian corn and sorghum from which the juice has been expressed for sixgar making; the palmetto, particu- larly the saw" palmetto, so common on bar- ren lands at the south, the spartina fiber of the Mississippi valley, and the aloes and agaves and some of the cacti of Texas, Ari- zona, New Mexico, and California. There is no difficulty in making paper from any fibrous plant. But for practical purposes it is necessary to know, in regard to any of these articles, whether the fiber can be furnished in sufficient quantity, and at a price so low as to compete successfully with other paper stock. Enormous as is the importation of rags, waste, etc., from Eu i rope, and great as is the increase in the production of these articles in our own country, they do not supply one-third of the demand, and all the better sorts are re- served for writing papers. The industri- ous, but not particularly aesthetic or clean- ly, chiffoniers gather from every ash barrel and from all the gutters and street sweep- ings every bit of rag or waste paper, and carefully sort these and sell them to the dealers in paper stock. All the newspa- pers, magazines, imperfections in book stock and government documents which are not needed for other uses, are gathered by these dealers, and the printer's ink being discharged from them by a bleaching pro- cess, they are transformed into white pa- per, or mingled with the straw and wood pulp to make printing paper of somewhat greater strength than that made from these materials alone. Of the other substances we have enumerated as adapted to paper making the following are now in .use, or can be obtained in a quantity sufficiently abundant, and at a price low enough to warrant their extensive use : straw of most of the cereals; much of this is now burned in Minnesota, Dakota, California, and Ore- gon ; wood pulp, mostly of the linden or basswood, birch, or soft maple; the stalks of the cotton plant, and hulls or outer cov- ering of the cotton seed; it is estimated by Mr. Edward Atkinson, that 1,500,000 tons of this material could be furnished in the south from the annual cotton crop, an amount more than sufficient for all the paper made in the country. It is now paper: its manufacture. 179 practically valueless. On the Atlantic coast, below the Virginia line, the brakes, reeds, or bamboos of the Carolinas and Georgia, and the saw palmetto, are found in almost inexhaustible quantity; these make the best of paper. In the Mississippi valley, and on the plains of the region east of the Rocky Mountains, there is, in addition to the straw and the bagasse of the corn and sorghum stalks, and which latter will be a constantly increasing quan- tity, the spartina grass of the Mississippi and its tributaries, and the stalks of the flax which is largely sown for its seed in the new lands after the first breaking. The Pacific coast might furnish hundreds of thousands of tons of straw, and pulp from its fibrous woods and plants, and the southwest, as far east as Texas, has an unfailing supply of the finest paper stock in its giant cacti, which form dense jungles or chaparrals, which could be swept down by large mowing or reaping machines, greatly to the advantage of the inhabitants. There are also aloes, agaves, and tampico grasses, all of the best quality for this manufacture. There are, very possibly, still other materials equally well adapted for paper making, but these are certainly sufficient to supply our present necessities, and ought to relieve us from any obliga- tion to import 7,000,000 lbs. of rags and other paper stock from Europe annually. The paper made from the cactus fiber is of unrivalled purity, beauty, and strength ; no linen paper can compare with it. It can communicate no disease or poison, while the rags we import are a fruitful source of the propagation of smallpox and other contagious diseases. The experience of the English paper manufacturers in the use of the esparto grass should lead our manufacturers to give more attention to the use of these fibers than they are doing. It is easier, no doubt, to use wood pulp (even if it is imported, as much of it now is) than to en- ter upon new manufacturers of fibrous ma- terial requiring a considerable plant, even though that material may produce a better and more satisfactory paper. Wood pulp does not make a very satisfactory paper; it answers for want of something better for newspapers, but the ragged and forlorn character of the daily newspaper after a day's handling testifies most forcibly to its lack of fibrous adhesion. Our English neighbors found this out, and yet what could they do? A paper made of rags would be too costly for the use of the cheap daily press, and there seemed at first to be no substitute. At length they learned from their French competitors to import the espaito grass, a tough fibrous heath from the plateaus of Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli, and though the price of this has been greatly enhanced by the demand, they imported in 1879 more than $3,500,- 000 worth of it, and they use it in writing as well as in printing paper with great ad- vantage. Our cotton stalks and seeds fur- nish a better paper stcck in eveiy respect than the esparto grass, and the saw pal- metto and cactus fiber are better still. The increase in the consumption of pa- per and paper pulp in the United States in the past thirty years has been enonncus, amounting probably to tenfold the quanti- ty consumed in 1850. As lately as 1872 we imported paper (aside from papier rra- che and other manufactures of paper pulp) to the amount of $1,235,000, while our ex- ports were merely nominal; now cur im- portations are only about $235,000, and some years not half that, while we export about $1,100,000 worth of paper annually. But though there has been a very great increase in the number of books, maga- zines, and newspapers printed, and in the writing papers consumed, the consumption of paper for other purposes than printing and writing has been vastly greater than for what we have been accustomed to re- gard as its more legitimate use. We have enumerated on a previous page many of these uses; we may add to the list, sheath- ing papers for houses and ships; roofing felt (so called); a soft manilla paper for stereotyping newspapers; paper combined with plaster for the inner walls of houses, for globes, and for all papier mache pur- poses; paper for doors, window frames, car wheels, boats, barrels and hogsheads for the transportation of sugar, lard, petro- leum, oils, etc., soles of boots and shoes, twine, artificial flowers, bags for flour, meal, groceries, grain, and the lighter dry goods ; indeed, bags for every purpose for which they can be used; for bridges, domes of observatories, for carbons, for electric lamps, for gas-fixtures, for brackets, and to replace all our hardest woods. When the rags arc received at the mill, they are sorted according to their respective 180 paper: its manufacture. qualities ; for if rags of different qualities \\T3re ground together at the same engine, the finest and hest parts would be ground and carried off before the coarser were suffi- ciently reduced to make a pulp. In the sorting of rags intended for the manufacture of fine paper, hems and seams are kept apart, and coarse cloth separated from fine. Cloth made of tow should be separated from that made of linen ; cloth of hemp from cloth of flax. Even the degree of wear should be attended to, for if rags comparatively new are mixed with those which are much worn, by the time the first are reduced to a good pulp, the others are so completely ground up as to pass through the hair strainers, thus occasioning not only loss of material but loss of beauty in the paper; for the smooth, vel- vet softness of some papers may be pro- duced by the finer particles thus carried off. The pulp produced from imperfectly sorted rags has a cloudy appearance, in consequence of some parts being less reduced than others, and the paper made from it is also cloudy or thicker in some parts than in others, as is evident on holding a sheet up before the light. When it is necessary to mix differ- ent qualities of materials, the rags should be ground separately, and the various pulps mixed together afterward. The rag mer- chants sort rags into five qualities, known as Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. No. 1, or superfine, consisting wholly of linen, is used for the finest writing papers. No. 5 is canvas, and may, after bleaching, be used fur inferior printing papers. There is also rag-bagging, or the canvas sacks in which the rags are packed, also cotton colored rags of all colors, but the blue is usually sorted out for making blue paper. Common papers are made from rag-bagging and cotton rags. An operation sometimes required after unpacking the rags is to put them into a duster, which is a cylinder four feet in diameter and five feet long, covered with a wire net, and inclosed in a tight box to confine the dust. A quan- tity of rags being put into this cylinder, it is made to rotate rapidly on its axis, and thus a great deal of dust is shaken out, which might otherwise vitiate the air of the rag- cutting room. The sorting is done by wo- men and children in a large room. The rags are sorted, according to their fineness, into the superfine, the fine, the stitches of the fine, the middling, the seams and stitches of the middling, and the coarse. These divisions arc more or less observed at the present day. The very coarse parts are rejected, or laid aside for making white-brown paper. The paper was formerly made into sheets by means of the mould and deckle. The mould was a square frame or shallow box of ma- hogany, covered at the top Avith wire cloth ; it is an inch or an inch and a half wider than the sheet of paper intended to be made upon it. The wire cloth of the mould varies in fineness with that of the paper and the nature of the stuff; it consists of a number of parallel wires stretched across a frame very near together, and tied fast through holes in the sides ; a few other stronger wires are also placed across at right angles to the former; they are a considerable distance apart, and are bound to the small wires at the points of intersection by means of fine wires. In several kinds of writing paper the marks of the wires are evident, from the pa- per being thinner in the parts where the pulp touches the wires. In what is called wove paper, there are no marks of the wires; these are avoided by weaving the wire in a loom into a wire cloth, which is stretched over the frame of a mould, and being turned down over the sides is fastened by fine wire. The water-mark in paper is produced by wires bent into the shape of the required letter or device, and sewed to the surface ol the mould ; it has the effect of making the paper thinner in those places. The old makers employed Avater-marks of an eccen- tric kind. Those of Caxton and other early printers Avere an ox head and star, a collared dog's head, a croAvn, a shield, a jug, etc. A fool's cap and bells employed as a water- mark gave the name to foolscap paper ; a postman's horn, such as Avas formerly in use r gave the name to post paper. Connected with the sizing of papers is the blueing, which is said to have originated in the sug- gestion of a paper maker's Avife, avIio thought that the practice of improving the color of linen Avhile passing through the Avash, by means of a blue-bag, might also be advanta- geously applied to paper. A blue-bag Avas accordingly suspended in the vat, and the effect proved to be so satisfactory that it led to the introduction of the large and impor- tant class of blue Avriting paper. It was soon found that smalt gave a better color than common stone-blue, and smalt continued to be used for many years; but when artificial ultramarine came to be manufactured at a very low cost, and in a great variety of tints, INVENTIONS MANUFACTURE. 181 this beautiful color gradually superseded smalt in the manufacture of writing paper. From 1820 to 1830, some efforts were made to introduce into the United States machinery from Europe. England and Fiance were before us in its introduction. Several machines were sent out from Eng- land ; some very imperfect, and the cost too great for our manufacture. The patronage then offered was no inducement to our own machinists to construct so expensive a ma- chine until 1830, about which time Phelps & Spofford of Windham, Connecticut, made one which answered very well. Soon after, the country was supplied at a reasonable cost, and equal in quality to the best English. Not long afterward, Howe & Goddard, of Worcester, Massachusetts, commenced mak- ing the Fourdrinier — the shaking endless wire-web machine. The cylinder machine, more simple and less costly than the other, is in more general use ; but the paper made on it is not equal in quality. Notwith- standing, it does very well for news, and the various purposes which a coarser article will answer for. These are made in various places throughout the United States. The interval from 1830 to 1840 was important for the vast improvements in the manufacture, by the application of this kind of machinery for that purpose ; also, by the introduction of the use of chlorine in the form of gas, of chloride of lime, and the alkalies, lime and soda-ash, in bleaching, cleansing, and dis- charging the colors from calicoes, worn out sails, refuse tarred rope, hemp bagging, and cotton waste, the refuse of the cotton mills. These articles, which heretofore had been considered only applicable for the manufac- ture of coarse wrapping paper, have, through the application of this bleaching and cleans- ing process, entered largely into the com- position of news and coarse printing papers, and consequently have risen in value 300 per cent. A few mills possess machinery and adopt a process by which they are pre- pared for the finest printing and letter paper. A beautiful paper is made of cast-off cable rope. Hemp bagging is an excellent ma- terial for giving strength, and is in great de- mand, especially for making the best news paper. The cost of making paper by ma- chinery, compared with that of making it by the old method (by hand), not taking into account the interest on cost and repair of machinery, is about as one to eight. The mills which have been using straw in great 11 quantities within a few years past, found some modification of their machinery neces- sary to enable them to succeed with their new material. The manufactories using the North Carolina brake or swamp cane, (a spe- cies of bamboos,) reduced it to paper pulp or fibre, by subjecting it to steam in an iron cylinder for some time and then suddenly exploding it as they would a cannon, by the propulsive force of steam, against a solid stone wall. It was in this way torn into a mass of tine fibres, suitable for paper pulp. The other materials now used for paper, all require a somewhat different treatment from rags ; some of them are much stronger than even the best linen rags. The spartina fibre found in the marshy bottoms of the Missis- sippi River and its tributaries, makes a re- markably tough and handsome paper under proper treatment, sufficiently strong for bank- note purposes, and its coarser qualities make excellent flour bags. Paper is now made in all sections of the country. Some of the best specimens of paper come from the Mississippi valley, where formerly it was thought that the water was not pure enough to make fine paper. CHAPTER II. INVENTIONS— MANUFACTURE. The slow and difficult process of moulding the separate sheets of paper by hand, has to a very great extent been superseded by the introduction and gradual improvement of the very beautiful machinery of Fourdrinier. By means of this machine, a process which, under the old hand system, occupied a couple of weeks, is now performed in a few min- utes. Within this brief space of time, and the short distance of thirty or forty feet, a continuous stream of fluid pulp is made into paper, dried, polished, and cut up into separate sheets ready for use. The paper thus produced is moderate in price, and, for a large number of purposes, superior in quality to that which was formerly made by hand. In fact, the machine-made papers can be produced of unlimited dimensions ; they are of uniform thickness ; they can be fabricated at any season of the year ; they do not require to be sorted, trimmed, and hung up in the drying-house — operations which formerly led to so much waste that about one sheet in every five was defective. The paper machine moves at the rate of from 182 paper: its manufacture. twenty-five to forty feet per minute, so that scarcely two minutes are occupied in con- verting liquid pulp into finished paper, a result which, by the old process, occupied about seven or eight days. If the machine produce ten lineal yards of paper per minute, or six hundred yards per hour, this is equal to a mile of paper in three hours, or four miles per day of twelve hours. The paper is about fifty-four inches wide, and suppos- ing three hundred machines to be at work on an average twelve hours a day, the aggregate length of web would be equal to 1,200 miles, and the area 3,000,000 square yards. Paper is sent into market in various forms and sizes, according to the use for which it is intended. The following table contains the names and dimensions of various sheets of paper. Inches. Foolscap 14 by 17 Crown. 15 " 20 Polio post 16 " 21 Demy 17 " 22 Medium 19 " 24 Royal 20 " 25 Super-royal 22 " 27 Imperial" 22 " 32 Medium and half 24 " 28£ Eoyal and half 25 " 29 Double Medium 24 " 38 Double super-royal 27 " 42 Double imperial 32 " 44 Many of the papers above enumerated are made by hand of the exact size- indica- ted, but if made by the machine, the roll of paper has to be cut to the required di- mensions. In order to do this with pre- cision and expedition, various cutting ma- chines have been contrived, in which the paper, as it comes from the manufacturing machine, is cut to any size required. Fine papers are, in many cases, hot-pressed and glazed. In hot-pressing, a number of stout cast iron plates are heated in an oven, and then put into a screw press in alternate layers, with highly glazed paste-boards, between which the paper is placed in open sheets ; and the hard-polished surface of the pasteboards, aided by the heat and pressure, imparts that beautiful appearance which be- longs to hot-pressed paper. A yet more smooth and elegant surface is produced by the process of glazing. The sheets of paper are placed separately between very smooth, clean, copper plates. These are then passed through rollers, which impart a pressure of twenty to thirty tons. After three or four such pres- sures the paper acquires a higher surface, and is then called glazed. The general in- troduction of steel pens has increased the demand for smooth papers, and has led to improvements in finishing them. As an improvement in the manufacture of paper sized by the machines now in use, it is pro- posed to conduct the web of paper, after it has been either partially or completely dried, through a trough of cold water, then to pass it through a pair of pressing rollers, and after- ward to_ dry it on reels, or over hot cylin- ders. The paper which has been thus treated will be found to "bear" much better, and admit of erasures being made on its surface, and written over, without the ink running in the way it does when the paper is sized and dried in the usual manner. It has been found that when paper is dried, after sizing, by the drying machines in present use, the paper is very harsh, and until it stands for some time to get weather (as it is technically termed) great difficulty is experienced in glazing the paper. This inconvenience is proposed to be overcome by passing the paper partially round a hollow cylinder, through which a small stream of cold water is made to run. By this means the heat is carried off, and the paper is rendered more tractable, and brought to a proper state for undergoing the glazing operation. We may describe the modern process of paper making, by detailing the operations as carried on in large mills. The visitor goes up to the second story, into a room some sixty by eighty feet, in which girls are engaged assorting the rags. Here are nu- merous bales of white rags, foreign and do- mestic. The imported are linen, the others cotton. In the same room these rags are cut by a machine, driven by power, which fits them for the subsequent processes. They are next sent into a rotary boiler of about two tuns capacity, into which steam is ad- mitted, and the rags boiled. Next they are cast down on a floor in the first story, where they are put into cars, on which they are conveyed to the washing engines. Two engines are employed in washing, called rag engines. These engines play in tubs of an oval form, of large capacity, each containing perhaps 200 lbs. of rags. The impelling power, steam or water, causes the revolution of a roller, set with knives or bars of cast steel inserted in it longitudinally. This roller is suspended on what is called a lighter, by which it may be raised or lowered at pleasure upon a plate, consisting of bars of INVENTIONS — MANUFACTURE. 1S3 steel, set up edgewise. Passing now between this and the plate, the rags are reduced to fibre. A stream of pure water is then con- veyed into the rag engine, and, by means of a cylinder covered with gauze wire, the dirty water is passed off. This cylinder, called a patent washer, is octagonal in shape, some thirty inches in length, revolving in the en- gine, and having buckets within it, corres- ponding with the sides of the washer. By this process the rags are washed perfectly clean in from three to six hours. The bleaching process is performed by the insertion into this engine of a strong solution of the chloride of lime and some acid, to cause a reaction. The pulp is then emptied into large cisterns, covered with the bleach liquor it contains, where it is allowed to remain from twelve to twenty-four hours to bleach. It is then drained, put into the beating en- gine, and reduced to a pulp, the consistency of milk, which it much resembles. This pulp is emptied into a large cistern, in a vault beneath, and kept in motion by means of an agitator revolving in it. It is then raised by a lifting pump into a small cistern, from which it is drawn off by a cock — which is opened more or less, according to the thickness of the paper intended to be made — on to a strainer, which removes the knots, sand, or hard substances that may damage the paper, and then flows upon a leathern apron, which conducts it to an endless wire cloth, over which the web of paper is form- ed. This wire cloth is kept constantly vibrating, which both facilitates the escape of water and the felting together of the fibres of the pulp. The wire cloth, with the pulp upon it — the edges being protected by deckle-straps — passes on until it comes to a couple of toet-press cylinders, as they are call- ed, the lower of which is of metal, but cover- ed with a jacket of felting or flannel ; the upper one is of wood, made hollow, and cov- ered first with mahogany, and then with flannel. These cylinders give the gauze with the pulp upon it a slight pressure, which is repeated upon a second pair of wet-pross rolls similar to the first. The paper is then led upon an endless felt or blanket, which travels at exactly the same rate as the wire cloth, while the latter passes under the cyl- inders, and proceeds to take up a new supply of pulp. The endless felt conveys the paper, still in a very wet state, between cast iron cylinders, where it undergoes a severe pres- sure, which rids it of much of the remaining water, and then between a second pair of press-rollers, which remove the mark of the felt from the under surface ; and finally it is passed over the surface of cylinders heated by steam, and when it has passed over about thirty lineal feet of heated surface, it is wound upon a reel ready for cutting. Forty years ago three men could by hand manu- facture 4,000 sheets in a day. The same number now by the aid of machinery will make 60,000. From the time of the Revolution the quan- tity of paper imported has been gradually decreasing ; and before the revision of the tariff in 1846, had dwindled to perhaps nut more than 2 per cent, of the amount con- sumed, with the exception of wall papers, of ■which considerable quantities were and still are imported from France and Eng- land. The importations now of writing and drawing papers consist of moderate quantities of thin French and German pa- per, mainly for foreign or fancy correspon- dence, and drawing paper and bristol boards from England, France, and Austria. The reduced price of machine paper has forced almost all manufacturers to abandon the old hand method. There were, a few years since, only two mills in operation in the United States in which it was made by hand — one in Massachusetts and one in Pennsylvania. There is a limited quantity of peculiar kinds, that can be better made by hand than on a machine, such as bank- note, laid letter, deed parchments, and such as are used for documents that are much handled, and require great strength and durability. "Within the last few years some improvement has been made in the finish of writing and printing papers, by the in- troduction of iron and paper calenders for the purpose of giving a smooth surface. The finish of American papers is now equal to any in the world. The quantity of paper required for the newspaper service of the country is proba- bly 320,000,000 lbs. per annum, which would allow a circulation of 1,600,000,000 sheets. There would remain 280,000,000 lbs. of paper for the service of the book trade, and the trade and publications of the religious societies, and about 100,000,000 lbs. for other purposes. The use of paper in part or wholly for collars, cuffs, shirt fronts, etc., etc., has at- tained its present magnitude almost entirely since 1860. It now employs a large capital 184 paper: its manufacture. and uses between five and six millions of dollars' worth of paper. Its use for build- ing purposes is also very large, being coated with a composition and used for sheathing, in the place of boards; satu- rated with tar, and under the name of roof- ing felt made the basis of the "felt and gravel roofs;" combined with gypsum and made into blocks for the walls of the rooms; made into papier mache and com- pressed into doors and window-sash of great beauty and cheapness, and moulded into door-knobs and trimmings. The use of paper-hangings, which has become so common in the past twenty years, superseding hard finish and painted walls, for city dwellings, absorbs a large amount of paper. In Philadelphia the consumption of paper for hangings has been yearly 1,500 tons, or 3,000,000 lbs. The paper used for this purpose is heavy, and comes from the mill in rolls of 1,200 yards long, and from 20 to 35 inches wide. It costs from 6 to 12 cents per pound. In the preparation of this paper the pattern is first carefully drawn from original designs, and then printed. The outlines of the va- rious tints were made each upon a separate block, made of pear-tree, mounted with pine. The color was contained in sieves, and the blocks thus applied to these were laid upon the paper, following each other upon the guide-marks left by the previous impressions. I«t is stated that a paper- hanging exhibited at the World's Fair, and representing a chase in a forest with birds and animals, required 12,000 blocks. The manufacture of wall papers has greatly improved in the last decade. Many of them are now of very rich patterns, and all the better qualities are printed from cylinders, block printing being almost en- tirely abandoned. The quantity manufac- tured here has largely increased. In making what is called flock (shear- ings of broadcloth) paper, the pattern is printed in size and varnished; the wool then being sifted on the varnished pattern, adheres to it. Satin papers are finished with powdered steatite and polished. STATISTICS OF PAPER MANUFACTURE IN 1850, 1860, AND 1870. 1850. No. of Estab- lish- ments. Hands Employed. Capital. Wages. Material. Classes. All. Males. Fe- males. Youth. Products. 443 2 38 6,785 35 803 3,835 13 753 2,950 22 50 $7,260,864 21.000 547,700 $1,497,792 7,320 166,2S8 $5,555,929 21,350 314,291 $10,187,177 Paper Card Factories, . Paper Staining, 37,500 741.540 483 7,623 4,601 3,022 $7,829,564 $1,671,400 $5,891,570 $10,966,217 1860. No. of Estab- lish- ments. Hands Employed. Capital. Wages. Material. Classes. All. Males. Fe- males. Youth. Products. 555 2 26 1 10,911 14 1,294 6 6,519 5 1,203 6 4,392 9 91 $14,052,683 11,000 1,037,600 10,000 $2,767,212 2.460 328,224 6,300 $11,602,266 12.200 1,153.670 5,000 $21,216,S02 21.500 Paper Hangings, 2,148,800 25,000 Totals, 584 12,225 7,733 4,492 $15,111,283 $3,104,196 $12,773,136 $23,412,102 1870. No. of Estab- lish- ments. Hands Employed. Capital. Wages. Material. Classes. All. Males. Fe- males. Youth. Products. Paper, n. s.. 163 235 225 46 15 2,770 8.167 3.111 3.862 869 1.902 5.107 2.462 1,450 558 741 2,553 47.". 2,384 145 127 507 174 28 166 $5,001,820 16,771.920 6.276.600 fi.814.674 1,415,500 $1,028,208 3,400.038 1.2'9.821 1,470.446 329,267 $3,478,709 16.120.363 4.120,240 6,009,751 1,315,106 $6,406,817 25,200,4W 7.706,317 9.363.384 Paper Hangings, 2,165.510 Totals, 684 18,779 11,479 6,298 1,002 $35,780,514 $7,477,780 $31,344,167 $50,842,435 ?- B !B £ 1. ™ «.- .13 •- *> ^ ■- o .a « a «<-■ E +» "3 £ ._ a o — a: a; •- J=> £ -S B J &"§ « a- ■G !>■> O — a 3 J& o cs-^ &.-S b° ""S e SB's u z t~ « 2 ^ 1 ■? I S sS k -i- a o x 3 .■£ _ s g* . p, „~ o ? «"§ ° §i"na S _, ^ 00 tJ ,c 03 ?3 lO t*i r- cc a a « 0)0 05 t- g 03 rS bC 0/ O Oi s . c3 ^ e u " o o •- a O 60 P g £ ^ ..- E 03 3 O g . > o 2 o S td > 0) 03 ■ O CB s •- v >-3Sa C S 3 03 a ;i c„ Of- o *** 05 03 be Sf --.5 .- S T3 _ k "o o3 a "3 5 j£| 5 5 ,3 a _£ bn *» ««*, CO -*■-* Q O 03 od - — «* 3 -2 - > .3 o a „« oi,2 2 — 12 3 .a 5 .2 ■= I3 £ ,-> P « «03 3 s " O -3 - a r , ~~ .3 ^ 13 o _ •< .a ® 03 r -s - a 0) ,3 U « _<2 o a 03 -3 .a o> a 3 = -r, r 3S 03 r o a o a s - 3 o £ »a 1 3 w <- .!= o f^ ^ a: •- s* m 03 T3 i O 03 03 0> JS. ■I CI •- t. 03 0J 03 N ^3 w a • l 03 ~ ■" <" a s 3 £ 3-^ g — P = O ^ g 03 03 03 .3 O -t,tH'3oajp3 h 2 c a a 5a0 - '-' cb 1% 'o u 2 p.™ M •-; — *^ "O r3"«^ •3 '-E .2 '3-— III! >,«= a: f 5 -« ♦^ i3 o; .— 3.3 .Z- ■ ;i INVENTIONS MANUFACTURE. 187 STATISTICS OF PAPER MANUFACTURE IN 1872. Lockwood's Tables. No. of Value or Capital. Machines. Engines. Hands Employed. Annual Product. Paper Mills. «- Cylinder. Washing & Beating. All. Men. Wo- men. Chil- dren. Wages. Tons. Value. 812 $35,500,000 299 690 3,296 22,049 13,427 7,700 992 $9,500,000 317,637 $66,500,000 Classes of Paper. Writing paper, rag Book and best printing paper, rag mostly, Straw printing paper, Manilla paper, Straw wrapping paper Wood pulp paper , Paper for paper collars Straw and tar boards, roofing, sheathing, building, and paper hangings Tons. 22.970 91,446 14,000 39,177 39,597 19,700 3,800 86,947 Value. $12,000,000 25,000,000 3,000,000 8,500,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 13,000,000 In 1875, number of mills, 892; capital, $40,500,000; annual product, 345,000 tons; value about $68,000,000, prices be- ing much lower; proportion of wood pulp paper increased to more than 40,000 tons. Number of hands employed, about 25,000. Statistics of 1880 : At the close of 1 880, according to the tables of Mr. Howard Lockwood, the highest authority on the subject, there were 959 paper mills, run by 771 firms. At the present time (Sept. 1881) there are very nearly 1,000 mills. The caDacity of these mills for production i3 about 812,000 tons per annum. The ac- tual production does not probably exceed 700,000 tons, and the value of production is between $130,000,000 and $140,000,- 000. The number of hands employed must be largely a guess. It cannot be less than 30,000, and may be considerably more. 33 states and two territories (Utah and Dist. of Columbia) report paper mills; one, Alabama, having but one, and that not in operation. All the other states and territories, except Missouri, make book and news paper; that state makes only wrap- ping paper. New York has the largest number of mills, and makes the greatest quantity of paper of all descriptions except writing paper. Massachusetts follows close- ly, and makes three-fourths of all the writ- ing paper produced in the United States. Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Connecticut are rivals in the amount of their production as well as the number of their mills. After these come in order, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Illinois, Vermont, "Wisconsin, Maryland, Michigan, etc. The capital employed is not far from $75,000,- 000. HAND CARDING. WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES. CHAPTER I. WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES — CARDING — WEAVING— FELTING. The manufacture of woollen, or any other goods, having been prohibited in the colo- nies under that harsh principle which prompted the Earl of Chatham to exclaim that the " colonists had no right to manu- facture so much as a horse-shoe nail," much progress could not have been expected. Nevertheless, progress was made, since the home manufacture of woollen cloth became very general. The people spun and wove their own cloth, and the merchant found little sale for the imported article. The oppressions of the home government were continued, until finally, in 1765, a society was started in New York with great zeal, not only repudiating all foreign goods, but taking measures to encourage the home manufacture of cloth from sheep's wool, and from all other materials. This was very pop- ular ; and an agreement was extensively en- tered into, in order to encourage the growth of wool, to eat no mutton or lamb, and to purchase no meat of any butcher who should kill a sheep or lamb. The economist of the present day will smile at such a mode of en- couraging the farmer to keep sheep, viz. : by cutting off his market for the mutton. Never- theless, it showed zeal. Manufactures are not, however, to be established by resolu- tion. For their development there are neces- sary, 1st, the supply of skilled labor ; 2d, the material for its use ; 3d, the capital to em- ploy it ; and 4th, the demand for the goods. This latter existed to a considerable extent, on certain conditions, among which was, that it should come within the means of the con- sumers. There does not appear to have been much scarcity of wool, since home-made goods were generally used. There was an absence, however, of capital, and of that skilled labor which is always the result of extensive experience in the same employ- ment. There came great numbers of art- isans from Europe, and it was stated that 30,000 weavers left Ulster in 1174. The war came, peace succeeded, and the new government was formed in 1*791 ; on which occasion, Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, made his famous report on manufactures. He stated, that of woollen goods, hats only had reached maturity, and supplied the demand. At Hartford, a mill for cloths and cassimeres was in operation, and produced excellent wares, under the cir- cumstances ; but he remarked, that " it was doubtful if American wool was fit for fine cloths." The quality of wool grown in the country must, since then, have chang- ed very much, since the American wool is used entirely for the fine goods, and the imported wools only are used for carpets and coarse manufactures. The manufacture of cloths did not progress rapidly, since we find that, in 1810, according to the report of the Treasury department, ordered by Congress, the manufacture of wool was still mostly in families. The progress of the manufacture, since that report, has been as follows: — Woolen manufacture, 1810. 1820. 1830. 1S-10. 1850. 1SG0. 1870. $25,608,788 4,413,068 14,528,166 20,696,699 43,542,288 61,896,917 217,578,824 1880. 237,587,163 This value, in 1810, was nearly all in fam- ilies, and the figures subsequently are the product of regular manufactures as the busi- ness progressed. The family manufacture was necessarily of a rude description. The wool, being washed, was carded between two cards held in the hands of the operator, who continued to card until the wool was formed into a long roll, which was then spun upon the Bingle spindle, driven by the wheel that the busy hand of the housewife kept in motion. There arc* many still living who 190 CARDING WEAVING FELTING. were employed in sticking the teeth for those cards, and in tending the wheel. The cloth, woven also by hand, was subsequently sent to mill to be fulled, and dyed, and dressed ; which was the first regular business branch of the manufacture. The dyeing was rather an imperfect process. The operator did not then understand the art of fixing colors. Daniel Webster somewhere relates his mis- fortune, when, dressed up in a new suit of home-spun blue, he accompanied his father on the way to a new school, and, being over- taken by a shower, had the color washed from his new coat into his shirt. With the lapse of time dyeing became better under- stood. Not many years have elapsed, how- ever, since the distinctive mark of American cloth was, that it wore " white on the edges ;" in other words, its color was not fast. With the introduction of machinery, and the im- proved condition of the people, home manu- factures necessarily gave way to machine work. Other occupations paid the time of the farmer better, and the use of machines gradually made a market for the raw wool, at a price which, compared with falling prices of the cloth, would give the wool- grower his cloth without labor. This we may illustrate by extreme figures. Suppose, there being no factories, wool is worth 10 cts. per lb., and cloth imported, $2 per yard, a pound of wool will make two yards, or 84 ; if not as good cloth, at least good enough. The farmer, by turning his wool into cloth, makes a large saving. Soon, however, ma- chine labor sinks cloth to 50 cts. per yard, and raises wool to 60 cts. The farmer can now no longer afford to make his own cloth, but his wool trade has become profitable. Thus, machine goods supplant hand goods. In this line, the inventions have been very remarkable. In 179V, Asa Whittemore, of Massachu- setts, invented a machine for making cards. Instead of sticking them by hand, as before, a strip of leather, by passing between a cylinder and a scraper, becomes of equal thickness. This strip of leather, in passing through the machine, is stuck full of teeth, that are also made from steel wire by the machine at the same time. The ingenuity of this machine was such, that the famous John Randolph, on inspecting it, exclaimed, that " it operated as if it had a soul !" There have been 100 patents since issued for im- provements in this machine. The hand machine. This has a drum of about 3 ft. diameter, and as many long, covered with the cards. Smaller cylinders, also covered with cards, are placed so as to revolve against the circumference of the cylinder, and in the contrary direction. There is a feed apron, on which the wool is laid, and, being, drawn in between two rollers, is caught by the cards of the revolving drum, and combed out be- tween it and the smaller cylinders. The wool is thus spread on the surface of all, and is finally taken up by the " doffer," or a cylinder in front of the main drum ; from this it flows in a broad, thin, gauzy fleece, which passes through a funnel, and in so doing is contracted into a ribbon, or sliver, which is delivered into a can, ready for the " drawing frame." Long wools and short wools are subjected to different treatment in this stage of the manufacture. The long wools are sometimes called combing wools, in consequence. In the manufacture of worsted, the long staple is used mostly, because a smooth, fine yarn is required, not much liable to full, or shrink, or curl. In order to fomi such a thread, the first object is to lay or stretch the fibres into lines, as parallel as possible. If it were possible to procure a single fibre of wool of a length sufficient to weave like a fibre of silk, the beauty and finish of the fabric would be as nearly perfect as could be desired. As that, however, is not pos- sible, the object of the manufacturer is to draw out the fibres into parallel lines, in order that they may twist into a thread as fine and smooth as can be obtained. The old mode of doing this was by hand. When the wool has been washed with lye, or soap and water, and dried, it passes into a ma- chine called the "picker," tended by a boy, who lays the wool as evenly as he can upon the feed apron, which carries the wool be- tween rollers, when it is caught by revolving teeth, torn asunder, and scattered in the air. The fibres are thus cleared and straightened to some extent. They were then taken to the comber, who, in a close room, employed combs with long, heated teeth. The work- man oiled the wool, and combed it with these heated instruments, until it became suitable, when it was arranged in " slivers." This was a very laborious and unhealthy task, and many machines have been invented to super- sede the hand labor. Some of them are very ingenious, and they have advanced the cards were then supplanted by the carding j stage of the manufacture in an eminent de- "WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES. 191 gree. When the " slivers" are thus pre- pared, they are carried to the " breaking machine." There the first sliver is placed upon an apron, which carries it between two rollers, that seize and draw it forward, and it passes from them through other sets of rollers, which move three times as fast. As a con- sequence, the sliver is drawn out to three times its original length. When it has half passed into the first set of rollers, the end of another sliver is laid upon it, passing thence with it, and becoming incorporated with it in the drawing. All the slivers thus become incorporated in one of three times the aggregate length of all the original sliv- ers, and it is coiled in a can. Three of these cans are carried to the " drawing frame," which has five sets of rollers, oper- ating in the same manner as the breaking frame. As fast as the sliver comes through one set of rollers, it coils into a can, and the slivers of three cans are then united, and pass through another set of rollers. These draw- ings thus take place 1,500 times with some wool, and the process reduces the sliver to one-fourth its original bulk. There are many variations of the detail of drawing by differ- ent machines, but the result is the same. After the drawing is finished, a pound of the sliver is taken and measured, in order to test the accuracy of the drawing. This done, the sliver is passed to the " roving" frame, where two slivers are drawn, as be- fore, into a " roving," which has now become so attenuated, that it must have a twist to hold it together. This twist is imparted to it as it is wound upon spindles, of which the frame contains a great many. The bobbins from the roving frame spindles are then car- ried to the spinning frame. They are placed upon skewers, and the roving proceeds from them between rollers, of which there are three sets : the first pair turns slowly, the middle twice as fast as the first, and the third from twelve to seventeen times as fast as the first pair. The spindles that receive the thread from the rollers must turn very fast to give the required twist to the thread. The hardest thread is tammy warp, and, when this is of size of twenty-four hanks to the pound, the twist is ten turns to an inch. The least twist is given to thread for fine hose, and it is then five to the inch. The threads are then reeled. The bobbins are placed in a row upon wires, before a long horizontal reel, which is exactly a yard in circumference. When this has revolved eighty times, it rings a bell. It is then stopped, and a thread passed round the eighty turns of each thread. The reel then proceeds. Each of these eighty turns is called a ley ; seven such are a " hank :" which is, consequently, 560 yards. When this quantity is reeled, the ends of the threads are tied together, and each hank is weighed by a machine, which denotes the number of hanks to a pound, and this is the number of the yarn : thus, No. 24 means that twenty-four hanks of 560 yards each will weigh 1 lb. A hank of cotton measures 840 yards. Short wool, for the cloth manufacture, re- sembles cotton in some respects. The wool being oiled and " picked," is passed through the carding machine, whence it proceeds through the drawing process, as with the long staple, until it assumes the form of yarn for the weaver. In woollen cloths, cassimeres, broad cloths, narrow cloths, etc., all wool is used : that is, both warp and weft are wool, but the wool is combined with many other articles, ac- cording to the dearness of each. The cotton warp is used in satinets ; and in most descrip- tions of dress goods there is a combination of wool with silk or cotton. If these articles are very high, more wool is used ; and the reverse, if wool is high, and cotton is cheap, more cotton is introduced into the fabric. There are also a great variety of styles and patterns constantly produced, to attract at- tention. The weaving process on the improved power-looms has been greatly facilitated of late years, and the labor has been diminish- ed. Thus, formerly, one person was re- quired to tend one loom, at a certain speed ; but, by various improvements, one person may now tend four. In large factories, great numbers of looms are placed in one room, and, as the cloth-rolls become full, they are placed upon a little rail-car, which carries them off to the dyeing and finishing depart- ment. The woven cloth is carried to the fulling- mill, to have the oil applied in spinning, and other greasy matters removed, and, by a partial felting, to give the fabric more com- pactness. The first process is to scour the cloth. This is done by placing it in troughs, so arranged as to contain the liquids — stale urine and hog's dung, then urine alone, and to be followed by fullers' earth and urine. Heavy oaken mallets, or pounders, slide 192 CARDING WEAVING FELTING. down with force into one end of the trough, and mash, or roll over the cloths. The pounders are lifted by wooden cams, kept in motion by horse-power for many hours. In this process the oil is detached from the wool, the urine is absorbed by the earth, and both washed off by the water. When this is complete, soap is applied liberally, and the pounding continued, to full the cloth. Instead of soap, in some cases steam is applied, and the pounders made of iron. The process of fulling is also effected without pounders, the cloth being pushed, or squeezed, through a long trough. After the fulling, the soap is washed out, and the cloth is ready for teasling. To full a piece of broadcloth re- quires sixty to sixty-five hours, and 1 libs, of soap are usually applied. In the process, the cloth will shrink in length from fifty -four to forty yards, and from twelve quarters wide to seven quarters. When cloth is returned from the fulling- mill, it is stretched upon the tenter frame, and left to dry in the open air. As cloth in the fulling-mill shrinks nearly one-half, it must be woven nearly double its intended breadth. Superfine six-quarter broadcloths are therefore woven twelve quarters wide. The cloth is minutely examined, when dry, in every part, freed from knots and uneven threads, and repaired, by sewing any little rents, or inserting sound yarns in the place of defective ones. In order to raise up the loose filaments of woollen yarn into a nap upon one of the sur- faces of the cloth, it is scratched with the heads of the teasle plant, or with teasling cards made of wire. In large factories the operation is performed in the gig-mill, which is a cylinder covered all over with tcasles, and made to revolve rapidly, while the cloth is drawn over it. This operation requires attention, lest the goods become tender. Indeed, every branch of the wool manufacture re- quires the supervision of a practical man. If a piece of cloth comes from the press dam- aged, or inferior, he must be able himself to discover where the fault lies, without taking any other man's Avord for it ; if the wool is not properly cleaned and dyed, the dyer must be called to account, not the carder, or the weaver ; and if, through the carelessness of the shearer or gigger, the goods are made tender, they must answer for it, not the spinner. Therefore, the manager of a wool- , len establishment must be a thorough prac- tical manufacturer, conversant with all the branches of his business, and able to assume and maintain the responsibility of each and every one. This individuality of the manu- facturer is well divided among the different branches of the manufacture in England, where the business has grown up in the hands of practical men ; but in this country, where manufacturing Avas, as it were, im- provised on the formation of the govern- ment, it came, necessarily, under the con- trol of corporations, where the supervising power could not be so well exercised as Avhere each branch is produced by an in- dividual on his own responsibility, and to meet the consequences of defect himself. In a corporation, many of the appointments are independent of the general direction, and the resulting defects in fabrics are placed to the account of the wrong party, or not fixed upon any. The art of dyeing and printing fabrics is one of the most progressive connected with manufacturing. The materials of human clothing are mostly from silk and wool, of animal origin, and cotton and flax, of vege- table origin. These tAvo classes differ in the facility Avith which they imbibe coloring matter. The animal fibre takes much more brilliant shades than the A T egetable, and the color may be applied to either class in the raw state, in the spun yarn, or in the fabric : hence, great diversity in the processes. The coloring matters are themselves of the most various origins — animal, vegetable, and min- eral — and their substances, brought together, act upon each other, and produce the most intricate changes. The leading vegetable colors are yelloAv, brown, and red ; blue is derived only from litmus and indigo ; black is afforded by nutgalls, sumach, and cashew nut. These are generally obtained by water; but some of the substances require either alcohol or some of the fixed oils. From the animal kingdom come, from the bodies of the cochineal and kermes insects, the bril- liant scarlet and crimson dyes. The ancient dye, called Tyrian purple, Avas long supposed to be lost ; but a French chemist has lately discovered it. Hoofs, horns, etc., give Prus- sian blue. Many brilliant colors are derived from the salts of various metals. The same metal is caused to give various colors. Iron gives that buff known as nankeen ; it gives various shades of blue, and is made to yield black, slate color, and other shades. Chrome, and lead salts, give an interesting variety of colors. The materials to be dyed, of what- CROMPTON IMPROVED FANCY LOOM. MARBLE'S GIG. OR, OLOTH-NAPPING MACHINE. WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES. 195 ever nature, are seldom found to have such an affinity for the dyes used that they will retain them. They will soon wash out, un- less a remedy is applied. Chemistry dis- covered this in certain substances that will fix themselves permanently upon the fibre, and then, by uniting chemically with the color, " fix" that permanently also. These applications are called "mordants," from the Latin, mordeo, because they were thought to bite into the fibre. It is sometimes the case that, in thus combining with the color, the mordant will modify or alter its tone, and those having this effect, are sometimes called " alterants." Thus, if a decoction of madder be applied directly to cloth, it gives a dirty red color, that will not remain. If the cloth is first prepared with acetate of alumina, the color will not only become entirely fast, but will assume a fine red hue, which will re- sist the action of air, light, and water. If, instead of the alumina, oxide of iron is used as a mordant, a purple color will be ob- tained. In dyeing with cochineal, if crim- son is required, alumina is used for a mor- dant ; if oxide of iron is used, the color will be black. It follows, that mixing mor- dants will multiply shades, and the variations of proportions and strength of solution give a wide field for the production of effects. It sometimes is the case, that two solutions, neither of which will give any color at all to the fabric, will impart a fast color by follow- ing each other in the application. Thus, a solution of nitrate of potash gives no color to cloth, and may be washed out ; the same is true of bichromate of potash ; but if one of these is applied after the cloth has receiv- ed the other, a fast yellow is obtained. In the process of mandarining, an acid is made to act directly upon the fibre of the wool. In a large factory, the dye stuffs are ground and mixed in an appropriate room. The in- fusions arc made in tubs or vats, some in cold water, and others in boiling water. Some of the dyes are introduced in the shape of a coarse powder, and others in bags, through which the color oozes. The cloth is first prepared by thorough cleansing, in order to remove all extraneous matters that may be attached to the fibre. When this is com- pleted, the mordant is applied by soaking the cloth in appropriate solutions. It is then hung up to dry in long folds, if intend- ed for printing, as in the case of muslin-de- laines, a fabric in which the American manufacturer has come to surpass the im- ported article, and to monopolize the market. The art of printing goods may be said to have been created in the last fifty years. As practised in the early part of the century, it was comparatively rude. The figures to be impressed upon the cloth were engraved upon a square block of wood, and the color being applied to this, it was impressed upon the cloth, which was then drawn forward, and a new application of the block made. This was the style of printing practised orig- inally by Robert Peel, grandfather of the late prime minister of England, and founder of that family. An improvement was then made by engraving the pattern upon a cop- per cylinder, and by passing the cloth over this, the work was done with more pre- cision and continuity. This was costly, how- ever ; and one such cylinder laboriously en- graved, would print only 1,500 pieces of cloth. Perkins, of Newburyport, Massachu- setts, then invented the die. This is a small steel roller, on which the figure is engraved, and made exceedingly hard. From this, the figure is conveyed to a soft steel roller by pressure. From this last the design is im- pressed upon a copper roller by pressure. This last prints the cloth. In this manner, the design on the steel die, once engraved, may be multiplied to any number. The original block-printing would take but one color. Numbers of improvements were made to increase the number of colors that might be printed. This is now done by engraving the dies and rollers with portions of the designs that are to take different colors. The rollers are placed upon the printing machine in such a manner, that the cloth passes up slowly over the large drum of the machine. They each, in succession, impress it with the design and color with which they are fed. Almost any number of colors may thus be printed. The style and quality of ladies' dress goods of wool, have thus made rapid strides in the last few years. The faculty of felting possessed by the wool, arises from the barbs upon each fibre, like those that arc to be seen on each fibre of a feather, locking into each other. The pro- cess of rubbing in hot water causes those in the wool to become more closely interlocked, until the whole becomes a compact mass. The making of hats of wool was a la rue busi- ness in the New England colonies early in the 18th century — so much so, as to draw upon them the interference of the government for 196 CARDING WEAVING FELTING. the suppression of the business. It con- tinued, however, locally, and was, in 1791, mentioned by the Secretary of the Treasury as one of the most successful. The manu- facturing process was mostly the same, al- though the form of the hat underwent many changes, from the " cocked" to the " stove- pipe/' and latterly to " Kossuth," " Der- by," and other styles. The wool — mostly Iambs or short wool — was washed in urine to remove all grease that prevented felting. The wool then, bei^g dried, was " bowed." This was performed by the operative, who laid about 3 oz. of wool upon a board, and then, holding in h>s left hand a bow with a stiff string, he vibrated the string in such a manner as to strike the wool, and cause it to fly out clear and loose. When quite clear, it was formed by hand into a cone form nearly three tiroes as large as the proposed hat body. To keep the light wool to- gether, it was placed between two cloths. It was then immersed in water, and con- tinually rolled in different directions upon a short round stick held in the hands of the operator. This operation caused the hat to felt or shrink into the proper size and shape. Being then in the sugar-loaf form, it was stretched upon the hat block that gave it its shape, and the manufacture proceeded with, until, napped with fur and trimmed, it was ready for sale. About 30 years since, machines for forming the bodies were introduced, and these soon supplanted the old hand system. The wool was washed with soft soap as a substitute for urine, the lye of the soap being equally efficacious in removing the grease. When dry and clean, the wool was passed through the " picker," made with a cylinder covered with long teeth. As this revolved with great velocity, it took from a pair of rollers the wool, separated it, straightening the fibres, and cleaning it of dust at the same time. This wool was then passed through the breaker, or carding machine, as in preparation for spinning; but as the broad fleece comes off the doff'er, instead of being drawn into a ribbon, it is received upon a pair of light wood cones, placed with their bases together. To these a vibratory motion is given at the same time that they revolve. The result is, that the fleece of wool winds over them in contrary directions, until they appear like a large cocoon. When about 3 oz. are wound upon the cones, the boy who tends cuts them apart with shears, and by a rapid movement removes the woolly cap from the cone, which instantly resumes its motion. These caps, so removed, are perfectly formed " bodies," ready to be felted in the usual manner. The regularity and rapidity of the formation enables a " body" to be formed with much less wool than by the hand system. Instead of 3 to 4 ozs. for a hat, a perfect body was now formed of 1 oz. weight. This process of the wool manufacture grew rapidly, until a ma- chine was invented to form hat bodies of fur. The difficulty in that respect had been that the fur could not be carded into a fleece like the wool. A machine was then in- vented, by which the air was exhausted under a fine wire gauze, and the fur flying was drawn upon this and partly felted into a ribbon, which was wound upon cones for the hat bodies. The next process was to form the cone itself full of holes, and, by ex- hausting the air, the fur is caused to settle upon it evenly, in weight sufficient for a body. These fur hats caused those of wool to rank second. The felting qualities of wool have, how- ever, caused it to be used for many other purposes, such as piano-covers, drugget, and for the manufacture of cloth without weav- ing. This is called beaver cloth, and is difficult to detect, by the eye, from woven cloth. Several manufactories of this descrip- tion are in operation in Connecticut. The wool being worked and "picked," is carded in a machine which is double the width of the ordinary one, in order to deliver a fleece or web six feet wide instead of three. This " web" is, as it is delivered by the machine, carried out, in a horizontal direction, 21 feet, and so doubled in folds until it gets a proper thickness for felting. Inasmuch as the process of felting causes a web to contract more in breadth than in length, it becomes necessary, to give the cloth a proper consistency, that the webs should cross. To do this two machines are placed at right angles with each other, and as the web of one is extended, that of the other crosses it. When the proper thickness is thus attained, the whole is rolled upon a beam, and trans- ferred to the felting table. Here a number of cloths are laid together upon an endless apron, the movement of which carries them forward over an iron plate, perforated with holes, through which steam ascends, and thoroughly heats and saturates the cloths, which proceed under a platen, to which steam power imparts a rapid vibratory mo- MARBLES IMPROVED PERPETUAL SHEARING MACHINE, (For Woolen Goods.) IRON FRAME DOUBLE-ACTING BRUSHES, (For the last operation in Cloth finishing. ) WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES. 199 tion, which felts the cloth. When this is com- pleted, the cloth is dyed of the requisite color, and then subjected to the fulling and teasling process, like a woven cloth. For those heavy coat cloths that arc in the style called Peter- shams, another process is substituted. It consists in passing the cloth under a sort of press, of which the lower side, on which the cloth rests, is stationary, and the upper, being covered with sand, receives a rapid, rotatory, vibratory motion, which rolls up the nap into those little knots that are the distinctive feature of Petersham. The nature of these cloths permits of giving them two colors. Thus a dark and a drab color may be felted together to form one cloth, of which the inside is of a different color from the outside. These cloths are used to some extent by the clothiers, but their durability is said not to be such as to recommend them. Of all people, the American shows the most remarkable inclination for good car- pets. It seems to be impossible for him to walk comfortably through life without a carpet under his feet. Every man who oc- cupies a few square feet of house-room must have the brick or the boards protected from his tread by so much carpeting. Here car- peting appears in a thousand places where, in other parts of the world, it is never seen. The English shopkeeper thinks the bare boards good enough for the reception of his customers, and seldom does the mer- chant think of adding to the elegance of his counting-room by laying down a square of Brussels. Only those churches devoted to the service of the more aristocratic worship- pers, are furnished with the comforts of Kid- derminster — the bare wood, or bricks, or stone, being considered more consonant with "the self-denying duties of the sanctuary." Widely different is it with the well-to-do American. He believes in enjoying life ; and considering that carpets contribute to life's enjoyment, he does not hesitate to spread every place where he is accustomed to tread with a covering of three-ply, ta- pestry, Brussels, Moquette, or Axminster. The number of yards, of all descriptions, imported, per year, averages, for the five years, 1876-1880, 726,351 yards— -less than one half whai it was in 1850, and our ex- ports average 20,000 yards. Our manu- facture of carpets in 1870 amounted to 21,485,233 yards, or more than 30 times our present importation, and within the last decade it has increased with wonderful strides, amounting, according to the bulle- tins of the census office, in 1880, to yards. The carpets most in use in this country are known as " rag carpets," as ingrain, super two-ply, three-ply, Vene- tian, tapestries, Brussels, velvets, Wilton, Turkey, Axminster, Persian, Aubusson, and Moquettes. The ingrain carpet is made with two sets of worsted warp, and two sets of woollen weft. It consists of two distinct webs, incorporated into each other by the warp, threads passing from one to the other to bring the required colors to the surface. Each web is, however, a cloth of itself, which, if separated by cut- ting from the other, would present a coarse surface, like baize. Two colors only are used with effect in this kind of carpet. The three-ply is similar, but produced by three webs, making a thicker carpet with a greater number of colors. The pattern in this does not appear in opposite colors, as in the two-ply. This fabric was long thought not adapted to power looms, but in 1839 Mr. Bigelow, of Lowell, improved these looms, so that weavers who were then making 8 yards per day by hand could make 12 yards per day by power. This plan has since been so improved that power looms are now wholly used, with such economy of labor as greatly to reduce the cost of carpets. The judg- ment and skill of the weaver was a great element in the production of the goods. Mr. Bigelow, in his first loom, contrived to take up the woven cloth by an unerring motion, the same amount for every beat of the lathe. His next step was to regulate the tension of the threads, so as to keep the selvage smooth, and the figure regular. In this he succeeded so as to bring the two- ply loom to 27 yards per day, and the three-ply loom to 18 yards. His method of producing figures that will match was patented in 1845. The same machine was found to be applicable to Brussels and tap- estry carpets, the weaving of which by power was before thought to be impractica- ble. They were made at the rate of 4 yards per day by hand. This has been increased to 20 yards per day by the new process. The figures of the carpets are also made so as to match perfectly, and surpass the best carpets made in any other part of the world. 200 CARDING WEAVING FELTING. These looms are used in factories built for them in Lowell and Clinton, Massachusetts ; Thompson ville and Tariff ville, Connecticut; Auburn and Yonkers, N. Y. ; there are three large factories in New York, as many in Philadelphia, and a number in other towns and cities. The Brussels carpet is made upon a ground of linen weft, which is concealed by the worsted threads that interlace and cover it. The threads are of two, three, four, or five different colors, and, each being brought up to its place by a " frame," the fabric is called two, three, four, or five-frame Brussels. In weaving, these run the length of the web, and are so managed that all those required by the pattern are brought up together across the line of the carpet. Before they are let down, a wood- en instrument called a sword is passed through, to hold up the threads. This is replaced by a wound wire, which being at last removed leaves a row of loops across the carpet. In a yard there are sometimes 320 successive lifts of the sets of colors re- quired, each of which forms a row of the loops. The Wilton carpet differs from Brussels in that the loops are cut before the wire is removed. A groove runs in the wire to receive the edge of the cutting knife. The soft ends of the cut loops give the car- pet its velvet appearance. In Imperial Brus- sels, the loops of the figures only are cut. Here a new invention was brought into use to make " tapestry and velvet pile." This is a combination of the arts of printing and weaving. The principle is this : if a rose- bud occurs a thousand times in the length of a web, at 4 feet apart, the block-printer must apply his block a thousand times to print the bud. By the new process the thread is wound a thousand times round a cylinder 4 feet in circumference, and a turn- ing wheel charged with color passes across the coil. The thread unwound is found to be marked in a thousand places exactly where it is wanted. The threads are thus all parti-colored, and singly show no regular figure; but when arranged in the proper order for the weaver's beam, the figures come into view much elongated. Some- times 1 8 feet of warp will be gathered into 4 feet of cloth, in order to secure the due proportion of the intended object. By this system the number of colors, that could not exceed 6 or 7 by the old plan, is now increased to 20 or 30, or any number ; and instead of a change of blocks for every pattern, the same blocks serve for all pat- terns. Aubusson, Moquette, and Axmins- ter are very similar in appearance and con- struction. They are made with a high tufted pile, thick, durable, and expensive. They are constructed with a firm ground- work of linen or cotton, upon which is woven the body of the fabric — the warp and woof, to which the tufts supplied from a series of rollers corresponding in number to the picks or wefts, completing one pat- tern and of a length equal to the width of the carpet are attached. As these tufts are of soft woolen yarn and form a surface altogether independent of the body of the carpet below, the employment of an al- most unlimited number of colors is admiss- ible, and the designs in these grades are therefore generally of the most perfect and elegant description. It is only within the past ten or fifteen years that American manufacturers have succeeded in sur- mounting the difficulties attending the pro- duction of these goods; but the American goods are now fully equal to the imported. The wool used for the manufacture of carpets comes from Russia, near the Black Sea, from Turkey (Smyrna), from the East Indies, from Cordova, Buenos Ayres, Monte Video, and Valparaiso, S. America; from Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and some from Mexico. The Combing Donskoi (a Russian wool, washed fleece) and the Smyrna, also washed, bring the highest price, from 23 to 25 cents a pound, E. India white, washed, from 16 to 18, the South American wools, not washed, from 14 to 15, and our own South Western, not washed, about the same. If these wools have not been washed or scoured, they are first put through that process, and then sent to the combing machine to be separa- ted into long and short-fiber wools. The long are passed through rollers, and assume a form entitled a "sliver," which is allowed to fall into a hollow cylinder set for the purpose, while the short fibers dis- appear in a mysterious-looking box at one side of the room. These slivers are then passed through a drawing frame, twenty or more of them united, and drawn out so as to equalize the thread; eight or ten of these threads are again subjected to the drawing process and reduced to one, which operation is repeated as often as is neces- sary to produce uniformity. These long THE MURKLAND INGRAIN CARPET LOOM. WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 203 fibers, so carefully put through this pro- cess, are intended to form the warp of the carpets, while the short fibers are used for the "woof " or " filling." In the spinning- room, both staples of wool come together to be spun on the long, clashing, clattering "spinning jacks," twelve in number, some of them spinning 256 and others 308 threads at once. When it leaves the "jacks" it is in the form of coarse yarn, tightly rolled on large spools, from which it is wound into skeins and is ready for the.dye house. By a curious system of folding, of a recent American invention, part of the yarn skeins are, after being scoured (a pro- cess applied to all yarns to free them from their natural oil) subjected to a parti-col- ored dyeing — and thus the same skein, or frame of skeins, may sometimes bear half a dozen different colors. These parti-colored yarns are used for warp. Other bundles of yarn are submerged in rolling, steaming floods of colored liquids of every hue. That portion intended to be used white is bleached by means of sulphur in houses erected for the purpose on the river bank. From the dyeing-room, the yarn is con- veyed to the drying-room, immediately over the engine boilers,- and after it has be- come thoroughly dried is conveyed to the winding room, where winding machines, worked by girls, are at work, filling spools and bobbins from the skeins; and no sooner are the spools filled than they are unfilled by the warping machines, five of which are constantly in operation. The threads are here wound upon the large cylinders for the printers, and each filling of this great cylinder makes but a single thread in the warp of a single pattern, so that for a piece having 208 threads in its width, the cylin- der must be filled and carefully printed a corresponding number of times. These monster skeins, after being printed, some- times with 100 or more shades of colors, each laid on in straight lines by a small printing roller, traveling across beneath the large cylinder, are packed at full length in rice chaff, and having been placed in boxes on a little railroad car, are shoved into a boiler, where from 4 to 6 lbs. pressure of steam is applied. When the colors have been thoroughly fixed by this means, the skeins are dried and passed through what are termed setting machines, when the yarn is ready for the Bigelow loom. These have on the end of each of the little wires used $ 1 CO Br 5 p eo to a & a d o — o 1 O CO T-l g o o o 1 a — a ed CO o i ** o | fc uf © o 3 5 a i o" o 0> IC Ph S! H m r. C a CO CO 5 2 e» CO t- c~> ~ F P 05 3 m CO a e t- $ a a i^ co B ■^ lO o t^ P S ■ 5» 5» «o 00 | g o CO CO a c c !□ a e * t- — p co o ct IC Tf CO o^ U ^ ^4 fff 77, •w- - 3 S. s s •-r s © X c 3 — co lO IQ c e e CO t-^ 3 1 CO 5 co" 0) in CO CO <» «e M CO c a CO CO co c3 m E t- CO CO o cc IC s CO 53 tf3 (?5 CO ■^ o -r 1 cr v £ ■*f ed ti< m W 3 0*" V. fc- — c s en B 'W CO a c CC o « - C o •>* o pi a c CN CC t- o i- = s cc CC '— — t- P-> «» icT im" «» «» »" a 4 a> o 3 a ~ (Jli ■a o ' a s £ * B •2 CJ — d a ■a 1 S > . J » c < s a H w z I 1 ^ a HH o E 1 s - — >> < Cm B O E a K E ■ 5 ] e c - L * ° 1 § - S - 5-~ a > 204 CLOTHING TRADE TOTAL MANUFACTURE. to raise the pile of the Brussels carpet a small knife, which, while it weaves, cuts the pile and makes it " velvet." The next machines to which the fabric is subjected are for shaving the velvet, and girls are employed in trimming the under side of the goods and preparing them for the rolling ma- chine. Here the carpets are rolled, marked with the number of the pattern of each roll, number of yards, etc., and thus prepared for removal to the warehouse. The lengths of the pieces usually are: velvets, from 40 to 50 yards; tapestries, 50 to 60 yards; and ingrains, from 100 to 110 yards. The manufacture of long shawls, for men's use, was pushed to a great extent a few years since. The Bay State Mills became famous for these shawls, and used for them 3,000,000 lbs. of wool per annum. The production of hosiery and fancy knit work has become very important in the last twenty or twenty-five years. The sup- ply of these articles came formerly from England, but of late the manufacture of these articles has received a great develop- ment, particularly in Philadelphia. The fine American wool is well adapted to the manufacture. The business is largely car- ried on in families as well as in hundreds of factories. There are eight or ten knit- ting machines, all of American invention, which have rendered the business of knit- ting wool goods of all kinds almost a pas- time. They are mostly automatic and fashion every description of knit goods perfectly, and so rapidly as to reduce the cost almost to nothing. The Nelson ma- chine completes a pair of stockings at a cost for labor of only a sixth of a mill a pair. Other machines make other kinds of knit goods. Zephyr worsted is used in much of this work and the demand for that yarn causes frauds to enter into the salj. Each pound of zephyr is divided into 16 laps, which are sold without weighing, as con- taining each one ounce of wool. Full weight would be 16 drachms to the ounce lap, or if stored in over dry atmosphere, 15 J drachms; but the fraud consists in put- ting up only 15, 14, 12, or 10 drachms in each ounce lap, the number of laps in a pound being the correct number — 16. These frauds are difficult to detect, as the dishonest dealer is provided with false weights, which make his goods appear on trial to be correct. The ounce of the apothecary shops contains more grains than the true standard avoirdupois ounce, so that it cannot be tested there. The proper remedy would be to inquire continually of dealers whether their goods are full weight or short weight, to show that public atten- tion is directed to the matter, and to com- pare articles bought at different stores, by putting them on the opposite scales of a balance, and noticing where goods are sold by true or best weight. CHAPTER II. CLOTHING TEADE— TOTAL MANUFAC- TUEE— SHODDY. Until within the last forty-five years, the ready-made clothing trade was confined almost entirely to the furnishing of sailors' sea fit-outs. The stores for this purpose were mostly kept by sailor landlords, whose business philanthropy led them to coax : 'poor Jack" into their "cribs" on his arri- val, and feast him high while his earnings lasted ; and as soon as these were gone, ship him on board some vessel, obtain his ad- vance pay, varying from $12 to $20, ac- cording to the demand for seamen. If this is not all due the landlord, he supplied slops at enormous rates for the balance, got Jack dead drunk, and put him on board at the last moment in that condition. In such a business, ready-made clothing was indis- pensable, but otherwise there was little market for made-up goods. Most families in the country made their own clothes. But as taste and wealth improved, the difficulty of "cutting out" called into be- ing a special trade, and most villages and towns in the country were visited by pro- fessional persons, who boarded round in the families where cutting and fitting, as well for males as females, was in requisition. Another trade also grew up in the cities; it was the dealing in second-hand clothing, mostly by Jews. These industrious per- sons bought up all the old clothing that could be had, cleaned, repaired, and re- dressed them, and sold them to those who sought to economize. The cleaning and repairing of these clothes occupied great numbers of poor people. The repairing soon grew into fabricating very cheap cloths bought at auction, "half-burnt," "wetgoods,'' etc., to sell them in connection with the old garments. Visitors from the country found that garments could be bought in this way to better advantage than even to have them WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 20- made at home, and the boarding- round sys- tem began to wane. It was soon found in New York that the great crowd of visitors who passed rapidly through the city, and had little time to wait for measures, or to be inconvenienced with tailors' delays and misfits, would become buyers of a better class of ready-made clothing, and the man- ufacture began to spread by tailors keeping assortments, and in 1834 and 1835 the wholesale manufacture commenced in New York. One of the first of these, a shrewd judge of cloth and a close reckoner, com- menced with little capital, slept under his counter, and kept his personal expenses very small, devoting his whole time to the cheap purchase of cloth, and the most economical way of making it up. This trade grew rapidly to an expenditure of $80,0C0 per annum for labor, mostly to sewing girls, at ridiculously low prices. It was obvious that where the purchase of goods, the cutting, and making are attend- ed to by experienced men, on a large scale, the cost of the goods would be very much less than that at which individuals could get them up. There were many in the trade when the revulsion of 1837 ruin- ed them. The trade was soon again re-es- tablished, and it has continued to increase, not only in New York, but has spread into all the cities of the Union. The census of 1870 gave the clothing business for both sexes as follows: — Number 9,685 Capital, $53,417,098 < ost of material, $92,955)309 Males employed, 48.089 Females employed, 70,336 Cost of labor $33.0 18,835 Value produced, $160,550,961 The decade 1 870-1880 has been marked by a great increase in the clothing trade. All the large dealers in dry goods are en- gaged in the manufacture and sale of under-clothing to the extent of tens of hun- dreds of thousands of dollars, and most of them also in women's clothing in similar amounts. The purchases of the clothiers, a distinct feature in the goods markets, take place many months before the goods are sold. The cloths for winter goods are bought in the previous spring, in order to give time for the making up. In a large clothingestablishment the business proceeds with great method. The cloth, as soon as it comes in, is subjected to a rigid scrutiny, and blemished portions are removed. Tlie piece is then taken to the superintendent, 12 a statement of the number of yai-ds, the cost, and of whom purchased, is then en- tered in a book kept for the purpose. There is also entered the number and des- cription of the goods to be made, how they are to be trimmed, the name of the cutter, the price of making, etc. The cloth is then transferred to the cutter, with direc- tions as to kind of garment, style of cut, sizes, etc. The garments being cut, are passed to the trimmer, who supplies but- tons, thread, lining, etc. The goods then come under the control of the foremen, of whom there are several, and these give them out to be made. The number who do this part of the business is very large, and are mostly females. They take home pantaloons, vests, etc., and when not well known to the foreman, are required to leave a deposit in money for the return of the goods. This is necessary in large cities, since it happens that if there is no deposit,, the person may be tempted to pawn or sell the goods; or, if she is honest, she may have a drunken husband, who will seize and pawn the goods. It often happens, however, that poor, deserving women have no money to deposit, and go hungry in face of work that they might do. There are, on the other hand, knavish dealers, who, taking advantage of the position of the depositor, require it, and when the goods are returned, declare the work ill done, and retain the deposit to pay for the alleged spoiling of the cloth. There are also great numbers, of men employed in doing the heavy work, and since the introduction of sewing ma- chines, these have been largely used Among the numerous immigrants into New York, are many German and other families, who take in sewing, and these nearly all have a sewing machine. This demand for the machines is supplied by the liberality of the competing patentees. They deliver a machine upon the payment of a small sum, and allow the buyer to pay- up three to five dollars a month until the purchase is completed. In this manner the supply of labor in the manufacture of cloth- ing is greatly increased, but the pressure is harder upon those who have no ma- chines. The women may, however, earn from $G to $12 per week; the former price on coarse work was as low as 25 to 374- cents for common silk vests, and as much for pantaloons, of which two pair a day is a large production. For custom-made silk 206 CLOTHING TRADE TOTAL MANUFACTURE. vests, $2 is paid. The finer coats are made by regular tailors, employed in fashionable city shops during the dull season, and these earn $14 to $20 per week. The sup- ply of labor is not, however, confined to the city, but embraces a broad circle of country, to which goods are sent by rail and express to be made up. Many cloth- ing concerns have agencies in the country towns. These keep vehicles to travel round to farmers' and other dwellings where good sewing is done in the winter, with his goods, and bring them back when done. This reverses the old system of boarding round to cut out family goods, since the goods go round to get made up. The cutting is an "art " of itself, and re- quires a certain talent. It is, in fact, the most important part of the manufacturing, since the style and "set" of the goods de- pend upon it. The large New York clothing stores employ the best " talent " in this line. The manufacture of women's clothing, dresses, suits, cloaks, waterproof and re- pellent garments, &c, &c, has sprung up almost entirely since 1860; and since that time also the manufacture of under-clothing for both sexes has become a business of great magnitude. In 1850 and perhaps earlier, the production of men's fine shirts had attained considerable magnitude, but all other under-clothing for both sexes is at least ten years later. The clothing trade of Boston has also re- ceived a great development of late years, and by a combination of circumstances which have had their influence everywhere. In 1840 there were only two houses in the trade in Boston, and the aggregate sales were about $200, 000. The supply of cloths, &c, is large in Boston — as well from the manufacturers direct, as through commis- sion houses who advance on them to the manufacturers. The cutting is done in Bos- ton, but the sewing mostly in the farmer's families throughout New England, and about 60,000 females in such situations are em- ployed. The numerous railroads that trav- erse the country, make commodities cheap; and as sewing machines improve in the quality of the work they do, and in the cheapness with which they can be furnish- ed, hardly a house is without one, and all seek employment for them. In 1857, when the financial pressure caused so many mills to stop, throwing hands out of employment, these sought sewing as a substitute; and their savings enabled them to buy ma- chines. The same event threw large quan- tities of goods upon the market, through the auction houses, and also through the hands of the commission houses, to whom the manufacturers pledged them for money. Thus, there was a large supply of goods and labor at less than former rates; cloth- ing could be furnished much cheaper, and this circumstance was not advantageous to the old stocks. That circumstance gave an impulse to the clothing business, as bringing more within its scope. The following table gives the most com- plete history of the progress of woolen manufactures, importation of woolen goods and raw wool, and the production of wool in this country at each decade of the last forty years which has ever been attempted. For many of the items in it we are indebted to John S. Hayes, Esq., LL.D., the able and learned Secretary of the National As- sociation of "Wool Manufacturers, and to Geo. Wm. Bond, Esq., the special agent of the Census Bureau on Wool Manufactures: STATISTICS OF WOOL MANUFACTURE AND IMPORTATION 1840-1880. M 3 | (5 Hands Employed. > a 2 a h 3 a. c £ •Ssj 3 a CO 55 o en Z 3 a . t. 3 g£ 5 ^ -a 5 3 a 3 *S ,° ■5 a A C K 3 ax a t-, C-3 . £-— - E g 3 = * o CM t a O u 9 Males. Fe- males. 3j£ i » E 3 ~ a 4.005* $15,765,124 lbs. 50,808,524 $20,696,699 lbs. 35,802,114 1840 21,432 $11,001,939 $1,091,953 15,006,410 1350 2,447 22,678 16,574 28,056,220 67,762,829 $25,755,938 43,542,288 17,151,509 1,690,380 18,695,294 52.516,969 1860 1,975 24,841 16,519 30,862,65* $9,808,254 83,608,468 36.586,887 3,209 61,895,217 37,876,945 4,843,385 28,509,211 60,511,343 1870 3,041 47,569 32,528 98,824,531 26,908,691 172,078,919 96,910.9:16 1,845,496 10,073 217,578,824 34,435,659 6,798,959 49,740,991 100,102.387 1880t 2,983 60,000 42.000 180,000,000 45,959,012 187,616,605 146,141,798 2,471,500 12,000 237,587,671 1 33,623,887, 5,056,666 129,519,980 1 1 232,500,000 •Of these 1,4?0 were woolen factories and 2,fSR5 fulling mills for fulling domestic cloths, employing generally only one or two hands. tThe statistics of 1K80, so far as the wages, pounds of wool consumed, value of raw mat'-rial and value of annual product are concerned, are from figures ftin-Uhed by John L. Hayes, Esq.. LL.D., and by Geo. Win, Bond, Esq., special agent of the Census Bureau in advance of their pub- lication in the Census Bulletins. They are liable to some alight corrections from further information. The importations are from the reports of i Commerce and Navigation. The other items are estimates bused on reliable data. JThe wool production is from the census reports. WOOLEN MANUFACTURES. 207 It appears, then, from the above, that the manufacture of woolens in the United States increased from $20,696,699 in 1840, to $234,587,671 in 1880, according to the national census. The production of cloths labors under disadvantage from the sharp competition which the English, Belgians, and French have kept up to obtain the American mar- ket. Up to 1840, 19-20ths of the cloths and cassimeres imported into the United States were of English manufacture. The importations have been as follows: — IMPORTS OP CLOTH? AND CASSIMERES INTO THE UNITED STATES. Germany. Belgium. France. England. Total. 1840 16,612 93.135 89.767 4,490,830 $4,690,344 1851 1,411,282 478,532 1,988,181 3.785,070 7,463.065 1857 2,574,871 909,331 1,659,470 5.711,933 10.855,605 1868 . . . . . . . . 7,139 605 1870 2.930,941 165,483 273.276 4,274,927 7,671,013 1875 2.506,628 415,347 2,868.041 7.853.941 13,680,288 1879 1,314,109 211,710 1.458,322 3.209,955 6,255,195 1881 2,792,374 699,858 2,639,623 5,692,143 12,078,733 The tariff of 1841 and 1842 approached, by the biennial reductions, the 20 per cent, limit, and on these goods there was not much increase of duties till 1860, when the Morrill tariff went into effect, and which was succeeded, in 1867, by another giving nearly as great protection. Under these successive tariffs, our produc- tion of cloths has increased, notwithstand- ing the sharp competition of foreign manu- facturers, who were bound to hold our market, even if they did not make any profit themselves. They had the advan- tage of cheap labor, and of machinery; and since 1851, at the time of the Crystal Palace exhibition, they have persistently attempted to occupy our markets with tlieir cloths and cassimeres. As the above table shows, the Germans and Belgians, learning what our market demanded at that exhibition, made their goods so much superior to the English in their dyeing and finishing that they gained materially on Great Britain in the amount of their sales, for some years; but by increased ex- ertions and a larger outlay of capital that country measurably recovered its ground. The sharp competition of Germany, Bel- gium, France, and England has kept down prices for the last thirty years, and our manufacturers have had hard work to hold their own; but the long fight seems to be drawing to a close. Although our population has more than doubled since 1857, we are not importing many more cloths and cassimeres than we did at that time (in 1880 we imported $82,000 less than in 1851); while our own manufac- turers are having orders for all the goods they can make, and are now producing four times as many of these goods as they did twenty-five years ago; the foreign goods have not held their own in quality, as the price at which they were exported did not warrant their using the best ma- terial; while our manufacturers have been constantly improving the quality of their goods, which are now admitted by good foreign judges to be equal to any manufactured anywhere. Our manufac- turers deserve great credit for the cour- age they have manifested in this long con- flict, and their success is due in part to two circumstances: they have used for their warp the best quality of Merino wool, an American product, which, as Dr. George B. Loring well says, " can hold together in the manufactured article more feeble wool than any other similar fiber in the world;" they could thus use cheaper wools for filling, and yet produce first-class goods; they have had the advantage also of American im- provements in machinery, and the American machines for the production of cloths and cassimeres are very far in advance of any others in the world. Shawls which so lately as 1872 were imported to the value of $3,424,309 had fallen off in 1881 to $1,079,780; blankets, which in 1872 were imported to the value of $38,785, have ranged in the last three years from $1,675 to $6,062; dress goods in 1872 amounted to $20,439,481, and in 1881, a year of great business prosperity, to only $12,514,- 962; the importation of hosiery and knit goods has increased slightly from 1872, when it was $658,193, being in 18S0 $611,912, and in 1881, owing to a large demand from immigrants, rising to $1,- 000,372; but the home production has in- creased in a still greater degree; while carpets which 25 years ago were imported to the value of over $20,000,000 fell to $5,- 727,183, and in 1881 to $1,064, 076— and as the Persian and Smyrna rugs so largely manufactured in England and Scotland are now manufactured in this country of equal excellence and genuineness, and all the other qualities of imported carpets also, there is no good reason why the im- portation of carpets should not wholly cease. It is worthy of remark also that we are now exporting woolen goods, and that our exports have risen from $124,099 in 1874 to $331,083 in 1881, and that this includes a considerable amount in carpets. 208 CLOTHING TBADE — TOTAL MANUFACTURERS. The fact has been developed by the most elaborate sci- entific researches, that the climate and soil of the United States are better adapted to the growth of fine, long stapled wools, suit- able for the cloth manufacturer, than any- other manufacturing country, and the article produced exceeds the Australian wool. Under the appliances of increased capital, and the stimulus which the competition of England with the continent may impart to the quality of the fabric, the United States will probably assume the superiority; and our manufacturers have not neglected the necessary exertion to procure as fine a finish and as durable a dye for their cloths as those of the continent exhibit. The United States wools are rapidly gaining a character which will bring the foreign manufacturers into such competition for their purchase as will permanently sustain their price. The supply of wool in the United States has never been equal to the demand. The wools imported into the United States, are mostly of the coarser descrip- tions used for carpets, etc., and the average value is about 12 to 21 cts. There are also combing wools of somewhat higher prices, imported from Canada, as we do not yet raise these in sufficient quantity for our growing worsted manufacture. In consequence, Congress, in 1857, made all wools costing less than 20 cents at the place of growth, free of duty. These had paid 30 per cent., ad valorem, previously. This law had not much effect in increasing the supply, for the reason that the supply is everywhere short. There were quantities of South American wool imported of a fine quality, but so filled with the burr pe- culiar to that country, as to make them nearly useless. Many machines were in- vented to remove these burrs, but with partial success. One was of the form of a number of circular saws, 8 to 1 inches in diameter, set close together upon a shaft, which revolved with much velocity. The wool was fed to this cylinder, through two rollers. The saw teeth seized the wool, which, passing between the saws, left the burr on the surface, whence it was re- moved by the motion of the cylinder against a stationary knife placed longitud- inally across it. The general impulse given to manufactures at home and abroad, has caused the demand to outrun the supply of wool. This was the more the case that manufactures spread in those countries that formerly were most depended upon for raw wools. The supply of England has been kept up by the extended exports of Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. Hence, the lower duty did not improve the supply in the United States, and the home supply, though at one time diminished has been of late increasing rapidly. At first it seemed that the demand for the flesh of sheep and lambs would diminish the pro- duction of wool; but the introduction of the worsted manufacture, by bringing about for combing wools has rendered the production of mutton sheep an advantage. The price of wool, however, rose for a time, and the manufacturers naturally sought to reduce the cost of the raw mate- rial by hunting up a substitute. This is usually found in substituting one of these four chief materials of human clothing — cotton, silk, wool, and flax. The one of these that is relatively dearest is mixed with larger proportions of the others. Hence, the value of the whole becomes in some degree equalized. Out of these circumstances has grown one of the most curious manufactures that have sprung up of late years. This is the shoddy manufacture. It has recently been imported from England; and there are now in New York state six factories — in Water- vliet, Newburg, Troy, and Marlborough. These turn out about 100,000 lbs. of shod- dy per annum. Many people, remembering the expres- sion as used to designate anything not con- sidered remarkably fine and good, will ask, " But what is shoddy ? " In the somewhat hilly district of York- shire, between Huddersfield and Leeds, stand on two prominences the pretty little towns of Dewsbury and Batley Car. The stranger, on alighting from the railway car, is struck with the unusually large warehouses, built of stone by the railway company. For such small stations, these are mysterious erections. But if he enter the principal warehouse, he will probably find piled up hundreds of bales, containing th* cast-off garments of Great Britain and the continent of Europe. Here, in fact, from all parts of the world, are brought the tattered remains of the clothes, some of which have been worn by royalty in WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES. >09 the various courts of Europe, as well as by the peers and peasants. The rich broadcloth of the English nobles here commingles with the livery of their servants and the worsted blouses of the French republicans; while American undershirts, pantaloons, and all other worsted or woollen goods, may there be found, all reduced to one common level, and known by one common appellation of •' rags." The walls of the town are placarded with papers announcing public auctions of" Scotch shoddies," " mungoes," "rags," and such like articles of merchandise, and every few days the goods department of the railway is besieged by sturdy-looking Yorkshiremen, who are examining, with great attention, the various bales, some of which are assorted into "whites," "blue stockings," "black stockings," "carpets," "shawls," "stuffs," "shirtings," " linseys," "black cloth," etc. A jovial-looking man, of doubtful temperance principles, at last steps forward and puts the goods up to auction. The prices which these worn-out articles fetch are surprising to the uninitiated. Old stockings will realize from $35 to $50 a ton ; while white flannels will sometimes sell for as much as $100 a ton, and even more. The "hards," or black cloth, when clipped free from all seams and threads, are worth from $100 to $150 a ton. There are common mixed sorts of coarse fabric which can be bought as low as from $15 to $25 a ton; while the "rubbish," consisting of seams, linseys, and indescrib- ables, are purchased by the chemists for the manufacture of potash crystals for from $10 to $15 a ton. It will be seen that assorting these old woollens is equally important with the assort- ing of the different qualities of new wool ; and there is the additional consideration of colors to render assorting still more neces- sary. It is surprising, however, with what rapidity all this is accomplished. There are some houses where old woollen rags are divided into upward of twenty different sorts, ready for the manufacturer. The principal varieties are flannels, of which there are " English whites,!' "Welsh whites," "Irish whites," and "drabs." Each of these com- mand a different price in the market: the English and Welsh being much whiter than the Irish, and of finer texture, arc worth nearly double the price of the Irish. The stockings are the next in value to the flan- nels, on account of the strength and elas- ticity of the wool. The peculiar stitch or bend of the worsted in stocking manufac- ture, and the hot water and washing to which they arc submitted during their stocking existence, have the effect of producing a per- manent elasticity which no after process destroys, and no new wool can be found to possess. Hence, old stockings are always in great demand, and realize, for good clean colored sorts, as much as $80 a ton in busy seasons. The white worsted stockings are the most valuable of the "softs," and, when supplied in sufficient quantity, will sell for as much as $140 a ton. Carpets, and other col- ored sorts, are generally, owing to their rapid accumulation, to be had at very low prices. " Shoddy," so well understood in York- shire, is the general term for the wool pro- duced by the grinding, or, more technically, the " pulling" up of all the soft woollens ; and all woollens are soft, except the super- fine cloths. The usual method of convert- ing woollens into shoddy, is to first carefully assort them, so as to see that not a particle of cotton remains on them, and then to pass them through a rag machine. This has a cylinder 3 ft in diameter and 20 inches long, with steel teeth half an inch apart from each other, and standing out from the cylinder, when new, one inch. This cylinder revolves five hundred times in a minute, and the rags are drawn gradually close to its surface by two fluted iron rollers, the upper one of which is packed with thin stuff or skirting, so as to press the rags the closer to the action of the teeth. The cylinder runs up- ward past . these rollers, and any pieces of rag which are not completely torn into wool, are, by their natural gravity, thrown back upon the rags which are slowly creeping into the machine. The rollers are fed by means of a creeper, or slowly moving, end- less cloth, on which a man, and in some instances a woman, lays the rags in proper quantities. One of these machines is com- monly driven by a seven-inch band, and re- quires at least five horse power. Half a ton of rags can be pulled in ten hours by one of these machines. The dust produced sub- jects the workpeople on first commencing the occupation, to what is there called the " rag fever." But after a time the imme- diate effects are warded off, and although it no doubt shortens lite, the remuneration being considerable — in England, 2s. for every 240 lbs. of rags pulled — there is never any difficulty in obtaining workpeople. 210 CLOTHING TRADE TOTAL MANUFACTURE. The " mungo" is the wool produced by subjecting the hards, or superfine cloths, to a similar operation as that above described. The machine, however, for the mungo trade, is made with a greater number of teeth, several thousand more in the same sized cylinder, and the cylinder runs about 700 revolutions in a minute. The rags, previous to being pulled in this machine, are passed through a machine called a " shaker." This is made of a coarsely-toothed cylinder, about 2^ ft. in diameter, which revolves about 300 times in a minute, in a coarse wire cylinder. This takes away a large portion of the dust, which is driven out at a large chimney by means of a fan. The mungo pulling is, therefore, a cleaner business than the shoddy making, and, as a general rule, is more prof- itable. The power required for a mungo machine is that of about seven horses. Both the better kinds of shoddy and the mungo have for some years been saturated with oil ; but recently, milk has been applied to this purpose, and found to answer exceed- ingly well. The consequence is that milk in that locality, in England, has risen 100 per cent, in price ; and even in that district, where cows are kept in large numbers, it was feared there would be a great scarcity of milk for the supply of the towns. When well saturated with oil or milk, the shoddy or the mungo is sold to the woollen manufacturer. There are scores of men who attend the Huddersfield market every Tues- day to dispose of their mungo. It is as much an article of marketable value there, as cloth is here. It is not unusual for good mungo to realize as much as eight English pence per pound, while the shoddy varies in price from one penny to sixpence per pound, according to quality. The common kinds of shoddy require, of course, to be subjected to the scouring pro- cess, for which large wooden heaters, or " stocks," are employed. The dung of hogs is largely employed in this purifying pro- cess, as well as human urine, which is exten- sively used in the blanket manufacture of Yorkshire. The white shoddy is capable of being used either for light-colored goods or for the common kinds of blankets, while the dark-colored shoddy is worked into all kinds of coarse cloths, carpets, etc., which arc dyed any dark color, so as to hide the vari- ous colors of the old fabrics. It is mixed in with new wool in such proportion as its quality will permit, without deteriorating the sale of the material. The mungo is used in nearly all the York- shire superfine cloths, and in some very ex- tensively. It produces a cloth somewhat inferior, of course, to the West of England goods in durability, but, for finish and ap- pearance, when first made up, the inferiority would only be perceived by a good judge of cloth. This substance is largely intro- duced into all felted fabrics. Blankets, car- pets, druggets, table-covers, and Petersham coats, are sometimes entirely made from it, and the trade is rapidly extending. The effect of shoddy in the cloth of an overcoat, in the wear, is to rub out of the cloth and accumulate between it and the lining. We have seen a gentleman take a handful of this short wool from the corners of his coat. The grounds on which this shoddy and mungo business can be justified are the cheapening of cloth, and the turning to a useful purpose what would be otherwise almost useless. The business in Yorkshire is dignified by the title of the " Dewsbury trade ;" and to it Dewsbury certainly owes its wealth, and we might almost say its ex- istence. In twenty years it has grown from a village to a town of some 30,000 in- habitants, and some immense fortunes have been made by this extraordinary trans- formation of old garments into new. Considerable quantities of white shoddy were sent from England and Scotland to this country, and finally a machinist sent several of his rag machines, and several factories were successively started. The sale of the product is now largely conducted in Cedar street, New York. The shoddy trade is somewhat fluctu- ating, being affected very much by the state of the wool market. So great is the com- petition in the markets, that as soon as a rise takes place in the price of new wool, the small manufacturers, instead of raising their prices, commonly regulate their expenditure by using a larger proportion of the old material, and they are thus enabled to com- pete, in prices at least, with the larger manu- facturers, who can lay in a large stock of new wool when the prices are low. _-, LEATHER. CHAPTER I. TANNING— BOOTS AND SHOES. On the formation of the federal govern- ment, much solicitude was apparent in rela- tion to the growth of the more important branches of manufactures. That the im- perial government had so persistently pre- vented the establishment of any considerable branches, was a great drawback, because it had prevented the development of the neces- sary experience and skill in manufacture re- quired for large operations. The removal of those prohibitions by the act of inde- pendence, attracted attention to the forbid- den industries, and they began to flourish. The tanning and manufacture of leather, in all its branches, was one of the first that be- gan to thrive, and naturally, because the slaughter of animals for food furnished a greater or less supply of skins, that required to be wrought up into boots, shoes, harness, etc. Parliamentary committees, early in the eighteenth century, mentioned tanning in the colonies as a branch of individual in- dustry, which supplied most of the local demands for leather and shoe-making, as one of the leading handicrafts. In 1791, the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Hamilton, in his report on manufactures, mentions : " Tanneries are not only carried on as a regular business in numerous parts of the country, but they constitute, in some places, a valuable item of incidental family manufacture." He went on to mention, that encouragement had been asked of the gov- ernment in two ways, viz. : by prohibiting both the import of the leather and the ex- port of the bark. It was alleged that the leather trade had raised the price of bark from $3 to $4 1840 8 229 15.650.929 3,643.611 3.781.868 $20,919,910 1850', 6,263 18,900,557 12,257,940 8,653,S65 3i,S61,796 Cost of | 1860, 5,040 &5,655,370 1870, 7,438 56,632,740 26,710,734 73,879,115 143,464,523 The skins of domestic animals, or " green hides," are rated of higher value than the foreign or salted hides; yet these latter will give a greater weight of leather, because of the water in the green hides, which, on the other hand, are more easily handled. The largest oxen make the best sole leather. The skins of the bull are thickest about the neck and raw ( - $44,720,737 67,306,459 material. \ 213 parts of the belly ; but the back is thinner, and are inferior in fineness of grain to oxen or cows. The best are made into the heavy leather, used for the best trunks, shoe-soles, machine-belts, harness, etc. The lighter qualities serve for uppers of common boots and shoes. Kips, or skins of young cattle, make the uppers of fine boots and shoes. Those hides of the best quality only are split or shaved for the thin enamelled leather used for dress shoes, and are made into "lace leather," or thongs for belts. In preparing the hides for tanning, the heavy ones are soaked for months in lime-water. The hair, at last, can be removed, with the epidermis, by the two-handed scraping-knife, rubbed over it as the hide is laid flat clown on the bench prepared for this purpose. The fleshy substance on the other side is then scraped off, and, like the head, cheeks, and other waste, used for making glue. In large establishments, machines are used for this scraping. The lime that remains in the pores of the hide must be removed by soak- ing in some solution, like chlorine, that will form a soluble compound with the lime. Sometimes hides are laid in piles, and allow- ed to begin to putrefy, great care being taken to stop it as soon as the hair starts. By the United States plan, the object is more effectively obtained, with less labor, and no injury to the leather. The hides are suspended in a cool vault, protected, like an ice-house, against the entrance of warm air, and furnished with a covered channel-way, that answers as a drain and as a conduit for cool damp air. Cool spring water is then conducted into the vault, to fall round its sides like spray. The hides are thus kept in a mist, at a temperature of 44 to 40 deg., and, in six to twelve days, are found freed from all superfluous matter. The cold vapor has been absorbed, and its action by melting has distended and removed the epidermis with the roots of the hair. As soon as this is effected, the hides are ready for tanning. This American plan, it will be observed, is far in advance of that of the old systems, still practised in Europe. Of the hides brought into New York in a year, the disposition was as follows : — Domestic hides, slaughtered 250.000 Imported 1,902,000 Stock, Jan. 1 376,000 Supply 2,527,000 Taken for sole leather 1,877,000 " upper " 250,000 " patent " 100,000 " by western tanners . . . 100,000 " neighboring cities . . 150,000 2,477,000 Stock, Dec. 31 50,000 These figures show the relative disposition of the hides sold in New York. Leather, tanned, is generally divided into three kinds, namely : hides, kips, and skins. The stoutest leather employed. for trunks and soles of boots and shoes, is made from butts or backs. Buff' leather was formerly made for defensive armor from the hide of the buffalo, but it is now furnished by the cow-hide, and is used chiefly for soldiers' belts. Bull-hide is thicker than cow-hide, while kip-skiu, from young cattle, is lighter than the latter. The name kip is also giv- en to Calcutta, Brazil, and African hides. Calf-skin supplies the great demand for the upper part of boots and shoes ; sheep-skins form a thin, cheap leather ; lamb-skins are used for gloves ; goat and kid-skins form a light leather of fine quality ; deer or ante- lope are usually bi-dressed in oil ; horse-hide is prepared for harness work, etc., and this, with seal-skin, is used for making enamelled leather ; dog-skin makes a thin, tough leath- er, but most of the gloves sold as dog- skin are made of lamb-skin. Hog-skin makes a thin, porous leather, and is used for covering the seats of saddles ; ass and mule- skins are for shagreen leather, used mostly for scabbards. There is a large import trade in skins. The great demand for leather for the best gloves is supplied by lamb-skins from Italy, Spain, the south of France, and other parts, where, in conse- quence of the lamb being killed quite young, the skin is small, fine, and thin, and is used instead of kid ; but it is neither so strong nor so glossy. The skins of lambs that die soon after their birth, are sometimes dressed with the wool, and are used for lining gloves and shoes. The best kid-skins are from the south of France ; they are also imported from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Ire- land. It is said that as soon as the kid be- gins to feed on herbage, the skin suffers in fineness and delicacy, and is no longer suit- able for the best gloves. The best morocco leather is made from Swiss goat-skins; another kind is from Mogador and Fast In- dian goat-skins, which are often made into black morocco, known as " black Spanish 214 TANNING BOOTS AND SHOES. leather," from the circumstance of the first supplies having been obtained from Spain. The leather from the Cape sheep-skin is nearly equal to morocco. Hippopotamus hides are exported from South Africa, and when tanned with oak bark they make an extremely thick and cqmpact leather. In Canada, in 1860, leather was made from the white whale which visits the St. Law- rence. An excellent quality of goat and kid leather is made from the skins of the Angora goat and kid, which are now largely reared at the Cape of Good Hope, and in some of our western states. The vegetable substances used in tan- ning have of late years become very num- erous. The active vegetable principle, tannin, varies according to the source from which it is derived; it is always marked by an astringent taste, a bluish-black or dark green precipitate in aqueous solution by admixture with a solution of one of the salts of iron; while, with a solution of gel- atine, it gives a dirty white or brown pre- cipitate. During a long period the princi- pal tanning material was oak bark and hemlock bark. That which was stripped in the spring was the most esteemed, for it then contained a larger quantity of tan- nin than that stripped in autumn, and this more than the bark stripped in winter. The best bark was obtained in a warm spring, from coppice trees about twelve years of age. Oak bark contains from 4 to 22 per cent, of tannin, which is con- tained in the inner white layers next the alburnum, as in the case of other astrin*- gent barks. The tannin of bark is not identical with that of galls, not yielding pyrogallic acid when subjected to destruc- tive distillation; from four to six pounds of oak bark were required for every pound of leather. After the stripping, the bark was stacked to dry; should the season be rainy, a portion of the tannin was washed out, and the bark thus deteriorated. When the tanned leather is taken in hand by the currier, it is softened by being soaked in water. It is next beaten by a mallet upon a hurdle, and then placed over a plank called a beam, which projects slantingly from the floor. The workman leans over this and against the leather, so as to keep it in its place, and with abroad knife shaves off all the irregularities from the flesh side. The knife is held firmly in both hands, and the operator continually exam- ines the skin, and moves it to bring all parts under the knife. After it is shaved, it is thrown into cold water, the flesh side laid next to a stone slab, and the other well rubbed with a tool called a stretching iron. This process forces out a whitish matter (bloom) gathered in the tan pit, and reduces inequalities. Many tools are employed, having the same object. The skin then un- dergoes " dubbing ;" an ointment of cod oil boiled with the skins of sheep, is well rubbed in on both sides, and the leather hung up to dry. It is afterward rubbed with the graining board — an instrument shaped somewhat like a brush, but grooved, and made of hard wood. The leather is then ready for sale ; or, after shaving the flesh side with a very sharp knife, it is waxed. A color, composed of oil and lamp-black, is well rubbed in on the flesh side, with a hard brush, until the surface is thoroughly black ; upon this is applied a size and tallow with a stiff brush, and when dry, it is rubbed with a broad, smooth lump of glass ; this is re- peated. This leather is called "waxed," or " black on the flesh," and is used for the uppers of men's boots and shoes. If curried on the other side it is called black on the grain, and is used for ladies' uppers. In preparing such leather, the waxing is per- formed as follows : a solution of sulphate of iron, called copperas water or iron liquor, ia applied to the grain side of the wet skin, when the salt, uniting with the gallic acid of the tan, produces an ink dye ; stale urine is then applied to the skin, and when dry, the stuffing is applied. The grain is raised, and when dry, the skin is whitened, bruised, and again grained ; after which, a mixture of oil and tallow is applied to the grain side, and it undergoes carefully the treat- ment with the pommel or graining-board again, and several other processes of rubbing, polishing, and dubbing, or oiling. These duly performed, with due regard to time and circumstances, complete the process. For many years it was found difficult to cause a bright varnish to adhere to leather without cracking, an effect which is now produced by means of boiled linseed oil mixed with vegetable black and Prussian blue. This composition, of the consistence of a thick paste, is rubbed upon the surface of the leather, and then dried at a temperature of from 150° to 170° Fahr. The process is repeated from three to seven times, and when quite dry, the varnish adheres very LEATHER. 215 firmly, and will bear considerable flexure and tension without cracking. By mixing colored pigments with the varnish, enamelled leather of various colors may be produced. The process of tanning differs considerably in the mode of treatment with the kind of skin and the result desired. A large num- ber of thin leathers which are intended to be dyed, are tanned in various ways. White leathers are not tanned, but tawed, or treated with alum, salt, and some other matters. Wash leather is dressed with oil, or sham- oyed ; but whatever may be the subsequent treatment, the preparatory steps somewhat resemble each other — whereby hair, wool, grease, and other matters, are removed, and the skin is reduced to the state of a gelatinous membrane called pelt ; the hair is removed from kid and goat-skin, by means of cream of lime ; the wool is generally removed by the feltmongers before the skin is passed to the tawers. Foreign lamb-skins, which are received with the wool on, are washed, scraped on the flesh side, and sweated in a close room, until, in consequence of the putrefactive fer- mentation, the wool can be easily removed. After this, fatty matters are got rid of by subjecting the skins to hydrostatic pressure ; they arc next worked at the beam and pared into shape, treated with lime, and next with dogs' or pigeons' dung, if the skins are to be tanned, and with bran and water if they are to be tawed, the object being, in either case, to get rid of the lime. During these opera- tions, the skins are worked a few times at the beam, and are finished by washing in clean water. Morocco leather is prepared by tanning goat-skins with sumac, and dyeing on the grain side. Inferior moroccos are prepared from sheep-skins similarly treated, for which purpose each skin of pelt is sewed up into a bag, the grain side outer- most, distended with air, and placed in a mordant of tin or alum. They are next placed in a warm cochineal bath for red, in- digo for blue, orchil for purple, and are worked by hand until the dye has properly struck. For certain colors the tanning pre- cedes the dyeing. The tanning or sumac- - ing is carried on in a large tub, containing a weak solution of sumac in warm water ; another and stronger solution is contained in an adjoining vessel, a portion of which, together with some sumac leaves, is poured into the bag ; some of the weak solution is then added, the bag is distended with air, and the skin thrown into the vat. In this way about 50 skins are treated, and are kept in motion a few hours in the sumac tub, by means of paddles worked by hand, or by machinery. The skins are then taken out and heaped upon a shelf at the side of the tub, the pressure thus produced causing the liquor to escape slowly through the pores of the skin, the bags being shifted about from time to time. The bags are next passed into a second vat, containing a stronger solution, where they remain for nine hours. The bags are now opened and washed ; fine red skins being finished in a bath of saffron. All the skins are next struck on a sloping board until they are smooth and flat, and in order to improve their ap- pearance in the currying, a little linseed oil may be rubbed on the grain side ; they are then hung up in a loft to dry, when they be- come horny and are in the crust, as it is called ; they next pass through much labor- ious friction with the pommel, and with a glass ball ; while the peculiar ribbed ap- pearance of morocco is given by means of a ball of box-wood, on which is a number of narrow ridges. Sheep-skin morocco is pre- pared from split skins; the skin-splitting machine resembles in principle that hereafter described, only as the membrane is thinner, certain variations are required. Instead of stretching the skin on a drum, it is passed between two rollers, the lower one of gun - metal, and solid, and the upper made of man rings; while between the two rollers, and nearly in contact, is the edge of the sharp knife, which is moved by a crank, as hereafter mentioned. When a skin is introduced be- tween the two rollers, it is dragged through against the knife edge and divided, the solid lower roller supporting the membrane, while the upper one, being capable of moving through a small space by means of its rings, adjusts itself to inequalities in the mem- brane ; where this is thin the rings become depressed, and when it is thick they rise up, so that no part escapes the action of the knife. The divided skins arc 1 1 « ■ t sewed up into bags, as, from their thinness, they can be sumached quickly. In preparing white leather by "tawing," the pelt is made as pure as possible ; the best kind of leather being prepared from kid- skins, while sheep or lamb-skins make the inferior kinds. They are first fed with alum or salt in a drum or tumbler made like a huge churn ; about three pounds of alum 216 TANNING BOOTS AND SHOES. and four pounds of salt being used to 120 skins of average size. The alumina of the alum forms some definite compound with the gelatine of the skins, while the salt serves to whiten them. When taken out, the skins are washed in water, then allowed to ferment in bran and water to remove the surplus alum and salt, and to reduce the thickness. They arc next dried in a loft, and become tough and brittle, but they are made soft and glossy by means of a dressing of twenty pounds of wheat flour and the yolks of eight dozen eggs. By rotating the skins in drums for some time the dressing is absorbed, and scarcely any thing but water remains. This dressing is usually repeated, and the skins hung up to dry. The beautiful softness and elasticity of leather is now given by manip- ulation. The skins are first dipped in clean water, worked upon a board, and staked upon a stretcher or softening iron, consisting of a rounded iron plate fixed to the top of an upright beam, by which the skins are ex- tended and smoothed ; they are then finished by being passed over a hot iron. The tanning of leather, more than almost any other manufacture, is a chemical process, the success of which depends almost wholly upon the skill and judgment with which its complicated manipulations are conducted. To attain the requisite skill in the laboratory of the chemist is evidently impossible ; it can only be acquired in the tanning itself, by long and careful attention and observa- tion ; and perhaps there is no description of manufacture where so much depends upon practical knowledge, and so little upon mere theory, as in the tanning of leather. The tanning of leather consists in effecting a combination between the gelatine, which is the main constituent of raw hides, and tan- nin, a peculiar substance, found in the bark of several species of trees — the oak and hemlock chiefly. The processes employed are so various, and the modifications occa- sioned by temperature, strength of the liquor, and quality and condition of the hides, are so numerous and so different, that hardly any branch of business requires for its successful conduct a greater degree of judgment and experience, and in few arts have there been effected greater improve- ments. Within twenty years the gain of weight in converting hides into leather has increased nearly fifty per cent. ; that is, from a quarter to a third more leather can now be obtained from a given quantity of hides than in the old-fashioned way. The great improvement in weight seems to have been gained by the judicious use of strong liquors, or " ooze," obtained from finely-ground bark, and by skilful tanning. In order to produce heavy weights, the hides should not be reduced too low in the beam- house, and should be tanned quickly with good strong liquors, particularly in the latter stage of the operation. To green hides, par- ticularly, nothing can be more injurious than to suffer them to remain too long in weak " ooze." They become too much reduced, grow soft, flat, and flabby, lose a portion of their gelatine, and refuse to " plump up." On the other hand, however, the effects of an early application of " ooze," that is too strong and too warm, to green hides, is very injurious. It contracts the surface fibres of the skin, tanning at once the external layers, so " dead," as it is termed, as to shut up the pores, and prevent the tanning from penetrating the interior. This renders the leather harsh and brittle. In softening hides, and preparing them for the process of tanning, a great deal also depends upon the judgment of the person superintending the operation, inasmuch as the diversities in the qualities and charac- teristics of hides render it impossible to sub- ject them to any thing more than a general mode of treatment. In "sweating," the character of the hides and the temperature are essential, but ever-varying considerations. As a general rule, however, the milder the process of preparing the hides for the bark, the better. Unnecessarily severe or pro- longed treatment is inevitably attended with a loss of gelatine, and a consequent loss of weight and strength in the leather. Too high a temperature is particularly to.be avoided. In almost every lot of hides, particularly the Orinocos, however, there are generally some that prove very intractable, resisting all the ordinary modes of softening. For such, a solution of ashes, potash, or even common salt, will be found to be bene- ficial. As we have said, no precise rule can be given as to the length of time required for the preliminary process of soaking and " sweating" — so much depending upon the qualities of the hides, and the tempera- ture at which these operations are con- ducted. LEATHER. 217 The following table, however, may be 1 to a definite idea of the practice in a large found useful in conveying an approximation I tannery : — SOAKING. SWEATING. Temperatures. 40° 50° 60° 70° 40° 50° 60° 70° Days. Days. Days. Days. Days. Days. Days. Days. Buenos Avres hides 10 to 12 8 to 12 6 to 8 3 to 6 15 to 20 12 to 16 8 to 12 2 to 3 Cartliagena and Laguayra... 8 12 7 9 5 7 2 5 15 20 10 15 6 8 2 3 Salted hides do not require more than about two-thirds the time to soak, but about the same time to sweat. In sweating, the temperature rises as the hides sweat, so that the operation is seldom performed un- der 50°. It is particularly recommended that, for the tougher hides, the heat should never be greater than 60° or 65°. After the hides are prepared for tanning, the next process is what is commonly called " handling," which should be performed two or three times a day in a weak ooze, until the grain is colored, new liquor being prefer- able to old. They are then, after a fort- night, laid away in bark, and changed once in two to four weeks until tanned. Much care and judgment is requisite in proportion- ing the continually increasing strength of the liquors to the requirements of the leather in the different stages of this process. The liquors should also be kept as cool as pos- sible, within certain limits; but ought never to exceed a temperature of eighty degrees. In fact, a much lower temperature is the maximum point, if the liquor is very strong — too high a heat, with the liquor too strongly .charged with the tanning principle, being invariably injurious to the life and color of the leather. From this, it would seem that time is an essential element in the process of tanning, and that we cannot make up for the want of it by increasing the strength of the liquor, or raising the tem- perature at which the process is conducted, any more than we can fatten an ox or a horse ly giving him more than he can eat. It may be questioned whether any patented schemes for the more rapid conversion of hides into leather, will be found, on the whole, to have any practical utility. We have mentioned the injurious effects resulting from too strong a solution of the active principle of the bark; on the other hand, the use of too weak solutions is to be avoided. Hides that are treated with liquor below the proper strength, become much relaxed in their texture, and lose a portion of their gelatine. The leather neces- sarily lose- in weight and compactness, and is much more porous and pervious to water. The warmer these weak solutions are ap- plied, the greater is this loss of gelatine. To ascertain whether a portion of weak liquor contains any gelatine in solution, it is only necessary to strain a little of it into a glass, and then add a small quantity of a stronger liquor. The excess of tannin in the strong solution, seizing upon the dissolved gelatine in the weak liquor, will combine with it, and be precipitated in flakes of a dark, curdled appearance, to the bottom. In the best tanneries, the greatest strength of liquor used for handling, as indicated by Pike's ba- rometer, is 16°. Of that employed in laying away, the greatest strength varies from 30" 1 to 45°. After the leather has been thoroughly tanned and rinsed, it will tend very much to improve its color and pliability to stack it up in piles, and allow it to sweat until it becomes a little slippery from a kind of mucus that collects upon the surface. A little oil added at this stage of the process, oi just before rolling, is found to be very useful. Great caution is necessary in the admis- sion of air in drying, when first hung up to dry. No more air than is sufficient to keep the sides from moulding should be allowed. Too much air, or, in other words, if dried too rapidly in a current of air, will injure the color, giving a darker hue, and rendering the leather harsh and brittle. To insure that the thick parts, or butts, shall roll smooth and even with the rest of the piece, it is necessary that the leather should be partially dried before wetting down for rolling, and that, when wet down, it should lie long enough for every side to hecome equally damp throughout. In the tanning records of 200,000 sides, an average of the whole time was five months and twenty-seven days. The average weight of the leather was seventeen pounds per side. This, according to the best authorities wo have at hand, is considerably below the time employed in England. There, it is no un- common thing for from 8 to 15 months to be employed in tanning a stock of leather. 218 TANNING BOOTS AND SUOES. Several new processes of tanning in- tended to shorten the time and diminish the cost, have been introduced since 1850; one of them whose excellences consist in perfect gradation of the tanning liquors, and a greater facility of permeation and handling, is as follows: Sole leather hides for sweat stock are pre- pared for the tan liquors in the usual man- ner. Limed stock for upper and sole leather, for either hemlock or oak tanning, is limed and washed, and bated by the paddle-wheel handlers ; after being properly prepared for the tan liquors, it is then handled in a sec- tion of vats, in which the liquors communi- cate as in the press-leaches, except that the order of running the liquors is from near the top of one vat to the bottom of the next, through the whole section, thus " pressing " the weak liquor forward upon the greener stock, giving a perfect gra- dation of strength of liquor on each pack, stronger according to the length of time it has been in ; each vat is fitted with a patent paddle-wheel handler, which is used for stirring the stock in the liquors, dispensing with the necessity of handling by hand entirely; in this section stock should be kept two weeks, then taken out and hung over sticks with head and butt down in patented layaways, and not again moved till well tanned ; the layaways are all in one section with the communicating trunks, in the same manner as the hand- lers; when a pack is taken out tanned, a pack from the handlers is put into its place, and the weakest liquor in the section is allowed to fill the vat; here every part of every side is in contact with the liquor at all times, and the liquors on every pack are becoming stronger every day till tanned ; the liquors are kept in motion by small paddle-wheels, which opei'ate "on the sur- face of the liquor over the suspended sides, causing the liquors to pass with a gentle current among the sides, bearing them up. so that they do not rest heavily on the sticks. Two men's labor is sufficient for all the yard work for a tannery working in and out 150 sides per day, including washing the tanned stock and taking it to the loft. The results of tanning 144,000 hides were as follows: Weight. Avenge. Va]ue> Hides 144,000 Leather, aides,... 287 ,275 3,229.155 5,310,789 22.22 18.51 $421,810 704,044 This gives a considerable increase in the weight of the hides, and the increase in the value of the article is much greater. That covers, of course, commission, labor, interest, profits, etc. The great develop- ment given to general business in the last twenty years has caused an almost con- tinuous rise in the value of leather and hides. The latter, on being purchased and put in the vats, would thus acquire value from the general rise in the market, in addition to the regular value added by the art of the tanners. There was gradually felt a growing scarcity of hides, and the quantities imported by no means kept pace with the rising value. The quantities and values of hides imported for the few last years was as follows: No. 1850. 1858. 1869. 1875. 1880. Hides, 2.572,884 2,493,056 3,318,729 2,108,861 8,686,687 Value, $5,904,838 8,048,825 14,204,707 18,530,902 30,002,254 This shows that for 1,003,753 more hides there were paid in 1880 $24,037,416 more than in 1850, in advance of about 500 per ct. in the value of hides, while the labor and tanning material have advanced still more. Such a fact indicates the growing cost of the raw material for boots and shoes, and also indicates the growing value of the hides of animals throughout the country. Leather being so costly a substance, great efforts are made to introduce economies in its manufacture and use in every direction. One plan for getting the most possible sur- face out of a given weight, is to split the thick hides into two thinner sheets. This process, formerly difficult, has of late un- dergone many improvements. "When the hide is sufficiently tanned, it is split some- times into five thicknesses, from a single one. This is done by various machines, in one of which the knife is 72 inches long, or as long as a hide is wide. A late im- provement in Boston makes the knife 80 inches long, and economises 25 per cent, in the stock that before was shaved away. The flesh side of the sheet, with the shanks, are used by the trunk-makers to cover wooden trunks, and blackened on the trunks. Other sheets are subjected to a process called " buffing," which consists in shaving off about half the grain, in order to obtain a softer surface to receive an artificial grain. They are then returned to the tan-yard, and, after being scoured, are retanned in warm liquors. They are then , I EATIIEU. 219 sent to the currier to bo prepared for jap- anning. A new patent lias been issued for splitting leather with a circular knife, which is of thin metal, made like a disc, convex side up. This revolves horizontally, with its sharp edge just above a table, over which the leather is stretched, and held down firmly to it by springs. Under the table is a roller, which, by revolving, draws the leather forward against the edge o± the revolving knife. The upper side of the leather splits off in curls above . the knife, which may be nicely adjusted to make the leather of any thickness. Another invention of considerable im- portance in cheapening the production without impairing the quality of the arti- cles made from leather, is that known ad leather board. This is a compound of jute, manilla rope, tarred rope, and scraps of leather reduced to a pulp, and then reduced to the desired form by very heavy pressure. The linings and inner soles of many de- scriptions of shoes, as well as some other portions of the shoe, and leather toys and fancy leather goods are made of this ma- terial, which is stamped by dies into the requisite forms, and is said to resist heat or moisture better than leather itself. About $2,000,000 worth of it was sold in 1880. The general manufacture of boots and shoes had undergone few changes other than those produced by changing fashions and the Begular improvements of business, until the introduction of sewing and peg ging machines, which gave a great impulse to»the production by affecting prices and disturbing localities. The Massachusetts shoe-makers, by their industry, early ob- tained an ascendancy in the manufacture, and it is one that is easily adopted in an industrious community. The towns in the neighborhood of Boston, and especially Lynn, attracted masons, carpenters, and other workmen, in the winter season, when their own professions were dull, to pursue shoe-making. The business thus almost accidentally commenced in Lynn, became in time the principal business of the place, having in 1878, 201 out of its 324 manufacturing establishments engaged either in the man- ufacture of boots and shoes, or in some branch of trade directly connected there- with. More than 12,000,000 pairs of boots and shoes, mostly for women and children, are made here annually; about 14,000 of its 38,000 inhabitants are employed in the business, and the annual product exceeds $1 5,000,000. Haverhill, another city of the same county, somewhat smaller, is also very largely engaged in the same business, having 184 establishments for the manu- facture of shoes. Marblehead, "Worcester, Braintrec, and Dan vers are also anions the principal seats of this manufacture in Massachusetts. The state of Massachusetts had, in January, 1878, 1,461 shoe facto- ries or shops, in which 2,389 persons were partners or stockholders; 48,090 were em- ployed directly in the manufacture, and more than 220,000 were dependent upon it. The capital invested was $18,092,864 and has been largely increased since; the value of the stock or raw material used was $54,976,504; the amount of wages paid $21,883,354, and the value of the goods produced, $89,375,792, bein^ by about twelve millions the largest product of any single industry of that great manu- facturing state. Boston is the seat of the principal wholesale boot and shoe trade, shipping over 60,000,000 pairs of shoes annually (worth nearly $70,000,000) to other parts of the United States, and a moderate quantity abroad. New York is the largest exporting port, sending abroad 220,000 of the 378,000 pairs exported, and in value more than one-half of the whole amount. Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore are largely engaged in the manufacture especially of the finer quali- ties, and so are some of the larger towns of Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecti- cut. Cheaper and coarser goods are made in many of the interior cities. The aggre- gate value of this industry which, in 1870 was $185,000,000, in 1880 had reached $250,000,000 and more, and was, after the Flouring and Lumber interests, the great- est of all our industries. How it grew to these vast dimensions, is a story worth the telling, and fortunately we possess all the data for telling it as it is. As long ago as the first and second de- cades of the present century, there were shoe factories in many of the larger towns of New England, much after the fashion of those early ones in Lynn, of which we have already spoken, in which some shoe- maker with a little capital and enterprise, purchased leather and by the offer of steady work induced ten, twenty, thirty, or fifty shoemakers, and some apprentices, to com« 220 TANNING BOOTS AND SHOES. to his shop, bringing with them their benches and kit of tools, and make up work which he could sell at the larger towns for the Southern or West India trade. These shoes were generally coarse, cowhide or kip shoes, with heavy soles, and their man- ufacture did not require a high degree of skill, but each man made the entire shoe himself; there was no division of labor. The best workmen disclaimed these shoe factories, and would do only fine custom- work, and some of their work was very good. After a time, the master of the factory made patterns and cut out different sizes and styles of shoes, some of them to be bound with shoe binding, made of thin sheepskin, marked off with black and white stripes, the black to be on the out side of the shoe and the white on the in- side, to correspond with the lining. These vamps and quarters were given out to his best hands to close or stitch together. This work, if sewed neatly, added to the value of the shoe. The uppers when stitched and bound were ready for the soles; and here again there was room for difference of treatment. Shoes of the better sort had a good insole, and a welt of tough but thin leather stitched neatly to the uppers, and then stitched with fine and even stitches, on the outside through the insole, welt and outsole. The wax of the waxed thread which formed these stitches was carefully cleaned so as to show how even they were, on the best work. The coarser work had its welts too, but the stitches were longer and the waxed thread larger. The division of labor continued, and the factory-made shoes when of the best quality, were nearly, though not quite, equal to those made by good workmen to measure. Much of the factory work was of course poor and sloppy; the mate- rial inferior, and the shoes finished so as to hide defects, but not to wear. Some of the coarsest were pegged, not hob-nailed, like the English laborer or farmer's shoes, but the pegging was roughly done and the shoes were unshapely and sold only to the poorest class. Then came the era of pegged shoes, made by the pegging machine invented about 1851 by A. C. Gallahue and subse- quently improved by Townsend and Stur- tevant of Boston. This machine went into extensive use in this country, and properly managed it would do very fine work, and with great rapidity. It would punch the holes, cut off and shape the pegs and drive them at the rate of 14 per second, and would peg two pair of women's shoes a minute, putting in two rows of pegs if re- quired. About 1,700 of these machines were in use as late as 1872. They were largely employed by the manufacturers who made vast quantities of cheap but neat- looking shoes, largely by convict labor. One of these manufacturers died recently, leaving a property of four or five millions, made mostly by the manufacture of these cheap pegged shoes. But the greatest revolution which has been made in the shoe manufacture was that which followed the introduction of the McKay sole-sewing machine, perfected in 1864. We have already explained that all sewed shoes of good quality were sewed on the outside and the soles attached to the uppers through the medium of a welt. The pegged shoes could dispense with the welt, but pegged shoes even at their best es- tate were not the choice of those who were delicately reared. A sewed shoe without a welt was deemed an impossibility, because all shoes except the light slippers, which were turned, must be, it was believed, sewed from the outside. In 1858, Lyman R. Blake, of Abington, took the first step to- ward solving this great difficulty, by pat- enting a machine which, working inside the shoe from a horn or arm, took the stitches directly through the insole, the edge of the upper, and the outsole without the insertion of any welt. There were, however, defects in this machine; it had no guiding seam channel, and it required the use of a steam chest for heating the shoes to allow the waxed thread to pars easily. Only the coarser grades of shoes could be manufactured with it. In 1860, Mr. Gordon McKay, a Boston engin- eer, having examined this machine care- fully, became convinced that it could be perfected to meet every want. He induced Blake to take out fresh patents, one cover- ing the machine-made shoe itself as a new article of manufacture, and another cover- ing the process of making; both independ- ent of the original patent on the mechani- cal structure. He then bought up the invention for $8,000, renamed it the Mc- Kay Sole-sewing Machine, and set about its improvement. He spent large sums of LEATHER. 221 money in this direction, but it was not until two years later that he obtained from Mr. H. Mathies of Boston, an ingenious patent for channeling the leather as in hand sew- ing. At first he paid only $300 for this valuable invention ; but later, on the urgent representation of the inventor, he paid him $10,500 more. His difficulties were not all surmounted, however, till 1864, when Mr. Blake devised a means of heat- ing the horn from an alcohol lamp placed inside it, and by the radiation of the heat the wax on the thread was caused to soften as it passed through, and the machine was rendered available for sewing shoes of the finest quality. This contrivance was pa- tented jointly by Blake and McKay. The machine thus improved, was taken in charge by a company styled The McKay Sole-sewing Machine Association, and Gor- don McKay became its head and front and general manager. The details of its mak- ing were still further improved, and when it was fairly introduced to the trade $130,- 000 had been expended on it. It was soon found that every manufacturer who would keep up with the times must have the ma- chine. McKay, true to his inherited Scotch thrift, was shrewd and peculiar in his man- agement of this splendid invention. He never sold a machine nor the right to make one; they were always leased at merely a nominal sum, the lease stipulating that the lessee could not call in question the royal- ties of the association. As he had patented the machine-made shoe, he could control absolutely every shoe made by his machine ; and he attached to all his machines an auto- matic register by which he could know the exact number of shoes made by it. He exacted from every manufacturer using his machines, whether he used one or a hundred of them the following royalties: half a cent a pair for children's shoes, 1 cent for misses' and youth's, 2 cents for women's and 3 cents for men's; and for this royalty he furnished the manufactur- ers with stamps for each amount, which they were required to attach to each pair of shoes, and the self-registering machine kept a tally which must correspond with t!ir stamp. The sum seems small but the results were enormous: a good operator could sew from 6^0 to 800 pairs of shoes on a McKay machine in a day of ten hours; and some of the great manufactories at 13 Lynn and elsewhere had as many as 100 machines steadily at work. Over 500,000,- 000 pairs of shoes were made on these ma- chines in this country between 1865 and 1880, and the association received over $10,000,000 in royalties. Their foreign patents yielded them nearly as much more, and there was the added income from the rental of the machines themselves. It should be said injustice to the association, that no monopoly was ever conducted with greater care to make its burdens as little onerous as possible. The greatest pains were taken to keep the machines every- where in perfect order and supplied with the best and latest appliances to add to their efficiency. Some of the largest man- ufacturers received from the association a small interest in the stock to keep them from objecting to the royalties. About the first of August, 1881, the patents of the McKay Sole-sewing Machine expired, and henceforward the manufacturers can buy their machines of the association at a cost of $250, or to make them for themselves or order them made, when the cost will not be, it is said, more than from $75 to $100, and no further royalties to be paid. The advantage to manufacturers in gen- eral of paying such royalties on patents may be doubtful ; but in the case of the shoe manufacture it has led to these good results: an immense increase in the pro- duction, with the prices on good work fully maintained; the ability of small manufac- turers to keep their position with the larger ones; a great improvement in all sewed work and the production of w r ork superior in every respect to the best of the old cus- tom hand-sewed work, and of a quality which will satisfy the most fastidious. There are no better shoes made anywhere than Burt's, and none which give more universal satisfaction. Of course the ordi- nary sewing machine has been long in use for ornamenting the uppers of the finest shoes and boots, and has produced elegant work; but the invention and use of the McKay Sole sewing Machine has produced a revolution in the trade which has ex- panded it four fold in fifteen years, enabled us to export fine work, and made us the best shod nation in the world. There is still a market, as there probably always will be, for the trashy, cheap work, madu up from flimsy and refuse material; but that market is driven down every year to 222 TANNING B00T3 AND SHOES a lower class; a class who cannot under- stand that a pair of shoes at six dollars, or of boots at eight to twelve, may be cheaper in the end than a pair at from $1.50 to S3. 00, because they will outwear five or six of the cheaper pairs, and will look well to the end. There have been numerous lasting ma- chines invented in the past fifteen or twenty years, working with more or less success, none of which seemed to attain a good degree of perfection, but there are now two machines which appear to be all that can be desired for the purpose, the McKay for heavy pegged and nail work, the Thompson for fine sewed work. These are combined in one company under the name of the McKay & Thompson Consolidated Lasting Machine Co., which is divided into 150,000 shares. The company controls some sixty to seventy letters patent, some of which were boughv of other parties hav ing patents covering points of more or less value. We understand that either of these machines will turn out 500 pairs per day against 50 pairs per day by one man, hand work. Mr. Thompson has a staple machine to fast an the uppers to the inner sole for sewed work. There have been over $500,- ©00 in cash and sixteen years' labor spent in bringing these machines to their present state of perfection, which promise great re- sults, if not equal to the sewing machine. The style of making boots and shoes changes in some degree, and is leading manufacturers to introduce improvements, like that of a steel shank, so called, which is a steel spring fixed firmly in the heel, and extending under the hollow of the foot between the soles, to give elasticity to the step. The grades of city work vary with the quality of the material and the labor bestowed. The patent leather cus- tom-made boots command $16 per pair; and the high Russia leather Wellington boots §14; and so down to $12, $10, and $9 for calf -skin; with lower rates for split leather and ordinary material. The scarc- ity of material, and the high prices of stock, have driven the poorer class of shoe- makers to the use of old tops, or upper leathers, for both boots and shoes. These are not only refooted for the use of the wearer, but are cut down to make new shoes and boots of a smaller size. Many take much pains to buy up old articles of that description, and reproduce them at rates far below what they could be afforded by regular shoemakers from new stocks. Much art is used also in economizing the soles of cheap goods. A thin under-sole is used ; between which and the in-sole, paste- board, old slips of leather, and other cheap substances, are inserted to give an appear- ance of substance. These cheap varieties of shoes supply the wants of those whose means are small, with a semblance of shoeing. The phrase, "paper soles," is not unfre- quently used to designate the extremely thin substance attached to the casings of the dainty little feet of our fair sex, but still that substance is leather. Recently, however, a pair of veritable paper soles were put npon a customer, and worn, though for a very limited time. The vic- tim in the case was a strapping negro fellow, who, allured by the seductive invi- tation to " walk in and see the cheap clod- ings," entered a Jew's museum, and pur- chased a pair of laced boots for $1.50. They fitted well, and wore well for a few hours, but great was his astonishment when his trotters parted company with his boots, and he was once again barefooted . On ex- amining more closely his purchase, he found that the soles were composed of thick paper board, colored to resemble leather, and pegged to the uppers. The sympathizing justice heard his complaint, but could grant no relief. The Bureau of Statistics of Labor, in Massachusetts, reported, in 1878, the fol- lowing statistics of leather and manufac- tures of leather in that state. They are very incomplete, for there is no report. of saddlery and harness, leather belting, trunks and portmanteaus, fire hose, car- riage tops and boots, enamelled leather, morocco, pocketbooks, satchels, and fancy leather goods, razor strops, etc., etc., but imperfect as they are, they show an amount of products in a single line of industry sur- passed by no other state. .a 3 a i = 1,461 as "9 c J* If CO § S = '3 C -3 Boots & Shoes, 4S.090 18,692,864 1 54.97S.504 S U ,883,354 i Leather, 495 6,620 8,399,850 16.108.S45 3,901,033 23,680,775 Whips, 51 62G 615,030 384,009 297,458 922,096 Miscellaneous. 10 230 210. 142 200,000 86,252 419,061 _ Totals, 2,020 55,566 27,948,486 71,467,358 26,167,697 114,397,724 OVER THE BEAM. Shaving the fleshy matter from the hide. HIDE-SPLITTING MACHINE UNHAIRING THE HIDE. PEGGING BOOTS BY HAND. From 260 to 500 pairs per day are done by the machines, according to (he kind of machine, and whether run by hand or power. Improvement fifteen or twenty to one. LEATHER. The manufacture of gloves has not ex- tended itself in this country so much as some other industries, with the exception of buckskin gloves, which are peculiarly American, combining utility with dress. The use of gloves is becoming far more general in cities than formerly. In early times, the practice of presenting a pair of gloves at funerals to the attending clergy and others was carried to si^ch an extent in Massachusetts that the legislature for- bade the practice, under a penalty of £20. The presentation of gloves to the pall- bearers at funerals is still very general, both in this country and Great Britain. The materials of which gloves are made are of leather, fur, cloth, and knitted goods of wool, silk, worsted, linen, and cotton thread (the Lisle thread gloves being of sea-island cotton), and to a small extent of ramie. India rubber is also used for gloves for some purposes. Of leather and fur, which are the materials most largely employed, there is a great variety. Doe, buck, and calfskin, are most used for heavy gloves; seal, otter, and reindeer skin, for fur gloves; sheepskin and dogskin for mil- itary gloves; lambskin, of which so much so-called kid is manufactured; kangaroo, and perhaps to a small extent rat skins, for the thumbs of the finest gloves, and genu- ine kid of which the best qualities of kid gloves are made. There is a very general opinion that rat skins are the principal ma- terial of the finest French gloves; but as a matter of fact, very few are used, the skin of the rat being less even in texture, cut- ting to less advantage, and being less uni- form in supply than the skins of the young Kids, killed before they have begun to crop herbage. Great numbers of these are reared for this special trade in France, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, Cape Colony, and the East Indies. The preparation of these skins for the finest gloves is a long, difficult, and delicate pi-ocess. More than 2,000,000 dozen pairs of kid gloves are made in France alone, besides large quan- tii ies in Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. These all require about 500.000 dozen kid skins. The English leather gloves are generally of a heavier quality, and are made from calf or reindeer skin, or the skins of larger animals. The chief seats of the French glove man- ufacture are Grenoble (which produces nearly one-half of all that are made in France), Chaumont, Miihau, and Niort. At least two-thirds (more than 17,000,000 pairs) of the* gloves made in France are exported. Our importation of gloves, in 1880, was 663,813 dozen pairs invoiced here at $3,- 670,525, without the duty, and probably worth on the market over $7,000,000. This was about the average importation of the last ten years. Of these, about 250, 000 dozen pairs were from France, invoiced at $1,629,064; about 290,000 dozen from Ger- many, invoiced at $1,345,542, and 114,974 dozen from England, invoiced at $662,107. The importations from all other countries amounted to less than 10,000 dozen pairs. There are no later statistics of the amount of the glove manufacture of the United States than those of the census of 1870, even the preliminary report on the subject for 1880 not being yet ready. We give, therefore, the figures of 1870, which show 221 establishments, of which 144 were in the state of New York. 4,053 hands employed, of whom 3,112 were in New York. Of these 4,058 hands, 1,1 21 were men, 2,894 women, and 37 youths. The amount of capital employed was $2.- 340,550; the wages paid, $980,549; the raw material used was valued at $1,884, 146, and the value of goods produced, S3.- 998,521, of which $3,507,795 was credited to New York. It is safe to say that with- in the decade the number of establishments, and probably the amount of products, in New York have more than doubled, and largely in the direction of kid. lambskin, and dogskin gloves. In many of the qual- ities the American product is equal to the imported. In the finest qualities of kid gloves it is not yet, but is improving. For many years past, buckskin gloves and mit- tens, and other heavy gloves for driving and military use, as well as the delicate wash leather gloves for ladies' use. have been made in annually increasing quanti- ties at Gloversville and adjacent places in Fulton Co., New York. In I860, nearly a million dollars worth of these gloves were produced in Fulton County; in 1865, not- withstanding the war, it had increased to $1,187,686, and in 1870 it had taken a new impulse and gone up to $3,189,920, considerably more than three-fourths of theentiremanufactureinthe United States. The past decade will unquestionably show a very large increase in this particular in- 226 TANNING GLOVES. dustry, and will go far to make Glovers- ville the Grenoble of America. For many years, the great reputation of French kid gloves rested quite as much on the delicacy and fine quality of the mate- rial, and the perfection of the colors, as upon any excellence in their manufacture. They were cut, we may say, by guess, with long scissors, one pair at a time, and he was the most skillful cutter who could make the greatest number of pairs out of a sin- gle skin. The skins were from their treat- ment elastic, and it was possible, by stretch- ing, to make a considerable difference in the quantity produced from a single skin. In 1819, Vallet d'Artois, a French glove manufacturer, invented punches in three different sizes, each punch capable of cut- ting out two dozen pairs at once. The con- ception was an ingenious one, but of little practical value, inasmuch as it did not make allowance for the lateral and longi- tudinal extension of the leather. In 1834, Xavier Jouvin, a young French glove maker of great ingenuity, and a very thorough knowledge of practical geometry, commenced the study of the human hand with reference to its incasement in kid gloves. He set to work on a strictly scien- tific basis ; first to classify the various sizes and forms of the hand; next to determine the exact stretch of leather required to cov- er each of them; then to draw up a list or scale, in which by means of a letter and a figure the glove-wearer should find the ex- act size and shape of 'his own hand. By an ingenious application of certain geomet- rical rules, he succeeded in ascertaining the amount of any quality of kid required for any sized glove. He found that 32 sizes included all dimensions of hands, the va- rious shapes of which he classed under five heads: very slender, slender, medium, broad, very broad. Having divided each type into two dimensions, he got ten dis- tinct glove forms, and multiplying these by the original 32 sizes, obtained 320 dif- ferent numbers of gloves; a more than sufficient variety, many numbers being very seldom required. For each of the 32 sizes he made a calibre or glove pattern of sheet-iron, furnished on its inferior surface with diminutive points for marking upon the kid the place for the thumb hole, and the lines for embroidery on the back of the hand. He also made small calibres for the thumbs, and punches for cutting the thumb- hole and shaping the gussets. A piece of kid having been duly stretched, the calibre was pressed upon it, and it was cut to the shape of the pattern by means of a knife invented for the purpose. In 1838, he re- placed the calibres with punches, which cut out at once the glove, thumb-hole, but- ton-hole, and cleft at the wrist, and traced the three rows for embroidery. These punches (which are still in use in the Jou- vin manufactory) are forced by a lever through several layers of kid, and thus cut out a number of gloves at a time. But the most ingenious thing in his process was his contrivance for cutting out with the same punch gloves for differently formed hands. For this purpose he used skins varying in elasticity, which he classified carefully. To this day, all the genuine Jouvin gloves bear two marks, one indicat- ing the number of punch with which they were cut, and the other the degree of elas- ticity of the leather. Subsequent modifi- cations were made in the punches, one of them, we believe, for cutting the thumb as a part of the glove, but the Jouvin patents have controlled the glove manufacture in France, and have added very largely to the sales of French kid gloves. Xavier Jou- vin has passed away, but his manufactory still maintains its reputation for excellent work. Some of our later manufactories of gloves in this country have professed to adopt the Jouvin system, but either their material is not so good, or they do not classify the skins so carefully. The sewing of the finest qualities of kid gloves is a very deli- cate business, as the least stretching or the use of too coarse a needle may render the glove worthless. For this sewing a ma- chine of English invention is generally used. It consists of an iron vice, set in a stand which is screwed to the edge of a table. Each jaw of the vice has its extrem- ity made of brass, and is tipped with a comb of the same metal, the teeth of which. about one-twelfth of an inch long, are per- fectly even and regular. The spaces be- tween the teeth, as also the shape of the comb, vary according to the kind of sew- ing required; therefore, sets of vices are used provided with combs of different shapes and sizes. One jaw of the vice is made fast to its stand, but the other is movable by a hinge, and is kept in its place by a strong spring. The movable jaw is LEATIIER. 227 furnished with a lever connected by a wire with a pedal, upon which the workwoman presses her foot when it is necessary to sep- arate the jaws. She inserts the seam to be sewed between the two brass combs, then lifts her foot, and the jaws, closing firmly upon the kid, hold it in position. She then passes her needle successively through all the teeth of the comb, and is sure to make an even seam if she lets it graze along the bottom of each notch. When one piece is sown, she again presses the pedal, and repeats the above process with a fresh seam. The glove-sewer usually begins by putting in the thumb with its gusset; she then sews the long seam from the wrist to the tip of the little finger, puts in the finger gussets, and sews the fingers. Some varieties of gloves do not have this long seam. We think the ingenuity which devised and perfected the McKay sole-sew- ing machine might devise a machine which should sew these gloves as perfectly as they are sown by hand, and with twenty times the rapidity. Automatic machines are a specialty of American inventors, and there was never a better opportunity for one than this. But to return to the French glove. When it is sown, the slit at the wrist is bound, the button-holes completed, buttons or some other fastening added, and a binding of white kid or some other finish put round the wrist. It is the rage now to wear gloves with from six to twelve buttons, sometimes extending half-way to the elbow. The glove being completed, is pressed and smoothed, the finger gussets folded back between the superior and in- ferior surfaces of the fingers, and the thumb bent across the palm. The old proverb, " There's nothing like leather," seems to hold good yet, though great and partially successful efforts have been made to substitute other materials and combinations for it. The most notice- able of these have been the " Pannus Cori- um," a composition kept secret, and now but little used; the hemp or flax leather, which by combination with certain resins makes a tolerable substitute for sole-leath- er; the artificial leather, which by chemical and mechanical processes is transformed from old leathern scraps into a homogen- eous material, and the modern preparations of papier-mache, which possesses the light- ness, durability, and imperviousness to moisture of leather itself. The Lmeolum or flax oil-cloth, in some of its forms, also makes a fair substitute for leather, as do some of the preparations of India-rubber and gutta-percha. But, after all, for many of the purposes for which it is indispensa- ble it is still true, that " there's nothing like leather." FIRE-ARMS, CHAPTER I. COLTS REVOLVERS — SHARP'S RIFLES — DAIILGREN'S GUNS. The improvements in fire-arms are making such rapid progress among civilized nations, that we may indulge the hope that they will soon cease to he wanted at all ; since, as extremes meet, they may become so effec- tual in their operation, and war reduced to such a science, that an attempt to fight will only be entire mutual destruction, like that most effectual combat between the two Kil- kenny cats. The Avar of I860 in Europe, in which Prussia, in seven weeks, broke the power of Austria, is an example of the force that may now be exerted in a short space of time, and the newly-invented needle- gun had a powerful agency in bringing matters to a close. After the invention of gunpowder in the fourteenth century, the art of gunnery made great progress, and the musket came to be the most important weapon. The Roman legions used the short stabbing sword as their favorite weapon. In the age of chivalry, the lance of the horse- man was the queen of weapons, and con- tinued so up to the battle of Pavia, in 1525, when chivalry made its last charge, and went down with the white panache of the gallant Francis I. From that time the ar- quebuse, then a matchlock, improved into a firelock, displaced the English bow, acquired the bayonet, and became, in its turn, the " queen of weapons." When the musket, or " Brown Bess," was furnished with per- cussion caps instead of flints, and the sword bayonet was added, there seemed to be little to hope for in the way of improvement. Since the " wars of the Roses" in England, nine-tenths of all the battles of the world have been decided by projectiles, artillery, and musketry, without crossing a bayonet or drawing a sword. The cavalry, as an arm, has continually lost ground, except in the rout of a defeat, when it follows up a fly- ing enemy. It never could break a square, even when armed only with pikes, and re- cent events have shown that it cannot reach infantry in line. A remarkable change has come over " Brown Bess" of late, and it seems now to have seen its best days. The rifle, or a screwed barrel, was among the first forms of the manufacture of small arms in the sixteenth century ; but the musket was pre- ferred, on account of its more speedy load- ing. The rifle was, however, the favorite with the American colonists, and its execu- tion in their hands during the Revolution brought it into general notice. The adding of the percussion cap was a great improve- ment to it. Recently it has become so im- proved as to supplant not only the old musket, but artillery also, since the events of the last few years have shown that it is easy to silence cannon by shooting down the gunners at their pieces, beyond the reach of grape. In the text-book of the St. Cyr Military School of France, it is directed that the fire of artillery should cease when the enemy is distant twelve hundred yards. At Waterloo, the opposing armies being twelve hundred yards distant, were out of reach of all but solid shot from field guns, as they were then served. It is now stated that the Minie rifle is effec- tive at a mile distant, and at two thousand yards troops can easily shoot each other. It follows, from these simple facts, that ar- tillery must improve or become ineffective. The improvements in the rifle were mostly in the ball. The French pin rifle had a small steel " pin" in the bottom of the chamber. The powder filled in around this pin, and the ball, of a conical shape, hollow at the base like a thimble, had a small metal plate, which, on being rammed home, struck against the pin, and spread the ball so as to slug the piece. The Minie rifle was nearly the same, without the pin, because it was found that the explosion would of itself spread the ball. The performances of this weapon are somewhat marvellous, since it is P3 p <1 o a o eq i? ca 1Z5 CO H ►3 O COLTS REVOLVERS SHARPS RIFLES — DAHLGRENS GUNS. 231 said that it is effective at a distance of over a mile. The most important improvement in small arms has, however, been in repeating weapons, of which the revolvers of Mr. Samuel Colt are the type. Mr. Colt was a seaman in his youth, and while on a voyage to Calcutta devised the revolver. He made the model in wood, in 1829, while at sea. Improving upon this, he took out his first patent for fire-arms in 1835. This was for the rotating chambered breech. This of it- self was no new invention, since many of the old arms preserved in the tower of Lon- don have the same style of manufacture. It is obvious, however, that what is possible in this respect with percussion caps, was not so with the old flint-lock. Mr. Colt had the advantage of the cap, and his invention caused the chambers to revolve by the act of cocking. In 1851, he read an essay upon the subject before the Institution of En- gineers in London. Patents were issued in France, England, and the United States ; and in 1835 an armory was established at Paterson, N. J., but afterward abandoned. The first important use made of this new arm was in 1837, by the United States troops un- der Lieut. Col. (now Gen.) Harney. The In- dians were acquainted with a " one-fire" piece, but when they saw the troopers fire six times without loading, they thought it time to give in. There was not much de- mand for the arm until the Mexican war of 1846-47, when a supply was required for Taylor's arcny. The government ordered 1,000, and there was not a model to be found. This order was filled at Whit- neyville, near New Haven. Other orders followed, and the works were transferred to Hartford. Mr. Colt manufactured on his own account. The California fever set in, and was followed by the Australian excite- ment. The demand for arms thus occa- sioned, induced Colonel Colt to erect an armory unequalled in the world. It occupies what was a flooded meadow of two hundred and fifty acres. This is diked in for two miles, and the most extensive buildings have been erected, at a cost of $1,000,- 000, to supply 1,000 fire-arms per da v. In 1858, 00,000 were turned out, All the accessories of these arms— halls, cart- ridges, bullet-moulds, powder-flasks, etc. — are manufactured at this place. There are also extensive works for the manufacture of the machinery by which fire-arms are made. It is to be remarked that at these works the machinery for the British government ar- mory at Enfield has been made ; and also all those for the Russian government at Tula. The arms of Colt attracted great attention at the World's Fair of London. "In whatever aspect the different observers viewed the American repeaters," says an ac- count of the impression they made at the Crystal Palace, " all agreed that perfection had been reached in the art of destruction. None were more astonished than the- Eng- lish, to find themselves so far surpassed in an art which they had studied and practiced for centuries, by a nation whose existence was within the memory of man, and whose greatest triumphs had been in the paths of peaceful industry. The Duke of Welling- ton was found often in the American depart- ment, pointing out the great advantage of these repeaters to other officers and his friends ; and the different scientific as well as popular journals of the country united in one common tribute of praise to the inge- nuity and genius of Colonel Colt. The In- stitute of Civil Engineers, one of the most highly scientific and practical boards of its kind in the world, invited Colonel Colt to read a paper before its members upon the subject of these arms, and two of its meet- ings were occupied in hearing him, and in discussing the merits of his invention." He was the first American inventor who was ever thus complimented by this celebrated in- stitute, and he received at its hands, for his highly able and interesting paper, the award of a gold medal and a life-membership. In addition to his presence before the institute, Colonel Colt, in high compliment to his ex- perience and skill, appeared also, upon special invitation, before a select committee on small arms of the British Parliament, and there gave testimony which was gladly received, and deemed of superior practical value. His own statements were amply corroborated at the time, before the same committee, by British officers, and others, who had visited his armory in America; ami especially by J. Nasmyth, the inventor of the celebrated steam hammer, who, in re- ply to the inquiry, what effect his visit to Colt's manufactory had upon his mind, an- swered: "It produced a very impressive effect, such as I shall never forget. The first impression was to humble me very con- siderably. I was in a maimer introduced to such a skilful extension of what 1 knew to 232 FIRE-ARMS. be correct principles, but extended in so masterly and wholesome a manner, as made me feel that we were very far behind in car- rying out what we knew to be good princi- ples. What struck me at Colonel Colt's was, that the acquaintance with correct prin- ciples had been carried out in a bold, in- genious way, and they had been pushed to their full extent ; and the result was the at- tainment of perfection and economy, such as I had never met with before." All tests and examinations to which the repeating arms were subjected in England, were highly in their favor. Emphatically they spoke for themselves. The enormous power — nay, the invincibility of British troops armed with them, was demonstrated. " The revolver manufactured by Colonel Colt," said the Dover Telegraph, a public journal, express- ing the best and almost universal opinion of England upon the arm, " is a weapon that cannot be improved upon. It will, we un- hesitatingly predict, prove a panacea for the ills we have so unhappily encountered in the southern hemisphere. The Caffrc hordes will bitterly rue the day on which the first ter- rific discharge is poured upon their sable masses." And so a panacea the revolver did prove, both with the Caffre hordes, and with the Muscovite also, upon the bloody plains of the Crimea. Over 40,000 of these pistols are now in use in the British navy ; and Garibaldi has been ably sustained by a corps commanded by Colonel Peard, and armed with Colt's revolving rifles. The most important progress in the man- ufacture of these arms, is that each separate part of a pistol or carbine is made after one pattern by machinery, and with such entire accuracy, that a number of the weapons may be taken to pieces, and any part of one will fit any of the others. Each separate part is made perfect of itself, and separate boxes contain these parts. The weapons are put together rapidly when wanted. There has been a gradual improvement in them, from suggestions derived from their use in Mexico, the Crimea, and Italy. It is now a world- renowned weapon. The great success of Colt has, of course, brought forth imitations, and repeating arms of many descriptions have been patent- ed. Very many are infringements on Colt. There are Allen's, Derringer's, the Volcano, and other pistols, and Pettinger's patent, which has a revolving chamber, and also a patent lock of some reputation. There has been for some fifteen or twenty years past a constantly-increasing predilec- tion for breech-loading fire-arms, and espe- cially rifles. Breech-loading guns may be divided into two general classes ; those winch may be loaded with loose powder and ball, or a paper, linen, or tin-foil cartridge fired with a cap or primer; and tho^e which use a metallic cartridge having the fulminating composition in its base and fired directly by a blow of the hammer on the cartridge. One of the earliest, as well as one of the most successful of the first class is the invention of Mr. Christian Sharps, of Philadelphia, generally known as Sharps' Rifle. The barrel of this is of cast-steel, and its chamber or ball-scat is counter-bored, slightly conical, the exact shape and diameter of the conical ball, so that when it is properly forced to its seat, it has its axis exactly coincident with that of the bore. It is self-priming with Sharps' primer, but can be used with the ordinary army percussion-cap. They are made of two lengths, 24 and 30-inch barrels, and of different calibres from 0.35 in. to 0.52 inch. For military purposes this is an excel- lent weapon, especially for cavalry use ; of sure fire, sufficiently accurate for practical purposes, capable of being fired rapidly, of long rantje and with high-penetrating power. For sporting purposes it is surpassed in ac- curacy, especially at long range, by two or three other guns. The " Merrill " rifle is another breech- loader, using the paper cartridge and the ordinary percussion cap, and so simple in construction, that muzzle-loading arms can be changed to breech-loaders on its plan with but small expense and without altera- tion of their appearance or strength. It is of long range, easily and rapidly loaded, and accurate in its fire. "Greene's rifle," invented in 1857 by Lieut. Col. J. Durell Greene, U. S. A., is a breech- loader, admirably adapted for military use, but of different construction from either of the preceding ; rifled on the Lancaster plan, i. e. having an elliptical barrel, with a turn of three-fourths in the length of the barrel, and no grooves. A cylinder of iron contain- ing a breech-plug which slides backward ami forward within it, is inserted at the breech of the barrel, and moved forward by a pro- jecting knob, which moves in a slot on the top of the barrel, till it closes the breech, when it is turned to the right and secured in place by shoulders. The knob is held by a ■M FIRE ARMS. 231 catch, which may be loosened by pressing a pin at the breech of the barrel. The ham- per is on the under side, in front of the guard, and the nipple is so arranged that the fire is first communicated at the forward end of the cartridge, thus insuring the ignition of all the powder. The cartridge has the bullet in its base, with a greased wad be- tween it and the powder, which, with the bullet, packs the joint perfectly at every dis- charge, and prevents the slightest escape of gas. After each discharge this bullet is pushed forward by the breech-plug to the end of the chamber, the cylinder is then drawn back, and the cartridge inserted in the slot which is thus opened. The cylinder is then pushed forward, pressing the car- tridge before it, and the knob being turned to the side and the nipple capped, the gun is ready to fire. The construction and move- ment are perfectly simple, and the gun is well adapted for rough usage. Tlie " Maynard rifle" is a great favorite with sportsmeu and almost equally so with army officers. It was invented in 1851, but has been somewhat improved in form and some of its minor details since. Its mech- anism is very simple, but wonderfully inge- nious. The barrel is attached very firmly to the stock, yet the removal of a single pin disconnects it, and the whole gun, with all its attachments and a supply of extras in case of necessity may be packed in a space 20 inches by 6, and one inch deep. Its pene- trating power, though sufficient for all ordi- nary purposes, is not quite equal to that of the Colt, Spencer, Greene, or Sharps, but its range is as great as either and its accuracy superior to almost any other. It is ordina- rily used with a metallic cartridge very well made, and which is capable of remarkable execution, but these cartridges when empty can be filled by the rifleman expeditiously, or by the use of a charger, always accompa- nying the rifle, loose powder and ball may be used. Instead of a percussion cap, Dr. Maynard's primer, a narrow strip of varnished paper of double thickness, having deposits of fulminating powder in cqui-distant cells between the thicknesses of the paper, three dozen of which are coiled in a magazine concealed beneath the lock-plate, and brought up by a wheel in the act of cocking; the fall of the hammer explodes the cell and cuts off the paper behind it. Of 250 shots fired with this rifle at a distance of 500 yards (1,500 feet,) 214 struck within a space 5. ft. by 5 ft. on the target, and 40 within a circle 2 ft. in diameter. The rifles using a self-exploding metallic cartridge may be divided into two classes; those loaded with a single cartridge and re- quiring to be recharged for every shot ; and those having a magazine and arrangement for repeating their fire without reloading. Of the first class, two weapons have attained a deserved reputation, F. Wesson's breech* loading rifle, and the " Ballard rifle." The Wesson rifle is well made, accurate, has a long range and a fair penetrating power. It lacks an arrangement for throwing out the empty cartridge after firing, if it adheres, as it sometimes does. The firing both by this and the Ballard are quite rapid, the motions for reloading being few and simple. The "Ballard rifle" has a good reputa- tion. It is simple in its construction, of somewhat less initial velocity and penetrating power than the Wesson, but sufficient in both for all practical purposes. The ordinary military rifle of this pattern is so arranged that it can be used at will either with the metallic cartridge or the ordinary soldier's cartridge fired with a percussion cap. When the metallic cartridge is used, there is a fin- ger piece under the barrel which throws out the empty cartridge. Of the repeating rifles, there are two, beside Colt's, which is constructed on the same gen- eral principle as his pistols. It is a very ef- fective weapon, and is much liked by sports- men for hunting large game. Like all the Colt weapons, these are manufactured with great care and are surpassed by none in the world in the perfection and exactness of their finish. The other two best known repeating rifles are on entirely different principles, and during the war and since, have won a very high reputation. The Spencer repeating rifle was patented in the United States in March, 1800, and in Europe the same year. While a breech- loader, it repeats its fire seven times, having a magazine with a double sheathing of metal located in the butt of the gun, and thrown forward into the barrel by springs so rapidly and unerringly that if there is a single car- tridge in the magazine it never misses fire, and an ordinarily skilled marksman can dis- charge the seven loads in twelve seconds. Its range is enormous. It will throw a ball with fair accuracy two thousand yards, (over a mile,) and at a distance of one hundred and fifty feet will penetrate through 13 234 FIRE ARMS. inches of timber, and at the same number of yards will penetrate over 1 inches. Its charge of powder is but litt'e more than half the IT. S. regulation charge. In the war this rifle did terrible execution; at Ball's Bluff one regiment of the confeder- ates were armed with it, and to them was due the frightful slaughter of that bloody field. At Gettysburg, where a part of Gen. Geary's troops were armed with the Spen- cer, the attack on them by a division of Ewell's (shortly before Stonewall Jack- son's) Corps on the night of the 2d of July, was repulsed by a greatly inferior force with terrific destruction of life. An eye- witness said of it, that " the head of the column, as it was pushed on by those behind, appeared to melt away or sink into the earth, for though continually moving it got no nearer." In the western army the same result followed its use; a regiment armed with it being a match for a division with the ordinary Springfield musket. " Henry's repeating rifle " is also a very formidable weapon. Its magazine, a metal tube on the under side of the barrel, con- tains fifteen metallic cartridges, and is opened for their admission and propulsion by a ring or sleeve, also of metal, which turns upon the barrel, and is connected by a spring with the carrier-block, and each cartridge in turn placed on this and raised to the level of the chamber by the action of cocking the gun, when a reverse move- ment of the guard forces it into the cham- ber ready for firing. The fifteen shots can be fired in less than eleven seconds, and 120 shots in 5 minutes and 45 seconds, in- cluding the time spent in recharging the magazine. The magazine is in some dan- ger of being bent or battered by a chance shot in battle, so as not to deliver its car- tridges promptly, and while the "sleeve" at the muzzle interferes with its value for sporting purposes, it, and its European im- provement, the Martini-Henry rifle, are among the best army weapons in existence. The unrifled musket as a military arm is now abandoned. Three military com- missions were called, in 1866, 1869, and 1872, presided over respectively by Gen. Hancock, Gen. Schofield, and Gen. Terry, to determine what was the best form, model, and calibre for rifles for army ser- vice, and whether the arm should be breech- loading or muzzle-loading. The first com- mission examined 22 varieties of breech- loading muskets and 1 7 varieties of breech- loading carbines, and reported in favor of breech-loaders, but deemed all the patterns susceptible of further improvements. The second commission examined 34 varieties of breech-loading muskets, 8 varieties of carbines, and 8 of pistols, and recommended the Remington, Springfield, and Sharps's systems of breech loading as superior to others (in the order named) and alone suit- able for adoption by the government, with- out further trial in the hands of troops. In 1870, muskets and carbines of each of these three systems, and also of the Ward- Burton system of magazine breech-loader were prepared and placed in the hands of companies of infantry and cavalry for com- parative trial in service during a period of not less than twelve months, reports to be made regularly every month by company commanders, and at the end of the time appointed to be laid before a board of offi- cers chosen to select a suitable breech-load- ing arm for adoption for the military ser- vice. Meanwhile the Springfield armory, a government institution which had made muskets of great excellence before the war, and which had in its employ some of the most accomplished machinists in the world, was exerting itself, as were its rivals, to make a rifled musket as absolutely perfect for its purposes as was possible. The third commission met in Sept., 1872, alternately at New York and Springfield; they had before them 99 varieties of American breech-loading muskets, and 9 varieties which were in use by one or more foreign nations. After eight months of careful investigation the commission reported, rec- ommending that "the Springfield breech- loading system be adopted for the military service." The recommendation was ap- proved, and all United States troops are supplied with these arms. The wisdom of this selection is now generally conceded. The following is the description of the Springfield model. The barrel is of "low steel " (Bessemer or other), calibre 45 ins., rifled with three concentric grooves of equal widths with the bands, and of uni- form depth of .005 of an inch, and uniform twist of one complete turn in 22 inches. The lock-plate is 0.175 inch thick, and let in flush. The exterior metal-work is browned (except the bayonet). An open swivel is attached to the Merrill upper-band for stacking arms, instead of locking bayo FIRE ARMS. 235 nets as heretofore ; also, a "trowel-bayonet" and " intrenching tool " proposed. Length of rifle barrel, including roceiver, 3 6 inches ; of the carbine, 25.4 inches. Length of rifle bayonet 18 inches; crook of stock, 2h inches, and distance from butt to trigger, 13£ inches. Total length of rifle, without bayonet, 51.9 inches; of carbine, 41.3 ins.; weight of rifle, without bayonet, 8.38 lbs.; of carbine, 6.87 lbs. Triggers adjusted to pull at six to eight pounds. As in all the best small arms, all the parts are inter- changeable. Details of practice : Rapidity of fire, using service cartridge box, 1 2 to 1 3 times per minute ; a very skillful expert has fired 23 times per minute. Drift, or deflection of the projectile to the right, for the rifle at 500 yards is 25 inches. Initial velocity of rifle-ball, with 70 grains of powder, 1,350 feet; of carbine ball, with 55 grains of powder, 1,100 feet. Pressure per square inch, 19,000 pounds. Force of recoil with rifle with service charge, 174 pounds; of carbine with service charge, 155 pounds; of carbine with rifle charge, 182 pounds. Penetration into white pine (one inch cor- responds in force with that producing dan- gerous wounds upon the body), with the rifle at 100 yards, 17.2 inches; with the carbine, 14.5 inches; with the rifle at 1,200 yards, 3.7 inches, a range sufficient to make it a most formidable weapon. Its penetrat- ing power at 1,200 yards, almost three- fourths of a mile, is sufficient to produce a fatal wound. The Cadet rifle, also made at Springfield, is a little shorter and lighter than the infantry rifle musket. It is worthy of notice that several of the European governments, though of course they do not adopt our Springfield rifle, have yet adopted those invented by Amer- ican mechanics. This is especially the case with Great Britain, which in its Mar- tini-Henry has taken up with a modifica- tion of our Henry rifle. Turkey adopts the same, and, moreover, has most of its rifles made here; Spain has adopted the Remington system, and Denmark and Sweden have followed her example. Most of these are made here. Russia has the Berdan rifle, but, we believe, now manu- factures it at home. Most of the European governments use the Colt's revolvers, as does our own army in part, the Schofield, Smith & Wesson, and the Remington re- volvers being its only competitors. The lapse of twelve years since a part of this article was written has necessarily brought about some changes in small ar.i s not intended exclusively for military use, as well as in those which are. Col. Colt has passed away, but the Colt Fire Arms Company remains, and has enlarged and extended its- works. The Sharps' Rifle Company has, we believe, removed its prin- cipal works from Hartford, but has been succeeded by others; and among the later inventions and manufacturers of fire arms, and especially of rifles, carbines, and revol- vers, are the Remington Arms Co., of Ilion, N. Y., the Winchester Rifle Co., of New Haven, Ct, which manufactures the Winchester rifle, and the Providence Tool Co., of Providence, R. I., which make the Peabody rifle. The Sharps, Remington, Winchester, and Peabody rifles have been those principally used in the international target-shooting contests, in which our riflemen have so uniformly carried off the prizes. The use of metallic cartridges for our rifles, which began during our civil war, is now gener- ally adopted, and has added very much to the precision of our rifle practice. Among new inventions of breech-load- ing pistols is that of Stafford, of New Haven. The conical ball, as in the case of all breech-loading arms, is fixed ready for use in a copper cartridge, which is dropped from the left hand into the barrel when the pistol is held by the right hand. The barrel being attached to the stock by a hinge, is opened to receive the ball. Then, on throwing the barrel into line with the breech, by an upward jerk of the right hand, it is ready for use. There is a spring catch in front of the hammer of the lock which catches the barrel and holds it in position until the pistol is discharged. When the thumb is brought down on the catch, the barrel is disengaged, and, by a jerk, is thrown into position for reloading — the whole operation of loading and firing being accomplished in a small fraction of the time required to describe it. This must be so, for an expert can fire sixteen shots a minute with this pistol. The arrangement of sights is also complete, so that any object can be exactly covered by a marksman with precision, and the penetra- tion and force with which the ball is pro- jected can hardly be realized by those who have not experimented with it. 236 CANNON. Cannon. — In 1S60 the first of the many recent patents for breech-loading cannon was issued in the United States, France, and England. By this a ball cartridge is dropped into the gun by an opening in the breech, a pin moves forward, pushing the cartridge, closing the hole by which it en- tered, and discharging the piece by percus- sion powder. After careful and protracted trials, however, it ha.s been very definitely settled, both in England and the United States, that no breech-loading cannon thus far constructed is either safe or effective. The whole subject of ordnance, from its elements to its highest principles, has been carefully and profoundly studied " since 1858. Many volumes have been written on the subject, and a great variety of methods of constructing guns have been tried, some with a greater measure of suc- cess than others, but it cannot be said that any of them as yet in all respects come up to the true ideal of a piece of ordnance. The exigencies which have grown out of the use of armored ships, have considera- bly complicated the matter. For naval service and for sea-coast or river forts, fortresses and batteries, it is requisite that the cannon should be very strong, of tena- cious metal, free from liability to burst; of long range, and large calibre; if rifled, the missile thrown by it should have a high in- itial velocity, and great smashing or per- forating power; the gun should be capable of efficient and tolerably accurate service at a distance of not less than five miles. Siege guns require very nearly the same quali- ties. For field service, in movable bat- teries and sections, smaller guns, usually those carrying balls weighing twelve, twen- ty, twenty-four, thirty, forty, or fifty-six pounds, are most in demand, and those of bronze, brass, steel, or wrought-iron, have generally proved serviceable, though the breech-loading principle has never been iound very serviceable, even in the smaller cannon. In the way of heavy guns, the English government have expended many millions in experimenting with Sir William Arm- strong's guns — breech-loaders built up with successive layers of hoops and jackets, and which have proved a costly failure, being more dangerous to the gunners who served them, from their leakage and ten- dency to explode, than to the enemy. After many experiments Sir "William changed his gun to a muzzle-loader, but its construction, though much improved by the modifications of Mr. Fraser, and ren- dered much less liable to explode, was not very satisfactory. An exception should be made perhaps m favor of the nine-inch cal- ibre Fraser gun, which Gen. Barry, U.S.A., chief of artillery, pronounces, for its size and weight, the most efficient gun in the world. Whitworth's guns have come nearer to the true standard of excellence. They are constructed of homogeneous iron (a mild steel), and hooped with steel; can be used at will as muzzle or breech-loaders; the bore is hexagonal, and the rifling about one turn in ten or twelve inches. The missiles are a long flat-fronted steel-headed projectile (whether shot or shell), and from the rapid rifling revolve with almost incon- ceivable velocity. The gun is an expen- sive one to make, and can only be used with its proper projectile, but it possesses great merits. The Blakely gun was con- structed on a different plan, its core being a steel tube, thickest in the middle and tapering towards each end, on which hoops of iron were driven. The bore was oval, but with four or five turns in the length of the gun. It was too apt to explode to be very safe. The Lancaster gun was the first to make use of the oval bore for rifling, but made fewer turns and did better service. It can hardly be said, however, that in large ordnance England has produced the model gun. France has attempted the transformation of her bronze smooth-bores into rifled guns by what is known as the Palliser method — inserting a steel tube in the bore of a bronze or cast-iron gun, and screwing it in place by screws of great strength. This plan has been adopted with some of our cast-iron guns, and con- verts them into rifle guns of considerable power and endurance. The method of Mr. Francis Krupp, of Essen, Prussia, is to fabricate the body of his gun from a solid ingot of low steel worked under heavy steam-hammers. The gun is strengthened by three or more steel tubes, which are shrunk upon the central tube or mass of the gun, the last ring or tube enclosing the breech being forged in one piece with the trunnions, and made without any weld. The rings are of differ- ent lengths, as is usual with built-up guns, and the whole gun is diminished in thick- ness toward the muzzle, not by tapering, CANNON. 237 but by being turned with concentric steps of diminished heights. Besides several thousand field guns, Ilerr Krupp has fab- ricated more than 2,000 of G-inch, 7-inch, 8-inc'.i, 9-inch, 11-inch, 12-inch, and 14-inch calibre, and more recently has made one of 20-inch, which sends out a projectile weigh- ing over 2,000 pounds. All his guns are rifled. The first of his 14-inch guns re- quired sixteen months of continuous labor night and day, and with its carriage and the turn-table (both of steel) on which it is mounted, cost $110,000. It had stood the test of 170 pounds of prismatic powder and a 1,200-pound projectile. At the be- ginning of the civil war (1861-65) we had no rifled cannon, and but very few of the European powers had any that were ser- viceable — Whitwcrth's and Krupp's being the only rifled artillery which had attained any reputation, and Armstrong's experi- ments being so far unsatisfactory. Some of our ordnance officers, both in the navy and army, and notably Captain (afterwards Admiral) Dahlgren, U. S. N., Capt. (after- wards G-en.) T. J. Rodman, U. S. A., and Capt. (afterwards Gen.) R. P. Parrott, had been experimenting for several years in re- gard to the best methods of constructing artillery for field, siege, and fortification use. Their material was cast-iron, though Capt. Parrott had been using reinforces of wrought-iron to strengthen the rifled guns he was constructing. No steel, bronze, or brass was used, except for the light guns of the field batteries. All the guns except Parrott's were smooth-bores, and, of their class, were perhaps equal in range and en- durance to those manufactured in Europe. At the commencement of the war, there were in the various arsenals, forts, and bat- teries, 1,052 sioge and sea-coast guns, of all sizes and calibres, and 231 pieces of field artillery equally varied in character. Of the heavy guns, the greater part were Cohunbiad's, invented by Colonel Romford, U. S. A., in 1812-14, and which some years later were introduced into France by Gen. Paixhans, and called there Paixhans. Later still they were further improved by Col. Bomford. They were in their day guns of good repute, but their day had past. A few were Rodman's guns, per- haps the best smooth-bore gun then knowr. They were cast hollow with a core which was kept filled with cold water, the exterior being kept from rapid cooling by fires built around the gun in the casting pit. "These guns were further distinguished by great thickness of metal at the breech, by graceful curves of their exterior lines, by the absence of all exterior ornamenta- tion, sharp angles or edges, and of the cas- cable and swell of the muzzle, and by hav ing the trunnions at the center of gravity, thus doing away with preponderance, and greatly facilitating the service of the gun. At first, the Rodmans were all smooth- bores, but soon after the war commenced some of them were rifled. The calibres of the smooth-bores were 8 inches, 10 inches, 13 inches, 15 inches, and 20 inches, and of the rifles, 8 inches (corresponding exterior- ly to the 10-inch smooth-bore), 10 inches (to 13-inch smooth-bore), and 12 inches (to 1 5 -inch smooth-bore), three dimensions of carriage thus answering for six guns. All Rodman guns are adapted to the use of solid as well as hollow projectiles. The 15-inch Rodman gun weighs 25 tons, the solid shot 450 pounds, and the powder charge 100 pounds of mammoth powder. The 20 -inch Rodman weighs 58 tons, its solid shot 1,060 pounds, and its powder charge 180 pounds of mammoth powder. These guns have done excellent service, and from their very heavy breech have burst less frequently than any other gun. For crushing or smashing power at short range, no gun could be more effective than the smooth-bore Rodman. The rifled guns have a much longer range, but are hardly so accurate as the Parrotts. The smaller guns at the commencement of the war were partly Rodmans, but a larger number were howitzers — a modifi- cation of the Bomford columbiad — and a considerable number were imported brass or bronze guns. The Navy Department re- ported at that time 2,966 guns ashore and afloat of all qualities, sizes, and calibres. Of these, 2,008 ranged from 32-pounders down to pound swivels, and 958 were 8, 9, 10, and 11 -inch guns of a variety of pat- terns; 356 being 9, 10, and 11-inch Dahl- grens. The burning of the navy yard at Portsmouth destroyed nearly half of these guns, and of the remainder not more than 420 were fit for service. Capt, (afterwards Admiral) Dahlgren, who had been for some years constructing guns for naval use, redoubled his diligence at this junc- ture, and produced as rapidly as possible guns of all grades for navy use. His how- 238 CANNON itzcrs were and still are a favorite gun for the smaller vessels, steam launches, etc., of the navy, hut he is best known by his larger guns, constructed on much the same principles. "His guns," says Gen. Barry, "are of cast-iron, cast solid, and cooled from the exterior; they are of great thick- ness at the breech and as far forward as the trunnions, and from thence to the muz- zle rapidly diminishing in thickness, so that their external configuration is not unlike that of a champagne bottle. The larger guns are chiefly of 9-inch and 11-inch cali- bre, and are adapted exclusively for hollow projectiles. A 10 -inch Dahlgren for firing solid shot has, however, been put in ser- vice. The 15-inch and 20-inch naval guns, though they have in a great degree the ex- terior form of the Dahlgren, are cast hoi low, cooled from the inside, and have the elliptical bottom of the bore, which are characteristic features of the Rodman plan. The 9-inch, 10-inch, and 11-inch Dahlgren guns have the bottom of the bore in the conical form of what is known as the ' Go- th er chamber.' " The range of the 1 1-mch Dahlgren is considerably more than a mile. The performance of a few of the Whit- worth and Krupp rifled guns soon created a demand for rifled cannon in the Union army. There were several competitors, but the great cost of the experiments necessary to test the guns, and the total failures of some of them reduced the number materi- ally. Gen. James, of Rhode Island, had invented, but not perfected, a rifled can- non just before the war, and his death caused by its explosion prevented further attempts to complete it. Messrs. Ames, of Chicopee, Mass., distinguished founders, and men of extraordinary mechanical skill and the highest character, expended large sums in endeavoring to perfect a wrought- iron gun, but it failed to meet the require- ments of the government. Gen. Roberts constructed a rifled cannon of considerable merit, but it proved inadequate under some of the tests to which it was subjected. Capt. Parrott, at that time superintendent of the government foundry at Cold Spring, opposite West Point, was more successful than any of his competitors in meeting and overcoming all the obstacles to the produc- tion of an effective rifled cannon. In the Parrott method the body of the piece, or rather the gun itself, is of cast-iron, cast hollow, and cooled from the inside (after the plan of Rodman) for the larger calibres, and strengthened about the seat of the charge by an exterior tube of wrought-iron bars spirally coiled and shrunk on. For this purpose, this portion of the gun is turned down to a cylindrical form. Be- sides his field guns of three inches (10- pounder), and 3.62 inches (20 pounder), and his siege gun of 4.2 ins. (30-pounder), Captain Parrott constructed sea-coast and ship guns of G.4 inches (100-pounder), 8 inches (2 00 -pounder), and 10 inches (300- pounder). His mode of rifling is the in- creasing or gaining twist. The smaller calibres, 10, 20, 30, and 60- pounders, were subjected to very hard ser- vice in the late war, and were wonderfully tenacious, very few of them bursting even when overloaded or discharged with great rapidity. The larger calibres, 100, 200, and 300-pounders, were most severely tested at the siege of Charleston, and some of these burst, though in most cases from the premature explosion of the shells with which they were charged. Their range was very great. In this siege they threw solid shot and shell with great accuracy at an elevation of 35° as follows: the 100- pounder, 8,453 yards — almost five miles; the 200-pounder, a solid shot weighing 150 pounds, 9,000 yards — five and one-sixth miles; and the 300-pounder, with a 250- pound projectile, five and one-fourth miles. The Parrott projectile, which has added greatly to the efficiency of these guns in both range and accuracy, is of peculiar form, elongated, and with its coating of lead or soft brass, which swedges readily in the grooves, is somewhat in the shape of a ten pin. The Parrott gun has some de- fects, but, as tested by actual service, it possesses the excellent qualities of consid- erable endurance, general serviceable- ness, great range, and remarkable accuracy in a degree equalled only by the Krupp guns, while its cost is hardly one-fourth of these, especially in the larger calibres. When the iron gun, whether cast solid or hollow, has been dressed and drilled, it is ready to be proved, which is done in this country by testing the strength of a cylin- der of the iron an inch in diameter and two inches long, cut out of the cannon, for- merly from one of the trunnions, but now from the barrel near the muzzle. The specific gravity and other properties of the sample are carefully noted, and these, to- NEW MODEL FIVE BARRELED GATLING GUN. WEIGHT. 97 POUNDS. Exhibted by Gatling Gun Company, Hartford, Conn., aa a practical military machine gun, tho Gatlinq has no equal. It fires from 800 to 1,000 shots per minute with great accuracy. Various calibres are made, mostly having ten barrels, the larger having an effective range of over two miles. It has been adopted by nearly all the principal governments of the world. It received the only prize medal and award given for machine guns at the Centennial Exhibition. 241 gether with the trials to which it is sub- jected, and the hardness of the metal de- termined by a very exact method, give correct indications of the strength of the gun, without the necessity of submitting it to extreme proof by firing with constantly- increasing charges until the piece is de- stroyed. Indeed to such perfection have these proofs been brought, that guns have been selected as of inferior quality from among a large lot, which, on reference to the books of the foundry, were found to have been the only ones of the lot made of hot blast iron. According to the indica- tions furnished by the tests, several guns are usually taken from each large lot of them to be submitted to extreme proof — the selection being generally of those that appear to be the poorest, best, and inter- mediate qualities. These are fired com- monly with charges of powder equal to one-fourth the weight of the ball, with one shot and one junk wad over it. The firing is continued, unless the piece previously bursts, to 500 rounds. Then one ball more is added with every discharge, till the bore is filled. The powder is after- wards doubled in quantity, and the bore filled with shot at each discharge. When it bursts, pieces are selected for further ex- amination from the breech, near the trun- nions, and the chase. Guns are also tested by hydrostatic pressure, water being forced into the bore with increasing pressure, till it sometimes bursts the piece, or brings to light its hidden defects by opening the small fissures that were concealed in the metal. It is not uncommon for it to ap- pear upon the exterior of pieces, of which the thickness of the metal is four inches, exuding through as a thin froth, which collects upon the outside, and forms drops and little streams. By this method the ex- act pressure applied is known, and may be gradually increased to any desired degree. Sample bars are also cast together with the cannon, which furnish some indication of the strength of the metal. The different rates of cooling of the large and small mass, however, render their qualities some- what dissimilar. Extended experiments have shown that gunpowder can be greatly improved by in- creased care m the selection and manipu- lation of its ingredients, and by greater uniformity in the form and size of its grains; and it has been further demon- strated, that it is essential to vary the size of the grain for different calibres of can- non, that is to say, a large giained or slow- er-burning gunpowder is more advanta- geous for the larger cannon since it gives increased initial velocity with decreased pressure on the walls of the gun. Gun- powder in the U. S. service is now classi- fied into five kinds: 1, Rifle powder, for pistols and carbines; 2, Musket, for rifled muskets; 3, Mortar, for field and siege guns and mortars; 4, Cannon, for the smaller calibres of sea coast guns; 5, Mammoth, for 15-inch and larger guns. These im- provements in the manufacture of mam- moth powder have been so marked, that with charges of similar weights the initial velocity of a 15-inch projectile has been in- creased from 1,300 or 1,400 feet per sec- ond, with a pressure of 40,000 to 60,000 pounds to the square inch, to 1,800 feet per second, with a pressure of less than 30,000 pounds per square inch. This has greatly increased the range and diminished the danger of the cannon's bursting. The exigencies of the late war, as well as those of tho frontier warfare with the Indians, demanded what may properly be called a battery of rifles. This want had been felt before both in Europe and this country, and attempts had been made to supply it, with no great success till 1862, when Dr. R. J. Gatling, now of Hartford, Conn., invented the machine gun since known as the Gatling gun. Both the French and Germans used in the Franco- Prussian war of 1870 machine guns of a somewhat analogous construction, known as the Mitrailleuse and the Kugelspitzen re- spectively; but the Gatling is the most simple and effective weapon of its class. It consists of a number (usually ten) of simple breech-loading rifled barrels grouped around and revolving about a common axis with which they lie parallel. These component barrels are loaded and fired while revolving, the empty cartridge shells being ejected in continuous succession. Each barrel is fired only once in a revolu- tion, so that the Gatling gun fires ten times in one revolution of the barrels. An ac- tive man can turn the crank with suffic rapidity to make forty revolutions a min- ute for several minutes together, and thus deliver 400 rifle shots a minute. The working of the gun is simple. One man places one end of a feed-case containing 242 CANNON. forty metallic cartridges, of the kind iised in the Springfield rifle and other small arms, in a hopper at the top of the gun, re- newing the supply as fast as used, while another man turns a crank by which the gun is revolved. If the feeding is kept up steadily, and the crank is steadily turned, the gun will discharge a constant stream of fire, which, by the aid of a contrivance called the oscillator, will make terrible havoc with an approaching column, wheth- er of infantry or cavalry. The mechanism by which the successive charges are made to fall into place and are discharged with such rapidity, and with the utmost safety from accident, is very ingenious, yet simple. It cannot well be explained without several drawings, but it reflects the highest credit on the inventor. Gen. Q. A. Gilmore says: The advan- tages possessed by this gun are the light- ness of its parts; the simplicity and strength of its mechanism ; the rapidity and continuity of its fire without sensible re- coil; its effectiveness against troops; its general accuracy at all ranges attainable by rifles; its comparative independence of the excitements of battle; the interchange- ableness of its ammunition with that of the same calibre of small arms, and its great endurance. Of course, it cannot sup- ply the lack of cannon in a siege, or of the large cannon in length of range; nor can it deliver a curved fire, or prove effective against troops in rifle-pits, or behind block- houses or heavy woods; but it is peculiarly adapted to the defense of entrenched posi- tions and villages ; for protecting roads, de- files, and bridges; for covering the em- barkation and debarkation of troops, or the crossing of streams; for silencing batteries by driving off the gunners; for increasing the infantry fire at the critical moment of a battle ; for supporting field batteries against assaults and charges; for covering a retreating column; and for its economy in men for serving and animals for trans- porting it. The guns are made of seven calibres, ranging from 1 inch to 0.42 inch; the heaviest weigh but 650 pounds, the three smaller calibres only 200 pounds each. These latter with gun carriage and limber complete weigh but 713 pounds, and can be brought rapidly on the field by one or two good horses. Another machine gun, "the improved Gardner Machine Gun," has been put upon the market since 1874. It is entirely dif- ferent from the Gatling, has but two bar- rels, but works easily and with great rapidi- ty, 493 to 500 cartridges being discharged, though by great effort, in a minute. It is more accurate at considerable distances than the Gatling, but is adapted to a some- what different service. The Gardner weighs with its tripod only 201 pounds, and without it 147 pounds. It has been favorably reported upon by the Ordnance officers. It has been settled beyond controversy, that the destructive power, the "smashing power," as the artillerists say, of a cannon shot is largely dependent upon the quanti- ty of powder winch can be thoroughly ig- nited in the chamber of the gun before the projectile leaves its muzzle. A gun which, sending a 450 or 500-pound projectile, can burn one hundred pounds of powder be- fore the ball leaves the cannon's mouth, without exploding the gun with the pow- der, will send that projectile (other things being equal) with a force which no armor plate at three hundred yards' distance can resist. A six-inch plate, backed with ten feet of solid timber, would be crushed and crumbled into fragments, and if the projectile was of hardened steel it would very probably pass through the opposite side of the ship. The intimate relation of heavy guns to the armor of the ships, and the attempt to make an impenetrable armor on the one side, and an irresistible projec- tile on the other, have occupied a great deal of attention for twenty years or more. The French commenced experiments in 1854 and have continued them ever since. The English began still earlier. The war of 1861 at once demonstrated the necessity of armored ships, and our government made haste to build them. The first Mon- itor, and the Galena, a wooden armored vessel, were earliest afloat, and the former, not a moment too soon, attacked and disa- bled the Rebel iron-clad Merrimac. Sub- sequently other monitors, and the New Ironsides, an armor-plated ship of the line, were sent out. The monitors did good service in besieging forts and seaports, but were not adapted to ocean-fighting, or rough water navigation. On the western rivers a class of iron-clads adapted to river navigation, as well as those of lighter plat- ing, commonly known as tin-clads, were rapidly constructed. Other armored ves- CANNON. 245 sels, mostly modifications of the monitor principle, though possessing better sea-go- ing qualities, were built, though not gener- ally until too late for service in the war. The Puritan and Dictator, gigantic moni- tors, were neither of them put in commis- sion. The Miantonomoh and her consort, turreted iron-clads, but of a different model, have proved the best of our armored ships. The Dunderberg, an iron-plated ram of great size and immense power, was sold by its builder, with the consent of the U. S. government, to the French, and now forms one of the most formidable vessels of the French navy. It is worthy of note that our most famous naval victories, whether over single ships or in squadrons, were fought by wooden vessels mainly. The Kearsarge, which fought and sunk "the Ala- bama, was a wooden ship; the fleet of Ad- miral Farragut, which ascended the Mis- sissippi to New Orleans, as well as that which subsequently passed Port Hudson, were wooden ships. The fleet which cap- tured the forts at the mouth of Mobile Bay, and crippled the Rebel iron-clads were mostly wooden vessels, and of the five iron- clads in the Union fleet, one was sunk by a torpedo. In the siege of Charleston, the iron-clads did some service, though but little compared with the shore batteries, and at the taking of Port Royal, it was wooden ships alone which bombarded and silenced the forts. Our harbor-defences employ the largest portion of our heavy guns; yet very few of our harbors are in a complete state of defense. New York, the most important and the most exposed of these, has numer- ous forts at both entrances to its harbor, Long Island Sound and the Lower Bay, mounting 15 and 20-inch Rodman guns, both smooth-bore and rifled, and 10 and 15-inch Parrotts. The plan of a revolving iron tower to be placed in the center of the channel, on an artificial island, for harbor defense, was first broached by Mr. Theo- dore R. Timby, of New York, in 1841, and his plans, thoroughly perfected, were pre- sented to the government and the people in 1863 or 1864, but have not as yet been adopted. It was from Mr. Timby's model of a revolving iron tower, that Capt. John Ericsson gained his idea of a turret for his monitors. 14 CUTLERY, EDGE TOOLS, EILES, AND SAWS. It is not half a century since all our pocket-cutlery, scissors, razors, table-knives and forks (when made of steel), carving- knives and forks, and files and surgical in- struments were imported from Europe, and most of them from Sheffield, England. We made even at that time our own axes, and most of our saws, planes, adzes, and other of the larger cutting instruments, and had even then begun to send abroad a few of our axes, scythes, hoes, and sickles, but we were told, and believed it implicitly for many years, that our workmen had not the skill nor the long practice which would enable them to make pen-knives, scissors, razors, table-cutlery, files, or surgical in- struments. These, we were told, required a very long apprenticeship, and a peculiar sleight of hand which we, as outside bar- barians, could not acquire. But somewhere about 1835 a file factory was set up in New Haven, Conn. It was a very small affair at first, and the file-maker wrought alone for a while, but after a time taught the mystery of his art to some bright boys who in turn taught others, and ten years later it began to be whispered about that the New Haven files were better than the English. In 1870, there were 121 file fac- tories in the country (there are about 200 now), files were made to the amount of $1,649,434, and files had ceased to be im- ported. About the same time the manu- facture of table-cutlery was commenced. The Sheffield cutlers were sure that this would prove a failure. No American blacksmith could make knives and forks equal to Wade and Butcher's. Perhaps not, but they could make better ones; and it was not long before they had invented swedging machines of tremendous power, by which they struck out the knife, blade, and handle, or blade and tang, in one piece, instead of welding, and hammering, and smithing it out by a half dozen pieces. This was so much of an improvement that even the Sheffield cutlers had to use it, but they still insisted that we could not finish our table-cutlery as well as they could. At their own International Exhibition, in 1 851, and at every one since, our manufacturers of table-cutlery have taken the first prizes. And the silver and silver-plated forks of American manufacture have taken the first place in the markets of the world. So long ago as 1838 or 1840, two or three surgical instrument manufacturers began very mod- estly to compete with the surgical instru- ment makers of Paris, London, Berlin, and Vienna. They were told that they would only bring ruin on themselves, that these implements required a perfection of finish which they could never attain; and most of the physicians and surgeons at first were inclined to prefer the imported instru- ments, but after a while it was found that the American instruments were really su- perior to the imported, and now there are very few surgical instruments brought from Europe, while our export of them is increasing. Scissors were the next article in which our manufacturers encroached upon the English cutlers, and here the out- cry broke into a wail. Rodgers and Wors- t mholm, cutlers of Sheffield, had supplied t he American women with scissors and the American tailors with shears from time immemorial, and it was nothing less than sacrilege to think of taking this business away from them. "The next thing," it was said, "would be that the conceited Americans would think they could make their own pocket-knives." "And so we will," was the answer. But the scissors were first in order. An American ma- chinist or metal-worker always looks first at the form of an article which he wishes to make to see if he cannot improve that. It was so in this case. The Sheffield men had gone on for generations making their scissors in just the same way, two blades of steel crossing each other on the same plane, and with the same leverage The quick eye of the American mechanic saw CUTLERY, EDGE TOOLS, FILES, AND SAWS. 247 that the leverage might be greatly in- creased, the cutting made easier, and the whole blade utilized by a change in the shape of the blades and handles, and that each blade could be struck out in a single piece by a swedging die. Having made this improvement, which turned out to be a very important one, he next proceeded to finish the scissors and shears in the best manner, and very soon he not only sup- plied the American market, but began to export his shears, even to Sheffield it- self. The cutlers stood aghast. They had been beaten at the very point where they supposed they were strongest. One of them, holding up a pair of American shears before his workmen, said, " I will give £25 ($125) reward to any man who will contrive a plan by which we can make shears equal to these." There was no re- sponse, though he repeated the offer. There had been much of the cheaper and some of the better pocket-cutlery made in this country prior to 18 GO, but it had not attained a very good reputation ; even Congress, which should have been ready to sustain American manufactures, in- sisted upon being supplied with Rogers' and "Worstenholms's penknives and erasers. The plan adopted was for bids to be re- ceived for supplying Congress with sta- tionery, and the successful bidder sent on the articles, including the cutlery, and later, when the appropriation was passed, drew his money for the goods. It was customary for the English houses to give a credit of six months to the stationers. When the war was in progress, in Oct., 18G1, it happened that partners in these great cutlery houses of Sheffield were in New York. The stationer who was to supply Congress applied to one of them to sell him his cutlery on the usual terms. " No! not a penny-worth," was the answer, " without the cash in advance." " But I want it for Congross," said the stationer. "I wouldn't trust the Government of the United States for a sixpence," answered John Bull. The other cutler was not quite so stern, but he insisted that the order must be indorsed by an English house. Our machinists and metal-workers had just then rather too much business on hand in supplying the demands of the war to give immediate attention to pocket-cutlery; but it was not long before they produced goods fully equal and in most respects superior to the English, and Congress has since been supplied with American knives and erasers. As in all the other branches of the cut- lery and edge-tool manufactures, machin- ery of precision is much more largely used than in Europe, and it gives a much great- er uniformity and excellence to the pro- ducts than is attainable by the uncertainties of even the most skillful hand labor. There are, however, considerable quantities of fine pocket-cutlery yet imported, although it has lost much of its prestige. Razors were the last of the articles of fine cutlery to be produced here. "Wade and Butcher's razors were so long regarded as the stand- ard that people in general had the idea that it was in a sense discreditable to be shaved with any other, and the first at- tempts at making razors here were treat oil with derision. "The Americans might," it was said, "succeed in making table- knives and scissors by machinery, but a razor was a different affair altogether; the steel and iron must be so carefully welded, and their fibers so intimately blended that the razor could be ground down to the finest edge on one side, and retain its thick- ness on the other, and this was not to be done by machinery; it required workmen of peculiar skill and tact, and it required, also, peculiar skill to give the razor its ex- act temper, and to make that temper en- during. The American mechanic might, to be sure, make what he would call ra- zors, but they would be — like Peter Pin- dar's razors — made to sell." And so they were, and to use, too, and it has come to pass that very many experts prefer the American razors for their easy handling, their perfect concavity, and their exa Qent and permanent temper. They differ slightly and advantageously in form from the Eng- lish, and like the scissors and table-kn they are struck out by a die, and then ground and tempered with the most care- ful accuracy. It is now known that our cutlery steel is superior to any other in the world; and that, with a little more experi- ence in tempering and finishing it, our ra- zors and penknives will not be equaled anywhere. There is one error into which American mechanics and manufacturers are liable to fall, which must be carefully avoided if they would maintain the repu- tation they have fairly won. In many de- partments of the useful arts they produce excellent goods, and goods which speedily 248 CUTLERY, EDGE TOOLS, FILES, AND SAWS. acquire a good name and are in extensive demand ; but when, as the saying is, they have attained success and their names are up, they grow careless, and send off infe- rior goods in place of those of the first quality. Nothing can be more fatal to any permanent success than such a course. The effort should be to improve the man- ufacture in all its details constantly, rather than to suffer the slightest deterioration in its quality. Eternal vigilance is said to be the price of liberty; it certainly is the price of manufacturing success. In the manufacture of saws, there have been several improvements made within the past ten or fifteen years which have greatly expedited the work, as, for in- stance, those modifying materially the form of the teeth; those enabling one man with- out great or exhausting effort to perform the parts of the top and bottom sawyer; and those which render the setting of a saw a much easier and less disagreeable business. American saws now have a world-wide reputation. In the manufacture of axes, as well as of all other edge tools, we have long main- tained a preeminence the world over. Col- lins' axes and scythes are as well known abroad as at home, and there is something in the shape, proportions, and balance of an American axe which the European me- chanic has tried in vain to imitate. Three or four years ago, a Collins axe was pre- sented to Mr. Gladstone,, who is an expert in felling trees. He tried it carefully on his own estate at Hawarden, and declared that it was by far the best axe he had ever ased. Scythes, cradles, sickles, and grass knives, and all the tools of the carpenter, ship-joiner, and cooper, are made in these American factories with a perfection which has never been seen elsewhere. Almost all of these, perhaps all, are stamped out by dies of the hardest steel, and are so per- fect and uniform in their workmanship that the several parts of a hundred of them might be interchanged without any difficulty. We have not thought it desira- ble to go into details in regard to the pro- cesses of manufacture of these articles, be- cause the inventive genius of our mechan- ics is constantly devising new methods which take the place of the old ones, and simplify while they perfect the processes of manufacture. An exception may bo made in the process of tempering, or at least in the degrees of heat necessary to produce a given temper, since this is a constant quantity. The process of hard- ening renders all steel brittle, and it is in- tended to remove this by tempering. The higher the heat when the metal is hard- ened, the softer and stronger will be the steel. A lower degree of heat gives more hardness, and also more brittleness. The temper is indicated in the color, and the temperature which produces that color follows a regular scale. Thus, 430° of heat gives a very pale straw color, suita- ble for the temper of lancets. Higher de- grees of heat give darker shades of yellow, suitable for razors, penknives, and chisels; until at 500° the color is brown-yellow, adapted to axes and plane-irons; 20° high- er, the yellow has a purple tinge, seen in table knives; 30° more and the dark color of a watch-spring is obtained. Again 20° and the dark blue of saws is visible. At G30° the color has a tinge of green, and the steel is too soft for instruments. These colors are supposed to be produced by the action of the oxygen of the air upon the carbon of the steel, and to protect the metal in some degree from rust. As we have said, the importation of cutlery, files, saws, and edge tools continues, though it has be- come much more limited during the past decade than heretofore. In 1860, the im- portation of cutlery alone was $2,240,905. In 1870, it was $1,695,238, and the files, saws, and tools made $766,442 more. The value of the importations of these ar- ticles at various dates in the last decade were as follows: — Articles. 1871. 1873. 1875. 1877. 1879. Cutlery, . . . Saws and Tools, 81,956,351 604,153 511,316 $2,234,335 770,986 265,637 11,140,429 359,437 24,712 $875,276 135,585 13,507 $1,171,924 91.719 6,281 Totals, . . 83,074,850 $3,270,978 $1,824,578 $1,024,368' $1,279,924 But if the importations decreased, the exports increased in a corresponding ratio, as will be seen by the following table. AYe have no record at hand of the amount of our exports of these articles in 1860, but they must have been very small, probably less than $100,000, and this mostly in Col- lins' axes and a few scythes. In 1869, the total was $4 1 7,786 ; in 1 870, it had increased to $4§6,61 7, and thenceforward theincrease CUTLERY. EDGE TOOLS, FILES, AND SAWS. 249 has been constant, till in 1879 and 1880 it had nearly balanced the imports, and em- braced not only most of the edge tools in large quantities, but considerable values in fine cutlery. Aeticles. 1871. 1873. 1875. 1877. 1879. 1880. Cutlery, . . Edge Tools, . Files and Saws, $114,142 424,821 9,282 $47,346 846,452 10,171 $38,080 676,933 32,134 $38,714 721,012 36,309 $65,277 860,528 34,351 $71,122 926,882 31,118 Totals, . 1 $548,245 $903,969 747,147 $796,035 $960,156 $1,039,122 We regret that we cannot give the cen- sus statistics of these articles for 1880, but as yet not even a preliminary report of them has been published. The great in- crease of the exports since 1870 shows con- clusively that the production has largely advanced since that date, for there has cer- tainly been a corresponding increase in the home demand. The following are the sta- tistics reported in 1870: — No. of Estab- lish- ments. Hands Employed. Capital Invested. Wages paid. Raw Mate- rial used. Annual Production. Articles. All. Males. Fe- males. Youth. 82 102 121 72 2.111 2,617 1,581 1,595 1,896 2,070 1,356 1,457 150 76 59 8 65 171 166 130 $2,246,830 1,880.717 1.659,370 2,883,391 $973,854 1,157,904 038,982 995,609 $762,029 862,014 468,303 1,332,891 $2,882,038 2,739.998 1.649.394 3,175,289 Edge Tools, Files, Totals, 1 377 7,604 6,779 293 532 I $8,670,308 $3,766,349 $3,425,237 $10,447,484 There is reason to believe that the man- ufacture of surgical instruments, which had an annual product of about $550,000 in 1870, and has since been largely extended, was not included under cutlery, but ar- ranged under another group with " In- struments, professional and scientific." If so, the annual product under this head, in 1870, should have been about $11,000,000, and that of 1880 probably not far from $20,000,000. In 1870, Massachusetts took the lead in cutlery, and Pennsylvania fol- lowed, the two states producing more than three- fourths of the whole. In edge tools, Connecticut led and New York followed, the two producing four-fifths of the whole. In files, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts produced nearly four-fifths of all. In saws, Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, and Ohio produced seven-eighths of the whole. FURS AND FUR TRADE. Among the natural products of the new world, the valuable furs of the various wild animals which peopled its boundless forests, its rivers, lakes, and seas, were soon appreciated by the early discoverers and ex- plorers. For many centuries the choicer varieties of fur had been held in the highest estimation, and the use of such as the er- mine and sable was monopolized, by special enactments, by the royal families and nobility of both European and Asiatic countries. A market was therefore ready for the large supplies which were soon furnished to the early settlers by the Indians in exchange for the trinkets, liquors, and numerous articles of trifling value brought from Europe for this trade. The English and French com- peted with each other to secure the control of the business around Hudson's Bay and in the territories now constituting British America, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Each nation established its own trading posts, or " factories," and protected them by forts, and the possession of these often passed by conquest to the rival party. The incorporation of the Hudson's Bay Company in 16*70, by Charles II., gave a de- cided stimulus to the English interest, by securing to men of great influence and wealth, the control and monopoly of the fur trade throughout the possessions claimed by the British. The enormous profits realized by this company induced the Canadians, in the latter part of the last century, to form another company, which they called the North-west Fur Company, and whose field of operations was nominally limited to the territories ceded to the English by the Fren-di in 1763. Early in the present cen- tury cheir factories were extended westward to the rivers that flow into the Pacific, and they employed of Canadian voyageurs and clerks, avIio were mostly young men from Scotland, about 2,000 persons. They ac- quired possession of Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia, in 1813, and vigorously competed with the old company — the two associations carrying on open war throughout the wild territories known only to these fur traders and the Indians they controlled. By act of parliament, the two companies were united in one in 1821, and their opera- tions have been continued under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company until 1859, when their last special license of 1838 ex- pired. The company has exercised a des- potic sway throughout the territories it occupied, compelling the labor of the poor French voyageurs and the Indians, and causing them to subsist upon the most meagre fare and pitiful allowance. Sad tales of their sufferings are familiar to those who have visited these northern regions. The company established an express by the way of the great lakes and the western rivers, and by numerous relays, always readv, in- formation was conveyed by canoes and by land travel in an incredibly short time from the head-quarters of the company at Mon- treal to the most distant posts on the Pacific. Their furs collected on both sides of the continent were transported to London for the great annual sales of March and Septem- ber. From London many were sent to Leipsic, for the great annual fair at this famous mart. While these extensive operations were in progress, the inhabitants of the provinces now constituting the United States derived little or no benefit from the trade so long as they remained British colonies. In 1762, an association was established among the merchants of New Orleans, for conducting the fur trade in the regions on the waters of the Missouri and its branches; and this led to the founding of St. Louis in 1763, by Laclede, the leader of the organization. This place was made their head-quarters for the reception of furs collected by their voyageurs in distant excursions by canoes and Macki- naw boats toward the Rocky Mountains, among tribes of Indians who often attacked their parties, but who, controlled by the talent and wise policy peculiar to the French, became at last firm friends of the enterprise, and bound to the interests of the Chouteaus and others by whom it was conducted. From St. Louis the peltry was boated down the river to New Orleans, or up the Illinois FURS, AND FUR TRADE. 251 to Lake Michigan, and thence to the great trading post of Mackinaw. From this it was forwarded by the lakes ■ and the St. Lawrence to Quebec, to be shipped to Eng- land. Over the same routes were returned the groceries, etc., for the supply of the traders, which, so slow were the means of transportation, were the returns in part of the furs collected the fourth preceding year. But though the expenses of the long voyages more than doubled the cost of the supplies after they left Mackinaw, the profits of the business were not rated at less than 300 per cent. For fifteen years preceding 1805, the annual value of the peltry collected at St. Louis is stated to have been $203,750 ; and the value of the goods annually sent up the Missouri during about the same period was estimated at $61,000. Deer skins con- stituted the greater portion of the product, and they were, indeed, the chief medium of exchange, the value of articles being rated at so many shaved deer skins. Beaver and otter were the next in importance, and buf- falo skins, which are now the chief object of the trade, were then scarcely collected at all. From the year 1818, the fur trade of the north has been conducted almost wholly by organizations which have sprung from these early operations. It was extended by the associations established at St. Louis to the regions beyond the Rocky Mountains, and there carried on at immense sacrifice of human life, from the dangers naturally inci- dent to the pursuit, and the unappeasable hostility of the savage tribes. In 1847 it was estimated that the annual value of the trade had averaged for forty years from $200,000 to $300^000, and the latter portion of this period much more than the larger sum named. But, like the discovery of gold in California, its greatest importance was the opening of uncultivated territories to the advance of civilization, and the introduction of a permanent population for the establish- ment of new states. During the last century the fur trade had attained to no importance in the eastern states. Mr. John Jacob Astor, of New York, engaged in it in 1784, buying in Montreal and shipping to Eng- land. But under the treaty of 1794 he was enabled to introduce fur from the British provinces into New York, and he then opened a new trade direct with foreign coun- tries shipping peltries even to China, and receiving in exchange the rich products of the East Indies. As his operations pros- pered, he engaged in the early part of the present century in the collection of furs along the northern frontier, a field which had before been in exclusive possession of the North-west and Hudson's Bay Companies ; and he labored zealously in the great national enterprise of diverting this important trade from the exclusive control of foreign com- panies, and causing it to contribute to the commercial interests of the United States. With wonderful energy, and dependent al- most solely on his own resources, lie carried on these gigantic operations, having in 1808 a capital of no less than $1,000,000 in- vested in them. In 1810 he established the Pacific Fur Company, for the purpose of forming a settlement on the Pacific coast, and by means of it carrying out the grandest commercial scheme that had ever been un- dertaken. His ships, leaving New York with supplies for the colony, were to obtain from it and by trading along the coast car- goes of furs to be sold in China, and there loading with teas, silks, etc., would return to New York, making a complete circum- navigation of the globe. Mr. Astor was bound by his articles of agreement to fur- nish capital to the amount of $400,000 if required, sending each year an expedition around by sea and another across the coun- try to the mouth of the Columbia, and the profits were to be equally divided between his associates and himself. Notwithstanding a succession of disasters, Mr. Astor con- tinued for three years to despatch a ship bound around Cape Horn, to the mouth of the Columbia, having unshaken confidence in the final success of the enterprise. And such, no doubt, would have been the result, had not his principal Canadian partner, who controlled the affairs at Astoria (the settle- ment on the Pacific), proved treacherous and given up the post to the rival North-west Fur Company for a mere nominal price, on the pretence that it would certainly be seized by the British cruisers during the war. This occurred on the 16th October, 1813. From that time the operations of Mr. Astor were restricted to the northern terri- tories lying east of the Rocky Mountains. His factories were at Mackinaw, and at the foot and head of Lake Superior, upon whose waters he maintained Bailing vessels long before they were visited by the explorers of copper mines. Up to the year 1845 the only business prosecuted upon its distant 252 FURS, AND FUR TRADE. shores was that of the fur hunter, and they were, in fact, known only to this class and to the wandering Chippewa and Sioux tribes of Indians. The territory of Min- nesota, also, and the still more western re- gions, were frequented only for the same object previous to 1848. From that period, or even earlier, the fur trade has declined in importance, and its profits have been divided among larger numbers of adven- turers. The house of Pierre Chouteau, jr., & Co. had been distinguished for many years as the most enterprising of those en- gaged in the trade; and in 1859 one of their steamboats ascended the Missouri river to the Great Falls, near the Rocky Mountains, about 3,950 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and returned laden with buffalo robes. Thus the trade still contin- ues to be the pioneer of civilization — open- ing new roads into wild territories for the advance of permanent settlers. St. Paul, Minnesota, has been for thirty- five years past the chief trading post for fine furs in the United States, though Sit- ka, in Alaska, is an important point for the seal and other furs of the Northwest coast. Over 100,000 fur seal-skins are shipped from Alaska annually. The great Fur Companies have now virtually ceased to exist, or are fast winding up their affairs, and the fur trade is almost entirely conducted by individual purchasers directly with the trappers. In 1870, the Alaska Commercial Company was organized and leased the islands of St. Paul and St. George, in the Aleutian group, for the purpose of prosecuting the fur seal fishery. They pay an annual rental of $55,000 for the islands, and a royalty of $2.62^ for each fur seal taken, and are not allowed to take over 100,000 in a year. These skins bring from $25 to $40 each, and find a ready market in London and New York. They also take from 2,000 to 5,000 sea-otters every year, whose skins are worth from $75 to $100 each. Aside from what are known as fancy furs, i. e., those worn as articles of dress, the principal traffic in furs has been in buffalo robes. The gray wolf, the grizzly bear, the lynx, and the red, cross, and gray fox also furnish skins for robes of the fancy sort. There is also a very considerable business done in hat- ters' furs, for which purpose the fur of the rabbit or hare, the squirrel, the muskrat, •and the wild and domestic cat are mostly required. Beaver fur is now seldom used for felting. The fur of the raccoon is largely exported to Germany, where it is used for linings of overcoats, etc. From these facts it is apparent that the character of the important furs has greatly changed since the early periods of the trade. "While the beaver and the otter, and even the marten and fisher, two ani- mals of the sable kind, fell off largely in relative importance, the skins of some of the smaller animals,* as the mink, assumed a much higher value, and even the skins of the common muskrat com- manded a high price. The highest-priced furs were the Russian sable, the sea-otter, and the black or silver fox. These are still valuable, though they command much low- er prices (except the two last named) than formerly. In the latter part of the last century the skin of the sea-otter was in such demand that several expeditions were fitted out from this country, and also from Europe, expressly for collecting this fur from the islands and coast about Nootka Sound. The silver fox is found in the northern part of this continent, and is occasionally captured in the region about Lake Superior. The value of the skin is even greater than that given in the above table — being often rated at $60 apiece; in Europe, when well dressed, they have been known to bring nearly as many guineas. They are in demand for the most costly outside garments and trimmings. Of late years the fashion has changed, and the skin of the fur seal, mainly from Alaska, has been the most costly of fur garments, though the black and silver fox skins are much used for trimming silk cloaks. The skins of the skunk for the last fifteen years have been largely collected, and many thousands have been annually exported from New York. Those of black color were worth the most, and sometimes brought 75 cents each. The demand for these, which at one time fell off, has been revived, the Parisians having again brought them into demand as black marten furs, and the ob- jectionable odor being entirely removed by a new process. They are now the most popular of the furs of moderate price, hav- ing largely replaced the mink furs. The fashion will doubtless soon change at* a saloon, and it was gradually extended to batchers and families, and the quantity there used is about 25,000 tons, taken mostly from Onondaga Lake, from which it is drawn two or three miles to be stowed in an ice- house. The other cities of western New York have followed the example, and the average price is 35 cts. per hundred. Cin- cinnati used to draw its supply of ice from its own vicinity; but the railroad facilities per- mit of drawing it cheaper and better from the lakes. Chicago is well supplied from the same source. In the neighborhood of Peru, Illinois, a large quantity is cut for the supply of the lower Mississippi. It is cut in the winter and packed in flat-boats which are allowed to freeze up in the Illinois river; there is therefore no other ice-house needed. As soon as the river breaks up in the spring, the boats float down stream and supply the markets below. In Philadel- phia. Baltimore, and Washington, ice is more important than in the cities of the North. When the weather sets in cold in the early part of the winter, they cut ice in the neigh- borhood, but the best supplies are from l!os- >ton or from more northern lakes. The Atlantic and Gulf cities of the South get most of their ice from Boston, which sends them about 110,000 tons per annum, and further quantities to Havana and the West Indies. Rio Janeiro, Callao, and Peru, Charleston, Mobile, and New Orleans, are large customers of Boston in the article of ice. In New Orleans, substantial brick ice-houses have been erected at a cost of &200,000, and similar arrangements have been made in Mobile for its distribution. The quantity exported to Europe i- large, and England takes about 1,000 tons of American ice. It follows as a matter of course, that where this object of industry and enterprise is formed by nature, the means of conducting the trade will gather around it, Hence the land in the immediate neighborhood of fresh-water lakes at the North rises in value, and good wages come to be earned in the winter by men who at the dull season would otherwise not be employed. The .question soon presented itself to those who were engaged upon cutting ice on the same pond as to their comparative rights. This was settled at Fresh Pond by a committee, who decided that each owner should hold the same proportion of the contiguous surface of the pond as the length of his shore line is to the whole, border. The time for cutting is December and January. The "experts" can in the middle of January estimate the value of the crop. "When the ice is sufficiently thick to cut, say from nine to twenty inches, the former for home use and the latter for exportation, if there should be snow upon the surface, it is removed by wooden scrapers drawn by horses. There is a layer of what is called " snow ice," that is not fit for market ; this must be removed, and for this purpose an iron scraper with a cutting-edged steel is drawn over it by a horse. A man rides upon the scraper, which in its progress cuts several inches of the snow ice from the surface of the clear and glittering article that is to go to market, "When this is completed, the field of ice is marked off into squares of five feet each. The marker is drawn by a horse, and is guided by handles like a plough. In the tracks of these marks and cross marks fol- lows the cutter. This is a remarkable inven- tion, which has reduced the cost of cutting ice in the neighborhood' of Boston alone, some $15,000 per annum. Acres of ice are thus cut into square pieces, which are then floated off through canals, and impelled by long poles, to the sides of the pond, where inclined planes lead up to the ice-houses; up this inclined plane each piece i- dragged with great celerity by a powerful steam engine. In the house it is directed by hand down other planes to be packed away by the requisite number of men. By the aid of steam ten tons of ice may be cut and housed in a minute. With a full power, it is not uncommon to stow 600 tons an hour. Some- times there are several parties on the pond, each vicing with the other in the rapidity of their operation's. Most of the ice-houses that we have seen are built of wood. Sometimes they are found of brick. They are very high and broad, and are usually from too to 200 feet in length. Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Mass.. has it- -hores almost covered with some fifty of these ice-houses. They present a singular appearance, neither looking like barns nor houses; and one unacquainted with the ice business would be almost certain to ask, on Fig. i. K'K HARVESTING. CLEAKINU TIIK ICK OK .SNOW. |2iffi Pig:. 2. MAI.'KIXli \\|i CUTTING THE ICE. Fig. 3. SAWING AND BARRING OFF. Fig. 4. CANALING TO THE ICE-HOU3R Fig. 5. THE ELEVATORS. Fig. 6. PACKING AWAY THE IC» PINS. 319 seeing them for the first time, " What are they ?" The construction of these houses, in which ice is to be stored until sold, must be regulated by the climate — the amount to be stored — the material nearest at hand — and the facility of reaching the shore — the object being to have a cool spot, where the influence of the sun and a warm atmosphere shall be least felt. Added to this, the mass of ice must be preserved as much as possible from wasting, by being surrounded by saw- dust, tan, shavings, rice-hulls, charcoal, or leaves, which must be used in the ice-house, or aboard ship, according to circumstances. Private ice-houses are constructed in dif- ferent ways. They were formerly merely cellars; they are now in the most approved methods erected above ground, with a drain under the mass of ice. The opening is gen- erally to the north, and the ice is the better preserved for a double roof, which acts as a non-conductor. The waste of ice is different under different circumstances ; shipping ice should not waste more than 40 per cent. ; and when shipped on an India voyage of Hi, 000 miles, twice crossing the equator, and oc- cupying some months, if one half the cargo is delivered it is considered a successful voyage. The cost of the ice delivered is of course affected by this element of wastage. In Boston, it is $4 per ton; in Calcutta, 2\ cts per lb., or $56£ per ton. The very high price of ice, even at the north, when the winters are mild, and the increasing de- mand for it for refrigerating ships and cars, as well as for the southern cities and large towns has led to many experiments for the manufacture of artificial ice. Some of these have been successful. Ice machines lave been imported from Halle, in Sax- ony, from France, from England, and other countries in Europe, and some good ma- chines have been made here. Perhaps the best is one which produces freezing effects by the evaporation of ammonia, and its re- covery. This produces intense cold at a moderate price, and can be used for cooling water and other liquids to a very low point, as well as in the actual production of ice. It is in use in a large number of breweries, and produces the low temperature in the refrigerating chamber of steamships which carry fresh meats, etc., for European mar- kets. It has also proved a great boon to southern cities and towns. When Daniel Webster took his farm at Marshfield, his ice-house cost $100, and it was filled annually at an expense of £25. In that he preserved his fresh meat and fish, and prevented his butter from " running away." sometimes farmers live in sight of fine ponds that would give a plentiful crop, that might be harvested and sent by railroad to good markets, without ever bestowing a thought upon the matter. To get $2 or $5 for hauling, would pay their otherwise idle teams at that season well. We may close this notice by an extract from an oration of the Hon. Edward Everett, as follows : — " When I had the honor to represent the country at London, I was a little struck one day, at the royal drawing-room, to see the President of the Board of Control (the board charged with the supervision of the govern- ment of India) approaching me with a stranger, at that time much talked of in London — the Balm Dwarkananth Tagore. This person, who is now living, was a Hin- doo of great wealth, liberality, and intelli- gence. He was dressed with Oriental mag- nificence — he had on his head, by way of turban, a rich Cashmere shawl, held together by a large diamond broach ; another < ash- mere around his body ; his countenance and manners were those of a highly intelligent and remarkable person, as he was. After the ceremony of introduction was over, he said he wished to make his acknowledgments to me, as the American minister, for the benefits which my countrymen had conferred on his countrymen. I did not at first know what he referred to ; I thought he might have in view the mission schools, knowing, as I did, that he himself had done a great deal for education. He immediately said that he referred to the cargoes of ice sent from America to India, conducing not only to comfort, but health; adding that numer- ous lives were saved every year by applying lumps of American ice to the head of the patient in cases of high fever.'" PINS. The manufacture of pins has reached a great development in the United States. where the most important invention in the art of making them, that of "solid heads," originated. So simple an article as pins formerly required a great manipulation in their production, but are now, like most ar- ticles that have been the objects of American 320 INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. ingenuity, produced in great perfection and abundance by machines. Up to the war of 1812, pins, like almost every other article of j manufacture, were imported, and, as a con- sequence, became very scarce when commu- nication was interrupted, and the price rose ' in 1813 to $1 per paper, of a quality much worse than are now purchased for 6^ cts. per paper. These high war prices prompted the manufacture, and some Englishmen com- menced the business at the old State Prison, at what was called Greenwich village, now a part of New York city. The labor of the convicts was employed in the business. The return of peace bringing a deluge of cheap pins from abroad, put an end to that enterprise. The tools used in the manufac- ture at the prison fell into the hands of a Mr. Turman, who in 1820 undertook to em- ploy the pauper labor of the Bellevue Alms- house in the manufacture, which was, how- ever, unsuccessful. " Pauper labor" here, it seems, could not compete with pauper labor abroad. A machine had been invented dur- ing the war, for making pins, in Boston, but it did not work successfully. The old pins had the heads put on them ; but Mr. L. W. Wright, of Massachusetts, invented a ma- chine for making solid-head pins. He car- ried this to England and operated it there, and the first "solid-head" pins were sold in the market in 1833. In 1832 a pin machine was patented in the United States by John J. Howe. The machine was designed to make pins similar to the English diamond pins, the heads being formed of a coil of small wire fastened upon the shank by a pressure between dies. In December, 1835, the Howe Manufacturing Company was formed in New York for the purpose of manufacturing with this machine. The com- pany moved to Birmingham, Connecticut, where it continues operations with a new patent for manufactur'nii;- solid-head pins, got out by Mr. Howe in 1840. In 1838 another company was started at Poughkeepsie, not- withstanding that by an extraordinary over- sight pins were under the tariff admitted free of duty, while the wire of which they were made paid 20 to 25 per cent. duty. In 1846 there was much excitement in respect to the pin manufacture, and many machines were invented ; few of them, however, suc- ceeded in doing good work. Most of the attempts t<> manufacture tailed. The Pough- keepsie Company was, however, sold to the American Pin Company, Waterbury, Con- necticut. About the year 1850 the copper from Lake Superior began to be used for the wire, giving an impetus to the business, and 250 tons were used per annum. Great im- provements were made by self-acting ma- chinery superseding a process that formerly required six or seven hands. The old method of sheeting pins, or sticking them on paper, was a tedious process ; a good hand could stick five or six dozen papers in a day. By the improved machinery now in use, a hand will stick from 75 to 1 25 dozen aday, and do the work in far greater perfection. There are three patents in force for improvements in the machines in use for this operation, viz., those of S. Slocum, De Gras Fowler, and J. J. Howe. The present price of American solid-headed pins is only about two thirds of the lowest price at which imported pins of the same weight were ever afforded be- fore the manufacturing was introduced, and for service they are undoubtedly better than the article of which they have taken the place. The American improvements in both the pin-making and the pin-sticking ma- chinery have been for several years in oper- ation in England and some other parts of Europe. One firm in Waterbury, Connecticut, have in operation an improved machine for the manufacturing of pins which turns out tivo barrels per day. A barrel contains 4,000,- 000 pins, consequently the product of that little manufactory is 8,000,000 per day, or 48,000,000 per week, and 2,496,0U0*,000 per annum. Well may it be asked li where all the pins go to?" The machine is perfect and simple in its operation. The wire is run into it from a reel, cut off the proper length, pointed, headed, and made a finish- ed pin before it comes out again. From this machine they fall into the hopper of the sticking machine, in which they are ar- ranged, stuck upon papers, and come out perfect, ready for packing for market. This last machine, tended by one girl, does the work of 30 persons by the old process. That is better than pauper labor. There are four other machines in the United States. These operating at the same rate, will make 312 pins per annum for every soul in the Union. There should be a large surplus for export to other coun- tries, and at a profitable rate, after paying freight and charges, since no European machines can compete with this little con- trivance. REFINED SUGAR. 321 REFINED SUGAR. The people of the United States are fa- mous for having a " sweet tooth," and if the story about " pork and molasses" is not quite accurate, it is nevertheless true that a " little sweetening don't go far" in a family, or, to use a New York phrase, into a family. In the year 1870, the quantity of foreign su- gar taken for consumption in the United States was 608,230 tons. The crop of Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, was 64,239 tons, making together 672,469 tons of cane sugar. The result was a total of 1,344,937,- 829 lbs., or about 34.9 lbs. per head. The amount of sugar imported in 1880 (all brown sugar except 15,654 lbs.) was 1,792,962,147 lbs., or a little more than 800,429 tons of 2,240 lbs. each, the import value of which was $78,853,466. the amount produced, including cane, sorghum, maple, and per- haps a small quantity of beet, and the su- gar or glucose from corn, was about 325,- 000,000 lbs., making a grand total of 2,- 117,962,147 lbs. Nearly the whole of this was refined, and 29,065,376 lbs. were ex- ported that year — about 14,533 tons. In 1879, the export was much larger, 58,431 tons, almost half of it going to Canada. The consumption of sugar alone in 1880 was 41.65 lbs. per head. The consump- tion of Great Britain is 36.25 lbs. per head ; of France about 1 1 lbs., and of Germany still less. A generation grew up in the eco- nomical use of sugar, and even to this day in the rural districts, and among some of the old fogies of the cities, no other sugar is used than a piece of the sugar-baker's candy held in the mouth while the unsweetened liquid is drank. The story is told that this piece was formerly, in the times of privation dur- ing the war, suspended by a string from the ceiling over the table, and being taken in the mouth by one convive when drinking, was allowed to swing to that of her whose turn succeeded. The German idiomatic phrase of "pass auf or " look out" for the next was said to have thus originated. In our own colonies the refiner was not by any means considered a necessary go-between of the cane and the consumer, who went directly to the fountain-head and used the molasses, or u long sugar," not only for his coffee, but to compound his new ruin or "white-face" into "black-strap," with which he washed down his pumpkin pie, also sweetened with mo- lasses; and few edibles escaped that sweeten- ing, from a spoonful of brimstone in the spring to a mince pie at Christmas. Refined crept in, and with the use of this article va- rious grades of pure sugars made their ap- pearance. When the plants or canes are crushed in a mill, the juice flows abundantly through a strainer into the clarifier ; where, mixed with alkali, which assists the opera- tion, it is raised to a certain heat. It then passes through evaporating coppers, and the scum that arises in the process is re- moved. In the last copper it is boiled until it will granulate in the boiler. Here it soon ceases to be a liquid, and being placed in hogsheads with holes in their bottoms, the molasses drains out into a cistern below. When quite cured in this manner it is ship- ped as " brown" or " muscovado" sugar. The next grade of sugar is " clayed ;" when the sugar is properly boiled, it is poured into conical pots, apex down, with a hole in each. When the molasses has drained off, a stratum of moistened clay is spread over the surface, the moisture of which percolating through the mass contributes powerfully to its puri- fication. " Refined" sngar may be prepared by tak- ing either the clayed or muscovado, redis- solving it in water, and after boiling it with 'some purifying substance, as blood, or other articles, pour it into the conical pots again with the clay application. The solutions of brown or clayed sugar, boiled until they become thick, and then re- moved into a hot room, form into crystals upon strings placed across the vessels, and become sugar-candy. The use of molasses ?nd brown suo-ar, as we have seen, is by far the most important in the United States. In the year 1857, when the Louisiana sugar' crop failed, the importation of these articles reached nearly $57,000,000, and the import contributed principally to the panic of that year. Grad- ually the use of refined sugar has extended, and in 1850 the federal census reported 23 refineries, having a capital of $2,669,000, and using $7,662,685 worth of raw sugar, per- haps 70,000,000 lbs., and producing a value of $9,898,800. Since that period the busi- ness has greatly extended itself. In that year there were two in New York city, Woolsey's and Stuart's. These rapidly increased to fif- teen, which together refined 200,000,000 lbs. of sugar, or about half what was produced in the whole United States. The introduction 322 INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. of machinery moved by steam almost revolu- tionized the business of refining. An impor- tant improvement that was made in substitu- ting aluminous finings for bullock's blood, which was always productive of injurious consequences, greatly increased the produc- tion and raised the quality of sugar. The raw sugar of the Spanish West Indies and Brazil comes mostly in cases and boxes; that of New Orleans and the English islands in hogsheads ; South America generally, Ma- nilla, and the Mauritius send it in bags. When the refiner gets possession of any of these, he empties into a pan with a perforated bottom ; through these perforations comes a current of steam which dissolves the sugar. Chemical application then bleaches the sugar or takes all its color from it. It then passes into the vacuum pans to be boiled by steam. The sugar in this process becomes so con- centrated that it is held in solution only by the high temperature. The moment it be- gins to cool, a rapid crystallization takes place, producing the fine grain seen in loaf sugar. When the syrup has boiled suffi- ciently, it is poured into moulds which are prepared in the loaf form, for the purpose of facilitating the separation of the sugar. The liquor that runs from these moulds is sub- jected to a new boiling, when it yields lower grades of sugar. The syrup that exudes from this second process is sold as molasses, and the proportion of this is about 20 per cent, of the original quantity. The art of refining has been carried to greater perfection in this country than in Europe, and so manifestly that no imported article can equal the fine granulated sugars of the domestic manufacturer. The business has spread with the demand for the improved sugars. The increase of the manufacture has also been aided by the federal government, which allows a drawback upon refined sugar exported equal to the duty on the equivalent '•aw sugar imported. The export of re- fined sugar in 1879 was 116,862,583 lbs., valued at $9,646,065, on which there was a drawback of $3,365,297.52. In 1880, the export had fallen to 29,065,376 lbs. (Canada, which had been our best custom- er, having through some change in tariff ceased to take our sugars except in very small quantity); the value of this sugar was $2,706,129, and the drawback $913,- 660.84. In 1881, there was a further re- duction to 24,012,595 lbs., worth $2,356,- 669, on which the drawback was $758,- 048.66. The consumption of molasses in the United States in 1880 was 45,299,184 gal- lons, of which 33,099,184 gallons were im- ported. The value of this was nearly $12,000,000. "'New Process' sugar," says the report of the N. Y. Chamber of Commerce for 1881, "is an adulteration which has made its appearance within the past year, and is so largely sold that it deserves notice. It is made by taking yellow refined sugar and mixing it with about 25 per cent, of grape sugar or glucose. (This glucose is made from corn or potatoes by the use of sulphuric acid.) The color is thereby made white, resembling a coffee "A," but the saccharine properties are materially weak- ened. It is profitable to the seller, and difficult to distinguish from the pure arti- cle, but it is unprofitable to the consumer, and an adulteration which is as dishonest as it is undesirable." We may add that while this adulterated sugar has only about three-fifths of the sweetening power of the pure sugar, it is also objectionable as being the fruitful source of kidney and other dis- eases which are now so prevalent. Avoid " New Process " sugar as you would the small pox ! The sorghum sugar, of which we have spoken elsewhere, promises to be a product of great importance in the near fufrure. " It has passed," says the N. Y. Chamber of Commerce report, "its experimental period, and the growth of a practical in- dustry in its production may now be pre- dicted. The best beet-root sugar, after many failures, is now succeeding in Cali- fornia and in Maine. About 4,500,000 lbs. were marketed in 1880. The sugars and syrups from both these sources are of ex- cellent quality, and fully equal to the cane sugar and syrups in saccharine strength. The refining of sugar is an immense in- dustry, requiring large capital, and pro- ducing enormous values. Brooklyn, N. Y., is now probably most largely interested in it, though Philadelphia is not far behind, and San Francisco (which enjoys excep- tional advantages in obtaining the Hawai- ian raw sugars free of duty), Baltimore, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and New Orleans, and several points on the Hudson River, are largely engaged in it. The whole product considerably exceeds $150,000,000, and of this Brooklyn marketed in 1880 $59,711,- 168 in value. The manufacture of candies SILK. !23 is of much importance in connection with the refining of sugar. The product is be- tween $16,000,000 and $17,000,000, but the most shameless frauds are practiced by many manufacturers. Terra alba, or kaolin, a porcelain clay, and even inferior clays are much used, flour, plaster of Paris, and for the chocolate candies and caramels roasted peanuts, for flavors, fusel oil, and other artificial flavors, and for coloring many of the mineral poisons. SILK. The culture and manufacture of silk are among the oldest industries of the colo- nies, and many efforts on the part of Con- gress and of enterprising men have been made to promote them, but the industry has not thriven in any degree to be compared with some of those that have grown steadily under the intelligent perseverance of unob- trusive individuals. No branch of industry is ever planted, promoted, or perfected by means of government operations alone. It must grow, if at all, out of the spontaneous promptings of individual genius, and live upon the necessities that give rise to it or the wants it of itself creates, to be healthily prosperous. Hence all the efforts that have been made to encourage the silk culture and manufacture have proved abortive, while individuals not encouraged have prosecuted branches of the trade not contemplated, with success. The southern colonies were early silk producers. So important had it become in 1753, that at a meeting of the im- perial Board of Trade, Oct. 26, of that year, " the state of the colony of Georgia was taken into consideration, at a Board of Trade and Plantations, and it appeared that the colony produced upward of £17,000 [75,- 000 dollars] worth of raw silk, since January 1752, besides what is not yet come to the notice of the board." The other colonies of the South were also well engaged in it. Virginia in particular was largely interested in that industry. The culture of cotton and tobacco, however, in the early years of the Union, were so profitable as to absorb all other culture ; and silk nearly disappeared, although numbers of farmers preserved their mulberry groves, and continue to make small quantities of raw silk. The state of Connecticut seems to have made the most decided efforts in that direction. The New London Gazette of 1768 informs us that William Hanks of Mansfield, had "raised silk enough for three women's gowns." The gowns of " three women" at the present day would involve a formidable amount of silk, but we are to presume he meant three " dresses" simply. The term gown, like ''vandyke," seems to have become some- wnat obsolete. Mr. William Hanks also ad- vertised in the Gazette, 3,000 mulberry trees, three years old, and of one inch diam- eter. The best time to set them out, he says, is at the new moon of April. They were to be sold cheap, in order to promote the culture of silk. Sundry gentlemen in Windham had large mulberry orchards, in- tended to supply a silk factory erected at Lebanon. While all manufactures were in so depressed a state and struggling for life under the disability of deficient capital, it was hardly to be expected that so hazardous an undertaking as silk manufacture could make much progress. When, however, the high tariff policy after the war gave the spur to manufacturing of all kinds, that of silk was revived, mostly in Connecticut and Pennsylvania This had so progressed that in five small towns of the first-men- tioned state, there were raised in 1829, 2£ tons of raw silk, valued at $21,188. In Washington, Pennsylvania, sewing silk was successfully produced, and some garments were made by individuals who performed the whole work, from the management of the worms to the weaving of the fabric. The town of Mansfield, Connecticut, was in that year the great seat of that industry. The population was 2,500, and produced as many pounds of silk. This silk was con- verted into the most beautiful sewing silk and some other manufactures by the skill and industry of that ingenious people. Thus prepared, the silk was at that time worth $8 per lb. This industry was carried on without interrupting the ordinary occu- pations of the people, and also employed the young and old not suited to the labors of the field. The mulberry trees are orna- mental as shade trees, and do not impover- ish the soil as much as fruit; and they will flourish in almost all latitudes, or wherever the apple will grow; and where- ever they are present the silk-worm may be reared. The feeding of the worms commences with the first opening of the mulberry leaf, 324 INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. and continues for the period of 32 days, when the worm commences its spinning, and ceases to eat. The leaves are gathered for the worms, and this gathering is the ap- propriate work of young children. Having wound itself in its eocoon, it requires nurs- ing and watching, that the young may not eat its way out and by so doing destroy the silk. The cocoons .being placed in warm water to soften the natural gum upon the silk, the winding is begun by women, one of whom can make 16 lbs. of raw silk in the season of six weeks. The excellence of the silk depends upon the properties of the mulberry leaf, and these are considerably diversified. The white mul- berry is decidedly the best, and of this there are several varieties. The kind to be culti- vated and the mode of proceeding are to be learned from experience, which was very limited in the United States in 1829, when the attention of Congress was called to the silk culture by the petition of G. 13. Clark, of the city of New York, for a grant of 262 acres of land owned by the United States, at Greenbush, New York, and used for mili- tary purposes, to aid him in rearing mulberry trees. The grant was made in the shape of a lease, on the condition that 100,000 mul- berry trees should be planted, and that he should procure a sufficient number of worms to consume all the foliage that could be gathered from the trees. The culture never amounted to much, but the tax, 15 percent., imposed upon imported raw silk in order to encourage the culture, was a great drawback upon the manufacture. Nevertheless, the excitement in relation to the mulberry trees progressed, and in the year 1831, the project of rearing silk-worms was renewed in various parts of the Union, with great vigor ; and the subject not only attracted the attention of Congress, but bounties were offered by the legislatures of several States for all the raw silk produced within their limits for cer- tain periods of time. The business soon began to be prosecuted with extreme ardor, ami continued several years, resulting in the establishment of extensive nurseries of mul- berry trees, but it ended with the downfall of the famous " Morus Multicaulis Specula- tion," in 18.59. The rates of the mulberry cuttings were at 2 cents each in 1838. In that year, in the neighborhood of Hartford, Connecticut, many thousand trees were Bold at 20 to 50 cents each. The trees were sent »dl over the country, and it was stated that the growth per acre gave from three to five thousand dollars. The demand for trees was from those who undertook, in all sections of the country, to plant mulberry groves for the supply of silk factories that were to be started. The sales of trees were often made on the ground, standing, at the rate of 12-£ eents per foot, those "trees" not 12 inches high being rejected. That speculation was second only to the famous tulip mania of Holland, or the South Sea bubble of En- gland, or the Mississippi scheme of France. The mulberry buds sold at fabulous prices, and passed rapidly from hand to hand of the speculators, till the bubble burst. The real evil, however, which the mania inflicted, was that the means taken to stimulate a doubtful culture retarded the manufacture of sewing silk and goods. In 1836, the state of Massa- chusetts paid $71 bounty on silk made in that year. This bounty rose to $2,111 in 1841. All the means used had raised the quantity of silk made in the United States in 1840, to 61,552 lbs., worth about $250,000. In 1844, the quantity was stated in the report of the commissioners of the United States census at 396,790 pounds, worth $1,400,- 000. In 1850, however, the quantity had fallen to 14,763 lbs., and in 1860 to 11,964 pounds. The effort to produce the silk failed, and retarded the silk manufacture, which had grown in England in some degree to rival France, where the silk is raised, by means of entire freedom from tax on the raw article. In the year 1769, on the recommendation of Dr. Franklin through the American Phil- osophical Society, a filature of raw silk was established in Philadelphia, byr private sub- scription, and placed under the direction of an intelligent and skillful Frenchman, who, it is said, produced samples of reeled silk not inferior in quality to the best from France and Italy. In 1771, the managers purchased 2,300 pounds of cocoons, all the product of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The enterprise was interrupted by the Revolution. In 1819, five tons of raw silk were produced in Mansfield, Conn. In 1830, M. Hornerqne attempted the silk manufacture in Philadelphia, and large quan- tities of cocoons were brought to him for sale, but for want of capital the enterprise failed. The production of silk and silk goods has been continuous in Mansfield, Conn., for more than fifty years. In 1841, the convicts in Auburn prison, New York, were employed in the manufacture of silk SILK SPINNING FRAME. STLK RKKD MILL. PANFORTTI LOCOMOTIVE AND MACHINE WORKS. PATERSON, N. J. FIRE-PROOF SAFES AND SAFE-LOCKS. 327 tor a tune, with much success. In the first year a value of $12,762 was produced of sewing silk, pronounced superior to the im- ported article. The domestic supply of the raw article running short, the manufacture began more severely to feel the weight of the duty of 15 per cent, ad valorem on raw silk, and of 10 to 30 per cent, on dyestuffs. Many manufactories of ribbons grew in favor, and produced goods with a texture, finish, brilliancy of color, and general adaptability for an extended consumption that gave them advantage over the imported goods. In sewing silk, particularly, the American man- ufacturer has excelled. The American ar- ticle is in every respect equal in color and finish to the imported, and superior in the spinning and "fixing the cord" (the great desideratum in this branch of manufacture) to the Neapolitan article. Messrs. Cheney Brothers commenced the manufacture of silk goods at Manchester, and soon after at Hartford, Conn,, about 1840, and in 1870 were employing over 1,000 hands, and making 60,000 pounds of thrown silks, 60,000 pounds of " patent spun," 100,000 pieces of belt ribbons, and 600,000 yards of wide dress silks. They have also long held a very high rank as manufacturers of sewing silks. Paterson, N. J., is largely engaged in this manufac- ture, having 83 silk factories, some of them very large, and employing more than ten thousand operatives. At Hoboken, 1ST. J., Schenectady, Troy, Yonkers, and New York city, the business is extensively car- ried on. The state of New York reported, in 1880, silk goods manufactured to the net value of $9,268,525, and New Jersey, $12,851,045. The total net value of silk goods manufactured in the United States had risen from $6,500,000 in 1860, to 34,- 410,4 63 in 1880, of which all but $509,000 were produced in the five states of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachu- setts, and Pennsylvania. The total im- ports of manufactured silk goods for the same year were $32,188,690. Making all allowance for undervaluation, the importa- tion of manufactured silks did not exceed in real wholesale Value $40,000,000; yet, owing to the general prosperity, the im- ports of 1880 were twenty-five per cent, more than in any previous year since 1873. Tho exports of manufactured silk amounted in the same year to $163,013. American sewing silk has not only driven imported swings out of the market, but we are ac- tually exporting it to Continental Europe. We manufacture two-thirds of our ribbons, the greater part of our satins, nearly all our handkerchiefs, trimmings, and passe- menteries, about one-third of our braids and bindings, one-fifth of our silk laces, and one-third of our dress goods, but no velvets, and not many mixed goods. The attempts to produce raw silk here have not been very successful, not from the quality of the cocoons, which are of the very best, but from the difficulty of having it reeled cheaply and well. From 1830 to 1850, the importation of raw silk in- creased 300 per cent. The largest portion of the silk comes directly from China and Japan. FIRE-PROOF SAFES AND SAFE-LOCKS. But a very few years ha\*e passed, since it was a matter of necessity for individuals to keep their valuables in their own houses, and to defend them from the attacks of burglars and the risks of fire, as they best could. For these purposes, strong boxes were in requisi- tion. In modern times, paper promises have been substituted for the hard currency of former times, and banks become the deposi- tories for that money, thus relieving individ- uals of the risk of keeping coin in their houses, to attract thieves. The banks are also depositories for plate and jewelry, and insurance companies guarantee from loss by fire. Under these circumstances, it was hardly to be anticipated that a demand for strong boxes should arise, when the use of them was apparently on the decline. Singu- larly enough, however, the art of making strong boxes has only been developed in the present century. It is to be considered, however, that with the progress of the credit system in the last 150 years, and the exten- sion of commerce, paper securities and ac- count-books of all kinds have multiplied, causing a greater demand than ever for iron chests. The manufacture of these, and of the locks to secure them, has taken great dimensions. It is obvious that, in the construction of a chest, designed to be not only bur- glar but fire-proof, iron, as a material, w-ould naturally suggest itself. Neverthe- 328 INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. less, oak seems formerly to Lave been a favorite material, probably from the facility of working and ornamenting. An example of this kind of coffer is afforded in the chest in which the crown jewels of Scotland were deposited in 1707. The chest, beautifully ornamented, was secured with iron bands, hasps, and staples. There were three locks, which then, no doubt, afforded security, but each of them could be opened in five minutes with a bit of crooked wire in our clay. At the close of the last century there began to be made the iron chests, known as " foreign coffers." These were constructed of sheet iron, strongly riveted to hoop iron, crossed at right angles on the outside. A lock throw- ing eight bolts inside, and two bars and staples for padlocks outside, were employed to secure the lid. Over the door lock was a cap beautifully pierced and chased, and a secretly operated escutcheon concealed the key-hole. These were formidable to look at, and no doubt answered their purpose all the better, that the science of lock-picking was then not so advanced as in the present day. About the beginning of the present cen- turv, cast-iron chests began to be made for common purposes, and the manufacture flourished to a considerable extent. The idea of introducing non-conducting substances as a protection against fire, occurred but some years later. The favorite substance for this purpose is gypsum or plaster of Paris. This material was first used in Paris for the con- struction of fire-proof houses. The practice for more than fifty years had there been to erect hollow walls with spaces between them varying from five to nine inches in width. Plaster of Paris, mixed with water to a proper consistency, was poured into these spaces, where it set and became hard. After the beams and rafters were fixed in their places, boards were nailed to them, and the same material was spread thereon. The lower floors of the building were of plaster, over which tiles were laid. The same material was applied to fire-safes in Paris, and these were, to some extent, imported into New York about the year 1820. The first port- able fire-proof chests introduced for sale in New Fork, were imported from France, by the late Joseph Bouchcaud, Esq., about 1820, and DO doubt many of our old merchants ami bankers remember them, as many were sold for use in counting-houses ami hank vaults. They were constructed of wood and iron; the foundation was a box of hard, close- drained wood, covered on the outside with plate iron, over which were hoops or bands of iron, about two inches wide, crossing each other at right angles, so forming squares on all sides of the chest. Holes were made in the bands and plates, through which well- made wrought-iron nails or spikes, "having " holloiv" half-spherical heads, were driven into and through the wooden box, and then '■'•clinched.' 1 '' The inside of the chest was then lined with a covering of sheet iron. These chests had a well-finished but very large lock, having from six to eight bolts, operated by one turn of the key. The first actual application of plaster of Paris to safes in this country seems to have been by James Conner, the type-founder, of New York. His business made him ac- quainted with the non-conducting qualities of plaster of Paris, and he applied it to an iron chest in his office, which chest has been in use ever since. Soon after, Jesse Delano, of New York, began making chests of the Paris pattern, substituting solid cast-iron heads, to secure the bands. In 1826, he patented an improvement, which consisted in coating the wooden foundation with a composition of equal parts, clay and lime, plumbago and mica, or saturating the wood in a solution of potash lye and alum, to ren- der it incombustible. These were generally used in the country, and as a curious in- stance of the fire-proof qualities of these safes, we may state that one stood many years near the stove, in the counting-house of Lyman Stockbridge, of Hartford, until its fire-proof qualities seem to have been exhausted, since it spontaneously took fire and burnt up about 20 years since, without doing other injury on the premises. In this case, it would seem the fire-proof quality was inverted — viz., that the fire could not get out, instead of failing to get in. After Mr. Delano, C. J. Gayler began the safe manufacture, and in 1833 he patented his " double" fire-proof chest. This consisted of two chests, one so formed within the other as to have one or more spaces be- tween them, to inclose air or any known non- conductors of heat. In the same year, one of these double chests was severely tested by being exposed in a large building in Thom- aston, Maine, that was entirely destroyed by fire. The chest preserved its contents in good order. This excited the public admira- tion, and one enthusiastic writer described it as a " Salamander," which name has ever since been popularly applied to safes. herring's patent champion triple banker's safe. WW. fire-proof safe, with inside banker's chest. FIRE-PROOF SAFE. FIRE-PROOF SAFE. BUFFET SIDEBOARD SAFE. HOUSE SAFE, DOOR OPEN. HOUSE SAFE, CLOSED. FIRE-PROOF SAFES AND SAFE-LOCKS. 331 The majority of the so-called "safes" in nse at the time of the great fire in New York, in 1835, were simply iron closets, and were of little protection against the devouring ele- ment. There were then about sixty of Gay- ler's double chests in use, and a few of these preserved their contents. Soon after, John Scott obtained a patent for the use of asbes- tos for fire-proof chests. In 1837, Benjamin Sherwood obtained a patent for a revolving interior safe, filling the spaces with plaste'r of Paris and charcoal. In 1843 Enos Wilder obtained a patent for the construction of a safe of heavy iron plates, filled with hydrated plaster of Paris, and soon after, Mr. Fitzgerald, whose disco- very was made previously, was associated with him. About 1841, Mr. Silas C. Herring became interested in Wilder's safes, first as agent and afterwards as a manufacturer. The Wilder safes proved a protection against fires which destroyed the Gayler and other patents. In 1844, Enos Wilder's patent was transferred to his brother, B. G. Wilder, but the safes under this patent were made by Mr. Herring; and not long after, Messrs. Roberts & Rich commenced the manufacture on the same principles, but paid no royalty. After a protracted lawsuit, a compromise was effected by which both parties continued to manufacture. Other parties tried hydraulic cement, soapstone, alum and glue, alum alone, mica, asbestos, and other articles for filling, but none proved as effectual as the hydrated plaster of Paris, which, under the influence of intense heat, gave up its water of combination, and form- ing an atmosphere of steam in the inner portion of the safe, protected the books or papers from destruction. It was found, how- ever, as early as 1854, that the plaster after a time gave up a part of its water of combi- nation, made the interior of the safes moul- dy and damp, and rusted the plates of iron till they were eaten through. Messrs. Herring & Co. had offered a reward of $1,000 for any filling which should stand the test better than the plaster which they were using. In 1852, Mr. Spear, a chem- ist of Philadelphia, discovered that the re- siduum of the soda fountains, after the liberation of carbonic acid gas for the so- called soda-water, possessed remarkable non-conducting powers. This residuum, which had been previously thrown away^ was, by Spear's process, preserved, washed to free it from the sulphuric acid, which had acted upon the chalk, dried in a kiln, and when in a dry and almost impalpable pow- der, rammed into the safes. Messrs. Her- ring & Co. purchased Mr. Spear's discovery, and subsequently made an artificial patented composition for filling, consisting of whiting (carbonate of lime) prepared for use by a chemical process, and mixed with Epsom salt (liydrated sulphate of magnesia), carry- ing out Spear's principle with greater cer- tainty. This was a dry powder, not deteri- orating by age, not producing rust, and lighter in weight than other fillings. Mr. B. G. Wilder had meantime commenced the manufacture of safes under his patent, himself; and the successors of Messrs. Rob- erts k Rich, under several firm names, as Rich & Roff, Roff & Stearns, and Stearns & Marvin, also manufactured the Wilder safe. Next came a demand for burglar- proof safes. Lillie's safes were highly com- mended for this purpose, he using thick slabs of chilled cast-iron, and flowing cast- iron over wrought-iron ribs in their con- struction. It was found, after a time, how- ever, that the burglars succeeded in drilling these sufficiently to blow them up in a few minutes, and that the dependence placed on them was not justified. Messrs. Her- ring & Co. a few years since adopted the plan of making their burglar-proof safes externally of boiler-plate wrought-iron, with inner layers of five plates of steel of differ- ent degrees of hardness, followed by a Franklinite plate, the hardest of all known metallic ores, over which was placed a wrought-iron basket-work, and iron and steel melted and cast over it, and all are secured together by conical bolts, which do not pass directly through the safe, and are irregularly placed. These were subjected to the severest possible test in 1879 by scientific experts, who worked continuously with the best helpers for almost twenty-six hours, used 125 drills, and could only penetrate 3.89 inches. Among the burglar-proof locks, the Bra- mah, invented in England in* 1784, was in high repute for many years, but was picked by Hobbs, a Boston locksmith, in 1851. A "permutation lock" was invented by Dr. Andrews, in 1841, and another by Newell, about 1843. Both were finally picked, and Newell then invented one with a detached tumbler, which was, after a time, picked by William Hall, of Bos- ton, by the "smoke process," by which 332 INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. a smoky flame is introduced by the key-hole, and this leaves a fine deposit of lamp-black upon the "bellies" of the tumblers. When the key is next introduced, it removes the lamp-black from the parts it touches. By means of a small reflector, a strong light is then thrown in, bringing the key marks to view. The exact sizes for a false key are thus ob- tained. To prevent this operation, it was supposed that concealing the tumblers would be all that was requisite. II. C. Jones, of Newark, accomplished this by concentric rings and curtain ; and Pyes did it more ef- fectually with eccentric rings and curtain. The lock was now thought perfect. It was called the parautoptic (concealed from view) lock. A. C. Hobbs, with one of these at the English exhibition of 1851, defied the best English operators. One of these locks was used at the Bank of England, and they came into general use in the United States. In 1855, Linus Yale, jr., of Philadelphia, by means of the impression process, picked this great lock. In 1843, Linus Yale, senior, pat- ented a " pin" lock and then the duplex lock, for which two keys are required. One being introduced, it was necessary to unscrew and remove its handle, then close the key-hole entirely with a hardened plate, before the other key-hole could open. The ingenuity of his son dispelled the idea that this was absolutely secure, by picking it. Yale, jr., being convinced that no lock is secure so long as the shape of the key prevents the en- tire closing of the hole, he set to work upon that principle, and in 1851 he invented the magic lock. In this lock, the key and its bits appear as of one piece ; on being intro- duced into the lock, the bits are taken up by a pin, which enters through them into the centre of the key-shaft. The key then being turned in the usual manner, puts in motion a set of gear wheels. These first separate the bits from the key,' and then carry them into the interior of the lock, away from the key -hole. They there operate upon the tum- blers out of sight and beyond the reach of any picking tools. The same motion which carries away the bits effectually closes the key-hole. When the bolt is passed, the key- hole re-opens, the bits come back and join the handle to he taken out, as they were put in. The bits may be taken away in the pocket, if desired, leaving the handle with the lock. This mechanism seems to effect perfectly the conditions sought for security against picking. E. B. Denison, the famous clockmaker, of London, remarks in relation to this, as well as to Newell's, " that the cast- ing of both these American locks (which have all their heavy parts of cast iron) is vastly superior to any iron castings we have ever seen made in England ; and, on the whole, the United States are evidently far ahead of us in the manufacture of both good and cheap locks." This is certainly very grati- fying praise to the national pride, when we reflect how few years since we depended en- tirely upon England for bank locks. In the progress of the times, these locks have given place to those which are still bet- ter, and the efforts of the burglar have never been successful in either picking or forcing the Dexter combination locks. An addi- tional safeguard has been that of the time- lock, which could not be opened, until the time for which it was set had expired. Several new models of fire and burglar- proof safes have been patented within a few years past, but none of them seem to involve any new principle, and Herring's have thus far stood all tests with complete success. GLASS MANUFACTURE. When we contemplate by turns each of the great materials most conducive to man's advancement in civilization, we are at times lost in the attempt to give precedence to any one, since so many have held so high a rank in the scale of usefulness. Iron has, perhaps, been the most important in respect of industrial purposes, and paper has been the means of recording and promoting that general intelligence without which progress could not be very extensive, but glass has entered more into the necessities of science, as well as those of social life and every-day comforts, than most materials. The great properties of glass are its transparency, its hardness, its power of assuming any possible form when hot, and its non-conductibility. Employed as windows, it transmits light into our dwellings while protecting us from the inclemency of the seasons and permitting a view of exterior objects ; wrought into the form of vessels, it preserves all liquids with- out alteration, while we can inspect the con- tents. This quality, added to its indestruc- tibility by any of the acids (except fluoric), has much facilitated the investigations of chemists. The physical sciences are not less indebted to it. It is the principal auxiliary GLASS MANUFACTURE. 333 of optics. With his glass prism, Newton de- composed light; it is by its means that as- tronomy makes its observations and discov- eries in the infinity of space ; combined in the microscope, it carries the vision of the naturalist into the most minute formations of nature ; with it, those of short sight have the perception extended, and by it, the flat- tened vision of age is restored to its natu- ral powers. To the science of fluids it is indispensable, and most of the experiments in caloric and electricity are due to its agency. If all the sciences are more or less dependent upon it, the ordinary usages of life are no less promoted by it. It gives mirrors for the toilet and for ornament to houses; it serves the table with liquids ; it preserves works of art from the dust, orna- ments lustres, and with it the precious stones can be imitated in all respects but in their hardness. In the arts its wonderfully varied powers may be put in requisition for almost all purposes, from the delicate spring of a chronometer watch to the heavy pipes for sup- plying water to cities. For the former pur- pose, its insensibility to climate and temper- ature gives it advantages over the metals used for that purpose. The use of glass is of a very remote an- tiquity — how remote is left to Conjecture. It had been supposed that the ancients were not acquainted with its use. Glass beads have, however, been found on mummies more than 3000 years old, and in the ruins of Nineveh bottles and vases have been found of glass ; and the exhumations of Pompeii and Hercu- \aneum disclosed the fact that it was in those cities used for windows, as well as for very numerous utensils, all of which gave evidence of great skill in glass work. The manufac- ture of glass spread from Italy to other coun- tries of Europe, at first into Gaul. Bohemia was, however, possessed of the best materi- als in the greatest abundance, and the manu- facture settled and acquired for Bohemian glass a reputation which has come down to our times for vessels. The use of glass for mirrors seems to have originated in Venice. The manufacture of glass was carried on in England as early as 1439, according to Horace Walpole. Flint glass was made in London in the middle of the 16th century, and the manufacture of plate glass was com- menced by the Duke of Buckingham, who imported Venetian workmen. Since then great progress has been made, and English tiint glass has won a great reputation. The manufacture was one of the earliest intro- duced into the colonies. At Jamestown, Va., a glass-house was broken up by an irruption of Indians in 1632. There appears, how- ever, to have been no accurate account of any until that of Mr. Ilewes, of Boston, in Temple, N. II., 1780. Those works were op- erated by Hessians and Waldeckers, desert- ers from the British army; and one of the first articles there produced is now the prop- erty of Harvard University. Washington, in his diary, 1789, alludes to a glass-house in New Haven. In 1803 a German, of the name of Lint, undertook glassworks in Bos- ton, and the state made him a bounty on every table of window glass made. From that time the works prospered, or at least were sustained. The manufacture of crown glass was early commenced at Pittsburg, Pa., by Colonel O'Hara, who, in 1798, started glassworks in that city, to which the materials were brought from 30 to 100 miles' distance. The con- cern had a considerable success, and was followed by others until, in 1814, there were five glassworks at that place. In 1812, Messrs. Bakewell & Co. established at Pitts- burg the first flint-glassworks in the Union. They brought the manufacture to great per- fection, bringing out workmen from Europe at high wages. The style of cutting and en- graving was thought equal to the foreign, and the operations of the house extended until the works became the largest for glass manufacture in the country. There were there made sets of glass for two Presidents of the United States ; and a set of splendid vases there produced 40 years since, still adorns the saloon at La Grange, the seat of Lafayette. The house have also received the silver medal of the Franklin Institute. In other parts of the country the manufac- ture progressed to a greater or less extent, and in 1832 a committee of the New York convention made a report on the glass man- ufacture, from which it appears there were then in operation 21 glass furnaces, having 140 pots for the manufacture of crown glass ; of these, 6 were at Boston. There were also in operation 23 for the manufacture of cylinder glass; of these, 10 were in Penn- sylvania, 2 at Wheeling, 2 in Maryland, 2 in New York, 2 in Ohio, 1 in Massachusetts, 1 in New Hampshire, 1 in Vermont, 1 in Connecticut, and 1 in the District of Colum- bia. The whole value of flint glass then produced was given at $1,350,000. The 334 INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. most extensive green bottle factory was at that time Mr. Dyott's, near Philadelphia. There were there melted 4 tons per day, or 1,200 tons per annum. At that period the glass manufacture received an impulse, and in 1S;J4 there were 6 works at Pittsburg, making crown and cylinder glass, green bot- tles, and apothecaries' phials. One bottle factory produced 1,000 dozen weekly, and a phial factory 2,200 gross weekly. There were also at Wheeling 2 crown and flint- glassworks, and 1 for phials and bottles. At Wellsburg, 16 miles distant, there were 1 flint glass and 1 green bottle factory. The census of 1840 showed that there were then in the United States 81 glass-houses, employing 3,236 men. The aggregate cap- ital was given at 12,014,100. "Of" these, 2 were in Virginia, 28 in Pennsylvania, 25 in New Jersey, 13 in New York, 2 in Vermont, 3 in Connecticut, 4 in Massachusetts, 3 in New Hampshire, and 1 in Michigan. The census did not distinguish the different branches of the glass manufacture, nor the modes of making window glass. In 1850 the number of works had risen to 94, with an aggregate capital of $3,402,350, employ- ing 5,571 men, and producing a value of $4,641,676 per annum. In 1870 there were 166 establishments, with an aggre- gate capital of $10,866,382, employing 12,- 863 persons, paying $6,343,558 wages, using $4, 73 2,4 U8 of raw material, and pro- ducing $15,425,534 of glass. Of these es- tablishments, 48 were in Pennsylvania, 52 in New York, 19 in Massachusetts, 10 in New Jersey (some of them very large), 10 in Ohio, 5 in Kentucky, 4 in Missouri, 3 each in Connecticut, Illinois, and Indiana, and 2 each in Maryland and California, and one each in Michigan, West Virginia, and District of Columbia. In 1865 there were 34 glass manufactories in New York, producing $1,664,000 worth of glass. In 1853 the first plate-glass manufactory in the U. S. was established at Cheshire, Mass. The hammered plate glass manu- facture was established in 1856 in Philadel- phia; also a new description, called " Ger- man flint," but better adapted for the use of apothecaries, chemists, perfumers, etc. The materials for glass are several ; the chief, silica, obtained from the sea beaches in the form of quartz sand, and from the quartz rocks of the interior. The name of "flint glass " came from the use of flints, calcined and ground to powder. This process is now supplanted by the use of sand, of which a fine article is imported into England from Austria. The purest used in the United States is obtained from Lanesborough, Ma?s., being a disintegrated quartz rock. This is used for the best flint and plate glass. Lime is used either in the form of pure lime- stone or quicklime. Potash is derived from common wood ashes, and the ashes of sea- plants supply soda. Pearlash is sometimes used; also the refined alkalies. Common salt and kryolite furnish carbonate of soda. In addition to these, saltpetre, alumina, and waste glass, enter into the ingredients of glass, the proportions of several kinds of which are as follows : — English bottle glass — sand, 100 lbs.; lixiv- iated ashes, 100; wood ashes, 40; kelp, 40; clay, 80 ; cullet, or waste glass, 100. For Bo- hemian crystal, are used — 100 lbs. sand ; pu- rified potash, 60 ; chalk, 8 ; cullet and man- ganese, 40. In window glass are used — 100 lbs. sand ; chalk, 40 ; carbonate of soda, 35 ; of broken glass, from 60 to 180; and some manganese and arsenic. For plate glass — Lynn sand, washed and dried, 720 lbs; alka- line salt, of which 40 per cent, is soda, 450 lbs. ; lime, 80 ; .nitre, 25 ; broken plate glass, 425. These will give 1,200 lbs. of glass. For Faraday's heavy optical glass — protox- ide of lead, 140 lbs.; silicate of lead, 24; dry boracic acid, 25; and 100 lbs. of sand. Artificial gems are composed of 100 lbs. of quartz crystal, or sand ; pure minium, or red lead, 154 lbs.; caustic potash, 54 lbs.; bo- racic acid, 7 ; and some arsenious acid. The introduction into this country of the kryolite (a natural double fluoride of alu- minium and sodium found in large quantity only at Ivigtut, in the southeastern extremity of Greenland), has led to considerable changes in the manufacture of glass, of which car- bonate of soda and soda ash, produced most cheaply from the kryolite, are important in- gredients. Nearly 3,000 tons of the kryolite are also consumed annually in the manufac- ture of hot cast porcelain, a species of opaque glass which is fast taking the place of glass, porcelain, and bisque, for many uses, as well as tiling for floors, from its superior beauty and cheapness. The American Hot ( last Porcelain Co., and the Atlantic Quartz Co., both of Philadelphia, are engaged in this man- ufacture. Bituminous coal, coke, or seasoned wood, may be used for fuel, though wood is gen- erally preferred. In some glassworks of the GLASS MANUFACTURE. 335 United States, rosin is preferred to all other fuel, since when pulverized it may be added in small quantities at a time. It burns with- out giving off impurities that may mix with or injure the glass, and it leaves no residuum. In proceeding to manufacture, when the combination of materials is formed, they are thoroughly ground, mixed together, and sifted. The glass furnace is a large circu- lar dome, in the centre of which is the fire. This is surrounded by 8 to 12 melting pots, which being raised to a white heat, receive the mixed glass in quantities about one eighth at a time. As each instalment melts down, the others are added. The entire quantity being melted, the fires are urged to the utmost, while the workmen watch the operation, with long iron rods, by means of which they extract from the boiling mass portions, from time to time, until transpar- ency, on cooling, indicates that perfect fu- sion of all the materials has taken place. A scum rises during the boiling which is re- moved as it appears. The heat is then raised to the highest degree, to perfect the fusion. The glass is now made, but it con- tains many impurities, being substances that would not melt ; and there is also still a quan- tity of gas, which, if not got rid of, will form those bubbles that are sometimes seen in common window glass. The mass is therefore kept fluid for about 48 hours, by which means the "metal" is fined, that is, all the bub- bles of gas will have disappeared, and insolu- ble matters will have settled to the bottom. The heat is then allowed to subside until the metal becomes thick enough to work, at which point the temperature is maintained in order to keep the glass in this condition. The pots that surround the furnace will gen- erally thus hold enough to employ the force day and night for the first four days of the week, the hands being divided into gangs that relieve each other every six hours. The glass materials, being thus brought into suitable combination, arc ready for some of the numerous branches of manipulation in which that article is employed — the manu- facture of window glass, plate glass, bottles, phials, flint glass, vessels of all descriptions, gems, optical instruments, etc. The manu- facture of window glass is perhaps the most extensive, and this is conducted in two modes. By one the glass is blown into "tables," like cart wheels, and by the other it is formed into cylinders, that are cut open lengthwise and flattened out. The former is the more gener- ally practised. That description is generally known as English crown glass. In the manufacture, the melting pots, of which there are usually eight, hold about half a ton of metal each, and this will suffice for 100 tables of crown glass. When the glass is in its proper state, the workman is armed with a pipe, or blowing tube, 4 or 5 feet long, with a bore { to 1 inch in diameter, and a little larger at the mouth end than at the other. It is, as it were, a long hand, with which, the end being heated red hot, the workman reaches into the pot of melted matter, and gathers up the quantity he re- quires. By long experience he is enabled to do this with great exactness, and this, for crown glass, will not vary much from 9 lbs. The pipe being cooled to admit of handling, the lump is rolled upon the man ver (which is a polished cast-iron slab), to give it a conical form. Blowing through the tube, at the same time, causes the lump to swell. It is then heated in the furnace, and again rolled and enlarged by blowing. In this operation, the portion next the tube becomes hollow, and the greater portion of the glass works toward the point of the cone it forms in rolling. The solid point is called the bullion. This being softened in the furnace, the tube is laid across a rest, and made to revolve, while the glass is blown to a globe. During this operation, a boy supports the soft end, or bullion, w T ith an iron rod. The globe, by continually revolv- ing, increases in size, and flattens out, the bullion point still forming a thick centre, to which an iron rod, called a pontil, which has a little molten glass on its end, is applied ; at the same moment the globe being sepa- rated from the blow pipe by the application of a piece of cold iron to its " nose," re- mains upon the pontil. As the tube breaks away, it leaves a circular opening, which the workman, holding by the pontil, presents to the furnace. By this means it is softened al- most to melting, and being made to revolve rapidly, the opening grows rapidly larger by centrifugal force. The heated air in theglobe prevents the two opposite faces from coining together. The portion next the fire appears to roll inside out, and it suddenly, with a noise like opening a wet umbrella, flattens out into a circular disk, which is then re- moved from the fire, and kept revolving un- til it is cold. The pontil is then cracked oil', and the disk removed to the annealing oven, and set up on edge with the rest, ar- 336 INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. ranged in rows, and supported by iron rods, so as not to press against each other. The annealing is completed in 24 to 48 hours. These "tables" are generally 52 inches in diameter ; sometimes, however, as much as 70 inches. Plate glass imperfectly annealed will, when once cracked, soon fall all to pieces. The an- nealing process is simply to place the hot glass in a hot oven, and allow the whole to cool gradually. By this operation it is found that glass is deprived of much of its brittleness. The explanation is, that the glass is a non-conductor, and when made, the exte- rior cools first, forming a crystalline crust which shelters the interior particles, so that these continue longer in the fluid state, and are prevented from expanding as glass usually does when it cools. The interior has thus a constant tendency to expand or burst out. When the whole is allowed to cool slowly in an oven, all the fibres of the glass assume their proper and natural places, and the mass becomes tough and elastic. The effect of sudden cooling is manifest in the toys called " Prince Rupert's drop's." These are simply hot glass dropped into water. In so doing, most of the drops burst to pieces, but some retain a pear shape. These, when taken out, will bear a smart blow without breaking ; but the smallest break at the stem will cause the whole to fly to pieces with a loud explosion. Bo- logna phials are formed of unannealed glass 4 or 5 inches long, and J inch thick. These will bear a hard blow, or a bullet may be safely dropped in. If, however, a sharp fragment of sand is introduced, the phial will fly to pieces. Annealing deprives them of these qualities. From the annealing kiln the tables go to the warehouse, and are there assorted ac- cording to defects and qualities. Each one is then laid in turn upon a "nest" or cush- ion, and is divided by a diamond into two pieces, one of which, the larger, contains the bull's eye. These are then cut into square panes. The circular shape and the bull's eye involve much waste in cutting. The glass thus manufactured, however, has a re- markable brilliancy, and for that reason it is preferred to the cylinder process, by which, however, larger panes are made. The cylinder process has been pursued to a great extent in the United States. It is practised by a number of workmen. Some- times 10 are arranged side by side, with a raised platform extended in fron*; of the fur- naces 10 feet above the bottom. Standing upon this, each man gathers a proper quantity of metal from the pot before him. By ap- plying the lump to a wooden mould and blowing, it takes a globe form. This he heats, and then holds upon the pipe verti- cally over his head, at the same time blow^ ing into it. This causes the globe to flatten. It is then held down so as to swing below the platform on which the worker stands. This, with continued blowing, causes the glass to elongate in the form of a cylinder. The workman watches with care lest the elongation should proceed too rapidly, in which case he raises it again over his head. This operation is dexterously continued until the cylinder attains 47 inches in length, and 10 inches in diameter. The end is then softened in the fire, while the pipe is closed with the thumb. The air within the cylin- der then expands so as to burst out the end. The edges of the opening thus caused are then spread and trimmed. The tube end is cut off when the glass is cool by the applica- tion of a hot iron, and letting fall a drop of water on the heated line. The cylinder is now to be cut open lengthwise in order that it may be flattened out into a pane. For this purpose two methods may be employed — one with the hot iron and cold water, and the other by a diamond applied inside the cylinder along a rule. The cylinders are now carried to the flattening furnace, where they are laid, slit uppermost, on the flatten- ing stone. Here, as they soften, they open out, and a workman with an iron rod aids the operation. Another at the same time, with a rod having a block of wood at the end for polishing the sheets, works down the irregularities of the surface. The sheet is then passed into the annealing oven. In every stage of this process, the sheets are exposed to imperfections, and, in conse- quence, few are perfect. Most answer for inferior uses. None have the brilliancy of crown glass. The main difficulty is in the wrinkling. The glass being made in the cylinder form, the inner and outer surfaces are of unequal lengths. In the flattening out, this inequality produces undulations, called cockles, which distort objects seen through the glass. The unevenness also made it very troublesome to polish the sur- face until the difficulty was overcome by the device of pressing upon each sheet soft leather, which, acting like a boy's " sucker," GOBLET MAKERS. PRESS FOR MOLDING GOBLETS. GLASS MANUFACTURE. 341 adheres to the glass hy atmospheric pres- sure. Two plates thus held are laid face to face, and, by the action of machinery, rapidly rubbed together with the interven- tion of polishing sand and water. By this means a beautiful polish is bestowed. By these two methods of manufacture most of the glass used in the United States is produced. For the ten years 1871-80, the annual importation of glass has aver- aged $5,012,032; of this, about one-third has been plate glass. The average export for the same period has been about $660,000. Various causes affect the combination and the qualities of the compounds. The alkali in window glass, powdered and moistened, is detected by its action upon turmeric paper, and may be dissolved out by boiling water. Atmospheric agents sometimes remove it in part from window panes, leaving a film of silicate of lime. The glass of stable windows is liable to change its appearance and assume prismatic colors from the action of the ammoniacal vapors upon the silica. When moderately heated, glass is readily broken in any di- rection by the sudden contraction produced by the prompt application of a cold body- to its surface. It may be bored with a steel drill kept slightly moistened with water, which forms a paste with the pow- der produced. Copper tubes, fed with em- ery, also serve to bore holes in glass. As very large panes of glass could be made by neither of the above methods, the large plate glass used for mirrors and for shop windows is cast. The mixtures em- ployed do not vary much from those used in sheet glass. A larger proportion of soda is used; but this pushed to excess gives a greenish tinge. The greatest care is taken in the selection of the materials. "When the glass is melted in the pots, it is ladled into cisterns or cuvettes placed in the fire by the side of the pots. Some manu- facturers allow the metal to remain fluid in the pots sixteen hours, and an equal time in the cuvettes ; and in some cases, in order to allow the soda to volatilize and the air- bubbles to escape, the time is prolonged to forty-eight hours. When nearly ready, the temperature of the glass is allowed to fall in order that the material may assume a pasty consistency. Meantime the casting- plate is prepared. This is usually a cast- iron plate, perhaps seven inches thick, eleven feet broad, and twenty feet long. 18 3 ° It has raised edges to prevent the glass from flowing off, of a depth proportioned to the proposed thickness of the glass plate. On a level with this table, and arranged along its side, are the annealing ovens. Each of these is sixteen feet wide and forty feet deep. Hot coals are heaped upon the plate to bring it to a proper temperature. The cistern swung on a crane is then ap- proached to the table, which is thoroughly cleaned, and the melted glass carefully skimmed with a copper blade. By canting the cistern, the glass is then poured upon the table. A copper cylinder, three feet in diameter, extends across the table, rest- ing on the raised edges. This, being rolled forward, sweeps before it the excess of glass, spreading the whole uniformly of a thickness governed by the raised edges of the table. The effect of the passage of the copper roller upon the brilliant surface of the glass is very beautiful, leaving, as it does, a splendid play of colors. The super- fluous glass being then trimmed from the edges, the plate is thrust forward into the annealing oven, previously raised to a red heat. Successive plates are thus cast until the annealing oven is full, when it is closed up and left five days to cool. When taken from the oven the plates are examined for defects, and the mode of cutting decided upon is then done with a diamond. The invention of the sand-blast by Tilgh- man, of Philadelphia, and its wonderful adaptation for carving, etching, engraving, and drilling glass has added greatly to the economical uses of glass. It is equally well adapted to cutting, etching, carving, and boring plate and blown glass, and by its use any design made in paper, lace, or other material composed of vegetable fiter may be worked out in a few moments with the utmost perfection. As a consequence, plate glass one-fourth to one-half an inch in thickness is used for small shelves at the teller's, cashier's, and bookkeeper's desks in banks, insurance offices, and stores, in hand-mirrors, parlor summer pieces, for the sides of fine clocks, and the covering of the dial plates, for furniture, library doors, the floors of vestibules, etc., etc. There are many modes of grinding and polishing, but in this, as in most other arts, the latest improvement is an American in- vention, which, highly successful here, was introduced into England in 1856. A circu- lar plate of cast-iron, 1 feet in diameter and 342 INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. 2 inches thick, is secured upon the upper end of a vertical shaft, so as to revolve with it. Above the table, frames are arranged to hold the plates of glass, which are laid in a bed of plaster of Paris, with the face to be polished resting upon the revolving table. The frames are so arranged that the friction of the table upon the glass causes them to revolve so as to present every portion of the glass surface to an equal amount of rubbing. When sand is required to grind down the glass, it is fed in from a box above the frame. This is found to be the best mode ; but sometimes the surfaces of the plates are ground together. After grinding, they are smoothed with emery powders of successive fineness until they are ready for polishing. This, in the American machinery, is per- formed by rings coated with felt and screwed to the surface of the iron table. Oxide of iron or rouge is applied to the felt as a pol- ishing agency. When this is completed they are ready for silvering. In the process of silvering, a large stone table is prepared so as to be canted, by means of a screw beneath it, on one side. Around the edges of the table is a groove, in which quicksilver may flow, and drop from one corner into bowls placed to receive it. The table, being made perfectly horizontal, is covered with tin foil carefully laid over it. A strip of glass is placed along each of three sides of the foil to prevent the mercury from flowing off. The metal is then with ladles poured upon the foil until it is a quarter of an inch deep, and its tendency to flow is checked by its affinity for the tin foil. The plate of glass, well cleaned, is dexterously slidden on from the open side. Its advan- cing edge is carefully kept in the quicksilver, so that no air or any impurities can get be- tween the metal and the glass. When ex- actly in its place it is held until one edge of the table is raised 10 or 15 degrees, and the superfluous metal has run off. Heavy weights are then placed on the glass, and it is so left several hours. It is then turned over, and placed upon a frame, the metal uppermost, which becomes hard in the course of sev- eral weeks. Patents have been taken out for precipitating silver upon the glass, but thi-< process is not so successful as the old. When these plates are used for shop win- dows, sonic of them require to be bent in \.ui mis manners. This is a separate branch of business, and is carried on at Newark, N. J., extensively. The bed is made of suitable material, on the floor of the furnace, and made in the required form. The sheet of glass is laid upon this, and as it softens in the heat, it assumes the form of the bed on which it is laid. The manufacture of flint glass for domes- tic purposes requires great care in the selec- tion of the materials. It possesses the properties of great transparency and high refractive power. Its brilliancy and density are in some degree due to the introduction of oxide of lead. Oxide of zinc has also been found effective for the same purpose. In order to protect the glass from effects of smoke or other elements which might dis- color it, it is melted in a covered pot, with an opening in a short neck on one side. The heat is made very intense that the fusion may be rapid. The moment fusion and fitting have thoroughly taken place, the heat is reduced, to prevent the deleterious action of the materials of the vessel upon the glass. In the United States, when the metal is taken out by the workmen, it is shaped in the required form by pressing into a die. For this purpose, when the article is large, considerable pressure is required. The cx^ perience and skill of the workman are put to the test in taking up just the quantity of metal required to fill the mould, which is kept at a red heat. The objects, being formed, go through the cutting process, as it is called, but really the grinding proc- ess. Circular stones or metallic disks are made to revolve, being fed with sand and water for coarse grinding, and emery for finer work. The marks left in the coarse grinding are removed by application to wooden revolving wheels, fed with pumice or rotten-stone, and finally Avith putty pow- der, a preparation of tin and lead. The fine polishing of chandelier drops, and sim- ilar ornaments, is effected by a lead wheel, supplied with rotten-stone and water. Globes and lamp shades are polished on the inside by filling them with sand, and placing them in a drum, which revolves rapidly for a length of time. The glass most important in the arts is certainly that used for optical instruments. Flint and crown glass are both used for that purpose, but both have their defects. Those of the former arise from the difficulty of ef- fecting uniform fusion, and crown glass is seldom possessed of the requisite uniformity of texture. These difficulties were so great that, until the early part of the present cen- GLASS MANUFACTURE. 343 tury lenses larger than three and a half inches could not be made. At that time a Swiss clockmaker, Guinand, produced them as large as nine inches, of the greatest per- fection. The secret remained with him for a long time, but was finally, by one of his sons, imparted to M. Bontemps, who, in 1828, produced lenses of twelve to four- teen inches. The secret was in keeping the mixture actively stirred when liquid, and then suffering it to cool and anneal in the pot. Lenses are now made of flint glass twenty-nine inches in diameter, and weighing two cwt. The production of vessels of colored glass is conducted in a very ingenious manner. The coloring matters are various. Blue transparent glass is made with two lbs. ox- ide of cobalt; azure blue, four lbs. oxide of copper; ruby red, four oz. oxide of gold ; other colors by various combinations. Sometimes the color is incorporated merely with the outer portion of the glass. This is effected in the blowing by dipping the lump of clear glass, when shaped upon the marver. into the pot of melted colored glass, and then blowing it to the shape re- quired, and flashing out, if desired to con- vert it into panes. The color may after- wards be reduced in depth by grinding, and clear spots reached by grinding through the color. In the process of "casing," a portion of partially -blown flint glass is in- serted into a thin shell of colored glass, and then blown until it fills the shell, with which it becomes incorporated by heating and further blowing; casings of different colors may be thus applied. In painting, the color, mixed with a flux that will fuse at a lower temperature than the glass, and with boiled oil, is laid on with a brush as in ordinary painting, or by blocks, as in calico printing. The glass is then heated, when the flux melts and sinks into the body. The painting of glass for church windows was formerly carried to a high de- gree of excellence that moderns have not been able to equal. Although the recipes have been preserved in ancient treatises, the process has been lost. Enameled glass has been much used for the last thirty or forty years. In this pro- cess the enamel substance (which consists of silica, soda, and oxide of lead, made opaque by oxide of tin or antimony) is ground to an impalpable powder, and then laid with a brush, in a pasty state, upon the glass. After the paste is dried, the orna- ment is etched out either by hand or by machinery. The glass being then softened in the intense heat of the furnace, the enamel becomes vitrified and incorporated with it. It then passes to the annealing furnace. This process was invented by Mr. William Cooper, of the firm of Cooper & Belcher, New York, whose extensive works at Newark, N. J., supplied 60,000 feet for the New York Crystal Palace. Another variety, the flocked, has now come more into use. The process is nearly the same, except that a smooth opaque surface is given to the glass before the enamel is applied. Pittsburgh and its sister city, Alleghany, are more largely engaged in the manufac- ture of glass than any other city or town in the United States. Window glass of all descriptions is made here in vast quantities; plate glass, though not of the highest qual- ity, all descriptions of glass for table ware, their pressed glass being so perfect that even experts are deceived and mistake it for cut glass, and all descriptions of glass ornaments, stained, colored, and enameled glass. Two or three descriptions of glass- ware are, however, made in greater perfec- tion in Belleville, New Jersey, and the other glass works of Messrs. Whitall, Tatum & Co., than anywhere else in this country or Europe. In their two manufac- tories, which are said to be the largest glass works in the world, they produce druggists' bottles and vials which are su- perior to any others, and are largely in de- mand in England and France. They also make the best glass jars for canning pur- poses, and most bottles for mineral waters, etc. Brooklyn, N. Y., is also extensively engaged in the glass manufacture. Soluble glass has been made of later years of equal parts silica and caustic potash. This is soluble in boiling water, and is used extensively for making build- ings and all combustible bodies fire-proof. In the manufacture of bottles, the metal, on being withdrawn from the melting pot on the end of the blowing tube, is, if for common black bottles, shaped in concavi- ties that are made in the edge of the mar- ver. Fine bottles of flint glass are shaped in moulds of brass or iron, which are made in two parts hinged together, so that they may be opened and start with the foot. Bottles for champagne, soda-water, etc., 344 GLASS MANUFACTURE. are made of extraordinary strength, and tested before using by hydraulic pressure. They ought to support, for this purpose, a pressure of foi'ty atmospheres, or 600 lbs. on the square inch. Notwithstanding the great strength with which they are usually made, the breakage in the manufacture of champagne bottles is rated at 30 per cent. The glass is drawn out into tubes in a manner that illustrates the curious manip- ulations of the metal. The workman, with his blowing tube, accumulates a certain quantity by successive dips into the melting- pot. This is then blown into a globe. Another workman then takes hold with a pontil, at a point exactly opposite the blow- ing tube. The two men then separate, and the globe contracts in the middle, which being drawn out to the size of the tube de- sired cools, and the hotter portions succes- sively yield to the drawing, until a tube of 100 feet or more hangs between the work- men. The diameter of the bore retains its proportion to the thickness of the glass; hence thin tubes must be drawn from globes blown to a large size. These tubes of colored glass may be converted into beads. Beads have always been a great element in the trade with the North Amer- ican Indians, being highly prized by them. Within the last decade (1870-1880) sev- eral manufacturers have produced tough- ened, or as it is sometimes (though incor- rectly) called "indestructible glass." As at first made, it was produced by cooling the external surface rapidly, on the same principle as the "Rupert's drops," but it was found that glass toughened in this way, while it would stand very rough hand- ling, would, if struck by a sharp point so as to puncture in the slightest degree this external coat, fly at once into a thousand pieces, and often imperil the eyesight or the life of a person holding it. A better method, and one which rendered the glass very tough, was annealing it in heated oil. By this process, glass, formerly the most fragile of wares, is now rendered almost as durable as metal. INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. 345 INDIA-RUBBER AND ITS MANUFACTURE. One of the most remarkable American discoveries of the present century is, un- doubtedly, the mode of manufacturing and applying the article known to commerce as "India-rubber," but which, among the peo- ple of South America, is called "caout- chouc." The article in question is a gum procured from a peculiar tree in the hottest regions of the equator. The tree which yields this gum in the East Indies is some- what different from that which produces it in the equatorial regions of South America. The former (" ficus elastica") is represented in an engraving on another page. Although the gum was used in a rude fashion since many ages by the inhabitants of the countries which produce it (and it had been known to commerce for a long time, having been discovered by a French philosopher in 1736), it is only within 20 years that its value has been appreciated. In that time, under the genius of American manufacturers, it has risen to a rank equal, perhaps, to that of iron and glass among the materials that admin- ister to the necessities and comforts of man. In the forests of equatorial South America the " siphonia elastica" grows to a height of 60 or 70 feet, and is covered with a scaly bark. It bears a fruit, which encloses a white almond highly esteemed by the na- tives. A slight wound on this tree causes the sap to flow freely, thick, white, and unc- tuous, like the sap of the milk-weed. On being exposed to the air, this soon becomes solid. This sap is collected by the natives, who make a longitudinal cut in the centre of the tree, and lateral cuts leading diago- nally into it. At the bottom of the perpen- dicular cut a banana leaf is placed to con- duct the sap, as it flows, into a vessel placed to receive it. The sap is used for the for- mation of bottles, boots, shoes, and various articles. The process is to form the figure of the thing desired in clay, and cover it on the outside with many coats of the gum, ex- posing it to fire to dry. When the desired thickness is obtained, the mould is soaked out in water, and the article is ready for use. Clumsy shoes, rudely fashioned in this man- ner, were long an article of importation from Para into the United States, and extensively sold down to within 20 years. There was little other use made of the article except to erase pencil marks, and for which purpose was charged 50 cents for i a cubic inch. The nature of the gum did not, however, long fail to become an object of research. The learned decided that it was neither gum nor resin, but of a peculiar nature analogous to resin, from which it differed in not being soluble in alcohol. Many attempts to make it useful in the arts were made, and finally it was found that by dissolving it in volatile oil there was obtained a sort of varnish very useful in making certain tissues and fabrics water-proof. A thin coat, placed between two sheets of stuff, caused them to adhere closely and made them impervious as well to water as to air. This application of it was made in the manufacture of mattresses, cushions, pillows, boots, bottles, etc. A so, lution in linseed oil is called an excellent var- nish for making leather water-tight. .The best solvents are said, however, to be oil of turpentine, coal, naphtha, and benzole. Al- cohol will not dissolve it, but will precipitate it from ether. Another solvent is of rubber itself, called caoutchoucin. It is produced by exposing rubber to a heat of 600°, when it goes off in a' vapor, which, being con- densed, produces the solvent. All these applications, however, utilized only one of the distinguishing properties of rub- ber, viz., its imperviousness to water. An inventor, however, by the aid of a new solvent, found means to spin threads of the rubber of various degrees of fineness and strength. These threads, covered with tex- tile fabrics — silk, wool, cotton, or linen — be- came light and supple tissues of extraor- dinary elasticity. This opened the way to an immense number of employments. In some machines the rubber is kneaded, and compressed in various ways, and finally a number of the balls thus treated are brought together and powerfully squeezed by a screw press in cast-iron moulds, in which, being firmly secured, the mass is left several days. This process is somewhat modified in differ- ent establishments. In some, the cleaned shreds are rolled into sheets, from which threads and thin rubber are sliced by the application of suitable knives, worked by machines, and kept wet. The sheets are at once ready for the purpose to which this form is applied, or, by machinery of great ingenuity, they are cut into long threads of any desired degree o( fineness. It' then re- quired to be joined, a clean oblique cut is made, with a pair of scissors, and the parts being brought together, readily and perfectly unite by the pressure of the fingers. As 346 INDIA-RUBBER AND ITS MANUFACTURE. the threads are reeled off, they are elongated about eight times their original length by passing through the hands of a boy, and by the same operation they are deprived of their elasticity. After remaining on the reel some days, they are wound upon bobbins, and are then ready for weaving and braiding. The threads are of different fineness. A pound of caoutchouc can, by one machine, be made into 8000 yards of thread. This may, by another, be divided by 4, making 32,000 yards. Elastic braids are these threads covered with silk and other mate- rial. In woven fabrics, caoutchouc thread makes the warp, alternately with threads of stuff to receive the extreme strain that would destroy the rubber, and the other materials form the weft, or cross-threads. When wo- ven, a hot iron is passed over the stuff, and this causes the rubber to regain its elasticity. Another mode of forming the threads per- fectly round and smooth, is to convert the caoutchouc into a soft paste. This is done by macerating it for some hours with about twice its weight of sulphuret of carbon, add- ing 5 per cent, of alcohol. The paste is well kneaded by compressing it through dia- phragms of wire gauze, placed in cylinders, and is then forced through a line of small holes at the bottom of another cylinder. The threads, as they issue, are taken on a web of velvet, from which they pass to another of common cloth, and are carried slowly along for 6u0 to 700 feet, when be- coming dry and hard by the evaporation of the solvent, they are received in a little ■cup. The threads produced of vulcanized rubber retain their elasticity, and are, when woven, kept stretched by weights. On re- leasing them, the material woven with them is drawn back, producing shirred or corru- gated fabrics. Caoutchouc supplanted the metal elastics for many purposes, since it would not cor- rode in moisture. It was at once in demand fir suspenders, garters, corsets, and number- less appurtenances of apparel. It came to be used for water-proofing cloths, surgical instruments of all kinds, elastic bauds, in the arts and trades. Book- binders have used it for securing the leaves in books, imparting flexibility and freedom to the opening volumes. In thin sheets, it has been used for taking impressions of engravings. In this form, also, it is an ex- cellent material for covering the mouths of bottles, and similar applications requiring the exclusion of air and moisture. Pre- pared with other ingredients, it forms a ma- rine glue unsurpassed in adhesiveness when applied to wood. A pound of fine rubber is dissolved in four gallons of rectified coal- tar naphtha and well mixed. In ten or twelve days this will attain the consistency of cream, when an equal weight of shellac is added. It is then heated in an iron vessel having a discharge pipe at the bottom. As it melts, it is kept well stirred, and the liquid flowing out is obtained in the form of thin sheets. When it is applied, it is heated to 248° and applied with a brush, and retained soft un- til the jointing is made, by passing heated rollers over the surface. This has been, it is said, applied to masts of vessels, which have been so firmly spliced that fractures take place in the new wood sooner than to sepa- rate the glued portion ; and it has been held that parts of vessels may be, by these means, so firmly put together that iron bolts would be unnecessarv. Rubber has been made use of for paving stables, lobbies, and halls, here, as well as in England, where Windsor Castle carriage- way is so paved. There are a multitude of uses for the material, such as baths, dishes for photograph and chemical purposes, tele- graph wire covers, boots, shoes, coys, life- preservers, clothing, furniture covers, travel- ling bags, tents, beds, water pails. It is being constantly applied to new uses, as the chemical modes of treating the article de- velop new properties. The uses of the article were, however, still comparatively limited. The water-proof qualities were, to some extent, availed of, and its elasticity was ingeniously applied in many minor directions. The native article itself was still an impracticable object in the man- ufacture. It had baffled the philosopher, the chemist, and the artisan in investigating its nature and in controlling its properties. Repeated attempts were made to transport the pure juice or gum to Europe, there to be operated upon, but without success, since it was found that it rapidly degenerated. .V method of doing this was finally devised by Mr. Lee Norris, of New York. The liquor is first filtered and mixed with I its own weight of ammonia. On being poured out on any smooth surface, and exposed to a temperature of 70° or 100° of heat, the am- monia, which had preserved it from the ac- tion of the atmosphere, is evaporated, and leaves the gum in the form of the object INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. 347 -which holds it. Its intractable nature was finally, however, conquered by Charles G-ood- ycar, who controlled it, apparently, as Rarey does horses, viz., by producing the result without any one being able to explain the phenomenon. Mr. Goodyear spent 20 years of the most unremitting toil in experiment- ing upon India-rubber, and finally discovered that a mixture of sulphur, white lead, and caoutchouc, exposed to regulated tempera- ture from 8 to 12 hours, becomes " vulcan- ized," or an entire new substance unlike any other. The native rubber, being exposed to the extremes.of heat and cold, is destroyed ; but those agencies have no effect on the same article vulcanized. The liquids which dissolve the pure rubber do not influence the new article, which, however, acquires a far higher degree of elasticity — becomes, in fact, an "elastic metal." The article, when put into the heaters, is a tough, sticky, une- lastic dough. It comes out endowed with a high degree of elasticity, insensible to heat, or cold, or solvents, and applicable to almost every want of life. It has been since dis- covered that the white lead contributes but little to the change undergone in the heat- ers, the cause or manner of which has baf- fled the skill of the most scientific chemists in this country or Europe. In mixing the proportions of the compounds, reference has always been made to the nature of the ob- jects to be manufactured. The form and adaptation of the articles are perfected before the "vulcanizing." The general mode of preparing the rubber is the same. The rub- ber imported from the East Indies is said to be of a stronger fibre than that of South America, and the gum is selected in accord- ance with the manufacture proposed. It is imported in rude masses, in which sticks, leaves, and dirt are thickly mingled. These are about 2 feet long and 1 foot thick. The first process that the gum undergoes is the expensive and laborious one of cleaning, by which the mass loses about 4 of its weight. A large vat is filled with hot water, and in this the rubber remains until the exterior is sufficiently softened to allow of the removal of the coarse basket-work that covers and adheres closely to it. When this is done, the lumps are, by means of a circular knife of a diameter of 4 feet, revolving with great speed under the influence of powerful ma- chinery, cut into slabs about 1 inch thick. The engraving will give a good idea <>t' the operation. These slabs are then carried to the " cracker," of which an illustration will be found on another page. This is formed of two large cylinders grooved longitudinally, and revolving slowly but irresistibly. Between these the slabs, as they are passed, are elon- gated and twisted, by which operation much of the dirt and bark works out. The stretched slabs are then taken to the wash- ing machine, where numerous sharp knives, revolving under the water, cut it into small pieces, as seen in the baskets on the right of the illustration, which, at the same time, are kneaded and washed until they are thor- oughly cleansed. They are then ready for the grinding machine. This consists of large hollow cylinders, made of cast iron, and revolving in opposite directions. The small pieces that come from the washing machine, being fed in, are kneaded by the cylinders again into thick sheets or. mats. With this process the preparation is sus- pended for several months in order to allow the mats to be thoroughly dried and cured by the action of the air. This involves the necessity of keeping on hand a large stock of rubber. When the rubber is quite cured, it is taken to the mixing machines, where it is to be combined with the various metals and sub- stances to which the metallic rubber owes its peculiar properties. The mixing machines, like most of those used in the manufacture, are hollow revolving cylinders. The mixing cylinders are of great size and strength, and acquire the necessary heat to work the rub- ber from the steam let in at the ends. These, revolving toward each other, knead the rubber like dough. In the process, a con- stant series of explosions, like pistol-shots, is caused by the air confined in the folds of the substance being forced out by the action of the cylinders. This, on a grand scale, repeats the boy's amusement of chewing rubber soft in order to explode on his fist the air- bubbles created in it. As the rub- ber softens under this action, the workman slowly mixes in the various substances re~ quired. These consist mostly of sulphur, to which are added the oxides of various metals, zinc, lead, iron, etc. Here the greatest skill of the manufacturer is brought into requisi- tion. Every quality of rubber requires a different compound, and every difference in the compound requires a different treatment in the subsequent stages of the manufacture. Thus prepared, tie' substance is ready to be moulded and shaped into the various forms 348 INDIA-RUBBER AND ITS MANUFACTURE. in which it is to be finally perfected and used. The modes of preparation are various, according to the ultimate object — whether that may be for it to assume the form of the hard, unelastic comb, a door spring, a steam valve, a carpet, or any of the thousand shapes it is made to take. It may be here remarked that the dis- covery, great as it was, was but the first step in the great series of improvements that has resulted from it. After 18 years of incessant labor, Mr. Goodyear had perfected a raw material — but a raw material for what ? It was necessary to know to what articles it could be applied before there could be any demand for it; until then it was of no market- able value. It was necessary to invent or dis- cover all the uses to which it might be ap- plied. The shoe business was the first to make it available ; but since then, vast as has been the number of manufactures based on it, discoveries are being daily made to extend it. The manufacture of "belting" and "hose" is a very large business. The belts are used for driving machinery, and are superior to every other means. They are stronger than the best sole leather, and adhere to the drum or pulley with a tenacity that prevents slipping. This manufacture is a peculiar process. Cotton duck, similar to that of which sails are made, is woven in a mode to give double the usual strength lon- gitudinally. This duck is impregnated with the rubber, under the influence of powerful machinery, wdiich drives the substance through and through its meshes. It is then taken to the calender machine, seen in the engraving. The large cylinders of which it is composed have a perfectly polished sur- face. The rubber having gone through the mixing process, is in the shape of sticky, slate-colored dough, and passing through the calenders, is rolled out into a perfectly even sheet, upon the prepared duck. When this is completed, the " bolts" are taken to the belt-room, spread out upon tables 100 feet long, and cut into the strips desired for the various kinds of belting. For one of great strength, several of the strips are placed one upon the other, and then pressed together with immense power, by rolling- machines ; thus giving them the strength of metal, with the peculiar friction surface found only in rubber. The belts are now ready for the heaters. These are long steam boilers, the door of which being opened, there is drawn out a long railway carriage. On this are placed the goods, which are then rolled in, the boiler closed, and steam admitted. In from 8 to 12 hours, the sin- gular transformation known as vulcanizing, takes place. The manufacture of " Croton hose " is similar. A long iron tube, of the proper diameter (and hose is made from £ inch to 12 inches) is covered with a sheet of care- fully-prepared rubber. This, however, in- tended to be pliable, would not of itself be of sufficient strength to sustain a strong head of water, hence it is covered with webs of cloth prepared in the manner of the belting duck. When a sufficient num- ber of folds have been applied to give the re- quired strength, an outside covering of pure rubber is applied. A heater of immense length then receives the pipes, with the hose on them, to be cured by the same process as the belts. The hose is then drawn off the pipe to be subjected to proof. This hose will withstand a pressure that will burst the most powerful leather hose. One of the most useful applications of vul- canized India-rubber, is steam packing. The vulcanized rubber is the only material that will preserve its elasticity and counteract the expansion and contraction of metals exposed to the heat, of steam, thus making a joint perfectly steam-tight. It is used to pack round piston rods in steam machines ; to place between the iron plates of steam pipes, wherever a joint is required ; for gaskets, valves, and rings. Some ocean steamers have huge rubber valves, five feet in diam- eter, which play up and down in the vast cylinder, opening and shutting like the valves of a colossal artery. The use of rubber is now so great a necessity, wherever steam is used, that the mind wonders how it could ever have been dispensed with. It is not only steam, however, but every branch of mechanics that demands its presence, in the shape of sheets, plates, rings, hollow el- lipses, of all imaginable forms and sizes, of which none but a mechanic can conceive the number applicable to his own art. The use of rubber for car-springs has be- come almost universal. The high degree of elasticity which the sulphur imparts, makes that application an admirable one, and the more so that it does not lose the elasticity by prolonged use. The " elastic metal " supplants the rigid one in numberless uses. House-sinks, in- i'HE GREAT CALENDER MACHINE. FICUS ELANTICA, FROM THE EAST INDIES. CUTTING RUBBER INTO SLABS FOR THE WASHING MACHINES. MACHINE FOR WASHING INDIA-RUBBER. INDIA-RUBBER <4K1XDING MILL. INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. 351 stead of cast-iron, are now formed of rub- ber, without joint or seam; and these are far less fatal to the china washed in them than were the metal ones. Springs for doors, from this material, supplant aU others. These, for churches, are so ar- ranged that the door may be closed, or held open to a desired distance. For bed- springs, it has become, the most desirable, durable, and luxurious material. Carpets and mats for halls, stairways, and public rooms are formed of it, of infinite variety and usefulness. One of the manufactures of rubber goods which has taken the great- est extension in the decade 1870 to 1880 is that of water-proof cloaks for ladies' wear. A light but firm cambric is coated with a very thin but complete coating of rubber, and is then made up into a cloak enveloping the whole person. These gos- samer cloaks weigh but from eight to ten ounces, some of them even less than this, and they can be folded and carried in a small satchel or case about eight inches in length and five in circumference, but they are perfectly water-proof. The mixture of lead in the compound was found to make it more compact and heavy, but the pecul- iar properties are apparently attained as well without the use of the lead. The combi- nation with sulphur has been effected by exposing the material to the action of sul- phurous fluids, as the sulphuret of carbon and the chloride of sulphur. An immer- sion of one or two minutes in a mixture composed of forty parts of sulphuret of carbon to one of chloride of sulphur, kept at the usual high heat, will produce the vulcanization. For the purpose of impart- ing that hardness which is manifest in combs, fancy boxes, canes, buttons, knife- handles, and all those forms in which it has supplanted bone, shell, and ivory, magnesia is introduced, and gives a lighter color to the articles in which it is compounded. In the manufacture, articles are buried in pulverized soapstone, to be vulcanized by the introduction of highly-heated steam. The effect upon the commerce of the coun- try is seen in the following table. The largest proportion of caoutchouc used in the world comes from South America. Rubber Shoos exported. Other rub- Total Years, imported. Pairs. Value, ber goods. Value. 1856 $1,1-48,372 635.280 $427,986 $666,602 jU.093.53S 1868 756,828 247,880 116,981 107,418 818,879 1861,.... 1,287,069 33,603 160.088 193,601 868,779 1880,.... 9,606,239 13,980 28,072 278,608 306,680 There have been great vicissitudes in the manufacture of goods under Goodyear's patents. Numbers of companies have been formed in Connecticut, New York, New- ark, New Brunswick, Millstone, N. J., and elsewhere. The progress of the manu- facture has been very rapid. ' In 1850, the value of the rubber goods made in the United States was $3,024,335. In 1SG0, it amounted to $5,642,700, an increase of 86.6 per cent. In 1870, the number of es- tablishments was 56; capital, $7,486,600; hands employed, 6,025; value of the pro- ducts, $14,566,374. The statistics of the manufacture in 1880 are not yet reported, but the advance has been enormous all along the line, and the annual product of the hard and soft vulcanite must exceed $30,000,000. The hard rubber, or vulcan- ite, is used for jewelry, buttons, dress orna- ments, pencils, canes, etc. Gutta percha is used extensively for sim- ilar purposes as the caoutchouc, and is pre- pai-ed in the same manner by Goodyear's process. It is a gum found in the trees of the Malay peninsula, and procured in the same manner as caoutchouc. European attention was first called to it in 1842, and it began to be imported in 1844. Its chem- ical composition is identical with that of India-rubber, except that it contains oxy- gen, which rubber does not. It has a num- ber of qualities that make it preferable for certain uses. It is a bad conductor, and is therefore very applicable as a covering for telegraph wires, and its peculiar acoustic properties make it valuable for speaking- tubes in public houses and large establish-, ments. The application of gutta percha to the coating of telegraph wires is claimed by Mr. Samuel J. Armstrong, of New York, who for that purpose modified the machin- ery for gutta-percha tubing. The first ma- chinery built for that purpose was in 1848, and the first wire so coated was laid across the Hudson river, at Fort Lee, in August, 1849, for the Morse Telegraph Company. This machinery was furtively carried to England, and there used for the Atlantic Telegraph. The articles made of gutta percha alone, or mixed with other substan- ces, are of very great variety — ornameDts, vessels, articles of clothing, fancy articles, surgical articles, dentists' and numerous other articles. Vessels have also been made of it, and its uses are being daily multiplied. 352 SEWING MACHINES. SEWING MACHINES. The decade 1840-1850 was the most fruitful in useful and practical inventions for the benefit of humanity, of any ten years of the present century. To it belong those inventions which made the telegraph a reality; the daguerreotype and photo- graph; the vulcanization of Indian rubber and guttapercha; and though last, perhaps most valuable of all, the Sewing Machine. Unlike most labor-saving machines, this, though it has undoubtedly lightened to some extent the labors of the individual woman, has vastly increased the amount of labor, and the number of laborers in the aggregate. Through the multiplication of sewing machines, an amount of sewing is now accomplished every year which would have been impossible thirty- five years ago, if every daughter of Eve, of adult age, had worked with the needle from early morn to tbe evening twilight. And the demand for needle-work, since it can be done by machines, keeps steadily ahead of the sup- ply- We propose then, at the close of the first generation since the sewing machine became a practical addition to human labor, to review its history, without injustice to any of the inventors who have immortalized their names in connection with it, and to classify, as far as possible, the different machines which have been and are candi- dates for popular favor. The idea of sewing by machinery is more than a hundred years old, but the earliest efforts to give practical expression to this idea were unsuccessful. The first on record was a machine patented in England July 24, 1755, by Charles F. Weisenthal; this had a needle with two points and an eye at m id -length. Its purpose was rather to make the tambour-stitch of the embroiderer, than to perform any ordinary sewing. The next sewing machine was that of Thomas Saint, of England, who obtained a patent July 19, 1790. This man seems to have understood, with remarkable clear- ness, the main essential features of the invention, for his machine had a horizontal cloth-plate, an over-hanging arm, at the end of which was a needle working vertically, and a "feed" working automatically be- tween the stitches. These features have been preserved in every successful machine ever made. The needle was notched at the lower end, to push the thread through the INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. 353 goods, which had been previously punc- tured by an awl. As the needle passed upwards, leaving a loop in the thread, a loop-check caught the loop and held it until the needle descended again, enchaining the thread of the new loop in the former one. In 1804, an Englishman, named Duncan, made a chain-stitch machine, having a num- ber of hooked needles, which passed through the cloth and were supplied with thread beneath the goods by a feeding needle, whereupon the needles receded, each drawing a loop through the loop pre- viously drawn by itself through the cloth. In 1818, Rev. John A. Dodge, of Monk- ton, Vt., invented, and, with the assistance of John Knowles, an ingenious mechanic, constructed a machine having the double- pointed needle and eye at mid-length. It made a stitch identical with the ordinary " back-stitch," and was furnished with an automatic device for " feeding " the work. Mr, Dodge never applied for a patent, nor attempted to manufacture any more ma- chines, because of the great pressure upon his time as a pastor, and further on account of the bitter opposition of journeymen tail- ors, who denounced the machine as an invasion of their rights. The first patent issued in America for a sewing machine was that of a man named Lye, in the year 1826. Lye's device could hardly have contained any useful or strik- ing features, for when the fire of 1836 destroyed all the Patent Office Records, it consumed all that remained of this ma- chine. In the year 1830 Barthelemy Thimon- nier, a Parisian, invented a machine which operated much as Saint's did, except that the needle was crochetted, and, descending through the goods, pulled up a lower thread and formed a series of loops upon the upper side of the goods. Eighty of these mac 1 lines, made of wood, are said to have been used in 1830 in Paris, for mak- ing army clothing; but were destroyed by a mob on the plea that they were depriving journeyman tailors of their daily bread. Thimonnier escaped and made other machines, of metal ; but these, though pat- ented in France in August, 1848, and in the United States September 3, 1850, had toe m ny defects to become anything more than a i important step in the onward march oj! this great invention. The invent- or died in great poverty in 1857. The next approach to success prior to 1846 was made by "Walter Hunt, of New York City, in the years 1832-3-4. His machine had a curved needle, with an eye near the needle-point, which was operated on the end of ik vibrating arm. A loop was formed beneath the cloth by the need- le-thread, through which a shuttle, reeling off another thread, was forced back and forth with each stitch, making an inter- locked stitch like that now made by the best machines. George A. Arrowsmith, a blacksmith, of Woodbridge, N. J., being of ai speculative turn, bought one-half of Walter Hunt's invention in 1834, and af- terwards acquired the remainder. Soon afterwards, Adoniram F. Hunt, a brother of Walter, was employed by Arrowsmith to construct some sewing machines upon the same principle, but differing somewhat in arrangement of details from the original. These machines were made and operated at a machine shop in Amos street. New York City. Arrowsmith neglected to ob- tain a patent upon the machine for reasons which, in the light of events now past, make singularly interesting reading. He assigned three reasons for not procuring a patent: (1) He had other business; (2) the expense of patenting; (3) the supposed dif- ficulty of introducing them into use, say- ing, it " would have cost two or three thous- and dollars to start the business." There appeared also a prejudice against any ma- chine which had a tendency to dispense »with female labor. A proposition made by Walter Hunt to his daughter to engage in the coi'set-making business with a sewing machine was declined, after consultation with her female friends, principally, if not altogether, as she afterwards testified, "on the ground that the introduction of such a machine into use would be injurious to the interests of hand-sewers. I found that the machine would at that time be very unpop- ular, and, therefore, refused to use it." About 1852 Walter Hunt bought back Arrowsmith's interest in his machine, and applied for a patent, but was refused on the ground that, although unquestionably the inventor, he had forfeited his rights, by his neglect and the sale of his invention. In 1841 Newton and Archbold patented the eye-pointed needle in England, although it had been used certainly for eight and pos- sibly for twenty years in this country. The next patent issued in this country 354 SEWING MACHINES. for a sowing machine was granted Febru- ary 21, 1842, to J. J. Greenough, of Wash- ington City. This machine used a needle having two points and one eye, and made the " through-and-through," or shoemak- er's stitch. Whatever may have been its merits, it proved of no value to the public, as very few machines were ever built. A machine for making the " running " or " basting " stitch was patented March 4, 1843, by B. W. Bean, of New York City; but we believe that no machines were ever built for sale. A patent was granted, De- cember 27, 1843, to Geo. R. Corlies, of Greenwich, N. Y., for a machine similar to Greenough's; but like his, there were few if any machines ever put upon the market. Except possibly one or two other ma- chines like Bean's, making the running stitch, the next sewing machine patent of any importance was that granted to Elias Howe, Jr., of Cambridge, Mass., in 1846. Howe was but an indifferent mechanic; his inventive genius was far inferior to that of Thimonnier or Walter Hunt, or to any of the hundreds of skilled workmen who have since done so much to make the sewing ma- chine perfect, but he possessed indomitable will, patience,and perseverance; and though at first the outlook was gloomy enough, yet in the end fortune favored him far beyond his deserts. His own story was that he first grappled with the idea of constructing a practical sewing machine in 1843, but for a year approached no nearer to his ideal, than at first; in 1844, he claimed to have, invented the eye-pointed needle,, and the interlocking shuttle, both of which had not only been invented but used in sewing ma- chines by Walter Hunt twelve years be- fore, and, as he afterwards admitted, he knew that they had been invented ; the eye- pointed needle had,moreover, been patented in England three years before. In 1845 he had a machine which worked fitfully and intermittently, and for this in Sept., 1846, he obtained a patent. Dr. E. H. Knight, in the American Mechanical Dictionary, thus describes the machine: "It had a curved eye-pointed needle attached to the end of a vibrating lever and carrying the upper thread. The shuttle carrying the lower thread between the needle and the upper thread, was driven in its race by means of two strikes, carried on the ends of vibrating arms, worked by two cams. The cloth was suspended by pins from the edge of a thin steel rib called a baster-plate, which had holes engaged by the teeth of a small intermittingly moving pinion. This was the feed." His claim, granted in his patent, covered, broadly, the formation of a seam for uniting two pieces of cloth, by the combined action of an eye- pointed needle and shuttle, , or their equiva- lent, interlocking two threads. The whole machine was crude and imperfect, and until materially modified by able and more skill- ful meehanics it was never able to do good or continuous work. Among other difficulties, two seemed insuperable: the baster-plate did not answer any good pur- pose as a, feed, and the vertical suspension of the material was both awkward and ob- jectionable; the tension was not regulated, so that the machine would skip stitches, make large loops at some places, and draw the thread too tightly at others. Machinists who attempted to sell and introduce the machine found themselves unable to do so; the tailors and seam- stresses all opposed it, and the few who were willing to try it, were unable to make it work satisfactorily. They could only sell territorial rights for its manufacture, and this was really a fraud, as nobody could make the machines work. Indeed, look- ing at. the matter with the experience of thirty-six years, it seems wonderful that this worthless machine did not absolutely kill the production of anything like a sew- ing machine for the next fifty years. The good points about it, the eye-pointed needle, the shuttle and the interlocking of the two threads in what is known as the " lock- stitch," — were not of his invention but had been known and used previously, while everything he did invent failed to work, and has long since been abandoned. Among these things were the curved needle, the needle-arm, swinging like a pendulum in an arc of a circle, the clamp or baster-plate, and its vertical position, the feed motion, the two shuttle-drivers entirely distinct from each other, and the single acting treadle. It is a sufficient commentary on his own subsequent opinion of these inven- tions that when, ten or twelve years later, Mr. Howe entered upon the field with a machine of his own, not one of these pecu- liar inventions found a place in it. The broad clar.ns of his patent to the eye-point- ed-needle and the shuttle and lock-stitch, saved him from financial ruin, and inflicted INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. 355 upon the public a very heavy contribution for his support. For five years after receiving his patent, Mr. Howe's invention lay substantially dor- mant. It is doubtful whether a single ma- chine constructed by him, or by machinists who strictly followed his specifications in this patent, ever could be made to do any continuous, or satisfactory work. His brother, A. B. Howe, who built most of his machines, and who made some im- provements which enabled them to be used with moderate success, was in the habit of saying, years after, that Elias Howe never made a machine that would work. The two brothers went to Europe in 1847 or 1848, and secured a patent in England in the name of another party; but after re- peated trials they were unable to make a satisfactory machine, and returned so poor, that Elias Howe was obliged to pawn his effects for his wife's homeward passage, and to work as an ordinary deck hand for his own. Meantime other and more skillful me- chanics were busy inventing sewing-ma- chines which might prove of more practi- cal value. The first patent for an improve- ment upon Howe's machine was issued to John Bradshaw, of Lowell, Mass., for a device to regulate the tension of the thread, and was dated Nov. 23, 1848. On the 6th of February, 1849, J. B. Johnson and Charles Morey, of Boston, Mass., obtained a patent for a machine, having a circular or continuous baster-plate, which was an improvement upon the straight baster plate of Howe ; but other and more valuable im- provements, for the same purpose, soon su- perceded this. May 8, 1849, John Batchel- der, of Boston, Mass., obtained a patent for an improvement to regulate the feeding of the cloth, automatically, by the machine. And about the same time a patent was also granted to J. S. Conant, of Draeut, Mass., for an improvement designed to accom- plish the same purpose, by a different ar- rangement. Both Morey and Johnson's and Batchelder's machines, and, we be- lieve, Conant's also, were single-thread ma- chines, making the loop or ehain-stitch, ami having new devices, both for feed and ten- sion. Batchelder's feed had a rotating-pin surface, moving about a horizontal axis, and carrying the material over a horizon- tal cloth-supporting surface. Johnson in- vented the needle-feed, which possessed considerable merit, and which was, with some modifications, revived fifteen or eigh- teen years later. On the 2d of October, 1849, Blodgett and Lerow, of Boston, ob- tained a patent for a machine to make the shuttle-stitch by a method different from that of Howe, the shuttle describing a cir- cle instead of moving back and forth. The introduction of this machine, though it was clearly an infringement of Howe's patent, proved a decided advantage to him, as a considerable number of the machines were made and sold, and their operation, though far from perfect, did much toward con- vincing the public that sewing could be done by machinery. Blodgett was a tailor, and had attempted to sell Howe's ma- chines, and his knowledge of their defects led him to invent an improvement. On the 12th of Nov., 1850, Mr. Allen B. "Wil- son, since and now of the "Wheeler & Wil- son Manufacturing Company, patented a machine with two improvements; one a new device for feeding the cloth, termed the " two-motioned feed," (afterwards improved and patented again as "the four-motioned feed,") the other a shuttle, pointed at each end, which made a stitch at each moveim nt, while in Howe's machine the shuttle had to go and return at every stitch. This greatly expedited the sewing, and was a decided advance on Howe's machine, but it did not satisfy the inventor, and was eventually abandoned. Pursuing the strict chronological order of the issue of the patents, we come next to that of Mr. William 0. Grover, and his subsequent partner, Mr. Baker. These gen- tlemen patented Feb. 11, 1851, a sewing machine having two distinguishing fea- tures, viz., the double loop, or Grover & Baker stitch, and the method of producing it, which was by a circular under needle, as a substitute for the shuttle, which recip- rocated with a curved eye-pointed needle above. In the summer of 1851. Mr. Gro- ver, without any knowledge of Mr. AVil- son's invention of the " four-motioned feed," invented a feed device substantially similar to it, for which a patent was issued to Grover & Baker June 22, 1852. There was at first some difficulty between Mr. Wilson and Messrs Grover & Baker in re- gard to this feed, but it was compromised, and both companies, as well as many others, have since used this arrangement. In September, 1850, Mr. Isaac M. Singer, 356 SEWING MACHINES. an ingenious mechanic, then living in Bos- ton, but subsequently of New York, who was familiar with Blodgett & Lerow's ma- chine, made an agreement to invent an improved sewing machine, and to have it built for forty dollars, two of his friends, Messrs, Phelps and Zieber, who had assist- ed him, being equally interested with him in it. He built it in eleven days, using the eye-pointed needle and shuttle, but making his needle straight instead of curved, hav- ing a needle bar moving vertically, turning Howe's baster-plate over upon its side so as to make it horizontal instead of vertical; inventing a roughened feed-wheel extend ing through a slot in the top of the table, attaching his two shuttle carriers to the same bar, and causing the shuttle to move steadily and regularly in a horizontal groove, contriving a spring presser-foot, by the side of the needle, to hold the work down, an adjustable arm for holding the bobbin containing the needle thread (this was subsequently abandoned), and a double- acting treadle. Though the machine re- sembled Howe's in many respects, it con- tained many new features, and when its tension was regulated, worked well. It is somewhat remarkable that all these inven- tions of Mr. Singer, with one exception, are retained to this day in some of the Singer machines. Those machines are much better finished now, and work with but little noise or clatter; they have changed somewhat the modes of distribut- ing their motive force, but in all essential particulars the principles are substantially the same, as when Isaac M. Singer com- pleted his first machine in Boston. This machine was not patented till Aug. 12, 1851 On the same day, Aug. 12, 1851, Mr. Allen B. Wilson, who had abandoned his shuttle machine, and had been busily en- gaged for several months in perfecting a new idea, patented a new machine, having associated Mr. Nathaniel Wheeler with himself in the patent. This machine had no shuttle, bat a rotating or revolving hook, which carried within its concavity a double convex circular bobbin, and a con- cave ring which held it in place. This hook caught the loop from the descending eye-pointed needle, which was slightly curved, and passed it around the bobbin, which thus performed the function of the shuttle. These three companies — the Grover & Baker, the Singer, and the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Companies — were for twenty years and more known as the "three great companies," or after their arrangement with Mr. Howe, the "Great Sewing Machine Combination," which for more than twenty years exacted tolls from every manufacturer of sewing machines in the country. As we have already said, Howe's patent, like his machines, lay dormant for five or six years, and these three companies had gained a footing which, though it was the result of hard labor, and in defiance of opposition from tailors and seamstresses, and indeed from every class who used the needle in their work, and of scoffing unbe- lief from the hundreds and thousands, who were convinced beforehand that the whole thing would prove a failure, seemed likely eventually to give them ample reward for their toil. They were destined to be awakened, rather roughly, from this sweet dream of peace. Mr. Elias Howe, who had never made a machine which would work satis- factorily, notified them that he held patents which they had infringed, and that they must immediately cease manufacturing, until licensed by him, must pay $25,000 each for their past violations of his patent, and agree to pay him a heavy royalty for every machine they should make in the future. At first all resisted this prepos- terous demand; but the patents had been well and carefully drawn, and though they claimed for Howe points to which he was not entitled, yet there was great difficulty at that time in proving their invalidity in a court of law, and meantime their busi- ness would be ruined. The next two or three years were prolific in law suits, but Grover & Baker, and Wheeler & Wilson, having compromised, Singer & Co., who had stood out longest, and were regarded as the chief offenders, came into the com- bination, which, from 1854 to 1877, largely controlled the entire sewing machine pro- duction in the United States. Howe had exacted from 1851 to 1853 the sum of $25 for every sewing machine made by any manufacturer. In May, 1854, Singer & Co. paid him $15,000 royalty on the ma- chines they had already manufactured, and by the "Albany Agreement" the three companies agreed, until the expiration of INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. 357 his patent in 1860, to pay him $5 each for every machine they should make, except those which they exported, and to exact from all other manufacturers outside of the combination $15 royalty for each machine manufactured, this royalty including, how- ever, the patents held by the three com- panies, on the four-motioned feed, form of the needle, form of the shuttle, etc., etc. Of this $15, five was paid to Mr. Howe, and the remainder divided between the companies according to their patents. In 1860 Howe's patent was renewed for seven years, but the royalty was reduced to $1 each for the three companies, and to $7 for the licensees. The combination was kept up, on the other patents and on some new patents which Howe had taken out, until 1877, when it expired, Howe and his heirs having received from it over two million dollars, and the three companies some five or six millions. Until 1854 there were no new ma- chine companies which possessed much vitality. In that year the Weed, which has been several times materially changed and remodelled, the Parham and the Finkle & Lyon, both now practically out of the market, were patented. In 1855 the Florence, once a very popular ma- chine, but of late giving place to the "Crown," manufactured by the same com- pany, was the most important of the new machines. These were all shuttle ma- chines. From 1851 to 1860, Mr. Grover, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Singer were very ac- tive in their efforts to perfect their ma- chines, going over with great care the en- tire range of devices and principles which were supposed to be applicable to machine sewing, and canvassing with great zeal the comparative merits of shuttles of all forms, rotating and revolving hooks, every variety of feeds, tensions, take-ups, and all sorts of attachments. If they did not dis cover in those years every form or device which could be applied to sewing ma- chines, it was not for want of diligence, research, or mechanical skill. Doubtless they did overlook some points which have been since discovered ; but of the number- less sewing machine improvements and at- tachments which have been offered for patents in the Patent Office within the past five years, it will be found that very many (and some of them patented) are the ideas of these skillful inventors presented under a new form. In 1867, a sewing machine involving a new principle, or at least a new application of it, was patented. The patent was granted to Mr. James E. A. Gibbs, of Millpoint, Va., for a machine with a rotat- ing hook, using a single thread, and mak- ing the twisted-loop stitch, a variety of the chain-stitch, not liable to the objections made to that stitch. This machine was subsequently much improved by the addi- tion of other devices, and particularly of the tension, and form of the hook, by Mr. James Willcox, of Philadelphia, and his son, Mr. Charles H. Willcox, both skill- ful mechanicians. It has become widely known as the Willcox & Gibbs Automatic Sewing Machine. The Empire (since consolidated with the Remington) a shuttle machine, the Slote or Elliptic, having a hook with elliptic mo- tion, which came under the Wheeler & Wilson patents, and was subsequently owned by them, but is now out of the market, and the two Howe Machines, (the Elias Howe and Amasa B. Howe) both shuttle machines, were all patented in or about 1858. We think neither of these are now manufactured to any considerable extent, though the " Elias Howe " at one time had a very large sale, especially for leather work. The American Button Hole and Sewing Machine Co., the Aetna (now we believe defunct), and the original Do- mestic, under Mack's patents, were all put upon the market between 1860 and 1864. These were shuttle machines. The Beck- with machines, now out of the market, one making the loop stitch, the other the double-loop, or Grover & Baker stitch, and both having a modification of the needle- feed, with a smooth plate and a vibrating needle-bar, were first patented in 1S65. They were hand machines, and had a con- siderable sale. When Howe's original patents,as extended, expired in 1S67. a large number of new machines were put upon the market. Among these were the Vic- tor, a successor, with considerable improve- ments, of the Finkle & Lyon, the Rem- ington, which soon absorbed the Empire, the Aetna, the Bartram & Fanton. the Bartlett Reversible (all we believe now extinct), and the Domestic, which, under its new owners, with important improve- ments, presently stepped into the front rank of new machines, as involving a com- bination of principles which, though not 358 SEWING MACHINES. new, had not previously been brought to- gether in one machine. About the same time, too, appeared the "Davis" machine, which, with some improvements, became somewhat later a leading machine and the type of an important class — the Secor, Blees, Whitney, and Braunsdorff's new Aetna — all now out of the market, were among the other machines of this period. This brings us to the Centennial year, and indeed to 1877, when the last patents of the great combination expired. Although it seemed at the Centennial Exposition as if the world was full of sewing machines, and the great companies were so strong that all further competition was useless, unless backed by a capital of at least a million dollars, yet from 1877 to the pres- ent time (1882) more than fifty sewing ma- chines have been patented, and of these at least forty are now actively engaged in manufacturing, and the sales of the new companies in 1880 were nearly 350,000 machines. The greater part of these were shuttle machines, though two or three had some contrivance for producing a chain or double-loop stitch, and it was remarkable in how many cases old, forgotten, or re- jected devices, were invented anew. The greater part, however, had some new de- vice for producing, changing, or modifying the running gear, some using cams and rocking shafts, some eccentric levers, some the bevel gearing, some applying the force from above, and controlling the under ac- tion by force transmitted from the arm, while others controlled the action of the needle-bar, presser-foot, and feed from a shaft or eccentric under the plate. The form and action of the shuttle and shuttle- carrier was the subject of many patents; the shuttle race was straight, curved, or circular; the shuttle itself was round, flat, boat-shaped, or spherical; its action was straight-forward, curvilinear, oscillating, vibrating, or rotary; usually it went through the loop, but sometimes it fur- nished a loop, through which the needle passed. The feed was equally varied ; the four-motioned feed rising from below and forcing forward the material, no longer reigned undisputed; there were needle- feeds, and feeds without needles; the four- motioned feed was transferred to the upper works of the machine, and descended upon a smooth or roughened plate, along with the needle-bar and presser-foot, stepping forward with each stitch; there were double feeds, one ascending from below as an auxiliary to the upper feed, already de- scribed, and acting uniformly with it to clamp the material that it might not slip, others acting independently; and if there is any other possible variety of feed, it has certainly been invented and adopted by some of these machines. Another and very important feature claim- ed by these later machines, was their ability to manufacture larger articles of clothing or bedding, as manufacturing machines, from the greater height and length of the over- hanging arm. The necessity of this has been, we think, overestimated. With ma- chines making the lock stitch, there ought to be no difficulty in doing this work from the left side of the machine, as well as from the right, and thus avoiding the neces- sity of placing the work under the over- hanging arm at all. Most machines have now extension-leaves to their tables, and there is certainly room enough, outside the machine, for the largest piece of work. Some of the new machines have recog- nized this fact; others would have saved money if they had done so. This enlarge- ment of the overhanging arm necessitates the packing of all, or nearly all the run- ning gear in that arm, and unless great caution is observed in making the parts for transmitting the force to the under side of the bed plate, strong and simple, there will be two results to follow, both of which will be objectionable; the racking of the top-heavy machine by the treadle motion will soon displace some of the smaller parts, and the machine will not work well — perhaps not at all; and the same racking motion will cause it to skip stitches, and to derange the tension to such a degree as to spoil the work. Some of the new machines have made a specialty of the tension. We have auto- matic tensions, easily regulated and self- regulating tensions, besides some which are not so easily regulated. In every di- rection this preternatural activity is push- ing its way, endeavoring to find or make some new combination, which will enable these eager inventors to produce a machine which shall be in some, perhaps in many respects, an advance upon all those that have gone before it. In many cases the result will be a complete failure, in some a INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. !59 moderate success, following in a path al- ready indicated; in a very few there will be developed an originality, either in the ap- plication of mechanical principles, not new, but not hitherto applied successfully to sewing machines, in some way which will be a positive advance; or a new combina- tion of principles heretofore applied, in such a way as to obtain better results with less labor. The sewing machine builder of the present clay, may not hope to stumble, by any accident or ignorant blundering, upon any such good fortune as was possi- ble, perhaps, thirty years ago; every step must be taken with a thorough mechanical knowledge of the result to which it leads, and there will be an absolute certainty, that oftentimes, when he supposes himself to be traversing fields hitherto untrodden, he will find the foot-prints of some previous inventor who has tested, and perhaps pat- ented, the very invention on which his heart is set, only to find that it would not answer his expectation, and has consequent- ly rejected or dropped it. "We have thus given a chronological his- tory of the introduction of sewing machines upon the American market; let us turn now to a more interesting phase of the sub- ject, — the gradual development of the sewing machine idea in the minds of in- ventors and the public, in these thirty-six years which have elapsed since Howe ob- tained his first patent. The first idea which took possession of the minds of Saint, of Dodge, Thimonnier, Hunt, and Howe, and to some extent, also of Grover, Singer, and Wilson, was to pro- duce a machine which would make stitches, and which when perfected, would enable the tailor or dressmaker to sew with some- what greater rapidity than could be done by hand, the long straight seams. That it would do anything more than this, or that it would do even this, more than passably well, was an assumption, which had not at that time entered any of their minds. Hunt and Howe were the first to make the lock-stitch, and to use the shuttle, and of the three eminent inventors who fol- lowed them — Grover, Singer, and Wilson; only Singer used the shuttle. There was a reason for this. In the first stage of the invention, there were three theories of machine-sewing which presented 'themselves to the minds of the inventors. Hunt. Howe, and Singer regarded sewing with two threads as a species of weaving, as it really is, and hence the shuttle naturally suggested itself to their minds as the thread- carrier. Saint, Thimonnier, and Wilson conceived the idea that machine-sewing was to be really a modification of the em- broidery process, and the first two simply adapted their machine to the making of the tambour or single loop stitch, while Wilson, a more accomplished mechanic than the others, while employing the hook to pull up the loop of thread presented by the eye-pointed needle, deemed it necessary to pass it around his disk-like bobbin, and thus substantially introduced a shuttle of circular form. Grover, more strongly im- pressed than the others, with the idea that machine-sewing was only a species of em- broidery, discarded all forms of shuttles, and formed his peculiar stitch, which was really an embroidery stitch, by means of a circular under-needle reciprocating with a curved eye-pointed needle above. But, however different their theories of the stitch, they were substantially agreed in many other points. They all used eye- pointed needles, but neither they nor Howe had invented these; their running gear dif- fered very little, and only in those points which their different action required; if one plan was preferable to anothei*. Singer's ideas seemed to deserve the greatest credit, since his beveled gearing has remained sub- stantially unchanged. In the matter of feeds, Wilson and Grover seem to have been more successful than Singer; the four-motioned feed, invented by them, hav- ing proved more satisfactory than Singer's wheel-feed. The tensions adopted by each differed very little, and all required fre- quent adjustment. Singer alone had at first a straight eye-pointed needle, all the others were curved. At first it was very difficult to induce anybody to use a sewing machine. Its supposed sphere of action was limited; it could sew straight seams of considerable length; though, if the tension was not just right, and sometimes, if it was. from some other cause, no good work could be done on it. When after long and patient ex- periments and slight modifications, it began to come into use, it was still, for the most part, the manufacturers who wanted it: and new manufactures sprang up, which would not have had an existence, but for the sewing machiue. The shirt manufactures 360 SEWING MACHINES. took a new departure, and though nearly one-half the work had still to be done by hand, yet the price of shirts was greatly reduced. Ready-made clothing was also made more largely. As yet, everything had to be basted, and generally all corners turned by hand, and there was more than ever for the hand- workers to do. In leather goods not requiring a waxed thread, the machine was winning a reputation, and the heavy machines of Singer, and later of Howe, Weed, and Wheeler & Wilson, were in demand for their production. About 1856 or 1857, the first consider- able effort was made to introduce the sewing machine into families. Lighter and easier running machines were devised for this purpose, and soon several new machines were put upon the market. The Wheeler & Wilson Family machine, though not with- out some defects, proved for many years the most popular machine for family use, and by many of those who had become accustomed to its use, even their New No. 8, in many respects a much better machine, was received with many doubts of its su- periority over the old favorite. These doubts were dispelled in time, and both new and old continue to be very popular. The Singer Company had also completed a family machine, which proved a great favorite. The Grover & Baker Company, then the leading company in the business, produced a shuttle machine for family use, while the Weed and Florence were claim- ing their share of the rapidly increasing business. Several other shuttle machines were also invented about this time, which subsequently attained reputation as manu- facturing machines. One new competitor for the family trade deserves special notice, not so much for the large amount of its sales, for others have greatly surpassed it in this respect, as for the new principles it involved. Receiving its first patent in 1857, and others for sev- eral of the following years, the Willcox & Gibbs sewing machine has been almost the sole representative of the single-thread twisted-loop stitch. It has fought its bat- tles in behalf of this stitch, and the use of a single thread, with a gallantry and cour- age which has won the admiration even of its enemies; its addition of the automatic tension gave it a new prestige, and though it has never been exactly popular, in the sense of being the machine used by the poorer classes,it is well and favorably known and has many warm friends. For its light and noiseless running, its perfect tension, and its admirable finish, it has no equal among the numerous machines in the market. The expiration of Howe's first patent in 1860, and the consequent reduction of the royalty under its extension to $7.00, was the signal for the introduction of several new shuttle machines upon the market, among them the two Howe machines, the Empire, American Button Hole, ^Etna, etc. These were generally upon the Singer model, with some variations, though some of them had substituted cam movements for the bevel wlieel gearing of the rotating horizontal and vertical shafts. At that time (1860) there had been a little more than 130,000 sew'mg machines sold under Howe's patent, of which about 55,000 were turned out by Wheeler & Wilson, 40,000 by Singer & Co., and 35,000 by Grover & Baker. Only 2000 Howe machines had been made up to 1860, and these with mod- ifications, by A. B. Howe. Singer & Co., had led in the amount of sales from 1852 to 1854 ; Grover & Baker from 1854 to 1858; Wheeler & Wilson from 1858 to 1868, and Singer gained and has kept the leadership from 1868 to the present time. The new sewing machines patented in 1860, had hardly begun to appear in the market, when the civil war commenced. The necessity for furnishing complete out- fits, not only of uniforms, overcoats, caps, and shoes, but of underclothing, bedding, and hospital clothing, at once, for a half- million of men, soon to be increased to two millions, brought into immediate use every sewing machine which could be made to sew. In some of the eastern cities, where regiments were to be sent off in great haste, every lady who owned a sewing machine, sent it to a public hall, and following and using it herself, drove it night and day, Sundays and all, till the task was finished. Those were golden days for the sewing machines. They were manufactured in great numbers, set at work as soon as finished, and kept at work till the close of the war. It has been said, and we doubt not with truth, that the Union armies would have failed, if the ag- ricultural machines, reapers, mowers, har- vesters, horse-hoes, etc., had not been in- vented previously; that by the labors of the. INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. 361 women and children with these machines, the great harvests were gathered, and the supplies for the armies and people kept up. With equal truth, we might say that but for the sewing machines it would have been impossible to clothe these vast armies, and to supply the hospitals with needed cloth- ing and bedding; and at the same time to meet the home demand, reduced though it was, by anxiety that the soldiers should have the best. The Sanitary and Chris- tian Commissions and their auxiliaries, dis- bursed during the war seventy millions of dollars in money and supplies, and fully one-third of this was for underclothing and bedding for the hospitals and camps. The impulse thus given to the clothing, underclothing, cap, hat, and shoe trades, was not lost after the close of the war, but resulted in the manufacture on an immense scale of the underclothing for both sexes, of children s' clothing, women's dresses and suits, even those of the cheapest material, and the better as well as the cheaper qual- ities of men's clothing; shoes and boots, caps and hats, the latter classes made on machines of peculiar construction, invented specially for their production. There grew up also a great demand for the production of machines suited to the use of the milliner and dressmaker, — fine and delicate hemming, gathering, felling, tucking, binding, cording, plaiting, scollop- ing, braiding, ruffling, shirring, quilting, embroidering, making button holes, and trimming with the button-hole stitch. This was the era of attachments, not be- tween the fair maids who operated the machines, and their male admirers, but attachments of quite another sort, — de- vices which, when attached to the ma- chine, enabled the skillful operator to execute, with more or less perfection, all these kinds of work, which had previously been done only by hand. Here was an- other step forward ; and the machine was so far perfected that it was able, when skillfully operated, to do almost everything which the most skillful needle-woman could do by hand. As yet, they had not attained to the art of sewing over and over, though even that is now probably accom- plished, by an attachment recently patent- ed. These attachments were adapted to the use of all the machines. What remained to be invented ? Not much, thought the great sewing machine companies in 1867, when the Howe patents expired, and the Victor, Remington, Do- mestic, Home, Davis, Secor, Blees, New iEtna, and Beckwith came forward as ap- plicants for public patronage. All of these, except the last named, were shuttle machines, but some of them had developed new features of construction which made them formidable competitors for the honors which were waiting for the best machine. The Victor, Remington, Howe, Secor, Blees, and New ^tna were constructed much on the Singer model, an admirable one for many purposes, whose serviceable qualities have made it the leading machine in the country, in regard to the number sold ; but, even with the slight changes made in the machines which were copied from it, it was asserted that it did not run so light, or with so little positive effort or noise, as some of the others. The Willcox & Gibbs machine had long reigned with- out a competitor in this particular, but now two or three of the new machines entered the lists with it. Foremost of these were the Home, Domestic, and Davis. The Home (not the " New Home ") soon fell out of the race, but the Domestic and Davis have continued to this day. The Domestic combined in its construction three points not previously combined in one machine; the large and high arm, the rotary shaft in the arm, and the swinging shuttle below the bed plate. In all those machines which had adopted one or other of these devices, there had been a failure to secure the greatest advantages to be derived from them in consequence of the use of cams, bevel gearing, or other objectionable means of connecting them with the driving shaft and the other moving parts of the machine. The prime idea of Mr. Mack, the inventor of the " Domestic," was to secure all these advantages, with the minimum of disad- vantage. He adopted the swinging shut- tle-carrier and a rotary needle arm, thus giving the desired large space for work. He belted directly on to the needle arm, thus making it serve as a main or driving shaft for the combined systems. From eccentrics on this shaft, he gave motion to the shuttle and feed-moving devices by swing levers, thus operating the three sys- tems of needle, feed, and shuttle move- ments without a cam, gear, or other objec- tionable device. His other improvements and inventions consisted of specific de- 362 SEWING MACHINES. vices for carrying out the details of these and the other processes, such as tensions and take-ups, necessary for an efficient and popular machine. There is not so much originality of invention in this machine as in some of the earlier machines, but the admirable combination has resulted in pro- ducing a light-running, easily-driven ma- chine, for either family or manufacturing purposes, so simple as not to be liable readily to get out of order, and capable of very rapid motion without much vibration. So marked are these advantages, that the Domestic has become not only the pioneer but the type, which has been followed, in its general features, by a considerable num- ber of the new machines brought out since 1876 or 1877. Among these, the most prominent are the White, New Home, Dauntless, St. John, and Royal St. John, Eldredge, Crown, Fairbanks, Household, Springfield, New Stewart, Morrison, Hart- ford, and Boston. The Davis sewing machine, originating in a town of moderate size, at a distance from the large cities, and not seeking the city trade at first, was longer in becoming generally known to the public than some of its competitors; but it possesses some new features which entitle it to special no- tice, and render it very popular. In the Davis machine, the shaft, pulley, and fly-wheel occupy the same position, relatively, to the other parts, as in the Singer machine, and the vertical motion of the needle bar is produced by the usual crank-pin moving in a heart shaped cam; but there the similarity to the Singer ends. The arrangement for operating the shuttle, the motion of the shuttle (a swinging mo- tion in a curved path), the shuttle-carrier, and the shuttle itself, are similar to those of the Domestic machine, as described above; but there is nothing under the bed- plate except the shuttle and the devices for operating it. The feed apparatus, which in principle resembles the four-motioned feed, is transferred from its usual position beneath the bed-plate to the head of the machine. It consists mainly of a vertical bar placed close to the presser-foot, whicli receives suitable vertical and horizontal motion from mechanism contained in the head of the machine. The presser-foot, instead of being con- tinuously urged downward upon the work, is lifted slightly at the instant that the for- ward motion takes place. The feeding is accomplished while the needle is in its lowest position, and the needle partakes of the forward motion of the feed- bar, pin- ning the two or more plies together, and causing both to advance equally. The goods rest upon a perfectly smooth sur- face, being held firmly by the presser-foot, until the feed has "stepped" forward. At this time the needle penetrates the fabric, the pressure is automatically transmitted to the feed (which comes down on the goods close behind the needle), and the presser- foot is raised. When the needle has reached its lowest point the full pressure has been transmitted to the feed, and it and the needle-bar are moved together the desired length of the stitch, both moving in unison at their highest and lowest points. In practice, this vertical feed works ad- mirably; the stitches are of uniform length, and there is no skipping; the two or More plies which are to be sewed together al- ways come out even, it being impossible for one to be stretched and the other fulled or gathered; it sews elastic goods well, making a smooth and flexible seam, with stitch alike on both sides, and it is self- adjusting, sewing any number of thick- nesses, and operating with equal facility on the thickest and the thinnest goods. But it does more than this : one of its peculiarities, the result of this transference of the feed to the upper surface of the goods, is that it requires no basting, and in hemming, no previous folding and turn- ing in; this feed also enables the operator to turn the work at any angle or curve while the machine is in motion, without changing the tension or length of stitch, and thus it can easily do in a given time more work than any underfeed machine which uses two threads. Its attachments are numerous, and so ingeniously con- trived, that there is nothing in the milli- ner's, dressmaker's, or tailor's trimmings which cannot be produced by them. We have been thus particular in describ- ing the action of this machine because we regard this vertical feed as a new depar- ture, the development of a new principle, and one which, in some descriptions of work, is an advance on all that have pre- ceded it. In plain sewing it may not be, and probably is not, superior to the Domes- tic, the Wheeler & Wilson, or the Singer, but in all those branches of work INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. 363 which task the highest skill of the needle- woman, it is an improvement upon them. It is emphatically a ladies' ma- chine, and well adapted for all the light- er kinds of manufacturing; and inasmuch as it can be operated equally as well from the left as from the right side of the needle- bar and feed, we can see no reason why it should not be well adapted to the heavy work of manufacturers. Among the new machines which have adopted this arrangement of an upper feed, with or without modifications, are : the Manning machine, of Philadelphia, the Post machine, the Rotary Shuttle Sewing Machine, of Foxboro', Mass., and perhaps some others. , The last-named machine has several new ideas which commend it to consideration. Besides its upper feed, which, though having a slightly notched termination, is substantially like that of the Davis, (and the contrivance of the same inventor,) it has also what is called an aux- iliary underfeed, with a smooth terminal surface, acts either with the upper feed, clamping the material between the two, or independently of it. The upper feed acts only when the needle is out of the material. It has also a rotary shuttle, with a round bobbin, which occupies a vertical position and makes a complete revolution with each stitch. This seems to be in some respects similar in its action to the rotary hook of the Wheeler & "Wilson machines, though the shuttle first catches and then passes through the loop. The machine is new upon the market, but has impressed the most eminent judges very favorably. Some of the new machines, like several of the old ones now out of the market, undertake to make the lock stitch, the twisted loop stitch, and the chain stitch. It is undoubtedly possible to do this, and it has been done, by the dextrous manage- ment of a skillful expert, even on so stanch and standard a machine as Wheeler & Wilson's No. 1 ; but the use of it is not so evident. Those who desire the lock stitch do not care for the other kinds, and those who prefer the twisted loop stitch, prefer to have it with all the adjuncts of the Willcox & Gibbs machine, which give it more than half its value. But while we are recounting whr-t the new machines are doing, or proposing to do, we must not forget that the older companies have not been laggards in the race of improvement. The Singer Com- pany have found time to perfect a modifi- cation of their manufacturing machine, intended to work more easily and noise- lessly, (their family machine remaining without change,) but so great has been the demand for their present machines, both in their great manufactory in Eliza- beth. N. J., and in their extensive works at Glasgow, Scotland, that they have not yet been able to manfacture any of the new machines. The Wheeler & Wilson Company have added some improvements to their No. 8, a family machine, with overlapping hook, differential disc, straight needle, and inde- pendent take-up, which, as the new No. 8 is worthy of all the praise which can be bestowed upon it. They have also pro- duced a new manufacturing machine, No. 10, with a long and high arm, and a rotary shaft, easy-running and not noisy, which, for its purpose, seems to be very nearly perfect. They have also two other machines for special manufacturing pur- poses, the No. 6 and the Cylinder Ma- chine, which are very well adapted to the work for which they are designed. Other specialties, such as button-hole making, sewing over and over, and shirring, have received their attention. The shirring machine is an ingenious little device, run by hand, and with two peculiarly-formed little needles, which shirrs silk, muslin, cambric, etc., in two parallel lines at any prescribed distance apart, with great rapidity. The Grover & Baker Company, which was long so popular, has now entirely withdrawn from business, having been merged in the Domestic S. M. Co. The Willcox & Gibbs Company, whose auto- matic tension has been the wonder and despair of the sew T ing machine men, have introduced two new adaptations of their machine, one for straw hat sewing, which has proved very popular, the other for the simultaneous sewing and trimming of seams of stockings, shirts, and drawers. The Weed machine, after varied ex- periences of light and shadow, have added to their always popular -'General Favor- ite" manufacturing machine, a family ma- chine, as we have already noticed, of the " Domestic " type, but with some improve- ments, in the way of light-running, stitch- regulating, tension, etc., which are likely 304 SEWING MACHINES. to give it a prominent position among the new machines, 'ihey have named it the " Hartford." The "Home" machine, which had at one time a high reputation, has given place to the "New Home," or Johnson, Clark & Co's machine, one of the Domestic type, and this, as well as the White, also a new machine, are rivalling their prototype in the extent of their sales. Most of the new machines, as well as many of the old ones, have adopted new details, which are real improvements. Among these are the self-setting needle, the loose wheel, automatic bobbin-winder, and extensive nickel plating. The whole number of machines pro- duced by the various sewing machine com- panies at their factories here and abroad, (some of them having very extensive man- ufactories in Europe), in the year 1880, cannot be ascertained with exactness ; but enough is known to make it certain that it ranged between one million and twelve hun- dred thousand machines, almost ten times as many as had been made in the fourteen years, 1846-1860, before the expiration of Howe's first patent. In this vast produc- tion the Singer Co. takes the lead, as it has done since 1868, and probably at its factories on both sides the Atlantic, turns out nearly one half of all the machines made; the Wheeler & Wilson produced about 100,000, the Domestic, New Home, and White followed with nearly 90,000 each, and the other companies, to the number of nearly sixty in all, ranged from 50,000 down to 1,500 each. By another year, or within three or five years, the fig- ures for the third, fourth, and fifth places may be changed, some of the newer aspi- rants for fame taking the lead. The grand total of production to the close of 1880 considerably exceeds 10,000,000 ma- chines. It was about 5,800,000 at the close of 1875. There have also been sewing machines made for special kinds of work, which, though not adapted to the general purposes of sewing, are yet very important members of the sewing machine family. Among these, there are several classes especially deserving of notice. First, the Button- Hole Machines. At a very early period it was seen that in order to com- plete, by machinery, the work of manu- facturing clothing, it was necessary that there should be machines or attachments which could make button-holes; inasmuch as the use of the button and button-hole, had been declared by an eminent philoso- pher, the most complete test of civilization, the savage always using strings, instead of buttons and button-holes. The button- hole stitch did not present any serious difficulties to the men who had invented sewing machines, and before long there were several button-hole attachments placed on the market ; some of these worked very well, making a fairly-stitched button-hole, and even ornamenting, with the button- hole stitch (a pretty embroidery stitch), the edges of cloth gaiters and other articles of dress; others were less successful; the but- ton-hole stitches being too far apart. But there was one defect common to them all; while the best made very good stitches, none could make what was known as the eye of the button-hole, a round termination of the button-hole at the end where the button strained upon the button-hole. This was necessary in all woolen and leather goods for the more ready buttoning of the garment, and for the greater durability of the button-hole. It seems to be settled that button-holes with eyes can only be produced by a separate machine; that pecu- liarly-shaped cams and slides, which only come into action when needed, must guide the needle in the formation of this button- hole eye. Two machines have been invented which perform the work successfully, one of them the property of the Singer Co., and called by their name, though not in- vented by their mechanicians. This ma- chine, we believe, is not sold, but rented at a nominal sum to the manufacturers of clothing who pay a small royalty for every dozen button-holes made. It does its work admirably. The other is made by the American Button Hole and Sewing Machine Co., and also make a good button- hole, but we have no means of knowing what are their arrangements with the manufacturers. The stitching of the uppers of shoes and boots with silk or thread, has been well performed by several of the regular sewing machines. The manufacturing machines of Singer, Howe, Weed, Wheeler & Wil- son and some others, have been especially liked for this work. But sewing with waxed threads has been attempted, many times, by the most ingenious mechanician* INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES. 365 of our times; but until 1880, without suc- cess, except in the sole-sewing machine of McKay and Blake. Of that machine we will speak presently. In 1877, a company which had been experimenting for two years with the French waxed thread ma- chine of Hurter & Hautin, finally despair- ing of success with it, as, in practice, it seemed rather an oiled thread than a waxed thread machine, employed Mr. S. W. Ward well, Jr., an eminent inventor, to modify that machine, or invent one which should accomplish the work well. After three years of hard work, Mr. Ward well perfected a machine, which meets with gen- eral approbation, and is likely to prove a great boon to leather workers. It is in- tended for harness making, the sewing of the seams of light and heavy boots, leather hose and belting, single and double. The difficulties in the way have been, that the wax would adhere to and clog the needle. The upper thread in the eye-pointed needle would catch upon the loop from the shut- tle, or the shuttle thread would catch, and there would be constant delays, breaking of threads and needles, and imperfect work. Mr. Wardwell's contrivances warm the thread so as to keep the wax flexible by means of a steam or hot water chest and pipes in its whole course ; prevent the loop from touching the needle or shuttle, bring the two threads home firmly and closely, and penetrating the material with an awl from below, just in the track of the needle, secure the filling of this awl-hole perfectly by the thread, prevent any skipping of stitches or imperfect work, and do the work rapidly and elegantly. What the McKay Sole sewing machine was to the shoe manu- facture, this machine seems destined to be to all descriptions of leather work requir- ing waxed threads. The company retain the name of the Hautin Sewing Machine Co., and their factory is at Woonsocket, a l The McKay Sole Sewing Machine Co., whose patent expired in August, 1881, has been already described at some length under the head of " Leather Manufactures." It kept the waxed thread warm and flexible by means of an alcohol lamp in a horn which was a part of the machine and was thrust into the shoe or boot. The ma- chine revolutionized the shoe trade, and its owners received in royalties and rent during the existence of the patent more than $10,- 000,000. Among other machines for special pur- poses, we may name the Cylinder machines for sewing seams on sleeves, trousers, boot- legs, leather buckets, hose, etc. ; the carpet- making machines, which have never come into very general use; the machines for making the patent ruffling, scam-sewing machines for knit underclothing, straw- sewing machines and book-sewing ma- chines (one of which, said to be more per- fect and rapid than any previous one, was invented in 1881); but lack of space forbids our going into details concerning them. If any apology is needed for the space already occupied, it may be found in the fact that the humble and imperfect ma- chine, which so nearly ruined its inventor, thirty -six years ago, and which has really had a practical existence of not more than thirty years, has, in that time, been intro- duced in every civilized land, and into the humblest and poorest homes, as well as the palaces of the rich; it has drawn from the public more than three hundred millions of dollars, while its influence and the extent of its sales is constantly increasing. It is, in all respects, an American invention; and when we remember what it has already accomplished for the benefit of hu- manity, and what are to be its beneficent results in the near future, we feel justified in regarding it as the most valuable boon which American inventive genius has yet bestowed upon the world. //• fA M w i n 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ii i ii 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 M 1 1 mural OVERSTRUNG SCALE FOR GRAND PIANOS, INVENTED BY STEINWAY & SONS. Showing the construction of the Patent Iron Cupola and Pier Frame, with its braces, the fan-like disposi- tion of the strings, and sound-board ring-bridges ; the patent resonator ; the patent duplex scale, and the patented design of the iron frame with its ornaments and fastenings. 1— I c« S3 04 03 <". r o < O o c3 fc +3 O y. S 43 o >< -*-» Tl 0) v. ■~ K cs H > C/J 03 P*> ^O -/. T) ~ 9J O = -: © cS o Dfl 7. fefl o 00 00 CI o o r^ o pH -t-3 > — fci / 5 >~> c - CJ rt o £ fe H MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. Passing over the class of band instruments, the violin and its congeners, the flute, guitar and harp, all of which, though manufactured here, are substantially the same as European instruments, and none of them have been materially improved, we have only space to speak of the piano and the class of reed in- struments. The church organ might indeed challenge our attention, but this has only kept pace with the foreign instrument in its improvements. The piano has been improved in compass, tone and ability to imitate the musical sounds of the human voice, during the past eighty years, more than any other musical instru- ment; and most of these improvements have originated in the United States. The in- strument in its earliest history was a devel- opment of the old clavichordium, a German invention dating about 1500, and first de- scribed in 1511. It was a very imperfect affair for the next three hundred years, and the principal improvements made in it and connected with its change of name to piano- forte, were made in Germany in the 18th century by Christian Gottlieb Schroeder, a native of Saxony (1699-1784,) and Henry Pape of Wurtemberg, the ancestor of a long line of eminent pianists. The German in- struments were the best as late as the begin- ning of the present century, but they were poor and wiry in tone, and were tolerated rather than admired. Between 1790 and 1810, several important improvements were made in the piano by Broadwood, Southwell, and Stodart, English manufacturers. These improvements were for the most part in the action, and in the compass of the instrument, which at first was only four or five octaves, but has been increased to seven, seven-and- a-half, or eight. The general principle of all piano-fortes is the same, but there are very great differences of detail in the actions of different makers. The making of pianos is divided into four departments: — 1st. The framing and sound board ; 2d. The stringing ; 3d. The keys and action ; 4th. The case, whether orna- mental or plain. The frame was originally of hard wood, but of late years is made of iron, very strong, of few parts and securely bolted or screwed together, or, as is the American plan, cast in one piece, to resist the severe tension of the strings. Some manufacturers isolate the frame, in bedding it in the case, by causing it to rest on rubber or other elastic supports. At suitable dis- tances along this frame, and usually arranged in a harp-like form, are pins or studs of metal projecting directly from the metallic frame. To these pins or studs the strings, of steel or brass wire, some of them wound with soft iron, others with copper or silver wire, are attached, each wire being bent about it ; the wires are of course of different lengths, and stretched across one or two elevated bridges or supports, to iucrease and divide their vi- bratory power. Beneath the strings is the sounding board, originally made of a single thin, carefully-prepared board, so held in place that the middle portion is left free to vibrate. Among the American improve- ments on the sounding board, one is that of making it double, so as to form a second chamber, the ends only being secured ; an- other manufacturer forms it of thin veneers of different woods, the grain running in dif- ferent ways, to secure a greater resonance and the vibratory force of each. The action of the piano consists of a series of small hammers so arranged that by the pressure of the finger upon the keys of the key-board, the hammer corresponding to the key is made to strike the string and cause it to vibrate with a certain, ascertained force. The tone thus produced would be too wiry and metallic if not softened by the interpo- sition of leathers, cloth, felt, or other sub- MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 369 stance, which mellows and sweetens it. The case maybe more or less ornamental, accord- ing to the desire of the purchaser, but it has nothing to do with the musical qualities of the instrument. As will be readily per- ceived, there is a wide field for modifications of detail, and these have been abundantly tried. Till about twenty-five years since, a considerable number of English, French, and German pianos were annually imported, but now American pianos not only supply our own market, but the two International Ex- hibitions of 1862 and 1867 fully demon- strated their superiority, in many particulars, to those of the best European manufacturers. We can only briefly review the progress of this manufacture in the United States. Early in the present century, attempts were made to manufacture pianos here by Odjorn, by J. Thurston, and by Stodart, a son of the piano-maker of that name in London. But it was reserved for an American-born citizen, by his assiduous labors and inventive genius, to make the piano-forte a source of delight to hundreds of thousands of his countrymen. In 1823, Jonas Checkering, a young me- chanic from New Hampshire, commenced their manufacture in Boston, and possessing mechanical ingenuity as well as musical skill, he soon began to improve the instrument. He made the entire frame of iron, in order to enable it to resist the better the immense strain of the tense strings, and at the same time to increase the resonance and purity of its tones. He also devised the " circular scale," with the " arch-wrest planks," or "tuning blocks;" both these improvements were speedily adopted by other manufac- turers in Europe and America. His other improvements, which have been numerous, have given his instruments the highest repu- tation. Other manufacturers have invented valuable modifications and additions to the instrument, but to Mr. Chickering must be accorded the honor of having given that im- pulse to the business and maintained that position which makes American pianos to- day the best in the world. Among the im- provements introduced by other piano-mak- ers, have been the JEolian attachment of Obed Coleman ; the adoption by several manufacturers of the over-strung bass in square pianos ; the bedding or insulation of the iron frame by Mr. F. C. Lighte; the use of soft elastic washers to soften the tone, by the same manufacturer ; the double sound- board of Mr. S. B. Driggs, intended to in- crease the volume and sweetness of the tones of the instrument; the bell-metal bridge of Messrs. George Steck & . Co., and their method of constructing their boudoir or up- right piano ; the patent combination sound- ing-board of Messrs. Raven & Bacon, and the cycloid form of the piano of Messrs. Linde- mann & Sons, having the same purpose. Messrs. Steinway & Sons have applied the patent Agraffe arrangement directly to the full iron frame, and have also obviated the difficulties which had been experienced in the construction of the upright piano, by their patent resonator, and double iron frame. Their instruments took the highest premium over the competing pianos of the best manu- facturers of Europe, at the International Ex- hibition in London, in 1862. Both their instruments and Chickering's have a very high reputation in Europe, and in the Paris Exposition of ] 867, both received the highest premium. The Steck, Knabe, Weber, Deck- er, Stodart, Bradbury, and Hallet, Davis & Co. pianos, as well as some others, are also excellent instruments, and some of them are thought to surpass the great manufacturers in their square and boudoir pianos. The Chickerings have made over 55,000 pianos, a larger number than any other manufac- turers. The entire production of these in- struments is probably not far from 50,000 per annum. EEED INSTRUMENTS. These are all the inventions of the present century. The first use of metallic reeds (vi- brating tongues of metal,) for musical pur- poses, in Europe or America, was the Eolo- dicon of Eschenberg, of Bohemia, invented about 1810. This was followed, in 1821, by the accordeon, which, whether of small or large size, was little more that a musi- cal toy. The rocking melodeon, as at first constructed, was only an amplification of this, and as in the English and French melodeona, the air was forced outward through the reeds, in order to produce musical sounds. The reeds, moved by this forced current, frequently caught, or did not vibrate prompt- ly, especially the highest and lowest notes. About the year 1S40, some of the rocking or lap melodeons, constructed by several manu- facturers on an improved plan, gained consid- erable reputation. The reeds of these were fastened to, and vibrated in. a small square 370 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. metallic pipe, which was inserted through the top of the wind-chest, with the points of the reeds downward^ the rear ends of the keys resting on the open ends of the metallic pipes, and thus forming the valves. About 1840, another improvement was adopted in the lap mclodeons, which gave them a better charac- ter of tone, and contributed to tl^eir intro- duction as accompaniments to church music. The reeds were riveted upon a piece of brass swedged or bent so as to form three sides of a square, the edges of which were then in- serted in grooves made for them upon the up- per side of the wind-chest, directly over the valve mortice ; and, in order to bring the point of the reed to vibrate oh the inside, the reeds were made to pass through their sockets to the under side, and thus naturally took the form of a double curve, somewhat re- sembling the letter S. This curving the reeds improved the tone, and on this ac- count was adopted by most of the American manufacturers, though liable to the objec- tion of retarding the promptness of the re- sponse of the reeds. In 1846, Mr. Jeremiah Carhart secured a patent for a certain construction of bellows, with other combinations, to operate the reeds by suction or drawing in, instead of forcing out the air, since known as " the exhaust plan." This invention gave to these instruments an improved quality of tone, greater durability, more simplicity of construction, increased promptness of utter- ance, uniformity of tones, and an equal distribution of power through the entire scale. The melodeons made on this plan by Carhart, and subsequently by Prince & Co., were at first small, of only one size, having but four octaves of reeds, and ex- tremely plain in style. After two or three years, they were increased in size, extended to 4i and 5 octaves, and had two sets of reeds. This was about the utmost compass possible for the melodeon. Another improve- ment, made about 1849, was the change of form of the bellows, the exhauster being placed on the upper side of the reed-board, instead of underneath the bellows ; this enabled the performer to operate the bellows more easily. The tones of the instrument still lacked soft- ness and sweetness. This difficulty was reme- died, in 1S49, by a discovery made by Mr. Emmons Hamlin, now of Mason & Hamlin, but then with Prince & Co. He found that, by slightly twisting each of the already curved reeds, this harshness was overcome, and the tones rendered soft and musical. In 1855, the firm of Mason & Hamlin, formed the previous year, offered to the pub- lic their " Organ Harmonium" an instrument having 4 sets of reeds and two manuals of keys. The reeds extended from ccc in the "bourdon" to c"" f in alt, or seven octaves. Two blow-pedals were also attached to it, which enabled the performer to produce ef- fects not hitherto attained by any reed instru- ment in this country. In 1861, after numerous experiments, Messrs. Mason & Hamlin suc- ceeded in perfecting their " School Harmo- nium," simplifying the construction, but re- taining all the good features of the larger in- strument. In this instrument, the bellows was first placed vertically. This and the other improvements were soon after adapted to the organ harmonium, which thenceforward became capable of receiving a more elegant form, and, in 1862, was brought out in its present shape, as the "Cabinet Organ." Its history since that time has been one of constant improvement, by which its compass, variety and sweetness of tone have been en- hanced, while its rapidity of action enables it to render secular music with fine effect, and to become a formidable rival of the piano. Of these improvements, the chief are, the Double Bellows; the improved Self-adjusting Heed Valves; the Automatic Bellows Swell, an addition of great practi- cal value ; the Sounding and Tube Boards, which increase the resonance of its tones ; the Noiseless Safety Valves, regulating the pressure and escape of the wind; and the Improved Combination Register, which facili- tates the drawing and closing of the stops. The resonant chamber is another valua- ble addition to these instruments, and by minor improvements they have been with the last fifteen years (to 1881) constantly increasing in the public favor till the pres- est production for home and foreign con- sumption is not less than 50,000 organs per annum. The great competition in the man- ufacture has reduced the prices, though not the excellence of the instruments. The Mason & Hamlin Co. still main- tain the excellence of their instru- ments; but Estey & Co., Peloubet, the Sil- ver Tongue, S. D. & H. TV. Smith, the Burdett Organ Co., D. F. Beatty, the Shon- inger Co., and others all make good and desirable organs. THE "CENTENNIAL " ORGAN. Built by E. & G. G. Hook & Hastings, Boston, Mass. 38 feet wide; 40 feet high; 4 Manuals, 32-feet Pedals. MILLS. 373 MILLS. The universal dependence of the human family upon bread as food, has no doubt caused that article to be aptly designated as the "staff of life." It has been made of many substances, but in the American colonies, from the earliest times, Indian corn, wheat, and rye have been the leading if not the only materials. The laborers of Europe have only since comparatively re- cent dates used grain commonly for bread. The peasants of the south of France for long ages used only chestnuts and similar fruits for the purpose. In Germany, rye forms the native ''black bread" made of the grain ground but unbolted. The Scotch use oat-meal and barley for bread. The English use wheat commonly, as is the case now mostly in America. Here, however, the .vai'iety and abundance of animal and other food is so great that wheaten bread enters less into the daily diet of the masses than would otherwise be the case. Whatever the grain used, however, milling is the first necessity, and the number and capacity of the mills must always be proportioned to the numbers of the people. We find, therefore, in the returns of the manufac- turing industry of the Union for 1850, published by order of Congress, that of the whole value produced, 81,019,106,616, by far the largest item was the products of flour and grist mills. This amounted to $136,056,736, or rather more than 13 per cent. Next to this industry, the highest production was of cottons, the most gen- eral material for clothing, and that prod- uct reached $65,501,687. The largest mill interest was in the state of New York, where the product was $33,037,021. The census of 1840 gave the number of flour mills in the Union for that year, and if we compare the population and crop of wheat as reported, with the number of flour mills, the results are as follows: — Population. 1840 17,069,453 1850 23,191,877 1860 31,443,322 1870 88,558,871 1880 50,152,866 Wheat Raised. No. of Flour Bueh. Mills. 84,823,272 4.364 100,485,944 11,891 173,104.024 13,868 287,745,686 22,573 480,849,700 In order to get the quantity of wheat floured, it is necessary to deduct from this production the quantity reserved for seed and for other purposes, and what is ex- ported as grain. Prom the earliest settlement of the coun- try, flour has been an important article of export, and New York wheat early gained a reputation as well abroad as at home. During the wars of Napoleon, the valley of the Hudson furnished large supplies of flour, and milling was a very profitable business. Water-power was generally used. Mills concentrated where this was to be had ad- vantageously in the neighborhood of good supplies of wheat. The mills of Rochester, New York, where the famous Genesee wheat was floured, were a grand example of well-applied water power. The Balti- more and Richmond city mills acquired great reputation, andof late years St. Louis, Chicago, and Milwaukee have become fa- mous for the excellent quality of their flour, and their flouring mills are of great extent and perfection. The mills at Louis- ville are also on a grand scale. But the largest and most complete flouring mills in the world, are those in Minneapolis, Min- nesota. There are 26 of these, covering a flooring space equal to 24 acres, having 359 pair of stones in actual use, and ship- ping in 1880 an average of 7,000 barrels of flour a day, or 2,150,269 barrels a year, aside from the large amount reserved for home consumption. These mills all use the "New Process," by which, by means of what is known as the middlings purifier, the gluten and phosphates of the wheat are preserved in the flour; the quality and healthfulness of the product is improved; eight per cent, more flour is obtained from a bushel of wheat, and the spring wheat, to which this process is particularly adapt- ed, yields flour of the best quality. The process of grinding the grain so as to make the best flour, is one of consider- able difficulty, and the grinding apparatus differs in different mills, according to the greater or less proportion of gluten con- tained in the wheat, the character of flour to be produced, the amount of power at command, and the rapidity with which it is desired effect the grinding. The mill stones which are most generally used are known as French burr-stones, and are silicious stones of peculiar quality of which the best are from La Ferte Sous Jouarre, in the Paris basin — though very good mill stones of a different quality are found at Andernache, on the Rhine. Burr-stones are found also near Savannah, Ga., m Ar- kansas, and at other points in this country. 374 MILLS. but they are thought to be inferior to the French. For some years it was believed that the larger the size of the millstones the better the flour which could be pro- duced from them, and they were procured from four to six feet in diameter and weighing from 14 to 16 cwt. These were enormously expensive, and were generally built up of fragments cemented together. The surfaces were generally level but grooved, the direction and course of the grooves being mathematically determined. This grooving is common to millstones of all sizes. It was found that where the wheat contained a large percentage of gluten the millstones became easily clogged, and required a great expenditure of power to move them even slowly, while if rapid movement was attempted, the millstone would fly in pieces, to the destruction of life and property. The stones required also constant adjustment. At first the upper stone was the one which moved, while the lower was fixed; but it was found better to have the upper fixed and the lower move; then the lower was made conical, or at least the frustrum of a cone. Finally it was discovered that smaller mill- stones did their work much more perfectly, with far less danger and with less expen- diture of power and money. Stones not exceeding twenty inches in diameter and weighing not over 170 pounds, yield the best product and require only four or five horsepower to drive them. The Pesth Walz Muhl, the finest flouring mill on the continent of Europe, dispenses with mill- stones altogether and grinds or crushes the wheat between grooved steel rollers (the hai'dest steel being used), the grooves being parallel to the axis of the rollers, and the set of rollers being three pairs in number, placed at some distance apart, and six or seven sets being required to complete the process. We are not aware that this method of grinding has been introduced here at least on a large scale. The products of the grinding (the wheat having been subjected to the cleaning pro- cess in the smut and decorticating ma- chines), are groats or grits, the coarser por- tion of the gluten, flour of different grades from the very finest to middlings and bran. The loss is about 3 per cent in the best mills, and consists of silica, dirt, the awns of vegetable hairs, at the prow or smaller end of the grain, &c. The bran or scales which are mostly composed of the cortical portion of the grain should not exceed 18 per cent., and the other 79 per cent, should consist in the proportions of 45 and 34 per cent, of extra flour and common or me- dium flour. The groats or grits pass through the grinding process a second time and are mingled with the best flour, or in some instances are packed by themselves as wheaten grits. They constitute the most nutritive portion of the wheat. The extra white A 1 . pastry flour is really the least nutritious portion of the grain, being composed almost entirely of the starch and its associated albuminoids. Year. Flour Mills. Capital Invested. Production. 1850 1860 1870 1880 11,891 13,868 22,573 $54,415,581 84,585,004 151,565,376 $136,056,736 248,580,365 444,985,143 The following table shows the produc- tion, in quantity and value, of wheat by decades, and the quantity and value of ex- ports of wheat and flour for the same periods: Decades. 1830-1840 1840-1850 1850-1860 1860-1870 1870-1880 Wheat Produc- Wheat Production Wheat Export. tion. Bushels. Values. Dollars. ! Bushels. 395,783,638 926.596,080 1,367,954,340 1,831,236,833 3,602,277,118 454,151,1,' 4 1,019,256,688 1,400,858,781 2,610,247,593 3,345,641,456 2,456.9^6 13,131.506 55, 255,528 220,115.271 667,935,801 Flour Export. Barrels. 9,334,896 18,559,525 28,927,786 31,212,518 39,665,327 Wheat and Flour Wheat and Flour Reduced to Export Values. Wheat, Bushel-. Dollars. 49,131,466 105,929,131 199,894,458 376,177,861 866,262,436 59,134,033 116,1 1 1 .:!. 775 255.170,346 521,426,460 1,080,673.035 The statistics of production and value of the first three decades are estimates, but represent very nearly the actual produc- tion. The export statistics are from the Treasury reports. But wheat flour and wheat are not and never have been the only breadstuffs ex- ported, as by a reference to the chapters on agriculture, it will be seen that they are not even the most important of our cereal products. But we are speaking here of flouring mills and their products, and so must confine ourselves to these. "We ex- ported in the last decade, 1870-1880, over MILLS. 375 3,500,000 barrels of Indian meal, worth about $12,300,000. We also exported 537,000,000 bushels of Indian corn, most of which would be ground on the other side of the Ocean. The corn represents a production of 12,268,210.440 bushels— of a value of $5,061,354,552. The barrels of meal exported represent a production of about 28,000,000 barrels, worth not far from $98,000,000. We also exported about 122,000 barrels of rye flour, worth about $707,000. This would indicate the production of at least 1,000,000 barrels of rye flour and meal during the decade, worth about $6,100,000. There are also other food products from the cereals, of which probably corn starch, maizena, farina, oat meal, wheaten grits, rolled, cracked and pearl wheat, and pearl barley, in their order, are the principal. We have no means of ascertaining the quantity of these produced, but the value of our exports of them in the last decade was about $9,100,000, and this would in- dicate the value of the entire products as not less than $75,000,000. The manufac- ture of buckwheat flour has also attained considerable magnitude. FUMITURE. CHAPTER I. The use of furniture is one of the marks of a high civilization, and when the articles of need or luxury which come under that name, have assumed forms of artistic beauty, which commend themselves to a cultivated and refined taste, alike in their conception and execution, the highest con- dition of physical culture may be said to have been attained. The savage tribes of our own and other countries had but little use for anything in the way of furniture. The tent — usually of skins — the hut or booth, of logs, bark, or oftener of branches of trees, — or the cave or excavation in the hillside — constituted their dwelling. If they were nomadic, it was the tent or tepee with its poles and covering of skins, which was their resting-place, and this when taken down was conveyed from one point to another on the backs of Indian ponies, donkeys, or mules, or among the Northern tribes on the dog sledges — or in default of these on the shoulders of the squaws. The furniture of the tepee was very slight. There were no seats, for the Indian squatted on the ground; there were no beds, for he lay on the skins of wild beasts, or the boughs of the fragrant pine; there were no wash-bowls or basins, for he never washed; a gourd or a leaf cup an- swered for drinking purposes when he did not bow down and lap the water from the brook; and this was only necessaiy when he could not obtain the potent fire-water. His meat, his principal food, whether the flesh of the buffalo, the antelope, the horse, the Rocky Mountain sheep — the deer or elk, was never cooked as we cook it, but either eaten raw or slightly scorched by being held to the fire on t'he point of a sharp stick. "When he deigned to eat vegetables, the corn, or yams, or arti- chokes were roasted in the ashes. His garments were few, and made of skins, either dressed in their rude way, or with the hair or fur on, and these were worn for a lifetime. The Indians who dwelt in towns, Pueblos, as they are called at the West, had in their rude huts of clay or adobe, some furniture. There were seats, made either of logs or adobe. There were some attempts at bedsteads, — terraces or ben- ches, covered with skins, and they were adepts in some forms of pottery, drinking vessels, water jars, and the like. They spun and wove from the numerous textiles around them, and the wool of their sheep, some garments of rather tasteful forms, and produced from the gold and silver which abounded in the hills, ornaments for the wrists, ankles, neck, breasts, ears, lips, and nose, which generally bore some re- semblance to animals with whose forms they were familiar. These articles of fur- niture or display, however, cost them dear as they were, by the greed of the Spanish adventurers taken from them, and they themselves reduced to a cruel slavery in working the mines, from which the precious metals had come. In the settlement of the United States our ancestors, most of whom were in comfortable circumstances for that period, brought w T ith them considerable quantities of furniture, or, as it was then called, household stuffs, to furnish the cabins which formed their first homes. In subsequent years when passengers were not so numerous, the vessels were largely freighted with furniture, many articles of which have since become historic. How many chests of drawers, chairs, tables, bed- steads, and mirrors came over in the May- flower, we shall never know, but the numbers of those articles which are traced back to that famous little vessel, and which are still in existence, would furnish an ample cargo for the largest of the White Star steamers. But as the newly arrived immigrants pushed westward through the trackless forests to the Connecticut river and be- yond in New England, to the Shenandoah FURNITURE. 377 valley in Virginia, to Beaverwyck, and the Mohawk valley in New York, or to similar distances in the other colonies, they found great difficulty in taking much furniture with them, and gradually reduced their imperative necessities almost to the savage standard. They reared rude but moder- ately comfortable cabins, for church and home, of the logs of the interminable for- ests; and benches and tables were made from split logs. The pine straw and the balsam and hemlock boughs made fragrant if not luxurious beds, and sometimes bunks or rough bedsteads were hewn out with the axe and heaped up with the boughs and covered with the skins of cattle or wild beasts. The iron pot was a necessity, and that was never missing, but gourds, co- coanut shells, and wooden bowls scooped out with axe or adze, answered for bowls and cups. Rude mortars for pounding the corn were made from stumps of trees, an overhanging limb being spliced with a solid block of wood to form a pounder. When saw mills and grist mills were es- tablished, and carpenters, joiners, and cab- inent makers began to ply their respective trades, these rough appliances were re- placed by those of more convenient con- struction, though, not till the eighteenth century, of much artistic beauty. Even up to the time of the revolution, away from the larger towns, it was only in the habitations of the very wealthy who were able to import such furniture as they needed, that anything of elegance in the way of furniture was to be found. The farmers and the country people gen- erally were content to sit on blocks, or on the rough and cumbrous settle by the great kitchen fire. The great table with almost timber enough for a house in it had slab benches without backs around it; wooden trenchers supplied the place of plates, wooden spoons, or sometimes those of horn, were substitutes for silver, and the steel or iron knife and fork were highly prized because they had come from over the water. A wooden bottle contained the cider, beer, or sweetened water, or some- times the pure spring water which was drawn off in gourds as wanted. The plat- ters as well as the trenchers were of wood. In the best room, kept dark and strewed with rushes, there were some splint-bot- tomed chairs, a small and generally very imperfect looking glass, perhaps a chest of 20 drawers from over sea, samplers of impos- sible colors, and designs which reminded one of the Gobelins tapestry by contrast, and if any of the family were musically inclined, a lute, or possibly a fiddle — the spinette, the ancestor of the modern piano, though at a distant remove, was to be found only in the houses of the very rich. The broad fire-place was garnished with branches of asparagus, and, if the family were aesthetically inclined, a few conch shells were arranged on the mantel-piece. Only the rich could afford the luxury of a clock, and very few even of these, were the proud owners of a watch. The noon mark and the position of the sun in the heavens were the indicators of time. With the creation and revival of manu- factures which followed the close of the revolutionary war, the manufacture of fur- niture became at first a small, but after the years of abject poverty and misery which followed the war, were past, a very considerable industry. The furniture pro- duced by the early cabinet-makers was not always very graceful or artistic, but it had the merit at least of being solid and sub- stantial. The bedsteads, bureaus, tables, and chairs of that period seemed to have been made for, and by, some of the sons of Anak, or the giants of Bashan. We re- member well a bedstead of mahogany made for one of the wealthy families of a New England town, not far from 1790, it was said, and which, when finally sold under the hammer, was found to weigh over a ton. With increasing population and a wide diffusion of wealth, came better grades of furniture, still not artistic, but of a plain and substantial character; the heavy arti- cles of furniture were replaced by those less ponderous; the splint-bottomed chairs gave place to seats of rushes skillfully woven and painted; to these succeeded the more pliable cane or rattan; and in the towns, a few ventured upon upholstered seats. The sofa and later the piano were introduced into houses of the better class. The tall four poster bedstead, except in the best guest chamber, gave place to the lighter and lower post bedstead without hangings. Clocks — Yankee clocks — were found in most houses, and crockery — and rarely China — replaced the wooden trenchers and platters, and silver table and teaspoons, the wooden spoons of the earlier 37S FURNITURE. times. The progress of furniture produc- tion was rapid, though it did not increase beyond the demand of the incoming popu- lation. In an evil day, veneers made their appearance, and very soon all of the ordinary grades of house furniture were made on bases of pine, white wood, or other cheap and soft woods, and veneered to represent the costliest mahogany, or even rosewood. As time drew on, great factories were es- tablished in wooded districts, away from the cities, the frame work made, and eventually the larger veneers applied, and then the furniture shipped to the larger towns and cities to be finished up there and sold to dealers in all quarters North, South, East, and West, and even to for- eign states, at apparently low prices, as ele- gant furniture of the latest and best de- signs. Another device was to enamel and paint the furniture made entirely of these cheap woods, so as to give it a very pretty appearance. Of course, these cheap wares made entirely of pine, paint, putty, and veneer did not last. It was never intended that they should; and the market was all the more brisk because furniture had to be renewed so often. With the increase of labor saving machinery and tools for per- forming the most delicate work, this trashy furniture has increased and is still increas- ing its production, and its decorations are often to the careless observer very attract- ive. Inlaying and the use of lacker, papier mache, and enamels, are resorted to, to make the merest trash appear valuable and salable. But disgust with this worthless furni- ture has led to the production of articles of a much higher quality, and some of them of artistic designs and of great beauty. This better class of furniture is made of solid woods, except in upholstered goods, and even in those all the exposed portions are solid; most of it is hand- wrought, and though availing themselves of the best tools, there is no slighting of any part of the work. If carved, the carving is done by a skillful carver, and the furniture, though generally following, rather slavishly, the prevalent European styles, such as the Eastlake, and the less attractive and practical rococo and Louis XIV styles, is really honest and well made. With the introduction of the furniture designer, an artist, whose business it is to make designs for the furniture and be- longings of our more stately residences, in harmony with the dwellings themselves and their surroundings, there has come a further advance in the production of fur- niture which is thoroughly artistic and for the most part of original and American designs. These designs apply not only to the movable furniture, but to the decora- tion of the walls, the wall papers, if these are used, the carpets, and even the china and the decorations of the dining-room, the silver, and the framing and setting of the pictures, etc., etc. There is, of course, a great deal of false taste, and often an entire lack of taste, among those who have suddenly become rich, and this leads to great and ludicrous incongruities in furnishing their costly residences; but where they can be per- suaded to give up the furnishing and deco- ration, to a thoroughly honest and compe- tent designer, there are not usually many serious blunders. The manufacture of furniture has rap- idly increased within the past 25 years. In 1860 the census reported an annual production for the year 1859, of not more than 30 millions of dollars in all branches; the census of 1870 reported about 103 millions of dollars in all branches of the business. The statistics of the census of 1880 are not yet ready for publication, but enough is known to make it certain that they will exceed 200 millions. Of course, much the larger part of this immense sum belongs to the cheaper styles; which take with the million; but there has been nevertheless a very great advance within the last decade in the manufac- ture of good and artistic furniture, and the demand for it is increasing with equal rapidity. MODERN STYLES OF FURNITl'RE. KITCHEN OP 1770. KITCHEN IN 1870. 1776. EVENING DRESS. 1180. 1780. 1785. NG DRESS. 1795. EVENING DRESS. 1797. 1800. 1805. 1805. 1812. 1812. 1812. 1815. 1818. 1820. 1825. 1828. WINTER DRESS. 1833. 1833. 1833. 1833. 1840. 1844. 1850. FASHIONS FROM 1850 TO 1860. PLAIN DRESS OF VARIOUS PERIODS. EXTREME FASHIONS OF 1868-9. MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. The mineral wealth of the American colonies does not appear to have been an object of much interest to the early settlers. Congregated near the coast, they were little likely to become acquainted with many of the mineral localities, most of which are in the interior, in regions long occupied by the Indian tribes. The settlers, moreover, prob- ably possessed little knowledge of mining, and certainly lacked capital which they could appropriate in this direction. Some discov- eries, however, were made by them very soon after their settlement, the earliest of which were on the James river, in Virginia. Beverly, in his " History of the Present State of Virginia," published in London in 17 05, makes mention of iron works which were commenced on Falling Creek, and of glass-houses which were about to be con- structed at Jamestown just previous to the great massacre by the Indians, in 1622. This undertaking at Falling Creek is referred to by other historians, as by Stith, in his "History of Virginia" (1753), p. 279. A Captain Nathaniel Butler, it appears, present- ed to the king, in 1623, a very disparaging- account of the condition of the colony, men- tioning, among other matters, that "the Iron Works were utterly wasted, and the People dead; the Glass Furnaces at a stand, and in small Hopes of proceeding." The commit- tee of the company, in their reply to this, affirm that "great Sums had been expended, and infinite Care and Diligence bestowed by the Officers and Company for setting forward various Commodities and Manufactures ; as Iron Works," etc., etc. Salmon, in his '• Modern History" (1746), vol. iii, pp. 439 and 468, refers to the statement of Bever- ly, mentioning that "an iron work was set up on Falling Creek, in James River, where they found the iron ore good, and had near brought that work to perfection. The iron proved reasonal >1 v good ; but before they got into the body of the mine, the people were cut off in that fatal massacre (of March, 1622), and the project has never been set on foot since, until of late ; but it has not had its full trial." This author also refers to the representations of the Board of Trade to the House of Commons, in 1732, as contain- ing notices of the iron works in operation in New England. From various reports of the governor of Massachusetts Bay and other officials of this colony, there appear to have been, in 1731, as many as six furnaces and nineteen forges for making iron in New Eng- land, as also a slitting mill and nail factory connected with it. The first blast furnace in the colonies ap- pears to have been built in 1702, by Lambert Despard, at the outlet of Mattakeeset pond, in llymouth County, Massachusetts, and a number more were afterward set in operation to work the bog ores of that district. Their operations are described in the " Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society" for 1804, by James Thacher, M. D., who was himself engaged in the manufacture. In Rhode Island and Providenee Plantations, the same kinds of ore were found and work- ed at about the same period. Alexander gives the year 1715 as the epoch of blast furnaces in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsyl- vania. These enterprises were regarded with great disfavor in the mother country. In 1719 an act was brought forward in the House of Lords, forbidding the erection of rolling or slitting mills in the American col- onies, and in 1750 this was made a law. In Connecticut, Governor Winthrop was much interested in investigating the charac- ter of the minerals about Iladdam and Mid- dletown. In 1651 he obtained a license giv- ing him almost unlimited privileges for working any mines of "lead, copper, or tin, or any minerals; as antimony, vitriol, black lead, alum, salt, salt springs, or any other the like, to enjoy forever said mines, with the lands, woods, timber, and water within two or three miles of said And in 1661, another special grant MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 381 was made to him of any mines he might discover in the neighborhood of Middletown. . It does not appear, however, that he derived any special advantage from these privileges, although he used to make frequent excur- sions to the different localities of minerals, especially to the Governor's Ring, a moun- tain in the north-west corner of East Had- dam, and spend three weeks at a time there with his servant, engaged, as told by Gover- nor Trumbull to President Styles, and record- ed in his diary, in " roasting ores, assaying metals, and casting gold rings." John Win- throp, F.R.S., grandson of Governor Win- throp, was evidently well acquainted with many localities of different ores in Connecti- cut, and sent to the Royal Society a consid- erable collection of specimens he had made. It is supposed that among them Hatchett found the mineral columbite, and detected the new metal which he named columbium. At Middletown, an argentiferous lead mine was worked, it is supposed, at this period, by the Winthrops, and the men employed were evidently skilful miners. When the mine was reopened in 1852, shafts were found well timbered and in good preservation, that bad been sunk to the depth of 120 feet, and, with the other workings, amounted in all to 1,501) feet of excavation. The oldest Ameri- can charter for a mining company was grant- ed in 1709, for working the copper ores at Simsbury, Connecticut. Operations were carried on here for a number of years, the ore raised being shipped to England, and a similar mining enterprise was undertaken in 1719, at Belleville, in New Jersey, about six miles from Jersey City. The products of the so-called Schuyler mine at this place amounted, before the year 1731, to 1,386 tons of ore, all of which were shipped to England. At this period (1732) the Gap mine, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was first opened and worked for copper, and about the middle of the century various other copper mines were opened in New Jersey ; also, the lead mine at Southamp- ton, Mass., and the cobalt mine at Chatham, Conn. In 1734 a lead mine was success- fully worked in Wythe county, in south- western Virginia, and this is still productive. It is probable that, by reason of the higher value of copper at that period, and the lower price paid for labor than at present, some of the copper mines may have proved profit- able to work, though it is certain this has not been the case with them of late years. The existence of copper in the region about Lake Superior was known, from the reports of the Jesuit missionaries, in 1660, and one or two unsuccessful attempts were made to work it during the last century by parties of Englishmen. The lead mines of the upper Mississippi, discovered by Le Sueur in his ex- ploring voyage up the river in 1700 and 1701, were first worked by Dubuque, a French miner, in 1788, upon the tract of land now occupied by the city in Iowa bear- ing his name. Such, in general, was the extent to which this branch of industry had been carried up to the close of the last century. The only coal mines worked were some on the James river, twelve miles above Richmond, and the capacity of these for adding to the wealth of the country was not by any means appre- ciated. The gold mines were entirely un- known, and the dependence of the country upon Great Britain for the supply of iron had so checked the development of this branch of manufacture, that comparatively nothing was known of our own resources in the mines of this metal. The most impor- tant establishments for its manufacture were small blast furnaces, working bog ores, and the bloomaries of New York and New Jer- sey, making bar iron direct from the rich magnetic ores. The progress of the United States in these branches will be traced in the succeeding chapters, one of which will be devoted to^ each of the principal metals. CHAPTER I. IRON. The early history of the iron manufacture in the American colonies has been noticed in the introductory remarks which precede this chapter. Since the year 1750 the re- strictions imposed upon the business by the mother country had limited the operations to the production of pig iron and castings, and a few blast furnaces were employed in New England and the middle Atlantic states. A considerable portion of the pig iron was ex- ported to Great Britain, where it was admit- ted free of duty, and articles of wrought iron and steel were returned from that coun- try. In 1771 the shipment of pig iron from the colonies amounted to 7,525 tons. By the sudden cessation of commercial relations 382 on the breaking out of the war, the country was thrown upon its own resources, but was illy prepared to meet the new and extraor- dinary demands for iron. The skill, experi- ence, and capital for this business were all alike 'wanting, and even the casting of can- non was an undertaking that few of the fur- nace masters were prepared to venture upon. The bog ores found in Plymouth county, Mass., together with supplies from New Jer- sey, sustained ten furnaces ; and in Bridge- water, cannon were successfully cast and bored by Hon. Hugh Orr, for the supply of the army. They were also made at Westville, Conn., by Mr. Elijah Backus, who welded together bars of iron for the purpose. The Continental Congress, also, was forced to establish and carry on works for furnishing iron and steel, and in the northern part of New Jersey, the highlands of New York, and the valley of the Housatonic in Connecticut, they found abundance of rich ores, and forests of the best wood for the charcoal required in the manufacture. At their armory at Car- lisle, Pa., the first trials of anthracite for manu- facturing purposes were made in 1775. But the condition of the country was little favor- able for the development of this branch of industry, and after the war, without capital, ..a currency, or facilities of transportation, the iron business long continued of little more than local importance. The chief supplies were again furnished from the iron works of Great Britain, the establishment of which had in great part been owing to the restric- tions placed upon the development of our own resources; and while that country con- tinued to protect their own interest by pro- hibitory duties that for a long period exclu- ded all foreign competition, the iron inter- est of the United States languished under a policy that fostered rather the carrying trade between the two countries than the building up of highly important manufactories, and the establishment around them of perma- nent agricultural settlements through the home market they should secure. Hence it was that the manufacture in Great Britain was rapidly accelerated, improved by new inventions, strengthened by accumulated capital, and sustained by the use of mineral coal for fuel, almost a century before we had learned in the discouraging condition of the art, that this cheap fuel, mines of which were worked near Richmond in Virginia, before 1790, could be advantageously cm- ployed in the manufacture. The natural ad- vantages possessed by Great Britain power- fully co-operated with her wise legislation ; and as her rich deposits of iron ore and coal were developed in close juxtaposition, and in localities not far removed from the coast, the iron interest became so firmly established that no nation accessible to her ships could successfully engage in the samepursuit, until, by following the example set by Great Britain, its own mines and resources might be in like manner developed. Thus encouraged and supported, the iron interest of Great Britain has prospered at the expense of that of all other nations, till her annual production amounts to more than one-half of the seven millions or eight millions of tons produced throughout the world ; and the products of her mines and furnaces have, until quite re- cently, been better known, even in. the ex- treme western states, where the cost of " Scotch pig iron " has been more than doubled by the transportation, than has that of the rich ores of those very states. A nd thus it is the annual production of the Uni- ted States only reached 2,000,000 tons in 1869, notwithstanding the abundance and richness of her mines, both of iron ores and of coal, and the immense demands of iron for her own consumption. So great are the advantages she possesses in the quality of these essential materials in the production of iron, that according to the statement of an able writer upon this subject, who is him- self largely engaged in the manufacture, less than half the quantity of raw materials is required in this country to the ton of iron, that is required in Great Britain, " thus economizing labor to an enormous extent. In point of fact, the materials for making a ton of iron can be laid down in the United States at the furnace with less expenditure of human labor than in any part of the known world, with the possible exception of Scotland." ("On the Statistics and Geog- raphy of the Production of Iron," by Abram S. Hewitt, N. Y., 1856, p. 20). The tables presented by this writer, of the annual pro- duction, show striking vicissitudes in the trade, which is to be accounted for chiefly by the fluctuations in prices in the English market depressing or encouraging our own manufacture, and by the frequent changes in our tariff. "In 1810 the production of iron, en- tirely charcoal, was 54,000 tons. In 1820, in consequence of the commercial ruin which swept over the country just before, the busi- MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 383 ness was in a state of comparative ruin, and not over 20,000 tons were produced. Ykar. Product. 1828, 130,000 tons. 1830, 165,000 " 1832 200,000 " 1840, 347,000 " 1842 215,000 " 1845, 486,000 " 1847, 800,000 " 1852 564,000 " 1855, 754,178 " 1856, 874423 " 1857, 798,157 " Yeah. Product. 1859, 840,427 tons. I860, 913,774 " 1862, 787,662 " 1863, 947,604 " 1864 1,135,497 " 1866, 1,860,948 " 1867, 1,461,626 " 1869, 1,916,641 " 1870, 3 494,650 " 1878, 4,132,937 " 1880, 6,134,269 " There was a protective duty on iron from 1825 to 1837, but none from 1837 to 1843. From 1843 to 1848 there was protection, but none from 1848 to 1863. The high protective duty was modified in 18G6, and since that time the protection has been more and more moderate as the premium on gold declined. The tariff of 1870 reduced the duty from nine to seven dollars per ton on pig iron, and from eight to six dollars per ton on scrap iron, but the amount of capi- tal put in the business was so large, and the facilities for manufacture were so great, that it has gone on increasing, notwith- standing the reduction in the tariff, till we are in a position to supply the greater part of our demand. The capital invested in tl.e manufacture of iron and steel in this country, in 1870, was $121,772,074, a very great advance on the previous decade. In 1880, the capital invested was $230,971,- 884, an increase in the decade of $109,- 199,810, or 89.68 percent. Until the year 1840, charcoal had been the only fuel used in the manufacture of iron; and while it produced a metal far superior in quality to that made with coke, the great demands of the trade were for cheap irons, and the market was chiefly supplied with these from Great Britain. The introduction of anthracite for smelting iron ores, in 1840, marked a new era in the manufacture, though its influence was not sensibly felt for several years. MATERIALS EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE Before attempting to exhibit the re- sources of the United States for making iron, and the methods of conducting the manufacture, it is well to give some ac- count of the materials employed, and ex- plain the conditions upon which this manu- facture depends. Three elements are es- sential in the great branch of the business — that of producing pig iron, viz., 'ores, fuel to reduce them, and a suitable flux to a : d the process by melting with and remov- ing the earthy impurities of the ore in a freely-flowing glassy cinder. The flux is usually limestone, and by a wise provision, evidently in view of the uses to which this would be applied, limestone is almost uni- versally found conveniently near to iron ores; so also are stores of fuel commensu- rate with the abundance of the ores. The principal ores are hematites, mag- netic, and specular ores, the red oxides of the secondary rocks, and the carbonates. Probably more than three-quarters of the iron made in the United States is from the first three varieties named, and a much larger proportion of the English iron is from the last — from the magnetic and specular ores none. Hematites, wherever known, are favorite ores. They are met with in great irregular-shaped deposits (ap- parently derived from other forms in which the iron was distributed), intermixed with ochres, clays, and sands, sometimes in scat- tered lumps and blocks, and sometimes in massive ledges; they also occur in beds interstratified among the mica slates. Although the deposits are regarded as of limited capacity, they are often worked to the depth of more than 100 feet; in one instance, in Berks county, Penn., to 165 feet. Mines of hematite have proved the most valuable mines in the United States. At Salisbury, in Connecticut, they have been worked almost uninterruptedly for more than 100 years, supplying the means for supporting an active industry in the country around, and enriching generation after generation of proprietors. The great group of mines at Chestnut Hill, in Colum- bia county, Penn., and others in Berks and Lehigh counties in the same state are of similar character, as are many of the de- posits in the western states, some of them not yet worked to any considerable extent. In Colorado, Utah, Montana. Oregon, and Washington Territory there are extensive deposits of hematite ores, as well as of magnetic and specular ores. The ore is a hydrated peroxide of iron, consisting of from 72 to 85 per cent, of per- oxide of iron (which corresponds to about 50 to 60 per cent, of iron), and from 10 to 14 per cent, of water. Silica and alumina, phosphoric acid, and peroxide of manganese are one or m< >re present in very small quant i ties; but the impurities are rarely such as to interfere with the production of very excel- lent iron, either for foundry or forge pur- poses — that is. for castings or bar iron. It is 384 easily and cheaply mined, and works easily in the blast furnace. On account of its de- ficiency in silica it is necessary to use a lime- stone containing this ingredient, that the elements of a glassy cinder may he provided, which is the first requisite in smelting iron ; or the same end may be more advantageously attained by adding a portion of magnetic ore, which is almost always mixed with silica in the form of quartz ; and these two ores are consequently very generally worked together — the hematites making two-thirds or three-quarters of the charge, and the mag- netic ores the remainder. Magnetic ore is the richest possible com- bination of iron, the proportion of which cannot exceed 72.4 per cent., combined with 37.6 per cent of oxygen. It is a heavy, black ore, compact or in coarse crystalline grains, and commonly mixed with quartz and other minerals. It affects the magnetic needle, and pieces of it often support small bits of iron, as nails. Such ore is the load- stone. It is obtained of various qualities ; some sorts work with great difficulty in the blast furnace, and others are more easily managed and make excellent iron for any use ; but all do better mixed with hematite. The magnetic ores have been largely em- ployed in the ancient processes of making malleable iron direct from the ore in the open forge, the Catalan forge, etc., and at the present time they are so used in the bloomary fires. They are found in inex- haustible beds of all dimensions lying among the micaceous slates and gneiss rocks. These beds are sometimes so extensive that they appear to make up the greater part of the mountains in which they lie, and in common language the mountains are said to be all ore. Specular ore, or specular iron, is so named from the shining, mirror-like plates in which it is often found. The common ore is some- times red, steel gray, or iron black, and all these varieties are distinguished by the bright red color of the powder of the ore, which is that of peroxide of iron. Mag- netic ore gives a black powder, which is that of a less oxidized combination. The specu- lar ore thus contains less iron and more oxy- gen than the magnetic ;th" proportions of its ingredients are 70 parts in 100 of iron, and 30 of oxygen. Though the difference seems slight, the qualities of the two ores are quite distinct. The peroxide makes iron fast, but some sorts of it produce an inferior quality of iron to that from the hematite and mag- netic ores, and better adapted for castings than for converting into malleable iron. The pure, rich ores, however, are many of them unsurpassed. It is found in beds of all di- mensions, and though in the eastern part of the United States they prove of limited ex- tent, those of Missouri and Lake Superior are inexhaustible. Magnetic and specular ores are associated together in the same dis- trict, and sometimes are accompanied by hematite beds ; and it is also the case, that iron districts are characterized by the preva- lence of one kind only of these ores, to the exclusion of the others. The red oxides of the secondary rocks consist, for the most part, of the red fossil- iferous and oolitic ores that accompany the so-called Clinton group of calcareous shales, sandstones, and argillaceous limestones of the upper silurian along their lines of out- crop in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and east- ern Tennessee, and from Oneida county, N. Y., westward past Niagara Falls, and through Canada even to Wisconsin. The ore is found in one or two bands, rarely more than one or two feet thick, and the sandstone strata with which they are associated are sometimes so ferruginous as to be themselves workable ores. The true ores arc sometimes entirely made up of the forms of fossil marine shells, the original material of which has been gradually replaced by peroxide of iron. The oolitic variety is composed of fine globular particles, united together like the roe of a fish. The ore is also found in compact forms, and in Wisconsin it is in the condi- tion of fine sand or seed. Its composition is very variable, and its per-centage of iron ranges from 40 to 60. By reason of the carbonate of lime diffused through some of the varieties, these work in the blast furnace very freely, and serve extremely well to mix with the silicious ores. Of the varieties of carbonate of iron, the only ones of practical importance in the United States are the silicious and argilla- ceous carbonates of the coal formation, and the similar ores of purer character found among the tertiary clays on the western shores of Chesapeake Bay. The former va- rieties are the chief dependence of the iron furnaces of Great Britain, where they abun- dantly occur in layers among the shales of the coal formation, interstratificd with the beds of coal — the shafts that are sunk for the exploration of one also penetrating beds MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 385 of the other. The layers of ore are in flat- ' tened blocks, balls, and kidney-shaped lumps, which are picked out from the shales as the beds of these are excavated. The ore is lean, affording from 30 to 40 per cent, of iron ; but it is of easy reduction, and makes, when properly treated, iron of fair quality. In Pennsylvania, Ohio, western Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the ores occur with the same associations as in England ; but the supply is, for the most part, very pre- carious, and many furnaces that have de- pended upon them are now kept in opera- tion only by drawing a considerable portion of their supplies from the mines of Lake Superior, more than one thousand miles off. Among the horizontally stratified rocks west of the Alleghanies, the same bands of ore are traced over extensive districts, and are even recognized in several of the different states named. One of the most important of these bands is the buhrstone ore, so call- ed from a cellular, flinty accompaniment which usually underlies it, the whole con- tained in a bed of peculiar fossiliferous lime- stone. So much carbonate of lime is some- times present in the ore, that it requires no other flux in the blast furnace. Its percent- age of iron is from 25 to 35. Along the line of outcrop of some of the carbonates are found deposits of hematite ores, the result of superficial changes in the former, due to atmospheric agencies long continued. In southern Ohio, at Hanging Rock particularly, numerous furnaces have been supported by these ores, and have furnished much of the best iron produced at the west. The carbonates of the tertiary are found in blocks and lumps among the clays along the shores of the Chesapeake at Baltimore, and its vicinity. The ores are of excellent character, work easily in the furnace, make a kind of iron highly esteemed — particularly for the manufacture of nails — and are so abundant that they have long sustained a considerable number of furnaces. They lie near the surface, and are collected by exca- vating the clay beds and sorting out the balls of ore. The excavations have been carried <>ut in some places on the shore be- low the level of tide, the water being kept back by coffer dams and steam pumps. Bog ores, with which the earliest furnaces in the country were supplied, are now little Used. They are rarely found in quantities sufficient for running the large furnaces of the present day, and, moreover, make but an inferior, brittle quality of cast iron. They are chiefly found near the coast, and being easily dug, and also reduced to metal with great facility, they proved very convenient for temporary use before the great bodies of ore in the interior were reached. Some fur- naces are still running on these ores in the south-west part of New Jersey, and at Snow- hill, on the eastern shore of Maryland, and the iron they make is used to advantage in mixing at the great stove foundries in Albany and Troy with other varieties of cast iron. It increases the fluidity of these, and pro- duces with them a mixture that will flow into and take the forms of the minutest markings of the mould. Charcoal has been the only fuel employed in the manufacture of iron until anthracite was applied to this purpose, about the year 1840, and still later — in the United State- — coke and bituminous coal. So long as wood continued abundant in the iron districts, it was preferred to the mineral fuel, as in the early experience of the use of the latter the quality of the iron it produced was inferior to that made from the same ores with char- coal, and even at the present time, most of the highest-priced irons are made with char- coal. The hard woods make the best coal, and after these, the yellow pine. Hemlock and chestnut are largely used, because of their abundance and cheapness. The char- coal furnaces are of small size compared with those using the denser mineral coal, and their capacity rarely exceeds a produc- tion of ten or twelve tons of pig iron in twenty-four hours. In 1840 they seldom made more than four tons a day ; the differ- ence is owing to larger furnaces, the use of hot blast, and much more efficient blowing machinery. The consumption of charcoal to the ton of iron is one hundred bushels of hard-wood coal at a minimum, and from this running up to one hundred and fifty bushels or more, according to the quality of the coal and the skill of the manager. The economy of the business depends, in great part, upon the convenience of the supplies of fuel and of ores, of each of which rather more than two tons weight are consumed to every ton of pig iron. As the woods are cut oft* in the vicinity of the furnaces, the supplies are gradually drawn from greater distances, till at last they are sometimes hauled from ten to fourteen miles. The furnaces near Balti- more have been supplied with pine wood dis- charged from vessels at the coaling kilns 386 IRON. close by the furnaces. Transportation of the fuel in such cases is a matter of second- ary importance. The mineral coals are a more certain de- pendence in this manufacture, and are cheap- ly conveyed from the mines on the great lines of transportation, so that furnaces may be placed anywhere upon these lines, with reference more especially to proximity of ores. Thus they can be grouped togeth- er in greater numbers than is practicable with charcoal furnaces. Their establishment, however, involves the outlay of much capital, for the anthracite furnaces are all built upon a large scale, with a capacity of producing from twenty to sixty tons of pig iron a day. This requires machinery of great power to furnish the immense quantities of air, amounting in the large stacks to fifteen tons or more every hour, and propel it through the dense column, of fifty to sixty feet in height, of heavy materials thatfill the furnace. The air actually exceeds in weight all the other materials introduced into the furnace, and its efficiency in promoting combustion and generating intensity of heat is greatly increased by the concentration to which it is subjected when blown in under a pressure of six or eight pounds to the square inch. It is rendered still more efficient by being heated to temperature sufficient to melt lead before it is introduced into the furnace ; and this demands the construction of heating ovens, through which the blast is forced from the blowing cylinders in a series of iron pipes, arranged so as to absorb as much as possible of the waste heat from the combust- ible gases that issue from the top of the stack, and are led through these ovens before they are finally allowed to escape. The weight of anthracite consumed is not far from double that of the iron made, and the ores usually exceed in weight the fuel. The flux is a small and cheap item, its weight ranging from one-eighth to one-third that of the oris. The location of furnaces with reference to the market for the iron is a consideration of no small importance, for the advantages of cheap material may be overbalanced by the difference of a few dollars in the cost of placing in market a product of so little value to the ix>n weight as pig iron. The following statement gave the cost of the different items which went to make up the total expense of production at the locali- ties named in 1859. The advance in the value of ores, cost of transportation, labor, and coal, have increased these items about 75 per cent, since 1863. At different points on the Iludson river, anthracite furnaces are in operation, which are supplied with hematites from Columbia and Dutchess counties, N. Y., and from the neighboring counties in Massachusetts, at prices varying from $2.25 to $3.00 per ton ; averaging about $2.50. They also use mag- netic ores from Lake Champlain, and some from the Highlands below West Point, the latter costing $2.50, and the former $3.50 to $4.50 per ton ; the average being about $3.50. The quantities of these ores pur- chased for the ton of iron produced are about two tons of hematite and one of mag- netic ore, making the cost for the ores $6.75. Two tons of anthracite cost usually $9, and the flux for fuel about 35 cents. Actual con- tract prices for labor and superintendence have been $4 per ton. Thus the total ex- pense for the ton of pig iron is about $20.10 ; or, allowing for repairs and interest on capital, full $21. In the Lehigh valley, in Pennsylvania, are numerous furnaces, which are supplied with anthracite at the low rate of $3 per ton, or $6 to the ton of iron. The ores are mixed magnetic and hematites, averaging in the proportions used about $3 per ton, or, at the rate consumed of 2k tons, $7.50 to the ton of iron. Allowing the same amount — $4.35 — for other items, as at the Hudson river furnaces, the total cost is $17.85; or, with interest and repairs, nearly $19 per ton. The difference is in great part made up to the furnaces on the Hudson by their convenience to the great markets of New York, Troy, and Albany. The charcoal iron made near Baltimore shows a higher cost of production than either of the above, and it is also subject to greater expenses of transportation to market, which is chiefly at the rolling mills and nail fac- tories of Massachusetts. Its superior quality causes a demand for the product and sustains the business. For this iron per ton 2k tons of ore are consumed, costing $3.62& per ton, or $9.06 ; fuel, 3k cords at $2.50, $8.75 ; flux, oyster shells, 30 cts. ; labor (in- cluding $1.50 for charring) $2.75 ; other ex- penses, $2 ; total, $22.86." At many localities in the interior of Pennsylvania and Ohio, iron is made at less cost, but their advantages are often counter- balanced by additional expenses incurred in MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 387 delivering the metal, and obtaining the pro- ceeds of its' sale. Increased facilities of transportation, however, are rapidly remov- ing these distinctions. At Danville, on the Susquehanna river, Columbia county, Penn- sylvania, the cost of production has been re- duced to an unusually low amount, by reason of large supplies of ore close at hand, the cheapness of anthracite, and the very large scale of the operations. Pig iron, as shown by the books of the company, has been made for $11 per ton. Its quality, however, was inferior, so that, with the expenses of trans- portation added, it could not be placed in the eastern markets to compete with other irons. Pig iron is produced more cheaply on the Ohio river and some of its tributaries than elsewhere, but there are no furnaces in the United States which can make a good article much less than $27 per ton. DISTRIBUTION OF THE ORES. The magnetic and specular ores of the United States are found in the belt of metainorphic rocks — the gneiss, quartz rock, mica and talcose slates,and limestones — which ranges along to the east of the Alleghanies, and spreads over the principal part of the New England states. It is only, however, in certain districts, that this belt is produc- tive in iron ores. The hematites belong to the same group, and the important districts of the three ores may be noticed in the or- der in which they are met from Canada to Alabama. Similar ores are also abundant in Missouri, and to the south of Lake Superior. New England States. — In New Hamp- shire magnetic and specular ores are found in large quantities in a high granitic hill called the Baldface Mountain, in the town of Bartlett. The locality is not conveniently accessible, and its remoteness from coal mines will probably long keep the ore, rich and abundant as it is, of no practical value. At Piermont, on the western border of the state, specular ore, very rich and pure, is also abundant, but not worked. At Fran- conia a small furnace, erected in 1811, was run many years upon magnetic ores, obtain- ed from a bed of moderate size, and which in 1824 had been worked to the depth of 200 feet. In 1830 the iron establishments of this place were still objects of considerable interest, though from the accounts of them published in the American Journal of Science of that year, it appears that the annual pro- duction of the blast furnace for the preceding nine years had averaged only about "216 tons of east iron in hollow ware, stoves, machinery, and pig iron" — a less quantity than is now produced in a week by some of the anthracite furnaces. One forge making bar iron direct from the ore produced forty tons annually, and another 100 tons, con- suming 550 bushels of charcoal to the ton. The cost of this, fortunately, was only from $3.75 to $4.00 per hundred bushels. A portion of the product was transported to Boston, the freight alone costing $25 per ton. In Vermont these ores are found in the metainorphic slates of the Green Mountains, and are worked to some extent for mixing with the hematite ores, which are more abundant, being found in many of the towns through the central portion of the state, from Canada to Massachusetts. In 1850 the number of blast furnaces was ten, but their production probably did not reach 4,000 tons per annum, and has since dwindled away to a much less amount. At the same time there were seven furnaces in Berkshire, Mass., near the hematite beds that are found in the towns along the western line of the state. These had a working capacity of about 12,000 tons of pig iron annually, and this being made from excellent ores, with charcoal for fuel, its reputation was high and the prices remunerative ; but as charcoal in- creased in price, and the cheaper anthracite- made iron improved in quality, the business became unprofitable ; so that the extensive hematite beds are now chiefly valuable for furnishing ores to the furnaces upon the Hudson river, where anthracite is deliv- ered from the boats that have come through the Delaware and Hudson canal, and magnetic ores are brought by similar cheap conveyance from the mines on the west side of Lake ( lhamplain. Through Connecticut, down the Housatonic valley, very extensive beds of hematite have supplied the sixteen furnaces which were in operation ten years ago. The great Salisbury bed has already been named. In the first half of the present century it produced from 250,000 to 300,000 tons" of the very best ore ; the iron from which, when made with cold blast, readily brought from $6 to $10 per ton more than the ordi- nary kinds Of pig iron. The Kent ore bed was of similar character, though not so extensive. New York. — Across the New York state line, a number of other very extensive de- posits of hematite supported seven blast fur- 388 IRON. naces in Columbia and Dutchess counties, and now furnish supplies to those along the Hudson river. In Putnam county, magnetic ores succeed the hematites, and arc devel- oped in considerable beds in Putnam Val- ley, east from Cold Spring, where they were worked for the supply of forges during the last century. These beds can again furnish large quantities of rich ore. On the other side of the river, very productive mines of magnetic ore have been worked near Fort Montgomery, six miles west from the river. At the Greenwood furnace, back from West Point, was produced the strongest cast iron ever tested, which, according to the report of the officers of the ordnance department, made to Congress in 1856, after being re- melted several times to increase its density, exhibited a tenacity of 45,970 lbs. to the square inch. The beds at Monroe, near the New Jersey line, are of vast extent ; but a small portion of the enormous quantities of ore in sight, however, makes the best iron. Mining was commenced here in 1750, and a furnace was built in 1751, but operations have never been carried on upon a scale commensurate with the abundance of the ores. In the northern counties of New York, near Lake Champlain, are numerous mines of .rich magnetic ores. Some of the most extensive bloomary establishments in the United States are supported by them in Clinton county, and many smaller forges are scattered along the course of the Ausablc river, where water power near some of the ore beds presents a favorable site. Bar iron is made at these establishments direct from the ores ; and at Keeseville nail factories are in operation, converting a portion of the iron into nails. In Essex county there are also many very productive mines of the same kind of ore, and Port Henry and its vicinity has furnished large quantities, not only to the blast furnaces that were formerly in operation here, but to those on the Hudson, and to puddling furnaces in different parts of the country, particularly about Boston. In the interior of Essex county, forty miles back from the lake, are the extensive mines of the Adirondac. The ores are rich as well as inexhaustible, but the remoteness of the locality, and the difficulty attending the working of them, owing to their contamina- tion with titanium, detract greatly from their importance. On the other side of the Adi- rondac mountains, in St. Lawrence county, near Lake Ontario, are found large beds of specular ores, which have been worked to some extent in several blast furnaces. They occur along the line of junction of the gran- ite and the Potsdam sandstone. The iron they make is inferior — suitable only for cast- ings. The only other ores of any importance in the state are the fossiliferous ores of the Clinton group, which are worked near Oneida Lake, and at several points along a narrow belt of country near the south shore of Lake Ontario. They have sustained five blast furnaces in this region, and are transported in large, quantities by canal to the anthra- cite furnaces at Scranton, in Pennsylvania, the boats returning with mineral coal for the furnaces near Oneida Lake. New Jersey. — From Orange county, in New York, the range of gneiss and horn- blende rocks, which contain the magnetic and specular ores, passes into New Jersey, and spreads over a large part of Passaic and Morris, and the eastern parts of Sussex and Warren counties. The beds of magnetic ore are very large and numerous, and have been worked to great extent, especially about Ringwood, Dover, Rockaway, Boonton, and other towns, both in blast furnaces and in bloomaries. At Andover, in Sussex county, a great body of specular ores furnished for a number of years the chief supplies for the furnaces of the Trenton Iron Company, situ- ated at Philipsburg, opposite the mouth of the Lehigh. On the range of this ore, a few miles to the north-east, are extensive deposits of Frankliniteiron ore accompanying the zinc ore of this region. This unusual variety of ore consists of peroxide of iron about 66 per cent., oxide of zinc 17, and oxide of manganese 16. It is smelted at the works of the New Jersey Zinc Company at New- ark, producing annually about 2,000 tons of pig iron. The metal is remarkable for its large crystalline faces and hardness, and is particularly adapted for the manufacture of steel, as well as for producing bar iron of great strength. As the forests, which formerly supplied abundant fuel for the iron works of this re- gion, disappeared before the increasing de- mands, attention was directed to the inex- haustible sources of anthracite up the Lehigh valley in Pennsylvania, with which this iron region was connected by the Morris canal and the Lehigh canal ; and almost the first successful application of this fuel to the smelting of iron ores upon a large scale was made at Stanhope, by Mr. Edwin Post. A new MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 389 era in the iron manufacture was thus intro- duced, and an immense increase in the pro- duction soon followed, as the charcoal fur- naces gave place to larger ones constructed for anthracite. The Lehigh valley, lying on the range of the iron ores toward the south- west, also produced large quantities of ore, which, however, was almost exclusively hematite. Hence, an interchange of ores has been largely carried on for furnishing the best mixtures to the furnaces of the two portions of this iron district ; and the oper- ations of the two must necessarily be consid- ered together. The annual production, in- cluding that of the bloomaries of New Jer- sey, has reached, within a few years, about 244,000 tons of iron. But in a prosperous condition of the iron business this can be largely increased without greatly adding to the works already established, while the ca- pacity of the iron mines and supplies of fuel are unlimited. The proximity of this dis- trict to the great cities, New York and Phil- adelphia, adds greatly to its importance. Pennsylvania. — Although about one- half of all the iron manufactured in the United States is the product of the mines of Pennsylvania, and of the ores carried into the state, the comparative importance of her mines has been greatly overrated, and their large development is rather owing to the abundant supplies of mineral coal conveni- ently at hand for working the ores, and, as remarked by Mr. Lesley ("Iron Manufac- turer's Guide," p. 433), "to the energetic, persevering German use for a century of years of what ores do exist, than to any ex- traordinary wealth of iron of which she can boast. Her reputation for iron is certainly not derived from any actual pre-eminence of mineral over her sister states. New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina, are far more liberally endowed by nature in this respect than she. The immense mag- netic deposits of New York and New Jersey almost disappear just after entering her lim- its. The brown hematite beds of her great valley will not seem extraordinary to one who has become familiar with those of New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia, and Tennessee. Her fossil ores are lean and un- certain compared with those of the south ; and the carbonate and hematized carbonate outcrops in and under her coal measures will hardly bear comparison with those of the grander outspread of the same forma- tions in Ohio, Kentucky, and western Vir- ginia." The principal sources of iron in the state are, first, the hematites of Lehigh and Berks counties — the range continuing pro- ductive through Lancaster, also on the other side of the intervening district of the new red sandstone formation. The ores are found in large beds in the limestone valley, between the South and the Kittatinny mountains ; those nearest the Lehigh supply the furnaces on that river, already amounting to twenty-three in operation and four more in course of construction, and those nearer the Schuylkill supply the furnaces along this river. The largest bed is the Moselem, in Berks county, six miles west-south-west from Kutztown. It has been very extensively worked, partly in open excavation and partly by underground mining, the workings reach- ing to the depth of 1 65 feet. Over 250,000 tons a year of ore have been produced at a cost of from $1.30 to $1.50 per ton. Magnetic ores are found upon the Lehigh, or South Mountain, the margin on the south of the fertile limestone valley which contains, - the hematite beds. These, however, though large, are insufficient, the dependence of the great iron furnaces of the Lehigh for these ores being in part on the extensive mines of New Jersey; while the only sup- plies of magnetic ores to the furnaces of the Schuylkill and the Susquehanna are from the great Cornwall mines, four miles south of Leb- anon. An immense body of magnetic iron ore, associated with copper ores, has been worked for a long time at this place, at the junction of the lower silurian limestones and the red sandstone formation. The bed lies between dikes of trap, and exhibits pe- culiarities that distinguish it from the other bodies of iron ore on this range. The War- wick, or Jones' mine, in the south corner of Berks county, resembles it in some particu- lars. Its geological position is in the upper slaty layers of the Potsdam sandstone, near the meeting of this formation with the new red sandstone. Trap dikes penetrate the ore and the slates, and the best ore is found at both mines near the trap. Not far from York. Pa , an ore known as the Codorus Iron Ore has been raised for some years, but was regarded as almost worthless, but recent ex- periments have led to the discovery that it contains the exact ingredients necessary to make it the best of flu xes for reducing the other ores of that region to steel of excellent quality without any intermediate process. Along the Maryland line, on both Bides of the 390 IRON. Susquehanna, chrome iron has been found in considerable abundance in the serpentine rocks, and lias been largely and very profita- bly mined for home consumption and for ex- portation. It furnishes the different chrome pigment", and their preparation has been carried on chiefly at Baltimore. A portion of the hematites which supply the furnaces on the Schuylkill, occur along a narrow limestone belt of about a mile in width, that crosses the Schuylkill at Spring Mill, and extends north-east into Montgomery county, and south-west into Chester county. Their production has been very large, and that of the furnaces of the Schuylkill valley dependent upon these and the other mines of this region has been rated at 100,000 tons of iron annually. The great Chestnut hill hematite ore bed, three and a half miles north-east of Columbia, Lancaster county, covers about twelve acres of surface, and has been worked in numer- ous great open excavations to about 100 feet in depth, the ore prevailing throughout among the clays and sands from top to bot- tom. " The floor of the mine is hard, white Potsdam sandstone, or the gray slaty layers over it. The walls show horizontal wavy layers of blue, yellow, and white laminated, unctuous clays, from forty to sixty feet deep, containing ore, and under these an irregular layer of hard concretionary, cellular, fibrous, brown hematite from ten to thirty feet thick down to the sandstone." (" Iron Manufacturer's Guide, p. 562.") In the accompanying wood-cut, the dark- ly shaded portions represent the hema- tites, while the light- er portions above are chiefly clays. Pro- fessor Rogers sup- poses that the ore has leached down from the upper slaty beds through which it was originally dif- fused, and has col- lected upon the im- pervious sandstone, which in this vicinity is the bearing stratum for the wells. The repeated occurrence of the lower silurian limestones and sandstones along the valleys of central Pennsylvania, from the Susquehanna to the base of the Alleghany mountain, is accompanied through these val- leys with numerous beds of hematite ; and to the supplies of ore they have furnished for great numbers of furnaces, is added the fossiliferous ore of the Clinton group, the out- crop of which is along the slopes of the ridges and around their ends. Many furnaces have depended upon this source of supply alone. As stated by Lesley, there were, in 1857, 14 anthracite furnaces that used no other, and 11 anthracite furnaces which mixed it either with magnetic ore or hematite, or with both. Montour's ridge, at Danville, Colum- bia county, referred to on page 24, is one of the most remarkable localities of this ore. Professor Rogers estimated, in 1847, that there were 20 furnaces then dependent upon the mines of this place, and producing*innually an average of 3,000 tons of iron each, with a consumption of 9,000 tons of ore, or a total annual consumption of 180,000 tons. At this rate, he calculated that the availa- ble ore would be exhausted in 20 years. Between the Clinton group and the coal measures are successive formations of lime- stones, sandstones, shales, etc., which form a portion of the geological column of many thou- sand feet in thickness; and among these strata, ores like the carbonates of the coal measures CHESTNUT HILL MINE. first water are occasionally developed, and these are recognized and worked at many localities along the outcrop of the formations to MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 391 which they belong. Along the summit of the Alleghany mountain the base of the coal measures is reached, which thence spread over the western portion of the state, nearly to its northern line. The ores which belong to this formation are chiefly contained among its lower members, and found in the outcrop of these around the margin of the basin. At some localities they have been obtained in considerable abundance, and many furnaces have run upon them alone, but they are an uncertain dependence. The four counties, Lehigh, Lebanon, Berks, and Blair raised, in 1880, 1,014,805 tons of iron ore, and Fayette, York, and Lancaster, 190,636 tons more, making an aggregate for seven counties of 1,205,441 tons, or more than one-seventh of the whole product of the year in the United States. Maryland. — The metamorphic belt crosses this state back of Baltimore, and is productive in chromic iron and copper ores, rather than in magnetic and specular ores. Some of the former, highly titaniferous, have been worked near the northern line of the state, on the west side of the Susque- hanna; and at Sykesville, on the Potomac, a furnace has been supplied with specular ores from its vicinity. Several hematite beds within twenty miles of Baltimore have supplied considerable quantities of ore for mixture with the tertiary carbonates, upon which the iron production of the state chiefly depends. Beds of these occur near the bay from Havre de Grace to the Dis- trict of Columbia. In the western part of the state large furnaces were built at Mount Savage and Lonacoming to work the ores of the coal formation; but the supply has proved insufficient to siistain them. In 1880, the blast furnaces and bloomaries of the state produced nearly 111,000 tons of iron. Southern States. — South of Maryland the same iron belt continues through Vir- ginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia; and al- though it is often as productive in immense beds of the three varieties of ore — the magnetic, specular, and hematite — as in the other states along its range, these re- sources add comparatively little to the ma- terial wealth of the states to which they belong. Through Virginia, east and west of the Blue Ridge, hematite ores abound in the limestone valleys, and magnetic ores are often in convenient proximity to them. Many small furnaces have worked them at different times, but their product was always small. Three belts of magnetic ore, associated with specular iron and hema- tites, are traced across the midland coun- ties of North Carolina, and have furnished supplies for furnaces and forges in a num- ber of counties — as Lincoln, Cleveland, Rutherford, Stokes, Surry, Yadkin, Ca- tawba; and Chatham, Wake, and Orange counties upon the eastern belt. The belt of ore from Lincoln county passes into South Carolina, and through York, Union, and Spartanburg districts. It crosses the Broad river at the Cherokee ford, and though the whole belt is only half a mile wide, it presents numerous localities of the three kinds of ore, and of limestone also in close proximity, and finely situated for working. Several other localities are no- ticed in the "State Geological Report," by M. Tuomey, who remarks, on page 278, that "if iron is not manufactured in the state as successfully as elsewhere, it is cer- tainly not due to any deficiency in natural advantages." In northern Georgia the ferruginous belt is productive in immense bodies of hematite, associated with mag- netic and specular ores, in the Allatoona hills, near the Etowah river, m Cherokee and Cass counties. This, which appears to be one of the great iron districts of the United States, is bountifully provided with all the materials required in the manufac- ture, and traversed by a railroad which connects it with the bituminous coal mines of eastern Tennessee. In Alabama, hema- tites and specular ores accompany the belt of silurian rocks to its southern termina- tion, and are worked in a few bloomary fires and two or three blast furnaces. The fossiliferous ore of the Clinton group is also worked in this state. The production of the furnaces and bloomaries of Virginia. West Virginia, North Carolina, and ( gia and Alabama in iron and steel, in 1880, amounts to 302,000 tons, or more than $11,000,000. Tennessee in 1840 ranked as the third iron-producing state in the Union. The counties ranging along her eastern border produced hematite ores, continuing the range of the silurian belt of the great val- ley of Virginia; those bordering the Clinch river produced the fossil ore of the Clinton group, there known as the dyestone ore; and western Tennessee presented a very 392 IRON. interesting and important district of hema- tites belonging to the subcarboniferous limestone in the region lying east of the Tennessee and south of the Cumberland river.* The furnaces of this district, which have numbered forty-two in all, were the greater part of them in Dickson, Montgom- ery, and Stewart counties. They were all supplied with charcoal for fuel, at a cost of $4 per hundred bushels. In 1854 the pro- duct of pig iron was 37,918 tons; but it gradually declined to 27,050 tons in 1857; and in August, 1858, only fifteen furnaces were in operation. It was confidently ex- pected that after the close of the war, with her excellent ores and her extensive for- ests and coal beds, she would again lead the southwestern states in the production of both charcoal and coke iron, but for some reason she has failed to do so, and in 1880 stood tenth in the list of iron-produc- ing states, making but 104,465 tons of iron and steel. Kentucky. — The western part of this state contains, in the counties of Calloway, Trigg, Lyon, Caldwell, Livingston, and Crittenden, an important district of hema- tite ores — the continuation northward of that of Tennesse. In 1857 ten charcoal furnaces produced 15,600 tons of iron. Eastern Kentucky, however, has a much more productive district in the counties of Carter and Greenup, which is an extension south of the Ohio of the Hanging Rock iron district of Ohio. The ores are car- bonates and hematite outcrops of carbon- ates, belonging to the coal measures and the subcarboniferous limestone. They are in great abundance; a section of 740 feet of strata terminating below with the lime- stone named, presenting no less than four- teen distinct beds of ore, from three inches to four feet each, and yielding from 25 to 60 per cent, of iron. One bed of 32 per cent, iron contains also 11 per cent, bitu- men — a composition like that of the Scotch "black band" ore. Others contain so much lime that the ores are valuable for *"It iri remarkable that most of these deposits are of what is called pot ore, that is, hollow balls of ore, which. when broken open, look like broken caldrons. One of them, preserved by Mr. Lewis, is eight feet across the rim! Another is six feet across. The majority are crossed within by purple diaphragms or partition* of ore, and the interstitial spares are filled with yellow- ochre. Some, like the great eight-foot pot, are found to be full of water The inside surface is manimillary, irregular, Bometimee botryoidal or knobby, but the outside is pretty smooth and regular. All these pots were undoubtedly once balls of carbonates of lime and iron segregated in the original deposit." fluxing as well as for producing iron. The furnaces use charcoal and coke. Their production places this region among the first in importance in the United States, yet Kentucky, in 1880, produced but 64,- 809 tons of iron. Ohio. — The ores of this state, like those of Kentucky, belong almost exclusively to the coal measures and the limestone forma- tions beneath. In both states some of the fossiliferous ore also is found, but is com- paratively unimportant. The productive beds are near the base of the coal forma- tion, ranging from the Hanging Rock dis- trict of Scioto and Lawrence counties northeast, through Jackson, Hocking, Ath- ens, Perry, Muskingum, Tuscarawas, Ma- honing, and Trumbull counties, to the line of Mercer county in Pennsylvania. The uncertain character of the ores, both as to supply and quality, is strikingly shown by the fact that many of the furnaces of the more northern counties depend for a con- siderable portion — one-fourth or more — of the ores they use upon the rich varieties from Lake Superior and Lake Champlain. Although the long transportation makes these ores cost nearly three times as much per ton as these of the coal formation, some furnaces find it more profitable, to use the former, even in the proportion of three- fourths, on account of the much better iron produced, the greater number of tons per day, and the less consumption of fuel to the ton. The fuel employed was formerly charcoal in most of the furnaces, but bitu- minous coal is now generally used. Ohio produced in 1880, 930,141 tons of iron and steel. Indiana and Illinois contain no impor- tant bodies of iron ore. The coal meas- ures, which cover large portions of these states, are productive in some small quan- tities of the carbonates, but the block coal of Indiana, and the somewhat similar coal of Illinois, are so excellent for smelting purposes that iron ores are brought from Missouri and Lake Superior to be smelted there. Indiana produced in 1880,96,117 tons, and Illinois 417,967 tons of iron and steel. Michigan. — The iron region of this state is in the upper peninsula, between Green Bay and Lake Superior. Magnetic and specular ores are found throughout a large portion of this wild territory, in beds more extensive than are seen in any other part MIXING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATE3. 393 of the United States — perhaps than are anywhere known. The district approaches within twelve miles of the coast of Lake Superior, from which it is more conven- iently reached than from the south side of the peninsula. The ores are found in 9. belt of crystalline slates, of six to ten miles in width, that extends west from the lake shore, and is bounded north and south by a granitic district. They are developed in connection with great dikes and ridges of trap, which range east and west, and dip with the slates at a high angle towards the north. The ores also have the same direc- tion and dip. Localities of them are of frequent occurrence for eighteen miles in a westerly direction from the point of their neai'est approach to Lake Superior. A sec- ond range of the beds is found along the southern margin of the slate district; and about thirty miles back from the lake, where the slates extend south into Wiscon- sin, similar developments of ore accompany them to the Menomonee river and toward Green Bay. The quality of the ore found at different places varies according to the amount of quartz, jasper, hornblende, or feldspar that may be mixed with it: but enormous bodies are nearly pure ore, yielding from 68 to 70 per cent, of iron, and free from a trace even of manganese, sulphur, phosphorus, or titanium. A sin- gle ridge, traced for about six miles, rising to a maximum height of fifty feet above its base, and spreading out to a width of one thousand feet, has been found to con- sist of great longitudinal bands of ore, much of which is of this perfectly pure character. A nother ridge presents precip- itous walls fifty feet high, composed in part of pure specular ore, fine grained, of im- perfect slaty structure, and interspersed with minute crystals of magnetic oxide; and in part of these minute crystals alone. Another body of one thousand feet in width, and more than a mile long, forms a hill one hundred and eighty feet high, which is made up of alternate bands of pure, fine-grained steel-gray peroxide of iron, and deep red jaspery ore — the layers generally less than a fourth of an inch in thickness, and curiously contorted. Their appearance is very beautiful in the almost veit'cal walls. On one of the head branches of the Escanaba is a cascade of thirty-sev- en feet in height, the ledge over which the water falls being a bed of peroxide of iron, 21 intermixed with silicious matter. For the supply of the few furnaces and bloomary establishments already in opera- tion in this district, and for the larger de mands of distant localities, the ores are collected from open quarries, and from the loose masses lying around. A railroad affords the means of transporting them to Marquette, on the lake shore, whence they are shipped by vessels down the lake. The business already amounts to more than 100,000 tons per annum, and is increasing very rapidly. "With the Bay de Noquet and Marquette railroad completed there now is a southern terminus of this road on Green Bay, and an outlet being opened in this direction, the production of iron ores will no doubt eventually exceed that of any other region in the country. Large quantities will be reduced with charcoal in blast furnaces and bloomaries in the region itself. Michigan produced in 1880, 1,834,712 tons of iron ore, the greater pait of which was exported, but she made also 142,716 tons of iron and steel. Wisconsin. — Magnetic and specular ore in bodies, somewhat resembling those of ' the region jutt described, are found in the extreme northern part of Wisconsin, upon what is known as the Penokie range, dis- tant about twenty-five miles from Cheg- womigon Bay, Lake Supeiior. Bad river and Montreal river drain this district. The ores, though remote, are likely to be of considerable practical importance. Other immense bodies of these ores, estimated to contain many millions of tons, are found on Black river, which empties into the-- Mississippi below St. Croix river, on the line of the Land Grant Branch railroad. Furnaces have been built to work these mines. In the eastern part of Wisconsin the oolitic ore of the Clinton group is met with in Dodge and Washington counties, and again at Depere, seven miles southeast of Green Bay. In the town of Hubbard, Dodge county, forty miles west from Lake Michigan, is the largest deposit of this ore ever discovered. It spreads in a layer ten feet thick over 500 acres, and is estimated to contain 27,000,000 tons. It is in grains, like sand, of glistening red color, staining the hands. Each grain has a minute nu- cleus of silex, around which the oxide of iron collected. The percentage of metal is about fifty. Wisconsin, in 1880, raised 41,440 tons of iron ore, but she made, 394 IRON. probably from Lake Superior ores in part, 178,935 tons of iron and steel. Missouri. — This state must be classed among the first in the abundance of its iron ores, though up to this time comparatively little has been done in the development of its mines. The ores are hematites, mag- netic, and specular, and all occur in the iso- lated district of silurian rocks — formations which almost everywhere else in the west- ern middle states are concealed beneath the more recent formations. This region yields more than two-thirds of the ore, and almost the whole of the iron and steel pro- duced in the state. In the counties along the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Great Northern railway, Prof. Swallow, the state geologist, reports no less than ninety local- ities of hematite. These are in Iron, St. Francis, Jefferson, Franklin, Crawford, Phelps, Pulaski, Marion, Greene and other counties. The first attempts to smelt iron in Missouri, and probably in any state west of Ohio, were made in Washington county in 1823 or 1824, and with the hematites of the locality were mixed magnetic ores from the Iron mountain. In Franklin county there is but one furnace, though on both sides of the Maramsc are beds of hematite pipe ore, which cover hundreds of acres. The Iron mountain district is about sixty miles back from the Mississippi river (the nearest point on which is St. Genevieve), and extends from the Iron mountain, in Iron county, to the southwestern part of St. Franyois county. It includes three im- portant localities of specular ore: the Iron mountain, Pilot Knob, and Shepherd moun- tain. The first is a hill of gentle slopes, 228 feet high above its base, and covering about 500 acres — a spur of the porphyritic and syenitic range on the east side of Belle- vue valley. In its original state, as seen by the writer in 1841, it presented no ap- pearance of rock in place, its surface was covered with a forest of oak, the trees thriv- ing in a soil wholly composed of fragments of peroxide of iron, comminuted and ■coarse mixed together. Loose lumps of the ore were scattered around on every side but the north, and upon the top were loose blocks of many tons weight each. Mining operations, commenced in 1845, de- veloped only loose ore closely packed with a little red clay. An Artesian well was afterwards sunk to the depth of 152 feet. It passed through the following strata in | Louis by a railroad. succession: iron ore and clay, 16 feet; sandstone, 34 feet; magnesian limestone, 74 inches; gray sandstone, 7-J inches; "hard blue rock," 37 feet; "pure iron ore," 5 feet; porphyritic rock, 7 feet; iron ore 50 feet to the bottom. The ore appears to be interstratified with the silicious rocks with which it is associated in a simi- lar manner to its occurrence at the other localities. In quality the ore is a very pure peroxide ; it melts easily in the furnace, making a strong forge pig, well adapted for bar iron and steel. Two char- coal furnaces have been in operation for a number of years, and up to the close of 1880 had produced a million tons of iron. The flux is obtained from the magnesian limestone, which spreads over the adjoin- ing valley in horizontal strata. Pilot Knob is a conical hill of 580 feet height above its base, situated six miles south of the Iron mountain. Its sides are steep, and present bold ledges of hard, slaty, silicious rock, which lie inclined at an angle 20° to 3t)° toward the southwest. Near the top the strata are more or less charged with the red peroxide of iron, and loose blocks of great size are seen scattered around, some of them pure ore, and some ore and rock mixed. At the height of 44 feet above the base, where the horizontal section of the mountain is equal to an area of fifty-three acres, a bed of ore is exposed to view on the north side, which extends 273 feet along its line of outci'op, and is from nineteen to twenty-four feet in thick- ness. Other similar beds are said to occur lower down the hill; and higher up others are met with to the very sum- mit. The peak of the mountain is a craggy knob of gray rocks of ore, rising sixty feet in height, and forming so con- spicuous an object as to have suggested the name by which the hill is called. The ore is generally of more slaty structure thin that of the Iron mountain. The quantity of very pure ore conveniently at hand is inexhaustible. The production of iron will be limited more for want of abundance of fuel than of ore. Charcoal, though now obtained in abundance, may fail or become too high, and bituminous coal is already brought from the coal mines of Missouri and Illinois, while the ores are also carried to the river to meet there the fuel. Both localities are already connected with St. MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 395 Shepherd mountain, about a mile distant from the Pilot Knob towards the south- west, is composed of porphyritic rocks, which are penetrated with veins or dikes of both magnetic and specular ores. These run in various directions, and the ores they afford are of great purity. They are mined to work together with those of the Pilot Knob. The mountain covers about 800 acres, and rises to the height of 660 feet above its base. Other localities of these ores are also known, and the occurrence of specular ore is reported by the state geolo- gists in several other counties, as Phelps, Crawford, Pulaski, La Clede, etc. There are now 22 blast furnaces, bloomaries, etc., in Missouri, and they produced, in 1880, 115,558 tons of pig and rolled iron, and 10,200 tons of steel. The state produced the same year 386.197 tons of iron in ore. In many parts of the United States and its territories iron is known to exist in great quantities. In Nebraska and Wyo- ming territory, near the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, large beds of iron ore of good quality are found, in proximity to extensive coal deposits, and these will be utilized for making rails of iron or steel for that great thoroughfare. In Kansas. Col- orado, and New Mexico, are beds of spec- ular and other ores in great profusion. Ores are mined and iron is made in Oregon, California, Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska, not yet in large quantities but increasing with each year, and the iron is of the very best quality. West Virginia now ranks 14th in the amount of ore, and 7th in the quantity of iron and steel produced. IRON MANUFACTURE. Iron is known in the arts chiefly in three forms — cast Iron, steel, and wrought iron. The first is a combination of metallic iron, with from 11 to 5 or 5i per cent, oi carbon; the second is metallic iron combined with ■^ to 1^ per cent, of carbon; and the third is m?tallic iron, free as may be from for- eign substances. These differences of composition are accompanied with remark- able differences in the qualities of the metal, by which its usefulness is greatly multiplied. The three sorts arc producible as desired directly from the ores, and they are also convertible one into the other; so that the methods of manufacture are numerous, and new processes are continually introduced. The production of wrought iron direct from the rich natural oxides, was until modern times the only method of obtaining the metal. Cast iron was unknown until the 15th century. Rude nations early learned the simple method of separating the oxygen from the ores by heat- ing them in the midst of burning charcoal ; the effect of which is to cause the oxygen to unite with the carbon in the form of carbonic acid or carbonic oxide gas, and escape, leav- ing the iron free, and in a condition to be hammered at once into bars. The heat they could command in their small fires was in- sufficient to effect the combination of the iron, too, with the carbon, and produce the fusible compound known as cast iron. In modern times the great branch of the busi- ness is the production of pig metal or cast iron in blast furnaces ; and this is afterward remelted and cast in moulds into the forms required, or it is converted into wrought iron to serve some of the innumerable uses of this kind of iron, or to be changed again into steel. In this order the principal branches of the manufacture will be noticed. The production of pig metal in blast fur- naces is the most economical mode of separa- ting iron from its ores, especially if these are not extremely rich. The process requiring little labor, except in charging the furnaces, and this being done in great part by labor- saving machines, it can be earned on upon an immense scale with the employment of few persons, and most of those ordinary la- borers. The business, moreover, has been greatly simplified and its scale enlarged by the substitution of mineral coal for charcoal — the latter fuel, indeed, could never have been supplied to meet the modern demands of the manufacture. Blastfurnaces are heavy structures of stone work, usually in pyramidal form, built upon a base of 30 to 45 feet square, and from 30 to 60 feet in height. The outer walls, con- structed with immense solidity and firmly bound together, inclose a central cavity, which extends from top to bottom and is lined with large fire brick of the most refrac- tory character, and specially adapted in their shapes to the required contour of the interior. The form of this cavity is circular in its hori- zontal section, and from the top goes on en- laro-in(T to the lower portion, where it begins to draw in by the walls changing their slope toward the centre. This tonus what are called the boshes of the furnace — the part which supports the great weight of the ores 396 IRON. and fuel that fill the interior. For ores that melt easily and fast they are made steeper than for those which are slowly reduced. The boshes open below into the hearth — the central contracted space which the French name the crucible of the furnace. The walls of this are constructed of the most re- fractory stones of large size, carefully selected for their power to resist the action of fire, and seasoned by exposure for a year or more after being taken from the quarry. Being the first portion to give out, the stack is built so that they can be replaced when necessary. The hearth is reached on each side of the stack by an arch, extending in from the out- side. On three sides the blast is introduced by iron pipes that pass through the hearth- stones, and terminate in a hollow tuyere, which i-< kept from melting by a current of wa er brought by a lead or block-tin pipe, and made to flow continually through and around its hollow shell. The fourth side is the front or working-arch of the furnace, at the bottom of which access is had to the melted materials as they collect in the receptacle pro- vided for them at the base of the hearth or crucible. This arch opens out into the cast- ing-house, upon the floor of which are the beds in the sand for moulding the pigs into which the iron is to be cast. Upon the top of the stack around the central cavity are constructed, in first-class furnaces, large flues, which open into this cavity for the purpose of taking off a portion of the heated gaseous mixtures, that they may be conveyed under the boilers, to be there more effectually con- sumed, and furnish the heat for raising steam for the engines. A portion of the gases is also led into a large heating-oven, usually built on the top of the stack, in which the blast (distributed through a series of cast iron pipes) is heated by the combustion. These pipes are then concentrated into one main, which passes down the stack and delivers the heated air to the tuyeres, thus returning to the furnace a large portion of the heat which would otherwise escape at the top, and adding powerfully to the efficiency of the blast by its high temperature. The boilers, also conveniently arranged on the top of the furnace, especially when two furnaces are constructed near together, are heated by the escape gases without extra expense of fuel, and they furnish steam to the engines, which are usually placed below them. On account of the enormous volume of air, and the great pressure at which it is blown into the furnace, the engines are of the most power- ful kind, and the blowing cylinders are of great dimensions and strength. Some of the large anthracite furnaces employ cylin- ders 7£ feet diameter, and 9 feet stroke. One of these running at the rate of 9 revolutions per minute, and its piston acting in both di- rections, should propel every minute 7,128 cubic feet of air (less the loss by leakage) into the furnace — a much greater weight than that of all the other materials introduced. It is, moreover, driven in at a pressure (pro- duced by the contracted aperture of the nozzle of the tuyeres in relation to the great volume of air) of 7 or 8 lbs. upon the square inch. Two such cylinders answer for a pair of the largest furnaces, and should be driven by separate engines, so that in case of acci- dent the available power may be extended to either or both furnaces. It is apparent that the engines, too, should be of the largest class and most perfect construction ; for the blast is designed to be continued with only tem- porary interruptions that rarely exceed an hour at a time, so long as the hearth may remain in running order — a period, it may be, of 18 months, or even 4 or 5 years. Fur- naces were formerly built against a high bank, upon the top of which the stock of ore and coal was accumulated, and thence carried across a bridge, to be delivered into the tunnel-head or mouth of the furnace. The more common arrangement at present is to construct, a little to one side, an elevator, provided with two platforms of sufficient size to receive several barrows. The moving power is the weight of a body of water let into a reservoir under the platform when it is at the top. This being allowed to descend with the empty barrows, draws up the other platform with its load, and the water is dis- charged by a self-regulating valve at the bottom. The supply of water is furnished to a tank in the top either by pumps con- nected with the steam engine or by the head of its source. The furnaces of the United States, though not congregated together in such large num- bers as at some of the great establishments in England and Scotland, are unsurpassed in the perfection oftheir construction, apparatus, and capacity ; and none of large size are prob- ably worked in any part of Europe with such economy of materials. The Siemen's n gen- erating furnace is adopted in those more recently built, wherever an intense heat ia required for the reduction of the ores. MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 40] WROUGHT IRON. It has been, in the .past, a just ground of complaint against the producers of wroug .it iron and steel, that they could not reduce either directly from the ore — but must go through the long and tedious processes of first making pig or cast iron, then eliminating the carbon from the cast iron by a still more tedious process to produce the wrought iron, and then restore a part of the carbon to make steel. It was said with truth that the half civilized Hindoo tribes and even the barbar- ous Fans of West Africa, made their native wrought iron (the wootz of India) directly from the ore of an excellent quality, and by a much simpler process than was adopted either in Europe or the United States. There has been, until within the past fif- teen or eighteen years, a spirit strongly ad- verse to progress or improvement among iron producers. By their rude and wasteful processes and their adherence to traditional methods and tests, they succeeded in making a fair though not very uniform quality of wrought iron, at a pretty high cost, but they deprecated any change even if it were for the better. The philosophy and chemistry of iron-making were not well understood, and the time and way of its " coming to na- ture " a term which conveys the idea of a mystery, was a secret which could only be learned, it was thought, by some supernatural inspiration or some extraordinary skill, only to be acquired by long experience and care- ful observation. The Bessemer process, invented and put in practice about 1852, first disturbed this popular idea ; but in its earlier history this pro- cess was not entirely free from guess-work and the coming- to-nature theory by some sudden and unexplicable change ; subsequent discov- eries and experiments removed this mystery entirely, and there is not, to-day, in practical chemistry and metallurgy a more thoroughly- defined science than that of making iron The iron master, who is fully educated foi his business, having before him an accurat analysis of his ores, and knowing, as ho can if he will, that they are constant in their composition, proceeds with the utmost cer- tainty to add other ores, or to permeate the molten ore with atmospheric air, or to force additional oxygen through it by means of nitrate of soda, nitrate of potassa, peroxide of iron, or other oxygen-yielding compound, or introduces a. definite quantity of man- ganese, powdered charcoal, or spiegeleisen, or in some cases silica, to act as flux and remove the sulphur, phosphorus, or other im- purity, and to destroy the excess of carhon. lie knows, too, just what heat is requisite, and how long it must be continued to pro- duce a certain result every time. Here is no guess-work, no " rule of thumb," no un- certainty. If he requires the best steel for rails, he can furnish it of precisely standard quality every time ; if he is pi*oducing steel for the finest cutlery he can produce that; if he desires a wrought iron which shall be so tough and flexible that it can be bent double cold without any symptoms of flaw or crack, he knows just what percentage of the differ- ent ores, what eliminating processes, and what amount and duration of heat is neces* sary to produce it. Now, as in the past, there are different grades and qualities of cast iron, wrought iron, and steel, intended for different pur- poses, made from different ores, and possess- ing different degrees of tenacity, hardness, and ductility ; but the iron-maker who can- not produce from a given ore', or ores, that description of iron which he desires, without failure, does not understand his business. Cast iron contains, according to the pur- pose for which it is intended, from five to six and a half per cent of pure carbon, either chemically or mechanically combined, and except the combination of iron wdth hy- drogen, which is its normal condition, it is not the better for any admixture of other metals or elements, though for some purposes a small percentage of manganese, tungsten, or even a little silicon, are not disadvantage- ous. As a matter of practical fact, however, both sulphur and phosphorus are usually present, though in good samples in very small amount. By sufficient care they can be almost entirely elimin; n d, and are so in the I est steel and wrought iron. Gteel, according to the purpose tO'which > is to be applied, contains, in chemical com- nination it is believed, from six-tenths to one and six-tenths per cent, of carbon, and should have no other ingredient. Wrought iron, apart from its ordinary combination with hydrogen, should be entirely free from sul- phur, phosphorus, or silicon, and though for some purposes, a little manganese, tungsten, and a very small percentage of carbon may not prove disadvantageous, yet practically a pure iron is preferable to any alloy. Yet it is seldom actually free from impurities. 402 IRON. What is usually denominated pure iron, melti with great difficulty and only at a very much greater heat than either steel or cast i/on. In actual practice it is never melted, but when the mass attains a pasty or semi-glutinous condition, it is by one process or another, either hammered, pressed, or squeezed till the impurities are forced out of it. Abso- lutely pure iron, i. e. iron free from hydrogen as well as other impurities, is one of the rarest metals in the world, and was isolated completely for the fir.-t time in 1860. It is a white metal very ductile, and tenacious and so soft as to be easily cut with a knife. The Bessemer process for eliminating the car- bon both for producing wrought iron and steel, as now conducted, is as follows : A quantity of pig iron of some grade whose percentage of carbon is known, is melted in one or more reverberating furnaces, accord- ing to the size of the converting vessel to be used, which varies in capacity from five to twelve tons. When the metal becomes fluid, it is run into the converting vessel, to which is applied a strong blast of air, which com- bines with the carbon at an intense white heat. This is continued for about eight or ten minutes, until the whole of the carbon is consumed, when the blast is stopped. It is now wrought iron, requiring only to be squeezed or hammered to force out whatever impurities there may be in it. If, as is gen- erally the case, it is deemed desirable to make it into the Bessemer steel or homoge- neous steel or iron, as it is called on the con- tinent, a quantity of metal, usually a pure pig iron, with a known quantity of carbon, is melted and run into the converting vessel to furnish carbon in the exact proportion to make the quality of steel desired, and this combining with the refined iron gives to the mass all the properties and characteristics of steel. This process, though practically a very rapid one, is liable to the objection which held agiiinst the old processes, that tl>jre is a time in the process of eliminating the carbon from the pig iron when the mass of iron has just enough carbon to form good steel ; and that by this process that point is passed and the whole of the carbon expelled, the mass reduced to the condition of wrought iron, and then brought up to the condition of steel by the addition of a percentage of cast iron. This elimination and restoration of the carbon involves waste of time, of heat, ' and of iron ; and hence efforts have been made to convert pig iron and iron ore into steel by a single process. Most of the methods proposed and abiding the test of actual manufacture are intended for the reduction of pig iron or ore to steel, and so come more properly under the head of steel ; but a few of them are equally ap- plicable to the production of wrought iron. Among these were the ingenious sugges- tions of a New York chemist, Prof. A. K. Eaton, at first applied to the malleable cast iron to partially decarbonize it. He pro- posed the use of the native carbonate of zinc as a flux to furnish the oxygen to consume the excess of carbon. The objection to this process was two-fold — that the zinc com- bined in a small proportion with the iron, — and that the process was too expensive to be successful. He afterward proposed to sub- stitute crude soda-ash for the zinc — a sug- gestion in the right direction ; for the sodium will combine with the sulphur and phospho- rus, and thus help to remove the impurities from the iron ; but the crude soda ash is too uncertain in its composition, too full of im- purities, and does not yield its oxygen with sufficient readiness to be practically the best flux for this purpose. The process of Messrs. Whelpley & Storer seems one of the best of the numerous Ameri- can processes. The oxide of carbon, i. e. coal gas, half or imperfectly burned, is the grand agent for making iron and steel from all the German and English furnaces, but the great difficulty has been to apply the powerful agent in such a way as to reduce directly from the ore without going through the pig iron manufacture, the wrought or bar iron, or steel, and free it from the impu- rities which exist more or less in all ores as well as in much of the pig iron. Messrs. Whelpley & Storer effect this by means of a machine of their own invention, which is really nothing less than the chemist's blow pipe on a grand scale. The oxide of carbon is generated at the moment of using it upon the mass of ore, by the injection of a column of hot air carrying an excessively fine dust of coal or charcoal. The ore spread out upon the floor of a common reverberating furnace receives the red hot blast, while it is rapidly stirred by the workman, and pure iron in minute grains is produced in any desired quantity, from 100 to 2,000 pounds or more at a heat. If the mass is balled up, squeezed, and passed through roller it w MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 403 bar iron of superior quality. If the time of the process is extended one hour, or even less, the iron absorbs carbon from the blast and becomes a light sponge of steel, which melts in the crucible or steel puddling fur- nace, and is cast into ingots of sound and pure metal. If continued still longer larger quan- tities of carbon are absorbed and the mass is converted into cast iron. The steel and cast iron as well as the bar iron are of superior quality, and remarkable tenacity and strength. Steel is made in this process in e ght hours from crude ore to finished bar ; and bar iron in little more than half that time. It is re- quisite to the success of the process that the carbon should l>e pulverized to an impalpa- ble powder of the last degree of fineness, that thus infinitely subdivided and blown upon the mass it may carry condensed upon its surface nearly oxygen enough to consume it, and thus produce extreme rapidity, in- tensity, and thoroughness of combustion. This pulverization is effected, for the first time, by an ingenious machine invented by Messrs. Whelpley & Storer. What Messrs. Whelpley & Storer accomplish by their great blow-pipe and minute pulverization of car- bon, Mr. C. W. Siemens effects in an en- tirely different way by his regenerating fur- nace ; an apparatus requiring, in the first place, a somewhat more extensive and costly structure, but in the end accomplishing the same result of producing a rapid and intense heat and an atmosphere of oxide of carbon with a comparatively small expenditure of fuel. The necessity that the furnace linings should be almost absolutely indestructible by the intense heat generated makes the first cost of a regenerating furnace very heavy. There are three distinct principles em- bodied in the Siemens' furnace, viz : the application of gaseous fuel; the regeneration of heat by means of piles of bricks alternately passed over by the waste gases and by the atmospheric air entering the furnace before their combustion ; and the chemical action of these gases in combining with the impurities of the ore or the pig iron, and in modifying the quantity of carbon in combination with the iron, for the production of steel. The gas producer is a brick chamber of convenient size, say six feet wide by twelve long, with its front wall inclined at an angle of 45° to 60°, according to the nature of the fuel used. The inclined plane is solid about half way down, and below this it is con- structed as a grate with horizontal bars. It is what is called a base-burner, the openings for introducing the coal being on the top or roof of this chamber, and the air which en- ters through the grate effects the combustion of the coal at the lowest points of the cham- ber. The products of this combustion rise and are decomposed by the superposed strata of coal above them ; they are, moreover, mixed with a quantity of steam which is drawn in through the grate from a constant supply of water maintained underneath the latter. The steam in contact with the in- candescent coal also decomposes and produ- ces hydrogen and carbonic oxide gas, which are mixed with the gases produced by the coal direct. The whole volume of these gases is then conducted to the furnace itself by means of wrought iron pipes. The gases enter one of the regenerators. The regen- erators are chambers packed with fire-bricks, which are built up in walls, with interstices and air-spaces between them (cob-house fash- ion as we should say) allowing of a free pas- sage of gas around each brick. Each regen- erator consists of two adjoining chambeis of this kind, with air-passajres parallel to each other, one passage destined for the gaseous fuel, and the other for the supply of atmos- pheric air required for combustion. Each furnace has two such regenerators, and a set of valves is provided in the main passa- ges or flues, which permit of diiecting the gases from the producer to the bottom of either of the two regenerators. The gases after passing one regenerator arrive at the furnace, where they are mixed with the air drawn in at the same time, and produce a flame of great heat and intensity within the body of the furnace itself. They then pass, after combustion, into the second regenerator which forms a set of down flues for the waste gases, and ultimately leads them off into a common chimney. On their way from the furnace to the chimney the heated products of combustion raise the temperature of the fire-bricks, over which they pass, to a very high degree, and the gases are so much cooled that, at the base of the chimney, they do not produce a temperature of much more than 800° Fahrenheit. After a certain time the fire-bricks close to the furnace obtain a temperature almost equal to that of the fur- nace itself, and a gradually diminishing tem- perature exists in the bricks of the regenera- tor proportionate to their distance fiom the furnace. At this moment the attendant, by reversing the different valves of the furnace, 404 IRON. opens the heated regenerator for the entrance of the gaseous fuel and atmospheric air, at the same time connecting the other regen- erator with the chimney for taking off the products of combustion The entire current of gases through the furnace is thus reversed. The cold air from the atmosphere, and the comparatively cold prases from the producer, in passing over bricks of gradually increas- ing temperature as they approach the furnace become intensely heated, and when they are mixed in the furnace itself, enter into com- bustion uiuler the most favorable circumstan- ces for the production of an intense heat, often rising to 4000° Fahrenheit in the furnace. By changing the relative proportion of air and gas admitted through the flues, the na- ture of the flame may be altered at will. A surplus of oxygen from the introduction of more than half the volume of atmospheric air will produce an oxidizing flame, suited to the production of very pure bar iron. By the admission of a surplus of gas, on the con- trary, the flame can be made of a reductive character and used accordingly for deoxida- tion. Berard's process for making steel by gas, directly from pig iron, or ore, requires the Siemens furnace, which he constructs with the bottom formed into two parts each hol- lowed out like a dish, with a bridge between them, upon which the pigs introduced into the furnace receive a preliminary heating. The flame is maintained with a surplus of oxygen, and a quantity of pig iron is melted in one of the chambers or dishes. The oxi- dizing action of the flame decarbonizes and refines the pig iron, and after a certain time a second quantity of pigs is thrown into the second dish and melted there. The flame is now reversed in its direction ; the oxidiz- ing flame is made to enter at the side where the fresh pig is placed. In passing over this, and oxidizing the carbon, silicon, and other impurities in the iron, the flame loses its sur- plus oxygen, and becomes of a neutral, or at least only slightly oxidizing character. In this state it passes over the other bath of molten iron, now partly refined, and it con- tinues to act upon the impurities without at- tacking the iron itself. At a certain moment this portion of iron is completely converted into steel, and that part of the furnace is then tapped, so as to make room for a fresh charge of pigs in that place. After that, the current of gases is again reversed, the second bath now entering into the position previously taken by the first, and so the process is car- ried on continuously with two portions of iron — one freshly introduced and acted upon by the oxidizing flame, the other partly con- verted into steel and exposed to the neutral fiame passing away from the first. M. Be- lard states that by protracting his process, and by adding sjiiegeleisen he can remove sulphur and phosphorus from the iron, and make steel from inferior pigs. The Messrs. Martin of Sireuil, France, have, with a Siemens furnace, succeeded in melting with pig iron, old iron rails, wrought iron scrap, puddled steel, &c, in the propor- tion of two-thirds old rails to one-third pig iron, and have made from the compound an excellent and low-priced steel for rails. Mr. Siemens himself patented, in 1868, and has 'since that time worked, a process for making natural or " raw " steel directly from the ore by means of a modification of his furnace. This can only be done successfully it is said by the use of the purest and best ores. Of other processes we may mention that of Mr. James Henderson, an eminent founder, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who, using the Bessemer process, has improved it by charg- ing the blast furnace with a mixture of iron and manganese ores, or any of the manga- niferous iron ores, thus incorporating the indispensable manganese, and causing it to exert its beneficial influence in purifying and reflning the iron, at the beginning, instead of the end of the pneumatic process. Mr. John Heaton of Nottingham, England, has been successful in oxidizing and remov- ing the carbon and other impurities with great rapidity by the use of nitrate of soda with the molten metal in the following way : The " converter " consists of a large wrought iron pot, lined with fire clay ; into the bot- tom of this a suitable quantity (about 6 per cent, usually of the weight of the pig iron or ore), of crude nitrate of soda combined with silicious sand, is introduced, and the whole covered with a cast-iron perforated plate. The molten pig is then poured in and in about two minutes the reaction commences ; at first, brown nitrous fumes are evolved, and after a lapse of five or six minutes, a violent deflagration occurs attended with a loud roaring noise, and a burst from the top of the chimney of brilliant yellow flame, which, in about a minute and a half subsides as rapidly as it commenced. When all has become tranquil the converter is detached from the chimney and its contents emptied TICKETING MACHINE. No. 1 HAND BOLT-CUTTER. INDEX MILLING MACHINE. No. 3 SCREW MACHINE. The Pratt & Whitney Company, Hartford, Conn. MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITLD STATES. 405 upon the iron pavement of the foundry. The steel thus produced is pronounced by eminent metallurgists of excellent quality and prac- tically free from impurities (the sodium com- bining with the sulphur and phosphorus), and it was satisfactorily demonstrated that uniformity of quality was attainable. The pro ess is much more rapid than any other, but Mr. Bessemer asserts that the addition of the nitrate of soda makes the cost of a ton of steel about five dollars more than by bis method. Mr. Ilargreaves lias patented a modification of this process, combining the nitrate of soda with hematite ore to form a paste, and claims that he thus obtains addi- tional supply of oxygen. He states that he can make refined iron for puddling by the use of about 3 per cent, of nitrate of soda and six per cent, of hematite ; steel by eight to ten per cent, of nitrate of soda and an equal weight of binoxide of manganese, and the best quality of wrought iron. Mr F. Kohn, an English steel manufac- turer, had, in 1868, made use of the Siemens regenerating furnace by a new process, melt- ing a given quantity of the best and finest wrought iron in a bath of molten cast iion, carried to the highest heat of that furnace and thus making a pure steel at one heat without puddling or cementation. By his process old railroad iron, scrap iron, and .-crap steel, can be converted at once into steel of the best quality for rails. A Mr. Wilson, of Stockton-on-Tees, Eng- land, has patented a modification of the Sie- mens furnace which attains the same object with a still greater saving of fuel, by forcing air into the flue-bridge by a steam-jet, and causing it to pass into a conduit at the back of the furnace, and thence into the flame- bridge and up into a chamber from which, in a red-hot condition, it passes into and on to the incandescent fuel. By this improvement there is no necessity of grate-bars to the fur- nace, most of the fettling is saved, the steam from the heated water is at once decomposed and adds its quota to the intensity of the heat which burns up all the smoke and nearly all the cinder and slag. The saving in fuel is said to he about one-third over the Siemens furnace, and the heat is all applied directly to the removal of impurities and slag from the ores and cast iron. The Shoenberger Junta Works, at Pitts- burgh, Pa., have patented a method of mak- ing refined iron and steel by a new process which is both simple and ingenious, melting | in a blast furnace a quantity of crude cast iron of whatever quality they may have, they run it into a large kettle of a capacity of five tons and thence from it in a stream about a foot wide into a circular revolving trough, twelve inches wide and ten inches deep and let fall upon the molten metal from a hopper. pulverized iron ore, Lake Superior, Cham- plain, or Iron mountain, in sufficient quantity to cover the melted metal as fast as it is poured in. When the trough is full, and before the iron cools, it is broken up into slabs of suitable size for a heating furnace, when it is only necessary to heat it as blooms are heated, and put it through the machinery to produce the best quality of horse-shoe bars, or by a slight variation of the process, ex- cellent steel. Mr. David Stewart of Kittanning, Pa., has patented a method of freeing cast iron from its carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, &c, by pour- ing the melted metal at full heat from a height of perhaps thirty feet in a thin stream or shower upon the ground in such a way as that it shall receive the action of atmospheric air over its entire surface, or if preferred, through a cylinder thirty feet or more in height, and open at both ends, into which air is constantly forced. He claims to have tested this process very thorough^ and to be capable of making pure iron or steel by it without puddling and without retaining any cinder or impurities. Messrs. J. R. Bradley and M. D. Brown of Chicago, 111., patented in 1868 eight recipes of ingredients to be added to melted scrap or malleable iron which they claimed would produce in each case the precise kind of steel wanted, and of the best quality. A Mr. J. Edwin Sherman, formerly a blacksmiih of Bucksport, Me, but more recently a Government clerk at Wa?h- ington, D. C, is said to have hit upon a method of converting iron into steel of great simplicity and cheapness, and, in the autumn of 1870, went by invitation to England to lay his process before the lords of the Admiralty. Among the most remarkable discoveries of the present day. in relation to the manu- facture of iron, we must count those by which iron ores, hitherto regarded as worthless, have proved either by new processes or by mix- ture with other ores, or with cast iron, the best of all factors for producing the purest wrought iron and steel. Thus far there are two of these instances worthy of special no- tice. In the township of North Codorus, York Co., Pa., there are extensive beds of a 406 IRON. peculiar micaceous iron ore ; some of which were opened in 1854 or 1855, and attempts were made to make iron from them, but the ore contained but 41.5 percent, of magnetic iron, and its reduction, owing to its peculiar combination, was attended with much labor and no profit ; the ore beds were therefore abandoned. In 18G8, it was discovered by accident that this unpromising ore, mixed with cast or pig iron of ordinary quality in the proportion of one to five or six in a re- verberating furnace, produced by the ordin- ary puddling process, a pure steel of admira- ble quality and remarkably uniform in char- acter. Having tested this by a very great number of experiments the discoverers pur- chased the Codorus ore beds, and put up a puddling furnace and rolling mill at York to carry on the business of making steel for railway rails, and other purposes. The an- alysis of the Codorus ore, as made by the eminent practical chemist, Otto Worth, of Pittsburg, is as follows : Silica, 37.35 Potash, 1.87 Alumina, 3.21 Magnetic Iron, 41.57 Manganese, 4.45 Peroxide of Iron, 10.46 Lime, .74 Water and Loss, .35 100.00 Further experiments, conducted under the eye of the veteran iron master, J. N. Wins- low, satisfied the owners of the ore that they could safely dispense with the puddling pro- cess and produce directly from the ore and cast iron the very best quality of steel. We have ourselves examined the steel and the wrought iron produced by this combination, and in every test to which it can be subject- ed, whether of tenacity, tensile strength, hardness, elasticity, or capacity of receiving and retaining the highest temper, it is unsur- passed by any steel or iron known to manu- facturers. Whether wrought iron and steel can be made without puddling from a com- bination of this ore with other ores of good quality has not yet been ascertained, but we believe that it will. By the processes at present employed, the best of steel can be made with the use of fifteen or twenty per cent, of this ore at a cost of not above $70 or $75 per ton, and possibly lower. Of the other ore, found at Port Leyden, Lewis Co., N. Y., still more remarkable things are stated. The following account of the ores and process of reduction, made in the New York Tribune, is believed to be fully authenticated. The steel is certainly of excellent quality " The discovery of an inexhaustible bed of iron ore at Port Leyden, Lewis County, about 40 miles above Utica, a few years ago, tempted citizens of the latter-named place to invest about $500,000 in the effort to estab- lish the manufacture of iron there. The ' Port Leyden Iron Works ' were a sad fail- ure, and the entire amount of money invested in them was lost, as pig iron could not be produced from the ore. From this impracti- cable ore, steel is now produced, at one fus- ion, by a process invented by Prof. E. L. Seymour, a metallurgist and chemist, who resides in this vicinity. The outlines of the process are as follows : The ore is crushed, in something like-an ordinary quartz-crusher, until it is reduced to about the fineness of rifle powder. It is then thrown into a re- volving cylinder, in which are set numer- ous magnets. The ore is of the kind known as ' magnetic' By an arrangement oi small brushes, the metallic particles are separated from the refuse, which is principally stony and earthy matter in the shape of fine dust. The application of certain chemicals and fusion by charcoal are the next steps in the process, and the immediate product is pure steel, ready for molding into ' ingots. Speci- mens of steel thus manufactured and con- verted into finely-tempered table cutlery, and other articles, and the certificate of a well-known cutler of Brooklyn, who made the articles, that it is as good steel as he ever worked, and adapted to all cutlery purposes, have been exhibited. The estimated cost of this steel is less than four cents. By the Seymour process, it is claimed that the aim of iron-masters and chemists for the last 200 years is accomplished — viz : to rid iron of its arch enemies, sulphur and phosphorus — the former rendering the metal what is tech- nically called ' red-short,' so that it flies to pieces under the hammer when at a red heat, though it may be quite strong when cold ; while the least quantity of phosphorus ren- ders the metal ' cold-short,' making it weak and brittle when cold, though quite strong when hot. " The Port Leyden Works are about one- eighth of a mile from the railroad and the canal. The buildings, furnaces, etc., were erected several years ago at great expense ; and for some time there have lain in the forest near by nearly 100,000 bushels of charcoal, the overplus of what was made be- fore it was found that iron could not* be pro- duced from the ore by the old processes." MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 407 It has recently been discovered that there are extensive veins of a peculiar coal, called blo«k coal in Indiana, which is remarkably adapted to the production of the best iron. In its constituents and its working, it is very nearly a pure charcoal and containing nei- ther sulphur nor phosphorus, it does not im- part to iron in the smelting process any in- gredient which impairs its value. These veins of block coal are of great thickness, and extend widely over the central and southern part of the state. It has not thus far been discovered in any other state. In- diana has no great variety of iron ores, but her railroad facilities present, and prospec- tive, for bringing the Missouri ores from Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain and the rich specular ores from the Lake Superior re- gion in Michigan, are such that with this excellent coal, her citizens can manufacture the finest qualities of iron and steel at con- siderably lower prices than they can be pro- duced for, elsewhere. As a consequence numerous furnaces were erected in 1870 and 1871, along the line of the block coal veins, and many more are now going up. The improved process and new discoveries to which we have alluded, while they will materially reduce the cost of making steel, have also so far reduced the cost of mak- ing iron, that the reduction of ten per cent, on iron and iron manufactures in the new tariff of 1872, only stimulated the manu- factures, after the panic of 1873 had spent its force, to new exertions, and there ha; been an enormous increase in the produc tion of both iron and steel. The amoun of pig iron made in the U. S. in 1880 wi. 3,781,021 tons, an increase of 84 per cent on 1870, and of the products of iron roll- ing mills in 1880 2,353,248 tons, an in- crease of G3 per cent, on 1870. Total iron produced in 1880, 6,134,269 tons, against 3,494,650 tons in 1870. In 1870 the quantity of old iron rails re- rolled made it difficult to determine how many new rails were actually produced ; but in 1880, old rails (both iron and steel) were counted only as material. In that year 708,534 tons of old iron rails were used in the production of 2,453,248 tons of rolled iron, and 466,917 tons of new iron rails were made; 85,653 tons of old steel rails, etc., were used as material, and 750,580 tons of new steel rails were made. Sheet Iron. — For making sheet iron the bars are gradually spread out between smooth rolls, which are brought nearer together as the metal grows thinner. The Russians have a method of giving to sheet iron a beautifully polished surface, and a pliability and dura- bility which no other people have been able to imitate. All attempts that have been made to learn the secret of this process have entirely failed, and the business remains a monopoly with the Russians. The nearest imitation of this iron is produced at Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania, and several eastern estab- lishments, by what is called Wood's process. This consists in rolling the common sheet at a certain temperature while it is covered with linseed oil. A very fine surface is thus produced, but the pliability and toughness of the Russian iron are wanting, even though the sheets are often annealed in close vessels, and the glaze and color are also inferior. Sheet iron is now extensively prepared for roofing, and other uses requiring exposure to the weather, by protecting its surface with a coating of zinc. This application is an American invention, having been discovered in 1827, by the late Prof. John W. Revere, of New York. In March, 1859, he exhibited, at a meeting of the Lyceum of Natural His- tory, specimens of iron thus protected, which had been exposed for two years to the action of salt water without rusting. He recom- mended it as a means of protecting the iron fastenings of ships, and introduced the proc- ess into Great Britain. Sheets thus coated are known as galvanized iron, though the iron is now coated with zinc by other means as well as by the galvanic current. One method, that of Mallet, is to place the sheets, after they are well cleaned by acid and scrubbed with emery and sand, in a satu- rated solution of hydrochlorate of zinc and sulphate of ammonia; and after this in a bath composed of 202 parts of mercury and 1,292 of zinc, to every ton weight of which a pound of potassium or sodium is added. The compound fuses at 680° Fahrenheit, and the zinc is immediately deposited upon the iron surface. Another method is to stir the sheets in a bath of melted zinc, the sur- face of which is covered with sal ammoniac. The use of heavy sheets or plates far build- ing purposes is also a recent application of iron, that adds considerably to the demand for the metal. The plates are stiffened by the fluting, or corrugating, which thev re- ceive in a powerful machine, and may be protected by a coating of zinc. Their prep- 408 IRON. aration is largely carried on in Philadel- phia; and in the same works a great variety of other articles of malleable iron, for domestic and other uses, are similarly protected with zinc, as window shutters, water and gas pipes, coal scuttles, chains for pumps, bolts for ships' use, hoop iron, and telegraph and other wire. The production of sheet iron in 1870 was 74,753 tons; in 1880, 04,992 tons; of all kinds of plate iron in 1870, 284,702 tons were made; in 1880, there were 437,139 tons, an increase of more than 50 per cent. This great increase was due to several causes, among which may be enumerated its use in the construction of coasting and other steamers, the large consumption of corrugated plate iron in the construction of churches, warehouses, and stores, and also in the construction of machines for manu- facturing and household uses. The 1,000,- 000 sewing machines made in this country in 1880, and the hundreds of agricultural machines produced the same year, con- sumed a large quantity of plate iron; cer- tainly not less than 90,000 tons. Iron Wire. — The uses of iron wire have greatly increased within a few years past. The telegraph has created a large demand for it ; and with the demand the manufac- ture has been so much improved, especially in this country, that the wire has been found applicable to many purposes for which brass or copper wire was before required. It is prepared from small rods, which are passed through a succession of holes, of decreasing sizes, made in steel plates, the wire being annealed as often as may be necessary to prevent its becoming brittle. In this branch the American manufacturers have attained the highest perfection. The iron prepared from our magnetic and specular ore is un- equalled in the combined qualities of strength and flexibility, and is used almost exclusively for purposes in which these qualities are es- sential. But where stiffness combined Avith strength is more important, Swedish and Norwegian iron also are used. Much of the iron wire now made is almost as pliable as copper wire, while its strength is about 50 per cent, greater. In Worcester, Mass., a large contract has been satisfactorily filled for No. 10 wire, one of the conditions of which was that the wire, when cold, might be tightly wound around another wire of the same size without cracking or becoming rough on the surface. Such wire is an ex- cellent material for ropes, and considerable American iron is already required for this use, especially for suspension bridges. Wires are also used for fences, and are ingeniously woven into ornamental patterns. The so- called "netting fence," thus made, can be rolled up like a carpet. For heavier railing and fences, as for the front yards of houses, for balconies, window guards, etc., iron bars and rods are now worked into ornamental open designs, by powerfully crimping them and weaving them together like wires. Nails. — Among the multitude of other important applications of malleable iron, that of nail making is particularly worthy of no- tice, as being in the machine branch of it — the preparation of cut nails — entirely an American process. Our advance in this de- partment is ascribed to the great demand for nails among us in the construction of wooden houses. In England, even into the present century, nails were wrought only by hand, employing a large population. In the vi- cinity of Birmingham it was estimated that 60,000 persons were occupied wholly in nail making. Females and children, as well as men, worked in the shop, forging the nails upon anvils, from the "split iron rods" fur- nished for the purpose from the neighboring iron works. The contrast is very striking between their operations and those of the great establishments in Pennsylvania, con- sisting of the blast furnaces, in which the ores are converted into pig ; of the puddling furnaces, in which this is made into wrought iron ; of the rolling and slitting mills, by which the malleable iron is made into nail- plates ; and of the nail machines, which cut up the plates and turn them into nails — all going on consecutively under the same roof, and not allowing time for the iron to cool until it is in the finished state, and single establishments producing more nails than the greater part of the workshops of Birming- ham fifty years ago. Public attention was directed to machine-made nails as long ago as 1810, by a report of the secretary of the treasury, in which he referred to the success already attained in their manufacture in Mas- sachusetts. " Twenty years ago," he states, " some men, now unknown, then in ob- scurity, began by cutting slices out of old hoops, and, by a common vice gripping these pieces, headed them with several strokes of the hammer. By progressive improvements, slitting mills were built, and the shears and the heading tools were perfected, yet much MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 411 labor and expense were requisite to make nails. In a little time, Jacob Perkins, Jona- than Ellis, and a few others, put into execu- tion 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 com- plete success, and we are now able to manu- facture, at about one-third of the expense that wrought nails can be manufactured 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. The machines made use of by Odiorne, those invented by Jona- than Ellis, and a few others, present very fine specimens of American genius." The report then describes the peculiar character of the cut nail — that it was used by northern carpenters without their having to bore a hole to prevent its splitting the wood ; that it would penetrate harder wood than the wrought nail, etc. At that time, it states, there were twelve rolling and slitting mills in Massachusetts, chiefly employed in rolling nail plates, making nail rods, hoops, tires, sheet iron, and copper, and turning out about 3,500 tons, of which about 2,400 tons were cut up into nails and brads. That State still leads in this manufacture, having in 1870, 49 out of 142 establishments in the whole country, more than one-fourth of the capital and more than one-fifth of the an- nual products. The smaller establishments are gradually going out of the business, and this is becoming more concentrated in the coal and iron regions, thus saving the cost of transportation in these heavy ar- ticles. The manufacturers of New Eng- land, however, ingeniously divert a part of their operations to the production of smaller articles, with which the cost of transportation is a less item in proportion to their value, such as tacks, rivets, screws, butts, wire, and numerous finished articles, the value of which consists more in the labor performed upon them and in the use of ingenious machinery than in the cost of the crude materials employed. The statistics of the nail, spike, tack, and brad business in 1880 have not yet been, published, but in 1870 there were 142 es- tablishments, of which 119 were confined to nails and tacks alone. These nail mills employed 7,7 70 hands, of whom G,062 were men, 381 women, 1,327 children; the capital used was $9,091,912. They used about 250,000 tons of wrought iron, and other material valued in all at $18,792,383; paid wages to the amount of $3, 9G 1,1 72, and produced goods to the annual value of $24,823,996. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Ohio were the only States largely en- gaged in the business. The weight of cut nails produced in 1880 was 252,830 tons, or 5,056,600 kegs. The demand for the larger sizes has greatly diminished bolts of iron, bronze or copper having been substi- tuted for them, and being safer from the readiness with which they are riveted. A great variety of machines have been devised for nail making, very ingenious in their designs, and all too complicated for description. The iron is rolled out into bars for this manufacture, of 10 or 12 feet in length, and wide enough to make three or more strips, each one of which is as wide as the length of the nail it is to make. The cutting of these strips from the wider bars is the special work of the slitting mill, which is, in fact, but a branch of the rolling opera- tion, and carried on in conjunction with it. The slitting machine consists of a pair of rolls, one above the other, each having 5 or 6 steel disks upon its axis, set as far apart as the width required for the nail-rod. Those upon one roll interlock with those upon the other, so that when the wide bar is intro- duced it is pressed into the grooves above and below, and cut into as many strips as there are spaces between the disks. This work is done with wonderful rapidity, several bars being passed through at once. In the nail factory each nail-making machine works upon one of these strips, or nail-rods, at a time, first clipping off a piece from the end presented to it, and immediately another, as the flat rod is turned over and the end is again presented to the cutter. The reason of turning it over for each successive cut is because the piece cut off for the nail is tapering, in order to make it a little wider at the end intended for the head than at the other, and thus, making the wider cut on al- ternate sides of the rod, this is regularly worked up into pieces of the proper shape. In the older operations a workman always sat in front of each machine, holding the 412 IRON. rod and turning it over with every clip ; but by a modern improvement this work is also done by mechanical contrivance. Each piece, as fast as it is clipped off, disappears in the machine. There it is seized between powerful jaws, and the head is pressed up from the large end by the short, powerful motion imparted to the piece of apparatus called the header. As it is released, it slides down and drops upon the floor, or in a vessel placed to receive the nails. Machinery has been applied in the United States to the manufacture of horse-shoe nails, according to a number of patented plans. Of these, the most successful is probably that invented about the year 1848, by Mr. L. Gr. Reynolds, of Providence ; also the inventor of the solid-headed pin. The form of this nail could not be given as in ordinary cut nails by the cutter, but the sides required to be pressed as well as the head. This in- volved the use of movable plates of suitable figure ; and as it was found that the nails could not be shaped except when the metal was softened by heat, the plates must neces- sarily be of the hardest steel, and protected as effectually as possible from the effects of constant working of heated iron. These difficulties were fully overcome, and the nails, after being turned out, were toughened by annealing, giving them all the excellent qualities of hand-made nails, with the ad- vantage of perfect uniformity of size, so that one nail answers as well as another for the holes in the horse-shoes. They are, more- over, made with great rapidity, each machine producing half a ton of nails in 12 hours. The process has been taken to Europe, and is there in successful operation. Spikes, also, have been made and headed in similar ma- chines ; and among all small articles in iron, none, perhaps, has proved so profitable to the inventor as the hook-headed spike, used for holding down, by its projecting head, the edge of the iron rails to the sill. This was the invention of Mr. Henry Burden, of Troy, whose machines for wrought-iron spikes and for horse-shoes have also proved very success- ful. By the latter, perfect shoes arc turned out at the rate of 60- in a minute. This proc- ess has been introduced in most of the European countries. As already remarked, steel differs in com- position from metallic iron only by contain- ing from h to l£ per cent, of carbon, and from cast-iron by the latter containing a larger proportion of carbon, which may amount to 5.5 per cent. To readily convert these varieties into each other is an object of no small importance, for their properties are so entirely distinct, that they really serve the purposes of three different metals. Steel is particularly valuable for its extreme hard- ness, fine grain, and compact texture, which admits of its receiving a high polish. It is the most elastic of metals, and much less liable to rust than iron. It has the peculiar property of assuming different degrees of hardness, according to the rapidity with which it is chilled when heated ; and it may be melted and run into moulds like cast iron, and the ingots thus prepared may be ham- mered, rolled, and forged into shapes like wrought iron ; and these may finally be tem- pered to any degree of hardness desired. Differing so little in composition from me- tallic iron and from cast iron, and being so universally in demand for a multitude of uses, it would seem that it ought to be pro- duced as cheaply as one or the other of the varieties, between which its composition places it. But this is far from being the case. While pig iron is worth only $23 to $30 per ton, and bar iron $46 to $76, steel rails are worth from $60 to $88 per ton, and steel bars or ingots from $150 to $2 CO per ton. This is chiefly owing to the diffi- culty of procuring in large quantities steel of uniform character, which the consumers of the article can purchase with perfect confidence that it is what they require and have been accustomed to use. The Eng- lish, though producing themselves little or no iron fit for making alone the best steel, imported enough of the Swedish and Nor- wegian bar iron to insure a good quality, and were especially cautious to render this as uniform as possible. Of late years, however, their ingot has not been supe- rior to the American. Their method of manufacture is to introduce carbon into the wrought iron by what is called the cementing process. On the continent of Europe steel is made to some extent, in Silesia and Stvria, by removing from cast iron enough of its carbon to leave the proper proportion for steel, and then melting the product and cast- ing it into ingot moulds. But this cheaper method does not appear to have been taken up in Great Britain. In the United States several processes are in operation, two of which are peculiarly American. The ce- MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 413 menting method, as conducted in England, has been longest known, and will be first de- scribed. The cementing furnace is a sort of oven, furnished with troughs or shelves, upon which charcoal dust is laid for receiving the bars. These are placed edgewise in the charcoal, half an inch apart, and the spaces are filled in with more sifted coal. Enough is added to cover the bars, and upon this a second tier is laid in the same way, and so on till the trough is filled with several tons of iron, all of which is perfectly excluded from the air. The trough being secured with others in the oven, a fire is started under them. In about six days the bars have absorbed enough carbon to acquire the properties of the softer kinds of steel, such as are used for saws and springs. In a day or two longer it answers for cutting instru- ments, and some time after this it gains in hardness, so as to be fitted for cold chisels, for drills such as miners use, etc. Its character is ascertained at any time by drawing out one of the bars. After the change is effected the fire is extinguished, and about a week is allowed for the furnace and its contents to cool. When at last the bars are obtained, their surface is found to be covered with blisters, whence the steel is called blistered steel. The fibrous texture of the iron has given place to a granular structure, but is so irregular and uneven that the metal requires further treatment to per- fect it. To make the English shear-steel, so called from its being originally employed for shears used in sheep-shearing, the bars are cut into lengths of a foot and a half, and a number of these are bound together to make a faggot. This is brought to a weld- ing heat, and drawn down first under a forge- hammer, and then under the tilt-hammer. This weighs from 150 to 200 pounds, and strikes from 150 to 360 strokes a minute. The rapidity of the work keeps the steel at a glowing heat, and it is soon fashioned into a dense bar of smooth surface, susceptible of a polish, and suited for the manufacture of cutting instruments. Sometimes it is cut into pieces to be refaggotcd, and drawn down again into bars, which are then called double- shear. Cast steel is a still more dense and perfect variety. It is prepared by melting, in large crucibles, blistered steel broken into small pieces, and pouring the metal into moulds. These are then worked into shapes by the forge hammer and the rolls. One of the most approved American methods of making steel was discovered by Prof. A. K. Eaton, of New York, before 1850, and was practically demonstrated by him in Rochester and its vicinity in 1851 and 1852. This consisted in car- bonizing and melting malleable iron in cruci- bles at one operation, by introducing into the pot with the pieces of iron a carbonaceous salt, such as the ferro-cyanidc of potassium, either alone or in combination with charcoal powder. At an intense heat this salt rapidly carbon- izes the iron, which thus first becomes steel, then fuses, and is poured into moulds. The quantity of the salt employed is proportional to the quantity of the iron and the quality of the steel required. The operation is suc- cessfully carried on in different establish- ments in New Jersey, New York, and Penn- sylvania, and cast steel of the very best quality is produced at less expense than the article has ever before cost in this country. For bar steel, according to the prospectus of the company, the best charcoal-made iron is employed, costing $85 per ton, and this, to- gether with the coal used for fuel, the chem- ical materials, the melting, crucibles, and hammering, make the whole cost about $142 per ton, while that of the imported article is #300 or more. The great difficulty in the process is to obtain suitable crucibles for withstanding the intense heat required to melt the charge of 60 lbs. of malleable iron. Those in use are blue-pots, costing §1.60 each. Though made of the best of plum- bago, they stand only two or three meltings. The other process, which was introduced into practice in 1 859, is based upon the prop- erty of carbonate of soda to remove from cast iron the carbon it contains, when the metal is kept for a few hours in a bath of the melted alkali. The decarbonizing effect is in part due to the action of the oxygen of the alkaline base, which is given up to the carbon of highly heated cast iron, but principally to the decom- position of the combined carbonic acid, which gives to the carbon one of its atoms < >f oxygen, and is resolved into carbonic oxide. This prop- erty of soda was discovered by Prof. Eaton in 1856, but the fact that the carbonated or bi- carbonated alkalies act principally by virtue of their carbonic acid, was only recently rec- ognized and made practically available l»y him. The action of soda or its carbonates is not limited to the removal of the excess of carbon in cast iron. It combines with and removes those impurities which would prove 414 IRON. fatal to the quality of the steel if remain- ing in it, as sulphur, phosphorous, arid sili- con; and the method thus admits of the use of crude irons, such as could never be applied to this manufacture by any other mode. The cast iron, in the form of thin plates, having been kept at a bright red heat in the bath of melted carbonate for a sufficient time, which is determined by occasionally taking out and testing some of the pieces, is transferred to the crucible, and is then melted and poured into moulds, as in the ordinary method of making cast steel. The crucibles endure much longer than when employed for melting wrought iron in the carbonizing process; thus a great saving is effected in the expense of the conversion; and this economy is still further increased by the use of 'a crude ma- terial, costing only from $6 to $10 per ton, in place of the superior qualities of wrought iron, worth S85 per ton. So great, indeed, is the saving, that the cost of the cast steel, when obtained in ingots, is found not to exceed the cost of the mal- leable iron employed in the other process. Later processes have effected these results still more successfully. Statistics. — The records of the produc- tion of iron of the United States are very incomplete up to the year 1854. Even the census returns are highly defective, as they often make no distinction between iron made from the ore and the products of the secondary operations of remelting and puddling. The first systematic attempts to obtain complete accounts of the business, as conducted in Pennsylvania, were made in 1850 by the Association of Iron Manu- facturers, organized in Philadelphia. Mr. Charles E. Smith collected the returns, and published them in a small volume, together with other papers relating to the manu- facture. The published statistics of 1856 are the first which were at all full or com- plete; since that time there have been more frequent reports; those of 1873 and 1880 being especially complete. We give the three reports of these years, to show the progress which has been made in 24 years. 1856. Blast Furnaces. to o M o SB a £ o o s 5 42 48 36 2 4 14 50 3 204 l" o £ o c "i '5 6 3 2 111 2 43 9 4 3 189 EC S 60 .9 1 1 1 19 2 5 13 10 91 4 13 12 'i 3 1 '3 7 15 1 1 2 4 209 a '2t 8t 10 1873. Blast Furnaces. m 0> fcJC B a s >> u CO C 01 L- fOOO-Ci •saox '0881 nt spnp -OJd uoji UBjoiqSiaA\ eoaop — ^ r CO C. T ^" CO r» m -* co' e»5P©i-n-it-t-«eio lOXOiCi'i-'tO^O r T.°v r ", l ~ ""I *■' °i *". *t. ufort-'eoosoi-iNco CO © t- Ol CO Cn r-c -ir l- r-i © "*r T-« f— I 8COO 5 © ~ icqqi- '0-8T *>! spnpo.ij "0181 ni spnp -ojj uojiipjjo iuSt3A\ iooioiot-noct-'tet-H»'*oioc»cpei]Hei' Ol -T i-i O 1.0 X O © O* CO CO © T CO © O CO © -T © t- CO in i-i *3* CO Ol O* X CC T X CO X TT 1 © OICt*l-rHt--Ct i-ioviooooaa i- t- o* « en >■- ^ © en co ont'-co en co t- eoco-* -r in © © 0 © en j< "spuiji \\v jo euioojg coenco -i-io — o) t- ■ «P 5 i- co in . © co O) io 55 © :-*" •spntjnitjjoiso^s nolo ■ co in o» © • ex ci ■-! • — -r -r en • ino© • -r* t^eft^so . Tf'eo'en .c» ©'©"©" : : ""-S cc io co :: o o — 00 •uoji ponoji nciQOi-'ncoO'xainai- 1.0 «-0 o to coo cc co en — t-t-co co, i- in,oJ r- o> i.o ©^ ec_cr.,x *-^*i\ x^t-TcTco — : eo" ©'^ co~i-'m"t-" O rlO^t-CO-CCoa — io— -r •snoj, "spnxji \{o jo uoji Stj l- — T t- • X t- O CO ■ O X CO X 7' x 0: p f en X co in ■ en rr o -r ■ m oi — x o rr i- in ^ ge o o> en ig o co >-i i~ o> co en so o> io cc -» ci o o x . in o» 0* cinH . «T«cniocn- .x •snox 'spni'MU'Uoinniv; puB uoji lU^uo-iAV . .co • :S ::::::: : . '.ei . .in •snox 'opRK s PilH 118 jo uojj s \d oi- O' o -r o of CO eni-o t- co m en X O 0> T_ M O 0>S o -o t- m o co -- o o x o io o o en i - o — i o e: i - o t m X -r rr m o X en «o in_ !-<' cm' i-T co tc t-^ M t-J co «<* 22 418 IRON. Foundry pig 302,154 tons a $27, $8,158,158 Foundry cold-blast ) charcoal iron for 1 35,000 " a 35, 1.225,000 car wheels, &c. . . . ) Rails 142,555 " a 63, 8,980,965 Boiler and sheet.... 38,639 " a 120, 4,636,680 Nails 81,462 " a 84, 6,842,808 B band 0d ' hOOP ' and | 235 ' 425 " ° 65,15,302,625 Hammered iron 21,000 " a 125, 2,625,000 Total $47,771,236 Mr. Smith presents the following conclu- sion to the " Statistical Report of the Iron Manufacture:" "The great facts demon- strated are, that we have nearly 1,200 effi- cient works in the Union ; that these pro- duce annually about 850,000 tons of iron, the value of which in an ordinary year is $50,000,000 ; of this amount the portion expended for labor alone is about $35,000,- 000." The following table gives the different kinds of pig metal and the total amount pro- duced in each year since 1856 : Tons Tons raw Tons Anthracite Bituminous Charcoal TEAR. Pig Iron. Coal and Coke Pig Iron. Pig Iron. Total. 1857. 390,385 77,451 330.321 798,157 1858, 361.430 58,351 285,313 705.095 1859, 471,745 84,841 284,041 840,627 1860, 519,211 122,228 278,331 919,770 1861, 409.229 127,037 185,278 731,544 " 1862, 470,315 130,687 186,660 787,662 1863, 577,638 157,961 212,005 947.604 .1*4, 684,018 209.626 241,853 1,135.497 1-6 >, 479,588 189,682 262,342 831,282 H68, 749,367 286,996 332.280 1,350,943 1-67, 79*. 638 31s. 617 344.311 1,461,626 186-1, 893,000 340.11(10 370.000 1.603,000 1619, 971.150 553,341 392,150 1,916,611 WO, 940,500 550,000 360.000 1,850,00(1 0871, 875,999 650,000 375,000 1,900.000 The manufacture of iron rails has existed for nearly twenty-five years in the United • States, but has only assumed any great mag- nitude since 18i4. The annual production of American rails since 1861 has been : 1861, 189,818 tons; 1862, 213.912; 1863, 275,- 768; 1864,335,369; 1865, 356,292 ; 1866, 430,778; 1867, 462,108; 1868, 506,711; 1*69. 593,586 ; 1870, 62'>,000 ; 1871, 722,- •000 tons. In the la4 named year, 572,386 ton- were imported from Great Britain. The census of 1860 gives the following statistics of the iron production and manu- facture of that year. There had been very little progress in the production of iron in the country for several years previous, in consequence of the very low rate of duty at which foreign railroad and other iron was .admitted. Iron blooms, valued at $2,623,178 Pig iron 20,870,120 Ear, sheet and railroad iron.. 31,888,705 Iron wire 1.643,857 Iron forgings 1,907,460 Car wheels 2,083,350 Iron castings of all kinds 36,132,033 $97,148,705 The opening of the war, in 1861, gave an extraordinary impetus to iron production and manufacture. The tariff and other causes reduced the importation to a mini- mum,' while the demand for iron for the fabrication of small arms and cannon ; for the construction of the large fleet of iron- clads, and for the other war vessels ; for the building of locomotives, the casting of car wheels and furnishing the vast quantity of railroad iron needed to repair the old tracks destroyed by the contending armies, and to lay the tracks of new roads, extended the business vastly beyond all former precedent ; and the requirement that the Pacific railroad and its branches shall be constructed solely of American iron, as well as the increase in its use for buildings, and for shipping, have maintained it in a prosperous condition. The manufacture of steel and the other manufactures of iron, aside from those al- ready enumerated, brought the aggregate production and manufacture of iron and steel, in 1860, up to $285,S79,510. The revenue tax paid on iron and steel manufac- tures in 1864 indicates that the product of the branches taxed amounted to about $123,000,000. This estimate was far below the production, as many branches were not taxed, and the returns of that year were im- perfect. The production and manufacture of 1865 were not less than400 millions of dollars. There is every reason to expect that the development of the iron mines will be pushed forward with constantly increasing energy, and that the time is not far distant when many of the great repositories of ores we have described — now almost un- touched — will be the seats of an active in- dustry and centres of a thriving popula- tion, supported by the home markets they will create. The great valley of the west, when it becomes intersected in every direction with the vast system of railroads, of which the present lines form but little more than outlines, will itself require more iron than the world now produces, and the transportation of large portions of this from the great iron regions of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Utah, MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 419 and of coal back to the mines, will sustain larger lines of transportation than have ever yet been employed in conveying to their markets the most important products of the country. The importation of for- eign iron — already falling off in propor- tion to the increased consumption — must, before many years, almost cease, and be succeeded by exports for the supplies of other nations less bountifully provided for than the United States and Great Britain. CHAPTER II. COPPER. The early attempts to work copper mines in the United States have already been al- luded to in the introductory remarks to the department of this work relating to mining industry. The ores of this metal are widely distributed throughout the country, and in almost every one of the states have been found in quantities that encouraged their ex- ploration — in the great majority of cases to the loss of those interested. The metal is met with in all the New England states, but only those localities need be named which have at times been looked upon as important. Copper occurs in a native or metallic state, and also in a variety of ores, or combi- nations of the metal with other substances. In these forms the metallic appearance is lost, and the metal is obtained by different metallurgical operations, an account of some of which will be presented in the course of this chapter. Until the discover}' of the Lake Superior mines, native copper, from its scarcity, was regarded rather as a curiosity than as an important source of supply. The workable ores were chiefly pyritous copper, vitreous copper, variegated copper, the red oxide, the green carbonate or malachite, and chrysocolla. The first named, though con- taining the least proportion of copper, has furnished more of the metal than all the other ores together, and is the chief depen- dence of most of the mines. It is a double sulphuret of copper and iron, of bright yel- low color, and consists, when pure, of about 34 per cent, of copper, 35 of sulphur, and 30 of iron. But the ore is always inter- mixed with quartz or other earthy minerals, by which its richness is greatly reduced. As brought out from the mine it may not con- tain more than 1 per cent, of copper, and when freed as far as practicable from foreign substances by the mechanical processes of assorting, crushing, washing, jigging, etc., and brought up to a percentage of 6 or V of copper, it is in Cornwall a merchantable ore, and the mine producing in large quantity the poor material from which it is obtained may be a profitable one. Vitreous copper, known also as copper glance, and sulphuret of cop- per, is a lead gray ore, very soft, and con- tains 79.8 per cent, of copper, united with 20.2 per cent, of sulphur. It is not often found in large quantity. Variegated or pur- ple copper is distinguished by its various shades of color and brittle texture. It yields, when pure, from 56 to 63 per cent, of copper, 21 to 28 of sulphur, and 7 to 14 of iron. The red oxide is a beautiful ore of ruby red color, and consists of 88.8 per cent, of cop- per and 11.2 per cent, of oxygen. It is rarely found in sufficient quantity to add much to the products of the mines. Green malachite is a highly ornamental stone, of richly variegated shades of green, famous as the material of costly vases, tables, etc., man- ufactured in Siberia for the Russian govern- ment. It is always met with in copper mines, especially near the surface, but rarely in large or handsome masses. It consists of copper 57.5, oxygen 14.4, carbonic acid 19.9, and water 8.2 per cent. Chrysocolla is a combination of oxide of copper and silica, of greenish shades, and is met with as an incrustation upon other copper ores. It often closely resembles the malachite in ap- pearance. It contains about 36 per cent, of copper. The first mines worked in the United States were peculiar for the rich character of their ores. These were, in great part, vitreous and variegated copper, with some malachite, and were found in beds, strings, and bunches in the red sandstone formation, especially along its line of contact with the gneiss and granitic rocks in Connecticut, and with the trap rocks in New Jersey. The mine at Simsbury, in Connecticut, furnished a considerable amount of such ores from the year 1709 till it was purchased, about the middle of the last century, by the state, from which time it was occupied for sixty years as a prison, and worked by the con- victs ; not, however, to much profit. In 1830 it came into possession of a company, but was only worked for a short time after- ward. On the same geological nange, but lying chiefly in the gneiss rocks, the most productive of these mines was opened in 420 COPPER. 1836, in Bristol, Conn. It was vigorously worked from 1847 to 1857, and produced larger amounts of rich vitreous and pyrit- ous ores than have been obtained from any other mine in the United States. No ex- pense was spared in prosecuting the min- ing, and in furnishing efficient machinery for dressing the ores. Although 1,800 tons of ore, producing over $200,000, were sent to market, the ore yielding from 18 to 50 per cent, of copper, the mine proved a losing affair, and was finally abandoned in 1857. Recently there have been mines of copper developed in Maine, some of them of considerable promise, others not as yet productive, though they have invested considerable sums in machin- ery, dead work, wages, and material. Three of the mines in Hancock county, Maine, are doing moderately well. They have been in operation about five years; the first two or three of which were spent in obtain- ing their capital, establishing their plant and reduction works and getting fairly at work. They had, in 1880, a capital of $104,000, of which the plant had cost $71,500, the real estate or mining lands, $28,000, and the working capital $4,500. They had raised that year 12,500 tons of ore, from which they had made 83,080 pounds of ingot copper, worth $10,125, using $9,767 worth of material and pay- ing $36,500 wages. They were so situated as to have the capacity to produce 672,000 pounds of ingot copper, and the ore, though not very rich, was plentiful, easily worked and readily shipped, eo that there was a fair prospect for a moderately paying bus- iness. In one and perhaps more of these mines there is a small percentage of silver with the copper. The New Hampshire mines (pyritous ores) had not, in 1880, produced any pure copper. The New Jersey mines have all failed from insufficient supply of the ores. The Schuyler mine, at Belleville, produced rich vitreous copper and chrysocolla, dissemi- nated through a stratum of light brown sandstone, of 20 to 30 feet in thickness, and dipping at an angle of 12°. During the" last century, the excavations reached the depth of 200 feet, and were extensively tunnelled. The mine was then so highly valued that an offer of £500,000, made for it by an English company, was refused by the proprietor, Mr. Schuyler. In 1857-58 attempts were made to work the mine again, but soon failed. Among the other mines which have been worked to consid- erable extent in New Jersey are the Flem- ington mine, and the Bridgewater mine, near Somerville, at which native copper in some quantity was found in the last cen- tury; two pieces met with in 1754 weigh- ing together, it was reported, 1,900 lbs. A mine near New Brunswick also furnished many lumps of native copper, and thin sheets of the metal were found included in the sandstone. At different times this mine has been thoroughly explored, but always with a loss. In Somerset county, the Franklin mine, near Griggstown, has been worked to the depth of 100 feet. One mine is now (1881) operated in Mont- gomery County, Penn.. which yielded in 1880 40,460 lbs of copper, worth $5,630, and at a net cost for mining of less than $2,000. The amount of capital invested is only $8,500. Another copper district, which at first promised fairly, is in Maryland, near Sykesville, Carroll county, on the Balti- more and Ohio railroad, thirty-two miles from Baltimore, in a region of micaceous, talcose, and chlorite slates. This 'mine first opened about 1850, in 1856-7 pro- duced 300 tons of ore, valued at $17,897, the ore yielding, according to the esti- mates of the metallurgists, 16.03 per cent, of ingot copper. It has been worked mod- erately to the present time, but its produc- tion has fallen off, the ore raised in 1880 being only eighty-two tons. There is some error in the census report of the mine, which renders it impossible to say what the actual percentage of ingot copper in the ore now is ; but it is evident that the business is not profitable. The other cop- per mines in Maryland have not, in 1880, produced any ingot copper. Like the last named, all the other local- ities of copper ores of any importance along the Appalachian chain and east of it are remote from the range of the red sand- stone, and belong to older rock formations. In Vermont, mining operations were car- ried on for several years upon a large lode of pyritous copper, which was traced sev- eral miles through Vershire and Corinth. At Strafford, pyritous ores were worked in 1829 and afterward, both for copperas and copper. One of these is still worked, and is the best single copper mine east of the Alleghanies. It yielded in 1880, 2,647,894 MINING INDUSTRY OF TIIE UNITED STATES. 421 pounds of ingot copper, valued at $469,495, the expense of production (material and wages) being $367,760, or a net profit of about $102,000. Pyritous ores yielding 24.3 per cent, of copper were found in Ulster Co., N. Y., in 1853, but did not hold out and the mine was abandoned. In Virginia, rich ores of red oxide of cop- per, associated with native copper and pyri- tous copper, have been found at Manassas Gap, and also in many other places further south along the Blue Ridge. The ores at these and other points were very promis- ing and yielded at first very considerable amounts (those in Carroll, Floyd and Gray- son Counties sending to market between 1855 and 1860 about 10,000,000 lbs. of ores) ; but there was no appearance of any regular veins, and the supply soon gave out. In the gold mines of Virginia and North Carolina copper is often combined with the gold, and parted from it and sent to market, but there are no mines for cop- per alone in that region, except two in Ashe county, North Carolina, which yield- ed in 1880, 1,640,000 pounds of copper worth $350,000, at a net cost of $194,631 (material and wages). These mines have a large capital, and employ about 328 men, but they are doing better than any other mines east of the Alleghanies. In Tennessee copper mining has passed through many vicissitudes. In 1847 the ores were first discovered in Polk county and traced to Gilmer county, Georgia, associated with masses of hematite iron ores. Mining was commenced in 1851, and in the next seven years fourteen min- ing companies were formed and copper mining was carried on upon a large scale. The ores yielded from 15 to 45 per cent, of copper and the product of 1856-7 was estimated at $1,836,000; there were sev- eral German smelting furnaces, producing regulus or concentrated copper ore in large quantities, four reverberatory, two blast and two calcining furnaces. In 1857 these mines, now numbering seventeen or eighteen, were consolidated into three com- panies, with large capital, producing month- ly about 1,600 tons of ore, or nearly 20,- 000 tons a year, ranging from 12 to 15 per cent, in value, and with furnaces and smelting works of all kinds to reduce the ores. Railroad connections had been formed with the mines and there were prospects of a profitable and enduring min- ing interest. But the financial disasters of 1857 were followed by the war, and the mines were abandoned. After the war some feeble efforts were made to revive them, but the richer mines of Lake Supe- rior supplied the market and not much could be done. In 1880 one mine was operated out of the whole number in Polk Co., and raised 294 tons of ore at an ex- pense of $1,200 for wages. The value of the product is not given — it may not have been smelted in Polk Co., but it could hardly have been sufficient to make the business profitable. The capital invested is reported at $140. There are also some small mines at Ducktown, Tenn.. the pro- duct of ore in 1880 being 70 tons, but no report of the value of product being given. Of the other States east of the Missouri River, aside from Michigan, only two, Missouri and Wisconsin, have copper mines in operation. At one time there were some small but unprofitable mines in Iowa, but these have been abandoned long since. The Wisconsin mine now in operation is in Iowa Co., in the lead district. It is a small mine, yielding in 1880 only 62 tons of ore, but the ore is rich, the investment small, and the mine pays better than some larger ones. The geologists report that the copper deposits of the Lake Superior re- gion in Michigan extend to the northeast counties of Minnesota and Wisconsin, but so far as we know there have as yet been no explorations for copper veins there. Missouri has a copper district small in extent, in St. Genevieve Co., in the vicinity of the lead and iron deposits in that State. There are three mines now in operation, of large capacity, but they yielded in all in 1880 but 1.051 tons of ore, from which was extracted 230,717 pounds of ingot copper, worth $25,730, of which somewhat more than one-third was net profit. The capital is not large, only $15,480 for the three, but these are among the few copper mines away from Lake Superior that pay. Of the extreme western states and terri- tories four only (Colorado, Arizona, Idaho and California) are now known to produce copper. It is very probable that Utah, New Mexico, and possibly Montana, Da- kota (in the Black Hills country) and Washington Territory, may be added to the number. In Colorado there are very few if any copper mines proper, but both the gold 422 COPPER. and silver are combined with copper and often to such an extent as to make the saving of the copper in the reduction of the ores profitable. Arizona and Cali- fornia, and, it is probable, Idaho also, have deposits of pure copper ores, as well as these combinations with silver and gold ; and most of the ores are rich enough to pay well if a market is easily reached. The census of 1880 has not yet given us in detail the statistics of copper mining in these states and territories. Their aggre- gate production in that year is stated at 6,244,702 pounds, worth $1,248,940. But the most remarkable deposits of copper in the United States, and perhaps in the world, are those of the Lake Supe- rior region in Northern Michigan. The existence of native copper on the shores of Lake Superior is noticed in the reports of the Jesuit missionaries of 1659 and 1666. Pieces of the metal ten to twenty pounds in weight were seen, which it is said the Indians reverenced as sacred ; similar reports were brought by Father Dablou in 1670, and by Charlevoix in 1744. An attempt was made in 1771 by an Englishman named Alexander Henry to open a mine near the forks of the On- tonagon, on the bank of the river, where a large mass of the metal lay exposed. He had visited the region in 1763, and re- turned with a party prepared for more thoroughly exploring its resources. They, however, found no more copper besides the loose mass, which they were unable to re- move. They then went over to the north shore of the lake, but met with no better success there. General Cass and Mr. H. R. Schoolcraft visited the region in 1819, and reported on the great mass upon the Ontonagon. Major Long, also, in 1823, bore witness to the occurrence of the metal along the shores of the lake. The country, till the ratification of the treaty with the Chippewa Indians, in 1842, was scarcely ever visited except by hunters and fur- traders, and was only accessible by a tedious voyage in canoes from Mackinaw. Dr. Douglass Houghton, the state geolo- gist of Michigan, made the first scientific examination of the country in 1841, and his reports first drew public attention to its great resources in copper. His explora tions were continued both under the state and general government until they were suddenly terminated with his life by the unfortunate swamping of his boat in the lake, near Eagle river, October 13, 1845. In 1844 adventurers from the eastern states began to pour into the country, and mining operations were commenced at various places near the shore, on Ke- weenaw Point. The companies took pos- session under permits from the general land office, in anticipation of the regular surveys, when the tracts could be properly designated for sale. Nearly one thousand tracts, of one mile square each, were selected — the greater part of them at ran- dom, and afterward explored and aban- MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 423 doned. In 1846 a geological survey of the region was authorized by Congress, which was commenced under Dr. C. T. Jackson, and completed by Messrs. Foster and Whit- ney in 1850. At this time many mines were in full operation, and titles to them had been acquired at the government sales. The copper region, as indicated by Dr. Houghton, was found to be nearly limited to the range of trap hills, which are traced from the termination of Keweenaw Point toward the south-west in a belt of not more than two miles in width, gradually receding from the lake shore. The upper portion of the hills is of trap rock, lying in beds which dip to- ward the lake, and pass in this direction under others of sandstone, the outcrop of which is along the northern flanks of the hills. Isle Royale, near the north shore of the lake, is made up of similar formations, which dip toward the south. These rocks thus appear to form the basin in which the portion of Lake Superior lying between is held. The trap hills are traced from Kewee- naw Point in two or three parallel ridges of 500 to 1,000 feet elevation, crossing Portage lake not far from the shore of Lake Superior, and the Ontonagon river about 1 3 miles from its mouth. They thence reach further back into the country beyond Agogebic lake, full 120 miles from the north-eastern termina- tion. Another group of trap hills, known as the Porcupine mountains, comes out to the lake shore some 20 miles above the mouth of the Ontonagon, and this also contains veins of copper, which had been little de- veloped until the explorations commenced near Carp lake in these mountains in 1859. These resulted in a shipment of over 20 tons of rough copper in 18 GO. The for- mations upon Isle Koyale, which is within the boundary of the United States, although they are similar to those of the south shore, and contain copper veins upon which ex- plorations were vigorously prosecuted, have not proved so valuable as they promised, and only three small mines are now worked there. The most productive mines are comprised in three districts along the main range of the trap hills. The first is on Keweenaw Point, the second about Portage lake, and the third near the Ontonagon river. All the veins are remarkable for producing native copper alone, the only ores of the metal being chiefly of vitreous copper found in a range of hills on the south side of Keweenaw Point, and nowhere in quantities to justify the con- tinuation of mining operations that were commenced upon them. The veins on Ke- weenaw Point cross the ridges nearly at right angles, penetrating almost vertically through the trap and the sandstones. Their produc- tiveness is, for the most part, limited to cer- tain amygdaloidal belts of the trap, which alternate with other unproductive beds of gray compact trap, and the mining explora- tions follow the former down their slope of 40°, more or less, toward the north. The thickness of the veins is very variable, and also their richness, even in the amygdaloid. The copper is found interspersed in pieces of all sizes through the quartz vein stones and among the calcareous spar, laumonite, prehnite, and other minerals associated with the quartz. These being extracted, piles are made of the poorer sorts, in which the metal is not sufficiently clear of stone for shipment, and these are roasted by firing the wood in- termixed through the heaps. By this proc- ess the stone entangled among the copper is more readily broken and removed. The lumps that will go into barrels are called " barrel work," and are packed in this way for shipment. Larger ones, called " masses," some of which are huge, irregular-shaped blocks of clean copper, are cut into pieces that can be conveniently transported, as of one to three tons weight each. This is done by means of a long chisel with a bit three- fourths of an inch wide, which is held by one man and struck in turns by two others with a hammer weighing 7 or 8 lbs. A groove is thus cut across the narrowest part of the mass, turning out long chips of copper one- fourth of an inch thick, and with each suc- ceeding cut the groove is deepened to the same extent until it reaches through the mass. The process is slow and tedious, a single cut sometimes occupying the continual labor of three men for as many weeks, or even long- er* This work is done in great part be- fore the masses can be got out of the mine. The masses are found in working the vein, often occupying the whole space be- tween the walls of trap rock, standing up- on their edges, and shut in as solidly as if all were one material. To remove one of the very large masses is a work of many months. It is first laid bare along one side by extend- ing the level or drift of the mine through the trap rock. The excavation is carried high enough to expose its upper edge and down to it* lower line ; but on account of ir- 424 COPPER. regular shape and projecting arms of copper, which often stretch forward, and up and down, connecting with other masses, it requires long and tedious mining operations to determine its dimensions. When it is supposed to be nearly freed along one side, very heavy charges of powder are introduced in the rock behind the mass, with the view of starting it from its bed. When cracks are produced by these, heavier charges are introduced in the form of sand-blasts, and these are re- peated until the mass is thrown partly over on its side as well as the space excavated will admit. In speaking further of the Minesota mine, the enormous sizes of some of the masses, and the amount of powder consumed in loosening them, will be more particularly noticed. To separate the finer particles of copper from the stones in which they are contained, these, after being roasted, are crushed under heavy stamps to the condition of fine sand, and this is then washed after the usual method of washing fine ores, until the earthy matters are removed and the metallic par- ticles are left behind. This is shovelled into small casks for shipment, and is known as stamp copper. The stamping and crushing machinery, such as have long been used at the mining establishments of other countries, were found to be entirely too slow for the requirements of these mines, and they have been replaced by new apparatus of Amer- ican contrivance, which is far more efficient than any thing of the kind ever before ap- plied to such operations. The stamps here- tofore in use have been of 100 lbs. to 300 lbs. weight, and at the California mines were first introduced of 800 lbs. to 1,000 lbs. weight. At Lake Superior they are in use on the plan of the steam hammer, weighing, with the rod or stamp-ieg, 2,500 lbs. and making 90 to 100 strokes in a minute. The capacity of each stamp is to crush over one ton of hard trap rock every hour. It falls upon a large mortar that rests upon springs of vulcanized rubber, and the force of its fall is increased by the pressure of steam applied above the piston to throw it more suddenly down. The stamp-head covers about one-fourth of the face of the mortar, and with every succeed- ing stroke it moves to the adjoining quarter, covering the whole face in four strokes. The only other metal found with the cop- per is silver, and this does not occur as an alloy, but the two are as if welded together, and neither, when assayed, gives more than a trace of the other. It is evident from this that they cannot have been in a fused state in contact. The quantity of silver is small ; the largest piece ever found weighing a little more than 8 lbs. troy. This was met with at the mines near the mouth of Eagle river, where a considerable number of loose pieces, together with loose masses of copper, were obtained in exploring deep under the bed of the stream an ancient deposit of rounded boulders of sandstone and trap. The veins of even the trap rocks themselves of this lo- cality exhibited so much silver that in the early operations of the mines a very high alue was set upon them on this account. The principal mine of this district is the Cliff mine of the Pittsburgh and Boston Company, opened in 1845, and steadily worked ever since. In 1858, the extent of the horizontal workings on the vein had amounted to 12,368 feet, besides 831 feet in cross-cuts. Five shafts had been sunk, one of which was 817 feet deep, 587 feet being below the adit level, and 230 feet being from this level to the summit of the ridge. The shaft of least depth was sunk 422 feet. The production of the mine from the year 1853 is exhibited in the following; table: — , u i O o 0) id p, a Bi a o .0 £ t'o t»T3 o . " 8 a Yr. 8J u on C3 3-° a 2 73 "a n (H £-3 > 1853, 2,263,182 1,071.288 47.33 Cts 27 32 $292,647.05 1854. 2,332.614 1,315,308 66.86 24.38 320.783.01 1855, 2,9:15.837 1,874,197 62.56 25.33 475,911.26 185(5, 8,291,239 2,220.934 67 48 24.12 535.843.67 1857, 3,363,557 2,863,850 70.28 20.44 497,870.47 1858, 3,183,685 2,331.964 7100 21.03 475.321.89 1859, 2,139.632 1 415.007 64.35 20 50 290.097 97 1860, 2,865,442 1,843.313 22 87 421,565.67 1861, 1,928,011 27.44 186-2, 2,004.060 26.75 1863, 2,100,354 34.00 1864. 1,351,334 47.00 1865, 1,494,626 39.25 1866, 1,642,928 34 25 1867, 1,121.725 25 37 186S, 1,227.746 23.12 1861), 1,905,314 24.25 1870, 809,571 20.88 1871, 142.238 24.25 1872. 118.386 36.12 1873, 751.203 27.50 1874, 1.052,901 22.00 1875, 1.162.883 22.50 1876, 9iK),146 21.00 1877, 161,319 19.25 1878, 414,415 16.62 Tot'l 37,245,226 Av. Av. 25.87 $9,635,339 97 The Portage lake mining district is some twenty to twenty -five miles west from the MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 425 Cliff mine on the same range of hills. This region is of more recent development, the explorations having been attended with little success previous to 1854. The veins are here found productive in a gray variety of trap as well as the amygdaloidal, and in- stead of lying across the ridges, follow the same course with them, and dip in general with the slope of the strata. Some of the larger veins consist in great part of epi- dote, and the copper in these is much less dense than in the quartz veins, forming tangled masses which are rarely of any considerable size. On the eastern side of this lake are worked, among other mines, the Quincy, Pewabic, and Franklin, and on the opposite side the Isle Royale, Por- tage, and Columbia mines. The Quincy, Pewabic, and Franklin com- menced operations from 1855 to 1857, and by I860 were doing a fine business. There were some masses of native copper taken from each mine and considerable barrel work, but two thirds of the whole was from the small quantity of copper in the amyg- daloid belt or veinstone, which was passed through the stamps (each mine having a first-class stamp-mill). Farther on we shall give a full de3cription of this process of mining and stamping, which is used on all the quartz veins and lodes in the gold dis tricts. as well as in copper mining. At first the Pewabic mine took the lead, reach- ing in 1861 a production of 958| tons of copper, but this was its highest production; the Quincy in 186D, the first year that it reported, produced 970^- tons; in 1861, 1,282 .V tons, and has ranged from 1,100 to 1,536 tons almost every year since, while the Pewabic has ranged from 147 tons to 920, the later years averaging not over 280 tons annually since 1870. The Franklin beginning much smaller has ranged from 183 to 1,178 tons, yielding more than the Pewabic and about half as much as the Quincy. To 1st January, 1878, the Frank- lin mine had produced 11,500 tons, 914 lbs. of copper; the Pewabic 10,643 tons, 1,314 lbs.; the Quincy 23,175 tons, 675 lbs. or more than both the others. This last company, whose stockholders had never expended more than $200,000 upon it, had divided among them $2,130,000 and had a surplus of $464,000. It had received from the sales of copper, etc., $11,127,109.12. The Pewabic with a capital of $240,000 had paid $400,000 dividend. The Frank- lin with $380,000 capital had paid $240,- 000 dividends. The Ontonagon river crosses the trap hills about forty miles southwest from Por- tage lake, and the mines worked in the Ontonagon district are scattered along the hills northeast from the river for a dis- tance of nearly twenty miles. The outlet for a greater number of them is by a road through the woods to the village at the mouth of the river. The veins of this dis- trict also lie along the course of the ridges, and dip with the trap rocks toward the lake. As they are worked, however, they are found occasionally to cut across the strata, and neighboring veins to run into each other. In some places copper occurs in masses scattered through the trap rock with no sign of a vein, not even a seam or crevice connecting one mass with another. They appear, however, to be ranged on the general course of the strata. At the Ad- venture mine they were so abundant, that it has been found profitable to collect them, and the clifts of the trap rock present a curious appearance, studded over with numerous dark cavities in apparently inac- cessible places leading into the solid face of the mountain. The great mine of this district from 1 855- 1869 was the Minnesota, two miles east from the Ontonagon river. The explorers in this region in the winter of 1847-48, found parallel lines of trenches, extending along the trap hills, evidently made by a man at some distant period. They were so well marked, as to be noticed even under a cover of three feet depth of snow. On ex- amination they proved to be on the course of veins of copper, and the excavations were found to extend down into the solid rock, portions of which were sometimes left standing over the workings. When these pits were afterwards explored, there were found in them large quantities of rude hammers, made of the hardest kind of greenstone, from the trap rocks of the neighborhood. These were of all sizes, ranging from four to forty pounds weight, and of the same general shape — one end being rounded off for the end of the ham- mer, and the other shaped like a wedge. Around the middle was a groove — the large hammers had two — evidently in- tended for securing the handle by which they were wielded. In every instance the hammers were more or less broken, evi- 426 COPPER. dently in service. One of them brought from the mine by the writer, and now in the col- lection of the Cooper Union of New York, is represented in the accompanying sketch. It measures 6d inches in length, the same in breadth, and 2£ inches in thickness. The quantity of hammers found in these old workings was so great that they were col- lected by cart-loads. How they could have been made with such tools as the ancient miners had, is unaccountable, for the stone itself is the hardest material they could find. And it is not any more clear, how they ap- plied such clumsy tools to excavating solid rock nearly as hard as the hammers them- selves. Every hammer is broken on the edge, as if worn out in service. The only tools found besides these were a copper gad or wedge, a copper chisel with a socket head, j and a wooden bowl. The great extent of the ancient mining operations indicates that the country must have been long occupied by an industrious people, possessed of more mechanical skill than the present race of In- dians. They must also have spread over the whole of the copper region, for similar evi- dences of their occupancy are found about all the copper mines, and even upon Isle Royale. It is not improbable that they be- longed to the race of the mound builders of the western states, among the vestiges of whom, found in the mounds, various utensils of copper have been met with. But of the period when they lived, the copper mines afford no more evidence than the mounds. Some of the trenches at the Minesota mine, originally excavated to the depth of more than twenty-five feet, have since filled up with gravel and rubbish to within a few feet of the surface, a work which in this region would seem to require centuries; and upon the surface of this material large trees are now standing, and stumps of much older ones are seen, that have long been rotting. In clearing out the pits a mass of copper was discovered, buried in the gravel nearly twenty feet below the surface, which the an- cients had entirely separated from the vein. They had supported it upon blocks of wood, and, probably by means of fire and their hammers, had removed from it all the adhering stone and projecting points of copper. Under it were quantities of ashes and charred wood. The weight of the mass, after all their at- tempts to reduce it, appears to have been too great for them to raise ; and when it was finally taken out in 1848, it was found to weigh over six tons. It was about ten feet long, three feet wide, and nearly two feet thick. Beneath this spot the vein after- ward proved extremely rich, affording many masses of great size. The veins worked by the Minesota Com- pany all lie along the southern slope of the northern trap ridge, not far below the sum- mit. Three veins have been discovered which lie nearly parallel to each other. The lowest one is along the contact of the gray trap of the upper part of the hill and a stratum of conglomerate which underlies this. It dips with the slope of this rock toward the north- north-west at an angle of about 46° with the horizon. The next upper vein outcropping, 80 or 90 feet further up the hill, dips about 61°, and falls into the lower vein along a very irregular line. Both veins are worked, and the greatest yield of the mine has been near their line of meeting. The position of the veins along the range of the rocks, instead of across them, gives to the mines of this character a great advantage, as their productiveness is not limited to the thickness of any one belt which proves favor- able for the occurrence of the metal ; and the outcrop of the vein can be traced a great distance along the surface, affording conve- nient opportunities for sinking directly upon it at any point. The Minnesota Company, having abund- ant room, were soon able to sink a large number of shafts along a line of outcrop of l,8t'0 feet, and several of the levels be- low extended considerably further than this entire length. In 1858 nine shafts were in operation, and ten levels were driven on the vein, the deepest at 5i36 feet down the slope. The ten fathom level at that time was 1,960 feet in length. This mine has been remarkable for the large size and great number of its masses. The largest one of these, taken out during the year 1857, after being uncovered along its side, refused to give way, though 1,450 pounds of powder had been exploded behind it in five succes- sive sand-blasts. A charge of 625 pounds being then fired beneath it, the mass was so much loosened that by a succeeding blast of 750 pounds it was torn oft' from the masses with which it connected, and thrown over in one immense piece. It measured forty- tivo feet in length, and its greatest thickness was over eight feet. Its weight was estima- ted at about 500 tons. What it proved to be is not certain, as no account was preserved MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 427 of the pieces into which it was cut, but it is known to have exceeded 400 tons. Other masses have been taken out which presented a thickness of over five feet solid copper. The value of the silver picked out from among the copper has amounted in one year to about $1,000. This mine was the first in which large masses of copper were found. It is pecu- liar in its character, being not a true vein, but a lode running with the formation, and carrying as its chief burden masses of cop- per of great purity and several hundred tons in weight. From 1848 to 1869 it yielded a vast amount of copper (1,976 tons in 1857 and 1,901 in 1858, but in 1865 it began to fall off, and diminished every year till in 1876 it yielded only 44^ tons, and its managers withdrew from it and it went into the hands of tributors. It had paid its stockholders over two million dollars in dividends, and had, in 1878, produced 17,2634- tons of copper. Besides the dividends named, the original stock- holders have derived large profits from the sale of portions of the extensive territory, three miles square, which belonged to the company, and the organization upon these tracts of new companies. We have yet one more of these mines to describe, and this probably the most pro- ductive copper mine in the world for the time it has been operated. We give it also as an example of a class of mines not elsewhere known, the ores being found not in veins or lodes, but in belts of conglom- erate. The Calumet and Hecla Mine, situated in Houghton county, about ten miles from Han- cock on the old Eagle River trail, was first discovered in 1866, in the following man- ner: A half-way house, a rude cabin, or in western phrase a "shebang" was kept by a man who dealt out whiskey, and had for his only constant companions, some barn- yard fowls and two pigs, which he strove to keep in a pen. Not liking the confine- ment, the pigs as often as possible rooted their way out and wandered into the adja- cent roads. Their owner tried, often in vain, to lure them back to the pen. One hot day after an ineffectual chase, he came in swearing like a pirate, and begged a French gentleman, who was resting in the cabin, to shoot them. The gentleman did as he desired, and shot and wounded one of them. The pig ran away squealing, and tracking it by its blood the owner found it hidden in a nest on the side of a knoll. He noticed, where the pigs had rooted, green carbonate of copper plentifully mixed with the earth, and digging into the knoll found further evidences of copper. He commu- nicated the discovery to Mr. John Hulbert, who was exploring there at the time, and he in turn to Mr. Edward J. Hulbert. The mound was examined, a pit sunk some 15 feet through the sand, and they came upon the great Calumet Conglomerate. This mound had been evidently the work of " the ancient miners." A company or rather two companies were formed, but soon after consolidated into one, the Calumet and Hecla, with a capital of $2,000,000 in 80,000 shares. Of this only $800,000 was called in; but min- ing was commenced on a large scale at once, and proved profitable " from the grass roots down," as the western miners say. In 1867 it yielded 675^ tons, though its proprietors were ridiculed for their folly in supposing that a conglomerate could ever yield any considerable quantity of copper. In 1868 it produced 2,549^ tons, more than any other mine in the Lake Superior region had ever yielded; in 1869 6, 157f tons; it continued to increase nearly 1,000 tons a year, in 1874 reaching 10,- 062^ tons; in 1877, 11,2844, tons, in 1878 12,537! tons ; in l879 > 14; 200 tons, and in 1880, over 15,000 tons. Its entire product in the fifteen years of its production is about 140,000 tons of ingot copper. The mineral yields 88 per cent. Its actual cap- ital paid in was $800,000, and it has di- vided over 16 million dollars among its shareholders to the close of 1881. Its product of copper ingots has realized over $56,000,000. It employs more than 2,000 men, who with their families form a large and important town. The following description is condensed from an account of the processes employed in the Calumet and Hecla mines: — " These shafts are sunk to a depth of 75 or 100 feet, at which point the first level is started, and is run from shaft to shaft until the whole number of shafts are connected by a continuous gallery or drift. These drifts are six feet by four, or wider, if necessary to accommodate rail tracks. The shafts, while the drifts are opening, are sunk away to the second level; the second level, in due time, is opened like 428 COPPER. the first, and so on down. Between the shafts, for the purpose of ventilation and convenience in stoping, minor shafts are sunk, called winzes. The mine thus opened is like the rectangular blocks on a city map tilted up; the shafts and drifts are main streets crossing each other, and the winzes are alleys. The solid blocks of veinstone bounded by the streets are, if the whole lode is workable, taken out, ex cepting pillars of rock left to support the hanging wall and keep the mine from coming together. This work is technically called stoping. The shafts are cribbed from the surface down to solid rock with square timber and plank, and are divided into two or more compartments, in one of which is laid the rail track, in another the pumps, and in the third a ladder-way. But in large mines, like the Calumet, one shaft is used as a pump-shaft, while another shaft, or intermediate opening, is fitted for the man-engine, the duty of which machine is to take the men in and out of the mine. The top of the shaft is carried from twenty to thirty feet above the ground for con- venience in the handling of rock. The iron cars or skips, holding several tons, are held by large wire ropes, which pass over pulleys to the drum of the engine. The movement of these skips is regulated with great precision by bell signals, from under ground ; and to the brakeman at the drum the position of the skip at any depth, is told by an ingenious little indicator. The skip comes up out of the mine, dumps it- self, and returns whence it came. At the Calumet, the skip dumps its load into a car resting on a horizontal tram-road, which car, moved by an endless rope, apparently without human agency, moves off at a con- siderable speed to the rock-breaking house, perhaps a thousand feet away, where it dumps itself and immediately returns to its proper position. This economical railroad, set on tressels, more or less elevated above the ground, is called Frue's automatic road. The rock from each shaft has the same common destination, the great receiving rock house. Here the large blocks of copper-tied conglomerate are first crushed under a ponderous steam hammer, winch resembles a section of the main shaft of an engine; it operates vertically in slides, and has the lower end beveled off. To compare great things with small, it is like the stub of the pencil which the writer is using. The motive power is a steam cylin- der on top. Broken by this great ham- mer, the pieces of rock fall into a number of large and small Blake rock-breakers, whose corrugated iron jaws Crunch them up remorselessly. From these breakers the comminuted conglomerate falls into shutes, and thence it is at will drawn into cars. A train of cars, each holding four to eight tons, drawn by a locomotive en- gine, moves off to the stamp mill, five miles distant, where the copper rock is dumped into large bins placed at the top of the mill. The stamps now begin their work of further reduction; the rock is thrown into the hoppers of the great steam stamp, which strikes a blow of many tons eighty times a minute, smashing the rock into minute pebbles, fine sand, and slime, which is washed from unde'r the head by a stream of water, and carried by the same agent to the washers set on an inclined floor, when by a process of jigging, in fresh supplies of water, the gravel and sand are separated from the freed copper, which, owing to its greater specific gravity, settles at the bottom on the sieves, while the sand is carried over the apron to the waste launder, and is washed out into the lake, or spoil bank. There are a large number of washers in this stamp mill, and the copper rock is subjected to repeated washings, and even the fine slimes are carefully treated upon slime ta- bles, yet quite a percentage of fine copper goes to waste in spite of the most ingenious contrivances used to save it. The mineral, or washed copper, having been graded, is packed into barrels and sent to the smelt- ing works, where, passing through fire, it is purified from all rock remaining and cast into ingots, bolts, bars, and cakes. All of this work — processes which we have not pretended to describe in detail — is accomplished by that potent agent, steam. These stamp mills are an interesting study for any one interested in such works. " Returning to the mine, we go under- ground, and fathoms deep, where no ray of sunlight ever pierces, we find a popu- lous community of busy workers; the at- mosphere of the place is damp and murky, with a strong odor of sulphur, the remains of exploded powder. The only light is that of tallow candles stuck on the hats of the men with clay, or upon the walls, or as head -lights on the rock cars. Each level is provided with tram roads; the cars are MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 429 pushed along by men to and from the shafts, where the loaded rock is dumped into the skips. ***** The men work ten hours, and are divided into day-shifts and night-shifts, and change from day to night once in seven days. But it frequently happens, in different places, or when greater expedition is required, cer- tain of the miners are divided into three gangs, each gang working eight hours, and all fully occupying the twenty-four hours. Much of the mining is done upon contract, and fie average wages are from $45 to $50 r e • month, out of which the man has to pay his board and other necessary expenses." Yet p citable as some of these mines have proved, and vast as is the amount of copper shipped from them, it should not be forgotten that of about one hundred and fifty mines, and nearly seventy mining companies, which at various times in the last thirty-five years have been actively and mo3t of them profitably employed, there are now but nineteen mines in the whole Lake Superior district which are actively engaged in mining copper. The total pro- duction of these mines from 1847 to Jan., 1881, is about 317,000 tons of ingot cop- per, worth at the average price $163,952,- 400. The present production is limited to six mines in Houghton county (of which the Calumet and Hecla is one); four in Ke- weenaw, one in Isle Royale, and eight in Ontonagon. These mines raised in 1880, 938,960 tons of mineral and produced 45,- 830,262 pounds of ingot copper; the value was $7,979,232. The number of hands employed was 5,004; the amount of wages paid. $2,461,243, and the value of material consumed, $1,215,206. The amount of capital invested was $30,413,551. In the same year (1880), the whole number of copper mines reported in operation east of the 100th meridian W. long., was thirty- two; the quantity of mineral raised, 1,005,- 955 tons; the amount of ingot copper produced, 50,655,140 pounds; its value, $8,842,961; the number of hands employed, 6,116; wages paid, $2,915,103; material used, $1,391,101; capital employed, $31,- 675,096. COPPER SMELTING. The ores of copper, unlike those of most of the other metals, are not in general re- duced at the mines; but after being con- centrated by mechanical processes called dressing — which consist in assorting the piles according to their qualities, and crushing, jigging, and otherwise washing the poorer sorts — they are sold to smelters, whose establishments may be at great dis- tances off, even on the other side of the globe. The richer ores, worth per ton three or four times as many dollars as the figures that represent their percentage of metal, well repay the cost of transportation, and are conveniently reduced at smelting works situated on the coast near the mar- kets for copper, and where the fuel re- quired for their reduction is cheap. At Swansea, in South Wales, there are eight great smelting establishments, to which all the ores from Cornwall and Devon are car- ried, and which receive other ores f om almost all parts of the world. It is stated that in this district there are nearly 600 furnaces employed, which consume about 500,000 tons of coal per annum, and give employment to about 4,000 persons besides colliers. The amount of copper they sup- ply is more than half of that consumed by all nations. The total product of fine cop- per produced by all the smelting establish- ments of Great Britain for 1857 is stated to be 18,238 tons, worth £2,079,323. The copper smelting works of the United States are those upon the coast, depending chiefly upon foreign supplies of ores, and those of the interior, for melting and refining the Lake Superior copper. There are also the furnaces at the Tennessee mines, which have been already noticed. The former are situated at the following localities: At Point Shirley, in Boston harbor, are the furnaces of the Revere Copper Company, which also has rolling mills and other works connected with the manufacture of copper at Canton, on the Boston and Providence railroad. At Taunton, Mass., a similar estab- lishment to that at Canton is owned by the Messrs. Crocker, of that town. There are smelting furnaces at New Haven, Conn. ; at Bergen Point, in New York harbor; and at Baltimore, on a point in the outer harbor. There are in the interior, not only the smelting works connected with some of the large mines in the Lake Superior re- gion, but reduction works at Detroit, Chi- cago, St. Louis, Omaha, and Golden, Colo- rado, and so complete is their success that there is no longer any necessity for the ex- portation of these ores to Swansea or any- where else for reduction. 430 The furnaces established for working the Lake Superior copper are at Detroit, Cleve- land, and Pittsburg. At, the last named are two separate establishments, with each of which is connected a rolling mill, at which the ingot copper is converted into sheets for home consumption and the eastern market. A furnace was also built at Port- age lake, Lake Superior, in 1860, of capacity equal to melting 6000 tons of copper annu- ally. The details and extent of the opera- tions carried on by the smelting works ap- pear to have been carefully kept from publi- cation. In a work on " Copper and Copper Smelting," by A. Snowclon Piggott, M. D., who had charge of the chemical assays, etc., for the Baltimore Company, published in 1858, while the English processes are fully described, no information is given as to the methods adopted at the American works ; and of their production all the information is contained in the two closing sentences of the appendix, as follows: "Of the copper- smelting establishments of the United States I have no statistics. Baltimore turns out about 8,000,000 pounds of refined copper annually." Applications which have been made by the writer to the proprietors of several of the establishments for information as to the business, have been entirely unsuc- cccsful. The total production of copper in 1880 was supposed to be about 25,328 tons per annum; and of this about 16,000 tons were required by the rolling mills for mak- ing sheet copper, sheet brass, and yellow metal. The French treatise on Metallurgy by Professor Rivot contains the only published description of the American method of smelting copper. By the English process, the separation of the metal from its ores is a long and tedious series of alternate roast- ings or calcinations, and fusions in rever- beratory furnaces. The system is particu- larly applicable to the treatment of poor, sulphurous ores contaminated with other metals, as iron, arsenic, etc., and can only be conducted to advantage where fuel is very cheap, the consumption of this being at the rate of about 20 tons to the ton of copper obtained. The process employed in Ger- many is much more simple, and the methods in use at the American smelting works are more upon the plan of these. Blast or cu- pola furnaces supply at some of them the place of reverberatories, and the separation of the metal is completed in great part by one or two smeltings. The treatment of the Lake Superior copper is comparatively an easy operation. For this large reverberatory furnaces are employed, through the roof of which is an opening large enough to admit masses of 3 to 3-J tons weight, which are raised by cranes and lowered into the fur- nace. The barrels of barrel work are intro- duced in the same way, and left in the fur- nace without unpacking. When the furnace is charged, the opening in the top is secure- ly closed by fire-proof masonry, and the fire of bituminous coal is started, the name from which plays over the bridge, and, rellected from the roof, strikes upon the copper, caus- ing it gradually to sink down and at last flow in a liquid mass. A small portion of the copper by the oxidizing action of the heated gases is converted into a suboxide, which is partially reduced again, and in part goes into the slags in the condition of a silicate of copper, the metal of which is not entirely recovered. The mixture of quartz, calcareous spar, and epidote accompanying the copper, is sometimes such as to melt and form a good cinder without addition of any other substance, but usually some lime- stone or other suitable material is added as a flux. Complete fusion is effected in 12 to 15 hours according to the size of the masses, and this is kept up for about an hour in order that the fine particles of copper may find their way through the fluid slag, which floats upon the metal. Working tools call- ed rabbles are then introduced through the side-doors of the furnace, and the charge is stirred up and the slag is drawn out through the door. It falls upon the ground, and is taken when sufficiently cool to the cupola or slag furnaces where it is chilled with water to render it easy to break up. Those por- tions which contain as much as one fourth per cent, of copper are reserved to be pass- ed through the slag furnace. The total amount of slag is usually less than 20 per cent, of the whole charge. In the melting the copper absorbs carbon, which if allow- ed to remain would render it brittle and unfit for use. To remove it the fire is so arranged that the gases pass through with much unconsumed air ; this playing on the surface of the copper produces a suboxide of the metal, which in the course of half an hour is quite taken up by the copper, and coming in contact with the particles of car- bon the oxygen combines with this, and re- moves it in the form of carbonic acid gas. MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 431 It now remains to remove the excess of oxygen introduced, which is effected by the ordinary method of refining. A large pro- portion of fuel is employed on the grate for the amount of air admitted through it, so that the flames as they pass over the bridge convey little free oxygen, and the surface of the metal is covered with fine charcoal. After a little time a pole of green wood is thrust into the melted copper and stirred about so long as gases escape from the sur- face. It is then taken out, and if on testing the copper some suboxide still remains, the refining is cautiously continued with char- coal, and just when, as appears by the tests, all the oxide is reduced, the work of dipping out the metal is commenced. This is done by large iron ladles, the whole set of men employed at two furnaces, to the number of about 12, coining to this work and tak- ing turns in the severe task. They protect themselves from the intense heat by wet cloths about their arms, and as quickly as possible bale out a ladle full of copper and empty it into one or more of the ingot moulds, of which 36 are arranged in front of the furnace-door upon three parallel bars over a trough of water. As the metal be- comes solid in each mould, this is upset, letting the ingot fall into the water. The weight of the ingot being 20 pounds, the filling of them all removes 720 pounds of copper from the furnace. The metal that remains is then tested, and according to its condition the discharging may be continued or it may be necessary to oxidize the copper again and repeat the refining, or merely to throw more charcoal upon the surface and increase the heat. The time required to ladle out the whole charge is from four to six hours. When this is completed the sole of the furnace is repaired, by stopping the cracks with sand and smoothing the surface to get all ready for the next charge ; and at the same time the second furnace has reach- ed the refining stage of the process. One charge to a furnace is made every evening, and as in the night it is necessary only to keep up the fires, the great labor of the proc- ess comes wholly in the day time. The following is the estimated cost at Detroit of the smelting, on a basis of two furnaces, each of which is charged with four and a half to five tons of mass copper, con- suming two and a half tons of coal, and pro- ducing from three to three and a half tons of ingots : — Labor, 15 hands, at $1.50 $22.50 Bituminous coal, 5 tons, at $5 25. 00 Wood and charcoal 1.25 Repairs to furnace, average for the season. . 2 00 SOU. 75 To this should be added, for superintend- ence, office, and general expenses, perhaps ten dollars more, which would make the cost for six or seven tons of ingot copper, $60.75, or $9 to $10 per ton. At Pitts- burg the rate charged has been $11 per ton; and fuel is there afforded at about one third the amount allowed in the above estimate. The cupola furnaces for treating the slags are of very simple plan and construction. They are of cylindrical form, about ten feet high, and three feet diameter inside. Their walls, the thickness of a single length of fire brick, are incased in boiler-plate iron, and stand upon a cast-iron ring, which is itself supported upon four cast-iron columns about three feet above the ground. Trans- verse iron bars support a circular plate, and upon this the refractory sand for the sole of the furnace is placed, and well beaten down to the thickness of a foot, with a sharp slope toward the tapping hole. A low chimney conveys away the gaseous products of com- bustion, and through the base of it the workmen introduce the charges. The blast is introduced by three tuyeres a foot above the sole ; but before it enters the furnace it is heated bypassing through a channel around the furnace. A steady current is obtained by the use of three double acting blowing cylin- ders, which give a pressure equal to about three and a half inches of mercury. The hands employed at the Detroit es- tablishment, besides the superintendent and head smelter, are eighteen furnace men and from five to ten workmen, according to the arrivals of copper during the season of navi- gation. After the stock thus received is worked up, the furnaces remain idle during the remainder of the winter. USEFUL APPLICATIONS OF COPPER. The uses of copper are so numerous and important that the metal must rank next in value to iron. In ancient times, indeed, it was the more useful metal of the two, being abundant among many nations to whom iron was not known. In the ancient Scandina- vian tumuli recently opened in Denmark, among the various implements of stone were found swords, daggers, and knives, the blades of which were, in some instances, of copper, 432 and in some of gold, while the cutting edges were formed of iron, showing that this was more rare and valuable than either copper or gold. It has been supposed that several of the ancient nations, as the Egyptians, Greeks, etc., possessed the art of hardening copper, so as to make it serve the purposes of steel. That they employed it for such uses as those to which we now apply tools of steel is cer- tain, and also that the specimens of some of their copper tools are considerably harder than any we make of the same metal. These are found, on analysis, to contain about one part in ten of tin, which, it is known, in- creases, when added in small proportions, the hardness of copper, and this was prob- ably still further added to by hammering. Among the most important uses of the metal at present is that of sheathing the bottoms of ships in order to protect the timbers from the ravages of marine animals, and present a smooth surface for the easy passage of the vessel through the water. The metal is well adapted, from its softness and tenacity, for rolling into sheets, and these were first pre- pared for this use for the Alarm frigate of the royal navy, in 1761. Sheet lead had been in use before this time, but was soon after given up for copper. On account of the rapid deterioration of the copper by the action of the sea-water, the naval department of the British government applied, in 1823, to the Royal Society for some method of preserving the metal. This was furnished by Sir Humphry Davy, who recommend ed applying strips of cast iron under the copper sheets, which, by the galvanic cur- rent excited, would be corroded instead of the copper. The application answered the purpose intended, but soon had to be given up, for the copper, protected from chemical action, it was found, became cov- ered with barnacles" and other shell-fish, so as seriously to impair the sailing qualities of the vessels, and for this reason it has been found necessary to submit to the natural wast- ing of the metal, and replace the sheets as fast as they become corroded. Various alloys have been proposed as sub- stitutes for copper. That known as yellow metal, or Muntz's, has been the most success- ful and has been very generally introduced. It consists of copper alloyed with about 40 per cent, of zinc, and is prepared by plung- ing cakes of zinc into a bath of melted cop- per contained in a reverbcratory furnace. The volatilization of the zinc and oxidation of the metals is guarded against by a cover- ing of fine charcoal kept upon the melted surface. The bolts, nails, and other fasten- ings for the sheathing, and for various other parts of the ship, are made also of copper and of yellow metal ; and to secure the great- est strength, they should be cast at once in the forms in which they are to be used. The manufacture of all these articles is ex- tensively carried on at the different copper establishments in Massachusetts, Connecti- cut, and Baltimore. Sheet copper is also applied to many other very important uses, as for copper boilers and pipes, for large stills and condensers, the vacuum pans of sugar refineries, and a multitude of utensils for domestic purposes, and for employment in the different arts. For engraving upon it is prepared of the purest quality and of different thicknesses, ac- cording to the kind of engraving for which it is to be used. The engraver cuts it to the size he requires, planishes it,and gives to it the dead smooth surface peculiar to engraving plates. The smaller utensils of sheet copper, as urns, vases, etc., are very ingeniously hammer- ed out from a flat circular sheet. As the ham- mering is first applied to the central portion, this spreads and takes the form of a bowl. As the metal becomes harder and brittle by the operation, its softness and ductility are restored by annealing, a process that must often be repeated as the hammering is con- tinued, and toward the last, when the metal has become more susceptible to the change induced by the application of the hammer, the annealing must be very carefully attended to, and the whole process be conducted with much skill and judgment acquired by long experience. For larger and more common hollow ar- ticles, the sheet copper is folded around, and lapped by various sorts of joints, some of which are secured by rivets, and some by a double lap, the two edges locking into each other, and made close by hammering. The edges are also soldered either with soft or hard solder. For the latter an alloy is made for the purpose, by melting in a crucible a quantity of brass, and then stirring in one- half or one-third as much zinc, until the blue flame disappears. The mixture is then turn- ed out into a shallow pan, and when cold the plate is heated nearly red hot, and beaten on an anvil or in a mortar. This is the hard solder of the braziers. A still more important application of the MINING INDUSTRY OF TnE UNITED STATES 433 copper is in the manufacture of the alloy- known as brass ; and that called bronze also serves many useful purposes. The former is composed of copper and zinc, the latter of copper and tin. It is a curious fact in met- allurgy that brass was extensively manufac- tured, and used more commonly than any single metal or other alloy, many centuries before the existence of such a metal as zinc was known. It was prepared by melting copper and introducing fragments of the lapis cafaminaris, an ore of zinc, in which the oxide of the metal is combined with car- bonic acid. Charcoal was also added to the mixture, and by the reaction with this the zinc ore was reduced to the metallic state, and at once united with the copper, without appearing as a distinct metal. This process is still in use for making brass, but the more common method is to introduce slips of copper into melted zinc, or to plunge beneath melted copper lumps of zinc held in iron tongs. The proportion of the two metals is always uncertain, owing to the unknown quantity of zinc that is consumed and es- capes in fumes This is prevented as much as possible by covering the melted metal with fine charcoal, and by throwing in pieces of glass, which melt and cover the mixture with a thin protecting layer. Qld brass is much used in making new, and the addition of quantities of this to the pot containingthe other ingredients, adds to the uncertainty of the composition. The best proportion of the two metals is believed to be two parts of copper to one of zinc, which is expressed by the term " eight-ounce brass," meaning eight ounces of zinc to sixteen of copper. Sixteen- ounce brass — the two metals being equal — is a beautiful golden yellow alloy called prince's metal. But all brass of more than ten ounces of zinc to the pound of copper is whitish, crystalline, hard, and brittle ; of less than ten ounces it is malleable, soft, and ductile. The alloys known as pinchbeck, Manheim gold, bath metal, etc., formerly much in use as imitations of gold, are about three to four ounce brass. Brass combines a number of excellent qualities, which adapt it for many uses. Its compactness, durability, strength, and soft- ness, render it an excellent material for fine work, and nothing, except tin, perhaps, is bet- ter adapted for shapiig in the lathe. In use it is not liable to rust by exposure, is easily kept clean, and takes a polish almost as beau- tiful as that of cold. It is hence a f ivorite 23 material for the works of watches and clocks, almost all sorts of instruments in which great hardness is not essential, and for various household utensils, and ornaments upon fur- niture. In thin plates it is stamped and em- bossed in figures, and is thus cheaply applied to many useful and ornamental purposes. Its ductility is such, that those sorts contain- ing little zinc are beaten out, as in Dutch gilding, like gold-leaf itself, so as to be used as a cheap substitute for this in gilding in. some cases. It is also drawn out into wire,, often of great fineness ; and of the suitable- sizes of this there is a very large consumption in the manufacture of pins, and hooks and eyes. By ingenious machinery the brass wires are clipped to their proper length for pins, pointed, headed, and after being tinned. are stuck in paper, with very little atten- tion from the workmen. This manufacture serves to exemplify the perfection of machin- ery, and some of the most admirable of this,. particularly that by which the finished pins are stuck in their papers, is a peculiarly American invention, and worth, to the manu- facturers at Waterbury alone, many thousand dollars annually. The solid-headed pin, made somewhat after the manner in which cut nails are headed, was invented by two cit- izens of Rhode Island, Mr. Slocum and Mr. 8. G. Reynolds. This was before the \ ear 184(1. The brass pins and hooks and eyes are cov- ered with a coating of tin by placing them in a barrel, together with about twice their weight of tin in grains, several ounces of cream of tartar, and several gallons of warm water. The barrel is then made to revolve upon its axis, until the pins or other articles are perfectly clean. After this they are boiled in a similar mixture. Much of the brass of the ancients was properly bronze — that is, a compound of cop- per and tin. This alloy, In different propor- tions of its ingredients, is still of very great service. Gun metal — the material of the so- called brass cannon — is composed of copper 96 to 108 parts, and tin 11 parts. The com- pound resists wear extremely well, but its- strength is only about one-half that of wrought iron. Statues, and hard castings for machinery, are formed of this alloy. Messrs, Mitchell, Vance & Co., of New York, have- been very successful in casting bronze statu- ettes and ornaments, clock cases, &c, which rival the antique bronze in beauty. One of the most noted foundries for the casting ot cannon, statues, and bronze ornaments in 434 GOLD. ths United States is that of the Messrs. Ames, at Chicopee, Mass. The equestrian statue of Washington, in Union square, New York, is one of their most successful produc- tions. The French bronze contains 2 parts of tin, 1 of lead, G of zinc, and 91 of copper. Bell-metal is a bronze usually consisting of 7 parts of copper and 22 of tin. The larg- est bell in the country, that formerly on the City Hall, in New York, weighs 23,000 pounds, and was cast in Boston. The largest number of bells is probably pro- duced at the foundry of the Messrs. Men- eely, at Troy, N. Y. The Chinese gong is now an American manufacture, composed of bell-metal, which, after being cast, is forged under the hammer, between two di.-ks of iron. The casting is made malleable by plunging, while hot, into cold water. As with zinc, copper forms an alloy m ide to imitate gold, so with tin and nickel it forms a combination resembling silver, known as German silver. The proportions of the met- als are 8 parts of copper to either 3 or 4 each . . School*, B .ys and Girls, ) Schools, Acads. ,Sem ,Col. 8. Coi. ins. for superior in- 1,227 114 995 156 11 159 62 30 11 65 881 2,429 (8 (1. (5 (3 (5 (4 643 (3, 3,318 16) 1.574 297) 27) 376 72) 47) 22) 453 688) 100,374 12,538 22,639 3.i 669 S ,048 4,797 6,036 2, I 14 1,081 lj,8.0 67,082 48,110 47.99S 18,837,114 4,499,270 8264.950 3,171,119 :, 206,186 757,824 165,6.5 76,8 U 4 43,712 2,528,4:2 622,802 8 r 3Pfi6 941,67o 513 5S6 116,822 225 2=7 1 29,333 49,98i "i'l',539 22,639 15 27 Spbcial Instruction — Schools for Deaf Mutes 3 471 2,565 6.104,690 3,34s,699 324.480 1,114 834 4 5.UU2 1,253.706 663.415 318 323 2,53j,622 3 876.456 39,882 Schools, feeble minded, 1 no 3,096 o. 38,916 786 38,610 Orphan Asylums, Soldiers' Or. Homes. Infant Asyl- aims and Indus. Schoo.a. .. 148) •.15.018 (7. 3 5'lS 6 il > 5.121 <8J,?.48 (1, 106 292 148) 1 14.733 Grand Totals SHi 41,469 212 5 135 12M 1,815 967 13,527,667 1,209,782 IV. SCIENTIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS. There still remains, to complete our sniumary review of the Educational institutions of this country, some account of the Scientific and Professional Schools or Institutions of the ILyited States. 'The Scientific Schools are of two classes. Those organized under the law nviking grants of land to Agricultural Colleges, and receiving the avails of these grants, and those not receiving these avails, but endowed by State or private munificence. The Theological Semina- ries and institutions can be classed under a single head, though some of them are connected with Colleges or Universities, and others are independent of these; some have a course of classical study, and others are confined to theological studies exclusively. The Law Schools come under a single head, but the Medical Schools are divided iuto Regular Homoeopathic and Eclectic, and the Dental and Pharmaceutical Schools are also classed -with them. We give herewith such statistics as can be obtained of all these Scientific and P- t"^;n"ol School. CLASSES OF SCHOOL^ OR INSTI- TUTIONS IN UNITED STATES. x - *o ° £ 9_ « !f "is i . u. 8 B G3,(S Hi 9,208 114 il4 *c a B-5-o < n 1 I 9 s J. A a . U ■3 5 X. Scientific Schools. A— Sch ois endowed from Agricultural pr'nl. B— Notthusei dowed. II. Theolobic«l Sch'L8 43 33 iiia a SIP -.49 5" 7 196 915 15s 61 161 6-.' 7 111 6,"42 4.:'.': II 6,«98 6,"4i 4,320 283 4,90? 5.9.8 4 3 li 3,012 8,279 1.215 '448 701 1,187 29,993 $7 5°7,42l 3068.ii(i0 6,424.7111 61,' 00 1,6*5,25" 840.0' 161 U0U 68,000 165,oi0 5,020,446 1,486 807 7,6' 3 858 168,241 414,347 40,0(10 319.503 137 3 6 468 5o4 15,755 13,1 f 6 872,905 185.150 4' S,S 4 11 8,48 J 30:,584 91.871 8 96o 1,192 82 126.901 67.41 S 655,;0i 86,56.) IV. IV'kdical Schools. 1 8,279 1,215 448 701 46.P65 B — Homceopathic . . . n 6 12 13 357 39 80O 3. .1 60.734 .... 47^7 5(5 Schools of Pharmacy . . . 90,500 B.11S 283 2.322 2.919 32 315 21.389 18,649.3 1 14,6' 4 205 '.i54, 4 2, 62,984 1 .274 1,0.0.624 In most o't'ie Theoln C cal Si bonis, the tuition is provi ed f r hy' endowment, and is free. The S holarsMps of the Scientific Schools cover (he tuition; there are also free scholarships in Borne of (he Medical S hools— usually the result of State grants. a Besides tho.e in 17 ^rhonl. not reported and 27 included under tho faculties of the Universities with which these school! are connected. The rcul n inner ui iiutiuct r» u about 6i9. EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS. EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS FURNISHED BY THE GOVERNMENT BUREAU OF EDUCATION AT WASHINGTON. SUMMARY OF SCHOOL AGE, POP! I.ATK.N, ENROLLMENT, ATTIAh States and Territories. Alabama Arkansas California Colorado ( 'ounce ticut Delaware Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas , Kentucky Louisiana , Maine Maryland Massachusetts , Michigan Minnesota , Mississippi , Missouri Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New York North. Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island Smith Carolina Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia West. Virginia Wisconsin Total Arizona Dakota District of Columbia Idaho Montana New Mexico Utah Washington Wyoming INDLVN. Cherokee? Chickasaws Choctawa Creeks Seminoles Total Grand Total 7 SI 6 -.'I 5-17 6 81 I 18 6 81 I 81 i; 18 6 81 6 81 E 81 5-21 re 80 C-18 I 83 6 80 5-15 6 80 6 81 5-21 6-S0 5-21 G-18 G -.'I 6 is 5.21 6-21 0-21 I 80 6-21 5 16 6 16 6 81 8 ll 5-20 5-21 0-21 4-20 G--J1 B '.'1 o ir 5-81 i -J 1 ; 18 e is .-.-■-•i ; 21 3S8.003 847,647 816,978 86,666 140,886 88,67! C 188, i-i I 1,010,851 708,558 686,656 840,647 645,161 278,816 214,666 e 270.1 -J0 606,221 / 271,428 126,680 728,484 142,848 10,698 a 71,188 830,686 1,641,178 169,824 c 1,048,880 69,616 g 1.2IMI.IHK) 62,278 h 828,128 644,862 28(1,527 / 92,881 666,807 210.113 16,127,406 7.148 12.080 ' 7*070 29,812 40,678 24,223 5.413 9,600 8, i:il - = " 26,969 a 116,860 864 968 281,283 c 770.070 h 288,128 2,697,900 - --. 88.119 119.694 89,816 704,041 511,283 126,067 68, 1 Y) 1 19 B27 162.481 Is. I j is •17<;.:;70 92 ". I'.i 9,046 204.961 1,081,598 747,188 184.079 290,141 1 IS B60 ■8 = -- a 117/.I78 100,966 9.080.403 176,467 16,809,869 2.638.644 4,919 8,970 6,161 2. OIH) 3.ai8 i no 900 8,170 170 101,118 5.305,343 145,190 821.659 148 187.667 lis m 178 1 177 111 a 117.161 M 166.761 a 219,132 108 6,401 115.194 199 150 80.6 001,627 117 99,066 184 m 73- 198 118 91.704 1 80 I / 15s 109 88 a. Estimated. t>. For the winter. /. In 1878. ij. In 1873. h. In 1877. e. [nl879. rf. For whites; for colored, 6-16. M870. k. in it73. /. Far white schools only. m. Inthecoonl 1056 EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS. SUMMARY OF ANNUAL INCOME AND EXPENDITURES, ETC. STATE9 AND TERRITORIES. Alabama Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts . . . Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire . New Jersey New York North Carolina . . Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode" Island South Carolina . , Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia , West Virginia . . Wisconsin Total. Arizona Dakota District of Columbia. Idaho Montana New Mexico Utah Washington Wyoming INDIAN. Cherokees.. Chickasaws. Choctaws. .. Creeks Serninoles.. Total. Grand Total , Annual Income. $388,013 25(5,190 3,573.1(18 522.580 1,481,701 183.313 139,710 471,020 7,836.952 4,402,850 5,254,203 2,1(50,507 1,031.505 480,320 1,047,715 1,483.862 : 4.622,(109 3,002,032 1,582,011 740,036 4,020,860 1,121,795 158,947 562,116 1,928,374 10,412,303 399,290 7,185,420 303,162 8,046,116 558,451 440,110 799,217 891,235 417,491 1,290,288 791.083 2,697,800 Annual Expenditure. Sites, buildings, furniture, libraries, and apparatus. $10,196 250,659 115,922 96,494 709.695 410,782 879,979 389,116 16,698 74,801 148,750 610.586 725,722 157,897 137,894 193,035 51.905 38,372 193.999 1,176.230 16.132 798,736 87,043 952,695 57,338 13.010 41,077 27,565 91,106 74,109 245,843 $82,684,489 $67,028 124,903 476,957 51,530 78,730 25,473 132,194 105,520 7,056 00.803 58.000 31,700 28,356 7,500 $8,805,386 Salaries of Superin- tendents. Salaries of Teachers. $11,872 b 47,286 26,441 2,300 8,021 12,178 30,074 25,489 34.986 54,920 54,566 9,088 46,274 14,125 34,406 115,400 15,116 96,681 7,185 79.331 9.S35 18,612 17,355 12,648 11.239 39,210 9.311 59,655 $909,538 $362,593 192,605 2,207,044 186,426 1,011.730 138,819 97,115 e 4,587\6i5 3.365,046 e 2,901.948 1,088,504 730,890 948,096 1.141,753 4,491,225 1,909.941 993.205 669.393 2,218,637 532,304 83,706 414,590 1,446,178 7,6:38,922 318,453 5,017,542 210.429 4,510,197 405,605 287,403 696,680 674,869 360,320 714,783 522,483 1,568,692 $54,551,201 $41,031 46,349 25.816 k 14,592 $1,255,750 $127,788 $15,243 $10,!- 60 1,500 2,883 $83,940,239 $8,933,174 $924,781 $64 318 277,012 33,844 Miscellane- ous. $1,000 10,347 400.868 93.179 273,710 64,472 3,557 2,235,232 1,139,321 328,589 13,828 218,878 ' 474,252 500,512 ' 678,820 366.382 9,580 98,252 253.791 1,481,826 3.181 1 ,254.004 9.360 1,906,790 71,422 5,604 69,750 3S.264 82.726 101.010 110,961 356,582 $12,656,050 $19,134 104,346 4,968 I 15.432 I 3,458 100,343 4,535 k 94,019 k 2.885 k 22,120 $607,088 $139,326 $55,158,289 $12,795,376 Total. Estimated real value of sites, buildings, and till other school property. $375,465 a 238,050 2,864,571 395,527 1,408,375 C 207,281 a 114 895 471.029 7,531,942 a 4,491.850 4,921,248 1,818,387 803,490 480,820 h 1,047,681 1,544,367 5,156,731 3.109.915 1,706,114 a 830.704 a 3,152,178 1,137.995 j 144,245 565,339 1,928,374 10,412,378 352,882 7,166.963 314.017 7,449,013 644,200 324,629 724,862 753,346 454.285 946.109 716,864 2,230,772 $78,836,399 124 4: is 38 55) IS. 182 lit 22 60.S03 58.000 31.700 28,366 7,500 $1,196,439 $130,067 198,608 0,914,303 682,410 d '440,788 132,729 15,875,666 11,817,966 9,482,359 4,633,044 2,188.407 / 790.000 2,995,131 10,000.000 3,156,210 7.353,401 2,0(54,7(58 275,274 2,329,913 6,244,139 30,747.509 179.561 21,851.718 667,863 25.407.0L7 1,894,122 351.016 1,(66,095 1,177,545 1.670,5:35 5,303,21:8 $177,842,331 $113,074 133,952 1,206,355 ' 118,912 ' 872,723 220.405 61,675 $2,227,006 $80,032,S38 $1S0.069,427 a. Items not fully reported, b. Paid out of the general fund of the counties, and therefore not included in State expenditure, c. Includes $1,690 expended for colored schools outside of Wilmington, d. For white schools only. e. Includes salaries of superintendents. /. In 1878. g. Includes miscellaneous expenditure, h. So reported, though the items given amount to $1,048,386. i. Total of reported items. J. So reported, though the items given amount to $115,191. k. In 1879. I. In 1875. EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS. SUMMARY OP THE NUMBER OP TEACHERS EMPLOYED l\ THB PI BUG SCHOOLS, AND THE AVERAGE SIONTHLI BALABI OF TEACHERS IN THE RESPECTIVE STATES AND TERHIT<»RI1> States and Territories. Alabama Arkansas ... California... Colorado Connecticut. Delaware Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Alary land Massachusetts. .. Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire. New Jersey New York North Carolina. . Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island . . . South Carolina.. Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin Total number of teachers in States. Arizona Dakota District of Columbia. Idaho Montana New Mexico Utah Washington Wyoming INDIAN. Cherokees. . . Chickasaws . Choctaws . . . Creeks Seminoles... Total number of teachers in Territories. Grand Total. N'l MIlBR OF Ti.a. in.i;-. Male. 944 189 ■.'OS •JIT 746 876 1,671 181 d 8,864 (1684) 190 (6,000) 8.834 18,421 7.809 6,T78 7,964 14,844 8,608 1,974 4,418 9,846 OSS) 2.325 / 4,600 1.880 1,796 1,188 7,489 4.(17-2 9, --77 1,874 8,481 3.411 2,158 6,068 4,879 1,670 .2.430 99 105 680 9,880 991 9,486 7,989 29,788 3,o :0 1.090 1,896 19J868 635 678 9,7.32 11,648 994 1.1 101 1,887 1.984 4.707 1,947 3.083 1.278 7-.'.-> 8,801 8,009 1,864 3.104 1,080 2,918 7,197 (280. 034 > u 48 134 34 ( 62 it 132 989 g 986 a 20 160) 63 169 399 99 15 235 89 1 29 (/ 198) A* n:\'.i: Monthly Salauv. Male. v 8 80.96 49.84 (0 10 60.00 41.99 81.16 89. 17 32.1.7 (II. 67 6 1 86 .29 (30. 85.00 86.19 lo] 17 84.19 (41. Dtt. 66.00 4 M'.l 7(121 96.24 (96. Pemale. h i4aoo in -7 00) g B o S = 33 o *-. U « O © —,B C3 W " !»■ « c c o a $14.91 6 12.44 6 11.51 11.07 a $14.93 6 17.17 b 17.07 17.80 a $19.66 6 27.35 6 24.15 31. ?.% $14.60 9.39 9.06 9.03 a 6.17 7.99 C 6.92 11.01 14.87 11.63 a 11.25 12.29 C 8.00 17.91 19.14 17.35 a 18.45 18.91 C 24.03 11.28 9.74 a 12.77 $11.52 a 14.14 6.70 d 6.39 6.34 6.15 9.61 d 8.12 10.09 8.59 15.68 18.16 13.47 8.33 9.97 5.93 5.80 6 5.70 5.33 7.96 6 8.11 7.85 9.18 12.72 13.20 7.67 8.00 5.27 5.00 8.37 8.64 11.44 16.37 6 4.72 4.65 4.56 c 3. as 3.23 b 8.15 7.51 6.53 C 5.25 9.48 b 11.92 11.37 9.48 C 7.63 16.82 9.79 C 3.&3 6.21 11 33 Utah 8.08 3.01 4.43 6.90 6 1.59 b 6.74 1 56 2 70 4 01 1.63 1.42 3.83 2.42 6.57 2.20 338 1 29 3 85 5 97 1.08 98 9(5 1.99 1.12 2.09 b 8.42 3.31 2.34 3.17 Pennsylvania c 7.61 c 11.81 a. Estimated. 6. In 1879. c. In 1878. d. Does not include expenditure for books. EXTRACTS FROM COMMENDATIONS, The following Testimonials must convince the most sceptical person of the merits of this work. We do not remember of ever seeing a list of names attached to any pub- lication in this country whose opinions are eutitled to more confidence. They were not given hastily, without examination, as it required about one year to obtain them. PUBLISHERS. No. 1.. From President Ilobart College, Geneva. I have examined, as far as time would allow, you; new work, on the " Progress of our Country." I think it a very convenient book of reference, an 1 a valuable addition to our statistical knowledge. 1 have already found it a very useful work to con- sult, and I gladly add it to our College Library, where it well deserves a place. No. 2. From President of the Indiana State Uni- versity, Bloomlngton, Ind. I have examined your recently published work- on the " Progress of our Country ; " and from the examination I nave been able to give it, I believe that it merits ricldy the highest commendation. The great variety and importance of the subjects, the felicitous style in which they are clothed, and their numerous aud beautiful illustrations, render this work peculiarly attractive. They embrace subjects of great and universal utility, and deeply interesting to all classes of community. Even- profession and calling in life is here exhibited, with the latest improvements in every department of industry and art. The advancement made during eighty years, in the American republic, is unparal- leled in the history of the world; and will remain a prcof to all coming generations, of the blessings I of free institutions, and the capability of man, un- der a system of self-government, for an almost in- I definite" progress in civilization. This work should be in every library, public and private, and in the 'hands of every citizen. No. 3. From the President of tho Wosleyan University. Mlddl. t.nvn, Col. n. I have examined, with much pleasure and profit, the work on the " Progress of our Country." It contains a great amount and variety of inform printed in an attractive style, on t importance, I i eminently a practical work, and brings within the reach of all edge heretofore inaccessible to mot The novelty of the title, tho great truths illustrated and established, give it is - and usefulness. The patriot and the philanthropist will be encouraged by i' J perusal end -'imulatedto greater exertions to secure further progress in all good things in our country and throughout tho world. The enterprising publisher has not spared ex in the manufacture of the work. The printin the abundant illustrations are in the big of art. One of the best illustrations of " Eighty Tears' Progress." would be found in the comparison of the mechanical execution of this work with that of any work issued eighty years ago. No. t. From President of (iirard College, Philadelphia, Pa. Dear Sir, — I have been int by the perusal of your national work, on the "Pro- gress of our Country," for a copy uf which I am indebted to your courtesy. An illustrated history of the various branches: of industry and art in the United Stab-, prepared with the ability and truthfulness which characterizes this work, will be highly acceptable to all readers. In its artistic and mech ition, nothing has been left to be desired, I am i. quainted with any work in which so much reliable information on so great variety of lay bo found in so small a compass. It is emphatically a book for the people. So. ."•. From the President '''liege. I.IM \. .V TTith as much have examined the vvcrk of Mr. St D th- "Progress of our Country." It coin.., amount of valuable information, in just the form lo pie. It i- a brief and interesting history of I . in biKh science and the arts. I am willing 1060 COMMENDATIONS. that my name circulation. and influence should aid in its No. 6. From the President of Cambridge University. , Cambridge, Dear Sir, — I have examined the work on the "Progress of our Country," with such attention as I could give it. I am not competent to verify the statements of many parts, but the names of the gentlemen who contributed some of the most im- portant portions seems to be a sufficient guaranty of their accuracy. I have no doubt the volumes contain much valuable information on the practical arts and industrial interests of the country. No. 7. From the President of Marietta College, Ohio. Dear Sir, — The work on the " 260 Years' Pro- gress of the United States" was received by mail a few days since. I have given what attention I could to it, and write you now, as I am expecting to be ab- sent from home for some days. The examination of this work has given me much pleasure. The idea of furnishing this most valuable knowledge in a comparatively small compass, was a most happy one. As a people we want informa- tion — reliable information. We need to know our own history, in art and science, as well as in govern- ment. The people of one section should know how those of others live — the progress of one should be made known to all. The idea of the work you have undertaken seems to have been well carried out, as well as happily conceived. On a great variety of topics, in which all the people are interested, you have furnished a large amount of valuable information. All, except those of the lowest grade of intelligence, will avail themselves of the opportunity to secure this vol- ume, and, unlike many books, the more it is exam- ined the more valuable will it seem. I anticipate for it a wide circulation. I feel great interest in the character of the books distributed through the country. We teach our young people, at great cost, to read. Many, having acquired the art, have no disposition to use it; and others read nothing that has any value. Good books, books — not newspapers, they will take care of themselves — should be in every house. Hence, I favor school libraries, as an easy and cheap method of putting good books into the hands of the young. For a like reason I rejoice in the purchase, by fami- lies, of all good works. This work on the Progress of the United States, will serve a most excellent purpose in two ways. It may be taken up at any time to employ a few leisure moments, and it serves as an encyclopaedia for reference. Please accept my thanks for the volume, and my best wishes for its wide-spread distribution. No. 8. From the President of the University of Rochester, N. T. I have looked over, somewhat hastily, the work on the "Progress of our Country." The plan seems to me excellent, the idea of presenting in a short compilation the present state and rate of progress of the various industrial arts is one which can not fail to be thought worthy. In general, the work seems to be successfully and correctly done. In such a work it is impossible to avoid errors, and the prejudices and interests of the different com- pilers may be occasionally seen. Notwithstanding this, the work seems to me well worthy the patron' age of the public. No. 9. From the President of Brown University, Providence, E. I. I have examined those parts of the " work on the Progress of the United States" on which my studies and observation have enabled me to form an intelli- gent judgment, and find, compressed within a small compass, a vast amount of valuable information, well selected and well arranged. It furnishes am- ple means of comparison on the subjects of which it treats, and will, I think, prove to be a valuable book of reference. No. 10. From President University of Wisconsin. I have examined, with a pleasure I can hardly express in too strong terms, your ' ' work on the Progress of the United States." During the few days the work has been on my table it has saved me, in the examination of facts, labor worth many times the cost of the volume. For the school library the business man, the scholar, or the intelligent family, it will be found a cyclopaedia presenting, in a most interesting form, the progress of the various arts of civilized life during the period of our nation- al existence. I most heartily recommend th9 work. No. 11. From the President of Columbia College, N. T. Sir, — I thank you for the copy of a work on the "Progress of the United States," published by .you. i "MMl.Mi mom. 1061 It seems to me of great value as containing in- formation of interest, more or less, to all, and not easily accessible, except to varied labor and re- search. The idea, too, of illustrating national pro not by war, nor annexation, nor diplomatic legerde- main, but by the advance in the institution learning, in useful inventions, in the growth of manufactures, agriculture, and commerce, in all the arts of peace, in morals and civilization, in the inner life, so to speak, of the people themselves, seems to me both original and founded in tl notion of progress. I trust you will derive abundant reward for your praiseworthy adventure. No. 12. From the President of Tufts College. Mr. Stebbins : Dear Sir, — I was led to expect much from the title of your work, on the "Pro- gress of the U. S.," and resolved to give it a careful examination. I have been richly repaid for the time thus spent, in the great pleasure and profit I have derived from its perusal. Heartily thanking you for this generous contribution to generous knowledge, I trust you may reap a rich reward for your efforts. No. 13. From the President of Dartmouth College, L. Stebbins, Esq.: Dear Sir, — I received some days ago your very handsome work, a history of the " Progress of the United States," but have found leisure only within a day or two to examine its contents. Those' persons who have been long- est on the stage can best appreciate the amazing contrasts in the state of the country which you describe, but one who, liko myself, can recognize the history of half the period, can testify to the faithfulness and fullness of your exhibition of the growth and po^-er of this great country. Accept my sincere thanks for the work, and the opinion that on the subjects treated it will be found an invaluable authority by all who study its pages. I trust it may have an extensive distribu- tion. No. II. From Chancellor State University of Mlohlgaa Mr. Stehbixs: Sir, — T have the honor bo •aiowledgo the roceipt of a copy of the work re- cently published by you, entitled u MO Progress," for n bleb pk i e accept my I thanks. it was not to b uldbe made to contain an adequati of our country during eighty ted the- public with this large work with Interesting and raraable mal ject, as much, perhaps, a- could be COmpn Med into it. I hope this work will find a wide i and thus become a public benefit in a 111 NO. 1 a. From tin- President <>r the Vermont Onfvenlty, Rurlineton. 1 have only had time to dip into your " 200 rears' Progress" here and tl . have been pleased and instructed, and an: rare the bo i be very valuable. My children are very much in- terested in it. No. 16. From the President of Williams' College. Dear Sir, — I have no hesitation in the work proposed to be done in t! Years' Progress" has been well done. For who wish a book of the kind, yours cannot fail to be the book. No. 17. From President of Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. Dear Sir, — I have to thank you for a copy of your work on the Progress of the United States. It tic its ( if some matters with which I am familiar, and of some with which I am not familiar: but I think I can honestly say. with regard to both, that they are so presented as to he at once interesting' and instruct- ive to the general reader. No, is. Mr. L. Stbbbxnb: •' good and DSeful one, hut it is not m\ ; 1062 COMMENDATIONS. "} No. 19. College op New Jersey, Princeton, Jan. 28, Bear Sir, — Tour " work on the Progress of the United States. " I regard as a valuable publica- tion, richly meriting the attention of the general reader, as well as the more careful examination of the student interested in observing the advance- ment of our country in the useful arts and learning. Very respectfully yours, John McLean. L. Stebbins, Esq. No. 20. From Prof. Johnson, Yale College, New Haven, Conn. Js Stebbins, Esq. : Bear Sir, — I have examined s 260 Years' Progress," with interest, especially ttie excellent chapter on agriculture. In my opinion, fcbe work is one of much value, and deserves a Vfide circulation. Tours, etc, S. W. Johnson, Prof, of Analytical and Agricultural Chemistry in the Sheffield Scientific School of Tale College. No. 21. From Eev. Dr. Smith, Lane Theological Seminary, Ohio. Mr. L. Stebbins : My Bear Sir, — I have run my eyes with great interest over your beautiful work, "a history of Progress." It contains, in a condensed yet attractive form, a mass of information touching the progress and present condition of our country. It is, moreover, information of which every man, at some time, feels the need ; and it would be a grand contribution both to the intelligence and patriotism of our whole population, if you could succeed in placing a copy of it in every family of the land. I shall place your book on my table for constant reference. No. 22. From Professor Fowler, of Amherst College, Editor of the University Edition of Webster's Dictionary, Series of Clas- sical Books, etc. The work which yon placed in my hands, "great wealth producing interests of our Country," I have taken time to examine, in order that I might learn its intrinsic value. I find that the subjects selected are such, and the manner of treatment such, as to supply a felt want in the public mind, which, in its own progress, was demanding higher and better help than it enjoyed before the publication of your work. This might be inferred from the bare mention of the subjects and the authors. These subjects are treated by these writers with that cor- rectness of the statement of the general principles, and with that fullness of detail which make the work just what it ought to be as a guide to the people. Every young man who wishes to elevate his mind by self-culture, ought to read this work carefully. Tours respectfully, William C. Fowler. No. 23. From Prof. Silliman, Tale College, New Haven, Ct. ' I have carefully looked through your rich and faithful work, observing the copious tables of con- tents, glancing at every page of the work, and at all the numerous illustrations, with occasional reading of paragraphs. A more thorough examination it has not been hitherto in my power to make ; but even this general survey has left on my mind the decided conviction that you have performed an im- portant service to your country in thus mapping out and condensing and explaining the wonderful progress made in this country, during four-fifths of a century, in all the most important arts of life. My own recollections — my years having been coeval with the entire period covered by your work — sus- tain your statements regarding the extreme simpli- city of our early domestic arts — cheap in mechanical aids but prodigal of time. Now productive industry, aided by successful inventions, fills all our regions where free labor has full scope for action, with in- numerable results which are fully equal to our wants, even in the present crisis, leaving also a large redun- dancy of articles for export, especially in the depart- ment of agriculture, and in not a few important me- chanical arts. Tour work of closely printed pages of double col- umns, with a fair paper and a clear and distinct type, with its numerous engravings, defended also by a strong and neat binding, presents a valuable book of reference ; a manual to be consulted by the agri- culturist and artist, as well as by the man of science and the historian of progress. Wishing to yourself and your worthy coadjutors full success, No. 24. From the New York Times. 260 years " Progress of our Country." — If at all inclined to doubt that a great deal of useful in- formation may be bound up in a comparatively small compass by a judicious compiler, in the very hand- some work before us, we should find sufficient logic to make us devout believers. The writers have ranged through the wild fields of agriculture, com- merce, and trade ; very little that develops the ma- terial prosperity of a country, and marks its growth, has escaped their industrious research. Undoubt- edly, minute criticism might detect slight errors, but in a work of so comprehensive a character, strict accuracy would seem almost unattainable. The statistics given are full and clearly arranged ; the grouping of the subjects, and the evident method which the authors have observed in the accomplish- COMMENDATIONS. ment of their not inconsiderable task, are worthy of all praise. The work is one v larlyneed, as it is a lamentable facl that few people are so deficient in general knowlei tive to growth and development of tin >ir Dative country, as ours. The Englishman g an arsenal of statistics at his fingers' ends: he can tell you when the lirst shaft was sunk in the flrsl mine; when the lirst Loom was erected in Manches- ter. The panoply of facta in which he is arrayed makes him rather a ponderous and far from spright- ly companion, at times; but then he always | formidable as an adversary. Germans, too, have nearly everything by rote that relates to their own country. Frenchmen are quick to learn, bul have not very retentive memories generally, and are very apt to forget all, and more, than they once knew. It may be urged in extenuation of our na- tional delinquency, as regards a knowledge of our own country, that our country grows too fast tor our memories to keep pace with it, and that a Yan- kee can arrive by guessing at what others, less fa- vored in this respect, can only reach by delving in authorities ; but, on the whole, it is better to trust to actual knowledge of facts, and under any circum- stances such books as these are good things to have in the library. No. 25. From the Now York Examiner. 260 Years' Progress of the United States" by eminent literary men, who have made the subjects of which they have written their special study. The citizen 'who desires to comprehend fully how the country in which we live has. under the foster- ing iuliuences of a good government, the enterprise of an energetic people, and above all, the blessing of God, grown from a handful of people to one of the leading powers in the world, should purchase and read carefully this work. It is no catchpenny affair. The men who have prepared the narratives of progress in the various departments of agricul- ture and horticulture, commerce, manufactures, banking, education, science, art, and the matters which goto make "home" so emphatically an American word, are not novices, penny-a-liners, who write on any or all subjects, with or without an un- derstanding of them, for the sakeof their daily bread — but men of high reputation, who have made the subjects they discuss the topics of a life's study. Every subject which will admit of it is finely illus- trated, and tables of statistics, carefully pp from the latest sources, show the present condition of each department, and demonstrate, as only figures can, how great the advance which has been made in each. As a work of reference, not less than as a deeply interesting book for family reading, it will be a treasure to any household that may obtain it. No. 2G. From the Now York Observer. 260 Years' Progress of the United States."— the above rather formidable title-page is quite a full ex- position of the contents of this large work, which contain avast amount of ■dentine, historical, am] Btatistioal matter, and whlcl Jopaedia, as weD as history ol the country, durii tifloand practical men. who ha OH which they h rendering the work valuable ae a i! as for general readini we have in this work maj nder, gratitude, ai The history of no other try can furnish a parallel. No. 'J 7. From I ^mitii rio- vn<. Becrctarj of tin Chamber of Commerc of New York. ' 260 | —The first eighty years of the national eztsi illustrated by no brilliant military exploits, rooh as for the most part make up the history ofmOBl coun- if the < »ld World, but the American peo] not the less on that account assume a m character, and a first rank among the nation! of the earth. Their success in ship-building and commerce at once placed them on a level with t: maritime nations. The inventive . I untir- ing industry of the people soon revolutionized the- manufacturing industry of the world, bj application of new mechanical powers to ind arts; and if the extent and cheapness of land for a time supplied the scarcity of labor in agricultural departments, it did not prevent the multipli of inventions, which have not only i nsely to home production, but have greatly aided that of European countries. The development i dustries forms the true history of '. irk i<( Mr. Stebbins has tdven a world of information upon each branch of tho sub- I a most authentic and attractive form. The is on ship-building, commerce, and lob transportation, pp reader a n nable information as astonishing for the of the results produced as interesting in the narra- tive. We know of no other work which, in the compass of two handsome volumes, contains booo varied and comprehensive instruction o: i reliable character. They form almost a complete library in themselves. From ill.- Becrataxy of Board of Trade, Phlla-Mphia. L. Stebiiixs, Esq. : 2 I examined with intereal the volnmea published by you, on the "Pro- gress of our Country," and found them partic- ularly valuable. The design struck me very ; ably, ami the execution of t - . ■ parti Could not have been intrusted to more competent ! The last eighty years of the history >■'.' has been one of unexampled progress, and it is now more than ever Important to brinj of every section the leading of this marvellous progr 1064 COMMENDATIONS. No. 29. From the Secretary of the Board of Trade, Boston. My Dear Sir, — My many cares just now have prevented me from a comparison of the statistical matter contained in the " work on our" Progress" with official tables in my possession, as well as an examination of some other things, concerning which authorities differ, but I have found time to acquaint myself witli the general topics and objects of the work, and do not hesitate to declare that I have not read more interesting pages for years. In- deed, the best informed among us, cannot, as it seems to me, fail to find much that is new, while to the young and to those who lack the means of re- search, so authentic and well-digested account of our country's ''Progress," will be of immense ser- vice. We all boast of our wonderful march in com- merce, in manufactures, in mechanics, and in the arts; and here we have it, step by step, In "facts and figures," and in brief and pithy narrative. With all my heart, I hope that the sale will be extensive, and that you may be well rewarded for your outlay of time and capital. No. 30. From the New Englander, New Haven, Conn. " 260 Years' Progress of the United States."— In this very large octavo work there is presented in a compact and easily accessible form an amount of valuable information with regard to the progress which the people of the United States have made in all the various channels of industry since the days when they were British colonists, which is not to be found in any other single work with which we are acquainted. Each one of these subjects is amply illustrated with engravings. The different chapters have been prepared by well-known liter- ary men who have each made the subjects about which they have written the study of years. We have examined the work repeatedly and with much care during the past three months, and each time have been impressed anew with its value. There is not an intelligent family in the nation who would not be interested and instructed by it, and find it a most convenient book of reference with regard to every thing pertaining to the industrial interests of the country. No. 31. From the Philadelphia Inquirer. " 260 Years' Progress of the United States.'" — To any one desiring at a glance a comprehensive view of the various channels of educational industry in commerce, manufactures, agriculture, statistics, etc., they are invaluable. They are profusely illus- trated with elegant engravings in the highest style of artistic merit. The volumes redound with sta- tistical and miscellaneous information of a standard character and permanent value. The expense of publishing a work of this character must have been very large, but we feel confident that a discrimi nating public have not been overestimated. There are among the peculiar characteristics of our people, wide- spread opinions prevailing, that books sold by subscription are of a necessity more expensive than when purchased in a general way at the counter of a publishing house. This is evi- dently an error that could easily be subverted by a little demonstration, and the publishers' remarks in the preface are to the point, and effective. We know of hardly any book or books which are with- in the reach of every -day life, that we would eooner advise a friend to purchase. Its value will be un- impaired for a lifetime No. 32. From the Boston Transcript. " 260 Years' Progress of the United States."— This work is the result of much careful research, exercised by many minds on a variety of important subjects. They show the industrial and educational steps by which the people of the United States have risen from their colonial condition to their present position among the nations of the world. They give, in a historical form, the progress of the country in agriculture, commerce, trade, banking, manufactures, machinery, modes of travel and trans- portation, and the work is' intended to be sold by subscription, and will dt-.-.btkSs-have a large circu- lation. It ought to be in every house in the land. It is more important than ordinary histories of the country J as it exhibits all the triumphs of the prac- tical mind and energy of the nation, in every de- partment of science, art, and benevolence. It is a storehouse of important and stimulating facts, and its interest can hardly be exhausted by the most persistent reader. No. 33. From the N. T. Herald. " 260 Years' Progress of the United States," by eminent literary men. — The object of this w r ork, as set forth in its preface, is to show the various channels of industry through which the people of the United States have arisen from a British colony to their present national importance. This is done by treating separately the improvements effected in agriculture, commerce, trade, manufactures, ma- chinery, modes of travel, transportation, etc. The preparation of these different articles has been in- trusted to writers whose pursuits qualified them to handle them exhaustively, and the result is the assemblage of a vast amount of statistical and other information which is not to be found in the same collective and condensed form in any other work extant. No. 34. From the Boston Post. " 260 Tears' Progress of the United States, showing the various channels of industry through commend LTI098. which the people of the United States have arisen from a British colony to their present National Importance," is the title of a new and exceedingly valuable work. The work gives in a historical form the vast improvements mad.' in ,. merce, trade, manufacturing, ther with a large amount of statistical and "ther inform It is illustrated with numerous engravings, and al- together forms a most valuable and instructivi panion to the writer, the business man, or the student No. 35. From Wm. \V. Tyrnkr, Principal of the American Asylum for Deaf and I>umr>, Bartford, Conn. I have examined your new national work, on the development and "Progress of the United States," and find that the information it contains en the wide range of subjects treated of must make it exceeding- ly valuable as a standard book of reference. The names of the writers of the different articles afford a sufficient guaranty that the facts and stab may be relied on as correct. I consider the work a very important accession to this department of literature, and have no doubt that it will find its way into the library of every private gentleman and every public institution. No. 36. Kruiu Superintendent Common Schools. Massachusetts, I have examined the Encyclopedia of Progrfss" with satisfaction. I consider it a work of great value, and it is one which I should be very unwill- ing to spare from my library. It is not only such a book as the literary or professional man would like to possess, but it is a book for every household, and for every school library. No. 37. From tlir Boston Journal. " 260 Years' Progress of the Un'"l Kt,if,<." — In this elaborate and valuable work the progress of the United ;_\ctes is illustrated by historical Bketches of the rise and development of agriculture, commerce, trade, manufactures, modes of travel and transporta- tion. The authors will be recognized as fully com- petent to treat upon the above subjects, and their sketches have great interest and value, as well for the facts which they present, as in illustrating the rapid progress of the United Stales in all that conduces to material wealth and national prosperity. The work abounds in valuable statistical information, and is interesting for perusal, and useful fur refer- ence. No from tli.> Philadelphia i eminent literary i riouschanni 1- of Industry through v. hid ■ colony to their present m ; treats of the vast impro 1 "" mannfactur of tniV( 1 an : No. 30. Won the ll mat, " 2f.(i Year? p -The tiih' conveys bn of information contained in : • n more than that they possess greal value as of arts and progp B8 in civilizat; : of 1 1 1 « - authors of the more ll era! of whom are knovi • high- ly respected, are a guaranty that their v. and si itemenl - n lial la ' ' ; r 1 forbids an extended notice, but before pecially the agricultural departmi ;. that to every one who takes it np it i- one of the most fascini I 'pial- ity in a 1 !•• of progress in Agricultun L. Flint. Secretary of the Massac! Agriculture) and is a most able and lection of facts in regard to the remarkable pro- gress of this country since the Revolution. No, From the Philadelphia Daily 1 'In. Mr. L. Stkkbins, — Alter carefully examining yooi valuable publication, on the wonderful "1 the United Stat--." and having on varion in our professional bus i a work of reference, we are a its character. No work that v pives such spirited, comprehensive, and the pt ir country in political strength, in commerce, agriculture, manufactures, aid all branch- es of industry and art. The work has I D pre- pared with • treated with intelligence, and the - tion proves that the writer- i i ation. who have thoroughly inform* on the subjects they diSCUSS. The iflustl 1 the typography add much to the attra that should be in the hands of all who take an in- tntry, and : patriotic pride in its prosperity. No. II. Krnin tin' Secretary of Board "f K.'.r.r.ition. J>-ur Sir. — T 1 . I hnnk vou f rr y< >ur no- ble work giving a history of our " ] 1066 COMMENDATIONS. After such an examination as I have been able to give, I do not hesitate to pronounce it a work of unusual interest and value. As a depository of facts illustrative of the pro- gress of our country in the departments of industry, it is invaluable. Its wide circulation, at this eventful period, can- not fail to arouse and deepen that patriotic love of our institutions which is the pressing demand of the hour. No. 42. From City Superintendent Public Schools, New York. Mr. L. Stebbins: Dear Sir, — The great pressure of official engagements has hitherto prevented my acknowledgment of the receipt of the very beauti- ful and interesting work, giving a history of the great "Progress of the United States." I have not had time to peruse them thoroughly, but take great pleasure in stating that, so far as I have looked into them, the plan and general execution of the work seem to me to be admirable, and well adapted to the wants, as well of the rising generation, as of our fellow-citizens generally. I cheerfully recom- mend it to the ..avorable regard of school officers, parents, teachers, and others, as a very valuable compend of scientific and historical knowledge, and a9 a work well worthy of a place in every school or private library. No. 43. From the New England Farmer, Boston. " 260 Years' Progress of the United States." — This volume contains an immense amount of valuable and interesting information concerning the rise and development of agriculture, commerce, trade, man- ufactures, travel and transportation, the arts, and other prominent interests of this country. This information is contained in a series of essays by gentlemen, either and all of whom will be recog- nized as competent to illustrate the subject upon which he writes. No. 44. No. 45. From Mercantile Agency, New York. From a cursory glance at its contents I feel war- ranted in saying it possesses information of much value aud usefulness to all classes. From Frank Leslie. After copying the entire title-page, the notice pro- ceeds thus : Such is the comprehensive title of an elegantly printed work which covers a very wide range of subjects of special American interest. The work is, in fact, an industrial and statistical history of the country since its independence, encyclopaedic in character and arrangement, but yet suffi- ciently complete for every practical purpose. It may be regarded as an epitome of the publication of the Census and the Patent Office, and of the proceedings of our Industrial Societies, compact in form, convenient for reference, and deserving a place in the hands of every reading and reflecting man in the country. No. 46. From the Evening Post, New York. " 260 Years' Progress of the United States.' 1 '' — The range of subjects treated in this work is very full ; the writers upon them are well selected with regard to specialties, and their manner of handling is al- ways interesting, frequently thorough. The sys- tem pursued is not encyclopaedic, but historical, and, so far as possible, exhaustive. The growth of our agricultural prosperity, with particular regard to improvements made in breeds and machinery, and the dissemination of scientific knowledge among farmers, is well recited, and this department forms one of the most attractive features of the book. No. 47. From B. J. Lossisg, the Historian. Sir, — I have examined, with great satisfaction, your work devoted to the industrial Progress of th« United States." It is a work of inestimable value to those who desire to know, in minute detail, some- thing more of the history of the country than the events of its political c. d industrial life as exhibit- ed in the politician's manual, and the bold state- ments of the census ; especially at this time, when the civilized world is eagerly asking what we are and what we have been, that the old governments may attempt to solve the more important question, to them, what we will be. Your work, in fact and logical prophecy, furnishes an answer of which any people may be justly proud. Surely, no nation of the earth has ever experienced such bounding progress as this ; and in the last eighty years', as exhibited in your work, We see ample prophecies of the future, of strength, influence, leadership among the nations, such as the eye of faith employ- ed by the fathers, dimly saw. No American can peruse your pages without feeling grateful for the privilege of being an American citizen. I will use a very trite phrase and say, with all sincerity, I wish your work could go "into every family in our land," to increase their knowledge and to strengthen their patriotism. No. 48. From the New York Journal of Commerce. " 260 Years' Progress of the United States." — The plan is extensive, and appears to be judiciously carried out. The work is divided into departments, to each of which has been devoted his laborious attention, producing a readable, and at the same time valuable and instructive, summary of the ad- vances made. LE N30