USA > California > Alameda County > Oakland > Illustrated album of Alameda County, California; its early history and progress-agriculture, viticulture and horticulture-educational, manufacturing and railroad advantages-Oakland and environs-interior townships-statistics, etc., etc > Part 6
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The meat packers of the Great West consume large quantities in the dry packing of meat for export. Some fifty mechanical industries employ borax, but we are told the largest use is in the household, for the toilet, nursery, kitchen, and laundry, where its inno- cence and purity render it as safe as it is effective and economical for cleansing and preserving.
Few travelers passing in sight of the borax works realize either the interesting nature of the manufac- ture or the immense quantity of this staple turned out. The year's output would load a train of five hundred cars with ten tons each. If packed in the neat paste- board packages on sale everywhere, labeled "Pure Borax from the Deserts of California and Nevada," and these were laid in a single line so as to touch, it would stretch out seven hundred miles away.
CALIFORNIA DEAF, DUMB AND BI
PLATE 11.
ID INSTITUTION, BERKELEY, CAL.
.
27
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
PACIFIC COAST OIL WORKS.
Extensive Plant for Refining the Crude Petroleum Found in California.
On account of the nearness to market and railroad facilities the Pacific Coast Oil Company's Works were established on Pacific Avenue, Alameda. The works are. extensive and cover a large tract on the bay shore. The plant consists of thirty-five tanks, two of which hold forty thousand barrels, and the remainder from seventy to two thousand barrels eachı. The agita- tors, one for treating illuminating oils, holding one thousand barrels, and two for treating lubricating oils, holding one hundred and thirty barrels each, two bleach- ing tanks of one thousand barrels each, eight lubricating settling pans, two sixty-inch boilers, sixteen feet long, eight pumps for conveying the fluids from tank to tank and for shipping, each pump having a capacity of from one hundred and fifty to five hundred barrels an hour, one air compressor, one air blower for agi- tating, a canning factory, turning out fifteen hundred five-gallon cans per day. The filling capacity of the establishment is one thousand cases, or two thousand five-gallon cans a day. The oil is supplied from wells in Los Angeles County, and is conveyed to the works in tank cars. There are sixty of these cars, each tank containing from four thousand to six thousand gal- lons. The products of the works include, in finer qual- ities, gasoline, naptha, lucine, benzine, Water White illuminating oil, and Standard illuminating oil, besides gas oil, paraffine, lubricating oil, locomotive oil, car oil, cylinder oil, engine oil, and a dark green lubricat- ing oil. A view of these extensive works is given in plate No. 28.
STANDARD SOAP WORKS.
The Largest Manufactory for Laundry and Toilet Soaps West of the Mississippi.
An important industry of Alameda County is that of the manufacture of soaps from the immense amount of tallow produced in the slaughter houses at the stock yards, near Berkeley. The Standard Soap Com- pany's works, at Posen Station, West Berkeley (so named by the actor M. B. Curtis, known as "Sam'l of Posen," who owned considerable property and built a passenger depot there), were built several years ago and comprise an extensive plant covering a block of ground. They are on the Southern Pacific overland line and on the shore of San Francisco Bay. It is the largest establishment of the kind west of Chicago, and has a capacity of one million pounds of soap per month. It runs the entire year and employs thirty- five men in the making of soaps, candles, and refining
of glycerine, with ten girls as packers. Of laundry soaps one hundred and thirty different kinds are made, with several kinds of washing powders or com- pounds, and three hundred different kinds of toilet soaps are turned out, including shaving soaps and floating soap for the bath. The latest processes and machinery are used. One of the features is a com- plete printing office, furnished with all kinds of type, and three cylinder presses, which print all the labels used, even to the fancy wrappers for the finest soaps.
The laundry soaps are made by different processes from tallow and resin, with other ingredients, the cooking all being done by steam. The toilet soaps are principally made from cocoanut oil, which is ex- pressed from the cocoanuts grown on the islands of the Pacific and refined in San Francisco. The kernel of the cocoanut is sent in a dry state and is called "copra." This is what the kernel was originally called after the oil was expressed. This dried kernel retains the oil and is not so bulky as the nuts them- selves. It is put through some steam process and the oil expressed. The laundry soaps at the Standard Works are cooked in six pans or kettles, two of them having a capacity of one hundred and thirty thousand each, and the other four together one hundred thou- sand, making three hundred and sixty thousand pounds at one boiling. The tallow is melted out of the bar- rels on the fourthi floor by steam jets and runs down into the kettles. The caustic lye or potash is also melted by steam and boiling water and runs by pipes into the kettles. After the boiling the underlie or by product of crude glycerine is drawn off and refined for the giant powder factories at thirty specific grav- ity, and a still finer quality absolutely pure put up for druggists' use. After the laundry soap is boiled suf- ficiently, it is run into large molds to cool and comes out of these in blocks of nine hundred pounds weight each, the different kinds being boiled, of course, on different days in different kettles. These blocks, twelve by thirty by thirty-six, are cut into cakes by power, four men handling and stamping eighty blocks, or seventy-two thousand pounds, per day and putting the cakes on racks to season, from which when dry they are wrapped and boxed. Several qualities are pressed after being cut into cakes, one especially being subjected to steam pressure. This is claimed to be equal to Babbitt's.
The toilet soaps are boiled in eight "jacketed" kettles, holding an aggregate of six thousand pounds, and the "floating " soap is also boiled in a different kettle, and by a different process. These soaps are run into molds similar to the laundry soaps, but they come out in white blocks like marble, These are cut
4
28
ILUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
up into bars, and the bars, three-fourths by two inches, are put through the "chipping" machine, which shaves them up into thin chips, after which they are placed on tables to dry. When sufficiently dry these chips are taken to one of the eight "mix- ing" machines, where the perfumery and the coloring matter desired are added. After passing from the mix- ing machines it is put through one of two mills, with polished granite rollers, from which it comes out in a thin sheet about two feet wide. It is then passed "through one of the two "blotters," or the hydraulic ram, from which it comes out in a long bar, the shape of the bar being determined by the diaphragm .used- round, square, octagon, etc .- and is then cut up in cakes and put through one of the four presses that have changeable dies, making the numerous shapes and styles of cakes. They are then put upon racks to dry, and are afterward appropriately wrapped and placed in pasteboard boxes by the one-quarter, one- third, and one-half dozen, according to the style, etc., and are ready for the market.
The glycerine and candle works are in a building adjoining the soap works; the tallow is run from pipes in the upper story of the latter to the tanks in the former, where it is boiled in a vacuum and all the oil run off, leaving the stearine almost free. This is put in quantities of about five pounds into coarse sacks about six inches wide by eighteen long and subjected to hydraulic pressure. These sacks are then still fur- ther subjected to steam pressure, where jets of steam are injected into the stearine and the remainder of the oil is expressed. The stearine is then melted and run into the molding machines, holding one hundred or more candles each. The best quality are dried and bleached in the sun.
There is in connection with the works a complete box factory with machinery for making boxes from the rough lumber, but this is not done, as it is cheaper to purchase the lumber from the sawmills in the in- terior already surfaced and cut into box length, ready to be put together. The lumber is easier stored and seasoned, requiring less room, and is transported with less trouble. This lumber is stored in a fireproof building. There is a machine in the box factory for printing on the wood. Besides the various depart- ments already mentioned, there are store rooms for the soaps, oil, tallow, and resin, label rooms, shipping rooms, etc. The supplies are received and the prod- ucts shipped away by rail, a switch running alongside the works.
The output of the Standard Soap Company, aside from the local consumption, is sent all over the Pacific Coast and to Pacific Ocean ports in Mexico, Central
and South America Australia, Hawaiian Islands, and to the Orient.
IRON WORKS AND ROLLING MILL.
A large plant at Emeryville, Oakland Township.
One of the most important manufacturing plants in Alameda County is that of the Judson Manufacturing Company, just outside the city limits of Oakland, at Emeryville, on the line of the Northern Railway-a leased line of the Southern Pacific Company. It is situated on the shore of the Bay of San Francisco, and has a frontage on the railroad of one thousand three hundred and eighty-four feet. It is one of the largest factories of the kind in the United States, and employs in the busiest season four hundred persons; from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundredareemployed during the entire year. From $15,000 to $18,000 are paid monthly to the employes, the wages running from $60 to $200 per month. The plant includes a rolling mill, machine shop, agricultural machine works, iron and steel bridge works. Nearly all the ironwork used in the construction of the public and large business blocks in Oakland, Alameda, and Berk- eley, as well as in many of those in San Francisco, was turned out at these works. Ten thousand tons of iron are rolled annually. The rolling plant consists of mills of different sizes, with full sets of rolls for turning out all sorts of ironwork. Forty tons of iron are turned out of the furnaces daily during the busy season. The annual output is nearly three-quarters of a million dollars and is increasing steadily.
BRIDGE BUILDING INDUSTRY.
On account of the mountainous character of a large portion of the commonwealth of California, many bridges are necessary, and one of the leading incorpora- tions in this industry is the California Bridge Com- pany, with works at Emeryville, in conjunction with the Judson Works. The bridge company puts up from thirty to forty bridges annually, its work not be- ing confined to California, but many of the bridges crossing streams in other States and Territories, and a number of them are models of engineering skill. Its bridges are of wood, iron and steel. The bridge over the Feather River at Gridley, Cal., built by this company, has a span of three hundred and thirteen feet. That over the Mad River, in Humboldt County, is said to contain the longest timbers in one piece in the world, the chord sticks being one hundred and forty-seven feet long and cut out of mammoth trees of the Sequoia gigantea. The California Bridge Com-
PLATE 12.
E.S.DENISON'S, ALMOND ORCHARD, NILES .
E.S. DENISON'S FRUIT ORCHARD, NILES.
4
29
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
pany has also erected several bridges across the San Joaquin, Russian, and other rivers in California, as well as in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, etc. These bridges have been erected on both county and railroads. The company has constantly in employ from one hundred to two hundred and fifty men.
NAIL WORKS.
Another industry of considerable magnitude is that of the Pacific Iron and Nail Company, occupying a tract of fourteen acres at the foot of Market, Myrtle, and adjacent streets, Oakland. This plant was estab- lished about the same time the Judson works were. The capacity of the factory is about sixty-five tons of iron and steel daily. It comprises a rolling mill, ma- chine shop, and nail factory. The output is about thirty thousand kegs of nails per month. This is several thousand kegs above Pacific Coast consump- tion, but they are disposed of by export to South America, Hawaii, etc. The machinery is of the latest pattern and designs. The plant cost over half a mil- lion dollars; nearly three hundred hands are em- ployed, and the pay roll is about $20,000 per month.
CALIFORNIA COTTON MILLS.
In 1885 the California Cotton Mills Company erected a plant for the manufacture of cotton. It oc- cupies a block of 450 feet on the line of the railroad at Twenty-third Avenue Station, East Oakland. The machinery is of the most improved kind and cost about a half million dollars. Various kinds of cotton goods are manufactured, including seamless bags for grain, flour, alfalfa, salt, coffee, toweling, bolting for batting and mops, carpeting, burlaps, cotton wicking,, warps, twines, and common rope. The goods manu- factured are equal to any manufactured in this coun- try or imported. 0
MANUFACTURE OF JUTE.
The California Jute Mills were built at Clinton Station, Oakland, on the north arm of the estuary, in the seventies, but in 1883 they changed hands and were extensively improved, new machinery added, and the capacity enlarged. They cover an entire block of ground and give employment to upward of four hun- dred men, boys, and girls, with a pay roll of about $10,000 monthly. Nearly one thousand bales of jute are monthly manufactured into burlaps for grain, po- tato, flour, and borax sacks, twines, jute matting, horse blankets, etc. There are three thousand spindles in
the mill and one hundred and thirty-five looms. There are two hundred and fifty machines in the fac- tory, and the cost of the plant was $250,000.
CAR SHOPS AT NEWARK.
At Newark, on the line of the South Pacific Coast Railroad, in Washington Township, are situated the large car shops of Carter Bros. This firm turns out annually hundreds of street cars-electric, cable, and horse-as well as railroad cars for different lines on the coast. A large force of workmen is constantly employed and all work turned out is first class.
AGRICULTURAL MACHINE WORKS.
At San Leandro, in Eden Township, are situated Best's Agricultural Machine Works, where are manu- factured combined harvesters, threshing machines, and traction road engines capable of drawing fifty tons. These machines and engines are sold and used all over the Pacific Coast, and the plant turns out a large num- ber every year.
BRASS FOUNDRY.
At the corner of Washington and Fourth Streets, Oakland, is situated the brass foundry of A. Chloupek, where are turned out all kinds of brass castings and fixtures.
SEWER PIPE AND FIRE BRICK WORKS.
In 1888 N. Clark & Sons removed their sewer pipe and fire brick works from Sacramento to Alameda Point, on account of better facilities offered by the change of location. They purchased a tract of eight acres of ground, constructed one thousand two hun- dred feet of side tracking, and erected a handsome four-story brick building, one hundred and ten by two hundred and sixty-five feet. There were used in the construction of the building one million red bricks, the floors having an area of one hundred thousand square feet. The power is furnished by a one hundred and fifty horse power Atlas engine, and the boiler rooms contain two sixty-inch steel boilers. The dry and wet pan system is used in mixing and grinding clays for sewer pipe, fire brick, terra cotta, drain tile, fireproofing, and other products of the manufactory. The facilities are such that from the moment that the clay is unloaded from the cars it is not handled again by the workmen until it comes from the various ma- chines, ready to go on the drying floors, and thence, after they are thoroughly dried, to the kilns. A spe- cialty of this factory is the "Pacific" fire brick, an
30
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
article that has the highest reputation and is preferred to the best English brick. The finest machinery and the most substantially constructed kilns are in opera- tion in this factory, and only first-class work in every department is allowed to be placed on the market. As a consequence, this pottery has secured a reputation second to no other establishment of the kind on the Pacific Coast, and enabling them to compete with the highest grade of manufactures turned out by Eastern and foreign. establishments of a similar character. Only the best quality of material is used in the manu- facture of products of this pottery. Their facilities for making shipments by rail and water are such that their products are distributed all over the Pacific Coast. The pottery turns out annually seven hundred and fifty thousand fire bricks and one million feet of sewer pipe, conduit pipe, and drain tile.
POTTERY AND TERRA COTTA.
On the line of the local railroad. at Twenty-third Avenue Station, East Oakland, is located the large plant of the California Pottery and Terra Cotta Works. About one thousand tons of clay are used annually in the construction of sewer and chimney pipe. The capacity of the plant is one thousand joints of pipe per day, and, when running at full capacity, five thou- sand are constantly drying in the kilns. All kinds of terra cotta work are turned out, as well as glazed pipe work. The pottery makes a specialty of filters and cane and umbrella stands.
ART POTTERY.
Adjoining the California Pottery, but an entirely different concern, is the Oakland Art Pottery. It makes a specialty of art pottery, including vases, plaques, tiles, etc., and has a kiln for firing hand-painted china, etc. Sewer pipe in large quantities is turned out at this pottery. The output annually is about SI25,000.
.
COMMON AND PRESSED BRICK.
Owing to the nature of the soil necessary for the manufacture of brick, this industry is not very exten- sively followed in Alameda County, but the Remillard Brick Company has a large brick yard at Pleasanton, at which thousands of brick are turned out annually. The company have other yards, and the aggregate output per annum is between two million and three million common brick, as well as between five hundred thousand and one million pressed brick. The head- quarters and office of the company are in Oakland. The average price of common brick is $9.00 per thou-
sand and that of the pressed, between $30 and $40 per thousand. The value of the annual output of the company is from $250,000 to $300,000. It employs three hundred men and eighty teams during the entire year, the climate being such that the making of brick can go on as well in winter as in summer. This com- pany has been in business since 1861. It takes con- tracts for the erection of brick buildings.
WOODWORK AND PLANING MILLS.
There are a number of planing mills in the county that handle annually an immense quantity of lumber for the growing cities and suburbs and towns and vil- lages. It is estimated that between seventy million and one hundred million feet of lumber are used annu- ally in the county. Several of the largest lumber yards carry from three million to four million feet of lumber continually on hand and sell annually from five million to seven million feet.
One of the extensive woodworking industries of Alameda County is the plant of the California Door Company, situated at Wood and Sixteenth Streets, West Oakland, and near the line of the railroad, with side tracks to carry in the lumber and take away the out- put. The plant cost $350,000, and turns out one thou- sand doors per day, besides many hundreds of dozen sash. From two hundred and fifty to four hundred men are employed by the company, the latter number during the busiest season. This factory was opened up in 1888.
The Burnham-Standcford Company runs a large plant on Washington Street, occupying the block be- tween First and Second Streets, known as the Oakland Planing Mills. All sorts of woodwork are turned out, from street cars to doors, sashes, inside and outside blinds, as well as millwork for buildings. It was es- tablished in 1868 by O. H. Burnham and W. D. Standeford, but has recently become the property of an incorporation.
From one million five hundred thousand to two million feet of lumber are used annually by the Eagle Box and Manufacturing Company's factory, on Mar- ket Street, Oakland. About five hundred thousand to one million feet of spruce lumber are kept on hand all the time, and seventy-five men are constantly em- ployed in the manufacture of boxes for the small fruit farmers of the county and other industries requiring boxes. A large number are manufactured for dried fruits as well as egg boxes. The output annually is from $75,000 to $100,000.
The Pioneer Planing Mill, of Hierlihy, Bell & Co., employs forty men and turns out a great deal of mill-
PLATE 13.
1ST. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 14AND FRANKLIN STS., OAKLAND.
31
ILLUSTRATED ALBUM OF ALAMEDA COUNTY.
work for exterior and interior of dwellings, stores, etc. It is situated on First Street at the foot of Broadway.
The Independent Planing Mill, of Johnson Bros. & Co., at Brush and Second Streets, Oakland, turns out fifty thousand to seventy-five thousand feet of dressed redwood, sugar pine, Oregon pine, cedar, fir and hard woods. The building of water tanks for windmills is a specialty of this mill.
The Pacific Coast Planing Mill, of Alpheus Kendall, in Oakland, turns out all kinds of mill work in sugar pine, cedar, ash, spruce, black walnut, and maple.
The East Oakland Planing Mills, at East Twelfth Street and Fourteenth Avenue, do the same kind of millwork as those mentioned above, and send their output all over the Pacific Coast as well as to Mexico and the islands. They handle the same kind of lumber the other mills do, and keep a large stock on hand.
Besides the Oakland mills mentioned, which use hundreds of thousands of feet of all kinds of lumber, there are two planing mills in Berkeley and one in Alameda. The West Berkeley Planing Mills, Niehaus Bros., have been in operation seventeen years. The output is about $75,000 per annum, and upwards of one million feet of lumber are converted into doors, sashes, window frames, brackets, mouldings, mantels, stair work, book cases, church work, tanks, orna- mental fences, scroll sawing, turning, etc.
George C. Pape's East Berkeley Planing Mills han- dle about two hundred and fifty thousand feet of lum- ber per annum, the most of it for local contractors. All kinds of trimmings and millwork are turned out.
In Alameda the Enterprise Planing Mill converts a large amount of lumber monthly into millwork, such as mouldings, brackets, ornamental facing, door and window frames, scroll and band saw work, and fancy fencing for the local contractors and builders in this little city of pleasant homes and attractive buildings.
FLOURING MILLS.
Among the many industries and mills in Alameda are those for the grinding of her cereal products. Of these the Golden Rule Flouring Mills, at Broadway and Third Street, were erected in 1864, and have a capacity of one hundred and fifty barrels a day. The mill operates eight double sets of Steven's rollers, a smutter, a bran duster, separator, bolts, purifiers, etc. -all of the most improved make. The principal market is in Oakland and San Francisco, but ship- ments are made to Vallejo, San Rafael, and to Contra Costa County.
The Encinal Home Flouring Mills, at Washington and Fourth Streets, Oakland, include French burr- stones, Wagner rollers, and every description of ma-
chinery necessary for cleaning and separating. The annual output is about $75,000, and the mill makes a specialty of meals of their own manufacture.
The Bay City Roller Flouring Mills, at First and Clay Streets, Oakland, have a capacity of over two hundred and twenty-five barrels per day. The prod- uct of the mills includes the finest grades of flour, oatmeal, graham flour, coarse and fine hominy, corn meal, middlings, bran, pearl barley, and farina.
The Berkeley Milling Company's mills are located at West Berkeley. Their sales amount to upward of $3,000 monthly, the largest part resulting from the manufacture of breakfast food. The machinery in- cludes steel cutters, breaking machines, separators, bolts, cleaners, and purifiers. The product of these mills is made from the choicest grain grown in this State, carefully prepared and steam cooked by a new process which renders it more wholesome and nutri- tious. The machinery cost $10,000, and the output amounts to $45,000 a year.
TANNERIES.
One of the oldest industries of East Oakland is the manufacture of leather. The Brooklyn Tannery has been in operation since 1870, and was started by the late George F. Crist. It is now conducted by R. F. & A. J. Crist, sons of the former, who were members of the firm prior to their father's death. The output per annum varies from $90,000 to $120,000 per year, and represents ten thousand to twelve thousand hides. From $12,000 to $16,000 worth of bark is used yearly.
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