USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > A modern history of New Haven and eastern New Haven County, Vol. I > Part 23
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The exhibit is open every week day at convenient hours, and is in constant care of a superintendent and an able corps of assistants, who are ready to direct visitors, answer their questions, explain all about the products and their exhibitors. All that is possible is done to make the place attractive, especially to the stranger in the city, to put New Haven's "best foot forward." There are local and long distance telephones, forty-five directories of the principal telephone lines, typewriters and a public stenographer. There is a writing room, and a reading room in which are twenty or more of the leading daily newspapers of the state and country, and nearly twenty of the principal trade journals. In definite ways this is made a manufacturing headquarters of New Haven, in which appointments may be made between local manufacturers and their associates from other cities, or where visiting representatives of the trades may meet New Haven manufacturers and business men.
All this has been the growth of time, and is only partly grown as yet. New Haven has yet to learn to use the exhibit as it might. But the response of both the New Ilaven and the outside public has been encouraging, in the main. Such an innovation as this was in its inception is naturally slow in its dawning. But New Haven is proud of its Manufacturers' Exhibit, and to those who visit the city from far and near it seems, of course, more wonderful than it does to the people at home. Judged impartially, it really is a remarkable display of manufacturing achievement.
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As a fairly adequate picture of modern manufacturing New Haven is here displayed, it is fitting to attempt in this place a sketch of some of the leading features of the exhibit. The Auditorium itself is a well made building of at- tractive business architecture, stretching for a hundred feet along the north side of Chapel Street only a little way below where the Union Station was in the days of a generation ago. Within, it is light, airy and well adapted to the purpose of ample display of a great variety of products. The exhibit booths have been separated from each other by divisions which keep them distinct without shut- ting off the light, and yet without detracting from their united effectiveness.
One of the first things for which the visitor from outside of New Haven looks -the thing of which he had heard if he knows nothing else of the city's manu- factures. is the showing of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. There it is, its big "red W" making it seen afar. Appropriately, it is conveniently placed where one should begin his survey of the exhibit. One who looks there for evidence of the company's war material will not find it. Winchester's is not, in ordinary times, a place where munitions are made. There is a large variety of sporting rifles, shotguns, small arms and ammunition. There are details showing something of the long and distinguished history of the insti- tution, and something of the record made and trophies won by its products. Considering the size of the concern, which was and is the largest employer of labor in New Haven, it is a concise exhibit, but it tells much.
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One of the most impressive of the displays is near by. It is that of the old and extensive manufactory which had made New Haven's manfacturing name almost as widely known as its educational name-Sargent & Company. In three large cases is shown a seemingly infinite variety of small hardware, begin- ning with locks which are "the sign of quality," and going through the long 'list of builders' hardware, house fittings, tools and hardware miscellany which the name of this firm makes "sterling." It is a revelation to most New Haven- ers, even to some of the multitude who work in one department or another of the great group of factories inelnded under this name.
Few visitors fail to find fascination in the generally attractive display of the New Haven Clock Company, which is constantly changing as the company adds to its lines of modern timepieces. Knowing that the town is a "clock town," visitors from New Haven or elsewhere may here learn why. There is the whole family of Father Time's servitors, from the stately hall-tower of grandfather to the tiny wrist or pin watch of my little lady, and all admirably displayed.
Where is the son of Izaak Walton that does not know the Hendryx reel ? Or the eanary lover that has not sheltered her yellow pet in a Hendryx brass cage? It is a unique industry, peculiar to New Haven. Here is an excellent exhibit of its whole line of products. They are standard of their sort for the world, and have done not a little to make New Haven famous. Theirs is not a small part of the interest in the general exhibit.
There are few cities in New England where the Peck Brothers & Company plumbers' supplies are not known to the plumbing trade, or where the Peck trade name is not well known to householders. This firm's display is an ideally fitted bath room. It is not an exaggeration, for its like can be found in many a fine residence from here to Los Angeles on the west, and to Buenos Aires on the south.
Two firms with displays somewhat technical, but very interesting on ex- aminations are the William Schollhorn Company and the II. B. Ives Company. The former's specialty is pliers, nippers and punches which bear the Bernard patent mark, and the latter shows an attractive line of builders' hardware, high grade window and door specialties.
The advertising artist says that "the sun never sets on 'Milford' haek saw blades; north, east, south, west they are known in every civilized country in the world." Here they are displayed. the product of the Henry G. Thompson & Sons Company, along with an interesting line of metal sawing machines, tool holders and other hardware.
To say that the Barnes Tool Company just makes pipe cutters does not de- seribe much, but to see their display here of clippers, of everything from a quarter-inch to a twelve-inch pipe is to be impressed. A few specialties are thrown in for setting.
A good many residents of New Haven, asked at random where emery comes from, would never think of connecting its manufacture with their city. They
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need to see the neatly arranged glass jars containing the Oriental Emery Com- pany's finished product of Turkish and Naxos emery, with samples of the erude material. Two of the concerns that have made Westville famous since the Diamond Match Company left it are the Geometric Tool Company and the Greist Manufacturing Company. The former makes threading tools and die heads and taps of the finest type, and the latter sewing machine attachments. Each has a most illuminating display of its products, and the Greist Company goes further with a large showing of fascinating machine needlework made with the things it makes.
One of the firms that has had a large place in New Haven manufacturing history, as we have seen. is C. Cowles & Company. It would be difficult for one of its townsmen, even knowing its history, to appreciate the fineness of its prodnets but for such a display as it has at the exhibit. It has one of the most attractive booths on the floor, showing the refinement of carriage and automobile lighting. together with a variety of small fittings for vehicles of luxury.
New Haven products are not, as one might suppose, confined to hardware; it makes good things to eat as well. Here is the most appetizing display of the John T. Doyle Company-catsups, beans and pork, beef stew, soups, extracts and a constantly increasing line of conserved products of Connectient farms and gardens.
New Haven, we all knew, was a rubber town. Specifications are here in the exhibit of the L. Candee & Company. Its giant rubber boot, such as Og of Bashan might have worn had he been as big as his reputation-or it might have been one of those seven-league boots-looms up with great advertising effect. But there is a surprising variety of actually wearable things, in all sizes of the human foot and in all colors of the fashionable shoe, together with a few other rubber produets of the company.
Another rubber company of smaller size has a larger and more varied exhibit. The Seamless Rubber Company shows everything from rubber nipples to auto- mobile tires. Its display is highly interesting, as well as a most illuminating proof of the versatility of New Haven's manufactures.
Still other lines of rubber are shown by New Haven's third concern in that line, the Baumann Rubber Company, which has an exhibit ineluding rubber tubing, rubber balls, atomizers, syringes and fittings.
When the honorable manufacturing envoys of the JJapanese government were being shown over New Haven a few years ago their guides emphasized to them the greatness of this classic city's corset product. They listened as courteously as if it were not true that stays do not form any part of the costume of the women of their country. In pretty nearly every other land except Japan and the land of the Zulus, New Haven-made corsets are known. Perhaps it is not always known that they are made in New Haven. Residents of the city who would have evidence may view here, to their instruction, the display of Strouse. Adler & Company. the Stronse Corset Company and I. Newman & Sons.
The Aeme Wire Company. having one of the large modern factories of New
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THE UNITED ILLUMINATING COMPANY'S BUILDING, NEW HAVEN
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THE ACME WIRE COMPANY, NEW HAVEN
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Haven, manufactures simply magnet wires, but it has a display which eularges that statement considerably. It fills two large showcases with the fruits of its labor, and occupies a place in the exhibit proportionate to its importance.
The Oven Equipment & Manufacturing Company is one of the less known New Haven factories, but m the light of what it has to show it merits a better acquaintance. It displays the Crawford sectional oven, and the Sentinel line of automatic iron heaters.
The National Folding Box & Paper Company, as even he who runs by its great factory on the train may observe, is one of the largest concerns in New Haven, and makes the claim to be the largest enterprise of its kind in the world. It has an exhibit commensurate with its importance, both in variety and attractiveness.
The New Haven Truck & Auto Works has the impressive exhibit of a full grown five-ton truck, plainly a piece of good workmanship, and a convincing proof that New Haven makes motor vehicles also.
John P. Smith & Company have a great showing of goods made from wire, both ornamental and useful, of which fireplace screens, tree guards, bank and office railings and wire cloth are examples.
The Bigelow Company and the National Pipe Bending Company, neighbor coneerns, have a joint exhibit. The former manufactures boilers of all de- scriptions, and the latter makes feed water heaters and coils. The nature of their produet is such that its importance cannot be shown, except to the person technically informed in their line, in such an exhibit. They illustrate, how- ever, an important branch of New Haven manufacturing.
The Day Company has an attractive booth built of its own product. For its line is metal cornices and sheet metal and copper work in general, and its edifice is a canopy that seldom fails to attract attention, and covers some of its other products.
The New Haven Gas Light Company makes more things than the uninitiated suppose. Here in its exhibit are samples of gas coke, ammonia and tar prod- uets, and a line of its mechanical appliances. The opportunity is improved, also, to set forth its arguments for the use of gas for all purposes. It is a showing that never fails to hold the attention of the house owner and house- keeper.
The Hoggson & Pettis Company, one of the growing and important manu- faeturing institutions of the city, has an interesting line of chucks, dies, molds and similar small machine fittings that the machinist best understands. This company has since 1849 made a specialty of the designing, developing and per- fecting of tools for the special purposes of that rubber industry which has been so important to New Haven.
The New Haven Manufacturing Company, makers of machine tools, display one of their "New Haven" lathes, a piece of work that appeals to the ma- chinist as a thoroughbred horse does to the horseman. It is an emphatic proof of the variety and exactness of New Haven's prodnet.
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The Malleable Iron Fittings Company is a Branford concern which is in many ways so allied to New Haven as thoroughly to belong to this exhibit. Its showing is a material addition to the variety and virtue of the display. It comes from a plant which stands high among its class in the United States, pro- dneing steel fittings for all kinds of high pressure service, steam and gas fittings, refined malleable iron, semi-steel castings and marine hardware. The display is well arranged and attractive.
The Howards' Company does an extensive business aside from the manu- facture of fire brick, fire clay and tile brick, but these are the things which it ean best show in the exhibit. It is one of the progressive concerns of New Haven, and its display is a significant one.
The Eastern Screw Corporation has a showcase full of small but highly important, and to the machinist interesting things. The machinist, at least, knows that they are well made. Though the Eastern Machinery Company has a similar name it has a distinctly different line, for it makes passenger and freight elevators. Its goods are somewhat difficult to show in such a place, but it has a good exhibit of the mechancial end of its business.
The Snow & Petrelli Manufacturing Company has a good showing of its line of yacht reverse gears, yacht cannons and specialties. James Graham & Company make brass and composition castings, and have a display of their goods of which small boat propellers. bells, tire holders and metal hat and eoat racks are varied examples.
New Haven's printing and publishing companies, as manufacturers, make a good exhibit. The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company shows its blank books, samples of its job printing and its filing cases. The Wilson H. Lee Company shows its book binding, its printing and some of its office equipment, and also keeps on file some of the more demanded of its numerous directories. Thomas E. Elliott, one of New Haven's leading engravers, has an interesting exhibit of his work. Marshall. Smith & Company, lithographers, complete the excellent showing of the printing and publishing craft.
The Century Brass Company has a neat and notable exhibit of brass fire- płace fixtures, railings and specialties. George W. Hindinger shows that he makes some fireplace goods such as andirons and fenders, but of iron, and in addition fire escapes, grills and steel gates.
New Haven knows that one of its modern and progressive manufacturing concerns is the English & Mersick Company, but not everybody could say what it makes without the assistance of its excellent collection at the exhibit. It in- dłudes automobile and carriage lamps and fixtures, automobile fittings of all sorts, high grade locks and hinges.
Most users of automobiles have heard of the Mayor Radiator Company. It makes just radiators. We also perceive that the Morgan & HInmiston Company is an old New Haven concern which makes sash. doors and blinds. The Lionel Manufacturing Company is a producer of electric toy railways. And the New
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Haven Mirror and Novelty Company has a surprising variety of mirrors and picture frames. All of these are well represented.
Among the rest there is a display of contrasts that well illustrates New Haven's manufacturing versatility. Dairying has now become a manufacturing business, as the display of the New Haven Dairy Company proves. New Haven is not supposed by many to be a silver town, but the exhibit of the Regal Silver Company is a revelation. New Haven's piano art is portrayed by the exhibi- tion of A. G. Ely & Son. The Globe Silk Works show spool and skein silks in variety. The West Haven Manufacturing Company specializes in hack saws and their machinery. Button, button, who's got the button ? The New Haven But- ton Company, in lots of variety. The Sperry & Amos Company have a great showing of interior house trim and furniture. Another serew eoneern with an attractive variety is the New Haven Machine Screw Company. And the Fold- ing Mattress Company invite to rest on their tempting line of mattresses.
The number constantly grows, and the seeker of sights or instruction might wander for days around the aisles of the large building learning new things about New Haven, what its people do and what are the nerves of trade which reach from it to all parts of the earth. A complete history of New Haven manufacturing would be a wonderful, as well as a romantic story. But this New Haven Manufacturers' Exhibit would be needed to illustrate the work.
Vol. 1-13
CHAPTER XXI
THE YALE BOWL
THE NEED WHICH MOTHERED IT AND THE MAN WHO FATHERED IT-ITS CONSTRUC- TION, ITS DESCRIPTION AND ITS SUCCESS-ITS UNEXPECTED RESOURCES
I
It came to pass in the infant days of this century that a great change had come over the public attitude toward Yale sport. The days when football par- took of the nature of a burlesque performance, and young men nondescript in their garb and still more nondescript in their actions strove in a erude form of football on the Green-the only athletic field they had-while townsmen, if they noticed at all, jeered, had long since passed. Yale had gone out to the far western boundary of the city and beyond and acquired its own athletic field. This at first was no more than a practice lot. Then, as baseball and later football developed, there were erected "bleachers," and afterward what were by courtesy called "grand stands." Still these were mostly for college use. The public, except through direct relation with the college, was little interested. The larger football games, which first attracted the attention of the publie, were held at Springfield or New York. There was no need for anything more than a erude and limited grand stand and bleachers for the baseball games and the minor football contests.
Then came the action of the college athletic authorities deereeing that college games be played on college grounds. This meant that the Yale-Harvard game, which in the late 'nineties had been attracting increasing general interest, should be played every second year on the Yale field. The athletie management at onee made plans to enlarge the crude stands, first to accommodate some sneh crowds as had witnessed the game at Springfield, say 20,000 people. They did not take account of the number in New Haven and its vicinity who would care to see the game. They were made to notice it by the increased demand for tickets which came every second year. The stands were repeatedly enlarged, until by 1910 they seated about 35,000 people, and engineers told the management that it had reached the limit of safety with wooden stands of that character. They were warned. moreover, that so great a mass of wooden timbers and seating, with so large a number of people, prodneed a fire hazard which was not to be disregarded.
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YALE BOWL, NEW HAVEN
ST. ELMO HALL, YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN
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Meanwhile, every year made the situation worse. The demand for tiekets before 1900 was so great that ticket speculation became a scandal, and Yale men and others who would see the game were robbed by wholesale. Then the management adopted the plan of allotting the tickets by drawing, from appliea- tions which were limited to Yale graduates only, each one being allowed a given number of seats. This was five at first, then it was reduced to three ; in the end, before relief came, it was reduced to two, and there was fear that it would dimm- ish to one, and that ticket holders would have to stand up to save room.
Yale's athletie managers saw plainly that Yale would have to build some form of amphitheater or stadium, as Harvard already had done, as Princeton was planning to do. The perplexity as to how to manage the matter of the cost delayed action. It would never do for the University to finance the thing; it seemed a hopeless undertaking from volunteer contributions. For it was plain that no mere 50.000-seat structure would answer. The lesson of the growing demand for seats was that it must be approximately a doubling of the then existing capacity, with allowance for further expansion. The Committee of Twenty-one, a body of men appointed, at the instance of the athletic management, to look into possibilities, found that a concrete structure seating 50,000, although probably too small for future needs, would cost at least $750,000, a sum which staggered the committee. In the face of such an obstacle, progress was slow.
Meanwhile, engineers were working on the problem, and it is probable that some makeshift or other would have been tried, or perhaps the mighty task of financing a million-dollar structure would have been attempted, had not a true friend of Yale come to the rescue with an idea that proved the produet of genius. Charles A. Ferry, a New Haven civil engineer, graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School in 1871, always keenly interested in Yale affairs, and in close toneh with some members of the committee. had become conversant with all the requirements and difficulties of the problem. He had examined with as little enthusiam as had the members the plans submitted to the Committee of Twenty-one, most of them hopelessly expensive designs, when something sug- gested to him a unique plan. Like all great ideas it was ridiculously simple. It was nothing more than to scoop a great elliptical hole out of the ground, throw the excavated contents up on the edge for an embankment, and lay out a foot- ball gridiron on the levelled bottom of the hole and seats all around it, rising in tiers on the inclined edge of the embankment.
To this idea he applied the test of his engineering knowledge for finding ont what it would cost. His first result was so suspicionsly small as to make him distrust his figures. Apparently the thing could be done for only $150,000. Ile went over his estimates again, this time more carefully. He checked the work in every possible way. The result was not materially different. Then he lost no time in laying his estimates before the Commitee of Twenty-one. Their acquaintance with his record as a sound, hard-headed, practical and experienced engineer gave him their attention at once. But they also thought he must have erred this time. Still, the matter was worth the most careful examination. His
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figures were there, in form that any engineer could understand. The others went over them. To their astonishment, they failed to find a flaw in them. Ap- parently a way had been found to build a football amphitheater for something less than a fifth of the cost they had been considering.
But no chances were to be taken with a mere experiment. The plans and estimates were submitted to the ablest engineers, and months were spent in acidly testing them. The figures held. The plan developed no technical faults. The engineers reported back to the committee that they believed in it. The committee voted to adopt it. The Ferry vision of an amphitheater such as had never been built, and apparently never in any large measure had been con- ceived before, entered the first phase of realization.
II
With such a plan to arouse enthusiasm, and the financial difficulties of the task greatly reduced, it became comparatively easy to make a start. The Com- mittee of Twenty-one, now an incorporated body with authority to make con- tracts and acquire property, with a sufficient fund for starting the work, pro- ceeded with the task. Its chairman was T. De Witt Cuyler, Yale '74, of Phila- delphia, and its secretary David Daggett, '79, of New Haven. A few years previous to this time the Yale Athletic Association, finding that it would be necessary for the University's athletic activities to have more room than it was possible to get on the south side of Derby Avenue, had acquired a new tract of about 100 aeres on the north side, extending along the West River between Derby Avenue and Chapel Street. Approximately in the center of this tract, where it could be approached with equal facility from Derby Avenue or Chapel Street, it was decided to build the football structure. There, early in the summer of 1913, the unprecedented task was begun.
It was the breaking of ground in more sense than one. That great hole in the ground which an army of men and horses drawing "turnpike shovels" began to scoop out looked like anything but a football stand. The general public, which had not been taken into the confidence of the builders, mostly looked on to seoff if they noticed at all. Nothing of the sort had ever been attempted before. The whole thing seemed in the nature of an experiment. But the engineers knew what they were doing. And the master engineer, the father of the idea. Mr. Ferry himself, was personally in command. He was with the work from the very beginning. IIe remained with it, watching with the minutest care its every detail, until the work was erowned with success. He had good assistance, but his was the controlling mind from first to last.
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