USA > Indiana > Perry County > Cannelton > Cannelton, Perry County, Ind., at the intersection of the eastern margin of the Illinois coal basin, by the Ohio River : its natural advantages as a site for manufacturing > Part 2
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At the little towns now being laid off from three to eight miles around Cincinnati, lots sell from 3 to 10 dollars the front foot, while lands (hill sides) believed not to equal ours in quality and position, and at the same distance from that city, sell at about $250 per acre for the cultivation of the grape.
The vinedressers around Carnelton can find good markets for their products and a demand for their surplus female labor in the mills. In the opinion of Mr. Longworth, the climate and soil of this district are peculiarly favorable to this branch of industry.
The lands back of the property of the company and between Anderson river and Deer creek, are rich in minerals which eventually will be in demand, and the sources of great wealth. Mineral lands in England, Belgium and Germany, intrinsically inferior to these, sell for thousands of dollars the acre, and without reference to the surface. Even in the recesses of the Alleghany mountains coal lands, not supe- rior to these, are now valued at immense prices.
Opposite the property of the company, and in Kentucky, both on the river banks and at the sides of the coal hills, are many eligible sites for mills, and "coal leave" can be had there at very low rates; while above and below Hawsville are large bodies of very rich alluvial lands, now held at low prices-very low, when compared with the prices of equiv- alent land on the upper Ohio.
11. THE BRANCHES OF BUSINESS MOST APPROPRIATE TO THE PLACE, AND WHICH WOULD BE MOST LIKELY TO YIELD THE LARGEST PROFITS .- In the first part of the appendix will be found the statistics and detailed estimates in reference to the great advantages of this posi- tion for the manufacture of the lower grades of cotton cloth. The same statistics, in connection with others that are well known, will show the manufacturer of wool and iron what advantages he would find in this district.
The southern and Western border market now calls for immense
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supplies of cotton, wool, iron and wood fabrics. Here, then, is evidently a most favorable point to make blankets for the Indians, osnaburgs for the negroes, plows and wagons for the planters, axes and scythes for the farmers, sheetings and shirtings, coarse articles of hardware, cheap furni- ture, glass and pottery, and the thousand articles of common use in an agricultural country, that will not bear distant transportation; that can be made out of our own materials by the use of our own power, where labor bears a small proportion to the cost of material and transportation, and yet is of more importance than capital.
In the recent trial before the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of the State of Pennsylvania vs. Wheeling Bridge Co., it was proved:
"That, in consequence of the modification of the English navigation laws, and from other causes, the business of ship building has been revived at Pitts- burg with great success. Five or six government vessels, cutters, and war- steamers, have been built there within five years and floated with their masts to the ocean. Many sea-going vessels are now being built there, and New York capital has gone there in large amounts for this purpose. That, in con- sequence of the greater cheapness of timber, iron, coal and labor, such ressels are built there at 20 per cent less cost than on the seaboard. That, the timber is suit- able for the purpose, and that the great abundance of bituminous coat gave that city great advantages for working in iron and other materials suitable for ship building."
At Cannelton the coal is equally abundant, the iron and hemp for cordage are nearer; the important obstructions to the river navigation are above, and the timber is equally good and abundant. It is confi- dently believed that the peculiar advantages of Cannelton for this busi- ness in all its departments, will soon be appreciated and fully developed. No good reason can be given why vessels built here should not take the surplus goods (if a surplus should be made here) direct to the Brazilian and India markets.
It is strongly recommended that families should not be taken to Cannelton until proper accommodations have been secured. From one to two hundred tenements have been and will be erected this year besides a Hotel of the largest class; yet nearly all are full or engaged.
The agent of the company will, on application by letter or otherwise, an- «wer all inquiries on this subject, and do all in his power to secure suitable dwellings for emigrants. He will also, if requested, select lots and make con- tracts for buildings on as low terms as can be had.
The lots of the company have a fixed price, and the tetms of payment, for the present, are one-fifth cash, and the balance in 1, 2, 3 and 4 years, with in- terest. The improvements stipulated for depend on the position of the lots.
APPENDIX.
RELATIVE COST OF STEAM AND WATER POWER FOR MANUFACTURING PURPOSES
We call attention to this instructive and valuable paper, promising to continue the subject hereafter. The author is a practical man, and his views have been fully indorsed in the highest quarters. The question of our ability to compete with the East in the manufacture of cottous, turns very much upon the proposi- tion here discussed. If steam power here, is cheaper and better than water power there, it must at once be admitted, the chief seat of cotton manufacture will, eventually, be over ani near our central coal fields .- Editor of Com. Review.
While we discuss this subject, let it be borne in mind, that water power, like all other things which exist in fixed quantities, must ever be circumscribed within the limits prescribed by the Creator. Hence, each quantum of water power, applied to practical purposes, reduces by so much the quant ty to be appropriated. The consequence is, as one mill site is occupied after another, water power is increased in its mar- ket value, because, unlike articles which are the production of human art and industrial efforts, the quantity cannot be increased with the in- creased demand. With steam power, where fuel is abundant, the case is precisely the reverse.
Steam engines, of any given power, may always be had to order, at any designated spot. No matter how rapidly you may multiply them, the supply will equal the demand. The materials for their construction cannot be exhausted, and human art and labor will ever be adequate to our wants. Under these circumstances alone, steam power would not be likely to increase in cost. But there is another very important con- sideration to be taken into the account. The steam engine undergoes continual improvement. The modifications of its form and structure, have for their objects perfection in action and economy in fuel. Vast strides have already been made in this work of improvement. This per- fection is still increasing, and no one can predict, with certainty, how much more will yet be done, nor in how short a space of time, towards perfecting that useful and truly wonderf 1 invention. All such improve- ments serve to reduce the cost of steam power, by reducing the quantity of fuel and labor necessary to a given result, while, at the same time,
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they increase its productive value, by rendering the steam engine more simple, more durable and efficient, as well as reducing its cost. Thus, all these causes combined very much diminish the cost of steam power, while that of water has increased; and the causes which have produced these results thus far, will still continue to operate. These facts are now beginning to be understood. Hence, steam power is gradually tak- ing the place of water power.
To operate large manufactories, or other extensive works, to advan- tage, the motive power must be, not only ample, but also infallible; and therefore, it becomes necessary to place them, if to be driven by water power, on streams having a great volume of water, with a rapid current and a great fall. Of such streams there are very few in the West-the best, perhaps, being at Beaver, Pennsylvania, and at the Muscle Shoals, Tennessee. Most of the rivers on the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, are short and comparatively dry in summer. Even in New England, many corporations have found it necessary to purchase lands, and to construct reservoirs on them to contain water, to drive their mills in dry seasons, and which has been done at a heavy expense. The eastern mountains and hills are so steep, that the water passes rapidly from them to the sea; and, in the spring of the year, when the snow melts and the ice breaks up, and heavy rains fall, the force of the flood sweeps before it all ordinary obstructions. To withstand this almost resistless force, dams and locks must be of great strength, and consequently of great cost. The mills are, also, if practicable, placed at a distance from the river banks, and the water conveyed to them through canals. The falls, too, are on rocky formations, and, in general, at the gorges of hills-and which makes excavations, for canals, roads, sites for build- ings, &c., &c., very expensive. The operations of mills, situated near the tide water, are frequently suspended by means of the floods or fresh- ets above spoken of. Probably, Lowell is more nearly exempt from this difficulty, than Dover, New Market, Salmon Falls, and many other manufacturing places in New England; yet Mr. Miles, in his His- tory of Lowell, says, eighteen of the twenty-seven cotton mills in the city are situated on the river side, and once or twice each year are ob- liged to suspend part of their works, sometimes for days together, in consequence of back water. Occasionally, the ice carrics the dam away, or breaks the water-wheel. In such cases, the pay of the opera- tives goes on, or a higher price is, for a time, put on the work. To estimate the loss, per diem, resulting to a company from suspension of ils works, I give some of the statistics of the Merrimack mill. This mill has a capital of $2,000,000, and employs 1,737 operatives, at a cost of, say, $240,000 per annum. Interest on the capital, $120,000, making $360,000 per annum, or nearly $1,000 per diem, would be the loss, by the suspension of a single day, as'de from the inconvenience. Again, the water-wheels must not be exposed to the frost, but inclosed în masonry-often in excavations in sol'd rock. Mills, driven by steam, are subject to none of these casualties, nor to the losses and ex- penses originating in them. Water power may be purchased, in other parts of New England, at a rate, nominally, cheaper than at Lowell;
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yet, taking all the local advantages into the account, it is, in reality, as cheap there as at any other place. The present cost of water power, at Lowell, is at the rate of five dollars per spindle. Nearly all the wa- terfalls in New England, are at considerable distances above the head of navigation; and the estimate is within the truth, when I give the dis tance from Boston to Lowell (twenty-six miles) as the average distance of the New England factory, from the point where its cotton is landed, and the depot of its goods; both of which are transported, either on rail- roads or in wagons. From Boston to Lowell, the cost of transporta- tion is $1.25, and $1.10, per ton. But, according to Doggett's Rail- road Register, the average cost on cotton and dry goods, between Bos- ton and sixteen of the most important manufacturing towns that receive cotton through that city, and send their goods to it for sale, is $2.75 per ton. This is about the average price of such freight, per steamboat, between Louisville and points three hundred miles distant from that city. If, as will be shown hereafter, a very large portion of this heavy expenditure for land transportation can be avoided, by the use of steam as a motive power, the advantages will become self-evident. The amount of this expenditure is nearly as follows: A cotton mill, of 10,000 spindles, will turn off two and a half tons, per day, of cloth No. 14-say seven hundred and fifty tons per annum. One hundred pounds of cotton, will make eighty-nine of cloth; hence, seven hun- dred and fifty tons of cloth, will require for its manufacture about eight hundred and forty tons of cotton. This quantity of cloth and cotton, say about sixteen hundred tons in all, will cost, for transportation, $4,320, at $2.75 per ton, to say nothing of drayage, no inconsiderable item of itself. Besides these, is also the transportation of other heavy articles sich as oil, starch, iron to replace broken and worn out ma- chinery, coal to heat the mill, &c., &c., all in very considerable quan- tities and adding much to the cost.
The foregoing are some of the difficulties and drawbacks, though not all, connected with, or growing out of, the use of water power; and we will now proceed to state, on the other hand, some of the advantages derived from the use of steam power. On this subject. we will cite the results of practical operations, of very recent date, and state facts in which there can be no mistake.
The Naumkeag steam cotton mill, at Salem, Massachusetts, is a new establishment, containing about 31,000 spindles. It is the largest cot- ton mill in America, and the largest in the world in which the entire process of converting cotton into cloth is carried on under one roof. This mill was put into full operation in the month of January, 1847. The following is an abstract from the annual report, made to the Presi- dent and Directors of the corporation, under date of January 19, 1848:
"In the former annual report, the estimated cost of steam, to drive the machinery and to heat the mill, offices, &c., was $11,420 per annum, including cost of oil, engineer, and firemen. Subsequently, in the actual working of the engine and machinery, experience has afforded satisfactory proof, that the sum stated will be amply sufficient to cover the entire cost. After having run the engine and machinery a suffi-
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cient length of time to become certain that there was no mistake in tha foregoing statement, it was determined to make an experiment, to ascer- tain precisely the amount of fuel consumed per day. Accordingly, on Tuesday, (yesterday,) the 18th instant, with all the machinery at work, the trial was made, and the engine and machinery were driven, during all the working hours of the day, at full speed, with four tons and forty pounds of coal. It was deemed hardly possible, were not the fact placed absolutely beyond a doubt, that so large a quantity of machinery could be driven, for so long a time, by an amount of fuel so small. During this experiment, four of the six boilers were used to generate steam for the engine, and the other two to warm the mill, offices, &c. By the latter experiment, it was found, that two and a quarter tons of coal was sufficient to generate steam, to warm the various apartments, and to supply the 'machine shop.' (What is here termed 'machine shop,' is the repair shop, which, during the experiment, was supplied with STEAM POWER, from the two boilers.) Hence, six and a quarter tons of coal will be found sufficient, per day, for all purposes for which steam is required. The four tons and forty pounds is an offset against water power; as the water mill requires to be warmed as well as the steam mill."
The Naumkeag mill has been in constant operation since the above report was made, and has fully corroborated the fact elicited by the experiment alluded to. We deduce from it, and from other data con- tained in that report, and also, from other sources, the following state- ments and comparisons:
1st. Something less than 1,220 tons of ccal, per annum, is sufficient to drive a mill of 31,000 spindles, on yarn of the fineness of No. 30. This, at the present price in New England, $5 per ton, will cost $6,100
WVages of engineer (720,) and two firemen (600,) per - 1,320
annum, -
And oil - 600
$8,020 per an.
The water power at Lowell, for 30,000 spindles, would cost, at $5 per spindle, $150,000. Interest on that sum, at six per cent., would be $9,000 per annum-or $980 per annum more than the cost of steam power, to drive the Naumkeag mill. In addition to the cost of the water power is, also, that of foundations for a mill on the river bank. The cost of flumes, raceways, wheel pits, water-wheels, gearing, &c., neces- sary to the water mill, we offset against the cost of steam engine; the first cost of the former, as well as that of perpetuating them, is greater than of the latter. The actual cost of foundations, however, on the river bank, for a mill of the capacity of the Naumkeag mill, would be, at least, $25,000 more than that for a steam mill, of the same size, on a spot favorable to the purpose. The annual interest, on this difference, would be $1,500, and which makes up a balance of more than $2,500 in favor of steam power. And to this is to be added the cost of trans-
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portation, provided the steam mill be located in the immediate vicinity of navigable waters.
We have said a mill of 10,000 spindles would manufacture 750 tons of cloth per annum, and to do it, work up 840 tons of cotton; of course a mill with 30,000 spindles would work up 2,520 tons of cotton, and turn off 2.250 tons of cloth, No. 14. To a mill at Lowell, this cotton must be transported by land from Boston, and from the mill the cloth must be returned To Boston. Here, then, is railroad transportation of 4,770 tons per annum, which, at $1,25 per ton, the established rate, produces the sum of 85,962, and which, added to the foregoing items of cost of water, and its incidental expenses, would make an aggregate of some $11,000-and leave a balance of nearly $4,000 in favor of steam power. Besides this, as before stated, the transportation of articles such as oil, starch, iron, &c., is a heavy item-its gross amount would not be less than 200 tons per annum, which, at $1.25 per ton, would cost $250, and of coal for heating the mill, say 100 tons, the quantity used at the Naumkeag mill, would be $500, making in all 8750.
Steam power is much better calculated for the manufacture of cotton goods than water power. Steam power is created by art, and as long as the articles of fuel and water are at hand on any desired spot, that power can be perpetuated. Water power, on the contrary, is a natural production, and can be had only where nature has placed it, and theLs its supply and perpetuity depend altogether on causes over which, as a general rule, human art ean exercise little or no control. Water power must be taken as it is, and where it is. Its quantity cannot, by human art be increased, nor can its location be changed. The consequences are, the amount of operations by water power must have its maximum, beyond which you cannot go. Steam power is indefinite-perhaps we might say, infinite, in its capacity for extension; and may go on to in- crease as long as human art and industry shall continue-"as long as wood grows, or water runs." In all cases where water power is to be used, you must go to it with your buildings, machinery, raw material, labor, and whatever else is required, however great the inconvenience may be, and however heavy the expense. Or. the other hand, if you determine to employ steam power, you can select your spot, where all you require is either at hand, or can be had at the smallest expense; and, having completed your arrangements, you call the steam power, which comes at your bidding, seats itself on a few scores of square feet, which you have allotted to it, and there continues during your pleasure, acting in obedience to your will, and increasing or diminishing as you may de- sire.
Steam power is much better adapted to the manufacture of cotton goods than water powor, in respect to their quality, and, consequently, to their market value and ready sales. That description of goods is best, and commands the highest prices and most readly sale, which presents the smoothest surface, and the most firm and even texture. That de- seription of eloth is decidedly the best. To produce this superiority, the quality of the raw material being equal to that of others, a certain degree of temperature an : humidity of the atmosphere is indispensable
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in the manufacturing departments. In addition to this, there is also required a moving power, equable and uniform, and at all times per- fectly under control. The temperature of a water mill may be partially regulated by means of a dry heat, so called, from stoves or furnaces; but not the humidity of the atmosphere: this is to be done only by the use of steam. A water mill, it is true, may be furnished with a steam apparatus to produce this effect, but it must be at a heavy additional expense, which would neutralize its benefits; while the steam mill already has the apparatus, which will warm and dry or moisten the at- mosphere of the mill at a trifling cost.
Besides this, it is impossible to insure with water power, that equable and uniform motion, so essential to manufacturing purposes, at all times to be had from a good steam engine.
The foregoing statements and remarks. as far as they relate to the cost of steam and water power, are based on the results of actual expe- rience in New England. Taking into account the facilities for steam power, as well as for most other elements of the manufacturing business, connected with a location on the lower Ohio, where that noble stream intersects the great coal field of Illinois, the difference in manufacturing there by steam, will be found immense in its favor, when compared with operations by means of steam or water power in New England. If, under all the circumstances, steam can be applied in New England to advantage over water power, what may not be done at the spot above alluded to.
The article of fuel used in New England to generate steam for cotton mills, and for other manufacturing purposes in general, is that species of anthracite coal of Pennsylvania, termed Lackawana. This coal costs the consumer five dollars per ton, at the port of delivery. The quantity of this coal used at the Naumkeag mill, for all purposes, say, to drive the machinery and to heat the mill and offices, &c., during six months in winter, and driving the machinery during the balance of the year, would be 1,875 tons, allowing four and a half tons per day to drive the mill, and two tons per day in winter to warm it, and for all other purposes. At five dollars per ton, this quantity would cost $9,375.
At Cannelton, on the lower Ohio, a superior article, pronounced by the first chemists in America, fully equal to the best Cannel coal import- ed from England, can be had in vast abundance, at four cents per bushel. Allowing thirty bushels to the ton, its cost per ton at this rate, would be one dollar and twenty cents. Thus, the same quantity per annum, as above, for the Naumkeag mill, 1,875 tons, would cost but $2,343-and less by $7,031 than it costs for the mill at Salem; and that mill, from the superior character and arrangement of its ma. chinery, equal to any in the world, probably consumes a smaller amount of fuel in comparison with its size than alinost any other one in America. Let us now take for further comparison, a mill at Lowell, running 10,000 spindles. The water power would cost $50,000. The interest per annum on that sum would be $3,000.
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Eight tons of coal, at Cannelton, nearly one-half the quan- tity consumed by the Naumkeag mill, with 30,000 spindles would cost but $960 00 Engine ($700,) firemen ($300,) and oil ($300,) per an- - 1,300 00
num
Making the aggregate cost of the steam power at Cannelton, $2,260 00
Actually less, by 8740 per annum, than the interest on the first cost of the necessary water power at Lowell. All other things being equal, then the manufacturer at Cannelton, would be assured that he stood at least on an equal footing with him who might command the best water power in America; and no objection against the use of steam power in New England, as to its cost, however good that objection might be there, would have the least bearing or effect on him. But we have other advantages over New England, far more important even than this. Among these is the difference in the cost of transportation.
A mill of 10,000 spindles will work up 850 tons of cotton per an- num, and turn off 750 tons of cloth-sheetings, No. 14-averaging 2ª yards to the pound, or something more than 4,000,000 of yards per an- num. To transport this cloth from Lowell to Louisville for a market. will cost one-half of a cent per yard. To transport the cotton used in its manufacture, from a southern port to Lowell, will also cost at the rate of one-half a cent per yard of cloth, more than its transportation from the planter to Louisville or Cannelton. Hence, there would be a difference in our favor of one cent per yard in the manufacture of cloth, for a Western or Southern market, and the difference of one half of a cent, even if sent to an Eastern market. The difference of one cent per yard on 4,000,000 yards, would amount to $40,000, which, com- pared with the manufactory of the East, would be saved per annum. This would be twenty per cent. on a capital of $200,000, to be invest- ed in the business.
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