History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 23

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III > Part 23

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

There had been for a long time a growing necessity among cotton manufacturers for improvements in speeders, or roving machinery. Mr. Pettee turned his whole attention to the end that this long-needed im- provement should be brought about, aud it at length led him to the discovery of a process of making rov- ing, or roping, as it is called, upon thoroughly scien- tific principles, which were based upon mathematical calculations. This process required a machine in which any desirable change in the velocity of some of its parts could be automatically produced without changing the velocity of other parts of the same machine. To illustrate : the top rollers of a roving frame will deliver to the flyer a given number of

yards of roving in a given time, and by a tube in the bow of the flyer, it is conveyed to an aperture mid- way between the top and bottom of the same, where it passes out and is wound upon a spool. The twist in the roving is regulated by the velocity of the flyer. So far in the process of making roving, the motions are arbitrary aud of uniform speed. The spool upon which the roving is wound traverses up and down alternately within the bows of the flyers to receive the roving as it passes out from the aperture already mentioned. This traverse motion of a spool upon a spindle is slow and variable. The rotating velocity of the spool when empty must be adjusted so as to wind the roving upon it in precisely the same time it is delivered to it from the flyer; otherwise it would stretch or kink, or pull apart, as the case may be. The traverse motion must always be arranged to lay the delicate roving side by side. Now, as the diameter of the spool is increased by the layers of roving coiled upon it, the velocity of the spool must be decreased in proportion to the increasing diameter in order that the surface, whatever the diameter may be, shall always retain a uniform speed ; while, at the same time, the speed of the traverse motion must correspondingly decrease. To produce all of these combinations and variations by a gear, cone or double speeder, with gears in hyperbolic series, was a mathematical problem that taxed the inventor's brain to the utmost for more than three years to solve ; and when it was perfected and put into practical use it proved to be the crowning effort of his life, and was pronounced by one of the most celebrated practical philosophers and engineers of this country to be absolutely perfect; and he added that its principles are eternal, and can never be improved upon so long as the world stands.

The old method of producing similar results with treacherous leather belts moving upon conical drums, was superseded in this invention by inflexible metallic gear-work, and with the mathematical pre- cision thus only attainable, all the relative move- ments, with all the changes in series by variables, de- pendent upon other changes in series by variables, necessary to spin and coil on spools the delicate rov- ings, of whatever fineness.

The first one of Mr. Pettee's letters patent for his speeder bore the date of March 15, 1825, as for " a new and useful improvement for producing any. re- quired change in the velocity of machinery while in motion, etc." Other improvements were covered by patents granted a few years later. This improved double-speeder went into general use by nearly all cotton manufacturers-in fact, it was about the only one used for the next twenty-five years following its invention.

Before the end of the year 1831 Mr. Pettee left the employ of the Elliot Company, and started the cotton machinery business on his own account. He built extensive works, about a half-mile distant, in a south-

NEWTON.

easterly direction from the Elliot factory, At the same time the Elliot Company discontinued the machine business, and gave their undivided attention to cotton manufacture, and sold their shop equipment to Mr. Pettee. The demand for machinery from all parts of the country kept the new works continually sup- plied with orders, and this establishment became one of the foremost in New England. An iron foundry was added to the "plant," and the first cast made on 7th day of August, 1837. While his geared double- speeder was a specialty of these works, the proprietor was prepared to furnish any and all machinery used in the manufacture of cotton, from the opener to the loom.

Although the workshops, when built, were consid- ered ample to accommodate all of the business that would be likely to come to them, time developed a different result. Large additions had to be made from year to year, and within five years after commencing operations the principal shop building had reached to the length of 365 feet ; and the greater portion of it was three stories in height. With the exception of the foundry buildings and patterns, all the entire works were destroyed by fire, during a fierce southerly gale, on the evening of November 25, 1839, entailing a loss of nearly $100,000, which was partially covered by insurance, As soon as the embers had cooled off, work was commenced on reconstruction, and by the end of six weeks' time wheels were again in motion, but not to so great an extent as before the fire.

In the year 1832 the Elliot Company discarded a large portion of their old machinery and replaced it with new and improved machinery, and by so doing were enabled to make sheetings at a less cost per yard than before. A part of the new machinery was pur- chased in Paterson, N. J., and the balance of it from Mr. Pettee.

A long way back in the history of the Colonies there was an effort made by parties in interest on the Neponset River to divert a portion of the Charles River water in that direction, as a feeder to that river. By what authority or by whose order this was done there seems to be no record.

About half a mile eastward from Dedham Court- House a ditch was opened across the meadows towards East Dedham and Hyde Park. And when parties were interviewed in relation to it, the only reply to it would be that the draining of the meadows was a necessity to the land-owners. There is a record, in 1639, in which it is ordered that a ditch shall be dug through the upper Charles meadow into East Brook (now Mother Brook) for a partition fence and also for a water-course to supply a mill there. Little by little the ditch became widened and deepened as more fac- tories were built upon it. Meantime the manufac- tories along the river in Newton and Waltham be- came alarmed at the prospect before them by this diversion of the water from its natural flow in the Charles River. Litigation and ill feeling followed

the line of this encroachment upon their rights, and not until a lapse of more than two hundred years alter the first act was done was the vexed question settled in the courts, ordering water-gauges to be placed both in the river and Mother Brook, allowing the former to receive two-thirds, and the latter the remaining third, thus legalizing a wrong that should never have been inflicted upon the legitimate busi- ness of the river owners. For these reasons, and from a system of drainage that was gradually going on, conducted by the farmers, to reclaim their mea- dow lands and swamps bordering upon the river, the water-power annually decreased in value, so that by the year 1836 the Elliot Manufacturing Com- pany was obliged to put in a powerful steam-engine for an auxiliary power to bridge over a dry season.

The fluctuations in prices and sales of cotton fab- rics had a tendency to arouse the diversity of opin- ions which had so long existed in the management of the company's business; this variance finally resulted in the stockholders voting, in 1839 or '40, to purchase no more cotton, but to work up what they had on hand, in bale, and in process of manufacture-close their books in liquidation, and sell their property.

The loss of the machine-shops by fire in 1839 and the closing of the cotton factory in the spring of 1840 had a damaging effect upon the village people who were dependent upon them for a livelihood. How- ever, this embarrassment proved to be but temporary, for Mr, Pettee had already built large workshops to replace the burnt ones, and in September of 1840 he purchased the entire cotton factory property, and put it in operation under the title of "Elliot Mills ;" and once again, all wheels were in motion and the community made happy.

At this time the demand for print cloths was suffi- cient to warrant the changing of machinery from the broad sheeting loom to the calico width, and at the same time enlarge the factory buildings and put in additional machinery sufficient to nearly double the productive capacity of the mill, by these changes. Two hundred and fifty-two new looms were placed in a single room, and all driven from below instead of the usual method of belting down to them from lines of shafting overhead. This system presented a very neat and attractive appearance to the beholder, and the room was reputed to be the largest of its kind in New England; and when in full operation would weave 60,000 yards of cloth per week.

About the year 1835 or '36 the Mexican Republic interested itself in the work of encouraging home manufactures, by enacting stringent excise laws that would almost prohibit the importation of foreign goods that could be made from raw material found within its borders ; and by the same acts left their ports open for free admission of the requisite machinery and other apparatus necessary for establishing the various industries that might be carried on within their own limits. This enactment was intended to encourage

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

home productions, and had its desired effect, more particularly in the manufacture of cotton and paper.

Mr. Ithamar Whiting, a New Englander by birth, who had been employed in that country about a dozen years in gold and silver-mining, at once grasped the situation, and from the little knowledge he had of the success of our New England manufacturers, was very sanguine of similar results in Mexico. He earnestly advocated the introduction of machinery, and solicit- ed capital to embark in the manufacturing of cotton fabrics. At length he succeeded in finding a few cap- italists who would make the venture ; but when it was estimated to cost from seventy-five to a hundred thou- sand dollars for a very small factory, all but one firm declined to undertake it. Further efforts to procure funds were unavailing, and finally the remaining company, Messrs. Barron, Forbes & Co., of Tepic, concluded to take the entire responsibility npon them- selves, and arranged with Mr. Whiting to come to the "States " and procure a complete ontfit for a cotton factory.

Early in the spring of 1837 Mr. Whiting started from the city of Tepic near the western coast of Mex- ico, to fulfill his mission, and after a two months' journey he received a cordial welcome from the loved ones under the roof of the old homestead, in the town of Dover, Massachusetts,-once more to breathe his native air, and tread his way over old and familiar highways and byways, as he was wont to do in the days of his childhood.

After visiting most of the principal factories in New England, he left his order for machinery with Mr. Otis Pettee, of Newton, to execute. The sub- stance of the contract was embodied in a very few words, to wit: " We want machinery that will produce seven hundred and fifty yards of sheeting per day, of abont No. 16 yarn,-including all of the supplies of whatever kind, to put it in operation,-water-wheels and sbafting, plans for factory buildings, window- frames, sashes and glass, door frames and doors, etc. The buildings are to be built of adobe, or mnd-bricks, dried in the open air, as is the custom in hot climates. The machinery when finished must be taken apart and securely packed in strong boxes, to be shipped via Cape Horn and the Pacific coast to Port San Blas ; and so far as possible the gross weight of each pack- age not to exceed one hundred and seventy-five pounds, for convenience in transportation upon mules' backs from the port of entry to the factory at Tepic, a distance of about sixty miles." While the machin- ery was building, Mr. Whiting spent considerable time in the workshop in order to familiarize himself with the details of construction, which he considered would be of valuable service to him in after life. Upon his return to Tepic he took with him a number of men experienced in the art and mystery of manufac- turing cotton, to have the supervision of the several departments of the factory, and to instruct the natives how to spin and weave cotton by power machinery,

as their only knowledge of the business up to that time was limited to the hand-work done at home.

By this experiment of Messrs. Barron, Forbes & Co. the early history of cotton manufacture in the Mexi- can Republic is associated with the industries of New- ton. About five years later the same company built another factory for carding and spinning warps to supply a demand from country towns and farming communities for hand-weaving.

Mr. Whiting, in a letter to Mr. Pettee, dated Feb- ruary, 1848, says, "So far we have done very well with our factory, but I am afraid our harvest is nearly over. The state of the country is such at this time as to induce the belief that no business will prosper much longer. The last two years have been the best we ever had,-not because our manufactured articles have sold better, for the price has fallen, -- but because we have got our cotton on better terms, as well as of better quality. In 1846 we made $113,419.82, and in 1847, $180,331.17 ; and since we commenced work we have cleared $873,077.12 ; and this has nearly all been made by the first machinery. We did wrong in put- ting in spinning. We should have followed your ad- vice, and put in the same kind of machinery as the first, with more looms, and then we should have made more money."

The venture of this company was closely watched and studied by moneyed men throughout the Repub- lic, and as soon as their success was made known, other companies were formed and more factories built. The first one to follow Messrs. Barron, Forbes & Co. was a German gentleman from Durango, a Mr. Stahlknecht, who ordered machinery from Newton in 1839. He afterwards built another factory in Tunal. The last time he visited Newton, he remarked that he had given up the cotton manufacturing business, as he was quite too near the Texan frontier, and goods were run over into their country. Eighteen cents per yard was all he could get for his cloth and it cost him thirteen cents per yard to manufacture it, and five cents profit on a yard did not pay. What will our new New England manufacturers say to that ?

A company was organized in Guadalajara in 1840, under the corporate title of the Guadalajara Spinning and Weaving Company, and they sent their treasurer, Mr. John M. B. Newbury Boschetti, to Newton to buy machinery. They also took out machinery for making paper. Other factories were established at Santiago, Guymas, Mazatlan, Colima, Curaçoa and elsewhere, and filled with Newton machinery. Al- though these factories proved to be profitable invest- ments to their owners, none of them were as remuner- ative as the Tepic Mills. Orders were received from the Mexican customers for machinery and supplies by Mr. Pettee as long as he lived.

In addition to his New England and Mexican trade, Mr. Pettee frequently received orders from the South and West. Several large cotton factories in

NEWTON.

Tennessee were filled with machinery from his work- shops; and consignments were made to Georgia, the Carolinas, Maryland and elsewhere.

Mr. James Lick, of telescopic fame throughout the world, and whose name is associated with the astro- nomical study and research of all nations, was a cus- tomer of Mr. Pettee's in 1852, for a large invoice of machinery for his extensive flouring-mills at San Jose, California.

Mr. Pettee was not only engaged in the business interests of the town, but was largely interested in its general welfare and prosperity. He was an earnest and indefatigable worker to construct the Woonsocket Division of the New York & New England Railroad (then the Charles River Branch), through the south- erly section of the town, to the Upper Falls and Needham, in 1851 and 1852. By his simple consent to a proposal of the Boston & Worcester Railroad Company in 1844, they would have, at their own ex- pense, extended the Lower Falls Branch of their road from Riverside to the Upper Falls. But he declined to accept the proffered branch, because he considered it would be doing great injustice to the future welfare of the village, by placing it at least fifteen, miles by rail from Boston, when the same terminus could easily be reached by a more direct route within a dis- tance of less than ten miles.

He actively co-operated with all benevolent and philanthropic movements and real reforms. A thor- ough temperance man and worker from his youth up ; a despiser of the use of tobacco in any form what- ever ; a friend of the slave and down-trodden; an old time Whig, but one of the foremost to come out and organize the Abolition party ; and was a delegate to the National Liberty Convention held in Buffalo, Oc- tober 7, 1847.

As to the spirit of his business qualities, eminent Boston merchants with whom he had dealings bear testimony, not only to his business capacity, but also to his being the most thoroughly honest man they ever knew. He was, in short, an upright man of great inventive genius, solid judgment, extensive en- terprise and beneficent life. He died on the 12th day of February, 1853, at the age of fifty-seven years.

The next following June the cotton factory property and tenement houses belonging with it were sold to a company of Boston merchants under the corporate name of Newton Mills, with F. M. Weld, treasurer. This company continued in the business until August, 1884, and then closed up for an indefinite period.

In the autumn of 1853 the machine-shop property was sold to Messrs. Otis Pettee, (2d), George Pettee (sons of the late Otis Pettee) and Henry Billings, who formed a co-partnership in the name of Otis Pettee & Company ; and continued in the business until Jann- ary 1, 1880, when the partnership was dissolved, and the property sold to a stock company, who assumed the name of Pettee Machine Works, and still con- tinue the business of building cotton machinery.

7-iii

In the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' As- sociation report for 1841, No. 998, we find the fol- lowing, viz. :

"Otis Pettee, Newton Upper Falls-Cotton Loom :- an attempt to improve npon the usual method of delivering the warp, and simulta. neously to wind up the cloth while weaving by power.

" This operation 18 performed in a manner similar to other older ma- chines by suspending the reed-frame at the top, and allowing tho bottom to yiekl, although opposed by a spring, as each thread of the filling is iuserted ; the spring in yielding loosens a friction-strap passing round the warp-cylinder, thereby allowing the warp to unwind without un- necessary stram upon the threads, the spring at the same time operating on a ratchet-wheel connected with the cloth-cylinder, causing it to wind up the cloth at the same rate it is woven."

Turtle Island divides the Charles River about an eighth of a mile below the snuff-mill-dam, and the rapids there afford another good water-power. In 1782 Mr. Thomas Parker, who owned the island and land on the Newton side of the river, purchased a small lot on the Needham side (now Wellesley) ; be built a dam at this point, and started a saw-mill upon a rocky bluff in Newton just abreast of the head of the island. As Mr. Parker was now well advanced in life he retained the saw-mill but a very few years, and then sold all his mill property to his son-in-law, Mr. Jonathan Bixby, who continued the business until he sold his entire interest in the estate upon both sides of the river, including water-power and other privileges in the river, to the Newton Iron Works Company, a co-partnership formed principal- ly of Boston gentlemen, for the purpose of manufac- turing iron. Mr. Rufus Ellis was appointed general manager and resident agent, and assumed the duties and responsibilities of his office in 1799. And by the beginning of the year 1800 he had built a permanent dam across the river, and erected a building upon the island, and put in the required furnaces and ma- chinery for rolling and slitting iron into a variety of sizes and shapes.

For the first twenty-five or thirty years after the mill was started, wood was the only fuel used for heating the furnaces and ovens. Anthracite coal lay quietly slumbering in the depths of the mountain passes and ravines of Eastern Pennsylvania and other places, and unknown to man as an article of fuel which so soon came into general use the world over. It may be true that the hunter and trapper, Philip Ginther, while in search of game in the forests of the Lehigh Valley, did ac- cidentally make the discovery of anthracite coal in the year 1791. One day, while hurrying down a steep declivity on the side of Sharp Mountain, homeward bound, his attention was arrested by a peculiar black rock formation, recently uncovered by the uprootal of a large tree in his pathway. He gathered a few samples, and sent them to Philadelphia for scientists to examine, which resulted in the decision that it was a kind of coal of considerable value. With the ex- ception of a few trials of the new fuel by country blacksmiths, it was thirty years before any really suc- cessful test was made of its combustible merits as a

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

substitute for wood. This experiment was made by a nail-maker near Philadelphia. A half-day's time was spent by the workmen in trying to make the black stones burn, as they called it, but of no avail, and at the noon hour they left the furnace in disgust, for their dinner, with the determination that upon their return they would clean out the fire-box, and fire up in the usual way for the afternoon's work. But much to their surprise, when they came back the furnace was seething and roaring with a white heat, such as they had never seen before : and the year 1817 marks the era in revealing the true secret of burning anthracite coal, which is to let it alone as much as possible, and to manipulate the fires from beneath. As soon as the burning of hard coal ceased to be an experiment, it was brought into general use, and the Newton Iron Works Company reconstructed their furnaces, by putting in a system of coal-burning ap- paratus.

Nail-making is an industry that occupies a place in the list of early manufactures. Quite a number of nail factories were built in this country in the tenth decade of the last century and the first decade of the present century-one at Fairmont, near Philadelphia, -one at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,-and several in New York State. Massachusetts had its share of the pioneers in the business ; a factory at, Wareham, one at Bridgewater, another at Weymouth ; the little town of Dover boasted of a nail factory, and in several other places the click, clack of the nail-machine was heard.

The increasing demand for nails called for better machinery for making them. It is now (1890) about a hundred years since the introduction of power ma- chinery for cutting nails from rolled iron plates. Previous to that time a greater proportion of the nails used were made from rods of iron cut off the required length for different sizes of nails, and headed by crude machinery, or forged by hand on the anvil. Occa- sionally a blacksmith made a specialty of forging nails as a partial supply to the market for builders' use.

From 1790 to 1800 the nail-making business was greatly enhanced by the valuable improvements on inventions of earlier dates. The priority of these in- ventions has been claimed by a number of persons, notably Benjamin Cochran, in 1790. Ezekiel Reed, of Bridgewater, Jacob Perkins, of Newburyport, and Walter Hunt, of New York. The first letters patent in this country for nail-cutting machinery were granted to Josiah G. Pearson, in 1794. And while Jacob Perkins perfected his invention in 1790, he did not obtain his patent until 1795.

The present century opened with a continuation of the study for better machinery. Jesse Reed, a son of Ezekiel Recd, so far advanced the process of nail- making machinery as to cut off the plate, and head the nail by a single turn of the machine. Still an- other device was applied to the same machine by a Mr. Ripley. His attachment consisted of a pair of

nippers, so adjusted as to grasp the nail as soon as it was cut from the plate, and then turn it so as to give it what is termed a flat grip, instead of the edge grip in use previous to his inventions, Mr. Thomas Odiorne, of Milford, Massachusetts, was the inventor of a very good machine for cutting small nails and brads. His machine was said to be a complicated in- vention that required a skilled workman to operate it. Still another nail-machine was patented by Mr. Jon- athan Ellis, one of the proprietors of the Newton Iron Works. His machine was rather cumbersome, and never very much used.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 23

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278