USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 19
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226
THE FOUNDING OF LANCASTER MILLS.
homes of their own at first. It was the object of the Bige- lows to make these tenements as attractive as possible in order that the workmen might find in them "the pleasures of home," and, thus becoming attached to their surround- ings, remain free from the desire of change so common among mill operatives. How well they succeeded has been evidenced by the permanency of workmen in the mills and the universal agreement that few factory towns are as attrac- tive as Clinton. In 1848, H. N. Bigelow sold land to Lan- caster Mills for the reservoirs which are near the southern end of Cedar Street. The accounts rendered August 20, 1849, showed the total cost of the mills when completed to have been, including real estate, water power, and tenements, but not including interest, eight hundred and two thousand two hundred and eighty-four dollars and sixteen cents, or thirty-eight dollars and sixty cents per spindle.
The money to carry out this new building was obtained through an act to increase the capital stock of the Lancaster Mills, enacted March 15, 1847. By this act, the stock might be increased five hundred thousand dollars. It was increased November, 1847, by the addition of a thousand shares of four hundred dollars each. The old shares were equalized in value with the new, making a total of two thousand shares at four hundred and fifty dollars each.
Mr. E. B. Bigelow's health at this time gave out from pressure of work, for he was not only planning for these mills and inventing machinery for them, but was also work- ing on his ingrain carpet looms and planning a huge carpet mill at Lowell, which was a marvel of mill construction, the very walls being part of one great machine. Having com- pleted all his plans for these mills and having made the con- tracts for the machinery, he went in the autumn of 1847 to Europe, to recruit his health. H. N. Bigelow, who from the first had controlled the business management of building the mills, pressed on the work to completion. He, too, had a vast amount of other work on his hands at this time, super-
227
DEPRECIATION OF STOCK.
intending the great additions already described, to the mills of the Clinton Company and the Quilt Mill, and, as we shall hereafter see, fostering with almost paternal care every en- terprise which promised to benefit the community which was growing so wonderfully under the impulse which these indus- tries had given to it. It seems impossible that any one man should have done all that he did in these seven years, for he even attempted to attend with the same closeness to every detail as when he was managing the little concerns of former years.
Early in 1848, a great change came over the money mar- ket of the country; stocks in general fell and manufacturing profits declined, and the stock of the Lancaster Mills depre- ciated, with that of other corporations, so that shares, with a par value of four hundred and fifty dollars, sold for three hundred and fifty. In 1849 and '50, the market value varied from three to four hundred dollars. Another act was se- cured to increase the capital stock, May 2, 1849, this time by three hundred thousand. The cost of the mills, as is usual, had exceeded the expectations of the stockholders. In ex- plaining this extra cost of the mills, E. B. Bigelow said among other things: "Not only is a high standard of mechan- ical construction required to successfully manufacture figured goods such as are made at Clinton, but also, much skill and experience on the part of the operatives. In this country, it is not easy to get that skill. It was, therefore, deemed to be sound policy in building the works to make them as attrac- tive as was consistent with the nature of the case, so that those who had acquired a knowledge of the business would have a motive to continue in it at reasonable wages. In the plan and construction of the whole establishment, every at- tention has been paid to the convenience and comfort of those by whom its work is to be done. No mill can be made more easy of access, better lighted or better ventilated." The mills, and therefore the town, owe much to James S. Amory, who was made treasurer of the mills in October,
228
THE FOUNDING OF LANCASTER MILLS.
1847, and who in this financial crisis raised the requisite funds to place the mill upon firm footing.
Turning to the manufacturing accounts, we find the first record of cloth, made by the Lancaster Mills, is for the week ending December 5, 1846, seven thousand and seventy-two yards; for the six months, ending January 31, 1848, three hundred and ninety-two thousand five hundred and fifty-one yards; for the year, ending January 31, 1849, one million four hundred and ninety-one thousand seven hundred and sixty yards; for the year, ending January 31, 1850, over four mil- lion yards.
The mills were not, then, under full headway in manufac- turing until 1850. This was the first year in which any dividend was paid, the amount then being three per cent. Between 1844 and 1848, ginghams had fallen from eighteen to eleven cents per yard, so that profits were less than had been anticipated.
From the pay-roll we find that, in 1849, there were at work three hundred and seventy-seven females and one hundred and seventy males; the average earnings of the former for a week of seventy-four and a half hours, were three dollars and ninety-six cents; of the latter, five dollars and seventy-eight cents. Most of the operatives were Yankees, and lived in the tenement and boarding-houses.
In 1849, after the Lancaster Mills had been practically finished, H. N. Bigelow, who had become interested in the establishment of the Bigelow Carpet Mills, resigned his posi- tion as agent here, as he had the year before dissolved his connection with the management of the Clinton Company's mill and the Quilt Mill, and he was succeeded by Franklin Forbes.
E. B. Bigelow in speaking of his brother's connection with the Lancaster Mills, said: "No one, I am sure, who has not tried or at least witnessed the experiment, can appreci- ate the vast amount of toil and care which devolves upon him who attempts to build up and carry into successful oper-
LANCASTER MILLS, 1849.
The first plan included only the long, narrow building passing through the centre of the structure ; then came the great square weaving room in front. The buildings in the rear and the cotton house were added later, and the bell-tower, which originally stood near the northeastern corner of the mills, was moved to the front.
229
H. N. BIGELOW AS AGENT.
ation a large establishment on the basis of a new invention. It is no small matter to accumulate, foster and apply the requisite skill to meet the new exigencies of constantly re- curring cases, and to make all those practical applications which, however minute, are yet essential to success. This task, my brother was called upon to perform, and he has per- formed for all the establishments in Clinton. The great and increasing value of the industrial establishments which he has successively constructed, with the thriving and beautiful village which has sprung up so rapidly around him, are the fruits in no small measure of his exertions."
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BRUSSELS CARPET LOOM, AND THE LATER LIFE OF E. B. BIGELOW.
AFTER a period of rest spent in European travel, E. B. Bigelow returned to America and devoted himself to the development of the Brussels carpet loom, the crowning work of his life. The germ of the invention already existed in the coachlace loom, and the Clinton Company held certain patent rights which they considered as applicable to the manufacture of Brussels carpeting. Indeed, Mr. Bigelow states in regard to the coachlace loom patented in April, 1837: "This loom was in all respects self-acting and em- braced the main features of the carpet loom." Also: "I made my first application of this invention to the weaving of Jacquard Brussels carpets at Lowell, in 1845." The patent was taken out in England in March, 1846, but not in the United States until later. A committee, appointed No- vember 24, 1846, to consider the disposal of the rights of the Clinton Company in this loom, reported: These rights had best be sold "to a company to be formed for the purpose of making carpets," the value to be taken in the stock of the company. It was not until 1848, however, that Mr. Bigelow found himself ready to attend to the matter. In July of that year, we find a record that he brought in a proposition to perfect and introduce the invention, and that the company made a contract with him having this object in view.
During the next three years he took out patent after
.
231
EXHIBIT OF FIRST PRODUCTION.
patent bearing upon the details of this invention. He once told a friend that the main outline occurred to him while riding in the cars in Europe. Sated with sight-seeing, "an irresistible fit of invention came over him, and withdrawing himself from the outer world, the machine soon assumed form before his mind's eye. The details, however, as we learn from those who worked with him, were laboriously wrought out in the machine shop and mill, and he apparently received many minor suggestions from the experiments there tried.
In 1851, the loom had been brought to such a high pitch of perfection that we find the jury of the Great Exhibition of that year in London, making the following statement in the supplement to its report: "The specimens of Brussels carpeting exhibited by Mr. Bigelow are woven by a power loom invented and patented by him, and are better and more perfectly woven than any hand-loom goods that have come under the notice of the jury. This, however, is a small part of their merit, or rather that of Mr. Bigelow, who has com- pletely triumphed over the numerous obstacles that presented themselves, and succeeded in substituting steam power for manual labor in the manufacture of five-frame Brussels car- pet. Several patents have been taken out by different inven- tors in this country for effecting the same object; but as yet none of them have been brought into successful or extensive operation, and the honor of this achievement, one of great practical difficulty as well as of great commercial value, must be awarded to a native of the United States."
The London Morning Chronicle says: "At the eleventh hour, power loom manufactured Brussels was deposited in the American division, the merit of the invention and appli- cation of this important discovery being due to Mr. E. B. Bigelow of the United States. The evidence of the success- ful application of a much-wished-for invention is all that could be desired. Although various attempts have been made to adapt the power loom to carpet weaving in this
232
BRUSSELS CARPET LOOM.
country, there is not, we believe, at this moment, any machin- ery perfected for that object. Our American brethren have, therefore, gained another step ahead of us and have won an- other laurel on this well contested field of the industrial arts."
The report of the exhibition published by the United States government, states: "Toward the close of the exhibi- tion, Mr. Bigelow of Boston exhibited several specimens of Brussels carpetings made by the power loom, which excited much attention. The process, invented and patented by Mr. Bigelow, and now in general use in the United States, is alto- gether unknown here. * It is, perhaps, one of the great- est improvements yet made in weaving, and accomplishes what has hitherto been deemed an impossibility, viz: the use of all varieties of color in the power loom."
The great carpet manufacturers, Crossley & Sons, of Hal- ifax, England, appreciating the value of the invention, pur- chased of Mr. Bigelow the patent rights for the United Kingdom. J. B. Parker and James Otterson took over to England a loom from the mill here, and from this as a model the castings were taken and the looms for the mills there were constructed.
As the Brussels carpet loom was only the coachlace loom "full grown," there is no one patent outside of this, which has already been given, that would demand the attention of the general reader. In an invention so complex as this, only the practical machinist can grasp it in all its details. Who has not wondered, in examining a piece of the carpet, how such intricate designs of many colored worsteds could be woven so perfectly into the linen web by automatic machin- ery? Even with human judgment constantly ready to cor- rect the weaving of the pattern formed by the Jacquard, the work was marvellous, but when we see lifeless iron doing it all alone, we are lost in wonder. The central features of the loom are: the insertion and withdrawal of the wires which form the loops, and the bringing to the surface at the right moment of the particular colors of worsted, required to form
233
SUMMARY OF INVENTION.
the pattern. In Mr. Bigelow's original loom the wires, about thirty-two inches in length, were managed somewhat as fol- lows: A knife separates from the group of wires the one next to be taken and directs the pusher which moves it toward the pincers: these move forward, grasp the wire, and draw it out; meanwhile a double pair of fingers are moving forward and, as soon as the wires are dropped by the pincers, they take it and carry it to a small trough which has come up, ready to receive it; the trough having returned with the wire, a pusher, moving through it, sends the wire into the open shed through a set of guides, which come up between the warp. Three fingered claws plait the selvage and at the same time stop the loom if the thread breaks. It will be seen that this arrangement and action of the wires is only a slight modification of that employed in the coachlace loom.
It is more difficult to explain clearly the arrangement of the yarns without going into a description of the Jacquard, which was not an invention of Mr. Bigelow. A few points may, however, be given. The yarns are wound separately upon bobbins and these are arranged on frames back of the loom, tension being given to the thread of each bobbin by a leaden weight. There are two hundred and sixty bobbins to a frame, and five frames to a loom. The warp worsted from cach bobbin is carried through a little brass eye. A weight is attached to this eye to pull it down by the force of gravity. The eye is raised by a cord which goes to the Jacquard above. This Jacquard, operating in connection with a trap-board brings to the surface at the right moment the set of worsteds needed for one loop of the pattern. When these worsteds have been raised, the wire is inserted, and, then, the worsted goes down and the linen warp comes up. The shuttle car- ries the linen weft through the warps; the warps are now crossed, lock the weft, and the batten beats it up, another linen thread is thrown, and, then, the whole is again driven against the web by the batten. In the Wilton carpet loom, these wires have knives on the top, which cut the worsteds of the loops.
234
THE LATER LIFE OF E. B. BIGELOW.
When we consider that each of these thousands of parts must not only be perfect in its own function, but must also work in harmony with every other part to bring about a pre- determined end, we feel that inventive genius can go no fur- ther, but has reached here a final triumph.
Leaving for subsequent consideration the development of the Bigelow Carpet Company, and the later life of H. N. Bigelow, let us follow to the end the story of E. B. Bigelow, since it is fitting that we should gain a comprehensive idea of the man, whose influence on the town has been so great. Outside of the invention of the loom for weaving wire cloth, which led to the establishment of the Clinton Wire Cloth Company, the later work of E. B. Bigelow started no new industries in Clinton, although he maintained his interest in the mills and the town until his death. His name frequently appears in the reports of the Patent Office from 1850 to 1860. The looms for tapestry carpets, although they differed some- what from those for Brussels, were closely associated with them, in the mind of the inventor. Those for silk brocatel, first put in operation at Humphreysville, Connecticut, in 1851, belonged to the same series of power looms for weaving fig- ured fabrics.
In addition to the various inventions of which we have treated, viz: power looms for weaving coachlace, counter- panes, ingrain carpeting, ginghams and other plaids, Brussels and Wilton carpeting, tapestry carpeting, silk brocatel, and wire cloth, he made many subordinate and auxiliary inven- tions, so that the total number of the patents taken out by him was in the aggregate over fifty.
In an article on "The Relations of Capital and Labor" in the Atlantic Monthly of October, 1878, Mr. Bigelow states: "One woman can weave as much Brussels carpeting by the carpet power loom as ten men assisted by ten boys can weave by the hand loom. To weave by the hand loom the carpet- ing that is now woven by the carpet power loom in its vari-
235
ASSOCIATION OF WOOL MANUFACTURERS.
ous applications would require the labor of fourteen thousand more persons than are now employed." It is surely no exag- geration to say that Mr. Bigelow, through his mechanical genius, has already accomplished in the industrial world more work than twenty thousand ordinary laborers do by brain and muscle in their lifetimes, and these ideas of his will still keep working on through an indefinite future.
Some one has said of Mr. Bigelow that "as an inventor he was phenomenal, as an organizer and economical writer he was exceptional." We have already considered him as an organizer of the industries at Clintonville and Lowell, let us glance at his work in this direction in the National Asso- ciation of Wool Manufacturers. This body was founded November 30, 1864, as a result of a convention held by rep- resentative wool manufacturers from twelve states. Mr. Big- elow was made the first president, and it devolved upon him to prepare a statement of the objects of the association. This was no easy task, for there had always been bitter antagonism between the various branches of the wool indus- try. Mr. Bigelow, feeling that all had common interests, boldly declared in spite of lack of sympathy in the society and out of it, that the object of the association was " cooper- ation among the different classes of producers." Through ยท"the rare executive ability" of the president, the wool grow- ers and manufacturers were brought into harmonious rela- tions, and through their joint efforts, under his leadership, such information was laid before Congress as led to the adoption of the wool tariff of 1867. In 1869, still acting as president of the association, he organized the first great exhibit of the characteristic productions of a single industry. This exhibition was held in New York, and it was, we are told, "the most important precursor of the Centennial, and was not surpassed by the latter in its effect to popularize American fabrics."
We have already noted the publication in 1832 of a little work of twenty-five pages on short-hand, entitled "The Self-
236
THE LATER LIFE OF E. B. BIGELOW.
taught Stenographer." This work, though prepared by a boy of eighteen, was of considerable value for a time. In later years, Theodore Parker presented his much-used copy of the work to the Public Library in Boston.
Mr. Bigelow's writings of more mature years are of two classes. They deal with mechanical and economical sub- jects. The remarkable clearness of the former is seen in his specifications of patents, which, in themselves alone would, if accompanied by the drawings prepared under his direc- tion, make a bulky volume. His statements in the applica- tion for the extension of his patent on the ingrain carpet loom in 1860, and the correspondence with Wm. Wood of England, relating to the invention of the Jacquard Brussels power loom, printed in 1868, complete this class of his pub- lications.
Of his writings on economics, those upon the tariff are of most consequence. The first of these is a letter to Thad- deus Stevens, published as a pamphlet of six pages. "The Tariff Question considered in regard to the policy of England and the interests of the United States," is Mr. Bigelow's most important contribution to literature. It is a large quarto abounding in carefully prepared tables of statistics, and has been called by able judges the best presentation of argu- ments for the protective system yet published in America. It came from the press in 1862. A condensation of the same work, with various modifications, was published in 1877, entitled "The Tariff Policy of England and the United States contrasted." In the latter work, he claims that "there is no principle of universal application involved either in free trade or protection. They are questions of policy." "The conditions of production are so different in different coun- tries that the customs tariff of every nation should be deter- mined by its own interests and needs." After giving the history of the Tariff in England and dwelling upon the grand possibilities of our own country, he declares "The aim should be to establish a national tariff policy, which
237
WRITINGS ON ECONOMICS.
shall be regarded as permanent, and so to frame its pro- visions as to promote the use and development of our vast national resources." "Not until the cost of labor, taxation and capital, through a gradual approximation, or by some great alteration here or there, shall have become nearly the same in Europe and America, will it be safe to abandon our present tariff policy. So long as local taxation shall depend on the will and action of the several states, so long as the rate of wages and of interest in our country are kept up by the abundance of land and the demand of labor, neither skill nor assiduity on the part of our producers can remove the causes of the disparity which places them at so great disadvantage." He argues that protection helps the farmer, for without it the consumers of agricultural products must become producers and thus diminish agricultural profits with- out lowering the price of foreign goods, since these could demand their own prices when freed from home competition. "The nation," he says, "which produces the most in propor- tion to its numbers will be the most prosperous and powerful nation. * To that end it is necessary that we should diversify industry and thereby give employment to all the people according to their various tastes and capacities." Enough has been given to show the general line of thought pursued by the author, but his power of argument and depth of research can only be appreciated by the careful student of his larger volume.
Among his other writings bearing on economical subjects are : "Remarks on the depressed condition of manufactures in Massachusetts with suggestions as to its cause and remedy;" (1858.) [Translated soon after into the Russian language. ] "Objects and plans of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers;" (1866.) "Address on the wool industry of the United States at the exhibition of the American Insti- tute in New York;" (Oct. 5, 1869.) An article entitled "The Relations of Labor and Capital," in the Atlantic Monthly. (Oct., 1878.) His "Statement of facts in regard to Lancas-
238
THE LATER LIFE OF E. B. BIGELOW.
ter Mills," (1851) is more personal in its nature, but belongs to the same class of works. All of these pamphlets and articles are full of nuggets of wisdom. "Capital," he says, "is the laborer's best friend; excessive credit his worst enemy." "To labor energetically the laborer must be sure of receiving the fruits of his industry in a form which he can appropriate as his own. * Communism has no root in the nature of things." "As a means of high productive efficiency it should be made possible for every individual to acquire a good general education, directed with a view to in- vigorate the body, elevate the moral faculties and strengthen the intellectual powers, or, in other words, to fit the indi- vidual for the general duties of life."
Among other intellectual qualities displayed in these works and in his general conversation is his hatred of side issues. He held his mind without the slightest turning to the right or left upon the matter in hand. "It is a great thing to know what not to do," was one of his favorite phrases. He took great pride in thorough work and would not tolerate shoddy in anything for which he was responsi- ble. He was thus able to fix the standard in every variety of goods made on his looms. The same spirit is seen in the immense labor that he put into his collection of statistics for his work on the tariff. There is little of imagination, humor or sentiment in his writings, but they are all clear, terse and as convincing as business statements, and by their arrange- ment display, like his inventions, that faculty of mind which he was wont to insist upon as his chief intellectual charac- teristic, that is, the power of seeing the relation of things.
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