USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume II > Part 38
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demands that did not exist in the early history of the business. One of these, which has had a large market, is a fire service meter in the devel- opment of which this company was the pioneer, under the patents of J. A. Tilden. It is especially adapted to the measurement of water in manu- facturing plants where there are fire or sprinkler services and is capable of measuring all rates of flow without jeopardizing the fire service through loss of head in the fire line in case of a blaze on the premises. Other products of the company include devices for measuring water under varying conditions, known as proportional, compound and current meters ; also others for measuring hot water, oils and gasoline, the gen- eral use of which demand meters specially adapted for the purpose.
Although competition has kept pace with the growth of water meter- age, the Hersey Manufacturing Company stands in the front as manu- facturers of water meters of highest grade of workmanship and mate- rials, with the widest range of apparatus to cover every class of service to be found in water works practice. They employ three hundred and fifty or more hands.
Since the death of the founders the company has maintained the same type of organization and the same business policies, with Walter A. Hersey, president ; Francis C. Hersey, Jr., treasurer ; James A. Tilden, vice-president and general manager; and Henry D. Winton, secretary and assistant general manager, forming the executive management.
Holding up the Socks of the World-Just what methods were em- ployed prior to 1878 by the men of the United States to prevent their socks from perambulating over their shoe tops seems to remain an enigma, but in that year F. Barton Brown was granted a patent for a stocking supporter, which was assigned to George Frost & Company, of Boston, and under the name of "Gentleman's Boston Garter," the original men's sock supporter was manufactured. At that time there existed a serious question as to the practicability of a garter for men, but it was soon demonstrated that the invention was a success.
The garters were of the triangular cord type, with a two-tine buckle for a takeup. Twelve gross per day was the maximum production, and for the most part were sent to New York for distribution to the trade.
They were manufactured at 287-289 Devonshire Street until 1887, when the concern found the space inadequate and removed to the third, fourth and fifth floors at 31 Bedford Street, and when the one hundred and fifty employees increased to two hundred and twenty-five additional space was secured by occupying two floors in an adjoining building on Chauncy Street.
The death, in 1889, of Andrew Warren, the inventor of the Warren
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Hose Supporter, led George Frost & Company to make improvements on this product, and to take on the manufacture of that article, necessi- tating another plant, located on Knapp Street.
Two years later the George Frost Company, a Massachusetts corpora- tion, was formed and in 1892 the concern moved to its present location at 551 Tremont Street, where it took over the four-story brick building previously occupied by the Smith Organ Company. In 1895 the original rubber button hose supporter clasp was patented and was put out under the trade mark "Velvet Grip," which has been used ever since. Inci- dentally, the "Velvet Grip" clasp marked a new era in hose supporter and garter construction. One form was designed by George H. Phelps and another by Robert Gorton, who joined the George Frost Company in 1896. Just as soon as the merits of the "Velvet Grip" clasp were rec- ognized infringers appeared and for several years the George Frost Company was busy establishing its patents. Finally a decision was handed down which was so broad and positive that infringing ceased almost entirely. In 1906 a five-story addition to the building was erected, and although the corset and waist business, in which the company was also engaged, was sold and the whole plant turned over to the manu- facture of Boston Garters and "Velvet Grip" Hose Supporters, it has since been necessary to manufacture in outside mills-one in Red Bank, New Jersey, and one in New Britain, Connecticut, besides occupying another building at 557 to 561 Tremont Street, Boston.
Ever since the beginning of the manufacture of Boston Garters for men and "Velvet Grip" Hose Supporters for women and children, the George Frost Company has improved its products, the most important patents being those of George H. Phelps and Robert Gorton.
The present officers of the company are George A. Frost, president ; George B. Glidden, vice-president and treasurer; Edgar J. Smith, assist- ant treasurer and secretary.
The George Frost Company is another of that group of progressive Boston concerns whose products have become internationally known through the medium of judicious advertising.
Jonas Chickering's Industrial and Artistic Contribution-A timely reminder that in the rush and complexity of modern American life, with the insistent call of immediate social, economic and political problems, we are prone to overlook the permanent significance of aesthetic ideals and their necessary place in the life of any community, came to the men and women of this nation in 1923, when there was observed the one hundredth anniversary of what has truly been called "America's first gift of art to the world"-the creation by Jonas Chickering of the modern pianoforte.
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Not only did this centennial impressively emphasize the gradual development of a love of music in this country, but it officially recognized the accomplishment of a typical New Englander, born in the closing decade of the eighteenth century, in the little town of Mason, nestling in the granite hills of old New Hampshire, who, at the age of twenty- five founded, in a tiny workroom on Tremont Street, in Boston, the world famous piano house of Chickering.
While it may be said that from the classic standpoint the materials music had already reached their apotheosis at the time when Jonas Chickering began his life work, yet it is nevertheless true that the public appreciation of music had only begun, while in the United States the art was almost an unknown quantity. Certain it is that in the discovery of music by the American public the pianoforte as first conceived and mar- keted by Chickering has been perhaps the most influential factor, for it was this practical instrument which first made possible music in the home-that link between youthful talent and the mysteries of a universal art which connotes the final progress of the virtuoso.
The first instrument which came from the hands of Jonas Chickering after he had served five years' apprenticeship in the piano-making estab- lishment of John Osborne, is now in the possession of Chickering & Sons, a treasured and carefully guarded relic.
His fame soon spread and buyers appeared from New York, Phila- delphia, Baltimore and the South. As early as 1830 he launched the first upright piano and began to dream of the Chickering grand.
That he was an astute business man is attested by the fact that he early associated himself with Captain John Mackay, the master of a fleet sailing vessel, and out of that partnership grew a mutuality of interest which meant much to the youthful concern. Mackay's ship would be laden on its outgoing passage with sweet-toned, six-octave pianos, which he marketed in South American countries where he touched, while on the return voyage the hold would carry rosewood and mahogany for the cases that were to be fabricated at the Boston fac- tory. The loss of the captain and his ship on a hazardous voyage, in 1841, resulted in Jonas Chickering becoming sole owner of the rapidly expanding business.
Four years before he had built his first grand piano and by the inven- tion of the full iron plate, which was recorded in 1837, he successfully solved the problem of the proper support for the great strain of the strings and opened a new era in the art of piano-making. The invention was heralded by the scientific world as an event of far-reaching import- ance, and it proved to be the foundation of all modern piano construction.
In 1843 Chickering invented a new deflection of the strings, and two
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years later he devised the first practical method for over-stringing in square pianos, a principle which obtains to this day on all grand and upright instruments.
The house of Chickering speedily assumed the lead in America, and the latter invention, with others that followed, completely revolutionized the art of piano-making not only in the United States but in Europe as well, and at the Crystal Palace, London, in 1851, the Chickering products received the highest awards.
When, in the following year, the Washington Street, Boston, factory was burned, Jonas Chickering, with characteristic energy, promptly laid the foundations of another and larger establishment-the building on Tremont Street, which when completed, was the biggest structure in the United States with the exception of the Capitol, at Washington, D. C. The superficial area of the floor room exceeds five acres. Five stories in height on the Tremont Street frontage of 245 feet, with wings 262 feet in length, and a uniform width of 50 feet, built in the form of a hollow square, and enclosing a spacious court, with its 900 windows, and 1,100 panes of glass, five stories high on the Tremont Street side, and six upon the center court, containing more than 3,000,000 brick, 2,000 perches of stone, 1,605,000 feet of lumber, it was regarded at that period as the most wonderful manufacturing plant in America.
While the founder did not live to see the structure completed, as he died suddenly in December, 1853, he had in his twenty-seven years of activity laid the foundations of an industry which was to grow to such proportions that today piano-making is one of the great industrial and artistic factors in the United States.
He has been truthfully called the father of the American piano. Upon the shoulders of three sons fell the work he laid down and in the inter- vening years they carried on the high ideals that placed the name of Chickering on its lofty eminence.
Chickering & Sons have ever been foremost in encouraging musical enterprises of every kind, and have introduced to America a long list of the greatest artists in the world; made possible the hearing of the greatest orchestral and choral works of all time, and maintained mag- nificent concert halls in several American cities, which have played a prominent part in developing the musical taste of the people of the United States.
The modern Chickering with the Ampico is a far cry from the little square piano turned out by Jonas Chickering in 1823, but it stands as the supreme expression of present-day science devoted to the art of music. The great twentieth century invention thus crowns the epoch-
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making innovation of the man whom devotion to the cause of music in America set new and lofty standards a full century ago.
President Coolidge (then Vice-President) speaking at the centennial celebration of the birth of the Chickering piano, held in Symphony Hall, Boston, April 21, 1923, epitomized the influence exerted by the great inventor when in the peroration of his address, which was broadcast to all parts of the United States, he said: "In the hundred years which have elapsed since Jonas Chickering put the music of his piano into the American home, we have surely outlived the need of propaganda and all artificial stimulus. His genius as an inventor, manufacturer and mer- chant has had a tremendous influence in giving to the people of our country a musical foundation. He has brought the broadening and humanizing spirit of a great art within the reach of all humanity. He has strengthened the bonds of our common brotherhood, giving a new secur- ity to government and increased the power of the people to rule."
Painting the United States Red and All Colors-More than eighty- five years ago Eleazer F. Pratt opened a little paint shop on Broad Street, Boston, where he ground paints in a hand mill, and where he continued to prosper as at that period Boston was the big port for ocean- going vessels, and the demand for marine painting was extraordinary. A year later Pratt moved to Street Street, where the shop remained for thirty years. In 1849 George O. Carpenter became a partner and just after the Civil War began John D. Morton was admitted to the firm, which, in 1892, when incorporated, became known to the world as the Carpenter-Morton Company. With this foundation of rugged maturity the concern in its partnership and corporate forms successfully weathered the trying financial panics of 1857 and 1861 ; a fire which all but wiped out its State Street plant in the latter year; the strenuous period of the Civil War, and the Boston fire of 1872, followed by the financial troubles of 1873, 1893 and 1907, and during the past quarter of a century has shown rapid and continuous expansion. It was in 1885 that the company began to manufacture varnish stains, a novel product at that time, designed for staining and varnishing with one operation furniture, wood- work or floors.
Before the discovery of this article, when one desired to change a piece of furniture from oak color to a mahogany finish or any natural wood shade, it was necessary to remove the old finish, then give the wood a coat of oil stain and finally two coats of varnish.
Seven years later it developed its famous "Colorite" for the rehabili- tation of straw hats and today, at its Everett factory a battery of machin- ery automatically fills and encloses in cartons, complete with instructions
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and a brush for applying, over sixty-five thousand bottles of the product per day-a bottle daily for one person in every two hundred people in the entire United States.
The product is handled by some 16,000 druggists, representing every State in the Union. Then followed the Colorite fabric dies, the well- known Carmote line of enamels, and automobile color-varnishes and finishes.
The products of the Carpenter-Morton Company find their way to far-off Africa and Australia and to the countries of South America through some sixty traveling salesmen who represent it in the marts of trade.
Twelve years ago the company inaugurated a system of profit sharing among its employees, by which every department head or employee with a period of ten years' service receives at the end of the year a share in the profits in proportion to his salary. Those who have been with the concern less than ten years are given a lesser reward based on the time of their service. This policy has materially improved the morale of the workers and has contributed in making the Carpenter-Morton Company a vital growing business entity based on active cooperation and the con- viction of every member of the house, officer or errand boy, that "what's best for the company is best for me."
The Arrival of "The Bay Stater"-From the little business of mer- chandising dry colors and oils behind a small counter, set up in Boston in 1845, by Thompson & Wadsworth, has risen the house of Wadsworth, Howland & Company, Inc., today acknowledged as one of the oldest and largest paint and varnish manufacturers in New England.
All through the intervening years the concern has been conducted under methods and in accordance with ideals but typified by the well- known trade mark, "The Bay Stater," which has always stood for straightforward business dealings of a character irreproachable, for the high standards of quality and for the utmost cooperation with customers.
During the past decade and a half the Bay State organization has been active in enlarging its industrial and dealer business, and by far the largest volume of production and distribution has been attained during this period as compared with the previous output.
On October 15, 1925, there was a reorganization of the old-estab- lished concern, whereby the Devoe & Raynolds Company, Inc., became interested in the Bay State Corporation, and E. S. Phillips was chosen as president of Wadsworth, Howland & Company.
This change was due to the desires of the older members of the company to retire from active business and to be relieved of the burden
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in their latter years. They were very desirous and insistent that the company to whom this transfer was made should be of such type and standing in the business world that it would insure the continuance of the past ideals and policies upon which the business had been built.
The new arrangement presented a very opportune time for the pro- motion of a few of the younger men in the business who had been to a considerable degree responsible for its growth in the last few years. They had been thoroughly trained under the old executives and are well equipped to asume the additional responsibilities thrust upon them. They are carrying on from where the older members left off, but are introducing more modern methods in many departments of the business.
The Fields of Publishing, Printing and Lithography-From the day, when in 1638, the Reverend Glover erected at Cambridge the first print- ing press in America, and struck off the following year, copies of the "Freeman's Oath"; from the time when, in 1672, the General Court of Massachusetts granted to John Usher, of Boston, the privilege of pub- lishing on his own account, a revised edition of the Laws of the Colony- the first law that secured the benefit of copyright; from April, 1704, when Bartholomew Green began the printing of "The Boston News Letter," the first successful weekly periodical in the Colonies, to the present moment Boston has been regarded as the city of culture and as a locality where erudition has reached its apotheosis.
Merely to attempt to enumerate the names of the Boston publishing houses that have contributed to the printing of books without end would be to exceed the word-limit of this chapter. Suffice it to say that no city in the United States stands higher in the field of book production than the Hub, and near the head of American publishing firms are such houses as Houghton, Mifflin Company, Ginn & Company, The Univer- sity Press, L. C. Page Company, D. C. Heath & Company, Norwood Press, Oliver Ditson Company, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, The Pilgrim Press, Little, Brown & Company, and many others.
In the field of printing Boston has long ranked as possessing the finest plants for high-grade production, and the equipment at no time has exceeded that which is operating in this second quarter of the twen- tieth century in annually putting out printed matter, the value of which approximates seventy million dollars.
Entering the Field of Lithography-Almost sixty-five years ago W. H. Forbes, in his own name, formed what for more than half a century has been known to the trade as The Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company. At its inception the concern occupied one loft in the old Churchill-Watson Building, located at 365 Washington Street, corner of
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Winter Street, where Mr. Forbes, with a few employees, and but com- paratively little equipment, laid the foundation of the present business. Six years later it became a partnership under the name of W. H. Forbes & Company. Just prior to the change, it was necessary to move to larger quarters, and three floors at 159 Washington Street, opposite the Old South Church were secured. This location did not suffice for long, and in 1872 four floors in the building at the corner of Devonshire and Frank- lin streets were leased, but the great Boston fire of that year destroyed the structure before the change was made. However, as soon as it was rebuilt, the company began occupancy. Shortly after, further expansion required more space, and three floors were leased in the next building, followed soon by three more floors in the building next to that.
In 1875 the company was incorporated under its present name, The Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company. It was soon evident in the interests of efficiency and economy that the operations should be conducted in one plant; and in 1883 Mr. Forbes located the business at its present site, Forbes Station, Chelsea, Massachusetts, on the Portland Division of the Boston & Maine Railroad. The original building still constitutes a portion of the plant, though with the many additional struc- tures that have since been required to take care of the ever-increasing expansion and growth of the business, the original unit now houses but a small part of the manufacturing equipment.
Each year has witnessed the installation of additional and more mod- ern equipment, and today the company employs about eleven hundred persons, occupies over ten acres of floor space, and operates one hundred presses of all kinds, with complete facilities for producing a finished product whether it be a label, carton, poster, cut-out, calendar, booklet, letterhead, or any other piece of lithography or printed matter. The equipment consists of the most modern presses-offset, stone, rotary, and type. The company maintains its own coating plant so as to meet the exacting requirements of the different grades of work.
When it is realized that many concerns whom W. H. Forbes served in the first years of the business are still being supplied by the com- pany, it is evident that its splendid reputation is being maintained. The soundness of the company's industrial relations policy is reflected in the number of old employees. Twenty-five years ago 571 were employed. Of that number 95 are still with the company. Ten years ago 1,01I were employed, and of that number 342 are on the pay roll today.
The concern encourages thrift among its employees by acting as agent for a number of State savings banks; it provides disability, life, compensation and accident insurance; it maintains a mutual relief asso- ciation and operates a successful works council.
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The Man Who First Said "Be Seated, Gentlemen!"-The year that witnessed the death of Thomas Jefferson, last survived save one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and in the administration of John Quincy Adams, the last Massachusetts citizen, who served as President of the United States until the inauguration by the light of a kerosene lamp, in an humble Vermont cottage, of President Calvin Coolidge; at a time when only New York and Pennsylvania exceeded Massachusetts in population and wealth, and when Boston numbered less than 60,000 inhabitants; at the period when, in Quincy, workmen were laying the rails for the first four-mile stretch of track for the pur- pose of transporting granite on horse-drawn cars from the virgin quar- ries of that locality to tidewater; almost a decade before the invention of the telegraph and two score and ten years before the rays of the first electric light cast their beneficent beams upon a hitherto poorly illu- mined world, two brothers, bearing the name of Heywood, began manu- facturing chairs in 1826, in a little shed adjacent to their father's modest farm house, where today stands the city hall in Gardner, such was the beginning of the Heywood-Wakefield Company-the history of which runs back to the earliest days of chair-making in America.
Associated with each of the almost countless industries that have made Boston and Massachusetts what they are today there is often a single name the mere mention of which instantly suggests the kind of manufactured product it typifies, and so it is that the name of Heywood bears this relation to the building of chairs.
Eight years later when fire destroyed the original seat of the Gardner industry the business was removed to the shore of Crystal Lake-its present location-where a little brook seemingly offered adequate water power for years to come.
From 1835 to his death, forty-seven years later, the foresight and inventive genius of Levi Heywood blazed the way to success. Until the construction of the Fitchburg Railroad in 1854 huge wagons, oftentimes drawn by six horses, conveyed the finished chairs to the Boston market, a two days' journey over a road that today is covered by a motor car in less than two hours.
In the seventies the company began making chairs and furniture of reed and rattan, and then followed the production of children's carriages of the same materials. As far back as 1867 the original company found it expedient to establish a New York warehouse to take care of the rapidly growing export trade; in 1874 another was opened at Philadel- phia, and two years later San Francisco was invaded, while in 1877 a warehouse was established at Baltimore. In 1884 manufacturing opera-
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