USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 42
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At the beginning of the present century the making of pot and pearl ashes, rum, ships and leather in all its branches, was carried on in Charles- town, as well as articles of silver, tin, brass and pewter. There were three rope walks recently built. Eight years later the printed statistics of Timothy Thompson, jr., showed that the annual value of the man-
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factures was $1,231,663, a little more than one-half of which consisted of bricks. Morocco was the next article in amount, and cordage third, while soap and candles to the value of $89,000, and common weaving amounting in value to $2, 113 were named.
The first few years of the present century was an experimental era in the history of Boston's industrial progress. Among the new enter- prises, not before mentioned, which properly belong to this period, was that of the chemical works of Dix & Brinley, at South Boston, which had, however, been established prior to 1800. Their establishment was on the shore near where the Boston Wharf was afterwards built. An- other important enterprise completed in 1804, which ultimately became of great importance in the development of the cotton industry, was the Middlesex Canal, connecting Boston Harbor with Concord River. It was built by a company incorporated in 1789, and was the first great work of its kind finished in the United States. The distance was about twenty-seven miles, and the cost upwards of $550,000. Colonel Re- vere's sons at this time were carrying on their copper works at Canton, but their business headquarters were at Boston. This was the only sheet copper works in the country at the time. In 1805 John Bannock of Boston, was granted a patent for a planing machine, and two years › later Jesse Reed, who had made several inventions in the manufacture of nails, received an important patent for a machine for cutting and heading nails by one operation. 1 Patents were also granted to Elisha Callender, in 1808, for lightning-rods, the first in the United States, and, in 1810, to Phineas Dow for a leather splitting machine.
In 1808 petitions were laid before Congress by Panl and J. W. Re- vere, of Boston, praying for a duty of seventeen and a half per cent. on sheet copper, in which they professed to be able to supply the United States. This was, however, not granted, no duty. being placed on copper till 1842. During the same year, 1808, the twine and line manufacturers of Boston, Charlestown, Plymouth, Salem and Beverly petitioned Congress for an increased duty upon these articles, with which they also claimed to supply the United States, stating that they manufactured annually from hemp 46,000 dozen of lines and 27,500 1bs. of twine. During 1809 the first cotton sail duck made in New England, if not in the world, was made in Boston. It was from the factory of a
I His machine came into extensive use. Previous to 1809 twenty-two of Reed's patents were put in operation at Malden, five miles from Boston, by Thomas Odiorne and associates, who purchased the patent. The machine was afterwards adapted to cutting tacks.
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Mr. Bemis, established this year near Boston. It was made of Sea
Island cotton. This grew to be an important industry, especially during the war of 1812, when an extra amount was required by pri- vateers and merchant vessels. A capital of $100,000 was employed at this time at Roxbury in the manufacture of soap and candles, where 370,000 1bs. of the latter and 380,000 1bs. of brown soap, 50,000 lbs. of Windsor and fancy soap were made. The manufacture of hats was largely carried on in Boston. Establishments for the manufacture of tin, japanned and plated ware also existed. The Boston Crown Glass Company, commenced in 1789 and incorporated in 1809, was now making crown glass equal to any imported. In 1810 a patent was granted John B. Lawin and J. B. Wait for a circular printing press. In the same year a printing press on a new plan and designed to secure, by means of a lever without a screw, greater power and speed, was completed, but not patented, by Benjamin Dearborn, of Boston, who had invented a wheel press about twenty-five years before. To Jacob Perkins, of Boston, was also granted a patent for a mode of preventing counterfeiting. The forging of bank bills, which this invention was designed to counteract, was very rife at this time, and was rendered easy by the rudeness of the art. The stereotype check plate, first pat- ented by Perkins in 1799, was thought to render it nearly impossible, and the Legislature of Massachusetts required all bank notes to be im- pressed by his process. His mode of transferring engravings from one plate to another by means of steel roller dies, upon which he and Mur- ray soon after jointly patented an improvement, was in 1808 applied to calico printing, and his method of engraving bank notes was sub- sequently introduced in England.
The first United States census which included inquiries relative to manufactures was taken in 1810. It indicates the lines in which the people of Boston were engaged, but it is far from a reliable index of the extent of its industrial interests at that time. The total product of manitfactures of Boston at this period is given as $2,478,391, probably not more than one-third of the total value. The principal items of the census were: fur hats, $56,000; clocks and watches, $21,000; gold and silver work, $95,000; copper and brass goods, $21,000; buttons, $20,- 000; tallow candles, $40,000; soap, $30,600; boots, shoes and slippers, $131,225; saddlery, $90,400; spirits, $764,400; beer, $57,800; metals, mixed, $151, 481 ; cabinet work, $115,000; sugar, refined, $64,000; glass, $36,000; cordage, $545,000; musical instruments, $14,200; spectacles,
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$10,000. It will be noticed that the distillery of spirits and cordage were the two leading industries. At this time the interruption of com- merce with the Baltic had given a great impetus to the cultivation and manufacture of hemp. The morocco manufacturers of Charlestown, about this time, petitioned the government for further protection. At Charlestown 150,000 skins were annually manufactured, nearly one- fifth of the entire product of the United States.
From the close of the first decade of the present century to the end of the second war with Great Britain was a period of great industrial prosperity. The interference with commerce, caused by the restrictive measures growing out of the war, induced an advance in the price of all necessaries. There was great demand for all manufactured prod- ucts, especially woolen and cotton. New industries of all kinds arose, and invention was stimulated in every direction, the most important being, however, in the direction of cotton and woolen machinery, which is fully treated of in the portion of this work devoted to the textile industry.
Wood engraving was introduced in Boston in 1811 by Nathaniel Dearborn, who three years later also introduced a new process of print- ing in colors. In 1811 Mr. Dearborn and John Fairbanks, respectively president and secretary of the Massachusetts Association for the En- couragement of Useful Inventions, presented a petition to Congress praying for such a revision of the patent laws as should secure invent- ors more fully against infractions of their patent rights. During this year patents were granted Cyrus Alger, of Boston, for a mode of cast- ing large iron rollers for rolling iron ; to Perkins Nichols for a rimming augur, and to Benjamin Bell upon sulphuric acid. In 1814 patents were granted to James Harrison, of Boston, on the time-piece of a clock, and to Moses L. Morse for a process for manufacturing pins of wire at one operation. This machine is said to have shown much me- chanical genius, and was used to some extent, but being too delicate and intricate, and remaining unimproved in other hands, fell into dis- use, or was superseded by other machines.
Cyrus Alger was a most active and prominent figure in the industrial progress of South Boston, where he began the foundry business in 1809 with General Winslow. He was of a high order of inventive genius, and was one of the best metallurgists of his day. He discovered a method of purifying cast iron, which gave it more than triple strength over ordinary castings, and which proved of immense value in the
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manufacture of ordnance, in which he was for many years engaged. During the war of 1812 he supplied the government with large num- bers of cannon balls. In 1814, not long after the Dorchester peninsula became a part of Boston, he established the South Boston Iron Works, a concern which has had a long and in many respects a remarkable his- tory. At these works the mortar gun "Columbiad, " at that time the largest gun of cast iron ever cast in America, was made under Mr. Alger's personal supervision. He also first introduced at these works the method of making cast-iron chilled rolls. In 1836 he manufactured the first malleable iron guns made in this country, and supplied the gov- ernment with quite a number. The first gun ever rifled in America was done at his works in 1834. He manufactured the first perfect bronze cannon for the United States and for the State of Massachusetts. Mr. Alger died in 1856. His son, Francis Alger, who died soon after the close of the War of the Rebellion, succeeded him in the manage- ment of the South Boston Iron Works. He brought to the business a thorough training and taste for the work in which he was engaged. He achieved considerable eminence as a scientific man, and was the author of "Alger's Philip's Mineralogy." He inherited his father's inventive genius, and obtained patents for inventions relating to heavy ammuni- tions. He was frequently called to Washington during the late Civil War and consulted by the government engineers in matters relating to the ordnance department of the army. Under his supervision large orders for projectiles of every description were furnished to the govern- ment, particularly the rifled shot and shell and for the "Schenke pro- jectile."
The South Boston Iron Works were kept at work day and night by the United States government during the late Civil War, and their guns and projectiles formed an important factor in defending the Union and bringing hostilities to a successful close. Their guns sank the Merri- mac and the Alabama, and played a conspicuous part all along the coast from Norfolk to New Orleans. From March, 1863, to February, 1874, these works furnished the United States Ordnance Department with 580 guns (190 of them being fifteen inch guns and weighing twenty- five tons each), and also a large number to the navy department. In 1880 they built the first all steel gun made in this country, and were constantly in the "advance guard " in all experiments looking to the betterment of our defenses in case of war. They have furnished am- munition in large quantities to Chili, Peru, and the Argentine Repub-
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lic. In 1863 they shipped to Chili three cargoes of shot and shell with- in six months.
In 1892 the South Boston Iron Works were removed to Middleborough, Kentucky. In the same year the Hunt-Spiller Manufacturing Com- pany, with W. P. Hunt as president, was incorporated for the purpose of continuing at the old plant the manufacture of a pneumatic disap- pearing gun carriage, the invention of Henry A. Spiller. It is the first of its kind made in this country. Several of the European countries had made experiments with similar contrivances, but so far without success. Mr. Spiller's invention has been tested at the old fortification at Sandy Hook by distinguished experts, and has been found to work in a highly satisfactory manner. The first test was made December 4, 1891, when a powder charge of 170 pounds was used in the gun. An- other trial, equally satisfactory as the first, was made in March follow- ing, when nearly the maximum charge of 250 pounds was reached. The carriage is made of steel, and its operation is automatie throughout, the great gun appearing to come to firing position with as little trouble as a soldier brings his rifle to his shoulder. After firing the recoil is checked so easily that the gun settles down behind the ramparts for re- loading without the slightest shock. The carriage weighs complete fifty-four tons. Compressed air is supplied to the cylinder from a re- ceiver, with the gun lowered at a pressure of 1,100 pounds to the square inch. In raising the gun the pressure is reduced to 325 pounds to the square inch, the air being again compressed when the gun falls back after recoil. This acts as a cushion to take off the force of the recoil. A valve, operated by a hand wheel, admits the air to the under part of the piston when the gun is to be raised, and side buffers assist in sup- porting the gun when it comes down. A small reversible air engine, used for training, raising and depressing the gun, is placed in a pro- tected position beneath it. The gun is loaded by compressed air, and when it is being loaded it is concealed behind the parapet. As soon as the order is given to "cover," the big gun, weighing more than thirty tons, is silently and instantly raised above the wall, and ready to fire. The recoil which immediately follows the discharge is so extremely easy that when it settles upon its buffers there is hardly a shock. It is estimated that the gun can be loaded, hoisted, fired, and lowered in twelve minutes.
Seth Fuller was the first person in Boston to make an entirely distinct business of hanging mechanical bells and speaking tubes, founding the
55
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business in 1809. His son, Seth W. Fuller, who succeeded to the busi- ness in 1835, while continuing it along the same lines, was the pioneer of the electrical business in Boston, if not in the United States, having begun to instal electric bells about 1864. At that time he was obliged to import annunciators, wire, batteries, and even the ordinary wood push button from Paris, but at the present time not an article used by those who succeeded Mr. Fuller is imported. Mr. Fuller continued at the head of the business until his death a few years ago, since which his son, Frank Fuller, has conducted it, the latter representing the third generation of the family in the same line of employment.
In 1811 the first successful attempt in this portion of the country to manufacture flint glass was made by Thomas Cains. At this time the proprietors of the Essex Street Glass Works, in South Boston, enlarged their works and sent to England for workmen. Among those who came was Mr. Cains, who possessed the art of mixing the material to make flint glass. He prevailed upon the proprietors to put up a small flint glass furnace. The manufacture of stained glass was introduced in Boston in 1830, but the workmanship was poor and the designs crude. In 1840 James M. Cook commenced the business, and by employing the best articles in the country, produced work of considerable excellence.
After the protection afforded by the war of 1812 was withdrawn, large importations of foreign goods were made to the United States. The effect upon the home industries was in every way disastrons. Many branches were yet new and imperfectly established, and few of the more recent enterprises had yet reimbursed the heavy expenses in- cidental to first undertakings on a large scale. But few branches of home industries were sufficiently strong to successfully compete with those abroad. During the first three-quarters of the year 1815 foreign goods to the amount of $83,000,000 were imported, and in 1816 the value of foreign importations reached the sum of $155,250,000. The evident desire of the English manufacturers to break down the formid- able rivalry of growing but immature manufactures by the means of heavy consignments of goods, regardless of financial consequences to themselves, was made plain by the speech of Mr. Brougham in Parlia- ment, when he declared, in reference to the loss sustained by English manufacturers in these transactions, that it " was even worth while to incur a loss upon the first importations, in order by the glut to stifle in the cradle those rising manufacturers in the United States, which the war had forced into existence, contrary to the natural course of
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things." The results of this policy were soon felt; many manufactur- ers were compelled to close their factories, others who ventured to continue became in the end hopelessly bankrupt; large numbers of workmen were thrown out of employment and compelled to seek new avenues of labor to support their families. The only remedy for the evils which affected the country was through protective legislation Petitions poured in upon Congress from manufacturers all over the country, praying for increased tariff, but before the remedy could be applied the most widespread distress prevailed ; correction of the evils was słow. Indeed the conditions were not favorable to a proper prose- cution of American industries, except in a few avenues, until the pro- tective tariff of 1824 went into operation, and the more important act of 1828.
Still the period covering several years after the war of 1812 was not entirely barren of progress in the industrial arts in Boston. In the manufacture of cotton was seen the most remarkable and important re- sults, which will be shown in succeeding pages. The mechanical in- genuity of the people was shown in many other directions. In 1816 John Adamson was granted a patent for a floating dry dock. . In 1817 John L. Sullivan was granted a patent for propelling boats by condensed air, and in 1818 Aaron M. Peasely received a patent for an organ at- tachment. In 1819 Robert Graves was rewarded a patent for cordage. This patent cordage, for which two others were granted in the follow- ing years, was extensively manufactured in Boston by Winslow, Lewis & Co., who used Graves's machinery, worked by horses, and in 1821 employed one hundred men and boys.
In 1820 the manufacture of chain cables was begun at Boston by Cot- ton & Hill, who for thirty years were the only successful manufacturers of cables in the United States. They were, however, ultimately com- pelled to abandon the business, on account of the low price of the im- ported English chains, but they resumed it in 1856. The manufacture of lead paint had also been commenced in Boston, while in Lechmere Point, in Cambridge, which in 1822 contained a population of more than one thousand persons, was a glass factory which employed one hundred and fifty workmen; 22, 400 pounds of glass vessels were made per week, many of which were beautifully cut and sent to Boston for sale. At the same place one hundred and fifty men were employed in making bricks, the greater part of which were used in Boston.
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Boston can justly lay claim to being the birthplace of American piano manufacturing. John Osborn, the first to engage in the business here, was between 1815 and 1835 one of the leading piano manufacturers of the United States. It was with Mr. Osborn that Jonas Chickering, the founder of the firm of Chickering & Sons, first secured employment in an industry he was subsequently to virtually revolutionize in the New World. The career and achievements of Mr. Chickering are so note- worthy and so much a part of the industrial history of Boston, that no apology is necessary for the following extended notice of his personal history and the business which he inaugurated.
Jonas Chickering was born in New Ipswich, N. H., April 5, 1799. At the age of seventeen he left home to learn the art of cabinet mak- ing. It was while engaged at his trade that he first saw a piano. It was owned by a Mr. Barrett, who had temporarily quitted Boston dur- ing the war of 1812 for fear of a bombardment by the British. The in- strument had been imported from England. "It was shown to Mr. Chickering," says one historian, " by Mrs. Barrett, who entered into a pleasant conversation with him, drawn toward him by his modest, genial character, associated with a calm, self-trustful manner of speak- ing. After a prolonged and minute examination of the instrument he remarked in a very quiet way, 'I think I can make one,' of course very much to the astonishment of the lady, who was utterly incredulous of any such latent powers, or of any such remote possibility of result. ' Why, young man,' she said, 'this was brought way across the ocean from Europe.' 'Still,' he quietly replied, 'I think I could make one.' She afterward heard he had made one, and since then the whole world on both sides of that great ocean has heard that he made several, com- pared with which that little, modest instrument, would hide itself and blush, if it were a sensate thing, unless the knowledge of the service it had performed in awakening the latent powers of that young man made it swell with pride."
In 1818 young Chickering came to Boston, then the Mecca of all young New Englanders, where he obtained employment at his trade. One year later, together with Timothy Gilbert, he secured employment in the workshop of John Osborn, from whom he first acquired a prac- tical knowledge of piano-making. He continued with Mr. Osborn for three years, giving attention to every detail of the manufacture and acquiring a thorough knowledge of the business. Mr. Osborn, soon after Mr. Chickering entered his employ, formed a copartnership with
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James Stewart, a Scotchman, who had been induced to give up his business in New York, where he had the reputation of making the best pianos in the country. In a year or two the men quarreled and sepa- rated. Stewart, who had perceived that Mr. Chickering was a quick and intelligent workman, succeeded in persuading him to join him in the business of making pianos in his workshop on Tremont street, where the Historical Society's building is now located. Their pianos quickly met with favor, and were considered superior to any made in Boston. They remained together for two years, when Mr. Stewart retired, and Mr. Chickering continued the business alone with great success.
In February, 1830, Mr. Chickering became associated with Captain John Mackay, a gentleman of considerable means, who had previously carried on the business of piano-making with Alpheus Babcock, who had invented several valuable patents connected with the pianoforte. The firm of Chickering & Mackay, which lasted until 1841, conducted their operations at the factory on Washington street. During this . period Mr. Chickering became known as the most experienced and per- fect piano manufacturer in the United States. Mr. Mackay was the business man of the house and Mr. Chickering devoted himself entirely to the technical department. This harmonious employment of their energies was broken in 1841, when Mr. Mackay sailed for South America for the purpose of procuring large quantities of wood to be used in the firm's business and was never afterwards heard of. Mr. Chickering then became the sole proprietor of the business, and con- tinued it alone with marked success until his sons, Thomas E., C. Frank, and George H. were old enough to lend him their assistance; all three, after having served a systematic apprenticeship at the busi- ness, being admitted to partnership with their father in 1852, under the firm name of Chickering & Sons.
To Jonas Chickering can justly be ascribed the honor of founding the piano industry in the United States on the basis of equality with foreign makers. Others had preceded him in making pianos in America, but they were of an inferior grade of workmanship. Mr. Chickering began experimenting in 1822, and offered his first piano for sale in 1823. Six years later he had made in a single year 717 pianos. His fame rests largely upon his inventions of the square metal frame, with improved damper attachment, patented in 1840, having in 1837, however, made the first successful application of an entire iron frame to a square piano; the plate for grands, made in one solid cast-
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ing, patented in 1843; the upright piano, with full iron frame and over-strung bass, made in 1850, and the circular scale, produced in 1853. " This first iron frame, as all the musical world is aware, with the introduction of the circular scale," says one writer, "marked the commencement of the most important epoch in the history of piano- making. All the marvelous developments which have taken place in the construction of pianos during the past forty or fifty years were made possible by these inventions."
At the very threshold of his triumphs and of his well earned pros- perity, Mr. Chickering passed from the scenes of his labors on Decem- ber 8, 1853, leaving to his sons a name famous in the annals of musical mechanism, and a business which his genius and skill had increased from fifteen instruments, made by him the first year, to thirteen hun- dred per year. He was a genial, courteous, unassuming, kindly man. Notwithstanding the exacting nature and character of his labors, he found time to interest himself in the progress of art in Boston and in other useful work. In 1834 he was elected vice-president of the old Handel and Haydn Society, and afterwards was chosen president. For a number of years he was also president of the Massachusetts Charitable Association. An excellent authority has said of him: "His superior intelligence, his inventive genius, and his great moral force of character and purpose not only made him first and foremost as a manufacturer, but also helped materially to give our city (Boston) its pre-eminence as a musical center. When we think of our wonderful musicians who have brought to the ears so vividly the marvelous works of the piano- forte composers, let us not forget the maker of the instrument which has made this possible."
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