USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > Springfield directory 1851-1852 > Part 8
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DECREET, BOYINGTON & CO.
This concern is engaged largely in the lumber busi- ness, and in building. The establishment is North of the Western Railroad track, and occupies the corner made by that road and Chestnut street, at its crossing. Almost the entire establishment was destroyed by fire
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last November, and was immediately rebuilt in a sub- stantial manner, particular reference being made to safety against a recurrence of the disaster. The walls are of brick, ond the doors and window sash of iron. No fires are made in the rooms where the lumber is dressed and worked, and no lights introduced during the entire year. The power which drives the exten- sive machinery is a double cylinder steam engine of 50 horse power, built by Mckay & Hoadley of Pitts- field, and a very beautiful piece of machinery it is. The boiler is 24 feet long and 42 inches in diameter, and is heated almost entirely by shavings and chips produced in the building.
The machinery employed is principally as follows : two Woodworth planing machines with iron frames ; one machine involving the Woodworth principle, for cutting mouldings, of which it now makes upwards of 50 styles, varying from two to ten inches in width, and which can be made to make any style desired, simply by furnishing it with the requisite set of knives; one upright saw for curved work; one saw-mill for splitting plank; one machine for making clapboards, planing and jointing stuff of the thickness of two clap- boards, and then splitting it diagonally, leaving the article all ready for use ; turning lathe for wood ; and various minor apparatuses for finishing the minuter portions of the work. A carpenter's shop, connected more immediately with the building portion of the es- tablishment, occupies one room, and a fire-proof dry house, near at hand, furnishes accommodation for 4,000 feet of lumber at a time.
Of lumber, Messrs D. B. & Co. sell and manufacture for their own use in building, between three and four million feet, annually. Of this, the best pine lumber all comes from Michigan and Canada. The lath and shingles all come from Maine. The chestnut and hemlock lumber is all brought from the country em- braced in a sweep from Hatfield to Becket, and other- wise bounded by the Western and Connecticut River
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Railroads. They also use about two cargoes a year of Southern pine, brought from Florida and Georgia. This lumber is used for handsome floors. The timber used for frames is brought from the mountains West of the Connecticut valley. The average number of hands employed is 50, besides the jobbers to whom many of the building contracts are consigned. The buildings now under contract are the medical college in Pittsfield, Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, a new block of stores on Main street in this town, for John Goodrich, a dwelling house for Mr. Rumrill of this town, and a considerable number of smaller build- ings-dwelling houses mostly.
Mr. Boyington is the architect and draftsman of the concern, and is a man of no mean pretensions in the art. We were particularly interested in a drawing of a new depot building, for the several roads centering in Springfield. It represents a building with a two story ornamental front, on Main street, running back 400 feet in a straight line, becoming one story after having furnished offices and refreshment rooms. The building then " bifureates " into two wings, 300 feet in length, describing on the ground the segment each of a large circle, for the accommodation of the North- ern and Southern roads. The walls are to be of brick with sheltered carriage ways on each side, and at in- tervals through the entire length. The roof is to be of iron. A thorough examination of the plan satisfied us that it could hardly be improved, and we sincerely hope that the roads interested may find themselves able to adopt it.
The whole establishment bears the look of enterprise and thrift. It is one of much importance to the town, and long may it be before its crowded lumber yard becomes vacant and its busy hum be stilled.
STONE & HARRIS.
These gentlemen are heavy Bridge Contractors, and occupy a building adjoining those of Decreet, Boying-
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ton & Co., and are furnished with power from their engine. The work done at their establishment is most- ly on iron, and consists in the manufacture of heavy machinery, bolts, nuts, &c., for bridges. They use annually from 300 to 500 tuns of iron, and employ 25 hands in their shop, besides a much greater number abroad, being engaged in the erection of bridges in Virginia and New Jersey, and, nearer home, on the Western, Norwalk and Danbury, and the New Haven and New London Rail Roads, and in the renewal of bridges on most of the old roads in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
SAMUEL G. SPENCER,
A tenant of Decreet, Boyington & Co., occupies ten hands in the manufacture of doors, sash and blinds.
WRIGHT & CO.
Occupy a building adjoining Decreet, Boyington & Co., and manufacture locomotive cranks, car axles, wrought iron shafting, and all kinds of hammered shapes. The work is done by nine men, who manage to melt down and hammar into shape upwards of 500 tons of iron annually. The trip-hammer is carried by a separate engine, and is an immense and powerful apparatus.
HARRIS & COLTON.
The establishment of these gentlemen, located at the foot of Howard street, is scarcely less in importance in its peculiar line of business, than that of Decreet Boy- ington & Co. They are dealers in lumber, contract for but little building, and enter largely into the manu- facture of doors, sash and blinds, working into this manufacture annually about half a million feet of lum- ber. These articles are shipped mostly for New York Boston, Providence and Hartford. The lumber used is brought almost entirely from the West-from Mich- igan, Canada, Pennsylvania and Western New York. The lumber manufactured and sold amounts to a little upwards of 1,000,000 feet annually.
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The building is of wood, large and convenient. The machinery is driven by a 25 horse power engine, of extremely simple and powerful construction, built at the American Machine Works in this town. The boilers, 2 in number, 26 feet in length by 2 in diame- ter, are heated by shavings made in the establishment
The building is stocked with an admirable set of machinery, which does almost the dntire work, even to the last, sand-paper touches. First in this machin- ery, stands E. G. Allen's planing, tonguing and groov- ing machine, a machine differing entirely from Wood- worth's, in that the knives are stationory. There are also two of Daniels' planing machines, a machine for making blind-slats, finishing both sides at once; an upright saw for curved work; Fay's machine for mouldings, finishing them at the rate of 30 feet a min- ute, Henry B. Smith's blind-mortising machine, one of the most ingenious pieces of mechanism to be seen anywhere ; two of Fay's machines for tennons ; four of Fay's mortising machines for general work; ma- chines for raising pannels ; upright saw for splitting stuff; etc. etc. Fastening the different pieces of a sash, door or blind together, seems to be the only work not done by machinery, from first to last. The dry room is kept full of manufactured doors &c., put together, but not fastened, in order to fit them for the latter finishing process. The number of hands em- ployed averages about 20, and if anybody wishes to know who the well dressed young gentlemen are whom he meets about town, occasionally, and whom he suspects of being strangers passing through town for pleasure, he has but to visit this, and similar es- taclishments, to see the " old familiar faces," sur- mounted by a paper cap, and busily attentive to an active pair of hands. Such establishments make such operatives, and such operatives, in sufficient numbers, make a thriving town.
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INDIA RUBBER WEB MANUFACTURING CO.
Under this firm Messrs Leonard Cutler and Obadiah Frary carry on the manufacture of all varieties of In- dia Rubber webbing. Their factory is situated at the Southern extremity of Main-street, and is among the last of the series of mills that occupy the falls of Mill River. The process of manufacture being compara- tively a novelty, demands a brief description. The material used is old Rubber shoes, collected by ped- lars, and costs from 20 to 30 cents a pound, though it formerly cost but 10 cents. The process of reducing the shoes to filaments consists, first, in placing them in a solvent, the article used being camphene. This reduces them lo such a consistence that the material can be ground to a uniform paste by passing it through iron rollers. The paste is then spread upon cloth by an adapration of rolling machinery, and embraces in this, or the preceding process, the operation of the process patented by Goodyear, into the secrets of which we were not introduced. Upon this sheet of cloth, the material dries, of a uniform thickness, but its peculiar elasticity is not restored until it has been subjected to a certain degree of heat. The sheet is then passed through rollers, one of which consists of circular knives, and the whole sheet is thus divided into filaments, ready for weaving.
The articles manufactured, and into which the fila- ments are introduced as the elastic material of the warp, are mostly made of cotton thread and floss silk. The latter is mostly of Foreign production, and is ob- tained in New York at a cost of about $10,50 a pound. These materials are variously worked into wide web- bing for Congress boots, shoulder braces, horse circin- gles, glove bands, &c., while the narrower webbing is worked up into ladies' elastics, suspenders, &c. Nine web looms are employed in the manufacture, operating 59 shuttles. Sixteen machines are employed on elas- tic braids of silk and cotton. Of the latter articles, 900 oards are made daily, and of webs, 800 yards daily.
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The webs are cut up and finished into 15 different styles of ladies' elastics, which are turned out annually to the amount of 1,000 gross. Five different styles of elastic suspenders are also manufactured, on which are employed, out of the mill, 150 females, who also en- gage in the production of other articles into which the elastic web and cord enter. The regular force of girls engaged in weaving and packing is 25. Six men are employed, variously, as overseers of the different de- partments. The goods manufactured mostly go to the New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore markets through the agency of Messrs E. S. Baxter and Lewis Cutler of Chicopee. The whole process of manufac- ture is of much interest, and is of particular advantage to the portion of the town in which it is located from the employment given to families in their own homes.
AMOS CALL'S HARDWARE MANUFACTORY.
This establishment is located in C. G. Rice's three story building. The principal articles manufactured are belt-punches, saw-sets, callipers, compasses, divi- ders, timber-scribes, boot-crim and lasting tools, &c. The principal madhinery consists of a trip-hammer, 2 turning engines, 2 turning lathes, 2 upright drill press- es, punching machine, &c. The number of hands employed averages more than 16. Mr. Call exhibited to us a most ingenious night latch lock, on which he has secured a patent, and for which he received a sil- ver medal at last lear's Fair of the American Institute in New York. The article is afforded at a cheap rate, and we can imagine no lock to be its superior for a door lock. It only needs bringing into notice to secure a wide adoption. Mr. Call works up annually about 4 tons of Fall River iron, and 1500 pounds of Foreign steel.
PERCUSSION CAP FACTORY.
This concern is carried on by James Chattaway, and is also in Rice's building. The process of man-
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ufacture is quite interesting, and the article produced second to none in the world. The copper which forms the cap is purchased from the rolling mills, of saitable thickness for working, and the sheet first passes through a machine which cuts it up into pieces, or " blanks," of the form of a cross, the four arms being of equal length. One of these pieces contains the ma- terial for a cap. They are then taken up, one by one, by girls, and pressed into a die which gives them their complete form. They are then placed in a frame with holes in it for their reception, the cap opening upwards. A frame with corresponding holes, each hole being charged with the mercurial detonating powder, is then placed on the other, and a slight rap causes the pow- der to fall through into the caps, and they are primed. The caps, still remaining in the frame, are then taken to another machine, for the purpose of dropping into each, a drop of water-proof cement. This is accom- plished by a frame of pencils which descend into the oup of cement, and retaining a drop, each, are shoved directly over the cap frame, and then lowered into the corresponding caps beneath where the cement is de- posited. The cap is thus finished, and is put up in tin boxes for the market. Mr. Chattaway finishes about 100.000 caps a day. The boxes are made in Hartford and the markets are found in all the large cities. Six qualities of caps are produced, varying in weight from 4 to 12 ounces per thousand. There are 11 dies in the room, and the number of hands employed is ten. The process of manufacture is a beautiful one, and considering how every little cap is handled singly,- marvellously rapid.
PUMP MANUFACTORY.
This is carried on in Rice's building, by C. G. Rice himself. The articles turned out are brass, copper and iron pumps, of double and single action, force and suction styles of construction. He also makes brass water cocks, couplings for hose, lead pipe &c.
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We are not aware of the annual amount of produc- tion.
D. PERKINS'S, MACHINE SHOP.
Situated on Mill river, opposite C. G. Rice's Lead Pipe and Pump Shop, where he carries on all kinds of making and repairing machinery. He has got a good set of new tools such as screw cutting and turning engines, hand lathes, a power planeing machine and other tools usually kept for the business. He also makes and repairs whips and other braiding ma- chines.
SPRINGFIELD ARMS COMPANY.
This is a new establishment, and one of much in- terest and importance. The building is situated a few rods above Rice's building. The articles manu- factured are Warner's Patent Revolver pistols and carbines. They are the invention of James Warner, formerly of South Hadley, who is the agent of the company, and the arms are certainly among the simp- lest and most efficient of all revolvers yet invented. The first facts apparent in their construction are that they can be discharged with the same rapidity as Colt's, and with the same efficiency. They are also no less light and beautiful in construction, and Mr. Warner claims that they are more simple and of course less liable to get out of repair. Six discharges can be made in from 8 to 10 seconds. The building is furnished with $20,000 worth of new machinery, consisting of 15 engine lathes, planing machines, up- right lathes, and all the appurtenances of a pistol fac- tory. The number of hands employed is 60. The carbines are capital arms for deer and bear hunting at the West and South. The number of pistols turned out daily, some of which are finished in the highest style, is 26. We are glad to learn that the sale is so rapid that hardly a specimen ean be kept for exhibi- tion.
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MASSASOIT FLOUR MILLS,
These mills, which have been steadily increasing in popularity since their establishment, occupy the build- ings long known as the Lower Water Shops of the U. S. Armory, on Mill river, and are carried on by Messrs Ingersoll, Doolittle & Co. They are furnished with two runs of stone for flouring purposes, and two runs for grinding feed, all being of the best French Burr Stone, made and arranged after the most ap- proved Western plan. The average manufacture of flour amounts to 50 barrels daily, or about 15,000 barrels annually, consuming about 70,000 bushels of wheat a year. In the feed grinding mills, from 200 to 300 bushels of feed are produced daily, which con- tain 125 bushels of corn. The feed produced is a mixture of corn, and the lower grades of wheat mate- rial, and is of various kinds and qualitles. From 40- 000 to 50,000 bushels of corn are ground annually. Nine hands are employed in the two mills, and the carting connected with them, while six are employed in the two offices, located in the Union House block, and Goodrich's block, on Main street.
In regard to these Mills, the fact is not so generally known as it should be, that in every particular and process, by which good flour is produced, they have no superiors in the United States. The miller employ- ed learned his business in the celebrated mills of E. S. Beach in Rochester, and has probably no superior in the country. The various proeesses of manufacture are almost entirely effected with machinery, the wheat being moved from one point to another in ducts and elevators. A load of 120 bushels of wheat, in mass, slides from the cart into a receiver on the outside, which conducts it to a weighing hopper, holding 35 bushels, where the bill of lading is verified, the load being discharged and weighed in ten minutes. It is then elevated to the screening mill in the upper story, from which it passes to the smut mill, and is finished, ready for the grinding, by being passed through a
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blowing machine which leaves every kernel superla- tively clean, and polished, almost to shining. From this, it passes to the grinding process, which with the bolting, is a familiar one. Here, the flour comes in contact with human labor, by being shovelled from the mass into barrels. In these, the flour is pressed with powerful machinery, and the barrel is headed up by hand.
The material used is from the very best wheat growing counties of Western New York. We have had not unfrequent occasion to speak in praise of this flour before, and we do it again with pleasure. Last autumn, at the three Agricultural Fairs in Springfield Northampton and Greenfield, the bread which secured the first premium was from the Massasoit mills flour, in every instance. The bread made at the Massasoit House, which has added materially to the celebrity of that widely known hotel, is made uniformly of this flour. About one half of the flour is put up in bags, and is unpressed. Flour in an unpressed condition will keep without souring five times longer than when pressed, as has been proved by actual experiment. The advantages of fresh flour are not properly appre- ciated. It bears a stronger creamy cast of color than that which is older, but is much sweeter ; and super- lative whiteness is at the sacrifice of sweetness, in proportion, and is in a great degree the result of age. Our citizens will rejoice in the prosperity of this ex- cellent establishment, and their continued and in- creasing patronage is a higher compliment to it than we can give.
SHUMWAY'S GOLD CHAIN MANUFACTORY.
This establishment is situated on the stream at the foot of Ames' Hill, on Maple street, and is intesesting, both from the elegant quality of the articles manufac- tured, and the novelty of the manufacture, in this region of country. It is carried on by Mr. Robert G.
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Shumway. The series of processes through which the material passes from the bar to the most elegant wrought guard and fancy chains, are so elaborate, and involve such a variety of chemical and mechanical minutiæ, that we shall attempt no description of them. It is sufficient to say that every variety of gold chains, from the simplest to the most complex, and of every style of finish, is produced here. Mr. Shumway em- ploys about 30 hands, one half of whom are girls .- The latter, with their ingenious and delicate fingers, are appropriately engaged in the work of converting the wire into the braid and linked work which makes the chain.
TRASK'S IRON FOUNDRY.
This concern is on the river side of Water st., and is owned and operated by Mr. Eliphalet Trask. The power employed is a 25 horse power steam engine, built by Dean, Packard & Mills. The business is a general jobbing one, consisting mainly of Railroad and Mill castings. Mr. Trask employs 15 hands, uses up 200 tuns of Lehigh coal annually, and 500 tuns of pig iron. The iron used is almost entirely American, and mostly from Berkshire County, in our own State. The gas light posts now being put up in our streets are from this foundry. This establishment has been stead- ily in operation for a number of years, adding sub- stantially to the prosperity of the town, and of the en- terprising and persevering proprietor.
CANDY MANUFACTORY.
The largest candy manufactory in this region of country is carried on by Messrs. Kibbe & Crane, at the corner of Sanford and Market streets. The facto- ry is a three story brick building, and the business be- ing somewhat cramped in this, it has been enlarged by breaking through into and occupying the whole of Dwight's Hall, in the building adjoining. Twenty
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hands are employed in the manufacture, a portion of whom are girls. The various candies turned out are mostly sold by pedlars, who are employed by the man- ufacturers. Five pedlars are employed all the time, with an aggregate number of 16 horses, who make semi-monthly trips through all the region of country bounded North by Brattleboro and Keene, East by Worcester, South by Bridgeport, New Haven, Say- brook and Norwich, and West by Pittsfield. The sugar used in the manufacture amounts to but little, if any, less than 150 tuns annually. The variety most used is the white Havana, though a iarge amount of the best crushed and pulverized is used in making the fine class of candies and lozenges. There are used annu- ally in the process of melting the sugar and reducing the syrups, the amount of 8,000 bushels of charcoal, and from 15 to 20 tuns of hard coal. The establish- ment also manufactures and sells annually about 550 dozen bottles of mead syrup, much in demand in coun- try towns for an effervescing Summer drink.
The various processes through which the sugar pass- es in reaching the condition in which it delights the eyes and tickles the palates of children, are very simple when you get acquainted with them. The Ha- vana sugars have to be clarified, and in this process of purification, eggs are largely used. After all the im- purities have risen, or been precipitated, the syrups are placed in boilers and evaporated to the proper con- sistency, whence they are taken and worked. The stick candy, for instance, is poured upon marble, and when properly cooled, receives its coloring of cochi- neal and flavoring with essential oils, and is then worked as boys work molasses candy, save on a more gigantic scale. A large mass is thrown upon a hook and allowed to fall down on each side to the proper length, and then doubled over the hook and the pro- cess repeated indefinitely, until the mass has a proper appearance. It is then transferred to a table, and drawn and rolled to the proper size, and cut off into
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sticks, the red stripe carrying itself through the whole extent of several rods of candy. The lemon drops are drawn out in the same way, at first, and the continu- ous stick rapidly produced from the mass by one man, is as rapidly run through a mill which cuts it up short into the drops. The " peppermints " are dropped from a cup with four lips at the rate of at least a dozen drops a second, upon tin plates where they are allowed to cool. The lozenges are made of cold pulverized sugar. This is kneaded with solutions of gum Arabic and tragacanth, and is regular baker's work, all but the baking. The masses are rolled with the common rolling pin, to a proper thickness, and the lozenges are cut out singly and laid away and dried. These are usually put up in ounce papers, and the papers pack- ed and sold in wooden boxes, which latter are products of the industry of New Hampshire, and are used in great quantities. The sugar dogs, cats, &c., are cast in plaster of Paris moulds, and receive their gaudy colorings from the brushes of the girls. After reading over these statistics, what wonder is it that our loca- tion should be called the " sweet valley of the Con- necticut ?"
RAILWAY CAR MANUFACTORY.
The only car manufacturing establishment in Spring- field is now carried on at the old Car and Engine Com- pany's buildings, near the depot, by Mr. Thomas W. Wasson. Mr. Wasson turns out every style of pass- enger, baggage, freight and hand cars, and carries on a business, which, in magnitude, is hardly second to any other in town. The power employed is an 80 horse power steam engine, of Boston manufacture, and double cylinder style of construction. The es- tablishment keeps in constant employment from 90 to 100 hands, and a very large amount of powerful and costly machinery. Mr. Wasson informs us that he turns out from 30 to 50 passenger cars annually, and from two hundred to three hundred freight cars. The
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