USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 58
USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 58
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The manufacture of machinery is still continued, and to it has been added that of architectural iron- work, which is extensively carried on. There are seven buildings used by the company in its business, and the machinery is driven partly by water from the race of the Trenton water-power and partly by steam- engines, of which there are two of thirty-five horse- power each. Two hundred. and fifty men are em- ployed in the works, and three thousand tons of iron are annually used, where in 1861 there were fourteen men, and the yearly consumption of iron was four hundred tons.
The officers of the company are W. D. Haven, president and treasurer ; Randolph II. Moore, vice- president ; and Thomas Braden, secretary.
WILSON D. HAVEN, president of the Phoenix Iron Company, was born in the city of Philadelphia, July 7, 1835. His grandfather, Samuel Haven, was a commissioned officer, and stationed on the Jersey coast during the war of 1812, and the Haven family were early residents of Monmouth County; N. J.
learned the mason's trade in Philadelphia while a young man, and there married Mary A. Wharton, a ! relative of Mayor Wharton of that city. The family removed to Freehold, N. J., where they were farmers for a time, subsequently, in 1854, to New York, where his father spent the remainder of his active life work- ing at his trade. He died in April. 1877, aged sev- enty-two; his wife in 1872, aged sixty-two years. Of their three sons and five daughters, Wilson D. HIaven is eldest, received his early education in the schools at Freehold, and at the age of thirteen began a business life on his own account as a clerk in a general store at Blue Ball, N. J. After two years i. he turned his attention to the mason business, learned it with his father, and followed it until the fall of 1858, when he went into the employ of James Bo- gardus, the original inventor of iron buildings. This was his introduction into the iron business, which he has followed since. He was sent to the island of Cuba to erect a large sugar-house, after a short time was made foreman, the following year superintendent, -- and completed the building in five years. From 1864 to 1868 he was superintendent of the Architectural Iron Company of New York, and for a year and a half following of the Old Novelty Iron Company of New York. In 1870 the firm of Heuvelman, Haven & Co. succeeded to the business of the Novelty Iron Company, with their office located at 77 Liberty Street, New York, and had their work done in Tren- ton by the late Charles Carr and the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company.
Since 1870, Mr. Haven's principal business has been with the United States government, and he has fur- nished the iron-work for most of the government build- ings throughout the country. In addition to the above the Phoenix Iron Company has been exten- sively engaged in the maunfacture of machinery of various kinds, and has furnished the iron-work for the . new Public Buildings in Philadelphia. MIr. Haven began his business career without the aid of friends, with no capital except willing hands and a clear, well-balanced mind, and has succeeded in placing himself in the front rank of the business men of New Jersey, being in 1882 at the head of the largest iron manufactory of its kind established in the State.
In addition to his regular business, Mr. Haven is also interested in the manufacture of illuminating gas, being president of the Fishkill and Mattewan Gas-Light Company, and a director of the Troy, N. Y., Citizens' Gas-Light Company.
He was united in marriage in 1862 to Miss Han- nah, daughter of George Merrick, of Philadelphia. They have one child, Florence A. Haven.
Watson's Machine-Works .- In 1864, Charle- T. Wetherill and John Watson established a machine- shop at the corner of Warren and Factory Streets. The business increased, and in 1866 Mr. Watson
His father, a native of Monmonth County, N. J., | erected a machine- hop thirty by fifty fect, two stories
IRON
& STEEL.
WIRE MILL
ROLLING MILL
ci gali
TRENTON IRON COMPANY. W YDAK OTFILE FOUPER HEWITT &CO. 17 BURLING SLIP PHILADELPHIA OFFICE Nº 21 NORTH FOURTH ST. |||
WORKS OF THE TRENTON IRON COMPANY, TRENTON, N. J.
683
CITY OF TRENTON.
in height, on the corner of Fair and Factory Streets. Mr. Wetherill died in that year. In 1872, Mr. Wat- son built a foundry forty by seventy-five feet next to the machine-shop, and purchased a blacksmith's shop from Joseph Brearley in 1875. In 1881 he enlarged the machine-shop to forty- five by seventy-five feet.
The business consists mainly of the manufacture of steam-engines and mill machinery, and more espeei- ally of pottery and rubber machinery.
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Twenty-five men are employed in this establish- ment, and the machinery is driven by an engine of twenty horse-power.
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Their machinery is driven by an engine of seventy- five horse-power, and they employ one hundred and twenty-five workmen. They manufacture vises, sledges, hammers, pieks, mattocks, grubbing-hoes, and many other kinds of tools, which find a market in all parts of the world. They use annually six hundred tons of iron and steel.
The Trenton Lock and Hardware Company .- The Trenton Lock Company was organized in 1865, and its works were erected on Railroad Avenue, near Clinton Street. The business indicated by the title of the company was continued till 1876, when the company failed. In the same year the Trenton Lock and Hardware Company was incorporated, and purchased the works of the old company. This com- pany has since carried on business here. It manu- factures all varieties of locks, also builders' iron, brass, plated, and bronze hardware.
The main building of the works is fifty by one hun- ! of five hundred thousand dollars. It was for the dred feet, and four stories in height. The foundry is forty-five by two hundred feet. The machinery is . stituted a principal part. The corporators were Peter
driven by an engine of sixty horse-power, and one hundred and twenty-five workmen are employed.
The officers of the company are James M. Vance, president; and Joseph MI. Smith, secretary, treasurer, and general manager.
Thropp's Iron-Works .- In 1878, Jolin E. Thropp purchased the property at the foot of Lewis Street, near the canal, and fitted it up for a foundry, boiler- and machine-shop, and commenced the manufacture of boilers, engines, pottery machinery, and miscel- laneous work. The increase of the business necessi- tated larger accommodations, and in 1881 two ad- ditional buildings were erected, and the machine-shop was enlarged. A fifteen horse-power engine is used in this establishment, and forty men are employed.
Eagle Anvil-Works .- The first manufactory of anvils ever established in this country, and at present the only one in existence in the United States, was first established at Newport, Me., in 1842, by the late Mr. Mark Fisher. He was the first discoverer of the process of welding steel and cast iron, and his dis- covery led to the establishment of this manufactory.
In 1849 the works were removed to Trenton, be- cause of the excellent water-power and the better facilities for obtaining coal and iron. The works were ereeted here on the site which they now occupy, on the Delaware River near the foot of Factory Street. At first a single two-story building, forty by
Vise- and Tool-Works .- About 1850 Andrew Thompson had a machine-shop in Union Street, where : eighty feet, was erected. and the works had a capacity the vise- and tool-works now are, and a Mr. Watson for manufacturing about one thousand anvils per year, but a gradual increase has taken place till now from ten thousand to fifteen thousand are produced an- nually. manufactured rubbers in an upper room of the build- ing. About 1860 Carr & Weld carried on a machine- shop and foundry at the same place. Murray & Co. succeeded Carr & Weld in the same business, with the addition of vise and tool manufacture. In 1871 Boker & Funke, of New York, became proprietors, and they have continued to the present time in the same line of business.
At the commencement of this business a strong prejudiee existed against cast-iron anvils, but as their utility has become better known, and improvements in their manufacture have been introduced, this prej- udice has worn away, and the present annual pro- duction is the result. It is believed by many that these anvils are superior to the imported ones, be- cause of the better quality of the steel with which they are faced.
The manufacture of the double screw parallel vise was commenced soon after the works were established, and its success has equaled that of the anvils.
The Fisher rail joint, also the invention of Mr. Mark Fisher, has been manufactured here during the last twenty years.
From fifty to sixty men are employed in these works, and the annual consumption of iron and steel is between two and three thousand tons. The works are owned and managed by Mr. Clark Fisher, a son of Mark Fisher, and formerly a chief engineer of the United States navy.
Trenton Iron-Works .- Feb. 16, 1847, the Tren- ton Iron Company was incorporated, with a capital manufacture of iron and articles of which iron con-
Cooper, James Hall, Edward Cooper, and Abram S. Hewitt.
The company at once purehased the rolling-mill of Peter Cooper, at the foot of Warren Street. In 1848 they purchased a controlling interest in the stock of the Delaware Manufacturing Company, which sub- sequently became merged in the Trenton Iron Com- pany.
The works of the Delaware Company were located on the old Sandtown road, now Hamilton Avenue, near Broad Street, where the Trenton Iron Campany's works now are. In 1848 these works consisted of a framed building eighty feet square, which was used mainly for the manufacture of spikes and nails. Ad- ditions were made from time to time till in 1872 a
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
large brick building was erected for the manufacture ! of wire, which had previously been conducted in the old rolling-mill. In April, 1875, this was burned, principal in one department of the school, an office but it was rebuilt and set in operation in two weeks which he continued to hold until 1845, the late Pro- fessor Anthon being throughout his earnest friend and patron. from the time when it was burned. It stands on the north side of Hamilton Avenue.
In 1877 the Trenton Arms and Ordnance Works, on the south side of Hamilton Avenue, were pur- clased and converted into a wire manufactory.
The works at present cover an area of eleven acres. The annual capacity of these works is fifteen thousand tons of wire and iron. About five hundred and fifty men are employed, and six large steam-engines and many small ones are in use, the whole aggregating fifteen hundred horse-power. There are two steam- hammers, seven heating furnaces, one double pud- dling furnace, one refinery, twelve forge-fires, and four trains of rolls.
In the wire-mills are fifty large blocks and one hundred small ones. There is also apparatus for galvanizing and turning wire. Attached to the works is a machine-shop for the manufacture and repair of the machinery in the mills.
In 1866 the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company was formed, and acquired the property at the foot of Warren Street which had been used by the Trenton Iron Company as a rolling-mill. The capital stock of the company is fifty thousand dollars, having been reduced from time to time as branches have separated from it.
The company now consists of Edward Cooper, Abram S. Hewitt, and the estate of Charles Hewitt. Abram S. Hewitt is president; William Hewitt, vice- president ; James Hall, treasurer; and E. Hanson, secretary.
Charles Hewitt attended one of the public schools of New York until, at the age of eleven years, he had reached the highest class, when he was taken from school and placed as clerk with an insurance company in Wall Street. Here he remained about six years. His brother Abram, two years his elder, was at Co- lumbia College during part of this time, and relates that Charles, by devoting all his leisure hours to study, and availing himself of fraternal assistance every evening, actually, without attending college at all, went through the whole course of instruction, so that the honorary degree of A.M. was conferied upon him by Columbia as a recognition of his scholarship and merit. At the age of seventeen he had qualified him- self for the position of tutor of mathematics in the
grammar school attached to the college. After a few months' service in this capacity he was appointed
In the year last mentioned he became cashier and book-keeper at the iron-works of Peter Cooper, in Trenton, N. J. Several years later he had risen to be general manager of the business in both its com- mercial and its manufacturing departments, but be- fore assuming this responsibility he had prepared himself through a practical course rarely undertaken by educated men. He began as a puddler's assistant, and worked his way to the rank of master-puddler ; went from this department to that of rolling, where he acquired a similar practical knowledge of details; and, in short, upon becoming, after three years of manual labor, the actual manager of the works, he could say, what few men in similar positions are able to say, that there was no portion of the business, high or low, which he did not completely understand and had not with his own hands practiced.
At the time when Charles Hewitt took charge of the Trenton Iron-Works (now known as the works of the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company, but still owned by Cooper, Hewitt & Co., as the successors of Peter Cooper ), the practice of American rolling-mills was in its infancy. Since that day it has been revo- lutionized, and in this progress Mr. Hewitt, as will be seen, bore an honorable part.
In 1848, while Mr. Lewis Schofield was still super- intendent of the works, Mr. Hewitt invented a double- grate reverberatory, the peculiarity of which consisted in its having a second bottom and a second grate, which might be called a recruiting or augmenting grate, its purpose being solely to increase the waste heat suffi- ciently to perform similar work again upon a second
HON. CHARLES HEWITT .-- Charles Hewitt was born Dec. 18, 1824, in New York City. His father was John Hewitt, of Cannock, Staffordshire, England. : who came to this country in 1798, married Ann : bottom. A number of these furnaces were constructed Gurnee, of Rockland County, N. Y., a lady of Hugue- not descent, and brought up a large family of children, among whom the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, of New York, and the subject of this sketch are most widely known.
and operated for a time, showing a marked economy in the consumption of fuel. In later years, however, it has been found more convenient and effective to utilize the waste heat of furnaces for generating steam. In this direction, also, Mr. Hewitt made great improvements in the ordinary arrangements of furnace-boilers. The arrangement now used in con- nection with all the furnaces in the Trenton Iron Company's mill, and with some at the New Jersey Steel- and Iron-Works, was invented by him in the early part of 1875. These boilers have excited a great deal of interest among rolling-mill men, and 1 are undoubtedly the best furnace-boilers in use. They save from twenty-five to thirty per cent. in I the consumption of fuel over the ordinary furnace- boilers. No flame is ever seen issuing from the chimney, and so little heat escapes that it has been found practicable and more convenient to have the damper at the bottom of the chimney, just above the ! boilers, than at the top, as in most furnaces.
Charstwocht
635
CITY OF TRENTON.
In 1851, Mr. Hewitt filed a caveat for an improve- paradoxical it may seem, by a little thought it will ment in railroad and other spikes, but never took out a patent for the invention. It related to the manner of cutting the bar of which the spikes were formed. The idea, although not practically elaborated by him, was subsequently conceived or adopted by others, and is now said to be a principle universally employed in spike-machines.
In 1855 he took out a patent for a ear-wheel of pecu- liar and ingenious construction. The disk of the wheel was formed of wrought irou, fashioned from a flat piece bent into circular form by making corrugations in it. These corrugations were peculiar. If a narrow strip of paper is taken and folded up alternately by lap- ping it first one way and then the other, so that when opened its section will be a zigzag line, thus-«VVVV", and the strip is then twisted around in the plane of its flat side till the two ends a b meet, it will give a very good idea of the appearance of this disk and the manner in which it was formed. The corrugations are deepest at the hub, and gradually become shal- lower as they converge from it till they meet in a plain circle at the tire, affording a very strong and, at the same time, a light body for the wheel. The hub and tire are of cast iron, being poured separately upon the disk and cast solid with it. The tire is poured first, so that this wheel is peculiarly free from tlrose internal strains frequently found in ordinary car-wheels, arising from the unequal shrinkage of the metal. A few of these wheels were put in use, and after running constantly for over fifteen years had not suffered much from wear. It is believed that in many respects they are superior to the ordinary car-wheels of the present day.
soon be seen that the idea is not so absurd as it first appears. The model of this machine in the Patent- Office has a series of grooves turned in the rolls, all of the same size, so that a small bar of wood may be used to illustrate the motions of the machine and the iron. It is merely necessary for the operator to enter the bar in the first groove, and keep the rolls con- stantly turning, the bar after that being alternately raised and lowered, and passing through all the grooves without being touched by hand. The gen- eral principle of the machine may be illustrated as follows: Imagine a scale with a long and a short arm; at the end of the long arm hangs a weight which just balances the weight of the iron to be rolled at a certain point on the other arm. At this point is the train of rolls, the arm of the lever being bent around below them. Now, it is evident that when the iron is on the side of the rolls nearest the fulcrum of the lever the weight on the long arm will lift the iron ; but when it is on the other side of the rolls farthest from the fulcrum, the weight of the iron will lift the weight on the long arm, and the iron itself will descend. In the machine, as patented, the floors correspond with the short arm of the lever, and instead of moving straight up and down, move in circular arcs toward the rolls, thus throwing the iron, which rests on rollers in the floor, into the groove. At the same time one of the floors has a side motion, by which the iron is brought opposite and delivered into the next succeeding groove. A slight steam pressure is used to overcome the friction of the machine, which cannot be allowed for by the weights employed. This invention has never been put into use in the complete form described in the article published in the Iron _Ige ; but a rude variety of it, operating on one side of the train only, was applied to the beam-mill of the old Trenton Iron- Works (now the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company) about 1860, and was used there for about twelve years with great success and satisfaction. It was finally removed and replaced with a machine operated by
Perhaps the most important inventions of Charles Hewitt are those relating to the inauguration of the three-high rail and beam-rolling mill iu this country. ; These are the " yielding guides or clearers" invented in 1854 (Mr. Hewitt was then superintendent of the Trenton Iron-Works), the " movable tables or plat- forms" invented in 1859, and the " stationary or sus- pended middle roll" invented in 1861. A detailed description of these inventions was given in a series . hydraulic power, involving similar principles of con- of articles by Mr. William Hewitt, published in the . struction. There are those who regard Mr. Hewitt's Iron Age in October, November, and December, 1875, : machine, in its complete form, as superior to any now on the "Construction and Management of Roll Trains." We have never seen any denial, and we do not think any denial could be maintained, of the claims advanced in these articles as to the priority of . the three-high mill in this country ; and it embodies, Mr. Charles Hewitt in some of these devices, for which other persons, doubtless upon independent dis- covery, have received credit.
in nsc, since it would operate on both sides of the train, and be more economical of power and labor. It was the first machine of the kind ever applied to in germ at least, all the essential principles of the various devices now in use for moving iron or steel at the rolls. His claim was this: "The movable floors 'or supports A B, for moving iron or other metal at the rolls while in process of manufacture, constructed and operated as described, or otherwise substantially the same."
The movable tables were invented in 1859. Mr. Hewitt found that great difficulty was experienced by . tbe men at the beam-rolls in handling the iron for some heavy beams about to be rolled. He conceived the idea that the weight of the iron might be used to With regard to the stationary or suspended midile roll, of which also a detailed description is given in raise and lower itself at the rolls. This idea flashed upon him one day like an inspiration. However : the articles in the Iron Age, above referred to, a few
686
. HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
words must suffice. In the ordinary arrangement the
iron ; and fifth, a larger field from the ore than can bottom roll is stationary, while the top and middle . be obtained by any other process.
rolls are adjustable. The great objection to this is that the upward pressures on the middle roll have to be transmitted to the housings through the chucks and journals of the top roll, upon which a heavy wear is thus produced. With a stationary or sus- pended middle roll and adjustable top and bottom rolls, the pressures on the middle roll are transmitted directly to the housings. In short, Charles Hewitt was one of the foremost pioneers of the American system of rolling rails and beams, and every three- high rail-mill and beam-mill in this country or any other may justly be regarded as a monument to his genius.
At the beginning of the war great trouble was cx- perienced by the government in obtaining good arms. Abram S. Hewitt, at the request of the Secretary of War, went to England, bought up all the suitable iron that was to be had, and studied the conditions of its manufacture. Meanwhile, Charles Hewitt undertook to manufacture sueh iron in this country; and the firm promised to give him a house if he should succecd in rolling gun-barrels to the satisfaction of Maj. Dyer, superintendent of the Springfield Armory. The rolls were made, and the first gun-barrels were sent to the Springfield Armory to be tested. It is said that the first report that Charles Hewitt received concerning them was in the shape of a telegram from his brother,-" Build your house !" The manufacture of these gun-barrels resulted in what was subsequently known as the "Trenton- Springfield rifles," which were largely used during the war in defense of the Union. The house in which the family now lives is the one that was presented to Mr. Hewitt in acknowledgment of his suceess in this manufacture, which, although superseded in that spe- cial form, has survived, so far as the peculiar quality of metal is concerned, in the manufacture of "gun- : screw wire," a refined wrought iron of extraordinary homogeneity and tenacity, for which the Trenton Iron Company received special mention from the judges of the Centennial Exhibition.
In 1869, when the Ellershausen process of making iron was creating so much excitement among iron manufacturers, Mr. Hewitt took out a patent for an improved process of manufacturing iron, similar in some respeets to Ellershausen's, but essentially dif- ferent in the manner in which the ingredients were mixed, produeing, as was claimed, a much better quality of iron. He mixed cast iron, divided into eoarse granules or pieces, with oxide of iron in an ordinary puddling-furnace, melting, stirring, and boiling them together, and balling in the usual way. The advantages claimed for this are: First, a saving of time as compared with ordinary paddling ; second. an improvement in the quality of the product; third, a reduction in the cost of the iron produced ; fourth, that gray iron may be converted as quickly as white
In the same year he took out a patent for an im- proved process of manufacturing steel-headed rails. His claim covered " the formation and usc, for and in the manufacture of railroad bars, of a pile having on one of its sides a bar composed of a layer of steel and a layer of iron, these layers having been welded together before being placed in the pile, said bar har- ing its layer of iron in contact with the other iron of the pile, and its layer of stech in such position as will form the head or part of the head of a finished rail."
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