Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 123

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations > Part 123

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The firm continued to grow and extend itself, in- creasing its capacities for manufacturing, enlarg- ing and extending its machinery, until it attracted the attention of the nation.

At the breaking out of the Rebellion, it became largely the resource of the North for productions not obtainable at any other establishment. It man- ufactured very largely for the Government the patent solid lip railroad chairs, which were invented in these works. Immense quantities of these chairs were used upon the military railroads in Virginia, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and other States, upon which the supplies for the army were trans- ported.

As the war advanced, it was the fortune of the Albany Iron-works to be connected with one of its most brilliant and decisive events-an event which not only relieved the nation from a fearful peril, but revolutionized maritime warfare, not only in this country, but in all the civilized world. This was the building of the Monitor. As one reads the history of that small but powerful craft, he almost fancies himself in the realms of romance, so singularly did entirely opposite and unexpected circumstances unite to turn a terrible defeat and impending ruin to the country to a wonderful and almost fabulous victory.

Before and during the events to which we have alluded, John A. Griswold was at the head of the Rensselaer Iron-works, and John F. Winslow, as we have seen, was connected with the Albany Iron- works. These gentlemen were profoundly im- pressed with the inefficiency of the wooden vessels of the United States Navy, and "earnestly urged upon the authorities the construction of that novel iron battery, the Monitor, invented by John Ericsson. For not only did these men strongly advocate the building of the vessel, but they had the courage and enterprise to willingly hazard their reputa- tion and money in building this experimental iron war-craft. As has been truthfully said : 'They con- tracted to furnish in a given time, and that a short time, a shot-proof battery, such as had never before been known, original not only in general design, but in the arrangement of parts, with new methods of mounting guns-heavier guns than had before been used on shipboard-and they bound them- selves to cause this novel vessel, with all her untried machinery, to work in all respects to the satisfaction of the department, or forfeit the money advanced, and that 25 per cent. of the whole amount they were to receive should remain unpaid until the Secretary

541

ERASTUS CORNING.

should be satisfied with the performance of the ves- sel. As a necessary consequence of the contract, the vessel was not accepted by the Government until after the fight at Hampton Roads.'"

Captain Ericsson had conceived the idea of build- ing an iron ship; and made applications to the Secretary of the Navy for assistance. Some offers were made him which he did not accept, and it was not until C. S. Bushnell, John A. Griswold and John F. Winslow took the matter in hand and went to Washington, where, by President Lincoln's influ- ence and that of several officers of the navy, they secured the contract for building such a vessel as Ericsson had planned.

In the report on iron-clad vessels made by the board, September 16, 1861, it was decided to ac- cept the proposition offered by these gentlemen in regard to the vessel outlined by Captain Ericsson.

Immediately upon their return home, John A. Griswold and John F. Winslow, as if they were moved by Divine inspiration to build and complete the vessel in the required time of 100 days, and to clothe it with impregnable iron, began to make the necessary preparations for manufacturing the iron armor. Orders which could have been filled at any other time were refused by the Albany Iron- works to give preference to the manufacture of the plates, bar iron, spikes, etc., for the Government's vessel, and the other portions-the machinery, port stoppers, etc .- were contracted for by the associates of Captain Ericsson. The following extracts from letters addressed to the inventor exhibit the patriotic zeal, the practical purposes and constant diligence of the Troy contractors in forwarding the work of construction.

The building of the hull of the vessel was given to Thomas F. Rowland, agent of the Continental Iron-works at Greenpoint, L. I., the plates, bars and rivets being furnished him from the Albany Iron-works of this city. The Delamater Iron-works were assigned the manufacture of the steam machin- ery, boilers, propellers and internal apparatus of the turrets. The "port stoppers " to Charles D. De Laney, of Buffalo.

The contract with the Government was made October 25, 1861, by and between Thomas F. Rowland, agent in behalf of the Continental Iron- works, Greenpoint, L. I., of the first part, and Captain J. Ericsson, of New York, Messrs. John F. Winslow and John A. Griswold, of Troy, N. Y., and C. S. Bushnell, of New Haven, Conn., parties of the second part. The work on the battery be- gan at once at Greenpoint, and was diligently prose- cuted during the months of October, November, December and January. The Monitor has been so often described that a description here is needless. On March 4, 1862, she was ordered to sea, and on the afternoon of March 6 she left the lower Bay of New York on an expedition that has given her name to history.

As she passed Cape Henry at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon, March 8, Captain Worden and his crew listened to the heavy boom of cannon coming from the engagement in Hampton Roads between the rebel iron-clad Merrimac and the

United States ship of war Minnesota, announcing to them that they and their little vessel were soon to engage in a terrible conflict. While on her way the Cumberland and Congress, two of the proudest ships of our navy, were destroyed by the Merrimac, the first of these vessels, having lost 117 men out of 800, sunk with her colors flying; and the second, after the escape of her crew, blew up, the fire reach- ing her magazine. It was nine at night when the Monitor reached the roads and anchored near the Merrimac. In the morning she engaged her for- midable antagonist, flushed with the victory of the preceding day, and drove her back, crippled and disabled, from the scene of the contest. Thus we may say the Monitor saved the nation.

We have thus alluded to the Monitor because, through the mysterious ways of Providence, Erastus Corning, Sr., by the establishing of the Albany Iron-works, became instrumental in bringing about the construction of it.

A history and description of the great establish- ment of which Mr. Corning is the head, is inter- esting to the iron trade and profession on account of its high reputation for extent and quality of its products; because it embraces one of the oldest iron- works in the United States; and it is interesting to the general public because it is the pioneer Besse- mer works of America.

Here were tried many of those experiments which have contributed to the development of its manu- facture. Boiling was practiced at an early day ; "puddled steel," as good as the imported article, had its course ; spike, rivet and horseshoe machines were the subject of constant improvement; Amer- ican iron and refractory materials for the Bessemer were tested; and the American system of Bessemer plant was worked out.

The group of works forming the present estab- lishment were originally independent of each other. The Albany Iron-works grew up during sev- enty-five years under the principal ownership of Corning & Winslow. The Bessemer works were started by Winslow, Griswold & Holley in 1865. The Rensselaer works-a mile further up the Hud- son-after thirty five years' growth, latterly under the ownership of Corning & Griswold, were joined to the Bessemer works. All the above mentioned works, and two blast furnaces, to be further re- ferred to, are now owned by Erastus Corning. Their commercial affairs are administered by Mr. Corning, General S. F. Marvin and Chester Gris- wold; Mr. Robert W. Hunt is General Superintend- ent. These works, excepting two blast furnaces, are in the City of Troy, in an important railway center ; the New York Central, Boston and Albany, Delaware and Hudson, Troy and Boston, Boston and Hoosac Tunnel and Western roads radiate re- spectively in every direction, to anthracite and bi- tuminous coal fields, two hundred miles west ; to Lake Champlain ore mines, one hundred miles north ; and the immense deposit of the Hudson River Ore Company, on the Hudson, opposite Catskill.

During the last two or three years heavy and fast roll trains, economical engines and improved fur-

542

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

naces have been substituted for the older machinery, and extensive enlargement of the converting plant is largely completed. The distance of a mile be- tween the bloom and the rail-rolling departments is practically overcome by special railroad facilities. The following is a description furnished us by Mr. Hunt.

BESSEMER PLANT.

Before it was begun, various American irons had been tried by the Bessemer process in Sheffield, in 1864, and a Lake Champlain iron, the Crown Point, was found especially good. A two-and-one- half-ton single vessel plant was started in February, 1865, and run till 1871, when it was changed into the ingot mold foundry. This five-ton Bessemer plant was started in 1867, partially destroyed by fire in 1868; rebuilt in 1869, it again began work in 1870. More recently, large cupolas, seven-ton vessels, were put in.

The Bessemer building is of brick, 148 feet by 98 feet in plan, with a cupola house 80 x 39 feet. This is the earliest specimen of the American type of plant, with vessels set high and side by side, and with three ingot cranes over a large shallow pit. The 7-ton vessels have 6-feet internal diameter, and 15 tuyeres with 12g-inch holes. The vessel bot- toms are interchangeable, and are removable by means of lifts and of cars, which carry them later- ally, for repairs, under the two-side ingot cranes. They are baked in adjacent ovens.

The blowing engine and pump-rooms are con- veniently placed on the right of the vessels, and the blooming mill comes next.

By means of convenient transporting apparatus 500 tons of hot ingots per twenty-four hours are delivered by power into the blooming furnaces, and are rolled, cut up, and chipped, under a 7-ton hammer, and loaded hot on the rail-mill cars with reasonable facility. There are two large Worthing- ton compound duplex pressure pumps.

These pumps are used almost exclusively in America for high-pressure pumping, and are em- ployed to a greater extent than any other for the water supply of towns.

The boilers of the Bessemer and blooming de- partments are each cylinders 15 feet long and 5 feet in diameter, lying over a brick fire-place and combustion chamber, and having thirty-eight 4₺- inch return tubes. There are eight of these boilers near the blowing engine, and six in an outside boiler-house. There is also a 284-feet x 80 in. Galloway boiler of 112 horse-power, and one 87- inch steel drop-flue boiler of the Mars type.

The blooming plant was started in January, 1871. This was the first American blooming train, and, though extensive alterations have been made, the housings and stores remain. On the original tables the ingots were fed by hand. The Fritz power-feeding tables were introduced, and later Holley's system of actuating the feed rollers was in- troduced. The original train rolled 12-inch ingots to two-rail blooms ; the present train at 45 revolu- tions rolls 15-inch ingots to 7-inch four-rail blooms, by the labor of four men and boys, at the rate of 2, 500 tons per week ; it can roll 3, 000 tons.

The rail mill is a brick building, 375 x 98 feet, with wings. There are ten coal-fired heating fur- naces, each having a horizontal overhead boiler 5 x 22 feet, with return flues. There are five aux- iliary boilers like those in the Bessemer department. Materials and product are, at this group of works, received and delivered by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad on one side, and by the Hudson River on the other side.

The merchant steel mill, just below the rail mill of the Rensselaer works, is a brick building 338 x 187 feet, with wings. The fast 16-inch, three-high train is of the most improved type. Its product at 100 revolutions is 50 tons per turn of Ig-inch 27- feet wire-rod billets from 7-inch blooms. The train is driven direct by a Porter-Allen engine of 22-inch cylinder and 3 feet stroke, to which is at- tached a Bulkley condenser. In the yard of the merchant and rail mills there is a large smith shop, with two steam hammers; also, suitable pattern and machine shops ; the latter has, among other good tools, a lathe of ten feet swing, and a planer to take in seven feet square ; also, a large and complete merchant steel warehouse.

The Albany Iron-works merchant mill is of brick, 329 x 156 feet, with wings and iron roof The 18-inch merchant train, the Belgian train, with their engines and Swindell gas furnaces; also the axle hammer, are quite new, and of the most im- proved type. This mill also contains a 400-pound steam helve hammer of excellent type. It produces 60 railway axles from rolled blanks per twenty-four hours. The nail factory contains 31 machines and produces excellent steel cut nails. Notwithstand- ing the pressure of business, especially in the nail trade, the Albany works have manufactured over 100,000 kegs of spikes, nails, rivets and bolts, in one year. To this department has been added machinery for the manufacture of steel disks of a very superior kind for a recently patented and highly approved cultivator.

The firm manufactures special steels, gun-barrel steel, receiver steel, cotton-roller steel, fork, hoe, and rake steels. Large quantities of billets are an- nually manufactured for barbed-wire fences, steel fence-posts for wire fences, also guard rails. The machine shop common to the Bessemer plant and Albany Iron-works, is a two-story 97 x 66 feet building, with a pattern shop in the upper story.

The Bessemer and blooming works and yard, and the rail mill and adjacent merchant mill and their yards, are lighted by the Brush apparatus. At each of the two groups of works there is a sixteen- light machine, driven by a 10 x 10 inch engine. About half the lights are outdoor. The cost of the apparatus was about $3, 600 for each works.

Production-maximum :

TONS PER WEEK.

Ingots.

·3,000

Steel rails

.2,000

Other manufactured steel 850

Merchant iron ..

775

Men employed, 2,800, when the works are running full.

The blast furnaces at Hudson and Fort Edward have been blown out, and steps are being taken to

543

ERASTUS CORNING.

erect three large furnaces at Troy, of the most im- proved type, at a cost of about $600,000. The monthly pay roll at present calls for about $50,000. When in full operation it reaches $125,000 to $150,000 a month.

Beside the large annual payment of money to the workmen at Troy by this establishment, the amount of taxes paid into the city treasury by the Company is a very important item, consisting of about one-fortieth of the sum collected.

Mr. Corning gives considerable attention to agri- culture and the raising of blooded stock. A visit to his beautiful farm of over seven hundred acres, about two miles south of Albany, gives indubitable evidence of his taste as an agriculturist.

Here are seen flocks of Southdown sheep and a splendid herd of Jerseys and Herefords. This herd of Herefords is the oldest in this country, es- tablished in 1840. He has also extensive stables for his numerous horses, kept for stock purposes. This farm has been under the superintendence of Mr. John Vanderbelt for over thirty-four years. His horse trainer has been in his employ for twenty- one years, his coachman nineteen years, his herds- man twelve years.

It is delightfully located. To the east is seen the Hudson, with its varying scenery; to the north, from the rising ground is seen the great State Capitol, looming in grand proportions above the city; while all around the view is picturesque and inviting.

Perhaps Mr. Corning's leading characteristic is his natural love of flowers and his singular ability and success in their cultivation. Possessing ample means to gratify his fine taste, he has, at a vast ex- pense, achieved a success as a floriculturist which leaves him almost without a rival in the world.

The choicest floral productions of the world are tributary to his immense conservatories. Here bloom plants from the tropics, from the temperate zones, and here, too, hang flowers from the high mountains of Mexico, Columbia, Peru, Bogota, Venezuela and Brazil, and from the Himalayas in India, China and Japan. Madagascar, Borneo, and other islands of the Pacific have here their floral offerings, while every choice plant in our own coun- try and Europe is represented.

We have not the space to describe the many ex- ceedingly choice varieties of roses, geraniums, pan- sies, calcelarias, camelias and other beautiful flow- ers found in these conservatories.

In the cultivation of orchids Mr. Corning is sin- gularly successful. These have been so admirably and learnedly described in an essay, read before the New York Horticultural Society by Mr. Will- iam Grey, gardener to Mr. Corning, that a few extracts from it will be an embellishment to our work:

When it is taken into consideration, says Mr. Grey, the varied habitats where orchids are found growing, it is really surprising to find so many do well under cultivation. Out of over one thousand species and varieties in Mr. Corn- ing's collection I do not find three per cent. difficult of cul- ture. Admitting from the little resemblance or affinity in orchids found in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres,

in many instances all that is known of their native places of abode is the East Indies or South America, which gives much trouble to find out the necessary requirements of plants terrestrial or epiphytal, which may have been found on the cloud-capped mountains of Borneo, Luzon or Co- lombia; the plains of Rangoon or Bogota; in the valleys of Assam, Java or Magdalena; the wet, shady forests of Brazil and Guatemala; the arid continent of Africa or hot lands of Mexico, the temperature ranging from 30° or less to 110° Fahrenheit or more in the shade, and in the sun the heat is intense, with very bright light. In some orchid districts it rains nearly every day; in others, often comparatively no rain for months. Many species grow in the full sun; others in partial shade; a few in deep, shaded forests.

Speaking of orchid houses, Mr. Grey continues:

It is well known that many of those beautiful and gor- geous floral windows-grotesque configurations of insects, birds and animals-are well grown with store and green- house plants, and the nucleus of all the large collections of the United States were so grown twenty-five years ago. * * * And only when the species increased in numbers

it was found necessary to erect houses for their special cul- ture. Mr. Corning has pursued the culture of orchids with much zeal for many years, and with the number of species at present in cultivation, experience has taught that it is necessary to grow them in six divisions, which are named phalaenopsis, vauda, dendrobium, cattleya, oucidium and north house, with a house to rest plants in after they have done growing. The conclusions we have arrived at are, that low, span-roofed houses, about twenty feet wide, inside shelves three feet, paths three feet, center bench about seven feet are best. As far north as Albany it is positively necessary to have about four inches of space between the front wall and shelf to allow the heated air to pass up at the eaves and to prevent the hot current of heated air striking the plants. A slate or board rests on the shelf, reaching and secured to the under side of the rafters. By this means the hot air is conducted to the roof of the house and be- comes ameliorated before coming in contact with the plants. There is no wood used except in the roof; no up- right glass; side wall carried to the eaves; height of side walls to top of plate, four feet; center of house, ten feet; a lantern running the length of the house for ventilation in winter, when all sash is frozen fast.

Mr. Grey then describes the manner of heating, and governing the temperature and moisture. He furnishes us with a list of the orchids grown in Mr. Corning's conservatories, from which we men- tion some that are very rare, and some found no- where else in cultivation.

Of the tribe Vaude, the Aerides (growing on trees, air- plant); Schrodii, a native of Bombay, is very rare; Angræcum major, very rare, Madagascar; Anguloa eburnea, very rare, Colombia.

Of the tribe Epidendrea, the Cattleya hybrida is the only plant under cultivation ; Mendilii, very rare, Colombia; Citrina, very sweet-scented, Mexico; Cattleya Corningia, only plant in Colombia; Dodgsonii, from Colombia (only Mr. Lee, of England, has this plant besides Mr. Corning); Tarvassagunshee, only plant in Colombia.

Of the tribe Malaxidea; the Dendrobium (growing on trees); Corningii (nobile-litseiflorum), two choice varieties, only plant.

Of the tribe Vaude@, the Oucidium Rogersii is the only plant in Brazil, and the Phalaenopsis Corningiana is the only plant in the Philippines; Fasciata is the only plant.

Mr. Corning has the best collection of Phala- nopsis in the world. In fact, we believe he has only one rival, Mr. Lee, of England. Mr. Grey has been in his profession for many years, having learned and followed it in Scotland, England and Amer- ica. He has been with Mr. Corning for the past thirty years. To his courtesy we are under ob- ligations for our information relative to the con- servatories.

544

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

ALL SAINTS' CATHEDRAL.

The interest which Mr. Corning has taken in all public improvements in Albany are proverbial; not only in manufactories, but in churches, schools and their edifices has his liberality been seen and felt, but in no instance of public improvement has he exhibited so much zeal and munificence as in All Saints' Cathedral, now in process of erection in Albany. Without referring minutely to the valuable lands he has from time to time donated to this cathedral, and the exceedingly prosperous institu- tions connected with it, we shall give an outline history and description of the cathedral from its beginning.

The interest taken by Mr. Corning in the Cathedral of All Saints at Albany, renders a brief history of what is to be one of the most imposing buildings in Albany, and perhaps in the State, very appropriate in his biography.

The Legislature of the State of New York incor- porated the Cathedral by an Act passed March 27, 1873 (Chap. 149). The first section created the following members "a body politic and corpo- rate:" The Bishop, William' Croswell Doane, John Ireland Tucker, John H. Hobart Brown, Hiram H. Beers, Theodore Babcock, John Town- send, Orlando Meads, Erastus Corning, Amos P. Palmer, Walter A. Wood and James Forsyth. The corporators are empowered by Section 3 " to fill vacancies in their own number," and, by Sec- tion 4, to adopt a constitution for the election of new trustees. The object and purposes of the corporation are, by Section 2, said to be "the es- tablishment, erection, maintenance and manage- ment of a cathedral church and its appurtenances in the City of Albany;" and Section 5 declares "the seats for the worshipers in the said cathe- dral church shall always be free."

On All Saints' Day, 1872, the building at pres- ent occupied, formerly an iron foundry, was first used for Divine Service. It has been enlarged since.

On the festival of All Saints, 1881, the Bishop announced to the congregation his purpose to be- gin at once the execution of this one of the great purposes for which the corporation was created, the erection of a cathedral building, and laid before them his plans. At a meeting of the Chapter, held November 23, 1881, the following committee was appointed to select a site: The Bishop, Hon. Erastus Corning, Mr. Orlando Meads. It was re- solved to endeavor to raise at once $150,000, to meet the cost of the building exclusive of the site. Mr. James Moir was appointed to act (under Gen. S. E. Marvin, Treasurer of the Chapter) as treasurer of the funds collected into the subscription books.

The committee on the site were then instructed " to obtain plans for the cathedral."

On April 30, 1883, the plans of R. W. Gib- son, architect, were adopted, with a modification submitted to the Chapter on the 6th of June. On November 28, 1883, the grounds given by Hon. Erastus Corning, valued at $80,000, were ac- cepted as the site, and, on motion of Mr. Corning, it was

" Resolved, That, in the judgment of the Chap- ter, it is expedient that measures be taken without delay to begin the work of building the cathedral, and that to that end preparations be made to re- move the buildings now on the ground, and to procure the working plans and estimates for the excavation and laying of the foundations, and that the work be proceeded with as fast and as far as the means in the hands of the Chapter will permit."

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Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 123

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452