Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 12

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360

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The whole premises are lighted by four hundred electric lights. No other light or fire of any kind is permitted in the buildings, as tbe fur- naces are some distance back of both buildings, near the dock. There are hose pipes on each floor, and the buildings are supplied with fire escapes. It is claimed that the temperature can be kept down to 100 degrees in warm weather, on account of the perfect ventilation given by so many windows.

Back of the refinery, and separated from it by a fire wall, four feet thick, is the filtering house, the tallest building on the river front. The structure is 80x250 feet, and rises to an altitude of 150 feet, divided into thirteen stories. In architectural design it is similar to tbe refinery, the inaterials used being pressed brick and iron. The two upper stories are of black brick in the form of a mansard roof. On the river side of the filtering house is an immense chimney, 40 feet at the base and 200 feet higb. Midway between the two buildings is a large well hole, extending to the roof and covered with a skylight.

This shaft gives botb light and ventilation. as windows and doors open into it from the several floors. The windows and doors can be closed easily in the event of fire so as to prevent the spread of flames from one building to another.

In the rear of the filtering house is the boiler house, a two-story structure at the river. It is built on piles so as to resist the washing of the waves and tides, which might otherwise undermine th > building and cause a caving in. Back of the boiler house is a new wharf. These buildings are constructed on a new plan suited to tbe improved ma- chinery, with which they are supplied. There are 108 cast iron filters, 20 feet bigh by 9 feet interior diameter, which can be automatically filied and emptied, and there are six vacuum pans of 16 feet diameter, and twenty-four centrifugal machines of 64 feet diameter. The boilers are double decked, and similar to those of the Steam Heating Company of New York, and the elevating will be done by three Otis hoists. The boilers are of 4,000 horse power.

The capacity of the refinery is about 1,250,000 pounds of sugar daily. The estimated cost of the buildings and machinery is $2.500,000. The buildings will be connected with the warehouse on the south side by bridges crossing the street at the second and third stories.

On the ruins of the burned building has been erceted an imposing, six-story, fire-proof structure, 180x150 feet. From this warehouse the material is rolled across the bridges to the refinery when required.

Back of the warehouse, and separated fromn it by a fire-proof wall, is a machine shop, 180x75 feet, of fire-proof construction. It is sup- plied with the necessary facilities for keeping in repalr the enormous amount of machinery used in the refinery.

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

pounds of sugar a day=1,225 tons, or about 10,000 bar- rels, and with the existing demand for refined sugars, both for export and for home consumption, both re- fineries are running nearly up to their capacity. The Havemeyers and Elder refinery is said to be the largest in the world, and the two turn out about one-half of the refined sugar made in this country.

The Other Brooklyn Refineries .- Next in ex- tent to these two great refineries, is that of the Brook- lyn Sugar Refining Company, an incorporated com- pany, which has, for many years, produced excellent sugars and syrups. Its capacity is about 600,000 pounds of sugar per day. Moller, Sierck and Co., an excellent house, whose sugars are of the very highest quality, and command from } to } a cent per pound more than any others, follow, with a capacity of about 450,000 pounds a day. Dick & Meyer, 450,000 pounds, and Thomas Oxnard, the Fulton Sugar Refinery, and Charles Havemeyer's, in Greenpoint, are, perhaps, next in order. All these houses make syrups, rather as an incidental product, than as a specialty. John Mollen- haner, on the contrary, makes syrups his specialty, but produces a considerable quantity of sugars, mostly, we believe, by the centrifugal process. The Atlantic Sugar House, Crab & Wilson, and James Burns, are engaged in the manufacture of good, low-grade sugars from molasses, and also prepare the residuum for a variety of uses. Of Burger, Hurlbut & Livingston, or the Livingston Sugar Refinery, we have little defi- nite information. They are reputed to manufacture the so-called "grape sugars," and are doing a large business.

WILLIAM DICK .- A great portion of the manufacturing in- cerests of Brooklyn are located north and east of the Walla- bout, while the immense sugar refineries, the largest in the country, all centre in that part of the city along the river.

Among these vast establishments, whose buildings rise to lofty heights, cover large areas, and furnish employment to hundreds of workmen, is the refinery of Dick & Meyer, situ- ated on the river front, at the foot of North Seventh street. The senior partner, Mr. William Dick, was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1823. He received the thorough education afforded by the schools of that country. He remained with his parents as long as they lived, but, after their death, came to America in 1845, whither a brother had preceded him. He landed in New York without wealth, with health, intelligence, energy and habits of industry and frugality. The first busi- ness into which he entered was keeping a small grocery, in connection with his brother; afterwards, with a brother-in- law, he opened a flour and feed store, in which they remained for several years. Having by this time accumulated some capital, for which he sought a more lucrative investment, he decided, after consideration, to engage in sugar refining with a partner who had had some experience. They began in 1858, at the corner of Pike and Cherry streets, in New York, but as their business grew, they felt the need of more room. Accord- ingly, they erected a large brick building in 1863, at the foot of Division avenue, and abutting on the East river, thus se- curing the best facilities for water transportation. The busi- ness of the firm. now Dick & Meyer, has made a wonderful

growth; the capital invested has reached $1,500.000, while the annual product of the refinery reaches 355,000 barrels- about 100,000,000 lbs. refined sugar. The management of this vast interest is almost wholly in the hands of Mr. Dick, a position for which he is especially well fitted, by reason of his intelligence, business sagacity and capacity for work.

But Mr. Dick is not merely the man of business; he is also the scholar and the public-minded citizen. He has been a close reader of history and literature, as well as a careful observer of the events of the day. The man whose ability, integrity and force have revealed themselves to his fellow- citizens, through a long business career in their midst, is always sought by them to fill positions of trust and responsi- bility. Mr. Dick is no exception. He is connected as trustee with the Manufacturers' National Bank, the Charitable Hospital, the Third Street Dispensary, and, as treasurer, with the German Lutheran Hospital of East New York. When the prospects of the German Savings Bank were dark, an appeal was made to him to lend his assistance and assumne its man- agement. Accepting the Presidency, he restored credit and confidence, placed the institution on a firm footing, and, at the end of the second year, left it prosperous, resigning his office only on account of the fast increasing demands of his own business upon him A handsomely engrossed testi- monial from the Savings Bank authorities attest the esteem in which Mr. Dick is held by them. Kind and philanthropic by nature, his interest in worthy charities is active, and his contributions numerous; while he is a warm supporter of the Lutheran Church and its institutions.

Retired and domestic in his tastes and habits, he shrinks from, rather than seeks, publicity. With this disposition, he is content to discharge the citizen's duty at the ballot-box, without seeking political preferment ; though his modesty cannot conceal the fact that he is one of the leading influen- tial men in the Eastern District, and so recognized every- where. He is respected for his intrinsic worth as a man, and beloved by those who have received his benefactions. He enjoys the comforts of an elegant home with the wife of his youth. They do their part in society, and their house is frequently opened to their large circle of friends.

Mr. Dick has already attained to a great degree of useful- ness; but with every year his business relations, his charities and his influence expand, so that the future alone can reveal to what he may yet come.

SECTION III.

Relative Importance of Different Manufactures.

The importance of each industry is not to be judged by the aggregate production of all the establish- ments, but by the individual product. In review- ing the different classes of mannfactures conducted in the county, we cannot be guided entirely by the magnitude of the annual product. This may be the result of the aggregation of the products of a very large number of producers, or it may be, as mi the sugar refining industry, the result of the immense production of a very few manufacturers of large capi- tal and ample appliances. In the sugar refining busi- ness, the produet averages, according to the census re- turns, $5,430,000 to each refining company, and the material used is reported as $5,130,000. On the other hand, the bread, crackers, and other bakery products, which amount in the aggregate to 85,594,975, are pro-

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

duced in 532 establishments, so that the average to each establishment is only $10,510. Still smaller is the average product in the case of the boot and shoe manufactures, where, though the aggregate annual product is $1,819,993, it is divided among 546 estab- lishments, giving an average product of only $3,333 to each manufacturer. There are instances, indeed, where the average annual product is less than $2,000, but these are rather mechanical employments, like watch and clock repairing, mechanical dentistry, etc., etc., than manufacturing in the ordinary sense.

SECTION IV. Petroleum Refining.

The vast business of refining petroleum oils, though conducted and owned mainly by Brooklyn mnen, is carried on on both sides of Newtown Crock, the bound- ary line between Kings and Queens counties. That part of it usually regarded as belonging to Kings county, reported in the census of 1880, 18 refineries, employing $2,675,000 of capital, and 2,302 hands; pay- ing $974,036 in wages; using $12,643,724 of raw ma- terials, and yielding an annual product of $15,115,293. Since 1880, the consumption of petroleum oils for pur- poses of illumination, lubrication, heating, and as a fuel for marinc, locomotive, and stationary engines, has vastly increased, and the export demand for the refined products of petroleum is growing at a rapid rate.

Before petroleum oil, as the product of oil wells, was known in this country, " coal " or " rock oil " was distilled from some of the fatty coals and bituminous shales of Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois, and perhaps quite as extensively, from a shale, rich in bitumen, brought to New York from Nova Scotia. Mr. J. M. Stearns states that the late Dr. Abraham Gessner, who was, some twenty-five or thirty years ago, an eminent practical chemist here, had, from 1855 to 1860, a dis- tillery, for producing this oil from the Nova Scotia ·shales, located near Dutch Kills, on the north bank of Newtown Creek. The price of the coal oil was high, and the business was profitable for several years, though the processes adopted were not economical.

The gases generated in the distillation, were con- ducted into a large iron tube, and instead of being utilized, were burned at the point of contact with the atmospheric air, that they might not contaminate the air, in the neighborhood. This immense flame at night illumined the creek and the surrounding landscape. The discovery of petroleum, and its rapid develop- ment in 1859-62, made the distillation of coal or rock oil unprofitable, and Dr. Gessner was finally reduced to bankruptcy, and eventually died in poverty.

"There were, just before the change from coal oil to petroleum, two camphene distilleries in the Eastern District, Engel's at the foot of South Second street,

and Brundage's at the foot of South Fourth street. After the change, camphene was distilled from petro- leum, and one of these firms had a storage depot on the block between North Third and North Fourth streets and the East River, in which was stored 15,000 barrels of crude petroleum. In unloading a schooner, laden with this inflammable substance, a barrel burst and took fire, and very soon communicated with the storage sheds. The whole 15,000 barrels were set on fire and their contents flowed into the East River, and for a mile in extent, the river, half way across, was in flames. The shipping moored along the shore of the Eastern District, was in great peril, but was towed out of danger; but the pier, where the fire originated, was burned. In about an hour and a half the fiery river had burned itself out, and there were only the smouldering remains of the petroleum barrels and sheds, to recall what might easily have become one of the greatest conflagrations of the century. This experience has been repeated several times since on both the East and North Rivers, notably, during the present year (1883). One beneficial result of this fire was, that very little petroleum has since been stored in barrels. It is now mostly stored in iron tanks, and conveyed by pipes underground from the oil regions to the refinerics."

The Standard Oil Company, which has refineries and storage tanks on both sides of Newtown Creek, in Kings and Queens counties, and also at Bayonne, N. J., Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Titusville, Oil City, etc., etc., is by far the largest holder of petroleum oils and products in the country. Most of the other re- fining companies purchase their crude or partially re- fined oils of this company, which, by its vast capital and extensive operations, controls the entire petroleum trade.

There are in Brooklyn about 21 companies engaged in the production of petroleum products; possibly, in- cluding the very smallest, 25 companies. Several of these buy the partially refined oils, and possessing one or more stills, still further refine them for special uses. While the Standard Oil Company is the largest seller of both crude and partly refined petroleum; Charles Pratt & Co., the Devoe Manufacturing Co., the Empire Refining Co., and some others, also sell partly refined oils to the smaller manufacturers.

In general, it may be said that all the companies purchase their crude oil of the Standard Oil Com- pany; perhaps not always willingly, but because its extraordinary facilities for bringing the oils to market, and its control over the whole production of the coun- try, enable it to supply them at better terms than they can obtain elsewhere. During the past season, the single company which had stood out longest, and whose production enabled it to be a somewhat formid- able rival, for several years-the Tide Water Pipe Line,-found its advantage, in so far pooling its re- ceipts, as to become an ally, if not a customer of the

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Standard Oil Company, and the smaller companies which had received their supplies from it, are, one af- ter another, falling into line.

It is very common, when a great manufacturing or commercial house, by dint of energy, enterprise, and the judicious investment of its means, has attained to a superiority over other houses in the same line of bus- iness, to such an extent as to make them, willingly or unwillingly, tributary to its further success, to raise the cry of " monopoly " against it, and thus seek to rouse the opposition of the interested and the un- thinking. While mankind are constituted as they are, this ery will be almost invariably raised against successful business men. Sometimes, it is true, the tyranny and grasping disposition of these business kings, may justify a part of what is said against them ; but oftener, the foulest and meanest charges which are made originate entirely in the envions brains of those who have failed in the strife of busi- ness, and who, if they had been successful, would have been far greater tyrants and oppressors than those whom they condemn.

The Standard Oil Company needs no defence at our hands; but a very small proportion of its vast business is conducted within the bounds of Kings county; its immense reservoirs, tanks and refineries elsewhere are out of our limits; but we may be permitted to say, that so far as we have been able to observe, its superi- ority is due to the wonderful energy, enterprise, and business ability of its managers. Commencing at a time when the petroleum production and market were at their lowest ebb, they had the sagacity and courage to foresee for it an eventual and wonderful success. While hundreds were failing, they held on and held out, and when the tide changed, and the export demand became large, they were ready for it. They saw their great opportunity, and embraced it; and to-day it is almost wholly due to their exertions that our petroleum exports have risen in about fifteen years from nothing to more than forty million dollars a year, and that re- fined petroleum of the best quality is sold at a price which is within the reach of even the poorest. Of course this has not been accomplished without exciting the envy and hostility of many; and unthinking parties, ready to believe the worst of their fellow men, have aided to spread the most malicious and unfounded re- ports, when they neither knew its business nor its man- agers. It may have committed some errors, possibly some minor wrongs; most great corporations do; but that the noble-hearted and high-minded Christian gen- tlemen who are at the head of that great company have, knowingly or wilfully, attempted to oppress or crush others, because they had the power to do so, we do not believe.

Among the companies which are most largely en- gaged in refining petrolemn in Brooklyn, two, Charles Pratt & Co. and the Devoe Manufacturing Co., are

much the largest. Mr. Pratt and Mr. Devoe were both originally members of the great firm of Reynolds, De- voe & Pratt, manufacturers of and dealers in paints, etc., but left it in 1867 to engage in the refining of pe- troleum. At that time most of the "kerosene " on the market was highly inflammable and dangerous. Fires and deaths from its use were constantly occurring. So late as 1869, out of 636 samples obtained in New York and Brooklyn, from respectable dealers, there were only 21, not quite one in 30, whose flashing point was above 100° F. Both Mr. Pratt and Mr. Devoe determined to produce an article which should be free from danger, and while the Legislature had fixed the minimum fire test of 100° F., below which it should be a misde- meanor to sell kerosene, Mr. Pratt, and, we believe, Mr. Devoe also, fixed a fire test about forty degrees higher as the lowest point consistent with complete safety. Mr. Pratt affixed to his product the name of "Pratt's Astral Oil," while Mr. Devoe gave his the name of "Devoe's Brilliant Oil." By great exertions in making the merits of their respective oils known, bothi built up an immense business. "Pratt's Astral Oil" has become a household word, throughout our own country, and is very largely sold in foreign countries. After some years Mr. Devoe sold his interest to the Devoe Manufacturing Company, and returned to his former business as a manufacturer and dealer in paints and oils. Mr. Pratt constantly enlarged his business, adding to it mannfactories of tools, cans, petroleum barrels and tanks, etc., and taking in partners, as his extended trade required. He also formed a company called the Pratt Manufacturing Company, to manufac- ture the sulphuric acids and other chemicals used in refining petroleum, both for his own company and for the Standard Oil Company, of which he is a director. Of late years, the demand for his "Astral Oil " abroad has compelled him to engage largely in the export trade. Most of the oil shipped to foreign ports is sent in what are called cases, each wooden case containing two five-gallon tin cans, so packed as to be fire and water proof, and also secured against leakage, and at the same time, when the case is opened, the cans can be used or emptied by the retailer withont inconveni- ence. For the home trade, it is sold either in petro- leum barrels, so prepared as to be proof against leakage, or in one and two-gallon cans, provided with a spont and cap, which are largely used by families. Some- times, for stores, etc., the five-gallon eans are used.

The firm of Charles Pratt & Co. are deserving of high commendation for their solicitous care to send out no oil which was not above the point of perfect safety, and for the precautions they have always in- sisted upon in the use of the Astral Oil. They are now refining it to a yet higher test, and it is a well ascer- tained fact that their Astral Oil will not explode. "They manufacture, for gas machines, gasoline; a naphtha of special grade and quality for street lighting in small

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

cities and towns; a benzine, of 62° quality, for manu- facturers' use; a naptha of 70° gravity, and a deodor- ized naptha of 76° gravity, for vapor stoves, lamps, &c. All these are put up so carefully, and with such precautions, as to insure them against accident.

The Devoe Manufacturing Company have been less active in supplying the home market, though their oil is of excellent quality, but have turned their attention mainly, of late years, to the export trade, in which they are, we believe, the largest exporters of refined petro- leum in the United States, their out-put, in a single day, in the busy season, amounting to 60,000 five-gal- lon cans, or 30,000 cases. The annual amount, of course, depends upon the price of refined oils and the foreign demand, which last, however, is constantly in- creasing, in spite of the great discoveries of oil recently made in Germany, Russia and the Caucasus.

The other oil refineries in Brooklyn and Kings county are : Bush & Denslow Mf'g Co., the Greenpoint Oil Works, the Brooklyn Refinery, the Eagle Oil Works, Franklin Oil Works, the Chesebrough Mf'g Company, (vaseline and petroleum jellies), James Donald & Co., G. F. Gregory, Jenney & Son, Wilson & Anderson, Mc Goey & King, the Empire Refining Company, Sone Fleming, the Hudson Oil Works, the Kings County Oil Works, the New York Kerosene Gas-Light Company, the Vesta Oil Works and the Washington Oil Works, and perhaps four or five individual refiners. A few of these do not report, but we have full returns from twelve of the largest, and those not heard from can hardly increase the following returns (which are for 1883) by more than 10 or 12 per cent. The capital in- vested in the business by these twelve companies is about $7,200,000.

The greatest number of hands employed at any one time during the year was about 3,000.

Average day's wages for a skilled workman, by day, $2.50; by night, $2.66; for an ordinary laborer, by day, $1.55; by night, $1.70; for a cooper, $2.50; for a tinsmith, $2.10. Total amount of wages paid during the year, about $1,500,000.

.Gallons of crude petroleum used during the year, about 210,000,000. Value, from $7,200,000 to $9,600,- 000 (at average prices of 1883, the latter sum would be nearest the truth.)

Tons of anthracite coal used during the year, includ- ing pea and dust coal, about 84,000; value, about $210,000. Number of tons of sulphuric acid used dur- ing the year, about 18,000. Number of tons of caustic soda, about 360. Number of barrels used, about 2,400,000; value, about $3,000,000. Number of tin cans made, about 19,200,000; value, about $1,800,000. Gallons of total product of kerosene exported to foreign countries in cans, about 15,000,000. Number of boilers, for steam, about 54. Number of boilers, not for steam, about 48. Horse-power used, about 4,200. Annual out-put can only be roughly estimated from

the fluctuating price of the oil, but can hardly fall be- low $21,000,000.

Adding to this 10 per cent. for the non-reporting companies, and we have a grand aggregate of $23,000,- 000.

SUB-SECTION I .- Illuminating Gas.

The production of illuminating gas is a large indus- try in Kings county. There were, in 1880, eight gas- works in the county, reporting a capital (partly nomi- nal) of $9,190,000, and employing in all 257 men, pay- ing wages to the amount of $163,019, using $445,605 of raw material, and producing annually illuminating gas to the amount of $1,835,068. The introduction of the so-called " Water Gas" (which owes its illumina- ting properties in part to its combination with naphtha and other petroleum products) within the past two years has probably somewhat diminished the amount of the production of the other illuminating gas com- panies. Their business has also been somewhat dimin- ished by the increasing use of kerosene as a means of illumination, and by the introduction into large stores and public buildings, halls, &c., of the electric light. The probable substitution of a cheaper gas for heating and culinary purposes, where less illumination is re- quired, will, in the course of two or three years, per- haps, supply present deficiencies.

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Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 12

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : Munsell Number of Pages: 1360

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360