Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 13

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

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Since the spring of 1883, the eight gas companies of Brooklyn have been, reduced by consolidation or the purchase of a controlling portion of their stock by the Fulton Municipal Gas Company, which produces the so-called water gas. The independent companies are the Fulton Municipal, the Nassau and the Brook- lyn gas companies. It is said that the Brooklyn has made some arrangement with the Fulton Municipal, by which they are no longer in opposition. It is generally believed that the Standard Oil Company backs the Fulton Municipal. It is certain that it furnishes it with naphtha. The production of the gas companies is certainly less than in 1880, but does not, we judge, fall below $1,550,000. They are making strenuous efforts to supply gas for heating purposes, but, as they have not reduced the price per thousand feet, for this use, and heating by steam pipes laid in the streets is pending, they have not as yet met with quite the suc- cess they anticipated.

Gas-Light Companies .- Mr. Joseph Spraghe has left in his manuscript autobiography the following ac- count of the inception of

The Brooklyn Gas-Light Company .- "In July, 1824, Al- den Spooner and myself, for amusement, inserted a notice in the Long Island Star of an application to be made to the Legislature for an act of incorporation for a company, with a capital of $150,000, for the purpose of lighting streets, dwellings and manufactories with gas. We were desirous only to create a little sensation. It was received in earnest, and the demand persisted in that I should go to Albany for a charter, which I did, and the bill was passed, April 18, 1825, that is now giving light to Brooklyn. The stock was

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

monopolized by the directors at ten per cent. advance, and it was amusing to witness the infatuated dignity over a worth- less charter, which was to them a rich placer of gold. Com- mittees were put in motion, lots bought for gas-works, plans and estimates examined. I then moved that the money paid in be refunded, and all operations be discontinued until the increase of Brooklyn should afford a reasonable prospect of supporting a gas company, which suggestion was adopted, and the money returned with interest."

The directors named in the act were Robert Carter, Adrian Il. Van Bokkelen, Joseplı Sprague, William Furman, Jehiel Jagger, Joseph G. Swift, Alden Spooner, Fanning C. Tucker, and Richard V. W. Thorn. Twelve years later, the company was revived, and February 1, 1847, elected the following directors : Alden Spooner, Joseph Sprague, John Dikeman, Ralph Malbone, Tunis Barkeloo, Losee Van Nostrand, Fan- ning C. Tucker. Jehiel Jagger, William Kumbel. Their acts were legalized in 1850, and March 26. 1855, the company was authorized to increase its capital to $1,000,000.

The gas-works were located at the foot of Hudson avenue, which location the company still retains. The 1st, 3d and 5tlı wards were first supplied with mains and pipes for con- sumers. The company now owns 80 miles of mains.

In June, 1825, Fanning C. Tucker was elected president ; James B. Clark was the first secretary. The succeeding presidents have been Alden Spooner, Feb. 11, 1847, till his death, December, 1848 ; Robert Nichols, December, 1848, to January, 1862; Arthur W. Benson, January, 1862, to January, 1882; James H. Armington, January, 1882-4; E. Storer, Sec- retary, January, 1881-4.

The Citizens' Gas-Light Company (office, 130 Atlantic avenue), was incorporated October,26th, 1858, with a capital of $1,000,000, which was afterward increased to $1,200,000. Permission to lay mains was granted by the city in March, 1859. The company's works were erected at the corner of Sinith and Fifth streets. The presidents of the company liave been: John H. Smith, H. P. Libby, J. H. Stebbins, and the present president, Samuel E. Howard.

The other officers for 1883-4 are: Jacob I. Bergen, treasurer; Samuel F. Tudor, secretary.

The People's Gas-Light Company (offices, 419 Myrtle avenue, and 31 First street, E. D.), was organized, under the general law, in October, 1864, with Abraham Meserole, President, and a board of nine directors : Alex. McCue, Chas. J. Lowry, D. M Talmage, Wm. Peet, H. J. Alden, Jr., Abm. Meserole, O. M. Beach, J. B. Craig, and Augustus Ivins. The capital stock at first was $100,000. During six years no active operations were prosecuted.

In January, 1870, the company was re-organized, the capi- tal stock increased to $1,000,000, and William L. Ilusted be- came President; succeeded, in 1871, by Frederic Cromwell, and he, in 1873, by the present president, Edwin Ludlanı. The company's works were commeuced in 1867, and com- pleted in 1870. They are located at the corner of First and South 11th streets. There are two gas-hoklers, and the ca- pacity of the works is 500,000 feet daily. The preseut pro- duction is 400,000 feet per day. Forty meu are employed at the works, and fifteen elsewhere.

This company has 43 miles of mains, and supplies the ter- ritory in the city east from Washington avenue, between De Kalb avenue, Broadway, and Kent avenue. The present directors are EIwin Ludlam, Win. HI. Husted, Win. Mar- Bhall, Win. Peet, II. H. Rogers, Wm. Rockefeller, Benj. Brewster, Geo. N. Curtis, Il. R. Bishop. The officers for 1883-4 are Elwin Ludlam, President; Win. Peet, Vice Presi- dent; S. J. Edwards, Secretary,

The Nassau Gas-Light Company (office 939 Fulton street), was organized, under the general manufacturing law, Novem- ber 1, 1870, with a paid-up capital of $1,000,000. The first di- rectors were Henry P. Morgan, Edward D. White, John J. Studwell, Edwin Beers, Charles J. Lowry. At present, as above, adding S. Warren Sneden. Ilenry B. Morgan, the present President, was chosen to that position at the organi- zation of the company.

The works, near Washington avenue bridge, on Wallabout bay, were completed in 1873. There are two gas-holders, and the works have a daily capacity of 1,000,000 feet. The yearly consumption of gas from these works is 135,000,000 feet, and the amount of coal used is 13,000 tons. The district supplied by this company is bounded by Washington avenue on the west, DeKalb avenue and Broadway on the north, and the city boundary on the south. Fifty men are employed at the works, and about the same number elsewhere. The company has 67 miles of street mains. The number of consumers is about 6,000. The officers of the company, 1883-4, are: H. P. Morgan, President ; S. T. White, Secretary ; Frederick S. Benson, Eugineer.

The Metropolitan Gas-Light Company (office, 563 Atlantic avenue), was organized February, 1871, under the General Manufacturing Act, with a capital of $1,000,000. It com- menced business in January, 1872, and its works, on Gowanus canal, at the foot of Twelfth street, were erected in 1873. They have a capacity of 500,000 feet daily. Coal gas is man- ufactured, and in the manufacture, distribution, etc., of this gas, 58 men are employed. The company lias 47 miles of street mains.

Hon. Alexander McCue was the first president of the com- pany. The second and present president is John Williams. The other officers for 1883-4 are H. H. Rogers, vice-president; C. H. Stoddard, secretary and treasurer. The first board of directors were William C. Kingsley, A. McCue, Edward Harvey, A. F. Campbell, S. L. Keeney, Edgar M. Cullen and A. Ammermau. The uames of the present board are: H. R. Bishop, H. Beam, J. C. Bergen, Benjamin Brewster, A. F. Campbell, A. C. Keeney, John P. Kennedy, Wm. C. Kings- ley, A. McCue, Wm. Rockefeller, H. H. Rogers, John Wil- liams and Chas. H. Stoddard.

The company owns 47 miles of mains, laid in the district bounded by Gowanus canal and Nevins street, Atlantic avenue and Flatbush avenue, to city line, to and inclusive of New Utrecht.

Fulton Municipal Gas Company (office, 34? Fulton street), was organized, under the general law, in 1879, with a capital of $1,500,000, which, in 1881, was reduced to $1,217,700. The company consisted of seven corporators. Henry M. Bene- dict has been president since its organization, and Gen. Jas. Jourdan is the vice-president. Walter K. Rossiter is secre- tary and treasurer.

The works of the company were erected in 1879, on the corner of Nevins and DeGraw streets. There are three gas holders, and the works have a capacity of 1,000,000 feet per day. Twenty-five men are employed at the works, and about the same number elsewhere. What is known as water gas, of a high illuminating power, is manufactured at this estah- lishment.

The first board of directors of this company were James N. Smith, Win. Foster, Jr., Wmn. Schwarzwaelder, Geo. H. Roberts, Frank F. Jones, P. P. Diekinson and Henry S. Beu- nett. The present board are Win. Rockefeller, Benjamiu Brewster, Henry HI. Rogers, Heber R. Bishop, James Jourdan, Henry M. Benedict and E. C. Benedict.

The company owns abont 60 miles of mains, supplying gas to the section of the city west of Broadway.

677

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

SECTION V. Meat Slaughtering.

This industry, though not, as in Chicago, the lead- ing manufacture, ranks about fifth in our industries, and only New York and Jersey City, among our Eastern cities, give a larger annual product. The census of 1880 reports 28 establishments, not in- cluding the retail butcher establishments, having an aggregate capital of $1,125,000; employing 260 hands; paying out $194,568 in wages annually ; using $7,340,- 450 of materials, and producing annually $8,010,492. There is reason to believe that these statistics, with some abatement for the amount of material used, and a little advance in the value of the annual product, represent, pretty nearly, the present condition of this industry at the present time. The considerable ad- vance in the price of all meat products since 1880, would, perhaps, make the value of the annual product in 1883 not less than nine million dollars; but, on the other hand, slaughtering, except for home consumption, is not on the increase here, and the packing of meats, except for our local markets, is falling off. This is due to several causes; not only are beeves, hogs, sheep and calves reared much more cheaply, and fattened at a lower price, in the Mississippi valley and on the West- ern plains, than they can possibly be here, but the ex- tensive and complete facilities for slaughtering and meat-packing at Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Mil- waukie, Louisville, Burlington, Davenport, Kansas City, Omaha, and Denver, are so greatly superior to those of any of our Eastern cities, as to discourage en- terprise for the export trade. More than nine-tenths of all the hogs, and now full one-half of the beeves, and two-fifths of the mutton and lambs, which come to the New York and Brooklyn markets, are slaughtered at the West and brought here in the carcass ; and of the animals slaughtered here, the greater part come from the West.

By the use of refrigerator cars and steamships, beef in sides, and even in quarters, and pork and mutton as cut meats, can be and are brought here very largely from Chicago and other western cities, and retailed at prices which leave our home slaughterers no margin of profit. The provision trade is in even a worse posi- tion. The great packing houses of the western cities, buying their cattle, sheep and hogs at first hands, and, by their admirable arrangements and economies utili- ing every portion of the animal, can furnish these packed meats for export at prices which leave no mar- gin to our packing houses, and even, in many cases, compel them to manufacture at a positive loss. Their only chance for profit, except where reckless specula- tion has made a corner in any of these products, and forced up the price beyond its natural average, is to put up their packed meats of so excellent quality as to obtain for them a local reputation which will command

an advanced price. The shipments of dressed beef and latterly of mutton from Texas, in refrigerating steamships, tends also to depreciate prices here ; for, though the quality is generally inferior to that of the best beef and mutton slaughtered here, the price is also materially less.

From these and other causes, while the aggregate amount of slaughtering and meat-packing has not in- creased materially, it has largely changed hands. The slaughtering business in Kings county is, to a very great extent (almost wholly in the case of sheep and lambs), in the hands of Hebrews. The leading slaughterers are Moses May, Levy & May, Isaac Isaacs, I. & J. Levy, Leopold Bloch, and H. &. J. Bernstein, for beeves, calves and hogs, and Aaron Levy, for sheep and lambs. Other houses do a mod- erate business.

In the meat-packing and provision trade, the busi- ness, which a few years ago was conducted by enter- prising American packers, has passed into the hands of equally enterprising Germans; and the American houses have either withdrawn from the business, or have suf- fercd themselves to be outdone by their competitors. The meat-packing trade here includes mess beef and. pork, corned beef and pork, beef, pork and mutton ; hams, pickled, smoked and dried, or otherwise cured ; bacon, shoulders, sides, or middlings of pork ; tongues of beeves, sheep and lambs, fresh, pickled, or smoked ; lard (elsewhere a separate branch of the tradc), sausages (Bologna and other), head-cheese, tenderloins of pork, pigs' fcet, calves' feet, livers, tripe, &c., &c.

In some of these packed meats, the Kings county packers have no superiors; this is especially true of the beef and pork hams, the bacon, smoked and pickled tongues, Bologna sausages, head-cheese, lard, &c., &c.

The leading meat-packers and provision curers are Figge & Brother, Herman Grahlfs, Friedrich Mosetter, H. Klumpf, Jacob Harman, George W. Williamson, D. J. Lavery, and J. Lockitt & Co. Other houses do a less extensive but fair business. Conrad Scherer is the largest purchaser of beef fat, both for the oleo- margarine and the soap and candle trades.

SECTION VI. Foundry and Machine-Shop Products.

Under this very general and misleading title the census office, in its "Compendium of the Tenth Census," has collected a great number of industries which are deserving of separate notice. This grouping and con- glomerating - which is nearly as absurd as if they had refused to particularize any of the industries of Brooklyn, but had put them all down as Brooklyn Manufacturers - $177,223,142, or whatever other sum they chose to put down-is obviously an after- thought. In Mr. Frothingham's first report published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of July, 1881, these in-

678

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

dustries were placed under the following titles : Brass castings and finishing; iron eastings and finishing; iron castings - stoves, heaters and hollow ware; ma- chinery; machinery-engines and boilers; machinery- presses; machinery-steam pumps. Of these seven in- dustries, the number of establishments were in the above order, 25, 32, 13, 65, 12, 4, 9 - 160 in all; and the total product, $8,057,838.

In the manufacturing census of twenty cities, which was published in 1882, the items had been eut down as follows : Brass castings, 18; iron castings, 30; ma- chinery, 91; in all 139 establishments, and with a total product of $7,349,707, a reduction of annual product of $708,131. But even this statement did not quite satisfy the census office, and in the Compendium of the Tenth Census, published in 1883, they made further changes. "Brass castings" were retained - 18 es- tablishments, and with the same product as before, but the two items of iron castings and machinery were both thrown out, and instead of them was inserted foundry and machine shop products ; 121 establish- ments, with $4,079,250 capital; 3,890 hands; $2,283,934 of wages paid during the year; $3,146,992 of mate- rials, and $6,984,832 annual product. Including the brass castings, the whole product had shrunk $708,431, and the number of establishments 21. What further changes may be made in the quarto volumes, we know not, but the changes we have shown indicate, clearly enough, the unreliableness of the manufacturing statis- tics of the tenth eensus.

But the point we wish to make here, is not so much the variations in the number of establishments, or in the amount of products, as the great defeet in a proper classification of these manufactures. Here, ineluded at last, under the head of Foundry and Machine Shop Produets, are nearly a dozen different industries, wholly diverse from each other, most of them using as a material, cither iron, east or wrought, steel, copper or brass, but having hardly anything else in common. Here are houses which manufacture steam engines of 1200 or 1500 horse power; others which make $25,000 vacuum pans; others which make steam pumping en- gines valued at $150,000 or $250,000 each, or refriger- ating machines worth $130,000 to $175,000 each, and side by side with them are little shops doing a jobbing and repairing business, whose entire annual product did not exceed $5,000 or 88,000. Yet all are classed as Foundry and Machine Shop Products. While we retain this general heading, though rejecting its statis- ties, as wholly incorrect, we deem it altogether neces- sary to auy adequate understanding of the subject to divide it into at least nine subsections, as follows :

I. - STEAM ENGINES. II .- BOWLERS, TANKS AND GASOMETERS.

IL .- STEAM PUMPING ENGINES, STEAM PUMPS AND AIR COMPRESSORS.

IV .- LARGE CASTINGS, AS VACUUM PANS, CENTRIFU- GAL MACHINES, REFRIGERATING MACHINES, ARCHITECT- URAL CASTINGS, &c.

V .- PRESSES AND DIES, INCLUDING DRAWING AND STAMPING, BALING, PRINTING AND OTHER PRESSES.

VI .- BRASS FOUNDRIES AND BRASS CASTINGS.

VII .- WOOD-WORKING MACHINES, AND SMALL MA- CHINES OF ALL SORTS; NUTS, BOLTS AND RIVETS.

VIH .- ORDINARY MACHINE SHOP PRODUCTS AND REPAIRING.

IX .- WROUGHT AND CAST IRON RAILING AND FENCES, AND WIRE WORK.

In connection with this last subsection, it may be said that nearly all the larger manufactories, such as the sugar refineries, the great rope-walks, the petroleum refineries, the paper-hangings manufactories, the porce- lain works, etc., ete., have each a large machine shop attached to their works, where all their machinery is repaired and many new machines made. Some of these shops employ a large force, and turn out one, two, or three hundred thousand dollars worth of work. This is reckoned in the general expenditures of the manufae- tories, and not, as it should be, to give a full idea of this branch of Kings county industries, with the ma- chine shop products.

SUBSECTION I .- Steam Engines.

There are no locomotive engine works in Brooklyn or Kings county, though the Long Island Railroad ma- chine shops repair their engines, and perhaps have built one or two. The Coney Island roads have also repair- ing shops for their engines, but, we believe, have never attempted to construct any.

Stationary engines are built here, and of great excel- lenee. From 1863 to 1867, many marine engines were constructed, notably those for several of the monitors, and for ocean steamers. The Continental Iron Works, the Atlantic Steam Engine Co., and the South Brook- lyu Steam Engine Co., were all largely engaged in this business, employing from 1,000 to 1,500 men each. We believe no marine engines are uow built in Kings county, unless there may be one, occasionally, for a freight propeller or a tug. It should be said, however, that Messrs. White & Price advertise marine engines as their specialty. The stationary steam engines now built here are not generally of the largest class, but are of very great merit. The Atlantic Steam Engine Co., Messrs. William Arthur & Co., Ferdinand Rochow, The South Brooklyn Steam Engine Co., Messrs. White & Price, of Hamilton avenue, and one or two smaller houses, are now the principal steam engine builders. The Sherrill-Roper Air Engine Co. is building caloric engines, an improvement on the Ericsson engine, for use where a moderate power and at moderate cost is required. One establishment (105 Court street) makes a specialty of toy engines for children, which are capa- ble of doing good work in their limited capacity.

679

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

The best, as well as the most economical and efficient steam engines made in Kings county are those of MR. FERDINAND ROCHOW. The severe competition of the Corliss, Wright, Harris, and other large steam engines, manufactured elsewhere, with our Kings county engine builders, has led most of them to turn their attention to other machinery, where the rivalry was not so great ; but Mr. Rochow, beginning, in 1870, with a very small shop, has steadily increased his business till he is now the leading builder of stationary and reversible engines in the county. He manufactures a patent compound engine, which is capable of ready adaptation to all forms of stationary engines, for hoisting, for elevators, for upright and wall engines, for driving the machinery of great manufactories, and also to reversible engines for yachts, propellers, etc. The utility of the double and triple compound principle in economizing the con- sumption of steam, by using it expansively, has been long recognized in the large engines, and has been very generally adopted by the users of large amounts of steam power. The great merit of Mr. Rochow's invention is that, by an ingenious adaptation of the principle, and a new and simpler arrangement of all the parts of the engine, he not only renders this economy of steam pos sible to the smallest users of steam, but has so far sim- plified the construction and operation of the engine, that any person of common intelligence can operate it, thus relieving the manufacturer from the heavy expense of employing a professed engineer. These engines can be started in any position whatever by the simple movement of the reversing valve, by giving live steam into each cylinder, and may be made to act on the com- pound principle by another simple movement of the same valve, or stopped by another slight movement of it; and by simple movements of this valve it can be started, stopped, reversed, and used alternately, at will, as a compound or non-compound engine. The engine is almost absolutely noiseless, does not easily get out of order, and does the same work accomplished by a non-expansive engine, while it uses only two-fifths of the steam. The present annual production of steam engines is about $350,000, and the number of men employed about 275.

SUBSECTION II .- Boilers, Tanks and Gasometers, Brewers' and Distillers' Machinery.

For every steam engine there must be at least one steam boiler; for every large engine there are usually from two to five. These boilers are of very varied forms and modes of construction. It is not necessary, nor have we the space to go into a particular de- scription of the cylinder, the cylinder flue, the return flue, the cylinder-tubular, the return-tubular, the marine, the upright, the locomotive, the fire-engine, the Root, and other sectional boilers. We believe there is no variety which is not produced by one or other of our skillful boiler makers. Some are better

for one purpose and some for another; but such houses as the South Brooklyn Steam Boiler Works, Donald Mc Neil's, Peter J. Donohue & Sons, William R. Taylor, Christopher Cunningham, Farrel Logan's Sons, Charles Collins, Smith Brothers, Thomas L. Higgins and Thomas J. Reynolds, are capable of producing anything in the shape of a boiler which is called for.

WILLIAM R. TAYLOR .- " Truth is stranger than fiction." The lives of many of our business men, with their early pov- erty, their labors, their struggles, and their triumphs, read like the inventions of fancy. If any man can be called self- made, Mr. William R. Taylor has a right to the name, hav- ing earned his own living since he was eight years of age, and, by sheer force of will, raised himself from penury to affluence, entirely through his own exertions.

His parents were residents of New York city at the time of his birth, in 1836. When he was five years old his father died, leaving a wife and family of young children in poor circumstances.

Mrs. Taylor was a noble woman; one who possessed more than ordinary intelligence and strengtlı of mind. She accept- ed the care of her little ones as a sacred trust, teaching tliem the principles of morality and religion, together with liabits of industry and economy.

As soon as her son, William R, was able to take care of himself, he did so, finding employment of various kinds in New York until he was eighteen, when he came to Brooklyn to work in a machine shop. His chances for attending school had been small, comprising less than a year altogether; but this disadvantage only spurred him on to make up the de- ficiency in other ways, by devoting all his odd moments to study. He speaks humorously of his struggles alone with fractions and the multiplication table in his early years. Though he commenced at the very bottom of the ladder in his trade, his ambition led him upward. He inherited too much of his mother's energy and strength of character to tamely remain in the lower ranks, and he determined to be something in the world, if strong exertions would avail. Apt, industrious and keenly observant, he passed up, through the various grades of work in the shop, into the counting-room, until his courage and perseverance brought him the reward of a good trade, and an invaluable experience. It was not without days and years of hard labor, sometimes of discour- agement, that this result was accomplished; but he had the resolution and the tenacity of purpose to win. The effort and the discipline developed the boy into a man, with a man's strength, a man's brain, and a man's ambition. After liold- ing for some time the position of book-keeper for a large manufacturing firm, he resolved to start in business for him- self, and, in 1866, with a capital of $78, he made the venture. His business was small at first, of course; but it was well be- gun. Perfectly familiar with every detail of the iranufac- ture of boilers, tanks, &c., he entered into the work with all the energy of his nature, and the fixed determination to suc- ceed. To such an one success is certain. By degrees, he was able to employ more men, and to increase the amount of his manufactures. At the present time, he is at the head of a large establishment, with, at times, 125 workmen in his employ, and an annual product valued at thousands of dol- lars, all together comprising one of the large manufactures that, combined, form so great a proportion of Brooklyn's wealth.

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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 13

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