The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 170

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I > Part 170

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In the manufacturing census of twenty cities, which was published in 1882, the items had been cut 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 itenis 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 census.

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 defect in a proper classification of these manufactures. Here, included at last, under the head of Foundry and Machine Shop Products, are nearly a dozen different industries, wholly diverse from each other, most of them using as a material, either iron, cast 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 $8,000. Yet all are classed as Foundry and Machine Shop Products. While we retain this general heading, though rejecting its statis- tics, as wholly incorrect, we deem it altogether neces- sary to any adequate understanding of the subject to divide it into at least nine subsections, as follows :

I .- STEAM ENGINES.

II .- BOILERS, TANKS AND GASOMETERS.

III .- 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.

VIII .- 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., etc., 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 manufac- 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- lence. 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- lyn 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 now 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 strength of mind. She accept- ed the care of her little ones as a sacred trust, teaching them the principles of morality and religion, together with habits 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 hold- 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 manufac- 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.

Mr. Taylor remarks that the main factor in business suc- cess is good credit and keeping up one's good name. His

680

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

IMP. Fay Los

habits have never been such as to cause his creditors uneasi- ness, while his promptness in financial matters has been noteworthy.

Mr. Taylor is rather tall and strongly built; a fine specimen of manhood; his keen eye and alert manner indicate his characteristic quickness and energy. Though social in his tastes, he prefers home life to general society, and his favor- ite place in leisure hours is his own home, in the companion- ship of his wife and family. They are attendants upon the Church of the Christian Evangel, of which organization he has been a trustee for a number of years. Charitable or re- ligious institutions have a cheerful supporter in Mr. Taylor. For about twenty-four years he has been a member of the Order of Odd Fellows, a Mason also for nearly twenty years, and a Knight of Honor for four or five. His first votes were cast with the Whig party; subsequent ones with the Repub- licans. Though mindful of his duties as a citizen, he has been too much absorbed in business to interest himself great- ly in politics or to seek office. His favorite recreation is fishing, in which he delights. He indulges in the sport every summer, usually spending his vacation on Long Island.

Mr. Taylor had the assistance of a partner but a short time in his business, and has since managed all its depart- ments for himself. He has an honest pride in the excellence of his manufactures and their high reputation.

Now, just in the prime of life, he enjoys the satisfaction of success, honestly earned, the comforts and luxuries that wealth gives, a refined home, the confidence of the business

world, and the good opinion of all, with promise of still greater achievements and usefulness and honor in time to come.

But it is not alone for steam engines that boilers are wanted; the steam and the water heating apparatus both must have boilers, and tubular boilers at that, for their effective use. The hatters especially, in their new machinery for felting, shrinking and dye- ing hats, require boilers and vats in which water is raised to and above the boiling point; the petroleum refineries require boilers of a peculiar construction, as well as tanks for their oil. Then the breweries and distilleries need many and immense vats, which the boiler-makers must manufacture; and, in a some- what similar line, there are the huge gasometers towering up heavenward, like the walls of some great Babel. For the steam and water heating, Annin & Co., Allsop & Hugill, and Bates & Johnson, furnish the boilers ; for the hatters, Bernard F. Piel ; for the petroleum refineries, Henry Vogt & Brothers, and we believe also Christopher Cunningham; for the brew- eries and distilleries, the Puritan Iron Works, James Cornelius, Bernard F. Piel, etc., ctc .; for the gasome-

681

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

ters, the Abendroth & Root Manufacturing Co. It is hardly possible to aseertain exactly the amount of production of this subsection. It cannot be less than $1,500,000, and taking the average of the last three years, would probably considerably exceed that amount.

SUBSECTION III. - Steam Pumps, Water Works, Engines and Mining Pumps,

is one of the largest of these industries. There are but seven of these manufacturers, but some of them have works of great extent, and turn out an immense produet every year.

Among these steam pumps and pumping engines works, by far the largest and most complete in all their appointments are the Henry R. Worthington Hydraulic Works in South Brooklyn.

Established nearly forty years ago, and now occupy- ing with its buildings a double block, 250x400 feet in extent, and several stories in height, with a plant more complete and costly than any other pump works in the United States; carrying at all times an immense stoek, ranging from the smallest steam pump for hotel or factory use to the large steam pumping engines for mining or water works use, and a great variety of water meters, these vast works form a very important item in the great and manifold industries of Brooklyn.

The success of these works has been so great that an inquiry into the special characteristics of their pumps and pumping engines is in order. Mr. Worthington's pumps owe mueh of their superiority to two causes: the application to steam pumping machines of a modi- fieation of the duplex system which had been previ- ously adopted in steam engines, in which, by the use of two cylinders, the capacity and power of the engine was doubled, and the consumption of fuel or steam diminished nearly or quite one-half. This adaptation of the duplex steam eylinders to the pumping of water required great ingenuity and skill, and yet was aecom- plished by Mr. Worthington in a way so simple and effective that there has never been any necessity for material change in the application of the principle, and but little in the details.

As applied by him, the duplex steam pump doubles (in some of his pumping engines it quadruples), the capacity of the pump, while it diminishes the size of the pumping engines, and entirely avoids the shock and noise which make direct-aeting single engines so objectionable and short-lived, and which have led to the prohibition of their use by the Legislature in build- ings which were occupied, wholly or in part, as dwell- ings. This good result was greatly aided by his peeu- liar steam valve motion, by which two steam pumps and steam cylinders are combined in oue, and aet re- eiproeally upon each other in opening and closing the steam valves, thus producing a complete exemption from noise or concussive aetion, dividing the wear and doub- ling the life-time of the machine.

Another improvement of great value, introduced by Mr. Worthington in hydraulie elevated pumps, tank pumps, fire pumps, pressure pumps, mine pumps, and engines de- signed for the water supply of small eities and towns, is found in his eompound " steam pump," which uses the steam expansively. The steam having exerted its force, through one stroke, upon the smaller steam piston, expands upon the larger during the return stroke, and operates to drive the piston in the other direction. It is, in effect, the same thing as using a cut-off on a erank engine, only with the great advan- tage of uniform and steady action upon the water. It cannot be used with advantage where the steam pres- sure is much below fifty pounds; but, where it ean be used, it is economieal, requiring from 30 to 33 per eent. less eoal than any high pressure engine to do the same work. Where the water or other fluid to be pumped is gritty, at a slight advance of cost, plungers are fur- nished, having external adjustable paeking.

Another of Mr. Worthington's applications of the duplex principle is found in his " low service " pumps, where the plungers or water pistons are nearly, or quite, the diameter of their steam pistons. These ean- not feed their own boilers, but are furnished with a side feed or plunger, driven by an arm on one piston rod for this purpose. The largest regular size of these will deliver from 1,145 to 2,065 gallons of water or oil per minute ; and for railroad water stations, oil tanks and other places where fluid is to be raised to a mod- erate height, with ordinary steam pressure, it proves greatly superior to any of the single cylinder pumps, requiring plungers of only two-thirds the size of the single eylinders, and consuming much less fuel, while they can, in an emergency, be worked at a higher rate of speed than is possible with the single eylinder, with- out great noise and destructive wear.

The Worthington " Pressure " pump is another ap- plication of the duplex system, where great water pres- sures are to be worked against. The diameter of its water plungers is only about one-third that of its steam cylinders, and it delivers a smaller amount of fluid per minute than the preceding pump, but raises it to any required height. A modification of this, the "Compound Condensing Pressure Pump," delivers large quantities of fluid per minute while working under very heavy pressure. Both pumps are in great demand for mine pumping, and, in the oil pipe lines, for delivering at very considerable heights, and under heavy pressures, large quantities of oil.

A number of these compound engines of from 250 to 500 horse-power, are in constant use on the Oil Pipe lines, some of them being required to deliver from 15,000 to 25,000 barrels of oil per day against pressures varying from 1,000 to 1,500 pounds to the square inch. Those employed in mines are sometimes required to do their work under water, and often under water at a high temperature, but they never fail. Their quiet-

682

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

ness of action and freedom from concussion specially commend them to the Oil Pipe Companies, who have found the concussion of the single cylinder pumps very destructive to their lines, causing constant leakage.

The same principle is also developed with applica- tions, varying according to the service they are to ren- der, in the Worthington Fire Pump, the Brewery Pump, the Power Pump and the Steam Pump and Boiler for general service.

But there are three other of their pumping engines which demand a somewhat more particular notice. These are, Ist, the Worthington "Mine " Pump, pat- ented in 1883, which embodies the results of nearly forty years' experience, and the best methods and prin- ciples of construction of all parts to accomplish the desired purpose, together with some important im- provements recently patented. The plungers of this machine work through central, exterior stuffing boxes, into four separate and distinct water cylinders. These cylinders are all precisely alike, subdivided as much as possible, and having each part or attachment of the one an exact duplicate of the corresponding part or attachment of the other three. This duplication and subdivision greatly facilitates renewals or repairs, and renders it pos- sible for only partially skilled engineers and firemen, to replace a broken part by sending to the hydraulic works, and meantime to maintain a half or three-quarter service of the pumping engine. The valve areas and water passages are unusually large, so as to decrease the velocity and consequent destructive action of the currents of the sulphurous water, often encountered in this service.

The plungers, piston rods, stuffing boxes, and the en- tire suction and force valve plates, are made of a metal composition, that has been found best adapted to resist this action; wherever natural wear after a time takes place, the part so worn can be readily and quickly replaced, without disturbing any adjacent part. The pumps will safely withstand a working pressure of 200 pounds to the square inch, and all their attach- ments are especially strengthened with a view of meet- ing the rough usage and hard work, to which, in this service, they are liable to be subjected.

A second pump is the only single cylinder pump regularly manufactured by the Worthington hydraulic works. It was one of Mr. Worthington's earliest pumps, and is known as the " Worthington Steam Pump for Wrecking, Drainage, and Irrigating." It has proved itself admirably adapted for the work for which it was designed. On account of its short stroke and large diameter, it is extremely efficient, running on comparatively low pressure of steam, and with a very small percentage of loss from friction or leakage. It is also, in the highest degree, simple and durable, with few parts, and scarcely any liability to derangement or breakage. It makes more noise in consequence of con- cussion, than the duplex pumps, but for a single cylin-

der pump, is not specially objectionable on this ground, and is used mostly when the noise is not an annoyance. The largest regular size, 192x33x15, will discharge 3,200 to 3,600 gallons per minute.

3. But we hasten to consider Mr. Worthington's chef d'œuvre, his great Water Works Pumping En- gine. Of these, up to September, 1883, he had built more than 200, of a total contract pumping capacity of nearly 800,000,000 gallons in 24 hours. The smallest of these had a pumping capacity of 333,000 in 24 hours, and from this capacity they rose to single en- gines of 11,000,000 in 1871, of 16,000,000 in 1873, of 15,000,000 in 1874, and of 15,000,000 in 1876, 1879, and 1880. In 1880, also, their largest engines, of 25,000,000 of gallons capacity in 24 hours each, were made for the city of Boston. In 1883, they have made two of 10,000,000 gallons each, and three for Philadelphia, of a combined capacity of 37,500,000 gallons. Over twenty engines, of 10,000,000 of gal- lons capacity, or more, have been manufactured, and the remainder have averaged about 4,000,000 of gal- lons in each 24 hours. When it is considered that some of these engines cost from $100,000 to $150,000 each, the magnitude of the operations of this great manufactory will be manifest.

These engines carry out, on a large scale, all the im- provements which years of experience had suggested in the smaller pumps, and have many special improve- ments which render them equal, if not superior to, any pumping engine yet built. The ablest civil engineers in the country would hardly continue to recommend their introduction, if there was any radical defect in them.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 170

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1114

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114