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 175

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 175

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John Somers had two sons, who were named Richard and James. The former had a son, named John, also a grandson of the same name, who located in Virginia in 1804, and who had a son named Joseph R. Somers, who had three sons (the subjects of our sketch) and a daughter, all of whom are resi- dents of Brooklyn. They were born in the following order: Daniel M., March 20th, 1841; Guy A., July 31st, 1842; Joseph L., January 8th, 1844; and Mary Florence, June 1st, 1850. All of these are married and have families.

Col. Richard Somers, of the war of Independence, and a member of the Provincial Congress for 1775 in Philadelphia, was a grandson of the original John Somers, of New Jersey, whose brave young son, Richard, was born September 15th, 1778, and became a sailor, and rose to the rank of lieutenant in the United States Navy, and commander of the United States ship Nautilus. In the Algerine War, before Tripoli, on the night of September 4th, 1803, he voluntarily sacrificed his own life by blowing up the ship Intrepid, to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy.

The great-grandfather of the Somerses of Brooklyn lost some ships during the Revolutionary War, and their grand- father lost four vessels by the fortunes of war in 1812-14. The Somerses of America were ship-owners for successive generations; but, during the last half-century, have drifted into other lines of enterprise. While of English and French descent, the Somerses of Brooklyn are thoroughly American, being of the sixth generation of their father's and of the fifth of their mother's family in the United States.

The firm of Somers Brothers was organized in 1869 by Daniel M., Joseph L. and Guy A. Somers, who, without cap- ital or a local business acquaintance, began operations, in a small way, near Fulton ferry, Brooklyn, stamping metal goods for manufacturers. Gradually increasing their busi-

* The reader will find these processes very fully described in the arti- cle on Stamped and Drawn Metallic Wares, and in that on Presses and Dies.

* It was in this establishment that milk pans, wash-bowls, dippers and the like were first made "seamless," since which time they are to be found in every city and hamlet of the land.

8. Mitcham

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

ness, they removed, in 1875, to their present location, at the corner of Front and Pearl streets, near Fulton and Catharine ferries. About this time Mr. William H. Atkinson, a cousin, was admitted to a partnership in the enterprise.

The manufacture of brass and nickel-plated goods was in- troduced, and the business increased rapidly with each pass- ing year, as the products of the factory became known in the market. In 1878, the firm began the manufacture of dec- orated tin boxes, for use as packages by manufacturers of proprietary articles. Although these goods are of compar- atively recent origin, their success has demonstrated their great usefulness and popularity wherever they have been introduced, the demand for a complete and perfectly finished package in tin having been long recognized.

The great perfection which this firm has attained iu the modern art of decorating tin has opened a new channel for making these goods. By a process peculiar to themselves, Somers Brothers prepare the surface of the tin-plate with various richly-colored enamels or japans, and print directly upon the surface of the same by the lithographic process, bringing out the finest lines with the greatest clearness, and giving it a perfect and beautiful finish. By their care and experience, they have advanced the printing to suchi perfcc- tion, that they are enabled to make a clearer and more artistic impression on their prepared tin than can be made by the same method on paper. After printing, another process is employed, which produces a finely enameled surface. Sev- eral days are required to fiuish these processes before the tin is ready to be manufactured into boxes or other articles; and the labels and other printed matter are imprinted on the tin- plate before it is made into the goods. These boxes present such an attractive appearance that the public, after using the contents, use them for general and household purposes, the indestructible label being regarded as one of the best modes of permanent advertisement that can be had.

From a small beginning, this enterprise has grown to be one of the most important in the city; and it is, without doubt, in the front rank of similar enterprises in the United States. The members of the firm are practically acquainted with the various departments of their branch of manufacture, and give to its details their personal attention, thus insuring an excellence in their goods that they could not hope other- wise to attain.

They have recently purchased a site for a factory on Third street, corner of Third avenue, upon which they are to erect a large and durable building for the accommodation of their rapidly increasing business.

Other manufacturers who are doing a good business are : Brooklyn Mfg. Co., C. W. Butler & Co., Lorenz Grussier, Iron-Clad Mfg. Co., Peter Michels, August Nagel, Willaim Norris, Robert Schreick, Hugh Sul- livan, Jas. H. Van Winkle, John Wilkens, Reinhard Wenz, and Thomas Heney. It is somewhat remark- able, and we fear, not quite in accordance with thic truth, that the census represents Brooklyn as the only large city in the United States, which is extensively engaged in the production of stamped or drawn goods. New York is reported as producing $97,280 worth, and Brooklyn $1,556,829, while no other large city reports them at all. It is probable, however, that in many cases stamped ware is included under the head of " tin, copper and shect iron ware," though the manufactur- ing census of both New York and Brooklyn have rc-

turns under both titles. The manufacturers of the . drawing and stamping machines tell us that large houses in Portland, Mc .; Wilmington, Del .; Baltimore, Md .; Buffalo, N. Y .; St. Louis, Mo .; San Francisco, Cal., and Portland, Oregon, manufacture oil, fruit, vegetable, provision, fish and oyster cans by hundreds of millions by this process; and that household wares are manufactured largely in the same way in Buffalo, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis.

Tin, sheet iron, zinc and copper arc manufactured.in so many forms that it is not to be supposed that the drawing process can be applied to them all, but the ingenious manufacturers of thesc machines have de- vised the means for making almost everything which can be made by machinery; stove-pipcs are made and riveted, the elbows formed perfectly, kettles, large pails, wash-boilers, steamers, hot-air pipes, copper ket- tles, baking and dripping pans, camp-kettles, etc., etc., etc., are all turned out perfectly by machinery. En- ameled warcs are also manufactured by machine methods. The manufacture of stamped and other tin- wares in Brooklyn has nearly doubled since 1880. At that time there were reported of stamped ware six establishments, with $870,000 capital, employing 1,010 hands, paying $394,779 wages, using $936,084 of ma- terial, and producing annually $1,556,829. The tin- ware, copper-ware and sheet-iron warc trade, was repre- sented as having 119 establishments (this must have included the traveling tinkers and dealers as well); with $136,350 capital, employing 284 hands, paying $150,331 wages, using $346,867 of material, and pro- ducing $619,134 of these warcs. The aggregate num- ber of hands then was 1,294, and the annual product $2,175,963. This was exclusive of the production of the petroleum companies who employed in 1883 about 1,200 hands on their cans, and turned out goods which cost them about $2,225,000; it was exclusive also of the large packing houses, whose production, though very considerable, cannot now be ascertained. The present business in this line in Brooklyn employs about 2,700 hands, and produces somewhat more than $5,200,000.

The manufacture of galvanized iron for building purposes, and of galvanized iron wares for household and other uses, as for leaders, tubing, etc., etc., prop- erly belongs with this class of manufactures. It has no separate item in the census, but there are three or four manufacturers who employ in all about forty or fifty men, and produce goods to the amount of over $150,000.

Intimately connected with the manufacture of tin- wares is the production of tin and lead, or spelter toys, as well as the sheet or cast iron toys, mechanical toys, as they are ternicd, which in these days have so large a sale, and bring so much pleasure to the little ones. The tin, Icad and shcet-iron toys are stamped out in halves, by machines of the same class with the dies

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

used in the manufacture of tin-wares. They are put together and soldered slightly by children, and then passed along to receive their appropriate coloring. These toys, which are of Yankee invention, have largely taken the place of the German toys, once so extensively sold here, being stronger, and better adapted for the introduction of the mechanisms for producing motion, sound, etc., and at the same time, cheaper. They are largely made from scrap iron and tin, and even the superabundant cast-away tin cans are utilized for the service.

The principal manufacturers of tin, lead, spelter and sheet-iron toys, are Elias Durlach, Max Miller, and H. F. Leser; of steam and mechanical toys, the Union Toy Manufacturing Co., and Edward P. Ryder.

From these to other toys and games the transition to wooden toys and boxes, to dolls, to indestructible toys, games and puzzles, to builders' blocks, to children's and dolls' carriages, and all other descrip- tions of toys, is easy and natural.

Mr. P. Sythoff is easily king in the department of wooden toys and boxes, though he has competitors; what Messrs. McLaughlin Brothers cannot furnish in the way of toy-books, indestructibles, pictorial illus- trations, puzzles and games, might well go unfurnished. Messrs. J. Gotz's Sons, Peter Hillenbrand, George Hodgett, and Frederick Scellenberger, etc., manufacture dolls and a great variety of children's toys.

But the children's benefactor is Crandall, "the in- imitable." His toys of all sorts, sizes and conditions; his dolls that talk, walk, sing, dance, jump and fly, and do everything almost that a human being can do; his mechanical toys, and above all, his velocipedes, bicycles, tricycles, quadricycles; his carriages for dolls of all conditions and ranks; his children's carriages, and everything else that can make a child frantic with joy, are not surpassed anywhere.

But Mr. Crandall doesn't make all his toys, and what is worse, those which he does make, are not made in Kings County; more's the pity, and so we cannot place him as we would be glad to do, among the Kings County manufacturers. But we make up for that else- where in this volume, where we speak of him as a dealer.

A young and enterprising house, now Schwalbach & Obrig, have recently commenced the manufacture of children's or baby carriages. Mr. Alexander Schwalbach commenced the manufacture of baby car- riages in September, 1882, at 131 First Street, near Broadway, E. D. His capital was $5,000; he em- ployed ten men, and produced $50,000 the first year. On the 1st of May, 1883, he took Theodore Obrig as partner, and extended the business, adding to it the manufacture of reed and rattan furniture, establishing for this purpose a new factory at 57 Fifth street. The wood wook of their various articles they manufacture at Walton, Delaware county, N. Y., as does Mr. Cran-

ВЕЗАЛЯЯАЗ

SCHWALBACH & OBRIG. L MAKERS OF

BABY CARRIAGES IN WOOD, WILLOW,REED&RATTAN, Dealers in Bicycles ForMen& Boys Velocipedes, Oak Wagons, ROCKING HORSES,DOLL CARRIAGES, SLEDS &c.

NEWTOWN DEPOT.

SCHWALBACH & OBRIG'S FACTORY.

dall also; but the iron work, plated work, etc., and the putting together of their baby carriages is all done here. They are now employing 100 hands, and pro- duce goods to the value of $80,000. Their sales are both wholesale and retail. The firm are young, enter- prising and energetic men, of a high sense of honor, and are bound to succeed.

The census gave the statistics of the manufactures of toys and games as 10 establishments, 388 hands, $332,146 annual product. The number of establish- ments has not increased, but the number of hands is now 450, and the product, the manufacturers say, exceeds $500,000.

SECTION X.

Builders', Mechanics' and Housekeeping Hard- ware, and Agricultural and Horticultural Implements and Machinery.

Hardware is a very comprehensive term, and in- cludes machines, implements and utensils, wholly of metal, partly of metal and wood, wholly of the harder woods, or partly or wholly of porcelain, granite wares, and metal or metallic earths. Each of the kinds of hardware specified in our title may be of either ma- terial.

Builders' hardware includes hinges, latches, door- knobs, locks, keys, bolts, fasteners, door-chains, gong and other door bells, window catches and fasteners, trimmings for blinds, etc., etc. These may be of iron, brass, bronze, and some of them of porcelain or stone- ware. Plumbers' and gas-fitters' hardware includes basins, faucets, chains, gas-burners and the simpler

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

tools of the trade, but not what are known as Gas-fit- ters' and Plumbers' supplies. These, too, are of por- celain or enameled ware, and of bronze or plated metal. Mechanics' hardware includes the simpler tools, axes, hatchets, planes, hammers, adzes, chisels, screw-drivers, tack-hammers, brad-awis, squares, com- passes, scales, common saws, two-foot rules, measuring tapes, etc., etc. These are usually of metal and wood except the tapes, and some of these are of stcel.

Agricultural and Horticultural hardware includes hoes, rakes, pitchforks, spades, shovels, garden trowels, scratchers, harrows, flower-stands, flower-pots, tree pruners, saws, trimming knives, hay knives, grass knives, sickles, scythes, cradles, flower trellises, &c., &c. Except the flower-pots these are all of metal and wood, or of wood alone. Housekeeping hardware embraces too many items to be enumerated here, but they will be re- called by our readers. In this department, iron, steel, bronze, plated metals, silver, wood of all qualities and degrees of hardness, porcelain, carthen or stone ware, and pottery of all grades, are the materials of which the utensils are made, and great ingenuity and inven- tive skill is displayed in constantly providing new ar- ticles and new patterns to supplement or to supplant those already in use. There is still another class of hardware goods, not made for general use, but to sup- ply the manufacturers the parts of articles they manu- facture. Thus, in the manufacture of tea-pots, tea- kettles, sugar-bowls, milk-cups, pitchers, drinking cups, card receivers, etc., of metal, whether planished tin, brittania, nickel, or white metal for plating, the handles, noses, spouts, etc., etc., are not cast or moulded with the vessel, but are cast separately, and soldered to the vessel very deftly and delicately, and, if it is sub- sequently plated, the seam or joint is invisible.

All these descriptions of hardware are manufactured in Kings county, although hardly any two houses pro- duce the same kind of goods.

The builders' hardware is very much divided. Door- knobs, drawers and bolt-knobs, insulators, and every- thing which can be made of porcelain is manufactured by the Union Porcelain Works. Bronze hinges, knobs, latches and trimmings are made by Charles Mellish, and we believe also by the Ansonsia Clock .Co. Many of the more ornamental of thesc articles in bronze and brass are also made by Mr. W. G. Creamer, at the Brooklyn City Foundry, and by some of the brass foundries. The more common articles, arc made by the small founders and machinists, and the locks, keys, gongs, etc., by the lock manufacturers. Williams, White & Co., Nostrand and Flushing avenues, make everything in this line except the bronze goods. They employ about 65 hands, and produce $65,000 to $70,000 a year. Farrington & Whitney arc in nearly the same line, and do about the same amount of business. Wc think they make some bronze goods. Other mannfac- turers are : Bohanan, Brehler, Deitz, and Ellis.

The plumbers' hardware comes from L. Branders & Son, J. Conway, G. D. Kimber & Son, H. McShane & Co., Ronalds & Co., W. H. Storey, and B. E. Val- entine, and the gas-burners from the E. P. Gleason Manufacturing Co. There is nothing in the line of builders' or plumbers' and gas-fitters' hardware, nor in any other department of the builders' or decorators' art, required for the construction of the finest public or private buildings in Brooklyn, which cannot be fur- nished, of as excellent quality and as tasteful form, by the manufacturers of Brooklyn as in any other city in the world.

The mechanics' hardware comes from various sources. The saws are furnished by the Vulcan Saw Works, by C. W. Dunlap, and several other parties; the files by C. B. Paul mostly ; the hammers by C. W. Dunlap, II. L. Judd & Co., Williams, White & Co. and others; the squares, two-foot rules, etc., by T. J. Large & Son. The measuring tapes by George M. Eddy & Co, etc., etc.

We will speak of agricultural and horticultural hard- ware a little farther on. The largest manufacturer of housekeeping hardware in Kings County is Charles W. Dunlap, whose catalogue shows a very great variety of items. He confines himself, however, mostly to those articles which are of iron and steel combined with wood, or of metal only. His list contains 275 items. The tin household wares, and those of enamelled or granite coating, are furnished by the tin manufacturers, like Ketcham & Co., Haberman, Ilsley & Co., Vogel, Somers Bros., etc., etc., etc .; the hollow-ware castings by John Sandaver, Gedney & Nungasser, and other small founders; and the wood hardware by H. H. Bel- lows, Christopher Fitter, George Kessel, William A. Vredenburgh, etc., etc.

The Halsted Manufacturing Co. are engaged exclu- sively in casting handles, ears, noses and spouts to metal goods for household use, a large business in itself. Oakley T. Lee manufactures hardware specialties, such as gong-bells, spiral springs, etc. Several of the other hardware manufacturers are similarly engaged.

SUBSECTION I .- Agricultural Machinery and Imple- ments.

This industry, which at one time was a large one in Kings County, has now nearly ceased here, in conse- quence of the greater facilities for obtaining the wood, iron and steel (which are the principal raw materials required in the manufacture) at points farther west, and in regions easily accessible to great forests and iron mills and furnaces.

The Agricultural Machine Works, in Plymonth street, were established by R. H. Allen, Esq., in 1854, and for a score of years or more carried on a very ex- tensive business, requiring a steam engine of 100-horse power to drive their machinery, employing 250 men, manufacturing not only mowing and reaping machines,

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

but a general line of agricultural implements. But the great development of manufactories for these ma- chines in Syracuse, Buffalo, Batavia, Cleveland, Toledo, South Bend, Chicago, etc., etc., and the increased cost of their production here, led Messrs. Allen to remove their factory, about five years since, into the interior of the State, and rent their building and power to other parties, for manufacturing horse trucks, wheelwright work, etc. There are two or three other manufacturers of agricultural implements in the county, but their business is small ; the census reported but one in 1880. Of these the largest is Messrs. Edmiston & Waddell, in Brooklyn, E. D. R. Grammich's Son, whose works extend from 103 North First to 64 North Second street, in the Eastern District, has also been in the business since 1874. His production is about $10,000. Of the horticultural tools, C. W. Dunlap manufactures a full line. The statistics of the hardware manufacture in Brooklyn in the census of 1880 were 34 establishments ; $432,550 capital ; 441 hands employed; $193,186 wages paid; $401,251 mate- rial used, and $750,297 annual product. It is so diffi- cult to define what shall be classed as hardware, and there are so many firms, a part of whose production may be classed as hardware and a part as something else, that it is impossible to say whether these statistics are approximately correct or not. The production has certainly not decreased since 1880.

SUBSECTION II .- Refrigerators.

The general use of refrigerators, which may preserve the ice from too rapid melting, is of recent origin. It is not yet fifty years since the collection and distribu- tion of ice for family use became a business sufficiently large to be profitable. Now one of the great ice com- panies has its wagons traversing every street of Kings and New York counties; has a capital of over three millions of dollars, and has an annual income of be- tween five and six millions, and employs more than two thousand men in distributing the ice. Other ice companies do a smaller but still a profitable business.

All of this vast traffic in ice creates a demand for refrigerators, from the great refrigerating room of the large provision dealers and hotels, and the refrigerat- ing vats of the breweries, to the smaller and less costly family refrigerators and ice chests. Every large city has its refrigerator manufactories, and of a great variety of patterns; every hardware and house fur- nishing store, has the agency of from one to a half dozen manufacturers, each claiming to be the best.

Refrigerators are of varied construction, but the most effective embody the following principles, viz. :

(1). The ice in a chamber at the top of the refriger- ator; (2). A perforated rack or false bottom to the ice chamber; (3). A guarded entrance of the outer air, so that it will pass over and around the ice to the space under the rack ; (4). A drainage on each side of

the refrigerator, of the water from the melted ice, in such a way that it will extend along the sides and back, and keep the air between the lining and outside. of the refrigerator, at a temperature not above 33º F., and finally be concentrated by a sloping groove to the vent or outlet ; (5). By this means the air in the refrigera- tor will be kept constantly dry, and of a temperature not above 35°, at which temperature no decay or fer- mentation is possible ; (6). It is desirable that the external surface of the refrigerator should be painted with a water-proof and fire-proof paint, which shall prevent the introduction of hot air or moisture through the pores of the wood.

Such a refrigerator will be economical in its con- sumption of ice; the cold air in it will be dry, and of a temperature, extraordinaries excepted, not exceeding 35° F .; it will neither freeze the articles placed within it, which would impair their quality, nor convey moisture to them, which would in most cases, cause their destruction. The refrigerators in the markets approximating to this standard most nearly, are those which are most desirable; those departing from it in any essential particular are to be avoided. Without denouncing any manufacturer or any pattern of refrig- erators, it is still safe to say that two-thirds of those put on the market do not meet these requirements.

Our Kings County manufacturers, we are glad to say, do conform to these principles more nearly than any others within our knowledge. They are not per- fect, and have yet some faults which they will correct.

Messrs. Cooper & McKee, of 115-119 Gwinnett street, are the oldest and largest house in the trade, Mr. McKee having been engaged in it since 1875, and Mr. Cooper being previously of the house of McGill & Cooper. Mr. Mc Gill is now established in Mckibbin street. Both houses manufacture many styles of refrig- erators, but aside from the ice chests, give the prefer- ence to those having the ice chamber at the top. Their drainage is very perfect, and their cupboards are dry and sufficiently cold to keep provisions well. They are moderately economical of ice, though some improve- ments, introduced the present winter, will make their reputation much higher in this respect.

The annual product of the refrigerator manufacture (exclusive of refrigerating machines), is about $115,- 000; the number of hands employed is about 60.

SECTION XI.

Silver-Plating and Silver-Plated Wares.

The only item in the tables of the manufactures of Brooklyn put forth in the Tenth Census, which can have any reference to the business of silver-plating, is. the title, electro-plating, and these are its statistics : number of establishments, 6 ; capital invested, $10,650 ; hands employed, 30 ; annual amount paid in wages, $9,371; value of raw material, $3,630; value of pro-

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

ducts, $21,632. It is to be remembered that the term " electro-plating " includes copper-plating, and nickel- plating, and electrotyping, as well as silver and gold plating. The number of houses engaged in the first three of these descriptions of electro-plating is not less than ten or twelve, and one of the nickel-platers alone, does more than five times the amount of busi- ness, and produces five times as great a value of goods as the census assigns to the whole six electro-platers.

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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 175

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