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 II, Part 14

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345

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 II > Part 14

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

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

0/APP. Fay 203

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 absorhed 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., etc .; for the gasome-

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

ters, the Abendroth & Root Manufacturing Co. It is hardly possible to ascertain 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 product 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 stock, 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 much of their superiority to two causes: the application to steam pumping machines of a modi- fication 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 cylinders to the pumping of water required great ingenuity and skill, and yet was accom- 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-acting 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 pecu- liar steam valve motion, by which two steam pumps and steam cylinders are combined in one, and act re- ciprocally upon each other in opening and closing the steam valves, thus producing a complete exemption from noise or concussive action, dividing the wear and doub- ling the life-time of the machine.

Another improvement of great value, introduced by Mr. Worthington in hydraulic elevated pumps, tank pumps, fire pumps, pressure pumps, mine pumps, and engines de- signed for the water supply of small cities and towns, is found in his compound " 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 crank 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 can be used, it is economical, requiring from 30 to 33 per cent. less coal 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 packing.

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 can- 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 cylinders, 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 cylinder, 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-

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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, 1st, 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- | average of 1880, 1881, and 1882, $450,000.

der pump, is not specially objectionable on this ground, and is used mostly when the noise is not an annoyance. The largest regular size, 19}x33x15, 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.

Of all classes of the smaller duplex pumps which we have described, and there are from fifteen to thirty sizes of each, the Worthington Hydraulic Works have turned out many thousands, and they have given such general satisfaction, that they are compelled to keep up a full line of them to supply the constantly increas- ing demand.

They are also manufacturers of the Worthington Water Meter, which twenty-five years of experience has proved the most accurate and best adapted to its purpose of any in the market ; while the sale of more than 30,000, at an average price of about $35, sufficiently demonstrates its superiority. They also manufacture oil meters.

The statistics of this great establishment are as fol- lows :

Founded in 1845. Occupying at first a small shed.

Present area covered by Hydraulic Works: two blocks; over 100,000 square feet.

Amount of capital invested, in round numbers, $1,000,000.

Number of hands employed: greatest number at one time, 760.

Amount of wages paid annually, in round numbers,

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

Annual product, in round numbers, say for either year ending July, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, $1,500,000.

Order is the first law in the Worthington Hydraulic Works. In the tool room, each of the myriad tools has its appropriate place ; and if absent, a check with the workman's number, tells who is responsible for it. In the draughting room, every drawing, of any eleva- tion, plan, or separate portion of a machine or engine, is duplicated by a simple photographic process which a boy can manage. A Mutual Benefit Association, ob- taining its funds by a deduction of ten cents a week from every man's wages, and the payment by the firm of a sum equal to the whole amount collected from the men, provides for the sick, the injured, or the families of those deceased, and being managed by the men themselves, prevents all strikes.

The Davidson Steam Pump Company, the only other house in Kings county, which manufactures steam pumping engines, is a comparatively young company, having been in existence, in its present form, only three or four years. They manufacture also many kinds of steam pumps, such as boiler feed pumps, tank pumps, marine pumps, wrecking pumps, fire pumps, brewery pumps, mining pumps, sugar-house pumps, railroad pumps, vacuum pumps, air pumps, circulating pumps, tannery pumps, and hydraulic pumps. Of most of these there are from 13 to 38 regular sizes, though not many of them are kept constantly in stock. Most of these are direct-acting single cylinder pumps, at the steam end, but differ from other direct-acting steam pumps, in having only one valve-a compound slide- valve with cylindrical face-in the steam chest. This valve is said to be very simple in construction, not lia- ble to get out of order, become deranged, or wear out before the rest of the pump. It is oscillated by an ob- lique cam, and does not depend entirely upon the steam admitted to the end of the valve-piston for its action, the cam carrying the valve mechanically when the pump is under a high rate of speed. It is claimed that this valve arrangement admits of its being run at higher speed than any other direct-acting pump, and renders it perfectly noiseless. The water end of these steam pumps is also claimed to be a new and simpler design than that of any other steam pump yet con- structed, and not to be liable to blow out or leak, and to be readily taken apart and put together again. The mining pumps are made with a double plunger, hori- zontal, and the two plungers reciprocating in the same cylinder. The company claim for these a superiority over all other mining pumps.

The water works pumping engines are made on sub- stantially the same patterns, though some of them have duplex cylinders, both steam and water-but not with reciprocating valves. As yet, their largest pumping engine, in actual use, has a capacity of but three mil- lion gallons a day, and the greater part of them range from two to two and a half million gallons; but, with

enlarged facilities, they can probably increase the ca- pacity to any desired extent, if the engines should prove, after thorough trial, to possess the advantages now claimed for them.

The Niagara Steam Pump Works, which manufac- ture the steam pumps under the patents of Charles B. and John Hardick, are, with a single exception (Worth- ington's), the oldest steam pump manufacturers in Kings county, and among the oldest in the United States. They acquired a high reputation, many years ago, for their Niagara Direct-Acting Pump, the first successful direct-acting steam pump in the United States, and have since increased it by their patent double acting steam pump, steam fire engines, crank pump and engine, direct-acting agitator and steam pump, their improved Niagara vacuum pump, and their direct and double act- ing plunger pump. All their pumps and pumping en- gines are distinguished for the simplicity of their con- struction, which permits their being run by a man of fair intelligence, though he may not have been educated as an engineer; by the perfection of all their parts; the efficiency and steadiness of their action; their ability to be run under water; their economy of fuel, and their moderate price. They have manufactured engines cap- able of pumping more than 2,000,000 gallons of water in 24 hours; but they have generally preferred to make steam pumps for clearing wrecks of water, for railroad tanks, breweries, distilleries, tanneries, purposes of irri- gation, for pumping oil through pipes to long distances in the oil regions, for fire and wrecking steamers, and for plantation duty on sugar and cotton plantations. The firm commenced business in 1862, at 23 Adams street, as Hardick Bros. John Hardick died in 1868, and Charles B. Hardick was sole proprietor till 1874, when he also died; and the business has since been con- ducted, with great energy and success, as the estate of Charles B. Hardick, W. S. Hardick, another brother, being manager. In 1880, desiring a larger amount of room for their works, they purchased and removed to their present locality, 118-122 Plymouth street. The Niagara steam pumps have been exhibited, and thor- oughly tested, at many Expositions in all parts of the world, and have never failed to receive the highest medals and other awards. They have now 22 medals, and twice that number of diplomas. One medal and four diplomas of superiority were awarded at the Cen- tennial, and a medal at the Sydney, New South Wales, Exposition of 1880. (See cut on page 684).

There are four or five other manufacturers of steam pumps, but none of them, we believe, confine them- selves to this manufacture exclusively. Norman Hub- bard makes some pumps, but his works are to a con- siderable extent devoted to repairing pumps and steam engines.

Messrs. Guild & Garrison make a specialty of brew- ers and beer pumps, as also pumps for the use of the sugar refineries.

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

William Foster makes a variety of steam pumps, as well as some machinery for hatters, but his specialty is the Excelsior Patent Rotary Pump, for which he has created a considerable market.

James Clayton also makes steam pumps of a very good pattern, but his specialty is " Air Compressors;"machines for compressing air for use as a motor in driving rock drills and water pumps in mines and tunnels.

Mr. Clayton also man- ufactures coal cutting machines, hauling and hoisting engines, mine and other portable loco- motives, etc., etc. His "Compressors " have a very high reputation in all parts of the country.

This subsection (steam pumps, etc.) represents in round numbers the employment of not less than 1,200 hands, the C.WRIGHT .SC. payment of annual wages to the amount of ahout $850,000, and an annual product of about $2,750,000.

seldom holds less than from two hundred to four hun. dred barrels of sugar, is so constructed that the steam which heats the covered pan works an air pump, which exhausts the air to such an extent that the liquor (the purified sugar solution) boils at about 100° F. The centrifugal machines (Havemeyer & Elder have some sixty-four feet in diameter) by rapid revolution of a brass perforated cylinder inside its periphery, throw out the molasses and syrup, and leave the sugar clean, white, and very nearly dry. The filters are immense flattened iron tubular vessels, so constructed as to filter

THE NIAGARA DIRECT-ACTING PUMP. (See page 683).

SUBSECTION IV .- Large Castings and Finishing, both in Brass and Iron-as Vacuum Pans, Centrifugal and other Sugar House Machines, Refrigerating Machines, Architectural Castings, etc.

This subsection is very large, and embraces a con- siderable number of our most extensive foundries and machine shops. The manufacture of vacuum pans, centrifugal machines, and other machines for making and refining sugar, is itself a very large business. A single sugar refinery in Brooklyn has invested more than $600,000 in vacuum pans alone, and the investment in centrifugal machines, filters, moulds, etc., etc., is probably twice that amount. The de- mand for much of this sugar-making and refining machinery from Louisiana and South America and the West Indies is constant, though the vacuum pans, etc., are not of such immense sizes as those used in the great refineries here. The vacuum pan, which here

the dissolved raw sugars through bone-black to purify them.

The Pioneer Iron Works in South Brooklyn has the highest reputation and does the largest business in sugar machinery. They employ in times of active business from 800 to 1,200 men, and turn out more than $2,000,000 worth of castings.

The South Brooklyn Steam Engine Works also do a considerable business in this line; and, we believe, one of the Williamsburgh foundries.

In the construction of Hydraulic Presses of all sorts, and especially for the expression of the oil from cotton seed and linseed, as well as in the building of refrige- rating machines, the Columbian Iron Works, Messrs. William Taylor & Sons, of whose establishment we give an illustration, are easily foremost, and in the latter industry are, we believe, the only manufacturers in the county. Their extensive works, extending on both sides of Adams street, from No. 25 to No. 39, and occupying thirteen full city lots, were started in 1844 by the present senior member of the firm in Gold

William Taylor

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

685

street, near York, in a very small shop. In 1845 Mr. Taylor purchased a single lot on his present site, and erected a small foundry, to which, in the years that followed, one lot after another, and one building after another, was added, until the great foundry assumed its present proportions. There are in all seven or eight large buildings, the principal ones being three or four stories in height, and having the following dimensions, respectively: 75x52 feet, 25x52, 50x26, and 25x44. The foundry and erecting shop are in the rear, and the cleaning and storage shops on the other side of Adams street. Mr. Taylor commenced business as a founder, by casting stoop railings, fences, columns, and orna- mental work for house use, but very soon began the production of fine machinery fitted and adjusted with great care. Circumstances related in his biography,

breweries, are very expensive ; one, and that not the largest, erected in a Brooklyn brewery, cost $135,000, but it saved the brewer $20,000 on the cost of ice, and an amount of space sufficient to nearly double the capacity of his brewery. These machines, so far as Brooklyn is concerned, are all made by Messrs. William Taylor and Sons. The firm was William Taylor alone, from 1844 to 1856; Taylor, Campbell & Co., from 1856 to 1861, the Co. being his eldest son, Mr. James A. Taylor; Mr. Campbell went out in 1861, and Mr. Tay- lor's second and third sons, Edwin S. and William J. Taylor, were subsequently admitted as partners. About 250 men are employed in the different shops, and the out-put averages about $1,200,000. We introduce here portraits and biographical sketches of Messrs. William Taylor and James A. Taylor.

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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 II, Part 14

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co Number of Pages: 1345

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345