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 20

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 20

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The Manufacture of Paints, Varnishes, etc. I. White Lead and Its Professed Substitute- Linseed Oil. 2. Painters' Colors, Dry. 3. Paints in Colors and White, Mixed with Oils or Other Ingredients. 4. Varnishes. 5. Whiting and Paris White, and the Art of Kalsomining.

The manufacture of paints, varnishes, etc., in Kings county does not include what are known as tube or artists' colors; for though one of the largest of our paint manufacturing houses does produce these, their manufactory of them is in New Jersey. But all the descriptions of paints which are used on surfaces of wood or iron, or other metals, and all kinds of varnishes used on wood, metallic or paper surfaces, are made here, as well as all descriptions of dryers. All the so- called mineral paints are made or refined for use here, as well as the linseed and other oils, and the refined spirits of turpentine which have so large a measure of use in all descriptions of painting.

The whiting, paris white, white oxide of zinc, glue, and other constituents of the wash known as kalsomine, alabastine, etc., are also either made or prepared for use here.

The subject is consequently one of great compass and extent.

SUBSECTION I .- White Lead.

Let us take up each department of the manufacture in its natural order. With the exception of the coarse paints applied to rough surfaces of iron, wood or stone for their preservation, which may be of coal tar, red lead, lime, or other articles, all paints used in house painting and ornamental work have either white lead or the white oxide of zinc, either pure or adulterated, as their basis. What is white lead, and how is it pre- pared ? It is a carbonate, or perhaps a carbonate and a white oxide of lead mixed, and is obtained in the form of a very white and heavy powder. It mixes readily with oil, giving to it a drying property, spreads well under the brush, and perfectly covers the surface to which it is applied.

It is not only employed alone as the best sort of white paint, but, as we have already said, is the general material or body of a great number of paints, the colors of which are produced by mixing suitable color- ing matter with the white lead. Besides its use as a paint, it is also in demand to a considerable extent as an ingredient in the vulcanized india-rubber. To pre- pare it the purest pig lead, such as the refined foreign

lead and the metal from the mines of the western states, is almost exclusively used. This was by the old methods made in thin sheets and these coiled into small rolls to be subjected to the chemical treatment. But according to the American method devised by Mr. Augustus Graham, of Brooklyn, and now generally adopted, the lead is cast into circular gratings or " buckles," which closely resemble in form the large old-fashioned shoe-buckles, from which they receive their name. They are six or eight inches in diameter, and the lead hardly exceeds one sixth of an inch in thickness. Ingenious methods of casting them are in use in the American factories, by which the lead is run upon moulds directly from the furnace, and the buckles are separated from each other and delivered without handling into the vessels for receiving them. They are then packed in earthen pots shaped like flower-pots, each of which is provided with a ledge or three pro- jecting points in the inside, intended to keep the pieces above the bottom, in which is placed some strong vine- gar or acetic acid. It is recommended that on one side the pot should be partially open above the ledge, and if made full all round, it is well to knock out a piece in order to admit a freer circulation of vapors through the lead. In large establishments an immense supply of these pots is kept on hand, the number at one of the Brooklyn works being reckoned at not less than 200,000. They continue constantly in use till accidentally broken below the ledge. Being packed with the buckles and the acid, they are set close together in rows upon a bed of spent tan, a foot to two feet thick, and thin sheets of lead are laid among and over the pots in several thicknesses, but always so as to leave open spaces among them. An area is thus covered, it may be twenty feet square or of less dimensions, and is en- closed by board partitions, which, upon suitable frame- work, can be carried up twenty-five feet high if re- quired. When the pots and the interstices among them are well packed with lead, a flooring of boards is laid over them, and upon this is spread another layer of tan; and in the same manner eight or ten courses are built up, containing in all, it may be, 12,000 pots and 50 or 60 tons of lead, all of which are buried beneath an up- per layer of tan. As the process of conversion re- quires from eight to twelve weeks, the large factories have a succession of these stacks, which are charged one after another; so that when the process is completed in one, and the pots and lead have been removed and the chamber is recharged, another is ready for the same operation.

The conversion of metallic lead into carbonate is in- duced by the fermenting action, which commences in the tan soon after the pile is completed. The heat thus generated evaporates the vinegar, and the vapors of water and acetic acid rising among the lead oxidize its surface and convert it externally into a subacetate of lead; at the same time carbonic acid evolved from the

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

tan circulates among the lead and transforms the acetate into carbonate of the oxide, setting the acetic acid free to renew its office upon fresh surfaces of lead. When the tan ceases to ferment, the process is at an end, and the stack may then be taken to pieces. The lead is found in its original forms, but of increased bulk and weight, and more or less completely converted into the white carbonate. The thoroughness of the operation depends upon a variety of circumstances; even the weather and season of the year having an in- fluence upon it. The pieces not entirely converted have a core of metallic or "blue " lead beneath the white carbonate crust. The separation is made by beating off the white portion, and this being done upon per- forated copper shelves set in large wooden tanks and covered with water, the escape of the fine metallic dust is entirely prevented and its noxious effect upon the health of the workmen is avoided. In Europe, rolling machines closely covered are applied to the same purpose, but less effectually. The white lead thus collected is next ground with water between mill- stones to a thin paste, and by repeated grindings and washings this is reduced to an impalpable consistency. The water is next to be removed, and, according to the European plan, the creamy mixture is next turned into earthen pots, and these are exposed upon shelves to a temperature not exceeding 300° until perfectly dry. Instead of this laborious method, the plan is adopted in the American works of employing shallow pans of sheet copper, provided with a false bottom, beneath which steam from the exhaust-pipe of the engine is admitted to promote evaporation. These pans or " drying kilns " are sometimes 100 feet long and 6 feet broad, and several are set in the building one above another. The liquid lead paste is pumped up into large tanks, and the heavier portion, settling down, is drawn off into the pans, while the thinner liquid from the surface is returned to be mixed with fresh por- tions of white lead. Beside pans, tile tables heated by flues in the masonry of which they are built, are also employed. From four to six days are required for thoroughly drying the white lead. This is the finish- ing process, after which the lead is ready for packing in small casks for the market.

The manufacture of white lead, which was formerly an unhealthy and even dangerous occupation, has been so much improved by the expedients for keeping the material wet and thus preventing the rising of the fine dust, that the peculiar lead disease now rarely attacks the workmen. The business is conducted altogether upon a large scale, and gives employment to numerous extensive factories in different parts of the country. Some of these have arrangements for converting-stacks that extend under cover 200 feet in length, and their facilities for grinding and drying are proportionally extensive. These, and the time required for fully com- pleting the process and getting the white lead ready

for market-which is from three to four months-in- volve the use of large capital and tend to keep the business in few hands.

Very numerous have been the substitutes proposed for white lead ; baryta, silica (pure or compounded), zinc, oxide or carbonate, etc., etc., but all have failed some- where ; and success is hardly probable in this century.

There is a vastly increasing demand for pure white lead, and the competition and watchfulness of the trade insure the genuineness of the article thus warranted by the manufacturers. For some years after the com- mencement of the manufacture it was the custom with the manufacturers to sell the white lead dry to the grinders, who then constituted a distinct trade, and who ground the lead in oil and mixed it with zinc, baryta, and other substances to suit their own purposes. These grinders sold to the house painters, and most of them dealt also in colors, which the painters mixed, and thus obtained the tints they desired.

This business is still transacted to some extent, but there have been material changes within a few years past. Some of the white lead manufacturers now also manufacture linseed oil (and this is particularly the case with one Brooklyn manufacturer), and it is now their practice to grind their white lead in oil themselves, and sell it in this condition. They are able thus to control the purity of their lead. Pails or kegs of white lead thus ground in oil, and bearing the brand of a firm of high character, can be relied upon as pure. On the other hand, if the dealer or painter requires an article which contains a percentage of white oxide of zinc, or of sulphate of baryia, he can be accommo- dated, but knows what he is purchasing exactly, and receives it as an inferior grade and bearing an inferior brand.

The grinders, too, have taken a step forward; they now not only grind white lead, zinc, etc., in oils, but they also grind, both dry and in oils, other colors, and mix them so as to produce a great variety of shades, every desirable one, indeed, and furnish them of uni- form excellence. Some of them also, as we shall see further on, have devised processes for preventing these paints from drying up in their cans or pails.

The result of these changes is that now the white lead manufacturers sell their products either dry or ground in oil to the large dealers and the paint manufacturers only, and these sell to the painters.

The History of the White Lead Manufac- ture in Brooklyn is interesting. The manufacture originated in Holland; was not introduced into Eng- land till near the close of the last century, and was unknown in the United States until after the war of 1812. The first white lead works were established in Philadelphia, probably between 1815 and 1820; though there is a tradition that two previous efforts had been made in that city, that of Wetherell in 1796, and of Lewis in 1800. If so, both had failed very soon. The

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

works of Hinton and Moore, in Belleville, N. J., were founded in 1818, and the next was probably that of the Brooklyn White Lead Company, founded in 1822, and incorporated in 1825. This is believed to have been the third then in existence in the United States. When it was incorporated it had a capital of $52,000. The brothers, John B. and Augustus Graham, were among the most active and prominent of its founders, and the latter was the inventor of several important improvements in the processes.

In twenty-six years (1851), it had grown into one of the largest, and perhaps the largest white lead manu- factory in the United States. It occupied an entire block, 230x200 feet on Front street, between Washing- ton and Adams; employed ninety men, and produced annually 2,500 tons of white lead, red lead, litharge, etc., valued at $425,000. Meanwhile other white lead works had been established in Brooklyn. Among these were the Atlantic White Lead Works of Messrs. Robert Colgate & Co., and the Union Works, Front, corner Bridge. The works of the Atlantic White Lead Co. were established on Marshall street, near Gold, in 1845, where they are still conducted with great success. They were destroyed by fire in 1866, but were immediately rebuilt.

In 1851, the whole amount of capital invested in the business was over one million dollars; the united pro- duction from 8,000 to 12,000 tons, and the annual value of the product from $1,200,000 to $1,500,000.

It was publicly stated at this time that the produc- tion of white lead in Brooklyn exceeded that in any other town or city in the United States, and was nearly equal to that of all the rest of the country.

In 1860, the census officers reported in Kings county eight white lead works, with $848,800 capital; using $1,182,400 of raw material; employing 356 hands; paying $137,340 annually in wages, and producing annually $2,129,500 of white lead and other products. This was probably an understatement; but the returns of the census, in 1870, of the manufactures of Kings county were palpably wrong, as they were every- where else.

There was no separate statement of "white lead," but under the head of " paints, lead and zinc," in distinc- tion from " paints (not specified)," we have the follow- ing returns: Five establishments; 154 hands; $433,500 capital; $86,592 wages; $690,280 of raw material used, and $882,500 of annnal product. We are sure that one of the establishments in Kings county at that time exceeded these figures, and that the whole number (there were four companies instead of five at that time) more than doubled it.

But, if these returns are grossly inaccurate, what shall we say of the census returns of 1880 ? No entry of the white lead manufacture was permitted. Mr. Frothingham made a return of "Paints, Lead and Zinc," in which he gave the number of establishments

as 28; the capital, $3,352,800; the largest number em- ployed at one time as 1,270; the amount of wages paid as $577,123; the raw material used as $6,769,702; and the annual product as $8,442,938. This included all the manufacturers of dry colors, all the manufacturers of mixed paints, of which there were several specialties, all the producers of mineral paints, and probably, also, those of whiting, Paris white, etc., as well as the white lead manufacturers. The amount of production was probably not very far from the truth, though it was impossible to separate in his tables the white lead man- ufacturers from the others. One of the white lead houses also manufactured linseed oil for their own use and for sale. Mr. Frothingnam had included this in the list of their products. The census office, on the pretext that linseed oil was a distinct manufacture (which, however, they only included, if at all, among the "unspecified " industries), threw out the words "lead and zinc," and rejected, for no apparent reason, two of the establishments, making their returns as fol- lows: Paints, 26 establishments, $2,602,800 capital, 941 hands, $478,376 wages paid, $4,023,500 raw material used, and $5,284,201 of annual product. It is hardly necessary to say that these statistics do not adequately represent the white lead, paint, color and whiting in- terest of Kings county, nor its linseed oil manufacture, which is as essential a part of the manufacture of paints and varnishes as are the colors themselves. The annual product given by the Census Office, while it more than covers the white lead interest, is far below that of the great paint manufacturers, several of which count their annual product by millions of dollars. In a letter from the Census Office, under date of March 12, 1883, they state the annual linseed oil product of Kings county as $3,158,737. I have been unable to ascertain the process by which they eliminated this amount from the general returns of the white lead manufacture. The manufacturers themselves cannot give any account of it, and it is certain that some of the largest pro- ducers of mixed paints and varnishes here do not ob- tain their linseed oil from Brooklyn manufacturers. The whole return is but another lamentable instance of assumption of a knowledge on the part of officials which they did not possess, and demonstrates, what ought to be well and widely known, the utter worthlessness of the census statistics of manufactures.

Assuming, however, that this estimate may have been something more than a mere guess, we have a most re- markable development in the linseed oil manufacture here in the last decade. In 1860, the linseed oil pro- duced in Kings county was reported as of the value of $1,610,704, only $30,000 more than the cost of raw ma- terial and amount of wages paid. 1n 1870, it was $1,- 668,000, which was $301,500 more than the raw mate- rial and wages. In 1880, $3,158,737, or $313,768 above the cost of raw material and the amount of wages. An analysis of these returns serves to show very conclu-

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

sively that they were only guess work, and the returns of 1880 seem to have been no better. Only two estab- lishments are allowed, while more than that number cer- tainly existed; the number of hands is given as 335, when in 1870 only 145, less than one-half that number, were reported, yet the 335 are said to have received only $98,767 wages, while the 145 received $100,000. The difference, which is supposed to indicate the net profit, was $313,768; while in 1870, on about one-half the annual product, it was $301,500, or only $12,000 less. Clearly, there are blunders somewhere in these re- turns.

The manufacturers of linseed oil in Kings county are two; one of them, Robert Colgate & Co., being also manufacturers and corroders of white lead; while the other, Campbell & Thayer, manufacture the oil alone. The product is now a little less than the amount stated by the Census Office, though in some seasons it has been considerably more.

There are only four houses in Brooklyn which are properly manufacturers (i. e., corroders) of white lead. These are: The Brooklyn White Lead Company, founded in 1822; the Union White Lead Company, founded about 1842 or 1843; the Atlantic White Lead and Linseed Oil Company, founded about 1845; and the Bradley White Lead Company, founded about 1870. Of these, the Atlantic White Lead Company is considerably the largest, and is, indeed, with one or possibly two exceptions, the largest corroding house in the United States. The white lead business has not been prospering greatly in the East for several years past, and the out-put is considerably less than it was a dozen years ago. This is due to several causes; one, that several of the Western houses are connected with, or at least in the neighborhood of, the lead mines of Missouri and Iowa, or of the smelting furnaces where it is parted from silver, and so can procure their raw material cheaper than the Eastern manufacturers. There has sprung up, also, a certain demand for " sub- limed lead " for painting purposes; this was first pro- cured from the smelting furnaces, by the condensation of vaporized lead. There are objections to this pro- duct, from its comparative lightness and bulkiness, from its lack of body and its tendency to part from the oil, and rub off after a little from the wood or other surfaces to which it is applied; and its consumption is believed not to be materially increasing, but it has helped to depress the trade in the past. The largest house in this country, one at Cincinnati, started re- cently, which claims to make 15,000 tons of white lead annually, has been producing it by what is known as the "Shaw process," i. e., by the direct action of car- bonic acid gas upon the lead; but the result has been expensive and not satisfactory. The capacity of the four white lead companies of Brooklyn is about 18,000 tons of white lead, litharge, red oxide of lead or glass- makers' lead, etc., but the annual out-put of white lead

since 1880 does not much exceed 12,000 tons, or at $6.75 per hundred pounds, the minimum price of white lead ground in oil, about $1,620,000 of annual product, as against $2,430,000 of possible out-put. The demand for the lead is increasing rather slowly, but the numer- ous new factories springing into existence increase the annual product beyond the limit of demand, and it is only by their capacity to carry heavy stocks of the manufactured lead that a reduction below the actual cost of production is prevented.

The manufacture of the so-called mineral and other patent paints which contain no white lead, or very little, help to make this business unprofitable. There are a considerable number of these mineral and other paint manufacturers, and their sales are large, though, in the end, their wares are not satisfactory.

The other so-called white lead manufacturers, of whom there are four or five, are not corroders, but white lead grinders, generally in connection with other colors, which they also purchase and grind, dry or in linseed oil.

SUBSECTION II .- Painters' Colors, Dry.

The number of colors now used by house and sign painters is very large, amounting to several hundreds of different tints. Some of these are produced by com- bining colors, but there is now a possibility of procur- ing so many distinct shades of color from coal tar, pe- troleum residuum, etc., etc., that the necessity of hand- mixing of colors by the painters themselves has greatly diminished. Many of the fine colors are not produced here, but only ground in oils or refined for the painter's use. This is the case with such of the aniline and petro- line colors, carmine, etc., as are used in painting. There is not yet, in Brooklyn, any manufacture of aniline or petroline colors, though there are indications that there may be soon. But the more solid, as well as some of the fanciful colors, are largely produced here and others are isolated from the ores, minerals, metals, and earths with which they are combined, and made ready for immediate use. The largest houses engaged in the production of dry colors are Adolphus B. Ams- bacher, and Sondheim, Alsberg & Co. There are three other houses which manufacture dry colors, to a moder- ate extent ; and two, or more, of the great paint manu- facturers grind and pack dry colors as a part of their business. One of the houses named above, though manufacturing chrome, arsenical and other choice colors largely, makes a specialty of Paris Green (Scheele's green, arsenite of copper), now so largely used by agriculturists for the destruction of potato bugs, army worms, etc., etc., as well as for an ingredient of paints, and for use on wall papers, and in some articles of clothing.

The manufacture of dry colors is said to exceed a million of dollars, but the manufacturers are very loth to give figures.

Engªby Deo E Perine Perine, N York

Leonard Richardone

auwald,

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

SUBSECTION III .- Color ground in oil, Colored Paints, and Mixed Paints.

Several very large houses, as we have already hinted, have, within a few years past, created an extensive business in grinding colors in oil, and selling them in cans of various sizes, from one-fourth of a pound to five pounds or more, guaranteeing their purity and readiness for mixing with white lead, also ground in oil, or such other basis as the painter might prefer.

These houses also mix and grind these various colors with white lead, and thus make paints ready for imme- diate application; thus greatly facilitating the painter's work, and enabling householders who want but a small job done, to do it themselves. These houses generally purchase their white lead, or exchange mixed paints for it; and the paints, when mixed, have always given ex- cellent satisfaction. Among the leading houses in this trade are John W. Masury & Son, C. T. Raynolds & Co., Wadsworth, Martinez & Longman, F. O. Pierce & Co., John D. Prince's Sons, etc.

LEONARD RICHARDSON, son of Thomas and Lydia Richard- son, was born in Watertown, Middlesex county, Massachu- setts, December 2d, 1832, and was the first-born of nine chil- dren, eight of whom are living.

Mr. Richardson's boyhood was spent on his father's farm, and he enjoyed the public school advantages peculiar to the time and locality; and was later fitted for college at Phillips' Academy, Andover, then under the management of Dr. Samuel H. Taylor, for whose friendly interest and cars for his welfare as a youth, Mr. Richardson has ever cherished the liveliest feelings of gratitude.

At the age of eighteen, Mr. Richardson left home, going to New York to engage as clerk in the paint store of Raynolds, Devoe & Co., at 106 and 108 Fulton street, but boarding in Brooklyn with his brother-in-law, Chas. Pratt, Esq .; and it has been in Brooklyn that Mr. Richardson has had his home since that time.

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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 20

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