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 23

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 23

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*Lawrence Waterbury recelved the rope factory originally as a gift from his father, Noah Waterbury, In 1844; but Mr. Marshall did not come in as a partner until 1846.

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

secured by the automatic action of an electric tell-tale watchman's clock, and the system is guarded by the frequent visits of the inspectors of the insurance com- pany, whose monthly reports are printed and distributed to all the insuring corporations. This system is also introduced into the Tucker & Carter Cordage Com- pany's works, and more recently into those of Messrs. William Wall's Sons.

The average out-put of this establishment is as fol- lows: Ropes and cordage (Manila and Sisal hemp, with some Russian and a little American), in all 9,000 tons, at an average price of $240 per ton, $2,160,000; Har- vester twine (Manila hemp), 4,000 tons, at $300 per ton, $1,200,000; bagging (mostly from jute butts), 6,240,000 yards, at 10 cents, $624,000; " Manila " paper (from jute butts stock), 3,000 tons, at $140 per ton, $420,000; jute rope and twine (wool twine from jute, not jute butts), $120,000; total out-put, $4,524,000.

It is worthy of notice in our history that this house was the first manufactory in this country, or any other, to utilize jute butts. Gunny bagging, which was made from jute raised in India and manufactured there, was for many years largely imported into the United States, but the East Indian manufacturers had great difficulty in ridding themselves of the jute butts, or lower por- tion of the stalks of the jute. (the plant was brought to them pulled up from the roots), and the butts were not only supposed to be worthless for manufacturing, but were a positive nuisance, and were only disposed of by compelling their employees to burn them in small quantities every day. A shipmaster, leaving Calcutta without a full cargo, was induced, in default of any- thing better, to take nearly a hundred tons of these jute butts on board as ballast. Arrived in New York, he found in Mr. Marshall, of L. Waterbury & Co., a customer who consented to take it off his hands. By some adaptation of their machinery, Messrs. Water- bury & Co. were able to use this despised fibre for bagging, and have gone on using it ever since, and their example has been followed by other manufacturers, till now somewhat more than 40,000 tons of imported jute butts are imported annually. Of this amount Messrs. Waterbury & Co. use about 9,000 tons. The Govern- ment collected a duty of $6 per ton on it for several years. Last year the duty was reduced to $5.

After these houses come Lawrence & Cooper, of Maspeth avenue; Messrs. D. Allen's Sons, in South Brooklyn, and Samuel Ludlow, of Rockaway avenue, whose business, though on a smaller scale, is still large enough to be profitable. Only the second of these houses makes ropes to any extent. Mr. Ludlow makes a specialty of sash and hammock cords and clothes lines. There are eight or nine other small houses which manufacture no ropes, but make clothes lines, baling cord, lath yarns and twine of all descriptions, for all sorts of customers, for which there is a large and increasing demand. With an inexpensive plant,

and the work so light that much of it may be done by women and children, these houses are able to make a comfortable living, though not to acquire large fortunes.

It may be said, in conclusion, that the production of ropes and cordage from Manila and Sisal, Russian, New Zealand and American hemp, in Brooklyn, constitutes more than 40 per cent. of the entire production of the United States; and that though embarrassed by the heavy duty of $25 per ton of Manila, $15 on Sisal hemp, and $5 on jute butts-all unjustifiable imposi- tions on raw material which cannot be produced here- the American rope manufacturers can command the market of the world for their cordage, underselling Great Britain in her own colonies. Of course, their goods exported to foreign countries command a rebate, but this rebate is materially less than the duty.

SUBSECTION I .- Jute and Jute Butts.

Of over 84,000 tons of jute and jute butts imported into the United States in 1882, more than one-half-53,- 000 tons-were jute butts. The ropewalks of Brooklyn consumed of this somewhat more than 16,000 tons, or a little less than one-third of the whole importation, and of jute nearly 6,000 tons. These were all con- sumed in the manufacture of jute rope and twine, bag- ging and paper.

But the ropewalks were not the only consumers of jute and jute butts. Jute is used in the manufacture of the best qualities of burlaps; in carpets of the cheaper class, jute butts forming the filling in these; for imitation of coarse silk goods; for imitation hair switches; and for wrapping paper of all grades. The census of 1880 reports three manufacturers of jute and jute goods in Brooklyn, but omits. several small establishments. The three establishments specified were engaged in the manufacture of carpets prin- cipally. The Planet Mill, the largest of the three, however, made, and still makes, other jute goods, be- side carpets; burlaps, and other goods, being on its list.

The number of jute manufacturers has increased since 1880, there being now four carpet manufacturers who use this fibre either for warp or filling, or both, and four or five small houses, which produce other jute goods. The amount of raw material used in 1880 was reported by the census as equivalent to about 7,500 tons, if jute and jute butts were used in equal quan- tities, but if there was an excess of the latter, as is probable, there were at least 10,000 tons in all. Add- ing this to the consumption of the ropewalks, with an allowance for the increased consumption since 1880, and the entire consumption of jute and jute butts in Brooklyn will be 31,000 tons, or three-eighths of the entire importation. The consumption of Manila and Sisal hemp in this city, bears just about the same pro- portion to the entire importation of these fibres.

The jute manufacture employs over 500 hands, and the annual product is now more than $800,000.

Socil

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

723

SUBSECTION II .- Ropemaking Machinery.

The existence of ropewalks in these days implies, as it did not fifty years ago, the production of numer- ous machines for the manufacture of the ropes, cord- age and twine. Nearly all the processes which at that time were performed by hand at a great expenditure of time and severe labor, are now performed better, with fifty-fold rapidity, and with a great saving of labor, by machines; while many descriptions of cord- age and twines, then unknown, are now wholly pro- duced by machinery. Twenty, or even fifteen years ago, there were very few machines in the ropewalks; the spinning jenny was in very general use, and there were some twisting and laying machines; but the efficiency of the manufacture of rope, cordage and twine, has been almost indefinitely increased by the machines invented and introduced by Mr. John Good,

tion of the Harvester twine was ready for use, when the demand for that article came, and it has required no changes since.

Mr. Good licensed, some years since, an English house, Samuel Lawson & Sons, of Leeds, to make the ropemaking machines under his patents, paying him a royalty, and that house are now manufacturing nearly as large an amount as his Brooklyn establish- ment.

Most of his business now consists in the building and furnishing of ropewalks, in all parts of the world, with his machines in complete running order; and so great is the confidence of his patrons in his integrity and capacity to execute these contracts satisfactorily, that he has all the business he can do, and at such rates as he demands. The manufacture of Harvester twine is becoming a'farge industry at the west, and

1878

JOHN GOOD'S ROPEMAKING MACHINERY ESTABLISHMENT.

since the issuing of his first patent, October 5, 1869. Mr. Good is now not only the leading, but the only considerable manufacturer of ropemaking machinery in the United States, and all of his machines are of his own invention. In about thirteen years he has built up a business which occupies the finest buildings for machinists' work in this city or county, covering an acre of ground, all his own property, and his busi- ness is very rapidly increasing.

The complete adaptation of these machines to their work, and the perfection of their manufacture, are really wonderful, and demonstrate the practical char- acter of the inventor's genius. While they are simple in construction, they require no improvement, and the shrewd and skillful mechanics who have made and used them, find no opportunity for patenting any modification of them. The machine for the produc-

Mr. Good is shipping more and more machines each year to western manufacturers.

These machine works now have a capital of $300,000 or more, and give employment in a busy season to 300 hands, paying out about $100,000 in wages, and pro- ducing about $300,000 of machinery. With his present facilities, and his high reputation as an inventor and machinist, there is no reason why his business should not be doubled within the next five years.

JOHN GOOD .- The lives of successful inventors are always pleasant and profitable reading, and it is a source of gratifi- cation to us when we have the opportunity of recording such a life in our pages. The subject of this sketch, Mr. John Good, has been the architect of his own fortune, and it is well that the young should know that one who, like many of them, spent his early years in severe and scantily re- quited toil, in the very prime of a vigorous and stalwart

724

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

manhood, has attained, by his inventive genius, his industry and sterling integrity, to a prominent and commanding posi- tion among the manufacturers of a great city.

Mr. Good was born in Ireland in 1840. His mother came to America, when he was but seven years of age, and settled in Brooklyn, and here he and his elder brother, Michael, acquired a moderate education in the public schools. Both were quick to learn, and keen observers. When John was about thirteen years old, he was employed, for a time in the extensive ropewalk of the late William Wall (now con- ducted by William Wall's Sons). After some further atten- dance at school, John was apprenticed to Messrs. James Bulger & Co., machinists, and served his time with them, becoming an accomplished machinist. But his fondness for the ropemaking business still clung to him, and he pres- ently procured a situation as superintendent of the rope- walk of Henry Lawrence & Sons, which has since been suc- ceeded by that of Lawrence & Cooper. Here he was led to study the possibility of contriving some method of lessening the great labor of hand-combing and lapping the Manila, Sisal, Russian and American hemp, and straightening the fibres so as to fit the fibre for spinning more rapidly. It was the time of the war, and there was a great demand for ropes and cordage, yet all the combing was done by the old- fashioned lapper. The problem occupied his thoughts night and day, and at length he succeeded in producing a machine which would do the work automatically and well. Other machines followed for drawing the hemp into slivers and for spinning it into a fine cord. He tested these machines very thoroughly, and, having secured patents for them, both here and in Europe (his first patent bears date October 5, 1869), he and his brother, Michael, established a machine shop and factory for manufacturing these machines, for the use of ropemakers, at 588 and 590 Grand street, E. D., about 1871. His machines had received the first premium-a medal-at the Fair of the American Institute, in 1870, and subsequently were twice honored with a medal at the Paris Expositions of 1874 and 1878. In the latter year, Mr. Good, having purchased an acre of land (somewhat more than half a block), bounded by Washingtou and Park avenues, and Hall street, proceeded to erect on it his present extensive and beautiful machine works. The buildings, a part of them three stories in height, extend along the whole Park avenue front, of 200 feet, and from 50 to 100 feet on Washington avenue and Hall street. They are the most convenient, per- fect, and admirably arranged machine shops in Kings county, and we doubt if they are surpassed anywhere else in this country.

When the demand came for " Harvester Twine," Mr. Good had a machine ready to make it, and one so perfect in its character that all the ropewalks which engage in that branch of manufacture have been perfectly satisfied with it. Atevery new emergency in the business of ropemaking, Mr. Good has been ready at once with a machine to meet it. He has now machines adapted to the jute manufac- ture, the fibre of which requires a different method of handling from that employed in the manufacture of the various kinds of hemp. It is a characteristic of his ma- chines that, while very simple in construction, they cover the whole field, and leave no room for improvement by others.

Some years since, he established a house in Leeds for the manufacture of his machinery there. The firm name there is Samuel Lawson & Sons, and they are working under a license of his patents, and are doing about the same amount of business as his Brooklyn works. He is the leading manu- facturer of ropemaking machinery in the world. His busi-

ness is now largely done by contracts. Parties who are desirous of establishing ropewalks, in any part of the world, can contract with him for every part of the work, from buying the land and erecting the buildings, to the com- pletion, with all the latest and best machinery in perfect running order, and, if needed, skillful and competent ma- chinists to superintend the running. Many of these estab- lishments, thus built and furnished by him, are now doing excellent work in different States; and he has acquired so high a reputation for the perfection of his work and his integrity in dealing, that he has all the contracts he can fill.

SECTION XIV.

Paper Hangings, Window Shades, and Fresco and Ceiling Papers.

APER HANGINGS

MANUFACTORY.

W. H. MAIRS & CO.'S PAPER-HANGINGS MANUFACTORY.

The manufacture which gives to each establishment the largest annual product is that of paper hangings. The census reports, in 1880, but three manufactories- those of William H. Mairs & Co., Robert Graves & Co., and Robert S. Hobbs & Co. These three establish- ments were reported as having a capital of $285,000; employing 427 hands; paying $175,733 of wages; using $783,753 of material, and producing $1,382,862 of paper hangings, window shades and fresco papers.

The number of these establishments is now four, Mr. William N. Peak having commenced business since 1880. At present these houses manufacture more than thirty per cent. of all the paper hangings made in the United States, and the quality of their finer goods is not surpassed anywhere. A few of their designs are based upon English or French patterns, though these are usually materially modified; but the greater part, and those of the most artistic character, are either from designs of their own artists, or workmen in the factor- ies, or designs made outside and brought to them for sale. A very considerable trade has sprung up in these designs, of which they require very many; they are generally brought to the factories by men, but many are believed to be the work of young women and girls who have been trained in the Schools of Design for women. Aside from skill in the art of drawing, and tact in the forming of such combinations as will pro- duce a pleasing and graceful effect, there is needed a

725

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

practical knowledge of the actual working of these combinations; for designs which may be graceful and beautiful in themselves, will not always produce a good effect when printed from the roller or block. The de- mand for these fine papers is rapidly increasing, and is now more than double what it was in 1880.

Messrs. W. H. Mairs & Co. are the largest manufac- turers in the United States, and produce almost all grades of papers and paper shades of beautiful and va- ried designs. Their annual production exceeds nine millions of rolls, of eight yards each.

Messrs. Robert Graves & Co. are next in the amount of production in Brooklyn, turning out about 2,500,000 rolls annually, besides large quantities of fresco and ceiling papers. They confine themselves almost exclu- sively to the production of the highest grade of papers.

Messrs. Robert S. Hobbs & Co., though third in the amount of their production, are a large and long estab- lished house, and their papers rank as high in quality and finish as those of any of the other houses in the trade. We believe they do not make window shades or ceiling papers. Their processes of manufacture are similar to those of Messrs. William H. Mairs & Co., already described.

Messrs. William M. Peak & Co. are a young house, having commenced business in 1882, but their goods are of excellent quality, and they are building up a good trade.

A brief account of the processes of wall paper manu- facture will be of interest to our readers.

Forty or fifty years ago the manufacture of paper hangings in this country was confined to the production of plain colored papers for paper window-shades, and cheap papers on a brown or slate-colored stock, on which rude designs were printed by a hand press from blocks, in, perhaps, three or four colors. The register of these was imperfect, and the best patterns would not now be considered fit to be used in papering the plain- est or roughest shanty. All the better classes of paper hangings were imported from England or France; and some low-priced papers, but of better designs than the American, came from Germany.

The improvement was very gradual for many years; the paper and printing were better, though both were far below the poorest of the present time. France sup- plied the finest papers and the English manufacturers followed. A manufacturer of long experience tells us that, so lately as twelve or fifteen years ago, they would look sadly at the samples of English and French papers as they came in, and would say, "Oh, if we could only equal this !" Now, the same samples would excite their derision, for they can far surpass even the highest productions of the foreign manufacturers. The first item in the manufacture of paper hangings is the paper. We believe none of the manufacturers make their own paper, and probably they could not do so to advantage. Several of the large paper mills in Sara-

toga, Washington and Herkimer counties, and some of those in New England, run exclusively on this paper. It is mostly made of old newspaper stock, and it does not require very great strength and tenacity, and straw would be too brittle, wood-pulp too fine, and rags too costly. There are two or three grades, though the difference in quality is not great. All are sized at the paper mills, and are furnished to the wall paper manu- facturers in rolls of about 1,600 yards each. A house like that of Messrs. W. H. Mairs & Co. will use from 70,000 to 80,000 of these monster rolls, which weigh not far from 100 pounds each, in a year-about 3,600 tons. In the basement of the great factory, side by side with the stock of paper, are the barrels and casks of colors, ground in water. The aniline colors play an important part among these, and there are also large quantities of gold and silver leaf, and some of the Dutch bronzes- with their appropriate sizes.

But to return to the paper. If it is to be of the grade known as satin papers, it is first passed through a grounding machine which puts on a coating of clay. This is then reeled up and passes through a polishing machine, so arranged that, as the paper passes over the cylinder, its surface comes in contact with roller brushes of tampico, running at great speed, which gives it a fine gloss or satin finish. This ground work may be of any desired color, the clay being tinted with a light cream shade, pale or deep yellow, buff or ecru, brown, olive, light or dark green, blue, or even black.

Those papers which are not satin finished do not un- dergo this process, but are fed directly upon the print- ing machine, the sizing of the paper at the mill where it is manufactured being sufficient to prevent the colors from striking through. At the present time, however, all the better classes of papers are satined or grounded before printing. In either case, as the paper passes from the printing machine a rod or lath with rounded edges, about a yard in length, is, by an in- genious device, slipped under the paper at intervals of about 16 feet, and drawn up the inclined rails on either side, till it reaches a height of perhaps seven and a half feet when it drops into a slot in the slowly travelling frame, and the paper is thus sus- pended, in loops measuring about 16 feet. The frame on which they are suspended, travels forward slowly, closing up to a distance of perhaps six inches between the loops, and the temperature of the room is sufficiently high to dry this colored surface in a few hours. When dry, the paper is ready for the printing of the pattern. The printing, which was originally done from wooden blocks, usually of cherry or beech, with carved figures, which did not always register accurately, is now mostly done from cylinders of maple, the process of making which we will presently describe. Each cylinder or roller prints only a single color, and all of the pattern which is of that color. The number of colors in a pat- tern may be anywhere from one to twelve; and if gold

726

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

printing is introduced, the portions to be in gold have cylinders charged at those points with gold size, the gold leaf being afterward applied by another machine. The arrangements for registering are perfect; every part of the pattern, on each roller, fits absolutely into every other, and when the cylinders are put in their places on the great printing machine, whatever the number of colors, they are all printed by the same revolutions of the machine, and the long roll of paper comes out completed, so far as the pattern is concerned. For the drying, the same process as before is necessary of hanging it in loops, and when fully dried it is lightly calendered, and then passed along an inclined plane, where, by automatic machinery, it is cut off in lengths of sixteen yards, the end turned over, and, by another automatic arrangement, a girl is able to turn off about five rolls a minute, the outer edge or end of the roll being folded inward like a hem. The rolls are carried from this room to the receiving room, examined, num- bered, and after sampling, are ready for packing. While roller or cylinder printing of wall-papers is the process most in use, some of the very finest patterns are printed from wooden blocks, with raised figures, upon a different kind of press, the impressions being made on a flat surface, instead of by cylindrical rollers, somewhat after the style of the printing machines which print from wood engravings in colors. The method of making the cylinders or rollers for printing the wall-papers merits description. The cylinders, turned very smoothly and of uniform size, have, first, the entire pattern pasted or cemented upon them. This pattern is on tracing paper or cloth, and is transferred from the original design, which has the design drawn and colored as it will appear when finished. The trans- fers made by tracing paper of this design are not colored, but there are as many transfers as there are colors, and the artist, by a colored tracing pencil, marks every line of a particular color upon the tracing paper for each roller, before it is carefully pasted upon the roller. The rollers for the different colors constitute a set, each having that portion of the design only per- taining to its particular color, and the whole number making up the entire pattern. The rollers having these patterns of the design marked are next put into the hands of workmen, who work out the design by insert- ing in the lines brass-plates-what the printers would call their brass rule -- about one-fourth of an inch wide. The brass is very hard, and the pieces are skilfully in- serted, after being hammered or filed into shape, so as to give the outline of a flower, or vine, or any other figure. The lines are first cut slightly by a suitable tool, and then the brass figures are settled into them to a uniform depth by a slight tap of a hammer. The in- terstices of each figure are filled with a very heavy and dense felt, of a thickness nearly equal to the elevation of the brass figures. When each roller of a set is com- pleted, they are taken to a lathe, and a gauge being

set, each is turned down to precisely the same diame- ter, a difference of a hair's breadth being sufficient to materially damage the printing. The manufacture of window shades, which are produced in large quantities by Messrs. Mairs & Co., and of fresco and ceiling papers, which are a specialty of Messrs. Graves & Co., requires a somewhat different process, owing to the greater width and different form of these papers and shades. The shades are printed on gigantic cylinder presses, the diameter of the cylinders being from 15 to 18 feet. The rolls of paper-three feet in width-from which the presses are fed, are about five feet in circum- ference. The ceiling papers are printed, we believe, on a very large press, but we are not familiar with the details of the work.

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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 23

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