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 29

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 29

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There are also four or five other straw hat manufac- turers on a small scale, three of them in South Brook- lyn and two in Greenpoint, but we have been unable to obtain their statistics.

There are several houses engaged in furnishing ma- terials for hatters, fur of the coney, hare, rabbit, nutria, mink, muskrat, etc., etc .; the largest of these is the house of Harper, Hollingsworth & Derby, in Mckibbin street, who furnish large amounts of these furs to the hat manufacturers.

Of the one wool hat factory reported in the census of 1880, as existing in Brooklyn, we have no knowl- edge, and have been unable to learn whether it is still in existence.

The cap manufacture is carried on here to a con- siderable extent, but there are no means of arriving at any separate statistics of it.

SUBSECTION I .- Furs and the Fur Manufacture.

Closely allied to the manufacture of hats and other head gear, is that of the preparation and adaptation of furs to the various purposes of human wearing ap- parel. This trade, in all its branches-capture of the animals, and importing, exporting, dyeing and re- importing their skins and preparing them for wear-is a very large industry.

In Kings county we have no great importers or manufacturers to compare with the Gunthers or some of the foreign houses in the fur trade in New York city, but our fur manufacturers are, nevertheless, en- terprising as well as industrious, and they have built up a good and substantial business.

All kinds of furs are handled by our Brooklyn fur- riers, and they are made up in all the varieties and forms we have indicated. The census reported 22 manufacturers of dressed furs in Brooklyn, having $416,265 capital, employing 473 hands, paying out $137,374 wages, using $565,154 of material, and pro- ducing annually goods of the value of $830,804. This was probably, in 1880, a nearer approximation to the

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

actual production of manufactured furs than most of the statistics of Brooklyn industries reported by the census, but it represents it very imperfectly in 1884. There are now 28 houses in the trade, all but one of them engaged in it exclusively, and selling mostly at wholesale; the exception, Messrs. Balch, Price & Co., being also manufacturers of and dealers in hats, caps, and straw goods, and manufacturing their furs almost entirely for their own large retail trade. The largest manufacturer of furs here is, we think, Mr. James Cas- sidy; and after him come Messrs. O. & A. Comeau & Co .; Franz O. Linder; J. Pladwell's Sons; William Stillwagen ; Merck & Auer ; Rogers & Lowery; Julius Weinberg ; William Hillman ; Hitchcock, Dermody & Co .; Joseph D. Williams, etc., etc. The number of hands employed in the business exceeds 550, and the production is about $1,150,000, and would be much greater, but for the decided fall in the prices of furs within the past three years-a fall of not less than fifty per cent. in sealskins and of somewhat less in otter. These reductions in price have materially interfered with the profits of the business, which a few years ago were very liberal.

SECTION XVIII. Drugs and Chemicals.

This title is a comprehensive one, and the amount of manufacturing under it is very large. It includes the manufacture of what are known as the " com- mercial acids," viz., sulphuric, nitric and muriatic or hydrochloric, in all their various degrees of strength, the production of other chemicals, such as alum, blue vitriol (sulphate of copper), green vitriol or copperas (sulphate of iron), white vitriol (sulphate of zinc), aqua ammonia, muriate of tin, tin crystals, and incidentally sulphate of soda (Glauber's salts) and sulphate of lime (plaster of Paris), and other commercial preparations, which can be manufactured economically by artificial processes; the production of ammonia and other nitro- genous compounds for refrigerating, fertilizing, medi- cal and economical purposes; the productions of car- bonic acid gas and some of the carbonates, and the elimination and utilization of mineral, metallic or earthy substances from the crude materials with which these acids are combined; the whole range of medical chemistry, and the production and compounding of the preparations of the pharmacopcia, whether vegetable, animal or mineral, completely pure and in commercial quantities. Also, the combination and preparation of new remedies; the compounding on the large scale of household and other compounds required in domestic economy, such as flavoring essences, cream of tartar, tartaric acid, bicarbonate of soda, sal soda, carbonate and muriate of ammonia, baking powders, compressed yeast, bleaching powders, etc., etc .; the preparation and putting up for sale of all artificial mineral waters;

the subliming of sulphur; the preparation of fertilizers and chemical manures.

In addition to the manufacture of this great variety of chemicals and drugs, many of the large manufac- turers employ chemists, and fit up laboratories for them in their establishments. This is the case with all the larger sugar refineries, with the oil refiners, with the manufacturers of dry colors, and, indeed, the larger paint houses generally, the manufacturers of cream of tartar and baking powders, etc., etc.

The manufacture of drugs and chemicals is not a new business here. Several of the largest houses date from 1850 or earlier. Among them such houses as Martin Kalbfleisch, E. R. Squibb, H. J. Baker & Co., Frederick Scholes, Daniel H. Gray, &c. We have not the figures for 1860 in Brooklyn, but in 1870 there were 15 establishments, employing 383 hands; having a capital of $843,000; paying $190,615 wages; using $775,138 of material; and producing drugs and chemicals of the value of $1,799,357. The manufacturing statistics of 1870 were so notoriously incorrect, especially in the cities, that this was un- doubtedly an understatement.

In 1880, there were thirty establishments, employing a capital of $3,764,550; employing 1,177 hands when full, and an average of 1,037 through the year; paying out $540,659 in wages; using raw material of the value of $3,706,449; and producing goods valued at $5,309,- 396. These are Mr. Frothingham's figures; those of the compendium of the tenth census differ considerably from them, increasing the number of establishments to thirty-eight, and diminishing the capital employed to $3,449,650; the hands employed to 1,104 when full, with an average of 961; reducing the wages paid to $473,353; the raw material used to $3,446,549; and the annual product to $4,900,338. We hardly need to say that Mr. Frothingham's figures are the most probable. But large as was the amount in 1880, it has materially increased since. Four cream of tartar works, two, if not three, sulphuric acid works, two sulphur refineries, one or two very large manufactories of porous or other plasters, etc., etc., have been added since 1880, and have nearly doubled the production. The great drug- preparing houses of E. R. Squibb & Co. and Fougera & Co. have also largely increased their facilities for manufacturing, and the high reputation of their prep- arations is constantly enlarging the demand for them. It is to be noticed, also, that the great increase of pop- ulation and of manufactures creates a constantly-in- creasing demand for many of the chemicals required either for manufacturing or household use.

The production of drugs and chemicals in Kings county in 1880 was about forty per cent. greater than that of New York county ($3,674,198), and is now fast approximating to that of Philadelphia ($11,804,793), though the latter has hitherto led the country in these manufactures.

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Let us now consider for a little space the different classes of chemical manufacture which are conducted here. Beginning with the production of the commer- cial acids and their compounds, we find four or five houses engaged in their manufacture. The largest of these is that of Martin Kalbfleisch's Sons, occupying about twenty acres on Newtown Creek, Brooklyn side. This house was first established in 1829, and now has five large factories in Brooklyn and extensive works at Bayonne, N. J., and Buffalo, N. Y.

The production of sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol (the two terms not being exactly synonymous commer- cially, sulphuric acid being the acid which does not ex- ceed 58° or 60° in strength, while oil of vitriol must come up to 66° or above), is the basis of all their other manufactures of chemicals.

They produce their sulphuric acid by burning sul- phur under such conditions that its vapor unites with oxygen from the air and water in the receiving cham- bers, in the proportion of one part of sulphur to three parts of oxygen. A smaller proportion of oxygen gives sulphurous instead of sulphuric acid.

The sulphur used in these factories comes mostly from Sicily, from whence it is brought at low freight or as ballast. The sulphur of Utah, Nevada and Califor- nia is just as good, but the expense of its transportation is too great. About 20 tons a day are used in all the factories. The sulphur furnace has an iron bed-plate instead of furnace bars, and the furnace fires must be lighted long enough to heat the bed-plate before the sulphur is put on it. The charge of sulphur is from 60 to 75 pounds, and it requires about three hours to burn off. In practice, the oxygen is added in the leaden chambers where the sulphur vapors . are condensed, either in the shape of nitrate of soda or nitric acid.

We cannot give in detail the processes, which differ in different establishments, by which the sulphuric and nitric acids are produced and those by which they are concentrated. Steam plays an important part in all the operations.

Nitric acid and aqua fortis are made by heating com- mercial nitrate of soda with sulphuric acid; muriatic acid, by the decomposition of common salt by sulphuric acid; alum, by burning or calcining alum stone to ex- pel a portion of the sulphurous and sulphuric acid, and then lixiviating the mass into a paste with hot water, drawing off, concentrating and crystallizing.

Blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) is produced by heat- ing either metallic copper or the richer copper ores with concentrated sulphuric acid and crystallizing; white vitriol (sulphate of zinc), by dissolving either metallic zinc or its oxide or carbonate, or the sulphide (blende) in dilute sulphuric acid and evaporating. If the blende is used, it must be redissolved in water and purified.

nium and freshly burned lime with four times their weight of water, and applying heat till the ammonia gas is driven off into the bottom of a vessel two-thirds full of water. The water absorbs the ammonia. The gas becomes liquid at from. 40° to 58° below zero Fah- renheit.

Muriate of tin and tin crystals are produced by dis- solving granulated tin in muriatic acid and evaporat- ing to crystallization. The aqueous solution known as "muriate of tin," requires the addition of muriatic or tartaric acid, or it throws down a basic deposit.

The immense demand for earthenware vessels and pipes in this business, and the great losses by break- age, have led the house to establish a large pottery of their own, which turns out great quantities of these wares. They employ in their Brooklyn works about 750 men, and produce, of all the chemicals, over $2,500,000 per annum.

The Pratt Manufacturing Company, which manu- factures the sulphuric acid and other chemicals used in the refining of petroleum, is probably the next largest producer of these commercial acids. They produce their sulphuric acid from copper pyrites (sulphide of copper), mostly imported from Spain, the residual cop- per ore being sold to the smelters. Their production of sulphuric acid is about $600,000 per year, and the caustic soda used in the refining of petroleum is also imported by them, and amounts to perhaps $20,000 more.

There are three or four other manufacturers of com- mercial acids, etc., in Brooklyn, of which the two largest are Pfizer & Co. of Bartlett street, and Charles Kraft of Flushing avenue. The Phenix Company is also large. The total production of this class of chemicals is not far from $4,200,000, and the number of hands em- ployed about 1,350. Some of these houses produce copperas (sulphate of iron), Glauber's salts (sulphate of soda), artificial gypsum (sulphate of lime), and some of the chlorides, either incidentally or as commercial products.

The sublimation of sulphur is an allied industry. This is carried on extensively by Mr. Frederick Scholes, of 152 Kent avenue, whose product is sold wholly by the house of Battelle & Renwick, 163 Front street, N. Y., and by Mr. Daniel H. Gray, whose factory is at 25 Ninth street, and his warehouse at 115 Maiden lane. These gentlemen, like Messrs. Kalbfleisch, obtain the crude brimstone or sulphur from Sicily, and con- duct their processes so carefully that the sulphurous va- pors do not escape, so as to annoy the inhabitants of the neighborhood. They employ about 45 hands, and their annual product, in round numbers, is about $350,000.

SUBSECTION I .- Medical Chemists.

Next in importance to the manufacturers of commer-

Aqua ammonia is made in a large iron still, by mix- ing equal weight of sal ammoniac or sulphate of ammo- I cial acids, and hardly second to them in the extent o

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

their business, are the manufacturers and compounders of medical drugs-the medical chemists. There are four or five of these, but only two who have attained a very high reputation abroad for the excellence of their preparations:

EDWARD R. SQUIBB, M. D., has been engaged in his present vocation as an importer, manufacturer and compounder of drugs for wholesale purposes only, for more than thirty years, and no manufacturer of drugs in the country has so high a reputation for thorough knowledge, strict integrity, careful manipula- tion, and the absolute purity and reliableness of his preparations. The physician who prescribes his prep- arations, knows that he can obtain from them all the beneficial results which the drug, in that form, can be expected to produce; while those of his compounds, which are sold in large quantities, are equally reliable. During the war, when a pure article of chloroform was indispensable for the surgeons, the medical purveyors of the army could find none at all comparable, for pur- ity and excellence, to that of Dr. Squibb. This was true also of his other preparations. He manufactures no secret or patent medicines; and whatever compounds his medical skill and knowledge have led him to pre- pare, to facilitate the physician's labors, are always put up with the formulas in full.

M. C. Edmond Fougera has followed a somewhat different line of business from Dr. Squibb, being more largely an importer of the best French preparations, than a manufacturer, though his manufactures have been of a very creditable character. We believe he was the first to introduce the gelatine capsules now so generally used, in all forms and of all sizes, for the ad- ministration of bitter or nauseous medicines. We are unable to give the exact details of the annual produc- tion (part of it importation) of these two great drug houses, but it is certainly not-less than $600,000. The number of hands varies very greatly.

Dr. James S. Hawley, who has made a specialty of the manufacture of pepsin and its compounds, and of some other medicines; Henry Jackson & Son; George J. Jolensen; Edward D. Kendall; H. Endeman; God- frey Osaun and Franz Roessler, all of them practical chemists, and engaged in the production of some specialties, also come under this class.

SUBSECTION II .- Patent Medicines.

Following these, we may also name some of the few manufacturers of patent medicines and medicinal pre- parations, whose manufactories are in Brooklyn or Kings county. The largest of these, the Graefenberg Company, now owned and managed solely by Col. Charles E. Bridge, whose portrait and biography we give, was originally a German house, and held some valuable patents. Under its present proprietor its busi- ness has been greatly extended, and it is now very large and profitable.

COL. CHAS. E. BRIDGE is descended from Puritan stock. The first of his ancestors in America was Sir John Bridge, of Essex county, England, one of the pilgrims who landed from the Mayflower on "New England's rock-ribbed coast." One of his descendants, who was Colonel Bridge's great-grand- father, married Molly Fry, an Indian woman of the purest type, most of whose descendants are characterized by dark faces and black or dark eyes and hair, the latter being straight. The colonel's maternal grandmother was first cousin to Daniel Webster, America's celebrated statesman and orator, who was a son of her mother's sister. Joshua Fisher Bridge, father of Col. Charles E. Bridge, was born in Beverly, Mass., in 1822. While yet a mere lad he went to sea, his adventurous disposition leading him to seek a life of more danger and less monotony than that of his landsman comrades. In 1846, at the age of twenty-four, he became a resident of Brooklyn, and soon found employment in the old proprietary medicine house of the Graefenberg Company, then located on Broadway. His position was an unimportant, if not a menial, one. He began literally at the bottom of the ladder. If he had not been previously very industrious and saving, he could scarcely have retained his foothold on the lower round at the beggarly salary he received. His atten- tion to the duties entrusted to him was such as to commend him to the good opinion of his employers, and gradually he was advanced to more responsible and lucrative positions. Meanwhile he attended night college, acquiring the educa- tion which he felt to be essential to his success in life, read medicine, attended lectures, and in time received a diploma as a physician. Having no taste for a general practice, he devoted his knowledge to the benefit of the Graefenberg Co., in whose affairs he was more and more a power year after year, till, in 1863, he was enabled to purchase enough of its stock to insure him a position as its general manager. The enterprise flourished more remarkably than ever before, and six years later Mr. Bridge was the sole owner of its stock, which made him proprietor of an extensive business many years established. He died in 1871, and all of the rights, titles and privileges of the Graefenberg Company passed to the ownership of the present proprietor, Col. Charles E. Bridge. Mr. Bridge was married in 1852 to Miss Augusta J. Edmunds, of Plymouth, New Hampshire, and Col. Bridge was born in Brooklyn, April 29th, 1853. A daughter was born to them also.

Charles E. Bridge attended private schools in Brooklyn until he was eleven years old, when he entered the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, passed through all its grades, and graduated therefrom in 1867. Later he attended a German school to obtain a knowledge of the German lan- guage, which is necessary in the conduct of the extensive correspondence of the Graefenberg Company with dealers in the German states. At the death of his father he succeeded him in business, having previously mastered all of its details by several years' association with him in the office; and, under his management, the enterprise has steadily grown, and more than retained its status as one of the oldest, best- established and most reliable patent medicine houses in the world. In 1873, he married Miss Margaret P. St. John, of New York city. Their son, now ten years of age, will be the last of his name in this branch of the family, should he die without issue. If the boy is to be spared to him, it is the hope of Col. Bridge that he may become his successor as the proprietor of the Graefenberg Company, and, in time, hand the business down to his descendants, thus perpetuating its ownership and management in the family and name.

Early in life Col. Bridge developed a liking for military affairs, and, in 1869, then only sixteen years old, he joined

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

"A " Company of the 23d Regiment. He filled various war- rant positions, and was officially connected with the staff of the colonel in command, until he left the regiment in 1880 to accept an appointment on the 11th Brigade Staff, which he held till January 1st, 1883, when he was appointed to a place on the staff of Governor Cleveland, with the rank of colonel. His duties as an officer on the staff necessitated his studying closely the various systems of signaling in use. He conceived the idea that the United States army system could easily be employed, by means of steam whistles, to communi- cations at sea, rendering it possible to signal the course, the name of the vessel and the line to which it might belong, the captain's name, and other facts of a similar nature, besides locating icebergs or wrecks, or indicating distress of any kind, such as mutiny, shortage of water, leaks, sickness, &c. He thought, too, that a regular signal telegraphy might be adopted for the use of passengers, and for the apprehension of criminals on board of vessels and en route for foreign shores. He claimed no special originality in the scheme, for it contemplated only the application of an old and tried sys- tem in a new direction; but he trusted that to give those most interested the results of study and experiments in this mode of signaling would lead to benefit to the commercial traveling community, not only of America, but throughout the world; and he neither sought to secure the system to himself, by patent or otherwise, nor to obtain any pecuniary benefit therefrom. His experiments met the approval of Commodore George H. Cooper, U. S. N., commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard; General Edward L. Molineux, com- mandant 11th Brigade, N. G., and others, who have conceded the advantages to be derived from his proposed application, and encouraged him to place his system before the public, for it is so simple and easy of comprehension, that its manifest utility must, before many years, bring it into general use.

Col. Bridge has been a life-long resident of Brooklyn, and will, doubtless, reside there until his death. Though a young man, his interests are such that he has the prosperity and progress of the city at heart, and all measures toward their advancement meet with his hearty co-operation and liberal support.

The Pond's Extract Company manufacture another preparation which has a great reputation and an exten- sive sale. The production of these two establishments is said to be between $300,000 and $350,000. The other patent medicine houses, of which there are a dozen or more, do a very moderate business. One of them, the Damonia Magnetic Mineral Company, is a new comer, and bases its claims to public patronage on its prepara- tions of an earth or ore of iron, and, possibly, chrome, said to be magnetic, and found in Texas. It is adver- tising largely, but we know not with what success. Other professed magnetic remedies, like the Wilsonia and Victoria Clothing, have had their day, and have- ceased to attract public attention.

SUBSECTION III .- Mineral Waters.

The preparation of artificial mineral waters, carbon- ated waters, &c., is becoming a large and very profit- able business. Nearly all the mineral waters which have a high reputation have been carefully analysed, and the formula thus obtained has been so successfully imitated, that the artificial waters are recommended by

the most eminent physicians as cqual or preferable to the genuine. There are now 29 or 30 of these mann- facturers of artificial mineral waters in Kings county, several of them doing a large business. The cost of plant is not very heavy, the principal items being a good artesian well of very pure water and a good sup- ply of siphon bottles. The formula are simple, and the production of carbonic acid gas, pure, and of sufficient quantity to enable the manufacturers to charge the siphons, already filled with the required solutions, is all that is necessary, in the hands of skilled workmen, to make the business successful. The sales are largely to druggists, physicians, and, to some extent, to private customers. Hellman, Müller & Co., Bach & Nostrand, Henry Segelka, Frederick Feltmann, H. & C. Batter- man, Schneider & Bro., Smith & Layton, Hess & Palmer, Knobel & Pope, Sweeney & Bro. and Lawrence Maxwell, are, we believe, the largest of these manufac- turers. The entire business is estimated at about $400,000.

SUBSECTION IV .- Mineral Paints, Roofing Materials, and Other Mineral Preparations Produced by Chemical Processes.

Most of these houses have trade secrets which they believe to be valuable, and hence repel all inquiries in regard to the character and extent of their business. In general, little can be learned about them, except that they are engaged in some chemical work. There are one or two roofing companies, the proprietors of which are somewhat more communicative. Among these are H. W. Johns and Gridley & Co. of the Phenix Chemical Works, at the foot of 39th street. Their specialty is a chemically compounded cement for roof- ing purposes, and perhaps also for tiling. Of the Jordan Iron and Chemical Company, the Manhattan Chemical Company, the Charles T. White Company, and the National Chemical Works, we have only been able to learn that they belonged to this class, and that several of them were doing a large business.

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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 29

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