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 30

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 30

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Of course, any estimate in regard to the amount of this business can be only a guess, and may come wide of the mark. We prefer an under-estimate to an exces- sive one, and are sure that in estimating their entire production, and that of others who may belong to this class, at $500,000, we are considerably within the mark.

SUBSECTION V. - Cream of Tartar and Tartaric Acid .- Baking Powders.

Our knowledge of these chemical manufactures is more thorough and complete than of those of the pre- ceding subsection. By the courtesy of the proprie- tors we were permitted to inspect all the processes.

Though cream of tartar is a necessary ingredient of a good baking powder, and a very large proportion of that which is manufactured here is consumed by bak- ing powder companies; yet it is used for many other

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

purposes, in domestic economy, in medicine, and in the arts. Formerly it was largely imported, but the importation has now ceased, and only the crude argols, from which both cream of tartar and tartaric acid are manufactured, appears among the imports. We do not know the number of cream of tartar companies in the United States, but the production of Brooklyn is very nearly, if not quite, one-half of all that is made in the country, yet it is all at present consumed here.

In tracing the processes which lead to the produc- tion of a complete baking powder, we find it necessary to begin at the beginning. The principal constituents of. all baking powders are bitartrate of potassa, gen- erally known as cream of tartar, and bi-carbonate of soda, the cooking soda of the shops. There is in some of them also a very small percentage of sesqui-carbonate of ammonia, and in those which are of inferior quality, a quarter or less percentage of alum, tartrate of lime, tartaric acid, &c .; but the two ingredients, named at first, are the most important. It is of the highest consequence, that both the cream of tartar and the bi-carbonate of soda should be, as nearly as possible, absolutely pure. Commercial cream of tartar has been considered in the past as sufficiently pure for almost any use, when it consisted of 95 per cent. pure bi-tartrate of potassa, and 5 per cent. of tartrate of lime, or some other substance inert, or of no material importance. This is not the standard to be reached by the best manufacturers. The New York Tartar Co. now makes a cream of tartar 99% to 997% pure, and the productions of the other Brooklyn companies is brought to the same standard. The bi-carbonate of soda is brought up to an equal degree of purity.

How is cream of tartar made ? The crude tartar is called argols, and is imported from France and Italy, and in small quantities also from Germany, Eng- land and Austria.

The whole quantity imported last year was 18,- 320,366 pounds, and the custom house value, $3,- 013,376, or about 16 cents per pound. Argols are the deposits of crude tartar in wine barrels, and con- sist of tartaric acid, tartrates of lime and potassa, with other impurities, and a considerable percentage of dirt. As delivered at the tartar factory, they are dirty, greyish, black-looking masses, partly in powder, partly in small, rather tough lumps. They are first powdered and then boiled in immense boilers, and the alcohol and other volatile impurities expelled (this is the part of the process to which exception has been taken, from its alleged malodorous smells, but these, though never so bad as represented, are now almost entirely removed by a condensing process). When boiled it is filtered through bone-black, and then evaporated and crystal- lized. It is chemically impure, though the crystals are white and clear. It is next redissolved and the tar- trate of lime separated, and it is tested for any other impurities, which, if they are found, are removed, and it

is again crystallized, and is ready for use, as we shall see presently.

The tartrate of lime is treated with sulphuric acid, and the tartaric acid is separated, a sulphate of lime (gypsum or plaster of Paris), being formed. The tar- taric acid being first purified, is crystallized and is ready for market. There is a considerable demand for it for a variety of uses.

But we will now follow the cream of tartar or bi- tartrate of potassa. There is, as we have said, a large demand for this for culinary, medical, chemical, and technological purposes, but the Brooklyn tartar com- panies find an instant market for all their products in the Royal Baking Powder Company's factory, and if the product was three times what it now is (as it soon will be), it would all be absorbed in that rapidly grow- ing industry. The crystallized cream of tartar is hoisted into the upper stories of the factory, where it is ground as fine as the finest flour and bolted. It is then tested for impurity again, and is ready for the next step.

Meanwhile, the soda has been ground also, its purity similarly tested, and the two are emptied into the mixer, a very ingeniously constructed machine, which, by its various motions, thoroughly combines the two powders, and so incorporates them with each other that there is no possibility of an excess of one or the other in any package, large or small, of the compound. When thus completely mixed, it is again tested, and by an automatic movement, each barrel filled with it is lowered to the floor below, and another set in its place. From these barrels it is packed in boxes of dif- ferent sizcs, each boxful being weighed to secure the exact weight, the covers put on the box labelled, and one, two or four dozen packed in a wooden box, also labelled. The demand for this baking powder is enor- mous. Forty tons or more are shipped daily.

But the Royal Baking Powder Company have also other lines of business. They have gained a great reputation for their flavoring extracts-lemon, orange, vanilla, rose, ginger, etc .- which are of undoubted purity and full strength, and of which many thousand gross are sold every year. The two establishments, which are really under the same control, employ about 500 hands, and on the completion of the new tartar factory, will be able to produce goods to the value of about $4,000,000 annually.

There are three other cream of tartar and tartaric acid factories in Kings county beside the New York Tartar Company, but their cream of tartar product is now absorbed by the Royal Baking Powder Company. The tartaric acid produced by all the companies is sold elsewhere, the chemical works of Martin Kalbfleisch's Sons and others using it, as do the color manufacturers in the preparation of colors and mordants. Their pro- duction of this acid does not probably exceed $100,000. There is now no other baking powder company in

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Kings county except the Royal, two or three others having removed or given up the business. The census of 1880 reported at that time 110 establishments manu- facturing baking powders in the United States, with an annual product of $4,760,598. In the three and a half years which have elapsed, a considerable number of these have failed or relinquished the business, but the Brooklyn company has constantly grown, partly by the acknowledged excellence of its products and partly by the most energetic and thorough advertising, in all ways and by all methods, ever attempted in this or any other country. It now produces more than one half of all the baking powder manufactured in the United States.

Let us now sum up the products of the various sub- divisions of these chemical manufactures, reserving for a separate section one division, that of Fertilizers and Glue. We find, then, in the six subsections we have described, an annual product of about $10,300,000 and the employment of from 2,800 to 3,300 hands.

SECTION XIX. Fertilizers-Glue.

The manufacturers of fertilizers is a somewhat im- portant interest in Kings county for several reasons. There are but three or four houses directly engaged in it, but the product is large. The statistics of the cen- sus of 1880 were: Capital, $545,000; hands employed, 89, of whom 84 were men; amount of wages paid, $51,000; cost of material, $1,063,867; annual product, $1,252,756. These figures were below the present rate of production, which probably now exceeds $1,500,000, but they were more nearly correct than most of the statements of Brooklyn industries.

But the industry is of special interest from its con- nection with other industries and mercantile enterprises. It has direct connection with the manufacturing chem- ists, from whom the acids, ammonia and other chemi- cals used in the transformation of different substances into effective fertilizers are obtained; with the slaugh- ter-houses, which furnish much of the offal which is transformed; with the scavengers, whose contributions of dead animals, bones, etc., form an important con- stituent of the fertilizers; with the importers of nitrate of soda, sulphate and muriate of potassa, guano, phos- phates, etc .; with the exporters of bone-black, super- phosphates, etc .; with the Menhaden factories, from whom they obtain a kind of guano, after the oil is taken from the fish; with the glue makers, from whom they obtain bones and much nitrogenous matter; with the sugar refiners, who furnish them with their spent bone-black and the residuum of waste after its re-puri- fication, and to whom they sell considerable quantities of refined bone-black produced by some of their pro- cesses; and with the miners and quarriers of phosphatic rock in South Carolina, from whom they obtain very

considerable quantities of these valuable constituents of fertilizers.

The demand for fertilizers is very large, and is con- stantly increasing. Even the more intelligent of the farmers, on the comparatively new lands of the West, are beginning to understand the advantage of restoring to the soil the constituents so largely taken from it, and are, by the use of fertilizers regaining the yield of wheat, corn and other, cereals, which was so rapidly falling off. The first attempt at manufacturing fertil- izers on a large scale in Kings county was made in 1850, on Crow Hill, by Swanmitel, Pieper & Co., who had a fat-rendering establishment, and ground bone to some extent, for export to England, for a year or two.

The same year a Mr. Paulsen made glue and ground bone on First street, Williamsburgh, near the present site of the sugar house, opposite the Cob dock. In 1851, Mr. Charles De Bergh, the son of one of the partners in the great nitro-phosphate works in London, came to this country, and finding that the sugar refiners were then using their spent bone-black for filling sunken lots, made an arrangement with them to take their entire product of this article, they packing it in casks. He stored this in lots which he hired, till the spring of 1852, when he commenced the manufacture of fertilizers from it in the building which Mr. Paulsen had occupied in First street. He treated it with sulphuric acid, and made a dissolved bone phosphate of lime, which he sold largely in Baltimore.

The same year (1852), Joseph Oechsler established a rendering establishment on Crow Hill, and ground bone extensively. He found a moderate market on Long Island, but the greater part of his product was sent to Philadelphia and the South.

In 1855, Frederick Langman began the manufacture of super-phosphate of lime on Crow Hill. His market was in New Jersey, as the Long Island farmers could not be induced to use any other fertilizer than stable manure.

The first attempt to utilize the dead animals from New York and Brooklyn, for the production of fertilizers, at Barren Island,* was made in 1855, by Lefferts R. Cornell, who had obtained a contract with the two cities for collecting these animals. Their bones and dried flesh were ground and treated with acids, etc., and shipped to the nitro-phosphate company of London, that company sending out a chemist to superintend the manufacture. In 1856 William B. Reynolds had a similar factory on Barren Island, and shipped his fertilizers to various ports on the Rhine, to be used for grape culture. In 1858, Mr. De Bergh, who had carried on his works on First street, E. D., successfully, commenced the use of dried meat as a source of ammonia, but the odor emanating from his factory was so offensive, that the city authorities com-

*Barren Island is a small Island near the west shore of Jamaica bay, belonging to the town of Flatlands, In Kings county.

Leo 3 Forrester

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

pelled him to stop its use. In 1859 the factory of L. R. Cornell, on Barren Island, was burned, and he removed to Flatbush, where he carried on the business of bone-burning (for the sugar refiners) and the manu- facture of bone-black, for which he found a ready market. After a time he sold out his establishment to the Zoanclital Company, who took the contract of removing the dead animals from New York city, and removed their works to Blazing Star, N. J.

In 1860, E. Frank Coe took the works which De Bergh had vacated in First street, E. D., and com- menced the manufacture of super-phosphates of lime for dealers in the South, and continued there till 1864, when he removed to Hunter's Point, and in 1880 to Barren Island. In 1873, Thomas White commenced the manufacture of super-phosphate of lime on Barren Island, for parties in the South, and still continues in the business. The census does not report his establish- ment under Brooklyn. In 1880, Mr. Geo. B. Forrester commenced the manufacture of chemical fertilizers in Fourth place, South Brooklyn. His fertilizers were inodorous, and he had carefully prepared formulas of combinations required for each crop and each soil. He had made these formulas and tested their efficacy in connection with another house since 1873. These have proved effectual in greatly increasing the production of the sandy loams and other soils of the seaboard States. They have a very large sale on Long Island, in New Jersey, and in the States farther South, and many thou- sands of tons are sent out yearly; also, other parties, in part at his suggestion, have engaged in the improve- ment of Peruvian guano by bringing up the percentage of ammonia, which of late years had been seriously diminished even in the best specimens. This required the erection of considerable machinery, which for con- venience sake, has been placed in one of the large ware- houses at the water front, where the guano is landed. Mr. Forrester is the largest manufacturer of complete chemical manures in the country ; but Messrs. H. J. Baker & Bro., of Smith street, and C. Huntington, who are also noticed among the chemical manufacturers, manufacture fertilizers quite extensively. Mr. L. F. Requa, of Sedgwick street, is also a large producer of goods in this line. There were no others until the pre- sent year (1883), except the parties on Barren Island, when there were two joint stock companies started, mainly, however, to deal in imported fertilizers.

The Peter Cooper Glue Factory and James Greene, also a glue manufacturer, sell their refuse products, bone, hair, etc., for fertilizing purposes ; and Messrs. Adams & Munroe, on the New Lots road, have a fat- rendering establishment, and burn bones, making a good article of bone-black for the sugar refiners. The entire business of producing fertilizers in Brooklyn in 1880 was, according to the census, three establishments with $545,000 capital, employing 125 hands, paying out $51,000 wages, using material valued at $1,063,867,

and producing $1,252,756 annually. The amount of the business has somewhat increased since that time ; a new house has started, but an old one has relinquished the business. The number of hands is now at least 150, and the product not less than $1,500,000. It is noteworthy also that there is less consumption of animal waste and a greater call for chemical manures. The formulas of Mr. Forrester are attracting much attention and the demand for them is rapidly increasing.

But, aside from the manufactories of fertilizers in Brooklyn, there are three (one of them a Menhaden oil factory, which makes up a fish guano from the refuse, after the expulsion of the oil, and two rendering estab- lishments for the utilization of dead animals, etc.) others in Kings county, two of them on Barren Island. These establishments turn out about $250,000 worth of manures yearly. There is, or was a short time since, also a small factory for fertilizers in Flatbush, but we have no particulars concerning it. Altogether, it is probably not far from the truth to put down the entire product of fertilizers in Kings county at about $1,800,- 000.

GEORGE BOARDMAN FORRESTER, a leading manufacturer of chemical fertilizers, was born in New York city, March 18, 1836. He was the son of James and Elenora (Irwin) Forres- ter. His paternal grandfather came to this country from Scotland in 1801. He was educated in the public schools of New York city, and in Jenney's Academy, then in East Broadway, New York.

Mr. Forrester commenced his business life early, being, in 1853, a clerk in the metal brokerage business, in 1854 in the iron trade, and in 1855 in business on his own account. In December, 1856, he became connected with a manufacturing firm, and advanced step by step till, in 1873, he became part- ner in the house. As a result of previous study and experi- ments, he devoted himself, after his admission to the firm, to the preparation of chemical manures, from formulæe drawn up by himself, the formula being varied for each crop, in accordance with its demand for special chemicals as plant food. So thorough had been his research into the require- ments of each crop, and so successful were his manures, in producing crops of the largest quantity and best quality, that Forrester's Chemical Manures, after an experience of eight or nine years, have become very popular among agricultur- ists everywhere. He also devised formula for orange, lemon and pineapple culture, which have come into very extensive use in Florida and other southern and southwestern states, and have greatly added to the productiveness and excellence of these fruits. Like his vegetable manures, they increase the size, quantity and good quality of the products of each crop to which they are applied. A similar success has at- tended his formula for the culture of the sugar cane, which is now sold largely. He has also, within the last three or four years, prepared a top dressing for lawns, and a fertilizer for house and garden plants, both of which have already achieved a high reputation.

The advantages accruing from the use of Mr. Forrester's fertilizers are: that they are entirely inodorous; they are much less bulky than ordinary manures; they accomplish better results; are perfectly certain in their effect; are less expen- sive than the ordinary imported manures, and give better results than stable manure and at less cost. In 1880, the

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

firm with which Mr. Forrester had been connected for twenty-four years was dissolved, and he withdrew, taking with him his formulæ and his business in fertilizers, and es- tablished himself in their more extensive manufacture, at 119-125 Fourth place, Brooklyn, where he is now turning out immense quantities to supply the demand from all parts of the country, his annual out-put being several thousand tons.

In pursuance of his belief that the highest interests of the farmer are promoted by the diffusion of intelligence, Mr. Forrester has delivered before farmers' clubs in different sec- tions of the country, several carefully prepared lectures on " Agriculture and Methods of Fertilization."

Mr. Forrester, amid an active and exceedingly busy life, has found time for participation in the duties of good citizen- ship. Though not an active partisan, he is thoughtful and sound in his political convictions, always more desirous of an honest and able administration of our city and state affairs than of strict party success.

Mr. Forrester is a religious man, and carries his religious principles into his business, endeavoring in all things to glorify the Master whom he serves. He united with the Cannon Street Baptist Church in New York city at the age of eleven years, and though but thirty when he removed to Brooklyn in 1866, he had been a member of its Board of Trustees for several years, and had been successively Treas- urer, Secretary and President of that board.

In 1866, he became a member of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in South Brooklyn, and has been for some years a deacon of that church and President of its Board of Trustees. In 1882, he was elected Moderator of the Long Island Asso- ciation of Baptist Churches, a religious body which occupies a very high rank in that denomination; and, in 1883, he was re-elected Moderator of the same body, an honor not hereto- fore conferred in successive years upon any other member of the association, minister or layman.

He was married in May, 1857, to Miss Emily Maria Brook.

SUBSECTION I .- Glue and Neatsfoot Oil.

The manufacture of glue and gelatine, which is now an important industry in this country, employing $3,916,750 capital and about 1,800 hands, and produc- ing in 1880, according to the census, $4,324,072 of glue, gelatine, and allied wares, was almost entirely unknown in this country till 1820. A glue factory had been es- tallished on what was then called the Middle road, in New York city, near or on the site where the Park Avenue Hotel, Fourth avenue and Thirty-fourth street, now stands; but it was mismanaged, and the proprietor was so deeply in debt that he was obliged to sell, but had great difficulty in finding any one who would take it at any price. The location was theu very far out of town, though since in the very centre of the most fash- ionable part of the town; and there was very little de- mand for any glue, except the foreign article, which was very impure and of poor quality. It was at this time (1820) that Peter Cooper, then a prosperous gro- cer at Eighth street, between Third and Fourth avenues, or, as they were then known, the " Old Boston road" and the " Old Middle road," finding that this property on Murray Hill could be bought low, purchased it for $2,000, and immediately commenced the manufacture of glue, making a superior article, and at one-third the

price of the foreign article. Having driven the foreign glue out of the market, he turned his attention to the production of refined glue or gelatine. At that time, for cooking purposes, Cox, an English manufacturer, held the market with his "Sparkling Gelatine," but Mr. Cooper produced an article superior to his, and at a much lower price, while he also supplied a new de- mand for gelatine for photographic and other pur- poses. His preparations, after a few years, completely controlled the market, and at the present time there are no glues or gelatines imported, except the Russian isinglass, or fish glue, made from the swimming blad- ders of several species of fish. This product, we be- lieve, Mr. Cooper never attempted. It is now imported to a small amount. Mr. Cooper remained on Murray Hill till 1845, when, finding the value of land there rapidly increasing, he purchased a large tract of land in the north-east part of Williamsburg, extending from the Maspeth road, now Maspeth avenue, to Newtown creek, and a considerable distance south, and erected there extensive buildings. Finding, after some years, that the city corporation might interfere with his ex- tensive works, as there was great activity in build- ing in that vicinity, he removed to another portion of his property, known as Smith's Island, near the cor- ner of Gardner and Maspeth avenues, where his works still remain. About 1870, the glue factory was incor- porated as " The Peter Cooper Glue Factory." It has been managed for many years by his nephews, Messrs. Charles and George Cooper.

The products of the factory consist of the common and white glue, liquid glues, refined and common gela- tines, and a very superior article of sparkling gela- tine for jellies, blanc mange, etc. They also make bone-black, and dried flesh, refuse, etc., for the manu- facturers of fertilizers. Their products are said to be of the annual value of more than $300,000-consider- ably less than they were some years ago, as an active competition in these manufactures has sprung up all over the country, and there were, as we have said, 82 glue factories in the United States. Of these nine are in the State of New York, and one other in Brooklyn. None of the others in New York are in any large city.

Two other factories in the United States are said to be as large, or larger, than the Peter Cooper; one in Philadelphia and one in St. Louis. The only other glue factory in Kings county is that of Mr. James Greene, at Ewen street, corner of Bayard. It is less extensive than the Cooper factory, .but Mr. Greene makes Neatsfoot oil as well as glue. The production of the two glue factories is not far from $500,000.

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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 30

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