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 32

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 32

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He has received from the various Expositions, their highest awards. At the present time he is employing more than two hundred hands; paying liberal wages; has a very large capital invested in the business and plant, and turns out about $250,000 of his various wares, many of them of the highest artistic beauty, each year.

Some of his vases are of exquisite design. One of them, which forms a prominent feature iu our illustra- tions, is known as the "Keramos Vase," and was sug- gested by Longfellow's beautiful poem, "Keramos." We have left ourselves but small space to speak of the processes of this interesting industry, but we cannot wholly omit them. The kaolin, procured mainly from Pennsylvania, comes in lumps and powder, and is mixed with the quartz and feldspar (from Mr. Smith's own quarry at Branchville, Conn.), which has to be ground, at first coarsely, and afterward to an impal- pable powder. The combination of these three ingre- dients in a huge vat, with water, to the consistency of a thin paste, is technically called "mixing the slip." Inside the vat, a vertical shaft, supporting a number of radial arms, keeps the " slip "in a state of constant agi- tation, as the liquid slowly escapes from an orifice he- neath into a sieve. The sieve is constantly shaken, and the " slip " continues its sluggish course down a short channel, and between two sets of horse-shoe mag- nets, some horizontal, some perpendicular. The object to be attained by these magnets is the removal of every fine particle of iron which the mixture may contain (quartz has a strong affinity for iron and other metals); every speck of the metal retained, however minute, ap- pears as a black spot on the snowy surface of the fin- ished china. After passing the magnets, the liquid runs into a second sieve, and thence into a second vat, at a lower level, where a similar apparatus to the first keeps it constantly in motion. After passing through

several of these vats, the " slip" is led into storage tanks. From these it is transferred to cloth or canvas bags, placed between the leaves of a screw press, inge- niously contrived to squeeze the water from the "slip;" the material comes out of the bags a heavy dough, which is thrown into bins and kept there for months to ripen. Age improves it, and the Chinese have a tradi- tion that the material for their old porcelain was kept for a hundred years. When wanted for use, this dough is sent to the kneading machine-a very inge- niously constructed machine, of French invention- which kneads and mixes it quietly, but with the utmost thoroughness. When thus kneaded, it is ready for moulding.

Here we learned something which surprised us; the potter's wheel, which, for more than three thousand years, had been so fully identified with all fictile manu- factures, is now obsolete, and is abolished from the Union Porcelain Works. In its place, there are long tables, before which a row of employés are stationed, and in front of each one are perpendicular and heri- zontal revolving discs, which are put in operation by a mere pressure of the knee on a lever. Beside each operator is a mass of the dough, irregularly shaped, perhaps in the form of imperfect tubes. The disc, or revolving head, being at rest, the operator puts upon it a mould, the interior of which is of the exact ferm of the exterior of a bowl, or cup. Into this he inserts one of his dough tubes, and the disc is set in motion, the plastic mass being pushed with his fingers out against the side of the cavity. Then a counter-poised metal blade is brought down into the cavity, which is so adjusted and shaped as to remove exactly enough material to leave the bowl or cup of the requisite thickness, and, at the same time, to form its interier. Sometimes these dishes, or bowls, are of oval form, and an arrangement of cams enables the operator to turn them out not quite so rapidly, but yet with a fair amount of speed. The dish, cup, or bowl, when re- moved from the mould, is set aside to dry and be turned off and finished, and is then ready for the first baking. Many objects do not require the revolving head, and are pressed into moulds, either by machinery or by the hand alone. This is the case with the han- dles, ears, noses, ete., of pitchers, tea-pots, sugar-bowls, etc., etc., as well as with most of the porcelain hard- ware.

Next comes the first baking, or converting the ware into biscuit. We have described this pretty fully, when showing the difference between hard and soft porcelain, but a few words concerning the kilns and seggars will be in place here. The kilns are huge cylindrical structures, fifteen and a half feet in diame- ter, and having two stories, the lower being about eleven and a half feet, and the upper about nine feet in height. The walls, which are of brick, faced inside with fire brick, are more than three feet in thickness.

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

When fired, a kiln uses about ten tons of coal to a baking, and the combustion is continued for thirty to thirty-five hours. The upper story is used for the first baking, the heat being much less than that of the lower story. The seggars are round boxes, made of a cheap but very refractory clay, and at these works are made with great care on the premises, to insure their good quality. In them, for the first baking, as many articles are placed as can be put in, without danger of damage. They are then piled into the kiln, the bottom of one seggar serving as cover to the one below it, and the piles reaching to the top of the kiln. The surfaces are separated by rings of soft clay, which form a tight joint. About 30,000 to 60,000 pieces of ware may be included in one baking.

We have also described the processes of glazing and second baking, to which these wares owe their uni- form excellence. The heat generated in the lower story of the kiln is far more than sufficient to melt iron, nearly sufficient to melt platina. Great skill is required in managing the fires, and they must be checked at a point when the glaze is fluent and the body vitreous, just before the articles themselves melt. There are glass-stoppered holes in the sides of the kiln, through which the process of baking is watched. The porcelain, if it is to remain white, is now finished, and nothing more is required except to sort it over for im- perfect pieces, which are consigned to the grinding mill to be pulverized and made over.

If, however, the ware is to be ornamented with colors or gilding, or is to have any artistic designs placed upon it, the process known as decoration is yet to be applied to it. The decoration is done by hand. The colors used are formed by the combination of certain metallic oxides and salts, with certain fluxes which enable them to fuse into colored glasses. The oxides are usually those of chromium, iron, uranium, zinc, man- ganese, cobalt, antimony, gold, etc. The salts and oxides are ground up with turpentine, and painted on in the ordinary manner. It is not until the heat of the furnace has driven off the oil, and chemically combined the ingredients of the colors, that the effect can be determined, for the hues at first are dingy and un- pleasant, and give no idea to the inexperienced eye of the intended effect.

Gold is applied by dissolving the metal in aqua regia (nitro-muriatic acid); the acid is driven off by heat, when the gold remains in a state of minute division. After the ware is ornamented, it is enclosed in a muffle furnace, an inner box of fire-brick, which is so arranged as to be completely surrounded by the products of combustion. After the colors are developed the articles are removed, and hand burnishing of the metallic por- tions completes the manufacture. During the past season the Messrs. Smith, having occasion to erect a new building, have fitted up several studios, to which access may be had, without going through the main

building, for the use of ladies who wish to try their skill in the fascinating art of decorating china. Every facility will be furnished them for this pleasant pursuit, and their pieces can be fired at very short notice.

THOMAS C. SMITH, the only manufacturer of hard porcelain in this country, was born in Bridgehampton, Suffolk county, Long Island, in 1815. His ancestors, on the maternal side, migrated from Wales to Bridgehampton, in the town of Southampton, of which town they were the earliest settlers, a little more than two hundred years ago. His father died when he was only six years of age, and he was brought up by his widowed mother on a farm purchased by his ancestors from the Indians. The schools of Bridgehampton were good for the time, and he enjoyed their advantages until he was sixteen years of age, when he left home alone and came to New York to seek a place in which to learn a trade. After various disappointments, he apprenticed himself to a master builder, giving his promise to serve faithfully as an appren- tice for four years. He kept his promise to the letter, and received for the first year 50 cents a day, for the second, 62} cents, for the third, 75 cents a day, and on the fourth year he was to receive 87} cents, but his employer was so well pleased with his faithfulness that he voluntarily made his compensa- tion a dollar a day. His employer allowed him to spend the months of January, February and March at home, with his mother, and these months were diligently employed in school, in improving his education.

Before he was 21 years of age, he commenced business as a master builder, but hard work and exposure to rough wea- ther, brought on severe sickness, and he returned to his home in Bridgehampton to enjoy a mother's tender care and nurs- ing. He suffered from two successive attacks of illness, and while recovering from these, he employed all bis leisure mo- ments in still further improving his education. At this time his health was so completely shattered that he gave up the hope of being able to pursue his trade as a builder, and en- deavored to qualify himself to become a teacher. In 1837 he re- turned to New York, without money and with impaired health. Here he was offered, by a master builder, a position as super- intendent of buildings, with the understanding that he was to do only what his condition of health would permit.

He soon found that he was improving in vigor and strength, and in September, 1839, again commenced business as a master builder, and continued in it with remarkable success till 1863. At this time, his health having been again impaired by protracted overwork, he went to Europe for rest and recovery. He was in Paris when the intelligence was received there of the disastrous battle of Manassas, generally known as "the second battle of Bull Run." Among the many failures and business wrecks which were caused by the outbreak of the civil war, there was one in which Mr. Smith had a special interest-a small porcelain factory at Green- point, Brooklyn, which was largely indebted to him, and which he had been compelled at the winding up of its affairs, to take in partial satisfaction of his debt.

Dark as was the political horizon of our country at this time-drifting, as it seemed to many, to inevitable bank- ruptcy and ruin-Mr. Smith looked hopefully to the future, and believed that, " when this cruel war was over," manufac- tures would thrive as they had never thriven before, and that we should become one of the greatest manufacturing nations on the globe. Our history for the past twenty years has jus- tified his foresight. This conviction of his, acting upon a mind intensely practical, led him to consider the possibility of util- izing the little porcelain factory, which had cost him so

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

B.LITTCA

much, and which was lying idle and dismantled at Green- point.

He began at once a critical examination of the porcelain manufactories of France, to which he was by good fortune admitted, and the earthenware manufactories in Stafford- shire, in England; and, though he was convinced that there would be great difficulties to surmount in finding the proper materials, properly prepared, and in chemically combining them, yet he was strongly impressed with the idea that there was nothing done there which could not, by perseverance and industry, be done as well here. To a man of his strong will and fine mechanical genius, and in the full vigor of a stalwart manhood, nothing seemed impossible. Accordingly, immediately after his return, he cleared away the wreck and rubbish of the little porcelain factory, and began the neces- sary experiments, which would enable him to start out on his new and unknown field of labor.

After about two years of diligent experiment, he was pre- pared to put upon the market merchantable specimens of the true, hard, vitreous porcelain. While conducting these experiments, he very wisely manufactured the simpler arti- cles of porcelain-door knobs, caster wheels, insulators and other hardware trimmings, for which there was an imme- diate demand, and at a fair profit ; hut soon proceeded to manufacture a general assortment of China table ware for large hotels, and later, vases, plain and decorated, and the more delicate articles of porcelain, which compare favorably with the finest wares of Limoges, Meissen and Berlin, alike in the beauty of their design, and the delicacy and tasteful- ness of their decoration. Every year has witnessed material

progress both in the quality and quantity of his wares. The copying of European designs or patterns is studiously avoided, much originality is displayed, and many articles are of such rare artistic beauty, as to excite the wonder and admiration of connoisseurs from all parts of the world. The " Union Porcelain Works" has now grown to a vast estab- lishment, owning its own quarries of quartz and feldspar, and mills to crush and pulverize these earths, and has become a favorite resort for those interested in art manufactures. In accomplishing such a work within less than twenty years, Mr. Smith has had difficulties and obstacles to contend with which would have utterly appalled a man of less resolute will, and of inferior mental resources. Not least among these has been the utter indifference of both the American government and the people to efforts and sacrifices for the promotion of our national reputation in industrial art, which in any coun- try of Europe would have been crowned with the highest honors, and have received the most substantial rewards. But he has succeeded, and both in America and in Europe, has acquired a reputation which will go on increasing through- out the world.

In his domestic relations, Mr. Smith is singularly happy ; his son, a young man of rare genius, is associated with his father in business, and is well qualified to carry forward the work to still greater perfection. In the midst of most en- grossing business cares, Mr. Smith has found time for the promotion of great benevolent institutions. He has been for many years President of the New York Ophthalmic Hos- pital and College, and is a zealous promoter of many other charitable and financial institutions.

767

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

In politics, Mr. Smith is, from principle, not from love of party, a decided republican, though never an office-seeker or office-holder. He is, in the best sense of the word, a protec- tionist, believing in a tariff which will fully protect all our industries, till the wages of Europe approximate the wages paid for labor in this country, and remove duties from those raw materials only, which have not been, and cannot be pro- duced here.

A word, now, concerning the humbler branches of fictile manufacture prosecuted in our city, which, though with one exception, not specially ornamental, are in their way very useful.

There were in Brooklyn in the summer of 1883, ten potteries engaged in various branches of the business, the most extensive being the red-ware flower pots, drain tiles, white lead pots, etc. Three or four of the number confine themselves to earthen and stone ware, for culinary, chemical and technical purposes, and two, we believe, make sewer pipes, large and small. There is one house recently started, the International Tile Company, which produces encaustic, geometrical, mosaic and plain tile pavements, of very fine quality. Four houses make fire-brick, and the quality of their goods is such as to increase their sales. The present statistics of these manufactories we have not been able to ascertain definitely; if any reliance can be placed on the census returns, they probably employ in all about four hundred hands, and their annual product may, perhaps, be safely estimated at from $424,000 to $450,000. Their business is generally local, though some of them have warerooms in New York city. There are not included in this statement the chemical pottery works of Mr. Chas. Graham in Metropolitan Avenue, which are devoted solely to the manufacture of chemical vessels of stoneware, many of them of large size, which are so made as to resist the action of the strongest acids ; and also the chemical pottery works attached to the great acid works of Messrs. Martin Kalbfleisch's Sons, which have already been mentioned in the account of those works. The production of both is large, but we have no definite figures concerning it.

SECTION XXII. Bread and Bakery Products.

If the annual product of these manufactures were to be stated, without reference to the number of establishments engaged in it, "Bread and Bakery Products " would stand as about sixth or seventh of our industrics; for the census of 1880 reported the annual product of that year, in Brooklyn, as $5,594,975, and adding in the bakeries of the county towns, about $5,900,000. But this large amount was the production of 562 bakeries, and was an average of but about $10,600 to each. The amount of capital reported was about $1,080,000; the number of hands employed was 1,361; the amount of wages paid about $626,000; and

the amount of material used about $3,900,000. The number of bakers in the county, in May 1883, was 622, and if their average production was the same it would make the annual product about $6,500,000. Of course it is impossible for us, without the power of govern- mental authority, to ascertain with entire certainty whether the bakers have increased or diminished their production ; but we know these facts, viz., that the failure of a baker is one of the rarest events in our commercial history; that most of them give evidence of an enlarged business, with the constantly increasing population, and that the large houses have, within the past three years, greatly enlarged their facilities and products. The bakers are divided into several classes; one class devote themselves exclusively or mainly to the manufacture of bread, and generally to the pro- duction of three or four standard kinds, as the Vienna, the cottage, the family, and the French twist. Most of this class, finding an insufficient outlet for their pro- ductions in their local family trade, supply stores, restaurants and some hotels with it, and if they make a really good article, soon secure a good custom and make large profits. Another class make only crackers, and by enterprise, and the study of the wants of the public, speedily secure a large patronage. Another class, while making the ordinary kinds of bread, generally of fine quality, make also what are known as the fancy styles of bread, Queen's rolls, tea biscuit, raised biscuit, French rolls, muffins, buns, etc., etc. Most of this class of bakers make cake and pastry also. Still another class are known as cake bakers, though they make some bread, and most of them pies also. The manufacture of the best qualities of cake is one of the fine arts, and the greatest adepts in this and fine pastry, call themselves pastry cooks, find places at large wages at the great hotels, and thus avoid the risks of keeping up bakeries for themselves.

The pie bakers are also a class by themselves, and their wares, especially in a county which has so large a New England element as Kings, find ready and large sales. Many of the regular bakers make from 50 to 100 pies daily for their own retail trade; but the pie bakers proper, have no shop, and do not retail their goods, but sell them or leave them on commission with the better class of restaurants, with other bakers, with grocers, with cheap restaurants, and finally with liquor saloons. It is said that a pie which has been left over in turn by each of these customers, when it arrives at the liquor saloon is well nigh a week old.

Let us review these several classes and so classify our manufacturers of bread and bakery products according to their special vocations.

In the manufacture of bread only, John H. Shults is unquestionably the foremost baker in Kings county. He is the architect of his own fortune, and by his enter- prise has built up an immense business. He has no store; never retails a loaf of bread, except the stale

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

loaves returned by his drivers, which are sold largely at a reduced price to customers who come to the ware- house for them ; but his great ovens, warehouses and stables cover 16 full city lots, and include nearly the whole block bounded on two sides by Harrison avenue and Rutledge street. He is said to require for his bakeries 1,000 barrels of flour, and that of the best, a week; to make up 15,600,000 loaves of bread in a year, worth nearly $1,100,000. He has 85 wagons on the road, keeps 125 horses in his stables, and pays his foreman, who is the man from whom he learned his trade, $20,000 a year. It is said that there is no bakery on so large a scale in the United States.

Next to Mr. Shults in this business, though at a con- siderable distance below him, is the house of August B. Herseman & Co., Mr. Herseman having formerly been Mr. Shults' foreman or superintendent. Mr. Herseman's place is at 292 Graham avenue. Like Mr. Shults, he keeps no retail shop, but sells his large product, except the stale bread, to hotels, grocers and restaurants. He has been in the business but three or four years, but has built up a trade of about $250,000, requiring 22 wagons and about 30 horses.

Of the other bread-makers, the Jennings Bakery Company, of which Mr. Ephraim J. Jennings, whose portrait graces our pages, is president, probably does as large a business as any, except the National Baking Co. They, like most of those which follow, do a re- tail as well as a wholesale business. The Jennings Bakery Company have eight stores, and employ 30 wagons and 50 men; use, on an average, 120 bar- rels of flour per week, and have an annual out-put of about $190,000.

EPHRAIM J. JENNINGS was born in Brooklyn, August 17th, 1849. His father was Charles Grattan Jennings; his mother was Sarah Ann Dunning, of Rochester, Kent county, Eng- land.

Mr. Jennings' great grandfather, Jeffrey Jennings, was a native of Dublin, Ireland; he married a sister of the cele- brated Sir Henry Grattan, who was also a native of Dublin. One of his paternal ancestors, John Jennings, settled in Dub- lin about the year 1700. He was a man held in high consid- eration and esteem, and when he went to Dublin was given, as was the custom in treating men of distinction, the freedom of the city. It is supposed that he came to America, with other members of the Jennings family, early in the eight- eenth century, and. after remaining a while in this country, he returned to Dublin.

The parents of the subject of this sketch left London and came to America in 1838, settling in Brooklyn. His father was a custom-house broker in London. Meeting with re- verses, he emigrated to America for the purpose of bettering his fortune. Here he became a manufacturer of ladies' shoes. He was a well-educated, high-minded and eminently re- spectable citizen. On his settling in Brooklyn, he became a member of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, having been reared in the faith and teachings of the Church of England. His daily life accorded with his religious principles, and by pre- cept and example he adorned the religion he professed. He was marked for his courtesy and pleasing manners. For fif-

teen years he occupied the position as sexton of St. Mary's Church.

He became a resident of Bethlehem, Pa., in 1868, where, in 1869, he died. When young Jennings was five years old, he attended public school No. 4, Classon avenue. When No. 25, in Walworth street, was opened, he attended there, until No. 4 was reorganized with Mr. E. Spafard as its principal, and he continued to attend here, till he was twelve years of age.

As he was thrown on his own resources for support, when not in school he used to vend the Brooklyn Eagle by way of adding to his income. He appears to have been a close and intelligent student, mastering all the branches taught in the school he attended.

Deciding to engage in some occupation, he entered the of- fice of the Journal of Commerce, then located at the corner of Wall and Water streets, New York city, where he re- mained six months. Leaving there, he began learning the business of printing in the office of D. Nicholson, where he remained about one year, when he accepted an offer from Williams & Guion, 40 Fulton street, New York, prominently connected with the National, Guion & Co. and German steamers. Mr. Jennings remained with this firm four years, gaining the respect and confidence of the partners by his prompt attention to business. When his father removed to Bethlehem, Pa., the young man severed his connection with Messrs. Williams & Guion, and went with the family to re- side in Pennsylvania. He united with his brothers and sis- ters in purchasing a home at Bethlehem for his father. But, upon his father's death, about a year after becoming a resi- dent of Bethlehem, this son returned to Brooklyn.

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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 32

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