USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati illustrated: a pictorial guide to Cincinnati and the suburbs > Part 28
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In regard to the other kinds of biscuits, the manu- facturing operations are on a like complete seale, and the varions ingredients used at Foerster's are all of the purest and choicest character. Oyster, Farina, Cream, Lemon and numerous other kinds are flavored more reputation of this branch of industry.
physicians recommended them. They were adopted as the lightest and most digestible cereal food for the siek in the hospitals. They then became fashionable, and the craeker factories are thus, to a great extent, the pioneers in spreading abroad the knowledge of the capabilities of America as a great exporting country, not merely of grain and flour, but also of the most scientifie preparations, either plain or flavored. The experience acquired by Mr. D. Foerster has enabled him to improve vastly even upon the carly
122
KENNY'S CINCINNATI ILLUSTRATED.
KREBS LITHOGRAPHING COMPANY.
The offices of the Krebs Lithographing Company are in the Carlisle Building, on the corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets. The "Carlisle" is one of the finest buildings of the city, and the Krebs Company occupy two of the large floors of the building. Their establishment is replete with the best lithographing and printing machinery, and their work includes every variety of lithographic and chromo-lithographie productions: Bonds, Checks, Drafts, Diplomas, etc. In fine color printing the firm ranks second to none in America. Their business extends over a territory which includes almost every State in the Union.
Lithography is the art of drawing or engraving upon stone designs, from which impressions can be taken on paper. It is a branch of engraving, and an important one, since it has, to a great extent, super- seded engraving on steel and copper, particularly for maps, plans and commercial purposes. Its compara- tive cheapness-the cost being only one-third that of engraving on metal-commends it to general use; and with the advance in the art, designs are now produced which are very little inferior to the best specimens of wood and steel engraving of the same class.
The process of lithography was invented in about the year 1796, in Munich, by Alois Senefelder, al- though a method of etching on stone had been described by M. Dufay, a member of the French Ac- ademy, as early as 1728. It was not until 1798, how- ever, that Senefelder thought of the availability of the chemical principle which is the foundation of the art of lithography properly so called, namely, the mutual repulsion existing between oily substances and water. The material upon which the drawing is usually made is a light yellow or blue-gray calcareous limestone, the best of which are found in the quarries of So- lenhofer in Bavaria, and excellent specimens are also brought from France, and also from Cape Girar- deau in Missouri.
The stones being quarried in mass, are split or sawn into slabs three or four inches in thickness and of any required size. To prepare them for use they are ground to a perfectly uniform face and polish. If the drawing is to be in crayon, they are grained by rubbing two together, with the intervention of fine sand, the graining being finer or softer, according to the nature of the work to be produced. If the draw- ing is to be in ink, the surface is left polished. The crayons are composed mainly of tallow, wax, hard soap and shellac colored with lampblack; other ingredients are also occasionally added.
The first specimen of lithography executed in the United States, is said to have been published in the Analectic Magazine for July, 1819, and in 1821 the art was regularly purchased, but only by a single house. It was then, however, solely employed for the
production of cheap prints, whereas it is now elevated to a position among the arts.
It is indeed almost impossible to estimate too highly the value of the work done by lithography in popu- larizing art among the people. A lithograph enters thousands of homes, where, in its absence, the cost of steel or copper would necessarily leave the walls bare and unadorned. To the business world its bene- fits have been literally inestimable. They have been adapted with the most wonderful exactitude and speedy execution to the demands of the railway, the steamship, the factory and the counting-house, and nearly nine-tentlis of the illustrations we see placarded in railway waiting rooms, hotels and other places of public resort, are the product of lithography. By its means the manufacturer or the common carrier are enabled, with but little expense, to place before the public such specimens of their work, or views on their route, which would be impossible upon wood or metal.
Chromo-lithography is the art of producing by lithography works in which various colors are printed in a single picture. It is much used in various branches of ornamental work, and has been success- fully employed in the production of pictures which are almost fac-similes of paintings and colored draw- ings. Each different color is printed separately from a stone which contains only the one color. Very fre- quently ten or fifteen stones are employed, and in some very elaborate prints as many as thirty or forty; some colors being printed over others to pro- duce variations of tint and shading. In the first place a drawing is made which contains the general out- lines of the position of the different colors. On the second and third stones the general effect of the drawing is worked in; these are printed in neutral colors, as a pearl gray or faint sepia. Each succeed- ing stone is charged with its own special tint, brown, blue, green or yellow, as the case may be, and the last one contains the sharp, dark touches, whether of shade or outline, which gives character and expression to the whole. Upon the skill with which these colors are arranged depend the value of the whole work.
As an evidence of the superiority of the work exe- cuted by the Krebs Lithographing Company, and its appreciation by those residing in their immediate locality, it may be noted that in the award of the lithographie work required by the Commissioners of the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition for 1879, they awarded the contract to the Krebs Lithographing Company, notwithstanding a competing firm offered their work at full 40 per cent. less than the Krebs Co. bid and obtained, thus affording them the gratifying knowledge that their productions are held in high esteem at home as well as abroad.
The members of the firm are Adolph Krebs and W. D Henderson.
'123
KENNY'S CINCINNATI ILLUSTRATED.
LUNKENHEIMER, F.
The Cincinnati Brass Works, which are so well known throughout the United States, by their trade name, was established in 1862 by Mr. F. Lunken- heimer, who has been altogether about 40 years in this business. In the old times he was foreman in the well-known establishment of Miles Greenwood. After leaving that house he commenced business for him- self, and by extraordinary perseverance, through ability and untiring zeal, he has made a name for himself and his manufactures that have contributed not a little to the credit of Cincinnati. Wherever brass work of the best and most sterling quality is used, then the stamp of the Cincinnati Brass Works is sure to be found upon the articles.
The manufactory is located on Lodge Street, about 150 feet north of the Great Fountain, and was formerly a Hebrew School house, as can still be seen by the quaint tablets imbedded in the walls. It is the best ventilated and most orderly arranged manufactory in Cincinnati, and is really a model of neatness. The goods of the Cincinnati Brass Works take the first rank as to perfection, quality and finish in this country, and BRASS FOUNDRY. Mr. Lunkenheimer was the first manufacturer to im- prove upon the primitive and clumsy brass goods of F.LUNKENHEIMER twenty-five years ago. He BRASS is not only a thorough WORKS ly practical man in his business, but an inventor and designer, and owns no less than twelve valuable patents; he originated and introduced many improve- ments in brass work used on engines and for general | steam purposes. Some of his most valuable in- ventions have been the perfection of oil eups and automatic feeders for steam engines, besides improve- ments in globe valves, safety valves, steam whistles, ete. When Mr. Lunkenheimer first started his busi- ness, seventeen years ago, his idea was to produce only the best goods that could be made, and persevering in that plan he has influenced the whole trade of thic country in his line of business, and made a standard by which the productions of other markets are measured. During the various depressions in busi- ness his manufactory kept on as if nothing unusual oceurred.
.
F.LUNKENHEIMER.
The demand for his goods was steady in the dullest of times, for most buyers recognize that in brass work the best is the cheapest, and no circumstances eould
possibly induce a man in Mr. Lunkenkeimer's posi- tion to lower the quality of his manufactures, hence they are as we before stated, a eredit to Cincinnati. Should we desire to point out specimens of the brass work of this factory, we would call attention to the numerous steam fire engines made by the celebrated Ahrens Steam Fire Engine Company, all of which has for year's been furnished by Mr. Lunkenheimer. The trade of the factory extends to almost every State of the Union, and many articles are exported to Europe. Some idea of the volume of business trans acted may be inferred from the fact that the factory uses up annually more than 125,000 pounds of ingot copper allon, besides nearly 450,000 pounds of other metals .. The illustrated catalogue of the establishment shows that over 300 different articles are made, but the principal goods comprise oil cups and automatic oil feeders, spring loaded safety valves, steam whistles regrinding globe valves, patent gauge cocks and water gauges, besides ar- ticles of general use for brewers, distillers, plumb- ers, gas-fitters, carpenters, etc.
Most of the castings made by Mr. Lunkenheim- er are of bronze and gun metal, commonly called composition or red metal. His brass and composition castings have gained not merely a local reputation, but a celebrity wherever the best metal and the best work are demanded. The diligence and care by which this result has been secured, is apparent both in the extraordinary im- CADAMS CIN, 5. provements made in the composition castings and all other articles turned out by this house, but also in the rapid incrcase of busi- ness which has followed it. Mr. Lunkenheimer has more than kept pace with the progress of the times in metal work, and his factory is one of the great centers of this branch of commerce in the country. Although brass is perhaps the most universally employed, and certainly the most useful of all mixcd metals, enteriug as it docs, in its various applications, iuto so many departments of life, both simply ornamental and strictly serviceable, there is scarcely a purpose to which it can be devoted a model for which can not be found at this extensive factory.
Most of the hands employed at the Cineinnati Brass Works have served their apprenticeship with Mr. Lunkenheimcr. The machinery employed to help them is of the newest description.
124
KENNY'S CINCINNATI ILLUSTRATED.
MIAMI OIL AND SOAP WORKS.
These extensive works for the manufacture of oils and soaps were established in 1853, or over a quarter of a century ago. In older countries an establisli- ment only twenty-six years of age would not be re- garded as very venerable; but in a new country and a new city like Cincinnati, which is only three times as old as the Miami Works, the latter are looked upon as quite aged, quite successful, and firmly established. The Works are well known throughout the United States and in Europe. They occupy alto- gether a frontage of over three hundred and fifty feet on Eggleston avenue, Fifth and Culvert streets; and . a depth of two hundred and four feet. The buildings are generally five stories in height, two of the stories being under ground. The entire floor area of all the floors is seventy-eight thousand square feet. The establishment has four steam elevators for hoisting and lowering goods, and one hand elevator.
which remains after the pressing is called stearine, and is used principally by the refiners of lard, for hardening the same. None stands higher than, " Gest's Prime Stearine"-named after Jos. J. Gest the proprietor of the Works. Among eastern refiners of lard, the brand named is much sought for on account of its general excellence. "Gest's" Primc Lard Oil is not only well known throughout the United States, but has considerable of a reputation in the principal European markets. It is known as of the finest quality, and is made exclusively of what is known as " Contract Lard." Besides Prime Lard Oil, the Works turn out large quantities of lower grades, known as numbers one and two lard oils; also, tallow oils. These are used extensively by woolen mills east, one mill alone consuming as much as one hundred barrels per month.
Among the products of the factory are Miners' Lamp Oils, Signal Lamp Oils, and Machinery Oils in
MIAMI SOAPWORKS
MIAMI OIL WORKS
JOS. J. GEST
SAVANNA
CHARLESTON MEMPHIS.
PORTLAND, ME
OMAHA
BOSTON
NEW ! vlonr.
MIAMI OIL AND SOAP WORKS.
There are one hundred and thirty one lard oil [ general, besides Cylinder Oils and Car and Journal presses in the factory; to charge them the immense Greases, all of high standard. quantity of 160,000 pounds of lard or greases are In the soap department every possible convenience that science or money can furnish to facilitate work can be found. The machinery and apparatus is all of the newest pattern for making soaps of all grades: for toilet, bath, laundry, and general household pur- poses. Gest's White Soap is known as one of the best standard soaps in this country, being of the very highest class, and retaining its color and shape in any climate; also, the Castile Soaps of the Works are renowned for their purity. The "Premier" brand is the most noted, and for bath or kindred purposes stands unrivaled as a pure, valuable soap. required. Their producing capacity is about 27,000 brls. of oil and 27,000 brls. of stearine per annum. The presses are in the lower cellars, below ground -- one press room being actually under the ice house; this room is used for making cold-pressed oil in summer. The operations are quite interesting: the stock for pressing is steamed out into four large tanks holding forty thousand pounds each, where it is washed with steam and allowed to settle; after which it is drawn off into smaller tanks, on the floor below, when it is allowed to cool off slowly, so as to grain well for pressing, this takes some two weeks if properly pre- Orders are daily being filled from Europe for lard, tallow and soap stocks, the prices furnished being those at which goods are delivered at European ports. pared; after which it goes to the presses where the oil is pressed out in canvass cloths or bags; that
ICE HOUSE
SAN FRANCISCO
125
KENNY'S CINCINNATI ILLUSTRATED.
MOWRY CAR AND WHEEL WORKS.
The Mowry Car and Wheel Works are situated at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Lewis Street, upon the banks of the Ohio River, about a mile above the Little Miami Railroad Depot. The grounds cover about five acres, and have on them all the various buildings required, such as foundries, forges and finishing and pattern shops, and there are large yards for coal, iron and other raw materials, as well as space for stowing away the car wheels and other articles when made. No establishment of the size of this could be able to carry on its business withont complete appliances. They manufacture car wheels, chilled tire wheels and axles, bridge castings, engine and car castings, and in fact everything that might be required connected with the rolling stock of railways, except locomotives and passenger ears.
Few persons have any idea of the care required for the manufacture of good car wheels. The wheel of an ordinary wagon, when it strikes a stone, is enabled to stand the shock, because the vehicle is only going at the rate of two miles an hour, and the wagon and load together do not probably weigh more than a ton. But a freight car going at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, weigh- ing with its load fifteen tons, strikes a blow more than a hundred times harder, or suf- ficient, if the force is all utilized, to send a can- non ball weighing five hundred pounds, the distance of six miles. It is true that the full weight of the car is not driven against any one object, except in collisions, but there are a thousand little inequal- ities on the track, which give a blow to the wheel when revolving, and from which it soon suffers.
For this reason the best founders, such as the Mowry Car and Wheel Co. make the wheels from the best cold-blast charcoal iron, as being the toughest and strongest material known. Ohio is fortunate in having in the Hanging Rock region, just such iron as is needed for this. After the wheels are cast, and while they are yet at a white heat, they are surrounded with charcoal and slowly allowed to cool, thus anneal- ing them and introducing the carbon, which has been expelled by the process of melting.
Wheels are made of double and single plate, and with or without independent hubs, and of all sizes. The works are also prepared to furnish chilled tires.
The inventive mind of Mr. A. L. Mowry has enabled him to discover how to make an improved car-coupling, which shall be easy and certain in its operation, and shall relieve the brakeman from the great danger to which he is exposed by many other kinds.
THE MOWRY CAR AND WHEEL WORKS.
The Mowry Car Works turn out every year an im- mense number of freight cars. The establishment for building the cars is entirely different from the wheel works described and located further up the river, and are furnished with all of the machinery and appliances required in such an establishment. They also make a specialty of street cars. Many of the most important street lines of Cincinnati, and all of the cars of the Incline Planes, which were required to be of the most substantial character, and adjusted with the most perfect accuracy, were made by the company. The Emperor Dom Pedro, of Brazil, when he visited the works, was so pleased with the great facilities and work he examined, lie ordered a car to be made, which he now nses to bring him from his palace, near Rio de Janerio, to the city daily. The cars of the Mowry Car and Wheel Works are of the newest and most approved patterns. In connection with them they also manufacture turn-tables, to be used at the terminus of lines.
The manufacture of car wheels for railroads is one of the most important industries connected with rail- road equipment. Cincinnati boasts of one establish- ment only, tlc exten- sive and well-known Mowry Car and Wheel Works, and they have earned fame that GAR WHEEL WARKS is known where rail- roads are in existence throughout the land. Car wheels were at first made like ordinary spoke wheels, and were guided by flanges on the rails, as on the Sheffield Colliery Railroad in 1767, where the rails were of cast iron. In 1789 car wheels were made with flanges to run on an edge rail. Car wheels with cast iron hubs and rims and wrought iron spokes were patented by Stevenson, in 1816. The car wheel in most general use at present is the chilled iron wheel, made of differ- ent patterns, but in all cases cast into a cold cast-iron mould, which chills the surface of the rim. The usual mileage of the Mowry wheels is about 90,000 miles. This company has supplied during the 28 years it has been in operation, almost all of the im- portant lines of railroads in the country with wheels, and its business to-day is greater than ever before.
The works were founded in 1851, and have conse- quently been in existence twenty-eight years, each year with gradually increasing facilities. The officers of the company are A. L. Mowry, Esq., president and superintendent, and L. A. Green, Esq., assistant superintendent and general manager. The prin- cipal offices are at the works, but a branch office is located at No. 27} West Third street, from which a telephone connects with the works.
126
KENNY'S CINCINNATI ILLUSTRATED.
MUDGE, H. B.
The extensive furniture manufactory of H. B. Mudge is located at Nos. 91, 93, 95, 97 and 99 West Second Street, and occupies a frontage of one hundred feet. It has a depth of two hundred feet, and it is six stories in height. The manufactory is one of the most complete in the city, being provided with the newest machinery and every facility for doing busi- ness on a large scale. The business was established in the year 1837, or forty-two years ago. Its name and good reputation for the manufacture of all descriptions of fine, medium and common furniture is known in every State in the Union, to all of which its trade extends, with the exception of the New England States. The articles made include all the different varieties of bedsteads, tables, burcaus, wash- stands, wardrobes, chamber suites, and in fact every- thing required in the entire furniture line for every department of the household. Only the best seasoned lumber is used in the establish- ment, and every article sent out is well and sub- stantially made, and up to the best standard of its class. The amount of machinery used in every part of the build- WARE ROOMS ing is very extensive, and comprises all of the new labor saving de- OH.B.MUDGE & vices of the most ap- proved pattern. The manufacture of furni- ture on a large scale, involves a heavy outlay of capital, the lumber of which it is made having to be selected H. B. MUDGE. sometimes many months and even years in advance of the time of its actual consumption. It is then stored in piles and left to become dry and seasoned. The different kinds of boards are piled in separate heaps, and are thoroughly inspected before being sent to the factory to be made up. It is conceded that machinery does better work than the best trained hands; it is unerring in its precision, and does not, like mortals, get tired or refractory, but the greatest experience is required to overlook its operations and regulate its movements. At Mr. Mudge's manufac- tory the work is so divided that each portion is con- ducted in a separate department, and these are presided over by men of many years' experience, so that when the different parts of the articles are brought together, they are always found to fit with the maintained.
most scrupulous accuracy, hence the pieces when joined become like one mass and are solid. Bad fitting joints, etc., is what in most cases constitute poor furniture, which under wear, soon falls apart and is worthless. At Mr. Mudge's factory such furniture would not be shipped, as every article before ship- ment is thoroughly examined and tested. Hence the fame and reputation of this establishment is second to none in the United States, and wherever the furni- ture made here is sent to it stands upon its own merits, as solid, substantial work is a credit alike to Mr. Mudge as it is to the honest, painstaking and conscientious manufacturer of Cincinnati, who have during the past fifty years given this city such a good name abroad for its products in our great manu- factories.
A specialty of the factory is what is known as "knock down" furniture this is intended for ship- ment to California, Tex- as and other remote markets. Furniture made "knock down" occupies but one-half the compass of ordinary " set up" goods, and is transported at one-half the freight charges on furniture as ordinarily made.
The prices of furni. ture at this factory have been greatly re- duced during the past few years, but notwith- standing this the qual- ity is always kept up to the regular standard. There is probably 110 furniture factory in Cincinnati whose trade that of Mr. Mudge.
has been so steady as There seem to be no variation, but year after year the demand increases just sufficiently to keep the factory all of the time thoroughly occupied in every depart- ment. No sooner is a fair stock of goods made up, than they are shipped off, sometimes to the very remotest parts of the country. The traveling sales- men often send in large orders that have to be filled sometimes in a comparatively short period, but the factory, owing to its great resources, is always able, by a little extra exertion, to fill all orders, no matter how large they may be, or how numerously they may arrive, but in all and every case the greatest care is taken that the old established reputation for good first class work, and superior workmanship be strictly
KENNY'S CINCINNATI ILLUSTRATED.
127
MeGOWAN, JOHN H., & CO.
John H. McGowan & Co. are located at Nos. 134 and 136 West Second Street. They are engaged in the manufacture and sale of Hydraulic Machinery, ineluding hand, power and steam pumps in great variety and for all purposes, and all kinds of ma- chinery for manufacturing plug tobaeco
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