USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati in 1841 : its early annals and future prospects > Part 18
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discern at once, that this single element of wealth is sufficient alone to account for the prosperity of Cincinnati. And lastly, let him contemplate the range and extent of the facilities in our city for the pursuit of knowledge, either in existence or in progress, from the district school to the medical or law col- lege and theological seminary, and include the systematic and thorough courses of lectures on art and science, which occupy. the evenings of the week ; and thus observe the preparation - making here to constitute Cincinnati the great fountain of knowledge to the whole west ;- that west which, in a few years, will give tone and laws to our great republic, and he will say, " These people are building for ages to come, not less than for themselves ; I rejoice in their prosperity, for they are the trustees of the future destinies of our great republic."
I have, for the sake of illustrating my subject, supposed the case of a visitor extending his survey over our city, and form- ing such judgment upon it, as it would merit at the hands of of an intelligent observer. But a mere visit would afford neither sufficient knowledge of our localities, nor access to our factories, nor time to examine what might be seen. To supply this deficiency, as far as I am capable, is the object of these sketches.
Manufactures.
Few, even of our own citizens, are aware of the extent and- importance of the manufacturing interest in Cincinnati. Its operations have grown up so silently and gradually, extend- ing, in the course of twenty years, the workshop of the me- chanic with his two or three apprentices, to a factory with from thirty to fifty hands ; and adding constantly, without par- ade, some new branch of industry to those already existing, that we do not appreciate or notice their progress.
It is not within my power, if I possessed the ability-re- stricted to the narrow limits of my remaining pages -. to do justice to this industrial department, decidedly our heaviest interest, in a pecuniary and political sense, and inferior to few others, in a moral one. I propose merely to supply a few
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specimens of the progress of the mechanic arts, and exhibit some views, perhaps new to the community, of their magni- tude and value. These are derived, I need hardly repeat, from personal observation.
If our own community, as I suppose it to be, is ignorant, in a great measure, of our manufacturing resources and ener- gies, it will be naturally expected that a stranger-the mere visiter-should undervalue their importance. Take the case of the traveler, who, setting out from Philadelphia or New York, crosses the Alleghenies for the first time, and observe the different impressions made on his mind, on this subject, at different places. He approaches Pittsburg. A dense cloud of darkness and smoke, visible for some distance before he reaches it, hides the city from his eyes until he is in its midst; and yet, perhaps half this volume is furnished by household fires, coal being the only fuel of the place. . As he enters the manufacturing region, the hissing of steam, the clanking of chains, the jarring and grinding of wheels and other machine- ry, and the glow of melted glass and iron, and burning coal beneath, burst upon his eyes and ears in concentrated force .. If he visits the warehouses, he finds glass, cotton yarns, iron, nails, castings, and machinery, occupying a prominent place. He discovers the whole city under the influence of steam and smoke. The surface of the houses and streets are so disco- lored as to defy the cleansing power of water, and the dwel- lings are preserved in any degree of neatness, only by the un- remitting labors of their tenants, in morning and evening ablu- tions. The very soot partakes of the bituminous character of the coal, and falling-color excepted-like snow-flakes, fast- ens on the face and neck, with a tenacity which nothing but the united agency of soap, hot water, and the towel can over- . come. Coal and the steam-engine are the pervading influence of the place, and over the whole city the seal and impress is- " Great is Vulcan of the Pittsburgers."
I say not this in disparagement of the place, or its inhabit- ants. It is, in industry, a perfect hive-and without drones.
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Even Cincinnati, in this respect, is not more remarkable. It is a region of profound and extensive moral and religious in- fluence. I speak but of what every visiter knows to be true, and what the citizens of the place regret, as the tax they must pay for the prosperity and importance of their city, and I refer~ to these things merely to show their effect in biasing the judg- ment of the traveler in his estimate of the magnitude of its manufacturing interest-predominant over every thing else there- as it appears to his eye.
How different is all this from Cincinnati. Our manufac- turing establishments, with the exception of a few, requiring in their nature to be carried on conveniently to the river, and which, therefore, must be driven by steam, are either set in motion by the water of the canal, or are, in the literal sense, manufactures-works of the hand. These last embrace the principal share of the productive industry of our mechanics, and are carried on in the upper stories, or in the rear shops of the warerooms, in which they are exposed for sale, in a variety and to an extent which can only be realised from a visit to the interior of those establishments. All these are, therefore, to a great extent, out of sight.
Let the same traveler, then, after forming his estimate of Pittsburg, visit Cincinnati also, and explore our streets ; and unless he has been taken through the factories to which I re- fer, he must inevitably come to the conclusion that our manu- facturing operations are, in importance, far inferior to those of Pittsburg.
I am aware that the advantages and facilities of Pittsburg, for manufacturing, are very great. Its position-at the head of the navigation of the Ohio river, and the, terminating point westward of the great Pennsylvania canal, the Allegheny and . Monongahela rivers furnishing cheap transportation to many valuable raw materials, coal in beds nearly inexhaustible, and almost within the corporate limits of the city- is certainly ad- vantageous. But most of these circumstances contribute rather to its commerce and carrying trade than to its manufacturing
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interest, and are outweighed, as advantages, by the greater contiguity and facility of access of Cincinnati to the great markets of the west and south-west, and the superior fertility of the soil in these regions ; the increased production and con- sequent cheapness of the means of subsistence, here, lessen- ing, in the same proportion, the cost of manufacture. Inde- pendently of foreign demand, we have an extensive domestic market, stretching from the Muskingum to the Wabash, and from the Ohio to the lakes, whose population-continually in- creasing-even now forms the largest share of our customers.
I have no means of ascertaining the annual value of the manufactures of that city, or of furnishing a comparative table of the manufactures of the two places, for articles are made here, to a great extent, which are not made in Pittsburg at all, and there, which are not made at Cincinnati. There is, however, before me a table, published lately, and which ap- pears to be prepared from the returns made under the late na- tional census, which supplies the following articles :
Manufacture of iron, nails, and castings 6,877,880
Glass, wool, cotton, leather, hats, &c. 1,876,528
Drugs, paints, liquors, cordage, steamboats, &c. 486,585 Furniture, hardware, machinery, ploughs, &c. 1,147,850 Mineral coal . 465,542
Total 10,874,385 Any one may compare this table with the details and aggre- gate of our manufacturing industry, here given, (pages 54 to 58,) and form his own conclusions. It is but just to add, that a highly intelligent merchant of Pittsburg, to whom I submitted my statistics, suggested the opinion, that many items were defi- cient in the Pittsburg returns; the deputy marshal being, in a great measure, a stranger to the citizens, and from his regular. employment-the medical profession-a stranger also to their manufacturing business ; and added, that, from these causes, he - had not enjoyed the advantages which were within my reach, as a long-resident here, and fully known to the whole community.
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Whatever allowance may be made on this, or any other score, there is one fact which appears to me conclusive on this point, to wit: that the number of persons engaged in me- chanical and manufacturing employments with us, is in pro- portion to those of corresponding pursuits at Pittsburg, fully. .as two to one.
As I said before, I have no disposition to undervalue the importance of Pittsburg. Its statistics of eleven millions of manufactured products, is creditable to the industry and the resources of that place; and a city which can furnish, at this period of its existence, such an exhibit, must always be a point of the highest manufacturing consequence.
I do not propose to present the public with all, or even a great part, of what I deem interesting and important, on the' subject of manufactures. I saw much which was new to me, and, doubtless, would have that appearance to others, in every section of the city, in this department of business. I greatly · desire to spread it all before the public, for, if I do not much mistake, there is nearly the same unconsciousness of the mighty energies of this element of our prosperity, in this ci- ty, as outside its boundaries. But the limits I have prescribed to myself, forbid this at present. If I shall succeed in awak- ening public attention, by the impressive statistics furnished in the first department of this work, and the sketches I pro- pose now to give, of some of the operations and products of our factories, I may hereafter furnish a systematic view, not merely of the statistics, but of the details of our manufactures and industrial products. The table I have alluded to will sup- ply abundant food for thought, but there is much to be seen and heard in a visit to our factories, which figures cannot express.
I take my examples promiscuously, and the description of manufactures adduced, is selected rather because we are not so familiar with it, than that it is of more importance than some others which are left out.
Let me begin, then, with the bell and brass founderies, of
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which we have eight. For the sake of distinctness, and by way of illustration, I will take a single item of their various business-that of bells.
There is no better proof of the excellence of this article, than that Cincinnati supplies the whole valley of the Ohio and Mississipi, with bells of all sizes, and of every use. Or- ders are constantly in fulfilment here, that are received from every point at the west, as far as Detroit to the north, and Pennsylvania, beyond Pittsburg, to the east; and the reason why we are able to send bells to the very doors, as it were, of our rivals-Pittsburg, for example-is, that it is seen and felt there, that we make a better article. The superiority of the Cincinnati manufacture, consists in four particulars.
1. The bells cast here are finished : that is to say, they are mounted on a stand or frame, ready for setting up. Of course all the iron work connected with the bells is completed before they are sent off.
2. No other western bells are so accurately proportioned in their ingredients. This attribute is tested in the use of the bell, which, if defective in this respect, soon splits.
3. To every large bell made here, there are springs, by the action of which, the tongue cannot touch the bell until it re- ceives a full and distinct stroke on the upper side. This ob- viates all that irregular motion and sound, which is the result of the ordinary construction of bells. 'The credit of this in- vention, alike ingenious and simple, belongs to one of our Cincinnati mechanics.
4. The hanging or mounting of our bells, is also peculiar to Cincinnati. Those made in our eastern cities are designed to be hung upon a huge, straight piece of timber, as a shaft, which moves with every stroke of the bell. Not only do our mechanics dispense with such cumbrous machinery, by the use of iron, but, by accommodating the shape of the yoke to that of the bell, the journals are brought so far down, that bells can be hung on this principle, without exacting that weight and thickness of masonry in cupolas or belfries, which,
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on the old plan, has been a source of expense, insecurity and disadvantage, on other accounts, for years past.
The last two features of our superiority, refer to the sound of the bells and the safety of the steeple; the first two, to guarding the bell from the danger of cracking, common to all other bells. When eastern bells, which in some respects are as good as ours, are sent out they are never ironed, and the consequence is, that the iron work being made at its place of destination and there connected with the bell, there is constant danger of fracture from various causes, some of which are in- dependent of the skill and care of the mechanic who furnishes the iron.
Besides the additional cost of transportation, the constant exposure to accident, which every additional transhipment or change of conveyance increases, renders it a disadvantage to import bells from the Atlantic cities. Until the business was brought here to the perfection in which it now exists, constant and vexatious inconvenience, delay, and expense was felt in the west from this source. Of the work done in this line and put up in this city at one of the founderies, besides a great variety in size and object of others, was the bell to the Third Presbyterian church, weighing fourteen hundred pounds. Its proprietor has also made and sent off within the last eighteen months, one of fifteen hundred pounds for one of the churches at Lexington, Kentucky, and one to Brownsville, beyond Pitts- ·burgh, Pennsylvania, of five hundred pounds ; besides a num- ber varying from three hundred to one thousand pounds to va- rious sections of the west. He is now finishing one for Madi- son, Indiana, which will weigh upwards of fifteen hundred pounds. This establishment turned out work in this line du- ring the last year to the value of thirteen thousand dollars.
It may be added here-by way of specimen of the annoy- ances and inconveniences which the west has had, until of late years, to sustain in supplying itself with this article-that I saw lying in this establishment a very large bell from Boston, which had been sent out to replace one that cracked a few
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weeks after it was set up, and which shared the fate of its pre- decessor in about the same space of time, and was then dis- posed of as old metal at this foundery, in part payment for one ordered there. This they felt they might purchase, with some degree of confidence that it would stand, when they ascertain- ed that out of hundreds made in this establishment, during the last five years, not one has ever given way.
Two years since, the proprietor of this foundery finding the supply of old copper and brass inadequate to his wants, im- ported from Liverpool a supply of about ten thousand pounds of pig-copper, by way of experiment. On trial, however, this article was found to retain a foreign ingredient which rendered it unfit for service, until that alloy could be separated from the mass. This operation being out the regular line of business, the owner of the establishment was, for a time, fruitlessly em- ployed in efforts to refine it, and exposed to some degree of ridicule and threatened loss. The skill and science of our pro- fessor of chemistry in the Medical College of Ohio extricated him, however, from the difficulty; the foreign substance was discharged, a fine body of pure metal run off, and more than a thousand dollars profit resulted from the adventure. I cite this as a proof of the value of men of science, too often, in communities, considered mere theorists.
One fact more. I have lying on the table before me a let- ter from George Evans, as agent of the Pittsburg steam en. gine company, dated Pittsburg, 1815, in reply to one from this city ordering a bell, in which he says, it will be cast and forwarded without unnecessary delay ; but that at the time he writes, " there is not brass enough in the place to make it." I have seen the bell, which may reach in weight three hundred pounds ; it is the same which calls our citizens to meetings in the college edifice. The whole community here will agree with me, that it is incomparably the meanest bell in the place, and but for the various changes and embarrassments of that institution, would have long since been laid aside.
I have said nothing of the beauty and melody of the article
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made here, although in bells, as in belles, these have their full influence. There can be no doubt that we should not have been able to supercede the eastern manufacture, if those made in Cincinnati had not equaled them in finish, in power, and in sweetness of tone.
I suppose it will surprise our friends in the Atlantic cities, to learn that we have not merely a factory for making philosoph- ical and mathematical instruments, but four establishments of the kind. To show them what we can contribute to the ad- vancement of science, I annex a list of instruments made of the best materials, which can be furnished at the shortest no- tice, separately or in sets, for the use of professional men and scientific associations :-
Mechanics .- A complete set of mechanical powers, well finished.
Pneumatics, Hydrostatics, and Hydraulics combined .- A very superior double cylinder air pump, for exhausting and condensing, with a large receiver ; air chamber with revolving jet, cup and parchment, vanes, fountain in vacuo, bell in vacuó, hand glass, hemispherical cups, syphon, lifting pump, forcing pump, hydrostatic bellows, hydrometer, equilibrium article.
Optics .- A set of beautiful models of the human eye, in three parts-Prism, concave and convex mirrors.
Acoustics .- A set of models of the ear.
Astronomy .- Orrery, tellurian or seasons machine, tide dial and twelve inch globes, in pairs.
Electricity .- A large and beautiful machine, leyden jar, chains, jointed discharger, battery, insulating stool, plates for dancing images, electrical saw-mill, chime of bells, thunder house, electrical sportsman and birds, miser plate, electrical tellurian, and spiral tube.
Galvanism .- A galvanic battery of one hundred pairs.
Magnetism .- Horseshoe magnets, in pairs, large.
Chemistry .- Pneumatic cistern made of zinc, compoun 1 blow-pipe, single blow-pipe, lamp and retort stands, iron re- torts, glass retorts, glass receivers, mattresses, bell glasses,
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evaporating dishes, alembic, dropping tube, florence flasks, set of crucibles, table furnace, pyrometer, gas bag, gas conduct- or, gas pistol, set of tin reflectors on stands, small cannon, hydrogen apparatus, spirit lamp, thermometer, bottles, ground stoppers, test tubes.
I will now turn to our iron founderies. This, it is well known, is a very heavy interest, and, with the finishing shops connected therewith, has kept pace with that general superi- ority which marks the manufactures of the place. I have on- ly room and time, at present, to speak of one branch of this business, which is selected only because its later establishment renders it less familiar to the community. The proprietors of a foundery to which I now refer, had been largely engaged in business, as dealers in stoves and light castings, particular- ly that small ware which is connected with cooking-stoves. At this period they were manufacturers of the tin and copper equipments of the stoves only, together with the necessary pipe. In the spring of 1837, one of the partners, on a visit east to make his regular purchases, had his attention directed to the great superiority of the light and smooth stoves, hollow ware and small castings of the New York market, over the heavy and rough corresponding articles made in the west. On enquiry, he found the difference ascribed to the raw mate- rial, which, in the eastern founderies, was Scotch pig-iron of the best kind, mixed with American, in about equal propor- tions. The manufacturers in New York asserted confidently that the American metal alone could not make fine castings, being of bad color, rough and brittle. They had tried it tho- roughly, and were convinced it would never do for light, smooth and delicate articles. He bought some eight to ten tons of this ware, to introduce it into this market, in the ex- pectation that it would act as a stimulus to those engaged in the manufacture of this kind of ware. A sensible improve- ment was effected, but not to a degree which satisfied the owners of this concern, who, finding they could not procure here exactly the article they wanted, nor depend with certain-
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ty on supplies from the east, decided to go into the manufac- ture of this particular kind of ware. They accordingly en- gaged in New York, as manager for their projected establish- ment, an individual of tried ability and experience, and by means of his energy and perseverance, and the services of eastern moulders accustomed to this kind of work, the enter- prise has been crowned with complete success.
Their first lot of hollow ware and stoves was made from the necessary supply of the Scotch iron ; but having, by way of experiment, and under the impression it would answer ev ery purpose, resorted to the finer qualities of the pig-iron made, under what is termed the hot blast process, in Lawrence county, Ohio, they have had the satisfaction of turning out, and continue to make, an article equal in smoothness to the eastern castings, of the same silver-gray color, but of greater strength and of a malleability which has no equal in any castings made elsewhere. The proprietors of this establishment are persua- ded, that the pig-iron of the Scioto region-Lawrence county, especially,-made by the hot blast, is unrivalled in its adapta- tion to this particular purpose, and they suppose that the total failure with American pig-iron, eastward, arises from the em- ployment of anthracite, the only description of coal within their reach, while here, coke made from bituminous coal, is resorted to, alone.
An eastern man, walking with a friend by the door of this warehouse, where these stoves, &c. are kept, called his atten- tion to the beauty of some hollow ware he saw exposed for sale. "I declare," said he, " they are as handsome as ours, if they could only make them as light." One of the proprie- tors, having overheard him, went out, and observed, " if you will step this way, sir, to our scales, I will satisfy you on that point." He then weighed the piece, which proved to be nine pounds ; and taking one of the same article, which he had of eastern manufacture, it was found on trial to weigh twelve pounds, being a difference in favor of the Cincinnati product, of one-third.
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On another occasion, to convince a person who doubted the toughness of the article made here, a piece of hollow ware was exposed to the blow of a hammer with such force, as to make a considerable dint in the side, but inflicting no fracture.
In the course of the ensuing season, the lighter castings kept in hardware stores-butt and parliament hinges, for ex- ample-will be made here to an extent, of a quality, and at a price, to supercede the imported article. Tinners' tools, a very important item of manufactures, are also about to be ex- tensively supplied here for market.
At the very threshold of my statistical enquiries and obser- vations, I was met by the assertion of an intelligent mechanic, a saddler, that in most articles made in Cincinnati, and in ev- ery thing manufactured in his line of business, better work and materials were turned out, than could be got, generally speaking, at other places. I was startled at the assumption thus made. It would be sufficient, was my remark, for you to assert an equality with the eastern manufacturers, it seems to me, without claiming to make a better article. He insisted on his point, and explained himself thus :- In the first place, the whole mechanic interest, here, has long since discovered, that if they meant to supply this market with what formerly came from the eastern cities, it would not do simply to make as good work; for the weight of prejudice and fashion was against them, and unless they could shew an article which was manifestly of better materials, more neatly, or more strongly put together, and finished in a higher degree, they felt it was impossible for them to overcome the force of the current. We then made it a settled principle, at all hazards and sacrifices, to drive out the eastern article. We knew that we had as good or better materials, that the right kind of workmen could be got, and so long as we met our expenses, we must, for so desirable and necessary an object, wait for our profits until we could carry our point. The best of workmen were, accord- ingly, engaged, and brought out at high wages, and every ef- fort made to instruct our apprentices, on the latest and most
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