USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Sketches and statistics of Cincinnati in 1851 > Part 17
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NILES I & CO
MILES & CO. * *
Ünkens Lithography Cincinnati. 0
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ones, or those previously worked by horse power. Of these engines and mills, the founderies of Cincinnati have furnished two hundred and eighty-one; Pittsburgh, thirty-seven ; Richmond, seven ; Bal- timore, four ; Louisville, three; New Orleans, ten ; Algiers, La., two; Gretna, La., six; and the Novelty works, New York, five.
It will be seen by this statement, that Cincinnati has built four- fifths of these engines; and so great as well as rapid, has been the absorption of that business to this point, that probably, in two or three years, not a sugar-mill and steam-engine will be built for Louisiana, Texas, and Cuba, but at Cincinnati. This is owing, not only to the superior quality of work and materials here, but to the fact, that we can deliver these articles at New Orleans, at a price 10 per cent. less than they are made in the eastern cities. As an index of the future, all the sugar-mills, etc., of 1851, for the coast, as it is called, and the Cuban market, with the exception of six at New York, have been contracted for at Cincinnati. Niles & Co., will have built by the 1st July, ensuing, which is the close of the business year in this line, seventy sugar-mills and steam-engines, of the value of two hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Their other operations, including repairing, increase this amount to four hundred and ten thousand dollars. They employ two hundred hands ; value of raw material, 25 per cent.
The view in these pages, of this foundery, exhibits distinctly and faithfully, its external appearance.
Tunnicliff & Co., east Front, near Butler street, manufacture stoves of every variety, and for every purpose, and to a great ex- tent. They also make grates, hollow-ware, wagon-boxes, charcoal furnaces, sad-irons, stove fronts, sash weights, water gutters and shoots ; and, to order, every other description of castings. Employ sixty hands, and manufacture to the value of ninety thousand dollars.
J. H. Burrows & Co. Foundery, Second, west of Elm street, manufacture steam-engines and various descriptions of castings, to the value of thirty thousand dollars. Their principal manufacture, however, is of portable mills, intended for the south and south-west, and especially for sections of country, where water-power is scarce. This is an invention of Mr. Burrows, senior of the concern, and is every year extending its popularity ; the firm having made four hundred of these mills, worth sixty thousand dollars, during the past year. This mill merits a special description, as it is an invention,
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equally simple and ingenious. It proposes to perform in a small compass, with less expense, greater safety and equal efficiency, the work of a merchant mill. If it does not accomplish all this, it is nevertheless, a remarkable improvement.
The mill is a square frame with four stout pillars, on which the mill-stones, which are of burr blocks, cemented as usual, rest. The whole apparatus forming a cube of about four feet. The upper mill-stone is inclosed in a cast iron case of suitable weight, which supersedes the usual iron bands, and gives all the power in an equable and steady motion, which is derived in the larger class of mill-stones by extra thickness or height; thus rendering them top- heavy, and producing an inequality of pressure and motion, which is obviated here.
The mill-stones are two to two and a-half inches diameter. Owing to the casing referred to, there is at once the proper degree of pres- sure, and at the same time, elasticity, which furnishes the perfec- tion of grinding; avoiding, on the one hand, the irregular motion of a top-heavy upper stone, and on the other, the evil of friction and want of spring, which results from the old-fashioned plan, in port- able mills, of fastening down the upper mill-stone by screws, to say nothing of the greater liability of getting out of order. These mill- stones can be run with greater velocity, compatibly with safety, than the large ones, the two feet making two hundred and forty, and the two and a-half feet, two hundred revolutions per minute.
The power necessary to drive one of these mills, is not more than that of three horses, or the equivalent water or steam power; with these they will grind fourteen to sixteen bushels per hour, which is as good a performance as a merchant mill; the quality of the flour being superfine, and passing inspection as such, in our markets.
These mills are driven according to the necessity or convenience of the case, and to equal advantage, by either horse, water, or steam power. This is of importance, because the great mass of these mills, go to the west and south-west.
How capricious are all measures of value. In 1790, when the early pioneers ground all their corn by hand, and were obliged to dispense with the luxury of wheat, from inability to reduce it to flour, one of these portable mills would, even at its present low price, have bought all Cincinnati, from the canal, north, and Syca- more street, west.
Two facts, both of which are striking and unimpeachable, attest
车上
Miles Green
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the quality of flour made in these mills. The " Chapultepec mills" flour, sold by Sprigman & Camp, has no superior, and for family use, few brands equal it in this market. It is all made upon one of these portable mills. Another remarkable incident, is, that the family flour made by C. S. Bradbury, of this city, which carried off the premium for the best barrel of flour, at the recent Ohio State agricultural fair, was also ground upon one of these mills. It car- ried the prize from a number of competitors, whose flour brands have always stood among the highest in the Miami valley.
Miles Greenwood, Walnut, from Canal to Twelfth street ; at this- in addition to the heavy machine and other castings, common to all founderies-are made a great variety of small castings, especially those adapted to the house building business. Of these, many articles are new inventions, superseding, by their convenience and adaptedness to the object, the awkward and imperfect contrivances of the past, and others are improvements which convert the flimsy and rough articles of twenty years ago, into neat, exact, and ser- viceable substitutes.
Here are made, among other things, which within the lifetime of the present generation, could only be had from England, or until the last five years in the eastern factories, pendant pullies, shutter lifts, shutter screw bolts and fastenings, steamboat shutter catches, sash weights, and side and screw pullies, shutter sliding bolts and turn buckles, butt and parliament hinges, stubbs and plates, spit- toons, tea-kettles, and sad-irons.
No judges of builders' hardware can examine these articles with- out being forcibly impressed with the superiority, not only over the foreign hardware of 1825, but even over most of the manufactured articles at this time at the east. It is in the department of hinges, however, that most important article of builders' use, that the su- periority of those made in Cincinnati, is distinctly manifest. The English hinges are unequal in thickness, imperfectly jointed, and too light for service, and are, therefore, apt to give way when ex- posed to sudden jars or strains. M. Greenwood's hinges, on the contrary, are made substantial, and cast as evenly as if made by machinery.
Nearly every article referred to here, is in some respect or other of superior excellence to those imported from Europe. The tea- kettle lids, and the sad-iron handles, are very neat and appropriate. So with the counter weights, which are finished in superior style,
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and every weight in the set graduated to the city standard before it leaves the foundery.
The whole west, is now supplied from this city with the various hardware for building and our own consumption, no limited supply, in a city which constructs one thousand five hundred houses annu- ally within its limits and immediate suburbs, is furnished entirely by this establishment.
Nearly all the hinges sold in our hardware stores, are of Cincin- nati manufacture, and the few that are brought from abroad are sold to country customers only.
The annual sales of hinges alone, at this establishment, are stated, to be about fifteen thousand dollars, and the show of neatly papered and labeled goods in the warerooms, is worth a visit from all who desire to see our country in fact, as well as in name, inde- pendent.
Let us add one fact. In 1808, only forty years since, as clerk to a hardware house in Philadelphia, the writer of this article, filled the spring order in that line, of the principal business house in Cin- cinnati, doing at that time, at least one-fourth of the hardware busi- ness here. On that occasion, he put up eighteen dozen butt hinges, being at the rate of about one hundred and fifty dozen of that article for a year's supply, a quantity which would now not suffice for more than a single day's sales in our market. Such is the west.
A separate department in this establishment, is occupied by the firm of M. Greenwood & Co., in the manufacture of malleable cast iron into an infinite variety of important articles, heretofore the pro- ducts of wrought iron and hand labor. In this department are made carriage wrenches, staples, pole crabs, nuts, screw wrenches, table hinges, pen racks, tailors' shears, and a variety of other articles. All these, when put to the appropriate tests, prove equal in every respect for service to the correspondent wrought articles. As regards drilling, they seem tougher. Cards of these articles were exhibited at the late mechanics' fair, and excited the general admira- tion of the visitors.
The tailors' shears are remarkable articles, as may be inferred from the fact, that a pair finished with steel edges, was lately fur- nished for the English market, and sold for seventy-five dollars.
Greenwood employs three hundred and fifty hands, and manufac- tures annually, a value of three hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
W. C. Davis & Co. Foundery, Hunt street, cast of Broadway ;
:
WHOLESALE CLOT!
TYLER DAVIDSON & CO.
AM DODD & CO
WHOLESALE HARDWARE MERCHANTS,
MAIN STREET, BELOW FOURTH.
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sale-rooms, north-east corner Ninth and Main streets. This is prin- cipally a stove establishment, in every variety of use and pattern, and on a very extensive scale, employing one hundred and twenty- five hands-two-thirds of whom, are molders. This firm melted, last year, three thousand tons pig-iron, including three hundred tons scraps. Their present operations, are at the rate of four thou- sand two hundred tons. They also make plain and ornamental grates, sad and dog-irons, mold-boards, cauldrons, potash and sugar- kettles, and a variety of other castings.
Davis & Co., have recently constructed an extensive foundery and warerooms, five stories high, exclusively for the manufacture and fitting up of Fisk's patent metallic burial-cases, a new article, and every way superior to the ordinary cabinet ware coffins, which they must supersede. These cases, in their figure, follow the general outline of the human body in a recumbent position, and con- sist of an upper and lower metallic shell, which are joined together in a horizontal line in the centre, each part being of about equal depth. The shells have each a narrow flange, which when placed together are bound by screws, and cemented at the point of junction with a substance which becomes as hard as the metal itself. They are thoroughly enameled both inside and out, and thus rendered as entirely air-tight as any case can be constructed. The upper shell is raised-work, and ornamented in the casting, with the appearance of rich folding drapery thrown over the body. A heavy glass plate, oval in its shape, and corresponding in size and position to .the human face, affords to the last moment, a view of the lineaments of the deceased, while the air-tight character of the case, cemented together as it is, will preserve the body, it is believed, for any period of time. It has been thus far tested for two and a-half years only, the longest period it has been in use, and exhibits in this case, the unchanged and undecomposed features of a child of ten years in their pristine expression and loveliness.
These cases afford great facilities for transporting those who have died at a distance from their surviving friends, to be brought home to family vaults and burying-grounds. The indestructible charac- ter of these receptacles, also so greatly facilitates the raising and reinterment elsewhere, when necessary, at any period, however remote, of the relics of departed friends, and so thoroughly divests exhumations of their usually revolting features, as to justify the be- lief, that these burial-cases will soon become of general and extensive
17
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use. These burial-cases are sold wholesale, at from three to twenty dollars, the sizes ranging from twenty-eight inches, to six feet six inches.
W. & R. P. Resor. One of the best specimens for convenience, extent, and adaptedness of all its arrangements to their appropriate purposes, is the Phoenix Foundery, belonging to this firm, at the intersection of Smith street with the river landing. It is a striking example of economy in space, and still more in the labor required to carry on a furnace ; accomplishing in these respects, more with the same number of hands, than any other concern of the kind in this vicinity, if not anywhere else.
The establishment bears the title of the Phoenix Foundery, and is designed for the casting of stoves and hollow-ware principally. It is in the form, externally, of an L, occupying a space of eighty-two by one hundred and eighty-eight feet in depth upon the Smith street front, and sixty-six by one hundred and forty-three feet on the river front. Two molding floors, seventy-five by sixty-six, and one hundred and fifty-nine by sixty-six feet, occupy the interior of the foundery. These are intersected with five feet alleys radiating from the cupolas, which are paved with bricks and protected with curb-stones. The grade of those which connect directly with the cupolas, is a descending one; so that the hands take their loads along a gentle descent, and return with the empty ladles by a cor- responding ascent. This, and the treading a smooth brick surface, which permits none of the melted iron, when spilled, to become im- bedded in the walk, are advantages to both owner and hands, which every one conversant with the business can appreciate. The pig- metal, in lieu of being pitched up on to a platform, as is the usual tedious and laborious process, is wheeled up by an inclined plane, standing along the outside foundery wall, which, after reaching the proper height, crosses to the cupolas by a platform, which stretches over the intermediate space, being supported as in bridge work, by substantial rods, secured by heavy timbers, which form part of the building.
On the Smith street front is a warehouse five stories high, the lower floor being employed for weighing and assorting the various plates, which are raised to the second story, where they are mounted, put together, and distributed to the different warerooms above. All the hoisting, drilling, punching, etc., are carried on by steam.
The two cupolas are situated at the angles of the L, forming a
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central point to the molding operations. The hot-blast process, similar to that in use at the blast furnaces, is introduced here, and placed above the cupolas, heated by hot air which escapes from them, and which otherwise would be wasted.
The cupolas are lined, and of thirty-six inches diameter. They are of a capacity to melt twenty tons per day.
The pig-iron is also of that fine metal, made in Lawrence and Scioto counties under the hot-blast process, and the result is, that pots and kettles are made here, of such ductility, as to receive in- dentations by the hammer, without any risk of cracking the article.
This foundery casts door fronts, also, to considerable extent. It employs seventy hands.
Williams & Adams, Novelty Works, Pearl street, manufacture house fronts, tobacco and cotton presses, iron staircases, balcony and graveyard railings, wagon-boxes, awning posts, iron gutters and stoves, sash weights, cistern tops, gratings, hitching-posts, grate bars, star anchors, vault grates, clock weights, hoisting-wheels, and mill work generally. They employ twenty-three hands.
James Todd & Co., corner of Seventh and Smith streets, build steam-engines ; manufacture planing machines, turning lathes, cot- ton, hay, lard, and tobacco screws, portable corn and flour-mills, thrashing machines and horse-powers, castings of all descriptions ; also, various kinds of tools. They employ fifty hands.
A. B. & E. Latta, Buckeye Works, Fifth street, east of Broad- way, manufacture all kinds of lathes and machinists' tools. Steam- engines, high and low pressure, stationary, locomotive and marine. Also steam, water, and vacuum gauges, reliable for quality and correctness.
This firm obtained a premium at the last fair of the Ohio Mechan- ies' Institute, for their improved steam-engines, as unsurpassed for cheapness, durability, and economy of steam and oil; and advice is given here, in the construction of machinery and mechanical opera- tions.
Fringes, Tassels, etc .- Four establishments, mostly on a small scale ; value of product, twenty thousand dollars. Forty hands in employment ; raw material, 50 per cent.
Peter Ruhl, Fourth, below Walnut street, manufactures fringes, tassels, gimps, cords and fancy trimmings. Coach laces, carriage trimmings, Masonic and Odd Fellows' regalias, and military trim- mings, of every description.
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Furniture .- Under this general head, is usually comprehended various equipments for housekeeping, such as bedsteads, bureaus, tables, stands, wardrobes, desks, bookcases, cribs, sofas, settees, lounges, divans, plain and fancy chairs, ottomans, etc. It would have been desirable to classify these by assigning them to their respective workshops, but in point of fact, these establishments are so various in their fabrics, some confining themselves to one or two prominent articles, others making every possible variety, and others, again, blending the chair business with what is called cabinet ware, that such classification becomes imperfect and unsatisfactory, and fails to exhibit a clear statement of this important department of our manufacturing interest; a general synopsis of the business will, therefore, be given in its aggregate of products, and number of workmen, and the various descriptions illustrated, as in the case of the founderies, by the statistics of particular establishments, as spe- cimens of the various classes that exist.
" Cincinnati, in 1841," exhibited in its table of manufacturing and industrial pursuits, forty-eight cabinet ware factories, with a force of three hundred and eighty-four hands, and a product of three hundred and eighty-four thousand dollars. Of chairs, eleven fac- tories, exhibiting a force of one hundred and twenty-eight hands, and a product of one hundred and thirty-one thousand six hundred dol- lars. At that date, these branches of furniture were kept distinct, as they are yet to some extent. Since that period, the application of steam power and machinery, to general furniture fabrics, has greatly changed the entire business character of this branch of man- ufacture, as well as tended to increase its sale.
Two or three popular errors exist, respecting the making of furni- ture by machinery, which it may be well here to refer to. One of these is, that the ware is not as exact in fit, or reliable for durabil- ity, as that made by hand; the reverse of this, is however, the fact. The least exercise of the reflecting powers, must suggest that work performed by machinery must be the more accurate. Another erroneous prejudice is, that the employment of machinery lessens not only the number of persons employed, but reduces their wages and profits. The fact, in reality, is, that the machinery, as a general result, takes the coarsest, hardest, and most unprofitable work out of the journeyman's hands-such as rough planing and ripping- and enables him to make his customary wages, at more pleasant employment. It is true, at the same time, that a great reduction
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in the price of these articles, is effected by the use of machinery, but this is done by the increase of product, which is both the cause and effect of low prices. But a comparison between past and pre- sent wages, will show clearly that the journeyman has been no loser, but in fact, gainer, by the introduction of machinery in the fabrication of furniture.
There are several shops which make up furniture, as a supply for auction sales ; but the great bulk, beyond what is wanted for our own citizens, finds its market throughout the entire south and south- west.
The entire product of cabinet ware, chairs, etc., amounts to one million six hundred and sixty thousand dollars, and the business affords employment to one thousand one hundred and fifty-eight hands; value of raw material, 25 per cent.
One of the most remarkable of our manufacturing establishments, is the bedstead factory of Clawson and Mudge, on Second below Vine street.
The building, which is of brick, is five stories in height, and one hundred and ninety by seventy feet, on the ground. The machin- ery consists of seven planing and two tapering machines, sixteen turning-lathes, six boring, and two tenoning machines, four split- ting, and four buff saws, all which, are driven by steam. One hun- dred and thirty hands are employed in this establishment. A very vivid impression of the power of machinery is given in this case, by the fact, that one hundred and thirty bedsteads are made and finished, as an average, every day, or one bedstead to each workman; while under the hand system of manufacture, a first rate bedstead is more than a week's work for one journeyman. The escape steam is em- ployed not only in warming the building, in winter, but softens the glue, and being taken through a cylinder in which the veneers are steamed, fits them for being fastened to the bedsteads. Three mil- lion feet of lumber are annually worked up here into bedsteads, of which, forty thousand are the yearly product, and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the aggregate value. The stock of lumber on hand is never less than one million five hundred thousand feet, and of bedsteads a value of fifty thousand dollars. The lumber used here, is seasoned by steam, and air exposure afterward.
These bedsteads are of every variety of pattern and material, and degree of finish and cost; not less than ninety-five varieties being manufactured on the premises. They range from one dollar thirty-
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seven and a-half cents, to seventy-five dollars in price, at whole- sale.
Poplar, sycamore, black walnut, and cherry, are the lumber ; and black walnut, mahogany, and rosewood, the veneers employed in the fabrication of these bedsteads.
The headboards of the finer kinds of bedsteads, are not morticed into the post, as usual, but are fastened at the ends by iron hooks, secured to the head posts, and are let down by mortises into the head-rail. This is obviously a very great improvement, and greatly facilitates their being taken to pieces and put together, when neces- sary. The market for these bedsteads, is throughout the west, south, and south-west. All the principal hotels in Memphis, Nash- ville, Mobile, and New Orleans, have been furnished with bedsteads from this factory.
This is, probably, the most extensive factory of the kind in the United States, and if so, the most extensive in the world. There is no single manufacturing establishment here, which is better fitted than this to be shown a stranger, for the purpose of impressing on him a sense of the industrial and mechanical energies of Cincinnati.
John K. Coolidge, corner Smith and Front streets. Here are made tables, stands, cribs, lounges, desks, and bookcases, by steam propelled machinery. Forty hands are employed, in this establish- ment.
S. J. John, cabinet, chair, and sofa wareroom, Third, near Syca- more street. There are no finer articles made in Cincinnati, than his pier and sofa tables, covered with Egyptian marble; dressing bureaus, sociables, and vis-à-vis, mahogany wardrobes and canopy bedsteads, among a variety of fine furniture, are sure to catch the visitor's eye, and to open the visitor's purse.
One of the remarkable articles in his line, is an extension table, which draws out to various lengths, and shuts up again, by turning a crank, affording, when opened to its full extent, a platform large enough for the guests at a sizable hotel, and when closed up, taking up no more room than an ordinary circular table. Large numbers are made, and of course, sold, of this article, which is a great con- venience everywhere that room is scarce.
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