USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Sketches and statistics of Cincinnati in 1851 > Part 18
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E. Rowe, north-west corner Smith and Augusta streets, manufac- ture bedsteads, patent and common, including trundles, at from two to twenty dollars, wholesale. His workshop is four stories high, and stands eighty by thirty-five feet on the ground. He employs
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thirty hands, and manufactures to the value of thirty thousand dollars.
Mitchell & Rammelsberg, steam furniture factory, at the corner of John and Second street. Sale and exhibition rooms, Second street, between Main and Sycamore. This, which is one of the heaviest of our furniture establishments, does not, as is generally the case with the others, confine its operations to two or three staple articles, but comprehends in its fabrics almost every description of cabinet ware and chairs. Two-thirds of their business, however, is cabinet ware manufacture. The lot on which this factory stands, is eighty by one hundred and twenty feet. The main building oc- cupies three-fourths of this breadth, and the entire depth. It is six stories high, and filled with workmen and materials to its utmost capacity. Other buildings take up the residue of the premises.
In the manufacture of furniture, the rough work is performed here, by machinery, with great celerity and exactness-the finish- ing being, as in other furniture shops, executed by competent and skillful workmen. This concern employs, directly and indirectly, two hundred and fifty persons, and manufactures to the value of two hundred and twenty thousand dollars annually.
The various articles made, are cut into lengths and shapes other- wise, by the agency of a series of circular saws. Every process here, from the ripping out and cross-cutting of rough boards, to the finest slitting, progresses with inconceivable rapidity ; the saws per- forming at the rate of from two thousand five hundred to three thousand revolutions in a minute ; a speed which renders the teeth of the saw absolutely invisible to the eye.
As many as two hundred pieces of furniture, and the various parts in the same series, prepared and adjusted to fit, as fast as they progress, at a time, are taken from story to story, until on the upper floors, they receive their final dressing and finish, for market.
The sale-rooms referred to, occupy five stories, each floor being thirty-four by ninety feet, and display full stocks of furniture, in every variety of style, pattern, and quality. This is but one of the many cabinet ware establishments in Cincinnati, which supply the south, west, and south-west, with materials for housekeeping of all sorts, on an extensive scale.
Mitchell & Rammelsberg, are about to introduce a bedstead of novel construction, for which they have the exclusive manufacturing
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right in this market. The improvement made, is by connecting the rail to the post by a dovetail, thus dispensing entirely with screws, and enabling the bedstead to be put up and taken down in less than five minutes ; which of course, affords great facilities to the removal of this article from house to house, or room to room, and of readily taking them out in case of fire.
Burley & Lyford, south side Third, east of Sycamore street, manu- facture all kinds of ornamental cabinet ware : cottage furniture, chamber sets, enameled or painted in scroll, landscape, and flowers. French, Italian, and Grecian bedsteads, bureaus, sinks, wardrobes, commodes, wash-stands, and toilets, grained to imitate every variety of wood.
Their styles of fabrics are admirably adapted to the equipment of steamboats, as well as for family furniture, of a light and elegant description.
Henry Boyd, Broadway, above Eighth street. This establish- ment has long enjoyed a distinguished reputation for bedstead work of high finish, fancy style, and excellent quality, although its opera- tions are not confined to that article alone. Boyd works twenty hands.
The peculiarity of Boyd's bedsteads-which are the patent right and left, wood screw, and swelled rail-is the solidity of fit, when put together ; which enhances their durability; as well as forms a perfect protection from vermin, which find no harbor at the joints.
John Geyer, Fourth, east of Main street, occupies in his manu- facturing and sale of cabinet ware and chairs, a building fifty-six feet front, by one hundred feet deep, and five stories high. He has recently succeeded to A. McAlpin ; a well known establishment, in the cabinet making line, on whose business he has engrafted, to a great extent, a fancy style of articles of the richest cast. Among these, are, cottage, Italian, and Minster parlor chairs, reclining and lounging chairs, fancy sofas; black, white, and Egyptian marble centre tables, with oval and lozenge-shaped slabs; fancy dressing bureaus, etagers, corner etagers with closets, papier-maché work- stands and tables, ladies' cabinet and writing desks, Italian marble slab and mahogany work-tables, with fancy basket around the pe- destal.
Geyer manufactures furniture and chairs, also, of the staple articles and patterns, and of all descriptions, as regards quality and style.
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One of the most commodious, as well as extensive factories in Cincinnati, is that of George W. Coddington, on Vine, between Front and Second streets. Having been built for the express purpose of carrying on the business, nothing can surpass the convenience and efficacy of its machinery and arrangements. The factory is forty- six by ninety feet on the ground, and six stories in height.
The machinery of this establishment is propelled by two steam- engines, each of twenty horse power. These drive four ripping, and seven circular saws, twenty-five cutters, two mortising, three boring, three planing, and twelve turning machines. One of these saws, which is concave, is a Cincinnati invention, of great ingenuity, and singularly well adapted to its purpose ; which is to cut out the chair tops in circular form and equal thickness.
This factory has made as many as one hundred and eighty thou- sand chairs, yearly. These are principally low and medium-priced articles, although cane-seat and rocking-chairs, are made to a con- siderable extent. The prices range from four dollars twenty-five cents, to twenty-two dollars, and average eight dollars per dozen ; just such chairs may be bought here, at five dollars per dozen, as were bought, twelve or fifteen years ago, at sixteen dollars. Such is the economy and power of machinery.
All the painting and gilding to the chairs, is done on the premises. The gilding of the finer qualities, is of the highest style of finish and ornament.
The principal market for these chairs, is in the south and south- west, although they find customers throughout the west and the north-west. In the south they have entirely driven out the eastern article, their quality and price rendering them more ac- ceptable.
There are at times as high as one hundred and eighty hands em- ployed in the factory ; and its annual product, in value, one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
In other articles, reference has been made to the benefit of ma- chinery to the interests of the working-man, in taking the roughest and hardest of the ripping and planing out of his hands, and leaving to him only those delicate operations, which give play to the exer- cise of skill and judgment. It may be added, on the same subject, that the low prices at which machinery permits articles to be sold, so increases the quantity made, that more hands are now needed in
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these factories, than found employment under the old order of things, and at an average of better wages than heretofore.
M. L. Duncan & Brother. Factory, Augusta street, between Western row and John ; sale-rooms and office, Second, between Vin : and Walnut streets. This establishment manufactures wardrobes, breakfast and extension tables, stands, bureaus, cribs, lounges, desks, and bookcases, of mahogany and black walnut. Their mar- ket is exclusively the south and west, and their furniture disposed of at wholesale. They employ seventy-five hands, and manufacture to the value of one hundred thousand dollars annually, of which are two thousand wardrobes, worth from ten to forty dollars; three thousand tables, two and a-half to six dollars ; five hundred book- cases, ten to twenty dollars ; five hundred desks, seven and a-half to twenty dollars. The largest share, of course, at the lower prices.
Henry Clostermann, corner Augusta and John streets, employs seventy hands, and manufactures chairs to the value of sixty thou- sand dollars, principally cane-seats. Large quantities of black wal- nut and mahogany, are worked up in this establishment.
Dobell & Hughes. Manufactory, corner of Smith and Augusta streets, make breakfast, dining, circular, centre, card, and end tables, cribs, tin safes, stands, children's bedsteads, etc.
E. B. Dobell. Chair and cabinet factory on Lower Market street, manufactures chairs, bureaus, tables, looking-glasses, mattresses.
Cincinnati steam bureau manufacturing company, D. F. Meader, agent; corner Front and Smith streets, manufactures rosewood, mahogany and walnut dressing and plain bureaus, sideboards, writing desks, inclosed and plain wash and workstands, wardrobes, card-tables, bookcases, tin safes, etc. Employs eighty hands, and manufactures yearly, to the value of ninety thousand dollars.
The buildings in which these articles of furniture are made, are respectively, one hundred and forty-two by forty-five feet, five stories ; one hundred by thirty feet, four stories ; and fifty by fifteen feet, two stories in height. The work, as far as practicable, is done by machinery driven by a steam-engine of forty horse power.
In the first story are located the engine, a large turning-lathe, the machinery for a scroll saw and for mortising, and the apparatus by which the veneering is done, the glue and cauls for which, are heated by steam. The second story is occupied by three heavy planing machines, and four saws. Here the lumber is dressed, and cut
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into convenient sizes for use in the third story, where are three smaller circular saws, and where the tenoning, boring, and grooving are all done, which being accomplished, the stuff is elevated by steam to the fourth story, and there put together.
The fifth and sixth stories are divided into finishing rooms, where the bureaus are varnished, and finally prepared for market. From these rooms, seven thousand bureaus are annually taken out, which are sold, on an average, at ten dollars each. In their manufacture, over seven hundred thousand feet of lumber are consumed, with about seven thousand dollars worth of veneering, and at least nine hundred gallons of varnish.
Connected with the manufactory, is a lumber yard, three hun- dred and eight feet long, by one hundred and eight wide. The amount of lumber, at all times, stacked in this yard, will average one million feet.
Refuse lumber and shavings are all consumed, and the entire rooms are warmed by the escape steam, which is conducted through the building in iron pipes.
Shaw & Rettig, north side Fourth, between Main and Sycamore streets. This establishment confines its operations entirely to fine and fancy furniture of fashionable styles. Here are to be found every variety of carved rosewood, mahogany, and walnut chairs and sofas of antique and gothic patterns, with fancy seating of plush, Louis XIV, and brocatelle. Parlor tables, with lozenge-shaped tops of marbles, of every variety and shade of tint, Egyptian, Italian, etc. Cottage furniture, chamber sets, enameled and painted in scroll, landscapes and flowers. French, Italian, and Grecian bed- steads.
Smith & Hawley. Factory, south-west corner John and Augusta street ; salerooms, 64 Sycamore street, north of Lower Market. The manufacture here, is altogether of fine cabinet and upholstery ware, such as fine dressing bureans, centre and card-tables, sofas, lounges, sociables, divans, ottomans ; all varieties and patterns of mahogany, cane, and stuffed hair and plush seated parlor chairs; rocking and easy chairs. Rosewood and mahogany and walnut veneers, are ex- tensively used here, as materials. This firm employs sixty hands, and makes yearly, one thousand two hundred sofas, two thousand five hundred parlor chairs, and one thousand centre and card-tables.
The largest building employed in the manufacture of chairs in this city, or anywhere else, is that of C. D. Johnston, on the south
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side of Second, between John and Smith streets. His operations have been heretofore confined to a building forty by eighty feet, and six stories high, a space, large as it is, entirely inadequate to that demanded for a first class chair factory in Cincinnati, working on the scale required of late years. He has, therefore, recently made an addition, eighty-six by sixty-eight feet, which affords him a front on Second street of one hundred and twenty-six feet, and an average depth of seventy-four feet. The new building is seven stories high, the additional story affording a favorable opportunity to carry out, from the upper floor of the one, to the roof of the other building, the chairs, as fast as they are ready for drying in the open air. This extensive building fronts on two streets, which affords it thorough ventilation and ample light.
An engine of twenty horse power, drives by steam the various machinery employed on the premises, and the escape steam from the engine is carried, story by story, through seven hundred and sixty feet cast iron pipe into every part of the edifice, during the winter season, so as perfectly to dispense with the use of fire throughout the building. On the same account, steam is taken direct from the boiler to prepare the glue and the cauls for use.
Mr. Johnston's business is entirely wholesale, and extends the whole range of the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi-that is, the country watered by these rivers and their tributaries. All the import- ant towns or cities in the south and west are extensively his custom- ers. As an illustration of the magnitude of his business, he has a standing order on his books, from the largest furniture sale house in the west, for thirty thousand chairs of the various descriptions made. This is the house of Scarritt & Mason, St Louis. Chairs are made here from the finest mahogany cane, to the ordinary wood seats. The manufacturing value, when the new building is fully occupied, will exceed one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars yearly. Hands employed, one hundred and sixty, mostly Germans.
In concluding the subject of furniture, it will be appropriate to add that Joseph Walter, who was the first individual in Cincinnati to apply machinery propelled by steam-power, in the manufacture of cabinet ware, has just made arrangements to resume that busi- ness on a very extensive scale.
The application of steam to the melting of glue and preparing the cauls for veneering, which originated in his factory, is one of the most important improvements in this line, for several years past.
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Gas and Coke .- The Cincinnati Gas and Coke company, employ fifty hands, and manufacture to the value of sixty-five thousand dollars annually ; raw material, 60 per cent.
Gas-Fitting. Two establishments .- Twenty-four hands; value of product, forty-five thousand dollars ; raw material, 50 per cent.
Goodin & Mahon, Main, above Court street, are extensively en- gaged in this business.
Gas Burner Caps. This is an ingenious article recently invented here, and calculated so to consume the escaping gas, as to increase the intensity of the light fifty per cent., or if many burners be used, to reduce the expense one-third. D. Andrews, jeweler and silver- smith, Fifth, near Race street, is the inventor and patentee.
Gilders. Ten establishments .- Thirty-six hands; amount of product, thirty-nine thousand dollars; raw material, 50 per cent.
Thomas Bown, Fourth, between Main and Sycamore streets, manufactures every description of gilt work for pictures, etc., of fancy and ornamented styles, as well as plain work. Employs ten hands, on a product of twelve thousand dollars.
Glass works .- Two; value of product, forty thousand dollars ; employ thirty hands.
The largest of these, that of Gray & Hemingray, is on a scale so much inferior in magnitude to those of Pittsburgh, that the statis- tics just given, would have concluded this subject, but for the con- viction which the writer of this entertains, that Cincinnati will here- after lead Pittsburgh in cotton fabrics, rolling mill products and glass manufactures, as we already do in everything else. It be- comes, therefore, an object of interest and solicitude to examine the details of what itisevident, is the germ here, of a vastly important branch of industrial pursuit, as suggestive of the great future. Sand, pearl-ashes, and lead, are the main constituents of glass. The sand necessary for glass works in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, is brought from Missouri, and the lead from Illinois, both at less expense to this point, than to Pittsburgh; and the pearl-ash, always rules in price lower here, than in the markets of our sister city.
Nor is this all; the means of living here, are lower than at Pitts- burgh, every item but rent, being so much cheaper, as to more than equalize general expenses. In this state of the case, and with the rapidly growing business of this establishment as an encouragement, other glass works must spring up'; and as their operations enlarge,
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a point of purchase in these articles will be created, which must con- centrate large sales of glass here, of city product, which have here- tofore been made elsewhere.
Gray & Hemingray, make tumblers, decanters, packing-bottles, lamp glasses, apothecary shop furniture, and generally, most articles manufactured in Pittsburgh. A greater variety of perfumery glass is manufactured in these works, than at any in Pittsburgh. All the operations alluded to, are of flint glass, except insulators, which are made for lightning rods and for telegraph lines, here, and at Pitts- burgh ; which place is entirely supplied from this point.
Glove factories. Three .- Employ thirty-three hands, principally females ; value of manufacture, twenty thousand dollars; raw ma- terial, 65 per cent.
Glue. Five factories .- Forty hands; value of product twenty- eight thousand dollars.
Forgey, Warren & Co., manufacture glue, curled hair for up- holsterers' use, also dress bristles, etc. Employ twenty-two to fifty hands, according to the season ; these articles requiring to be made or prepared in the fall or winter, principally. There are twenty thou- sand pounds glue made, and twenty thousand pounds long curled hair, and two hundred thousand pounds short curled hair, and ten thousand dollars worth of bristles prepared here, for market. The curled hair is purified by chemical processes ; the long being put to use in first quality mattresses or in chairs and sofa seats, and the short filled into a more common article.
Gold Leaf and Dentists' Foil .- One factory, that of James Leslie, employs five hands, and makes a product of eleven thousand dol- lars ; raw material, 50 per cent.
The beating of gold leaf affords a striking illustration of the diffu- sibility, or rather extension, of substances. A piece of gold equal in size to ten grains No. 1 shot, will beat out seven thousand five hundred square inches, and each shot a surface of gold suffi- cient to cover an extra imperial sheet, as large as the " Cincinnati Enquirer."
Gold Pens. One factory .- Three hands ; value of product, thirty- five hundred dollars; value of raw material, 50 per cent.
Grate manufacturers. Two .- Number of hands employed, fifty- two; value of product, forty-five thousand dollars; value of raw material, 20 per cent.
Grinders of Spices, Coffee, Drugs, etc. Six establishments .- Fifty-
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six hands ; value of product, one hundred and forty thousand dol- lars ; raw material, 60 per cent.
Harrison & Eaton, 101 Walnut street, grind pepper, allspice, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, mustard, African cayenne. These are put up in bulk, or in packages for the retail trade. They also grind coffee and rice, and roast coffee and pea-nuts. These are supplied at all times, perfectly fresh and warranted pure.
Ground Drugs and Concentrated Medical Preparations .- Jacob S. Merrell, Steam Drug mills, grinds or powders every species of drugs, to order, and prepares concentrated extracts of vegetable medical articles, such as podophyllin or mandrake, sanguinarin or blood-root, macrotin or black cohosh, leptandrin or black-root extracts.
These extracts are so highly concentrated by chemical processes, that the active principle of an article worth not more than ten or fifteen cents the pound, acquires a value of one dollar per ounce. These preparations are sent out the whole length and breadth of the United States, and even into Canada.
The vegetables whose roots furnish these extracts, are indigenous to the west, abounding especially in Indiana and Missouri. Em- ploys ten hands, and a thirty horse-power engine, and manufactures to the value of thirty thousand dollars, annually ; raw material, 30 per cent. This is a rapidly growing establishment, and must become one of extensive operations.
Ground Mustard. Two establishments .- Ten hands ; fifteen thou- sand dollars product; raw material, 40 per cent.
Ground Marble Dust. Two establishments .- Employ four hands ; annually grind fifteen hundred barrels for use of mineral water estab- lishments ; value of product, thirty-five hundred dollars; raw ma- terial, 5 per cent.
Gunsmiths. Six establishments .- Thirty hands ; thirty-five thou- sand dollars, value of product; raw material, 40 per cent.
Eaton & Kittridge, 236 Main street, are engaged in the manufac- ture of rifles, shot-belts, etc. Employ ten hands. These rifles are of every quality and price. Make and finish two hundred and fifty rifles, and two hundred dozen belts annually. Use black walnut and maple stocks. The business is yet in its infancy ; value of pro- duct, twelve thousand dollars ; of raw material, 50 per cent. This firm are extensive importers of guns, pistols, and sporting apparatus, gun makers' materials, powder, etc. It is the first wholesale house established here, and by far the most extensive in the west.
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Hats. Forty factories .- Three hundred and sixty-seven hands; value of product, four hundred and forty-five thousand dollars ; raw material, 30 per cent.
There was a period, when, if one of our citizens wanted a fine hat, Platt Evans was commissioned to buy it in New York or Phila- delphia ; nothing but cheap hats being at that time made here. Dodd, on Main street, was the first to engage in the enterprise of manufacturing hats of a quality which should supersede the hats made in the eastern cities, and now the fine hats for the entire mar- ket of the west, are made here by Dodd & Co., L. H. Baker & Co., C. B. Camp, Bates & Whitcher, and Sherwood & Chase.
There are others who make hats, but on a limited scale of operations. There are no low-priced hats made here of late years.
Dodd & Co., employ from twenty to forty hands, according to the season, and manufacture to the value of sixty-seven thousand dollars.
Baker & Co., make silk and fur hats, two hundred and fifty per week. They work twenty hands on an average.
C. B. Camp, employs eighteen hands at an average, and manu- factures fine hats to the value of forty thousand dollars.
All those who are largely in this business, also sell the common article made at the east. The sales at our principal hat stores, including those of their own manufacture, range from one hundred thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars each.
Hat-Block Factory .- William H. Carver, south side Pearl, between Vine and Race. Four hands ; value of product, four thousand five hundred dollars ; of raw material, 10 per cent.
Horse-Shoeing. Twelve shops .- Thirty-five hands; value of pro- duct, forty-eight thousand dollars ; raw material, 50 per cent.
Hose and Belts, etc. Four factories .- Twenty-six hands ; a pro- duct in value of ninety-six thousand dollars ; value of raw material, 75 per cent.
Cincinnati supplies hose as well as fire-engines, to the principal towns in its vicinity.
Jeffrey Seymour, north side Fifth, between Main and Sycamore streets, manufactures steamboat, fire-engine, factory, and garden hose, to the value of twenty thousand dollars, annually. His hose is all copper or iron riveted, and of the best quality ; also makes belts and bands for machinery, elevator belts, etc.
UMBRELLAS.
FANCY FURS.
DODD'S HAT STORE
144
SLEVIN. WILLIAM DODD & Co.
IHBA
T. DAVID
DODO'S HAT STORE
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