USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Sketches and statistics of Cincinnati in 1851 > Part 19
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HATS
UMBRELLAS
DODD & Co. - HATTERS,
MAIN STREET, BELOW FOURTH.
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
George E. Minister, 31 Sycamore street, makes hose-garden, steamboat, and fire-engines ; also machine belts, fire hats, capes, belts, trumpets, spanners, torches, branch pipes, nozzles, etc. Engines, etc., are also repaired here. Minister makes of these various articles, to the yearly value of twenty-five thousand dollars.
Hot Air Furnaces .- A. Lotze, 219 Walnut street, is extensively engaged in this line. These furnaces have been put up in almost all our churches and public buildings, and to a great extent in pri- vate dwellings of the finer class. By the introduction of evapora- tory radiators and registers, the air is kept moist, which obviates that dry heat, the presence of which, in public assemblies, is directly indicated by the short tickling cough it provokes. Product of ma- nufacture, sixty thousand dollars per annum ; raw material, 60 per cent .; employs twenty hands.
Ice. Ten ice dealers .- Sixty hands ; value of product, one hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars ; raw material, 10 per cent.
Milton Shute, in his ice operations, employs thirty men in getting out ice, and thirteen in its delivery to customers. He has three spacious ice-houses at Troy, and three more at Social Hall, on the Miami canal, beside the necessary buildings in which to pack it away here, when ice of sufficient thickness is made in Cincinnati. His sales for 1850, were twenty-one thousand four hundred and twenty-two dollars.
Iron-Bar, Boiler, Plate, Sheet, Hoop, Round, Square, Wire, Nails, etc. Five rolling-mills .- Five hundred and fifty hands ; an- nual manufacture, ten hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; raw material, 45 per cent.
Licking Rolling Mill-Morrell, Jordan & Phillips, employ one hundred and twenty hands, and is in steady operation throughout the year, day and night, Sundays excepted; consumes annually, one hundred and seventy-five thousand bushels of coal. The yearly products are, fifteen hundred tons small, round, and square, hoop, etc. One thousand tons large, round, and square, railroad chair iron, etc. One thousand tons fire-bed and sheet-iron. Five hun- dred tons boiler-iron, heads, etc. Four thousand tons iron, of all descriptions, averaging in value, seventy-five dollars per ton ; aggre- gate, three hundred thousand dollars.
The sheet-iron made here, is annealed on the surface, which renders its appearance almost equal to the Russia sheets.
This establishment consumes annually, over three thousand tons 18
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS
pig-iron, and one thousand tons Tennessee clear blooms. The company has six acres of ground upon which the works stand, requir- ing room for large improvements, which are now in contemplation. The main building, is one hundred and eighty by one hundred and fifty-five feet, and covered with sheet iron. Three furnaces have been added to these works, within the last year. The actual cost of the entire works, as they now stand, amounts to about eighty thousand dollars.
Globe Iron and Wire Works-Worthington & Co., proprietors, ma- nufacture every description of rolled iron, such as bar, sheet, boiler, and fire-bed, etc. Yearly product, two thousand six hundred tons. Also make railroad chairs, iron rivets, and wire of all sizes. Wire product, three hundred tons; they work from one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty-five hands, and produce to the value of two hundred and ten thousand dollars.
Newport Iron works, D. Wolff, proprietor. Employ fifty-eight hands, and manufacture sheet, boiler, and fire-bed iron; is now putting up machinery for the manufacture of bar-iron; value of annual product, one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
Iron Safes, Chests, and Vaults .- Three factories, which employ fifty-six hands, and manufacture to the value of ninety-six thousand dollars ; raw material, 45 per cent.
Charles Urban, Pearl street, west of Vine, makes the Salamander safe ; employs twenty-eight hands, and manufactures annually, one hundred and eighty safes, assorted sizes. They are a thoroughly tested and approved article.
Iron Railing. Five factories .- Seventy-seven hands; value of product, ninety-six thousand dollars ; raw material, 25 per cent.
Horton, Leonard & Walton, east side of Elm, between Front and Second streets, make iron railing, bank doors and vaults, and jail safes. These safes are intended for the south, where materials for building jails securely, are scarce. They are made of three- quarter inch by two and a-half inch iron bars, which are put together so as to form a cage. When they get to their destination, walls of hard-burnt brick, and of proper thickness, are built on every side, so as completely to inclose the iron frame. A security is thus afforded the jails at the south, which is hardly possessed even here, in buildings of stone and mortar.
Dorr, Thompson & Magness, corner of Western Row and Betts street, manufacture all kinds plain and fancy railing, for street fronts,
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
burial-grounds, etc .; gratings and balconies, iron stairs, jail doors and vaults. Employ fifteen hands; value of product, twenty-five thousand dollars.
Japaned Filters .- J. H. Laning, makes these articles, and of ap- proved quality. They render our turbid river water as clear and sparkling as that which gushes from the purest spring. Four hands ; product, six thousand dollars.
Japaned Ornamental, and Pressed Tin Ware .- There are four establishments manufacturing these articles, one only of which, that of Geo. D. Winchell, corner of Walnut and Pearl streets, is worthy of notice. A statement of what is here made, would be an extensive catalogue. Every article of Japaned ware, from a child's whistle to a beautifully ornamented water cooler, may be bought here. Among the principal articles, are tea-caddies and chests, knife trays, trunks, lard and lard-oil lamps, candlesticks, etc. All the ware here, is made by small machinery, of which there is on the premises, what has cost three thousand dollars. Winchell works up one thousand two hundred boxes tin-plate, worth twelve thou- sand dollars, and paints, varnish, and other articles, to the value of three thousand dollars more. He employs thirty-four hands ; yearly value of product, fifty-two thousand dollars; raw material, 30 per cent.
The water coolers made here, are a superior article, and excel alike in beauty and usefulness ; worth, according to size, from two to twenty dollars each.
Mr. Winchell has twice enlarged his capacity for manufacturing, and expects shortly to put up more extensive buildings, adequate to his enlarging business.
Lever Locks .- Ten factories, most of them on a small scale ; sixty hands ; value of product, fifty-three thousand dollars ; raw material, 40 per cent.
McGregor & Lee, 132 Fifth street, manufacture bank locks, store and house lever locks; also plate hinges and screws, and put up house and hotel bells, with copper tubing to conceal and protect the wires. They employ nineteen hands.
Their combination and detector bank lock, an invention of Mr. McGregor of the firm, is remarkable for its ingenuity.
It not only defies tampering with ; twelve tumblers being required to be raised, which no skeleton key can accomplish ; but such is the exactness required to imitate the genuine key, that the thickness of
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
a slip of bank paper suffices, when added to the size of its own key, to prevent that key from opening the lock to which it belongs. Its tumbler, also, may be so adjusted to its own key, that any person other than the owner, making use of that key, would have only one chance in favor of opening it, to four hundred and seventy-nine millions one thousand six hundred chances against his doing so. This renders it next to impossible for any person but the owner to open it.
Lightning Rods .- These are made here, by Thomas Phillips, on Sixth, near Walnut street, of superior quality, and on an extensive scale. The whole country, of which Cincinnati is the business centre, purchases these rods, which have stood the test of public opinion for years. There are fifty hands employed, and the value of product is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; raw material, 50 per cent.
Lithographers .- Four establishments, mostly on a small scale. Twenty-four hands ; aggregate value of labor product, twenty thou- sand dollars ; raw material, 30 per cent.
Livery and Sale Stables. Cincinnati is the great horse market of the United States, and during the war with Mexico, horses in greater numbers, as well as finer quality, went from this city, than from all other points. We have here, forty-five livery and sale stables, one only of which, will be referred to in this place, as worthy of a visit by strangers.
Isaac D. Johnson, the proprietor of this establishment, occupies a space of ground averaging seventy feet by upward of three hundred feet. His stables front on Walnut, above Eighth, and reach nearly to Main street. This is a space exceeding twenty-one thousand square feet of ground. The buildings are separated by St. Clair alley, on which they also front. These stables are two stories high, and are doubtless the largest in the west, and probably in the United States. Beside carriages and horses left in his charge, Mr. Johnson keeps not less than seventy-five buggies, carriages, barouches, etc., and one hundred horses for hire; two hundred tons of hay, and twenty thousand bushels grain of various sorts, are consumed here yearly. In winter, the grain, whether whole or in meal, is steamed for feeding use.
One hundred horses, together, cannot readily be found, to com- pare with these in condition, beauty, and fitness for service ; and these stables are well worth a visit from those who are judges of the horse, and delight in examining fine specimens of the race.
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
Looking-glass and Picture-Frame Factories .- The manufacture of looking-glass and picture frames, is carried on upon a small scale, by hand labor, in five or six shops of the city, but the product is comparatively insignificant. There is, however, an establishment of the kind operating by steam-power here, worthy of a passing no- tice. This is the factory of E. Blakeslee, on Seventh street, near Broadway, whose saleroom is on Main, between Fifth and Sixth streets.
Mr. B. has only established himself here recently, as a manufac- turer, although he has for years had those articles for sale, together with clocks of all sorts. His factory operations, until that period, have been carried on at the east. He keeps four circular saws in motion, and employs eight hands. Had he the necessary room, he could enlarge his operations to twice their present extent; as it is, he finds sale for two thousand five hundred picture-frames weekly. All his frames, of every description, are to order, and the concern is not idle a single day for want of orders. All the mahogany ven- eers used here, are cut on the premises.
The looking-glass and picture-frame business of Cincinnati, of which Mr. B. does the largest half, is of an annual value of forty- eight thousand dollars, and employs thirty hands. It is yet only in its commencement.
Mr. Blakeslee's marine time-pieces, or patent lever clocks, are a curiosity. These are of various sizes, the case shaped like that of a watch, and adapted accordingly, to steamboat, canal-packet, or rail- road car use. They can be carried either horizontally or perpen- dicularly, being no more affected by the roughest motion, than a pocket watch would be. They are in fact, admirable chronometers.
These are at very reasonable prices, and well worthy of purchase by the captains or owners of our best steamboats ; on board which, they would be articles equally of use and ornament.
Machinists .- Most of the machine shops of this city are either appendages to, or are in direct business connection with, founderies, their products, etc., and have, therefore, been already included in the foundery statistics. A few, however, which sustain neither of these relations, may be grouped together, by saying that there are twelve of these last, who employ one hundred and twenty hands, and exhibit a product, in value, of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
Burdge & Johnston, south side of Second, between Race and Elm
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
streets, manufacture planing machines, portable mortising, ogee, and tenoning machines, circular saws, shafts, slide and hand lathes, shafting, small engines, tobacco, lard-oil, wine, cider, and bookbind- ers' screws. They also are manufacturers of Converse & Burdge's patent screw-cutter, for cutting screws on the heads of bed-rails ; of which it is sufficient to say, that it is employed to the exclusion of all other machines, at the great bedstead factory of Clawson & Mudge.
Marble working. Seven marble yards and shops .- Employ one hundred and sixty-four hands ; value of product, one hundred and ninety thousand dollars ; value of material, 50 per cent.
D. Bolles, whose marble works are on Fourth, west of Walnut street, may be considered the introducer to this city of the modern style of monumental art. His marble works afford admirable speci- mens of ornamental, carved and sculptured marble in every variety. He employs twenty-five hands.
Lowry & Rule, south-west corner of Broadway and Fourth street, are extensively engaged in marble works. They are also prepared to exhibit a variety of chaste and appropriate designs, as well as executed specimens of monument carving and sculpture. They employ sixty-five hands.
If it should be asserted, as it here is, that tomb and monument work is executed here in a style of greater originality, taste, and excellence than in any of the Atlantic cities, the fact would doubtless be regarded as incredible, not only by eastern people, but by many individuals here who have not had it in their power to compare specimens. But the assertion is susceptible of easy proof. There are enough of eastern monuments in Spring Grove Cemetery to afford the necessary materials for comparison. Works of art-ceno- taphs, sarcophagi and obelisks-from the best marble works of New York and Philadelphia, are there. Now let any man for himself, com- pare the L'Hommedieu or Burrows family monument, by Bolles, with that executed in the same style, by Hargraves of Philadelphia, for John Bailey, and put up in the same cemetery ; or the obe- lisk for William H. Clement, by Lowry & Rule, with that made by R. I. Brown, the first artist in this line, of New York, for Henry Nye ; or the sarcophagus for Larz Anderson, from Lowry & Rule's yard, with that executed for G. R. Shoenberger, by the celebrated J. Struthers of Philadelphia : or the splendid Gothic monument by D. Bolles, to the memory of George Iuppenlatz, with any eastern
STEAM MARBLE WORKS - LOWRY & RULE
STEAM
MARBLE
WORKS.
STEAM MARBLE WORKS
MONUMENTS,
TOMBE, MARTELS &C
LOWRY & RULE
Dealers in Foreign & Ameri
uts. Tombs dr.
CORNER OF BROADWAY & FIFTH STS.
CINCINNATI
219
MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
work of corresponding character in any of our cemeteries, and he will feel the utmost surprise, that work of this description should have ever been brought from the east, when it can be so much more skillfully executed here.
Another fact, which is conclusive on the subject. Nathaniel Silsbee, a well known individual, of Salem, Mass., on a recent visit to the west, accidentally saw specimens of mortuary sculpture and ornamental designs at Lowry & Rule's marble saloons, of so high an order of merit, as to induce him to leave an order for a monu- ment to a design exhibited to him here, and to be executed in the style of which he had seen abundant specimens. Mr. Silsbee, after visiting the marble yards of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York for designs, had concluded to order a monument from Italy, when a model, just suited to his views and taste, was offered him in the Far West. The monument, which is of a sufficiently costly character, is to the memory of a group of his children lost in infancy, and is singularly chaste and felicitous. It will be put up in Mount Au- burn Cemetery, and stand forever as an acknowledgment of Cincin- nati skill and taste.
Masonic and Odd Fellows' Regalia. Four manufacturers .- Eight- cen hands ; value of product, twenty-one thousand dollars; raw material, 50 per cent.
Mathematical, Optical and Astronomical Instruments. Six work- shops, principally on a small scale. J. Foster, Jr., on Walnut street, and Hasert, on Fourth, near Walnut street, execute instru- ments of a finish and accuracy that cannot be surpassed. Employ twenty-four hands; value of product, forty thousand dollars; raw material, 50 per cent.
Mat maker. One factory .- Three hands; value of product, seven thousand two hundred and forty dollars ; raw material, 30 per cent.
Mattresses, Bedding, etc. Ten establishments .- Eighty hands ; value of product, ninety-five thousand dollars; raw material, 50 per cent.
William Morehouse, furniture and bedding depôt, 134 Sycamore street, manufactures spring wire mattresses, one of the best articles in that line ever made ; this mattress folds up conveniently in sec- tions; lines church pews, and makes all sorts of cushions. Feather beds and mattresses are renovated here.
Millinery .- Miss Mulliner, 106, north side Fifth street, between
220
MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
Vine and Race streets, fashionable millinery and dress-maker; em- ploys fifteen to twenty-five hands, and makes up annually to the value of twenty thousand dollars; raw material, 50 per cent.
Mineral Water Factories .- The manufacture of soda-water, a very refreshing beverage during the heats of summer, has been carried on in this city for some years quite extensively, and the consump- tion of it at home and abroad, is increasingly great.
Soda-water is made by impregnating water with carbonic acid gas, in the proportion of five parts in bulk of one, to twelve of the other ; the gas in a fountain of any given capacity, being condensed into a volume of one-twelfth its natural space.
It is the expansion of that gas, when discharged, which creates effervescence, and the pungency of the soda-water, when taken at a draught.
The following is the process of manufacture. The gas is gene- rated in a strong leaden vessel by the action of diluted sulphuric acid, on marble dust-carbonate of lime. It is passed into a gaso- meter, and thence forced by steam-power, acting on air pumps, into a fountain or the bottles, compressing fifty gallons of carbonic acid gas into the space of seven gallons in an inconceivablehort space of time. The safety valve on the machine indicates a pres- sure of eighty-five pounds to the square inch.
There are eight of these factories here, employing sixty-four hands; value of product, one hundred and five thousand dollars. Four-fifths of this value is contributed by labor alone. The opera- tions at one of these factories are propelled by a miniature steam- engine, so small that it might be packed in an ordinary coffin, and yet so powerful, the force being derived from its shortness of stroke and strength of steam, as to be equal to a four-horse power. It is capable of making four hundred and eighty revolutions in a minute.
Mineral Teeth. One factory .- Five hands; value of product, nine thousand dollars ; raw material, 20 per cent.
Morocco Leather .- Seven establishments, for tanning and dressing this article. Two hundred thousand sheep skins are annually brought to this market and converted into morocco. Not only does our regular sheep market for food, contribute largely to this sup- ply, but great quantities are rendered here and in the vicinity, for the hide and tallow. Two butchering and rendering establishments alone, tried out this season, sixty thousand sheep. The skins, di- vested of the wool, are worth twelve and a-half cents each, and the
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
dressed article commands four dollars per dozen ; aggregate value of product, sixty-seven thousand dollars; raw material, 30 per cent.
J. H. Ballance, on the Miami canal, near Race street, tans and dresses thirty thousand skins yearly, which are sold here for shoe- makers' and saddlers' use. The supply of skins here has increased, since 1840, six-fold. Ballance is also a wool dealer, extensively.
Musical Instruments .- Pianos are made here on a small scale, in two shops, which employ four hands. A value of four thousand five hundred dollars is the product ; raw material, 50 per cent.
There is also an organ factory, which employs twelve hands; builds organs to the value of twenty thousand dollars annually. Raw material, 40 per cent. The largest business in this line, is, however, that of making melodeons or melopeans and reed organs. Of these, there are three factories, which employ from forty to fifty hands, and make to the value of sixty-five thousand dollars ; raw material, 50 per cent. This is a rapidly increasing business.
Murch & White, workshop on Fifth street, between Main and Sycamore ; saleroom, 74 Fourth, near Walnut street. Manufacture the melodeon pianos, with Carhart's patent exhausting bellows. These are sold at from forty-five to five hundred dollars, varying with size, increased capacity, and finish. The melodeon piano, is a new and splendid instrument, one that will supply the place of the piano-forte, better than any instrument ever made ; better, for any- thing slow and plaintive, than the piano. It is intended for parlor, lodge-rooms, churches, and singing societies, and is the cheapest and best parlor instrument extant. Murch & White are the only manu- facturers of these instruments west of the mountains, and the only manufacturers who make the double reeded and six octaves. They also manufacture Carhart's improved melodeon, four, four and a-half and five octaves. Their yearly sales here, are to the value of thirty thousand dollars.
Murch & White keep also for sale, Gilbert's boudoir pianos, an article well worthy of inspection by those wanting pianos.
George A. Prince & Co., also manufacture their latest improved melodeons at Buffalo, New York ; one of their principal depôts is in this city, which will shortly become the place of its manufacture. Their wareroom is in the same building with that of Murch & White.
As this is a novel instrument, having been only introduced within
19
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MANUFACTURES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS.
the last three years, a description of the article may not be out of place here.
The cases are made of rosewood, and are as handsomely finished as any piano-forte. The key-board is precisely the same as the piano or organ, and the tone-which is very beautiful-closely resembles that of the flute stop of the organ-the notes speak the instant the keys are touched, and will admit of the performance of as rapid passages as the piano. The pedal, on the left, is intended for a swell, and by which the most beautiful effects can be produced. The pedal directly under the instrument supplies the wind, and works so easily that a child can manage it without any exertion. The bellows-which is something entirely new, and for which a patent was granted in December, 1846-is a reversed or exhaustion bel- lows; and it is this, in a measure, which produces the peculiar tone. The instrument can be immediately made portable, without detaching any part ; the bellows receding into the body of the instrument, and the legs folding under and springing to their places, leave the whole in a compact form. Each instrument has a packing-case, secured by lock and key.
The volume of tone is equal to that of a small organ, and by means of the swell, may be increased or diminished, at the pleasure of the performer ; it is sufficiently loud for small churches, and is well calculated for a parlor instrument. They have been examined and approved by hundreds of persons; but the best evidence of their merit is their rapid sale. But it is a new instrument-a new invention, and is yet but little known in the musical world ; and it is for this reason that the attention of all lovers of music is called to it, under the conviction that there are thousands who would lose no time in securing one, were they aware of the existence of such an instrument, and the low price at which it can be obtained.
Music Publishing, etc .- W. C. Peters & Sons, Melodeon building, are publishers of various approved works of instruction, for the piano, guitar, violin, etc., of which they are the authors, or hold the copy- rights. They also issue the newest and most popular music ; of which their catalogue presents a variety of solos, duetts, trios, and glees, adapted to vocal and instrumental use, marches, quick- steps, etc., to the extent of one thousand six hundred pieces, sixty of which, have been published during the last six months. Of these the paper is of Cincinnati manufacture, and the engraving, printing, etc., is all executed here. The firm supplies eastern publishers, and
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