USA > Pennsylvania > Northampton County > History of Northampton County [Pennsylvania] and the grand valley of the Lehigh, Volume I > Part 36
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During the last war in Europe the company received large contracts not only from the government but from foreign powers. The French government
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in 1914 gave a contract for $15,000,000 worth of munitions, and through the influence of Mr. Schwab the company was made the representative of the French government. The next year the English government ordered from the company eight thousand field pieces. In 1916, E. C. Grace, then presi- dent of the company, offered in case of war with Germany and Austria all the facilities of the Bethlehem Steel Company to the United States government.
The Bethlehem Steel Company control the Philadelphia, Bethlehem and New England Railroad; this railroad operates within their works and several independent industries along its line. They also control the Titusville Forge Company at Titusville, Pennsylvania; the Jaraqua Iron Company on the south coast of Cuba that ships ore to their Bethlehem plant; the Bethlehem- Chile Iron Mines Company in the province of Coquin, where ore of the highest quality is mined ; the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation at Quincy, Massachusetts, for the building of battleships; the Union Iron Works, a shipbuilding company at San Francisco, California, that repaired battleships and merchant vessels and manufactured mining machinery ; the Harlan and Hollingsworth Corporation of Wilmington, Delaware, that manufacture mer- chant vessels and ferryboats; the Samuel L. Moore and Sons Corporation at Elizabethport, New Jersey, engaged in general foundry and machine busi- ness; the Bethlehem Steel Products Company, organized to facilitate the selling of products for export; the Bethlehem Iron Mines Company, that controls iron ore deposits on the north coast of Cuba, and in the Adirondack region of New York.
The Bethlehem Steel Corporation made its fourteenth annual report in 1918. The company's gross sales for that year were $448,410,808, from which $394,993,090 were deducted for manufacturing cost and operating expenses, leaving a net manufacturing profit of $53,417,718, to which is added $3,771,050 for interest, dividends and other miscellaneous income. The gross increase of earnings over 1917 were $149,463,413. The company had on hand at the close of 1918 orders aggregating the value of $328,946,065. The Bethlehem Steel Corporation is a member of the Consolidated Steel Corporation, organ- ized to engage in more energetic development of the export steel business than could be economically done by the various members individually. Dur- ing the period of the war the company made for the United States govern- ment and its allies 3,570 finished guns ; 7,582 finished gun carriages, limbers and caissons ; 599 finished naval gun mounts ; 11,000 gun forgings ; 18,477,876 rounds of complete field gun ammunition; 1,710,579 projectiles for ammuni- tion ; 69,409,533 pounds of armor plate, and 897,178 gross tons of shell steel. In finished guns, gun forgings and complete ammunition the above figures represent sixty percent., sixty-five percent., and forty percent. respectively of the entire output of the country. The shipbuilding plants of the corpora- tion during the progress of the war delivered to the Emergency Fleet Cor- poration 625,000 deadweight tons of merchant shipping, about twenty-two percent. of the country's output. To the United States Navy sixteen subma- rines and twenty-six torpedo boat destroyers were delivered, and early in 1919 thirty-six additional destroyers were launched and fitted out. The company at its main plant at Bethlehem gives employment to over 20,000 wage earners.
The Bethlehem Foundry and Machine Company is located at Bethlehem.
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The company repairs machinery, also manufactures iron, steel, brass and bronze castings, and employs about two hundred and fifty men. The Naza- reth Foundry and Machine Company of Nazareth was established in 1901 . with a capital of $50,000, which was invested in the plant, which occupied two acres of ground. The first president of the company was Conrad Miller, and at his death he was succeeded by his son, John A. Miller. The plant was sold to the Kelvin Engineering Company of New Jersey in July, 1917. The annual product is about $300,000, employment being given to one hun- dred men, with an average monthly pay-roll of $9,000.
CHAPTER XXV
THE SLATE INDUSTRY
Slate is an argilaceous rock of various colors-blue, green, purple, gray and black-and is of a peculiar structure, by which it readily splits into thin plates or laminae. It is of sedimentary origin, being primarily deposited on ocean floors as fine mud formed by waste and denudation of pre-existing rocks, and afterwards compressed and hardened and altered into compact rock. The slate beds frequently alternate with bands of grit and limestone, or are interstratified with felspath lava or ashes. They are frequently tilted up from their original horizontal or nearly horizontal positions, and stretch across wide districts in a series of undulations, which rise to the surface in crests or dips into troughs underground and form angles of every inclination with the horizon.
The slate rocks are quarried both above and below ground, and worked by terraces or galleries formed along the beds. Sometimes it becomes neces- sary to sink shafts, as in coal pits, but this leads to excessive costs, which is a serious drawback. The slate rock is often traversed by thin seams of quartz, but the prepared slate should be entirely free from foreign minerals, espe- cially iron pyrites, when exposed are liable to decompose, thereby weakening roofing slates. Slate rock splits along cleavage planes, which are distinct from and independent of original stratification. They are, as a rule, vertical or highly inclined, and intersect the lines of the slate beds at various angles, but sometimes coincide with them.
In the process of manufacturing the slate rock is bored by jumper drills ; when the boring is done, an explosive-generally rock blasting powder-is used for the blast. The good blocks are then taken, split and dressed into slate of the thickness of a quarter of an inch, more or less, according to size and strength required. The blocks should be compact and solid, the best results being obtained when they are fresh from the quarries, as in drying they are apt to lose their property of splitting freely, though freezing may restore this necessary quality, and a succession of frosts and thaws has the effect of thorough seasoning. The blocks, after being shaped and trimmed, are split into any desired thickness. The faces are smooth and parallel, without any curvatures or irregularities; there should be no lines of cross fracture that should prevent them from breaking in any one direction more than another. When a slate is balanced on the finger and struck with a hammer it should give forth a clear, ringing sound, and when dried in an oven and immersed in water should absorb but little of that liquid.
The common roofing slate of commerce is generally fine grained, com- bining great strength and durability with moderate weight. It is almost universally used for roofing houses and buildings of every description, and for such purposes it is unequalled, possessing all the qualities necessary for protection against wind, rain and storm. The colors of the slates are char- acterized by the mineral that chiefly prevails in its composition. The most
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common colors are blue, green and purple, and depends mainly on the pres- ence of iron and the form in which it exists. Slabs are also manufactured, being cut, planed, dressed and enameled for chimney-places, billiard tables, wall linings, cisterns, paving, tombstones, ridge rolls and various other architectural and industrial purposes. School slates and blackboards are also manufactured; for the latter it is necessary to get the slate rock out in large masses. This is done by means of cutting machines called channellers; the large blocks are then hoisted to the surface, sawed, rubbed and shaved to a fine, smooth surface. Slate pencils are made from argilaceous slate rock, sometimes from telecose slate, also from various materials ground together and compressed.
The history of slate dates back to the sixteenth century, when the quar- ries of France and Wales acquired considerable importance. The industry, however, belongs mainly to the nineteenth century, in which its progress and development have been great and rapid. The slate belt of Northampton county extends throughout all its northern range of townships, and is the important industry of that district. The early operators in the slate industry in Northampton county sank fortunes before the product could be fully introduced for roofing purposes. The first operating company we have any record of was the Pennsylvania Slate Company, who opened a quarry in Upper Mount Bethel township in 1806. This company fixed a price of fifteen dollars for one hundred square feet of roofing slate laid. It was not, however, until the middle of the past century that any progress was made in making Pennsylvania slate a marketable product. William Chapman, a gentleman of Cornish extraction, a practical slater, came to America and settled in Northampton county in 1842. He became interested in quarries in Moore township, and was the master spirit in perfecting their manage- ment and in raising the quantity, quality and general reputation of the slate product, which commended them not only to American but European pur- chasers. The quarries were opened in Moore township in 1850, but it was not until March 29, 1864, that the Chapman Slate Company was incorporated. The Company erected in 1875 a factory for sawing, planing and manufactur- ing slate rock into billiard, bagatelle, table and counter tops, cisterns, mantels, lintels, blackboards, window-sills, coping, stairways, floor tiles, ridge poles and flagging. The present industries at Chapman Quarries are the Chapman Slate Company, Chapman Standard Slate Company and the Keystone Slate Company. Then followed the usual development of other slate industries in different localities. At Danielsville, in Lehigh township, the Little Gap Slate Quarry was opened by Owen Jones and Owen Williams. The opening of this quarry was soon followed in the same township by the operating of the Heimbach and Eagle quarries, and later by the organizing of others. The Mount Bethel Slate Company was incorporated February 27, 1868, with a capital stock of $100,000.
Pennsylvania slate as early as 1872 was recognized as being superior to the Vermont slate for roofing purposes, and shipments were made to New England. The demand thus created caused the establishment of new quar- ries, and the population of the slate belt was materially increased. The panic of 1873, however, caused a reaction, and a number of slate quarries
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near Bangor were sold by the sheriff. George and James Coffin, in 1870, invented a noiseless school slate frame, and in that year Lerch & Company at Danielsville produced eighty thousand dozen of school slates, which was one-third of the total production in the United States at that time.
The slate industry of the present day in Northampton county is repre- sented by from forty to fifty companies, who give employment to about three thousand wage earners, the majority of whom are of foreign extrac- tion. The companies employing over fifty hands are the American Slate Company, Bangor Vein Slate Company, Columbia Bangor Slate Company, East Bangor Consolidated Slate Company, Hammann Slate Company, Keenan Structural Slate Company, J. S. Moyer Company, North Bangor Slate Company, Old Bangor Slate Company, Northampton Hard Vein Slate Company, M. L. Tinsman & Company, Alpha Slate Manufacturing Company, Phoenix Slate Company, Albion Vein Slate Company, The Crown Slate Com- pany, The Diamond Slate Company, Jackson Bangor Slate Company and Parsons Brothers Slate Company.
We append, with pleasure, further statistics of the companies whose officials had the courtesy to answer a questionnaire mailed to them for more detailed information.
The Arvon Slate Company was founded by a partnership between J. A. Elsey and W. J. Seiple in August, 1908, and incorporated under its present title, with a capital stock of $100,000 in December, 1910. The present officers are W. J. Seiple, president; D. B. Heller, vice-president; John A. Elsey, treasurer; W. D. Weikheiser, secretary. Structural slate, blackboards and roofing slate are manufactured. The production in the last year, however, was confined to the two first articles, of which about 140,000 feet of struc- tural slate and 35,000 feet of blackboards were made. The quarries are located at Wind Gap, and employment is given to about thirty hands. The Phoenix Slate Company's quarry and mills are also located at Wind Gap, two miles west of Pen Argyl. This company was established in 1907, though its quarry was in operation many years prior to this. The highest efficiency is obtained, as the quarry and mills are installed with modern and adequate equipment to obtain the most finished products. The average monthly pro- duction is over 60,000 square feet of slate, employing almost one hundred men, and has been in continuous operation since its organization.
The Albion Vein Slate Company of Pen Argyl was incorporated May 5, 1908, with a capital stock of $40,000. The present officers have served since its organization, namely : David Stoddard, president; George Stoddard, treasurer, and H. L. Young, secretary. Roofing slate, blackboards and struc- tural slate are produced, which furnish employment for one hundred and fifty men. The Columbia Bangor Slate Company was originally a partner- ship, and was incorporated under its present title, July 13, 1907, with a capital stock of $15,000. The officers at the time of the organization of the company were: George H. Mutton, president; Thomas Ditchell, secretary and treasurer. The present officers are: William Blake, president, and William Ditchell, secretary and treasurer. About twenty-five thousand squares of roofing slate are manufactured annually, giving employment to about eighty wage earners. Another thriving industry of Pen Argyl is the
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Diamond Slate Company, incorporated November 17, 1909, with a capital stock of $10,000. There has been no change in the executive officers since the organization of the company. The present officers are: Herman A. Miller, president; Alfred Doney, treasurer, and William A. Doney, secretary. About 550,000 square feet of blackboards and structural slate are produced yearly, which are sold in the United States and Canada, furnishing employ- ment to fifty-five men.
The North Bangor Slate Company was the outgrowth of individual operations that was founded in 1863, which continued for twenty years. For the next score of years it was a corporation under New York State laws, and was reorganized in 1913 with a capital of $45,000, with a Pennsylvania charter. The president of the first corporation was Abram W. Thompson, who was succeeded in 1887 by Elkanah Drake, who filled the position until 1895, when the present president, D. H. Keller, was elected. A yearly produc- tion of $150,000 of roofing slates, blackboards, structural slate and school slates are manufactured, furnishing employment to about one hundred and twenty men. The Bangor Slate Mining Company of Bangor was an out- growth of a partnership existing between James Masters and B. W. Ribble, founded in 1901. The present company was incorporated March 28, 191I, with a capital stock of $75,000. The yearly output aggregates about $150,000 of roofing slate, structural slate and blackboards. Exports are made to England. Ireland and Australia. The company's employes number about two hundred. From a partnership founded in 1895, the Albion Bangor Slate Company of Bangor was incorporated, in 1902, with a capital stock of $150,- 000. The officers at the time of the organization of the company were Charles Shuman, president; A. O. Allen, treasurer. The present officers are William Bray, president; G. W. Raesly, treasurer, and William P. Bray, secretary. All kinds of slate productions are produced, and the number of employes averages about forty. The foundation of the Woodley Slate Com- pany of Bangor dates back to 1880, when the business was conducted as a partnership. The company was incorporated under its present title, Novem- ber I, 1908, with a capital stock of $25,000. The executive officers at the time of the organization were Thomas Bolger, president and treasurer, James H. Wiswell, secretary. The latter resigned and was succeeded by James H. Bolger, who is the present secretary and treasurer of the company. The yearly production aggregates about 336,000 square feet of structural slate, employment being furnished to about thirty-five hands. Another in- dustry in which those connected with the Woodley Slate Company are interested is the Lehigh Structural Slate Manufacturing Company, which was incorporated June 4, 1907, with a capital stock of $15,000. There has been no change in the officers since the organization of the corporation. They are: Thomas Bolger, president ; J. H. Mishon, treasurer ; J. H. Bolger, secretary. The company yearly produces 350,000 square feet of blackboards, using the new method of polishing by machinery instead of shaving, which was the former process.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE CEMENT INDUSTRY
The principal hydraulic cements are termed natural, Portland and pozzuo- lan. The natural, sometimes called Roman cement, is the product obtained by calcining an argillaceous limestone without pulverization of other ma- terials at a temperature only slightly above that used for burning lime and by finally grinding the burned mass. The limestone is calcined in small lumps with coal in statuary-kilns. Its manufacture dates back to 1790 in France, Germany and England. The building of the Erie canal in 1818 was the cause of the first discovery of cement rock in the United States, and the product thus obtained was used in the building the walls and the locks of the canal. Natural cement sets more rapidly, but it does not possess as much initial strength as Portland cement. It is of a yellow or brown color and has a lower specific gravity than Portland cement. The latter was invented by Joseph Ashden of Leeds, England, and is named from its fancied resemblance when set to the well known limestone of the Jurassic age, quarried for building purposes on Portland Isle, Dorsetshire, England.
Portland cement is a chemical combination consisting principally of silicates and aluminates of lime, mixed in certain percentage. To this material are added limestone and clay, or shale marl and clay, or blast furnace slag is sometimes used. The first process of manufacturing is to reduce this combination to a powder, making the mixture homogenous, properly propor- tioned. When this compound is readily disintegrable in water it is reduced by one of the wet processes; if, however, the compound is of hard materials, it is slightly moistened before the grinding process. The fuel used in the kiln is generally powdered coal, but crude petroleum and natural gas are also used. The burning or calcination is continued until a clinker is obtained of a grayish or greenish black in color; to this is added a small portion of gypsum to serve as a retarder. The mixture is then ground to an impalpable powder, and after a period of curing is ready for use.
From the chemist's or scientific point of view, pure Portland cement, according to the latest researches, is a dry, impalpable powder composed of an almost molecular combination of tri-calcium silicate, di-calcium alumi- nate and crystaline calcium oxide. From the manufacturer's point of view, Portland cement is an impalpable powder produced by the fine grinding of a natural or artificial combination of silicious, aluminous and calcarious ma- terials in fairly well defined proportions, which materials have been uni- formly mixed and heated to such a temperature that the alumina and silica may become chemically combined with lime, this action best taking place when the combination is heated to a point of incipient fusion. After this burning. the so-called clinker thus produced is cooled and pulverized; and during the manufacture of this powder still other components are added within advisable or stipulated limits for purposes of regulating the setting time or affecting other characteristics of the cement when employed for actual work.
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The extreme fineness for grinding is a prime essential of good Portland cement. Many brands are ground so they will pass through a sieve having ten thousand meshes per square inch. Portland cement acts slower than natural cement, but attains its maximum strength more quickly. The color of the finished cement is of various shades of gray, some of it being white.
The pozzuolan cement is a mixture of a siliceous and aluminous material, such as power blast furnace slag, or volcanic ashes and powdered slated lime. The mixture is not burned at any stage of the process of manufacturing, and when made into mortar it has the property of hardening under water.
One of the chief industries of Northampton county is the manufacture of Portland cement. Northampton county is the very heart of the largest cement producing section of America and it is even claimed that the largest cement mill of the world is located within its limits. Cement is made in the Lehigh Valley from cement rock, the deposit of which is one of the largest and purest found anywhere in the world. This cement rock was discovered in 1826 at Siegfried Bridge, now Northampton, by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company while surveying and building the canal through the valley. In 1850 cement was manufactured at Siegfried Bridge. At the Allen Mill, later acquired by the Bonneville Cement Company, and now a part of Lawrence Plant, cement was made from which an arch was erected at the Centennial Celebration at Philadelphia in 1876. In 1866 Mr. Saylor began the manufacture of cement at Coplay, and in 1875 produced the "First true Portland cement." This gave rise to the cement industry of the Lehigh district. The cement rock is found in a restricted area like the arc of a circle extending from Evansville, in Bucks county on the west, through Lehigh and Northampton counties, into Warren county, New Jersey, as far east as New Village, New Jersey. The important plants in Northampton county are located at Northampton, Bath, Nazareth, Stockerstown and Mar- tin's Creek.
The manufacture of Portland cement is of recent origin in the United States, as it dates back only to the early seventies, when it was first pro- duced in the Lehigh district of Pennsylvania.
The original plant of the Lawrence Portland Cement Company was one of the first mills erected in Northampton county. It began the manufacturing of "Dragon Portland Cement," the name under which its product is known and has acquired fame, in 1889. The mill has a capacity of 4,500 barrels per day, and employs about 275 men. Formerly it exported considerable cement, but of late its entire output is consumed domestically. In the erection of the United States Senate Office Building and the National War College, Wash- ington, D. C., Dragon Portland Cement was used exclusively. The Law- rence Company also furnished the greater portion of the cement used in the construction of the Hudson River Tunnel and the New Subway in New York City. During the year 1918 two-thirds of the cement produced went to the United States Government. The main office of the company is at Northampton, with sales offices in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Cumberland. The board of directors are: President, E. R. Ackerman; Vice-presidents : C. A. Porter, M. S. Ackerman, F. H. Smith, Townsend Russ- more, James E. Clark, Frank E. Clark, H. D. Brewster and James S. Van Middlesworth.
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The manufacture of Atlas Portland Cement was commenced at the Coplay (Pennsylvania) plant in 1890, and during that year about 12,000 barrels of Atlas Portland Cement were manufactured. During the year 1891, this was increased to 35,000 barrels and the increase has been steadily maintained so that the Atlas Portland Cement Company have a capacity of about eighteen million barrels of Atlas Portland Cement per year. The property at Coplay, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, known as the Saylor mill, was acquired in 1888. The following year all right, title and interest in the then operating company were secured, and another company organized which, together with subsequent companies, were succeeded by the Atlas Portland Cement Company, organized under the laws of the State of Penn- sylvania, in 1899. In the year 1895 land was purchased in Allen township, Northampton county, now Northampton, and the Atlas Company's plant No. 2 was built. Subsequently plant No. 3 and plant No. 4 were constructed, and at about the same time plant No. 4 was completed, plants Nos. 5 and 6 at Hannibal, Missouri, were under construction and carried to completion ; subsequent thereto a large plant at Hudson, New York, was added to the number.
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