USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 23
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the last ones was operated by the grandfather of Walter Hummel, the North Side real estate man.
"Milwaukee has produced and still is producing many oddities of manu- facture which are somewhat interesting for her citizens to know, and many achievements of invention are marked to the credit of the city in the far reaches of the commercial world.
"Leads in 'Hobbies.'- It requires something to eat or drink, perhaps, 10 inspire a general recognition of a certain production, in a line or a sentence. Commercial oddities, however, crop out here and there in an interesting man- ner. The product may not be as unusual as some feature of its production, but the feature emphasizes notices.
"Who would think to inquire, for instance, if Milwaukee was the leading producing city of America for toy horses? If such inquiry were made, never- theless, it would be found that Milwaukee, for nearly 50 years, has been manufacturing and selling more toy horses than any other city in the United States, and perhaps the world as well.
"Who would imagine that from every quarter in the United States and from Europe come orders for a certain make of artificial flowers, used for show-window adornment and clothing display, and-even as window dis- .plays for the most fashionable florists in the large cities. ?
"The fame of the art flowers of Milwaukee is abroad throughout the country and a large portion of the outside world. They are the product of the artistic efforts of a woman who started making a few at a time some years ago, but who enlarged the scope of her work as the demand for perfect imitations of posies grew. These flowers are made with a secret waxing process and are said to be so exact in reproduction that frequently mistakes are made which lead to much amusement.
"The story is told of a woman who went into one of Chicago's fashionable stores for a nosegay and ordered a selection from a salesman. The grouping was laid down momentarily beside a cluster of imitations of a similar Hower. When the salesman picked them up again the customer objected.
"'No, not those,' she said. These are the ones I selected,' pointing to the imitations. After some indignation had arisen by the salesman's persist- enee that the bouquet he held was the right one, she was asked to feel the imitations, and did so. Her surprise was equaled by her astonishment.
"Bird houses! A lot of wooden cages and houses for domestic and wild birds, does not sound very important. But it is important in Milwaukee, for there is one manufacturing plant which turns out nothing else.
"In the bird store world Milwaukee is of the highest standing. The maker of Milwaukee bird houses started in business while a youngster at school. lle made a little wooden cage one day and showed it to some of his ehmns. 'Aw, that's punk,' said one of the boy spectators. 'Better chop it up for kindling.'
"Apparently this was what the young manufacturer needed, for instead of becoming discouraged, he persevered in his efforts to make a perfect eage and eventually became a specialist in that line. Today there come to him orders from all parts of the country and his trade is a large one. Incidentally.
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and having nothing to do with the story, this bird house builder related recently that he had been informed that the boy who jeered at his first effort was convicted of a forgery in an Eastern city and now serving time.
"Though the bird houses are diminutive as a workman's task, compared to a real house, the volume of ontput from the bird house factory is greater than many a millwork concern which manufactures for the construction of human habitations.
"In fineness and skill in the manufacture of delicate instruments for gang. ing, Milwaukee is at the fore, also. A number of concerns manufacture gauges of miseroseopie measurement capability, and during the war the government found that Milwaukee was a valuable possession, indeed, in the production of this elass of instruments.
"A pair of specialities, whose coupling seems somewhat incongruous, is mayonnaise and mannequins. There are several large makers of mayonnaise and other dressings, one specializing in "Thousand Island dressing' a product that is distributed all over the United States. The volume of business that this line of industry develops is so large as to be astonishing, running into several hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
"The making of mannequins is an industry of comparatively recent origin, but it is rapidly increasing, largely because of the superior production attained, which, in turn, is due to a high quality of workmen procurable in Milwaukee.
"In a modest way Milwaukee aspires to be a silk hat center, and one large hat manufacturer distributes this (in the West) infrequent article of apparel to many parts of the country. In fact, it is probable that much of this produet is used to dislodge French or English importations.
"People who light their gas stoves by pressing a button connected with a flash lighter, probably do not know that the device was born and bred in Milwaukee and is, even now. largely manufactured here. Yet it is perfectly true. Another common device that is 'Milwaukee' is the automatie lubricator, in a variety of forms for various uses. This device was developed here and is still a large factor in manufactured products.
"Refrigerating machinery, electrical appliances, wheelbarrows, iron 'washers,' boat propellers, locomotives, cigar boxes ('cedared'), heavy dig- ging, hoisting and conveying machinery, magnetic separators, herringbone gears and battleship fire control devices are some of the oddities of Milwaukee manufacture.
"Growth of Enterprises .- There is a great romance in Milwaukee in- dustry,' said William George Bruce, long secretary of Milwaukee's merchants' and manufacturers' organizations. 'It has its inception in the lowly condition which existed when many of our present industries were founded. It lies in the transformation of back yard shacks into great factories-from the tumble down huts where some gritty man with real vision, started fashioning with his own hands some artiele which would be useful to mankind. Those were the days when the apprentice was the boss' chum. Then eame the step to quantity production, scientific organization and distribution on a systematic scale.
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"'Today those little enterprises have forged ahead and into huge in- dustrial units of the city. Romance ? I'll tell the world it is.
" .Then there is the interesting phase showing how Milwaukee came to lean toward manufacture. In early days the wholesale district, east of the river and south of Wisconsin Street, was a large, important factor of the city. These houses handled Eastern manufactures. There came a time when the trade in the Middle West demanded special attention in adaptations of manu- faetures to meet local needs. The Eastern makers did not respond. One by one, the wholesalers turned to produeing the goods wanted here, and grad- ually the wholesale business quarter shrunk to what it is now.
" . Milwaukee is a wonder city. It has grown and thriven as no other eity in the world, in the usually destructive shadow of a huge metropolis- Chicago. Every commercial advantage exists in Chicago, and nature itself conspires to defeat large cities in the shadows of a metropolis. Yet Mil- waukee has increased, though Chicago's roots reached out to deprive it of nourishment.
" "The vision of the pioneers of industry who settled here has proved correct. The initiative of a later generation has made it a great center. The cause is something besides geography, and I have concluded that it is what I may deseribe as "production ability" of the population. For Milwaukee is a great factory town, and commercial interests are secondary.
"'We manufacture so much here that we do not know all that we make. I reeall a worsted maker here, who tried to sell his eloth directly to tailors. He was unsuccessful. But one day a tailor sent a rush order to his cloth dealer in New York for an additional piece from a certain bolt. The tailor was surprised a week later to receive his cloth from the worsted maker. Ile had supposed his purchases were imports.
" 'We have been selling that "import house" for years;' the manufacturer said to the tailor. 'And I tried to get you to buy direet. But you wouldn't. And it cost you a great deal more the way you got it.'
" 'It did, but it won't any more,' replied the tailor.
"""And I know that it didn't.' "'
Paper making also was an industry fostered many years ago, and while it never gained any considerable proportion and in faet led a somewhat pre- carious existence, it had to give way to the more favorably situated paper mills in northern and central Wisconsin.
The same may be said of some of the woodworking industries. While the manufacture of sash, doors, and blinds and the designing and building of interior wood work grew to magnificent proportions other woodworking industries declined. Boxes and barrels, and particularly the former, how- ever, are still prodneed on a large scale, but the manufacture of such things as ax handles and household utensils is no longer carried on.
One of the old time industries somewhat unique in character, consisted of pottery making. The kilns were located in the very heart of the city, and the produet consisted of jugs, mugs and jars which went into the econo- mies of the household. The raw materials, namely the elays, came in ves- sels from Ohio ports. The competition of Ohio potters who had ready access
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to clays, it is said, eventually caused the decline of the industry here. Today the plant is still a jobbing house for pottery made in other states.
Individual Enterprise and Location .- In noting the industries that once flourished here and then declined it would be difficult in every instance to assign the causes for such decline. It is commonly assumed that industrial enterprises secure a better footing in certain localities than in others because of definite advantages, such as ready access to raw materials, proximity to markets and favorable labor conditions. This claim might be urged here, but the writer fears that it does not hold good entirely.
The iron industries may flourish best near the supply of ore and the fuel beds, coupled with a favorable center of distribution, but this does not apply too all other industries. The cotton for instance, which is grown in the South is largely manufactured at the New England mills. Many other industries might be enumerated where individual enterprise and energy rather than Joeation 'and environment have led to sneeess.
Thus, in noting some of the industries in Milwaukee which have become obsolete through unfavorable conditions, it may be well to point to the faet that many new industries have since come into existence through the sheer force of individual foresight and industry. The stability of an industry is also aided by the momentum it has acquired and the prestige that has been achieved. Certain eenters in Ohio that created pottery industries be- cause of their proximity to clay beds now draw their raw materials from other states and even from foreign countries. Their plants and organiza- tions have become highly developed, and their trade connections and reputa- tion firmly established. Proximity to the supply of raw materials is no longer an essential faetor.
Thus, there are today large and flourishing industrial enterprises in Mil- wankee whose success is largely if not wholly due to the enterprise and in- gennity of their projectors. When the knitting industry, for instance, was projected some years ago there were seepties who held that the East enjoyed advantages in the way of access to materials, skilled labor and distribution l'acilities not at command in the midwest territory.
But, today the knitting industry in Milwaukee has assumed enormous proportions and its products have found a market in all parts of the coun- try. Individual enterprise, ingenious production, successful advertising and marketing overeame the advantages usually credited to location. The in- herent ability of Milwaukee to produce wisely and market successfully is well demonstrated in the many new industries which have sprung up during the past quarter of a century. While the older industries have steadily growu in proportion and stability they have also amplified themselves in point of variety and in the newer things evolved with the progress made in the mechanic arts and the science of production.
With the advent of electricity, and its application to the uses of man. there also sprung into existence a number of plants making a great variety of electrical apparatus and devices. Inventive genius also made its con- tribution and evolved improvements which found universal recognition.
"Milwaukee now ranks as the fourth largest eandy manufacturing center
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in the United States, while from the standpoint of per capita output it is the largest. There are now more than twenty candy manufacturing plants in the eity, including two chocolate manufacturing concerns," says Alva H. Cook, an authority on the subject.
"During the year 1920, Milwaukee's confectionery output amounted to $18,659,115, but the 1921 output is valued at a lower figure because of the fact that candy prices declined during the year, while the volume of production was smaller. The candy factories here employed during the last year between 3,000 and 4,000 people, representing a wage expenditure of nearly $3,000,000. The capital stock of the manufacturing confectionery houses totals more than $8,000,000.
"Despite the fact that Milwaukee candy factories employ more than 3,000 people, there never has been even a hint of labor trouble here, largely because of the fairness shown by the manufacturers, who strongly believe in a spirit of cooperation between employer and employes."
The evolution of the automobile, too, found expression in many new plants prodneing accessories and parts. The efficiency manifested here has made, Milwaukee one of the largest producers in this field of industry. While the prodnetion of pleasure ears has never gained great importance it has at least a good start. In the meantime the building of trucks has made consid- erable progress. Whether or not the city will ever become an antomobile center it remains that it has received sufficient momentum in the production of accessories to promise even greater activities in this field in the future.
But, a long array of industries, which did not exist twenty-five years ago, have risen to importance and have attained a demand for their product cov- ering a wide area.
Inventors and Inventions .- C. Latham Sholes was the inventor of the typewriter. Ile germinated the idea which was developed into the modern typewriter and which has become an indispensable instrument in the field of intercommunication and record keeping. Mr. Sholes' device was crude in construction and incomplete in operation, but it embodied the principles which later on led to the development of the finished machine.
Arthur L. Morsell, a leading Milwaukee patent attorney, tells the story of this remarkable invention as follows: "While the Sholeses, father and son, were not the first inventors of the broad idea, they developed the same into a really practical and commercial machine. The first patent taken out for a typewriter in which the Sholes family figured was one issued to Sholes, Glidden and Sonle on June 23, 1868. Another patent was issued July 14, 1868, to Sholes, Glidden and Soule. On August 29, 1871, C. Latham Sholes obtained another patent covering an improvement on the machines patented to Sholes, Glidden and Soulé in June and July, 1868. Subsequently, in 1876, Sholes and Schwalbach, and in 1878, Sholes, Sholes and Glidden obtained other patents for improvements in typewriting machines.
"These patents of Sholes, Glidden and Soule (Sholes, Sholes and Sehwal- bach having come into the control of Remington & Sons of lion, New York), formed the basis that, in connection with excellent mechanical workmanship and extensive and persistent advertising, has placed machines of the gen-
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eral class covered by these patents in extensive use. The typewriter is one of the important inventions of modern times. As a substitute for handwrit- ing it is a great labor saver, not only for the individual who would himself write, but enables him to divide the work with another. In giving oppor- timity for wider business transactions with more accurate results and in providing employment for young women, it is the chiefest instrument of the age, and Milwaukee, as will be seen, has contributed largely to the develop- ment of this wonderful invention, and has had, and is entitled to, an important and honorable part."
The invention of a system of temperature regulation by Prof. Warren S. Johnson has proven a beneficent contribution to the welfare of mankind. The thermostatic control of temperature enables the saving of fuel wher- ever artificial heat is employed. The system is installed in thousands of schoolhouses, hotels, office buildings, hospitals, horticultural hothouses, re- frigeration plants, ete., in this country. It has not only proven a fuel saver, but also a conserver of health. The system has gone into general use through- ont the United States. It may also be found in many foreign countries. Some of the most sumptuous palaces of Europe, including those of many royal families, as well as hospitals, schools and hotels, are equipped with it. During the earlier part of this century a body of scientists of Germany sub- jeeted the invention to the severest test and declared it a permanent con- tribution to the well-being of the human race. AAmong the noted buildings equipped with the Johnson thermostat and temperature regulation in Europe is the Peace Palace, located at the Ilague, Holland, erected by the late Andrew Carnegie. On the whole, Professor Johnson was a remarkably prolifie inven- tor having invented several electric, pneumatie, horologie and thermatie de- vices of the greatest utility.
The old Allis Works have used to advantage hundreds of patented de- vices, beginning with Edwin Reynold's improvement on the Corliss engine. The late W. D. Gray's inventions in the line of milling machinery also con- tributed very greatly to the success of the original Allis Company. Other manufacturing plants in the same line in this city are likewise to a great extent dependent upon patented devices, so it is unquestionably true that Milwaukee's success in the line of iron, steel and heavy machinery is due, in a considerable measure, to patented devices. The leather industry, judging from the many patents taken out in this field, has also been greatly benefited.
The endless railway rail was the produet of the inventive thought of a former Milwaukeean, A. von Hoffmann, now a resident of St. Louis. The air- brakes which are now used generally on railroad cars throughout the world are the invention of Niels A. Christensen. A standard concrete mixer, which amassed a fortune for its inventor is the invention of the late Thomas L. Smith of Milwaukee. Stephen F. Moore, now deceased, a poor man, was without sufficient funds to pay for his application for patent, and the fees were advaneed for him. He invented a machine for carving wood, partieu- larly adapted for use in earving furniture. Ile made a fortune out of his United States patent, and obtained $15,000 cash for his English patent.
Henry Il. Cutler, one of the original organizers of the Cutler-Hammer Vol. 1-16
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Company of this city, a stupendously successful company, has taken out patents on various types of electric controllers which perhaps have a larger sale than any device of a similar character now on the market. Thus a whole manufacturing directory might be catalogued.
The boat motor invented by Ole Evinrude and known as the Evinrude motor has met with great success. It consists of a portable motor which can be attached to small boats providing ready propelling power. The motors have found recognition in all parts of the world.
Other inventions which have proven their utility and value are the uni- versal bolter by J. F. Harrison, saw mill set works by W. H. Tront, single roll crushers-convex by R. C. Newhouse, hydrocone by W. M. White, high speed, low head hydraulic turbine by F. Nagler, brazed steam turbine blading by C. E. Search, electrical machinery by B. A. Behrend, retarded relay electrical machinery by H. W. Cheney, governor by J. F. Max Patitz, a so-called island light by William W. Rumsen, and a carburetor by E. G. Hodge.
Diversified Production .- One of the elements of strength which attaches to the industrial activities of the city is found in the diversifieation of its pro- duction. Serious conditions have arisen in manufacturing eenters where pro- duetion has been confined to a few lines only. In time of a depression in these lines unemployment leads to migration of labor and the dissolution of plant organization.
It has been a peculiarity of Milwaukee's industrial field that while many of the plants have grown to enormous size and ontput, many smaller industries covering a large variety of output have come into existence. Nor, are the larger plants confined in the production to a limited number of articles.
The advantage which has acerued here is that while certain articles may for the time being command a limited sale other articles of production may command a fair market. Labor that may be rendered idle in one branch of industry may find employment in another, and while labor is not readily shifted from one to the other, it nevertheless follows that a part of the labor forces is constantly employed.
Another phase of industrial stability is found in the fact that Milwaukee factory plants deal in the main with the useful and the necessary things of life. Few industries are engaged in the production of luxuries. HIenee. a greater steadiness of output.
It will not be altogether out of place to mention here the progressive and Immane attitude of the employer towards his employes. The manufacturers have been able to maintain efficient working organizations because they have paid good wages and accorded fair treatment. In times of depression they have managed to distribute the days of labor among those most deserving and in greatest need.
Notwithstanding the changed relations from the old time employer and his few journeymen to the monster plants, many employers have succeeded in remaining in personal touch with their men and in demonstrating a practical and helpful interest in their material and moral welfare.
Exceeded the Billion Dollar Mark .- In the year 1920 the maximum figures in the value of production was reached. The increased cost of material and
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labor, together with an intensified production, no doubt, tended to swell the figures over those of previous years. At the same time these figures ineluded the normal inerease as well, and it must be assumed that if the war had not come the growth for that period would have continued at the rate of former years.
The figures are stupendous. The billion dollar mark was exceeded by a handsome margin. The statisties compiled by the Commercial Service Depart- ment of the First Wisconsin National Bank for the year 1921 show a return to normal figures. (See statistics beginning with page 247.)
Where Industrial Milwaukee Excels .- As already stated, the industries of the city enjoy both stability and momentum in that they deal with a diversified list of articles which go in useful channels of life and must be regarded as necessities rather than luxuries. It is equally interesting to point out where- in, or in what branches, the production is notable or excels. The following provides instructive reading in this direction :
Iron and Steel-Milwaukee is one of the largest steel casting eenters and has turned out some of the largest steel and grey iron castings made in the United States.
Machinery-Has some of the largest machinery construction shops in the world. Is a large producer of water pumping, ice-making and refrigeration machinery. Ilas exported more excavating machinery than any other city in the eountry.
Engines-Has turned out large Diesel engines, the largest gas engines, Uniflow engine and a majority of the gas engines built in the United States.
Traveling Cranes-Has the largest and best equipped plant for the manu- facture of electric traveling eranes and hoists in the United States.
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