EARLY AMERICAN MECHANICS
The phrase “Yankee ingenuity” has become a part of the English
language. If New England no longer holds all the good mechanics in
the United States, there was a time when she came so near it that the
term “New England mechanic” had a very definite meaning over the whole
country.
The industrial development of New England was long delayed, but once
started it was rapid. Up to 1800 New England artisans supplied merely
small local needs and there was little or no manufacturing in any
modern sense; but from then on the development was so rapid that by
1850 New England was not only supplying the United States with most of
its manufactured products, but was beginning to export machinery and
tools to England, where machine tools originated. For five generations,
American mechanics had little or no industrial influence on Europe, and
then within fifty years they began to compete on even terms.
There were several reasons for this. A market for machinery must of
necessity be a wide one, for no single community, not even a large
modern city, can alone support a great manufacturing enterprise.
Machinery building can thrive only in a settled country having a
large purchasing power and good transportation facilities. The
colonies lacked all of these conditions; the people were widely
scattered and poor, and there were practically no facilities for
heavy transportation, at least by land. The colonial mechanics were
often ingenious and skilled, but they had few raw materials and they
could supply only their immediate neighborhood. Any approach to
specialization and refinement was therefore impossible.
The second cause for delayed development was England’s industrial
policy toward her American colonies. The colonists had hardly gained
a foothold when they began to show a manufacturing spirit and an
industrial independence which aroused the apprehension of the
manufacturing interests in England. The first importations of iron
into England from the colonies came from Virginia and Maryland, about
1718.[107] The importations for a few years thereafter are not known,
as no records are available. They were sufficient, however, to arouse
the jealousy of the English iron masters, for, although there was
plenty of iron ore in England, they were beginning to feel seriously
the shortage in wood which was then used for its reduction. They
felt that the abundance of iron ore, fuel and water power in America
constituted a serious menace, and they vigorously opposed the growth of
any kind of manufacture in the colonies. This resulted in a prohibition
of the manufacture of any form of ironware and of bar or pig iron
by forges or other works. In spite of these repressive measures, a
report on manufactures in the colonies, made to the House of Commons
in 1731, indicated that New England had six furnaces, nineteen forges,
one slitting mill and one nail factory.[108] These could, however,
have supplied only a small part of the materials required even for
colonial use. By 1737 much discussion had arisen respecting the policy
of encouraging importation of American iron, and petitions in favor
of doing so were presented to Parliament. England imported at that
time about 20,000 tons of foreign iron, 15,000 from Sweden and 5000
from Russia, most of which was paid for in money.[109] It was urged
that if this could be obtained from the colonies it could be paid for
in British manufactures, at a saving of £180,000 annually. The annual
production of bar iron in England was about 18,000 tons, and on account
of the shortage of wood this could not be materially increased. To
encourage colonial exportation of pig and bar iron to England would, it
was urged, be the best means of preventing such further manufacturing
as would interfere with their own. It was, therefore, proposed that a
heavy duty be laid on all iron and manufactured products imported into
the colonies from continental Europe, and on all iron imported into
England except from America. These views prevailed and resulted in the
act of 1750, which was entitled “An act to encourage the importation
of pig and bar iron from His Majesty’s Plantations in America,” and
provided that “pig-iron made in the British Colonies in, America,
may be imported, duty free, and bar-iron into the port of London; no
bar-iron, so imported, to be carried coastwise, or to be landed at
any other port, except for the use of his Majesty’s dock yards; and
not to be carried beyond ten miles from London.”[110] With this was
incorporated another clause designed to arrest all manufacture at
that stage. It was enacted that “from and after the 24th day of June,
1750, no mill, or other engine for slitting or rolling of Iron, or any
plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making
steel shall be erected, or after such erection, continued in any of
his Majesty’s Colonies of America” under penalty of £200.[111] This
attempt to stifle the industrial life of the colonies, persistently
adhered to, ultimately brought about the Revolution.
[107] J. L. Bishop: “History of American Manufactures,” Vol. I, p.
625.
[108] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 623.
[109] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 623.
[110] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 624.
[111] _Ibid._, Vol. I, pp. 624-625.
From 1730 to 1750 there had been an importation of about 2300 tons
of bar iron annually, 90 per cent of which came from Maryland and
Virginia, and a little less than 6 per cent from Pennsylvania. New
England and New York were producing iron by that time, but were using
nearly all of their product, hence their small share in the trade. The
iron masters of the midland counties in England protested against this
act, prophesying the utter ruin of the English iron industry. England,
they said, would be rendered dependent upon the colonies, and thousands
of English workmen would be reduced to want and misery; American iron
could never supply the place of the Swedish iron in quality, nor the
Russian iron in cheapness, consequently the manufacture of tools would
be stopped and numberless families reduced to beggary.
The manufacturers of Birmingham, on the other hand, petitioned that
the bill was a benefit to their trade and to the colonists, who
would exchange their raw products for British manufactures; that
manufacturing was more valuable to the nation than the production
of raw materials, and as iron could not be produced at home in
such quantity and at such price as to supply all the needs of the
manufacturers, it was the duty of Parliament to encourage the
importation of raw materials, even if it should arrest their production
in England; that the importation of iron from America could affect
the iron works no more than the same quantity from any other country,
and the home production was less than one-half the amount required,
and growing steadily dearer: that the increasing activity of the
English manufacturers rendered it more and more necessary to obtain
these materials at the lowest price, and the only way to do this was
either to reduce the duty on continental iron, or make it necessary for
English iron masters to reduce their prices by raising up a rival in
America. They heartily concurred, however, in the prohibition of all
finishing of materials as an interference with British manufactures.
The merchants of Bristol petitioned that American bar iron, which was
admitted only at the port of London, be imported duty free into all
of His Majesty’s ports. This discussion continued until 1757, when
the privilege of importation was extended to the other ports of Great
Britain.[112]
[112] _Ibid._, Vol. I, pp. 626-627.
Under the act of 1750, the importation rose to about 3250 tons, 94 per
cent of which still came from Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Practically all the iron produced in New England was used there, for,
despite the repressive measures from the mother country, small local
manufacturing enterprises, “moonshine iron works,” were constantly
cropping up. The iron supply of New England came at first from the bog
ores in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. By 1730-1760 better
mines were opened at Salisbury, Conn., and in Orange County, New
York, so that the production of iron in the bog-ore regions gradually
dwindled.
The Revolution terminated British legislative control over the trade
and manufactures of America. The war itself furnished a market for
supplies for the army, and the manufacture of cannon and guns was
active. Many of these factories were ruined by the flood of imports
which followed the Revolution. In 1789 the present Federal Government
replaced the ineffective Confederation, which had left to the separate
states the duty of protecting their manufacturing interests, and
a tariff was placed upon manufactured articles. Freed from the
old restrictions, and with foreign competition largely precluded,
manufacturing industries began to spring up on every hand.
A third cause contributed to rapid development at this time. An
enormous production of cotton followed Whitney’s invention of the
cotton gin in 1792, and the South, which had never been a manufacturing
community, furnished both a source of supply and a rich market,
easily accessible by coastwise trade. The beginnings of New England’s
manufacturing industries are closely identified with the rise of
the American cotton crop, and most of the first machine shops were
developed to manufacture textile machinery.
England, who seems to have blundered whenever she legislated on early
American trade, made one more serious mistake. In 1785 Parliament
passed a stringent law, with severe penalties, to stop the emigration
of all mechanics and workmen in iron and steel manufactures, and
to prevent not only the exportation of every description of tool,
engine or machine, or parts of a machine used in making and working
up iron and other materials, but even the models and plans of such
machinery.[113] England was then the most advanced of all countries
in the production of engines, tools and textile machinery, and it was
hoped by this act that manufacturing might be kept there. It had the
opposite effect so far as America was concerned. It was inevitable
that mechanics, such as Samuel Slater and William Crompton, should
get away, and with them, ideas. The act only stimulated a race of
skillful mechanics in America to independent development of machine
tools, textile machinery, and the like. America, instead of buying her
machinery from England as she would naturally have done, proceeded to
make it herself.
[113] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 630.
One of the earliest American mechanics was Joseph Jenks, who came
from Hammersmith, England, to Lynn, Mass., about 1642, and died in
1683. With the backing of Governor Winthrop, he set up an iron foundry
and forge near a bog-iron mine. The very first attempt in America to
start an iron works had been made in Virginia more than twenty years
before, at the settlement of Jamestown. It was hardly started, however,
before it was destroyed in the general sack of the settlement, and for
one hundred years there was no further attempt at producing iron in
Virginia.[114]
[114] Beverley: “History of Virginia.” Bishop: “History of American
Manufactures,” Vol. I, pp. 469, 595.
From the little forge and foundry started at Lynn, there is no break
in the spread of iron manufacturing in this country. The forge was
located on the lands of Thomas Hudson, of the same family as Hendrick
Hudson, the explorer. Jenks was “the first founder who worked in brass
and iron on the western continent. By his hands, the first models were
made and the first castings taken of many domestic implements and iron
tools.”[115] The very first casting is said to have been an iron quart
pot.
[115] Lewis: “History of Lynn.”
For many years the colonial records refer to his various activities.
He made the dies for the early Massachusetts coinage, including
the famous pine-tree shilling.[116] In 1646 the General Court of
Massachusetts resolved that “_In answer to the peticon of Joseph
Jenckes, for liberty to make experience of his abilityes and Inventions
for ye making of Engines for mills to go with water for ye more speedy
despatch of work than formerly, and mills for ye making of Sithes
and other Edged tools, with a new invented Sawe-Mill, that things
may be afforded cheaper than formerly, and that for fourteen yeeres
without disturbance by any others setting up like inventions; ... this
peticon is granted._”[117] In 1655 he was granted a Massachusetts
patent for scythes, his improvement consisting of making them long and
thin, instead of short and thick, as in the old English scythe, and
of welding a bar of iron upon the back to strengthen it, which later
became the universal practice,[118] and no radical change has been made
in the blade of this implement since his day. He built for the town
of Boston the first fire engine used in this country, and also made
machines for drawing wire. Jenks seems to have also been interested in
another iron works started at Braintree between 1645 and 1650.
[116] Weeden: “Economic and Social History of New England,” Vol. I,
p. 191.
[117] Goodrich: “History of Pawtucket,” p. 17.
[118] Weeden, Vol. I, p. 184. Bishop, Vol. I, p. 477.
An iron works was started at Raynham in 1652 by the Leonards, who came
from England about the same time as Jenks and had worked at Lynn.[119]
The Jenks and Leonard families were all mechanics. It used to be said
that wherever you found a Leonard you found a mechanic; and the Jenks
family has been in some form of manufacturing continuously from the
days of Joseph Jenks to the present time.
[119] Bishop, Vol. I, p. 479. Weeden, Vol. I, p. 192.
The near-by portions of Rhode Island and Massachusetts centering on
the headwaters of Narragansett Bay, became famous for the production
and manufacture of iron. A young Scotchman, Hugh Orr, settled in
Bridgewater about 1738. He was a pioneer in the manufacture of edged
tools, and is said to have introduced the trip hammer into this
country. “For several years he was the only edge-tool maker in this
part of the country, and ship-carpenters, millwrights, etc., ...
constantly resorted to him for supply. And, indeed, such was his fame,
that applications were frequently made to him from the distance of
_twenty miles_ for the purpose of having an axe, an adze or an auger
new tempered by his hands.” In 1748, he built 500 stand-of-arms for the
province, the first made in America, and later did much casting and
boring of cannon during the Revolution. After the war, he made cotton
machinery until his death in 1798, at the age of eighty-two. Weeden
credits Hugh Orr with being “perhaps the most conspicuous” American
iron worker in the eighteenth century. His son, Robert Orr, was also a
skilled mechanic, and was one of the very early master armorers of the
Springfield Arsenal.[120]
[120] Weeden, Vol. II, p. 685. Bishop, Vol. I, pp. 486-487.
Joseph Holmes is another of the pioneers of this neighborhood. He
is said to have made more than 3000 tons of iron from bog ore, and
“Holmes’ iron” was famous for anchors. He also furnished many of the
cannon used in the Revolution.[121] The Hope Furnace at Scituate, R.
I., famous for many years, was started about 1735 by Daniel Waldo.[122]
A nail mill was in operation at Milton, Mass., about 1740 or 1742.
Another was started at Middleboro about 1745, on information stolen, it
is said, from Milton by a mechanic disguised as a rustic.[123] A mill
for making scythes was in operation at Andover in 1715, and a “heavy”
forge was in operation at Boston in 1720.[124] Nearly all the cannon
for the early American frigates were cast in and about Providence.
Capt. Stephen Jenks was making arms in North Providence at the
beginning of the Revolution.[125] An account of the early attempts in
iron manufacture in Rhode Island can be found in Vol. III of Field’s
“State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.”
[121] Bishop, Vol. I, p. 489.
[122] Field: “State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” Vol.
III, p. 331.
[123] Weeden, Vol. II, p. 499.
[124] _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 498.
[125] _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 793.
The Jenks’ influence had spread to Rhode Island as early as 1655 when
Joseph Jenks, Jr., who had learned the business with his father, moved
from Lynn to the headwaters of Narragansett Bay, and founded Pawtucket.
He built a forge near a bog-ore mine and water power, and began making
domestic utensils and iron tools. The settlement was destroyed by the
Indians in 1675, during King Philip’s war, but was soon rebuilt. The
son of this Jenks, the third Joseph Jenks, was born there, and later
became a very influential man in the colony. He was governor for five
years and was interested in many of its activities.[126] Providence,
from its better situation commercially, early became a trading center,
but nearly all the manufacturing was done at Pawtucket on account of
the abundant water power. In fact, it was not until the steam engine
rendered manufacturing independent of water power that Providence took
the lead as an industrial center.
[126] Goodrich, pp. 18-23.
In the enterprises centering about Pawtucket and Providence, one finds
continually the names of Jenks, Wilkinson, Brown and Greene, among the
latter that of Nathaniel Greene, the Revolutionary general, who had
a cannon factory at Coventry. Of these early families the Wilkinsons
were the most influential. Oziel Wilkinson, a Quaker, came to Pawtucket
from Smithfield, R. I., established an anchor forge there in 1784, and
soon became the leading man in the community. He built an air furnace
in 1791, and three years later he furnished castings for the Cambridge
drawbridge and for canal locks, probably those first used on the
Merrimac River.[127] He and his family had a most important part in
the development of early manufacturing in America. He had six sons and
four daughters. Four of the sons worked in two partnerships, one of
Abraham and Isaac (twins), the other of David and Daniel. The fifth
son was also a successful manufacturer. One of his daughters married
Samuel Slater, who will be mentioned later; one married Timothy Greene,
another, William Wilkinson, and the youngest, Hezekiah Howe, all of
whom were manufacturers. The remaining son, the only child unaccounted
for, died at the age of four years.[128]
[127] _Ibid._, p. 51.
[128] Israel Wilkinson: “Memoirs of the Wilkinson Family,” pp. 220,
461. Jacksonville, Ill., 1869.
In 1794 David Wilkinson built a steamboat and made a trip in it of
three and one-half miles from Winsor’s Cove to Providence. He was not
impressed with the practical value of it, and dismantled it after their
“frolic.” Before it was destroyed, however, a young man named Daniel
Leach examined it carefully with the greatest interest. Later, when
Fulton made his plans for the “Clermont,” the drawings were said to
have been made by this same man, Leach.[129]
[129] _Ibid._, pp. 509-513; also, Field, Vol. III, p. 372. The name
here is given as French.
In 1797 David Wilkinson invented a slide lathe which was patented
the next year. The writer has not been able to obtain an accurate
description of this. The most direct reference to it is a letter of
Samuel Greene to Zachariah Allen, a prominent Rhode Island cotton
manufacturer, dated June 17, 1861, which says: “I suppose David
Wilkinson to be the inventor of the slide lathe, at first applied to
the making of large press screws, for which I believe he got a patent.
I know he made application to the British Government, and I have heard
said did get a grant.” The patent ran out before the lathe came into
general use. Fifty years later Congress voted Wilkinson $10,000 “for
benefits accruing to the public service for the use of the principle
of the gauge and sliding lathe, of which he was the inventor.”[130]
He seems to have been working on it in America at the same time as
Maudslay in London.[131] Sylvanus Brown, who helped Slater build the
first Arkwright cotton machinery at Pawtucket, is also said to have
invented the slide lathe still earlier (in 1791) and to have also used
it for cutting wrought-iron screws for sperm-oil presses.[132] There
are good records of Maudslay’s slide lathes; in fact, screw-cutting
lathes made by him prior to 1800 are in the South Kensington Museum at
London. Priority can hardly be claimed for these American lathes until
something more is known of them, and whether they were the equal of
Maudslay’s in design and quality.
[130] The Senate Committee which recommended this action consisted
of Rusk of Texas, Cass of Michigan, Davis of Mississippi, Dix of New
York, and Benton of Missouri. The bill passed the Senate in June, and
the House in August, 1848.
[131] “Memoirs of the Wilkinson Family,” pp. 506-508, 518. Goodrich,
p. 51.
[132] Goodrich, p. 48.
The Wilkinsons were closely identified with the early textile
enterprises. As the gun industry developed the interchangeable system,
so the cotton industry developed the American general machine tool. At
the close of the Revolution, many attempts were made to start textile
industries, by Orr in 1786, Cabot at Beverly in 1787, and Anthony
at Providence in 1788, and also at Worcester. A man named Alexander
is said to have operated the first loom with the flying shuttle in
America, which was later moved to Pawtucket. Moses Brown, about 1790,
imported a few spinning frames to Providence, but they proved a failure.
Samuel Slater, who married Wilkinson’s daughter, was an Englishman
who had served his time with Arkwright and Strutt, and had become
thoroughly familiar with the Arkwright machinery. In 1789 he had
emigrated to America with the purpose of starting a textile industry.
We have already mentioned the embargo which England placed on mechanics
and on all kinds of machinery. This had compelled Slater to use the
greatest caution in leaving the country. Disguised, it is said, as a
rustic, he went to London and sailed from there, giving no indication
of his plans until after he had gone, when he had a letter sent to
his family. He went first to Philadelphia, but hearing of Moses
Brown’s attempts at spinning in Providence, he wrote to Brown and made
arrangements to go to Pawtucket and reproduce for him the Arkwright
machinery. Slater was at that time only twenty years old. After a
winter of hard work he succeeded in making several frames with a total
of seventy-two spindles, and two carding machines. These were started
in a small building, later known as the Old Slater Mill, with an old
negro named “Primus” Jenks as motive power. During this winter Slater
lived in the family of Oziel Wilkinson and married his daughter. The
second mill was started in 1799 by Oziel Wilkinson and his three
sons-in-law, Slater, Greene and Wilkinson.[133]
[133] _Ibid._, pp. 39-51.
Doctor Dwight, in his travels, in 1810,[134] writes of Pawtucket:
[134] Vol. II, pp. 27-28.
“There is probably no spot in New England of the same extent, in which
the same quantity or variety of manufacturing business is carried on.
In the year 1796, there were here three anchor forges, one tanning
mill, one flouring mill, one slitting mill, three snuff mills, one oil
mill, three fulling mills, a clothier’s works, one cotton factory, two
machines for cutting nails, one furnace for casting hollow ware--all
moved by water--one machine for cutting screws, moved by a horse, and
several forges for smith’s work.” This was long before Lowell, Lawrence
and Manchester had come into existence.
The Wilkinsons were interested in other things as well as in the cotton
industries. David established a shop and foundry in Pawtucket, where
for one thing he made cannon which he bored by an improved method
consisting of “making his drill and bore stationary and having the
cannon revolve about the drill.” He built textile machinery for almost
every part of the country, from northern New England to Louisiana, and
made the machinery used at New Bedford and other whaling ports for
pressing sperm oil.[135] About 1816 David and Daniel Wilkinson bought
out a man named Dwight Fisher and manufactured nails until 1829, their
output being about 4000 pounds daily.[136] In 1829 David Wilkinson
moved to Cohoes, N. Y., and with DeWitt Clinton, Stephen Van Rensselaer
and others, started the textile industries in that city.[137] In 1832
Zebulon White started up one of the abandoned Wilkinson furnaces, which
three years later was known as the Pawtucket Cupola Furnace Company.
This afterwards became the firm of J. S. White & Company.[138]
[135] Goodrich, p. 69.
[136] Field: “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” Vol. III, p.
373.
[137] Van Slyck: “Representatives of New England Manufacturers,” p.
515.
[138] Field, Vol. III, p. 372.
[Illustration: FIGURE 26. SAMUEL SLATER]
Oziel Wilkinson died in 1815, but the influence of the Wilkinson family
continued for many years. Slater steadily widened his operations and
was so influential in laying the foundations of the textile industry
that he became known as “the father of the American cotton industry.”
How rapidly the cotton industry spread is shown by a memorial to
Congress in 1815, stating that there were 140 cotton manufactures
within thirty miles of Providence, employing 26,000 hands and operating
130,000 spindles.[139] Only a few of the more important ramifications
can be given.
[139] Bishop, Vol. II, p. 214.
In 1822 Samuel Slater, Larned Pitcher and three others bought a little
two-story building at what was then Goffstown, on the Merrimac River,
and founded the great Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, and the city
of Manchester, N. H. It is now known as the greatest textile mill in
the world, but the company’s original charter was very broad, and, in
addition to its other interests, the company operated for many years
one of the largest and most influential machine shops in the country,
where were built locomotives, engines, boilers, all kinds of textile
machinery, machine tools and mill machinery.
Alfred Jenks, who learned his trade under Slater, moved to Holmesburg,
near Philadelphia, in 1810, taking with him drawings of every variety
of cotton machinery, as far as it had then advanced, and commenced its
manufacture.[140] He furnished the machinery for the first cotton mill
in that portion of Pennsylvania and for the first woolen mill in the
entire state, and developed what was for many years one of the most
important plants for the building of textile machinery in the United
States.
[140] _Ibid._, Vol. III, p. 18.
Eleazer Jenks built a machine shop at Pawtucket in 1813 for heavy
forging and for the manufacture of spinning machinery, which was
occupied by David Wilkinson for many years.[141] The same year, Larned
Pitcher also started a shop there, and soon took in P. Hovey and Asa
Arnold. In 1819 Ira Gay was taken in, and the firm became Pitcher &
Gay, one of the largest manufacturers of cotton machinery. Gay remained
in Pawtucket until 1824, when he went to New Hampshire in connection
with the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company and the Nashua Manufacturing
Company, then just starting.[142] A few years later Ira Gay and Zeba,
his brother, started a shop at North Chelmsford for building textile
machinery. With the growth of the Merrimac textile interests, this
plant became very influential and is running today. The firm has
changed several times with the deaths of various partners, and is
now known as the North Chelmsford Machine & Supply Company. It has
preserved many of the old tools used in the early days, and there are
few shops of greater historical interest in this country.
[141] Goodrich, p. 64.
[142] _Ibid._, p. 66.
Capt. James S. Brown, son of the Sylvanus Brown referred to, who had
worked for David Wilkinson in 1817, succeeded Ira Gay in the Pawtucket
shop, the firm becoming Pitcher & Brown. In 1842 Brown became sole
owner and greatly enlarged the works. The shop which he built in 1847
was 400 feet long and employed over 300 workmen. Brown lived for many
years and made many valuable inventions, which included a beveled gear
cutter, boring machine, grinder, improvement in the Blanchard type of
lathe, and many improvements in textile machinery. Some of the lathes
which he himself built in 1820 were in use for seventy years.[143]
[143] _Ibid._, pp. 71-72.
Col. Stephen Jenks started a shop in 1820 for the making of nuts and
screws, which later became the William H. Haskell Company of Pawtucket.
Alvin Jenks, of Stephen Jenks & Sons, went to Central Falls in 1829
and the next year entered into partnership with David G. Fales. This
firm, known as Fales, Jenks & Company, built cotton machinery for many
years, and moved to Pawtucket in 1865.[144] The Jenkses of the Fales &
Jenks Machine Company, as it is known now, are lineal descendants of
the original Joseph Jenks of Lynn.
[144] _Ibid._, p. 72. Also, Field, Vol. III, p. 373.
In 1834 Jeremiah O. Arnold, who as a young man worked for David
Wilkinson, and his brother, Joseph Arnold, started in Pawtucket the
first press for making nuts. Later, Joseph Arnold retired and William
Field took his place, the firm becoming William Field & Company. They
moved to Providence in 1846, and in 1847 became the Providence Tool
Company.[145] The Providence Forge & Nut Company was organized by some
men from the Tool Company in 1852, and a plant was built. Four years
later the new venture was absorbed by the parent company, which moved
to the new plant. The Providence Tool Company had a wide influence for
many years, manufacturing the Household sewing machine and the Martini
rifle, as well as a line of tools. In 1883 it was reorganized and
became the present Rhode Island Tool Company.
[145] Goodrich, p. 75.
The Franklin Machine Company was started by Stanford Newell, Isaac
Thurber and others, about 1800. The plant was always referred to in
the old records as “The Cupola.” During the War of 1812 it was busy
making cannon under the charge of Isaac Wilkinson, one of Oziel’s
sons, who was then a boy only seventeen years old.[146] The Builders
Iron Foundry, formerly known as “The High Street Furnace,” began
business some time prior to 1820. The American Screw Company had its
beginning in the Eagle Screw Company, organized in 1838 under the
leadership of William G. Angell. Hampered by serious litigation and
sharp competition, it continued with indifferent success until 1849,
when Mr. Angell, adopting a machine invented by Thomas J. Sloan of New
York, brought out the pointed screw. The New England Screw Company,
whose inventor, Cullen Whipple, had come from the earlier Providence
Screw Company, united with the Eagle Screw Company in 1860, forming the
present American Screw Company.
[146] Field, Vol. III, p. 375.
The Corliss Machine Works were started in 1848.
Brown & Sharpe, the most important and influential of all the
Providence plants, was established in 1833 by David Brown and his son,
Joseph R. Brown. The history of this company is so important that it
will be taken up in a separate chapter.
One can hardly turn from the history of manufactures in Providence
without some reference to the manufacturing of jewelry. A Cyril
Dodge made silver shoe buckles “two doors north of the Baptist
meeting-house” about the time of the Revolution, but the first real
manufacturer of jewelry in Providence was Nehemiah Dodge, who, just
after the Revolution, started in a little shop on North Main Street
as a goldsmith and watchmaker. He also made necklaces, rings and
miniature cases. Dodge lived to be over ninety years old and to see the
industry spread wonderfully. By 1805 there were three other jewelers,
one of whom, by the way, was a Jenks, and they employed all told about
thirty workmen. In 1810 there were 100 workmen; in 1815, 175; and in
1832, 282. The census writers of 1860 give eighty-six shops with 1761
workmen; in 1880, 148 shops with 3264 employees, and in 1890 there
were 170 shops employing 4380. These figures cover Providence only.
Many other shops were located in near-by towns. These were all small
and tended to multiply. The journeymen were the highest paid artisans
anywhere about, earning from $5 to $10 a day, and two or three were
constantly setting up for themselves. The oldest jewelry firm in or
about Providence is said to be the Gorham Manufacturing Company now
located in the suburb of Elmwood. Jabez Gorham, its founder, was first
engaged as a jeweler with four others about 1813. In 1831 he formed a
partnership with H. L. Webster, a journeyman silversmith from Boston,
and specialized on the making of silver spoons, thus starting the
Gorham Manufacturing Company.[147] Palmer & Capron, another old firm,
was founded about 1840.
[147] _Ibid._, Vol. III, pp. 377-381.
There were other early centers of mechanical influence. With the
invention of steam navigation, New York became a center of engine
building for the steamboat trade, and the Allaire, Quintard, Fletcher,
Delamater, and other works, were well known many years ago, but for
some reason New York City has never been conspicuous for tool building,
the Garvin Machine Company being the only large firm in this field.
Worcester, Hartford, Philadelphia and Windsor, Vt. (small and secluded
as it is), have contributed signally to tool building throughout this
country and Europe, and will be taken up later. We have considered
Pawtucket first, because it was the earliest center and because its
wide influence in building up other centers is little realized. The
extensive water power available in the Merrimac Valley gave rise to
the great textile interests of Manchester, Lowell and Lawrence, which
have far outstripped those centered about Pawtucket, but the textile
industry began in Pawtucket and with it the building of machinery and
tools.