PHILADELPHIA
Although the commercial manufacture of machinery began in New England,
Philadelphia became, and for a long time remained, the largest tool
building center in the country. Its large population and nearness to
coal, iron and tide water, made this almost inevitable, but it was
hastened by the work of two brilliant mechanics, William Sellers and
William Bement.
Bishop, in his “History of American Manufactures,”[200] says: “In
the invention and construction of machinery and instruments for
practical and scientific purposes, Philadelphia mechanics early
acquired a reputation for skill. The records of original American
invention contain few names more distinguished than those of Godfrey,
the inventor of the quadrant, of Rittenhouse, who made the first
telescope constructed in America, and whose orrery and other scientific
instruments displayed unusual mechanical and mathematical genius;
of Franklin, Evans, Fulton, Fitch, and others whose inventive and
constructive skill have added to the permanent wealth of the State
and the Union.” Of these, Oliver Evans seems to have affected modern
manufacturing methods the most.
[200] Vol. I, p. 576.
Evans was born in Delaware in 1755. He was apprenticed to a
wheelwright, and invented a card machine as early as 1777, but never
followed it up. In 1785 he built a flour mill in Newcastle County,
Del.; and, impatient at the crude methods in use, he began a series
of improvements which form the basis of the modern art of handling
materials. It has been claimed that Evans stole many of these ideas
from the Ellicotts in Maryland. This does not seem probable. Thomas
Ellicott wrote a portion of the “Millwright and Millers Guide” which
Evans published to help introduce his machinery, and in this Ellicott
himself refers to “the elevators, hopper-boys, etc., invented by Oliver
Evans, late of Delaware, though now of Philadelphia.” Evans developed a
number of closely related transporting devices about which no question
is raised and no claims on behalf of the Ellicotts made; and many years
later, in 1812, Evans sued those Ellicotts who were then operating for
infringement of his patents and obtained judgment. If they could have
proved priority it seems natural that they would have done so.
Evans’ improvements related chiefly to the movement of materials during
the processes of manufacture. He modified the ancient Egyptian chain
of pots, used for irrigation, by using an endless belt carrying iron
buckets so arranged as to fill with dry material from a boot at the
bottom and to empty by gravity into a hopper as they went over the
head pulley. He used a belt conveyor for horizontal movement, without
however the troughing feature which is a later improvement. When the
discharge end was lowest, Evans utilized gravity to drive it, and
called it a “descender.” What Evans called a “drill” was an “elevator
laid horizontally” and provided with wooden cleats which scraped the
grain along the bottom of the box in which it ran, and was nothing more
nor less than our modern flight or scraper conveyor. Evans’ “conveyor”
was a round, wooden shaft on which he nailed a sheet-iron spiral which
pushed the grain along a trough in which the shaft rotated; and when
he wished to stir or dry the material as he moved it, he broke up the
continuous helix into a number of separate arms arranged spirally.
These of course correspond to the modern screw conveyor. His so-called
“hopper-boy” consisted of a vertical shaft with a horizontal cross bar
at its lower end provided on its lower side with flights which spread
the meal for drying, and slowly worked it in a spiral toward a hopper
at the center. The angle of the flights was adjustable so that the time
allowed for cooling could be varied. He also used pivoted wooden spouts
at the discharge of the elevators to deliver the grain into different
bins. These improvements are said to have effected a saving of over
$30,000 a year in the Ellicott Mill at Patapsco, Md., on an output of
325 barrels a day.[201] In his patents and various books Evans shows
nearly all of the modern transporting devices in substantially their
present forms.[202]
[201] Paper by Coleman Sellers on “Oliver Evans and his Inventions.”
_Journal of the Franklin Institute_, Vol. CXXII, p. 1.
[202] Sections of Evans’ mills are shown in the _American Machinist_
of November 7, 1907, and December 17, 1914. In both cases the
conveyor system was arranged to take material either from wagons on
one side of the mill or from boats on the opposite side.
Evans moved to Philadelphia some time prior to 1790. In 1800 he had
a mill near Third and Market Streets and the next year was selling
mill supplies at Ninth and Market Streets. As a boy he had become
interested in the steam engine. A description of the Newcomen engine
fell into his hands and he was struck with the fact that the steam
was used only to produce a vacuum and saw that more power could be
obtained if it were used to produce pressure. After his removal to
Philadelphia he made an engine 6 inches diameter by 18 inches stroke,
which was running in 1802, grinding plaster of Paris and sawing wood.
It cost, boiler and all, more than $3700 and nearly impoverished him.
Its successful operation, however, led to an order for an engine to
drive a steamboat on the Mississippi, which was sent to New Orleans
but never used for its original purpose. The boat it was intended for
had been stranded high and dry during a flood, so the engine was set
to running a saw mill and later a cotton press. In 1803 Evans began
business as a regular engine builder and was unquestionably the first
one in the United States. He advocated long stroke engines operating
under high steam pressure, of which he had built fifty by 1816. In 1804
he built a flat bottomed boat, fitted with a steam driven, chain bucket
dredge, which he called the “_Oruktor Amphibolos_” or in good English
the Amphibious Digger. It was built more than a mile from the river,
and was mounted on rollers connected with the engine. After moving
around what is now the City Hall Square each day for several days, the
boat walked out Market Street to the Schuykill and into the water; its
rollers were disconnected, a stern paddle wheel substituted, and it
steamed down the Schuykill and around up the Delaware to the city.
In 1805 he advertised a new book, “The Young Engineer’s Guide,” which
he intended to be very complete and “abstruse.” Disappointed in his
application for the extension of his patents and crippled by his
first engine ventures, he issued it much abridged, with only part of
the illustrations planned, and called it “The Abortion of the Young
Engineer’s Guide.” The proportions given in this book for one of his
steam engines were: diameter of cylinder, 20 inches; stroke, 5 feet;
steam pressure, 194 to 220 pounds. The boilers were of cast iron, 30
inches in diameter, 24 feet long, fired at one end, with a single
return flue. An engine was actually built to these proportions for the
Fairmount Water Works. It may be added that the boilers burst on three
different occasions.
In 1807 Evans was established as “Millwright and Engineer” at the Mars
Works at Ninth and Vine Streets. An old description of the plant says
that it consisted of
an iron foundry, mould-maker’s shop, steam engine manufactory,
blacksmith’s shop, and mill-stone manufactory, and a steam engine
used for grinding materials for the use of the works, and for turning
and boring heavy cast or wrought iron work. The buildings occupy one
hundred and eighty-eight feet front and about thirty-five workmen are
daily employed. They manufacture all cast or wrought-iron work for
machinery for mills, for grinding grain or sawing timber; for forges,
rolling and slitting-mills, sugar-mills, apple-mills, bark-mills,
&c. Pans of all dimensions used by sugar-boilers, soap-boilers,
&c. Screws of all sizes for cotton-presses, tobacco-presses,
paper-presses, cast iron gudgeons, and boxes for mills and wagons,
carriage-boxes, &c., and all kinds of small wheels and machinery for
Cotton and Wool spinning, &c. Mr. Evans also makes steam engines on
improved principles, invented and patented by the proprietor, which
are more powerful and less complicated, and cheaper than others;
requiring less fuel, not more than one-fiftieth part of the coals
commonly used. The small one in use at the works is on this improved
principle, and it is of great use in facilitating the manufacture
of others. The proprietor has erected one of his improved steam
engines in the town of Pittsburg, and employed it to drive three pair
of large millstones with all the machinery for cleaning the grain,
elevating, spreading, and stirring and cooling the meal, gathering
and bolting, &c., &c. The power is equal to twenty-four horses and
will do as much work as seventy-two horses in twenty-four hours; it
would drive five pair of six-feet millstones, and grind five hundred
bushels of wheat in twenty-four hours.[203]
[203] Freedley: “Philadelphia and its Manufactures,” pp. 54-55.
Philadelphia, 1858.
Incidentally the last sentence is an admirable illustration of the
origin of the term “horse power.” This business was carried on until
Evans’ death. It would be interesting to know how far he influenced
the design of Mississippi river boat engines which have retained the
proportions characteristic of the engines which he first built for that
service.
Evans’ best-known book, “The Young Millwright and Miller’s Guide,” went
through a number of editions and was translated and published abroad.
In this he gives his idea of “The True Path to Inventions.” It is well
worth quoting, as it explains, in part, his own success as an inventor.
Necessity is called the mother of Invention--but upon inquiry we
shall find that Reason and Experiment bring them forth.--For almost
all inventions have resulted from such steps as the following:
Step I. Is to investigate the fundamental principles of the theory,
and process, of the art or manufacture we wish to improve.
II. To consider what is the best plan, in theory, that can be deduced
from, or founded on, those principles to produce the effect we desire.
III. To inquire whether the theory is already put in practice to the
best advantage; and what are the imperfections or disadvantages of
the common process, and what plans are likely to succeed better.
IV. To make experiments in practice, upon any plans that these
speculative reasonings may suggest, or lead to.--Any ingenious
artist, taking the foregoing steps, will probably be led to
improvements on his own art: for we see by daily experience that
every art may be improved. It will, however, be in vain to attempt
improvements unless the mind be freed from prejudice, in favour of
established plans.[204]
[204] pp. 345-346.
Evans was certainly an independent, and probably the first, inventor
of the high pressure steam engine, a type of engine which he saw was
well suited to American pioneer conditions. He was interested in steam
locomotion, and predicted the development of railways with singular
accuracy.
The time will come when people will travel in stages moved by
steam engines from one city to another almost as fast as birds
fly--fifteen to twenty miles an hour. Passing through the air with
such velocity--changing the scenes in such rapid succession--will be
the most exhilarating, delightful exercise. A carriage will set out
from Washington in the morning, and the passengers will breakfast at
Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup at New York the same day.
To accomplish this, two sets of railways will be laid so nearly
level as not in any place to deviate more than two degrees from a
horizontal line, made of wood or iron, on smooth paths of broken
stone or gravel, with a rail to guide the carriages so that they
may pass each other in different directions and travel by night as
well as by day; and the passengers will sleep in these stages as
comfortably as they do now in steam stage-boats. A steam engine that
will consume from one-quarter to one-half a cord of wood will drive a
carriage 180 miles in twelve hours, with twenty or thirty passengers,
and will not consume six gallons of water. The carriages will not
be overloaded with fuel or water.... And it shall come to pass that
the memory of those sordid and wicked wretches who oppose such
improvements will be execrated by every good man, as they ought to be
now.
Posterity will not be able to discover why the Legislature or
Congress did not grant the inventor such protection as might have
enabled him to put in operation these great improvements sooner--he
having asked neither money nor a monopoly of any existing thing.[205]
[205] Evans: Extract from “Address to the people of the United
States,” quoted in the _Journal of the Franklin Institute_, Vol.
CXXII, p. 13.
He practically initiated the modern science of handling materials.
While many of his theories were faulty, his mechanical practice was
seldom wrong. He was a restless man, discontented and inclined to air
his grievances in public. Once, in a fit of pique, he destroyed the
drawings and records of, it is said, more than eighty inventions--an
act which he regretted later. Though frequently disappointed, he was in
the end fairly successful, and was unquestionably one of the foremost
of the early American mechanics.
In Philadelphia, as in New England, many of the early shops made
textile machinery. Arkwright machines were built by James Davenport at
the Globe Mills at the north end of Second Street, which Washington
visited in 1797 when the new Federal Government inaugurated its policy
of developing American industries. Davenport died soon after, the
business ceased and the factory was sold in 1798. Cotton machinery is
said to have been manufactured also by Eltonhead in 1803.
Philadelphia was then the largest city in the country, with an active
industrial life. It was natural, therefore, that the tools and methods
developed in and about Pawtucket should, sooner or later, take root
there. In 1810 Alfred Jenks, a direct descendant of Joseph Jenks, of
Lynn, having served his time with Samuel Slater in Pawtucket, moved
to Holmesburg, Pa., and started the first factory in Pennsylvania for
making textile machinery. His business grew rapidly and in 1820 he
moved to Bridesburg, now a part of Philadelphia, bringing his shop
along with him on rollers. By 1825 there were thirty cotton mills in
and about the city, most of which he had equipped. As the demand for
woolen machinery arose Jenks met it and he equipped the first woolen
mill built in the state. Under his leadership and that of his son,
Barton H. Jenks, the shop had a wide influence and was the foremost of
the early Philadelphia plants building textile machinery. Other early
shops in this field were those of J. & T. Wood, Hindle & Sons, James
Smith & Company, W. P. Uhlinger & Company.[206]
[206] Freedley: “Philadelphia and its Manufactures,” pp. 299-302,
427. Philadelphia, 1858.
The two plants which gave Philadelphia its great reputation for tool
building were those established by Sellers and Bement. Probably no one
has had a greater influence on machine tools in America than William
Sellers. He has been called the Whitworth of America, and there is a
singular parallelism in the work and influence of the two men. Sellers
was born in Pennsylvania in 1824, was educated in a private school
maintained by his father, and later apprenticed to his uncle, John M.
Poole, at Wilmington, Del.[207] When only twenty-one he took charge
of the machine shop of Fairbanks, Bancroft & Company in Providence,
R. I. Three years later he began the manufacture of machine tools and
mill gearing at Thirtieth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, and was
soon after joined by Edward Bancroft, who moved from Providence, the
firm becoming Bancroft & Sellers. John Sellers, Jr., a brother of
William, became a partner and in 1853 they moved to Sixteenth Street
and Pennsylvania Avenue. Mr. Bancroft died in 1855 and the firm became
William Sellers & Company, which was incorporated in 1886, with William
Sellers as president.
[207] _Journal of the Franklin Institute_, Vol. CLIX, pp. 365-383.
Bancroft was the inventive member of the firm and Mr. Sellers the
executive. Sellers’ designing ability did not develop until after
Bancroft’s death. His first patent was granted in 1857. In all he was
granted over ninety United States patents and many others in foreign
countries, covering a wide variety of subjects; machine tools of all
kinds, injectors which he introduced into the United States, rifling
machines, riveters, boilers, hydraulic machinery, hoisting cranes,
steam hammers and engines, ordnance, turntables, etc. One of the best
known and most original of Sellers’ machines was the spiral geared
planer patented in 1862, which has always been associated with his name.
Almost from the first Sellers cut loose from the accepted designs of
the day. He was among the first to realize that red paint, beads and
mouldings, and architectural embellishments were false in machine
design. He introduced the “machine gray” paint which has become
universal; made the form of the machine follow the function to be
performed and freed it from all pockets and beading. Like Bement he
realized that American tools then being built were too light; and
they both put more metal into their machines than was the practice
elsewhere. From the first he adopted standards and adhered to them so
closely that repair parts can be supplied today for machines made fifty
years ago.
In April, 1864, Sellers, as president of the Franklin Institute, read a
paper on “A System of Screw Threads and Nuts,” in which he proposed the
system of screw threads since variously known as the Sellers, Franklin
Institute, or U. S. Standard.[208] They embodied the sixty degree
angle and a flat of one-eighth of the pitch at the top and bottom of
the thread. In this paper Sellers stated clearly the need for _some_
generally accepted standard, reviewed the various threads then used,
particularly the Whitworth thread, with its fifty-five degree angle
and rounded corners, which he disapproved of on three grounds; first,
that it was difficult to secure a fit at the top and bottom; second,
that the angle was difficult to verify; and third, the high cost of
making cutting tools which would conform accurately to the standard.
He proposed the sixty degree angle as easier to make and already in
general use in this country, and the flat top as easy to generate and
to verify. He went a step further, and proposed at the same time a
standard for bolt-heads and nuts, in which the dimensions were derived
from a simple formula and the distance across flats was the same for
square and hexagon nuts, so that the same wrench would do for either
style of nut.
[208] _Journal of the Franklin Institute_, Vol. LXXVII, p. 344.
[Illustration: FIGURE 51. WILLIAM SELLERS]
This paper had as great influence in America as Whitworth’s paper of
1841 had in England. A committee was appointed to investigate the
question and recommend a standard. On this committee, among others,
were William B. Bement, C. T. Parry of the Baldwin Locomotive Works,
S. V. Merrick, J. H. Towne, and Coleman Sellers. Early in the next
year the committee reported in favor of the Sellers standard, the
Franklin Institute communicated their findings to other societies, and
recommended the general adoption of the system throughout the country.
The Sellers’ thread was adopted by the United States Government
for all government work in 1868, by the Pennsylvania Railroad in
1869, the Master Car Builders’ Association in 1872, and soon became
practically universal. After exhaustive investigation the Sellers’ form
of thread was adopted in 1898 by the International Congress for the
standardization of screw threads, at Zurich, and is now in general use
on the continent of Europe.[209]
[209] For the discussion of the Sellers’ screw thread and the
circumstances surrounding its adoption, see: _Journal of the Franklin
Institute_, Vol. LXXVII, p. 344; Vol. LXXIX, pp. 53, 111; Vol.
CXXIII, p. 261; Vol. CXXV, p. 185.
In 1868 William Sellers organized the Edgemoor Iron Company which
furnished the iron work for the principal Centennial buildings and
all the structural work of the Brooklyn Bridge. In the development
of this business, he led the way in the distinctly American methods
and machinery by which the building of bridges has been, to a great
extent, put upon a manufacturing basis. This involved the design and
introduction of hydraulic machinery, large multiple punches, riveters,
cranes, boring machines, etc.
The excellence of his machinery soon brought him into contact with
government engineers and throughout his life his influence in the War
and Navy Departments was great. In 1890 the Navy Department called for
bids on an eight-foot lathe, with a total length of over 128 feet,
to bore and turn sixteen-inch cannon for the Naval Gun Factory at
Washington. Sellers disapproved of the design and refused to bid on it.
He proposed an alternative one of his own, argued its merits in person
before the Board of Engineers, and secured its adoption and a contract
for it. This great lathe, weighing over 500,000 pounds, has attracted
the attention of engineers from all parts of the world. In 1873 Mr.
Sellers reorganized the William Butcher Steel Works as the Midvale
Steel Company and became its president. Under his management the
company grew rapidly, and later became a leader in production of heavy
ordnance.
It was here that Frederick W. Taylor began in 1880 his work on the art
of cutting metals, which resulted in modern high-speed tool steels and
a general re-design of machine tools. These experiments, covering a
period of twenty-six years, cost upwards of $200,000. Mr. Taylor has
frequently acknowledged his indebtedness in this work to the patience
and courage of Mr. Sellers, who was then an old man and might have
been expected to oppose radical change. It was he who made the work
possible, however, and he supported Taylor unwaveringly in the face of
constant protests.[210] Mr. Sellers was a man of commanding presence,
direct but gracious in manner, who won and held the respect and loyalty
of all about him. His judgment was almost unerring and he dominated
each of the great establishments he built up.
[210] F. W. Taylor: Paper on the “Art of Cutting Metals,” Trans. A.
S. M. E., Vol. XXVIII, p. 34.
The firm of William Sellers & Company had another master mind in that
of Dr. Coleman Sellers, a second cousin of William Sellers.[211] He
was born in Philadelphia in 1827, his father, Coleman Sellers, being
also an inventor and mechanic. Like Nasmyth he spent his school
holidays in his father’s shop, which was at Cardington. In 1846, when
he was nineteen years old, he went to Cincinnati and worked in the
Globe Rolling Mill, operated by his elder brothers, where the first
locomotives for the Panama Railroad were built; and in two years he
became superintendent. In 1851 he became foreman of the works of
James and Jonathan Niles, who were then in Cincinnati and building
locomotives. Six years later he returned to Philadelphia, became
chief engineer of William Sellers & Company, and remained with them
for over thirty years, becoming a partner in 1873. During these years
he designed a wide range of machinery, which naturally covered much
the same field as that of William Sellers, but his familiarity with
locomotive work especially fitted him for the design of railway tools.
His designs were original, correct and refined. The Sellers coupling
was his invention and he did much to introduce the modern systems of
power transmission.
[211] See Trans. A. S. M. E., Vol. XXIX, p. 1163; _Cassier’s
Magazine_, August, 1903, p. 352; _Journal of the Franklin Institute_,
Vol. CXLIX, p. 5.
Doctor Sellers was a good physicist, an expert photographer,
telegrapher, microscopist, and a professor in the Franklin Institute,
his lectures always drawing large audiences. Like William Sellers, he
was a member of most of the great engineering and scientific societies,
here and abroad; and he was president of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, of which he was a charter member. He was received
with the greatest distinction in his visits to Europe. In 1886 impaired
health compelled his relinquishing regular work and he resigned his
position of engineer for William Sellers & Company, being succeeded
by his son, the present president of the company. His last great work
was in connection with the power development of Niagara Falls. He
was engineer for the Cataract Construction Company and served on the
commission which determined the types of turbines and generators and
the methods of power transmission finally adopted. Among the others on
this commission were Lord Kelvin, Colonel Turretini, the great Swiss
engineer, and Professor Unwin, and its report forms the foundation
of modern large hydro-electric work. William Sellers & Company has a
unique distinction among the builders of machine tools in having had
the leadership of two such men as William and Coleman Sellers.
William B. Bement, the son of a Connecticut farmer and blacksmith, was
born at Bradford, N. H., in 1817. His education was obtained in the
district schools and in his father’s blacksmith shop. His mechanical
aptitude was so clear that he was apprenticed to Moore & Colby,
manufacturers of woolen and cotton machinery at Peterboro, N. H. His
progress at first was rapid. Within two years he became foreman, and
on the withdrawal of one of the partners, was admitted into the firm.
He continued there three years, already giving much thought to machine
tools, for which he saw the rising need. In 1840 he went to Manchester
and entered the Amoskeag shop when it was just finished, remaining
there two years as a foreman and contractor under William A. Burke,
to whom we have referred elsewhere. From there Bement went to take
charge of a shop for manufacturing woolen machinery at Mishawaka, Ind.
Unfortunately it was burned to the ground while Bement had gone back
to New Hampshire for his family, so that when he returned with them he
found himself without employment and with only ten dollars in hand.
For the time being he worked as a blacksmith and gunsmith, and made an
engine lathe for himself in the shop of the St. Joseph Iron Company,
which gave him permission to use their tools in return for the use of
his patterns to make a similar machine for themselves. Much of the work
in making this lathe was done by hand as there was no planer within
many hundred miles. The St. Joseph Iron Company, seeing his work,
offered him the charge of their shop, to which he agreed, provided the
plant were enlarged and equipped with proper tools. This was done,
but just as everything was completed this plant also was burned down.
Bement had plans for another shop ready the following day, went into
the woods with others, cut the necessary timber, and a new shop was
soon completed. He remained there for three years, constructing a
variety of machine tools, one of which was a gear cutter said to have
been the first one built in the West, or used beyond Cleveland.
[Illustration: FIGURE 52. COLEMAN SELLERS]
[Illustration: FIGURE 53. WILLIAM B. BEMENT]
He returned to New England as a contractor in the Lowell Machine Shop
under Burke, who had gone there from the Amoskeag Mills in 1845. On
account of Bement’s resourcefulness and skill in designing, Burke
induced him to relinquish his contracts and take charge of their
designing, which he did for three years, his residence at Lowell
covering in all about six years.
In 1851 Elijah D. Marshall, who had established a business of engraving
rolls for printing calicos in 1848 and had a small shop at Twentieth
and Callowhill Streets in Philadelphia, offered Bement a partnership.
He moved to Philadelphia in September of that year, and with Marshall
and Gilbert A. Colby, a nephew, he began the manufacture of machine
tools under the name of Marshall, Bement & Colby, thus starting only
a year or so after Sellers. Marshall was a large man, dignified and
deliberate in speech. Bement was strong, vigorous, a born designer,
a remarkably rapid draftsman, and had a capacity for work rarely
equalled. Colby was also a man of considerable mechanical ability,
with advanced business ideas. Their shop consisted of a single
three-storied, stone, whitewashed building, 40 by 90 feet. Their
entire machine shop was on the first floor, with a 10- by 12-foot room
for an office. The engine, boiler and blacksmith shop were in small
outbuildings. Part of the second floor was rented to another factory
and the rest was sometimes used for religious meetings, while the
third floor was used for engraving printing rolls. Their tools were
few and crude; among them were a 36-inch lathe with a wooden bed and
iron straps for ways, and a 48-inch by 14-foot planer with ornate
Doric uprights. Marshall and Colby soon retired, the latter going to
Niles, Mich., where he was very successful. James Dougherty, an expert
foundryman, and George C. Thomas entered the firm, which became Bement
& Dougherty, the plant being known as the “Industrial Works.” Mr.
Thomas contributed considerable capital, and a new shop and a foundry
were built. At the same time they installed a planer 10 feet wide by 8
feet high, to plane work 45 feet long, a notable tool for that day.
After a few years of struggle, the plant began to grow rapidly and
at one time was the largest of its kind in the country. Bement and
Sellers were among the first to concentrate wholly on tool building.
They confined themselves to work of the highest quality. Both made
much heavier tools, as we have said, than the New England builders,
their only competitors, and in a short time had established great
reputations. Bement relied little on patent protection, trusting to
quality and constant improvement. Thomas retired from the partnership
in 1856 and Dougherty in 1870; and Clarence S. Bement joined the firm,
which became William B. Bement & Son. John M. Shrigley became a partner
in 1875, William P. Bement in 1879, and Frank Bement in 1888.
Frederick B. Miles was an employee of Bement & Dougherty who
established a tool business under the name of Ferris & Miles, which
afterward became the Machine Tool Works. While head of these works,
Miles greatly improved the steam hammer, particularly its valve
mechanism, and many details of what is known as the Bement hammer
were invented by Miles. In 1885 the Machine Tool Works consolidated
with William Bement & Son, forming Bement, Miles & Company. Mr. Miles
was an accomplished engineer and designer, with the unusual equipment
of six languages at his command, an asset of value in the firm’s
foreign business. William Bement, Senior, died in 1897, and in 1900
the business became a part of the Niles-Bement-Pond Company. Mr.
Miles retired at that time and has not since been active in the tool
business.[212]
[212] Most of the foregoing details in regard to the Bement & Miles
Works have been obtained from Mr. Clarence S. Bement and Mr. W. T.
Hagman, their present general manager.
Although Bement and Sellers contributed more to the art of tool
building than any of the other Philadelphia mechanics, some of these
others ought to be mentioned. Matthias W. Baldwin, a native of New
Jersey, began as a jeweler’s apprentice. In partnership with David H.
Mason he began making bookbinders’ tools, to which he added in 1822
the engraving of rolls for printing cotton goods and later of bank
notes. From the invention and manufacture of a variety of tools used in
that business they were led gradually into the machine tool business,
the building of hydraulic presses, calender rolls, steam engines, and
finally locomotives. In 1830 Baldwin built a model locomotive for the
Peale Museum which led to an order from the Philadelphia & Germantown
Railroad for an engine which was completed in 1832 and placed on
the road in January, 1833. An advertisement of that time says: “The
locomotive engine built by Mr. M. W. Baldwin of this city will depart
daily, when the weather is fair, with a train of passenger cars. On
rainy days horses will be attached in the place of the locomotive.”
From this beginning has sprung the Baldwin Locomotive Works, which
employs approximately 20,000 men. In 1834 they built five locomotives;
in 1835, fourteen; in 1836, forty. Their one thousandth locomotive was
built in 1861; the five thousandth in 1880 and the forty thousandth in
1913. These works have naturally greatly influenced the neighboring
tool makers. From the beginning, both Bement and Sellers specialized on
railway machinery and they have always built a class of tools larger
than those manufactured in New England.
The Southwark Foundry was established in 1836, first as a foundry
only, but a large machine shop was soon added. The owners were S. V.
Merrick, who became the first president of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company, and John Henry Towne, who was the engineering partner. The
firm designed and built steam engines and other heavy machinery and
introduced the steam hammer into the United States under arrangement
with James Nasmyth. From the designs of Capt. John Ericsson they
built the engines for the “Princeton,” the first American man-of-war
propelled by a screw, and later were identified with the Porter-Allen
steam engine. Mr. Towne withdrew from the firm about 1848, and the
firm name became successively Merrick & Son, Merrick & Sons, Henry G.
Morris, and finally the Southwark Foundry & Machine Company.
I. P. Morris & Company came from Levi Morris & Company, founded in
1828, and for many years were engaged in a similar work. In 1862
Mr. J. H. Towne, above referred to, was admitted to the firm as the
engineering partner, and the firm name then became I. P. Morris, Towne
& Company, until about 1869 when Mr. Towne withdrew. At his withdrawal
the firm name was restored to its original form, I. P. Morris &
Company. It is now a department of the Cramp Ship Building Company.
During the Civil War the works were occupied largely in building
engines and boilers for government vessels, and blast furnace and sugar
mill machinery. During this period Henry R. Towne, son of J. H. Towne,
entered the works as an apprentice, served in the drawing room and
shops, and finally was placed in charge of the erection at the navy
yards of Boston and Kittery of the engines, boilers, etc., built for
two of the double-turreted monitors. Returning to Philadelphia, he was
made assistant superintendent of the works.
J. H. Towne was a mechanical engineer of eminence in his day, whose
work as a designer showed unusual thoroughness and finish. He was
a warm friend and admirer of both William and Coleman Sellers, and
through his influence, Henry R. Towne was at one time a student
apprentice in the shops of William Sellers & Company, acquiring there
an experience which had a marked influence on his future work. Both of
the firms with which J. H. Towne was connected built machine tools for
themselves and for others, especially of the heavier and larger kinds,
and thus were among the early tool builders. I. P. Morris & Company,
about 1860, designed and built for their own use what was then the
largest vertical boring mill in this country.[213]
[213] From correspondence with Mr. Henry R. Towne.
It may surprise some to learn that the well-known New England firm, the
Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company in Stamford, Conn., is a descendant
of these Philadelphia companies. It was organized in October, 1868,
by Linus Yale, Jr., and Henry R. Towne, who were brought together
by William Sellers. Mr. Yale died in the following December. This
company, under the direction and control of Mr. Towne, has had a wide
influence on the lock and hardware industry in this country. While
the products of the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company have always
consisted chiefly of locks and related articles, they have added since
1876 the manufacture of chain blocks, electric hoists, and, during a
considerable period, two lines allied to tool building, namely, cranes
and testing machines. This company was the pioneer crane builder of
this country, organizing a department for this purpose as early as
1878, and developing a large business in this field, which was sold
in 1894 to the Brown Hoisting Machine Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The
building of testing machines was undertaken in 1882, to utilize the
inventions of Mr. A. H. Emery, and was continued until 1887, when this
business was sold to William Sellers & Company, for the same reason
that the crane business was sold; namely, that both were incongruous
with the other and principal products of the company.
In recent years the Bilgram Machine Works, under the leadership of
Hugo Bilgram, an expert Philadelphia mechanic, has made valuable
contributions to the art of accurate gear cutting.
In the cities between New York and Philadelphia, and here and there
in the smaller towns of Pennsylvania, are several tool builders of
influence. Gould & Eberhardt in Newark is one of the oldest firms in
the business, having been established in 1833. Ezra Gould, its founder,
learned his trade at Paterson, and started in for himself at Newark in
a single room, 16 feet square. Within a few years the Gould Machine
Company was organized, the business moved to its present location, and
a line of lathes, planers and drill presses was manufactured. To these
they added fire engines. Ulrich Eberhardt started as an apprentice in
1858 and became a partner in 1877, the firm name becoming E. Gould &
Eberhardt, and later Gould & Eberhardt. Mr. Gould retired in 1891, and
died in 1901. Mr. Eberhardt also died in 1901; the business has since
been incorporated and is now under the management of his three sons.
They employ about 400 men in the manufacture of gear and rack cutting
machinery and shapers.
The Pond Machine Tool Company, which moved from Worcester to
Plainfield, N. J., in 1888, was founded by Lucius W. Pond.[214] It
is a large and influential shop and one of the four plants of the
Niles-Bement-Pond Company. Their output is chiefly planers, boring
mills and large lathes.
[214] See p. 222.
The Landis Tool Company, of Waynesboro, Pa., builders of grinding
machinery, springs from the firm of Landis Brothers, established in
1890 by F. F. and A. B. Landis. One was superintendent and the other a
tool maker in a small plant building portable engines and agricultural
machinery. A small Brown & Sharpe grinding machine was purchased for
use in these works. Mr. A. B. Landis became interested in the design
of a machine more suited to their particular work, and from this has
developed the Landis grinder.