1829]

VIRGINIA CARPET FACTORIES-PIANOS-SILK.

339

which was made of Sea Island cotton, and excited much curiosity. The exhibition of manufactures at the Franklin Institute this year exceeded any previous one. Samples of osnaburgs bagging and negro cloth were exhibited by the South Carolina Manufacturing Company of Darlington, the last of which could be retailed at twelve and a half cents per yard.

A large cloth manufactory, and a carpet factory, was at this time in operation at Martinsburg, Virginia, both of which produced fabrics of beautiful pattern and excellent quality. Felt carpeting was made this year at Catskill, New York, and was considered durable and cheap. A flannel factory was established at Barnet, Vermont, by water power, capable of finishing three thousand yards weekly, from which the first bales were on a team to Boston on 13th October. It belonged to Mr. Henry Stevens.

The manufacture of damask table linen was commenced at Philadelphia in December, by Hamilton Stewart, who made some very elegant patterns.

It was estimated that twenty-five hundred Piano Fortes, of the aggregate value of $750,000, were made this year in the United States, of which nine hundred were made in Philadelphia, eight hundred in New York, seven hundred and seventeen in Boston, and a considerable number in Baltimore.

Handsome silk ribbons, in great variety, were manufactured in Baltimore, from American silk. Silk to the value of twenty-five thousand dollars was made at Mansfield, Connecticut, chiefly by women and children. The first attempt in the United States to manufacture sewing silk by machinery was made at Mansfield this year, by Captain Joseph Conant, afterward of the firm of Conant & Smith, Northampton, Massachusetts, and Mr. Atwood, subsequently of the firm of Atwood & Crane, Mansfield, by whom the business was continued. After many losses and discouragements, they succeeded in making a good article. Silk pocket handkerchiefs by Mr. Bryant, and other silk goods by James Reed, were exhibited at the American Institute fair. A powerful interest in the silk culture was excited by some essays and experiments on American silk, published in July of this year, at the suggestion of John Vaughan, Esq., by Mr. D'Homergue, a practical silk manufacturer, of Marseilles, who had been invited to the United States by the American Silk Society in Philadelphia. He advocated, in conjunction with P. S. Duponceau, Esq., a filature system as the only effective means of promoting the silk culture, and their efforts were followed by the introduction, soon after, in Congress, of the famous silk bill, which was ultimately defeated, an experimental filature having, in the mean time, been started in Philadelphia by them, in 1830.

340

TIN-GOLD-BRICKS-FIRE-ARMS.

[1829

There were at this date two watch crystal manufactories in the United States, one at Boston and one at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Watch glasses were also made to some extent in the glass factories at Jersey City, New Jersey.

Tin was this year discovered by Professor Hitchcock, of Amherst, Massachusetts, at Goshen, in Connecticut, being the first discovery of tin in the United States. It consisted of a single crystal of oxide of tin (cassiterite, or tin stone), weighing fifty grains, contained in granite. It has been since found in small quantities in different places by Professors Sheppard, Rogers, and others.

Specimens of gold, weighing ten pounds, four pounds, and others of less weight, were discovered in Anson county, North Carolina. The first gold received at the mint from Virginia, was deposited this year to the value of $2,500; and the first from South Carolina, to the value of $3,500. The first from Georgia was sent the next year to the amount of $212,000. A map of the gold region of North Carolina, published by Professor Mitchell, indicated nine different mining localities in that state, three in the "primary," and six in the "transitive, or slate" rocks.

A furnace was erected at Strafford, Vermont, for smelting copper pyrites, which occur there with sulphuret of iron, being employed there in the manufacture of copperas, which was made at this time to the amount of ten thousand tons annually, the works having been extended in the last year.

The manufacture of bricks by machinery was successfully commenced in New York. The machines made twenty-five thousand bricks per diem of twelve hours, ready for the fire as soon as they left the machine. They sold readily at five dollars to eight dollars per thousand. The Salamander Fire-brick Works, at Albany, was established at this date by Jacob Henry; and Mr. Berry and others of Baltimore, were so successful about this time in the manufacture of fire bricks as to stop the importation.

At the Springfield Armory, in Massachusetts, the arms, etc., manufactured since 1795 to December 31st, amounted to 296,982 muskets, 250 rifles, 1,000 pistols, 1,202 carbines, 12,840 ball screws, 93,631 wipers, 139,700 screw-drivers, 12,720 sprig vices, 1,936 sets of verifying instruments for muskets, 2,890 arm chests, and 46,545 muskets repaired. The expenditure, including pay of officers and workmen, had been $3,700,559.76. The cost of each musket, exclusive of repairs, improvements, machinery, etc., for 1829, would be about $10.66, a reduction of $1.68 since 1815.

The number of steamboats built on the western rivers since 1811 was

1829]

PATENTS IN 1829.

341

three hundred and twenty-one, of which one hundred and eighty-eight were still running.

PATENTS.-William Delit, East Hartford, Conn., Jan. 13, machine for cleaning rags for paper; John C. Ely, New York, Jan. 28, screw dock; John Goulding, Dedham, Mass., two patents, dated Feb. 16, and two others June 11 and July 21, for manufacturing wool; G. H. Burgin, Philadelphia, April 3, use of ley from soap as a flux for glass; S. Beckwith, S. Beckwith jr., and E. Beckwith, Jan. 27, machine for making shoe pegs; Joseph Soxten, Philadelphia, April 11, improvement in ever-pointed pencil cases, and William Jackson, Philadelphia, July 27, a slide instead of a screw in ever-pointed pencil cases; S. G. Reynolds, Bristol, R. I., April 13, machine for making nails and rivets. This was for making wrought iron nails, etc., by machieery, almost as cheaply as cast iron nails. Isaac Sanderson, Milton, Mass., April 18, cylindrical machine for paper making; Amasa Stone, Providence, R. I., April 30, improved power loom; John W. Cooper, Washington, Pa., Feb. 7, whitening straw and rags for paper making; R. Fairchild, Trumbull, Conn., May 4, agitator in paper making; Nathan Leonard, Merrimac, N. H., June 11, machine for pegging boots and shoes; Frederick B. Merrill, Buffalo, N. Y., June 13, chandelier of crystallized salt; John Arnold, Norwalk, Conn., July 15, forming the web of cloth without spinning or weaving; Reuben Wood, Erin, N. Y., Aug. 25, dyeing by steam; R. S. Tilden, Lynchburg, Va., Sept. 10, covering roofs with tin; Henry Korn, Philadelphia, Sept. 12, fly nets for horses, two patents reissued in 1834 and 1836; J. Rynex, J. Haskins, and S. Knower, Boston, Sept. 23, perpetual polished water proof boots and shoes; Daniel Baldwin, Ithaca, N. Y., scalding and napping hats; Anthony Doolittle, Ann Arbor, Michigan Territory, Nov. 10, distilling maize; David H. Mason and M. W. Baldwin, Philadelphia, Dec. 2, Bramah's hydrostatic press; William H. Bell, Fortress Monroe, Va., Dec. 8, elevating cannon. This patent was purchased by the United States government in 1836. John Thorp, Providence, R. I., Dec. 22, weaving narrow stuffs, such as ribbons, webbing, tapes, ferrets, girthings, chaise lace, fringes, etc., without the use of shuttles.

The number of patents in force in England at this date was 1,855, of which 152 were granted in 1828. Patents had to be taken out separately for England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the aggregate cost was $1,656, while in the United States it was only thirty dollars.

CHAPTER V.

ANNALS OF MANUFACTURES.

1830-1840.

THE attention of Congress was once more called to the subject of the Tariff, which continued to be violently discussed by the opponents of the late act. President Jackson, in his first annual message to the twenty-first Congress, at its first session, December 8th, 1829, made the following remarks:

1830

"To regulate its conduct so as to promote equally the prosperity of these three cardinal interests (agriculture, commerce, and manufactures), is one of the most difficult tasks of government; and it may be regretted that the contemplated restrictions which now embarrass the intercourse of nations, could not by common consent be abolished and commerce allowed to flow in those channels to which individual enterprise, always its surest guide, might direct it. But we must ever expect selfish legislation in other nations, and are therefore compelled to adapt our own to their regulations, in the manner best calculated to avoid serious injury, and to harmonize the conflicting interests of our agriculture, our commerce, and our manufactures. Under these impressions I invite your attention to the existing tariff, believing that some of its provisions. require modification. The general rule to be applied in graduating the duties upon the articles of foreign growth or manufacture, is that which will place our own in fair competition with those of other countries; and the inducements to advance even a step beyond this point, are controlling in regard to those articles which are of primary necessity in time of war."

The committee to which this part of the message was referred, reported against the expediency of any alteration of the tariff, but Mr. Cambreleng, from the Committee of Commerce and Navigation, on the 8th February, made a lengthy report, which was printed, recommending a modification of the existing tariff and revenue laws as incongruous and absurd in their provisions. On the 30th April, he introduced a bill to amend the navigation laws so as to secure a reciprocity of trade, at a uniform duty of thirty per cent. upon imports from such nations as would 342

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ALTERATION IN THE TARIFF.

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admit American products on like terms. The bill did not prevail, and another introduced in the Senate, by Mr. Benton, on the 23d of the same month, was also laid on the table on motion of Mr. Webster, and never taken up. The latter was entitled "A bill for the abolition of unnecessary duties, to relieve the people from sixteen millions of taxes, and to improve the condition of the Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, of the United States," and provided for the repeal or the reduction of the existing duties on the principal imports, in favor of such nations as would reciprocate by treaty, and laid a duty of thirty-three and one third per cent. on furs and raw hides imported.

A bill introduced early in the session, by Mr. Mallory, from the Committee on Manufactures, in alteration of the several acts laying duties on imports, providing for the more effectual collection of the duties, and to prevent evasions of the revenue, became the subject of earnest discussion, upon the presentation of a new bill by way of amendment, by Mr. McDuffie of South Carolina. The substitute, which was rejected, proposed to repeal the acts of 1824 and 1828, so far as they imposed increased duties on woolens, iron, hemp, flax, cotton bagging, molasses, indigo, and manufactures of cotton-and to reduce the duty on salt to ten cents a bushel. Mr. McDuffie entered into a protracted discussion of the whole policy of protecting duties, designed to show their pernicious effects upon the various interests of the country, and particularly upon the South, which he represented to be suffering extremely from that He repudiated with much severity of language, a constitutional right in the majority to govern, and was supported by Mr. Blair of the same state, who, also spoke in strong language, and declared that the time was at hand, when the rights and interests of his state, in common with those of the South, must be respected, or she would seek a remedy herself. The bill, after receiving several amendments, and the support of Messrs. Crawford of Pennsylvania, Everett of Massachusetts, Burgess of Rhode Island, and others, who spoke of the prostrate condition of New England manufactures, passed on 13th May, by a vote of one hundred and twenty-seven to forty.

cause:

On the 20th May an act was approved, reducing the duty on coffee, tea, and cocoa; and on the 29th, the duty on molasses was reduced to six cents a gallon, and a drawback allowed of four cents a gallon on spirits distilled from foreign molasses. An act, of the same date, reduced the duty on salt to fifteen cents a bushel until 31st December, and to ten cents thereafter.

In the discussion of these measures, and the question of internal improvements, in Congress and by the leading journals of the South, to which Dr. Cooper of Columbia College, South Carolina, was a promi