1799]

PATENTS-EXPORTS-COTTON SEED OIL.

81

The patents issued this year, included one to Mark Isambard Brunel, for a machine for writing with two pens (Jan. 17); to John Sears, for a machine for manufacturing salt (Jan. 24). The patentee was an enterprising salt manufacturer of Cape Cod, Mass. One to Benjamin Dearborn, for his celebrated steelyards or Patent Balance (Feb.14); to Jacob Perkins, for an improvement in making nails (Feb. 14); and one. to the same, for a check to detect counterfeits (March 19). Both of these last were valuable inventions; to Benjamin Tyler for a flax and hemp mill (Feb. 26); to Charles Whiting of Mass., for extracting oil from cotton seed (Mar. 2);' and to Robert R. Livingston of New York, for manufacturing paper.

As this year closes the century, it may be proper to give a brief summary of the state of commerce in the country.

The total value of the exports of the United States for the year, was $78,665,522, of which $33,142,522 was the growth, produce, or manufacture of the Union. The total value of the imports was estimated at $79,069,148.

New York this year, first took the lead of other states in the amount of its exports, which were $18,719,527. The other states ranked in the following order, as to the value of their exports; Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Delaware, Vermont,

(1) In 1769-70, Dr. Otis, of Bethlehem, Pa., presented to the Am. Philosoph. Society, through Dr. Bond, a sample of oil made from hulled cotton seed. It was made,-as were specimens of the oil of sunflower seed exhibited at the same time,--by the Moravians at that place, and in much the same way as linseed oil, at the rate of nine pints of oil to a bushel and a half of seed. It was said to be used medicinally in the West Indies.-Phil. Trans. vol. 1. The London Society of Arts, in 1783, having learned that cotton seed yielded oil seed cake as food for eattle, in order to encourage the cultivation of cotton, offered a gold medal as a premium for oil expressed from cotton seed, and oil cake from the remaining seed, made by planters in the British West India Islands, in quantities of not less than one ton of oil and five hundred weight of cake. A silver medal was offered for smaller quantities, and the premiums were annually renewed

for six years. But the large quantity required appears to have defeated the object. A medal was offered by the S. C. Agricultural Society soon after its organization in 1785, for oil from cotton seed and other oleaginous seed. Patents were taken out in 1819, by Daniel Gillett of Springfield, Mass., for preparing food from cotton seed, and the next year by Geo. P. Digges of Virginia, for extracting oil from the seed. But it is only within a few years that a new source of profit to the Southern cotton planter, has been found in the manufacture of oil and seed cake, from the thousands of tons of seed which annually encumbered; the estates, or was used on the poorer soils as manure. The saving to be thus effected: has been differently estimated at from twenty to thirty millions of dollars annually. Some sixteen or more patents have been taken out, for machines for hulling the seed for that purpose.

82

STATISTICS OF EXPORTS AND TONNAGE.

[1799

New Jersey. The exports from Vermont were $20,480, and were the first from that state of which returns were made.

The average annual exports of flour from the United States during the last five years, were 596,140 barrels; of potash 4,627 tons; of pearlash 2,024 tons; of tobacco 74,100 hogsheads; of tar 52,712 barrels; of pitch 7,145 barrels; of rosin 9,802, and of turpentine 43,696 barrels. The average yearly value of all domestic articles exported in the same period, was $32,822,965.

The exports from the United States to Louisiana and the Floridas, were $3,504,092, of which $447,824 were domestic articles. The imports from the same were $507,132. St. Genevieve and New Bourbon, in Upper Louisiana (now Missouri), produced 170,000 pounds of lead, of which 36,000 pounds were sent to New Orleans. The population of St. Louis was 925.

The total tonnage of every description belonging to the Union, was 946,408 tons, of which 669,197 was registered tonnage engaged in the foreign trade, 220,904 enrolled in the coasting trade, and the balance was enrolled and licensed tonnage employed in the coasting trade and fisheries.

CHAPTER II.

ANNALS OF MANUFACTURES.

1800-1810,

DIRECTING our attention, first to those acts of legislation, which may be said to have had a direct or indirect bearing upon manufacturing industry, we note, that on Feb. 28, Congress passed an act, pro1800 viding for the second census of the inhabitants of the United States, to commence on the first Monday in August. The returns gave the total population of twenty-one states and territories, as 5,319,762, of which number, 896,849 were slaves.

In April, the law relating to Patent Rights, was modified so as to restore to aliens, who had resided two years within the United States, all the rights and privileges enjoyed by citizens, under the act of 21 Feb., 1793. The legal representatives of a deceased inventor, were empowered to receive a patent. The violation of the rights of patentees was made punishable, by a forfeiture of three times the amount of the damages.

The quantity of spirits distilled in the United States from foreign materials (chiefly in the Eastern States), during the year, was 1,290,476 gallons, and from domestic materials 51,625 gallons, on which the gross amount of duties was $142,779. The aggregate capacity of all the stills employed, was 2,084,212 gallons; upon which the aggregate duty was $372,561. The total quantity of spirits distilled from molasses since Jan. 1, 1790, was 23,148,404 gallons, of which 6,322,640 gallons were exported."

The quantity of refined sugar sent out of the refineries during the year, was 3,349,896 pounds, and the gross amount of duties thereon, was $66,998.2

The quantity of cotton grown in the United States this year, was about 35,000,000 of pounds, of which 17,800,000 were exported. Of this, about 16,000,000 of pounds went to England, constituting over onefourth of the total importation of cotton into that country. The quan

(1) Seybert, 261, 461.

(2) Ibid, 470.

84

MOROCCO MANUFACTURE-IRON-VESSELS.

[1800

tity manufactured in the United States, was upward of 8,000,000 pounds, of which, only about 500 bales were consumed in regular establishments.1

The caterpillar or cotton-worm, first commenced its devastations in South Carolina.

The first cotton-spinning machine in France, was this year introduced from England, through Ghent, and was presented to the first consul. It was, about the same time, introduced for the first time into Switzerland, in the canton of St. Gall, where it was followed the next year by the power loom, recently brought into general use in England. spinning was introduced into Saxony the year previous.

Machine

The price of cotton twist in Rhode Island, was as follows: for number 12, 103 cents; number 16, 119 cents; number 20, 136 cents; an increase of fifteen cents on the prices of 1794.

The manufacture of morocco leather was about this time commenced, at Lynn, Mass., by William Rose, an Englishman, who had been regularly bred to the business in London. His dwelling and manufactory, occupied the present site of the grounds and residence of Stephen Oliver, Jr. His success was great, but through imprudence he became bankrupt in about eight years; and in 1809, resumed the business in Charlestown, where it had been previously revived since the Revolution,-about the year 1796,-by Elisha Mead. In the following year he removed to Northampton, Connecticut, which he left in 1814, and four years after, died in poverty, at Sterling, Mass. The morocco business in Lynn, was successively prosecuted by Joshua R. Gore, Francis Moore & Henry Healy, Wm. B. & Joshua Whitney, Carter & Tarbell, Samuel Mulliken, Daniel R. Witt & Joseph Mansfield; who were the principal manufacturers during the ten years after Rose left. The apprentices of the latter introduced the business in several other towns.

The Salem Iron Manufacturing Company, in Mass., was incorporated with power to hold real and personal estate, to the value of $330,000. A rapid increase in the production of iron commenced about this time in England, which this year made 180,000 tons.

The building of vessels was commenced at Elizabeth, on the Monongahela river, sixteen miles above Pittsburg, by Col. Stephen Bayard, who laid out the town in 1787; and at this time took out a company of ship carpenters from Philadelphia, and established a ship-yard. The first vessel built was the ship Monongahela Farmer.

(1) Claiborne's Report to Commissioners of Patents, 1857.

1800]

PATENTS IN 1800-CASTOR OIL.

85

Patents were this year granted to Oliver Evans (Jan. 16), for an improvement in stoves and grates. This was for the luminous stove, with doors or lights of tale, and designed for burning the recently discovered hard Lehigh or stone coal, which could not be burned in common stoves. His grate stoves are believed to have been the first to come into general use, and were the first in which talc was used. John G. Gebhard, of N. Y., received a patent (Feb. 4) for extracting oil from Palma Christi.1 John J. Hawkins, of Philadelphia, patented (Feb. 12) an improvement in the piano-forte, which he manufactured and sold, at fifteen South Second st., under the name of Patent Portable Grand Piano, as his card states, at little more than half the price of imported grand or square pianos. He also manufactured a patent ruling machine; and later in the year, took out another patent, for an improvement in musical instruments. John Biddis, who had before received two patents for improvements of a chemical nature, was granted one (May 6) for an engine for reducing silk, cotton, worsted, cloth, etc., to their original state, to be manufactured. This was a very early attempt to utilize such refuse materials, which, by the aid of modern machinery, now form the basis of an extensive manufacture of shoddy in England, and to some extent in this country, and which has materially affected the production of woolen goods in the United States. Peter Lorillard, of New York, patented (June 28) a machine for cutting tobacco, of which he was an extensive manufacturer. Jonathan Grant, Jr., of Belchertown, Mass., filed (Oct. 4) the description of an improved telegraph. This invention, made two years before, was put in operation between Boston and Martha's Vineyard, a distance of ninety miles, and a question was transmitted and answered in less than ten minutes.2

In February, Henry Wiswell, Zenas Crane, and John Willard, of

(1) The manufacture of castor-oil, from the castor-oil bean or palma christi, the Ricinus Communis of Linnæus-which is now extensively prosecuted in several parts of the Union, particularly in the Western States-employed one or two mills in New York, as early as 1789. The Agricultural Society of South Carolina, soon after its incorporation in 1785, offered among other premiums, medals, for the largest quantities of oils from the olive-cuttings of which they distributed-from ground nuts, sesamum or bene seed, cotton and sunflower seeds, and for castor oil. The palma christi

or castor nut, grew abundantly in the state, and yielded from 100 to 150 gallons of oil to the acre. A Mr. Rudolph, of Camden, a few years after the date in our text, had fifty or sixty acres under cultivation with the plant, from which he had produced large quantities of cold drawn oil by expression. It was first extensively manufactured in the United States, some years later, at Newbern, in North Carolina. In quality, American castor oil is equal to the best East Indian.

(2) Holmes's Annals.