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It is a fact worthy of attention that of all the goods that are sold by the hardware jobbers of the united states today fully thirty five percent have been made or originated within the past fifteen years, so rapid has been the development of this business within the last quarter of a century. The difficulty of giving space, in detail, to the varied items of hardware can be realized in some slight degree from the statement that one single jobbing hardware house in this country purchases goods from about 3000 manufactures, both foreign and domestic, although the number of foreign manufactures from whom purchases are made does not amount to three percent of the sum total. No article upon hardware, however, would be complete without specific mention of a few of the leading items. In the item of door locks, latches, padlocks, and small builders’ hardware, Americans have been particularly successful. In point of f act, their goods possess so many advantages over those made abroad as to defy comparison. In England, France and Germany, they are still using a large, weighty wrought-iron door lock, with its heavy brass key eight or ten inches long, clumsy and awkward; while in American that class of goods has long since been superseded by a smaller, more compact, and handsomer lock, with a small, flat steel key not more than an inch and half in length, and easily carried in the waistcoat pocket. Door-lock manufacture was first begun in Connecticut. Authorities differ as to just where it originated, some claiming the honor for new haven and others for New Britain. From the best information obtainable in appears that this industry was begun in both these places at about the same time - 1834. The first goods manufactured were the cheaper grades, chiefly plate and wood stock locks; and later English patterns in wrought iron were copied. Very soon thereafter, and not later than 1840, door locks were made successfully from cast iron, and these immediately supplanted the old and clumsy wrought iron locks, which have since that day almost entirely passed out of use in the united states. There is not article in the hardware business, which so distinctly bears the impress of American originality, Yankee ingenuity, and New World progressive ideas as door locks. Foreign locks and hardware are in each country the outgrowth of its civilization and the characteristics of its people. They differ markedly in each case. European peoples are conservative in their tastes, and changes occur very slowly. The influence of this characteristic is adverse to the development of inventors, and operates to discourage the few who appear by making their work unappreciated and unprofitable. The conditions in the United States are the reverse of this, invention being encouraged and rewarded with consequent stimulation to fresh endeavor. As a result, the art of using cast iron freely and effectively in light forms, so well known in this country, has never been acquired in Europe, and a prejudice in favor of wrought metal exists there, which condemns, unheard and without trial, many American products because they a re made of cast iron although the latter is often better adapted than the former to the intended use. These conditions have always stood in the way of the introduction of American hardware into Europe, but this prejudice is gradually melting under the absolute merit of the goods made by American manufactures. American locks have been sold all over Europe for many years, but the trade in them grows slowly and is limited to the wealthier classes, and more especially those who by travel here, or by contact with Americans, have become imbued with the American spirit of progress. American builders’ hardware has in recent years been lifted to a new and higher plane in both design and execution. Formally the pattern maker or the lock maker, working with sheet metal and file, originated each new article. Now, in one or more establishments, and perhaps in a number, the work of designing and originating proceeds in the same manner as similar work relating to the designing of machinery, steam engines, or other mechanical and engineering production, viz., by skilled drafts-men and designers working at the drawing board, guided by the best obtainable skill and knowledge, and assisted by the fullest record of experience and data pertaining to the art. There is no reasonable doubt that a very large export trade in door locks and builders’ hardware generally will be had in the near future, because the merit of the American goods has been more thoroughly appreciated within the past two or three years than at any other time in the past century. There are fifteen manufactures engaged in making door locks and builders’ hardware in this country, with a capital of perhaps $25,000,000 employing 20,000,000 people. An item of interest is the fact that there are melted for use in the manufacture of these goods annually over 100,000 tons of metal. There is probably nothing in the hardware line in which the American dealer takes more pride than saws, and especially had saws and such other small saws are used by the carpenter and cabinetmaker. It is believed tat the first saws of any kind manufactured in the United States were made by William Rowland, in the year 1806, in Philadelphia. In 1823 Aaron Nichols in the same place started a small plant. In 1828 or 1829, in New York City, the first of R. Hoe & Co. began to make circular saws from English steel which were about the first manufactured in this country. In 1835 Noah Worrall started in New York City the manufacture of small circular saws, the following year William and Charles Johnson Co. commenced the manufacture of saws in Philadelphia; and it was with this firm that Henry Disston, who afterward achieved a worldwide reputation for his wonderful success, learned his trade. In 1840 the first of William & Charles Johnson failed, and Henry Disston accepted from them some tools, steel, and such material as he could get in the saw line, on account of wages that were due him, and with these he began to manufacture saws in his own name. After this there were several small industries started by Jonathan Paul in 1840, J. Bringhurst in 1842, James Turner in 1843, and Walter Cresson in 1845. Henry Disston each in turn bought out these four. William Andrews was one of the first saw makers in this country and his nephew still possesses the anvil brought here by his uncle in 1819. This is aid to be the first saw anvil used in this country. Prior to 1863 all of the steel used in this country in the manufacture of saws was brought from England. In that year Henry Disston built and operated the first crucible steel melting plant for saw steel in the United States. He also built a rolling mill, and from that time on used nothing by steel of his own production. It was a long and hard struggle for Henry Disston to secure recognition and command trade for his American made goods, but all Americans know how well he succeeded. Up to this time the American market was supplied almost entirely by English manufactures; but the growth and development of this business in the United States since have been phenomenal, and for many years past there have been, practically speaking, not saws imported into this country, while on the other hand, the American made goods are exported largely to every civilized nation on the face of the globe. But little or no advances were made in the manufacture of hand saws before the time on Henry Disston, so that practically all the improvements in quality, style, methods of manufacture, etc., were made by him and his successors since the year in 1865, and to them is due the credit of placing American saws in their present position, at the head of the market of the world for quality, finish, and correctness of pattern. The American manufactures, having improved on the old patterns from time to time, aiming to make each as perfect as possible and distinctly suited to the particular class of work for which it was intended, have entirely passed the foreign maker, who is still producing the old clumsy style, with inferior finish, with non or scant improvements over the goods turned out a hundred years ago. It is safe to say that there is no other manufacturing concern in the hardware line in the United States that reflects more credit upon American genius, skill, ingenuity, and enterprise than that of Henry Disston & Sons, who works are located at Tacony, a suburb of Philadelphia. There are about 2700 persons employed in this industry, with an annual product of about 5,000,000; and there is nothing made in this country that advertises the united states better, more substantially, more practically, or more permanently then American handsaws, so excellent is their quality, and so beautiful are their design and finish. There are consumed annually in the factory of Henry Disston $ Sons 12,000 ton of steel, all of it used in their various productions they made an average of 2500 dozen handsaws each week in the year, everyone of which is practical illustration of the superiority of the American manufacturer. The capital invested in the manufacture of saws in the United States is $7,000,000 to $8,000,000. The item of small farming tools, such as forks, hoes, and rakes, is one of the exceedingly interesting manufactures in the hardware line, because as has been stated, they were one century ago being brought here literally on the backs of the emigrants, and from them were suspended their bundles of clothing and household goods. Immediately there after the village blacksmith began to make them, forging the goods by hand in this crude attempt to copy those that were brought over the emigrants, Iron was the sole material used (except the handles which, Of course were wood). The goods were very clumsy, unshapely, awkward to use and heavy. In the decade of 1820-30 the introduction of the triphammer revolutionized the entire business and made possible the production of goods by machinery. At the present time there are probably twenty-five different manufacturing works in the United States engaged on these goods, which are commonly called hand agricultural tools, employing perhaps 1500 people, with a capital of $1, 500, 00. The steel consumed in these productions is more than 4000 tons annually. Of this product of the $2,000,000 at least $250,000, and perhaps twice as much is exported to foreign countries, leaving about $1,500,00 for home consumption. It
is a thoroughly well recognized fact all over the world that
American forks, hoes and rakes are greatly superior to those
made in foreign countries, chiefly because of their lightness
and great strength, as well as their marked superiority of
finish. In this one single class of goods foreigners have
improved in their quality by reason of our competition- a
condition that does not exist in any other line of hardware.
These goods are exported to England, France, Italy, Switzerland,
Germany, Austria, and Norway and widen, and then demand for them
in those countries is steadily growing.
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