1880 Census: Volume 2. Report on the Manufactures of the United States
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
REPORT ON THE MANUFACTURE OF HARDWARE, CUTLERY, AND EDGE-TOOLS; A.Leo, S.A. "WS .A.ND FILES. COMPILED, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF PROF. WILLIAM P. TROWBRIDGE, CllDIF SPECIAL AGENT Ilf THE DEPARTMENT OF POWER AND MACHINERY EHPLOYED IN llANUFA.CTUJUal, BY CH.AELES H. FITCH, D. E., SPECIAL AGENT. 705 • 1.-THE MANUFACTURE OF HARDWARE. As to products of which hardness is the only quality clearly specified great range may be expect.ed in the . conditions of manufacture. Under the head of hardware, all handicrafts come together, and the use of some of its miscellaneous forms is involved by nearly every mat.erial want. The classification of the industry is therefore attended with peculiar difficulty. In order to make the statistics of the manufacture convey as well-defined ideas as practicable effort is here made to use the most natural and easily recognizable division, forming these seven classes: 1. Builders' hardware ; 2. Saddlery, carriage, and trunk hardware; 3. Light handicraft tools ; 4. Heavy and coarse hardware; 5. Light and fine hardware; 6. Domestic and other miscellaneous hardware; 7. Machinists' supplies (hardware). These captions require to be more exactly defined by the items which they cover, as returned by the manufacturers. Without due appreciation of the miscellaneous character of the products of factories, generally and singly, exceptions may easily be taken to the grouping of it.ems. Here, for example, it may be said are items properly belonging with agricultural implements, or under other heads. These articles, however, are so manufactured together with bardware and other miscellaneous products that they can best be classified under the bead of bard ware. The classes of domestic and other miscellaneous hardware and of heavy hardware contain such items to a considerable extent. It must be borne in mind that items so stated are often the mere addenda of large industries elsewhere classified, and that they do not largely affect the statistics. Single factories, at which thousands of different articles are made, must be classed according to their principal products, but the inclusion of other products should not be ignored. It is to be specially noted that the machinists' supplies (hardware) class constitutes but a small fraction of the manufacture of the articles enumerat.ed, most of them being made, to a much great.er aggregate value, in large machine-shops, bolt-works, and other establishments. But builders' hardware, saddlery hardware, light and fine hardware, and light handicraft tools are classes in themselves reasonably complet.e and distinctive. Under the head of builders' hardware are included the items of general hanlware (of which the greater part is commonly hardware for building purposes), and also blind hinges, blind staples, barn-door hangers, door bolts, door springs, bright-wire goods, hooks and hasps, tacks, knob screws, locks, blind fasteners, locksmithing, metal screw-tops, mineral door knobs, wood screws, sash hardware, spiral-spring hinges, speaking-tube fixtures, vault locks, latches, and wrought-iron blinds. In connection with saddlery, carriage, and trunk hardware are included items of car hardware, drh•ing bits, curry cards and combs, harness trimmings and ornaments, hames, wood hames, nickel-plated fittings,' snaps, and stirrups. Under the head of light handicraft tools are included the following it.ems: bakers' tools, broom tools, bit-braces, brickmakers' tools, canners' tools, carpenters' tools, wood-workers' tools, confectioners' tools, coopers' tools, engravers' tools, bookbinders1 tools, glove tools, glove dies, glass-workers' tools, hardware tools, hattt'rs' tools, joiners' tools, jewelers' tools, jewelers' hardware, light tools, metallic planes, mallets, molding tools, miscellaueoos tools, printers' tools, peg-awls, brad-awls, shoe tools, planes, rules and levels, screw-drivers, rawhide mallets, curriers' tools, small steel tools, screw-wrenches, tinners' tools, weavers' reeds, and watchmakers' tools and dies. In connection with the above some small and light machines are made, such, for example, as tinners' rollH und jewelers' lathes; but the great bulk of the manufacture is of hand tools, generally exclusive of edge and point tools, although these-for example, glove dies, carpenters' planes, carriers' blades, and shoe awls-are sometimes included in connection with other tools. Under the head of heavy hardware will be found annls, vises, box-straps, blacksmiths'. tools a.ml bellows, contractors' tools, calking-irons and hooks, hammers, hog-ringers, marine and shipsmith hardware, i.tas tongs, pokers, steam.fitters' tools and tube expanders, and also occasional items of agricultural steels, steel springs, stove castings, hatchets, horseshoes and nails, ca.lks, metal chains, plumbers' hardware, pump hardware, railroad supplies and track tools, stove findings, and other iron work. 707 2 MANUFACTURE OF HARD,VARE. Light and fine hardware inclndes cabinet hardware,• cabinet locks, buckles, drop-handles and draw polls, light specialties, novelties, and patent articles in hardware, iron toys, japanned goods, le'\"er buckles, office hardware, ornamental and stationers' hardware, pocket-book locks and tape measures, pianoforte hardware, shelf hardware., fine time-locks, uphoh1terers' hardware, undertakers' hardware, and coffin plates. Under the bead of domestic and miscellaneous hardware are included items of butter-trays, bed-springs, crimping-machines, copying presses and tools, carbon plates, carpet-stretchers, cow-bells, fireboards, flnting machincs, forks and fork tines, garden tools, gun implements, gas-machines, housekeeping and garden hardware, metal spinning, oil stoves, patent cotton-pickers, rakes, skates, roller-skates, seal presses, scales and balances, stair· rods and carpet-fasteners, scythe rifles, ticket punches, tin, iron, and enameled ware, and water filters. Finally, under the head of machinists' supplies (hard ware) are included the following items: mill and machine supplies, twist drills, taps aud dies, bolts, nuts, etc., chucks, stocks and dies, and steel tools. In the manufacture of hand tools in l\Iassachusetts the largest single item of manufacture is of screw-wrenches, employing an average of 105 operatives, wages $597884, materials $65,393, products •1597413. This item might perhaps with equal propriety have been classified with machinists' supplies. The items comprised under the head of handicraft tools are noted for the several states, as this manufacture often indicates the prevalence of particular industries in localities within these states. CALIFORNIA.-Canners' tools principally; also, molding tools (San Francisco county). CoNNECTICUT.-Hatters' tools, tinners' tools, and bit-braces in Fairfield county; carpenters' t.ools, roles and levels, tinners' tools, and watchmakers' tools in Hartford county, beside miscellaneous tools in New Ha,·en and Litchfield counties. ILLINOIS.-Tools, hatters' tools, and weavers' reeds in Cook county; watchmakers' tools in Kane county. IowA.-Watchmakers' tools in Lee county. KENTUCKY.-Joiners and carpenters' tools in Campbell and Jefferson counties. l\IAINE.-Oarpenters' tools in Cumberland county; screw-dri¥ers in Kennebec county. MARYLAND.-1\liscellaneons tools in Baltimore county. MASSACHUSETTS.-Shoe tools and peg- and brad-awls in New Bedford county; shoe tools in Essex county; small steel tools in Franklin conntr; watch tools and peg-awls in Hampden county; broom t.ools and planes in Hampshire county; shoe tools, curriers' tools, and watch tools in Middlesex county; awls and rawhide mallets in Norfolk county; shoe tools, awls, and needles in Plymouth county; and screw-wrenches~ shoe t.ools,awls, and mallets, and watchmakers' tools in Worcester county. MICHIGAN.-Miscellaneous tools in Wayne county. MissoURI.-Planes in Scott county, and printers' t.ools in Saint Louis county. NEW HAMPSHmE.-Slioe tools in Rockingham county. NEW JERSEY.-Tools and light and miscellaneous tools in Burlington, Cumberland, Essex, and Hodson counties. NEW YoRK.-Planes in Cayuga county; bit-braces in Erie county; glove tools and dies in Fulton county; carpenters' tools in Monroe county; bakers', glass-workers', and confectioners' tools in Kings county; hardware t.ools in New York county; tools in Orange county, and coopers' tools in Wayne county. Omo.-Tools in Ashtabula and Columbiana counties; coopers' tools in Cuyahoga county, and tinners', engrav8ra', and bookbinders' tools in Hamilton county. PENNSYL v ANIA.-Tools in Allegheny and Blair counties ; wrenches in Erie county; cigar-makers' tools in Lancaster county, and tools, umbrella. tools, confectioners' tools, planes and wood-working tools, brick-makers tools, tinners' tools, and shoe tools in Philadelphia county. RHODE ISLAND.-Jewelers' tools in Providence and Bristol counties. TEXAs.-Tools and models in Grayson county. WIBCONSIN.-Tools and coopers' tools in Milwaukee county. MATERIAL. The large value of material consumed per operative, while indicative of a high productive efficiency when combined with a large ratio of product to material, indicates principally the high value and partly finished state of the material when combined with a small ratio. These figures are princip~ll,Y indicative of the position of the industry upon a scale of completed work. In determining this position two influences are continually at work: every labor-saving improvement contracts, and every refinement of finish and execution expands, the range of work of the industry, while the same influences affect the value