Worcester County, Massachusetts - Chapter 195, 1889

Mmtofacturing And Mechanicai, Industries

Wire. - In the latter half of the eighteenth century the desirability of commencing the manufacture of wire in this country was very generally recognized. But little progress was made for some years, and most, if not all, of the card-wire was imported from England. In fact, at this time there was very little wire made in the world. From a well-authenticated source the assertion is made that in 1810 the entire output of wire in England would not exceed one four-horse load

From the report of Albert Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury, made in 1810, it appears that the demand for cards was twice as much in 1809 as in 1808, and was increasing.

The wire is imported, and serious inconvenience would attend the stoppage of the supply, although the manufacture might, and would bo immediately established to supply all demands, if the same duty were laid on wire, now free, as on other articles of the same material.

In the early days the hardware dealers of Worcester imported their wire from England or Germany. Wire was drawn in Walpole, soon after the Revolution, by Eleazar Smith, and card-wire was drawn by hand in Leicester as early as 1809. In 1813 mention is made of a wire factory, run by Joseph White, in West Boylston; in April, 1814, of its manufacture in Phillipston, and in the same year a wire factory is advertised for sale at Barre, on the Ware River.

Wire was drawn in Spencer between 1815 and 1820. Its manufacture in Worcester was begun in 1831 by Ichabod Washburn and Benjamin Uoddard, in a wooden factory at Northville. This was on the second privilege south of North Pond dam, and was built by Frederick W. Paine. The factory now standing on this site is the third one built there, the two preceding having been burned.

Ichabod Washburn first engaged in business in Worcester in 1820, with William H. Howard, in the manufacture of woolen machinery and lead pipe. Mr. Howard shortly afterwards left town, and Mr. Washburn purchased his half of the business, which he continued.

Goddard, the firm being Washburn & Goddard, and Ihey soon employed thirty men. They made the first condenser and long-roll spinning-jack ever made in Woicester County, and among the first in the country.

Any one passing in Main Street, by the head of School Street, in the year 1822, might have seen projecting from one of the large sycamore trees standing there, the following sign : - Wool Cahding and Lead Aqueduct Manufactory, with a hand pointing down the street to Washburn & Goddard 's shop, on the site now occupied by N. A. Lombard's building, and near the site of the factory for the manufacture of corduroys and fustians, occupied in 1789 by Samuel Brazer.

During the winter of 1830-31 Mr. Washburn, in a small wooden building, back of what is now the brick part of N. A. Lombard's factory, in School Street, experimented in the manufacture of wood-screws.

Some time during the year 1831, Mr. Washburn, Mr. Goddard and General Heard visited North Providence, where three brothers - Clement O., Curtis and Henry Head - were making wood-screws under a patent which they owned. An arrangement was made with the Reads, and they moved the screw machinery, to the Northville Factory at Worcester. It was brought from Providence on a canal boat, the journey occupying three days.

Meantime, in August, 1831, Washburn & Goddard Bold their business in School Street, and moved to Northville, where the manufacture of wire and woodscrews was begun, the wire being manufactured by Washburn & Goddard, the screws under the name of C. Read & Co., with whom Mr. Washburn had an interest. Washburn & Goddard at the same time manufactured card-wire.

Some time between April, 1836, and March, 1837, the screw business was removed to Providence, where it continued for a time under the name of C. Read & Co., but ultimately became the nucleus of the " Eagle," now the "American Screw Company," which has since acquired a world-wide reputation.

Mr. Washburn states, in his autobiography, that the first wire-machine he ever saw was one of selfacting pincers, drawing out about a foot, then passing back and drawing another foot. AVith this crude machine a man could draw about fifty pounds of wire per day. For this Mr. Wa.shburn substituted the wire-block, which is in use at the present time.

The process of wire-drawing consists in taking a coarse wire rod and drawing it through a hole of less diameter than the rod, in an iron or steel plate, and repeating the operation until the rod is reduced to wire of the required size. The reduction is effected by stretching the wire, and not by removing the metal.

At the present day a piece of steel four inches square and three feet long is rolled into a two hundred pound coil of No. 6 rods, measuring about two thousand and forty-six feet. This rod, by the process of drawing from No. 6 to No. 12, is increased in length to 6,848 feet. The diameter of the No. 12 wire is .10.5, while the billet from which it is made has a sectional area of sixteen square inches.

Mr. Washburn, at this time, happened to be in New York, when Phelps, Dodge & Co., with whom he had business, said to him that they were starting a wiremill, and expected to make all the wire that would be wanted in the country, and predicted failure for his mill in Worcester.

January 30, 1835, the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Goddard retaining the factory at Northville for the manufacture of woolen machinery, while Mr. Washburn continued the wire business in a factory built for him, by the late Stephen Salisbury, on Mill Brook, which was dammed for the purpose of providing water-power, thus forming what is now known as Salisbury's Pond. The earth removed to make a basin for the pond forms the high ground now found upon the south side and included within the boundaries of Institute Park.

The building erected by Mr. Salisbury was eighty feet long and forty feet in width, three stories high in the centre, with a sloping roof, two chimneys and surmounted by a cupola containing a bell.

In 1835 Charles Washburn came from Harrison, Me., where he was practicing law, and formed a copartnership with his brotlier Ichabod, which continued until January 13, 1838. Meantime Benjamin Goddard discontinued the manufacture of woolen machinery, and the Northville mill came into Mr. Washburn's possession. He then made a contract with Mr. Goddard to draw wire for him, and wire machinery was again set up in the Northville factory.

About the year 1840 Mr. Washburn bought the water-power and property nov/ occupied by the Worcester Wire Company at South Worcester. Mr. Goddard took charge of the mill, and retained that position till his death, in 1867, and all three of his sons worked there, - Delano, who afterwards became the accomplished editor of the Boston Advertiser ; Henry, who is now at the head of an important department at the works of the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company ; and Dorrance, who for many years was superintendent of the South Works of the corporation.

The South Worcester Mill was a one-story building, about fifty feet long and thirty feet wide. Card-wire was here drawn to No. 19 size, and brought to Grove Street to be finished. Coarser wire, for machinery and telegraph purposes, was also drawn at South Worcester.

At the Worcester County Cattle Show, held in October, 1838, Ichabod Washburn exhibits very excellent wire Nos. 30, 31, 32 and 33, and also iron wire cards.

In 1842 Charles Washburn again became a partner in the business. February 13, 1845, the old wiremill in Northville, then used as a cotton-factory and

At this time the demand for telegraph-wire commenced. From 1847 until 1859 it was mainly of No. 9 size, Stubs' gauge. It was not galvanized at first, but was sometimes painted or boiled in oil, for the purpose of retarding the inevitable process of oxidation. A more complete preservative was later found in zinc, applied by the process known as galvanizing. At first this was somewhat crude, and consisted in dipping the coils of wire in molten zinc, after which the surplus metal was shaken off by violent pounding.

From 1837 till 1847 Ichabod Washburn purchased in Sweden his wire-rod billets, which were bars of iron about twelve feet long, one and one-eighth inch square in section, and these were rolled into wire-rods at Fall River, Troy and Windsor Locks, Conn. The inconvenience of having the rolling done at a distance led Ichabod and Charles Washburn, in 1847, to look about for a location for a rolling-mill.

Attracted by the water-power at Quinsigamond, a small part of which was then used by the lower papernrill remaining at that place, they purchased the whole property of the Lincoln family, thus acquiring what they deemed reliable power, and, at the same time, plenty of room for the location of all the buildings necessary for their purposes.

Under their patronage a new firm was organized to carry on the rod-rolling and wire business, under the title of Washburn, Moen & Co., a firm composed of Henry S. Washburn, Charles Washburn and Philip L. Moen. This company was dissolved January 12, 1849, the business being continued by Henry S. Washburn.

January 1, 1849, the co-partnership theretofore exing between I. & C. Washburn was dissolved, the manufacture of wire in its various branches being continued at the Grove Street mill by Ichabod Washburn. A division of the property was had, Charles Washburn taking Quinsigamond. February 9, 1849, he oflTered to rent for a term of years "the building with water-power sufficient for driving machinery for a sash and blind-factory, or any other business not requiring a very great water-power." At the same time he oflers for sale the entire machinery for the manufacture of paper in the said building.

This was the lower of the two paper-mills, which for many years had been run at this point by the Burbanks, and was located in what is known as the scrap-yard of the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company, about forty feet south of a well, which is now constantly in use and which afforded water for the operatives in the paper-mill. The end of the mill was parallel with the railroad, and was only separated from it by the width of the old race-way, and stood at a point about four hundred and sixty feet

January 2, 1853, Henry S. Washburn formed a copartnership with Charles F. Washburn, and they continued at Quinsigamond rolling rods and manufacturing iron and wire under the firm-name of Henry S. Washburn & Co. Meantime, Ichabod Washburn had made considerable progress in the manufacture of wire, particularly of card-wire, introducing new and improved processes. This was made of Swedish bars one and one-quarter inches square, which were rolled at Quinsigamond into wire rods of a little less than one-quarter of an inch in diameter; they were then carried to the wire factory at South Worcester and Grove Streets, and drawn to the necessary sizes. The capacity of this rolling-mill was about six long tons per day of ten hours.

Early in his experience as a wire-drawer Mr. Washburn adopted certain improved processes for annealing, - that is, restoring the wire, as it became hard and brittle, by repeated drawing to its original soft and pliable conditiuji, - by heating in cast-iron pots and cooling slowly. This improvement consisted in placing the small coils in double air-tight iron-pots.

In 1850, at the suggestion of Mr. Chickering, of Boston, Mr. Washburn devoted his attention to the production of steel wire for piano-fortes, the manufacture of which had been previously monopolized by several English houses. These experiments were successful; and the English wire was discarded for that made in Worcester.

In February, 1856, the Quinsigamond Mills consisted of a building one hundred and fifty feet front with two wings extending back one hundred and filly feet, between which was a hoop building, sixty by thirty feet; these with coal-houses and yards covered more than an acre of ground. Here were manufactured Brazer's screws, rivet rods, bright and annealed market and telegraph, spring, fence, buckle and bail wire; also fine hoops. The daily product was ten tons; eighty-five operatives were employed and one hundred horse-power was supplied by three water-wheels. The annual product of the mill was valued at three hundred thousand dollars.

The first continuous tempering done by Mr. Ichabod Washburn was in 1856, in the rear of his Summer Street residence ; this was music wire, and the hardening was done in water. Early in 1857 the furnace was removed to the old gymnasium in Orchard Street and oil was substituted for water.

This series of experiments led to an important invention in the process of hardening and tempering continuously. Hitherto this had only been done when the steel wire was in the form of a coil by subjecting it first to high heat, and then cooling in oil or water.

But the pressure for music wire and for crinoline wire now coming upon him, the old process became too slow and expensive to be endured, and it became necessary to adopt some more efficient method. This was found in the continuous process of hardening and tempering, which he patented, and which, without any substantial improvement or change has been universally adopted, rendering possible many results which could not otherwise have been reached.

In 1857 the partnership of Henry S. Washburn and Charles F. Washburn was dissolved, and May 1st, of that year, Charles Washburn and Charles F. Washburn formed a co-partnership under the name of Charles Washburn & Son, and continued in business at the Quinsigamond works. Henry S. Washburn remained in the wire business, and occupied as a factory one of the buildings erected by Nathan Washburn near the freight depot of the Western Railroad. C. Washburn & Son then manufactured most of their common market wire from scrap iron piled on boards eighteen by eight inches, heated to a welding | heat, and rolled into billets which were re-heated and rolled into rods.

The only appliances in their mills for the production of wire rods were three heating furnaces and a large train of two rolls, in which the pile of heated scrap was rolled to one and one-eighth inch billets of one hundred pounds weight; and a small train of rolls three high, by which these billets were rolled to three and a half by four Slubs' gauge wire rod.

Experiments in the burning of peat were made by Henry S. Washburn & Co., and by I. Washburn & Co., but it did not prove a satisfactory substitute for coal.

In July, 1859, I. Washburn & Company employed one hundred and twenty hands in the Grove Street mill, and made three tons of iron wire per day. They were erecting a new mill three stories high, eighty feet by forty feet, and were also making large additions to the mill in South Worcester; a new annealing house, fifty feet by thirty feet, two stories high, together with additions to the main building.

Ckinoline Wire. - The crinoline wire business commenced about 1859 and lasted for ten years. This was made possible by the continuous hardening and tempering process invented by Mr. Washburn, which made it feasible to temper a cheaper grade of cast steel at very little additional cost, and thus substitute it for the more expensive methods before used for increasing the size of women's skirts. This enabled the skirt-makers to put their goods on the market furnished with steel hoops of great toughness and elasticity, and at a price which put them within the reach of the poorest; consequently, this line of business was largely increased until about 1870, when other fashions came into vogue and the consumption of tempered steel in this form steadily decreased. For several years the annual output of tempered crinoline wire was one thousand five hundred tons annually, making this company the largest consumer of cast steel in the country.

About 1860 Mr. Washburn introduced continuous annealing, cleaning and galvanizing. This was an English invention and a great improvement upon the processes previously used, being of especial value at that time in the manufacture of telegraph wire.

In 1863 I. Washburn & Moen built a cotton-mill, which was run for about ten years, producing yarn sufficient to cover four tons per day of tempered crinoline wire.

In 1864 I. Washburn & Moen controlled the works at Grove Street and South Worcester, but had no rolling-mill. Their business was confined to iron and cast steel of different grades, Bessemer steel and open-hearth steel being introduced many years later. January 2, 1865, I. Washburn & Moen changed the co-partnership to a corporation under the style of I. Washburn & Moen Wire Works, organized fur the purpose of manufacturing wire and wire rods. Capital stock, $500,000.

November 27, 1866, a petition was filed to form a corporation " for making wire and wire rods, cotton yarn and goods, with a capital larger than at present allowed." The petitioners asked to be incorporated under the title of Washburn & Moen Wire Works, with a capital of $600,000.

July 7, 1867, the mill at South Worcester was burned and the business was conducted at Grove Street till March, 1868, when a new mill at South Worcester was in readiness. About a year and onehalf from that time the company commenced the erection of most of the present buildings in Grove Street. Meantime, February 24, 1868, the Quinsigamond Iron & Wire Works and the Washburn & Moen Wire Works were consolidated under the name of the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company, with a capital of $1,000,000, and authority to increase this amount to $1,500,000, the present capital, was granted May 26, 1869.

In the fall of 1869 was built the first rolling-mill, at Grove Street. This was a " Continuous Mill," so called, and was in its essential features an English invention.

The adoption of Bc^ssemer steel, which occurred in 1876, created a revolution in the wire business, substituting, as it did, a better and cheaper material for yery many purposes. This occurred at the beginning of the barbed wire business. The use of Bessemer steel for this purpose alone, besides furnishing a stronger wire than could be made from Swedish iron, represents a saving of at least four million five hundred thousand dollars annually to the farmers of the

Barbed Fencing. - The importance of the fence question to the people of the United States can perhaps be best appreciated by a mere statement of the results contained in the Report of the United States' Department for Agriculture for 1871, from which it appears that the cost of fencing in thirty-seven States had amounted to $1,M7,549,931, while the annual cost of repairs amounted to $93,963,187. This together with the annual interest on the original investment at six per cent., made the total cost, exclusive of rebuilding, $188,806,182.

The cost of fencing per rod, as stated in this report, varies from 30 cents in Alabama to $2.20 in Rhode Island. In addition, a fence occupies and wastes, upon an average, a piece of land half a rod wide, or one acre in every fifty, making a total of not less than .50,000,000 acres in the United States.

Not only was the expense of fencing with timber enormous, but apprehension was felt that the supply might be unequal to the demands made upon it. Wire as a fencing material was recommended as early as 1821. Speaking of the wastefulness of the common method of wooden-fencing, the secretary of the New York State Agricultural Society for 1850 stated that the worm-fence took " from every one hundred acres an area of five acres."

The substitution of wire for wood as a fencing material was generally recommended on the ground that it takes up no room, exhausts no soil, shades no veo-etation, is proof against high winds, makes no snow-drifts, and is both durable and cheap.

As the necessity for a cheap fencing material increased, efforts to supply the need also increased. Up to 1881 twelve hundred and twenty-nine patents had been issued relating to fencing, and more than two-thirda of that number since 1865.

The first patent was in 1801, and 'up to 18-57 about one hundred had been issued, while in 1866, '67 and '68 three hundred and sixty-eight fence patents were issued. «

In examining the patents issued it is found that of the twelve hundred and twenty-nine issued up to 1881 forty were to inventors in the New England States ; three hundred and seventy-two to the Middle States; one hundred and eight to the Southern States; and six hundred and ninety-six to the Western States ; eight to the District of Columbia and five to Canada.

Of the States, Ohio had the greatest number, two hundred and forty-one ; followed by New York, two hundred and thirty-one; Illinois, one hundred and forty-two ; Iowa, ninety-six.

Up to 1873 plain No. 9 round wire was largely used in the West as a fencing material and thousands of tons of it were in use, but it was not satisfactory. It stretched in warm and contracted in cold weather, which was the cause of constant breakages; furthermore, cattle could rub against it with impunity, and this constant pressure loosened the posts and broke the wire.

In the fall of 1873 the manufacture of barbed-wire was begun in a small way at DeKalb, 111., by Mr. J. F. Glidden, who was a farmer in that town. He first made a few rods of fencing and put it up on his own farm in November, 1873. The process was very crude when compared with the present method of manufacture.

The barbs were first formed by bending around a mandril and then slipped upon one wire of the fence; the second wire was then intertwisted with the first; this locked the barbs in place and prevented lateral as well as rotary motion. The fencing was made in sixteen-foot lengths, and as there was no means for coiling it on spools for transportation, it was carried to the point where it was to be put up, and then enough of these sixteen-foot lengths were spliced together to give a fence of the desired length. The first piece actually sold for use was in the spring of 1874. Three boys and two men were able to make fifty pounds per day. In June, 1874, it was arranged to do the twisting by horse-power, and this increased the product of three boys and two men to one hundred and fifty pounds per day.

In the latter part of 1874 a rude hand-machine was devised for twisting the barb upon the main wire and spooling the product, which was subsequently unwound and twisted with a second wire and then spooled again. By the use of the latest machinery, one man will now produce two thousand pounds, or over five and a half miles, in ten hours.

In the spring of 1876 the attention of the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company having been called to this new article of manufacture and impressed with its value, automatic machinery was constructed and patented, and the control of the underlying barbedwire patents was acquired. These patents were, - one to L. B. Smith, of Ohio (.Tune 25, 1867), in which the barb consists of four radially projecting points from a hub, which is prevented from moving laterally by a bend in the main wire. Patent granted to W. D. Hunt, of New York, in which a single fence wire is armed with spur-wheels which can revolve upon the main wire. Patent to Michael Kelly, of New York, dated February 11, 1868; this is the first patent to show two wires twisted together. The barb was made of a lozenge-shaped piece of sheet metal and was strung upon the main wire, while for strength, a second wire was intertwisted with the first. This inventor showed a most intelligent conception of the subject matter of his invention, as appears from the ioUowing quotation taken from his specifications:

I can, by this invention, nialje an efficient fence from unconnected wires, six inclies apart, iixing the artificial thorns on the wires four inches apart. This fence takes only one-fourth as much wire as in ordinary wire fences, yet it is more efficient, This fence will weigh about one-eighth as much as ordinary connected wire fence, by which I mean those woven or twisted together. It can be wound on a reel, like telegraph wire, and a farmer can transport as much in a single wagonload as will serve to build fences for a large farm.

The next patent in point of date, and chief in importance, is the patent to Glidden, dated November 24, 1874, in which is for the first time found a barb, made of wire wrapped about a fence wire, and loclied in place by a fellow wire intertwisted with the first. Meantime, barbed wire was growing in popularity ; at first, strong prejudices had to be overcome. Many hardware dealers would not have it in their stores. The public, too, had to be educated. A length of barbed wire, with two barbs upon it, was shown to two men in Texasj one guessed it was a model of a fence, the barbs being the posts, and another thought it was a bit for a hor.^e.

A skeptical farmer said he didn't believe it amounted to much ; that he had a bull (Old Jim) who would go through anything, and he guessed he wouldn't stop for barbed wire. His field was fenced ; " Old Jim " shook his head, elevated his tail, and went for it. The farmer was converted, and so was "Jim."

Barbed wire, once introduced, grew rapidly in favor. In fact, it became a necessity ; strong, durable, cheap, easily transported, and an absolute barrier against man and beast, it became at once the best fencing material known, and the demand for it rapidly increased. Meantime, infringers began to spring up, and litigation followed. No stronger or more persistent efforts were ever made to break down a patent property than were directed against the barbed wire patents.

Thousands of pages of testimony were taken upon alleged cases of prior use all over the West and in Texas. The greatest interest was taken in the cases involving, as they did, the control of what even then bade fair to be a most important industry.

The defence relied upon establishing the alleged cases of prior use, and also insisted strongly that there was no invention in arming a wire with pricking spurs. The United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois, in December, 1880, sustained the patents, and this gave the Washburn & Moen Manufitcturing Company, and their associate, Isaac L. Ellwood, of DeKalb, 111., the control of this business. Licenses were issued to most of the parties lately infringing, and the business has been conducted upon that basis up to the present time, and will be during the life of the patents, some of which do not expire for several years.

To protect themselves and their licensees, the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company has purchased upwards of two hundred and fifty patents upon barbed wire and barbed wire machinery.

The amount of barbed wire consumed in this country has increased from five tons, in 1874, to a probable output of one hundred and fifty thousand tons, over eight hundred and fifty thousand miles, in 1888. Of this amount, the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company makes about eighteen thou sand tons (over one hundred thousand miles), while the capacity of their works is seventy-five tons per day of ten hours, or four hundred and twentysix miles. The cost to the consumer has during this time been reduced from eighteen cents per pound to less than five cents. This has resulted from the reduced price of wire and the introduction of automatic machinery.

Bale Ties. - About the time that barbed wire began to be manufactured the company became the owners of patents upon bale ties, a wire substitute for the wood and rope previously used. There are probably to-day ten thousand tons used annually for binding hay in the United States.

Each ton of wire will wind three hundred and thirty tons of hay or straw, and the whole ten thousand tons of wire will bind three million three hundred thousand tons of hay and straw.

It formerly cost on an average to press this amount, when bound with rope, two dollars per ton. Wire is applied to the bales with so much greater ease than wood or rope, that a saving of fifty cents per ton, at a low estimate, is effected in pressing hay when wire ties are used. But the greatest saving made to the public by the introduction of wire for binding purposes is in the increased security against loss by fire. When hay, straw or tow are bound with rope or wood, each is easily set on fire, the binding materal burns, and thus allows the compressed mass to become loose and add fuel to, the flames. This, of course, is not the case when wire is used. For this reason, rope and wood were discarded many years ago in pressing cotton.

Altogether, millions of dollars are saved annually to the public by the introduction of wire ties, all of which has been effected in the last twelve or fourteen years.

Copper Wire. - Since 1884 copper wire has taken a prominent place among the products of this company, as it has been and is being largely substituted for iron, particularly in long-distance telephoning and electric lighting.

Copper has always been preferred to iron for electric purposes by reason of its greater conductivity, but previous to the introduction of hard-drawn copper wire it did not possess the requisite strength. By present processes a copper wire of sufficient strength can be produced much lighter than iron, and of largely increased conductivity, as is apparent when the fact is stated that for a given length of wire an equal degree of conductivity will require five times as much weight in a mile of iron as of copper wire. In January 1884, there were probably not more than one hundred or two hundred miles of harddrawn copper wire in use in this country. To-day there are, it is estimated, at least fifty thousand miles, representing about four thousand two hundred tons of metal, now in operation by the various telegraph and telephone companies, the average weight per mile being about one hundred and seventy pounds.'

Wire Rope. - Among the more recent specialties introduced by the company is wire rope, of which is manufactured: galvanized steel wire cable for suspension bridges; phosphor-bronze and copper wire rope; transmission and standing rope ; galvanized wire seizing; hoisting rope; tiller rope; switch rope; copper, iron and tinned sash cord wire; clothes-lines and picture-cords ; galvanized iron wire rope forships' rigging; galvanized crucible cast-steel wire rope for yachts' rigging.

Wire Nails. - The manufacture of wire nails is another branch of business conducted by the company. The wire nail, as an article of manufacture, was scarcely known in this country ten years ago. Since that time it has come into general use, and it is estimated upon good authority that more wire nails are used to-day than cut nails. The variety is very largei running from three-sixteenths of an inch, made from No. 22 iron, to a length of fourteen inches, made from No. 000 wire.

It is a little remarkable that the introduction of two articles of manufacture - barbed wire and wire nails - should within the last fifteen years have created a new demand for wire, amounting to at least two hundred and seventy-five thousand tons per annum, which has been made possible by the use of Bessemer steel.

While the process of drawing wire is, in principle, the same as practiced fifty years ago, many improvements have been made leading to a largely increased relative product. Great advances have been made in certain of the mechanical processes, particularly in the rolling of wire rods. In 1846 the first rolling-mill at Quinsigamond produced about five tons of No. 4 rods in ten hours; at the present time the output is from forty to fifty tons in the same time.

The demand for wire and the purposes for which it is used have largely increased, as indicated by the present output of two hundred and forty-five tons daily, and the manufacture of four hundred and eighteen different kinds of wire.

The increase in the business of the corporation has been most rapid since the introduction of barbed wire. In 1875 the number of hands employed was seven hundred ; in 1880 two thousand one hundred, and at the present time, 1889, there are three thousand names on the pay-roll of the company, for the most part heads of families, supporting directly not less than thirteen thousand persons, and indirectly, a much larger number.

Of the operatives, one thousand are Irish ; nine hundred Swedes; five hundred Americans ; two hundred and thirty-six Armenians; forty-five Germans : other nationalities, three hundred and nineteen.

The buildings of the corporation cover twenty-five acres of ground, and the machinery is driven by engines of seven thousand two hundred horse-power. The present officers of the corporation are : Philip L. Moen, president and treasurer ; Charles F. Washburn, vice-president and secretary ; Philip W. Moen, assistant treasurer and general superintendent ; Charles G. Washburn, assistant secretary and counsel. The above, with George T. Dewey, Esq., constitute the board of directors.

The Worcester Wire Company, William E. Rice, president and treasurer, is located on the Old South Worcester privilege, utilized for manufacturing purposes from the earliest times. Here Is manufactured a variety of wire, including tedder, rake teeth, wire for hay bales, and barbed fencing, bridge rope and general wire ; bottling, baling wire; tinned mattress, tinned broom wire, harvesting wire on spools ; wire for the manufacture of screws, bolts, rivets, nails, buckles, staples, rings, hooks and eyes, pin, hair-pin, reed, harness, heddle, bonnet, brush, broom, hat, clock and umbrella wire ; also telegraph and telephone wire.

In 1834 he was located at the Stone building, Front Street, on the canal, where he manufactured " meat, milk, cheese and provision safes, wire sieves, grain, coal, sand, sugar and bakers' riddles. Fire fenders, sand screens, hatters' hurls, dusters for paper-mills, cellar and window guards, netting, wire lace, bird cages, plate covers and brass screens.''

In 1845, Mr. Samuel Ayres began to weave wire for Mr. Bigelow in a shop in Norwich Street. Mr. Bigelow then had three looms - one large and two small ones - and the business employed in all six hands, among whom were Mr. Bigelow's sons.

The business of wire-working was subsequently conducted by several firms, and finally consolidated in the National Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. Jonah H. Bigelow, a son of Jabez Bigelow, is president. This company has conducted a prosperous business for many years, manufacturing a very large variety of wire goods.

The business now conducted by the Wire Goods Company was commenced by Charles G. Washburn in the fall of 1880, on the top floor of the building then and now occupied by C. H. Hutchins & Company, in Allen's Courc. The articles manufactured were wire goods for cotton and woolen machinery.

September 12, 1882, it was incorporated under the name of The Wire Goods Company, and was continued for a time in Allen Court, but was subsequently moved into the brick factory in Union Street, the present situation. Meantime, the business has very much enlarged, employing at the present time one hundred and twenty hands. In 1888 the business of the Ayres Manufacturing Company was purchased and merged in that of the Wire Goods Company. Among the articles manufactured are bright iron and brass gimlet-pointed wire goods of all kinds. Belt hooks, hitching rings, hand-rail screws, hammock hooks, double-pointed tacks, a large variety of wire goods and a number of patented specialties ; in fact, " everything in wire." Mr. A. W. Parmelee is president and treasurer of the company.

Hamblin & Russell, in Front Street, are also engaged in the manufacture of a variety of wire goods similar to those made by the National Manufacturing Company.

Henry E. Dean, Austin St., manufactures a special line of general hardware and house goods, elevator and window guards, also all kinds of steel wire brushes.

Another use to which wire is put in Worcester is the manufacture of rivets and burrs, which is conducted by Reed & Prince, 42 Gardner Street, in the basement of the pistol factory. This industry was established in 1886.

It would be difficult to enumerate the variety of articles and machinery, manufactured in Worcester, into which wire enters in one form or another.

COPPEEAS. - An interesting illustration of the utilization of waste products is found in the manufacture ofsulphateof iron or green vitriol - commonly known as copperas, and popularly, but erroneously, supposed to be a salt of copper - from the waste sulphuric acid used in cleaning wire. This waste acid, heavily charged as it is with iron, is taken to the works of W. E. Cutter & Co., where, after being evaporated in lead-lined tanks in which iron in the form of waste wire has been placed to further neutralize the acid, is drawn off into large cooling-tanks and the copperas is deposited in green crystals upon sticks suspended in the liquid. Copperas is used in dyeing as a disinfectant, and in the manufacture of ink, and largely in the manufacture of Venetian red, also made by W. E. Cutter & Co. 7,000,000 pounds of copperas are manufactured by this company annually, representing about 700 short tons of metallic iron ; about one-third of the copperas is converted into Venetian red, of which the annual product is 2000 tons. This is an oxide of iron paint, and is very extensively used.

Copperas can also be obtained by the oxidation of iron pyrites - sulphate of iron. In 1830 a bed of iron pyrites was discovered in Hubbardston, and Mr. Bennett, of that place, with Messrs. John Green, Benjamin F. Heywood and James Green, of Worcester, formed a company for the manufacture of copperas, and began operations ; but the enterprise did not prove successful. In December, 1828, the canal boat " Worcester," Captain Green, among other things, brought one ton of copperas from Providence,