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Bridgewater Iron Manufacturing Company
| Name | Bridgewater Iron Manufacturing Company |
| Ortssitz | Bridgewater (Massachusetts) |
| Art des Unternehmens | Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei |
| Anmerkungen | 1874: Nahum Stetson, Leiter der Finanzen and Agent. Works very extensive. 1876: "Bridgewater Iron Co."; steel from steel scrap; 5 scrap furnaces, 3 heating furnaces, 6 forge fires, 8 trains of rolls, and 10 hammers; product, bar iron and tack plate, sheet zinc and sheet copper, and miscellaneous iron and steel forgings; use scrap iron and scrap steel exclusively; product of rolled iron, about 3.000 net tons yearly. Nahum Stetson, Treasurer. |
| Quellenangaben | [Wiley: American iron trade manual (1874) 27] [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 3 (1868) 488] [Ironworks of the United States (1876) 64+120] |
| Zeit |
Ereignis |
| 1785 |
Erste Erwähnung eines Werks an dieser Stelle |
| 1810 |
"Lazell, Carey & Co." werden Eigentümer. |
| 1810 |
Gründung |
| 1816 |
Carey stirbt. Die Firma "Lazell, Carey & Co." wird mit einem neuen Teilhaber in "Lazell, Perkins & Co." umgewandelt. |
| 18.06.1825 |
Die bisherige "Lazell, Perkins & Co." wird als "Bridgewater Iron Manufacturing Company" eingetragen. |
| 1835 |
Tod von Lazell. Stetson wird zum neuen ausführenden Beamten ernannt. |
| 1874 |
Bau des Walzwerks |
| Produkt |
ab |
Bem. |
bis |
Bem. |
Kommentar |
| Gußeisen |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
Vorgabe: Castings |
| Maschinerie |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
Vorgabe: machinery |
| Rohre |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
Vorgabe: tubes |
| Schlosserarbeiten |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
Vorgabe: general iron work |
| Schmiedewaren |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
Vorgabe: forgings |
| Täcks |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
Vorgabe: tacks |
| Walzprofile |
1876 |
[Ironworks of U.S. (1876)] |
1876 |
[Ironworks of U.S. (1876)] |
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| Werkzeuge |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
Vorgabe: tools |
| Zeit |
gesamt |
Arbeiter |
Angest. |
Lehrl. |
männl. |
weibl. |
Kommentar |
| 1874 |
500 |
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| ZEIT | 1868 |
| THEMA | Firmenbeschreibung |
| TEXT | On the line of the Old Colony and Fall River Railroad, is one of fhe oldest and most remarkable Iron Works in America. As early as 1785, there is a record of Iron Works at this place and, as has been elsewhere stated, the first Locomotive crank axle made in America, was forged here for the Locks and Canal Company of Lowell. From 1810, to 1816, the Proprietors of these Works were Lazell, Carey & Co., but in 1816, Mr. Carey having died, a new-partnership was formed under the style of Lazell, Perkins & Co., which continued nntil June 18, 1825, when the Bridgewater Iron Manufacturing Company was incorporated. These ar'e now, no doubt, the largest Iron Works in New' England, and have tools and facilities for executing heavy forgings, not excelled, and we believe not equaled, by any in America. The land attached to the works is about seventy acres, of which ten acres are covered with buildings. They have two Rolling mills, of which the largest is two hundred and forty-four by one hundred and thirty-two feet, two Machine shops, of which the largest is two hundred by one hundred and fifty feet, two Forges, of which the largest is one hundred and forty by one hundred feet, an Iron Foundry one hundred and thirty by ninety feet, a Brass Foundry, and numerous Storehouses, Smith shops, Pattern shops, etc., comprising in all twenty-eight buildings. The machinery is propelled by five Steam Engines, and eleven Water Wheels, and the Works consume about fifteen thousand tons of Anthracite and Bituminous Coal, and forty-eight thousand bushels of Charcoal annually. The Iron Foundry has two Cupola Furnaces, capable of melting thirty tons of iron, one Air Furnace that will melt twelve tons, and all the requisite facilities for producing the largest class of castings. As an illustration of its capacity we may state, that the castings for several sloops-of-war were made here, of which the cylinders weighed fifteen thousand pounds each, the condensers twenty-eight thousand pounds, and the channel plates thirty-four thousand pounds. The Brass Foundry is equally well provided for producing ship-castings, and has turned out a four bladed propeller fifteen feet in diameter, that weighed six tons. In the Machine shops the tools are of a magnitude unprecedented in this country. The Company have a Lathe that will bore and face thirty feet diameter, swing eight feet and turn thirty-seven feet long, another that will turn a shaft sixty feet long, another, forty-seven feet long, and still others that will turn thirty-eight and thirty-two feet, respectively; also, a monster machine, just completed, for boring or facing, with a revolving table of sixteen feet in diameter, besides a Planing Machine that will take a piece, twelve feet square, and any length, working two cutters at the same time, and cut off more Iron in a day than any tool of the kind in America. Among the planers in the establishment, there is one which will take a piece, thirty-five feet long and nine feet square; and there are four slotting machines, one of which, it is believed, is the largest in this country, and another, only one size smaller, built for the Company, by Whitworth, in England. But the distinctive feature of the Bridgewater Iron Works, which gives them preeminence, is the Forge Department. In facilities for producing heavy forgings, no works in America, yet constructed, equal them. They have one hammer of the Nasmyth pattern, which weighs over eleven tons, with ten feet stroke of piston, and worked by a Rotary valve, that enables the operator to govern it with such precison, that the shell of a walnut may be cracked off without hurting the meat, or a bar of iron, three feet square, can be brought down six inches by a single blow. In fact, it is said, that on full stroke, the blow of this hammer is equal to the fall of one hundred and thirty-five tons. They have also another hammer on the same principle of seven tons weight, and seven feet nine inch stroke, and one of six tons, and six feet stroke, and two of the Patent Willard Helve Hammer, each of two thousand peunds weight, for smaller work, and another of the same pattern of fifteen hundred pounds. They have nine furnaces or gangs expressly for making forgings, and a crane capable of handling seventy-five tons, by which a shaft forty feet long and eighteen inches in diameter may be placed beneath the hammer and swung from the anvil to the furnace with the utmost facility. At these works were forged the anchors of the old "Constitution", the shafts and other wrought iron work, amounting to some two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, for the new "Constitution", the large forgings for the Iroquois, Narragansett, Pawnee, Kearsarge, Ossipee, Sacramento, Juniata, Adirondac, Canandaigua, Sagamore, Cayuga, Kanawha, Unadilla, Ottawa, Seneca, Pembina, Kennebec, Owasgo, Aroostook, Tahoma, Pinola, Sebago, Lenofa, Conewaugh, Maratanza, Tioga, Octarora, Port Royal, Paul Jones, Mississippi and Merrimac, the wrought-iron work for the Golden City, Colorado,. Arizona, Henry Chauncey, Montana, Great Republic, China, Japan, Alaska and America, - in fact, every Steamer comprising the new fleet of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, running on both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and acknowledged to be the largest and finest ships in the world. The shafts, alone, for some of them, weigh over forty tons in the Forging, and are twenty-four and a half inches diameter, by thirty-nine feet, seven inches, in length. They have also completed the famous Truss work for the Iron-clad Frigates now building by Government at their Navy Yards; and are now finishing the Wrought-iron work for the four Wooden Frigates for the Navy, known as the Geared-engine Ships, and, undoubtedly, to be the fastest in the world. The Forgings for the original "Monitor" were made here, and the greater part of all those for the Iron-clad Navy of the United States, and including those for the Italian Iron-clad Frigate "Re di Italia". In fact, the largest forgings ever made in America have been produced at these works. Less imposing than the forge with its great hammers, but scarcely less important, is the scrap heap from which the material is selected for the various articles manufactured. The yards and buildings devoted to the scrap, present a most remarkable sight; there is hardly a branch of the iron and steel manufacture that is not represented in the scrap heap; boilers, wheels, axles, tires, engines, knives, forks, button plates, turnings and planings from the machine shop, and even dis- carded hoop skirts turn up here at last to be decarbonized and converted into anchors, steamboat shafts, and monster guns.. Practical persons are employed in this department to assort and arrange the various qualities of metal, so that the kind suited to each particular purpose may be had. The utmost attention is given to the assorting, cutting, piling, balling, hammering and rolling of these scraps into bars or billets to be used in the large forgings, and every thing depends on faithful work in this department. The best of iron only, worked with the greatest care, is put into shafts, guns, and other work where great strength is needed. It is by good material, thoroughly worked under the large hammers, that the deservedly high reputation of the forgings of this Company has been earned. The Bridgewater Iron Company employ in the various departments of their works about six hundred men. Among the employees are two men who have been connected with the Works for nearly fifty years. The Superintendent is Mr. James Ferguson, a man of rare mechanical skill, and who is the designer of the greater portion of the novel and extraordinary machinery which has been alluded to; and for the large number of contracts for work during the last eight years, and close attention to business, the Company are greatly indebted to Mr. George B. Stetson, the resident Agent in New York. But the remarkable success which has attended this Company is, no doubt, due in great measure to the energy, sound judgment and great executive ability of the Treasurer, Nahum Stetson. Mr. Stetson was appointed to the position he now occupies as chief executive officer, after the decease of Mr. Lazell, in 1835. Under his administration the Works have grown to their present importance, and notwithstanding the onerous duties imposed upon him by this connection, he has also discharged the trusts of Treasurer of the Parker Mills, Wareham, and the Weymouth Iron Company, to the entire satisfaction of those corporations, as has been more than once acknowledged by valuable testimonials. |
| QUELLE | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 3 (1868) 488] |
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