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Bridesburg Manufacturing Co.
| Name | Bridesburg Manufacturing Co. |
| Ortssitz | Philadelphia (Penns.) |
| Ortsteil | Bridesburg |
| Straße | North Front Street 65 |
| Art des Unternehmens | Maschinenfabrik |
| Anmerkungen | 1868 auch: "Alfred Jenks and Son's Machine Works". Barton H. Jenks, Präsident. Works: Bridesburg, Pennsylvania. Adresse (1870): Richmond Street, Locust Street, Garden Street und Franklin Street (Südost-Ecke). Vergl. um 1891: "Bridesburg Machine Works" (s.d.). 1870: Herstellung von Textilmaschinen für Wolle und Baumwolle. Um 1891 siehe "Bridesburg Machine Works, Wm. E. McGill" an der selben Stelle (Zeitpunkt der Umfirmierung unbekannt). Separates Pumpenhaus mit zusätzlichem senkrechtem Kessel und einer Dampfpumpe (Hersteller: Stanhope, Frankford) |
| Quellenangaben | [Wiley: American iron trade manual (1874) 137] [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 3 (1868) 18] [Hexamer General Surveys, Plates 410+411 (1870)] |
| Zeit |
Ereignis |
| 1810 |
Jenks zieht nach Holmesburg, Pa., und nimmt Zeichnungen von jeder Art von Baumwollmaschinen mit. |
| 1816 |
Jenks baut eine große Anzahl von Webstühlen für Baumwolle für Joseph Ripka. |
| 1819/1820 |
Jenks zieht nach Bridesburg und vergrößert sich (1819 oder 1820). |
| 1830 |
Erfindung eines Kraftwebstuhls für gestreifte Stoffe, der bei Kempton Mill in Manayunk eingesetzt wird. |
| 1855 |
Verbesserungen der Karde durch Gambrill & Burgy |
| 1857 |
Vervollkommung der Karde durch Barton H. Jenks |
| um 1861 |
Erbaut |
| Produkt |
ab |
Bem. |
bis |
Bem. |
Kommentar |
| Woll- und Baumwollmaschinen |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
1874 |
[Wiley: American iron trade (1874)] |
Vorgabe: Cotton and woollen machinery |
| Zeit |
Objekt |
Anz. |
Betriebsteil |
Hersteller |
Kennwert |
Wert |
[...] |
Beschreibung |
Verwendung |
| 1870 |
Dampfpumpe |
1 |
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Stanhope |
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| 1870 |
Dampfkessel |
2 |
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unbekannt |
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| 1870 |
Dampfmaschine |
1 |
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unbekannt |
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| ZEIT | 1868 |
| THEMA | Firmenbeschreibung |
| TEXT | In the first volume of this history we referred more than once to the important part performed by the Hon. Joseph Jenks, Governor of Rhode Island, in the early fabrication of Iron in this country. A lineal descendant of his, Mr. Barton H. Jenks, is now proprietor of one of the most complete works for the manufacture of Cotton and Woolen Machinery, and of Fire-arms, in operation in the United States, - the Bridesburg Machine Works. The founder of this establishment, Mr. Alfred Jenks, was a pupil and colaborer for many years with the celebrated Samuel Slater, who erected the first cotton-mill in Pawtucket, R.I. In 1810, Mr. Jenks removed to Holmesburg, Pa., taking with him drawings of every variety of cotton machinery*, as far as it had then advanced in the line of improvement, and commenced its manufacture. The first mill started in this portion of the State of Pennsylvania was supplied by machinery constructed by him, and was situated in Lagrange Place, near Holmesburg. In 1816, he built a number of looms for weaving cottonades for Joseph Ripka. Under the universal impetus given to home manufactures during the last war, Mr. Jenks greatly extended his business operations, and in 1819 or 1820 removed to his present desirable location in Bridesburg, the increased growth of which is owing in no small degree to the personal ciTorts and enterprise of himself and the importance of his establishment. Here, where he possessed the necessary facilities for shipping to his more distant patrons, he conveyed his old frame building from Holmesburg on rollers, which yet stands amid the more substantial and excellent structures beside it. When the demand first arose for woolen machinery in Pennsylvania, Mr. Jenks answered it, and at once commenced its manufacture, and furnished the first woolen mill started in the State, by Bcthuel Moore, at Conshohocken, with all the machinery necessary for this manufacture. In 1830, he invented a power-loom for weaving checks, and introduced it into the Kempton Mill at Manayunk, where its success produced such excitement among hand-weavers and others opposed to labor-saving machinery as to cause a large number of them to go to the mill with the avowed purpose of destroying it, from doing which they were only prevented by the presence of an armed force. This and other improved machinery made by Mr. Jenks soon acquired an extended reputation, and induced the erection of larger buildings; and now the establishment is one of the most extensive and important in this country. Since the decease of Mr. Alfred Jenks, and for several years previously, the business has been conducted by his son, Mr. Barton II. Jenks, to whom, if eulogy were admissible, we might refer as the type of a model manufacturer, - fertile in invention, skillful in mechanism, liberal, just and public spirited, - one, indeed, who throws around the pursuit of manufacturing something of the lustre and glory which the mercantile profession borrowed from the genius of Giovanni de Medici. To attempt a recital of the various inventions and improvements which this firm have made for the benefit of cotton and woolen manufacturers, would carry us too far beyond our limits. Of Looms they manufacture a large number of different styles, ranging from the single shuttle or ordinary loom, through the more intricate forms of two-shuttle looms for weaving checks, three and four shuttle looms for weav-ing ginghams and other fabrics requiring a corresponding number of colors in the weft, to the more enlarged carpet loom; and all of these embrace in a greater or less degree improvements and advantages not possessed by looms manufactured elsewhere. The several improvements in the looms are covered by seven distinct patents; and the main features accomplished by these inventions, so far as they relate to the two, three, and four shuttle looms, may be said to consist in the expeditious manner of moving the shuttle boxes to change the picks of weft, and, by certain new constructions, combinations, and arrangement of parts essential to this operation, and to others of an important character, by which almost as many picks of weft can be made by these two, three, and four shuttle looms as by the single shuttle loom. As an exemplification of this it may be stated that so perfect is the arrangement of the various parts of these latter description of looms, and the principle upon which they work, that they make 130 picks of weft per minute where the same class of ordinary looms only make 110. The looms for weaving the more elaborate and fancy character of goods are also perfect in their operations, particularly the loom for weaving damask table-cloths, napkins, and articles of a like character, and the carpet-loom. This latter has thirty-two shuttles, and is capable of laying sixteen different colors in the figure, and an equal number of colors in the ground of the carpet. The self-stripping cotton and woolen carding engines manufactured at this establishment, are different from the carding machines generally used. Instead of delivering the cotton or wool to the main cylinder as heretofore, it is, after being fed to the machine by rollers, passed to the "licker-in" cylinder, by which it is delivered to the main cylinder, whence it is successively retaken with its dirt, redelivered to the main cylinder by additional cylinders, arranged in the same relation to the periphery of the main cylinder as the first-mentioned "licker-in" cylinder, and driven by stripper heads .at the ends of the cards, at variable speeds, so as to enable the dirt to detach itself from the cotton or wool during its increased speed with the additional card cylinders, and drop into a receptacle below. In this manner these cylinders are made to act as self-acting cleaners to the cotton and main cylinder card, and this avoids the necessity of the usual and constant hand-stripping to effect this object, and the consequent loss of time, besides enabling the cotton or wool to be more regularly laid and thoroughly cleaned. This effective method of cleaning the cotton and main card cylinder by delivering the former on to the latter successively at two and three different points, was originally projected and patented by Messrs. Gambrill & Burgy, in 1855, and subsequently improved and brought to its present perfect state by Mr. Barton H. Jenks in 1857; and in consequence he became interested with them under a reissued patent. He also added doffing rollers, to take the place of the usual comb for delivering the cotton or wool. For these he has also obtained a patent. By this system of delivering, an increased speed can be given the card, without danger of injury to the staple, over that attained where the comb is employed. For several years Mr. Jenks has been experimenting upon and constructing the necessary machinery to complete a cylinder Cotton-gin, which gives promise of producing one of the most extraordinary improvements in the process of ginning the raw material that has been devised since the advent of Whitney's Saw Gin. It is well known that in ginning cotton with the ordinary gin the violent action of their teeth in dragging it between the bars tears the staple and injures it in a corresponding degree. The injury thus done the cotton has been variously estimated at from three quarters to one cent per pound, - a loss that swells the sum total to several millions of dollars on a full crop in this country. Now, the object of this new form of Gin is to do away with the usual shaft of saws, and substitute for them a peculiarly constructed cylinder, its outer periphery consisting of numerous and regularly set angular steel wire teeth, imbedded in Babbitt metal, in positions inclined to the direction of the cylinder's motion, so that after the cylinder, or rather the outer ends of the teeth are ground down and finished, each tooth will present a separate, sharp, and smooth point, tangential to the periphery of the cylinder. These teeth are so close together that nothing but cotton can be secreted between them. This leads us to notice a most ingenious and extraordinary machine, made at this manufactory, for puncturing the cylinders of thick paper and preparing and setting therein the angular teeth preparatory to casting around their inner ends the cylinder of Babbitt's metal, in which they are imbedded to form the alloyed cylinder of the cotton-gin. While witnessing its operation, and its parts performing functions requiring the greatest nicety and regularity of movement, to grasp the wire and successively-carry it through a variety of intricate operations that would seem impossible except to the manipulation by hand of the most skillful person, one cannot but pay homage to the genius, skill, and patience of its author. Its complex character will prevent us, of course, from giving a minute description of it; but we will endeavor to state, in the regular order in which they take place, the several operations necessary to finally set these angular wire teeth in their alloyed base on the periphery of the cylinder. The paper cylinder in which the teeth are first set is the same or a little greater length than the alloyed base of the cylinder, and is designed to receive 95.000 teeth. This paper cylinder is placed on circular heads, through which a main shaft moves loosely, - one of these heads, on part of the periphery of which a screw is formed, so as to actually make it a screw nut, has a cog or tongue on it, which enters a longitudinal groove in the hollow shaft, so as to cause it to revolve with the shaft aud yet move freely over its surface longitudinally. This screw nut meshes in gear with the nicks on two parallel partially flattened screw shafts, arranged on either side of the main shaft and parallel thereto, which screw shafts can be turned on their axis to disengage their screw nicks from gear with the screw nuts, and bring blank flattened surfaces next it, so as to be run back quickly after it has performed the necessary forward movement, through the agency of a ratchet and gearing, with the accompanying paper cylinder, to set all the teeth designed for it therein. The wires, previously brought to the angular edge desired, are wound on two reels, hung on journals above the machine, and are passed between movable nippers or pincers, which are caused to move back and forth at intervals by a lever or cam, clamping or griping the wires, in their movement from the front, and releasing their hold in returning. Thence the wires continue under clamps, by which they are held during the return movement of the nippers, and from which they are released during the opposite movement, to allow the free passage of the said wires between guides, into corresponding openings in a peculiarly formed oscillating arm termed a carryer, whose oscillating movement is constant over the extent of a quarter of a circle, except a slight rest or stoppage at the termini of each stroke, sufficient to receive the wires, and allow them to be cut off at the proper lengths by cutting snips in the guides immediately next it, and the punches to force the cut teeth out of it into the previously made punctures in the paper cylinder. This peculiar oscillating movement of the carrier, with its stoppages, is produced by means of a series of scroll cams, operating on a toothed or partially-bogged wheel on the front end of the carrier-shaft. Simultaneous with the inward movement of the nippers with the wires grasped between them, two horizontal punches are pushed inward and entirely through the paper cylinder, on lines tangential with its periphery, in order to make the necessary holes or punctures for the reception of the teeth, the paper cylinder being clamped, during this operation, as well as during the subsequent operation of setting the teeth therein, between the end of a back rest and a stationary head, to prevent it from turning, from whose grasp it is released after the two objects of puncturing the cylinders and setting the teeth have been accomplished. As the carrier descends, the crop-head containing the punches is raised so as to take the puncturing punches out of range of the paper cylinders, and the reciprocating bar by which they are moved, and bring the other punches on the same horizontal plane they previously occupied, so as to force the teeth from the carrier into the punctures previously made for them. In this manner the several parts of the machine are made to act in concert from a regular motion, the paper cylinder being turned and moved forward at proper intervals by the before-mentioned ratchet and suitable gearing, and the several operations of moving the wires into the carrier the proper distance to form the teeth, cutting them off, puncturing the paper cylinder with suitable holes for their reception, carrying them opposite these holes, setting them therein, and the intermediate duties of the various parts being performed at the proper intervals of time, and in the regular order, to enable the machine to set the extraordinary number of two hundred and forty teeth in the cylinder per minute. After this paper cylinder is set or studded with 95.000 teeth, it is removed from the machine and placed concentric with a metallic cylinder, the inner ends of the teeth which project inward equally from the inner periphery of the paper cylinder, while their outer ends are flush with the outer one, serving to keep it in its proper relation to the metallic cylinder, during the pouring of the Babbitt metal around the same and between it and the paper cylinder and ends of the teeth, to which it forms a base or bed. In pouring the metal the channel through which it passes is such as to cause it to first descend to the bottom of the me- tallic cylinder, and then rise outside the same through and between the ends of the teeth, so'as to allow the escape of the air before it. When the metal is cooled and set, the paper cylinder is wet and softened, and turned off, and the outer ends of the teeth are ground to give them the peculiar sharp form and uniform length before mentioned. There are numbers of other new machines and improvements in this establishment for assisting in the work intended for the machinery they manufacture, but we must limit our notice to two of them. The first of these is an attachment of additional tools to the mandrils of drills, and is so very simple and effective as to astonish the beholder. The design of this improvement is to finish the hubs of cog-wheels, pulleys, etc., and the mandril is so formed as to admit of the attachment of a frame or stock containing a facing tool, a chamfering tool, and a tool for turning the outside of the hub, arranged in such relation to each other as to enable the entire operations named to be performed simultaneously, and by one descent of the mandril. The boring and reaming tools can also be added, and the drill made to perform these additional functions at the same time, one man being able, under this process, to attend to two drills. This is not only a decided labor-saving improvement, but is advantageous in this respect, that the combined work performed through it is more accurate than if the tools were set separately, and each part of the work done singly, as heretofore. The other machine referred to is an automatic cutting engine for cutting either plain or bevel cog-wheels and pinions. This machine can be adjusted to cut any sized cog, on any sized wheel, by simply detaching a segment cogged plate or curb, which acts to turn the platen and hub with the wheels to be cut, the proper distance to correspond with the distance apart of the intended cogs, and substituting another of the requisite size, - the feature of turning the platen and hub and wheels to be cut the required distance being effected and regulated by the cogged segment or curb. The extent of the up-and-down travel of the plate-n and hub is also adjusted to correspond with the thickness and number of wheels to be cut, by means of a sliding box, to which the raising chain is attached, and which is secured and capable of being moved in a slot or groove in the oscillating arm through which the platen and hub receive their movement. Any number of cog-wheels, whose combined thicknesses are not greater than the movement of the platen, can be placed and secured on the hub, and after the machine is adjusted, it can be started and left to automatically cut, without any attendance whatever, the entire cogs of the wheels in the most accurate and beautiful manner. In case it is desired, the parts can be modified and the machine adjusted to the cutting of bevel cog-wheels. |
| QUELLE | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 3 (1868) 18] |
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