Litchfield enquirer., 1855-11-29
FALLS VILLAGE,


gives the following description of Ames'
Iron Works, sc
Picture to yourself forty fierce fires in
full blast, with welding, hafnmering, and
pudding heats and half as many huge ham
ners, weighing from 1000 to 5000 lbs,
ready to pounce upon their incandescent
conten,s-moulding, kneading and twisting
them as ii made of putty or dough, rather
than stubborn iron! Imagine great shears
to cut, wrenches to twist, and rollers to
shape these white hot salamanders, in a
way that would have made Cyclops stare
even if he had but half an eye to do It with
But all these are as nothing to the enor-
nous hammer Brightly christened ''Thor)
worked by steam, and weighing 5000 lbs,
and falling with the force Of many tons ! and
yet it is as docile as well trained school,
girl now cracking hickory nuts, and now
shaping locomotive cranks; to say nothing
of other equipments for ten feet drivers. and
six feet guage. This '.Thunderer' IS, in
fact, chiefly used on the heavy work for To-
comotves-and when in full play with ten
or twelve men managing the shaft. the steam
whizzing and the fires roaring. it nigh, give
toerable idea OF old VuIcan's " ork shop,
only '.more So" These locomotive cranks
are no longer bent and hammered into shape
but cut or chiselled OH, bodily, from solid
masses OF iron; the several "hearings"
turned and polished as accurately as The
balance of watch /; and it is curious to
see the iron shavings that are planed off
from the level surfaces by the selt.moving
engines, with as much apparen, ease as #
there were SO many pine planks. Axles for
cars are also turned out by Ames in any
quantity; andl can conceive of no " ork.
short Of turning out small world. and for
ging the poles to hang it on, that could
come amiss to Ames and his right hand
man, the "Thunderer." Some idea of the
amount of work done in this establishment
may be gathered from the fact, that more
than $4,000 are paid annually for freight
alone.
field and Robbins Works are situated -
They are very extensive, occupying both
banks of the river; and as they run night
and day, their flaming chmnies give wild
and wlerd appearance to the whole region
In fact, these iron hills stripped of their
trees by The Unsuitable FIRE dragons Of furn-
ace and locomotive, that devour whole for
es,s in day, are decidedly more pictur-
esque than beautiful; though when sum
mer clothes them in her delicious green
n-ss, and the crimson and gold of IA sunset
sky burns along their shining tops, and
streams across the ample valley, it is a
sight enchanting to behold. 1t is not ex-
ac.ly Sinbad's Valley of Diamonds, nor yet
Rasselas' Happy Valley; hut it has its
good points. Iron is, Of course, the staple
on which all things here hang Ii is dug
from our hills ; it nuddes our trout streams;
the smoke of it's forges blackeas our houses;
the Iron Bank" gets the golden proceeds
deposited in its iron vaults But golden
dream awaits on it all-and when these
Iron Men" shall realize it, let us hope
some OF them will not forget to restore the
trees they have destroyed-at least around
their own desolate looking dwellings, to
say nothing of the hills abnve them. Use
is good, but beauty is better and the souls
education is of more worth than the body's
comfort.