The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-03
The Iron Works Of Chicago.

AHt IIOu NOIhS VI
Fifteen Thousand Men EmpIOyod-A
Business OF $4,000, 900 u Year.
The Chicago Times publishes very long
and elaborate descriptive article showing the
extent of the iron business, and giving the
name and size OF, and the amount of capital
and labor employed, and work turned out by,
each of the foundries and workshops in that
city. From this article the following interest
ing facts and figures are taken:-
1.-THE iron interest of Chicago employs ff-
teen thousand men, to whom is paid the
yearly sum of $12, 600, 600 for their labor; $15,-
600, 600 is invested in the manufacture of iron,
which does business Of about $25, 600, 900
per annum. The number of iron establish
ments in the city amounts to one hundred,
which are engaged in the manufacture of
axes, boilers, cutlery, dirks, derricks, engines,
edge-tools, farm implements, gauges, gearing,
hoes, horse nails, iron joints, keys, lathe4,
lightning rods, mining machinery, mowers,
mouldings, needles, nails, ordnance plate
and pig iron, picks, plough points, quadrants,
ranges, stoves, shovels, tacks, tanks, utensils
of all kinds, size, and value.
"The Eagle Works are situated in the
west side of the city, and their different build
ipgs occupy different sites on five streets-370
feet on Clinton street, $50 feet on Madison
street, 800 on Washington street, 168 on West
Water, and 2l0 on Canal street. The princi-
pal articles manufactured in these works are
engines, boilers, Touring mills, gang mills,
circular saw-mills, stamp mills, ore and rock
crushers, and general running machinery.
This establishment employs in the neighbor-
hood of one thousand men, whose annual
payroll exceeds 100000. The estimated
value of the property, including machinery
and buildings, is 100000.
"The Northwestern Manufacturing Com.
pany's Works are run upon the cooperative
| Al lofG
! ploy 375 men, and do business of about
| 800, 600 per annum. This establishment has
also branch called the Northwestern Pipe
| Works, which has a capital of $4,000, and
| employs 35 men.
"'The Barnum and Richardson Manufactur.
ing Company make castings and oar-wheels.
Their works cover more than an acre o.
ground. They employ rs men, have capita
of $l5O, GOO, and DO an average yearly busnes;
of 100000.
"'McCoImick's Reaper and Mower Works
is perhaps the most interesting manufacturing
establishment in Chicago.
| "The buildings cover an area of 400 by 500
| feet, in the business centre of the city. The
business began here in 1916, twenty two years
| ago, and since that time 100 600 harvesting
machines have been manufactured in those
works. Fifteen years ago 1000 machines per
annum were considered big undertaking, and
| predictions were then made that at that rate
the country would soon be over-supplied. Bu
now 10, 600 machines per year do not begin tC
supply the demand, which is greatly increas
ing, and now already overmatches the capacity
of the works. Five hundred men are con-
| stantly employed.
"Each machine contains not less than 1000
| separate pieces of wood, iron, steel, brass
copper, tin, and zinc, making the enormous
numberof 10000 600 pieces, which have to be
made, counted, assorted, inspected, classified,
packed, and shipped in one years business
''The following is the amount of raw
material worked up in this establishment
during the year:-Lumber, 5000, 600 feet;
pig iron, 1000 tons; bar iron. 1900 tons; paints,
| 100000 pounds; oils, 5000 gallons; zinc,
$50, 600 pounds, and 1000 tons of coal. The
item of scrap lumber, the cuttings left after
saving out the peculiar shaped pieces needed
in harvesting machine, amounts to nearly
500, ,0t0 feet OF lumber per annum, which pro
vide about all the fuel necessary to make
steam for the works. Everything in this
establishment is done by machinery, whether
of wood or iron. In the blacksmith shops,
| the bar iron, of large and small sizes, from
FIVE and half to four and half inches round,
is cut up by inches like 20 many pipe-stems.
Even the forges are supplied with a stsa iy
| blast of air from a large fan driven by steam.
! The machine shops contain one hundred
lathes, drills, boring, key-seat cutting, screw
cutting, and planning machines, worked by
an almost endless arrangement of belts and
puleys. In the sickle shop Of this establish
ment is an ingenious machine for cutting the
teeth in the sickle edge, which does the work
of two or three men, and much more accu-
rately.
'The machine shops of the Illinois Central
Railway are also in Chicago. They employ 800
men in their establishment. whose monthly
pay amounts to $50, 900. Their entire works,
including their Car shops in the south end OF
the city, cover about sixteen acres of ground.
The cost of construction of the machine shops
alone amounts to $l50,000. The road has
1000 cars and 1853 locomotives. They have on
the stocks, nearly finished, four of the largest
engines ever built in the West, each one
weighing about thirty -one tons. The amount
of raw material these works have on hand is
valued at $500, ,000 They use up 2200 tons OF
coal per annum, principally Lehigh and lii
nois."