The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-09-22
as a Manufacturing City.
IRON WORK AND MACHINERY.

Richmond as a Manufacturing City.
IRON WORK AND MACHINERY.
Old Dominion Nail WorRs-Tasbots g.
Sons, and Eatenger & Edmond. ..
We continue this morning our sketches
Of the workers in iron and brass. One
more instalment will close the notices of this
department of our manufactures.
OLD DOMINION NAIL WORKS.
Belle Isle, in the James river, which
during the war became famed throughout
our broad land as the site of q prison for
Union soldiers, has attained an almost equal
notoriety since the evacuation Of Richmond
as the scene of the operations of the Old
Dominion Nail Works Company. The es-
tablishment of the works, however. ante
dated by many years our :" late unpleasant
ness" and the organizationof the company
with its present constituent members was
effected as far back as 1853. The officers are !:
Boiling W. HaXalI, president; Isaac Daven-
port, Jr., yice-president, and II. w. Fry, K.
o. Noting, and John D. SPOTS, directors.
Mr.. e. h. Blankinship is the general busi-
ness agent and manager; Mr. Douglass
Baird, superintendent of the works, and
Mr.. John D. Baird, assistant superintendent
company is transacted by Mr. Blankinship
and his assistants at the office and ware
rooms, Nos. 1I0, 112, and ia, Fifteenth
street, where, also, there is constantly kept
on hand large supply Of the product Of
the mills.
More interesting, however, than glance
ct the warehouses is visit to the works.
Belle Isle presents q scene of busy indus
try, which can hardly be surpassed in Rich
mond or its vicinity. The Old Dominion
Company owns the whole island, embracing
about thirteen and one-half acres, and
seven or eight acres are actually covered by
the shops. Originally the operations OF the
concern were confined to the manufacture
special attention is still directed. Hence
the preGminence which the Old Dominion
nail holds throughout the country. 1t is
interesting to note the steps in the making
of nail from the time the crude iron is
thrown into the furnace until it is kegged,
ready for shipment. The iron, in pigs, is
first thrown into the furnace and put
through the operation Of boiling or pud-
ding. It is then taken out a rugged mass
of incandescence, and having been placed
on q truck, is rapidly wheeled to squee-
Zer." There is tremendous cracking and
shower of sparks, and in few seconds
it comes out rather more regular in form,
but still far from what it should be. A
helper catches it and throws it into the roll
train, whence it issues in q few minutes
a long, fat bar. This bar is perhaps allowed
to cool, and then cut into smaller bars,
which are again heated, this time to white
heat, and passed through the plate mill,
coming forth in long, slender bars of the
thickness desired for the nails to be made.
They are then cut into pieces conve-
nient for handling, and of the width de-
sired, and carried to a room where
sixty machines, fed with these pieces by
men and boys, turn out nails at the rate of
425 to $50 kegs daily. They are then
wheeled across the room and packed in
kegs made on the premises. A railway
track is at the very door Of the factory, and
bv it they are carried to Richmond, and
thence shipped to all points north, south,
east, and west. Every kind of nail
and spike is here made, and the quantity
made in year reaches the enormous
amount of 127 800 kegs, or -- tons. The
plate mill attached to the nail works has q
capacity of thirty tons day.
The rolling mill is q modern, but very inn
portant and valuable, feature of the Old
Dominion Works. 1t embraces pudding
mill with ten single and two double fur
naces, which turn out about thirty tons OF
eishteen-inch and nine-inch train, turning
out about twenty tons day of finished bar
iron. Here are made all varieties of bar
iron, bands, hoops, horseshoe and rlvet
iron, and all of superior quality. A large
quantity of the product Of this department.
is sent South, to be used for railroad pur-
poses. All parts of the southern country
have share in this trade, but the principal
points to which shipments are made are III
the States of North Carolina, south Caro-
lima, Georgia, and Alabama. On the day of
our visit to the warehouses we noted con-
signments to two or three Of these States.
All the railroads running into Richmond
also give the Old Dominion Company q
liberal patronage. No bar mill this side OF
Philadelphia turns out so many sizes OF bar
iron, Or keeps so large and desirable an as
sortment in store.
A notice OF these works would be lacking
in very important particular il no refer
ence was made to the fact that about one
hundred Of the three hundred and ttty
hands employed by the Old Dominion Com
pany reside, with their families, on the
island, their houses forming quite village
within the corporate limits. Mr. Blankln-
ship does everything in his power to render
their place of residence agreeable, and to
supply them with the advantages for I'M
proYement which would be within their
reach were they living on this side Of the
river. He has recently made an arrangement
with Mr.. Binford, our Superintendent OF
Public Education, by which public school
is soon to be opened on the island-Mr. Bin
ford to furnish the teacher, and Mr.. Blank
inship the school-house and fuel. The pros
pect of having these educational advantages
ior their children is received with delight
by the people, and it is to be hoped that
the Arrangement will be carried out. A
more intelligent-look set of mechanics
than those at the Old Dominion Works we
have never seen at any manufacturing
establishment.
TALBOT SONS.
The machine works of Talbot & Sons are
perhaps the oldest in Richmond, having
been established in 1889 by Talbot d
Brother. The firm now consists OF Charles
Talbot, machinist of nearly forty years
experience Charles II. Talbot, who is the
business man of the concern, and most
efficient in that capacity; and Allan Tai
bott, who is one of the best craftsmen in
Virginia. They have always occupied the
present site of their shops, corner OF cary
and Seventeenth streets, and the establish
ment, marked by its time-worn and weather.
beaten sign, is one of the institutions of the
city. Last October the shops caught fire,
and were almost entirely destroyed, while
their contents were total loss. The enter
prise of the proprietors, however. would
not allow any continued cessation OF work.
The damages were quickly repaired, and
now they are as well if not better prepared,
than ever to do anything in their line OF
business, which includes everything IN the
department of machinery.
The steam engines built for agricultural
I l. IL, Toll lhntt ~