Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-09-14
NEW YORK CORRESPONDENCE.
From Chicago TO ttse East-dartioru
New England - OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
sis.-EKoyY Made BeldknS BROS. q
Cu EEa.t a.g xgest-Keyy kOEE.

Co.-Eass ard yVest-New York.
NV York, Aug 27-In 18io was week
in coming from New Haven to milwaukee.
Two .Heess ago was twenty-scyen hours III
coming from Chicago to new YORK. IheIc
were no railways IL the west, save the Woou-
en- corduroy over otherwise impossible m =
rassCe, and the trip from Buffalo around inc
lakes occupied tTem four to ave days. now
l stopped into Pullman Silver Palace car at
the Michigan Central Depot IN Chicago, ana
passing over the Michigan Central ana Great
Western Goads, with smooth, gilGIng mo-
On, III sixteen hours / found myself at Sus-
pcnsfoll Bridge with he choice Of two rout
before nae TO New York. The Michigan Cen
trai and the Great Western Roads are III tue
most perfect condition, and unsurpassed Iof
speca safety aud comfort by any roads In
tho couniry. II il the only direct route to
Suspension Bridge and Niagara Falls, and
has this great advantage, that you can take
Pullman Silver Palace sleeping car IN CHI
cago, and ride, without change OF car, TO
Rochester where you cal. take the Erie or
the New York Central and Hudson River
roads to New York. The long SERVICES IS
General Passenger Agents OF Henry Z.
Wentworth, of the Michigan Central, and A.
WalIinG ford, OF the Great Western, are the
best certificates Of the character of these
agents, and of the stable management OF
these railways.
Passing over the New York Central in the
night, reached
HARTFORD.
UiG Springfield, at / P. NJ. This city, next to
Providence, contains more wealth in proper
tion to it's numbers thal any city in the
Union. The census shows it's population to
bB less than Al, 600 Life and fire Insurance.
companies here have levied tributes upon al
parts Of the counsry, aud they display their
81 aitl, ncre2as elsowhore-in The erection
Of costly and magnificent buildings.
NEW ENGLAND
looks to me 10 of yore, except that her bills
seem rounded, smeothed and softened. Her
chief source OF prosperity Is IN her manufac-
lures. Every, stream of water. with fall
enough to turn q water-wbeeI, Is used to
drive machinery. And floITishing cities have
sprung up, within few years, by the magic
power ofthe skilled workers in cotton, wool,
silk, brass, iron, Tin and wood. But l was
most Interested in the growth of
ROCKVILLE,
a manufacturing town, sixteen miles east of
Hartford, connected with the Hartford &
Providence railroad by branch railroad
some four miles long. Twenty years ago it
was a small hamlet with mill two, and
few inhabitants. Now it has 5000 inhabit-
ants, with all the appointments OF a city =
Gas, Water-Works, opera mouse, banks,
churches, schools, &c. 1t nestles in rayine,
creeping up the hills onto the table-land on
either side of the stream whose motive pow
or has created it, and overlooking the Con-
necticut valley. There are many fine resi-
dences here, in picturesque situations, and
magnificent landscapes are seen from the
higher portions of the town. Above the city
is the great reservoir, very deep, several
miles long, and capable of supplying water
for the city and sixteen mannfactorleS-aU
grouped within the space OF 5000 yards-for
six Weeks-were the river shut oft from it, and
furnishing the best water power in the state.
From the reservoir to the lower mill IS o fall
| % $50 feet, the lowest fall at any mill being
Is feet, and the highest A feet. Here are
silk, cotton, wooden, thread, envelope, and
bingham mills-the latter being the only
mill IN the country using six shuttle looms
make over a hundred varieties Of plaid. But
was more Interested in the process OF
making
SEWING SILK,
and as it is not familiar to most newspaper
readers / will try to describe il SO that they
can understand 1t. tE-.-
The raw silk is imported from China and
Japan, in large skeins, which have been
wound by the natives of those countries
where labor is cheap-from cocoons, fifteen
CT twenty threads--more or less-into one
Three kinds of raw elk are used. The best
Is Tsatee, OF twenty cocoon threads. Tay-
saam is the next quality and Canton is the
poorest. The better kinds are chiefly used.
| The raw silk Is fret put into strong &C lu-
tion Of soap and water twelve hours, then
put on reels and wound into bobbius, So on q
machine, OF which there are thirteen in a
room. Then the thread from these bobbins
is run into simiiar bobbins between two steel
knives to clean it and make it even. Then
five bobbins are wound into one. on doub-
ling machine, so constructed that il one
thread breaks the machine stoR.' BY repeat
ing the process thirty threads al sometimes
combined in one. The bobbins are then put
on spinning machine and twisted. the spin
~
they are put on the doubling machine again
and three threads combined in one, and then
brought back to the twisting machine aud
twisted the opposite way. The bobbins are
then placed IN q trough, SO that the lower
side is IN water, and wound thence on to a
wooden cylinder nearly q foot thick, and from
this into similar cylinder, called q stretch
er, which reyoiyes one-sixth faster than the
other increases the length Of the thread one
sixth and makes it smooth and even. 1t is
then run into the bobbins again, and then
reeled into hanks $50 wards long. It is now
suds, which takes out the gum and reduces
tae weight Gn5-fourth. Then it is washed
clean, and that to be colored black is put in a
bath OF nitrate of iron, washed again, put in
a bath OF Clutch to give it body, then dyed
with loSwood al soap, washed and s0ftened
with a slight soap bath, dried, and twisted,
paid in hanks with a wooden lever, which is
called ''swinging.' For coioTs-a hundred
or more different prGCessesare required
these hanks are then wound into bobbins.
then into spools, weighed, labeled, put up, a
dozen spOCls IL box, and 764 boxes in a
shipping case, ready for the market All the
processes are performed by skilled hands,
with the greatest care and precision 1t
takes about month from the time the raw
silk goes into the mill before 1t Is finished
ready for sale.
The principal silk mill here, located near
the outlet OF the reservoir, and always sup
piled with clear water, belongs 20
BELDING BROS & co.
II Is Z Substantial brick building, four stories
high, with stone basement, 125 feet long by
10 feet wide, with wing 70 by 90 feet. and
costing, with the machinery, 1926 0OO The
water wheel which drives this machinery il
33 feet in diameter and cost nearly $1,000.
The Dye House boiler is Of 60 horse power.
They also have q weaving room where they
mahe the finest sashes- It takes S75,0O0 to
stock their MILL and they use 900 lbs of raw
silk = week, costing from $3.50 TO $40 so a
pound. They employ 200 operatives, and run
without intermission from sun to sun. They
also have the products of three mills-which
they virtually run-in Mansfield, Conn.,, and
sell nearly q million dollars worth of sewing