The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-02-25
RICHmOsD MANUFACTURES.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Buckets.

RICHMOED MANUFACTURES. i
Furniture-Sassafras Buckets.
Early in the winter there was presented
in the Dispatch series of sketches OF some
Of the departments sof manufactures IN
which Richmond capital is invested, and By
which Richmond labor is employed. j Ii
this manner we noticed all of our largest
establishments in tho iron and agricultural
implement business, and called. attention
not only to the variety Of manufacturing
interests in which our people are engaged,
but placed on record at the same time some
interesting facts showing the immense. In
crease in the value of the product Of our
factories.
This morning we propose mere men.
ton OF few manufacturing establishments,
which, although they do not employ so
many hands or consume so much capital,
deserve mention as showing the variety in
our manufacturing enterprises, the ingenu.
lty and energy of our mechanics, and as
they are iemInently successful, may en-
courage others to embark in similar under
taklngs, not only for their own pecuniary
advantage, but for the building up Of the
city.
FURNITURE FACTORY. rt.,s
The large and well-known warehouse
formerly occupied by Ludlam g. Watson,
hocketts, has been within the past few
months fitted up for manufacturing pur-
poses, and now presents scene of busy
industry. 1t is now occupied By the Furni-
ture Works of Garrett f. Watson. The
main building is so feet in width and
100 in depth, and four stories high. The
establishment employs fifty hands, and the
capital invested isabout 100000.
Besides the building above named there
are connected with these works two lum-
ber-yards of considerable dimensions, a
saw-mill, and machine-shop, in which is
made all the iron-Work needed in the man.
utacture Of furniture and for keeping the
machinery in order. When the works are
IN complete order the yearly value of the
products is about $150,000. The market is
found in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and the
southern States, and Richmond furniture is
sold anywhere at remuuerative rates,
though competing with that of northern
make. The machinery at Watson's is of
the latest and most approved patterns, and
consists in part of three planes and seven
turnlng-lathes, for the chair and bedstead
departments twelve band or endless and
scroll-saws, which cut the rough material
into any shape desired ; and ten morticing,
moulding, and tenoning machines. Five
or SIX other machines are now in course of
construction, which will make the estab-
ilshment one of the most complete of the
KIND IN the country. The building is heated
6y steam, which is also the motive power.
Inc consumption Of lumber is over 900. 600
of feet year. - ','~.,''
MIR. Watson has recently rented that large
and commodious house now building on
10th street, between Main and Cary, (own-
ed by Paul Bargamin,) and will as soon as
possible take possession and occupy the
lower floor as an Office, while the upper
floors will be used as warerooms.
sAssAFRAs OIL FACTORY.
immediately in the rear of the furniture
works Just described two intelligent an(
enterprising colored men have established
what is known as the Sassafras Factory
The style of the firm is Demortie & Co.
and consists of NJ. f. Demortie, born il
Benjamin Deshields, of New Jersey. They
an engine and boiler Of about siXteen-hors,
power, and an improved cutting machine
of their own design, made by H. NJ. Smith
81 Co., of this city, and styll holdin,
1900 gallons. In the manufacture o
the sassafras oil the stump and root O
the sassatras tree is used, and they con
sumo about 10000 pounds 4 week, at q cos
of 80 cents q hundred weight. The bulk O
the sassafras manipulated in this factory i
brought from Chesterfield county, and thu
gathering Of it gives employment to many
persons Of both cOlorss and as the tree Is
pest to the farmers, they afford all facilitie.
necessary to the gatherers of this root o
many evils.
Messrs. Dcmortic e. Co. pay out large
amount of money in the purchase of raw
material, in sums varying from 75c. UP tt
$50, and some days to as many as fifty per.
sons.
The proof of the oil manufactured in this
establishment is from 100 to 12o higher than
the average Of most other manufactures
and is readily sold in the northern markets
at 9Oc. per pound. a.....- ..u-. ....a
These cnterpriSing colored men have set
an example in the way Of manufactures
which We would like to see followed, not
only by their own race, but by more of our
white population.
wooDEN-wARE MAEUFACTORY.
In the lower part of the Libby building
Messrs. KIRKPATRICK & Co. have established
a wooden-Ware mandatory. They now
make about three hundred buckets and
pals per day, but will in short time be
able to turn out about thousand. They
have in use forty horsepower engine and
seventy horse boiler, with a complete outfit
of machinery. Their buckets and pals are
sold in different parts of the country, and
in the northern cities, where they
are brought into successful competition
with northern manufactures.
Most of the timber used In this establish
ment is cypress, and is brought from the
Dismal Swamp, near Norfolk, and dis
charged from the vessels at the door OF the
factory.
These enterprising gentlemen have put
up machinery for making nearly everything
which enters into the composition of the
bucket. They take the green logs in lengths
of five feet, and ten to fifteen inches in cir
and then saw them into blocks
parts, according to thickness required, and
then they are sawed into slaves and taken
into the dry-house, where they are thor
oughly seasoned in four or five days. After
this they are carried to what is called o
jointing saw, where each stave is made to
lit with perfect accuracy then to the cut
ting-off saw, where each stave is made uni
form length; and then to the hatcher,
where one side Of the staye is tongued
and the other grooyed. The next process
is to form the bucket into shape on
the setting-up-irons, and thence to the
turning-lathe, where it is turned on the
outside and one of the hoops put on by an
ngeniously-contrived machine; from thence
to the inside turner, who finishes the bucket
on the inside and from thence to the fin
ishing-room, where the bottom of the
bucket is inserted and the other hoops put
on. The whole operation Of manufaetur-
ing bucket only occupies two and hall
The CANAL.-The James River and Kama
1ha canal has been repaired as far as the