Daily Republican., 1885-12-08
Birdsboro.
uHERE 1T II AND HOW BIG IT H
THE GREAT FIRM OF T.. II g..
BROOK Ks-RAILROADR.
C MP MEETIN G s.

|C A MP ME- E I'll N G S.
| Birdsboro is in Berks County, Pa,
on the Schuykill river, on the Whining
L ton d. Northern Railroad. The
Schuylkill Valley Railroad, bnilt
by the Philadelphia Railroad Company,
Iuns through the very centre of the
town, and q bridge across the Schuylkill
connects it with the Philadelphia and
Reading Railroad. For railroad facili-
ties no town in Pennsylvania is better
located. In twenty-four hours no less
than seventeen passenger trains run
from B irdsboro to Philadelphia. be.
sides all these facilities the Schuylkill
canal runs through tho town and was
open for freight transit up to the first of
| the week, bu5 it is probable the late
cold snap will force the closing OF it.
Birdsboro is of local importance to
| Wilmington on account of its location
on the Wilmington & Northern Rail.
road, and though the road runs on to
Reading nine miles farther 1t Is the
real business point on the road.
| The population of Birdsboro reaches
about 1000. 1t 10 entirely q manufac'
turing town, 1t containing two furnaces
and one of the largest nail factories in
the State of Pennsylvania. A large
foundry and machine shop that has
been idle for eight or ten years has been
purchased by the Pottstown drill COM
pany who are now removing their ma
chinery. 1t is said they will build an
addition of one hundred feet to the
building and that large number of new
houses, probably one hundred or more,
to accommodate the workmen
W ill give q wonderful impetus to the
business of Birdsboro, that does not
seem to have suffered as much as other
manufacturing towns from business de-
preston.
E. S. G. Brooks Company is the
business life of Birdsboro. They own
the two furnaces, the nail factory,
some sixteen farms along the Schuyl-
kill and six thousand acres of wood
and ore lands. They take the ore raw
from the quarries, smelt it into pigs in
their own furnaces, run the pigs into
blooms in their own pudding furnaces,
run the blooms into bars, rails and nall
rods through their own rolling mills,
and from that manufacture them into
steel nails in their own nail factories
and practically ship them into the
market in their own cars and over their
own railroads.
l
kegs of nails q month, and their pay
rolls for labor amounts to from go, 600
to $25, 900 per month. They also fur
nish water for the town of Birdsboro,
from three miles up Hay Creek near
Hampton station, where there is a breast
built across an aperture between two
hills, forming reservoir which catches
the pure sparkling water from several
trout streams, This water, the best in
the world, is conveyed by iron pipes all
through Birdsboro, for which the
citizens pay so cents a month for q
double faucet. The town authorities
have no trouble about providing water,
and Water Commission ers there are un.
known. e. & G.. Brooks attend to all
the water details, and all the citizens
have TO do is turn their faucets and the
pure noun tain water gushes forth in
copious abundance.
But we cannot use all our space in
writing about this great business firm,
though volumes might be written about
1t and be read with pleasure andlproft.
| Polite ally, Birdsboro stands like an
oasis in q Democratic desert 1t con-
tributes nothing to the 1000 Democratic
majority that Berks County gives some.
times, though at the late election the
majority was reduced to about 1000,
and q Democratic candidate for Judge,
| with q SCARED character, got but little
over 1000 majority. Birdsboro votes
more than two to one in favor of the
Republican party and is the Republi.
can stronghold OF the county, there be.
ing but three other Republican districts
in the county.
Two new Railroad depots have Just
been erected in the town, one by the
/ hi hro of hn
sylvauia road and the other by the
Wilmington and Northern road. TIL 9
! first Is D handsome and oommodious
brick building with all modern convent
fences, but for beauty of finish and
uniqueness of design the need of praise
must be given to the Wilmington and
j Northern depot. 1t is built OF Pocopscn
serpentine, the walls being models oi
masonry architecture.
The vain scottiug, Innings and inside
n work Of raw yellow pine, vanished
make a beautiful finish. In this
depot we found Charley Armor in
8 stalled a. ticket agent and genera
business manager at that end of the
road. "Charley is Whining toniau
who knows how to be clever and &C
! oommodating and instinotively makes
t q friend of everybody he comes in con
t tact with. There are other Whining
b tonian . located in Birdsboro, amongst
J, whom is Harry Suydam, a trusty loco
= motive engineer of the road.
y The schuylkill Valley crossing tn,
y Wilmington and Northern at thi
Ipoiar, requires a responsible and trust,
man in the sign al tower to regulate tn
switches and the signals. This man L.
+ foand in Elmer W. Moore, who has
It charge in the day time, when the mos
s business Is done. If we knew th,
70 name of the gentleman who had charg
It sof the tower at night we would nam
q fhim.
,ft To Mr.. Moore the representative o
u the REPUBLICAN is indebted for an ex
PLANTATION of the working of the sigma
lanterns, signal blocks and switches
The signals are all worked by levers il
is the tower, connected with rods runnin
st to every switch and every signal be
~ longing to the station. The levers j
" this tower are numbered from one t
1. twenty, and each lever works q pa,
" hcuiar switch and signal. They are 8
Ia arranged that there is no possibility c
making mistak ., and. are 30 locke
and interloeked that three and fou
levers have to be unlocked to reach th
right one. The signal blocks regulat
I- the running of trains by day and th
80 signal lanterns by night. No trai
" dare proceed II q red light is discloseS
~ 1t will require too much space to e,
OF plain the workings Of those lights an
y blocks, nevertheless we are under obi
cations to Mr.. Moore for his courtes
and kindness in explaining them.
1t was our good fortune to fall In wi,
~ the Rev. w. Z. Sebring, through