The Portland daily press., 1895-03-30

l visited large dealer in hardware. /
asked hira where his tools came FROM He
said:
Originally we got nearly every thing
from England. At the present time the
very cheap and poor tools made in Rus
STA, the connmon tools that we sell to every
body are made in Germany; We get q few
articles from France. From England we
only nuy few Stubb's files, rimers, and ell
craving tools. while our very highpriced in
struments OF precision. such, tor example,
micrometer calipers. squares, scales,
rules, &C., come from he United states''
III g told me that the sale of English goods
had fallen off lately SO much that he was
only selling a small fraction of what he Or
Iginally sold. Some few years ago if any
one in Europe wanted drill press, turn
ing lathe planer, or shaping ma chine, he
was sure to get it from England. When the
German Government decided to make their
rifles Oh tho American interc Manageable
plan they purchased from Messrs. Pratt &
Whitney of Hartford, Conn, about 81, SOC, 600
worth of American tools. These were
brought to Germany. ana very enterpris-
ing manufacturer in Berlin. seeing the
great advantage of the American style of
tools over those of European make, estab-
lished n factory and commenced TO build
them on veyr large scale. Today this en-
terprisdng manufacturer has not only prac-
tically driven the English tools from the
market on the Continent of Europe, but he
is also sending tools to England and selling
them at prices considerably below those of
English tools. and. moreover. as they are
close copies of American. designs, they are
found to De much handler ard better adapt
ed to the work than tools of English de-
sign.
I'm regard to the supposed superiority
of English made tools l would say that
when ] first came to England, wishing to
Euy ONE lathes. / examined man ufacturcrs
and l was surprised to find how old
fashioned they were. Upon asking why
they did not make better lathes, they con-
sidered it good and sufficient answer to
say:
oh. everybody knows that everything
of En- glish make is very much better than
anything abroad
'HsIrdly a manufacturer Knew of the ex-
istenc.e of the new American tools. So
when I had to equip some very large facta-
ries, found it much to the advantage of my
company 20 purchase the greater part of
the tools from American makers.
1T is only few years ago that there was
a great deal of shipuilding on the Thames,
and nearly every first class ship, whether
for the Germans or the French. came from
England. At the present time the French
and Germans are building their own boats.
l speak of this only to show that England
is losing her relative position as manufac-
turing nation. do not say that there is
not D large amount of manufacturing done
in England at the present time. but what
I do say is that England hassnot been able
to maintain her relative position as great
ma nufacturing nation.
las to the question why SO many indus
tries have left England for Other countries
I would say: Take. for instance. the manu-
facture of machinery, an industry in which
England was ut ono time ahead of all other
nations. Machinery is very largely made
of iron. and the designer always altos to
have as much of the work as possible done
on Lathe The lathe may then be consid-
cred the principal tool employed in the
manufacture of machinery. In the original
iron-tuTning lathes it was necessary for the
person to hold the tool in his hand. and. of
course, one man could work only one lathe.