The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-15
PRIDE And SKILL.
Value of Worcester's
Machine Pro.
ducts,
THEY LEAD ALL THE WORLD.
Will Turn Out Over $5,000,-
600 the Present
Year.
THEY LEAD ALL THE WORLD.

Worcester machine manufacturers
are setting pace for New England, and
if valuation of machine tools produced
Increases according to the healthy lines
it is now advancing upon, this city will
be one of the vital spots in the manu-
featuring world.
Careful estimates give the number Of
skilled mechanics employed in local
shops between 5000 and 1000. The prom
inence Worcester has attained in the
Notwithstanding industry is expand
ing. Ten years ago an order for pro-
duct of a local mani featuring concern
was an event in which there was
doubt on the part of the manufacturer
the 70 'eign trade. Foreign orders had
in them an item of expense which
robbed the producer of the profit OF
forced him out of competition with for
eign makers Of machinery.
Today Worcesters machine products
are installed in manufacturing plants
in all the larger European Cities and
with better facilities for the transporta-
ton of goods, the new era of promin-
ence to the machinery and machine
tools made in this city seems in it's
monday.
In the manufacturing of machines
and machinery, the valuation of pro-
duct has increased nearly $2,0O0,G0O in
10 years, according to local statisticians
and at the close of the present year the
value of Worcester machinery pro-
duced in twelve months will be about
$500 600. At the bottom of this growth
is the fact that there exists among
local manufacturers pride in the work
manship of machine products, which
produces rivalry. This rivalry does not
detract from the bond of friendship be-
tween local manufacturers, which
seems centered upon making Worces-
ter the banner city of New England in
point of value of machine products.
The Spy man in a recent visit to ma
chine shops, talked with the heads of
large firms, where goods of apparently
the same stock and for the same gen.
eral purpose are manufactured. Ma
chinery made in each shop was, &C
cording to the producer, the very best,
and to hint that another concern man
ufactured machinery of equal grade
brought technical explanation, which
set the reporters think tank into a
whirl. which precluded all possibility Of
singing out one manufacturer as a
leader in his line, save where he he'd
the sole local claim to the manufacture
Of certain lines of goods.
The growth of the loom building in
dustry has been the most phenomenal
in the city's manufacturing history.
The Crompton loom Wove the first
wooden cassimeres ( by power in this
country at the Middlesex mills in Low
ell, in 1910. In the SO years following,
there have been innumerable improve
ments TO meet the demands of produ-
GERS Of textile fabrics, but in the last
decade, the industry has grown rapidly
enough to assume place second in i'm
portance to the wire manufactures of
the city.
Indirectly, the Knowles open-shed
fancy loom has been placed in compe-
tition with European product. EXten-
sive builders of machinery in England
are making looms patterned after those
constructed in the Worcester plant of
the Knowles loom works.
The Introduction of Worcester looms in
England has been a factor in placing
this city in a position where 1t is rec
ognized across the water. The ideas
relating 10 loom construction, as seen
by English experts is exchanged with
the fund of practical findings Of Ameri-
can makers. and the local concern has
made itself the occupant of one Of the
highest places in the manufacturing
and financial life Of the world in the
past ten years through the policy of
foreign trade.
Machines and machine tools made in
this city are rated as equal to the best
the world produces. The Paris expo
sition VIII be the event in which the
interest of local machinery manufac-
turers Will be CENTRED. The more ex-
tensive the display of Worcester's ma
chine products, the greater will be the
benefit to this city, and local manufac-
turers who secure exhibition space will
be giving the city the prominence need
ed in causing it's industrial product to
he leaders in the European market.