The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-03-01
LAMP CHIMNEYS.
Made in This Country by Millions Annu'
ally for Home Use and Export.

"The lamp chimney, said a man
acquainted with the trade, to New
York Sun reporter, "seems simple
sort of thing, but there are not many
things of more common use the world
over, and is thesaggregate the num-
Der sold is enormous. In this country
| there are IL, 900 men and boys employ
| ed in making lamp Chin
news and the chimneys produced
number millions annually. The
| greater number are now made west
of the Allegheny mountains in Penn
sylvania, Ohio and Indiana where the
majority of the glass works for the
country are located many of them in
the natural gas regions.
THE first glass works in the country
were established in Boston, and
formerly the glass making industry
was principally in the east. Now
there are not nearly so many glass
factories here as there once were.
| lone not familiar with the business
might be surprised with the great
great variety in which lamp chimneys
are made. Lamps are made in these
days in very great variety by many
makers, and of course there are made
chimneys suitable for all of them.
There is one American lamp chimney
maker who, counting sizes and styles,
produces 800 varieties. Among the
great variety of chimneys made there
are some that are of common use
everywhere, and then there are some
that are especially suited to demands
in this or that part of the country
and are not that part of the country
and are not in demand in other parts.
| Lamp chimneys are not only
made in far greater variety than for
merly, to fit perfectly every sort of
lamp, but they are also made better
than ever. In fact, lamp chimneys
have advanced with everything else.
But enormous and increasing as the
production is, the demand scarcely
keeps pace with the increase in the
population, this being especially true
of cities in which gas is more and
more used, and here in New York,
for instance, by users through slot
machines, which have some influence
on the sale of lamp chimneys. Still
| the number of lamp chimneys used
here is enormous. There are plenty of
people burning gas, for instance, who
have as well three or four lamps, and
the number of people here who use
lamps alone for the purpose of illumi-
nation is very great. There are used
! in New York and its vicinity millions
of lamp chimneys annually.
There are received in this city
! from western manufacturers, for
domestic consumption, suppose about
four Car loads of chimneys weekly,
running from 1900 to 1900 dozen
chimneys to the Car. These are sold to
jobbers who distribute them through
| their trade to customers in the city
and hereabouts and to customers at
greater or less distances away. Per-
haps half of these chimneys, or rather
more, are used in the city or within
80 miles of it, To the chimneys thus
brought here are to be added those
produced here, the eastern chimneys
being made chiefly for the local trade
and for export.
| "We import a few lamp chimneys
of the cheaper and of the best grades,
the cheap chimneys from Germany
and the costlier from France, but these
imports cut only small figure in the
| total consumption, and we export
lamp chimneys in great quantities.
We send very few to Europe, though
we do sell them some of our best Chin
neys. But outside of Europe we sell
lamp chimneys everywhere. We come
into competition in some parts of the
world with the Germans, who make
chimneys very cheaply, but our ex-
ports are increasing, and we send
chimneys, as I said, everywhere to
Mexico, the West Indies, South
America, South Africa, China, in fact
to all lands in which lamps are used,
all around the earth. -