The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-09-07

It may seem a far cry from crinolines to watch springs but one of the important exhibits in the tercentenary. industrial exposition will demonstrate the direct rela- tionship between the hoop-skirt fashion of 1850 and the Connecti- cut industry that produces thirty per cent of the country's springs today,
 The manufacture of the invis- ible hoops that held out milady's skirts nearly century ago. Sas the beginning on which was found ed the present day fiourishing business of spring making for fine watches. sewing machines, phono- graphs. and the thousand and one .mechanical appliances which rely upon delicate spring action for per- lection.
 This interesting transition will be shown at the State Armory from October ? to October 12 by the seven manufacturing companies of Connecticut, constituting the back bone of the spring industry, who will stage this exhibit.
 4AS AASS IlaLloLdStAAC OLi oPl hhSo in America was started by Colonel E. L. Dunbar on Lewis street, Bris- tol, In 1S47. Colonel Dunbar per- fected better spring than those imported from England and France, by the introduction of steel tempering, and soon was supply ing most of the forms for hoop skirts. Another manufacturer, Wal lace Barnes of Bristol, who had bought out the A. s. Platt com piny in 1857, joined with Colonel Dunbar to form the partnership of Dunbar and Barnes--the found CTS of the spring making industry of. the Cnited States today.
 Dunbar and Barnes erected a factory called "Crinoline Hall' to accommodate the growing hoop skirt business. For a time the en- tire plant operated three eight hour shifts, six days a week. But when the fashion for these cir cular garments disappeared about 1883, Dunbar and Barnes turned to making springs for clocks and other manufactured articles. In either 1884 or 1866, Wallace Barnes bougAt out MT. Dunbar's interest in the plan. The history of the Wallace Barnes spring plant closely paraIleled many of. the in ventions since 1866. The first of these was a, crude lamp to extin-. guish candles, known as a "chim- ney cleaner" Then came the screen tension spring, piano action < spring, bicycle bell spring, sewing machine spring, etc. Business was ! rather disastrous during the panic of 1898 but was saved by Carlyle F. Barnes, son of Wallace Barnes. Wallace Barnes possessed an i'm satilble desire for trading or swap ping, q trait he is reputed to have { acquired from a background on the western frontier. He would swap < real estate, cattle, horses, manu- 2 featuring plants or commodities. { His varied interests including farm \ ing. promotion of fairs, pomology, fancy cattle and horse breeding, and coon hunting, often diverted s him. from business affairs for long periods of time. <
 The chief inventions which aided the development of the company { up to the World war were the tell B ephone, bicycle, automobile. type- writer, the phonograph and other electrical and mechanical appli- ances. Tn 1914. the chemical sci- ence of metallurgy gave new im- petus to spring making. During the war all spring concerns in the state @ided in the manufacture of rifles, I pistols. machine guns, heavy ar- fiilery springs and fuses. Today, the Wallace Barnes company is combined with several other con- ctrns in the country under the