Hewes & Phillips Iron Works, ca. 1874

     Hewes & Phillips Iron Works was founded in 1845 by Joseph L. Hewes and John M. Phillips. They started in New York City and then moved to Newark, NJ in 1851 and started producing steam engines. The Allen High Speed Steam Engine was produced around 1880. By 1883, Phillips was the sole proprietor, but the business name remained unchanged. By 1886 Phillips had died and the company was being run by his estate. The company closed in about 1920.

      “HEWES & PHILLIPS, Orange and Ogden streets. In 1845 Messrs. J. L. Hewes and J. M. Phillips, commencing business under the present style, began in New York the manufacture of steam engines, boilers and machinery. They removed to Newark, however, in the following year. Their works are perhaps the oldest in Newark and even in New Jersey. The business has been conducted under the same firm name for 29 years, and its growth has been identical with the rise and progress of Newark as a manufacturing city. Within the last year, however, their business relations have been severed by the death of Mr. Hewes, and thus were friendly business relations of three decades brought to a sad termination. Mr. Phillips now continues the business under the old name. Both members of the firm were apprentices with Newark's great inventor, Seth Boyden. : The productions of the works named consist mainly of stationary, portable and marine steam engines and boilers, sugar estate machinery, mill gearing, machinists' tools and general machinery; brass castings are also produced. The products of the firm are everywhere interwoven with the industrial development of the country.

One hundred hands are at present employed, though the usual force is 300 men, and the maximum 400. The present weekly payroll is $1,400, though it has been as high as $5,000, the decrease being caused by the general depression in the iron trade. The annual production is valued at $300,000. Engines and general machinery are sold in all parts of the country, and are shipped to Cuba, England, China, South America, and in fact, the whole world. Messrs. Hewes & Phillips are extensive manufacturers of mining machinery, and they largely supply the mining regions of the Pacific slope, Mexico and Venezuela. The works cover an area of more than two and a half acres of ground. The main building is 176 x 60 feet in size and three stories high. A part of the works extend along the Passaic river, and a dock 190 feet long is owned by the firm, and it is provided with a forty ton crane for lifting machinery into boats. At this dock, vessels are loaded for the West Indies. Thirty tons of mining machinery were recently shipped to Colorado on one railway train.

This immense establishment is peculiarly one of Newark's representative institutions. The capital at first required was mainly honesty, untiring energy and a thorough acquaintance with every detail of the business. Its growth and prosperity has been co-equal with the development of Newark into her present wide proportions, and as the varied wants of the country increase, the iron works of Messrs. Hewes & Phillips will not be backward in supplying the demand.” (Quote from 1874)

Information Sources

• The Industrial Interests of Newark, N. J, 1874, pg. 61
• From Industries of New Jersey, Essex County & the city of Newark1882 page 667:

  One among the large establishments in this city is the Hewes & Phillips iron and machine works, which occupy two and a half acres of ground, covering two blocks, on which are erected numerous brick structures requisite for the proper division of the various departments of the business carried on. The work* throughout are equipped with the latest improved machinery and appliances, driven by powerful steam engines, and a large force of skilled machinists and workmen are constantly employed in the manufacture of stationary and marine engines, boilers, shafting, gearing, and a general line of machinery, including machinists' tools, planes, lathes, slatting machines, gear cutters, shaping machines, hydraulic oil presses, etc., and iron and brass castings, and also the Allen patent high-speed engines. The business of the house extends to various sections of the country, and it maintains a reputation second to no other in the character of the workmanship turned out. The business was established in 1845 by the firm of Hewes & Phillips, but since 1873 it has been conducted solely by Mr. J. M. Phillips, as proprietor. With unexcelled facilities and a splendid and untarnished career, the Hewes & Phillips Iron Works have acquired a place in the consideration of the community and have been of incalculable benefit to the city of Newark by their operations.

• From American Artisan28 Aug 1867, page 124:

  Hewes & Phillip's Iron Works

       These works are located at the corner of Orange and Ogden Streets, Newark, N.J., and are among the most extensive in the growing and thriving city. Their excellent external and internal appearance make them well worthy of notice. By the courtesy of one of the proprietors we Were invited to pass through the various shops, which of course comprise foundries, pattern and pattern-maker's rooms, blacksmith and machine shops, etc. There were some good arrangements and contrivances, which we shall here notice.

       In the foundry we observed a plan for drying the cores to be used in molding. A large square wooden closet, with doors on all sides, contains a. series of small steam-pipes placed horizontally in rows or coils of some half-dozen or more pipes; wooden shelves are placed between these horizontal layers of steam-pipe, and on these shelves are the cores of sand put to dry and harden. The usual method for drying cores, which are generally made of coarse, porous but adhesive sand, is to bake them in an iron oven, where they require constant watching. With the steam heating and drying apparatus, however, an even temperature is maintained, and the cores get evenly and steadily baked without ever getting burnt. The cupolas in the foundry were constructed by Messrs. Bement & Dougherty, of Philadelphia, and are capable of melting metal for a 16-ton casting. When the work is not plentiful and no large castings required, a smaller foundry and cupola are used. The pattern-shop, containing many hundred patterns of engine and machine work (among which were a great number of handsome spur and bevel gears), was a pattern-shop in a double sense, for we have seldom seen patterns so excellently arranged and systematized as they are at these works. Here we would remark how deficient even many large establishments, where thousands of patterns accumulate, are in this particular. If a wheel, a plate, a headstock, a plummer-block, etc., it matters not what particular piece is required; who among mechanics cannot remember how his patience has been exercised and his time wasted in waiting until the required pattern has been hunted up? By a systematic arrangement and judicious classification of parts and pieces, a tabular and numerical list, a constant attention to stamping and numbering all new patterns, and by intrusting the charge of patterns to a person whose especial duty it shall be to arrange, preserve, give out, and collect patterns, how much time is gained, how much saved pecuniarily to an employer; and how much more mechanical and pleasing in appearance does a well-regulated and systematized pattern-room appear. Economy and convenience are two advantages resulting from a proper attention to the arrangement of patterns and models. The pattern-maker's room at these works is of good size, being 90 feet by 29 feet. Entering the machine-shop, the visitor at once sees the remarkable order and neatness which prevail throughout; the bright and well-finished machinery, all made on the premises; the powerful planers, one of which will plane a piece 36 feet long by 5 feet square; the slotting, shaping, and drilling ma chines; the large and powerful lathes, among which is one that will turn from 12 feet to 20 feet diameter, and can turn a piece weighing forty tons. These and much more can only be glanced at. What arrests the attention more particularly is a number of fine drilling machines which we will endeavor to describe.

       The drilling machines constantly seen in machine shops are frequently faulty in construction. The belt cones are placed at the top, and the base of the machine is often disproportioned to the table, on which the work rests or is secured. The consequence is that when a small drill and quick speed are used the drilling machine shakes, and the holes drilled are “out of truth." The weight in a drilling machine should be thrown as much as possible into the lower part, and a good wide heavy base will tend to keep the machine steady without the application of iron rods and braces for that purpose. All the drilling machines at the works of Hewes & Phillips are attached to some of the cast-iron columns supporting the floors. These columns are finished all over. The table is made so as to be raised, lowered, or swung round at pleasure. These machines are very steady in their action, economize the space in the rooms, and work of all descriptions can be put under them and drilled. For heavy work there are some very large and strong drilling machines, which are placed transversely between the columns. A strong and heavy casting, fitted up and finished similarly to the cross-slide of a planer, extends from one column to another in the center of the room. This casting is fitted to the two columns, and the casting can be raised or lowered by power. Upon this cast cross-piece are two boxes with the gearing, spindles, and adjusting gear all attached. The whole is so arranged that a hole can be drilled at any angle. Under the crosspiece and drills and between the columns are placed two tracks on the floor, which allow the work and heavy castings to be brought on carriages and trucks directly under the drills, when one or two holes can be drilled at the same time, and at any angle indicated by the engraved index at the ends of the crosspiece. When the machine is not in use, the cross-piece or slide can be raised to such a height as not to obstruct the passages through the shop.

        A handsome beam steam engine is built here of a novel and neat design. The beam is of cast-iron, with a web similar to the English beam engines; the side columns and frames for the beam pedestals are ornamented with an imitation of lattice-work. The steam and exhaust valves are puppet valves, with a cut-off patented by J. L. Hewes, April 24, 1866, and are controlled by the governor. The steam engine, which drives the machinery in the works is one of this description, and is 65 H. P. It requires but 1,700 pounds of coal for ten hours work. There are no less than twenty-six cranes in the machine-shop, and nothing is left undone which conduces to the comfort of the employees, the accuracy of the work, or facilitates the manufacture of first-class engines, tools, and machinery.

• American Steam Engine Builders: 1800-1900 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2006 page 117
• Fifth Annual Report of the American Institute, including the results of the 1846 Fair of the American Institute, lists Hughes & Phillips, Newark, N. J., for the best small lathe. Diploma.
• Awarded gold medals at the 1865 American Institute Fair, for iron lathe slotting machines, gear cutter and shaping machines.
• An article in an 1875 issue of Manufacturer & Builder indicates that they made steam engines and rock drills. Another 1875 Manufacturer & Builder articles discusses a water valve patented by "the late J. S. Hewes, of the firm of Hewes & Phillips". An 1878 Manufacturer & Builder article shows the Porter-Allen steam engine, made at the "Hewes & Phillips Iron Works". An 1884 Manufacturer & Builder article shows a Hewes & Phillips large slotting machine.