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Title: |
1872 Article-Henry Disston & Sons, Factory View |
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Source: |
The Great Industries of the United States, 1872, pg. 373 |
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Insert Date: |
11/24/2015 7:42:57 PM |
The most extensive, and without doubt the best manufactory of saws in the United States, and probably in the world, as the writer is confidently assured by one whom he deems to possess a larger knowledge of the saw and its manufacture than almost any other person living, is that of the world-famed "Keystone Saw, Tool, Steel, and File Works," established originally by Mr. Henry Disston, whose name is known throughout the world wherever a saw is used.
The process of manufacture at the Keystone Works is substantially as described in the general description above; but it should be remembered, in honor of the intelligence that is made to bear upon the manufacture of saws at this establishment, that many of the details of the several processes are the inventions of Mr. Disston and his associates, and are secured to them by letters patent. These, in good measure, enable them to outlive other works in the accuracy of their manufactures, as well as in their cost of production. The Keystone Works successfully compete in all respects with foreign manufacturers, and in some respects surpass them. For example, the so-called "No 1" saw, manufactured by these works, is said by the best authorities to be worth forty per cent, more than the best English saw.
The Keystone Works not only manufacture all kinds of saws, from the common wood and hand saw up to the largest circular saws ever made, inclusive, — mill, mulay, gang, cross-cut, drag, pit-saw, patent combination saws, etc.—but also do a large business in setting, sharpening, gumming, and hammering circular and other saws for other establishments which have not the requisite facilities, and also do their own (silver or gold) plating, and plate for others. It should not be overlooked that they make, for their own consumption, the steel ingots they need for their saws, etc., after a perfect and patented process; and it is due greatly to this fact that their saws take precedence of all others.
Their establishment is immense, covering over eight acres of ground, and employing upwards of six hundred laborers. They pay always over nine thousand dollars per week, the employees receiving from six dollars per week for boys, who do the lighter work, to thirty and one hundred dollars per week for skilled workmen. Before our late civil war, wages averaged about one-half of what they do now. Workmen at the same trade in England get about one-half of what the Keystone Works paid before the war. The prices of the saws made by the establishment remain about the same as before the war, the superior and patented machinery of the Keystone Works enabling them to manufacture to such excellent advantage. |
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1872 Henry Disston & Sons, Factory View
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