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Bishop, J. Leander (John Leander), 1820-1868 / A history of American manufactures from 1608 to 1860 : exhibiting the origin and growth of the principal mechanic arts and manufactures, from the earliest colonial period to the adoption of the Constitution ; and comprising annals of the industry of the United States in machinery, manufactures and useful arts, with a notice of the important inventions, tariffs, and the results of each decennial census
Volume 3 (1868)
Manufactures of Nashua, N.H., pp. 451-452
Page 451
MANUFACTURES OF NASHUA, N. 1. MANUFACTURES OF NASHUA, N. II. NASHUA, in Ililsboro' County, at the confluence of the Nashua and Merrimac rivers, about forty miles from Boston, is the second most impor- tant manufacturing town in New Hampshire. It has a capital of over two million dollars invested in manufactures, employs about 2800 hands, and produces an annual value of nearly $4,000,000. About twenty million yards of cotton goods were made in 1860 by three corporations, the Nashua, Jackson, and Harbor Manufacturing Companies, whose aggregate capital was $1,660,000, and who employed 1500 operatives. The oldest and largest of these companies is the Nashua, which has 4 mills, having 40,000 spindles and 1200 looms, and also an extensive machine-shop. The Jackson has 3 mills, with 22,000 spindles and 700 looms. Next to Cotton goods, the most prominent manufactories are those of Iron and the various fabrics of Iron. Of these the most important are the works of the NASHUA IRON COMPANY, which manufactures every descrip- tion of forged work, including forged iron locomotive driving-wheels, locomotive tires, piston and connecting rods, frames, crank, straight and car axles, locomotive cranks, etc. The works comprise two forge shops, one with four steam trip hammers, and one with three steam hammers, a rolling-mill, and a machine-shop. In equipments and general facilities, these works are not surpassed by any similar ones in the country. The Nashua Iron Company was organized in 1848, and its present capital is $125,000, though the Company have the privilege of increasing it to $300,000. All the extensive additions that have been made to the works and machinery within a few years, were paid for out of the profits of the Company, which had been set aside as a reserved fund, after paying the usual dividend. About 180 men are now employed in the works, and the average annual product is $500,000. Moses A. Herrick, Esq., of Boston, is Treasurer of this well-managed and successful Company. Machinists' Tools and Steam Engines are made quite extensively by the firm of GAGE, WARNER & WHiTNEY. The senior partner of this firm established in 1837 what is believed to have been the first shop in the United States devoted exclusively to the manufacture of machinists' tools. The present co-partnership of John H. Gage, David A. G. Warner, and George Whitney, dates from December, 1851. Their manufactures include iron planers of all sizes, engine lathes, from the smallest watch- maker's up to a size suitable for turning locomotive driving-wheels six or eight feet in diameter, hand lathes of all sizes, chucking lathes of all 4,)1
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