In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

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@ From toys to heavy weapons, Philadelphia manufacturers made an exceptionally wide range of products in the early twentieth century. Above: Women assembling dolls at the A. Schoenhut toy company in 1912. At its height, Schoenhut employed about 400 workers at its Kensington factory. STILL PICTURE RECORDS SECTION, NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION. Below: Large guns made for the U.S. Navy by Midvale Steel Company in an undated early twentieth-century photograph. At its peak, Midvale employed about 7,300 at its sprawling Nicetown plant. MIDVALE COLLECTION, HISTORICAL AND INTERPRETIVE COLLECTIONS OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, PHILADELPHIA. THE “ SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION” The late nineteenth/early twentieth-century period is sometimes referred to as the “Second Industrial Revolution,” an era characterized by huge bureaucratic corporations carrying out manufacturing on a massive scale. The first industrial revolution had been the early nineteenth-century transition from shop-based artisan work to mechanized factory production; the second was a major increase in the scale and scope of this activity, fueled by late nineteenth-century advances in technology, transportation, and communication. While manufacturing reached massive proportions in certain Philadelphia industries in this period, the city’s many smaller specialized manufacturers remained the backbone of its industrial sector. The 1890 census showed that Philadelphia had 298 different lines of industrial businesses. Another unique characteristic of manufacturing in Philadelphia in this period was the number of firms that remained familyowned and -controlled rather than becoming publicly traded corporations. The Association of Centenary Firms and Corporations in the United States, founded in Philadelphia in 1889 to honor American companies at least 100 years old that were still controlled by their founding families, issued its second edition of member profiles in 1916. Of the fifty-seven nationwide companies profiled, fifteen were Philadelphia manufacturers, the most by far of any city. The oldest in the nation was the Philadelphia brewer and maltster Francis Perot’s Sons Malting Company, founded in 1687. Other Philadelphia manufacturers that were profiled include paint and chemical companies, tanners and saddlers, iron founders, paper manufacturers, makers of tools, clocks and watches, tin plate, tobacco, and snuff. Two of these companies have already been mentioned in these pages: paint manufacturer Wetherill & Brother, founded in 1762, and auger and bit manufacturer Job T. Pugh, founded in 1774. WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD As Arthur Shadwell noted in 1906 in Industrial Efficiencies, it would take a whole book to list the many different manufacturers active in Philadelphia in the early years of the twentieth century. There were thousands of them. A partial list of the number of Philadelphia manufacturers active in various industries between 1909 and 1912 includes: 545 iron foundries and machine shops, 496 tobacco manufacturers, 456 men’s and 351 women’s apparel makers, 174 medicine and druggist preparations manufacturers, 160 cotton mills, 147 furniture manufacturers, 129 makers of confectionery products, 48 breweries, 40 silk factories, 32 soap IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBERTY 62
makers, 20 stove manufacturers, 12 cordage (rope making) works, 8 paper manufacturers, 8 rolling mills, 8 ink manufacturers, 4 glass works, and 4 sugar refineries. A good sense of the city’s range of industries at this time is evident in the following chart of Philadelphia industries by value of goods produced in 1909, taken from the Philadelphia Commercial Museum’s 1912 publication, Manufacturing in Philadelphia 1683-1912: @ Leading Industries of Philadelphia, Values in millions of dollars, 1909. This chart from the Philadelphia Commercial Museum’s 1912 publication, Manufacturing in Philadelphia 1683-1912, shows the wide range of goods produced by Philadelphia manufacturers in the early twentieth century. Only the largest industries in terms of monetary value are listed and even the smallest of these, saw making, includes what was then the world’s largest saw manufacturer, Disston Saw Works. CHAPTER FOUR 63
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IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBER
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IN THE CRADLE OF INDUSTRY AND LIBER
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CONTENTS 4 FOREWORD 6 ACKNOWLEDGEME
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@ Michael A. Nutter, Former Mayor,
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For the historical images that enli
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This is a history of manufacturing
Page 13 and 14: While other manufacturing centers w
Page 15 and 16: @ Above: Workers at Midvale Steel p
Page 17 and 18: aircraft that dates to the earliest
Page 19 and 20: would hold into the early nineteent
Page 21 and 22: technology, transportation, and com
Page 23 and 24: age had joined the Religious Societ
Page 25 and 26: Philadelphians lived in the city’
Page 27 and 28: “and many boats, which are useful
Page 29 and 30: Quaker merchant Thomas Masters purc
Page 31 and 32: INDUSTRY INVENTORS Manufacturers in
Page 33 and 34: Quaker upbringing. Known as the “
Page 35 and 36: MAKING A CASE FOR AMERICAN MANUFACT
Page 37 and 38: up cotton manufacturing operations
Page 39 and 40: After receiving a patent for the en
Page 41 and 42: The Globe Mill on the Cohocksink Cr
Page 43 and 44: @ Opposite: Detail from 1849 map sh
Page 45 and 46: of the town’s total population. S
Page 47 and 48: On a positive note, a group of Fran
Page 49 and 50: factories with a powerful energy so
Page 51 and 52: and flagship for Commodore Matthew
Page 53 and 54: @ Left: Penn Steam Engine & Boiler
Page 55 and 56: Garrett & Eastwick Locomotive Works
Page 57 and 58: seen. The episode brought Hagner co
Page 59 and 60: United States, the nation’s de-fa
Page 61 and 62: The turn of the twentieth century p
Page 63: in various categories at the Centen
Page 67 and 68: and lace, in which Kensington manuf
Page 69 and 70: through exploitation of their worke
Page 71 and 72: @ Left: Yard locomotives at Midvale
Page 73 and 74: among the largest in the world at t
Page 75 and 76: factory nearby. This became the lar
Page 77 and 78: she writes of the sad circumstances
Page 79 and 80: @ Clockwise, starting from the top:
Page 81 and 82: BEER AND TOBACCO Beer making contin
Page 83 and 84: MILK AND ICE CREAM Like any major c
Page 85 and 86: the Philadelphia Phillies. Located
Page 87 and 88: and a half later from a city of man
Page 89 and 90: After major cutbacks in the auto in
Page 91 and 92: into countless lunchboxes throughou
Page 93 and 94: hangar space in 1980 at Northeast P
Page 95 and 96: is the nation’s largest manufactu
Page 97 and 98: fuel for local industries, current
Page 99 and 100: centralize operations in the buildi
Page 101 and 102: BOOKS AND ARTICLES Bridenbaugh, Car
Page 103 and 104: Sutcliffe, Andrea J. Steam: The Unt
Page 105 and 106: Penrose, Bartholomew & Thomas shipy
Page 107 and 108: PARTNERS IN BUILDING PHILADELPHIA H
Page 109 and 110: @ Left: An early Kingsbury advertis
Page 111 and 112: PARTNERS IN BUILDING PHILADELPHIA 1
Page 113 and 114: Aerodynamics. The name DeVal was a
Page 115 and 116:
packaging and shipping; and nondest
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Another step in product advancement
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PHILLY CASE From the basement of a
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Under Yost’s direction, The Rowla
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The story of Tioga Pipe is a classi
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neighborhood. The increased product
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Humphrys is one of the oldest manuf
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The Doherty brothers realized, to s
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Centrally located off the Pennsylva
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Jersey and Delaware. Outgrowing the
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Philadelphia is famous for its appr
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injection molded plastic to enter t
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had expanded from smaller pieces fo
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for many years and they know the fi
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furnace as well as a custom flame h
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and Salmon Streets. The company wou
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The company capitalized on the stra
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discharges. The supercapacitors are
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products that are custom designed t
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Today manufacturing matters, now mo
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LEADERSHIP SPONSORS Historical Publ
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