have visited the premises of Messrs. Crossley, at Halifax, and inspected Bigelow's steam loom. The universal report is that the loom complies with the two main conditions of success-cheapness in the working and excellence in the work. It makes two yards of good Brussels in the hour, and thus equals the united exertions of four men. What effect this loom will have upon the town and trade of Kidderminster has become an important problem The loom makes two yards per hour. Suppose the attendant receives 3d. per hour, and the cost of engine power, and extra power, and interest of extra capital above the cost of four hand looms (which would make the same quantity of carpet) be 3d. more, the carpets which would cost 104d. per yard for weaving in the hand loom will cost 3d. only. Add to this another 1d. per yard for better quality of material, which the weavers insist is necessary in the steam loom, the utmost expense to be set against the hand loom 104d. is 4d. If the weavers on the average earn 20s. per week at present when receiving 104d., it is plain they cannot earn more than 7s. 6d. at 4d.; therefore it is impossible for them to compete with the steam loom. But there are circumstances which will save them from utter and immediate ruin as a class. First, the patentee will require a royalty of 4d. per yard. If they manufacture Brussels themselves they will be able of course to undersell those who have to pay a royalty, but it would not be their policy to do so; there fore the cost of weaving steam Brussels may be fairly reckoned at 8d. per yard for the unexpired portion of the fourteen years' patent. Secondly, the steam loom under its present arrangement of parts requires a higher room than those in the present factories, and there must be a great outlay in this respect before power looms can be introduced at all. Then the manufacturers have no market in which to sell their hand looms, and, generally speaking, no loose capital, and therefore they cannot buy the expensive steam looms, engine, and necessary apparatus. Many of them will be consequently driven to compete with the power looms, by means of reduced profits and reduced expenditure in the shape of wages; and there can be no doubt that until the monopoly created by the patent expires there will be an existence for the hand looms. After that time it must be given up. Of course the progress of invention may introduce a loom which will be as efficient as Bigelow's, much more compact, and much less costly. In that case an earlier destruction of the hand loom will occur. But there is another contingency to be thought of. Should the continent be disturbed by war, and a general and long continued stagnation of trade arrive, the hand-loom weavers will be driven by hunger and despair to accept such terms as will only find them the barest existence, and then their work may drive the steam Brussels, burdened with the royalty, out of the market. We hope, however, that no such dismal alternatives may occur, but that the trade may revive to such an extent as to create a demand that neither steam nor hand loom may be able to supply. The poor weav ers are already in a pitiable case, and the heart must be hard indeed that does not feel sorrow at their present sufferings and melancholy prospects."

The London Morning Chronicle of October 15th, 1851, in noticing "carpets, floorcloth, &c.," (class xix.,) says:

"At the eleventh hour, power-loom manufactured Brussels was deposited in the American division-the merit of the invention and application of this important discovery being due to Mr. Bigelow, of the United States. Evidence of the successful application of a much-wished-for invention is all that could be desired."

From the same journal of later date, we extract the following notice of the carpet weaving of Mr. E. B. Bigelow :

"The American department has again received an important accession of strength in the shape of some specimens of Brussels carpet, woven upon power-looms. Although various attempts have been made to adapt the power-loom to carpet weaving in this country, there is not, we believe, at this moment, any machinery perfected for that object. Our American brethren have, therefore, gained another step ahead of us, and have won another laurel on this well-contested field of the industrial arts. The looms upon which these carpets were woven have been for some time in use; and upwards of 800-the majority of which are at work in the manufactory of Mr. Bigelow, the inventor-are employed in the States. Each loom requires only the attendance of one girl, while, in the ordinary mode of carpet-weaving by hand, a weaver is required, and a boy or girl to draw. In addition to this saving of labor, the power-loom is stated to be capable of producing four times the quantity in the same space of time

VOL. XXVII-NO. V.

41

as could be woven upon the hand-loom. As many colors can be used in weaving as in the ordinary Brussels carpet; and the specimens shown are, we are informed, without exception, the most even and regular in the threads of any exhibited. The specimens only arrived last Saturday."

The Lancaster Quilt Company, in Clinton, was commenced under the management of the Brothers Bigelow in the spring of 1837. It is operated by water-power mainly; employs a capital of about $200,000,-100 hands, male and female, and produces annually about 70,000 counterpanes, from 10 to 13 quarters in width, from 36 looms. Prior to the establishment of this mill, the quality of quilts produced by them-commonly known as "Marseilles" were worth at wholesale from $6 to $9 each; they are now retailed at about one-third of those prices. Large quantities of anthracite coal are also used by this establishment.

A. S. Carleton's Carpet-Bag Factory, though in operation but little more than one year, is becoming an important item of the manufacturing interest of Clinton. The bags made by them are destined to supersede the coarser and clumsy-looking article heretofore sold as carpet-bags. They use only the beautiful fabric of the “Bigelow Company," to the amount of about $30,000 annually; which is woven in patterns expressly adapted to that purpose. The sewing is done by one of Lerow and Blodgett's machines.

Fuller's Mill, for the manufacture of Woolen Yarns and Fancy Cassimeres, is also located in Clinton, and is driven by water-power. About 30 hands are here employed -much of the time night and day-consuming about 600 pounds of wool daily, and turning out between 60,000 and 70,000 yards of cloth annually. This mill has been in operation some 10 years.

Gaylord and Company's Fork Factory, in the north part of the town, is an establishment of some note, chiefly for the excellence of the article manufactured. From 6 to 10 hands are constantly employed, making hay and manure forks, of which every variety is produced in a manner which has procured for them much celebrity. Water is the driving power, and upwards of 1,000 dozen forks are annually sold by this firm. A large amount of freight is furnished to the Worcester and Nashua Railroad, and those which connect with it, including some 5,000 tons of coal, which constitutes but a small portion of the aggregate amount.

There are several manufactories of Combs in the town, the most important is that of Mr. Sidney Harris, on Harris Hill. Mr. Harris is largely engaged in the manufacture of dressing, redding, and pocket combs, employing in the various branches of the business about 30 hands, male and female, and has built up around him, in the portion of the town in which he resides, quite a thriving little village, remarkable for its neatness, and the appearance of prosperity so generally pervading it. Some $20,000 to $25,000 worth of combs are sent to market annually from his workshops. Mr. Harris owns largely of real estate in other portions of the town, in addition to a tract of some 300 acres surrounding his homestead, and furnishes employment to many persons other than above enumerated, in agricultural and other industrial pursuits. The manufactory of Mr. H. McCullum, in the same branch of industry, is also located in Clinton, using water-power, and doing a large amount of business annually.

Beside these, Clinton has an Iron Foundry, in which a large amount of business is transacted by Mr. G. M. Palmer.

We were struck with the air of neatness and comfort evinced in the dwellings occupied by the operatives. The buildings are owned by the several manufacturing companies, or the proprietors, and rented as boarding-houses, at a low rate. The price of board is $1 34 per week, and the girls earn from $2 to $3, after deducting their board.

Clinton has six religious societies. The Congregationalists, Baptists, and Catholics, have each a neat and appropriate edifice for public worship, with settled ministers, as also the Society of Second Adventists, who hold services in a hall, erected mainly for their use. The Unitarians are erecting a suitable building, and the Methodists have just completed a substantial brick edifice.

Some idea of the stirring and active business habits of the population may be formed from the fact that between 1,400 and 1,500 letters pass through the post-office weekly, affording a revenue to the department of between $2,700 and $2,800 annually. This is exclusive of newspapers, pamphlets, &c., of which an immense number is received.

One of the handsomest, most commodious, and best conducted hotels in the county is to be found here, beautifully situated in the central village, which is enjoying an en viable reputation among the traveling community.

A very handsome cemetery has recently been laid out, which is rapidly improving in appearance; and on many cultivated plots, beautiful monuments have already been erected. For its general beauty and judicious arrangement of its streets, &c., the town is chiefly indebted to Mr. H. N. Bigelow, for years sole agent of the various corporations, who, in all public matters, has ever taken an active part, whenever his services have been required for the public benefit, and contributed largely, both in time and money, to the advancement of any feasible scheme for the promotion of the public weal.

THE MANUFACTURE OF THERMOMETERS.

In the month of July, 1852, we passed a few days at New Lebanon Springs, and visited, while there, the Thermometer Manufactory of the KENDALL BROTHERS. The thermometer made by these gentlemen has acquired a well-earned celebrity for its superiority over all others now in use. Indeed, it has been pronounced by Professor SILLIMAN and other distinguished savans, the most accurately graduated instrument produced at home or abroad.

The history of the founder of this establishment, and the discovery of a system of graduating the thermometer, as simple in its details as it is perfect and complete in its results, will not, we presume, be uninteresting to the readers of the Merchants' Magazine. After returning to our editorial labors, (or rather after our return to the city, for our labors, since the establishment of our Journal in 1839, have been unceasing,) we received a letter from Mr. C. S. KENDALL, containing an interesting sketch of the "trials and triumphs" of his father, the elder Kendall. The letter was not designed for publication, but, as will be seen, was written at our request, with a view merely of furnishing us with the data for a few editorial paragraphs on the subject:FREEMAN HUNT, Editor of the Merchants' Magazine, etc. :—

DEAR SIR-In compliance with your request, I will state some facts in reference to the commencement of the thermometer business by my father.

My father, Thomas Kendall, Jr., was the son of the Rev. Thomas Kendall, a chaplain in the Revolutionary War, and afterwards missionary among the Indians. Father attended school only about four months in his life. His only apprenticeship was at making wrought nails.

By reading the Edinburg Encyclopedia he acquired a knowledge of the theory of mechanics. He constructed two cotton-mills while a young man, and became interested in one of them, investing about a thousand dollars. The depreciation that ensued immediately after the war of 1812 in cotton fabrics, caused a failure of their cotton enterprise.

Father was thrown out of business, and with nothing to do in those times of general depression, his curiosity was excited to try to make a thermometer-an article seldom seen at that time. He called at a thermometer manufacturer in Boston, and told them that he thought he could make one, and asked the favor of a small piece of tube. They repulsed him, told him he could not make a thermometer, and refused the tube. His pride was aroused, and he went to the glass-works and begged a few pieces of refuse tube. The thermometer was made-shown, I think, to those who denied his capacity to make one, and sold for eight dollars.

Thus encouraged to persevere, he found sale for quite a number of thermometers, and was enabled to support his family by the proceeds of this and his watch and clock repairing business.

You must know that he made thermometers very slowly then, consuming more time in making one than we do in making four dozen now.

Meanwhile, his creditors of the cotton-mill saw fit to imprison him for debt. Governor Lincoln gave him the liberty of the yard, however, and father sent for his tools. Our J. K. remembers carrying them to him one very dark night, and going repeatedly to and from the jail, carrying things to father, and taking the proceeds of his labors to his family, by which they were supported during his confinement. He told his creditors that if they would release him he would pay their debt as fast as he could earn the means.

He was released, and soon after took his watch and clock tools, and, a-foot, set out to see the "West," as this region was then called. (Our family are from Millbury, Worcester County, Massachusetts.) The trip resulted in a family move to New Lebanon. Father was very poor. Soon after coming here, he took some thermometers to Albany, and when he crossed the ferry to enter the city, four cents was all the money he had in the world. Spencer, Stafford & Co. bought his thermometers, and engaged to take all that he could make, and from that time his prospects brightened. About this time he perfected the process of graduating the thermometer scale, sent a description of the same to Professor Silliman, and received from him a high recommendation. Thenceforward, father's reputation as a thermometer maker and theoretical mechanic was established.

This process we have aimed to keep secret in the family.

Father paid his mill debts, supported a large family, and gave liberally to all be

nevolent movements.

He was induced by the citizens of the town to establish a boarding-school. He did not, however, relinquish the thermometer business. When the school had been in successful operation for some little time, father was taken sick at Albany, on his return from New York, and died, in 1831, aged 45 years.

The richest legacy that he left us, after all, was his memory and character. I remember hearing an old gentleman say, as father's remains were exposed in the church, after the funeral:-"I had rather be Thomas Kendall in that coffin than President of the United States." Perhaps the purest joy that I have ever known has been in reference to my father's memory, although I was only five years old when he died, and I am certain that it has shed a pure and holy influence around my pathway hitherto. The thermometer business continued in the family-but after a little while was allowed to run down, and the work was carelessly and incorrectly done, so that for a while our thermometers were scarcely in the market. For the last six years we have been bringing the business up again, and have now a decided predominence in the market. My brother John, who was the only one of the boys that learned the trade directly of father, remained in the business only a short time after father's death, was in Illinois for about ten years, returned about five years ago, and is new in business with me. He has made several important improvements for facilitating work, and that, together with the improved shape in which we now obtain materials, enables us to make thermometers at a rate vastly ahead of former times. We make from 20,000 to 25,000 thermometers during the present year, and our business is constantly increasing. There are several manufactories in the country.

THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS.

NUMBER III.

CURIOSITIES OF GLASS MAKING.

We gather from the ancient writers on glass making, that the workers in the article had, at a very early period, arrived at so great a degree of proficiency and skill as to more than rival, even before the period of the Christian era, anything within the range of more modern art. The numerous specimens of their workmanship still preserved in the public institutions of Europe, and in the cabinets of the curious, prove that the art of combining, coloring, gilding, and engraving glass was perfected by the ancients. Indeed, in fancy coloring, mosaic and mock gems or precious stones, the art of the ancients has never been excelled. Among the numerous specimens, it is remarkable that all vessels are round: none of ancient date are yet found of any other form. And no specimen of crystal glass of ancient date has yet been found.

Among the numerous antiques yet preserved, the "Portland Vase" must hold the first place. Pellat, in his work on the incrustation of glass, states: "The most celebrated antique glass vase is that which was during more than two centuries the principal ornament of the Barberini Palace, and which is now known as the "Portland Vase." It was found about the middle of the sixteenth century, inclosed in a marble sarcophagus within a sepulchral chamber, under the Monte del Garno, two-and-a-half miles from Rome, in the road to Frascati. It is ornamented with white opaque figures in bas relief upon a dark blue transparent ground. The subject has not heretofore received a satisfactory elucidation, but the design and more especially the execution are admirable. The whole of the blue ground or at least the part below the handles, must have originally been covered with white enamel, out of which the figures have been sculptured in the style of a cameo with most astonishing skill and labor." The estimation in which the ancient specimens of glass were held, is demonstrated by the fact that the Duchess of Portland became the purchaser of the celebrated vase which bears her name, at a price exceeding nine thousand dollars, and bore away the prize from numerous competitors. The late Mr. Wedgewood was permitted to take a mould from the vase, at a cost of twenty-five hundred dollars, and he disposed of many copies, in his rich china, at a price of $250 each.

The next specimen of importance is the vase exhumed at Pompeii in 1839, which is now at the museum at Naples. It is about twelve inches high, eight inches in width, and of the same style of manufacture with the "Portland Vase." It is covered with figures in bas relief raised out of a delicate white opaque glass, overlaying a transparent dark blue ground, the figures being executed in the style of cameo engraving. To effect this, the manufacturer must have possessed the art of coating a body of transparent blue glass with an equal thickness of enamel or opal colored glass. The difficulty of tempering the two bodies of glass with different specific gravities, in order that they may stand the work of the sculptor, is well known by modern glass makers. This specimen is considered by some to be the work of Roman artists; by others it is thought to be of the Grecian school. As a work of art it ranks next to the "Portland Vase," and the figures and foliage, all elegant and expressive, (and representative of the season of harvest,) demonstrate most fully the great artistic merit of the designer.

Among the numerous specimens of ancient glass now in the British Museum, there are enough of the Egyptian and Roman manufacture, to impress us with profound respect for the art as pursued by the earlier workers in glass. Among them is a fragment considered as the "ne plus ultra" of the chemical and manipulatory skill of the ancient workers. It is described as consisting of no less than five layers or strata of glass, the interior layer being of the usual blue color, with green and red coatings, and each strata separated from and contrasted with the others by layers of white enamel skillfully arranged by some eminent artist of the Grecian school. The subject is a female reposing upon a couch, executed in the highest style of art. It presents a fine specimen of gem engraving. Among the articles made of common material, are a few green vases about fifteen inches high, in an excellent state of preservation, and beautiful specimens of workmanship. In the formation of the double handles and curves, these vases evince a degree of skill unattained by the glass blowers of the present period.

The specimens taken from the tombs at Thebes are also numerous. Their rich and varied colors are proofs of the chemical and inventive skill of the ancients. These specimens embrace not only rich gems and mosaic work, but also fine examples of the