| TEXT | The man who first applied machinery propelled by steam-power to the manufacture of Carriages in New Haven, is Mr. George T. Newhall, now one of the most extensive and enterprising manufacturers in that city. Having noticed, while on a visit to Rhode Island, that steam-power was employed in almost every branch of industry in that small but enterprising State, he resolved to attempt it in carriage-building, and purchased a small engine and the requisite machinery and put it in his factory. It seems scarcely credible to be told that, at a period so recent, his experiment was regarded with such distrust that creditors refused to extend him any further credit, and his best friends looked upon him as an early candidate for the insolvents' court, if not a lunatic asylum. But success crowned his efforts, and we suppose his establishment is the one referred to by Mr. Chauncey Jerome, in his work on American Clock-Making, where he says - "I live in the immediate vicinity of the largest Carriage manufactory in the world, which turns out a finished Carriage every hour! much of the work being done by machinery, and systematized in much the same manner as the clock-making." Mr. Newhall's manufactories are situated about a mile north of the centre of New Haven, on a tract of land which fourteen years ago was a corn-patch and a cow-pasture, but which is now laid out in broad streets, and contains neat dwelling-houses, extensive factories, churches, and school-houses. The main building is 235 feet long, 35 feet wide, and three stories high. This is filled with machinery, to which power is conveyed from a steam-engine of 65-horse power, by means of a main shaft running the entire length of the building. On the first floor is the engine room, and the heavy machinery for cutting up timber and giving it form and shape. Here all parts of the bodies are sawed and dressed, and framed, leaving only the putting together for hand labor. Three machines are used for turning Spokes, others for turning and mortising Hubs. On the same floor are found the necessary machinery for making all kinds of Bolts used in the construction of carriages and cars. In an adjoining building, disconnected from the large factories, are fourteen blacksmiths' forges. Here, as in all the other departments, there is a systematic division of labor, and in ironing a carriage it passes through five or six different hands before it is completed. The fires are all kept in full blast by the steam-engine. In this building there is a trip-hammer and furnaces for the manufacture of Springs and Axles. Another building, 150 feet long, 45 feet wide, and four stories high, stands fronting on Newhall Street. On the first floor is the Private Office and Counting Room, with two rooms of large size devoted to building Horse Cars. This is an entirely new branch of business in New Haven, having never before been attempted by any one. The second floor is divided into different apartments for Trimming purposes, Coloring, and Varnishing. On the third floor there is a large room for cutting out and preparing Trimmings, and above this is a room extending the entire length of the building used wholly for Painting the running parts of carriages. Mr. Newhall not only makes more of that class of vehicles known as "Buggies", in a year, than any other manufacturer in the United States, but makes more of the constituent parts of a carriage. Nearly every thing belonging to a carriage is made on his own premises. He employs about 176 hands, and previous to the breaking out of the war and the loss of the Southern custom, his average product was abo.ut 2.000 Buggies a year. |
