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Cornelius Wendell
| Firmenname | Cornelius Wendell |
| Ortssitz | Washington (D.C.) |
| Art des Unternehmens | Druckerei |
| Anmerkungen | - |
| Quellenangaben | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 1 (1868) 672] |
| Zeit |
Ereignis |
| 1813 |
Geburt von Cornelius Wendell in Cambridge bei Albany, New York. - Er macht früh eine Lehre bei "Croswell & Van Benthuysen" in Albany. Nach Abschluß seiner Lehre wird der Vorarbeiter bei C. Van Benthuysen und leitet dessen gesamtes Geschäft. |
| 1845 |
Wendell zieht nach Washington und wird bei Congressional Printing beschäftigt. |
| 09.1856 |
Baubeginn für das Druckereigebäude, ein viergeschossiges Ziegelgebäude, darüber eine Kuppel mit Adler-Emblem |
| 11.1856 |
Die neue Druckerei wird bezogen. |
| 1861 |
Wendell verkauft die von ihm gegrünete Gießerei an die Regierung, zieht sich zurück und widment sich anderen Aufgaben. |
| 1866 |
Wendell wird zum Betriebsleiter von "Public Printing" ernannt. |
| ZEIT | 1868 |
| THEMA | Firmenbeschreibung |
| TEXT | Whose fame as a Printer is identified with the public printing office at the National Capital, of which he is the founder, was born at Cambridge, near Albany, New York, in the year 1813. He was early apprenticed to Croswell & Van Benthuysen, State Printers in Albany, and after completing his apprenticeship, was employed as foreman for C. Van Benthuysen, and had control of his entire business. In 1845, Mr. Wendell removed to Washington, and became engaged on Congressional Printing. After ten years' experience, he determined upon erecting a model public printing office, and so expeditiously were his plans carried out, that though the building was begun in September, 1856, it was ready for occupancy in the following November. It consists of a long, wide, brick edifice, four stories in height, surmounted by a cupola, over which is perched the emblematical eagle. At each end of the roof is a flag staff, from which the national ensign floats on gala days, and the entire square is neatly fenced in, while rows of shade trees overshadow the broad sidewalks. Detached from the main building is an engine house, with an ornamental chimney, that towers above the establishment. It contains a magnificent steam-engine of forty horse power, that operates with the facility of a chronometer. Its large tubular boiler also supplies steam for heating the main building, and for a small donkey engine that pumps water from the adjacent branch. The press rollers, "those mystic compounds of glue and molasses," are also manufactured in the engine house. There is also a machine shop on the grounds, and commodious stables within the enclosure, for the accommodation of the horses required in the transportation of work. The Storehouse is also a detached building, sixty feet by eighty, where the paper is deposited until wanted by the public printer. Some forty thousand reams of fine printing paper, pass through this depository in a year, weighing forty-five to fifty pounds per ream of four hundred and eighty sheets, each measuring twenty-four by thirty-eight inches. In addition to this large supply of standard printing paper, large quantities of paper for blank books, etc., are consumed in this office, which after being inspected, counted, weighed, and measured, are also deposited in the Storehouse until wanted for use. Entering the main building, we find on the lower floor a "wetting room," supplied with troughs and appliances for dampening the immense supply of paper used, with a powerful hydraulic press, for pressing it smooth. The press room, however, is the remarkable feature of the lower floor, containing as it does twenty-nine ponderous machines, each moving with the regularity of a watch, devouring reams of white paper, and throwing off neatly printed sheets. Some of the presses are of the Napier pattern, but the greater portion are the well known Adams press. Two hundred and ten reams, or upward of one hundred thousand sheets, can easily be printed in this room in a day. Adjacent to the press room, on the lower floor, is the drying room, where the sheets, as they leave the press, are hung on large frames which are pulled out on hanging rollers. When one of these frames is covered with damp sheets, it is pushed into the drying apparatus, which is composed of ranges of steam tubes which maintain a high temperature, while the vapor is carried off by a proper system of ventilation. In the drying room are also five massive standing presses, to which an enormous pressure is applied by hydraulic pumps. When the sheets have thus been pressed, they are taken to the bindery, in the third story, by a steam hoisting apparatus. Passing to the second floor, we find the private and business offices, and also the proof readers' rooms. The central and much the largest portion of this floor, however, is appropriated as a composing room, which is lighted by sixty windows during the day, and by gas at night. There are about one hundred double "stands" for compositors, with twenty imposing stones, and every other requisite convenience. A portion of the second story is enclosed for the "executive printing." Some of this is of a confidential nature, and when it was executed, as in former years, at newspaper offices, it often became public, to the annoyance of all concerned. Many amusing anecdotes are told at Washington of the strategems resorted to by newspaper correspondents to obtain confidential documents, and on one occasion a President had types and workmen brought into the White House, that he might have his annual message confidentially printed. The third story is devoted to binding; and in the large "folding room" is a small army of neatly-dressed girls, seated before tables, who fold the printed sheets with astonishing rapidity. The "executive binding room" is fitted up with two powerful machines for trimming the edges of books, shears for cutting pasteboard, and other labor-saving inventions. The furnaces for heating the stamps, and for gilding, are heated by gas, which is safer, cleaner, and steadier than charcoal. In another room are "ruling machines," by means of which acres of paper are annually covered with faint red or blue lines, laid on with mathematical precision. Some of the larger blank books for the use of Government are master-pieces of accurate ruling and substantial binding. The appointments and fixtures in the binding department are fully in keeping with the typographical arrangements below stairs. The fourth story is a store room, where stacks of printed sheets arc kept in readiness for the binder. The process of manufacturing Public Documents does not differ essentially from the ordinary methods of making books, except, perhaps, in the quantity of "rule and figure work." The amount of brass rule annually required iu this office is without precedent in any other establishment. In 1861, Mr. Wendell sold the printing office, which he had founded, to the Government, and retired, to devote himself to other pursuits. During his administration, he always maintained the kindest relations with the operatives in his employ, who, on one occasion, presented him with a gold snuff box, inscribed "as a memorial of his worth, and as a testimony of the printers and binders in his employ." He was also distinguished for the facility and accuracy with which he could tell, from a rapid glance over a manuscript, about how many pages it would make when printed, and the shortest time within which the work could be done, if haste were desirable. In 1866, Mr. Wendell was appointed Superintendent of the Public Printing, but in March, 1867, was legislated out for an alleged charge of political favoritism, to the exclusion of loyal soldiers, which charge a joint Committee on Printing of both Houses of Congress pronounced unfounded. This Committee, after reporting that "the late Superintendent was highly worthy of the postnvhich he had filled," add the testimony that "inasmuch as Mr. Wendell yesterday closed his official connection with the Government Printing Office, it is due to him to say that in courtesy of deportment, in energy, in efficiency, in fidelity to public trust, he has met the highest favor with all of the Committee who have been brought in connection with him.'' |
| QUELLE | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 1 (1868) 672] |
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