COTTON AND WOOLEN FACTORIES.

distilleries to their utmost capacity, and speculators strove to accumulate as much whisky as possible under the old tax in order to take advantage of the increased price that would result from the new rate. Fite estimates the profits of the speculators to have been at least $50,000,000 and states that the rate of profit on the stock of whisky in bond ranged from 90 cents to $1.40 per gallon. After the tax had reached $2 the distilleries remained idle for months.* As the price of whisky advanced the poorer classes turned to beer, with the result that the production of that beverage increased from about 142,000,000 gallons in 1860 to about 225,000,000 gallons in 1865.

At the outbreak of the war the Government had on hand in its arsenals uniforms enough to accommodate only the regular army of 13,000 men, and but few outside factories were fitted for making cloth adapted to military purposes: Hence, when clothing was needed for hundreds of thousands of soldiers, the woolen factories became so busy that night and day shifts were employed and many cotton factories were converted into woolen plants. Even then, during the early months of the war, the soldiers were compelled to wear clothing made of all manner of cloth, some of it dyed the regulation color and some of it, in the emergency, left un

161

prices of Government contracts, and the scarcity of cotton, the profits were enormous, being augmented in many cases by the fact that the goods supplied were of inferior material. The charge was openly bruited that many, if not most, of the uniforms were not made of wool but of shoddy, a material consisting of all kinds of rags cut into pulp and pressed into cloth. This cost but little, and as the manufacturers were paid the full price for woolen clothing, the profits were incalculable. Soon shoddy became a popular synonym for fraud and corruption and was applied indiscriminately to all articles furnished by Government contractors, such as shoddy shoes, hats, stockings, etc.; indeed the country seemed to be passing through a

66

Shoddy Age." On the other hand, the cotton industry, after the first year of the war, was much curtailed, so that, although during the first year the mills were able to run on twothirds time, the next year they ran on from one-quarter to one-half time. This was due to the closing of the Southern ports and the advance of the Union armies, so that comparatively little cotton found its way North, thereby compelling the mill operators to consume the surplus remaining from their heavy purchases in 1860 made when the crops were large and the prospect ominous. As will be exdyed. Owing to favoritism, the high plained later, much cotton was shipped

Fite, Social and Industrial Conditions, pp. 81-82.

North during the latter years of the

war, so that the cotton mills gradually

162

THE SEWING MACHINE AND OTHER INVENTIONS.

increased the scope of their operations. Owing to the demand of the armies the ready-made clothing industry developed wonderfully. At first some of the cloth used in making uniforms came from abroad, but by 1863 these importations ceased and native industry supplied almost all the clothing for the army of 1,000,000 men. Much of this success was due to the improvement of the sewing machine which had been on the market only a few years. Even at the outbreak of the war it was far from the smooth running, speedy machine that is now known, but its advent permitted the manufacturing of men's shirts in one hour and 16 minutes that had previously consumed 14 hours and 20 minutes to make by hand. Similar reductions in time were made on all articles, and this greatly stimulated the clothing trade.*

* Up to 1853 the total number of machines manufactured was 2,500; in 1860, 116,000. In 1860 about 25,000 Wheeler and Wilson machines were made, and in 1865 about 40,000; the Singer Company produced 13,000 and 26,000 in the same years respectively. See Depew, One Hundred Years of American Commerce, vol. ii., p. 530. In vol. i., p. xxvii. of this work a chronological summary of American commerce and invention is given, the most important items (from 18601865) being as follows:

1860.

First importations of sisal hemp.

The transcontinental telegraph sanctioned by
Congress.

First wrought-iron I-beams rolled by Peter
Cooper at Trenton.

Alexander Smith and Halcyon Skinner, of Yon-
kers, secured a patent for power-loom to weave
Axminster and Moquette carpets.

In the Government armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, 3,000 men were employed and 350,000 rifles were manufactured annually, at a cost of about $9 apiece, or $7 less than the price at which the contractors sold the lowest grade to the Government in its hour of need. Just at the opening of

Centrifugal machine for separating the syrup from the crystalized sugar introduced in the sugar refineries.

1861.

First flowing oil-well struck in Pennsylvania,
February 1.

Telegraphic communication opened between St.
Louis and San Francisco, October 25.
First message sent over the transcontinental tele-
graph lines, November 15.

Stereotyping for newspapers introduced by the
New York Tribune and the New York Herald.
The McKay sewing-machine patented.

1862.

Union Pacific Railroad chartered, July 1.
R. J. Gatling completed the first Gatling gun at
Indianapolis, November 4.

Lockhart & Company export first shipment of
American oil.

1863.

The National Academy of Science created by
Congress, March 3.

First harness-thread factory established at Pater-
son, New Jersey, by Barbour Brothers.
Henry Disston built first crucible-steel melting
plant for saw steel.

The channeling-machine invented by George W.

Wardwell.

The so-called musical telephone brought out by
Philip Reis.

1864.

Northern Pacific Railroad chartered.
Postal money order system established.
George M. Pullman built the "Pioneer," his first

car.

1865.

The National Wool Growers' Association organized, December.

The Bullock perfecting press brought out. Polished plate glass first made at Lenox, Massachusetts. (Regarding this, however, see Depew, vol. i., p. 279.)

-t

From an engraving published by the Scientific American in 1861.

Left to right: Dr. Morton (Anæsthesia); James Bogardus (Iron buildings); Samuel Colt (Firearms); Cyrus H. McCormick (Harvesting machinery); Joseph Saxton (Fine machinery); Peter Cooper, leaning (Organizing of manufacture); Charles Goodyear, seated (Vulcanized rubber); Prof. Henry, standing (Electro-magnetism); J. L. Mott, seated (Iron work); Dr. Nott (Heating of buildings); John Ericsson, standing (Marine engineering); F. E. Sickles (Steam engines); S. F. B. Morse (Telegraph); Henry Burden (Iron-working machinery); Richard Hoe (Printing press); Erastus Bigelow, standing (Carpet loom); Jennings (Friction matches); Thomas Blanchard (Eccentric lathe); Elias Howe (Sewing machine).