dla777
Greenie
- Mar 7, 2011
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- GARRETT ACE 350
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This Article Was In My Local City Newspaper Today....I Found It Interesting...Figured I'd Share.
Ammo, guns & buttons
BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF Sunday, May 1, 2011 4:10 AM EDT
Attleboro made own contribution to Civil War
ATTLEBORO - When the long-simmering quarrel between North and South exploded into war in the spring of 1861, armies on either side required huge quantities of supplies, rifles, cannon balls, wagons and equipment of all kinds.
But Civil War armies also needed mundane items like cotton fabric for tents, matches, belt buckles and metal buttons for uniforms.
In Attleboro, whose button-making industry began just after the American Revolution, workers were called on to turn out millions of overcoat and cuff buttons for riflemen, artillerymen and officers.
But even as it gained prestige as one of the leading centers of button making, fast-moving advancements in metal work and factory production methods would soon conspire to transform the Attleboros into America's jewelry capital.
"We naturally think of Attleboro as the Jewelry City," said George Shelton, director of the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum. "But it was the making of buttons that came first, and would play a role in the development of the jewelry industry.The legacy of the early button makers is preserved at the Industrial Museum, which includes a large display of locally manufactured buttons and military insignia from before the Civil War to the present.
Prior to the war, a number of modest factories were already turning out buttons and small jewelry items in the Attleboro area. By the time the firing ended, an increasing number of entrepreneurs were poised to satisfy a mushrooming postwar demand for fashion jewelry, badges and metal accessories.
Attleboro's reputation as a button-making center is virtually as old as the United States.
In 1780, a settler known today only as "the Frenchman" built a brass forge in what is now North Attleboro, sparking the development of button making. By 1793, Edward Price, an English immigrant, brought European production methods to the table when he began producing metal buttons in the area.
The introduction of new technology boosted he production of buttons and jewelry items into new economic prominence alongside textiles, the Attleboros' dominant industry at the time.
In 1804, George W. Robinson was granted a patent on an improvement for manufacturing coat and waistcoat buttons, and built a factory to produce them. According to The History of Massachusetts Industries, written in 1930 by Orra L. Stone, Robinson's company eventually became the largest producer of metal buttons in the United States. Robinson's technological leap forward helped to revolutionize the industry. By 1834, according to historical accounts, the Attleboro area was producing more buttons than anyplace else in the nation.
By that time, the transition in Attleboro's economy from agriculture and textiles toward metals manufacturing was gaining momentum. By 1855, almost 25 jewelry, medal and button manufacturers were operating in Attleboro, according to the Attleboro Historical Commission.
Another major technological advance came in the form of a new method for producing rolled gold plate, key to the manufacture of many types of gold jewelry and insignia.
The advancement was brought to the area from Providence in 1849 by John F. and James H. Sturdy, who supplied the local jewelry manufacturing industry with their products.
When the Civil War erupted, the demand for brass and gold-plated buttons and badges for military uniforms exploded. And a number of Attleboro area companies were quick to take advantage of the situation.
For one, the James E. Blake Co. was said to have accumulated huge profits from the production of army badges, regimental insignia and other war products.
D. Evans, produced large quantities of buttons for Civil War uniforms, as did R. and W. Robinson, which it eventually absorbed.
Civil War soldiers' uniforms and equipment required large numbers of metal buttons, buckles and insignia.
"The average private's uniform contained a lot of brass," said Tom Higgins of Attleboro, recruiting sergeant for the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry re-enactment group, which prides itself on an accurate portrayal of federal soldiers in the Civil War.
Besides the brass buttons that lined their uniform coats, union soldiers had brass chin strap buttons on their hats, eagle-emblazoned brass plates on their cartridge boxes and a brass, buckle-like closure on their waist belts, to name only a few of the metal items soldiers carried.
Many of the military buttons, medals and accessories produced by local companies are now collectors items, with some selling on Internet auction sites for $100 and more.
War production could only take the nascent jewelry industry so far, however.
By the early 1870s, local producers were applying advancements in materials and production methods achieved during the war to civilian men's and women's clothing and jewelry.
The case of John and James Sturdy is instructive.
During the war, Stone wrote, the company's efforts were devoted to producing metal badges and insignia for the military. Once peace was declared, however, the Sturdys entered into the manufacture of women's gold rolled plate jewelry.
The company expanded into production of other types of sterling silver and gold jewelry after the company was sold during the late 1880s.
In the immediate postwar period, many others came to recognize the potential profits in the button, jewelry and metals businesses that had gained a foothold during the war.
In 1869, Horton, Angell & Co. was established as a manufacturer of rolled gold plate, wire and tubing. The company is also credited with being the first local firm to pay its employees by the week.
During the postwar years, other companies like W. and S. Blackinton, S.O. Bigney, D.E. Makepeace and R. F. Simmons established large factories making rolled plate jewelry and chains, as well as the materials to manufacture them.
While the Attleboro area's expanding jewelry and metals industries continued to diversify throughout the 20th century into areas ranging from fashion to electronics, the manufacture of buttons, insignia and other items for America's military continued to be significant.
A roster of military suppliers on the website usmilitariaforum.com lists no fewer than a dozen local firms involved in making such products at some time from World War I to the present, ranging from Antaya Brothers to Swank Inc. and L.G. Balfour.
D. Evans, which had played such a large role in the Civil War, remained in business until 1945.
Besides helping to provide the basis for the jewelry industry, one of the major contributions of the early button and badge makers was providing the technological foundation for new products that could not have been dreamed of by early jewelry manufacturers stooped over their factory benches.
Rathbun Willard's General Plate, founded in the early 1900s as a supplier of metals to the area's jewelry industry, and its successor Metals and Controls Inc. further perfected metals technology for making thermostatic temperature controls, clad metals used in U.S. coins and even nuclear fuel for submarines.
Attleboro craftsmen also helped seed their metals techniques in other regions of the country.
The Waterbury, Conn., area was already competing with the Attleboros for contracts to supply buttons to civilian and military customers at the start of the 19th century, when David Hayden arrived on the scene there in 1808.
Hayden had worked in Attleboro's button factories and brought with him important expertise.
In 1811, the former Attleboro button maker, along with several partners, bought out a local company and began producing buttons for the Army during the War of 1812.
Hayden and his partners worked tirelessly to improve their technology, importing the latest machines and experts from England. Under the leadership of James Scovill and his brother, William, the company blossomed as the burgeoning Naugatuck Valley brass industry branched out into new products, from clocks to lamps.
Soon, the Scovills would find a truly revolutionary application for their technology: photography.
Within a few years of Louis Daguerre's inventing a process to reproduce photographic images on metal plates, the Scovills began producing not only daguerrotype plates, but photographic equipment and camera lens housings.
Many of the improvements in early cameras created by the Scovills helped to make it possible for photographers to move into the countryside to record news and historic events.
Matthew Brady and other early photographers took advantage of the new advances to record the carnage on Civil War battlefields.
Ammo, guns & buttons
BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF Sunday, May 1, 2011 4:10 AM EDT
Attleboro made own contribution to Civil War
ATTLEBORO - When the long-simmering quarrel between North and South exploded into war in the spring of 1861, armies on either side required huge quantities of supplies, rifles, cannon balls, wagons and equipment of all kinds.
But Civil War armies also needed mundane items like cotton fabric for tents, matches, belt buckles and metal buttons for uniforms.
In Attleboro, whose button-making industry began just after the American Revolution, workers were called on to turn out millions of overcoat and cuff buttons for riflemen, artillerymen and officers.
But even as it gained prestige as one of the leading centers of button making, fast-moving advancements in metal work and factory production methods would soon conspire to transform the Attleboros into America's jewelry capital.
"We naturally think of Attleboro as the Jewelry City," said George Shelton, director of the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum. "But it was the making of buttons that came first, and would play a role in the development of the jewelry industry.The legacy of the early button makers is preserved at the Industrial Museum, which includes a large display of locally manufactured buttons and military insignia from before the Civil War to the present.
Prior to the war, a number of modest factories were already turning out buttons and small jewelry items in the Attleboro area. By the time the firing ended, an increasing number of entrepreneurs were poised to satisfy a mushrooming postwar demand for fashion jewelry, badges and metal accessories.
Attleboro's reputation as a button-making center is virtually as old as the United States.
In 1780, a settler known today only as "the Frenchman" built a brass forge in what is now North Attleboro, sparking the development of button making. By 1793, Edward Price, an English immigrant, brought European production methods to the table when he began producing metal buttons in the area.
The introduction of new technology boosted he production of buttons and jewelry items into new economic prominence alongside textiles, the Attleboros' dominant industry at the time.
In 1804, George W. Robinson was granted a patent on an improvement for manufacturing coat and waistcoat buttons, and built a factory to produce them. According to The History of Massachusetts Industries, written in 1930 by Orra L. Stone, Robinson's company eventually became the largest producer of metal buttons in the United States. Robinson's technological leap forward helped to revolutionize the industry. By 1834, according to historical accounts, the Attleboro area was producing more buttons than anyplace else in the nation.
By that time, the transition in Attleboro's economy from agriculture and textiles toward metals manufacturing was gaining momentum. By 1855, almost 25 jewelry, medal and button manufacturers were operating in Attleboro, according to the Attleboro Historical Commission.
Another major technological advance came in the form of a new method for producing rolled gold plate, key to the manufacture of many types of gold jewelry and insignia.
The advancement was brought to the area from Providence in 1849 by John F. and James H. Sturdy, who supplied the local jewelry manufacturing industry with their products.
When the Civil War erupted, the demand for brass and gold-plated buttons and badges for military uniforms exploded. And a number of Attleboro area companies were quick to take advantage of the situation.
For one, the James E. Blake Co. was said to have accumulated huge profits from the production of army badges, regimental insignia and other war products.
D. Evans, produced large quantities of buttons for Civil War uniforms, as did R. and W. Robinson, which it eventually absorbed.
Civil War soldiers' uniforms and equipment required large numbers of metal buttons, buckles and insignia.
"The average private's uniform contained a lot of brass," said Tom Higgins of Attleboro, recruiting sergeant for the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry re-enactment group, which prides itself on an accurate portrayal of federal soldiers in the Civil War.
Besides the brass buttons that lined their uniform coats, union soldiers had brass chin strap buttons on their hats, eagle-emblazoned brass plates on their cartridge boxes and a brass, buckle-like closure on their waist belts, to name only a few of the metal items soldiers carried.
Many of the military buttons, medals and accessories produced by local companies are now collectors items, with some selling on Internet auction sites for $100 and more.
War production could only take the nascent jewelry industry so far, however.
By the early 1870s, local producers were applying advancements in materials and production methods achieved during the war to civilian men's and women's clothing and jewelry.
The case of John and James Sturdy is instructive.
During the war, Stone wrote, the company's efforts were devoted to producing metal badges and insignia for the military. Once peace was declared, however, the Sturdys entered into the manufacture of women's gold rolled plate jewelry.
The company expanded into production of other types of sterling silver and gold jewelry after the company was sold during the late 1880s.
In the immediate postwar period, many others came to recognize the potential profits in the button, jewelry and metals businesses that had gained a foothold during the war.
In 1869, Horton, Angell & Co. was established as a manufacturer of rolled gold plate, wire and tubing. The company is also credited with being the first local firm to pay its employees by the week.
During the postwar years, other companies like W. and S. Blackinton, S.O. Bigney, D.E. Makepeace and R. F. Simmons established large factories making rolled plate jewelry and chains, as well as the materials to manufacture them.
While the Attleboro area's expanding jewelry and metals industries continued to diversify throughout the 20th century into areas ranging from fashion to electronics, the manufacture of buttons, insignia and other items for America's military continued to be significant.
A roster of military suppliers on the website usmilitariaforum.com lists no fewer than a dozen local firms involved in making such products at some time from World War I to the present, ranging from Antaya Brothers to Swank Inc. and L.G. Balfour.
D. Evans, which had played such a large role in the Civil War, remained in business until 1945.
Besides helping to provide the basis for the jewelry industry, one of the major contributions of the early button and badge makers was providing the technological foundation for new products that could not have been dreamed of by early jewelry manufacturers stooped over their factory benches.
Rathbun Willard's General Plate, founded in the early 1900s as a supplier of metals to the area's jewelry industry, and its successor Metals and Controls Inc. further perfected metals technology for making thermostatic temperature controls, clad metals used in U.S. coins and even nuclear fuel for submarines.
Attleboro craftsmen also helped seed their metals techniques in other regions of the country.
The Waterbury, Conn., area was already competing with the Attleboros for contracts to supply buttons to civilian and military customers at the start of the 19th century, when David Hayden arrived on the scene there in 1808.
Hayden had worked in Attleboro's button factories and brought with him important expertise.
In 1811, the former Attleboro button maker, along with several partners, bought out a local company and began producing buttons for the Army during the War of 1812.
Hayden and his partners worked tirelessly to improve their technology, importing the latest machines and experts from England. Under the leadership of James Scovill and his brother, William, the company blossomed as the burgeoning Naugatuck Valley brass industry branched out into new products, from clocks to lamps.
Soon, the Scovills would find a truly revolutionary application for their technology: photography.
Within a few years of Louis Daguerre's inventing a process to reproduce photographic images on metal plates, the Scovills began producing not only daguerrotype plates, but photographic equipment and camera lens housings.
Many of the improvements in early cameras created by the Scovills helped to make it possible for photographers to move into the countryside to record news and historic events.
Matthew Brady and other early photographers took advantage of the new advances to record the carnage on Civil War battlefields.
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