67-69 Laurel Street, Philadelphia, PA.
© Freedley, Philadelphia and its
Manufactures (1867), p. 356-358.
Which have been previously
mentioned as probably the largest in the world, are
certainly the most extensive in the United States. All
the operations incidental to the manufacture of Saws of
all kinds are carried on here (including the Steel
making,) on a scale of unsurpassed magnitude, and not
only Saws, but all the minor constituent parts and
adjuncts, from a saw screw to a saw file. It is the most
complete and comprehensive establishment of tile kind,
and its organization attests the executive abilities and
fertile genius of its originator and manager.
The buildings, 67 and 69 Laurel street, cover two hundred
and fifty thousand square feet of ground, and comprise a
Rolling Mill, two hundred and forty by seventy five feet;
a warehouse for the reception of raw stock, one hundred
and twenty by seventy feet; a Machine Shop and main Saw
Factory, two hundred by one hundred feet, three stories
in height; a Wood working Department, seventy-five by
forty feet, four stories high; a Blacksniith's, Hardening
and File Shop, and Brass Foundry, two hundred by one
hundred feet, and sundry other buildings of less
dimensions. In the Lumber Department, a stock of three
hundred thousand feet of Beech and Apple wood for Saw
Handles, is at all times in process of seasoning. On the
north side of Haydock street there is another building
fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, three stories high,
in which Butcher Knives and Trowels and Reaping Knives,
etc., are made.
These works are no less remarkable for the wonderful
efficiency of their tools and machines, than for their
extent. To illustrate:
To toothe five dozen Wood-Saws in an hour, is rapid work
for the best mechanic in the world; Mr. Disston has
machinery by which one man can toothe thirty dozen in the
same time. He can tooth perfectly a sixty inch circular
saw in two minutes, which by the old process would
require the labor of one man two hours. The tempering
process, which is patented, is most complete, and saves
at least one third the labor ordinarily required, or in
other words, sixty men can do as much work as one hundred
formerly did. The apparatus for grinding is novel,
inasmuch as it includes machinery that will grind both
sides of a saw at one operation, and long as well as
short saws. We believe that the machines in the Grinding
Department are the only ones of the kind in the world.
Mr. Disston has also a new process for stiffening saw
blades, or in other words, refining the grain after
tempering, by repeated blows of a steam hammer. In the
Rolling Mill, there are forty melting holes and three
sets of Rolls the largest being capable of turning out a
saw-plate sixty-four inches in diameter. This mill gives
Mr. Disston the ability to fill an order for any saw of
extraordinary size in a few days that would otherwise
have required months.
It will readily be perceived that this facility of
production and economy of labor necessarily give the
proprietor of these works great advantages, reducing the
cost of manufacturing Saws to its minimum, and we are Dot
therefore surprised to learn that, though at least three
million dollars' worth of Saws are annually required in
the United States, Mr. Disston supplies fully one fourth
of the whole amount. His Works consume three hundred tons
of coal a month, and furnish employment to four hundred
men. For an account of Mr. Disston's inventions, see
Bishop's History of Anterican Manufactures.
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