HOOD & HADLEY PATTERN SHOP. 1903. Cabinet Card. "The pattern of this cylinder was made by Hood & Hadley for the Wm. A. Harris Steam Engine Co. Started April 23, 1903. Complete May 25." Take a look at the image of the back for the complete details.
HOOD & HADLEY PATTERN SHOP. 1903. Cyanotype print. "Pattern of Bevel Gear and Pinion. Made by Hood & Hadley for the American Electrical Works, Philadelphia, .. Constructing time - 164 hours. Lumber used - 45 ft. Pine, 8 ft. cherry."
HOOD & HADLEY PATTERN SHOP. 1903. Cabinet Card. A large, completed pattern, possibly also for the Harris Steamship Engine Co.?
HOOD & HADLEY PATTERN SHOP. 1903. Cabinet Card. clear view of the pattern shop machinery room. There is a large bandsaw, a pedestal grinder and some machines of unknown purpose in the background. The wide open spaces are, in my estimate, a requirement for a patternshop that produces work of this size.
"WILLIE". c1900. Cabinet Card. The only annotation on this set of cabinet cards is the name 'Willie". From the looks of it, Willie was a small town, one man wheelwright shop. No fancy machinery, no patented anything. Simple user made jigs fulfilled the basic needs of a local tradesman.
Cabinet Card print of Full Plate Tintype Shipwrights, Ship Hull. Location - New England c1880? The small right angle black areas at the bottom two corners of this print indicate that this was originally a full plate TinType. Someone saw fit to make an Albumen print at Cabinet Card size. It's rare enough to see a full plate tintype but even more unusual to see one taken in the great outdoors. You needed a calm day and a lot of calm, motionless people. But that's my guess. All I know is that this image was found in New England. I'm not an expert on the early shipbuilding industry so I can't describe just what type of ship they are building. If you look closely you can make out carpenters squares, augers, axes, saws and a variety of massive hunks of shaped timbers waiting for something to happen. If you can add to the description, please let me know and I'll add your comments.
Update: The consensus is that this is a barge in the making, rather than an elegant sea-going ship. Still and all, the builders certainly took pride in their workmanship.
Photograph: Cabinet Card Shoe Factory, Assembly Floor. c1885. When I found this image, it was in even worse shape. Lots of gentle cleaning and the image came up to snuff. This is one of those great 'spur of the moment' images that contains a wealth of information. If you know about 19th Century shoe factories. Which I don't. What catches my attention are the tools in use by the group in the forefront. Burners, usually associated with plumbers, are in use to warm up what look like burnishers. The fellow in the left front foreground seems to be using a short shave to trim a shoe piece. Look at how he is using it - as a scraper, not a shave. I'm sure that anyone who knows of the shoe industry of this period could add a lot to my sparse review. In addition to the image, there is a PDF for Hi Res enjoyment
Update: I did some research and turned up the answer to just what these guys are up to. The shoe industry, by F. J. Allen, 1916:
"Finishing: Ironing: When the surface of the upper has been fully restored the shoe is ironed upon the tree to give it perfect and permanent form. Rubbing all over with the warm or hot iron is a very important and careful process, and is regularly done by men."
Photograph Labeled: Bremer, Ilion, N. Y. c1890. A very unusual group photograph of print shop workers. Judging by the clothing and the type of image, my guess is c1890. I asked Toby Hall of the EAIA to take a look at this image in order to identify the people and equipment. After hanging out the laundry, Toby replied:
"1. The huge composing stick is for wooden display type that would be used for headlines or posters.
2. The seated man is holding a small composing stick. What you see is the bottom of it. The end under his wrist has the characteristic curve of many composing sticks including those made by H. B. Rouse of Chicago, a major manufacturer of printer's equipment.
3. I looked in a couple of printer's supply catalogs and saw that they offered mallets, but it did not say what they were used for. That one looks a little heavy for tapping a planer. If I think of it, I will ask some veteran of a printing plant whether there was a specific job for a mallet.
4. The man seated at the center is holding a chase. That is an iron frame into which a form of type is locked. By zooming in, I can see that there is a very small form in the center. It looks like about three lines of type, perhaps an address. On all four sides you can see rectangular pieces. That is iron "furniture," which is spacing material used to fill the space between the form ( that which is to print ) and the sides of the chase. On two sides, right and bottom there is a quoin. They are rectangular pieces formed by two triangles facing in opposite directions with ratcheted hypotenuses. You stick a quoin key in between them and move them so as to make them wider as the triangles slide past one another. By expanding in width, they lock up the form to hold the type in place. The chase is then set into the press, ready to print. The man holding the chase is probably the pressman. All three women are holding composing sticks. Compositor was the principal job available to women in a printing shop other than clerical work. Many of them were very good at it, and there were competitions in which the "swifts" participated."
by F. J. Allen, 1916:
